Indian jailed for nine years for raping teenager

A British court has sentenced a 23-year-old Indian man to nine years in prison for raping a teenage girl in April last year.

The Isleworth Crown Court here, which found Jagdeep Chahal guilty on September 25, 2009 following a two-week trial, delivered its judgement on Friday. He was also placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life.

The court heard how Chahal had followed his 18-year-old victim from a bus stop on Uxbridge Road at 02:00 on April 8, 2009.

The victim, suspicious of Chahal, slowed down, to force him to pass her. However, he continued to follow her on the other side of the road until he pounced, forcing his hand into her mouth as she screamed out and dragging her into an alleyway.

Chahal then went on to threaten the victim and raped her.

A passer-by heard the victim’s screams and rang police who came to the scene within minutes.

The arrival of the officers disturbed Chahal who stopped the assault and attempted to leave the scene. As officers shone torches down the alleyway, they spotted Chahal climbing over a wall.

He was immediately detained whilst other officers went to the aid of the victim.

Chahal was subsequently charged with rape on April 9 and remanded into custody.

Leanne Cranford from the Met Police’s Sapphire Unit based at Hounslow, dealing with victims of rapes, said: “Chahal has demonstrated that he is a predatory offender. He followed his 18-year-old victim and attacked her.

“The impact on his victim, her family, friends and the local community cannot be measured. Stranger rapes such as these are relatively unusual. My praise goes out to the victim who showed tremendous courage, not only on that night but also by her support in this prosecution to ensure that he has been taken off the streets of Hayes,” Mr. Cranford said.

“I hope knowing that her attacker is now behind bars will go some way towards allowing the victim to come to terms with what has happened to her and allow her to go on to have a fulfilling future. I think special mention should be made of the woman who, rather than ignoring the victim’s calls for help, picked up the phone and rang 999.”

Without that phone call Chahal may not have been apprehended and the victim may not have received the immediate support and care that she needed, Mr. Cranford said.

“We encourage victims of sexual assault to have the confidence to come forward to police as soon as possible.

Every single allegation will be investigated professionally and effectively in a victim centred way.”

Jaya Bachchan to receive ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ in London

Veteran actor Jaya Bachchan will be honoured with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ for her “outstanding contribution to cinema” at a special ceremony here.

The award will be given to the 61-year-old at the ’Tongues on Fire’ film festival which showcases Asian independent media and cinema, in the presence of her actor son Abhishek Bachchan.

The gala ceremony, which will pay tribute to the actress’ work spanning more than four decades, will be hosted by television and film actor Rizwan Ahmed.

Jaya Bachchan started her career at 15 in legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s Bengali film ‘Mahanagar’ and has acted in about 50 movies.

The wife of Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya has been a recipient of the Padma Shri award.

‘Tongues on Fire’ is a film festival which acts as a platform for Asians working in film and media around the world.

Heathrow denies SRK's body scan autograph claim

Britain’s airport authorities have dismissed as “simply not true” claims by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan that he autographed printouts of his body scan for female security staff at Heathrow airport.

BAA, which owns and operates British airports, said SRK’s claims made last week on the popular Friday Night with Jonathan Ross television show were “completely factually incorrect”.

The subject of Khan’s body scan came up while he was telling Jonathan Ross how his new film, My Name is Khan, is all about a Muslim named Khan who wants to inform the US President that he is not a terrorist.

“I’m always stopped by the security, because of the name. And I think it’s okay: the Western world is a little bit worried, paranoid and touchy, I guess — and feely when they’re frisking you,” Khan told his celebrity chat show host.

“I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed — if you’re not well endowed.

“You walk into the machine and everything — the whole outline of your body — comes out.”

Khan said he did not know that the body scans — installed in the wake of last year’s abortive Christmas Day attempt to bomb a transatlantic flight over Detroit — showed up every little detail of the body.

“I was a little scared. Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out.

“Then I saw these girls — they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said give them to me — and you could see everything inside.

“So I autographed them for them.”

But a BAA spokeswoman said body scanning machines at Heathrow could not store or print images in any form. She said there would be no investigation into SRK’s claims because they “simply could not be true”.

London-based Jewish newspaper attacked by hackers

The Web site of Britain’s flagship Jewish newspaper has been attacked by Turkish-speaking hackers, its editor said on Monday.

The site of the London-based Jewish Chronicle, the world’s oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper, was replaced by a Palestinian flag and anti-Semitic writings for several hours, editor Stephen Pollard said.

“Somebody hacked into the site and had a message up for a couple of hours,” Mr. Pollard told AP. “It did no damage, as far as we can tell.”

The site was still unavailable early Monday. A version of the site cached by Google showed a large Palestinian flag against a black background. In a message posted in English and Turkish, a group calling itself the “Palestinian Mujaheeds” quotes from the Quran and attacks Jews in anti-Semitic terms.

Mr. Pollard said that the attack might be related to the diplomatic feud that erupted between Israel and Turkey last week, but added: “I don’t want to speculate.”

The Turkish government was outraged when Israel summoned its ambassador last week to express its anger over a Turkish television drama that depicts Israeli agents kidnapping children and shooting old men. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, denied the ambassador a handshake and forced him to sit on a low sofa as the cameras rolled.

Israel has since apologised for the incident, which threatened to poison relations between the traditional allies.

The Chronicle, founded in 1841, has a weekly circulation of about 30,000.