New Delhi, January 21
A Delhi court today framed charges against three people for the 2005 Divali-eve bomb blasts in the Capital that killed 60 people and injured about 150 others.

Additional sessions judge Babulal framed charges against Mohammed Rafiq Shah, Mohammed Hussain Fazli and Farukh Ahmed Fazlu after brief arguments from their respective counsel.

On Friday, the court framed charges against Tariq Ahmed Dar, the mastermind behind the blasts, who then pleaded not guilty and the court ordered to begin the trial in the case.

All three accused charged today were booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), Section 307 (attempt to murder), Section 302 (murder) and also Section 4 of the Explosive Substance acts.

Dar was booked under Section 121 of the IPC (waging or attempting to wage war against the government of India), 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences for waging war), 122 (collecting arms for waging war), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), Section 4 of the Explosives Substance Act and Sections 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities Act.

However, the charges could not be framed against Gulam Ahmed Khan, another accused, after he mentioned that he was not mentally prepared to attend the court proceedings.

The court then ordered the superintendent of Tihar Jail to take him to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and submit a detailed report on his health on January 28, the next date of hearing.

The Delhi Police last month had filed a supplementary chargesheet in the court claiming that they had more evidence against the five accused.

The chargesheet was filed against Dar, mentioning his call details that allegedly established that he was in touch with Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives Abu-al-Kama and others to hatch the conspiracy for the serial blasts on October 29, 2005.

Records of the calls made before and after the blasts point to the complicity of the accused, the police alleged in the chargesheet, which also named Mohammed Hussain Fazli and Mohammed Rafiq Shah as the accused.

Details of illegal monetary transactions involving Dar and others were also mentioned in the chargesheet. — IANS

New Delhi, January 21
The All India Sikh Conference (Babbar) Monday urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Vijay Shanker to replace the team probing the 1984 anti-Sikh riots involving former union minister and Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.

One of the witnesses, Gurcharan Singh Babbar, threatened not to depose if the organisation’s demands were not met.

“I was served a notice a few days ago under section 160 of CrPc to give a statement and dossier before the present investigating team, which is deeply involved in hatching a plot for defending Tytler, on January 24,” said Babbar, who is also president of the All India Sikh Conference faction.

“I have written a letter to the CBI director that I wouldn’t comply with the notice until he replaced additional superintendent of police Manoj Pangarkar and his team, which has hushed up the matter by filing a closure report to save Tytler under political pressure,” Babbar told reporters.

Babbar stressed that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should provide an explanation to the Sikh community about the investigating agency’s manner of operation.

“How can we believe the agency that has taken an enormous time to trace Jasbir Singh, a key witness in the case, who had actually seen Tytler ordering his men to slaughter Sikhs during the carnage?” he asked.

The California-based Jasbir Singh, who was earlier declared non-traceable by the CBI, filed a petition last week through his son seeking to quash a CBI notice asking him to come to India and give his statement on the riots.

Sate Singh, father of Jasbir Singh, said: “The agency never contacted him and rest of the family to record our statement or version. They said we are untraceable and couldn’t be contacted.”

“We want the agency to video-record Jasbir’s statement as he is facing life threats from Tytler’s goons in India,” Sate Singh said.

Singh, in an affidavit before the Nanavati Commission, which investigated the anti-Sikh riots, stated that Nov 3, 1984, he had overheard Tytler rebuking his men for “only” nominal killing of Sikhs in his constituency. — IANS

New Delhi, January 21
The national Capital has once again turned into a temporary fortress with pill-boxes and barricades erected along the vantage points on the route of the Republic Day parade.

For the last few years, the parade is held under unprecedented security because of threat from terrorists and anti-national organisations.

This year too the route of the parade will be sanitised 24 hours before the event. No one would be allowed on to the route after the rehearsal and the buildings along the route would be evacuated. Sharp shooters would be deployed atop the buildings to prevent any unforeseen incident. The sewers along the route of the parade are also being checked.

The Delhi Police, in collaboration with other security agencies, has developed an elaborate security plan for the event. Trained commandos will be deployed at strategic positions along the route. Besides, aerial survey will also be conducted.

Trained spotters from various intelligence agencies have been brought to the Capital, especially for the event. They will be deployed at important locations and will help the law enforcement agencies in spotting suspected terrorists.

According to a Delhi Police spokesperson, extra surveillance is being maintained at border check-posts and railway stations. The Delhi Police is in constant touch with its counterpart in neighbouring states to prevent any infiltration.

He added that a total of 174 companies of the Delhi police and central paramilitary forces were being deployed over the city for the Day.

A senior Delhi Police officer explained that security was not being limited to the parade route and the India Gate complex only. It was being extended to the entire Capital, especially in important markets, places of entertainment and business hubs. Mobile patrolling was being augmented and police control-room vehicles were being stationed at strategic locations to cut down on the response time in case of an emergency.

New Delhi, January 21
President Pratibha Patil asked for implementation of stern laws against sexual harassment of women at work places and stringent action against those indulging in teasing and molestation.

The President made these comments while inaugurating the Sixth South Asia Regional Ministerial Conference to commemorate the World Conference on Women which began on Thursday.

She strongly felt that an important step in self-defence would be imparting training in judo and karate to all girl students to help them become physically strong and confident to counter any challenges they may encounter either on the road, the workplace or on university campuses.

She made an appeal to all the women to fight inequality saying, “women should work determinedly for their own empowerment. One important step in this direction is imparting physical education like judo and karate to girl students from a very early age so as to make them physically strong and to build up self-confidence to face the challenges of life.”

Patil stressed that an agenda for the empowerment of women should cover gender needs and concerns at every stage and sphere of life by prohibiting female foeticide and preventing female infanticide by giving better nutrition and equal educational opportunities to the girl child.

Patil also asked both the government and society to work hand in hand to ensure that women were made equal partners in all aspects of the growth of society and the nation. “There is a gap between de jure and de facto positions regarding their rights. The need of the hour was speedy implementation of legislative and policy measures for their empowerment,” she added.

New Delhi, January 21
A labourer was killed Monday at a Delhi Metro construction site here while carrying out burrowing work.

Vijay Mandal, 40, was killed around 1 p.m. as the side of a hole, being dug to house an underground water tank, collapsed at a metro construction site in Laxmi Nagar.

“Mandal was buried in the soil. He was extricated and rushed to the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital, where he was declared brought dead,” said a Delhi Metro spokesman.

The police said they were investigating the cause of accident with the help of Metro officials.

Last week, a man had allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a moving train at the Chawri Metro station in north Delhi. — IANS

New Delhi, January 20
The Delhi High court has directed the public works department (PWD) to pay adequate compensation to the residents of Subhash Park Extension in East Delhi, before starting the work of road construction. It, thus, has come to the rescue of the residents, who might lose their houses.

“You (PWD) can dispossess the residents only after paying them adequate compensation,” said a bench comprising justices T S Thakur and Aruna Suresh.

The court asked the PWD to apprise it about the steps being taken in this regard. It asked the PWD to inform about the plan, if any, to rehabilitate the residents by June 17, the next date of hearing.

It, however, rejected the plea of petitioner Devchandi Devi and some of her neighbours that they be provided with alternative plots, as they would lose their houses.

Keeping in mind the larger interest of public, the construction of road cannot be stalled and you (petitioner) are only entitled to compensation, the bench said. The counsel appearing for the PWD undertook that the department would apprise the court about the rehabilitation plan. 

New Delhi, January 21
A woman’s false charges of dowry harassment amounts to cruelty against husband, a city court observed while granting divorce to a man, married for the past 33 years.

Additional district judge Atul Kumar Garg said it was proven that the woman misbehaved with her husband.

She had implicated a case of dowry harassment against her husband and had sent the innocent man to jail.

The court said that use of abusive language and levelling allegations of dowry after 27 years of marriage constitutes cruelty against husband.

Admitting the divorce plea of Surinder Kumar, the court observed that his wife had not levelled dowry charges against him in her testimony and had belied her own allegations.

Surinder’s children had also spoken in his favour before the Delhi Police’s crime against women cell, a unit that inquires into cases of dowry harassment.

They said that it was their mother who quarreled with their father.

Passing a decree of divorce, the court took note of Surinder’s contention that his wife’s abusive behaviour had forced him to seek separation from her, after 33 years of wedding.

Surinder established from testimonies coupled with circumstantial facts that his wife kept away from domestic work and insulted him in front of relatives and friends.

New Delhi, January 21
With the arrest of one Gyan Singh, the south district police claimed to have solved the murder case of Ram Prakash within 36 hours of commission of crime in the Amar Colony area. Blood-stained clothes of the deceased and the stone used in the commission of the crime have been recovered.

The body was recovered on Sunday morning with serious injuries on the head. The deceased was later identified as Ram Prakash, a private security guard.

During investigation, it was revealed that one Gyan Singh does the day shift at the same place as the deceased.

According to the police sources, the deceased was a drunkard and the alleged accused was upset with him for coming late for duty every day. On January 19, the alleged accused invited the deceased to a drinking session.

After getting drunk, the accused asked the deceased to come for work on time. Both had a tiff and then Gyan lifted a heavy stone and hit Ram on the head. 

Faridabad, January 21
The district unit of the BJP today held a statewide agitation against the alleged failure of the Congress government at the Mini Secretariat and also submitted a memorandum to the Governor through the district administration. The memorandum listed alleged failures of the present government on all fronts, especially in upholding law and order.

The party raised the issue of Prithla double murder of sisters along with their rape and held the government in poor light as the aggrieved family was yet to get justice even after about five weeks of the violent incident.

In the case, bodies of two undergraduate students of Post Graduate Aggarwal Degree College were recovered at a railway track, the day after the students went missing. The sisters were natives of village Prithla, near here.

The BJP demonstration was given substance on account of the presence of former party MP from Faridabad, Ramchander Bainda and a former party MLA from this district, Krishan Lal Gurjar. The state observer of the BJP with regard to the Faridabad unit of the party and a former MLA, Nitisen Bhatia, were also present on the occasion.

The memorandum also mentioned about the short and erratic supply of power and water in the state.