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Tuesday 12 June 2012

A year of J Dey's murder

 Investigations into the murder case of MiD DAY journalist J Dey began just a few hours after his killing, when sleuths began combing the scene of crime in Powai for clues. In the days that followed the murder, they scoured Dey’s email account, his phone records, interrogated hundreds of acquaintances, eyewitnesses, informants and operators. They gathered CCTV footage from the store outside which Dey had been slain, and obtained sketches of suspects based on eyewitness accounts.

A fortnight later, they arrested seven men who were scattered across the country — all had been directly involved in the shooting. Senior Inspector Arun Chavan, who was in charge of the property cell at the time, acquired the initial clues for these busts. Chavan said, “Through our informer network, we were told that these men had gone missing after the shooting. After verifying if they were indeed absconding, we probed further and traced their location.”

Three accused were found hiding in Rameswaram, another two in Karnataka, and two more in Sion. The primary arrested accused — Rohit Thangappan alias Satish Kalia — hailed from Thiruvananthapuram. He was one of the men picked up from Rameswaram. Kalia allegedly used a .32 Czech-made revolver to fire the five bullets that felled Dey. Arun Dhake, another accused, piloted the bike, on which Kalia rode pillion. Four other arrested accused — Sachin Gaikwad, Nilesh Shelge alias Babloo, Mangesh Agawane and Abhijeet Shinde — are natives of Maharashtra.

A year of J Dey's murder: twists and turns so far

The seventh arrested accused was Anil Waghmode, whose contribution to the operation was to recce all the spots that Dey frequented, including areas near his home in Ghatkopar, and MiD DAY’s Parel office. Interrogating them, cops picked up some more names — underworld don Chhota Rajan’s aide Paulson Joseph had supplied the group with international SIM cards, from which Rajan provided them instructions. He had also provided them with finances for the killing. It was also learnt that Rajan had provided his contract killers Dey’s photographs and licence plate number via Skype, after obtaining them from senior journalist and another accused in the murder case, Jigna Vora.

The ninth link yielded by interrogations was that of Deepak Sisodiya, a Nainital-based weapons supplier. The next name to crop up was of builder-bookie Vinod Asrani alias Vinod Chembur, another of Rajan’s aides, who had allegedly physically identified Dey for Kalia, at the Uma beer bar in Chembur, not long before the murder.

Friend-turned-foe

Days after the shooting, Rajan gave a handful of interviews to various news channels, claiming that he regretted having masterminded Dey’s killing. He named Vora as his ‘instigator,’ and alleged that she had provided Dey’s licence plate number and photographs to Rajan. Later, the Crime Branch, acting on information received from Chembur unit’s senior inspector Shripad Kale, tapped the phone of Asrani’s relative Manoj. In a recorded conversation, Rajan was heard lamenting his role in the murder of Dey, and blaming Vora for instigating him.

Realising that the police were closing in on her, Vora began systematically destroying evidence, getting rid of her mobile phones from which she had called Rajan numerous times. Vora also planted a story about UK-based Iqbal Mirchi’s possible involvement in Dey’s murder, allegedly to mislead investigators. On November 25, Vora was arrested under various sections of IPC including murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence, besides stringent provisions of MCOCA and the Arms Act. Crime Branch sources said Vora had spoken to Rajan over phone quite a few times before the crime.

Candlelight vigil

In a bid to pay homage to slain MiD DAY journalist J Dey on his first death anniversary, The Horizon, a non-government organisation, along with some eminent Powai residents, will organise a candlelight vigil in Hiranandani Gardens on June 11. The event will be held between 6-8 pm at the very spot where Dey was shot dead by four armed assailants.

Timeline

June 6-8, 2011: The shooters recce different locations in the city frequented by Dey

June 7: Vinod Asrani identifies Dey for Satish Kalia at the Uma beer bar. Meanwhile, Paulson Joseph meets Jigna Vora and informs her of Rajan’s plans

June 9: Jigna Vora leaves Mumbai and heads to Sikkim for a family holiday.

June 11: Dey is shot five times at Hiranandani.

The Delta family of a 32-year-old mother shot to death during a trip to India is hailing a life-sentence handed to her husband in Hoshiarpur, India.

Manjit Badyal (L) was sentenced to life imprisonment in India for the contract killing of his wife, Kuldeep Badyal (R) in 2009, when she was shot dead on her way to a Sikh temple in northeast Punjab. Indian police told Kuldeep's cousin Badyal planned to profit from a life insurance policy on Kuldeep, and return to Vancouver to marry a mistress.
 

Manjit Badyal (L) was sentenced to life imprisonment in India for the contract killing of his wife, Kuldeep Badyal (R) in 2009, when she was shot dead on her way to a Sikh temple in northeast Punjab. Indian police told Kuldeep's cousin Badyal planned to profit from a life insurance policy on Kuldeep, and return to Vancouver to marry a mistress.

Photograph by: Submitted photo , For The Province

The Delta family of a 32-year-old mother shot to death during a trip to India is hailing a life-sentence handed to her husband in Hoshiarpur, India.

In March 2009 police in India announced the arrest of Vancouver truck driver Manjit Singh Badyal, on suspicion of hiring contract killers to murder his wife, Kuldeep Kaur Badyal. The couple had been in India for several months, when the wife was shot in the chest at close range as she was going to visit a Sikh temple in the northeast Punjab. She died on the spot.

“We are shocked and deeply saddened by the heinous murder of our beloved sister, daughter, and niece Kuldeep,” Kuldeep’s brother Amandeep Bal said at the time. “She was a devoted wife and loving mother of two young children.”

In an interview Saturday, the victim’s uncle Gurmeet Bahia of Delta told The Province the family has been informed by officials in Hoshiarpur that last week session court judge JS Bhinder sentenced Badyal to life in prison.

Court details have not yet been logged on the district’s online legal database. Sentencing documents are being mailed to interested parties in Canada, the family says.

“We are very happy with the life sentence,” Gurmeet Bahia said. “She won’t be coming back, but he was punished for what he did.”

The victim’s cousin, Ravinder Bahia, said that police told the family an alleged conspiracy involved Badyal’s plan to profit from a life insurance policy on his wife, and return to Vancouver to marry a mistress.

“He had put a life insurance policy (reported to be $400,000) on her one week before leaving for India in January (2009),” Ravinder Bahia said.

Following Badyal’s arrest in 2009, Indian newspapers reported on a growing trend of contract killings involving Indo-Canadians from the Punjab.

The Vancouver-based South Asian Post reported at least two dozen contract hits involving Indian migrants had occurred since 2007, mostly in Punjab’s Doaba belt where many Indo-Canadians come from.

Quoting Indian investigators, the paper reported that culprits believe they can get away with crimes arranged in India for several reasons. Poor Indian policemen often are paid to cover up evidence or even play a role in hits, according to the South Asian Post. And extraditing suspects from Canada to face justice in India is an extremely difficult process.

Gurpreet Singh, a Vancouver-based Radio India commentator, applauded reports of the Badyal sentence and recent developments in the Jassi Sidhu case.

In 2000 Sidhu, a 25-year-old Maple Ridge beautician, was murdered in Punjab after she went against her family’s wishes and secretly married a poor Indian man. Ever since police in India have been trying to extradite her mother and uncle, alleged conspirators in her slaying.

“Some people come to Canada and get rich, and then they think they have the right to hire contract killers in India,” Singh said. “That is what happened in Jassi’s case. They hired people that were working for the police.”

In January, Malkit Kaur Sidhu, 63, and Surjit Singh Badesha, 67, both of Maple Ridge, were arrested under the extradition act based on a request by India. The pair were recently denied bail in B.C. Supreme Court, pending an extradition

hearing.

“Now that we’ve seen some movements in these cases, this might send a strong message,” Singh said.

Singh said in context, contract killings are rare in the South Asian community. But the root problem of marital discord and spousal abuse is far too common.

“Community leaders have to sit down and find out why some of these cases go so far,” Singh said. “We are still living in that primitive age, those old time customs.”



Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Vancouver+truck+driver+sentenced+life+killing+wife/6760599/story.html#ixzz1xadGm8mB

shooting a cop dead is now legal in the state of Indiana.

Governor Mitch Daniels, a Republican, has authorized changes to a 2006 legislation that legalizes the use of deadly force on a public servant — including an officer of the law — in cases of “unlawful intrusion.” Proponents of both the Second and Fourth Amendments — those that allow for the ownership of firearms and the security against unlawful searches, respectively — are celebrating the update by saying it ensures that residents are protected from authorities that abuse the powers of the badge. Others, however, fear that the alleged threat of a police state emergence will be replaced by an all-out warzone in Indiana. Under the latest changes of the so-called Castle Doctrine, state lawmakers agree “people have a right to defend themselves and third parties from physical harm and crime.” Rather than excluding officers of the law, however, any public servant is now subject to be met with deadly force if they unlawfully enter private property without clear justification. “In enacting this section, the general assembly finds and declares that it is the policy of this state to recognize the unique character of a citizen's home and to ensure that a citizen feels secure in his or her own home against unlawful intrusion by another individual or a public servant,” reads the legislation. Although critics have been quick to condemn the law for opening the door for assaults on police officers, supporters say that it is necessary to implement the ideals brought by America’s forefathers. Especially, argue some, since the Indiana Supreme Court almost eliminated the Fourth Amendment entirely last year. During the 2011 case of Barnes v. State of Indiana, the court ruled that a man who assaulted an officer dispatched to his house had broken the law before there was “no right to reasonably resist unlawful entry by police officers.” In turn, the National Rifle Association lobbied for an amendment to the Castle Doctrine to ensure that residents were protected from officers that abuse the law to grant themselves entry into private space. “There are bad legislators,” the law’s author, State Senator R. Michael Young (R) tells Bloomberg News. “There are bad clergy, bad doctors, bad teachers, and it’s these officers that we’re concerned about that when they act outside their scope and duty that the individual ought to have a right to protect themselves.” Governor Daniels agrees with the senator in a statement offered through his office, and notes that the law is only being established to cover rare incidents of police abuse that can escape the system without reprimand for officers or other persons that break the law to gain entry. “In the real world, there will almost never be a situation in which these extremely narrow conditions are met,” Daniels says. “This law is not an invitation to use violence or force against law enforcement officers.” Officers in Indiana aren’t necessarily on the same page, though. “If I pull over a car and I walk up to it and the guy shoots me, he’s going to say, ‘Well, he was trying to illegally enter my property,’” Sergeant Joseph Hubbard tells Bloomberg. “Somebody is going get away with killing a cop because of this law.” “It’s just a recipe for disaster,” Indiana State Fraternal Order of Police President Tim Downs adds. “It just puts a bounty on our heads.”

Thursday 7 June 2012

Trincomalee murder over illicit love affair

Two suspects were arrested for the Killing of  Eswaradasan Keniswaran of Wairwan Kovil St. Palapettu, Trincomalee. The victim was hacked to death on April 18, 2012 at Aiyakarni by unidentified persons. The CID had taken over the investigations into  the death and had arrested a pilot and another contract killer. According to the Police the Pilot was in an illicit love affair with the victims wife and together with the wife had paid 1750 punds to the contract killer for the murder of the man. The CID and the Police had conducted its inquiries based entirely on scientific evidence since there were no eyewitness accounts of the murder, the Police said.

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Did a German Hells Angels leader order a contract killing?

Investigators who view the biker gang as a criminal organization feel vindicated by the statements of a star witness, whose testimony has sparked a massive police investigation. It may ultimately put the existence of the organization at risk. It's easy to reach the biker on his cell phone, which is surprising, given his reputation and celebrity status -- and the fact that quite a few police investigators view him as the head of a criminal organization. Of course Frank Hanebuth, 47, a former boxer, local celebrity and president of the "Hannover Charter" of the Hells Angels biker organization, would prefer to say nothing. He would much rather allow the myths surrounding this men's society to speak for themselves -- the clothing, the militaristic patches, the intimidating symbols. But silence is no longer an option, not since 5 a.m. on May 24, when members of a German GSG-9 special forces unit roped down from a helicopter above his fortress-like house, shot his Anatolian sheepdog, handcuffed Hanebuth and, during the ensuing raid, seized two laptops, a handful of mobile phones and a few decorative rifles. And silence certainly isn't an option since a star witness told a German court last Thursday that Hanebuth hired him to murder a troublesome rival in the northern German city of Kiel. On the phone, the biker boss calls the claims made by the witness, former biker Steffen R., nothing but fantasy. He is still audibly upset about the police raid on his property, the death of his dog and the fact "that my 11-year-old son had to see it all." In contrast, he coolly rejects the murder-for-hire accusation, saying that he doesn't even know Steffen R. or Tekin Biçer, the alleged Turkish-born murder victim. And what about the claim made by the star witness that as a reward for the murder, a Hells Angel was allowed in Hamburg to establish his own charter, the term the organization uses to describe their local groups? "It's all nonsense," says Hanebuth. There was never a contract killing, nor were any such orders issued in Kiel. "I'm the president of Hannover, and that's all," he says. The alleged murder was used as a pretext, says Hanebuth, but the real goal was to "make accidental discoveries to support an effort to ban the organization." In truth, what is at stake at the moment is not just Frank Hanebuth, the colorful owner of a security company, a real-estate management company and two brothels, but the very existence of the Hells Angels in Germany. Its will depend on whether the star witness, a man with a criminal past, told the truth. Breaking the Code of Silence Steffen R., 40, accused of procuring, extortion and assault -- charges he overwhelmingly denies -- complied with the bikers' code of silence and said nothing during his eight months in pretrial detention. But in mid-February R., the former leader of "Legion 81," a Hells Angels auxiliary group, started talking. He revealed details on the biker gang's illegal business dealings, about prostitution, drugs and protection money -- and about alleged contract killings. The ex-convict from the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt was questioned about 12 times. He told investigators about a second contract killing that Hanebuth had allegedly approved, although it was not mentioned in court last week. According to R.'s statements, Hanebuth had given the "green light" to kill the leader of the Tigers biker gang, a man named Hakan. R. claimed that Hanebuth had said that it was to be done in such a way as "not to attract a lot of attention." Three Hells Angels members were then given orders to spy on Hakan. However, Steffen R. could not say why the murder plan was not carried out. Hanebuth also characterizes this accusation as "complete nonsense." The star witness's extensive testimony led to the massive police strike against the Hell Angels on May 24. In a major operation, some 1,200 officers raided bars, brothels and apartments in northern Germany. On the outskirts of Kiel, experts used heavy equipment to search a warehouse where, according to R., the body of Tekin Biçer, who had disappeared, had been buried in the concrete foundation. The public prosecutor's office is conducting about 200 investigations against 69 defendants. So far, no insider has come clean to the extent that R. did. His statements sharpen the authorities' focus on the Hells Angels, and they support the theories of investigative authorities, if they are indeed true. According to those theories, the bikers form a hierarchically structured organization not unlike the mafia. For years, Germany's Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) has noticed that bikers are increasingly involved in cases of organized crime. They now control the red-light districts in many cities. And in places where they are not yet in control, they use brutality, and weapons like machetes, axes and firearms, to expand their influence. According to BKA Vice President Jürgen Stock, the Hells Angels show "a high potential for violence and brutal clashes, even in public spaces." The police have regularly found pistols, hand grenades and explosives during searches. 'Unsettling Characteristics' An internal BKA report finds that the four largest German biker clubs -- the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Outlaws and Gremium -- count more than 3,500 members. The gangs try to cover up their criminal dealings, say the investigators, with supposedly clean companies, such as security companies, bars and brothels. Security companies, in particular, are often used in protection rackets, say the report's authors. The bikers like to portray themselves publicly as tough guys with soft hearts. Hanebuth, for example, has been a guest at gentleman's evenings hosted by Hannover celebrity attorney Götz von Fromberg, parties attended by local notables like Carsten Maschmeyer, Michael Frenzel and former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Cultivating ties with politicians and business leaders is part of the concept, while donations to social causes are a helpful public relations tool. The Bandidos, for example, handed a check to a pediatric cancer organization in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, while the Hells Angels have donated money to organizations supporting Alzheimer patients. BKA Vice President Stock calls this pure camouflage, saying: "These are extremely unsettling characteristics of organized crime." Investigators have also noticed a "massive pressure to expand" into Southern Europe among some Hells Angels groups. According to the European police agency Europol, there are efforts underway on the so-called Balkan route, a classic path for heroin coming into Central Europe, to start new groups in countries like Croatia, Serbia, Albania and Turkey. The EU authorities believe that the bulk of the profits from the drug trade are deposited in Swiss banks. Europol has been gathering information about bikers, which it calls "outlaw motorcycle gangs," for more than 10 years. Officials say that biker gangs count their largest membership in Germany. According to Europol, 64 percent of all bikers have criminal records. "In almost every house search, the police find weapons and drugs," reports an official at Europol headquarters in The Hague. Europol's conclusions coincide with the investigations by Berlin authorities, which recently lead to the banning of the "Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Berlin City." According to the official order banning the club, anyone who got in the way of the bikers' business dealings was "eliminated through attempts at intimidation or, if necessary, with violence that led to serious injuries and even death." Leaks from Authorities According to the State Office of Criminal Investigation (LKA), the authorities could have -- and should have -- taken action against Kadir P., the future head of the gang, as long ago as 2008. A source at the LKA says that a bill to issue a ban on the biker gang already existed at the time, but it never made it past the internal administration of the city-state's senate. Hells Angels members claim that they have known about the senate's preparations for a ban since February. The fact that they were told in advance about the timing of a raid in Berlin last week, so that police ended up raiding empty premises, was the high point of an apparently long-standing, productive relationship between the bikers and corrupt officials. The circle of suspects is large. There are two special commissions at the LKA that handle biker crime, but a leak in the administration or judiciary also cannot be ruled out. The chumminess between biker gangs and the police is also glaringly evident elsewhere. Some police officers are apparently very attracted to the motorcycle gangs, with their rituals and uniforms, their insignias and macho behavior. In 2010, authorities in the western city of Essen investigated an officer with the criminal investigation department who had allegedly given the Bandidos information from his office computer. That same year, five officers were suspended in Frankfurt, including a 50-year-old first senior commissioner with the LKA, because they had allegedly sent internal information to the Hells Angels. Two defendants were even accused of dealing in drugs. In another case in Berlin, the police found a note during a search that read: "You don't have to kick down the door. It's open." According to star witness Steffen R., three officials in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein -- one each from the police, the prison system and the Kiel city administration -- helped the Hells Angels with their business dealings. State Interior Minister Klaus Schlie is outraged over the "lengths that the bikers went to infiltrate government structures." Central Investigation Needed Schlie was the first German cabinet minister in many years to introduce a motion in 2010 to ban the Bandidos and the Hells Angels. Some of his counterparts in other German states took a dim view of the dynamic, down-to-earth and fearless Schlie. But a conference of state interior ministers last Thursday, Schlie noted with satisfaction that there was a new receptiveness among his counterparts. Impressed by the statements of the star witness, a number of state interior ministers are now thinking about changing their tune. Schlie is even taking things a step further, saying: "If suspicions are borne out in the current trials that the bikers constitute a criminal network, and that certain individuals are assuming leadership positions in these criminal structures, it will be time to think about a nationwide ban." Experts are increasingly skeptical that the fight against the lawless gangs can be waged successfully, in light of the intricacies of state bureaucracies. The chairman of the Association of German Police Officers (BDK), André Schulz, is convinced that a nationwide phenomenon like biker gangs also needs to be "centrally investigated." For Schulz, the most recent accusations against Frank Hanebuth show that the local or regional charters are not nearly as independent as claimed, and that a concerted intervention by federal security agencies could make sense. Just how powerful Hanebuth really is, and how far his interest reaches, became clear in May 2010. In the law office of his friend and attorney, Götz von Fromberg, Hanebuth made a big fuss about sealing a nationwide peace treaty with Bandidos leader Peter Maczollek. The handshake between sworn enemies was binding for all Hells Angels in Germany, and it also sealed the agreement not to establish a new charter for a year. The search for the body that was allegedly embedded in concrete will continue this week. Interior Minister Schlie refuses to back down, and he is convinced that the star witness is reliable. In one detail, however, his investigators have had to explain to him that Steffen R. was apparently wrong. The star witness had testified that another biker was allowed to form his own charter in Poland to help solve the suspected murder of Tekin Biçer. When the biker gang celebrated its newest charter with much fanfare on April 10, 2010, Tekin Biçer had not disappeared yet. That happened 20 days later.Also attending the party were two bikers who still accuse each other of lying today: Steffen R. and Frank Hanebuth.

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