Delhi HC convicts Sukhdev Pehalwan in Nitish Katara murder case

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday held Sukhdev Pehalwan guilty in the 2002 Nitish Katara murder case.

Pehalwan has been found guilty of murder, kidnapping and destruction of evidence.

The quantum of punishment in the case is likely to be announced tomorrow.

Pehalwan's trial was separated from two convicts Vikas and Vishal Yadav as he could not be arrested.

Additional sessions judge JR Aryan had in June fixed July 6 for giving the verdict after both prosecution and the defence counsel concluded their arguments.

A city court had in May 2008 sentenced Vikas, the son of Uttar Pradesh politician D P Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav for killing Nitish Katara, the son of an IAS officer, as they did not approve of their sister Bharti Yadav"s growing proximity with him.

According to prosecution, Pehalwan was present with the accused in their car after they abducted Katara from a marriage function in Ghaziabad and killed him on the intervening night of February.
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11-year-old American schoolboy charged with anti-Muslim hate crime

An 11-year-old American schoolboy, Osman Daramy, has been arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime for trying to rip the religious headscarf of a Muslim classmate in New York.

The boy, a sixth grader at Berta Dreyfus Intermediate School, has a history of harassing the girl, taunting her and threatening her on at least four separate occasions, police said.

The girl alleged that Osman and an unidentified girl tormented her for three months.

"They just attacked me. They called me terrorist. They called me Muslim. I'm afraid they might come back and beat me again," the New York Daily News quoted the girl, as saying.

"They kicked and punched me. I said, 'Leave me alone'. And he said, 'I won't.' He tried to pull off [my head] scarf, but I grabbed it and it didn't come off," she added.

Osman was charged with third-degree assault as a hate crime. Cops are looking for his accomplice.

Prosecutor Theresa Wilson described Osman as a pre-teen terror who harassed the same female Muslim classmate four separate times.

In the first attack, Osman "approached the victim and asked her if she was Muslim", Wilson said.

"She said leave me alone. The defendant then punched and kicked the victim. The defendant said she had a bruised lip and that her mouth was busted. It was not one incident. It was a continued course of behavior," she added.

Meanwhile, Osman's father Frank Davies said that he couldn't be responsible for a hate crime because he is Muslim.

"How could a Muslim have another hate crime against another Muslim? Osman is a Muslim...He's just a regular African kid. That's why they are out to get him. He's a victim," Davies said.
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