Statue of communist leader razed in Tripura
Agartala, July 26 : The statue of Tripura's iconic communist leader Baidyanath Majumder was knocked down by miscreants in northern Tripura late on Wednesday night, the police said.
"We came to know that the statue of Baidyanath Majumder was demolished Thursday early morning. We are looking for the culprits. None has been arrested," Unakoti district police chief Lucky Chauhan told IANS over phone from district headquarters Kailashahar.
Former Education and Law Minister Tapan Chakraborty, a senior leader of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), blamed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists.
"We have complained to the police in writing. The police know the criminals. Yet they did nothing to save the statue of the most popular mass leader," Chakraborty said.
He said that the statue was installed in 2012 after the death of Majumder in June 2011. He was 88.
Majumder, who was elected to the state assembly five times between 1977 and 1998, was the member of the undivided Communist Party of India.
He began his political career in 1942 and was one of the founding members of the communist movement in Tripura. He was deputy chief minister of the state from 1993 to 1998.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
