London:

An Indian-origin man who brutally beat up his girlfriend to death at his home in East Midlands region of England, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a UK court.

Police described it as a case of domestic abuse and said it is vital anyone suffering gets the support they need to put a stop before it is too late.

Raj Sidpara, a 50-year-old resident of Leicester, was convicted last week of the murder of Tarnjeet Riaz, also known as Tarnjeet Chagger, following a trial at Leicester Crown Court.

On Friday, Raj Sidpara was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 21 years behind bars before being considered for parole, according to Leicestershire Police.

The couple had been in a relationship for around five months and by the time emergency services were called to his home on Tarbat Road on the afternoon of May 6, Tarnjeet was already dead.

Tarnjeet, 44, was found with extensive trauma to her face, as well as multiple broken ribs, when she was found unresponsive by the emergency services, who had been called by Sidpara.

In October, Sidpara admitted the lesser manslaughter charge of causing the injuries to his girlfriend but denied intending to kill her or cause her serious harm.

The court heard that his victim was left with “two enormous black eyes”, bleeding on the brain and 20 rib fractures, among other injuries. “You have steadfastly refused to explain what you did or why,” Judge William Harbage said, addressing the accused in court.

“What’s clear is that you attacked her in a savage and merciless way; you punched, kicked and stamped on her in a sustained attack,” a BBC court report read.

The court heard that Sidpara was diagnosed with alcohol dependence syndrome and had 24 previous convictions for 46 offences, including threats to kill and harassment of previous girlfriends and people connected to them.

Sidpara’s sentencing comes as Leicestershire Police said it has joined organisations across the globe to support “White Ribbon Day”, focussed on targeted action around violence against women and girls.

“Tarnjeet was killed at the hands of someone she was in a relationship with. Someone who should have supported and protected her, not someone she should have feared would brutally attack her,” said Senior Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Emma Matts.

“While the person responsible will now spend many years behind bars, Tarnjeet’s family are left with so many questions and the overwhelming feeling of wondering if they could have done more.

We know domestic abuse is very complex. Often victims don’t want to share with family and friends the details of what is happening behind closed doors, let alone with police, but it is vital anyone suffering gets the support they need to put a stop to the abuse before it is too late,” she said.

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

The woman told Mr Annamalai to ‘return to India.

The woman told Mr Annamalai to ‘return to India.

New Delhi:

In her acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination, Kamala Harris vowed to resist the influence of authoritarian leaders, who she implied have allegedly manipulated Donald Trump’s foreign policy by appealing to his autocratic tendencies. In a bid to position herself against Republican frontrunner Trump, Harris is stressing her resolve on national security, portraying the billionaire as a riskier alternative.

In her speech, Harris made it abundantly clear that her presidency would mark a definitive break from the Trump era, particularly in foreign policy. “I will not cozy up to tyrants and dictators,” she declared.

As Dr Sweta Chakraborty, a Climate Surrogate for the Harris campaign, explains, Harris’s approach to policy formation is rooted in a clear-eyed assessment of the threats facing the country, both from foreign adversaries and from within. Dr Chakraborty, who has been closely involved in the campaign and was present at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, noted that Harris’s message is resonating strongly with Indian-Americans and other minority communities who see in her as their leader.

Indian-American Perspective

“Kamala Harris is polling a few points ahead of Donald Trump and will surely get a surge following the DNC. Indian-Americans like myself are banding together and supporting her through various efforts and speciality collaborations. For example, we are raising funds through ‘South Asians in Climate’ after the DNC and ahead of the ‘Harris for President Climate Group’ official launch this September. South Asians are in. Climate voters are in, and as a South Asian climate surrogate, I represent both voter groups that broadly support Kamala Harris for President,” Dr Chakraborty told NDTV.

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Born in Oakland, California in 1964, Harris’s father is Donald Harris, a man of Afro-Jamaican descent while his mother is Shyamala Gopalan, who emigrated to the US at the age of 19 to pursue her doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology.

“Having a President who shares ancestry with South Asians in America shows that South Asian immigrants and their offspring have a clear place in America. A daughter of India can make it to the highest elected office in the United States, which shows that the sky is the limit for the Indian diaspora in the US. Indians in the US already enjoy the status as the highest-earning demographic. An Indian will elevate that status and make history for minorities and women more broadly,” Dr Chakraborty said. 

The Usha Vance Factor

However, Harris is not the only Indian-American whose name and image are plastered across the US presidential campaign. Over at the Republican camp, Trump’s Vice President pick JD Vance’s wife is Usha Vance who traces her roots to Andhra Pradesh’s Vadluru. 

Usha’s father, Chilukuri Radhakrishnan, was brought up in Chennai but went to the US to pursue higher studies. Usha was raised in San Diego, California and she met JD Vance at Yale Law School before getting married in 2014. 

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“Usha Vance and her husband are trading in their morals for power,” Dr Chakraborty alleged. “It is clear they had authentically shared liberal values with friends and classmates from university, but edited and adjusted their stances to maneuver in the conservative party, which they perceived would be the easier route to power.”

Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump 

Dr Chakraborty highlighted a stark contrast between Harris and Trump: where Trump has prioritised tax breaks for billionaires and deregulation of corporate polluters, Harris has pledged to hold the oil and gas industry accountable, invest in a clean energy economy, and ensure that the benefits of climate action are shared by all Americans, not just the wealthy elite.

When Harris ran for vice president in 2020, her climate plan was even more aggressive than what ultimately passed during Joe Biden’s presidency as the Inflation Reduction Act – a landmark climate legislation in American history. Now, as she prepares to release her full climate agenda in September, Harris is positioning herself as the ‘Climate President’ for the United States, Dr Chakraborty said. 

“As an Indian woman, she also represents members of American society that have been historically disenfranchised. She is physically the opposite of Biden and represents the ascendency of women and a future society that is more equitable and fair to all genders and races,” she said. 

New Delhi:

An Indian-American businessman Rishi Shah, the former billionaire cofounder of Outcome Health, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by a US court. The saga involves a Rs 8,300 crore ($1 billion) fraud scheme that shook high-profile investors like Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc., and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s venture capital firm. The verdict, handed down by US District Judge Thomas Durkin, closed the lid on one of the largest corporate fraud cases in recent history. 

According to a Bloomberg report, Outcome Health was a brainchild of Mr Shah during his university days. Originally known as Context Media Health, the company was founded in 2006 with a vision of changing medical advertising through installing televisions at doctors’ offices to stream health ads targeted at patients. Mr Shah was joined by his co-founder Shradha Agrawal, and the growth for the company became exponential as far as valuation was concerned, all in the quest to bridge the communication gap between patients and healthcare providers innovatively through ad placements.

By the mid-2010s, Outcome Health had emerged as a big player in the tech and healthcare investment communities. The promise of meshing cutting-edge technology into traditional healthcare marketing beckoned high-profile investors. During its meteoric rise, Outcome was securing enormous funds and clientele, placing Mr Shah as a rising star in Chicago corporate circles.

Lies And Deceit

But behind the glittering success, Outcome Health’s foundations were rotting. Prosecutors said Mr Shah, 38, along with Ms Agarwal and another defendant, chief financial officer Brad Purdy, engaged in a scheme of monumental fraud against investors, clients, and lenders by misrepresenting the operational and financial health of the company. At the centre of the fraud was selling more advertising inventory than could be delivered by Outcome Health, and fabricating data to cover up the shortfall.

It defrauded pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk A/S and other clients about its network size and ad reach. Misleading information, combined with fraudulent data, painted a picture of exponential revenue growth that beguiled further investment or financial backing.

Mr Shah lived life to the fullest because the money rolling in from the inflated ad sales and financing from investors was huge. Reports exposed this spending habit, featuring exotic trips with private jets and yachts, even the purchase of a $10 million home. In 2016, Mr Shah’s net worth was pegged at more than $4 billion, reflecting an amount depreciated and inflated by a raft of duplicitous accounting practices.

The facade began to crumble in 2017 when a media expose by the Wall Street Journal brought the fraudulent activities into light.

Later, a group of investors that included Goldman Sachs, Alphabet, and Governor Pritzker’s firm filed lawsuits against Outcome Health, accusing the firm of fraud in its $487.5 million fundraising earlier in the year. The fundraiser had returned a $225 million dividend for Mr Shah and Ms Agarwal but left investors holding a grossly overvalued stake in a company teetering on collapse. 

Legal Consequences

Mr Shah was indicted on more than a dozen counts of fraud and money laundering until he was convicted on these charges in April 2023. He was joined by Ms Agarwal and Mr Purdy. While the prosecutors asked for 15 years for Mr Shah and 10 years for his co-conspirators,

District Judge Durkin’s final rulings were disparate and included a three-year sentence for Ms Agarwal in a halfway house and Mr Purdy two years and three months in prison. Aside from the criminal case, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the US has likewise filed a civil action against Mr Shah, Ms Agarwal, Mr Purdy, and former chief growth officer Ashik Desai. Mr Desai and other Outcome employees had pleaded guilty already before the jury trial.

Public Apology

Mr Shah, in ill health, spoke of remorse and accepted responsibility at sentencing. In a prepared remark he accepted his failure to ensure adequate management of the aggressive Outcome Health expansion and creating a corporate culture that led through deceptive practices. He said he was “ashamed and embarrassed” by the misconduct that brought down the company.

“The culture I created permissioned people on my team to think it was okay to create false data in response to a client question.” he confessed.