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August 23, 2012

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In what comes across as a rather deplorable episode, a third-year student of Mathematics Honors from St. Stephen’s college was allegedly abducted on August 15 by her 24-year-old boyfriend who held her in custody at a hotel in Paharganj area of Central Delhi before police extricated her the following day.

Apparently, the accused, identified as Abhishek Deep, a journalism graduate from IP University, had called the girl to the Shastri Nagar Metro station, subsequent to which he took her to Hotel Ashoka in Paharganj. There he had already reserved two rooms, one of which was in the name of the victim. After forcefully locking her in one of the rooms, he made a call from her mobile to her father and demanded ransom of Rs. 1.5 crore.

However, his plans met with a disaster when the girl’s father, who is a consultant at an iron ore firm in Bangalore, informed the police and after registering a case, a rigorous interrogation kick started. It was actually through phone surveillance that the location of the number was unearthed following which the victim was rescued. At the same time, the police also collared Abhishek and arrested him on the grounds of kidnapping a girl.

During the aftermath interrogations, it was garnered that the accused, a native of Chattisgarh, was in desperate need of money and hence concocted this entire conspiracy. In fact, he was unemployed but had a longing to lead a prolific lifestyle and had earlier taken a handsome amount of money from his previous girlfriend as well. The two met at a fest in January this year and were in association since then.

Reportedly, the girl in question did a year of her graduation in United States before migrating to India three years back. She was now putting up in a flat in Kingsway camp near North Campus. According to some of her acquaintances who refused to be quoted or named, she didn’t share an emotional bond with her parents and their relationship was more or less confined to matters related to finances. She had also flunked in her second year exams, the result of which came on the day of this incident. She has now gone back to Bangalore and is perhaps planning to shift to United Stated again.

 

Vatsal Verma
[email protected]

Like every other mission, Ten to the Power started as an idea. Ankit Durga and his self-admittedly net-savvy friends were following the Kony 2012 viral campaign and found two things remarkable and amusing. The campaign had been so successful in its impact and effect that people from India were joining in. That was remarkable. What was amusing and ironic was that India had over a hundred Kony-like scenarios existing in every district and state. Yet, the connection of the youth was to a people unknown, and a continent halfway across the world. It made them think about the missing factor which left the people ignorant and disconnected from the thousands of NGOs doing revolutionary work in their own country. The answer was simple: Communication. What they chose to do with the answer was innovative. Instead of restricting it to a living-room discussion, they decided to start a project which will focus on funding rural learning centres and organizations as well as making the students of Delhi step out of their comfort zones and work in terrains and social structures they’ve never seen or experienced. While their goal is development and social betterment, their main aim is to reach out to those people who need to get something in return even if they enough. The campaign they’ve chosen to work on is education. More importantly, education in the rural and inaccessible parts of India. After thorough research and interaction, the project has chosen the Purkul Development Youth Society to partner with and support their Early Child Learning Centre as well as their Women Empowerment Cell. It intends to increase the access of education to kids in their formative years as well as provide their parents with a source of income. The first phase of their project is just as simple. A hundred rupees. If every student in Delhi University contributed a hundred rupees, an entire rural school could be run on that alone.  To put things in perspective, a scoop of gelato or a dinner at Khan with enough equivalent power to fund a single child’s education for a day. The youth, as a collective have enough power to change every system of this country and sometimes, all it takes to bring them together is an idea like this one. For more information/to volunteer, visit – http://tentothepower.com/  ]]>