Feature
Girl brutally gang raped, murdered just like Nirbhaya case in Haryana
Chandigarh: A young woman from Haryana’s Sonepat district was abducted, brutally raped and murdered on the pattern of 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape incident.
According to police, the head and face of the victim was smashed with a blunt object and crushed under the wheels of a vehicle.
Police has arrested two men in this regards, including the neighbor of the victim who was involved in stalking the girl from past few days.
The deceased Haryana woman was aged around 22 year-old who went missing on May 9th, as per the complaint filed by her family.
On early Friday morning, her body was found on the outskirts of Rohtak town, 70 km from national capital Delhi.
The incident comes days after the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence of four accused in the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape.
Police officials said that forensic experts have disclosed that the victim was sexually assaulted and her body was badly mutilated. Stray dogs had bitten off parts of the body.
The cops were told that the victim’s head and face were smashed with a hard object and crushed under the wheels of a vehicle. This was done to hide her identity.
A police officer told media persons, the Haryana Police have launched an investigation into the brutal gang rape and murder. The arrested men were being interrogated.
The two men arrested have been identified as Sumit and Vikas, police said that Sumit was a neighbour of the victim in Sonepat and had been stalking her. He was pressurising her to marry him but she had refused.
Police officials alleged that Sumit planned the gang rape and murder to teach a lesson to the woman.
A mentally unstable Nepalese woman was brutally gang raped and murdered by seven men in Rohtak district in February 2015. The accused were awarded the death penalty by a local court in December 2015.
Entertainment
Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists
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.