The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Delhi and neighbourhood

	Jessica case: Police moves HC for fresh tests Court orders criminal proceedings against a medical practitioner Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 The Delhi High Court today ordered criminal proceedings against a doctor who granted “false” medical certificates to an accused in the Jessica Lall murder case and issued notices to all the accused on an application moved by the Delhi Police seeking fresh ballistic examination of the bullets recovered from the scene of offence. The nine acquitted accused in the sensational murder of the model-turned bartender also suffered a setback with the Division Bench of Justice R S Sodhi and Justice P K Bhasin rejecting their plea for early completion of the appeal proceedings. The Bench ordered police to register an FIR and launch criminal proceedings against Dr J S Bedi for “purportedly issuing false medical certificates” to one of the absconding accused Vikas Gill to facilitate his exemption from attending the trial proceedings. Gill, who was charged with harbouring the prime accused Manu Sharma, fled to the US in October 2004 in violation of the bail conditions which stipulated that he shall not leave the country without prior permission of the court. According to the Delhi Police counsel, Mukta Gupta, though Gill had fled to the US, Dr Bedi issued several false certificates to claim that the accused was suffering from spinal ailments to facilitate his exemption from attending the proceedings in the trial court. M S Ahluwalia, counsel for Bedi, took the plea that the doctor was an apparent victim of impersonation and hence cannot be held guilty of the charges. Claiming that Gill might have used medical prescriptions issued by the doctor to seek exemption, the counsel sought access to the said medical certificates for verification of the same. However, the Bench asked the counsel to plead his defence at the time of the appeal proceedings and directed the police to register an FIR against the doctor and commence the investigations. Though the prosecution, which had initiated proceedings for attachment of Gill’s property, submitted a list of properties held by the accused, the court did not pass any order today as the same were under joint ownership. Delhi Police counsel also made a strong plea for conduct of a fresh ballistic test by a ‘Board of Experts’ on the bullets recovered from the scene of offence and in a vehicle allegedly abandoned by the accused after committing the crime. She pleaded that since the trial judge had acquitted all the nine accused on the ground that the bullets were fired from two different weapons, based on the FSL report, a fresh test could possibly substantiate the prosecution’s theory that they were fired from one single weapon. However, the Bench initially wondered whether a fresh test would serve any purpose as police till date had failed to recover the weapon used in the crime. “You are trying to highlight a non-issue. Where is the gun? You don’t have the gun. How do you wish to establish your case?” the Bench queried the Government counsel. The counsel, however, insisted that besides the cartridges recovered from the scene of offence, the police had also seized a bullet from a vehicle abandoned by the accused after committing the crime which she said may eventually help the prosecution’s theory that the bullets were fired from the same weapon. She claimed that any positive report by the experts supporting the prosecution’s theory would have a “clinching effect on the issue”. Upon this, the court issued notices to the nine accused asking them to file their replies and posted the matter for further hearing to July 31.
	Women thrown out from venue of CM’s function Bijendra Ahlawat Tribune News Service Faridabad, May 31 Several women waiting to receive allowance announced by the government under the post-natal care scheme reportedly got a taste of official apathy during a function where the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was present to inaugurate a primary health centre at Aurangabad village of Hodal subdivision on Tuesday. These women, who had come with their children, had to wait for several hours without water or proper sitting arrangements. According to some eyewitnesses, even as the CM was about to arrive, the officials directed the women to “vacate the place” and “make themselves comfortable outside the building in the scorching sun”. Meanwhile, addressing a meeting organised by the local MLA, the Chief Minister promised steps to solve the water and power supply in the region. The government would soon take up the matter of supply of irrigation water from the Agra canal with his counterpart in Uttar Pradesh, as the latter was having a total control over the canal functioning, he said. According to reports, while the UP Government was not releasing water to the villages falling under the command area of the canal, the authorities had issued notices to collect revenue (Abiyana) from them. While claiming that his government had fulfilled several of the promises made, the CM said that the government would ensure speedy implementation of the various projects and schemes in the region. The government had started work on several power generation projects, which would raise the availability of power in the State by about 5000 MW in the next three years, he said. Mr Hooda also said that the government would spend around Rs 929 crore on maintenance of roads and public buildings in the state.
	BJP attacks Sheila on ‘office of profit’ issue Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 Chief Minister Ms Sheila Dikshit enjoys no moral authority to continue in office since the Bill passed to protect Congress MLAs holding dual posts stands discredited with the President refusing to clear the ‘office of profit’ Bill passed by Parliament recently, the state unit of the BJP said today. “The Lt Governor should recommend dismissal of the Chief Minister since her government would now be reduced to a minority and she has lost the moral authority to govern after the President returned the Parliament (Disqualification of Members) Amendment Bill,” Delhi BJP President Dr Harsh Vardhan said. The President’s decision had put a question mark not just on the working of the Central Government, but also on that of Delhi Government which passed the Delhi Members of Legislative Assembly (Removal of Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill, 2006 at a special one-day session of the Assembly on May 18, leader of the Opposition Prof Jagdish Mukhi said. The Bill sought removal of posts in 14 non-legislative bodies from the law on disqualification of MLAs holding office of profit, thereby protecting the Congress Government from being reduced to a minority, he pointed out. The Bill was passed a few days after 19 Congress MLA received notices from the Election Commission on the office of profit issue. The notices, issued on a petition by BJP MLA Vijay Jolly, asked the MLAs to answer the allegation that they were fit for disqualification under Section 146 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The amendment sought to bring the offices of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Trans Yamuna Area Development Board and the Delhi Rural Development Board, the Parliamentary Secretary to the CM, the Chairman of 9 District Development Committees and Chairperson of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Welfare Board out of the ambit of the law on disqualification of legislators holding office of profit. Dr Harsh Vardhan has also demanded that the Election Commission immediately disqualify the legislators who hold offices of profit. The BJP says 26 Congress MLAs of Delhi face disqualification for holding offices of profit.
	Woman, 5 others get life term for murder Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 Six persons, including a woman, who kidnapped, murdered and dumped the body of an east Delhi businessman six years ago, were today handed down life imprisonment by a city court. Terming it as “one of the most heinous offence”, the Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Sanjay Sharma held Sonbeer, his wife Sonia, Prempal, Deepak Bhargav, Jitendra alias Jeetu and Rajesh alias Raju guilty of mercilessly murdering one Virendra Kumar Varma nearly six years ago in a house at Noida. The court, however, acquitted two other accused for want of evidence. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 13,000 each on convicts who were held guilty under section 364 (kidnapping for ransom), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. One of the accused, who was juvenile at the time of the offence, is facing trial before a Juvenile Court. As per the prosecution, Verma, a property dealer and owner of a chit-fund company, on the afternoon of February 20, 2000 was called up by one of the accused Sonia to come over at a house at Khoda Colony in Noida. Once Verma reached there, Sonia, who was having a grudge against the victim as he had allegedly raped her in confinement, led him inside the house and started belabouring him with the help of other accused including her husband Sonbeer. Sonia, who was known to Verma as her sister-in-law, was victim of sexual assault and wanted to take revenge, the prosecution said. Later, Verma’s wife was forced pay Rs 1.7 lakh as ransom to the accused as they had kept him hostage. However, the convicts, even after receiving the amount, brutally beheaded the victim and mutilated his private parts and dumped his body after packing them in two gunny bags. A life sentence was also awarded to two youths in another case who, in a fit of rage, shot dead a man as he had intervened and tried to stop them from belabouring his friend. Additional Sessions Judge Chandra Gupta, discarding the statement of the complainant and eye witness who turned hostile during the trial, convicted Santosh and Brijesh for killing one Ram Naresh Yadav in east Delhi two years ago. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on both the convicts as the charges under section 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC were found established. As per the prosecution, both the convicts, on the night of August 30, 2004 went to the house of one Santosh Pandit in the Kondali area of east Delhi. The accused, who was having some financial disputes with Pandit, started beating him following a verbal duel. Meanwhile, Yadav, a neighbour and friend of Pandit, tried to save his friend from being belaboured by the accused duo. The duo got enraged and shot twice with their country made pistol at Yadav who succumbed to his injuries at a city hospital. Later, police arrested the accused and recovered the weapon of offence at their instance.
	Mother-son duo get 7-yr RI for dowry death New Delhi, May 31 A Delhi court has sentenced a man to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for having burnt his newly wedded wife to death here ten years ago. Additional Sessions Judge S P Garg also sentenced accused Salahuddin’s mother Anjum to a similar term, while imposing a fine of Rs 1,000 on both, finding them guilty of cruelty and dowry death. A third accused, Salahuddin’s minor brother, was however acquitted of all charges. According to the prosecution, deceased Anwari Begum, aged about 19 years, was married to Salahuddin on July 12, 1995. Within four days of the wedding, Anwari had complained to her father Mohd Hassan, of dowry demands and harassment by her husband and his mother, the prosecution said. In his witness statement before the court, Hassan said that the two accused often beat up his daughter, and physically and mentally tortured her for dowry. On December 23 that year, the Ambedkar Nagar police in south Delhi received information of a fire in a nearby settlement, prosecution said. On reaching the spot, they found Anwari’s charred body lying on the ground beside two empty kerosene cans. A case against accused Salahuddin and his mother was registered soon after. — TNS
	Writers rue Punjabi’s poor status in Capital Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 Punjabi writers and representatives of language teachers today met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and complained to her that Punjabi had not got the recognition it deserved in the Capital despite the Delhi Government having accorded it the status of second language two years ago. A delegation of Punjabi Sahitya Sammelan, a cultural and literary organisation, led by its president Manjit Singh, told Ms Gandhi that at least 2,000 part-time teachers of Punjabi language recruited more than a decade ago had not been regularised so far. They said that the post of Punjabi officer in the Delhi Administration had been lying vacant for the past 12 years and no steps had been taken to promote Punjabi language in state schools. The posts of Punjabi teacher that fell vacant had not been filled and the authorities concerned had been dissuading the teaching of the language and recruitment of teachers in schools on one pretext or the other. They drew Ms Gandhi’s attention to 47 posts of Punjabi teachers lying vacant in the Delhi Government’s Department of Education, saying that the wage structure of these teachers was lower than that of peons in the schools. The delegation told Ms Gandhi that according second language status to Punjabi had become “a part of politics” as the language’s presence had virtually ceased in the Capital over the years, barring some inscriptions on road signboards. The delegation submitted a memorandum to Ms Gandhi demanding that arrangements be made to recruit Punjabi teachers in MCD and other government schools with a special relaxation on age bars by amending the rules if need be; increase the Punjabi slot on Doordarshan and radio and creation of Punjabi posts in various cultural and literary organisations of the Delhi Government. They also demanded that the posts of Punjabi officer, which were lying vacant in the Punjabi cell of the language department should be filled without delay and pointed towards an alleged conspiracy by the bureaucracy to reduce the Punjabi language and culture to a non-entity and said this must be insulated against.
	MBA in Organic Agriculture and Food Business Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 Amity Institute of Organic Agriculture (AIOA) has started a unique programme of MBA in Organic Agriculture and Food Business. The two-year programme bears a strong content of techno-skilled bio-resource management principles linked to healthy practices of organic farming, food production, processing and marketing strategies. This MBA programme started on September 1, 2005. In this programme, 24 students enrolled and have completed their first year. The students will be going for the summer placement from June 1 to July 21. Dr Ashok K Chauhan, Founder President, Ritnanad Balved Education Foundation (RBEF), while blessing the students proceeding on summer training, exhorted them to work wholeheartedly on their assigned projects. He emphasized that Organic Agriculture not only required technical inputs but also large measure of managerial practices. The farmer has to be given easy access to the market to get remunerative prices for his produce. The food processing industry and the traders have to ensure that the entire organic produce is lifted. Mr Atul Chauhan, Chancellor, Amity University Uttar Pradesh (AUUP) speaking on the occasion said, “India has to play a leading role in the Organic Agriculture Food and Business Management. The country has large tracts of land which can easily adopt Organic farming”. He advised the students that during their field training, they should see how the role of Central and State Government including NGOs on one hand and the food processing industry on the other hand supplement their efforts.

	Rs 10 coin to be minted in Noida Our Correspondent Noida, May 31 A new coin of denomination of Rs 10 is being introduced in the market shortly. The coin is being minted in the Noida Government Mint. The new coin, being introduced in the denomination of Rs10, for the first time will have “Anekta Me Ekta” (Unity in Diversity) inscribed on either side. According to sources, the Reserve Bank of India has placed an order for the production of 2,50,00,000 pieces of Rs 10 coin. Raw material for minting one crore coins has already been received in Noida Mint where work on producing these coins has already been taken in hand. For the first time the Reserve Bank of India has decided to go in for a jilted coin of brass. Each coin will weigh 2.5 gm. It may be pointed out that coins in denominations of Rs 2, Rs 5 and Rs 10 are under production in the Noida Government Mint. It is learnt that the width of the coin will vary between 18 mm to 25 mm. According to sources in the Noida mint, the speed of work here these days is rather slow. There are 26 machines for minting coins in Noida. Besides Noida, the government mints are located in Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, besides five security printing presses.
	Functions mark ‘World No Tobacco Day’ Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 A series of programmes were held in the Capital today to spread a message about the ills of tobacco to mark World No Tobacco Day. The Vithalbhai Patel Chest Institute, in collaboration with the World Lung Foundation, South Asia, organised a public education programme on the harmful effects of tobacco. The theme for this year’s education programme is ‘Tobacco: Deadly in any form or disguise’. People were informed that every 10 seconds, one person died in the world as a result of causes related to tobacco use and the fact that tobacco contained over 4000 chemicals. A seminar was also organised to convey the harmful effects of smoking on respiratory and cardiovascular health. Those who had quit smoking through the tobacco cessation clinic of the chest institute motivated others to quit smoking by narrating their personal experiences. A tableau-cum-mobile exhibition on the harmful effects of tobacco, which would create awareness on the issue all over the city, was flagged off yesterday by Delhi Health Minister Dr Yoganand Shastri. Health workers would also visit slum areas in the city to create awareness about the hazards of tobacco consumption. The Universal Helpage (India) Trust also organised a seminar-cum-training workshop on the Tobacco Control Act and its enforcement.
	Seven children dead due to heat wave conditions Our Correspondent Ghaziabad, May 31 Seven children died due to heat wave conditions while one man drowned in the process of bathing during a fair of Nats (folk dancers) in Pooth village on the banks of Ganga in Garh Mukhteshwar Tehsil. According to reports, the fair attracted widespread participation by the local villagers of the area. However, despite the heat wave conditions, it seems there was little preparation by the local administration and the Health Department. The seven children reportedly died due to diarrhoea, vomiting, loose motions etc. Among the victims included Meenu (daughter of Om Beer), Ruchi (daughter of Sunder), Rohtash (son of Baleshwer), Komal, Rakhi (daughter of Jai Singh), Anuj and Rani. Pintu (son of Birju of Mirpur) of Saharanpur was drowned while bathing in the river.
	PM urged to consider Muslims’ demands Tribune News Service New Delhi, May 31 Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid, Syed Ahmed Bukhari, has written a letter to Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh urging him to respond to the memorandum seeking ‘socio-economic uplift of Muslims’. Terming the Government’s attitude towards Muslims ‘woeful’, the letter complains that the memorandum submitted on April 18 demanding a separate package for socio-economic uplift of the Muslims has apparently fallen on deaf ears. Referring to the agitation of the medical students on the quota issue, he has raised a question in the letter asking “whether the Muslims too would have to start an agitation like the striking medicos to get their demands accepted.” Lest it should be read as opposition to the anti-quota stir, the Shahi Imam took care to say that he supported the proposed increase in the general seats in the higher educational institutions.
	Delhi gets new Chief Secretary New Delhi, May 31 Senior bureaucrat S. Narayanaswami took charge as the new Chief Secretary of Delhi, replacing S. Regunathan, who attained superannuation today. A 1971 batch IAS officer, Narayanaswami has held the post of Principal Home Secretary of Delhi. He was posted with the Central government before taking up the new assignment. Mr Regunathan is likely to be appointed as Chairman of Special Purpose Vehicle Wing of the Delhi Government which was tasked with implementation of a world-class transport system in the Capital. At present, the wing looks after Mono Rail Transit System among other departments. — TNS
	Functions mark mystic poet’s anniversary New Delhi, May 31 Thousands of people from different parts of India and abroad attended the 17th Barsi Bhandara of mystic poet Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj yesterday. Head of Sawan Kirpal Ruhani Mission stated that the life of Sant Darshan Singh Ji Maharaj on earth was of bestowing us with the eternal love of God and connecting us with the inexhaustible nectar of ‘Naam’. ‘Chhabils’ were organized at over 700 locations in India and at 40 places throughout Delhi on the occasion. Cancer patients at the Shanti Avedan Sadan, Raj Nagar, were provided with medicines, fruits and vegetables. — TNS
	College gets new chairman New Delhi, May 31 Mr Rajesh Yadav, a senior leader of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, was today elected as chairman of the Governing Body of Satyawati College. Mr Yadav is currently secretary, DPCC and also secretary of All India Yadav Mahasabha. The position has been held previously by former Union Minister Vijay Goel, Acting Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice Vijender Jain and former DPCC president Deep Chand Bandhu. — TNS