A man was hung upside down from a tree and brutally thrashed by a group of people on suspicion of bike theft in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place in Bhakharpura village in Gudha Malani area on Friday, when the man, Shravan Kumar, who is a Dalit, was released on bail in a separate theft case.

In a statement, Barmer Superintendent of Police (SP) Narendra Singh Meena said Kumar was arrested on December 29, after he was found stealing a bike at a local fair. 

Sources said after Kumar was released on bail a few days ago, villagers accused him of stealing another bike. The man, however, denied the fresh charge against him. 

On Friday, the villagers caught hold of Kumar, tied his hands, and hung him upside down from a tree. “The villagers then thrashed the man. They also made a video recording of the assault, which has now gone viral,” a source said. 

Gudamalani Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sukhram Bishnoi said a case has been registered on the basis of a complaint by the victim and police have taken cognisance of the 53-second clip.

“Kumar was allegedly assaulted by the villagers on suspicion of theft, on Friday. He was earlier booked in another theft case. A case has been registered on the basis of a complaint by the victim and a detailed probe is underway,” Mr Bishnoi said. 

IAS Officer Tina Dabi bowed Once. Then twice. Then a third time. Repeated it for a fourth time. And a fifth time. All this in a span of seven seconds. She was seen greeting BJP leader Satish Poonia, former Rajasthan BJP state president.

The young officer’s effusive gestures have raised a debate over propriety and politician-bureaucrat dynamics.

In a video that is viral, a convoy of white SUVs comes to a halt. A security officer dashes to the front, opens the door for Mr Poonia, seated in the front; he steps out while speaking to someone on his mobile, shows the undated video.

Tina Dabi, who took over as District Collector of Barmer in Rajasthan last month, waits to greet the leader. Even as Mr Poonia is still checking his phone, the IAS officer bows and greets the leader, five times in seven seconds, shows the video.

“Thank you. Thank you. Tina Dabi accha kaam kar rahi hai, safai karwa rahi hai, dustbin lagwa rahi hai (Tina Dabi is doing good work. Is getting the cleaning done, getting the dustbins installed),” says Mr Poonia, showering praise on the officer who is often on trending lists.

Mr Poonia surveys the scene, puts his phone back into his kurta pocket, and turns to the officer. “Dadaigiri kar rahe ho (You are bullying),” he jokes, then adds, “Lekin achha kaam kar rahe ho (But you are doing good work). Barmer will also become like Indore. You are doing a good job.”

Tina Dabi is seen greeting the leader with folded hands, three times in quick succession.

Mr Poonia greets the others present and moves ahead.

Tina Dabi, whose wedding to fellow IAS officer Pradeep Gawande made headlines in 2023, has started an innovative initiative – “Navo Barmer”- meaning new Barmer.

Under the initiative, cleanliness campaigns are being run in the city using new-age technology.

Barmer:

Tina Dabi, one of India’s most popular civil services officers, was posted as the district collector of Rajasthan’s Barmer last month. Since her new appointment, she has been in action mode – she is sometimes seen sweeping roads as part of a cleanliness campaign initiated by her and sometimes reprimanding doctors who were found to be negligent during hospital inspections. All these actions happened on camera and the videos garnered a lot of traction on social media.

This morning, Ms Dabi raided a spa centre, which was reportedly a front for an alleged sex racket.

What Led To The Raid

A cleaning campaign was underway near the Sadar police station area when all of a sudden Tina Dabi arrived for a surprise inspection. During the inspection, she noticed a spa centre whose doors were locked from inside. She asked the officials to open these doors. But even after knocking several times, no one opened the door.

Suspicious by then, some policemen entered the spa centre through the roof while others broke the door and entered inside. There were many rooms inside the spa centre, in which five girls and two men were found in objectionable conditions, police said. Sadar police station took all of them into custody on suspicion of prostitution and all of them are being questioned.

The raid was captured on camera and videos showed several women, trying to cover their faces, and men inside the alleged spa facility.

‘Unethical Practices’ In Spa Centres?

There are several spa centres in Barmer city and locals have been complaining to the administration about many of these, alleging the centres are involved in unethical practices. But, today’s raid is the first effective action by the police.

As per people in the know of the matter, the people who run these centres get a license issued from the Labor Department. After this, they bring girls from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Nepal and run a prostitution business under the guise of spa centres. The police have taken action against these illegal spa centres several times but due to lack of sustained action, these people get back to these practices again after being released on bail.

Tina Dabi, whose wedding to fellow IAS officer Pradeep Gawande made headlines in 2023, has started an innovative initiative – “Navo Barmer”- meaning new Barmer. Under the initiative, cleanliness campaigns are being run in the city using new-age technology.

A MiG-29 fighter jet of the Indian Air Force crashed in Rajasthan during a routine night training mission, said the police, adding that the pilot ejected safely.

The accident took place in Barmer. 

The Air Force said the jet suffered a “critical technical snag”. 

“During a routine night training mission in Barmer sector, an IAF MiG-29 encountered a critical technical snag, forcing the pilot to eject. The pilot is safe and no loss of life or property was reported. A Court of Inquiry has been ordered,” the Air Force posted on X. 

Officials said that the fighter plane crashed away from the residential area at around 10 p.m.

Pictures from the accident site showed the jet engulfed in flames 

Barmer collector Nishant Jain, Superintendent of Police Narendra Meena and other senior officers are at the crash site.

Rainwater near the crash site has made it difficult for the fire engines to reach the site, said Mr Meena.

Jaipur:

A 20-year-old Pakistani national who crossed the border and was caught by the BSF in Rajasthan’s Barmer has told police that he had crossed the border to evade the family members of his girlfriend.

The man, who identified himself as Jagsi Koli, was caught by the BSF on August 25 in Barmer and was handed over to the local police for interrogation on Monday.

SP Barmer Narendra Singh Meena said that during preliminary interrogation, the Pakistani national claimed that he was trying to escape the family members of his girlfriend and crossed the border.

“The man said that he had gone to meet his girlfriend in the Tharparkar district of Pakistan but her family members spotted him so he escaped from there with a scarf of the girl. He said that he also attempted to die by suicide but could not succeed and crossed the border,” the SP said.

He said the accused was being interrogated, adding that a joint interrogation by intelligence agencies will continue.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Barmer:

The scorching heat continues in most parts of Rajasthan, and now even the nights are getting hotter. Due to the heatwave and scorching heat conditions on Friday, it became difficult for people to come out of their homes.

Thursday was the hottest day of this season in Barmer. To provide relief from the heat, water is being sprinkled on the streets and roads.

On Thursday, the maximum temperature in Barmer increased by 0.8 degrees, reaching 48.8 degrees Celsius, and the minimum temperature decreased by 0.4 degrees, reaching 32.2 degrees Celsius.

On Friday, the maximum temperature reached 48.8 degrees Celsius in Barmer. A red alert was issued in most of the districts of Rajasthan, with temperatures expected to increase by two degrees Celsius from May 25 to 27.

Barmer district collector Nishant Jain said that the leaves of Health, PHED (Public Health and Engineering Department), Discom officials, and administrative officers have been cancelled till further orders.

“In view of the heat, the health department is keeping a vigil on reserve beds and essential medicines. These officers are also going and checking whether all the facilities are available or not,” Jain said.

He added further, “Efforts are being made by the administration to provide relief to the people. My appeal to people would be to go out of the house only if necessary, especially in the afternoon.”

A resident, Ramesh, while speaking with ANI, said, “The temperatures are reaching 46-47 degrees Celsius. It’s becoming very difficult for us. I would urge people to plant trees so that next year, we don’t have to bear such rising temperatures in Barmer.”

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Friday issued a heatwave alert. “Heatwave to severe heatwave conditions very likely in many parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana-Chandigarh-Delhi, few parts of West Uttar Pradesh and heatwave conditions very likely in isolated pockets of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, East Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha on May 27 and 28, 2024,” IMD said in a post on X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Farmers staging a protest against discrepancies in the disbursement of compensation for loss of crops at Gudamalani in Barmer district in Rajasthan.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.

A peculiar situation has arisen for farmers in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, where the public sector Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AIC) has released compensation against claims for damage of kharif crops of 2021 after initially paying paltry amounts of money under the Prime Minister’s Fasal Bima Yojana. The discrepancies in disbursement have left the farmers baffled and agitated.

Bank accounts of farmers in the district were credited with the amounts such as 4 paise, ₹1, ₹10 and ₹20 as compensation. The AIC had released ₹311 crore for the purpose, which was far less than the claims made by the agriculturists, who had obtained insurance for their crops in an area measuring a total of 10 lakh hectares.

The kharif crops of pearl millet, cluster bean, moth bean, green gram and sesame were damaged during the drought. The meagre amounts of compensation, following the rejection of original claims, led to disappointment and resentment among the farmers, who complained to Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary, representing the Barmer constituency in the Lok Sabha.

Following Mr. Choudhary’s intervention, the Union government directed the insurance company recently to release an additional amount of ₹229 crore as compensation against the insurance claims, taking the total amount to ₹540 crore. The amount actually claimed for the losses was ₹600 crore.

The issue led to a slugfest between the ruling Congress and the Opposition BJP in the State, with the latter accusing the State government of not carrying out a proper assessment of crop losses which had deprived the farmers of a fair compensation.

Congress MLA from Barmer’s Baytu, Harish Chaudhary, who is also All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Punjab, said getting the full insurance amount from the Central public sector undertaking (PSU) was entirely within the domain of the Union government. He said the Union Minister had failed to get the insurance benefits for farmers in his own constituency.

Despite the release of the additional amount, the matter is yet to be finally resolved. Farmers staged a five-day-long demonstration at Gudamalani tehsil headquarters last week, alleging that the insurance amount was still not credited to their accounts and demanding a transparent procedure for the disbursement of money. The venue of the protest has since been shifted to Nokhra tehsil, where a large number of farmers have joined the demonstration.

Bharatiya Kisan Sangh’s animal husbandry chief Ridmal Ram Devasi told The Hindu that the farmers who were not getting remunerative prices for their produce had been subjected to “enormous losses” with the denial of compensation. The protest in Ridmalsar witnessed a display of ploughs and other farm equipment on tractors.

Mr. Devasi said a similar anomaly had occurred in 2018, when the farmers did not receive the full amount of insurance claims. He said agriculturists in a desert district like Barmer would get the real benefit if a minimum compensation amount was fixed for them along the lines of what is followed in Maharashtra. Similar protests have been staged in Ramsar and Gadra Road villages situated near the international border.

The protesters have also raised the issue of loss of rabi crops in a large number of agricultural fields during the ongoing cold wave and frost. Mustard, black mustard, cumin, isabgol and arandi crops have suffered extensive losses, for which the farmers expect urgent financial assistance from the State government after a quick assessment survey.