The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Mumbai

  • Delhi parliament plotter hanged

    Delhi parliament plotter hanged

    A Kashmiri militant sentenced to death over a 2001 plot to attack India’s parliament has been hanged after his final clemency plea was rejected.

    Officials said Mohammed Afzal Guru, who had been on death row since 2002, was executed at Tihar jail near Delhi.

    BBC says Afzal Guru had always denied plotting the attack, which left 14 dead.

    India has stepped up security and announced a curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir, where news of the execution was expected to spark unrest.

    Executions are very rare in India – Afzal Guru’s was only the second since 2004, after Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving attacker from the 2008 Mumbai attack was executed in November.

    “This is only about the law taking its course,” Home Secretary RK Singh said.

    Hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in towns and cities across Indian-administered Kashmir to try to contain any unrest sparked by the execution.

    Claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan, Kashmir has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years and two wars have been fought over it.

     

  • Indian movie star faces homicide charge

    Indian movie star faces homicide charge

    An Indian court has ruled that Bollywood superstar Salman Khan should face a charge of culpable homicide for a hit-and-run incident 10 years ago.

    In September 2002, he allegedly drove his car into a bakery in Mumbai city, killing a street sleeper, BBC reports.

    The actor is currently being tried for the lesser offence of “death caused by negligence”. He could face 10 years in prison for the more serious charge.

    He denies the charges and has said he will challenge the latest order.

    Khan is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars and has starred in more than 80 Hindi films, including Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun.

    Late on the night of September 28, 2002, Khan’s Toyota Land Cruiser rammed into the American Express bakery in the Bandra area of Mumbai, authorities say.

    The vehicle ran over five people sleeping on the streets, killing one of them.

    Khan was initially charged with culpable homicide. But he successfully challenged that charge in court and it was reduced to “causing death by negligence.”

    The trial finally began before the Bandra Magistrate Court in 2006. As it was a lesser charge, Khan has not had to appear before the court.

    The court heard several witnesses between 2006 and 2011 but in March 2011 the prosecution asked for the more serious charge to be reinstated.

    This latest order is a response to that application.