Delhi, the Crime Capital of India

Delhi is the national capital, but the law and order is not the best in the world. In fact it is abysmally poor, with day light murders and rapes a frequent occurrence. Recently two girls were walking along the road, when a car pulled up near them and one of the girls was pulled inside the car and it sped off. This too in broad daylight, when tens of commuters were around. The girl after repeated rape was left on the roadside. The silver lining was that she was not murdered.

Crimes in Delhi

Such crimes have been the bane of Delhi. Who can forget the gruesome rape and murder of two Children nearly three decades back. The Killers Ranga and Billa have been hanged, but that is small consolation to the mass of women and girls who are subject to similar acts all over Delhi. The sad part is that crimes that took place three decades back are being repeated with alarming frequency. The crime graph is on the upswing. In fact, one reads of daily daylight murders and abductions all over Delhi.

Reasons

The reasons for this alarming crime rate are many. One of them is the lax law enacted by the Morarji Desai Janta regime in 1977, which amended the law and made getting bail easier. Thus a rapist or murderer easily gets bails and the deterrent of time in jail is dispensed with. In addition the law and order in Delhi is a Central Government prerogative and the Delhi state government has no responsibility. This leads to a piquant situation and the sufferer is the law and order situation. Another aspect of the crime rate is the lax police approach. Many a time the police do not record FIR's as they would like to keep their books regarding crime clean. In addition the western UP criminal tribes come to Delhi commit the crimes and head back. But these tribes usually take part in robbery and murder. But rape and sex related crimes are the handiwork of local boys. Some of them are the children of known politicians, who are shielded by their parents. An example is the case of Nitesh kataraia.This boy was murdered by the son of a well known politician, as the boy could not accept kataria's love affair with his sister. The government of India which is responsible for the law and order of Delhi, must act before Delhi slithers further down the road of crime and anarchy.

Judge Strikes Down Defense Motions in Pennsylvania Capital Murder, Dismemberment Crime

Monroe County President Judge Ronald Vican denied Thursday three pre-trial defense motions by public defender William Sayers, who is defending Charles Hicks in the murder case of Deanna Null.

Because the state believes that there were "aggravating circumstances" in the killing, the prosecution is seeking the death penalty.

The murder of 33-year-old Deanna Null made national headlines when body parts were found by a Pennsylvania state road crew. Police officers sent to investigate soon realized that the remains found by the road crew weren't the only ones dumped.

A search of the area radial to the intersections of Route 80 and Route 380 found that eight bags containing body parts had been strewn over a 15 mile-wide area, according to Mahalo.com. After several days of searching the area, law enforcement authorities felt they had located most of the homicide victim but could not find the hands.

The murder victim's hands had been cut off in an attempt to impair law enforcement ability to identify the victim. The hands were discovered several weeks later in the Tobyhanna, Penn., home occupied by Hicks, then an employee of Tobyhanna Army Depot.

The hands were wrapped in newspaper and hidden in the wall space of Hicks' home, according to The Times Leader. Null's severed head was found alongside the highway about 200 yards from where Hicks lived.

One of the pre-trial motions denied by Vican was an unusual request that Hicks' mother join the defense team. A member of the defense team could not then serve as a witness for the prosecution, which is expected to call Hicks' mother to the stand.

Sayer also requested that the prosecution turn over records of Hicks' previous arrests. The prosecution team objected. For one thing, prosecutors had already turned over the records, they said. For another, Hicks' prior arrest record would be inadmissible in court.

A defense request to introduce an autopsy report by forensic pathologist Sarah Funke was also denied. The pathologist who prepared the report couldn't appear due to a medical condition, Sayers said.

While the defense attorney claimed the forensic pathologist had medical problems which prevented her testimony, Vican suggested that Sayer work out some other way to obtain the testimony of the expert witness.

Vican denied the motion to present the autopsy report without the person who produced it. Otherwise, the prosecution would not be able to cross-examine or otherwise determine the accuracy of the report.

The importance of Funke's autopsy report to Hicks' defense attorney is that it undermines the prosecution's death penalty case. The prosecution has charged Hicks with capital murder because it believes he tortured Nulls before killing her.

The grisly autopsy report indicates that the body was dismembered only after the victim was dead and that "aggravating circumstances" did not apply. Whether or not a jury believes that will determine whether Hicks, if convicted, would be sentenced to death.

According to a Monroe County Court Administrator, jury selection for Hicks' capital murder trial is set to begin September 12.

Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent contributor to Yahoo with news pertaining to Pennsylvania.

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