UP: Dalit student forced to shave off moustache by 'upper caste' men
Noida, Jul 24: A Dalit youth was allegedly made to shave off his moustache by a group of "upper-caste" men in western Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur district, with police saying an FIR has been lodged against the accused.
Police have also booked the barber who shaved off the moustache of the Dalit youth, Rajat Kumar, a college student in his early 20s, who was taken to his salon by the group of men belonging to the same village.
According to the complaint by the youth, the incident took place in the morning of July 18 in Shimlana village under the Bargaon police station limits when the six "upper-caste" men held him and hurled abuses at him.
The group, which was armed with weapons, then took him to a local salon where he was "forced" to get his moustache shaved by the barber while the whole episode was video-graphed and later shared on social media.
An FIR was lodged at the Bargaon police station on Thursday after a complaint by the youth under Indian Penal Code Sections 147, 148 (both related to rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (provoking breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Charges under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 have also been slapped against the seven accused, including the barber, police said.
"A video of the incident went viral on social media after which a complaint was made at the local police station in which the complainant said some men of his Shimlana village misbehaved with him and assaulted him," Superintendent of Police (Rural) Atul Sharma said.
"The FIR has been lodged under relevant provisions of the law. Police teams have been formed to trace the men involved in the episode and they would be arrested soon, Sharma added.
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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.
