L A T E S T      N E W S

Maoists free Sukma Collector

Raipur: The Maoists on Thursday released abducted Sukma District Collector Alex Paul Menon. The Naxal group, which held the Collector hostage for 12 days, handed over him to the two mediators handpicked by the Maoists. 

Earlier in the day, B.D. Sharma and Professor G. Hargopal, who represented the Maoists in the talks with the Chhattisgarh government for the 32-year-old IAS officer's release, left for Tadmetla to receive Menon, who was kidnapped on April 21.

The Chhattishgarh government has already made all arrangements to bring out Menon safely from the jungles following which the officer will undergo a medical examination as he is an asthmatic, he said.

Health officials in Sukma, Dantewada, Jagdalpur as well as Raipur districts have been asked to be ready for the check-up. Also, an ambulance has been stationed at Chintalnar to meet any possible emergency, Kumar said.

The breakthrough to ensure the safe return of Menon came in the form of an agreement between the two mediators each of the Chhattisgarh government and the Maoists at their fourth round of talks on April 30.

Under the agreement, the government had agreed to set up a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Nirmala Buch, one of the two government mediators, to review the cases of all prisoners languishing in Chattisgarh jails including the cases demanded by the Maoists.

Before the agreement was announced, the Maoists had set a deadline of May 2 for Chhattisgarh government to release eight of their jailed associates.

Later, a message from the Maoists said they would release Menon today. — Agencies

NEW DELHI: Mamata Banerjee is in the Capital and has said that discussing who should be the next President of India is on her agenda. The Trinamool Congress chief, who is expected to meet the Prime Minister in Parliament this evening and might meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday, has so far been non-committal. While the Congress tries hard to secure Banerjee's support, there is some speculation that the Trinamool might have a candidate of its own. 

Foremost on the Bengal Chief Minister's to-do-in-Delhi list is the precarious financial health of her state — she wants a three-year moratorium on the payment of interest on Central loans and political observers say she might well use this opportunity to barter her support on the Presidential candidate for that. Banerjee will also attend a meeting of Chief Ministers called by the UPA government to discuss the controversial National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on May 5. She is expected to return to Kolkata on Saturday.

Hearing in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case on May 9

NEW DELHI: The trial of dentist Nupur Talwar, accused in the 2008 twin murders of her teenaged daughter Aarushi and domestic help Hemraj, could not be initiated in the CBI sessions court Thursday after her lawyers cited lack of complete documents. The next hearing is on May 9. The case was to be referred to the sessions court from the magistrate's court after Nupur Talwar's bail was rejected Wednesday. But her lawyers said they were not furnished the complete set of documents by the sessions court and requested that another date be fixed.

The court then fixed May 9 for the next hearing. Nupur Talwar, who was present in court along with husband Rajesh Talwar, has already spent three nights in Ghaziabad's Dasna jail. — IANS

London: In a significant victory, a court in London has agreed to extradite wanted terrorist Tiger Hanif to India. 

Hanif is wanted by the Indian authorities in connection with a terror bombings in Surat in Gujarat which killed an eight-year-old schoolgirl and left 12 others wounded. 
As per reports, he is a close associate of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and used to look after the gangster’s operations in Gujarat – smuggling of drugs and arms from Pakistan. He is also said to be have links with the Lashkar-e-Toiba. 

After the terror attack in 1993, Indian police issued a Red Corner notice for him through Interpol, which activated a worldwide hunt for the suspect. 

Hunted by police worldwide for over 17 years, 49-year-old Mohammed Hanif Umerji Patel alias Tiger Hanif was traced to the grocery store in Bolton by Scotland Yard and later arrested from a house in Astley Street in Halliwell on February 16. 

Hanif’s extradition is important as it would help Indian security establishment help decode the link between the D-company and Lashkar-e-Toiba.