India retain women's U19 T20 WC title after beating SA by 9 wickets in final
Kuala Lumpur (PTI): India thrashed South Africa by nine wickets in the final to win the women's U-19 T20 World Cup title for a second time in a row here on Sunday.
Chasing a paltry target of 83, India completed the job with 52 balls to spare as they reached 84 for one in 11.2 overs.
Gongadi Trisha top-scored for India with an unbeaten 44 off 33 balls while Sanika Chalke remained not out on 26 off 22 balls.
Earlier, Trisha (3/15) led the Indian bowlers during a clinical performance to bowl South Africa out for 82 in 20 overs.
Vaishnavi Sharma (2/23), Aayushi Shukla (2/9) and Parunika Sisodia (2/6) also chipped in with the ball for India.
Mieke van Voorst (23) top-scored for South Africa who suffered a batting collapse after opting to take first strike. Only four of their batters could score in double-digit figures, while four of them could not open their accounts.
India had won the title in the inaugural edition in 2023 after beating England by seven wickets in the final.
Brief Scores:
South Africa: 82 all out in 20 overs (Mieke van Voorst 23; Gongadi Trisha 3/15).
India: 84 for 1 in 11.2 overs (Gongadi Trisha 44 not out, Sanika Chalke 26 not out).
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
