2 killed, over 40 feared drowned as bus falls into canal

Two passengers were killed and at least 42 feared drowned after a Punjab roadways bus fell into a canal near Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab in the wee hours today, police said. The ill-fated bus was on its way from Delhi to Amritsar when the mishap took place around 2 am, police said.

The bus was swept in the gushing canal water about three kms downstream before getting stuck at Saundh headworks from where Bhakra Main Line Canal and Narwana Canal get separated, officials said. Before plunging into the canal, the bus broke the railing along the national highway close to the floating restaurant near Sirhind.

Official sources said at least 45 passengers had boarded the bus from Delhi late last night. Two bodies have been fished out from the canal waters, Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Gurmeet Singh Chauhan said. The bus had been pulled out of the canal with the help of cranes, police said. Meanwhile, authorities have sounded an alert along Bhakra Main Line canal, Narwana canal and Sirhind feeder so that the bodies of other passengers could be fished out after being located.

Police and civil administration, along with divers, including from Army, are involved in search operations as it is expected that the bodies could have been swept up to some 30 kms in the canal, officials said. Unconfirmed sources said between 40 to 45 passengers were feared drowned. However, the SSP said it was too early to confirm the death toll in the mishap.

BSP leader’s murder

Delhi Police on Friday declared a reward of Rs one lakh on Swami Pratibhanand, one of the main accused in the murder of BSP leader and business tycoon Deepak Bhardwaj, police said. 

Pratibhanand, 48, has changed his locations in at least seven cities in separate states since the March 26 murder of Bhardwaj at his farmhouse in south Delhi's Rajokri. Pratibhanand, a resident of Beed district in Maharashtra, is suspected to have travelled to Nanded in Maharashtra, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh, Haridwar in Uttrakhand, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Bangalore in Karnataka, Patna in Bihar, and Kolkata in West Bengal since the murder.

"We have declared a reward of Rs 1 lakh to anyone who will provide information to Delhi Police about Pratibhanand," said a police officer.

The officer said that the swami, who usually wore saffron clothes, has been wearing shirts and trousers to avoid being detected.Police have released a sketch of Pratibhanand and questioned over 20 people at Jhajjar in Haryana, where he was living before becoming untraceable.

Pratibhanand had received a contract of Rs 2 crore to arrange the shooters to eliminate Bhardwaj. He was also provided a token amount of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh. Bhardwaj was gunned down by hired killers Sunil Mann alias Sonu and Purushottam Rana alias Monu at his 35-acre farmhouse in south Delhi. 

They have been arrested.Police have also arrested Rakesh alias Bhola, the owner of the car used by the killers after the murder, and Rakesh Malik, a commercial pilot, who allegedly hired the shooters.Nitesh, 36, Bhardwaj's younger son, was arrested Tuesday for his father's murder. Nitesh's aide and advocate-cum-property dealer Baljeet Singh Sehrawat, 51, was also arrested the same day.

The inverse CSI effect in the age of digital crime

The "CSI Effect" has been described as being an increased expectation from jurors that forensic evidence will be presented in court that is instantaneous and unequivocal because that is how it is often presented for dramatic effect in television programs and movies. Of course, in reality forensic science, while exact in some respects is just as susceptible to the vagaries of measurements and analyses as any other part of science. In reality, crime scene investigators often spend seemingly inordinate amounts of time gathering and assessing evidence and then present it as probabilities rather than the kind of definitive result expected of a court room filled with actors rather than real people.

However, while suggesting this CSI Effect is perhaps not quite as widespread as one might imagine among jurors, informatician Richard Overill of King's College London believes it might have a positive effect on reducing the tendency to criminal behaviour among some individuals. He offers details of his analysis of the "Inverse CSI Effect" in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. This would be manifest, he says, particularly among so-called cyber-criminals, fearing the instantaneous and definitive forensic evidence from the imagined cyber-sleuths.

If this inverse CSI effect exists then one might imagine that a proportion of cyber-criminals would modify their behaviour in one of three ways. They might go straight by withdrawing from their nefarious activities altogether. They might attempt to go "under the radar", restricting their crimes to ones with lower impact and less "profit" that would not necessarily warrant costly police resources for investigation. Alternatively, they might expend large amounts of effort or money to obfuscate their modus operandi with multiple layers of concealment and stealth to make their crimes invisible to even the slyest cyber sleuth.

Overill points out that there are three trends that might emerge if this inverse CSI effect emerges in the realm of cybercrime. First, we might see a reduction in the incidence (frequency) of economic cyber-crimes over time, second there could be an increase in the impact (value) of economic cyber-crimes over time and finally there will be a rise in the use of anti-forensic techniques by cyber-criminals over time. His analysis of crime data stretching back eleven years in the US suggests that these trends have been at play and that there is an inverse CSI effect.

Of course, there might be other explanations such as improved awareness among the public of security issues and identity theft and the like as well as more effective and so protective software and security systems on putative targets of cybercrime including as email phishing attacks on bank account, for example. He also points out that cybercrime is much bigger "business" than it ever was and petty activity may well have been subsumed by much bigger crime organisations. Nevertheless, the inverse CSI effect stands out as a plausible explanation of changes in cyber crime activity over the last few years. In conclusion, Overill suggests that the TV and movie viewing habits of incarcerated criminals perhaps intent on self-education ought to be monitored closely with a view to understanding how behaviour might be "adjusted" following their release.

Dacoits bumped off driver for duping them of Rs 6 Lakh

Gang of seven hailing from Tamil Nadu said they strangulated Anil Borkar in January and dumped the body near Shindewadi on Pune-Satara Road, as he refused to pay their money

In their bid to trace Anil Anantrao Borkar (45), a cab driver from Shivajinagar who had gone missing along with the he was driving car six months back, the Shivajinagar said the driver was murdered by history-sheeters from Tamil Nadu, as Borkar had allegedly duped his killers of Rs 6 lakh.

Borkar’s family had registered a missing person’s complaint at the Shivajinagar police station after he failed to return home from Mumbai where he had gone to drop a few passengers in January. A driver by profession, Borkar’s employer too registered a case against him for not returning his car.

“We received a call from the Tamil Nadu police in March, informing that the vehicle was traced in the jurisdiction of Neyveli Thermal Power police station in Cuddalore district. They also said that the car was recovered from a gang of dacoits who were in planning to execute a dacoity,” API Mahesh Sartape of Shivajinagar police station said.

The Tamil Nadu police officials, however, said they wee unable to locate Borkar. Sartape said that the took the dacoits into their custody and it was during interrogation that one of them, Cuddalore resident Devmani Sanugam (27), confessed to killing Borkar by strangulating him with his six of his accomplices on January 7. He said they dumping Borkar’s body near Shindewadi on the Pune-Satara Road.

Sanugam said Borkar owed them Rs 6 lakh and was not ready to pay them. Hence they killed him and fled with the car so that they could sell it and recover the amount. Officials said Sanugam has several cases, including murder and robbery, registered against him in Tamil Nadu.

“The body was discovered by officials of the Rajgad police station. But since they could not ascertain its identity, they performed the last rites after waiting for a few days,” Sartape said.  Officials then showed the pictures of the deceased, taken by Rajgad police station officials, to Borkar’s family following which his identity was ascertained. 

A FIR has been registered against Sanugam and his six accomplices under Sections 201 (destroying evidence), 302 (murder), 364 (abduction for murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. A magistrate court remanded Sanugam in police custody till July 12. 

Politician booked for bigamy after actress complains

The women's redressal cell of the city crime branch has booked a Panvel-based politician for allegedly cheating a Marathi actress by marrying her despite already having a wife

The Marathi actor had approached the cell a few days ago and accused the politician, identified as Sidharth Banthiya, for marrying her while being married, and cheating her of Rs 6 lakh by promising a flat from the government quota for artistes.

The actress had alleged in her complaint that Banthiya had prepared bogus documents of divorce from his first wife and pretended that he was already a divorcee, and married her.

Smita Jadhav, police inspector with the cell, said that the actress came in touch with Banthiya through a common friend in Mumbai and the suspect told her that he had good contacts in Mantralaya and offered to get her flat from the government quota.

“He later started visiting her frequently and even used to go to her shooting sets and after some time, proposed to her. They got married on July 23, 2010,” she said.

She further said that after a few months of marriage, the actress got a call from a lady, who claimed to be his wife.

When she asked her husband about the same he confessed that he was a divorcee and did not tell her about his past as he never wanted to lose her.

He then showed her the divorce papers, which were fake and also showed her their marriage certificate, which was also fake.

By that time he had already taken Rs 6 lakh from her. He later started threatening her that she would not get work if she left him.

Police inspector of Dattawadi police station Satish Govekar said that they have registered a case against Banthiya under sections 467, 468, 420, 376, 494 and 506 of IPC and the case has been transferred to women’s redressal cell for further investigation. 

Rs 6 lakh

The amount politician Sidharth Banthiya allegedly cheated the actress of by promising to buy her a flat