Crime file: Body of 1-day-old girl found in canal

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Body of 1-day-old girl found in canal

Hyderabad: A one day old baby was found dead in a canal at Lingampally. A mason working at a site adjacent to the canal informed police who registered a case. They suspect the baby to have been abandoned as it was a girl.
 
According to Jaffer, assistant sub-inspector of police, Chandanagar, late on Saturday evening, the body was found in a nala in the Lingampally area by a labourer who alerted his co-workers. Police officials received information and reached the spot later. 
 
“We found that the baby could have been thrown in the nala a short time after her birth; she was not even a day old,” the inspector said. Police said that the body was not decomposed maybe, because it was abandoned a few hours ago.
 
The body was shifted to the Gandhi Hospital. A case under section 318 (concealment of birth by secret disposal of dead body) of the IPC has been registered and investigated. The accused is yet to be traced, police officials said.
 
Next: Man chops off woman’s ears, tongue for gold
 
Man chops off woman’s ears, tongue for gold
 
K. Umashanker | DC
 
Tirupati: An unidentified man pounced on a woman in Vemulakota Palli village, B.Kothakota mandal, Madanapalle division, cut off her ears and tongue, and fled with her earrings early on Sunday morning.
 
Prameela, 40, was walking from her house to the open fields in the morning when it was still dark, when suddenly she was attacked by the man who tried to pull off her earrings. As Prameela shouted for help, the attacker cut off both her ears with a sharp knife. Presumably in order to silence her, he also cut off her tongue before fleeing. 
 
There were other women with Prameela who ran helter-skelter. A profusely bleeding Prameela managed to get home and fell unconscious. She was rushed to the Government Hospital at Madanapalle, where her condition is said to be stable.
 
The B. Kothakota police have started an investigation. Some women told the police that a week ago they saw a stranger moving in the fields during the early hours.
 
Next: Minor boy, mom arrested for killing mason
 
Minor boy, mom arrested for killing mason
 
Khammam: In a shocking incident that came to light late on Sunday, the police found the body of a mason, Pallapu Sriramulu, 42, of Pandillapalli village, who was allegedly killed and buried on Thursday night.
 
Police exhumed the body of Sriramulu from a dried up tank near Pandillapalli village under Chintakani mandal in Khammam district and arrested victim’s minor son and wife. It is learnt that Sriramulu used to harass his wife on one pretext or other.
 
Unable to bear this, Sriramulu’s 16-year-old son, clubbed his father to death in a fit of anger on Thursday night. To hush up the incident, the boy, along with his mother, buried the body in the tank the same night.
 
Shepherds, who noticed foul smell emanating from the spot where the body was buried, alerted the police. Police arrested both the mother and the boy. Sub-inspector N. Narsimha Rao registered a case and sent the body to government hospital in Khammam for post-mortem.
 
Next: Driver abuses HIV+ children
 

Driver abuses HIV+ children
 

lasya Nadimpally | DC
 
Hyderabad: An NGO in Uppal, intended to serve as a home for HIV-positive children, has turned unsafe for them: The NGO’s driver is accused of sexually harassing some of the girls in the home.
 
The children were sent to the home after the Anantha Network of HIV-Positive People learnt that the living conditions and comforts it offered were above average.
 
“One of the girls who was assaulted was admitted at the NGO by her mother. I started getting calls from four children there saying that the driver was behaving weirdly with them,” said a source from the Anantha Network.
 
On getting such complaints, the Anantha Network went to the National Child Rights Protection Forum, which asked for a report. Later, a case was filed in the Nampally court by the child’s mother.
“The accused Hafeez had allegedly been assaulting the children for a while. The case came to light after two years,” said an official from the AP AIDS Control Society.
 
The NGO, however, claimed that no such incident had occurred, and got another girl to vouch for this in court. However, the source from Anantha Network accused the NGO of displacing the children after the case had been registered. Furthermore, the mother of the victim has moved to a different place, according to the source. Meanwhile, the case is pending in court.
 
Next: Agent took tourists for a ride
 
Agent took tourists for a ride
 
 
The travel agent arrested by sleuths from Chennai central crime branch had many high-profile clients in the city. The agent was held for allegedly cheating over 350 clients of Rs 4 crore on the pretext of arranging their summer holiday trips in foreign countries last May. 
 
“Many retired bureaucrats, senior executives of well-known companies and lawyers fell for his sweet talk and paid in lakhs to book trips to foreign destinations,” an officer noted.
 
The police began the probe based on a complaint from an executive of a construction major, who had paid Rs 1.65 lakh for a holiday trip to Bangkok. 
 
“So far, we have received over 350 complaints. There are lawyers, tahsildars, police officials and executives of well-known private firms in the list of his victims who were taken for a ride by Gopi alias Gopalakrishnan, 44, a resident of Korukkupet,” a police officer said.
 
He was running a well-furnished office — ‘Just Fly’ — in Nungambakkam. Gopi, a graduate, had been running the travel agency for the last three years. The first two years he had managed to run it well due to which there were many repeat customers this year for him. 
 
“Believing him, some of his costumers had made some investments in his business as well, besides referring his service to their friends,” the police official elaborated. The police believe that there could be more victims. 
 
“The number could be high. Many government officials who were cheated had not come forward to lodge a complaint because they may not have obtained the mandatory no-objection certificate from the department for the foreign trip,” the official added. When she came to know of his fraudulent ways, Gopi’s wife had divorced him seven years back.
 

Next: Woman kills self over dowry harassment 
Woman kills self over dowry harassment 
 

Bengaluru: Unable to withstand her husband’s harassment for dowry, a 26-year-old newlywed hanged herself at her residence in Bagalur police limits on Saturday night.  
 
The deceased, Sneha, was a homemaker and resident of Maralukunte. Sneha married to Prakash, an employee of a private company, just 25 days ago. 
 
The police said Prakash and his family were constantly harassing Sneha for dowry after marriage. 
 
When she could not tolerate the torture, she hanged herself from the ceiling fan in her room on Saturday night when Prakash was at work and his family members were in the living room. 
 
The incident came to light at 11pm when Prakash returned home. Sneha’s parents were informed and the police were alerted. 

 
Next: ‘Fake cop’ gang cons 7, escapes with jewellery
 
‘Fake cop’ gang cons 7, escapes with jewellery
 

Bengaluru: In the second series of attention-diversion cases this month, seven people, most of them senior citizens, were duped of their gold chains in a span of seven hours beginning early on Sunday.
 
The modus operandi involved in all the seven cases was the same and the police suspect that two groups from the same gang were behind the incidents.
 
8.30 am: 55-year-old Murthy, a retiree and resident of Malleswaram, was walking near Bashyam Circle in Vyalikaval when he was stopped by two men dressed as policemen. 
 
They told Murthy that a murder had just occurred in the area and that it was unsafe for him to walk around with valuables. 
 
They offered to wrap his 40 gm gold chain in a piece of paper to “keep it safe”. But when Murthy reached home and checked the packet, it was empty. He rushed to the police station and lodged a complaint.
 
9.15 am: Sagai Mercy (56), a resident of Bommasandra, had got down from a bus to cross the road on her way to a church near BEL Circle in Jalahalli when a man on a two-wheeler dressed as a cop told Sagai the same story about a murder and warned her to remove her 40 gm gold chain.
 
It was only when Sagai got home that she realised she had been duped, and lodged a complaint with the Jalahalli police.
 
9.25 am: 55-year-old Rani, an employee of Mysore Paper Mills and a resident of Malleswaram 18th Cross, was duped similarly of her 100 gm gold chain on Triveni Road in Yeshwanthpur police limits when she was on her way to her relative’s house. A case was registered with the local police.     
 
9.35 am: Just ten minutes later, a 75-year-old elderly woman was conned by two criminals. Kamalamma was reportedly on her way home from a supermarket on Pipeline road when she was approached by two fake policemen between Malleswaram 17 and 18 crosses. They took away her 75 gm gold necklace. The Malleswaram police have filed a complaint.
 
10..55 am: After a lull of nearly an hour and twenty minutes, the thieves moved from Bengaluru’s north division to the east division, where a bike-borne duo dressed as policemen duped 70-year-old Saraswathi Bai of her 50 gm gold chain.
 
The victim, a resident of J.C. Nagar, had finished a blood test and was waiting alone at the bus stand on M.M. Road when she was approached and conned. She lodged a complaint with the Pulakeshinagar police.
 
12 noon:  The last incident took place in Indiranagar. Meena (45) was standing in front of Vijaya Bank on CMH road when a ‘policeman’ walked up to her and cautioned her against wearing valuables. 
 
Telling her about a murder that had supposedly taken place in the area, he trapped her into removing her 45 gm gold chain and made off with it after handing her an empty paper packet. The Indiranagar police have registered a case.
 
3.30 pm: In what appeared to be their last victim for Sunday, 70-year-old Malathi was conned of her gold chain weighing 40 gm when two fake policemen approached her near Pai Vijay convention hall in Jayanagar, saying the inspector was advising people to be careful. Citing a murder in the area, the fake cops asked her to remove her chain and keep it in her bag. 
 
Malathi walked a little distance and realised she had been conned when she could not find the chain. The Jayanagar police were informed and a case registered. 
 
The police suspect that these incidents are the handiwork of a single gang. A thorough inquiry has been launched.