City cops’ S.I.T. to probe builder case

The Mumbai crime branch has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the murder of SK Builder’s Sunil Kumar Lohariya, which took place in Navi Mumbai last week. The case was officially transferred to the Mumbai police from the Navi Mumbai police on Thursday after home minister R.R. Patil intervened in the matter on the request of the slain builder’s family. The crime branch on Thursday formed a special team comprising six officers from Unit 1, 2, 3 and 7. Ramesh Mahale, senior police inspector, Unit 1, who has investigated many high-profile cases in Mumbai in the past, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, will head the SIT under the supervision of senior officers. “The SIT has already swung into action and is probing all the possible angles in the murder,” said a senior crime branch officer on Thursday. Lohariya was shot dead by two assailants outside his office at Vashi on February 16.

*** Honour killings on rise in state too: Activists Mumbai, Feb. 21: Honour killings are on the rise in Maharashtra too, activists claimed in the city on Thursday. “We associate honour killings with states such as Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar due to the dominance of Khap panchayats over there, but in Maharashtra, too, incidents of honour killing have been increasing,” said journalist Jatin Desai. Mr Desai is a member of Dalit Intellectual Collective, which has prepared a fact-finding report on Sonai murders and an attack on a Dalit couple in Satara district. Three youngsters from the Mehtar-Valmiki community were killed at Sonai in Ahmednagar district in January following an inter-caste love affair. Mr Desai further alleged that the investigation in the cases of atrocities against Dalits in the districts of Ahmednagar, Satara and Pune (where a Dalit RTI activist was killed recently) was often slow. “The government should form a new category so that honour killing cases can be identified,” Mr Desai said, adding that the government should deal with these cases sternly. He also said that such cases were on the rise as Dalits were gaining education. —PTI