Death for Pandher, Koli in Nithari rape-murder case

Friday, February 13, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

Ghaziabad : Businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli were sentenced to death by a special court on Friday for the rape and murder of 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar, one of the 19 victims in the Nithari serial killings.
Pronouncing the sentence, Special CBI judge Rama Jain held the crimes committed by 55-year-old Pandher and 38-year-old Koli to be the ‘rarest of rare’ deserving capital punishment. Pandher broke into tears while Koli remained unmoved. While Khalid Khan, the counsel of the victim's family, called the verdict a "slap on the face of the CBI" which had given a clean chit to Pandher, the businessman's son Karandeep Singh said his father was innocent and he would appeal against the judgement in the Allahabad High Court. In a statement, the CBI said it was satisfied with the judgement pronounced against Koli but further action in Pandher's case, if any, would be taken only after examining the judgement and on the basis of legal advice. The court had on Thursday convicted Pandher and Koli under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder, rape, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. "No more penalty could be awarded to the accused persons otherwise they deserve more punishment as their act of murder and rape in this particular case was beyond all the canons of humanity," the judge said. During final arguments, the CBI counsel had argued that Koli had no right to live in society because even today he had no remorse. "He continues to be a threat to the society," the CBI counsel said, pointing out that Koli was a rare combination of a person indulging in paedophilia (having sex with children) and necrophilia (having sex with the dead) and there was no chance of his becoming reformed and rehabilitated.
Reacting to the court verdict which had not taken into account the CBI's contention that Pandher was away in Australia along with his wife when Rimpa was raped and murdered in February 2005, the CBI said in a release that the opinion formed by it in all the 16 cases in Nithari was based on legally admissible evidence and the result of probe. CBI investigations revealed that Pandher, owner of the house, was away when the incidents took place. "This is borne out from the documents, statement of witnesses and mobile phone records." "When the first incident of abduction, rape and murder of Rimpa Haldar took place on February 8, 2005, Pandher was out of the country in Australia. The opinion formed by the CBI in all the 16 cases was based on legally admissible evidence and result of investigation," CBI said in the release.

Haryana cops do Google search to solve porn mystery

Posted by Snehsan

Chandigarh: Search giant Google has been approached by the Chandigarh police after apparently morphed pornographic photographs of leading Haryana politicians were posted on the Internet. The police have asked Google to trace the source of the pornographic photographs, believed to be morphed, following a complaint from Haryana Congress secretary Mahinder Singh. The pictures pertain to three senior Haryana politicians: Finance Minister Birender Singh, Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta and senior legislator and former state Congress chief Shamsher Singh Surjewala. All three are senior Jat leaders, the politically dominant, land-owning community in the state. "The cyber crime cell is investigating the matter. The message seems to have originated from a Gmail account and we have asked Google to conduct a trace. Their report should be available to us within the next few days," Chandigarh's senior superintendent of police S S. Srivastava said.

Plane crashes into house in NY, 48 dead

Posted by Snehsan

New York : New York state police say a passenger plane with 50-seats capacity has crashed into a home in suburban Buffalo. Reports said that the plane hit a house in Clarence around 10:10 pm EST (0310 GMT) Thursday. (That would make it Friday in India.)

As the plane hit the house, it engulfed in flames. A huge fire broke out and thick smoke spread throughout the suburb. Reports said there were 48 commuters or passengers on the plane. Some other reports said that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as saying that the plane had 48 people onboard, and their fate remained unknown. It could be seen on TV footage that a massive fire broke out at the scene of crash, while firemen and police rushed to the scene for rescue. Reports said the plane may have been headed to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. He says authorities have called the Federal Aviation Administration. It was reportedly a Continental Airlines commuter plane travelling from Newark, New Jersey to Buffalo.
As last heard, the state police had secured the scene and fire fighters were fighting the blaze. Those found injured on the ground were rushed to nearby hospitals and civic officials were evacuating 12 homes near the area of accident.

Slumdog Millionaire

Posted by Snehsan

Indian actor Irrfan Khan, left, Indian composer A. R. Rahman, center, and British director Danny Boyle, right, arrive at the British Academy Film Awards 2009 at The Royal Opera House in London, England, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan)

Valentine's Day

Posted by Snehsan

Chinese paramilitary police recruits stand around forming a heart shape pattern on a basketball court in Wenzhou, east China's Zhejiang province, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009 ahead of Valentine's Day. (AP Photo/Color China Photo) ** CHINA OUT **

Shah Rukh Khan's house attacked in Mumbai

Posted by Snehsan

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan's bungalow in Mumbai's Bandra was attacked early Friday by some unidentifiedmen."Around 0230 hours, motorcycle-borne miscreants threw the bottles filled with kerosene and fled from the scene. The security men at the residence 'Mannat' chased the miscreants but in vain," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Niket Kaushik told PTI.When the incident occurred, Khan was not in the house and nobody has sustained any injuries, he said adding that a complaint has been registered and further investigation is on in the matter.

Lalu announces 43 new trains, 2 pct fare cut

Posted by Snehsan

New Delhi Departing from normal practice, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday announced an across-the-board two per cent cut in fares of ordinary and AC class in the interim budget for 2009-10.
Presenting the vote-on-account for expenses in the first four months of next fiscal, he also announced reduction in the fares of ordinary passenger trains by Rs one for fares costing up to Rs 50 for journey above 10 km. The interim budget makes no changes in relation to freight rates. Normally, the interim budgets do not carry any financial proposals in view of the fact that it is a vote-on-account ahead of the General Elections. Recalling that he had decided to reduce the second class fares of all mail, express and ordinary trains by 5 per cent for tickets above Rs 50 last year, Prasad said respecting the aspirations of the long distance passengers he has decided to reduce the second class and sleeper class fares of all mail and express and ordinary passenger trains by two per cent for the ticket costing more than Rs 50. He said during the last four years, he had reduced the fares of AC First class by 28 per cent and AC II tier by 20 per cent.

Even as air travel is reportedly reflecting reduction in number of passengers due to economic slowdown, there has been a significant increase in the number of passengers of these classes on the Railways.

"Therefore, I have decided to reduce the fares of AC First Class, AC II tier and AC III tier and AC Chair Car by two per cent," he said admist thumping of desks by members of ruling benches in Lok Sabha. The Budget estimates for 2009-10 project a freight loading target at 910 million tonnes -- an increment of 60 million tonnes on 2008-09 -- and the number of passengers is likely to grow by 7 per cent. Gross Traffic Receipts (GTR) is estimated at Rs 93,159 crore, an increase of Rs 10,766 crore over revised estimate of 2008-09. Ordinary working expenses have been budgeted at Rs 62,900 crore to cover the full year impact of Sixth Pay Commission recommendation and the payment of 60 per cent arrears due in 2009-10.

Dividend payable to General Revenues has been kept at Rs 5,304 crore at the current applicable rates. Budgeting ratio has been pegged at 89.9 per cent and annual plan outlay for the next year envisages an investment of Rs 37,905 crore. The Budgetary support from General Revenue has been proposed at Rs 9,600 crore excluding Rs 1,200 crore to be received from the Central Road Fund. The Internal and Extra Budgetary Resource component would accordingly comprise 72 per cent of the annual plan. Following are the highlights of the Interim Railway Budget for 2009-2010:

HIGHLIGHTS OF INTERIM RAILWAY BUDGET

* Lalu Prasad presents UPA's last rail budget in its term
* Railways made Rs 90,000 cr profit
* 2 pct cut in all AC and mail train fares
* Rs 10,500 cr allocated for pension requirements
* 6th Pay Commission to hike expense by Rs 13,500 cr
* Rlys laid 1100 kms of new rail lines
* Bhubaneshwar-New Delhi Rajdhani becomes 4 days a week
* New Delhi-Ahmedabad Rajdhani becomes daily
* Steep fall in container traffic
* Work on Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor started
* Rlys to invest Rs 35,900 cr in 2009
* Railway connectivity to Kashmir initiated
* Passenger growth up 14 pct
* Research on for bullet trains
* FY10 operating ratio seen at 88%
* Mumbai-Bikaner super-fast bi-weekly
* Nizamuddin-Bangalore Rajdhani tri-weekly
* Passenger trains to have 22 pct more capacity
* Efficiency of passenger and goods wagons to be hiked
* Goods trains to have 78 pct added capacity
* 4 Railways inquiry call centres set up
* Electrification of 1000 km of rail lines completed
* Wagon production to be hiked from 6600 to 15000
* Railways invested Rs 70,000 cr out of surplus
* Railways to invest Rs 2,30,000 cr in 11th plan
* Railways reported Rs 25,000 cr cash surplus last year
* Revenues have risen by 39 paise a tonne/km since 2001
* Costs have fallen by 7 paise a tonne/km since 2001
* Gaps in the network will be bridged: Lalu
* Railways got loans at 4 pct
* Accidents come down from 325 in 03-04 to 194 in 07-08
* Railways has grown freight at the rate of 8 pct over last 5 yrs

Madonna shoots for mag with naked Jesus

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

Pop Queen Madonna, who is said to have turned to Jesus after her marital split with Guy Ritchie, has appeared in a raunchy magazine shoot with the 22-year-old Brazilian toyboy model. 50-year-old Madonna is pictured in a series of steamy shots with Jesus, who is rumoured to be her new boyfriend, in the new issue of W magazine which carried out the photo spread in Rio de Janeiro, according to 'The Daily Telegraph'. While Madonna keeps her clothes on throughout the shoot, wearing a succession of black dresses with a crucifix necklace, Jesus appears naked, modesty protected with a white towel, in some of the images.

In one, Jesus lies spread-eagled on a hotel bed in a pair of black briefs while Madonna locks the door; in another, they're writhing around on the sheets and sharing a passionate kiss in a black and white photo, the report said.

Madonna, who recently divorced husband Guy Ritchie and has moved to New York, was earlier linked to a baseball player Alex Rodriguez who was in the news this week after admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs earlier in his career.

India to study Pakistan's response to dossier

Posted by Snehsan

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday said it will react to Pakistan's response to the dossier on Mumbai attacks after receiving and studying it.

"Our High Commissioner to Pakistan will be going to the Foreign Office later in the day when we expect to receive a formal report. When the response is available, we will study it and react further," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash told reporters.

He said Indian officials had seen media reports on the statements made by Pakistan's interior minister Rahman Malik.