OBJECTIONABLE PHOTO CASE - Laptop of actor’s hubby sent for test

Actor Sheena Sahabadi who acted in the film Tere Sang

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The crime branch has procured the mirror image of a laptop belonging to actor Sheena Sahabadi’s husband and has sent the computer for a forensic analysis. Sheena, who made her debut with the film ‘Tere Sang,’ two weeks ago lodged a complaint at the cyber police station in Bandra-Kurla Complex, alleging that someone uploaded her personal photos on a social networking site.

The actor told the police that she suspected her estranged husband Vishal Gore of being behind the act. Vishal is the son of retired assistant commissioner of police Ashok Gore.

“The crime branch has recorded Gore and Sheena’s statements. The laptop was seized and sent to a forensic science laboratory for an analysis. We are expecting its report in a day or two,’’ said crime branch chief Rakesh Maria. He added that their probe led them to Gore’s friend Tarun Advani. “We have questioned him too,’’ he said.

The police said there were several personal photographs of the actor and Gore, including some objectionable ones. According to the police, Sheena (19) and Vishal got married in October 2008, but the marriage did not last for more than two months. According to Sheena’s parents, in the past too, she has lodged police complaints against Vishal and his family for harassing her.

The Times of India, August 31, 2009

Mafia in state takes a beating under MCOCA

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) has been successful in curbing organised crime, if one goes by conviction figures. The stringent law, introduced in 1999, has achieved a conviction rate of 58% as compared to 25% under the IPC.

Of the 95 cases, where the courts have passed their verdicts, the state got convictions in 57 cases. After Maharashtra, the Act was also adopted by New Delhi and Tamil Nadu.

Prior to MCOCA, the prosecution agencies relied on Terrorism and Anti- Disruptive Activities Act (Tada) till it was repealed in 1995. Between 1995 and 1998, a total of 203 cases of shootout were reported to the police and in most, the underworld was found to be involved.

Soon after MCOCA was put in place in 1999, the number of shootouts fell to 40 from 93 in the previous year. The figures shrunk to 23 in the year 2000. Only 90 shootouts took place in the past nine years, the police say. “Criminals fear MCOCA as confession under this Act is treated as evidence. Moreover, the police secure their custody for a minimum period of 30 days as bail provisions are tough,’’ said crime branch chief Rakesh Maria.

Because of the designated courts, the trials begin within two years and are completed at the earliest. 209 members of the Dawood gang and 167 associates of gangster Chhota Rajan were booked under this law.

Former IPS officer-turnedlawyer Y P Singh said it is easy to procure permission under MCOCA for tapping suspicious phone calls and using them as evidence. “The higher conviction rate in MCOCA may not be a healthy sign. The draconian provisions not only ease the rules of evidence but are also inimical to the human rights of innocent persons who have to languish in jails for years,’’ said Singh.

Film financier Bharat Shah and director Nazim Rizvi, along with several others were arrested in 2000.This was the first high-profile MCOCA case.

CAUGHT IN CONTROVERSY
* Thirteen accused of the July 11, 2006 Mumbai train blast cases, 19 suspects of the Aurangabad arms haul case and nine SIMI suspects in the 2006 Malegaon blast case approached the Supreme Court against ATS saying MCOCA was not applicable to them.
* The ATS booked 11 persons belonging to Abhinav Bharat for their ‘alleged’ role in the 2008 Malegaon blast. The special court dropped the MCOCA charges from the case on July 31.
* The crime branch invoked MCOCA against businessman Mahendra Agarwal, saying he was part of the organised crime syndicate led by gangster Ravi Pujari and threatened a developer in a SRA project. The court dropped the charges

CRIME CHECK
Total cases since 1999 | 153
Total charge sheets | 135
Judgment delivered | 95 cases
Conviction secured | 57 cases
Acquittal | 38 cases

Arrests
Total held - 758
Dawood gang - 209
Chhota Rajan - 167
Arun Gawli - 43
Ashwin Naik - 13
Others - 327

The Times of India, August 31, 2009

Crime branch yet to decide on Hashmi case

Actor Emran Hashmi

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The city crime b r a n ch , probing the alleged discrimination against actor Emraan Hashmi in the purchase of a Bandra flat, is yet to decide whether to continue its investigation or close the case. The state human rights commission (SHRC) has said that it was not discrimination but a case of ‘misunderstanding’.

Emraan had a month ago ‘alleged’ that he was refused a NoC to buy a flat at Nibbana housing society in Pali Hill ‘allegedly’ because he was a Muslim. While a section of the society agreed with his ‘allegations,’ several Muslim film stars criticised Emraan’s statement saying Muslims are not discriminated against. This resulted in a stir and subsequently minister of state (home) Naseem Khan told crime branch chief Rakesh Maria to investigate the ‘alleged’ discrimination case.

“The crime branch personnel went to Emraan and the seller of the flat, asking them to give their statements. However, none of them have turned up for a statement yet,’’ said Maria. The matter was later taken to the SHRC. “We will be asking for a copy of the commission’s order to learn what it has found during the hearing,’’ said Maria. He said the SHRC has sent them a letter stating it was a case of misunderstanding between Emraan and the other party. “We are legally examining if it was a case of discrimination,’’ Maria said.

The crime branch is still in the process of obtaining legal opinion on whether it will be proper on their part to continue a probe in the case when SHRC has already delivered its verdict. “We don’t know if the SHRC has closed the case. We are yet to get and read the order copy,’’ he said.

The Times of India, August 31, 2009

Director files plaint against TV channels

Film director Anees Bazmee

Mateen Hafeez I TNN

Mumbai: Director of Singh is Kinng, Anees Bazmee, on Friday lodged a criminal defamation complaint against two city-based television channels for showing that he was hand-in-glove with the underworld.

The complaint was filed in Andheri court. Bazmee’s advocate, B R Tiwari, said that the two channels had aired a story on May 24 this year with the title “Bollywood me Vasooli’’ in which Bazmee was shown talking to three people. “The three people shown in the tape were actually Bazmee’s debtors. They had introduced themselves as share market investors and claimed they had good knowledge of shares,’’ said Tiwari.

According to the lawyer, Bazmee gave them a loan of Rs 3.5 crore on the condition that they will return the money within 30 days. When they did not pay within the stipulated time, Bazmee called them up and demanded his money back. “The debtors then issued 12 different cheques, but all of them bounced,’’ said Tiwari.

One Iqbal Attarwala called up Bazmee, claiming to be his childhood friend, said Tiwari. Attarwala, who was deported from the UAE in 2006, sought a meeting with Bazmee and the filmmaker agreed. Attarwala came to meet Bazmee along with the latter’s debtors. Attarwala had a hidden camera and shot the entire conversation, while Bazmee allegedly claimed to have contacts in high places, claimed the lawyer.

The Times of India, August 30, 2009

26/11 key witness disappears, returns

Times News Network
Mumbai: In a day of high drama, key witness Nooruddin Shaikh who deposed on Thursday in the 26/11 terror trial against the two Indian accused Faheem Ansari and Sabahuddin Ahmed failed to turn up on Friday for cross examination. He left home early morning and was only traced late at night. “Shaikh has been traced. He returned home at 9.30 pm. He had gone to his friend’s house and slept there the whole day. After breaking roza he returned home at night,’’ said joint polce commissioner and crime branch chief Rakesh Maria.
The non-appearance of the witness who had identified Faheem and Sabahuddin in court sent the police into a tizzy. The crime branch prepared three teams of seven policemen each to trace him and to find “if he was threatened or taken away,’’ said the police even as special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said it was a “a serious issue.’’

Special judge M L Tahaliani, too, said, “this is a serious matter.’’ Shaikh’s cross examination by Faheem and Sabahuddin’s lawyers was fixed for 11 am on Friday.

Nikam informed the court that crime branch officials had gone to the witness’ Goregaon house to fetch him but his wife said he had left home early morning, saying he had to go to court. Nikam said the identity and address of the witness was kept secret earlier, but was disclosed in court on Thursday.

The witness identified the accused and informed the court that he had met Faheem,
his “childhood friend’’ and Sabahuddin in Nepal last year and that they had in his presence discussed some maps of Mumbai locations. The prosecution case is that Faheem and Sabahuddin played a role in connection with the maps that helped the ten terrorists reach their targets.

Nikam told the court the police was on a look-out for Shaikh, whose testimony is crucial to the case. “We have have taken adequate measures to gaurd potential witnesses,’’ he said.

Before Shaikh was traced, Maria told mediapersons, “his non-availability for cross-examination would affect the prosecution case adversely. He is a very important witness who can nail the two accused.’’

Recounting his first meeting with the witness, Maria said Shaikh himself turned up at his office claiming that he was a childhood friend of Faheem and he had seen maps of the terror sites.

Meanwhile, family members of Shaikh, too had lodged a “missing’’ complaint with the police. Shaikh a driver, earned around Rs 6,000 a month and lives in Goregaon with his family.

Faheem and Sabahuddin have been termed the “local support’’ in the 26/11 terror attack. Allegedly trained by the Lashakr-e-Taiba, both were in the custody of Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force during the 26/11 case. They were later brought to Mumbai and arrested in this case.

Faheem aka Hammad Hasan, was first arrested in Uttar Pradesh on charges of being a LeT man in February 2008. Faheem was one of the six suspects arrested who were allegedly involved in an attack on a CRPF camp at Rampur on January 1, 2008.

The Times of India, August 29, 2009

ATS confirms LeT man’s links to 2006 arms haul

TERROR TRAIL: Yusuf alias Salim alias Aslam Kashmiri was arrested by New Delhi police on August 25, 2009 with two packets of sweets containing chemical explosives, 4 detonators and 2 timers

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: A two-member Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) team that questioned arrested Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative Salim alias Yusuf alias Aslam Kashmiri confirmed that they had established his role in the 2006 Aurangabad arms haul case in Maharashtra.
The Mumbai Crime Branch said it would also question Aslam in connection with the 26/11 investigation.

The Aurangabad arms haul mastermind, Zabihuddin Ansari alias Zaby, had managed to escape when the ATS was on his trail three years ago. According to ATS officials, Aslam Kashmiri, who was suspected to have smuggled some weapons into India and delivered them to Zaby, could be the same accused who is wanted in an ATS case in Maharashtra.

Aslam, during his interrogation, said he underwent training in a Pakistani camp two years ago and had met banned outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa’s (JuD) top leaders, including Zarar Shah and Zakiur-Rehman Lakhvi.

“We mentioned Aslam Kashmiri as a wanted accused in the arms haul charge sheet,’’ ATS chief and additional director-general of police Krish Pal Raghuvanshi said.

Aslam, who ATS officials said could be Aslam Kashmiri, was arrested in the capital by the New Delhi Police’s special cell on August 25. The special cell, Delhi’s anti-terror wing, claimed to have seized an Amritsar-to-Nanded railway ticket, two packets of sweets containing chemical explosives, four detonators and two timers from Aslam.

“It’s too early to say anything about his involvement in other cases,’’ said P N Aggrawal, joint commissioner of police, special cell. The special cell claimed that two of Aslam’s associates dodged the police and managed to escape on Tuesday.

“We are looking at all the angles to find out if Aslam could be brought to Mumbai for a detailed interrogation,’’ said ATS additional commissioner Param Bir Singh.

Mumbai Crime Branch’s joint commissioner Rakesh Maria said: “If he (Aslam) has met Zarar Shah and Lakhvi during his training in Pakistan, we will definitely question him as |the two Pakistanis are prime conspirators in our 26/11 case.’’

The Times of India, August 28, 2009

Lie tests for I rape suspects

Mateen Hafeez & V Narayan | TNN

Mumbai: The Bandra-Kurla Complex police, who are investigating the alleged rape of a 42-year-old woman by four businessmen in a parked car in the complex, will subject the four accused men to a polygraph test. This will be followed by the victim taking the same test at the forensic laboratory.

The woman, who is the mother of a 17-year-old boy, went to the Bandra-Kurla Complex police station on August 21 and stated that four persons—all of whom were known to her—had raped her on the back seat of a Tavera parked across from the Asian Heart Institute at the Bandra-Kurla Complex.

The woman said she was going to have dinner with the accused, but they stopped the car by the roadside and raped her one by one.

The investigators, however, appeared to have made up their mind right from day one that there were discrepancies in the victim’s allegations, because two of the four accused claimed that they were not even in the city at the time of the alleged rape.

If the police do put the woman through forensic tests, it would be the first time an alleged rape victim is subjected to such a procedure.

This is also among the rare cases in which the police have refused to reveal the identity or whereabouts of a rape victim to even the media.

A doctor who examined the victim said that there were no injury marks on her private parts. Experts, however, said that the absence of injuries on a rape victim may be inconclusive, given the possibility that she may have acted under coercion.

Police officials suggested the rape allegations could be a frame-up intended to malign the accused. They said the four accused had started constructing a residential complex in Bhuj in Gujarat, and wanted to erect statues of their parents there. But a Gujarat builder, identified as Gada, had filed a case against them which was later classified as “B summary’’, that is, it was false case filed with the intention to malign someone. “The four suspects say that Gada is now using the woman to wrongly frame them in a rape case,’’ said a senior police official.

The Times of India, August 28, 2009