A spiritual poseur with supposed Indian upbringing is convicted of rape in Britain. In a shocking hit-and-run incident on the streets of New Delhi, four labourers were killed and eight injured. In Mumbai, a college student accuses another of raping her at the point of a knife. A SDM is booked for beating man to death in Lucknow. Three men ram their car to a stationary bus in Mohali.Two die, one is struggling for life. Read on.
London: A cult leader, who claims to have been raised in an Indian ashram and goes by the name of Mohan Singh, has been jailed after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault in Britain.
Michael Lyons, 52, alias Mohan Singh, posed as a spiritual guru to woo his victims by convincing them he was a healer, Daily Express reported on Tuesday.
He led a lavish lifestyle. He owned flats in London, Los Angeles and Miami and drove Bentleys and Jaguars. He even claimed he was the Dalai Lama's osteopath.
Lyons was brought to trial after an investigation involving Scotland Yard and the FBI.
Police said Monday that Lyon's cult was run like a "military community" and the followers paid thousands every year.
Eleven women from Britain, the US and New Zealand gave evidence against Jamaica-born Lyons at London's Wood Green Crown Court.
Detective Sergeant Nick Giles said: "There were a lot of allegations of inappropriate conduct, assault and rape within this organisation. It was run like a military community. We have liaised with the FBI and they are aware of all this.
"He perhaps has hundreds of followers here and in the US."
Lyons, who claimed he was raised in an Indian ashram, lured women in using a harem of female devotees who vouched for him, the court was told.
He was found guilty of raping an aspiring actress in June 2002.
The victim had gone a Belsize Park flat in north London after a work colleague praised Lyons as "a spiritual, maybe psychic person".
He spread fumes from a frying pan around her and mumbled mantras before trying to massage her. The cult guru then raped her.
"He (Lyons) manoeuvred my neck and it was so violent I thought he had broken my neck. I was completely stunned," the victim was quoted as saying.
He took her into his bedroom and raped her, though she pleaded with him to stop.
Another woman was assaulted in January 2005.
She was under the impression that Lyons was going to help her with a chiropractic treatment.
Lyons, who was clothed in crimson and yellow robes, carried out some neck pulls on her at a spa in west London before she went with him in a Bentley back to a flat where he began massaging her legs. He then assaulted her.
The distressed woman said: "He did an incantation from the Sanskrit or it could have been mumbo-jumbo for all I know. I was bewildered and angry."
Judge Nicholas Browne QC imposed a life-long strict sexual offences prevention order on Lyons forbidding him to touch any female in public or in private whom he has known for less than six months.
He was jailed for seven years for rape and three years for sexual assault to run consecutively.
Next Page: Four workers were rammed to death by a speeding car
Speeding car mows down four men in South Delhi
New Delhi: Four persons were killed and eight suffered injuries after a speeding car rammed into them on the Safdarjung Airport flyover in the early hours of Monday. The police received a call at 1.15 am, informing them about the accident.
Eyewitnesses said that a Delhi Police barricade was placed just ahead of the spot where the labourers were working.
The car first ran into them, then hit a tractor and another barricade placed on the opposite side of the construction site," police said. No safety measures -- warning boards or lights -- were in place, he said.
The four deceased were identified as Vikas (25), Lal Babu (26), Abhinanda (16) and Jogender (21); while the injured were identified as Man Shekhar (23), Lallan (18), Shailesh (35) and Pinky (23) -- all migrants.
Police said the car -- DL3C BE 4414 -- was on its way from INA to Nizamuddin. "There were three people in the car at the time of the accident. The driver, Shahid Khan, is absconding.
The others were handed over to the police by locals," police said.
One of the arrested has been identified as Alam Khan while the other is a minor, both Shahid's cousins. "We have released the minor, but Alam has been being detained and is being questioned," said H G S Dhaliwal, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South Delhi.
Dhaliwal said Shahid fled the spot after the accident. "We have lodged a case under Sections 304A and 279 at the Lodhi Colony police station," Dhaliwal added.
According to reports, at 9 pm on Sunday, Shahid called his cousins for a drive. They drove to Gurgaon in Alam's Santro to buy liquor. "When they met, they were already drunk.
They bought five more bottles of beer from Gurgaon, which they reportedly consumed," police said.
They returned home, met Shahid's uncle Imran and went to a farmhouse in Chattarpur. Sometime after midnight, Shahid said he was hungry, and the three of them reportedly left in his uncle's car for Nizamuddin. The car is registered in the name of New Metal Copper Works in Sadar Bazaar and belongs to Shahid's uncle Imran.
Bottles of beer were spotted inside the car, which was parked at the police station. "We have called in the FSL forensics team from Rohini to take the samples," said Dhaliwal. Police said blood samples of Alam were taken to ascertain if he was inebriated.
"The labourers were working near the central verge and had placed material on the road. The driver could not see the barricade and hit the men working there," police said.
A worker, Ranjan, said: "The car came flying towards the barricade. Before the workers could see it, it rammed into them. It then hit nine others and came to a halt after hitting a tractor." "The first patient was brought in at 1.37 am by the police. Within half-anhour, five more patients were admitted.
Three were declared dead, while the other three had received severe injuries on their legs," said Nirmal Thakur, Media Co-ordinator at Jai Prakash.
Thakur said: "Neither the contractor nor the civic agency has taken responsibility for their treatment." Shahid's father, Isab, is a wellknown property dealer in Mewar, Rajasthan. Shahid is said to be pursuing MBBS from Russia. The other two accused are from Mehrauli.
A few minutes before the accident, an Innova had rammed into the board at the same spot, said an eyewitness but no one was hurt.
Next Page: Student accuses a friend of rape in a locked room
Student says college friend locked, raped her in his home
Mumbai: A college student has accused another of raping her at the point of a knife. Both go to the same college in Chembur.
Pankaj Mishra, 20, who is doing a management course, was arrested after the girl, 17 and a mass media student, alleged he had raped her at his home last week when she had visited him for help in a study project.
"We have arrested Pankaj Mishra, student of Bachelor of Management Studies (BMS). The girl student lodged a complaint with us on Sunday, alleging he had offered to help her with a project and called her to his home in Chembur Camp on July 21, locked her in, raped her, and finally let her go the next morning. According to the girl, Mishra's parents were away," said BB Rathod, senior inspector, Chembur police station.
According to the girl's complaint, she had met Mishra on Facebook a month earlier and became friends after learning that they were studying in the same college. They starting chatting on the phone and met after their college reopened.
"The girl would discuss her studies with Mishra. He allegedly offered to help her with a project and invited her home on July 20. That day, they chatted, surfed the Net and watched television. Mishra allegedly asked her to come back the next day," Rathod said.
She arrived on July 21 and worked with him for a few hours. According to her complaint, she was about to leave after studying but Mishra refused to let her go.
"When she protested, he threatened her with a knife, locked her in a room and went out to get food. He allegedly raped her at night and let her go the next morning. According to the girl, her mobile phone's battery had died out and she could not call anyone for help," Rathod said.
The police have booked Mishra for rape, criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement. Mishra's father reportedly works in the same college and the police are probing where the parents of both students were on those two dates.
They have seized the knife Mishra allegedly threatened the girl with.
College officials said they would take action only if the investigation throws up any evidence to back up the allegations.
Next Page: An official booked for a man's death
'Assaulted' by Basti SDM, man dies
Lucknow: A man died after the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Basti allegedly assaulted him in his office on Monday. A case of culpable homicide was registered against SDM Santosh Kumar Vaish at the City Kotwali.
The locals and a group of lawyers, however, staged a sit-in with the body outside the SDM's office, demanding his arrest. The protest was on till late in the evening.
Basti SP Modak Rajesh D Rao, however, said the man died of heart failure outside the SDM's office and the allegation of assault was false. Range DIG Abhimanyu Tripathi said: "The exact cause of death will be known after the postmortem. But we have registered a case against the SDM under IPC Sections of 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) following on a complaint given by the victim's son." The complaint alleged that Vaish assaulted Shailendra Pandey (55) inside his office following an argument and this led to Pandey's death, he said.
Pandey's son Narendra said his motorcycle was seized a week ago during a drive to check documents of vehicles. As the vehicle could only be released by the SDM's office, he and his father had been visiting the office for four days, but nobody attended to their request. On Monday morning, Narendra said, they again went to the office and were allowed to speak to Vaish around 1 pm. His father requested the official for the release of the vehicle, but the SDM asked him to pay a hefty penalty.
According to Narendra, his father then pleaded with Vaish to reduce the penalty and even fell at his feet. But Vaish got angry, slapped Pandey and pushed him.
Pandey's head hit the wall. He fell unconscious and died before he could be taken to a hospital, Narendra alleged.
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary demanded a compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the kin of the deceased and the arrest of the SDM.
Next Page: A car runs into bus killing two, injuring one
2 killed, one hurt, as car runs into bus
Mohali: Two persons were killed and another seriously injured when the car they were travelling in rammed a stationary bus on the Mohali-Landran-Sirhind Road at Mazat village in Mohali on Monday. Among the killed was a New York University (NYU) student, while the injured person is a medical student.
Dhan Bahadur, a Nepalese national in his mid-30s, died on the spot, while Ajit Singh, a PhD scholar in his late 20s, succumbed to his injuries on way to Fortis Hospital. Bahadur worked at a private clinic in Khanna near Ludhiana. Ajit's cousin, Balcharan Singh (21) is struggling for his life in the hospital, Investigating Officer (IO) Bharat Bhushan told Newsline.
Ajit, who lived in California (USA), had come here last month to take up a two-month course in Punjabi, required for his PhD in History.
Balcharan is a final-year student of MBBS at Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital in Banur, said his father Dr H S Bajwa. The accident occurred around 7.40 am.
Balcharan was driving with Ajit sitting on the front seat; Bahadur, their domestic help, was on the back seat. Balcharan did not notice a Punjab Roadways bus, which was standing on the roadside to drop the passengers at a bus stop in Mazat, and rammed the bus from behind, the IO said.
The impact of the collision was so strong that almost the entire car went beneath the bus and it took much effort to pull the trapped victims out from inside the car.
Dr Bajwa said Ajit's institute was situated in Sector 51, and Balcharan and Bahadur were going from Khanna to the Sector to drop Ajit. His class was scheduled to begin at 9 am.
The police have booked bus driver Nasib Singh for dangerous obstruction of public way and negligent driving causing deaths and injuries, under Sections 283, 337, 338 and 304-A of the IPC. Although the accused fled the spot, the police have impounded the bus, which was on way from Sirhind to Chandigarh via Mohali.
Next page: Kingfisher employee arrested for thrashing passengers
KF staffer beats up guests, held
Ranchi: An employee of Kingfisher Airlines was arrested on charges of thrashing passengers who were agitating over the delay of a Mumbai-bound flight following a bird hit here, police said Tuesday.
Krishna Yadav was arrested late Monday from the Birsa Munda airport after a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged by a passenger against three employees of the airlines. The two other employees are absconding.
"We have arrested Yadav. The passengers were demanding facilities from Kingfisher employees after the plane was grounded due to bird hit. They were thrashed," Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajiv Ranjan told reporters.
The Kingfisher plane was hit by a bird near the Ranchi airport Monday night. The flight got delayed, leading to heated arguments between the passengers and the Kingfisher employees.
