Feature
IAS Aspirant Gang-Raped For 3 Hours In Bhopal
BHOPAL: A 19-year-old student in Bhopal, studying for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), was tied up and gang-raped for three hours on Tuesday in the busiest part of the city by four men who took tea and gutka (tobacco) breaks in between.
Prolonging the horror, the police allegedly sat on the woman’s complaint for hours and refused to investigate until she and her parents found two of the rapists and dragged them to the police station.
The first police officer the woman and her parents approached allegedly accused her of making up a “filmy” story. Sub-inspector RN Tekam has been suspended, said senior officer Dharmendra Singh, admitting an appalling 11-hour delay in filing a case. Today, five more police officers were suspended after Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, amid outrage and protests, met with senior officials.
The police have also been accused of keeping the crime under wraps because it took place on a day it was preoccupied with the Madhya Pradesh founding day celebration.
The woman was assaulted near the city’s Habibganj Railway station, and just about 100 metres from a railway police post. She usually took a train from the station to her hometown about an hour away, after her coaching classes for the IAS.
That evening, the police say, she decided to take a shorter route when around 7 pm, she was grabbed by one of the accused, Golu Bihari, who is out in bail in the murder of his daughter. Golu and his brother-in-law Amar Bhuntu were drinking when they spotted the woman and dragged her towards a deserted culvert.
As the woman kept fighting her attackers, they hit her, tied her up and raped her. In her complaint, the woman says Golu Bihari left to get cigarettes and tobacco, leaving Amar with her.
Till 10 pm, the four men took turns to rape the woman, say the police.
When she was finally allowed to leave, they took away her earrings, watch and phone.
The woman walked to a railway police post at the Habibganj station and called her parents – both in the security forces. The next morning, her father took her to a police station, and was redirected to two more.
When the family was returning from the Habibganj police station, the woman spotted Golu and Amar near the spot where she was raped. The family chased the two and handed them over to the police. Embarrassed, the police arrested the four rapists and are inquiring into the conduct of their own.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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