Noida:

A former Delhi Police constable has been arrested for allegedly killing a Greater Noida-based businessman to take possession of his flat. The accused, Praveen, 42, was taken into custody late Thursday, 13 days after businessman Ankush Sharma was reported missing by his family. The former constable allegedly planned the murder in a week after watching Ajay Devgn and Tabu’s crime-thriller, Drishyam, and other crime web series.

Mr Praveen first met Mr Sharma through someone. The businessman wanted to sell his flat in a Greater Noida society, said Saad Miya Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Greater Noida.

“The two fixed the deal for ₹1.20 crore. Praveen gave Sharma ₹8 lakh and the transfer memorandum process was initiated between them,” Mr Khan said.

The dispute started after Ankush Sharma found that the price of the flat, in SKA society, was more than what the two parties had agreed upon.

Unhappy, Mr Praveen hatched a plan to kill Ankush Sharma. On August 9, he picked Mr Sharma up from his office, saying he would give him money for the flat.

They later reached a society’s parking where the two started drinking. When Ankush Sharma got drunk, Mr Praveen hit him with a hammer on the head before strangling him to death.

On the night of August 9, Mr Praveen hid the body on a disputed property not visited often by anyone, the senior police official said.

The victim’s family lodged a missing complaint at the Beta-2 police station.

During the investigation, the police looked into more than 100 CCTV footage and intelligence, leading to the arrest of Mr Praveen. He also informed the police where he hid the victim’s body.

The police have also recovered the hammer used in the crime and a car from the accused, Khan said.

Mr Praveen has been booked under Sections 103(1) (charges of murder), 238 (destroying evidence) and 123 (giving poison to another person) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The incident comes roughly two weeks after the murder of a Chhattisgarh woman was reported. The 28-year-old was allegedly killed and her body was buried by her estranged husband and paramour. According to officials, the two men also watched Drishyam, taking cues to hide the body and avoid arrest.

The incident took place on July 19 and the police arrested the two accused — Lukesh Sahu (29), the woman’s estranged husband, and Raja Ram Sahu (26) with whom she was in a relationship, an official said.

Southport, United Kingdom:

UK police on Tuesday questioned a 17-year-old suspect arrested after a “ferocious” knife attack which killed three children and critically injured eight others.

Flowers, teddy bears and tributes were left near the scene of Monday’s stabbing spree at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, near Liverpool, that also saw two adults and six children critically injured and three more children hurt.

Police chief Serena Kennedy said the two adults were trying to protect the children, aged between six and 11.

Swift on Tuesday said she was “completely in shock”.

“The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families,” she said.

Residents of Southport, a small seaside town popular with visitors in the summer, were still coming to terms with the attack.

“I’m just still in total shock — I just cannot believe that it happened so close to home,” Leanne Hassan told reporters on Tuesday.

She had rushed to collect her daughter from a nearby nursery which was locked down after the attack.

Her daughter was safe, “but unfortunately that’s not the reality for a lot of parents waking up today,” she added.

Police chief Kennedy confirmed the attack was not being treated as terror-related and that the attacker’s motivation was unclear.

Establishing motive

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the events were “just truly awful, the whole country is deeply shocked”.

“It is almost impossible to imagine the grief,” he added.

Interior minister Yvette Cooper visited Southport Tuesday to meet Kennedy and other officials, with an evening vigil to be held for the victims.

Starmer is likely to visit the community as well, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told Sky News.

The 17-year-old male arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder is from a neighbouring village called Banks and was born in the Welsh capital Cardiff, Merseyside Police said.

Witnesses told UK media the attacker was seen arriving at the scene in a taxi, and that he entered the venue wearing a mask.

Police said officers were called to the incident shortly before 1100 GMT on Monday, just minutes before the dance event was scheduled to end.

Armed officers detained the suspect nearby and seized a knife.

The suspect was in custody at a police station Tuesday and police said enquiries were ongoing “to establish the motive for this tragic incident”.

Targeted attacks on children are extremely rare in the UK.

Horror movie

Monday’s incident evoked memories of a school massacre in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996, which claimed the lives of 16 young pupils and their teacher in Britain’s worst mass shooting.

The North West Ambulance Service said it treated 11 casualties with stab injuries, who were then taken by ambulance and helicopter to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and other hospitals in the area.

Local business owner Colin Parry, one of the people who called police, told the Press Association (PA) news agency that he believed several “young girls” had been stabbed.

A member of his staff also saw “about 10 kids go running past him, all bleeding, and one of them collapsed on the floor outside the neighbour next door,” he recounted.

Bare Varathan, who owns a local shop, told PA he saw “seven to 10 kids” who were “injured, bleeding”.

Other witnesses told UK media they heard screams, comparing the attack to a scene from a horror film.

King Charles III offered his “most heartfelt condolences, prayers and deepest sympathies” and called the incident “utterly horrific”.

Prince William and his wife Katherine posted on X that “as parents, we cannot begin to imagine what the families, friends and loved ones of those killed and injured in Southport today are going through”, calling it a “heinous attack”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The police inspecting the house at Ammanapara. near Pariyaram. in Kannur where a four-member gang robbed 10 sovereigns of gold after tying up a 63-year-old woman on the night of October 19, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A four-member gang robbed 10 sovereigns of gold after tying up a 63-year-old woman in her house at Pariyaram in Kannur district of Kerala on October 19 night.

Only the woman and two children were at the house at the time of the incident. The children were upstairs and were unaware of the robbery. They found the women tied up and her mouth plastered only the following day morning. The woman is their aunt.

According to the police, the masked gang entered the house of Dr. Shakir at Ammanpara after breaking a window. The doctor and his wife had left for Thiruvananthapuram around 11 p.m. that day. The robbery took place after their departure.

The police have registered a case in connection with the incident. A forensic team reached the spot and started an investigation.

A few weeks ago, burglars broke into another house in the area and stole over 25 sovereign of gold. The police are yet to catch the culprits.