16 Army personnel booked for attacking police station in J&K’s Kupwara
Kupwara (J-K) (PTI): A case of attempt to murder and dacoity has been registered against three army lieutenant colonels and 13 others for their alleged involvement in a violent attack on the Kupwara police station, according to the FIR.
The incident on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday is said to have been triggered by the questioning of a Territorial Army jawan by the Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with an alleged drug case.
A group of armed and uniformed personnel from the 160 Territorial Army, accompanied by senior Indian Army officials, had stormed the police station, as seen in a video.
The Territorial Army is a military reserve force composed of part-time volunteers who provide support services to the Indian Army.
According to the FIR, the armed group led by lieutenant colonels Ankit Sood, Rajiv Chauhan and Nikhil forcibly entered the premises of the police station. They proceeded to launch a brutal assault on police personnel present there, using rifle butts and sticks and kicking them without any provocation, it stated.
The situation escalated further as the army personnel brandished their weapons, seized mobile-phones from the injured police officers and even abducted a police constable before fleeing the scene, the FIR stated.
The swift response of senior police officers helped rescue the targeted police personnel and initiate legal action against the perpetrators.
The FIR has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 307 (attempt to murder), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 147 (punishment for rioting).
The accused also face charges under sections 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 392 (punishment for robbery), 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person).
They have been also booked under the Arms Act, according to the FIR.
The investigation into the incident is being conducted by the Kupwara deputy superintendent of police. Authorities aim to uncover the full extent of the crime and bring the accused individuals to justice, officials said.
Srinagar-based defence spokesperson sought to downplay the incident and said the reports of altercation between police and army personnel and "beating up therein of police personnel are misfounded and incorrect".
"Minor differences between the police personnel and a Territorial Army unit on an operational matter have been amicably resolved," the spokesperson had said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Family-run burglary gang busted in Thane; 3 arrested, 2 minors detained
Thane (PTI): Two men and a teen have been arrested and their minor sons detained for allegedly carrying out a series of house break-ins and burglaries in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Sunday.
Earlier this week, the Mahatma Phule Chowk (MFC) police in Kalyan busted a family-run burglary ring in which the men scouted for locked houses and directed their sons to break in and steal valuables, a senior police official said.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kalyan) Ashok Honmane said that the police have arrested a 19-year-old man, two fathers and detained two minors, and recovered stolen gold ornaments worth Rs 21.6 lakh.
The matter came to light following a complaint lodged on May 8 in Kalyan West, following which a case of housebreaking and theft was subsequently registered, he said.
Acting on tip-offs, the police arrested Kailas Vilas Bhalerao (19), a resident of Mohane in Ambivali, on May 13, and detained two minors aged 14 and 15 years, the official said.
"Interrogation revealed that the fathers, Vilas Prakash Bhalerao (38) and Deepak Ashok Jadhav (40), used their daily jobs to recce houses in residential societies and would then pass on this specific information to their children," he said.
The arrested teen accused would target the houses along with the minors and decamp with cash and jewellery.
Investigations have revealed that the gang was involved in at least three other burglaries in the Kalyan area, the official said.
