Friday, September 4, 1998

Siddarth and Renuka, the two white tigers brought from the Sambhajinagar zoo in Aurangabad to Borivli National Park's Tiger Safari in Mumbai on Wednesday. The one-and-a-half-year-old tigers are "freaks". — PTI

Ex-ED's retirement order
struck down
NEW DELHI, Sept 3 — The Supreme Court has revoked an order of the government compulsorily retiring a senior Indian revenue services officer, who, while heading the enforcement directorate and the anti-evasion wing had raided big business houses unearthing huge sums of evaded excise duty.

Contingency plan ready: BJP

CHENNAI, Sept 3 (PTI) — The BJP said today it had a contingency plan to meet any crisis for its government and maintained that the Vajpayee regime would last its full term.

BJP Vice-President Jana Krishnamurthy said “any party will have a contingency plan to meet any situation, and we have our plan too.’ To a question on taking the DMK support, he said the party had already made it clear that anyone who accepted Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as Prime Minister and the National Agenda for governance without any preconditions was acceptable to it.

He said many parties were in search for allies at the national level, and parties like the DMK had been forced to reassess their attitude towards the BJP.

“The impact of the BJP taking the centre-stage is felt even on regional parties. The process will lead to consolidation of the party and the government,” he said.

About the party’s problems with its allies, Mr Krishnamurthy said realisation was dawning on these parties that the BJP would not compromise on “basic issues” (like misuse of Article 356 of the Constitution). “There is now an understanding of the government’s views,” he said.

The BJP sought to justify the recent sacking of an Enforcement Directorate lawyer handling cases alleged FERA violation cases pertaining to associates of AIADMK General Secretary Jayalalitha, saying that the outcome of the cases would not be affected by the measure.

Mr Krishnamurthy said it was a slur on the legal profession to say the cases would not be effectively prosecuted by any other lawyer.

Maintaining that the recent transfers of officials, including Enforcement Director M.K. Bezbaruah, and the removal of Special Public Prosecutor K. Kumar were routine in nature, he said the BJP would never compromise on the issue of corruption or interfere with any case or investigation.

Health sacrificed for economic reforms
WHO meeting warned of SE Asia position

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (PTI) — Health budgets are becoming the first casualty of south-east Asia’s economic crisis that has been triggered by sweeping macroeconomic reforms, a meeting of the World Health Organisation (WHO) was warned here.

With market forces taking the central place, almost every country in south-east Asia is facing an economic crisis, and allocations for procuring drugs and extension of health facilities are being severely cut, Health Minister Dalit Ezhilmalai told the 16th meeting of Health Ministers of countries of the south-east Asian region that began here today.

In some countries even access to basic drugs had become a major problem, and an assured access to health services, cheap diagnostic facilities and knowledge on preventive aspects of disease control eludes people, Mr Ezhilmalai said.

The governments should urgently address problems of over-diagnosis, expensive hospitalisation and absence of regulation, he told the three-day conference which was inaugurated by Vice-President Krishan Kant.

The WHO Regional Director, Dr Uton Muchtar Rafei too cautioned against sacrificing health priorities for the sake of economic reforms.

Mr Krishan Kant said in India, ayurveda, unani and homoeopathy combined with yoga were found to be cheaper, affordable and safer than several modern drugs. The traditional systems of medicine had proved their efficacy over a period of time.

The Vice-President, however, said the multifarious demands on the health sector could not be tackled by the government alone, in its traditional role as the provider. He called for an active, durable and fruitful collaboration between the community and the voluntary sector with its commitment to reach out to people.

Mr Rafei regretted that though all countries were officially committed to attaining health for all, the ground realities were different.

At the very onset of any financial crisis or any macroeconomic structural adjustment programme, public outlays for health and other social sectors were slashed, he said.

Bihar fit case for central rule: Fernandes

NEW DELHI, Sep 3 (PTI) — Bihar is a fit case for the imposition of President’s rule with everything justifying the dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government in the state, Defence Minister George Fernandes said here today.

“There is a total breakdown of law and order in Bihar. Everything that justifies the dismissal of the (state) government under Article 356 has happened there,” Mr Fernandes told PTI.

Maintaining that Bihar had been a “fit case” for the imposition of central rule, Mr Fernandes, who is also Samata Party president, said it was the “only state in India which in the Eighth Plan went for a negative economic growth of 20 per cent while the national average was over 20 per cent.

“This means that unemployment, poverty, despondency, social tensions and crime had increased and there was a total breakdown of law and order,” he said.

Asked whether the BJP-Samata alliance had failed to build a mass movement for the resignation of the Rabri Devi Government, he admitted that in the past five months “there has been certain slackness in this as both parties were part of the government at the Centre.”

Asked about his stand on carving out a separate state in South Bihar, he said there was no difference between the Samata Party and the BJP on the issue which is “common to both of us.”

“The then Chief Minister, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, had said that Jharkhand could be created only over his body. But he is no longer the Chief Minister and that doesn’t matter. His body is safe,” Mr Fernandes quipped.

The Samata Party had demanded a hefty package of Rs 50,000 crore for the bifurcation of Bihar as the economic situation in North and Central Bihar was very serious, he said, adding most of the attention had been paid to South Bihar by the Centre so far.

Tribune News Service adds: Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM) President Mulayam Singh Yadav today warned the BJP-led government that the dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar would lead to serious consequences.

He told reporters that the Centre was making attempts in this regard as part of its conspiracy to weaken the morcha. He said if the Vajpayee Government took any drastic step, people in the state would give it a befitting reply.

Dismissing suggestions that the law and order in Bihar was bad, he said it was far better than in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Asked about attempts to pull down the Vajpayee Government, he said: “We have got tired of urging the Congress repeatedly to take the initiative in the matter”.

The morcha president demanded the resignation of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, over the police killing of four youths at Jansath in Muzaffarnagar district recently.

Mr Yadav presented Farmood who, he claimed, had succeeded in running away from the spot when the police allegedly killed his four colleagues.

Demanding that the guilty should be brought to book, Mr Yadav alleged that Farmood’s family was being pressurised to change the statement he had given to the police regarding the incident. He said Rs 5 lakh compensation should be given to the families of those killed.

Manipur Ministry faces crisis

IMPHAL, Sept 3 (PTI) — The nine-month-old United Front Ministry in Manipur appears to be facing an internal crisis following attempts by some members of its major coalition partner, the Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP), to effect a split in the party.

MSCP sources said “some senior MSCP ministers want to form an alternative government with the opposition Congress and small regional parties before the next assembly elections due in early 2000.”

As the move to split the MSCP intensified, Governor O.N. Shrivastava, on the advice of Chief Minister Wahengbam Nipamacha Singh, removed School Education Minister Kshetrimayum Irabot Singh from the Council of Ministers on Tuesday.

Irabot Singh was dropped from the Council of Ministers on grounds of “political differences”, the Chief Minister said.

A senior MSCP member Muhamudin Shah was removed from the rank of Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Board, a rank equivalent to a Cabinet minister, on the same ground, he added.

The main idea of forming an alternative government to the four-party UFM Ministry was that they (those who wanted to make a split) viewed the MSCP as a “relatively new party formed by members elected on different tickets to form the UFM Ministry” and felt that the party had no future.

111-year jail term for taxi driver

MUMBAI, Sept 3 (UNI) — Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Holambe Patil has delivered a historic judgement of 111-years’ life imprisonment and fine of Rs 37,000 to a ‘mangalsutra’ snatcher.

The accused, taxi driver Mohamad Yakub Babu Ajim Shah, was arrested in November by Malabar Hill police station while changing the number plate of a taxi.

During the interrogation the accused revealed that he had snatched 37 ‘mangalsutras’ between the Kulaba to Kandivali area during 1997. The accused used to hire taxi number MRO 6568 and change in numberplate in the morning or its the afternoon near schools, to escape the police dragnet.

In his order Justice Patil said yesterday that the accused had committed 37 crimes and he, the accused, was being sentenced to three years imprisonment for each case and a fine of Rs 1,000 for every case and if he was unable to pay the fine, he would have to undergo imprisonment for an additional month.

Ex-ED's retirement order struck down

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (PTI) — The Supreme Court has revoked an order of the government compulsorily retiring a senior Indian revenue services officer, who, while heading the enforcement directorate (ED) and the anti-evasion wing had raided big business houses unearthing huge sums of evaded excise duty.

A Division Bench comprising Justice S. Saghir Ahmed and Justice K.T. Thomas, while setting aside the government order, said, "we have no doubt that there is utter dearth of evidence for the screening committee to conclude that the officer, M.S. Bindra, had doubtful integrity."

Mr Bindra, a 1958 batch IRS officer, was held in high esteem in the official circles for his integrity but when as director of anti-evasion wing in 1985 he started "daring raids on big business houses", it became the "commencement of a volte face in his official career", the Supreme Court noted.

A screening committee, which went into Bindra’s case, in 1985, found several lacunae in the manner of his discharging duties and recommended compulsory premature retirement at the age of 52 years.

One of the findings of the committee was that he had given an adjudication order running into nearly 100-pages against Orkay Silk Mills on the day following the last date of hearing and came to a conclusion that the order must have been prepared before the hearing was complete.

The Supreme Court ridiculed the committee and said, "the achievement in preparing an order of confiscation within such a short span should not have been frowned at, instead there is scope to pay admiration for its promptitude."

It was alleged before the committee that the then deputy director of the anti-evasion wing had ordered to keep in abeyance investigations into important cases pertaining to Golden Tobacco Company (GTC).

When the committee asked the deputy director, the latter said the order to freeze the investigation was given at the instance of Mr Bindra.

The Bench said, "the minimum thing which should have been done was to ascertain from the deputy director the circumstances under which instructions were issued by Bindra to keep the investigations in abeyance.

"Attributing a sinister motive to the appellant for what the deputy director had done was seemingly unfair," it said.

The Bench said, "while evaluating the materials, the authority should not altogether ignore the reputation in which the officer was held till recently.

"To dunk an officer into the puddle of doubtful integrity it is not enough that the doubt fringes on mere hunch. "That doubt should be of such nature as would reasonably and consciously be entertained by a reasonable man on the given material. Mere possibility is hardly sufficient to assume that it would have happened," the court said.

Officer deposes in armsdrop case

CALCUTTA, Sept 3 (PTI) — A Mumbai-based Air Intelligence officer today deposed in the Purulia armsdrop case saying, that he had seized the aircraft carrying Peter Bleach and the five Latvians in the presence of a police officer and two civilians.

Mr Shajid Iqbal today told a city court that he, in the presence of Mr D. Thakur of the West Bengal police and two other civilians, had seized the AN-26 aircraft carrying Peter Bleach and five Latvians accused in the Purulia armsdrop case on December 23, 1995.

Deposing before the city Civil and Sessions Court Judge, Mr A.K. Bisi, he identified Peter Bleach and the four Latvians present in the court who were arrested from Mumbai’s Sahar International Airport.

Some arms and ammunition, including two 9 mm pistols and two packets of cartridges, were recovered from the aircraft, Mr Iqbal said before identifying them in the court.

The officer also identified his signatures on the seized articles.

Responding to the accused Peter Bleach’s cross-examination, Mr Iqbal said that he would not be able to identify the specific features of the seized aircraft as he was a non-technical man.

All the accused, except Latvian Igor Mostkivine who is undergoing treatment at a city hospital, were produced in the court.

The hearing of the case will continue tomorrow.

Pinto moves London court

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (PTI) — Investigations into the Rs 133 crore urea scam have run into rough weather as A.E. Pinto, the London-based Brazilian broker who represented the urea scam-tainted Turkish firm Karsan, has moved a London court against his extradition, official sources said today.

Pinto moved court in the last week of August pleading innocence and urged not to be extradited to India, the sources said.

An agent of Karsan, Pinto is charged with having received a total of about $ 7 lakh from Swiss bank accounts, in which almost the entire deal amount of Rs 133 crore was paid in advance by the public sector National Fertilizer Limited (NFL) for the supply of two lakh tonnes of urea, which never reached India.

The CBI is in the a process of preparing requisite documents for his early extradition.

Hoping that the extradition process would be completed soon, the sources said with his arrest the agency would be able to take its investigation into the urea scam to its logical conclusion.

Extradition proceedings for Pinto were initiated in December 1997.

The CBI has alleged that $ 7 lakh were transferred to London’s Barclays Bank account of Brazil Trading Company, owned by Pinto, from Swiss bank accounts in two instalments of five and two lakh each.

These amounts were transferred in December, 1995, soon after the urea import deal was signed a month earlier, the CBI alleged. The firm was also wound up last year.

Searches were conducted at Pinto’s London residential and official premises by the city police, following a request by the CBI through Interpol.

Pinto, who had travelled to India several times after the deal was signed, had struck a deal with the NFL in July, 1995, for urea supply. This deal, which was signed by him, however, did not fructify.

It was Sambasiva Rao who later struck the Rs 133 crore urea import deal between Karsan and the NFL.

Pinto spent about a month in prison on the charge of violating traffic laws in London last year.

The CBI chargesheeted nine persons, including the former Managing Director of (NFL) and two top executives of Turkish firm Karsan Limited, in the scam on December 26 last.

Those chargesheeted are former NFL MD C.K. Ramakrishnan, former Executive Director D.S. Kanwar, Karsan chief executive Tuncay Alankus and his deputy Cihan Karanci, Karsan’s agent in India Sambasiva Rao, B. Sanjiva Rao, who is a close relative of former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, Prakash Chandra Yadav, son of former Fertiliser Minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav, and B. Malleshan Gaud.

The CBI has charged all of them under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC.

Congress may go in for change
From K.V. Prasad
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 — Having failed to come to power at the Centre after two successive general elections in the past three years and losing its grip on India polity, the Indian National Congress gets down to serious debate and discussion as to where the party goes from here and how.

For the 113-year-old party which takes pride in having provided a government at the Centre for 45 of the 50 years India has been independent, the Congress seems to have stuck with all-round decline in its vote share, emergence of strong regional parties and coalition governments.

Beginning tomorrow, the creme de la creme of the party are expected to thrash out various aspects that could hold the key to the revival of party’s sagging electoral fortunes, at the hill resort of Pachmari in Madhya Pradesh.

The three-day "Vichar Manthan Shivir" (brainstorming session), will also break the jinx for the Congress which has over the past two decades planned to hold such a session to replicate the path-breaking Narora-type camp but could not actually do so.

A brainstorming session was held in 1970s when the party was headed by Mrs Indira Gandhi at Narora in Uttar Pradesh and since then successive Congress presidents promised to have a ‘Narora-type’ camp which never materialised.

To make the debate meaningful and suggestion concrete, the party has circulated a set of background papers relating to political, economic, international, agriculture and international affairs which recounts the Congress contribution in these spheres and juxtaposes it with the current situation in each area.

There is some heartburning in the party since the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi had decided to limit the invitations to some 230-odd delegates including the members of the Congress Working Committee, the Presidents of Pradesh units, leaders of party’s legislature wings, frontal organisation chiefs and host unit office bearers.

Apart from selecting the remote hill resort where the party members will shut themselves out to discuss the issues threadbare, another strategic reason for holding it at Pachmari is to spruce up the party in Madhya Pradesh which will have Assembly elections later this year.

On the political front, the Congress is of the opinion that it is time to introspect as to how to galvanise the party since it believes the country needs a respite from instability and non-governance.

In its background paper, the party says that while "the politics of consensus and issue-based support is the current chosen path. But the competitive component of a democratic polity has to be kept in view".

It also feels that anti-Congressism phase is on the decline observing "fortunately, two years of political instability, culminating in ousting all secular parties off the treasury Benches, and bringing to power the BJP and its collaborators, has shaken non-Congress secular forces out of their blind anti-Congressism. The new atmosphere needs to be availed of to return the anti-secular forces to the margin of our polity where they had been confined till 1989, when opportunistic politics brought them centre stage".

On the economic affairs, the party now has virtually endorsed the 1991 reforms but clarifies that it remains committed to mixed economy. It said the criticism and concern over moving to free economy needs to be addressed. The points for debate include removal of poverty, spurring growth with investment and development of infrastructure.

International relations has been a special forte of the Congress and the backgrounder charts what successive governments did to formulate it. One of the main points is the party’s stand on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and Pachmari session could determine a fresh approach.

Teachers descend on Delhi
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 — Political pressure appears to be building up on the Union Human Resource Development Ministry to initiate a dialogue with the striking university and college teachers.

The move comes as thousands of teachers started arriving in the Capital to take part in a rally and court arrest tomorrow, on the eve of Teachers Day.

Several attempts to ward off direct confrontation between the teachers and the Centre continued throughout the day and the teachers’ organisations were hopeful that some way out might be found tonight.

Coming in support of the teachers' cause, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Jyoti Basu, in a letter to the HRD Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, has urged him to meet the teachers and resolve the anomalies in the UGC recommendations for revised pay scales in order to end the strike.

Among others who urged him to break the deadlock included the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, the Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and Education Ministers of Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, sources said. They said the Centre should take the initiative in calling the striking teachers for a dialogue, sources added.

While appealing to the teachers to resume duty, Dr Joshi had earlier stated that further negotiations with them would be possible only if the teachers call off the strike unconditionally.

The All-India Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation members said that the government was taking a confrontationist position by not negotiating with the teachers.

The AIFUCTO members, however, were hopeful that some way out might be reached tonight and the Centre would avoid being embarrassed by teachers courting arrest.

The demand of AIFUCTO is that there should be uniform and simultaneous implementation of the revised scales by all the state governments.

Hundreds of teachers from across the country have already arrived here and many more would reach Delhi by tonight, teachers’ organisations said.

About 30,000 teachers, of which 10,000 from Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh alone comprise the largest contingent, would march from Ramlila Grounds to Parliament as a show of strength. Over 5,000 teachers are expected to court arrest tomorrow.

Around four lakh teachers across the country have been on strike for the 24th day demanding among other things implementation of the UGC recommended pay scales.

It is learnt that several striking teachers across the country have been denied salary for the month of August. Sources said that many teachers of Kurukshetra University have not received the salary for August.

The salary, which was released to the SBI branch in the university on the last working day of August, was, however, withheld, sources added.

Some of the teachers did receive the salary for the month after they gave it in writing their decision to stay away from the strike.

On August 31, sources said the university administration had asked for this information from every teacher whether he was on strike or not, so that his salary could be released.

Vittal takes over as first CVC

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (PTI) — Mr Nagarajan Vittal today became the first ever Chief Vigilance Commissioner, after the office was given a statutory status by a recent presidential Ordinance.

Mr Vittal, a retired senior bureaucrat was sworn in by President K. R. Narayanan at a simple function at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of dignitaries, including Vice-President Krishan Kant, Home Minister L. K. Advani and top officials.

A former Telecom Secretary, Mr Vittal was appointed to the new statutory post in pursuance of the recommendations of the high-level committee comprising the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

The government had notified the formal constitution of the Central Vigilance Commission under the CVC Ordinance promulgated on August 25.

"My priority will be to see to how the objective of the CVC Ordinance can be achieved and how the CVC becomes an anti-biotic against corruption in the body politic’’, Mr Vittal told reporters soon after taking over his new assignment.

Mr Vittal, an IAS officer of the 1960 batch, was Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board before his new appointment.

Mr Vittal said he would adopt techniques like sending questionnaires to top officials for seeking their views on ways for tackling corruption.

The new CVC said scarcity of services and goods, lack of transparency and delay in procedures were some of the factors that breed corruption.

Asked about the appointment of other vigilance commissioners, Mr Vittal said the selection procedure would be the same as that for the CVC but added that he was not sure when it would be done.

The government appointed Mr Vittal as the CVC on September 1, nearly a week after conferring statutory status to the Central Vigilance Commission.

Under the new statute, the multi-member commission was to comprise three members besides the CVC.

Changes in CVC likely: Jethmalani

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (PTI, UNI) — Urban Affairs Minister Ram Jethmalani today said there might be some changes in the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) from what was in the Ordinance which brought the new statutory office of the CVC into force.

Three or four points are under consideration. One is whether the commission should be a single-member or a multi-member body.

"The other is the area of selection. Whether it should be confined to bureaucrats or others like retired judges," Mr Jethmalani told reporters here.

"It is necessary the CVC be a multi-member body," he said.

In a statement here, the minister said the Ordinance on the CVC was "not the last word" and all views, including those of the Law Commission, would be considered while converting it into an Act.

Reacting to reports quoting his letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee expressing his views on the Ordinance, Mr Jethmalani while confirming its authenticity regretted that the letter was leaked.

He said the Cabinet could not take into account the views of the Law Commission and others for lack of time.

Mr Jethmalani today confirmed that he had written to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on the conduct of some bureaucrats in the matter of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) Ordinance, but regretted that "someone leaked it to the Press".

Bid to forge anti-RJD front

PATNA, Sept 3 (PTI) — In a development indicative of a major realignment of opposition parties in Bihar, the leaders of the Samata Party, the Janata Dal and the Bihar Jan Congress (BJC) of Mr Jagannath Mishra held parleys here today in an effort to forge a broader front against the ruling RJD of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav.

The BJC chief patron and thrice Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr Mishra, called on the J D Parliamentary Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, this morning and their meeting was followed by a one-to-one talk between the Samata Party state president, Raghunath Jha, and his JD counterpart, Mr Ramjivan Singh.

Mr Mishra later told reporters that the JD and the BJC had resolved to launch an "intensive joint campaign to force the dismissal of the corrupt and ineffective’’ RJD Ministry.

Dal sources confirmed that the former Congressman, who had parted ways with his old party blaming it for having a "soft corner’’ for Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, would share dais with Mr Paswan and JD President Sharad Yadav, at public meetings at Bihta and Ara on September 6.

After his one-to-one chat with Samata Party leader Raghunath Jha, state JD President Ramjivan Singh, told PTI that the two parties strongly felt the need for working in "close coordination" to check any split in anti-RJD votes in future elections.

AIADMK poll

CHENNAI, Sept 3 (PTI) — The AIADMK organisational elections will start on September 23, with the election of the party General Secretary here on that day.

Party General Secretary Jayalalitha said in a statement that the nominations for that post would be received at the party headquarters on September 16.

Sanction not needed to try retired
public servants: SC

NEW DELHI, Aug 13 (PTI) — The Supreme Court has ruled that a trial court could take cognisance of corruption charges against a public servant without prior sanction from the government, if he retires during the pendency of the case.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice M.M. Punchhi and Mr Justice K.T. Thomas held that "the public servant, who committed the offence while he was a public servant, is liable to be prosecuted whether he continues in office or not at the time of trial or during the pendency of the prosecution".

Dismissing an appeal by a retired Orissa Superintendent of Police, the Bench said, "A public servant, who committed an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act while he was a public servant, can be prosecuted with the sanction if he continues to be a public servant when the court takes cognisance of the offence.

"But if he ceases to be a public servant by that time the court can take cognisance of offence without any such sanction," the Bench ruled.

The apex court said, "There is no indication in the Act that an offence committed by a public servant under the Act would vanish off from penal liability at the moment he demits his office as public servant."

"His being a public servant is necessary when he commits the offence in order to make him liable under the Act. He cannot commit any such offence after he demits his office," the Bench observed.

HC refuses to stay trial of Sukh Ram

NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today refused to stay trial proceedings against former Communication Minister Sukh Ram in a disproportionate assets case and fixed the next hearing on his revision petition for October 6.

Mr Justice D. K. Jain, hearing the revision petition by Mr Sukh Ram against framing of the charges by a special court here, said there were no sufficient grounds for stay of the trial in the lower court.

Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke had framed charges under the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act against Mr Sukh Ram in a CBI case, accusing him of acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income between 1991 and 1995, when he was the central minister.

Mr Sukh Ram, who heads the Himachal Vikas Congress, had to resign his ministerial post in the Himachal Cabinet earlier this year after the President gave the assent for his prosecution in a corruption case.

The CBI had allegedly recovered hard currency worth over Rs 3.5 crore from Mr Sukh Ram’s residences in Delhi and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh in August, 1996.

The agency had also claimed to have recovered fixed deposits and other property worth several crore of rupees from the former minister.

Mr Sukh Ram is facing trial in three corruption cases in the special court.

Award for Indrajit Gupta
HYDERABAD: Veteran Communist leader and former Home Minister Indrajit Gupta has been selected for the sixth Ravi Narayana Reddy memorial award for his “long innings of excellence in parliamentary and public life.” The award, instituted by the Ravi Narayana Reddy Memorial National Foundation, comprising a citation, a memento and a shawl, would be presented to Mr Gupta at a function here on September 6. —PTI

Insecticide-coated curtains
NEW DELHI: Scientists at the Malaria Research Centre (MRC) here claim to have controlled mosquitoes in urban slum population areas using curtains impregnated with an insecticide. A two-year study by the MRC team has found about 90 per cent reduction of disease-causing mosquitoes in the Motibagh slum area, MRC in charge M.A. Ansari said. Curtains, coated with an insecticide ‘deltamethrin’ is deadly against aedes aegypti (the mosquito species causing dengue) as well as anopheles stephensi and anopheles culicifacies — two well known Malaria vectors, he said. The insecticide-coated curtains could kill mosquitoes within 15 minutes and also protect people from cockroaches, house flies and bed-bugs — PTI

Former diplomat dead
BANGALORE: Former Indian High Commissioner in the UK and a member of Mandal Commission L.R. Naik died here on Wednesday after a brief illness, family sources said on Thursday. He was 86. Mr Naik is survived by wife, two sons and two daughters. A senior bureaucrat belonging to Indian Foreign Service (IFS), he had also served as Commissioner of the Karnataka Trade Centre in London. Mr Naik who had a long stint in politics was the president of the Bijapur district unit Congress Committee and also served as the vice-president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. He was in coma for the past couple of weeks. — PTI

Five girls drowned
MUNGER: At least five girls were drowned in the swollen Savarni river in Munger district, an official said on Thursday. The girls had gone to take dip in the river on the occasion of Karma festival on Wednesday when they were swept away by the swift current of the turbulent river, Subdivisonal Officer (Khagaria) Madhu Gupta said. Their bodies were recovered and handed over to their relatives after post-mortem. — PTI

Militants free 8 hostages
AGARTALA: Militants have released eight hostages in Tripura after reported payment of ransom while an MP’s son and a doctor still remain in captivity. Police reports reaching here from South Tripura District on Thursday said the militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) set free seven hostages, including a constable of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) on Wednesday. They were kidnapped from the South District on August 16. Meanwhile, Ranjit Reang, son of state’s CPI (M) MP, Bajuban Reang and a government doctor, Pradip Reang, continued to remain in NLFT captivity since June 24 and July 17, respectively. — PTI