Sunday, March 21, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Intoxicated DIG Parshuram Khatri beaten up in a restaurant
Intoxicated DIG beaten up in a restaurantNepalnews.com, 14-Mar-10
A Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) was beaten up severely at a restaurant in Thamel over a minor dispute when he was heavily intoxicated with alcohol late night Friday, Kantipur reported.
The beaten up DIG is Parshuram Khatri of the investigation department in the Police Headquarters.
Khatri had gone to Gambesi Dohori Sanjh, Thamel without his body guard. He had gone with his friends Deepak Khadka and Ashok Bhandari.
Khatri and his friends have sustained serious injuries. After the fight, he came out of the restaurant blood oozing out from his head at about 1 am, Saturday. He was immediately rushed to Bir Hospital where doctors treated him with ten stitches on his head. He went back to his home at around 3 am.
Khatri said, he was attacked over a brawl about a bag that he had given to the security guard of the restaurant to keep for a while.
They attacked over a dispute on hiding the bag, he said. I think they attacked me with firewood sticks.
Police from Durbarmarg reached the restaurant after somebody informed the Police Control about the incident by calling at the number 100.
“Some body informed us about the incident by calling the Police Control number 100, and we reached the place based on that,” said Inspector Sudip Raj Pathak of Durbarmarg. “Later we found one of the injured was a DIG of the Police.”
They have arrested security guard of the restaurant Kumar Shrestha, Chef Som Majhi and proprietor Arjun Sherchan.
The restaurant owner claimed, the incident took place as the heavily intoxicated DIG started attacking the restaurant staff.
Police Headquarters has taken the issue seriously. “It is inappropriate for a police officer of DIG rank to stay at a public place without his security guard till late night and drink heavily,” said an Additional Inspector General (AIG). “The Police Headquarters is serious on this and there will be a probe.”
Saturday, March 13, 2010
New York Cabs Gouged Riders Out of Millions
New York Cabs Gouged Riders Out of MillionsNew York Times, 12-Mar-2010
By Michael Barbaro
About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.
The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip. The drivers, officials said, flipped switches on their meters that kicked in the higher rates, costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million.
The 1.8 million fares represent a tiny fraction of a total 360 million trips over the 26-month period in question.
Agency officials said, however, that they were alarmed enough that they immediately ordered the companies that manufacture the meters to create a system to alert riders when the higher rates are being charged.
That is likely to be done through the digital screens facing the back seats of the cabs.
The commission said it began an inquiry after investigators, responding to a rider’s complaint, determined that a cab driver from Brooklyn, Wasim Khalid Cheema, had overcharged 574 passengers in just one month last year. Mr. Cheema’s license has been revoked. He could not be reached for comment.
The commission then used GPS data, collected in every cab, to review millions of trips in New York City and found a huge number in which the out-of-city rates had improperly been charged, officials said.
The investigators determined that 36,000 drivers improperly activated the higher rate at least once, and that about 3,000 drivers did it more than 100 times.
The higher rate, reserved for rides in Nassau and Westchester Counties, is 80 cents per one-fifth of a mile — twice the rate charged for rides in the five boroughs.
As described by officials, the fraud might rank as the biggest in the taxi industry’s history.
“We have not seen anything quite this pervasive,” said Matthew W. Daus, the taxi and limousine commissioner. “It’s very disturbing.”
The commission has turned over its probe to the city’s Department of Investigation.
“Some of these people could face serious charges,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Friday.
Applying the higher rate in New York City violates the commission’s rules. The penalty for it varies, from a fine of $200 to the mandatory revocation of a cab license, depending on how much was overcharged.
The taxi industry vigorously challenged the city’s findings, saying it was unimaginable that such a pervasive problem could be the result of deliberate fraud. The city said that 35,558 out of the city’s roughly 48,000 drivers had applied the higher rate.
“This is clearly a systematic failure on the part of the meters and the technology,” said Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents cabbies.
“For this to be so widespread — nearly every single driver — makes no sense,” she added.
The taxi commission refused to comment on the alliance’s claim, citing its continuing investigation. “We have to sort through the numbers,” Mr. Daus said.
In interviews on Friday, taxi drivers expressed dismay at the city’s findings, which they said threatened to tarnish the image of their industry.
“We are ashamed,” said Bagicha Singh, of Floral Park, Queens, who was on East Houston Street on break from his shift. “People will look at us as a thief.”
Several cabbies defended themselves and their colleagues and said it was easy to accidentally activate the higher rate because of the way the meters were designed.
On some models, they said, the buttons for the New York City and out-of-town rates are extremely close together.
“You’re driving, your fingers are small, the buttons are tiny,” said Rana Singh, 38, of Maywood, N.J. “You look up at traffic; you look at the car ahead.”
Cab drivers are supposed to charge the higher rate only when they cross the border between New York City and Nassau or Westchester.
But according to the taxi commission, drivers often pressed a button on the meter that categorized the fare as Code No. 4, which is charged for trips outside the city, rather than Code No. 1, for those in the city limits.
Currently, passengers can see which rate is being charged by looking at the meter, which displays a No. 1 or a No. 4 — something few riders are aware of. The rate is also printed on every taxi receipt.
The system demanded by the city would require an acknowledgment from the passenger that the higher rate is to be charged before the alert disappears from the digital screen, the commission said.
Eventually, officials said, the changes would remove the ability of drivers to manually activate the higher rate, by creating a GPS-based mechanism that automatically charged it based on the location of the cab.
“We will make sure that this problem comes to an end,” Mr. Daus said.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Monday, March 08, 2010
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
US lottery winner cheated by Nepali store clerk to receive $395k
US lottery winner cheated by Nepali store clerk to receive $395kNepalnews, 18-Feb-2010
A US district judge has ruled that nearly $400,000 seized from the accounts of the Nepali man who stole a Texas maintenance worker's lottery ticket must be handed to the scammed jackpot winner, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Authorities are searching for the Nepali convenience store clerk who they believe stole the ticket from Willis when he asked for confirmation that he had won $1 million.
Pankaj Joshi is believed to have fled to his native Nepal after receiving a check for $750,000.
Austin police and the Travis County Attorney's Office have seized or frozen about $395,000 from Joshi's accounts and gifts to his relatives in the US, according to the report.
On Tuesday the judge ordered those funds to be given to Willis, who says he wants to pay off medical bills, pay his daughter's college tuition and buy new golf clubs.
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