Japan executes cult leader
tokyo, July 6 : Japan on Friday executed the leader of the Supreme Truth cult who had masterminded the deadly sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995.
The 63-year-old Shoko Asahara, whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, had been on death row more than a decade, reports Efe news.
Founded in 1984, the Japanese doomsday cult also known as Aum Shinrikyo, itself into an organisation capable of developing chemical and biological weapons in just one decade.
It even presented a list of candidates for the 1990 general election but did not win any seats in parliament.
Asahara, who had suffered partial blindness since childhood, was detained in May 1995, two months after the nerve agent attack on March 20, 1995, which killed 13 people and injured more than 6,000.
He was sentenced to death in 2004 for the attack and other crimes including another sarin gas attack in 1994 in Matsumoto, which killed eight people and injured more than 100 others.
The execution of the leader and six other members of the Supreme Truth, came as a result of a 20-year investigation in which all those involved in the incidents have been tried and convicted.
The Supreme Court rejected their appeals in January.
The Japanese Tribunal has prosecuted about 190 cult members for the attacks and other related crimes, including the 1989 murder of lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto and his family, and passed six life sentences and 13 death sentences.
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UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
