Kerala: Prank on Facebook goes wrong as three lives, including newborn baby lost
Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 4: A prank among relatives went horribly wrong leading to the loss of three lives, one of them a newborn baby, Kerala police's probe into the abandoning of the infant has revealed.
In January this year, a newborn baby boy -- just a few hours old -- was found in a heap of dry leaves in Kollam district of Kerala and the infant later died in hospital.
Police investigation revealed that one Reshma, resident of Kalluvathukkal village in Kollam, was the mother of the infant and she was arrested in June.
During interrogation, Reshma said she had left her newborn to die in order to elope with a man -- Anandu -- whom she had befriended on Facebook but never met in person, police said.
According to police, she had not disclosed that she was pregnant to her husband, Vishnu, nor to anyone else in her family.
During their investigation to find out the woman's Facebook friend, police called two of her relatives -- Arya, her sister-in-law and Greeshma, her niece -- for questioning.
Police had summoned them as a mobile sim card in Arya's name was being used by Reshma to operate one of her multiple Facebook accounts.
However, in a strange twist of events, both women allegedly committed suicide by jumping into a river.
Thereafter, police questioned a male friend of Greeshma who revealed that she had told him that she and Arya created the Facebook account of Anandu to play a prank on Reshma, a senior police officer said.
Police also found that Arya had told her mother-in-law about the prank before she allegedly committed suicide.
Arya's husband later told the media that he was thankful to the police for finding out why his wife had taken that extreme step.
He said he had no idea about the prank.
Reshma's husband, who was abroad and came back after hearing of her arrest, told the media that had anyone told him what was going on, he could have put a stop to it.
Presently, Reshma is in judicial custody in a quarantine centre as she tested positive for COVID-19, police said and added that it has moved an application for her custody and the same is yet to come up for hearing.
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In matters concerning liberty of citizens, every single day counts: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Every single day counts in matters concerning the liberty of citizens, the Supreme Court said on Friday while asking the Delhi High Court to decide on the regular bail plea of a businessman in a corruption case related to the now scrapped Delhi excise policy.
The petitioner's regular bail application has been heard by the high court on 40 occasions and now the matter has been adjourned to July 8, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta was told by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for businessman Amandeep Singh Dhall.
"This cannot be that after 40 hearings, you don't decide the regular bail," he said.
The bench noted it has been informed that his regular bail plea was filed in July last year.
"In matters concerning the liberty of citizens, every single day counts. Keeping the matter of regular bail pending after almost 11 months deprives the petitioner of his liberty," the bench said.
"We request the high court to decide the bail application prior to the closure for summer vacations," it said.
Summer vacations in the high court start from June 3. May 31 will be the last working day.
Dhall is an accused in separate cases linked to the excise policy which are being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The ED's money laundering case stems from a CBI FIR.
A trial court had earlier dismissed his regular bail plea in a corruption case lodged by the CBI.
According to the probe agencies, Dhall allegedly conspired with other accused and was "actively" involved in the formulation of the liquor policy and facilitating kickbacks to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its recoupment by the "South Group" through various means.
According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to licence holders.
The Delhi government implemented the policy on November 17, 2021 and scrapped it at the end of September 2022 amid allegations of corruption.
