Ranchi police seize 50 kg of elephant tusks

      Ranchi: The Ranchi police today seized four elephant tusks weighing 50 kg from poachers. They also arrested two persons during a sting operations with police officers posing as international buyers. The men are believed to be from a local criminal gang, which has been attacking pachyderms in forests near the capital city. Police say, the elephants lured by fresh crops, often flock villages during this season and the locals used to tip the gang about their whereabouts. "The local criminal gangs are involved in the poaching of elephants. The elephants often come into the villages and destroy the crops and sometimes even kill the locals. This time of the year they are more frequent," DSP Madhusudan Bari said.
- Nov 14, 2004

Prisoners in Agra receive spiritual discourse (Go to Top)

      Agra: Jail authorities in Agra recently organised a spiritual discourse for their inmates, hoping to bring about a change in the prisoners' way of life. Part of an ambitious prison reforms programme, the spiritual discourse by Ramesh Bhai Ojha, a self-proclaimed saint, was a huge hit among the inmates, many of whom said they found inspiration from his tales about erstwhile dacoits, murderers and cheats turning into benevolent and gentle human beings. "It gives us mental solace. We feel as if we are sitting in a temple, somewhere out from the jail," said Abhishekh, who is serving a life sentence for murder. Agra Jail Superintendent Shiv Prasad Yadav said that such events helped greatly improve the inmates' temperament and reduced brawls. "Prisoners keep demanding these types of programmes to be organised. Whenever any saint comes to the city, we usually invite them to organise such type of programme in jail as well," he said. The jail staff often faces an uphill task preventing jailbreaks, infights besides checking drug peddling, one of the most common and widespread problems in Indian prisons most of which are massively overcrowded and short staffed. Authorities have now introduced many innovations towards criminal rehabilitation and reform, which analysts say is proving to be more effective than punishment.
- Nov 13, 2004

Racket in expired foreign food in Aligarh (Go to Top)

       Aligarh: Aligarh Police have busted a racket of expired food items imported from countries like Argentina. The police has arrested three people. "From few sources we came to know that a few fake biscuits are been sold here, we investigated and found that there were a group of people who were doing this. We interrogated these accused and we seized few cartons of biscuits and chips. We have called food inspectors and we are still investigating the issue in depth," said police inspector S K Verma. "We came to know that on the eve of Diwali and Eid a lot of imported food stuffs are being sold in the town. We investigated and found the godown, which was full of imported eatables. The investigation is still on," said station house officer Vinod Goyal. The accused said that they did this due to money. " I had to do this because I needed money," said Bhanjit Singh, accused. The locals said that they had reported such incidents before, but the police has taken the action now. " My child purchased the biscuit packet and after eating it he fell ill. I took him to the doctor. I had reported this earlier but no action was taken," said Shaukat, Irfaan's father.
- Nov 12, 2004