India

Ramgarh (Jharkhand), Dec 8 (PTI) A local court has sentenced a 25-year-old man to 10-years rigorous imprisonment for raping a 16-year-old girl in Ramgarh district two years ago.

Additional District Judge Sanjay Prasad Singh had convicted Ranglal Mahto under the Special Pocso Act on November 30 for raping the girl, Additional Public Prosecutor, S K Shukla said.

The judge imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on Mahto while announcing the quantum of punishment on Saturday.

Ahmedabad, Dec 8 (PTI) Ahmedabad crime branch on Sunday arrested two persons for the alleged gang-rape of a 14 -year-old girl in Vadodara, police said.

The accused, identified as Kishan Mathasuriya (28) and Jaso Solanki (21), were arrested from Tarsali locality of Vadodara where they lived, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), Ahmedabad, Ajay Tomar said.

"The duo was arrested from Tarsali locality of Vadodara. Ahmedabad crime branch worked in co-ordination with the Vadodara city police to crack the case," Tomar told reporters.

Agartala, Dec 8 (PTI) A 17-year old girl was allegedly set on fire and killed by her fiance and his mother in South Tripura district, after her parents failed to cough up a dowry of Rs 50,000, a police officer said on Sunday.

The teenager, who suffered 90 per cent burns, was early on Saturday admitted to GP Pant Hospital here, where she succumbed to her injuries, he said.

Hyderabad, Dec 8 (PTI) An investigative committee of the NHRC on Sunday continued its inquiry for the second day into the alleged encounter in which all four accused in the rape and murder of a young veterinarian were shot dead by police.

The family members of the accused were brought to the city from Narayanpet district and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team, as part of its inquiry, is likely to record their statements, police sources said.

"The NHRC team is continuing its inquiry," a senior police official told PTI.

NEW DELHI (AP) — At least 43 people died on Sunday in a devastating fire that broke out in a building in a crowded grains market area in central New Delhi, police said.

Dr. Kishore Singh of a government-run hospital said the victims were brought to the hospital by rescuers. Another 16 people were being treated for burns or smoke inhalation. They are in stable condition, Singh said.

The cause of the fire, which erupted around 5:30 a.m., is being investigated.

Palakkad, Dec 7 (PTI) An accused in the Walayar rape and death case of two minor dalit sisters was on Saturday thrashed by a group of people following an altercation, police said.

M Madhu, the third accused in the case, who was acquitted recently by a lower court, allegedly got into an argument with the group near his house, the police said.

Rajkot, Dec 7 (PTI) A man was held from Chotila in Gujarat's Surendranagar district for allegedly raping a woman on the pretext of offering her a job after assuming a fake identity online and blackmailing her, police said on Saturday.

Wayanad, Dec 7 (PTI) Citing the increasing number of rape cases in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the international community was ridiculing the country and India was now known as the 'rape capital' of the world.

Winding up a three-day tour of his Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress MP also lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said his (Modi's) entire political career was based on hatred and division and violence.

Jodhpur, Dec 7 (PTI) In the backdrop of the Hyderabad rape-murder incident and gunning down of the four accused in an alleged encounter, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Saturday said justice can never be instant and loses its character when it becomes revenge.

At the same time, he admitted that the recent events in the country have sparked off an old debate with new vigour, where there is no doubt that the criminal justice system must reconsider its position and attitude towards the time it takes to dispose of a case.

Nagpur, Dec 6 (PTI) Maharashtra's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has given a clean chit to NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar in the multi-crore Vidarbha irrigation scam.

The ACB, in its affidavit submitted in the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, has ruled out Pawar's involvement in cases of alleged irregularities in approval and commissioning of irrigation projects in the state.

The affidavit was submitted on November 27, a day before the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of the Shiv Sena -NCP-Congress was sworn-in the state on November 28.