Discus thrower Vikas Gowda announces retirement
New Delhi, May 30: India's star discus thrower Vikas Gowda announced his retirement on Wednesday.
The current national record holder, who has represented India at the international level for 15 years, sent a letter to the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), informing the national body of his decision to call it a day.
"@vikgo70 Vikas Gowda, #India's greatest discus thrower, Olympian, CWG2014 gold medallist retires from Athletics. Thanks, Vikas for serving Indian athletics & taking it to great heights. All the best Champ!" the AFI announced on Twitter.
The 34-year-old had set the current national record of 66.28 metre in 2012, when he had bettered the previous record held by Shakti Singh.
The most decorated Indian in the throwing events, Gowda had won gold medals at the Asian Championships in 2013 and 2015.
He became the only Indian athlete to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games (CWG) when he took the title at the 2014 edition in Glasgow. He also took a silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
He had bagged silver at the 2014 Asian Games and a bronze at the 2010 edition.
He represented the country at the Olympics in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. His best performance came at the 2012 London Games where he finished eighth.
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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.
