A FORMER Amazon delivery driver has been convicted of stalking British tennis star Emma Raducanu, who felt his actions made her feel insecure.
Amrit Magar, from Edgware, visited Raducanu’s London suburb home three times and left flowers and notes, apparently indicating his obsession for the US Open champion.
Among the messages he left at her home was a map showing how he walked from north London to her residence, Bromley magistrates court heard. A note with it read: “23 miles walked 4 you.”
He also put up Christmas lights on a tree at her house.
But he was caught in December stealing her father’s shoe which he mistook for hers and which he wanted to keep as a “souvenir”.
Magar, 35, who is now out on bail, is ordered not to contact the Raducanus or visit their street.
“Since all this has happened, I have felt creeped out. I feel very apprehensive if I go out, especially if I am on my own,” the Mail quoted the tennis player as saying.
She told the court that following Magar’s actions, she felt scared to go out alone.
“Because of this, I feel like my freedom has been taken away from me. I am constantly looking over my shoulder. I feel on edge and worried this could happen again. I don’t feel safe in my own home, which is where I should feel safest.”
Worried that he would come back to her property, she told the police that she was looking for a new house where better security arrangements could be made.
Magar told the court on Friday (28) that he felt ashamed to learn what his actions agonised her. But he did not feel they amounted to harassment.
District judge Sushil Kumar said: “His inability to explain how he did not think this was harassment is incapable of belief.”
His sentencing will take place next month.
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Post Office was institutionally racist: Seema Misra
Dec 20, 2024
A LEADING campaigner in the Post Office Horizon scandal has told Eastern Eye racism played a part in her horrific ordeal, but hoped her determination to fight back will change people’s perception of Asian women.
An inquiry into the wrongful prosecution of more than 900 sub-postmasters due to incorrect information from Fujitsu’s accounting software Horizon concluded on Tuesday (17), as Eastern Eye went to press.
Seema Misra, 48, was wrongly imprisoned in 2010 after being accused of stealing £75,000 from her Post Office branch in Surrey, where she was the subpostmistress. Documents from her case showed the investigator categorised her as “Indian/ Pakistani Types, ie Asian, etc”.
It was later revealed that staff were told to racially classify suspects, including “negroid types, ie West Indian, Nigerian, African, Caribbean etc”. It also included codes for “Arabian/ Egyptian types, Chinese/Japanese types” and “dark-skinned European types”.
“I definitely believe the Post Office was institutionally racist,” Misra said on Monday (16) from Aldwych House, where she was attending the inquiry.
Davindra and Seema Misra, and Vijay and Gita Parekh
She noted she was referred to as a “test case” by David Smith, former managing director of the Post Office.
“They probably thought this Indian lady will lose the case, go to prison, and then will probably hide away and won’t speak out,” said Misra.
“In our culture, if somebody goes to prison, they lose their self-respect. It’s very difficult to go back into society.”
Misra, who was jailed while two months pregnant, said had she not been expecting her second child, she would have ended her own life “for sure”.
At least four deaths by suicide have been recorded among those caught up in the scandal.
Varchas Patel with his father Vipin and mother Jayshriben
Misra served four months behind bars, and then spent four months having to wear an electronic bracelet, even while giving birth. Her conviction was finally overturned in 2021, along with those of around 40 of her colleagues.
Running a Post Office “could have been our adventure” and the start of a “business empire”, but “all that was shattered,” said Misra, who arrived in the UK from India in 1994.
She thought about returning to India, but decided against it as she still harboured the hope of a better life for her family.
Misra said she remains “very angry” at the Post Office, which she said “could have stopped it a while ago”, but instead “hid the evidence and made innocent people suffer”.
Though Misra has received interim payments for the money she lost out on, and is due to claim a substantial compensation settlement, she said she is determined to continue to fight for justice and see those responsible “behind bars”.
“If we let the Post Office get away with it today, tomorrow another organisation will do the same thing,” she told Eastern Eye. “We want each and every single person who was responsible for the scandal – Royal Mail, the Post Office, people from the government – we need to question them and put them behind bars.”
Hasmukh Shingadia and his wife Chandrika were all victims of the Horizon scandal
Misra described herself as a naturally quiet person, but said she hopes through her vocal campaigning she can inspire other women of south Asian heritage.
“The message I want to get across is if you’re suffering, make sure you raise your voice – don’t give up,” she said. “In the beginning I used to say, ‘why me?’ But I am very spiritual person – I thought maybe God wants some strong people to fight the Post Office, and I am a chosen one.
“When I went to prison, there was no media coverage of these cases. It was a difficult decision for us to go to the media, but we were like, ‘even if we can save one life, it will be worth it’.
“I’m happy at least my life is worthwhile fighting for the right cause.”
Berkshire sub-postmaster Hasmukh Shingadia, 65, told Eastern Eye he had suicidal thoughts after being accused of stealing £16,000.
He was handed an eight-month suspended sentence at Oxford crown court, ordered to pay more than £2,000 in costs and complete 200 hours community service. After a 10-year legal battle, his conviction was overturned in July 2021.
At the time of the ordeal, he said he did not think racism played a part in the way he was treated, as he had spoken to other sub-postmasters from different backgrounds who had similar experiences.
However, having heard evidence at the inquiry, Shingadia said: “What came out is that racism actually played a big part. The attitude of the people on the help desk when you called them up was racist. The language used was derogatory. The attitudes of some of the managers was similar – the way they treated Asian and black people was different to white people.”
Varchas Patel’s father, Vipin, 70, was wrongly convicted of fraud and given an 18-week suspended prison sentence in 2011. He said his father’s ordeal led to the rapid deterioration of his health and he is now only able to walk with crutches.
He revealed his family – who live in a small village, Horspath in Oxfordshire – were victims of racist abuse from the community and Post Office investigators.
“I do believe race played a part with some of the Post Office investigators,” Patel told Eastern Eye. “One of the individuals who worked for Fujitsu in the call centre, when he gave evidence to the inquiry, said every time a south Asian subpostmaster called, they would put the phone down or put the line on mute, and then shout across an open plan office, ‘we have another scamming Patel’.”
He said he believed there was an element of jealously involved in how his father was treated by the community and Post Office investigators.
“I believe jealousy goes hand in hand with an element of race,” Patel said. “A good portion of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses were from south Asian backgrounds. When people are hardworking, and they are entrepreneurial, and they are very progressive, there is an element of jealousy present.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the local parish council had elements of racism, even to this day while my dad is in the process of trying to acquire some compensation.
“I have some of the leaked parish council emails I have obtained and submitted to the lawyers. For example, one of the comments says, ‘East is East, West is West. We all understand their culture’. That’s quite a racial slur in itself.
“Now that the scandal has come to light, a small number of brave individuals in the village have said to me, ‘if it wasn’t the colour of your skin, if you were white, or you were English, your parents would have been treated differently’.
“They have confirmed that in the village we live in Oxfordshire, race played a part in my father receiving more harassment, intimidation and abuse.”
The inquiry, chaired by Sir Wyn Williams, has been gathering evidence on the decisions leading up to the wrongful convictions since February 2022.
The closing statements reflected on all phases of the inquiry, including evidence from former and current politicians, executives who were in the Post Office’s highest ranks during the scandal and former sub-postmasters and postmistresses.
The Post Office itself took many cases to court, prosecuting 700 people between 1999 and 2015. Another 283 cases were brought by other bodies, including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). A final report is expected in 2025.
Shingadia said the report should be clear about the racial elements that impacted the way the Post Office carried out its investigations. “Unless it is open and honest, the prosecutions pending for people at the top cannot be completed positively,” he said. “The report has to come out completely fair because it will help prove grounds for prosecution because people have lied and covered up things. It needs to cover all angles and present all the information they have collected.”
Police investigating crimes linked to the scandal are looking at “dozens” of potential suspects, but don’t expect trials to begin until 2027.
The Post Office did not respond to requests for a comment.
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Kite-making picks up in Gujarat ahead of harvest festival
Dec 19, 2024
HUDDLED over piles of colourful paper, Mohammad Yunus is one among thousands of workers in India's western state of Gujarat who make kites by hand that are used during a major harvest festival.
People in Gujarat celebrate Uttarayan, a Hindu festival in mid-January that celebrates the end of winter by flying kites held by glass-coated or plastic strings.
"The kite may seem like a small item but it takes a long time to make it. Many people are involved in it and their livelihoods depend on it," said Yunus, a Muslim who comes to Gujarat from neighbouring Rajasthan state to make kites during the peak season.
More than 130,000 people are involved in kite-making throughout Gujarat, according to government estimates, many of whom work from homes to make kites that cost as little as Rs 5 (4.74 pence)
At the start of the two-day festival, people rent roofs and terraces from those who have access to them, and gather there to fly colourful kites that criss-cross each other in the sky.
Gujarat is a hub of the kite industry in the country, boasting a market worth Rs 6.50 billion (£60.5 million), and the state accounts for about 65 per cent of the total number of kites made in India.
While the kite flying season in the state is limited to almost just 2 or 3 days in January, the industry runs year-round providing employment to about 130,000 people in the state, according to government figures.
But these paper birds are also harmful and can be fatal, especially kites that have plastic strings, which can cause serious cuts to birds in the sky, killing and injuring thousands of them during the festival.
At least 18 people died from kite related injures across Gujarat during this year's Uttarayan festival, including being cut by a string and getting electrocuted while trying to extricate a kite from an electric pole, local media reported.
(Reuters)
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Man convicted of murder in UK shifted to Surat jail
Dec 19, 2024
A MURDER convict sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment in the UK in 2020 has been brought to Gujarat to serve the remaining sentence under an India-UK agreement, officials said.
The UK government agreed to transfer the convict following an appeal filed by his parents that their son, a native of Gujarat's Valsad district, be allowed to serve the remaining sentence in the state, they said.
The Surat police on Tuesday (17) brought Jigukumar Sorthi (27) to the Lajpore Central Jail in Surat from Delhi.
He was sentenced to 28 years in jail in 2020 by a court in the UK's Leicester city for killing his former fiancee, Surat Commissioner of Police Anupamsingh Gehlot told reporters.
On Monday (16), British officials landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi with Sorthi, a native of Kalgam village under Umargam taluka in Valsad.
He was subsequently brought to the city and handed over to jail authorities by a Surat police team, led by an assistant commissioner of police, Gehlot said.
"Sorthi, a native of Kalgam in Valsad, was convicted in 2020 by a court in the UK for the murder of his former fiancee. He served four years of his sentence there. Under an agreement signed between both the governments, he will serve the remaining sentence (of 24 years) in the Lajpore jail," he said.
During the trial held in the UK in September 2020, Sorthi was found guilty of the murder of her estranged fiancee Bhavini Pravin.
Sorthi stabbed her multiple times at her house in Leicester in March 2020 over some differences regarding their marriage plans. Hours later, he surrendered before the local police and admitted to his crime.
As per the UK media reports, Sorthi had a civil ceremony with Bhavini Pravin in India in 2017. He went to England on a spousal visa in August 2018 and had planned to marry Bhavini in a Hindu wedding ceremony, but her family called it off a day before the murder, the reports said.
(PTI)
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Asian lawyer slams 'rubbish' court cases amid huge backlog
Dec 19, 2024
A PROMINENT London criminal lawyer has criticised prosecutors for pursuing thousands of "rubbish" cases while the courts face massive delays, with some trials being scheduled eight years after the alleged crimes.
Manisha Knights, a criminal defence specialist and founder of MK Law, revealed about half of the 73,105 cases currently waiting to be heard in crown courts should not be prosecuted at all.
"There's a lot of crimes being prosecuted that are a load of rubbish," Knights told the Times, pointing to cases involving minor drug offences, certain sexual offences and petty theft.
The British Indian solicitor-advocate highlighted how some people accused of crimes in 2020 are now getting court dates for 2028. "It's insane — the person you're going to end up trying after eight years is not going to be the same person they were when the alleged offence was committed," she said.
Knights, who founded her law firm from her conservatory in 2008, now employs 31 staff across three offices. She raised concerns about prosecutors bringing sexual offence cases without properly checking evidence and witnesses, leading to cases falling apart in court.
The government has promised to fund 2,000 extra court sitting days to tackle the problem, though this falls short of the 6,000 needed. Former judge Sir Brian Leveson is reviewing possible reforms, including setting up a new type of court and changing some jury trial rights.
Knights was born in Zambia in 1974. She came to England in 1979, aged five. She faced racism and family hardship while growing up in Basingstoke.
Knights endured both racial abuse and a troubled home life. She and her younger brother spent time in women's refuges with their mother to escape their father's violence. After her father died when she was 11, a legal battle with relatives over property rights meant many visits to lawyers' offices. These early encounters with the legal system inspired her future career choice.
Despite earning her law degree from Hull University, she received 400 rejections before finally securing her break in the legal world.
Starting as a paralegal on a murder case in Manchester, she impressed a defendant so much that he chose her to represent him mid-trial. This led to her training contract and eventual qualification in 2003.
Unlike many advocates, Knights chooses not to wear the traditional wig in court, believing it helps her connect better with juries.
She worries about the future of criminal law, noting that law schools are warning students away from the field due to poor pay.
Reflecting on her work's importance, she recalled representing a young boy whose mother forced him to rob people. "We represent some of the most vulnerable people in society — not for the money, but because we care about justice. Who is going to be there to fight their corner in the future?" she asks.
The Ministry of Justice is now considering several reforms to speed up the justice system, including changes to how long suspects can be held before trial and how evidence is recorded in sexual offence cases.
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Alcohol-related deaths hit record high in England
Dec 19, 2024
DEATHS caused solely by alcohol have reached record levels in England, with over 8,200 fatalities reported in 2023—a 42 per cent increase since 2019, government figures show.
The North East recorded the highest rates of alcohol-related deaths.
The Alcohol Health Alliance UK has called for minimum unit pricing of alcohol to curb consumption, citing Scotland’s model, where such measures introduced in 2018 have been linked to reductions in alcohol-related harm, the BBC reported. The cost of a unit in Scotland was recently raised from 50p to 65p.
The government has acknowledged the severity of the issue, with a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson describing the record-high deaths as "unacceptable." The government plans to address public health challenges, including alcohol harm, in its 10-year NHS strategy.
The Covid pandemic accelerated the rise in alcohol-related deaths. During lockdowns, heavier drinkers increased consumption while moderate drinkers cut back or quit.
Many turned to drinking at home due to pub closures. Although the post-pandemic increase has slowed, the upward trend persists, particularly among men under 75, who are dying predominantly from liver disease, the BBC reported.
Analysis by the Institute of Alcohol Studies suggests that people aged 55-74 are the heaviest-drinking group, potentially driving the current trends. Economic pressures, including the cost-of-living crisis, may also have contributed to heavier drinking.
Colin Angus, an addictions expert from the University of Sheffield, told the BBC that economic hardship can lead to both reduced and increased drinking, depending on individual circumstances.
Amy Dickson, a trustee for Nacoa, shared how her father, an alcoholic, deteriorated rapidly during lockdown. She advocates for better rehabilitation and mental health services, noting that current support systems are severely underfunded.
The Alcohol Health Alliance predicts further increases in alcohol-related deaths unless decisive action is taken.
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