Car rape victim identifies trio

KOLKATA: The victim of the Park Street car-rape victim identified all three accused - Naser Khan, Ruman Khan and Sumit Bajaj - at the Presidency correctional home on Wednesday. Around 12.30pm, police took the victim to Presidency jail and around 1.15pm, the test identification parade started.

Sources said apart from the victim, another lady, who was at the nightclub on that night and had noticed the group of accused interacting with the victim, was present during the identification parade. The lady who hails from east Kolkata had contacted Kolkata Police and volunteered to help with the investigation. Two other men, who sources said were employees of the night club where the victim had met the accused, were also present during the parade.

Sources said in all, 33 persons (the three accused and 30 others) were present during the parade and the victim managed to identify all the three accused. The other woman identified one of the accused and the two male witnesses identified the same youth identified by the second woman.

The process continued for 45 minutes in front of a magistrate and after that, all four, including the victim, were taken back by a huge force of Kolkata Police's detective department.

These three accused are lodged in DH2 ward of Presidency jail.

Police, meanwhile, are looking for the other accused - including prime accused Kader Khan - who are still on the run. Police earlier raided a Mumbai hideout, but Kader and his aide Johny had a narrow escape.

A six-year-old girl was raped and killed

A six-year-old girl was raped and killed in Semgarah village in Ikauna police station area of Shravasti district, police said .The minor girl was raped and murdered allegedly by one Chhotkau , they said. On complaint of the victim's father Hariram, an FIR has been registered against the accused.

Vidya Balan: I didn't believe I could be so sexy

Patcy N and Sonil Dedhia in Mumbai..................
She is being described as Bollywood's new hero. Though Vidya Balan says she is very happy being described as a heroine, a paternalistic industry insists on giving her this accolade.

What has catapulted her into the top league is her latest release, The Dirty Picture, which has won her every film award this year.

In her next film, Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani, she plays a pregnant woman in search of her missing husband.

Vidya talks to Patcy N and Sonil Dedhia about life after The Dirty Picture, and why she will not get married anytime soon.

Where has Priyanka's magic gone?

The magic that was Priyanka...
The Mamata-Mulayam clash...

Will Digvijay Singh survive?

Catch up on the latest capital gossip in this week's Dilli Gupshup.

Gloomy-faced, glazed-eyed Congressmen are mourning a blow from which they may never recover.

No, we are not talking of the drubbing they received in the recent polls (haanji, we do know they won in Manipur. But, you know, they did just about scrape though in Uttarakhand and they did lose miserably in Uttar Pradesh, Goa and Punjab!)

Nor are we talking about the fact that they even lost Amethi and Rae Bareli, both of which have been Congress bastions for decades.

Aisa hai ki, these Congress-wallahs are stunned that their last big hope has fizzled out. They are really reeling, poor guys!

Priyanka Gandhi, who had been their biggest trump card thus far, just couldn't work her magic this time.

While Rahul Gandhi has always been an 'acceptable' leader, it was Priyanka whom the Congressmen always considered their Bramha-asthra.

All thanks, not to her political acumen (which is still to be proved!) but to her uncanny resemblance to her grandmother, the unforgettable Indira Gandhi, her candid style of speaking and her warm smile.

Everyone believed that Priyanka would, some day, lead the Congress to a thumping victory at the polls.

And then, Amethi and Rae Bareli happened!

Oh dear! What will the Congress do now?

Will Mamata clash with Mulayam...

HOLI HAI!! Colourful images from across the world

The festival of colours is back, and is immersing people with much needed joy and enthusiasm.

As revelers tumble out on the streets with gulal and colour-filled pichkaris, and fragrance of delicious sweets, especially gujiyas, fill our homes and hearts, its time to welcome the beautiful spring season and spread the message of love and brotherhood.

Holi has various legends associated with it. The foremost is the legend of demon King Hiranyakashyap who demanded everybody in his kingdom to worship him but his pious son, Prahlad became a devotee of Lord Vishnu.

Hiranyakashyap wanted his son to be killed. He asked his sister Holika to enter a blazing fire with Prahlad in her lap, as Holika had a boon which made her immune to fire. Story goes that Prahlad was saved by Lord himself for his extreme devotion and evil minded Holika was burnt to ashes, for her boon worked only when she entered the fire alone.

Since that time, people light a bonfire, called Holika on the eve of Holi festival and celebrate the victory of good over evil and also the triumph of devotion to God.

Although Holi is celebrated in every part of India and many regions across the world in their own traditional ways, with different legends attached to them, the message is one: to keep aside grievances and embrace the joys of life.

Rediff.com presents a bunch of colourful images from across the world, and wishes each one of you a very HAPPY HOLI!!

In this picture, students, with their faces smeared in gulal, celebrate Holi, at a college in the Chandigarh.

Two arrested in Park Street rape case

The police on Saturday arrested two persons in connection with the rape of an Anglo-Indian woman at Park Street in Kolkata [ Images ].


Sumit Bajaj [ Images ] and Rehman Khan alias Tusi, who masqueraded as Lavi Gidwani and some other persons whom the woman named, had befriended her at the night club, said Joint Police Commissioner, Crime, Damayanti Sen.

The police were looking for two other accused, whose identities have been established, she said.

The woman had stated that five people had allegedly raped her in a car at gunpoint and threatened her while she was returning from a nightclub. One of them, she had said, was Lavi Gidwani.

After investigations, the police found that Gidwani had been in Canada [ Images ] since January 2, while two others were found to be elsewhere. The police had then said that there were 'inconsistencies' in the woman's statement.

The woman, who is in her mid thirties and a mother of two children, had filed an FIR with the Park Street police station four days after the incident.

Sen said police collected the CCTV footage from the nightclub and spotted some persons around a car that night.

"However, the persons named in the FIR by the woman did not match with the CCTV footage and it was ascertained that the offenders were masquerading under other names to mislead the victim," she said.

Sumit Bajaj of Port area and Rehman Khan, a resident of north Kolkata, were arrested when they were going to Howrah station presumably to escape from the metropolis, Sen said.

Their car was also impounded, she said.

Sen said that the victim was questioned a number of times at the Lalbazar police headquarters for a breakthrough.

To a question about conducting medical tests on the victim, Sen said that the woman's statement was more important than any medical examination.

The victim had complained to the police very late, which had made a medical examination difficult, the JCP said.

To another question, she said that the police had some other suspects on its list.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee [ Images ] had claimed that the incident was a 'fabricated story', intended to malign her government and blamed some TV channels for projecting it.

Commissioner of Kolkata Police R K Pachnanda had said there were attempts to criticise the police and the state government over the incident but the police were investigating it on a day-to-day basis "impartially and expeditiously".