Crime Round Up On May 11  

Here are a few crime stories reported from across the world as on May 11.

Indian charged for evading national service in Singapore

Singapore: A 25-year-old Indian national, who is a permanent resident in Singapore, has been taken to a court for allegedly defaulting on his national service obligations for more than five years.

Corporal First Class (CFC) Thirumal Pavithran, 25, was on Thursday charged with four counts of leaving Singapore without a valid permit for a combined duration of more than five years, an offence under the Enlistment Act, the Straits Times reported.

Pavithran eventually returned and started his full-time National Service (NS) in May 2017. The court documents did not reveal where he went after leaving Singapore and the reasons behind his return.

National service (NS) is mandatory for all male Singapore citizens and permanent residents who are above 18 years of age.

According to the chargesheet, Pavithran committed the offences on four separate occasions between November 1, 2010 and July 7, 2016.

Pavithran first left Singapore on November 1, 2010, when he was 16 years old, for a period of 10 months and 27 days. He returned on September 28, 2011, but left Singapore again on October 5 that year, this time for a year and 11 days. He came back to the country on October 16, 2012.

On October 24, 2012, Pavithran left Singapore for three years, one month and 29 days. He came back on December 22, 2015, before going overseas on December 30, 2015.

He came back to Singapore on July 8, 2016, and enlisted into full-time NS on May 13, 2017. He will finish his full-time service on Sunday, said the Ministry of Defence.

It "reminded all male Singapore citizens and permanent residents that they have a duty to serve national service".

The Ministry said "it takes a firm stance against those who commit offences under the Enlistment Act".

"If we allow Singapore citizens or permanent residents who are overseas to evade national service or to choose when they want to serve national service, we are not being fair to the vast majority of our national servicemen who serve their country dutifully, and the institution of national service will be undermined," said a Ministry spokesman.

The case will come back to court on May 23.

If convicted of remaining outside Singapore without a valid exit permit, Pavithran can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to 10,000 Singaporean dollars for each charge.

Police seize cash from BJP candidate Bharati Ghosh

Kolkata: More than Rs 1 lakh has been seized from BJP candidate for West Bengal's Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency and former lPS officer Bharati Ghosh and an FIR lodged against her and those accompanying her for threatening public servants, police said on Friday.

"Bharati Ghosh was travelling in her car on Thursday night when we seized Rs 1,13,895 from her bag. The amount has been sent to the treasury," a police officer said.

Sharing the details of the FIR, a senior police officer of West Midnapore district said: "An FIR has been registered because they had obstructed a public servant from performing his duty. It has nothing to do with the cash seizure as the steps regarding that will be taken by the Election Commission".

According to him, based on prior information the Static Surveillance Team (SST) team had put up a Naka checking and told the occupants they want to search the car in which the candidate was sitting. They refused and escaped for almost 2.5 km and was intercepted again near Pingla police station.

As per the Election Commission's mandate, there are videographers in the SST. They also snatched the camera from the person recording it and deleted the video, he said.

"After a lot of resistance, the candidate had to yield and the SST team recovered Rs 1.13 lakh. The officers were threatened and abused in the name of religion," the officer said.

He revealed that the officer happened to be a Muslim man and was told not to touch Ghosh's bag.

Ghosh said she was not carrying the money illegally. She also said that the total money did not belong to her.

"It cannot be a crime when I am lawfully using my election fund after withdrawing it from the bank. How can they seize the money that belongs to me? They were not letting others sign the seizure list and forcing me to sign," she said.

Regarding this the officer said, "A person can carry any amount of money in India. But during elections if a candidate carries more than Rs 50,000 he/she has to furnish proper documents, which Ghosh failed to do".

"If she provides the bank documents she will get back the money".

A local Trinamool Congress leader said that they had prior information that in different areas voters had been promised a sum of Rs 500-1,000.

"The required steps have been taken and a specific case has been filed by the police. We have sent the factual report to the Election Commission and necessary action will be taken," said P. Mohan Gandhi, District Electoral officer.

Reacting to the incident, BJP state President Dilip Ghosh said: "If the police have seized the money, there will be a case. The law will take its course".

In the Ghatal Lok Sabha constituency which votes on May 12, Ghosh is pitted against against Trinamool's celebrity candidate Deepak Adhikary alias Dev.

TV9's new management sacks Ravi Prakash as CEO

Hyderabad: The new management of TV9 multilingual television news channels on Friday sacked Ravi Prakash and M.K.V.N Murthy, both whole-time directors and CEO and CFO respectively.

Alanda Media & Entertainments Pvt Ltd, which acquired 90.54% stakes in Associated Broadcasting Pvt Ltd (ABCPL), the owner of the TV9 group of channels, appointed Mahendra Mishra, the head of TV9 Kannada, as the interim Chief Executive Officer(CEO).

The board of directors also appointed G. Singa Rao as the new Chief Operating Officer (COO). Rao is currently CEO of Telugu channel 10TV.

Board executive director S Sambasiva Rao told reporters that the board's decision was endorsed by the meeting of shareholders. Ravi Prakash, who still holds shares in the company, did not attend the shareholders meeting.

Meanwhile, Ravi Prakash wrote a letter to the new board of directors alleging that they were trying to trouble him by using their political influence. He said the board was working to destroy journalism with the political interference.

Ravi Prakash, who had been heading TV9 channel since its launch in 2004, alleged that board coerced the company secretary to lodge a false complaint of forgery against him.

"As a fellow shareholder, I will continue to be beside you. My fight will continue", he wrote to the management.

Friday's developments came a day after Cyberabad police revealed that it has booked two criminals cases against Ravi Prakash, Murthy and actor S. Shivaji on two complaints by Alanda Director P. Kaushik Rao.

The police conducted searches at the residences of the trio and at TV 9 office in Hyderabad and seized some hard disks and documents. They were charged with forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy.

The cases were a fallout of Ravi Prakash's rift with Alanda after it acquired majority shares in ABCPL in August 2018 and nominated four persons to be appointed as directors on the board.

Alanda alleged that Ravi Prakash and Murthy failed to file a form with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) confirming their appointment. "They also removed the company secretary by forging his signature so as not to upload the names of new directors with the ROC," said Alanda.

It alleged that they had malafide intention of not allowing Alanda to participate in the management of the ABCPL through its new directors.

It said the duo also filed false cases against directors before National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

BJP woman activist held for sharing Mamata's morphed picture

Kolkata: A BJP woman leader was arrested in West Bengal's Howrah district for allegedly sharing morphed picture of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on social media, police said on Friday.

"Priyanka Sharma has been arrested for sharing morphed picture of the CM," a police official said.

A complaint was lodged at Dasnagar Police station against Sharma, a BJP Yuva Morcha leader, accused of uploading and sharing Banerjee's morphed picture in her Facebook timeline and thereby violating community guidelines, an official of Howrah City police's Cyber Cell said.

In making meme of Banerjee, the accused allegedly used Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas's image at the MET Gala event. The theme for this year's MET Gala was 'Camp: Notes on Fashion'.

Priyanka had brought whimsy and animation to the pink carpet with a vibrant, yet unique Dior gown at the event which is an annual fundraiser.

Teen girl commits suicide after mother's scolding

New Delhi: A 17-year-old girl hanged herself to death on Friday after being scolded by her mother, a police officer said. A suicide note has also been recovered.

"Victim's mother found Priyanshi hanging with the ceiling fan with the help of 'chunni' tied around her neck at their residence in Rangpuri village," DCP Devender Arya said.

She was a student of Class 9 in a local government school and got a compartment in her annual result. Thereafter, Priyanshi's mother scolded her and advised her to be more careful, Arya said.

But the girl took the scolding amiss and decided to kill herself. "A suicide note was recovered in which the girl asked her mother to forgive her for the act," he said.

Woman demanding her salary dues beaten to death

Ghaziabad: A 22-year-old woman was beaten to death by her former employer on Friday evening when she came to take her dues from him, an police official said.

The incident occurred at Suchitra Complex on Ambedkar road.

The woman was working at a refrigerator repairing centre but left the job sometime ago. On Friday, when she came to collect her remaining salary, the son of the centre's owner, Rohit Saxena, allegedly started beating her, the police said.

Thereafter, owner M.K. Saxena also joined his son and started thrashing her. Both were also allegedly using abusive language against the woman.

When the victim fell unconscious, the accused also allegedly poured hot water on her face.

Following an around 45-minute drama, an eye witness informed the police. The police officials took her to the MMG hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

Jai Karan Singh, a police officer, said: "We have sent the body for post-mortem and waiting for the report."

Also Read: Crime Roundup Of AP