Shimla, October 31
The police apprehend Rafi Muhammad, one of the main accused, in the HP-CPMT case from Tumkur district of Karnataka yesterday. He was involved in tutoring students at the mock classes in Mussoorie.

A team of the Himachal police arrested Rafi from Karnataka, where he is doing a course in physiotherapy. Rafi belongs to Bihar, where two other police teams had gone looking for him but it was the team sent to Karnataka which nabbed him.

He is being brought here for interrogation as he is learnt to have arranged tutors for solving the question paper and holding mock classes in Mussoorie for candidates who had benefited from paper leak. He used to get second and third year medical college students for solving he question paper and tutoring students.

Police sources said Rafi had been involved in this work for the past several years but each year he used to get new set of tutors. Medical college students have been providing services for tutoring students as they are able to make good money.

Another person, Sanjay Kumar, who was apprehended by the Himachal police from Lucknow yesterday is also being brought here. “He may not be directly involved in the case but he could be a key witness as he is supposed to have known many others whose involvement in the paper leak has been established,” said a senior police official.

Police teams have been sent to various places like Delhi, Lucknow and Bihar, and are hopeful of arresting persons wanted in the case. The high court on the request of the police had it given two more months to complete investigation in the HP-CPMT paper leak case.

Shimla, October 31
Mr Virbhadra Singh, Chief Minister, today took exception to media reports conveying an impression as if Mrs Sonia Gandhi talked about “discrimination” against Kangra while addressing a rally at Dharamsala yesterday.

Talking to mediapersons here today, he said Mrs Gandhi never said Kangra was being discriminated against. All that she said making a passing reference was that some sections in Kangra had a feeling that they were being ignored. This remark had been blown out of context.

He said regionalism, casteism and alleged discrimination against the merged areas had been the favourite planks of the opposition BJP all these years. At time some Congress leaders also raised such issues as a pressure tactics and helped advance their political prospects.

This was all a part of the political games leaders played.

The fact was that the merged areas comprising Kangra, Kulu, Lahaul-Spiti, Una and Hamirpur were the most backward in Punjab, but today they were the most developed in Himachal. The government would soon bring a white paper to prove this point.

So far as political representation was concerned these areas used to have just one deputy minister in the Punjab Cabinet whereas when he constituted his ministry in March 2003 there were as many as six representatives from Kangra alone. It was only because of the downsizing of the ministry, which was a constitutional requirement, that four ministers from the area had to be dropped.

He said it was by all accounts an unprecedented rally but that did not mean that he would go for a snap poll. The elections would be held in time.

Nurpur, October 31
The state BJP has claimed that AICC President Sonia Gandhi in her speech at Dharamsala yesterday had vindicated the allegation of the BJP that the Virbhadra Singh government was discriminating against Kangra district.

In a statement released here today, Mr Rajinder Rana, joint media in charge of the BJP, asserted that Ms Gandhi had not only admitted the feelings of the people of the district about discrimination but also directed Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh to remove such impression among the people. He alleged that in spite of misuse of government machinery for the success of the Sonia rally the turnout was not up to the expectation, which reflected the falling popularity graph of the state government.

He claimed that the people of the sate in general and Kangra district in particular were feeling themselves cheated after the visit of the Chairperson of the UPA government as she had not assured or announced any economic package for the hill state, whereas former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had always sanctioned economic packages during his visit to the state. He said Ms Sonia’s visit had disappointed people of the state.

Kangra October 31
Mr Chaman Lal Mattoo, father of Priyadharshani Mattoo, who is staying at an anonymous place in this district for his personal reasons, has expressed satisfaction over the justice given to him which was though delayed but ultimately not denied. He described it as a victory of common people, print and electronic media with whose effort he had succeeded in bringing the things to a logical conclusion.

Mr Mattoo, reacting to the verdict of the Delhi High Court of awarding death sentence to Santosh Singh, told The Tribune late last evening that this verdict had strengthen his faith in the judicial system of the country.

Santosh Singh, son of the former Director General of Police of Pondicherry, Mr J.P. Singh, was found guilty on both account, rape and murder of Mattoo at her Vasant Kunj residence in New Delhi on January 23, 1996, by a Bench of Mr Justice R.S. Sodhi and Mr Justice P.K. Bhasin.

Mr Mattoo said, “My daughter Priyadharshani will not come back by this historic verdict but this will certainly prove deterrent to the misguided sons of the affluent families who under the influence of power resort to heinous crimes and go escort free.”

Mr Mattoo said certainly this verdict would also help in the high profile cases like Jessica Lal and Nitish Katara to reach their logical conclusions.

He said the high court had termed the judgment of the trial court as ‘perverse’ and described it as an eye opener because ultimately the truth prevails.

Mr Mattoo thanked the media and common people of the country for their help to him in his crusade for justice.

He said if the Delhi police acted promptly and rightly, his daughter would have been alive. He said her repeated requests and complaints, including FIRs mentioning threat to her life from Santosh Singh, the Delhi Police did not respond. He said law would take its own course against erring police officers that showed negligence.

He was all praise for the present CBI Director, Mr Shankaran, for his sincere effort to provide all circumstantial evidences in continuous chain which helped the court to convict the accused. 

Shimla, October 31
While the government has rejected the demand for raising the age of superannuation to 60 years, it is showering benefits on favourites by selectively granting extension in service on a large scale.

Brushing aside the protests from employees, it has granted extension to four officers who completed 58 years of age today. Mr S.P. Negi, Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, has been granted extension of 18 months in one go. It means that he will be in service till the Virbhadra Singh government completes its term in March, 2008.

Dr M.L. Mahajan, Director of Health, and Mr R.S. Kanwar, Chief Engineer, North, have been given extension for one year.

Mr R.L. Chauhan, Member (Civil) in the state electricity board, has been granted extension till further orders.

There is strong resentment among the engineers and doctors who had been building pressure on the government against granting extension which not only deprived the youth of job opportunities but also harmed the careers and morale of those in service.

Shimla, October 31
Tributes were paid to late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 22nd death anniversary, which was observed as "Sankalp Divas" here today.

Mr Virbhadra Singh, CM, laid a wreath at the statue of the former Prime Minister at the Ridge. He was joined by Mrs Vidya Stokes, Power Minister, Mrs Pratibha Singh, MP, Congress legislators and other party leaders. — TNS

Reckong Peo, October 31
The tribesmen of Kinnaur witnessed mellifluous cultural shows and vibrant music presented by artistes of various locations on the second day of the tribal festival going on here at the district headquarters of Kinnaur.

The day started with cultural items presented by children of various institutions followed by a dance competition.

Then, artistes of the North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala, presented various cultural items. Bhangra and giddha attracted a large crowd.

A cultural troupe from Rajasthan also added colour to the show. Besides, a group from Chamba, the song and drama division of the state Public Relations Department and a few other local groups presented cultural items.

Karnail Rana, popular Pahari singer of the hill state, wowed the crowd with his melodious voice beating the chill of the cloudy weather conditions in the musical night.

Punjab National Bank in his stall adopted a novel method to attract customers. It hired a few puppets that highlighted various schemes of the bank. It attracted a large crowd mostly women and children.

The Horticulture Department organised an open competition for the farmers of this tribal belt and displayed their produce in the exhibition.