Kota:

A man allegedly thrashed and chocked his one-year-old stepdaughter to death in Kota on Monday night and fled from the spot on Tuesday morning, police said.

He was allegedly irked at his sleep getting disturbed when the baby cried, they said.

When the baby did not get up on Tuesday morning, her mother took her to the hospital, where doctors declared her brought dead.

According to police, the baby’s mother had left her first husband and was living with accused Jittu, a daily wage labourer in the city. He frequently got irritated at her crying. The baby bore marks of thrashing on her lips, cheeks and feet.

The mother alleged in the complaint that Jittu thrashed and choked her daughter to death on late Monday night, Circle Inspector at the Udhyog Nagar police station Jitendra Singh said.

Police have lodged a case of murder against the accused and efforts are underway to catch him, he added.

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

Kota:

A delivery agent of a quick commerce platform has been arrested for allegedly delivering cigarettes to underaged coaching students in Kota’s Landmark City area, police said on Sunday.

Satyaprakash Koli (48) was nabbed while he was supplying cigarettes to coaching students on Saturday evening, SP Kota city Amrita Duhan said.

The arrest was made during a crackdown against sale and supply of cigarettes by quick commerce platforms to underaged coaching students, the police said.

The accused, who works for Blinkit, has been booked under section 77 of Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and under section 9/11 of Rajasthan Prohibition of Smoking and Non-smoker’s Health Protection Act, the SP said.

The city police had already written to representatives of Blinkit company at its office in Landmark City asking not to sell and supply cigarettes to minor students, but despite the instruction, the company was found to be selling them to the coaching students, she said.

Investigation is underway to find out other personnel of the company involved in sale and supply of prohibited material to the minors, she added.

The police will also file a chargesheet against the company, Kunhadi Circle Inspector Arvind Bhardwaj said.

Supplying smoking material and tobacco to minors is a serious offence and police, during investigation, will also take into account the company’s distribution network of prohibited items in other cities, he said Stock and supply registers, recovered from the company’s store, were seized for examination, he said.

The accused was produced before court on Sunday and sent to jail, the officer said.

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

Jaipur:

Kota, the coaching capital of the country which has been making headlines for student suicides, now has another big problem to contend with – students getting hooked to drugs.

Experts say the same academic pressure and loneliness – with most engineering and medical aspirants, only in their late teens, being away from their families for the first time – that is driving students to suicide is also leading them to the path of addiction.

Officials said a recent drive by the police has led to the arrest of over 100 drug peddlers and their bosses, blowing the lid off what appears to be a much larger network.

Kota Superintendent of Police (SP) Amrita Duhan said a total of 124 people were arrested for allegedly luring students and other young people in the city to drugs and delivering the contraband to them.

“We made the arrests after identifying those who smuggle drugs or deliver contraband to students studying at various coaching centres. The arrests were made as part of a crackdown on the drug mafia under ‘Operation Vajra Prahar’,” she said.

Police said smack (heroin), charas and ganja (marijuana) are the drugs that are in the widest circulation.

‘High Expectations’

Lakhs of aspirants move to Kota annually to prepare for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for admission to engineering colleges and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for medical courses.

However, some students find the grind stressful amid homesickness, packed schedules, cut-throat competition and a constant pressure from parents and faculty to perform better.

“Parents always tend to have expectations. This tends to build a lot of pressure on us. They always want to know about our performance and marks. I feel afraid, thinking what will happen if I do not meet their expectations,” Rahul (name changed), one of the students who fell prey to substance abuse, said.

Gautam (name changed), another student, said: “My friends told me to give it (drugs) a try. I took it, but snorted it and did not inject.”

Last year, Kota recorded an alarming 27 student suicides – its highest ever – up from 15 the previous year. This led to both the state and Union governments announcing a slew of measures, including restricting the admission of children below 16 years of age to coaching centres in the city.

With 14 student suicides being recorded this year so far, police are also investigating if any of the students had fallen prey to substance abuse.

(With inputs from Sushant Pareek in Kota, and Shakir Ali and Somu Anand in Jaipur)

Kota:

A teacher in a government senior secondary school in a village here has been arrested for allegedly trying to harass a Class 12 girl sexually, police said on Friday.

The accused was on Friday produced before a POCSO court that ordered to send him to under judicial custody, they said.

The government school in Julmi village under the Suket police station limits in Kota district, where the incident occurred, was earlier selected under the special category of ‘Prime Minister Shree School’.

Meanwhile, state Education Minister Madan Dilawar took note of the incident and directed to issue suspension orders to the teacher. He also ordered suspension of the school principal for failing to take action in the matter in time.

The accused Ved Prakash Bairwa (32), was arrested in the case on Thursday after the 17-year-old female student lodged a complaint against the lecturer earlier in the day, SHO at Suket police station Raghuveer Singh said on Friday.

The minor alleged that the accused tried to force her for physical relations and forcibly held her hand on a few occasions, the SHO said, adding that the student had reported the matter to her class teacher and the principal.

When the girl’s ordeal was not addressed by the school, she told her parents, who then reached the school on Thursday to discuss the matter but the principal and the accused teacher allegedly blasted on them and made them leave.

As the news about the incident spread, hundreds of angry villagers reached the school to protest, where the staff, noticing the mob, bolted themselves inside a room.

The angry villagers created a commotion on the school premises for around two-and-a-half hours, while the girl student reportedly waited with a garland of shoes outside.

On report about the commotion, the local police team rushed to the school and on noticing the mob in rage, called in additional force from two other police stations. The accused lecturer was then taken to the police station. Bairwa was arrested on Friday after being booked under section 74 (assault or use of criminal force on woman with intent to outage her modesty) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sections 11 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, SHO Singh said.

The police on Friday produced the accused before a POCSO court that ordered to send him to judicial custody.

Bikaner director secondary education on Friday issued separate orders to suspend the accused teacher Bairwa and the principal Diwan Singh Rawat with immediate effect, Kota District education Officer (DEO) Krishan Kumar Sharma said.

In the departmental inquiry, the school principal was found guilty of negligence by taking no action despite the matter having been reported to him, Sharma added.

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

Kota (Rajasthan):

The body of a two-year-old boy buried over a month ago, was exhumed from the grave after his parents filed a murder case against an acquaintance, police said on Saturday.

The accused, Rahul Pareek (26), a resident of Borkhera was arrested on Friday evening for allegedly kidnapping and strangling the boy, police said.

According to police, the victim’s family and Pareek had been acquaintances for the last six months as the accused runs a shop near their home. The victim’s mother, Khushbu often left her son, Ansh (2), with Pareek at his shop to run errands.

On April 15 as well Khushbu left Ansh with Pareek to run some errands. Pareek, suspecting that she was having an affair, allegedly beat the victim and strangled him. He recorded the act on his mobile phone, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Hariram Soni said.

He then took him to J.K. Lon hospital and called Khushbu saying that Ansh had met with an accident. When Khushbu and the victim’s father reached the hospital, the doctor had declared Ansh dead, the DSP said.

The family brought the body home without having conducted an autopsy and performed his last rites on April 16, DSP said. None of the family members suspected any foul play in his death.

However, earlier this month, Pareek began sending photos and videos of Ansh being thrashed and strangled, which he had shot while committing the crime. Following this, Khushbu along with her husband filed a complaint at the Vigyan Nagar police station on Friday evening, Soni said.

Following this, the boy’s body was exhumed from the grave and sent for autopsy which showed that he suffered a skull fracture and blood clotting in his lungs which suggested that he was severely beaten and then strangled, he said.

Pareek was arrested on Friday evening under the sections of the Indian Penal Code for kidnapping and murder and under the sections of the SC/ST Act. Further investigation is underway.

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