A crook among us
The investigation of Ambindent Marketing Pvt Ltd which has committed a fraud of hundreds of crores, the mask of many so called ‘prestigious’ persons is coming off. The enormity of this crime is unravelling with the arrest of BJP supporter and former minister who was also a BJP insider, Janardhan Reddy. National leaders of BJP are trying hard to disassociate themselves from Reddy as much as possible. Ambident is not a crime committed by a single person. This is an operation that has a massive team work behind it.
There is a cheat even among those who cheat on others. The same mindset that prompts them to cheat people, makes one fall for such trap as well. This has been proved beyond doubt in Ambident case. We cannot simply hold the kingpin of the chain responsible and wash our hands off the rest of the case or even by just blaming Reddy for the whole mess. Names of media persons are also being heard in connection with this case. Apart from giving ‘breaking news’ or ‘investigation report’ TV channels have also served much more than their share of news to the people.
Some television channels have been known to blackmail a few influential and rich people, a few gullible ones too, to extract money from them. Ambident incident has unmasked this criminal side of the channels who preach honesty to the world but are involved in dark businesses themselves. The Ambident case is trying to project those who recklessly invested black money earned through real estate transactions into this company, as victims of the fraud. There is a culprit in them, who wants to earn easy money. Aren’t we forgetting that? All these people would hesitate a lot if they were asked to invest into factories or businesses run by the most hardworking farmers of this country. They’d never use their money to bail out anyone in trouble. This very selfishness of wanting to earn easy money has got them trapped.
The investors are not some normal innocent persons. There are officers and many others who enjoy great respect in the society. This company has used their greed to make money for its investors. Along with this, the brains behind the company also know the greed in the media. Company and its people like Reddy need goodwill of people across the spectrum to protect them in case they get caught. That there are politicians behind this is beyond doubt. Moreover, how would Reddy get Rs 20 crore? How can he operate without the ‘safety’ assured by his political bosses sitting in Delhi who assured Reddy to give a word on protecting the men behind the company?
Political parties which used the money supplied by Reddy are party to Ambident without a doubt. Not just that, even voters who took the money from Reddy to cast votes in favour of his candidate are also beneficiaries of this scam. So before blaming someone for this, we need to see how big this chain of social liability gets. There is not much of a difference between Reddy and TV channels heads who were part of this fraud network. Those blackmailers in the guise of media persons are more dangerous than Reddy because they are not identified as criminals yet. Though they preach all nobility to people, deep inside they’d be hand in glove with the criminals. When the issue of their morality raises, one would wonder how dark their souls are to even speak about this. Finally, the benefit of Ponzi schemes such as Ambident are shared by both Reddy types and the media types. If the latter category is party to this, they should be arrested immediately.
If they are let off, number of people who assume they can loot people and run away with money and enjoy media protection, will increase manifold. Hundreds of companies come up everyday with money-doubling Ponzi schemes. Even police officers have invested in this and have silently suffered when the money was all gone. Easy methods to make money always land people in trouble some day or the other. People invest in them without even thinking and then cry victims when the fly-by-night companies disappear into thin air with their money. Instead of investing into such fake companies and losing money, people should come together to make co-operatives and invest into businesses that aid better socio-economic growth. That way their returns are assured and even society benefits at large.
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Kerala court sentences man to life imprisonment for murder of doctor at taluk hospital
Kollam (Kerala) (PTI): A teacher convicted in the sensational murder of Dr Vandana Das inside a hospital here was sentenced to life term on Saturday, and the prosecution said it will move an appeal seeking death penalty for the accused. The victim's family also batted for "maximum punishment".
Dr Das was brutally killed inside a taluk hospital in May 2023 by G Sandeep.
The Kollam Additional District and Sessions Court sentenced Sandeep to a total of 30 years for various offences under the then Indian Penal Code (IPC) and said that after he serves that period, his life imprisonment for Das' murder will commence, SPP Prathap G Padickal told reporters.
The detailed judgement is awaited.
The special public prosecutor said that he will recommend to the prosecution to file an appeal seeking enhancement of the life imprisonment to death penalty.
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He said that the prosecution had sought the maximum punishment for Sandeep, "but the court probably felt it was not a rarest-of-rare case" and that is why death penalty was not given.
The victim's father said that the verdict has come as a relief for the family, but he cannot authoritatively say whether his daughter has got justice.
He indicated his dissatisfaction with the punishment, saying that steps will be taken to seek its enhancement after discussions with the public prosecutor.
Dr Das' mother said that the family can only wish for the maximum punishment and it was up to the court to decide what sentence should be given.
She said that the family will go in appeal, but declined to comment on whether her daughter got justice.
She tearfully said that she wants the convict to suffer the same pain that her daughter underwent "as he stabbed her 27 times".
The court on March 17 had convicted Sandeep for various offences under the IPC, including murder, destruction of evidence and wrongful restraint.
It had also held him guilty under the provisions of the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of violence and damage to property) Act 2012.
Sandeep was brought to the taluk hospital by the police for medical treatment during the small hours of May 10, 2023 and he went on a sudden attacking spree using a pair of surgical scissors kept in the room where his leg injury was being dressed.
A school teacher by profession, he had initially attacked the police officers and a private person who had accompanied him to the hospital and then turned on the young Dr Das, who could not escape to safety.
She was stabbed several times and later succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram where she was rushed following the attack.
Dr Das was a native of the Kaduthuruthy area of Kottayam district and the only child of her parents.
She was a house surgeon at Azeezia Medical College Hospital and was working at the Kottarakkara taluk hospital as part of her training.
Sandeep had called the emergency number 112, claiming that his life was in danger. When local police located him, he was standing close by his home, surrounded by local residents and his relatives, and had a wound on his leg following an alleged quarrel.
He was then taken to the hospital for dressing the wound.
