Cops want DNA samples of kin of gangster in Thai jail

Mateen Hafeez / TNN





Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has asked the Andheri metropolitan magistrate court for permission to collect DNA samples of the relatives of a wanted gangster, so that it can prove his Indian nationality to a Thai court and get him extradited to India.

 

Muzakkir Husain aka Munna Jhingada, a D-gang member, is serving time in a Thai prison for the murder attempt on Chhota Rajan and for the killing of Rajan's aide Rohit Verma in 2000. While India has been trying to get Munna extradited here, Pakistan has been opposing its attempts. Islamabad claims he is a Pakistani citizen.

Police officers say Munna is a goldmine of info on the Dgang, which could explain the challenges to his return to India. They say Munna's family home is in Jogeshwari. He entered the underworld in 1996 and soon became a hitman for Chhota Shakeel. He was arrested in 1997. Following his release, he fled the country.

On Shakeel's orders, the police say, Munna led a team of five men from Pakistan to Thailand to kill Rajan in 2000. Rajan survived the gun attack, but his aide Verma died. When the Thai police arrested Munna, he told them he was a Pakistani national and gave his name as Mohammed Salem. About 10 years later, Islamabad claimed Salem was a Pakistani citizen and should be extradited there. To support its claim, Pakistan submitted “forged papers“, including a Pakistani passport.

Indian authorities say they had long ago provided Thailand Munna's personal details, photos, fingerprints and list of crimes. Based on the info, the Thai government had indicated to them that it will extradite him to India after his jail term.

Bangkok had communicated this to CBI through Interpol in 2012; the same year a Mumbai police team had visited Bangkok. It is to bolster their assertion of Munna's Indian nationality that cops recently asked to collect his kin's DNA samples.

“The court order is awaited,“ said joint commissioner of police (crime) Sadanand Date.

The Times of India, June 11, 2014

Tip us off, cops tell citizens

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai: The city police on Monday evening conducted a meeting with trustees of several mosques, temples, college students and cyber experts at Birla Matoshree Hall, to avoid any untoward incident on the controversial posts on Facebook. The police said citizens must alert them about rumours that may lead to a law and order problem.

 Krishna Prakash, additional commissioner of police (south region), said they had spoken to several students, met mohalla committee members and those looking after security at shopping malls. “Some groups are behind the posts. They want to create a communal divide.

People should help the police and we should not allow antisocial elements to create law and order problems,” he said.

Mumbai’s cyber crime investigation cell is probing the case of objectionable posts on the social networking site about Chhatrapati Shivaji, Dr B R Ambedkar and the Shiv Sena chief, the late Bal Thackeray. The Nanded police had stated last week that those who ‘like’ such posts would be booked under the Information Technology Act and under the Code of Criminal Procedure. A person could face three to five years in jail if convicted under Section 66(A) of the IT Act (punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc).

Cases against unidentified persons have been filed in Mumbai, Nerul, Pune, Nashik, Yeola, Aurangabad, Satara and Sangli. Three pages on Facebook have been blocked.





The Times of India, June 10, 2014

Those behind anti-social posts identified

Chittaranjan Tembhekar & Mateen Hafeez TNN

 

 

 



 

Teams Sent To Make Arrests, Says R R Patil

 

The Maharashtra government has identified those responsible for posting morphed photographs of Maratha warrior Shivaji and Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray on social media. 

Home minister R R Patil said on Monday that the case had been cracked but did not reveal the identity of those responsible. The state had sent teams to arrest them, he added.

A crime branch officer told TOI separately that during investigations, the origin of the posts has been found to be a north Indian state in one of the cases. “We are sending our team to nab the culprits,” he said, adding that the culprit seems to be an expert in spoofing servers, and that the posts were posted to Facebook using proxy servers in three countries, including Russia and Georgia.

“Anti-social elements are posting inflammatory posts to stoke hatred, bitterness and disharmony between sects,” he said, and warned that action would be taken not only against those who posted photos but also against those who ‘liked’,shared and forwarded them.

He denied that the Centre had sought and then rejected a special report on the killing of Pune techie Mohsin Shaikh from the state. He said the state was exploring the need for legislation to prevent the misuse of social media, such as ‘posting’, ‘sharing’, and ‘liking’ communally provocative issues and photos to avoid such communal tension. Maharashtra ranks first in the country in terms of use of social media.

Patil said reports on major incidents are always sent to the Centre to addressqueries raised at the national level.“There are no special directives from the Centre regarding the murder. There is also no controversy between the state and Centre over the issue. It is very clear that the youth was murdered, for which Hindu Rashtra Sena workers had been arrested,” he said, pointing out that Mohsin was “innocent” and had nothing to do with the posts.

Patil admitted that Mohsin died in the riots and justified the CM’s Rs 5 lakh compensation, saying the victim was one of the family’s prime breadwinners and was well-educated. “The state has enacted a law wherein the government can award compensation to any victim of violence, such as an attack or rape,” he added. “Those who ‘like’ and forward objectionable content are siding with the culprits, and in few days, you will see stringent action against them,” he said.

3 held in Aurangabad

Three persons have been arrested for allegedly posting objectionable material and pictures about a religion on a social networking site and a messaging platform, the police said in Aurangabad on Monday. The arrests were made in two cases. Santosh Yadav (37) and Sainath Yadav (21) were apprehended on Saturday after they allegedly uploading the objectionable material. AGENCIES 

The Times of India, June 10, 2014

ATS to remove 13/7 suspects' posters

Mateen Hafeez TNN

Mumbai :The state anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has decided to remove all the posters containing the photographs of four 13/7 blasts suspects, including Indian Mujahideen's chief, Yasin Bhatkal.  The posters were put up across the state after a series Each suspect carried Rs 10L reward of blasts. The ATS had earlier announced a total payout of Rs 40 lakh for information lading to their arrest. “All the four suspects have been arrested and we don't think there is a necessity to retain the posters any longer. We will initiate steps to get the posters removed,“ said a senior ATS officer. Bhatkal alone is suspected to have been involved in more than 14 terror attacks. “Based on investigation, we decided to put up the posters. Our intension was not to malign anyone,“ the officer added. The posters contained photographs of Bhatkal, his aides Tahseen Akhtar, Asadullah Akhtar alias Tabrez and Waqqas, a Pakistani national. The ATS had issued these posters in January 2013. Each suspect carried a reward of Rs 10 lakh. “We had printed 2.5 lakh posters and pamphlets and distributed them at various places, including railway stations, bus stops, shopping malls, eateries, cinema halls, schools and places of worship. Besides, the other state police also took our posters and reprinted them,“ said another ATS officer.

The Times of India,June 9, 2014

3 held with Rs 4L fake currency

Mateen Hafeez

Mumbai: 



The Pydhonie police on Wednesday arrested three persons and seized fake Indian currency amounting to Rs 3.8 lakh from them near Masjid railway station. The case is likely to be transferred to the National Investigation Agency.
“We got information that three people—Alam Shaikh (28), Ataru Rehman Shaikh (38) and Gulam Shaikh (28)—will come near Masjid station with fake currency to deliver to their contact in Mumbai. We caughtthem,” said D M Kuprekar, assistant inspector of police. “All notes are in the denomination of Rs 1,000. The arrested, who were used as the “courier”, stay in a Vakola slum. One of the accused was given Rs 15,000 for expenses. 

We could not nab the person who was to take the delivery as he did not turn up,” said an officer.
The notes are of high quality and have over 98% features that are similar to real currency. All the accused originally belong to Jharkhand.

The Times of India, June 6, 2014

Test for jailers: Re-exam held after duo's arrest

Mateen Hafeez/ TNN

Mumbai: The state prison au thorities recently conducted a re-examination of a paper that jailors need to clear for promotion and increment. This was necessitated in the wake of the arrest of Arthur Road jail superintendent Vasudev Barkule and his deputy Pradip Pathrikar for accepting Rs 35,000 as bribe from a jailer so that he could clear the exam despite his poor performance. “The examination was conducted last week at Pune. Barkule and Pathrikar were exam paper assessment moderators. The decision for a re-examination was taken to avoid any suspicion, allegation and keeping it fair and transparent,“ said a jail official in Mumbai The Times of India, June 5, 2014

Cops to crack whip on those who 'like' offensive posts

Mateen Hafeez

Mumbai: In an attempt to contain protests over objectionable posts on a social networking site about Chhatrapati Shivaji, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray , the Maharashtra police have decided to take action even against those who `like' the controversial posts.  Those who `like' such posts will be booked under the Information Technology Act and under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Nanded police have said. A person could face three to five years in jail if convicted under Section 66 (a) of the IT Act (punishment for sending offensive messages through communication service, etc), applied in this case. The police are still to trace the Internet Protocol address of the person (yet unidentified) who posted the material online but are not ruling out the possibility that a proxy server may have been used. Cases against unidentified persons have been filed in Mumbai, Nerul, Pune, Nashik, Yeola, Aurangabad, Satara and Sangli. Cops have also applied Section 295A IPC which deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings.

The Times of India, June 3, 2014