New Delhi:

A Delhi court has awarded life sentence to a woman for smothering to death her two minor daughters in 2018, terming it a “cold-blooded murder” and the rarest of rare cases.

The court observed that the gruesome offence shook the court’s conscience as mothers were idolised by society because of their nurturing role, sacrifices, emotional resilience and selflessness.

Announcing the punishment to Leelawati (32) who was earlier convicted for murder, Additional Sessions Judge Sachin Jain of Tis Hazari court said considering the well-being of the two surviving children of the convict and since there was a possibility of her rehabilitation and reintegration into society, life term was more appropriate than a death sentence.

According to the prosecution, she brutally murdered her two daughters, aged five years and five months respectively, by smothering them on February 20, 2018.

In its order, the court said, “No doubt, mother is always seen as a saviour because of her nurturing role and perceived sacrifice and for that reason, society intends to idolise motherhood, expecting women to be selfless, nurturing and emotionally resilient.

“Therefore, the act of murder of her own two daughters shakes the conscience not only of the court but of the society at large. Further, the act of smothering both the daughters by the convict is a clear-cut cold-blooded murder, bringing the present case into the category of rare of the rarest case.” It, however, said that the woman had two surviving children, a daughter (7) and a son (2), and their well-being and future needs had to be considered.

“The complete removal of their mother from their lives could have a profound and adverse impact on their upbringing. The convict is relatively young and there remains the possibility of her rehabilitation and reintegration into society after serving a substantial period of incarceration,” the court said.

It said when the aggravating and mitigating circumstances were weighed, the scale tilted towards the latter and it would be appropriate to award her a life sentence instead of the death penalty.

It sentenced the convict to imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs 10,000.

The court further observed that there was no ground for payment under the Delhi Victims Compensation Scheme as the “beneficiary was the culprit” in the case.

“In the present case, this court is dealing with a peculiar case in which the convict is the real mother of the victims or in other words the beneficiary is the culprit itself.

“Since both the girls/daughters have already lost their lives and the beneficiary is the culprit, who committed the gruesome murder and the father tried his level best to save the convict, instead of fighting for justice, therefore, no ground for grant of compensation is made out in the present case,” the court order read.

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

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.

New Delhi:

Olympian Vinesh Phogat has accused the Delhi Police of withdrawing the security cover of the women wrestlers who will be testifying against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh tomorrow. The Delhi Police has denied the charge.

“Delhi Police has withdrawn the security of the women wrestlers who are going to testify against Brij Bhushan in the court,” wrote Ms Phogat on X.

Responding to the former wrestler’s tweet, the Delhi Police has clarified that the concerned personal security officers (PSO) reported late to duty after the force requested Haryana Police to take over the security responsibility.

“The security provided to the wrestlers hasn’t been withdrawn; it was decided to request Haryana Police to takeover the responsibility in future since the protectees normally reside there,” said Deputy Commissioner Of Police New Delhi on X, adding, “The assigned Delhi Police PSOs misunderstood this decision and got delayed in reporting today. The situation has been rectified. Security cover continues.”

Meanwhile, the wrestlers approached a Delhi court which directed the city police to immediately reinstate the security cover.

The court was hearing applications filed by senior advocate Rebecca John appearing for the wrestlers, claiming that their security was withdrawn on Wednesday night. It directed police to file a detailed report by Friday regarding the reasons for the withdrawal of the applicants’ security.

Vinesh Phogat, who recently hit headlines over her disqualification from the Paris Olympics, was in the public eye last year for leading a long-running protest against Mr Singh, who was then a BJP MP.

The protesting wrestlers were demanding his resignation and sought the dissolution of the WFI. The WFI denied all allegations against its president.

After the intervention of the Sports Ministry, all WFI activities were suspended and assistant secretary Vinod Tomar was sidelined.

The police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) and later a chargesheet against Brij Bhushan Singh.

Mr Singh is being tried on accusations of sexual exploitation and intimidation, charges he denied.

A Delhi court, in a May 10 order, found sufficient evidence to proceed with the charges of sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of five female wrestlers against the former WFI chief. The next hearing in the case is on Friday.

Two constables have been arrested for posing as income tax officials and raiding a Delhi businessman’s house in the city, said police.

The incident was reported from the Preet Vihar area in the national capital.

A mobile phone, documents were taken away by the men posing as tax officials, said the family in its complaint to the police. The alleged tax officials asked for more, the family, suspecting something was amiss, confronted them and they fled soon after.

Upon investigation, Delhi police found that the men who visited the businessman’s house posing as taxmen were its own officials – one is a head constable at Preet Vihar and the other is head constable in the traffic department.

The special cell of the Delhi Police is investigating the case.

New Delhi:

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police have uncovered how a racket operating across five states was luring Bangladeshi nationals into selling their kidneys and then selling the organs to those in need at a much higher cost.

Seven people, including three Bangladesh nationals, have been arrested after raids in the five states where the racket was operating — Delhi NCR, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Multiple cellphones, laptops, SIM cards, cash and incriminating documents have also been recovered.

The gang, police said, talked underprivileged Bangladesh nationals into selling their kidneys for 4-5 lakhs. Sometimes, they were lured with jobs too. Documents were then forged to show that they are related to those receiving the organs. These kidneys were then sold for a price between Rs 20 lakh-Rs 30 lakh.

Among those arrested is Dr Vijaya Kumari, a consultant surgeon accused of conducting 15 to 16 illegal surgeries at a Noida hospital.

The matter came to light after the police received a tip-off about suspicious activities by a group of Bangladeshi nationals and conducted a raid in Delhi’s Jasola Vihar. Four people, Russell, Rokon, Sumon Miyan and Ratesh Pal were arrested.

The investigation revealed that an individual Dr. Kumari received about Rs 2 Lakh for each transplant.

Kidney transplant is a complex medical procedure performed when a patient suffers from end-stage kidney disease. Kidneys can be donated to a patient by close relatives. Kidney donation by non-related donors requires clearance from an authorisation committee. With the number of patients requiring a transplant being much more than the number of donors available, many resort to illegal ways to get a kidney. This is what kidney transplant rackets exploit.

New Delhi:

A Delhi man has been arrested for allegedly killing his two new-born daughters and burying them, the police said on Wednesday. Neeraj Solanki allegedly wanted a son and was upset about the birth of twin daughters. He had been on the run since the alleged murder on June 3. He was arrested from Haryana.

Pooja Solanki, who lives in Delhi’s Sultanpuri with her husband Neeraj Solanki, gave birth to twin girls at a hospital in Haryana’s Rohtak on May 30.

“The accused was evading arrest in Delhi and Haryana by changing his locations regularly,” the police said in an official statement. Neeraj Solanki, 32, has been charged with murder after his wife complained to the police.

How Police Probe Began

The police said they began investigating after receiving a call at the Sultanpuri police station on June 3 about the “murder” of the two babies.

The caller said his brother-in-law had killed his 3-day-old twin girls and buried them at a crematorium, the police said.

“After that, police staff was deployed at the cremation ground where the children were buried and permission was taken from the concerned SDM (Sub Divisional Magistrate) to exhume the corpses. On June 5, the corpses were exhumed and preserved at a mortuary in Mangolpuri. On June 6, we conducted a post-mortem. The bodies were handed over to their maternal uncle,” they said.

How Neeraj Solanki Was Caught

A team of the crime branch was tasked with tracing Neeraj Solanki, a Delhi University graduate who survived on rent from his properties.

The police launched surveillance and also drew inputs from local sources.

The police analysed call data and noticed that Neeraj Solanki was changing his mobile handset, SIMs and hideouts frequently to dodge the police.

After raids at various places in Delhi and Haryana, Neeraj Solanki was eventually arrested from Sampla in Rohtak.

During interrogation, he confessed to the murders, the police said.

New Delhi:

A 30-year-old man was fatally attacked with an iron rod and stabbed with a scissor allegedly by a grocery shop-owner and his sons for not purchasing from their store in northwest Delhi’s Shakurpur, police said on Monday.

According to police, the incident took place on June 30. The victim was identified as Vikram Kumar.

Police said accused Lokesh Gupta and his two sons — Priyansh and Harsh — were arrested for murder.

“Gupta runs a grocery shop. Vikram’s family was his old regular customer. Around a month ago, the family stopped buying food items from Gupta’s shop due to some issues between them. This enraged them. A fight broke out between them on Sunday around 10 pm,” a senior police officer said.

The officer further said that during the fight, Gupta and his sons hit Vikarm on his head with an iron rod and stabbed him in his neck, due to which he died.

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

New Delhi:

When a civil service aspirant right-swiped on a dating app, he had no idea he was walking into a sinister plot carefully planned to scam men looking for love.

On Sunday, the victim, not named by the police, reached the Black Mirror Cafe in East Delhi’s Vikas Marg area to celebrate the birthday of Versha, a woman he had recently matched with on “Tinder”.

At the cafe, the two ordered some snacks, two cakes, and four shots of a non-alcoholic beverage.

The “date” was going quite well until Versha had to rush out due to a family emergency.

As the man finished the food and called for the check, the bill stunned him – he owed the cafe an obscene Rs 1,21,917.70 for food that should not cost more than a few thousand.

The victim promptly disputed the bill but he was threatened, confined, and forced to pay. The man ended up transferring the amount online to one of the cafe’s owners – 32-year-old Akshay Pahwa. Mr Pahwa is a resident of Shahdara in East Delhi and has studied till Class 10.

Once out of the cafe, he went straight to the cops and filed a case.

The police set out to probe the case and a four-member team led by Inspector Sanjay Gupta was formed. Soon, Mr Pahwa was in the police’s custody.

During the investigation, he told the police that the Black Mirror cafe is owned by him, Ansh Grover, and Vansh Pahwa. Akshay and Vansh are cousins, while Ansh is their friend. The cafe employs several “table managers”, including one man named Aryan; and these “table managers” are managed by one Digranshu, he said. Aryan is a Class 7 dropout and is currently unemployed.

Mr Pahwa also gave up Versha – 25-year-old Afsan Parveen, who also goes by the names Ayesha and Noor. When the cops tracked her down, Ms Parveen was at another cafe on a “date” with a man from Mumbai she had met on Shaadi.com.

Ms Parveen revealed their modus operandi to the police.

Aryan had reached out to the victim and communicated with him posing as Versha. He shared Ms Parveen’s photo in the one-time view mode and invited him to Laxmi Nagar on June 23 to celebrate her birthday.

Once at the cafe, Ms Parveen feigned a family emergency and rushed out as planned and her date was handed the bill.

Each player has a cut: 15% of the amount they charge these unsuspecting men goes to Ms Parveen, 45% is divided between the table and cafe managers, and the remaining 40% to the owners.

Several such schemes are in play in major metro cities, including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad to extort money from unwitting victims, the police said.

These elaborate plans thrive on a well-oiled collusion mechanism involving cafe owners, managers, and others who right-swipe on the “right” men on the dating apps, they added.

The “table managers” create fake profiles on these apps and lure men to the cafes where they are overcharged for food and drinks, the police said. If they refuse to pay, they are threatened, beaten, or kept in confinement until they comply.

Social stigma often prevents men from reporting such incidents, the police added.

The police arrested Ms Parveen and Mr Pahwa and seized their phones and the cafe’s register. The investigation is in progress and efforts are being made to arrest other accused, the police said.

New Delhi:

 A group of people gathered outside the residence of AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi and raised slogans and splashed black paint. Police has registered a case in the matter, officials said on Friday.

Delhi Police officials said a case under sections 143, 506, 153A and 147 of the Indian Penal Code was lodged at the Parliament Street Police station.

On Thursday, some persons came to Mr Owaisi’s residence and created a commotion, they said.

They matter is being investigated, police added.

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

New Delhi:

Four people, including a 14-year-old girl, were injured in a firing in northwest Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh area on Thursday evening, police said.

The attacker came on a motorcycle, they said.

All injured have been rushed to Babu Jagjeevan Ram Hospital from where three of them were referred to the LNJP hospital where they are undergoing treatment, an officer said, adding that further probe is underway.

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