News Analysis India

Tag: Anil Kumar

  • Pegasus snooping row: Delhi Congress leaders take out protest demanding judicial inquiry

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Delhi Congress leaders and workers staged a protest near BJP headquarters here on Tuesday, demanding a judicial inquiry into the reported use of Pegasus spyware against journalists and politicians.

    The protesters led by Delhi Congress president Anil Kumar marched raising slogans and carrying placards from their party office on DDU Marg to the nearby BJP headquarters. They were stopped at a barricade by the police.

    Addressing the protesters, Kumar alleged the government had a role in the snooping row and termed it as a national security threat.

    An international media consortium on Sunday reported that more than 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of business persons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through the spyware.

    The central government, however, dismissed allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part on specific people, saying it “has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever”.

  • Himachal: Woodcutter convicted in 2017 Gudiya rape-murder case

    By PTI
    SHIMLA: A local court on Wednesday convicted a 28-year-old man for the rape and murder of a schoolgirl in the Gudiya case which created an outrage in Himachal Pradesh four years ago.

    The hearing on the quantum of sentence for Anil Kumar alias Nillu, a woodcutter, will take place on May 11.

    The 16-year-old, referred to as Gudiya after her death, was raped and killed in a forested area in Shimla’s Kotkhai while she was on her way home from school on July 4, 2017.

    The case saw dramatic twists, including the custodial death of a man earlier suspected of having committed the crime and the arrest of a senior police officer in that connection.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) then took charge of the case and Anil Kumar was arrested three years ago.

    Special Judge Rajeev Bhardwaj held Anil Kumar guilty under the Indian Penal Code sections related to rape and murder, as well as the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

    The judge said 12 of the 14 crucial points of evidence presented by the CBI went against the convict.

    The most important of them was the matching of his DNA with samples found at the crime spot, he said.

    Over video conference, the judge ruled that the crime was committed on the spur of the moment when Anil Kumar came across the girl as she walked home through the forested area.

    Anil Kumar, who attended the hearing from a prison in Shimla, pleaded innocence.

    The girl’s body was found in the forest two days after she went missing.

    A post-mortem report then indicated rape and murder.

    Days later, the state police set up a special investigation team headed by Inspector General Z Zahur Zaidi.

    Police arrested six men on July 13.

    One of them, Suraj, died in police custody on July 19.

    Amid public outrage, the Himachal Pradesh High Court handed over the case to the CBI, which arrested nine policemen including the IGP for the custodial death.

    The proceedings against the five men arrested along with Suraj were dropped for lack of evidence.

    The custodial death case against the police officers was later transferred to Chandigarh, where it is currently being heard.

    Anil Kumar was arrested on the basis of DNA evidence on April 14, 2018.

  • Delhi CM attacked with chilli powder in secretariat: Officials

    A man flung chilli powder at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal outside his office in the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday, an attack the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) described as “politically motivated”.

    The man, Anil Kumar, who has been detained, was targeting the bespectacled chief minister’s eyes, officials said.

    His spectacles broke but his eyes seemed to have been spared any damage, they added.

    Kumar, whose Aadhaar card has been recovered, brought the chilli powder to the secretariat in packets of ‘khaini’, or chewing tobacco, they said.

    After throwing red pepper powder on Kejriwal, Kumar threatened to shoot him after he comes out of jail, an official recounted.

    The attack took place outside the chief minister’s chamber on the third floor when he was leaving for lunch.

    While AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the BJP, leader of the saffron party’s Delhi unit Manoj Tiwari condemned the attack and called for a “high-level” probe.

    According to Bhardwaj, the attack happened at the chief minister’s office, which is a “high-security” zone. He said it was a serious matter and termed the attack “politically motivated”.

    “The BJP is behind the attack and the accused are being aided by the Modi government,” Bhardwaj alleged.

    The Delhi BJP chief said such incidents “cannot be tolerated or justified by anybody”.

    “This calls for a high-level probe,” Tiwari said.

    Officials close to Kejriwal accused the Delhi Police of being lax in providing him  security and alleged that this was the third attempt to harm him in less than a month.

    The AAP alleged that water bottles were thrown at Kejriwal by Tiwari at the inauguration ceremony of Signature Bridge earlier this month.

    “Around the time of Dussehra, an unidentified man had barged inside Kejriwal’s residence and had tried to attack the CM,” Bhardwaj added.