Mumbai court convicts 9 for heist at businessman's house by posing as I-T officers
Mumbai (PTI): A court here has convicted nine people for committing a heist of Rs 1.65 crore at a businessman's house by posing as Income Tax officers and sentenced six of them to 10 years' imprisonment and three others to five-year jail term.
The crime was "serious in nature," Additional Sessions Judge, Dindoshi court, M I Lokwani said in the order passed on February 1.
The court pronounced the accused guilty of offences committed under Indian Penal Code sections for dacoity, trespassing and kidnapping.
As per the complaint registered by the businessman, 20 days prior to the incident, one of his acquaintances came to his house in Charkop area here and gave him two bags to keep for a few days.
The complainant agreed to keep those bags in his house due to the good relationship between them. He immediately locked the bags in a separate cupboard in his house.
The fact that the bags were kept in the cupboard was known only to the complainant's wife (except him), the prosecution said.
It further said that on June 2, 2015, a group of persons, posing as Income Tax officers, came to the businessman's house, confiscated mobile phones and found the two bags, which contained jewellery worth Rs 40 lakh, Rs 1 crore in cash, and Indian and international wrist watches worth Rs 25 lakh, following their 35-minute search.
They locked the complainant's family members in a room and directed the complainant to accompany them to the I-T office in Worli, the prosecution said.
They took him and the two bags in a car and drove for a while, but eventually dropped him at a distance and directed him to come to the office in the afternoon, it added.
The prosecution examined 21 witnesses, including the complainant and his family, during the course of trial.
The court in its order said the overall acts of the accused sufficiently make it clear that they have committed dacoity in furtherance of their criminal conspiracy and with a pre-planned motive, they committed house trespass in the complainant's house.
"In the incident, they impersonate a public servant - Income Tax officer. They committed wrongful confinement of the wife and children of the complainant by locking the door from inside and later on, from outside of the house," the court added.
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At least 19 killed as methane leak causes explosion at eastern Iran coal mine, state TV reports
Tehran (AP/PTI): A methane leak sparked an explosion at a coal mine in eastern Iran, killing at least 19 people and injuring another 17, Iranian state television reported Sunday.
The report said the deaths happened at a coal mine in Tabas, some 540 kilometers (335 miles) southeast of the capital, Tehran.
Authorities were sending emergency personnel to the area after the blast late Saturday, it said. Around 70 people had been working there at the time of the blast.
Oil-producing Iran is also rich in a variety of minerals. Iran annually consumes some 3.5 million tons of coal but only extracts about 1.8 million tons from its mines per year. The rest is imported, often consumed in the country's steel mills.
This is not the first disaster to strike Iran's mining industry. In 2013, 11 workers were killed in two separate mining incidents. In 2009, 20 workers were killed in several incidents. In 2017, a coal mine explosion killed at least 42 people.
Lax safety standards and inadequate emergency services in mining areas are often blamed for the fatalities.
