Former England star Andrew Flintoff airlifted after horror car crash
(PTI): Former England captain Andrew Flintoff has been airlifted to a hospital after suffering a horror car crash in Surrey while filming an episode for BBC's TV Show.
The 45-year-old was filming for 'Top Gear' in icy conditions at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey on Tuesday when the accident happened.
"Freddie (Flintoff) was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track this morning - with crew medics attending the scene immediately," the BBC said in a statement.
"He has been taken to hospital for further treatment and we will confirm more details in due course." According to 'The Sun', Flintoff's injuries are not "life-threatening" and he was "driving on the track as normal" and was not going at a high speed.
Photo credit:Twitter/@bbcpress
"All the usual health and safety measures were in place for filming too," a source was quoted as saying by 'The Sun'.
"Freddie was taken to hospital by air ambulance shortly afterwards. "Filming has been postponed for now and all anyone cares about is Freddie recovering." His co-star Chris Harris was also at the 'Top Gear' test track.
Three years back, Flintoff had survived a 125mph crash during the shooting of another episode of Top Gear.
Flintoff, who retired from international cricket in 2009, has played 79 Tests and 141 limited-overs internationals for England.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.
