Crime/Terrorism

By IANS,

Gandhinagar: Former Gujarat director general of police P.C. Pande was Wednesday summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in a staged shootout.

He has been told to appear before the CBI Aug 11, CBI sources said.

Pande was the Ahmedabad commissioner of police during the 2002 communal riots and was the state police chief when a bulk of the shootouts by the police, including the one in which Sheikh was killed, took place.

Pande was made chairman of the Gujarat Police Housing Corporation after his retirement.

By IANS,

New Delhi: Delhi police Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in trafficking of fake currency notes with the arrest of three people in the capital.

The trio, identified as Surender Singh (25), Shiv Kumar Giri (26) and Jaiprakash (22), was arrested July 26 and fake notes in Rs.100 and Rs.20 denomination amounting to Rs.52,960 recovered from them, police said.

The gang used to circulate low denomination fake notes at crowded places in Delhi, particularly to the uneducated and economically backward, they said.

By IANS,

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Wednesday restrained the trial in the multi-crore rupee Ghaziabad provident fund (PF) scam case pending in a court in the Uttar Pradesh town on the capital's outskirts.

The court restrained the proceedings in the special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court after the investigating agency sought the transfer of the case from Ghaziabad to Delhi.

By IANS,

Mumbai: Gangster Mustafa Dossa, accused of assaulting extradited don Abu Salem in the Arthur Road Central Jail last Sunday, was remanded to police custody till Aug 7 by a court here Wednesday. He told police that Salem's injuries were self-inflicted.

The Mumbai Police Crime Branch took over the case from the local police station two days ago.

The crime branch took custody of Dossa and his associate Abdul Qayyum Sheikh, following a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (prevention) court permission, and presented them before a magistrate.

By IANS,

New Delhi: Maoist rebels have carried out at least 500 attacks killing nearly 350 people in nine states in the last three months, with Chhattisgarh recording the highest number of such strikes, parliament was told Wednesday.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken told the Rajya Sabha that 140 violent incidents were reported from Chhattisgarh, 111 from Jharkhand, 88 from West Bengal, 78 from Bihar and 43 in Orissa.

At least 20 such attacks by Maoist guerrillas were reported from Maharashtra, 17 from Andhra Pradesh, two in Madhya Pradesh and one in Uttar Pradesh.

By IANS,

Lucknow: An angry mob indulged in arson and vandalism at a police outpost, protesting the death of a teenaged boy, who was mowed down by a tractor in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad district Wednesday.

Demanding arrest of the erring driver, who absconded after the accident, the mob clashed with the police. They forced their way inside the Peepalpur police outpost, burnt official documents and destroyed furniture and other belongings.

By DPA,

Manila : Philippine police said Wednesday Facebook helped crack a murder case against a Filipino man suspected to have killed nine people, including three foreigners.

Police Senior Inspector Joel Mariano said at least two witnesses were able to positively identify the suspect through his Facebook account as the person they saw at the crime scene.

"Facebook helped us in getting positive identification of the suspect from some of the witnesses," he said. "I think we have a solid case against the suspect."

By IANS,

Sangrur (Punjab) : An inter-state fake currency racket has been busted with the arrest of two people from Punjab's Sangrur town, police said Wednesday.

According to the police, fake currency with a face value of Rs.15 lakh was recovered late Tuesday from the accused, identified as Jasvir Singh alias "Jassi" and Akshay Gupta.

By DPA,

Kabul : A roadside bomb tore through a passenger bus in western Afghanistan Wednesday, killing 25 civilians, a provincial governor said.

At least 20 other civilians were injured in the blast that took place in Bakwa district of Nimroz province, Governor Gholam Dastagir Azaad said.

"Women and children are among those killed but due to remoteness of the area we don't have any figures yet," Azaad said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which bore the hallmarks of the Taliban insurgents.

By DPA,

Tokyo : Two murderers were hanged in Japan Wednesday, Justice Minister Keiko Chiba said.

Media reports said the minister was present when the executions were carried out, the first since the Democratic Party of Japan took power in September.

Kazuo Shinozawa, 59, was hanged for the murder of six female employees of a jeweller's shop in Tochigi Province in 2000.

Hidenori Ogata, 33, was convicted of a double murder carried out in 2003.

Japan is one of the few developed countries in which the death penalty is still used.