News Analysis India

Tag: Special Task Force

  • Three weeks after woman cop assaulted on train in U.P, Task Force guns down main accused

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW:  Three weeks after the 40-year-old woman constable was brutally assaulted by unidentified miscreants on the Saryu Express train, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and Ayodhya Police, in a joint operation, gunned down the prime accused and arrested two of his associates following an encounter in Ayodhya on Friday. 

    Three cops, including the station officer of Purakalandar police station Ratan Sharma, were also injured in the exchange of fire. While the deceased was identified as Anis Khan, the two accused arrested included Azad and Vishambhar Dayal Dubey. The duo suffered bullet injuries and are under treatment at a hospital in Ayodhya. The encounter between the police force and the accused took place at Chhitarva Para Kail Road under the Purakalander police station area of Ayodhya.

    Meanwhile, special director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for the Ayodhya police team for finding the accused. A woman constable was found lying under a berth in a pool of blood with deep cuts on her face and other parts of the body and dishevelled clothes in the general compartment onboard Saryu Express running between Mankapur and Prayagraj on August 30. 

    The Railway Police personnel rushed her to Shri Ram Hospital in Ayodhya from where she was referred to Lucknow Trauma Centre. However, after the medical examination, sexual assault of the police personnel was ruled out.

    According to Ayodhya Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar, the police got a tip-off, after which a photograph was shown to the victim. The police started working out the case and identified the accused on the basis of the statement given by the injured constable who is convalescing at Lucknow Trauma Centre. 

    Ayodhya tightens security 

    Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force took over security of the ‘red zone’ of the Ram Janmabhoomi replacing the Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel in Ayodhya. Eight companies of the UPSSF were deployed in the ‘red zone’ of the campus on Thursday.

    LUCKNOW:  Three weeks after the 40-year-old woman constable was brutally assaulted by unidentified miscreants on the Saryu Express train, the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force and Ayodhya Police, in a joint operation, gunned down the prime accused and arrested two of his associates following an encounter in Ayodhya on Friday. 

    Three cops, including the station officer of Purakalandar police station Ratan Sharma, were also injured in the exchange of fire. While the deceased was identified as Anis Khan, the two accused arrested included Azad and Vishambhar Dayal Dubey. The duo suffered bullet injuries and are under treatment at a hospital in Ayodhya. The encounter between the police force and the accused took place at Chhitarva Para Kail Road under the Purakalander police station area of Ayodhya.

    Meanwhile, special director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh for the Ayodhya police team for finding the accused. A woman constable was found lying under a berth in a pool of blood with deep cuts on her face and other parts of the body and dishevelled clothes in the general compartment onboard Saryu Express running between Mankapur and Prayagraj on August 30. googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    The Railway Police personnel rushed her to Shri Ram Hospital in Ayodhya from where she was referred to Lucknow Trauma Centre. However, after the medical examination, sexual assault of the police personnel was ruled out.

    According to Ayodhya Superintendent of Police Raj Karan Nayyar, the police got a tip-off, after which a photograph was shown to the victim. The police started working out the case and identified the accused on the basis of the statement given by the injured constable who is convalescing at Lucknow Trauma Centre. 

    Ayodhya tightens security 

    Uttar Pradesh Special Security Force took over security of the ‘red zone’ of the Ram Janmabhoomi replacing the Provincial Armed Constabulary personnel in Ayodhya. Eight companies of the UPSSF were deployed in the ‘red zone’ of the campus on Thursday.

  • Punjab: Bust drug mafia or face action, Mann tells cops

    Express News Service

    CHANDIGARH:  In a bid to combat drug menace in the border state, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday directed top police officers to act in tandem with the Special Task Force on Drugs and to launch joint operations to nab the “big sharks” running the “drug mafia”. 

    Addressing a high-level meeting of police commissioners and senior superintendents of police here, Mann categorically said that if any incident of drug supply comes to his notice from any part of the state, the SSP and CP concerned would be held solely accountable. He also asked the officers to immediately swing into action in case someone lodges any complaint about drug trafficking. 

    Emphasising the need for tightening the noose around drug smugglers across the state, Mann said strict action would be taken against the officials in case of accused getting default bail, particularly in cases of commercial recovery.

    Mann directed DGP VK Bhawra to issue detailed guidelines to all SSPs to not disclose the price of drugs seized during recovery in the international market as this practice attracts people who want to make quick buck. He, however, said rest of the information regarding quantity seized, location of recovery and the details of accused could be made public.

    The CM also said more de-addiction clinics will be set up in the stat. Mann also asked the DGP to speed up the process of confiscation of properties belonging to those involved with drug mafia. As preventive measures, the CM stressed that special focus should be laid on revamping sports infrastructure in villages and wards.

  • Court junks STF’s plea to interrogate Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan again

    By PTI

    MATHURA: A Mathura court has dismissed the UP STF’s plea to interrogate alleged PFI activist-cum-Kerala journalist Siddique Kappan, facing terror charges, about some incriminating document found in his Delhi residence.

    Additional District and Sessions Judge Anil Kumar Pandey rejected the Special Task Force plea, saying that the accused cannot be allowed to be interrogated again after the chargesheet in the case has already been filed.

    Kappan is presently lodged in judicial custody in a terror case, involving instigating unrest and funding it after the death of a Hathras woman, set ablaze after her rape and brutalisation.

    “The prosecution’s request at a stage when the charge-sheet has already been submitted in the court cannot be accepted and merits rejection,” ADSJ Pandey said in his order on Monday.

    In its plea to the court, the STF had said Kappan’s Delhi residence was raided on November 11 last year, during which a booklet of the outlawed terror outfit SIMMI with some handwritten remarks on its was found.

    The booklet had been sent to the Agra forensic laboratory for matching Kappan’s handwriting to that on the book but the laboratory in its report on June 21 this year has said the two handwritings did not match, the STF’s plea said Accordingly, the accused needed to be interrogated about the booklet and the handwritten remarks on it, it said.

    Defence counsel Madhuban Datt Chaturvedi said the STF had sought to interrogate Kappan on an issue forming part of a previously conducted and concluded probe.

    It was not about any matter for further or additional investigation, he said.

    After filing the charge-sheet in the court, the investigation on any point conducted earlier, cannot be allowed under section 173 (8) of the Criminal Procedure Code, he said.

  • Arrested intruder says China trying to hack defence ministry websites: Official

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Chinese national who was arrested recently in West Bengal’s Malda district informed his interrogators that several agencies of his country are trying to hack various websites of the central government including those under the Ministry of Defence, sources in the Special Task Force (STF) probing his case said on Tuesday.

    They have targeted a Bengaluru-based company which is associated with the ministry and the BSNL, Han Junwe who was intercepted while trying to illegally enter the country through the India-Bangladesh border has told the sleuths.

    A couple of aerospace companies are also among the targets of the agencies, an STF officer told PTI on condition of anonymity.

    “He has said that the Chinese are trying to take a sneak peek into India’s defence system and hence they are trying to hack the websites of the Indian Defence Ministry,” the officer said.

    The STF is trying to find out Junwe’s connection with these agencies and the role he is playing in India, the officer said.

    The sleuths are still trying to unlock the sophisticated mobile phone and the laptop seized from the Chinese national who was arrested on June 12.

    “Where he was heading to is still not known. We suspect that someone was waiting somewhere to guide him to Kaliachak in Malda district,” the officer said.

    The STF is also also trying to find out whether or not he had any connection with the banned Maoist outfits.

    “He may have some role in providing financial assistance to the Maoists,” the IPS officer said.

    The 35-year-old man believed to be a resident of Hubei in China was arrested by the BSF earlier this month.

    The BSF had said on June 11 that Junwe told the investigators that he and his associates have smuggled as many as 1,300 Indian SIM cards into their country by hiding them in undergarments.

    These SIM cards were allegedly used to hack accounts and carry out financial frauds.

    The BSF had said that Junwe used the India-Bangladesh border to enter the country as he failed to get an Indian visa after his business partner Sun Jiang was arrested by the Lucknow Anti-Terrorism Squad in a case of fraud recently.

  • J&K government to screen employees allegedly involved in anti-national activities

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has formed a Special Task Force (STF) to screen and identify government employees allegedly involved in anti-national activities.

    Those found to be involved in such activities may lose their jobs, sources warned.

    The five-member STF, to be headed by Additional Director General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been authorized to identify and scrutinize the cases of the government employees suspected of activities requiring action under the proviso (C) of Article 311(2) of the Constitution of India.

    The proviso (C) of Article 311(2) confers powers on state authorities to dismiss or demote public servants without holding recourse to the normal procedure, if it is satisfied that their retention in public service is prejudicial to the security of the state.

    The STF has been empowered to compile records of such suspected employees and submit the list to the committee constituted last year.

    In July 30 last year, a committee headed by J&K Chief Secretary and comprising  Administrative Secretary Home department, and Director General of Police among others was set up to scrutinise and recommend cases under the proviso (C) of Article 311(2).

    The special task force, according to the order, will engage with other members of the Terror Monitoring Group (TMG) for identifying employees involved in questionable activities. 

    The task force has been asked to scrutinize such cases in a time-bound manner, and shall receive assistance from the CID. 

    On April 16, the police arrested a Special Police Officer (SPO) Saima Akhtar, resident of Frisal, in Kulgam district and booked her under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and terminated her services for allegedly obstructing security forces while they were conducting a search operation on April 14. 

  • Chhattisgarh encounter: Father’s desperate ride in lookout for son ends in heartbreak

    Express News Service
    RAIPUR:  As media reports about the Maoist attack on the security forces in south Bastar started trickling in on Saturday morning, a distressed elderly teacher desperately tried to seek information about the safety and well-being of his son a sub-inspector in the Special Task Force (STF) of Chhattisgarh Police.

    Deepak Bharadwaj was leading the joint party of forces that was trapped in the Maoist ambush. When he got no information till late night about his son, a worried Radhelal left home at Malkharaoda in Janjgir-Champa for Bijapur, consistently praying for Deepak’s safety all along his road journey.

    The old man travelled 600 km with the hope to find Deepak safe and had planned to accompany him back to Raipur.

    But destiny had something else in store for him.

    He rushed from one hospital to other looking for his son before he came to know on Sunday evening that his son had died in the exchange of fire with the Maoists.

    A shocked Radhelal rushed to the hospital where the bodies of the deceased personnel were brought. Holding his breath, he watched as the bodies were taken out of the ambulance.

    As the sixth body was taken out, he collapsed in tears — it was that of Deepak.

    “I am totally shattered and don’t know how to share the news with my family. I had last spoken to him on Holi,” the inconsolable father exclaimed. 

    Deepak joined the police in 2013 at the age of 23 years.