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The Hindu
10 hours ago
- The Hindu
Odisha ‘sexual harassment' case: internal complaints committee report had not recommended any punitive action
The Internal Complaints Committee, constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH), at F.M. Autonomous College in Balasore, Odisha, had not recommended any disciplinary action against the teacher accused of sexually harassing a student who later died after setting herself on fire. The ICC report, which recently came out in the open, said the panel did not find any conclusive evidence to substantiate the charges of sexual harassment. 'Students should strive to uphold the reputation of institutions and improve the quality of education by keeping a cordial relationship with teachers and they should not indulge in character assassination without any proof,' the report said. It said, 'Teachers should also closely study psychology of students and become compassionate in order to improve their academic growth.' The ICC, constituted under the leadership of Jayashree Mishra following allegations of sexual harassment against Samir Kumar Sahoo — Head of the Bachelor of Education department at the college, did not recommend any punitive action in its report. The student had allegedly taken the extreme step of setting herself ablaze after her repeated complaints against the teacher went unaddressed. Report contradictory The ICC report contradicted the statement of several ICC members who, after the student's death, said that they had recommended the removal of the accused teacher from his current position. However, the final ICC report made no mention of any transfer or removal of the teacher from the post of department head. The girl student's family members and friends and members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — of which she was a member — alleged that even a temporary transfer or asking the accused teacher to go on leave, after her complaints, could have eased tensions and possibly prevented the tragedy. They further said that Sahoo influenced the outcome of the ICC inquiry by continuing in his role during the investigation. The report said that the ICC conducted a five-day-long investigation and recorded the statements of the student, her father, 60 other students and college teachers. Binaytosh Mishra, Director General of Police (Crime Branch), said there were discrepancies in the statements given by individuals connected to the case before and after the girl's death. He added that the Crime Branch, which is investigating into the incident, has gathered several key pieces of evidence and that the progress of the probe has been satisfactory.
The Hindu
11 hours ago
- The Hindu
Odisha college committee exonerates teacher accused of sexual harassment, says deceased girl's allegations are baseless
The Internal Complaints Committee, constituted under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (POSH), at F.M. Autonomous College in Balasore, Odisha, did not recommend any disciplinary action against the teacher accused of sexually harassing a student who later died after setting herself on fire. The ICC report, which came out recently, said the allegation of sexual harassment was baseless as the committee did not find any conclusive evidence to substantiate the charges. 'Students should strive to uphold reputation of institutions and improve quality of education by keeping cordial relationship with teachers and they should not indulge in character assassination without any proof,' the report said. It said, 'Teachers should also closely study psychology of students and become compassionate in order to improve their academic growth.' The ICC, constituted under the leadership of Jayashree Mishra following allegations of sexual harassment against Samira Kumar Sahoo — Head of the Bachelor of Education department at the college, did not recommend any punitive action in its report. The student had allegedly taken the extreme step of setting herself ablaze after her repeated complaints against the teacher went unaddressed. Report contradictory The ICC report contradicted the statement of several ICC members who claimed that they had recommended the removal of the accused teacher from his current position. However, the final ICC report made no mention of any transfer or removal of the teacher from the post of department head. The girl student's family members and friends and members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — of which she was a member — alleged that even a temporary transfer or asking the accused teacher to go on leave, after her complaints, could have eased tensions and possibly prevented the tragedy. They further claimed that Sahoo influenced the outcome of the ICC inquiry by continuing in his role during the investigation. The report claimed that the ICC conducted a five-day-long investigation and recorded the statements of the student, her father, 60 other students and college teachers. Binaytosh Mishra, Director General of Police (Crime Branch), said there were discrepancies in the statements given by individuals connected to the case before and after the girl's death. He added that the Crime Branch, which is investigating into the incident, has gathered several key pieces of evidence and that the progress of the probe has been satisfactory.
News18
15 hours ago
- News18
Foreign-made prohibited cigarettes worth over Rs 25 lakh seized in Delhi, 4 held
New Delhi, Jul 21 (PTI) The Delhi Police has busted a cigarette-smuggling racket and seized a massive consignment of foreign-made prohibited cigarettes valued at around Rs 25.76 lakh, an official said on Monday. Police apprehended four people, including two women, from the Noida-Delhi border on Sunday. 'The accused were travelling in an SUV that was being used to smuggle the contraband from Guwahati to Delhi," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said. He said a total of 9,420 packets containing 1,88,400 sticks of prohibited cigarettes of international brands were seized during the operation. 'The packets lacked the statutory health warnings mandated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare," the DCP added. The accused were identified as Mukeem and Sameer, both residents of Baraut in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh. The two women were hired as decoys to pose as family members of the accused to avoid police suspicion, the officer said. 'A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 at the Crime Branch police station and further investigation is underway," the senior police officer said. Following a tip-off, a police team laid a trap and intercepted the vehicle. During interrogation, the accused revealed that the cigarettes were smuggled into India from Myanmar and were being transported to the national capital via Guwahati. 'The women were paid Rs 4,000 each to accompany the accused and help them appear as a family during the interstate journey," the DCP added. The seized sports utility vehicle (SUV) was registered in the name of Sameer and was reportedly gifted to him on his wedding. One of the women is divorced and lives in Delhi with her parents, while the other is unmarried and hails from Lucknow. Both previously worked together in a private firm in Gurugram, the officer said. PTI BM RC view comments First Published: July 21, 2025, 18:45 IST Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Indian Express
16 hours ago
- Indian Express
Who is Kusum, the drug queen of Delhi's Sultanpuri?
On September 11, 2008, Kusum (40), a resident of E Block in Outer Delhi's Sultanpuri, was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch Narcotics unit for allegedly supplying smack in the neighbourhood. Kusum told the police that her husband, Manoj, was unemployed — and high on smack, all day and every day. Desperate to support herself and her four children, she contacted Manoj's supplier and got into the local drug business. Seventeen years and 11 cases later, Kusum is back in the news. On Saturday, the Delhi Police seized property worth Rs 4 crore belonging to her and her family in Sultanpuri and Rohini areas. Seven of these were in Sultanpuri, including a 'mini mansion' from where Kusum ran her drug supply chain network — which now included heroin, ganja, and tramadol tablets. Kusum, however, is missing. She has been on the run since March. Born in 1968 in Uttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr, Kusum never went to school. When she was 16 years old, her parents married her off to a man named Raju aka Surender, a worker-for-hire. He later moved to Sultanpuri with Kusum, a police officer said. In the early 1990s, Raju passed away due to a chronic illness. In 1992, Kusum married Manoj. A smack addict, he couldn't hold down a steady job, the officer said. The same year, the couple had their first of four children, Pooja, her dossier noted. Kusum would then give birth to Deepa in 1995, Amit in 1998, and Cheeku in 2001, another police officer said. Due to Manoj's deteriorating health, he started staying home for long periods. The family of six soon had no source of income. In 2002, Kusum obtained the contact of a local smack supplier through her husband and began dealing for him in Outer Delhi. By 2003, she was controlling the smack supply in three-four blocks of Sultanpuri. In June that year, she was booked for the time under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. In September 2008, Kusum was arrested for the first time by the Narcotics division of the Crime Branch. She was released on bail in the same month, her dossier said. She would go on to expand her drugs business to include heroin. A senior police officer said that Kusum's brother, 'Danny', was also involved in the drug business. He would frequently travel between Bulandshahr and Outer Delhi, and would put Kusum in contact with Ashfaq, an alleged heroin supplier from Bareilly, the officer said. Kusum's dossier mentions Ashfaq as one of her key associates. Throughout the 2010s, Kusum's drug business expanded and she started acquiring property across Rohini and Outer Delhi to park her money, a police officer said. Her Sultanpuri home, a cluster of modest shabby three-floor buildings from the outside, was connected to form a 'mini-mansion' from the inside, the officer said. 'Suppliers would come near the buildings on two-wheelers to take their order. Juveniles working for her would come to the windows, put pouches of heroin and smack in a basket, and lower it using ropes. The supplier would take his order, put cash in the basket, which was then pulled back up,' the officer said. As suppliers went in and out of her now 'iconic' E Block den, a team of policemen and CCTVs across the block began to watch their every movement. After years of surveillance and based on specific inputs, police raided the establishment in March this year and arrested her son Amit, 26, allegedly a key part of Kusum's operation and her heir apparent. More than 500 packets of heroin, tramadol tablets, Rs 14 lakh in cash and a black Scorpio SUV were recovered. Kusum and her three daughters, police said, went on the run. On Saturday, police reported that approximately Rs 2 crore in cash had been transferred into the accounts of both Pooja and Deepa over the past 18 months. According to Kusum's dossier, Amit and Pooja were her most frequent visitors during her stints in judicial custody, the most recent being in March 2024. 'It's extremely difficult to keep her behind bars and collect evidence. She has an army of chartered accountants and lawyers working for her. Even during the raid this year, about 12 lawyers reached the building to try and halt it,' a senior police officer said.
Indian Express
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Mumbai 7/11 acquittals: 17 yrs ago, gaps in probe, question mark over identity of accused
The Bombay High Court acquittal of all the 12 accused in the July 11, 2006, serial Mumbai train blasts case comes 17 years after a Mumbai Police Crime Branch probe indicated loopholes in its investigation by the Maharashtra Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS). At a press conference on September 25, 2008, the Crime Branch announced it had busted a key Indian Mujahideen (IM) module and that it was responsible for several blasts since 2005 – including those in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi between 2006 and 2008, as well as the July 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts. The ATS chargesheet had held the banned Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) responsible for the blasts, arresting 13 people and chargesheeting 30, including 'Pakistani nationals'. But as per the Crime Branch, four of the five IM men it arrested in 2008 were actually the absconding 'Pakistani nationals' mentioned in the 2006 blasts chargesheet filed by the ATS. At the same time, the Crime Branch never claimed that those arrested for the train blasts by the ATS were innocent, or tried the IM men it had itself held for the Mumbai train blasts. The IM module the Crime Branch busted, led by Sadiq Israr Sheikh and including his associates, were, however, convicted for the July 26, 2008, Ahmedabad blasts and remain on trial in some other cases. 'How could the Crime Branch chargesheet them for a crime in which a sister agency had arrested a different set of accused? It was a job for that sister agency to do,' a Central security establishment officer told The Indian Express, adding he was not surprised by the court's acquittal of the 12 accused for the train blasts on Monday. In its order, the High Court said: 'Punishing the actual perpetrator of a crime is a concrete and essential step toward curbing criminal activities, upholding the rule of law, and ensuring the safety and security of citizens. But creating a false appearance of having solved a case by presenting that the accused have been brought to justice gives a misleading sense of resolution. This deceptive closure undermines public trust and falsely reassures society, while in reality, the true threat remains at large… Essentially, this is what the case at hand conveys.' At the press conference in September 2008, when it suggested that its findings regarding the 2006 blasts case differed from the ATS's, then Mumbai Crime Branch chief Rakesh Maria, accompanied by then Additional CP and current Mumbai Police chief Deven Bharti, said: 'The absconding Pakistani nationals mentioned in the 7/11 case as conspirators are actually the men we have arrested. They had not revealed their true identity during the (blasts) operation, and told their associates they were Pakistani nationals. That's why when their associates were quizzed, they told investigators that those absconding were Pakistanis.' The Crime Branch 'breakthrough' following the arrest of an alleged car thief, Afzal Usmani, by a team led by one of its inspectors, Arun Chavan. Usmani led Chavan's team to Sadiq Israr Sheikh, Arif Badruddin Sheikh, Mohammed Zakir Abdul Sheikh and Mohammed Ansar, who were then arrested. The Crime Branch said that during interrogation, Sadiq, who headed the UP module of the IM, said it was he along with fellow IM operative Dr Shahnawaz and two others who had executed the July 2006 train blasts. According to the Crime Branch investigation, also confirmed by Central agency sources to The Indian Express, Sadiq received a year's training in Pakistan in the use of sophisticated weapons and assembling bombs. He, along with Shahnawaz, who allegedly also received training in Pakistan, later rented a room in the Sewri area of Mumbai. 'They had been supplied with explosives from across the border. In that Sewri room, Sadiq and Shanawaz assembled bombs in pressure cookers. To avoid suspicion, the four pressure cookers in which bombs were assembled were all bought at different periods of time. Before the blasts, they conducted elaborate recces travelling in first-class compartment of Mumbai locals every day to study the feasibility of their plan. On the day of the blasts, they all boarded Mumbai locals at different times and got down at different stations,' an officer who was part of the investigations told The Indian Express. According to the officer, during interrogation, Sadiq even expressed anger and sadness at the arrest of Ehtesham Siddiqui, one of the 2006 train blasts accused, and others. 'He told the probe team categorically that the ATS had the wrong people and that they had nothing to do with the blasts. He even said that it was because of (the 2006 train blasts) case that the IM began sending emails claiming responsibility for the terror attacks they executed later,' the officer said. In fact, until the 2008 arrest of the IM module by the Mumbai Crime Branch, the organisation had been a shadowy entity — so much so that even Central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing) had no clue about what it really was. The chance discovery was made after Maria roped in Inspector Arun Chavan (now retired) following the serial blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, to look into the finding that the cars used for it had been stolen from Navi Mumbai. Chavan, with the help of Constable Pralhad Madne (an expert in car theft cases), managed to catch the two men who had allegedly stolen the vehicles within a month. The two reportedly told Chavan they stole the cars on the instructions of Afzal Usmani. Chavan's team nabbed Usmani from UP's Mau district on August 24 that year. 'Until then, for all practical purposes, we were groping in the dark… If it was not for that inspector from the Mumbai Crime Branch, we would not have known what the IM was really,' a former IB official, who later tracked the new outfit and is now retired, told The Indian Express. 'In fact, in the four years before the Ahmedabad blasts, when a series of blasts were taking place in different parts of the country, we were chasing Pakistan-backed operative Shahid Bilal. Until then, we believed that the IM was just another name for the LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba), and that Bilal had perpetrated the blasts. This was the information that even R&AW had at that time. But we learnt later that Bilal had already died in Pakistan by then,' the retired official said.
