M A I N   N E W S

Manoj Prabhakar arrested
Our Correspondent

New Delhi, July 2
Former cricketer Manoj Prabhakar was arrested by the Uttaranchal police here today and has been sent to Haldwani on transit remand by a Delhi court.

He was arrested from his office in Malviya Nagar in South Delhi on charges of cheating a large number of people of crores of rupees relating to APACE chit fund company.

Rejecting the bail application of Manoj Prabhakar, Chief Additional Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) , V.K. Maheshwari accepted the Uttaranchal police plea of transit remand for the cricketer. He would be produced before Haldwani Magistrate Ashok Kumar, who issued non-bailable warrant (NBW) against him on May 11, tomorrow, Mr Maheshwari said in his order.

Prabhakar sought interim bail so that he could move the Uttaranchal High Court against the issuance of the NBW.

The ACMM rejected his plea for interim bail after prosecution counsel said the issue before the court today was limited to his transit remand and not the merit of the case.

Prabhakar’s counsel sought an interim bail for his client on the ground that he had already been granted bail in a related case by the Uttaranchal High Court.

4 trapped as building falls
Romesh Dutt

Solan, July 2
At least four persons were buried alive when a seven-storey building located in the Konark hotel locality of the town, about 4 km from here, on the Kalka-Shimla national highway collapsed at about 2.30 p.m.

Mohammed Yusuf, a building painter, was rescued after the local municipal council staff and residents cut through the RCC slab under which he was buried. The body of Tulsi Ram one of the buried, had been taken out by evening.

While the exact number of people, who were inside the building at the time of collapse could not be ascertained, Mr Andrew John, an employee of a pharmaceutical company housed in the collapsed building, said there were five persons inside the building, including himself, at the time of the collapse. He said he had left the building minutes before the mishap for having tea.

He gave the name of two of those buried as Satish Kaushal, who worked as a loss surveyor for General Insurance Company and also owned the building and Tulsi Ram, an employee of a nationalised insurance company. The name of the visiting client could not be known.

The SP, Mr Rakesh Aggarwal, said his men were doing whatever was feasible at the moment. The SDM, Mr L.R. Jhamta, said Army help had been sought. It took the district administration more than one-and-half-hour to come to the conclusion that hand tools would not deliver the desired results.

A 20-member team of Army men reached the spot at about 5 p.m. for doing the preliminary assessment regarding the rescue operations. But the jawans too could not arrange electric tools like drills and cutters for cutting through the RCC structure.

Eyewitnesses said the owner of a steel fabrication factory situated nearby lent his gas cutter, which helped save the life of Mohammed Yusuf. They lamented that the local fire brigade, which should be equipped with power-driven tools for such emergencies, was also ill-equipped.

The building that collapsed today was situated on the valley side. Apparently those who had okayed the building plans did not bother to ascertain whether the RCC framework had been designed as per the load bearing capacity of the strata or not.

The hand of another had become visible at the time of filing this report.

Mohammed Yusuf was immediately rushed to the Zonal Hospital here in a critical condition. He was thereafter shifted to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital, Shimla.