Latest news with #IndianPenalCode
New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- New Indian Express
MP HC commutes death sentence of tribal youth in child rape case, citing lack of 'brutality', mitigating background
BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh High Court has commuted the death sentence of a 20-year-old tribal man convicted of raping and attempting to kill a four-year-old girl, reducing his punishment to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment. The decision was delivered by a division bench comprising Justices Vivek Agarwal and Devnarayan Mishra, who observed that while the act was undeniably brutal, it did not meet the threshold of "brutality" required for the death penalty under the "rarest of rare" doctrine. The case involved the convict, a 20-year-old from a Scheduled Tribe, who was found guilty by a trial court under Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act), and sentenced to death. According to the prosecution, the convict entered the complainant's hut under the pretext of requesting a cot to sleep on, and later abducted and raped the minor victim from a nearby house during the night. He then left her in an unconscious state in a mango orchard, believing her to be dead. The High Court, while acknowledging the horrifying nature of the crime, noted: 'No doubt that appellant's act was brutal as he has committed rape upon the victim of four years and three months of age and after committing rape also throttled her treating her dead and thrown the victim in such a place where she could not be searched and left the spot but it is also clear that he has not committed brutality,' distinguishing between barbaric acts and acts of extreme cruelty or depravity. The bench considered several mitigating factors in its decision. The convict was described as an uneducated youth from a tribal community, whose parents never tried to educate or properly care for him. He left his home at an early age and was working in a roadside eatery to earn a living. There was no evidence of prior criminal conduct, and the court found no adverse reports regarding his behaviour. The bench further noted that the environment in which the convict grew up did not provide him with the proper atmosphere to develop. The High Court affirmed the conviction under Sections 363, 450, 307, and 201 of the IPC, but commuted the death penalty under Section 6 of the POCSO Act to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 10,000. In default of payment, the convict will serve an additional year of rigorous imprisonment. The decision reflects the court's view that, despite the gravity of the offence and the young age of the victim, the circumstances of the convict's background and the absence of extreme brutality did not justify the death penalty in this case.
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Accused of honey trapping, extortion by Surat builder, absconding social media influencer held in Ahmedabad
Evading Surat police for over a year, a social media influencer, Kirti Patel, was arrested in Ahmedabad earlier this week for her alleged involvement in a case of honey trapping, extortion, and defamation filed by a builder, officers said. The woman was arrested from the Sarkhej area of the city on Tuesday. Police are looking for two more suspects involved in the racket. Patel, 34, has around 13 lakh followers on social media. On Wednesday, she was produced before a court by Kapodara police, which sought three days' police remand. Rejecting the same, the court sent her to judicial custody at Surat Central Jail. Sources said there was a property dispute between the complainant and one Vijay Savani, who also deals in real estate in Surat city, and the matter is pending in Surat court. To sort the dispute outside court, Savani took the help of Patel and others, said police. The complainant said Patel and others had called him to a farm house in Surat's Kosadi village last year for a meeting with Savani. During the meeting, they offered the complainant a cold drink spiked with a chemical substance and later took his objectionable photos, said the FIR. After a few days, Patel demanded Rs 2 crore from the complainant, threatening that she would make the photos go viral on social media, the FIR added. She also made different reels on social media against the builder and defamed him, the FIR alleged. The complaint was lodged in June 2024 under Indian Penal Code's sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 328 (causing hurt by means of poison etc,. with intent to commit an offence), 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication), 120(b) (criminal conspiracy), Information Technology Act section 66(e) and 67. Besides Patel and Savani, a woman called Manisha Goswami and another man, Jehangir Khan, were named in the FIR. Savani was arrested last year followed by Goswami and Khan while Patel remained absconding. Kapodara police station inspector M R Solanki said, 'Earlier, we had arrested three accused and submitted chargesheet in the court. Patel was absconding and our teams were looking for her. After receiving tip-offs, we sent our teams to the Sarkhej area in Ahmedabad and caught her with the help of local police. We have seized her mobile phone and have sent it to the Forensic Science laboratory to retrieve the data. Two more accused named in the complaint are yet to be arrested and our teams are looking for them.'
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Time of India
Gangster Vinod Gadariya killed in encounter
Lucknow: A dreaded gangster, Vinod Gadariya alias Gurjar alias Fauji alias Thakur, was killed in a gunfight with the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) in the Jahangirabad area of Bulandshahr district late on Friday evening. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Vinod Gadariya was a hardened criminal with a long history of violent crimes dating back to 2006. He was wanted in more than 40 serious cases, including dacoity, armed robbery, murder, extortion, and illegal arms possession, registered across multiple police stations in Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, and Baghpat. He had been absconding since 2024 and carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh announced by the Muzaffarnagar police. ADG, Law and Order, Amitabh Yash, said that the Noida unit of the UP STF had been tracking the movement of a gang of dacoits in the region. A confrontation broke out in the rural outskirts of Jahangirabad during a late evening operation, leading to an exchange of fire. One criminal, later identified as Vinod Gadariya (son of Sitaram, resident of Isopur Khurgan under Kairana police station in Shamli), sustained critical gunshot injuries. He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries during treatment. Several of the charges against him fall under stringent sections of the Indian Penal Code and the newly implemented Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Sections 310 (dacoity), 317 (gang robbery), 331 (criminal conspiracy), and 309 (armed violence).
Indian Express
4 hours ago
- Indian Express
Lilavati Trust files Rs 1,000-crore defamation suit against HDFC Bank, its CEO
The Lilavati Kirtilal Mehta Medical Trust (LKMM Trust), which oversees the Lilavati Hospital in Bandra (West), has filed a defamation suit against the HDFC Bank and its Managing Director and CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan, seeking Rs 1,000 crore in damages. The Trust along with its authorised representative and trustee Prashant Mehta filed the suit in the Bombay High Court against Jagdishan, HDFC Bank and others. The Trust filed the suit last week, claiming the bank was running a 'deliberate and sustained smear campaign' against it. The Trust has also filed a criminal defamation complaint before the magistrate court in Girgaon under sections 356 (1) (defamation), 357 (breach of contract), among others, of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). As per case records, the magistrate court on June 16 issued notice to the bank, Jagdishan and others, and posted further hearing to July 18. The criminal complaint against Jagdishan alleges that he made malicious and derogatory statements against the Trust and its permanent trustee. 'The legal action aims to counter what the Trust views as a coordinated campaign to malign its reputation and obstruct its operations as a public charitable institution,' a statement by the Trust stated. Earlier this week, Jagdishan approached the Bombay High Court, challenging the FIR filed against him on a complaint filed by the Trust, which has accused him of accepting a bribe of Rs 2.05 crore to help a group consisting of one Chetan Mehta and other erstwhile trustees to retain illegal control over the Trust. On May 29, the magistrate court had ordered the Bandra police to register offences punishable under sections 406, 409 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and had directed the police to probe the matter as per section 175 (3) of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). The Bandra police registered the FIR on May 31.
Indian Express
5 hours ago
- Indian Express
NIA arrests key accused in Kasaragod fake currency cases from Mumbai airport
More than 12 years after he went underground, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested a key accused in the 2013 Kasaragod fake currency cases from the Mumbai airport, following his extradition from the United Arab Emirates. The accused, Moideenabha Ummer Beary alias Moideen, had been in the custody of UAE authorities since 2015 and was handed over to Indian officials after the completion of a simplified extradition process. He was wanted in connection with four cases registered by the NIA in 2013 following the seizure of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) in Kerala's Kasaragod district. Moideen, a native of Udupi district in Karnataka, was taken into NIA custody upon his arrival from Dubai and immediately flown to Kochi, where he was produced before a special NIA court in Ernakulam. NIA officials said Moideen had conspired with other accused to procure counterfeit currency worth Rs 31 lakh from the UAE. The fake notes were trafficked into India by an associate, Usman, through the Bengaluru airport and subsequently circulated in and around Kasaragod. Following the recovery of the FICN in 2013, NIA moved to revoke Moideen's Indian passport and obtained an Interpol Red Notice against him. He was tracked down and arrested in the UAE two years later. His extradition marks a significant step in the crackdown on cross-border fake currency operations, officials said. The NIA has already chargesheeted six people, including Moideen, under various sections of the Indian Penal Code in the case.
