News Analysis India

Tag: Gujarat Police

  • Ram Navami violence: Gujarat cops have booked innocent people, says AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday alleged that the men whom the Gujarat police have booked for allegedly attacking a Ram Navami procession in Khambhat town were innocent as they were performing namaz when the incident took place.

    Speaking on the communal clashes in Himmatnagar and Khambhat towns that took place following altercations during Ram Navami processions on March 10, Owaisi said the BJP-led state government failed to maintain law and order.

    “A Gujarat AIMIM (All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen) team had visited Khambhat town after the violence. They learnt that those who were booked by the police were busy offering namaz when the incident took place. And it was the state government’s responsibility to see that the procession passes off peacefully,” Owaisi told reporters here.

    “If you go through the past inquiry reports on such incidents, it was written that violence will take place if the state wants it and violence will never take place if the state does not. Hence, it was the state government that failed to establish law and order,” the Hyderabad MP said.

    Owaisi was in Gujarat to take stock of the state unit of the party’s preparedness for the upcoming Assembly polls to be held in December this year. “I am of the opinion that action must be taken against the guilty. But there should not be a media trial, because it is shown that stones were hurled by the people of the minority community. Show it if there is concrete evidence. Otherwise, a media trial must not happen,” he added.

    On Wednesday, police in Anand district had said that communal violence in Khambhat town on Ram Navami was a “pre-planned conspiracy” hatched by a “sleeper module” to achieve the dominance of Muslim community in the town.

    Police have already arrested 11 persons for their alleged involvement in hatching the conspiracy of the violence.

    Anand district SP Ajit Rajian had said that the perpetrators had planned to attack the procession and spread violence with the aim to teach the members of Hindu community a lesson to not take out any such procession in the future.

    A senior citizen was killed and another injured in the violence which broke out after a Ram Navami procession came under attack on Sunday. On the same day, similar clashes erupted in Himmatnagar town of Sabarkantha district.

  • No ‘pro-Pakistan’ slogan at poll victory march in Kutch: Cops on viral video

    By PTI

    KUTCH: Police investigation into a video in Gujarat has disclosed that no slogans in favour of Pakistan were prima facie raised during the rally of a candidate who won the village panchayat election in Kutch district contrary to the claims made on social media and other platforms, officials said on Wednesday.

    A police officer said that a probe will be conducted and action taken against the people who spread the misinformation claiming that some people had shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ during the victory rally of Reenaben Radhubhai Kothiwad, soon after the result of the panchayat election was declared in Dudhai village on Tuesday.

    Earlier in the day, Gujarat Home Minister Harsh Sanghavi had cited this video and said Kutch (East) SP and Border Range IG were directed to take immediate action.

    The video had gone viral on social media with accompanying messages claiming that a group of people shouted pro-Pakistan slogans during the victory procession of a woman candidate.

    “Reenaben Radhubhai Kothiwad won the election as the woman sarpanch of Dudhai village, results of which were declared on Tuesday. In her victory rally, her supporters shouted ‘Radhubhai zindabad’ twice. However, some people misrepresented the video to claim that people shouted ‘Pakistan zindabad,” Superintendent of Police (Kutch East), Mayur Patil told reporters.

    He said if the video clip is listened to quietly, one can hear that, after eight seconds, people are shouting ‘Radhubhai zindabad’ twice.

    According to Patil, a probe will be conducted and action will be taken against people who twisted the words to spread misinformation.

    “We will issue a warning to the journalist who shared this video on Twitter without proper verification. We will also write to the organisation he is working for,” the SP said.

    Sanghavi had said that a proper investigation was being conducted in the incident of slogan-shouting (at the rally) after the poll result in Kutch.

    “We are taking action with all seriousness. I assure you that all those who are involved in shouting the slogan will be arrested,” the minister had told reporters.

    He also cited another viral video of a locality in Surat, saying a family living there was being harassed by some persons “despite the imposition of the Disturbed Areas Act”.

    Sanghavi said that Surat Police are investigating.

  • Major drug racket using air cargo courier busted in Gujarat, four held

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Gujarat police have arrested four persons over a period of one week and busted a major drug racket in which dealers from Ahmedabad had imported 100 kilograms of drugs, including cocaine, from the US as well as other parts of the country through air cargo courier in the last two years, an official said on Monday.

    The main accused, identified as 27-year-old Vandit Patel, with the help of his aide Parth Sharma (32), had contacted US-based drug suppliers through the dark web and paid them Rs 4 crore in cryptocurrencies to obtain drugs, Ahmedabad district Superintendent of Police Virendrasingh Yadav said.

    While Patel, who owns a salon in posh South Botal area of the city, and Sharma were held on November 17 with drugs worth Rs 3.5 lakh, two alleged peddlers, identified as Vipal Goswami and Jil Parate, were nabbed on Monday, said Yadav.

    While Patel did a hotel management course from Singapore in 2017-18, Goswami has an MBA from London in 2016, police said.

    “Vandit Patel became an addict in 2012 and has considerable knowledge of drugs and their effect on the body. Two years ago, he entered this illegal trade and started obtaining drugs through air cargo from the US, the Netherlands, as well as Mumbai and Himachal Pradesh. He used to import high-end expensive party drugs such as cocaine, hybrid ganja, American charas, shatter, MDMA and magic mushrooms,” Yadav informed.

    “To dodge the authorities, the senders used to declare the drugs as something else. A special kind of packing material used by US based drug suppliers led to it going undetected during Customs checks at airports. In all, he managed to obtain 100 kilograms of drugs in the last two years, paying nearly Rs 10 crore, including Rs 4 crore in cryptocurrencies,” the SP added.

    Patel had used over 50 addresses in various cities of Gujarat and Rajasthan to take nearly 300 drug deliveries, zeroing in on houses where no one was staying for long.

    “When a parcel got returned, Patel used its tracking ID to contact the delivery person. Patel has even sent drugs from the US to his connections in China and New Zealand,” Yadav said.

    Alleging laxity in the ongoing probe into seizure of drugs at various places in Gujarat, the Congress on Monday demanded setting up of an inquiry commission under a sitting High Court judge to investigate these cases, including the seizure of 2,988 kg of heroin at the Mundra port.

    A delegation led by Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Paresh Dhanani, has called on Governor Acharya Devvrat at Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar and handed him a memorandum seeking his intervention to forming the inquiry commission.

    Congress leaders have alleged that though heroin and other contraband worth thousands of crores have been seized from different parts of Gujarat in recent months, the BJP government was not taking any “concrete action” against the entire racket as those in the government are “hand in glove” with the perpetrators.

    In the memorandum, the opposition party cited the seizure of nearly 3,000 kg of heroin worth Rs 21,000 crore at the Mundra port in September, followed by the recovery of heroin and meth worth over Rs 1,000 crore by the Gujarat police and the ATS this month.

    Congress demanded strict action to “control the drugs network” to save the next generation, claiming that drugs are being sold “openly” on college campuses across Gujarat.

    Though the drugs are being dumped in Gujarat through the sea route with the help of foreign nationals, the coastal security has been left “to the mercy of God”, Congress said.

    “Gujarat’s coastline is 1,640 km long and has 144 small islands near it. More importantly, our shores are close to Pakistan. Despite that, there are only 22 marine police stations and three interceptor boats to guard this vast coastline. Due to the lack of adequate security, Gujarat’s coast has become a haven for drug mafia,” the memorandum said.

    It further alleged that “corrupt practices” of the BJP dispensation has helped drug mafias in expanding their network in Gujarat.

    Gujarat Minister of State for Home, Harsh Sanghavi, had refuted these charges claiming that the seizure of such a large quantity of drugs proves that the police and other agencies are doing their work with commitment, as the contraband was unearthed before it reached the masses.

  • Video shows group offering ‘namaz’ in Ahmedabad garden; VHP men ‘purify’ site

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: Members of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) performed a “purification ritual” at a lake garden in the posh Vastrapur area of Ahmedabad after the outfit learnt that some Muslims had offered ‘namaz’ at the spot, a functionary said on Tuesday.

    Vastrapur police inspector Sandip Khambhla said no FIR has been lodged in this regard and added no one has approached them over the purification incident which took place on Monday.

    A few days ago, a video showing four Muslim men and two burqa-clad women performing namaz at the garden of the Vastrapur lake, a popular hangout in the city, went viral on social media platforms.

    Footage suggested the video may have been shot by a resident of a multi-storey building near the lake.

    “On Monday evening, some VHP workers reached the garden to “purify” the place. They chanted mantras and sprinkled ‘Ganga jal’. This was to create awareness among masses. It is seen that a casual namaz eventually results in claim being staked on that piece of land,” said Ashok Raval, secretary, Gujarat VHP.

    According to sources, it is likely the people seen offering namaz at the site in the video may have come to see a kin admitted in a private hospital situated near the lake.

  • Gujarat Police suspect woman found hanging in train coach was raped

    By PTI

    VADODARA: Police here on Sunday said they suspect that an 18-year-old woman, whose body was found hanging in a train coach at Valsad in Gujarat earlier this month, was gang-raped in Vadodara while she was on way back to her hostel from work.

    The body of the college student, who hailed from Navsari in south Gujarat and worked with an NGO in Vadodara, was found hanging in a coach of the Gujarat Queen Express at Valsad on November 4, following which the railway police had lodged a case of accidental death.

    The victim lived in a hostel in Vadodara.

    Based on a diary entry by the victim in which she purportedly mentioned about being kidnapped, blindfolded and taken to an isolated place by two accused persons in an auto-rickshaw in Vadodara, an investigation has been launched to determine whether she was gang-raped, police said.

    As per her diary entry, the two culprits took her to an isolated place.

    They fled after they saw a bus driver approaching there.

    The victim later took the driver’s help to reach out to a friend, they said.

    Inspector General of Police-CID (Crime and Railways), Subhash Trivedi, told reporters that the state government has taken serious note of the incident and directed officials to investigate thoroughly to determine whether the victim was gang-raped and to nab the culprits.

    Around 25 separate teams have been formed involving personnel from the Vadodara city police, Ahmedabad city crime branch, forensic science laboratory and the railway police, and nearly 450 CCTV footage have been scanned, he said.

    He said the police were also examining call data records, doing electronic surveillance, and using intelligence inputs to nab the culprits, he said.

    “The Vadodara city police, the railway police, the Ahmedabad city crime branch, are all working together in separate teams, and the investigation is also being conducted in other states like Karnataka,” he said.

    A diary was found in her bag in which she wrote about being kidnapped and tied up by two persons and blindfolded before being taken to an isolated ground in Vadodara when she was returning to her hostel from work at the NGO, Superintendent of Police (Western Railway), Vadodara, Parikshita Rathod told PTI.

    “In the diary, the woman had not clearly mentioned whether she was gang-raped or sexually assaulted. But, the way she described her abduction and being taken to an isolated place by two men after being blindfolded and tied up, it appears she might have been gang-raped,” Rathod said.

    Since she had not written clearly about the offence, the police were depending heavily on her medical report, the official said.

    “No FIR has been lodged yet in this connection (about rape). The postmortem report shows she committed suicide. Her viscera examination report is awaited to determine the final cause of death,” the official said.

  • Indian fisherman killing: FIR against 10 Pakistan maritime security personnel, bandh at victim’s village

    By PTI

    PROBANDAR: Gujarat Police have registered an FIR on charges of murder and attempt to murder against 10 personnel of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA) after they fired at an Indian fishing boat in the Arabian Sea off Gujarat coast, killing a crew member and injuring another, an official said on Monday.

    The FIR was registered on Sunday night at Navi Bandar police station in Porbandar district, which has territorial jurisdiction beyond 12 nautical miles off the Gujarat coast, under Indian Penal Code Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed), and relevant provisions of the Arms Act, the official said.

    As per the FIR, ten unidentified PMSA personnel, five each onboard two boats, are accused of opening fire at the Indian fishing boat ‘Jalpari’ at around 4 pm Saturday, killing one Sridhar Ramesh Chamre (32), a fisherman from Palghar district in Maharashtra.

    Another fisherman, named Dilip Solanki (34), who hailed from Diu, was injured in the firing.

    He is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Okha coastal town of Devbhumi Dwarka district in Gujarat.

    There were seven crew members on the fishing boat.

    India has taken serious note of the unprovoked firing by PMSA and will take up the issue diplomatically with the Pakistan side, official sources in Delhi earlier said.

    In his complaint, Solanki said seven fishermen on board ‘Jalpari’ were engaged in fishing activities in the Indian waters near the international boundary when 10 PMSA personnel onboard two boats opened fire, killing one of the fishermen and injuring another.

    The dead fisherman’s body was brought to Okha on Sunday, and the FIR was registered at night in Porbandar on the basis of a complaint by Solanki, the official said.

    The boat had sailed from Okha for fishing activities on October 25 with seven fishermen onboard, two of whom were from Maharashtra, four from Gujarat and one from Diu (in the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu), officials said.

    Meanwhile, Residents of Vadrai village in Maharashtra’s Palghar district observed a bandh on Monday to protest.

    All shops and other establishments remained closed and public buses and auto-rickshaws stayed off roads in the village, following the bandh call given by local panchayat which condemned the killing of Chamre.

    Chamre is survived by wife, two daughters aged 6 and 8, and parents.

    “The situation in the village is currently peaceful,” Satpati police station’s assistant police inspector Sudhir Daherkar said.

    Chamre’s body will be brought to the village for the last rites after postmortem and completion of due formalities, sources said.

    The firing incident took place around 4 PM on Saturday near the international maritime boundary line, officials had said.

    India has taken serious note of the PMSA resorting to unprovoked firing on the Indian fishing boat and is going to take up this issue diplomatically with the Pakistan side, official sources in Delhi earlier said.

    Residents of the village were in a state of shock since Sunday after getting the news of Chamre’s death in the firing.

    They said if at all the boat had entered the Pakistan waters, the crew members could have been held captive by the neighbouring country instead of being fired upon.

    Chamre’s father claimed the boat carrying the seven fishermen had not crossed the border.

    On Monday, roads and streets in the village wore a deserted look as the residents stayed indoors in support of the bandh called to protest Chamre’s killing.

  • Seized vehicles gutted in fire in Gujarat police station premises

    By PTI

    NADIAD: Some 40 seized vehicles parked within the premises of a police station in Gujarat’s Kheda district were gutted in a massive fire, an official said on Sunday.

    The blaze may have been started by firecrackers and was aided by four to five barrels of chemicals seized in an oil theft case, leaving 30 to 40 vehicles, including 25 four-wheelers, three autorickshaws and some two-wheelers fully burnt, said Ahmedabad Range Inspector General of Police V Chandrashekhar.

    “The incident occurred at around 11 pm on Friday. Preliminary findings suggest the blaze was caused by firecrackers, and four to five chemical barrels aided it. The exact number of vehicles damaged is being determined,” he added.

    A probe has begun under a forensic team to determine the cause of the fire, which took almost two hours to bring under control after seven fire tenders were deployed, a Kheda town police station official said.

  • Elderly chartered accountant held for raping 24-year-old assistant in Gujarat’s Vadodara

    By PTI

    AHMEDABAD: A 24-year-old woman was allegedly raped by an elderly chartered accountant, who had hired her as his assistant in Gujarat’s Vadodara city, police said on Thursday.

    The Vadodara city crime branch arrested the 69-year-old accused from his hideout in Palitana town of Bhavnagar district in the early hours of the day, said D S Chauhan, assistant commissioner of police, Crime.

    “The accused went into hiding after the victim, who is a law student, lodged a complaint of rape against him and his friend.

    Based on a tip-off, we nabbed the accused from Palitana and brought him to Vadodara,” Chauhan said.

    ​ALSO READ | Teacher sentenced to 20 years in prison for raping student in Rajasthan

    The police had apprehended the accused man’s friend from Junagadh a week ago, and he was sent to jail after the end of his three-day remand, he said.

    In a complaint lodged at Gotri police station on September 19, the woman has alleged that her employer had spiked her soft drink and raped her at a place in Vadodara on the pretext of discussing some official work.

    The victim further claimed that the accused had warned her against disclosing anything about the assault, he said.

    A few days later, the accused’s 60-year-old friend allegedly visited the victim’s rented place and forced himself on her, the official added.

  • Ivory Coast man held in Gujarat duping man of over Rs 14 lakh through fake website 

    By PTI
    SURAT: The police in Gujarat’s Surat have arrested an Ivory Coast national for allegedly duping a man of over Rs 14 lakh after promising him Rs 4 crore for his kidney through a fake website of a reputed hospital, an official said Saturday.

    The cyber cell of the Surat police had registered an FIR against some unidentified persons on July 13 for duping a man of Rs 14.7 lakh with the promise of paying him Rs 4 crore for a kidney, using a fake website of a well-known private hospital, the official said.

    Using technical surveillance, the police nabbed Toty Dago Gregoire, a resident of Bengaluru, Karnataka, who had allegedly created fake websites of 40 to 50 hospitals, which he used to dupe people who were willing to sell their kidneys, he said.

    “Gregoire is originally from Ivory Coast in West Africa. He had come to India on a student visa in 2007 and stayed back. He was earlier arrested in October 2011 for forging fake certificates,” Surat Police Commissioner Ajay Tomar said.

    The accused had allegedly promised the complainant Rs 2 crore as advance for his kidney and asked him to deposit some money over several transactions to start the process, the police said.

    According to the cyber cell, the accused was also involved in creating fake websites for forex trading, bitcoin investment, etc.

    to commit investment fraud and created fake websites that offered jobs abroad.

    The accused created a fake email ID in the name of a Reserve Bank of India official and used on a mobile number to lure his victims into transferring money to various bank accounts, it was stated.

    The police have frozen over Rs 7.50 lakh in eight bank accounts that were used in the transfer of money from the victim, and found that the accounts were used for transactions of over Rs 1.13 crore, a cyber crime official said.

    The accused has been arrested under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) among other sections of the IPC and Information Technology Act, it was stated.

    “Similar cases have been registered in Bengaluru, and we are trying to find out about other such complaints. We are in touch with the cyber crime cells of other states for the same. We are trying to nab others who helped the accused create the websites,” Tomar said.

  • Gujarat police gets Ravi Pujari’s custody in 2017 shootout case

    Express News Service
    BENGALURU: The Gujarat police have been permitted to take gangster Ravi Pujari into their custody for 30 days in connection with a 2017 shootout case, in which a municipal councillor was attacked. An SI of the Crime Branch of Ahmedabad had filed an application before a city court, requesting it to remand Pujari in Gujarat police custody.

    He had submitted that the police needs to record the statement of the accused before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Court of Borsad in Anand district, and also complete other investigations in his presence, in connection with a case registered for an attempt to murder and under the Arms Act. Pujari’s counsel had opposed remanding him in police custody.

    On Tuesday, the 61st Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge ordered remanding Pujari in Gujarat police custody for 30 days. The court also directed the Gujarat police to provide additional security to the accused when he is in their custody, as there is a threat to his life. The case is related to a shootout on Pragnesh Patel, an independent municipal councillor of Borsad town in Anand district. On January 13, 2017, Patel was attacked by two bike-bourne assailants outside his house. He had later recovered.