Uttarakhand: Four days after woman found charred, brother's body found in a ditch nearby
Gopeshwar (PTI): The mystery shrouding the death of a woman whose charred body was recovered last Sunday from a burnt car near Tapovan in Chamoli district has deepened with the discovery of her missing brother's body from a ditch nearby, police said.
The body of Sunil Senapati was retrieved on Thursday from a ditch 400 metres away from the spot where his sister Shweta Padma Senapati was found dead.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police and State Disaster Response Force personnel discovered Sunil's body with the help of sniffer dogs, the district police said.
The cause of his death will be ascertained after post-mortem, they said.
Senapati was initially viewed as a suspect since he went missing the same day his sister was found dead.
Shweta and Sunil were originally from Bengaluru but had been living in Dhak for some time, police said.
The woman was found charred inside a car on Sunday.
Police who reached the spot after receiving information about a burnt car parked on Chachdi-Bhavishya Badri Road near Tapovan, found a charred skeleton from the front passenger seat.
They found some ornaments near the skeleton which indicated that it belonged to a woman.
A number plate (KA01-0590) was also found near the burnt vehicle.
Further investigation revealed the identity of the deceased. It was learnt that Shweta and her brother from Bengaluru had been living together in Dhak.
A police team that visited Bengaluru to verify their identities and spoke to their relatives were informed that the siblings were broke and often borrowed money from family and acquaintances.
Relatives said the brother-sister duo would call them to say that their condition was dire and that they could be driven to committing suicide, police said.
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Trump pauses Project Freedom, claims great progress for final agreement with Iran
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump has suspended “Project Freedom,” to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, claiming progress in negotiations with Iran toward an agreement to end the war.
In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, “Great progress has been made toward a complete and final agreement with representatives of Iran.”
“Based on the request of Pakistan and other Countries, the tremendous Military Success that we have had during the Campaign against the Country of Iran and, additionally, the fact that Great Progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran, we have mutually agreed that, while the Blockade will remain in full force and effect, Project Freedom (The Movement of Ships through the Strait of Hormuz) will be paused for a short period of time to see whether or not the Agreement can be finalized and signed," Trump said.
Project Freedom was launched on Monday to escort ships, stranded due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, out to safety. Trump had announced the operation on Sunday and the US Central Command began implementing it the next day.
However, the Project led to friction in the vicinity of the narrow seaway, a key route for transporting one-fifth of the global oil supplies, with the UAE claiming that its ships were attacked by Iran. The US also claimed to have destroyed several Iranian small boats.
Trump’s statement on Truth Social came hours after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Operation Epic Fury, launched on February 28, had concluded as its objectives have been achieved.
"Operation Epic Fury is concluded. We achieved the objectives of that operation. We're not cheering for an additional situation to occur. We would prefer the path of peace. What @POTUS would prefer is a deal... that is, so far, not the route that Iran has chosen," Rubio told a press conference at the White House on Tuesday.
On Project Freedom, Rubio said the goal was to rescue almost 23,000 civilians from 87 different countries who were trapped inside the Persian Gulf and left for dead by the Iranian regime.
"This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation, and what that means is very simple: there’s no shooting unless we're shot at first. We’re not attacking them, but if they're attacking us or they’re attacking a ship, you need to respond to that," Rubio said.
