The "cyanide killer"Mohan Kumar. Mangalore: A serial killer known for his alleged modus operandi of using cyanide to kill his victims, was sentenced to death by a court here in three cases of murder.
Mohan Kumar, known as the "cyanide killer", was awarded the death sentence by the fourth additional district and session's court here, which had convicted him on Tuesday last and pronounced the quantum of punishment today.
Judge B K Naik held Kumar guilty of murdering Leelavathi, a resident of Vamadapadavu, and Anitha (22), a resident of Barimar village of Bantval taluk, and Sunanada of Peruvaje.
Naik observed that "this is the rarest of rare cases" and the convict deserves nothing less than death penalty.
During the hearing,Kumar defended himself saying none of the post-mortem reports had mentioned presence of cyanide.
Kumar was arrested on October 21, 2009.The trial of murder cases had commenced in the Fast Track Court in November 2011, and it was later shifted to fourth additional district and session's court here.
Picture for representational purpose only. 
Trust, of late, has lost its meaning. The only mistake of the 23-year-old software engineer, who was kidnapped and raped in Hyderabad, was that she trusted the cab drivers to take her to her hostel. There is no answer to why India is increasingly becoming a rape capital and why women in metro cities don't feel safe-- whether in cabs, buses, autos or malls. 
The techie, who had moved to Hyderabad recently, was so terrified to report the gang-rape that she filed a police complaint saying she had escaped the rape bid when she was returning from a mall around 8.30 pm on Oct 18. But the incident came to light after the police arrested the cab drivers. Read full story here The drivers drove her for nearly four hours in Hyderabad on several stretches, including the Outer Ring Road, and raped her at an isolated area near the Open Mind Birla School, Tellapur. They later dropped her near her hostel at around 2.30am. Read full story here In another shocking incident in Hyderabad in September, a 20-year-old polytechnic student was allegedly kidnapped and raped by the college canteen owner for almost 17 months in Hyderabad. Accused Satya Prakash Singh, 34, a native of Bihar, runs the canteen at TRR College of Technology at Meerpet, allegedly drugged and raped the victim in his flat. Read full story hereAfter the horrendous Delhi bus gang-rape on Dec 16, 2012, and the consequent death penalty to culprits, it was felt that the city would be safer for women. It is only far from it. Over 1,121 rape cases were registered in Delhi alone from Jan-Aug this year, the highest in the last 13 years.A 14-year-old girl was raped by a minor boy at knife-point at Gokalpuri in Delhi in October. The boy took her to an isolated place near the Wazirabad flyover and raped her. Based on the complaint, the juvenile was arrested.A 25-year-old woman was drugged and then raped by four persons in the Welcome area of North-East Delhi in May. The victim, who had separated from her husband and living alone, came across one Yashdev while looking for a job. He, on the pretext of introducing her to prospective employers, took advantage of her along with his friends.In Sept, the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old girl at Sholavaram near Chennai shocked the state. Four youths entered the house at 4am, took the girl who was sleeping. They raped the girl in a hut and fled. Police arrested two people Mohan and Ram in this connection. A 22-year-old engineering student in Chennai committed suicide at Chengam, 180km from Chennai, after her cousin E Ezhilarasan, also a student, posted photos of her sexual abuse on the internet. He along with his friends had raped her intimidating her with threats to circulate the clip. A 22-year-old engineering student in Chennai committed suicide at Chengam, 180km from Chennai, after her cousin E Ezhilarasan, also a student, posted photos of her sexual abuse on the internet. He along with his friends had raped her intimidating her with threats to circulate the clip. In September, a court in Bangalore sentenced six persons to life term for gang-raping a law student on October 13 last year on Bangalore University's Jnanabharathi campus. The girl and her friend were sitting in a car when they were attacked by the eight-member gang.There is a concern that Bangalore, the IT capital, is turning into rape capital. On Oct 19, three bar girls were allegedly gang-raped by a group of eight men. In Mumbai, the gang-rape of a 22-year-old photo-journalist when she was on an assignment shocked the nation in September. The culprits raped her after bashing up her male friend at an abandoned mill close to the railway tracks in the Mahalaxmi area. The same month, Santacruz police in Mumbai registered three rape cases in three days. That included the arrest of a 37-year-old man for allegedly raping his four-year-old neighbour. The four-year-old victim was allegedly raped by her neighbour when her mother stepped out of her house to buy milk.On September 23, a woman, who was asleep while travelling in an autorickshaw in Mumbai, was allegedly abducted and taken to Sanjay Gandhi National Park and sexually assaulted by a group of unidentified men. 
On October 22, 2013, Apple launched its new tablet, the iPad Air.
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduces the new iPad Air in San Francisco. The iPad Air is 7.5 millimeters thin; weighing at just 1 pound, it is 20% thinner than its predecessor.The new iPad boasts of a large 9.7 inch retina display, with a 2048-by-1536 resolution and over 3.1 million pixels.The Air runs on an Apple-designed A7 chip and M7 coprocessor. It is said to measure motion from the gadget by pulling data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass, so that apps can give a better experience based on the movement of the iPad.Apple claims that even though it is 20 percent thinner and twice as fast as the previous-generation iPad, it still gives the same incredible 10-hour battery life. iPad Air which runs on the iOS 7 platform is packed with features - two antennas and MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology, dual microphones, a 5 MP camera that also allows 1080p HD video recording.The new full-sized iPad has gone on sale from 25 October 2013, and will be priced starting $499. 
Exactly a year ago, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was gang raped on a moving bus in Delhi. That led to a national outrage with people questioning inefficiency of the government to provide security to women. There was such anger with protests across the nation that anyone would have thought it would be the last rape in the nation. That wasn't to be. 
Safety of women in the national capital was questioned, and in fact that was one of the reasons why chief minister Sheila Dikshit and the Congress suffered a humiliated defeat at the hands of political newcomer Arvind Kejriwal and his party Aam Aadmi Party. Political implications apart, the December 16 gang rape made headlines in international media, exposing how insecure women are in India. Despite the magnanimity of the most brutal rape of the country, very little has changed in one year.The conviction rate for rape is a mere 27 per cent which is why rapists aren't scared.The four accused in the December 16 rape case, gym instructor Vinay Sharma (20), bus cleaner Akshay Thakur (28), fruit-seller Pawan Gupta (19) and Mukesh Singh (26) were awarded death penalty as the court felt it was a rarest of rare cases. Main accused Ram Singh was found dead in jail while another is a minor.Notwithstanding pressure, the Central government in April amended the Anti-rape bill, which now provides life-term or death sentence for rape convicts. According to the new law, an offender can be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment that is not less than 20 years. The law also fixed age for consensual sex at 18 years. One thing that has changed is, none will take things lying down. But it doesn't mean that the incidents have gone down. Shockingly, a rape is reported every 20 minutes in India. A young girl's sexual harassment complaint resulted in the arrest of Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal. The girl was bold enough to report against her boss, putting her career at stake. Neither death sentence nor new law has acted as a deterrent. The number of rape cases in Delhi have almost doubled. Till November this year, 1,450 cases of rape cases were registered against 706 in 2012. There is an element of positivity about it, as police say that more women are coming forward to report rapes. But as Indian women are known for, not all aren't comfortable reporting about rape.The only mistake of a 23-year-old software engineer, who was kidnapped and raped in a cab Hyderabad, was that she trusted the cab drivers to take her to her hostel. But she ended up being raped.Unlike the Tehelka journalist, this girl was scared to report it, she filed a false complaint that there was an attempt to rape her. But the incident came to light when the police arrested the cab drivers, who admitted to raping her.Rapes are tarnishing the image of the country as a whole. Internationally, India is perceived as the rape capital with governments of foreign countries warning women against travel to India.A photojournalist was gang raped when on duty in Mumbai. That wasn't the first time for the accused, who thought when others didn't complain why would she? Experts debate if raping is a psychological problem? Most of the rapists won't have any remorse or guilt feeling. In many cases, they deny the crime or feel what they did wasn't wrong.There is a need for a systemic social change and the solution doesn't lie in the law, but in changing the mindset of people. 
Picture for representational purpose only. 
Huma Qureshi with Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Mobile and IT, Samsung India and Manu Sharma Director, Samsung India Mobile, at the launch of the company's new smartphone 'Galaxy grand 2' in Mumbai on Monday. - AP 
Many commercial buildings on the Jubilee Hills-Madhapur stretch are awaiting renters. — DC 
