L A T E S T      N E W S

We came to gang-rape victim's aid in minutes: Delhi Police

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Saturday refuted allegations levelled by the friend of the December 16 gang-rape victim that policemen argued over jurisdictional area, losing precious time that might have proven crucial in saving her. In a short explanation, Delhi Police said that the Police Control Room van got the first call at 10:22 pm that night, of two people including a woman lying on the road in a pool of blood.

The police claimed that two rescue vans reached the spot within minutes and took the victims to hospital 33 minutes after receiving the first distress call.

"The PCR call was received at 10:22:20. Call broadcast to PCR vans and Van Z-54 was directed to spot," a statement from Delhi Police said.

"Meanwhile PCR van E-42 reached the spot on its own at 10:26 -- in four minutes. Van Z-54 reached spot at 10:28 i.e. within 5.5 minutes of the call. It left the spot with victims at 10:31 i.e. within three minutes. It reached Safdarjang Hospital within 24 minutes at 10:55. All records as per GPS (Global Positioning System)," said the statement.

Breaking his silence for the first time since the horrific December 16 gangrape, the victim's friend Friday said he wished he could have saved the 23-year-old woman. He also blamed police for delaying taking them to hospital for over two hours as three PCR vans fought over jurisdiction. — IANS

Prompt medical aid could have saved my sister: Brother

Ballia (UP): The brother of the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim on Saturday said delay in providing medical assistance to his sister led to complications which perhaps led to her death. 

“She told me that after the incident that she had asked passers-by for help but to no avail and it was only after the highway patrol alerted the police that she was rushed to hospital but it had taken almost two hours”, her brother told PTI in their village in Ballia. 

“By then a lot of blood was lost”, he said, adding that “had the passers-by helped and if prompt medical assistance was provided, perhaps her life could have been saved”. 

He said people need to change their attitude and be ready to extend help. 

Regretting that consensus could not be reached in the meeting between representatives of the central and State governments on capital punishment in rape cases, he said the family has confidence that on the basis of the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in his sister’s case, all the accused would be sentenced to death. — PTI

Make teachings of sages part of school syllabus: Advani

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior BJP leader L K Advani has rued that contributions of sages and seers have been ignored in history teaching in schools on the pretext that anything to do with religion was a taboo in a secular state.

He found fault with the teaching of history in schools entirely focusing on kings and dynasties largely ignoring the contributions of sages and seers to the nation. 

"It is indeed unfortunate that in Indian schools, the teaching of history is almost entirely focused on kings, their dynasties, their wars and exploits," he said. 

"The remarkable contributions of our sages and seers are generally kept away from the children, and often on the plea that in a secular state anything to do with religion is taboo," he said in his latest blogpost. 

The blogpost has been penned in the backdrop of his New Year eve visit to Sivagiri Mutt in Kerala, founded by saint-reformer Sree Narayana Guru, to inaugurate the annual pilgrims meet. 

Advani patted Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy for assuring that the teachings of the Guru, the 20th century reformer who preached the message of "one caste, one religion and one God for man", would be included in school syllabus."

"In my speech at Sivagiri I urged Union Minister Vyalar Ravi (who was present) to ensure that Kerala's initiative is emulated by the Centre and other states. 

"It would elevate the level of school studies if the teachings and ideals of saints like Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and Swami Vivekananda are part of the normal curriculum,"Advani said. 

He said what Kerala had done, and, what should be done by educational institutions all over the country was something that would raise the Spiritual Quotient of countrymen along with Intelligent Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Quotient (EQ). 

"While coining this S.Q. phrase, I do not have any religion or creed in mind, I am thinking only of the ethical and moral values a student imbibes in his institution," he said. — PTI

Cops in plain clothes to patrol Goa buses

Panaji: Cops in plain clothes will be patrolling the public transport system in Goa while a separate 24x7 desk would be set up in all police stations across the state to help women in distress. The decision stems from the recent outrage over the Delhi gangrape incident.

The security review committee, which met yesterday, has decided to step up measures that would ensure safety of women in the tourist state.

"Policemen in civil clothes will travel in buses to ensure that women are not molested or meted out with rude behaviour," Superintendent of Police (North) Vijay Singh told reporters here.

Goa has a strong network of private buses which is usually overcrowded forcing women travellers to face instances of molestation.

The security review committee comprising senior police officials has also decided to set up a separate desk manned by women police officers to curb such crimes.

This desk would be open 24 hours, Singh said, adding the women in-charge of the desk would help victims to file complaints.

Kidney racket in Bangalore, 7 held

Bangalore: A police team on Saturday arrested seven persons for running a kidney transplantation racket, allegedly involving government officials and major hospitals in Bangalore. 

Among those arrested is one Ranjan, a revenue inspector, C.D. Shrikanth, a contract labourer in Food and Civil Supplies Office located at Magadi and five others including an agent, police said. 

Ramanagara Superintendent of Police Anupam Agarwal on Saturday said that the probe team, set up to bust the racket, has exposed a kidney sale network thriving in and around Bangalore. 

The initial breakthrough came on December 31, 2012, with the arrest of two persons who were allegedly engaged in the task of luring poor people to donate kidney for monetary benefit. 

Documents pertaining to the transplantation of kidney and duplicate voter identity cards were seized from them, he said. 

Agarwal said their interrogation led to the arrest of Shrikanth who was allegedly behind creating and providing fake documents for the kidney transplantation. 

A computer, scanner, hard disk which were used to create duplicate voter ID were also seized, he added. 

Two more persons were also arrested on the same day. 

Agarwal said the racket involved getting the kidney transplantation done with the help of fake documents. 

They collect between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh from the recipient, out of which only 10 to 20 per cent is given to the donor and rest was distributed among agents, Agarwal said, adding that about 25 illegal kidney transplantations are suspected to have been done. 

Bangalore North taluk Revenue Inspector Ranjan and an agent Ananth were also arrested subsequently during investigation, Agarwal said. 

Investigation regarding the alleged involvement of authorities from various hospitals is on, he said. — PTI

Flight operations normal at IGI airport

New Delhi: Operations at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here today largely remained unaffected even as the airport witnessed fog in the wee hours.

Only one flight was delayed due to weather at Delhi.

However, 15 flights were delayed and another five cancelled due to operational reasons and bad weather at destination, an airport official said.

Fog started to descend at the airport around midnight last night and runway visibility dropped to 25 metres around 2 AM on the third runway (29/11).

Visibility dropped to 225 metres on the main runway (28/10) around 3 AM and remained so for about an hour after which started to improve on both the runways.

Runway visibility improved to more than 2000 metres on runway 28/10 by 5.20 AM and on third runway from 5.50 AM, so there was no affect on operations as most of the domestic departures begin from 6 AM, they said. — PTI

3rd ODI: India look to restore some pride 

NEW DELHI: Battered and bruised by yet another series defeat, India’s struggling cricketers will seek to restore some pride when they go into the third and final ODI against arch-rivals Pakistan in New Delhi on Sunday with the future of some of the under-performing stars at stake. 

The collective failure of the top order even in home conditions has hurt the team badly in recent times and the hosts will need a huge spark of inspiration to prevent the spirited Pakistanis from achieving a 3-0 clean sweep. 

Clearly, the pressure will be on the Indians who have been plagued by an inexplicable form slump of their star batsmen while the limited and inexperienced bowling resources have compounded the misery for the hosts who have now sunk to a new low with the recent debacles. 

With the series already out of their grasp, the Indians may experiment by giving a chance to some of their bench players but whether they can change the team’s sliding fortunes remains to be seen in a day-night game which will start at noon to neutralise the dew factor. 

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, in good form with the bat, has been at a loss to explain the repeated failures and there have been suggestions that he should promote himself up the order considering the poor form of the top half. 

The hosts lost the first game in Chennai by six wickets and the second in Kolkata by 85 runs to give their arch foes their first series win on Indian soil since 2004-05. 

Unless the Indians put up a far better display, the Ferozeshah Kotla could be a witness another drubbing for Dhoni and his struggling men. 

Ajinkya Rahane, who has surprisingly not played a single match despite his decent showing in the two T20 games prior to the ODI series, is almost certain to feature in the playing eleven tomorrow. 

The two experienced openers — Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir — have invariably failed to give a good start and that has hurt the team badly. The Indians may contemplate benching either Sehwag or Gambhir and let Rahane open the innings. 

The form of Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina has been patchy and none of them have shown consistency nor have they shouldered the responsibility. 

In the absence of retired greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the experienced players in the team have not shown the willingness to take the batting load. 

Dhoni has acknowledged time and again that the batting has let the team down. 

“Everybody knows it’s disappointing. When you are going through transition, you want your senior players to perform and groom the juniors. Once two-three wickets start falling, you need someone to soak up the pressure and consolidate the innings”, Dhoni said. 

“But again our batting was disappointing. It’s important to have wickets in hand in the end. If you have wickets in hand, it’s possible to score 80-odd runs in the last 10 overs,” Dhoni said. 

India’s bowling also does not have the bite to pose much problems for the strong Pakistani batting line-up which has been well-served by left-handed opener Nasir Jamshed who has cracked back-to-back centuries. 

The trio of Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda and Bhuvneshwar Kumar neither have the pace nor the consistency to evoke any confidence while spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have also not been in the of best form. 

The absence of a genuine all-rounder in the team has hurt the Indians, particularly with the new rules coming into play. 

The new fielding rules, which allow only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle, have made it difficult for Dhoni to use his part-timers like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina for their full quota of 10 overs. 

That has really handicapped the Indians who have always preferred an additional batsman with the part-timers filling up the fifth bowler’s slot. 

The home team may toy with the idea of giving a chance to rookie paceman Mohammad Shami Ahmed and leg spinner Amit Mishra, both of whom have warmed the benches in the first two games. 

While India’s cup of woes has been brimming, it is a totally different story for the Pakistanis who have found everything going in their favour. 

The batting has clicked with Jamshed in stunning form while the experienced Mohammad Hafeez and Younis Khan have also chipped in with useful contributions. 

But it is their bowling which has really made the difference, particularly the potent pace trio of Junaid Khan, Mohammad Irfan and Umar Gul. 

Junaid has shown an exceptional ability to swing the ball and used the damp conditions in Chennai to devastating effect by ripping through India’s top order. 

Junaid was impressive in Kolkata also where he got reverse swing going and the jittery Indians must find a way to tackle him. 

Irfan, the towering 7 feet one inch speedster, has also proved to be quite a handful for the Indians, getting the ball to bounce disconcertingly while Gul has also been impressive. 

In the spin department, Saeed Ajmal can prove to be a wily customer while Hafeez and Shoaib Malik are good at doing the containing job. 

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq could not have asked for a better show from his teammates who have outplayed the Indians in every department of the game. 

“Indian batsmen are struggling for quite a long time. But I think our bowlers exploited the conditions better. Normally we get flat pitches here in India. But both the pitches — in Chennai and Kolkata — were challenging for batsmen,” he said. 

Misbah is now looking for a clean sweep and it should not be difficult. 

The toss may play a big role given the dew factor and the chilly winter conditions. The team which wins the toss, may opt to bowl first as dew may hamper spinners later. 

Though the match has been rendered inconsequential, a full house is expected at the Ferozeshah Kotla with tickets being sold out for the Sunday showdown. 

Teams 

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c&wk), Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and Mohammad Shami Ahmed. 

Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Shoaib Malik, Kamran Akmal (wk), Junaid Khan, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Anwar Ali, Haris Sohail, Imran Farhat, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz, Zulfiqar Babar. — PTI

Dhoni & Co lost focus after World Cup win: Kapil

NEW DELHI: Former India captain Kapil Dev feels that Mahendra Singh Dhoni and some other players have lost their focus after winning the 2011 World Cup and the players are putting their self-interest ahead of the team. 

“After the World Cup win, I feel they (Dhoni and other players) have lost focus. I think all the players are self-involved,” said Kapil, who led India to its first World Cup win in 1983. 

Kapil’s comments came in the wake of India’s disastrous performance over the last 12 months. 

The legendary all-rounder believes the team spirit is lacking in the Dhoni-led side. 

“All players now have their personal coaches, doctors and trainers. The side lacks the team feeling. Sometimes I see them eager to stand at fine leg after finishing their job. Eventually if you have to win, you have to win as a team,” said Kapil at an award function in New Delhi late Friday. 

Kapil didn’t spare coach Duncan Fletcher either. 

“There is a misconception about the word ‘coach’ It is all about man management. For me the coach is the person who taught me the game. Only your team mates can tell you where you are going wrong.” 

Kapil said it was very tough for foreign coaches to succeed in the sub-continent because of the communication problem. 

“For foreign coaches communication remains a big problem. I am a big fan of home-grown coaches. I think Sourav Ganguly didn’t do the right thing by calling in a foreign coach and setting the trend.” 

Asked why India was not getting good fast bowlers like Pakistan, Kapil said: “Being a fast bowler is a tough job. In India every young cricketer wants to become a Sunil Gavaskar or a Sachin Tendulkar. We don’t have enough fast bowling role models. But in Pakistan every child who picks up the ball wants to be Imran, Wasim or Waqar.” — PTI