Firing outside Salman Khan's home: MCOCA court remands three accused to police custody till May 8
Mumbai (PTI): A special court here on Monday remanded to police custody till May 8 three accused arrested in connection with the firing at Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's residence in Bandra.
Special MCOCA judge A M Patil remanded the accused, Vicky Gupta (24), Sagar Pal (21) and Anuj Thapan (32), to police custody and sent Sonu Kumar Chander Bishnoi (37) to judicial custody on medical grounds.
The police on Saturday invoked provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) against alleged shooters Gupta and Pal as well as Bishnoi and Thapan, who are accused of supplying two firearms and bullets, and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his brother Anmol, shown as wanted accused.
The accused were earlier booked under the relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.
In the proceedings held on camera, the court sent Gupta, Pal and Thapan to police custody till May 8 and remanded Bishnoi to judicial custody.
Public prosecutor Jaisingh Desai sought the custody of the accused, citing that the police needed to conduct a detailed investigation to unearth the conspiracy.
Police had registered the first information report (FIR) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 307 (attempt to murder) after two motorbike-borne men fired at Galaxy Apartment in Bandra, Khan's residence, in the early hours of April 14.
Gupta and Pal, both residents of Bihar, were apprehended from Kutch in neighbouring Gujarat on April 16, while Sonu Bishnoi and Thapan were held from Punjab on April 25.
Anmol Bishnoi, who stays in Canada and travels to the USA, had claimed responsibility for the firing through a Facebook post, though its IP address was traced to Portugal, as per police.
Lawrence Bishnoi, accused of several crimes, is lodged in a jail in Sabarmati in Gujarat.
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Manipur violence accounted for 97% of displacements in South Asia in 2023: Report
New Delhi (PTI): Conflict and violence triggered 69,000 displacements in South Asia in 2023, with Manipur violence alone accounting for 67,000, according to a new report.
The report by the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) termed it the highest number of displacements triggered by conflict and violence in India since 2018.
On May 3, 2023, a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in Manipur's hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. The march led to ethnic clashes between the Meitei and the Kuki communities, ultimately claiming more than 200 lives.
The Manipur High Court had in March last year called for recommendations to be sent to the central government to recognise the Meitei community as a "scheduled tribe," an official status designed to protect minorities from marginalisation.
The call was met with resistance from other local scheduled tribes, including the Kukis.
Land disputes were also an underlying driver of the tensions.
"Protests turned violent in Churachandpur district on May 3, and the violence spread to other districts, including Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Tengnupal, and Kangpokipi, triggering around 67,000 displacements," the report said.
More than three-quarters of the movements took place within Manipur, but almost a fifth were to the neighbouring state of Mizoram and smaller numbers to Nagaland and Assam.
As the violence escalated, the central government imposed curfews, shut down the internet, and dispatched security forces.
It also set up relief camps and established a peace committee for Manipur, chaired by the state governor, but the initiative was hampered by disagreements about its composition.
All of those displaced by the violence were still living in internal displacement at the end of the year, the IDMC noted.
The IDMC said around 5.3 million people were living in internal displacement as a result of conflict and violence across South Asia at the end of 2023, 80 per cent of whom were in Afghanistan.
