Tag: Law & Order

Indian origin man charged with drug smuggling in US

NEW YORK (TIP): On January 31, Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Raymond Donovan, the Special Agent in Charge of the Special Operations Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), announced that four individuals including an Indian charged with participating in a narcotic importation conspiracy arrived in New York from Kenya.

Preet Bharara (File Photo)

Vijay Giri Anandgiri Goswami, 55, is an Indian national and a resident of Kenya. BAKTASH AKASHA, 40, is a Kenyan national and a resident of Kenya. IBRAHIM AKASHA, 28, is also a Kenyan national and a resident of Kenya. HUSSEIN, 61, is a Pakistani national and a resident of Pakistan. They were arrested in Mombasa, Kenya, on November 9, 2014, pursuant to a United States request, based on charges filed in the Southern District of New York arising out of their participation in a conspiracy to import kilogram quantities of heroin and methamphetamine into the United States. On November 10, 2014, a superseding Indictment was returned also charging the defendants with narcotics importation offenses based on their delivery of 99 kilograms of heroin and two kilograms of methamphetamine in Kenya, which they intended would be imported into the United State.

The defendants are charged with conspiring to import heroin into the United States (Count One), conspiring to import methamphetamine into the United States (Count Two), distributing heroin for unlawful importation into the United States (Count Three), and distributing methamphetamine for unlawful importation in the United States (Count Four). Each count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison. The minimum and maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Bharara said: “As alleged, the four defendants who arrived yesterday in New York ran a Kenyan drug trafficking organization with global ambitions. For their alleged distribution of literally tons of narcotics – heroin and methamphetamine – around the globe, including to America, they will now face justice in a New York federal court.”

Feb 3, 2017 – 2:10 pm EST
Indian physician pleads guilty to $30 M shareholder fraud and $7.5 M employment tax fraud

POTOMAC, MD (TIP): On December 2, Sreedhar Potarazu, 51, an Indian American ophthalmic surgeon based in Potomac, Maryland, pleaded guilty to charges of inducing interstate travel to commit a fraud and failing to account for and pay over employment taxes.

“For years Potarazu enriched himself by abusing the trust of his company’s many investors and stealing millions of dollars from them through a complex scheme of fraud and deceit, said Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This case is a prime example of this office’s ongoing commitment to bringing white-collar crimi-nals to justice.” Potarazu was an ophthalmic surgeon who was licensed in Maryland and Virginia, founded in or about September 2000, VitalSpring Technologies Inc. (VitalSpring), a Delaware corporation. VitalSpring operated in McLean, Virginia and provided data analysis and services relating to health care expenditures. In or around the end of 2015, VitalSpring started doing business as Enziime, LLC, a Delaware corporation. From its inception, Potarazu was VitalSpring’s Chief Executive Officer, President, and served as a member of the Board of Directors.

“Sreedhar Potarazu viewed himself as above the law -deliberately defrauding investors and stealing from the U.S. Treasury – and with today’s guilty plea, he is held account-able for his criminal conduct,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo. “Like other individuals who willfully ignore their employment tax obligations, Potarazu faces incarceration and substantial monetary penalties. The department will continue to work with its partners within the IRS to identify and prosecute these offenders.” Potarazu faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced on March 3, 2017.

Dec 10, 2016 – 12:54 pm EST
Indian Jewelry Store Owner in New Jersey sentenced to two years in prison for role in $200 Million credit card fraud scam

TRENTON, NJ (TIP): An Indian origin New Jersey jewelry storeowner who used his business to further one of the largest credit card fraud schemes ever charged by the Justice Department was sentenced November 30 to 24 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Vinod Dadlani was sentenced to 24 months in prison on November 30

Vinod Dadlani, 53, of Lyndhurst, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to information charging him with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Judge Thompson imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: Dadlani was indicted in October 2013 as part of a conspiracy – led by Tahir Lodhi, Babar Qureshi, Ijaz Butt, and others – to fabricate more than 7,000 false identities to obtain tens of thousands of credit cards. Since then, 19 people, including Dadlani, have pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.

The scheme involved a three-step process in which the defendants would make up a false identity by creating fraudulent identification documents and a phony credit profile with the major credit bureaus; pump up the credit of the false identity by providing bogus information about that identity’s creditworthiness; then borrowed or spent as much as they could without repaying the debts – causing more than $200 million in confirmed losses to businesses and financial institutions.

Many of these debts were incurred at Dadlani’s Jersey City, New Jersey, jewelry store, among many other locations. During his guilty plea proceeding, Dadlani admitted he worked with other conspirators who came to his store and allowed them to swipe cards he knew did not legitimately belong to them. Dadlani would then split the proceeds of the phony transactions with the conspirators.

The scope of the criminal fraud enterprise required Dadlani’s conspirators to construct an elaborate network of false identities. Across the country, the conspirators maintained more than 1,800 “drop addresses,” including houses, apartments and post office boxes, which they used as the mailing addresses for the false identities.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Thompson sentenced Dadlani to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay forfeiture of $411,000.

Dec 10, 2016 – 12:19 pm EST
Nassau Police Overtime Out of Control, says Comptroller Maragos

Nassau County Comptroller recommends an outside independent review of overtime assignment practices.

MINEOLA, NY (TIP): The Police Department’s overtime for 2016 is projected to exceed $69.9 million, by approximately $13 million, or about 23%more than budgeted. By 2016 year-end, over 30 police members are expected to earn more than $100,000 in overtime, and one police officer has already received almost $180,000 as of November 30, 2016, and may exceed $200,000 by year-end. It has been revealed in a press statement from the Comptroller’s office.

The overtime earnings also appear to be heavily skewed towards a relatively small number of police force members who tend to be the highest paid, with 90%also eligible for retirement. For example, 375 out of about 2300 active police force members (excluding cadets), or 16% of the members, earned approximately 41%of all overtime as of November 30, 2016, For the first time in 2016, Nassau County will have a number of police members who will earn more than $300,000 in total earnings. It is important to note that most police members, almost 84%, earned less than $50,000 in overtime pay, and as of November 30, the median overtime earned by all active police members was $22,300.

“Police overtime has been a recurring budget,” said Comptroller George Maragos. “While most officers appear to have reasonable overtime, greater oversight and better management of overtime would seem appropriate for those earning significantly above the median. An outside independent review of overtime assignment practices is strongly recommended.”

With one month remaining in the year, 281 police force members have already earned a combined salary including overtime, holiday pay, longevity pay, shift differential and other pay of more than $200,000. As of November 30, 2016, two officers have already earned more than $300,000 in total compensation, and by year-end, an additional six (6) police force members will likely exceed $300,000 in total compensation. Table 1 below shows the total compensation for the 25 top overtime 25 earners. .

Dec 10, 2016 – 12:06 pm EST
Trump wants Preet Bharara to stay on: Community is pleased

NEW YORK (TIP): Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said after meeting the President-elect at Trump Tower on November 30 that he would remain in office under Donald Trump’s administration.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Bharara said, “The President-elect asked, presumably because he’s a New Yorker and is aware of the great work that our office has done over the past seven years, asked to meet with me to discuss whether I’d be prepared to stay on as the United States attorney to do the work as we have done it, independently, without fear or favor for the last seven years.”

Bharara said that he had already talked to Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, who is Trump’s choice for attorney general. “He also asked that I stay on, and so I expect that I will be continuing,” he said.

Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, for whom Bharara served as chief counsel, issued a statement after Bharara made his announcement, saying, “President-elect Trump called me last week and asked me what I thought about Preet Bharara continuing his role as U.S. attorney.” “I told him I thought Preet was great,” Mr. Schumer added, “and I would be all for keeping him on the job and fully support it. I am glad they met, and am glad Preet is staying on.”

Indian Americans are happy that Bharara, has agreed to stay in his current role under the Trump administration and hailed President elect Donald Trump for his effort to ‘Reaching across the party lines’ and expressed hope that in near future ‘President Trump will appoint Preet to become a justice of the United States Supreme Court.’

Rajiv Khanna, President, India-America Chamber of Commerce and a prominent lawyer said in a brief comment, “I am glad that President-elect Trump is reaching across the party lines to pick his team.”

Ravi Batra, renowned Indian American lawyer said in a statement, “President elect Trump after meeting with the fearless United States attorney Preet Bharara, in a move more poignant then any before, declared that America, a nation of laws, will enjoy law enforcement without regard to political party labels: Republican or Democrat. After all, as has been said before, there is no democratic or republican way to lock up a criminal.

That Preet shared, within the confines of the law, his areas of interest with POTUS45 resulted in, as I had publicly hoped and urged, Trump offering Preet four more years. To our great benefit, Preet who can do anything he wants and go anywhere he wants, chose to remain the “Horatio Hornblower” of the United States Attorneys for the Southern District of New York and continue to battle against those who play checkers while Preet plays chess.

The fumigation and disinfectant of Albany and City hall is far from over, because those in dire need of being indicted, convicted and severed from their arrogant corrupt roots of power were playing the “run the clock out game” – suddenly find themselves checkmated by President elect Trump. I know that all hard-working New Yorkers are celebrating with unexpected joy that they have Preet back on their side to eviscerate the casual and comfortable corruption that has taken residence in the great state of New York.

Given Preet Bharara’s exceptional service to the people of these United States, meeting, and I believe well exceeding, the power that emanates from the chair of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York – I hope that then-president Trump will appoint Preet to become a justice of the United States Supreme Court when the next vacancy occurs – beyond the one created by the untimely demise of the great Nino Scalia.

There is inherent greatness and Preet, much like the America we love and the Constitution we cherish and protect from enemies foreign and domestic.”

As U.S. Attorney, Bharara oversees the investigation and litigation of all criminal and civil cases brought on behalf of the United States in the Southern District of New York, which encompasses New York, Bronx, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Sullivan counties. He supervises an office of more than 220 Assistant U.S. Attorneys, who handle a high volume of cases that include domestic and international terrorism, narcotics and arms trafficking, white collar crime, public corruption, gang violence, organized crime, and civil rights violations.

Since his appointment as U.S. Attorney, the office successfully extradited and prosecuted one of the most notorious arms traffickers in the world, Viktor Bout, who is now serving a 25-year sentence. The office also obtained a life sentence for Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber, and for one of the Al Qaeda plotters of the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa. In addition, the office has convicted scores of insider trading defendants, including Raj Rajaratnam, who was sentenced to 11 years, and Rajat Gupta.

Bharara was born in 1968 in Ferozepur, Punjab, India, to a Sikh father and Hindumother. He grew up in Eatontown in suburban Monmouth County, New Jersey and attended Ranney School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1986. He received his B.A magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1990 and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1993, where he was a member of the Columbia Law Review.

Dec 2, 2016 – 2:59 pm EST
Indian teen arrested 5 times in November in New Jersey

BRUNSWICK, NJ (TIP): A 19-year-old Indian was arrested five times in 12 days in November on multiple charges including attempted assault by auto, driving under the influence and drug possession, according to a report by NJ.com.

Sai Ramagiri was initially arrested on Nov. 4 by the Plainsboro Police Department for allegedly attempting to run over a friend with his vehicle while under the influence of marijuana, says the report quoting police.

He was then arrested at around 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 after police found Ramagiri “leaned over vomiting” near a Jeep on Monet Court with a shredded rear tire. Officers recovered marijuana and drug paraphernalia from the vehicle and charged Ramagiri with DWI, drug possession and several motor vehicle summonses. He was later released.

Two days later, Monmouth Junction firefighters found the teen with a white Porsche against a guardrail on Ridge Road, police said. Ramagiri, who was standing outside the vehicle, told officials the vehicle ran out of gas, police said.

An officer found a marijuana cigarette sticking out of Ramagiri’s front jeans pocket and he was arrested and charged with drug possession and DWI. He was processed and later released on a summons.

The next arrest came as Ramagiri was driving the 2016 Porche on Ridge Road and the South Brunswick officer who arrested him five days earlier saw him behind the wheel, police said.

The Plainsboro Police arrested Ramagiri Nov 15 again after police stopped him in his Porsche for failing to maintain lanes while driving on Plainsboro Road. He was charged with DWI, having open alcohol containers in the vehicle and several motor vehicle summonses, according to the report.

Nov 26, 2016 – 4:17 pm EST
Indian-Origin Sentenced To Prison For Helping ISIS in Chicago

An Indian American man who tried to go to Syria with his teenaged brother and sister to join the ISIS terror organisation has been sentenced in Chicago to 40 months in prison.

Mohammed Hazra Khan, 21, became on Friday the first person of Indian origin to be convicted and sentenced in the US for ISIS connections.

The sentencing hits the news just after the victory of Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump, who had called for intensive investigation of Muslim immigrants and, controversially, suggesting that if necessary their immigration should be stopped temporarily till a mechanism for heightened scrutiny was in place.

Federal Judge John J Tharp sentenced Khan, who had admitted in court last year to the charges of providing support to the ISIS and trying to go abroad to join it, Mary B McCord, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement.

The judge in the Northern Illinois federal court also ordered that for 20 years after his release, Khan should undergo intensive supervision that includes “violent extremism counselling” and a mental health treatment programme, she added.

Khan was arrested by anti-terrorism officers two years ago while trying to leave the US from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, she said. He was 19 years old at the time of his arrest.

Khan’s brother, who was 16 years old in 2014, and sister, who was 17, were also stopped at the airport but did not face any charges and were let go after officials questioned them.

Khan is an American citizen born in New York. But his family had immigrated from India and lived in the Chicago area, The Chicago Tribune reported quoting his lawyer Thomas Anthony Durkin.

In a Tribune picture taken outside the courtroom, Khan’s mother, Zarine, was seen wearing a hijab and his father, Shafi, a long beard. The newspaper said that Khan wore a skullcap inside the court.

ABC News reported that last year, his mother had publicly asked ISIS leaders to “leave our children alone” and asserted: “The venom spewed by these groups and the violence committed by them find no support in the Quran and are completely at odds with our Islamic faith.”

Durkin told the judge that Khan did not intend to wage war against the US but was naive and only wanted to join an Islamic caliphate and live according to Muslim doctrine, according to the Tribune.

Tharp did not buy the argument. The Tribune reported that the judge said: “Mr. Khan set off to join and aid a terrorist organization that believes it is appropriate, indeed believes it is holy, to kill anyone who disagrees with its religious dogma.”

Tharp referred to the behaviour of ISIS and told Khan that “instead of a public beheading, you have been given a public trial,” ABC News reported.

Khan could have been sentenced to 15 years, but the prosecutors asked for only five years because he had cooperated in other prosecutions and the judge gave the even more lenient sentence of 40 months.

With the two years he spent in custody and remission for good behaviour, he would eligible to be free to join college next year, ABC News said.

The Tribune said that according to prosecutors, Khan helped with investigations against an ISIS terrorist and recruiters and had also offered to testify against a British ISIS recruiter, Mizanur Rahman.

Nov 21, 2016 – 3:33 pm EST
Indian-American Couple Charged With Human Trafficking In California

An Indian-American couple has been indicted on human trafficking charges related to forced labour of foreign nationals primarily from India, authorities have said.

A federal grand jury charged Satish Kartan, 43, and his wife Sharmistha Barai, 38, with conspiracy to commit forced labour and the commission of forced labour.

Mr Kartan has also been charged with fraud in contacting foreign labour and Ms Barai with benefiting from forced labour, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.

If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The couple from California were arrested on October 21, on a criminal complaint and were released on bond with special conditions that prohibit them from hiring any non-relatives to perform domestic services or child care work for them. The arraignment is scheduled for November 21.

According to court documents, between February 21, 2014, and October 3, 2016, Mr Kartan and Ms Barai hired workers from overseas to perform domestic labour in their homes in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Stockton and elsewhere in the US.

In advertisements seeking workers on the internet and India-based newspapers, the couple made false claims regarding wages and duties of employment, federal prosecutors alleged.

“Once the workers arrived at the defendants’ residences, Mr Kartan and Ms Barai forced them to work 18 hours a day with limited rest and nourishment. The defendants did not pay wages and used force, physical restraint and coercive conduct to get the workers to perform the labour and services,” it said.

The indictment alleges that Mr Kartan and Ms Barai struck one worker on multiple occasions, including in one incident where Mr Kartan grabbed her hands and caused them to be burned over the flames of a gas stove.

Moreover, the indictment alleges that the defendants failed to pay another worker and told her that they would call the police if she tried to leave.

When she was ultimately able to arrange to be picked up from the defendants’ house, Mr Kartan refused to provide her with the access code to the gated community so that her ride could not enter, the court papers alleged.

Nov 21, 2016 – 3:23 pm EST
Indian-American Amul Thapar On Donald Trump’s List For Supreme Court Judge Nominees

Washington: Amul Thapar, an Indian-American jurist, may be nominated as a Supreme Court judge by US President-Elect Donald Trump.

Mr Thapar’s name figured in Mr Trump’s second list of individuals who would be considered for the nomination of a Supreme Court judge. The list was announced on September 23. The nomination list now assumes significance since Mr Trump, as the 45th president of the United States, would be in a position to nominate the three Supreme Court judge.

At present, Mr Thapar holds the position of US District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Venezuelan-born Federico Moreno, 64, who sits in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida is the only other minority candidate to be shortlisted.

The first Article II Judge of South Asian origin, he was nominated to this position by the former Republican president George W Bush.

“He has taught law students at the University of Cincinnati and Georgetown. Thapar has served as an Assistant US Attorney in Washington and the Southern District of Ohio,” the Trump Campaign said.

Immediately prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Thapar was the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Judge Thapar received his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

“This list is definitive and I will choose Justices of the United States Supreme Court only from it,” Trump had said in September while releasing the list.

“I would like to thank the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and many other individuals who helped in composing this list of twenty-one highly respected people who are the kind of scholars that we need to preserve the very core of our country and make it greater than ever before,” he said.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1969, Mr Thapar was nominated by George W Bush on May 24, 2007, to a seat vacated by Joseph M Hood. He was confirmed by the Senate on December 13, 2007, and received commission on January 4, 2008.

Mr Thapar has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he taught Federal Criminal Practice. He graduated from the renowned Boalt Hall School of Law of the University of California after receiving his undergraduate degree from Boston College.

Nov 21, 2016 – 3:16 pm EST
Three muggers attack man in wheelchair in Brooklyn

BROOKLYN, NY (TIP): Three masked muggers attacked a man in a wheelchair in front of his Brooklyn home, throwing him to the ground, punching and pistol-whipping him, then running off with his money, police sources said.

The 42-year-old victim was cut and bruised on his head in the Wednesday afternoon incident on Cozine Ave. in East New York.

He didn’t get a good look at the suspects, who stole $400 and his cellphone.

Two of the suspects were armed, sources said.

The attack follows the September mugging of a 93-year-old Harlem woman that drew outrage. The crook in that case eventually turned himself in.

Nov 18, 2016 – 4:22 pm EST
Indian American Teenager in Arizona Indicted on Cyberattack Charges

PHOENIX, AZ (TIP): Indian American Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai, 18, is facing four felony counts of computer tampering, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

Desai was arrested Oct. 27 after multiple agencies, including Surprise and Peoria police and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office, reported an influx of emergency call hang-ups between Oct. 24 and Oct. 26.

According to a sheriff’s office statement, more than 100 hang-up 911 calls were recorded within a few minutes late Oct. 25.

Investigators traced the calls and discovered they originated from a link posted to Twitter, according to the statement.

The link was to a site named “Meet Desai” and its domain was hosted out of San Francisco. When the link was clicked, it continually called 911 and would not let the caller hang up, the sheriff’s statement said.

The volume of calls had the potential to shut down 911 service across Maricopa County, the sheriff’s office said.

The teen told authorities his intent was to make a non-harmful, yet annoying bug that was meant to be funny, officials said.

After being approached by an online friend with a bug, Desai altered the bug to include pop-ups, prompts to open email apps and activate an iOS device automatic telephone dialing.

The teenager wrote all the coding in the bug.

Desai, who admitted to an interest in programs, bugs and viruses that he could manipulate and change, told detectives that Apple Inc. would pay and credit him for discovering such bugs and viruses.

The Indian Panorama had earlier reported the arrest of the teen.

Nov 18, 2016 – 12:31 pm EST
Indian-origin Sikh boy shot dead in Sacramento, CA

SACRAMENTO (TIP): Police in Sacramento, California, are investigating the death of Gurnoor Singh Nahal, a 17-year-old Sikh-American high school student found dead in the garage of his family’s home following reports of a shooting, according to media reports.

Gurnoor Singh Nahal, a 17-year-old Indian-origin Sikh high-school student was shot dead when he was returning home from work at his father’s retail store at 10.30 pm on November 8. The family does not suspect anything was taken and cannot understand why Gurnoor was shot.

“We cannot imagine it. We are lost,” his uncle Tejinderjit Singh was quoted as saying by the CBS Local News.

Nahal’s grandmother found him lying in the garage. She said he cried for help, but it was too late.

“She heard it and it was very loud and I think when she heard that, she came out and then she saw him,” Singh said. Gurnoor was supposed to graduate this spring.

Nov 18, 2016 – 12:25 pm EST
Five teens rob Queens Rite Aid, take off with more than $1,000 worth of merchandise

NEW YORK (TIP): Five teens robbed a Queens Rite Aid of more than $1,000 of merchandise, police said Wednesday, November 16. The thieves stormed a Rite Aid on Cross Bay Blvd. near 161st Ave. in Howard Beach around 9:30 p.m. Oct. 27, cops said.They ransacked the store of around $1,350 worth of merchandise, according to officials. Before leaving, one of the teens warned a clerk against following them, claiming he was armed with a knife.

The band of thieves fled the store in a white Cadillac EscaladeCops released a surveillance video that shows the teens entering the store, and are asking the public’s help identifying them.

They are all described as men between the ages of 16 and 20, according to officials.

Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

Nov 18, 2016 – 12:03 pm EST
US warns its citizens in India of IS attack

WASHINGTON (TIP): The enhanced threat perception India currently faces could affect foreign visitor inflow as the peak travel season begins in the country. The US Embassy in New Delhi issued on Nov 2 a terror alert for its citizens in India, warning of increased threat of Westerners being targeted in India.

Titled ‘security message for US citizens’, the alert says: “The US Embassy warns of an increased threat to places in India frequented by Westerners, such as religious sites, markets and festival venues. All US citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness.”

The embassy has also mentioned increased risk from “ISIL aka Da’esh” (Islamic State terror group) and asked its citizens to refer to the “worldwide caution” issued by the US state department less than two months ago.

Regarding India specifically, the US state department caution issued on September 9, 2016, says: “India continues to experience terrorist and insurgent activities which may affect US citizens directly or indirectly. Anti-western terrorist groups active in India include Islamist extremist groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-i-Islami, Harakat ul-Mujahidin, Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Lashkar-e-Taiba.”

The caution was issued nine days before the Uri attack and since then India is on the highest possible alert. The US embassy warning comes at a time when inbound tourism season is starting. “The heightened tensions between India and Pakistan; the war-like situation on the line of control in Kashmir and overall enhanced security across India.

(PTI)

Nov 4, 2016 – 11:00 pm EDT
Indian Teen Arrested for Choking 911 Lines: Horrible Joke Goes Wrong

PEORIA, AZ (TIP): An Indian-origin teenager has been arrested in the US for carrying out a cyberattack that swamped Arizona’s emergency services with several bogus calls, an incident he claimed was a non-harmful joke gone wrong. Meetkumar Hiteshbhai Desai was taken into custody after the Surprise Police Department, Arizona, notified the Sheriff’s Office of more than 100 hang-up 911 calls.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office arrested the 18-year-old, accusing him of carrying out a cyberattack on the 911 system, according to a Sheriff’s Office statement. Desai was booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of three counts of computer tampering. Interference with critical infrastructure could have disrupted the 911 system in the Phoenix area and potentially other states, The Arizona Republic reported.

Investigators traced the calls and discovered they originated from a link posted to Twitter, according to the statement. The link was to a site named “Meet Desai” and its domain was hosted out of San Francisco. When the link was clicked, it continually called 911 and would not let the caller hang up. Peoria police and the MCSO also received a large number of calls, and the volume had the potential to shut down 911 service across Maricopa County, the Sheriff’s Office said. MCSO detectives identified ‘Meet’ and took him in for questioning, October 26.

“Meet claims that his intention was to make a non-harmful, but annoying bug that he believed was ‘funny’,” the Sheriff’s Office statement said. Desai told investigators that he was approached by an online friend with a bug. Desai then tweaked the bug so it would add pop-ups, prompts to open e-mail applications and activation of automatic telephone dialing on iOS devices, all via coding that Desai wrote himself.

Desai said Apple Inc., the hardware and software company, would pay and credit him for discovering such bugs and viruses. The MCSO cybercrimes unit executed a search warrant and seized multiple items at Desai’s residence that will be forensically examined, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Nov 4, 2016 – 6:10 pm EDT
Indian American Family Robbed at Gunpoint in their Home

CHESTER SPRINGS, PA (TIP) — An Indian American family was robbed at gunpoint in their own home in broad daylight by two masked men in Pennsylvania.

Men with guns broke into Mahendra Patel’s home in Chester Springs Tuesday, Oct 25, morning.

“They came inside and showed the gun,” Patel said. Patel says they barged in through an unlocked backdoor.

As one gunman kept an eye on family members in the living room, the other forced Patel’s teenage grandson to fill a bag with cash and jewelry.

When he was done, the second gunman bound the grandson’s hands together.

“My grandson was very scared. They tied up his hands. They closed the door,” Patel said.

Patel says there was also a third person who was inside a getaway car parked nearby.

But the gunmen had one more order before they left.

“They said, ‘Get up. Go into the bathroom.’ He told us to ‘count to 1000. If you come out before that, I will shoot you,’” Patel said.

The thieves ended up getting away with an unspecified amount of cash and jewelry.

Mahendra Patel says the monetary loss means a lot less to him then the effect this has had on his family, especially his grandson.

“I dislike this whole thing because my grandson was very scared,” Patel said.

Oct 28, 2016 – 4:00 pm EDT
Crime and Candidates

Polling for the U.S. presidential election is less than weeks away. Most predictions favor Democrat Hillary Clinton, although the contest with Republican candidate Donald Trump is expected to be closer than many partisan supporters on either side would concede. What struck me most during the three rounds of television debates between the rival candidates was the intensity of mutual recrimination. Each continues to accuse the other of grave misdemeanor. While Mr. Trump believes Ms. Clinton deserved to be sent to jail for using an unauthorized private email server and causing the disappearance of more than 30,000 mails after being subpoenaed by U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the latter accuses the former of tax evasion and inappropriate conduct towards women.

Mr. Trump’s principal charge against the Obama administration – of which Ms. Clinton had been a vital member for years – is the alleged soft approach to crime and neglect of the inner cities. The Republican candidate demands tough handling of crime, which resonates with his vow to stop immigration, especially of Latinos and Muslims. He believes that crime in the country has become uncontrollable, and the inner city in most urban areas has become a crime haven. His support to the influential National Rifle Association (NRA) is absolute. Ms. Clinton does not share her opponent’s pessimism. Her stance is moderate; she concedes that guns are a problem, but won’t go the whole hog condemning the NRA, obviously because of its widespread influence in the polity and large sections of the white population. One must remember here that President Barack Obama assumed office with a resolve to cut the NRA down to size. Later on his position became wishy-washy.

Crime in the U.S.

Crime in the U.S. and its impact nationally has always been an important aspect of the election debate for decades. The release a few weeks ago of crime figures for 2015 by the FBI has intensified the presidential debate. FBI statistics reveal that violent crime in 2015 went up by 4 per cent. Homicides registered an 11 per cent rise. In about 70 per cent of homicides firearms were used.

The popular impression – one fanned by Mr. Trump – that the whole country has become more violent than before, however, appears skewed because the rise in homicides was confined to a few cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Las Vegas. In a few other important cities, homicides declined – the drop in New York, for instance, was 25 per cent. The reported spurt in murders during the first few months of the current year is again confined to a few cities, with Chicago contributing the bulk. Expert opinion is that crime trends are ephemeral and constantly fluctuating, hence taking any position on the basis of occurrences during a few years alone is preposterous.

One feature of the U.S. crime scene that should cause consternation to many of us in India is the number of rapes. During last year these went up to 95,000, almost thrice as many as are reported annually in India. Significantly, a majority of rapes occurring in the country are on university campuses: during 2014, there were about 100 universities from each of which at least 10 rape cases were reported. Many American believe that a large number of rapes go unreported. There was a recent controversy over the award of a light six-month sentence to Brock Turner, a Stanford University student, by a judge, even though he was convicted on three counts of felony sexual assault in 2015. Public opinion was so exercised that the judge sought to be reassigned to the civil division instead of criminal trials.

How do the U.S. police cope with crime?A lot has depended on the proactive role of individual police leaders. Chiefs are appointed by the city mayors, thereby injecting a little of politics into the process of day-to-day policing. The legendary Bill Bratton, who had two spells as Police Commissioner in the New York Police Department (NYPD), made a lot of difference to the city’s public order. His “broken windows” approach, that concentrated on petty crime in decrepit neighborhoods and thereby neutralized those prone to commit grave crime if their minor peccadilloes were ignored, resulted in a drop in crime rates.

Another of Mr. Bratton’s innovations, one prescribing a computer-aided identification of hotspots of crime by field commanders, also helped. Named CompStat, this procedure made officers in charge of police stations accountable for acting swiftly on rising crime graphs. CompStat has, however, invited criticism that a lot of crime was being suppressed to dress up statistics; Mr. Bratton resigned from the NYPD a few months ago. This is again an index of the growing complexity of policing in the country, and the delicate police chief-mayor relationship.

Policing with sensitivity

Two other features of policing in relation to crime control have been frequently discussed across the country. The first of these is the practice of “stop-and-frisk” whereby citizens are stopped and frisked at random. Statistics have often been cited to prove that this was a racist practice. As a result, successive police commissioners – especially in New York City – have had to constantly assuage hurt public sentiment. On their part, the police in many cities claim that the practice had helped to recover firearms which would otherwise have been used to commit crime. While a lot has been done to reduce the frequency and intensity of the “stop-and-frisk” program, sections of the minorities continue to nurse a grievance that many U.S. police departments are insensitive towards them.

The latest controversy is over the police’s inclination to open unprovoked fire at innocent citizens, especially African-Americans. The most recent one is the October killing of Deborah Danner, an old mentally ill woman of Bronx, by an NYPD policeman. Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken the incident seriously, but has not been able to arrive at any formula that would give reasonable assurance that incidents like these will not repeat themselves.

Ms. Clinton has mentioned in her campaign the need to build police sensitivity so that African-Americans receives fairer treatment at the hands of the police. Mr. Trump has not had much to say on this. It’s not surprising though, since he proclaims himself to be tough on crime, and any police high-handedness towards the minorities fits into his framework of an America that is free from crime, especially in the inner cities.

The U.S. crime situation is unusually complex. Race and the varying standards of the more than 15,000 stand-alone police forces are factors to reckon with. The growing number of police casualties makes policemen in many places trigger-happy. Only lip service has been paid to the eternal problem of gun control because of the political connotations involved. How much either Ms. Clinton or Mr. Trump can do to limit the damage caused by free availability of guns or make the police more citizen- friendly is a moot point.

(The author, R. K. Raghavan, is a former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation)

Oct 28, 2016 – 12:03 pm EDT
4 shot outside San Francisco schools, suspects at large

SAN FRANCISCO (TIP): Four teenage students were shot in the shared parking lot of two San Francisco high schools on Oct 19, and one of the students is in critical condition, authorities said.

The shooting occurred as students were being let out of school for the day from the June Jordan School for Equity and City Arts and Technology High School, which share a campus, San Francisco Police Officer Carlos Manfredi said.

Three of the victims ran inside the school, and police initially ordered students to stay in place until police searched each room and determined it was not an active shooter situation. A fourth victim hurt in the shooting went to a hospital, Manfredi said.

“One female victim has life-threatening injuries to her upper torso,” he said

Four male suspects wearing dark hoodies and jeans were seen running away from the area, Manfredi said.

The shooters seemed to have targeted the female student, said Karwin Sui, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Unified School District. (AP)

Oct 21, 2016 – 2:39 pm EDT
INDIAN-AMERICAN WOMAN ATTORNEY CHARGED WITH VISA FRAUD

NEWARK, NJ (TIP): A 39-year-old Indian-American woman attorney on Monday, October 17, pleaded guilty to visa fraud charges related to students and H-1B visas, federal prosecutors said. Sunila Dutt, of Virginia, pleaded guilty before US District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark federal court to an information charging her with conspiracy to commit visa fraud and obstruct justice.

Dutt, an immigration attorney for two information technology companies – SCM Data Inc and MMC Systems Inc – admitted that she submitted phony documents and obstructed a federal investigation as part of a scheme that fraudulently obtained foreign worker visas, US Attorney Paul J Fishman announced.

According to court information, SCM Data Inc and MMC Systems Inc offered consultants to clients in need of IT support. Both companies recruited foreign nationals, often student visa holders or recent college graduates and sponsored them for H-1B visas. Dutt and other conspirators recruited foreign workers with purported IT expertise who sought work in the United States. The conspirators then sponsored the foreign workers’ H-1B visas with the stated purpose of working for SCM Data and MMC Systems’ clients throughout the United States.

When submitting the visa paperwork to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the conspirators falsely represented that the foreign workers had full-time positions and were paid an annual salary, as required to secure the H-1B visas, federal prosecutors alleged. Contrary to these representations and in violation of the H-1B program, the conspirators paid the foreign workers only when they were placed at a third-party client who entered into a contract with SCM Data or MMC Systems.

Justice Department alleged that in some instances, false payroll records were generated to create the appearance that the foreign workers were paid full-time wages. Dutt admitted that she submitted, or caused to be submitted, one or more filings to USCIS falsely representing the companies would employ foreign workers for in-house positions when no such positions existed. Dutt faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a USD 250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for February 6, 2017.

Oct 21, 2016 – 10:13 am EDT
Sikh Techie Beaten, Hair Cut With Knife In Alleged Hate Crime In California

RICHMOND (KTVU) — A national group is urging that authorities pursue hate charges for two men who allegedly attacked a Richmond man apparently because of his religious beliefs.

The Sikh Coalition, a national group, sent a letter Friday to the Richmond police chief and the Contra Costa District Attorney, urging them to investigate the attack last month on Maan Singh Khalsa.

Khalsa, 41, is a member of the Sikh Center in El Sobrante and a U.S. citizen who works for the Social Security Agency.

Harsimran Kaur, the Sikh Coalition legal director, said Maan Singh Khalsa was attacked near the Hilltop Mall at Blume and Hilltop Drive about 9 p.m. on Sunday Sept. 25. He told police that a white Ford F-150 with as many as six men pulled up and someone threw a beer can at him. When he turned toward Interstate 80 and stopped at a light, he said the suspects approached the car and grabbed him through the window.

Authorities said Chase Little, 31, of Beaumont, Texas, and Dustin Albarado, 35, of Louisiana, were arrested in connection with the incident on felony assault charges. The two posted bail and were released. The Contra Costa County district attorney’s office has not yet said if it will pursue hate crime charges against the suspects.

“They started beating him in the face. They took a knife. His turban got knocked off. They ended up cutting off part of his hair. They said cut his f–ing hair,’” said Kaur, who says Khalsa received severe injuries.

Photos show him with a patch over one eye that is seen in another photo swollen shut. A third photo shows a blackened finger with stitches.

“He may need three root canals, his finger was severely cut by the knife,” Kaur said. “It may need to be amputated. He got a black eye and other cuts and bruises.”

The Sikh Center’s leaders say emotionally, too, is the pain of having one’s hair cut which violates Sikh beliefs.

“We are not supposed to cut our hairs ever. It’s one of our five articles of faith,” said Karanbir Singh, vice-president of the Sikh Center, who says the entire community is stunned.

“He is a very nice man, a very good man. He never fights with anybody,” said Tarlok Singh, a Sikh Center member, who was surprised to see his fellow worshiper’s injuries following the attack.

Khalsa called 911 during the assault and Richmond police arrested Little and Albarado.

“My concern is they said ‘cut his f—ing hair’. so I don’t understand why someone would say that unless that they were they were specifically targeting a person,” said Kaur, who added that Maan Singh Khalsa reported that there were other men in the truck who have not been arrested.

Oct 11, 2016 – 1:44 am EDT
Sikh man shot dead in Afghanistan

PESHAWAR (TIP): A Sikh man was abducted from his home and gunned down by suspected militants in Afghanistan’s restive Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan, a media report said. Sardar Rawail Singh, who lived in Jalalabad, was abducted from his house by militants wearing military fatigues and killed in Khalis Famil area.

The incident triggered a massive protest by the minority Sikh community who staged a demonstration by placing the body of Singh in front of the provincial governor’s house in Jalalabad and demanded the arrest of the killers.

They accused security forces of negligence in arresting the killers and asked the government to bring to justice the killers as soon as possible.

Later, deputy governor Mohammad Hanif Gardiwal met the protesting Sikhs and pacified them. He said a case has been filed and a manhunt launched to nab the culprits.

The insurgents abducted Singh from his home at about 7:20 AM (local time) yesterday and gunned him down at Khalis Famil area, provincial governor’s spokesman Attaullah Khogyani was quoted as saying by Pajhwok Afghan News. Rawinder, one of the protesters, said Singh had a dispute with his neighbour on Friday Next morning, the neighbour came along with some gunmen and abducted Singh from his home before killing him, he said, adding that Singh had invited his friends for a party at his home when his neighbour objected. (TNN)

Oct 7, 2016 – 10:21 am EDT
Indian origin lawyer behind Huston shootout was a Nazi sympathizer

An Indian-origin lawyer in military style clothing emblazoned with a swastika pointing to his Nazi sympathies went on an early morning shooting rampage on Monday, Sep 26, injuring nine persons in Houston, Texas.

The Houston Police Homicide Division has confirmed that the suspect has been identified as Nathan Desai, 46, and he was killed by police.

Nathan Desai

Desai, a Nazi sympathizer, went on a 20-minute shooting rampage that injured nine had 2,600 rounds of ammunition, a .45 semi-automatic handgun and a .45 semi-automatic Thompson carbine on him. Along with these, an edged weapon still in its sheath was also recovered by the police.

Citing sources, the ABC13’s Eyewitness News said Desai used his car to stockpile ammunition and a tree for cover when he was shooting, right outside his condominium complex on Law Street.

The police said they did not know why Desai went on the rampage hitting people at random.

Desai’s name was written with the ‘S’ capitalised in media reports in Houston, making it sound European, but his father was identified as Prakash Desai.

All of his victims survived but one person was critically wounded and five others were hospitalised, Houston Police acting chief Martha Montalvo said.

Montalvo described the shooter as a lawyer who was having problems at his law firm. When the police responded to the shooting, he shot at them and was killed when cops returned fire, she said.

The shooter’s father, 80-year-old Prakash Desai (Houston Chronicle said that Prakash Desai is a retired geologist) told Eyewitness News that Nathan had been troubled because his law practice was not doing very well and according to ABC 13, he had no active civil or criminal cases based on the Harris County court records. He had only two new criminal cases since 2013.

He didn’t believe his son was the shooter as the two were said to have had dinner only 12 hours before the shooting.

John Elmore, the property manager for The Oaks at West University, where Desai lived, said Desai’s behaviour had been erratic for the last two months. He seemed paranoid and thought someone was “out to get him”, Elmore said.

In February, he and his law partner Kenneth McDaniel of 12 years parted ways and neighbours believed he was doing law work out of his condo.

“We made a mutual decision, roughly in February, to simply no longer operate as a partnership for economic reasons,” said McDaniel. “I feel very sorry for him and for those people.”

Desai owned several guns to protect himself against his clients, some of whom were “funny people and criminally-minded people”, his father said.

The daily reported that the police found in his flat several military items that went back to the Civil War.

Police found a Thompson submachine gun in his Porsche and a 0.45 caliber handgun that he used against the police.

The Chronicle said that the police used a robot to examine his car and his flat for explosives.

Sep 28, 2016 – 10:44 am EDT
#URIATTACK – World Reacts

Sep 18, The United Kingdom in strong words today condemned the terrorist attack on J&K’s Uri which claimed the lives of 20 soldiers and injured 27 and came out in support of India.

“I offer my deepest condolences to the victims and their families and friends. The UK condemns all forms of terrorism, and stands shoulder to shoulder with India in the fight against terrorism, and in bringing the perpetrators to justice,” stated Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary in a statement.

US strongly condemns terrorist attack

The United States condemned the terrorist attack at the Army administrative base in Jammu and Kashmir’s Uri which killed 17 soldiers.

“The United States strongly condemns the terrorist attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir during the early morning of September 18,” read the statement.

The US came out in support of India stating, “The United States is committed to our strong partnership with the Indian government to combat terrorism”.

“We extend our condolences to the victims and their families,” the State Department Spokesman John Kirby said.

Meanwhile, the US Ambassador to India Richard Verma also tweeted condemning the attack.

Heavily armed terrorists today stormed a battalion headquarters of the Army in North Kashmir’s Uri town, killing 17 jawans and injuring 19 others. Four terrorists were killed by the security forces. Combing operations are underway at the base.

Sep 20, 2016 – 8:40 am EDT
UN Secy Gen Ban Ki-moon condemns Uri attack

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the terrorist attack on Uri in Jammu & Kashmir.

The response comes in the middle of the 71st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York.

A statement issued by the United Nations stated, “The Secretary-General condemns today’s militant attack in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. He expresses his deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the soldiers who lost their lives and to the Government of India. He wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. The Secretary-General hopes that the perpetrators of this crime will be identified and brought to justice.”

The attack has claimed the lives of 18 soldiers and injured 19 others.

The attack stared at 4:30 am September 18.

Sep 20, 2016 – 8:38 am EDT
#Uri attack:Punjab traders talk of severing trade ties with Pak

Chandigarh, Sep 19 (TIP) Punjab traders dealing in import and export of goods with Pakistan today sought a fitting reply in the aftermath of Uri attack, threatening to end Rs 3,000 crore worth of trade with the neighbouring country for the “heinous act”.

“Time has come for India to take strict and swift action against Pakistan which is responsible for the Uri terror attack that left our several soldiers dead,” Amritsar-based trader and President of Federation of Dry Fruit and Haryana Commercial Association, Anil Mehra, told PTI today.

“The Modi government should suspend all sorts of ties with Pakistan in response to the terror attack unleashed on Indian soil,” Mehra suggested.

Noting that there is a great amount of anger against this terror attack, which left 18 soldiers dead, Mehra said traders in Punjab are ready to end trade ties with Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah land route.

“We urge the Centre to even stop trade with Pakistan through Attar-Wagah land route. We are ready for ending trade ties with the neighbouring country, which is responsible for such an attack. For us, the country comes first and then comes trade. We will do something else for our livelihood,” said Mehra.

Traders asserted that it is Pakistan which is the most dependent on India for import of goods like vegetables, including tomatoes, ginger, garlic and spices, cotton yarn and the like.

Pakistan exports cement, gypsum and dry fruits to the country via the Attari-Wagah land route.

“If we today stop sending tomatoes which has been the major export item to Pakistan, they will face immense shortage of this perishable commodity. Moreover, if we do not import dates from Pakistan, they will not find buyers for this,” he added.

Traders further said Pakistan had not even allowed export of onions to India last year when the country was facing shortage. India then imported onions from Afghanistan.

Pakistan allows import of 137 items from India through Attari-Wagah.

As per estimates, the total volume of trade between the two nations via Attari-Wagah is estimated at Rs 3,000 crore per annum.

India and Pakistan had resumed cross-border movement of trucks in October 2007 after a gap of sixty years from Attari check post at Amritsar in India to Wagah border in Pakistan.

An integrated check-post was set up on the Attari-Wagah border in 2012 at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore for smooth movement of traffic.

Sep 20, 2016 – 8:37 am EDT

Tag: Law & Order

Crime in the U.S.

Policing with sensitivity

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