New Delhi, May 22
The UPA government’s fourth anniversary celebrations today became an occasion to set aside old misunderstandings and forge fresh friendships.

After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh set the ball rolling by inviting the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the fourth anniversary dinner tonight, voluble SP leader Amar Singh returned the compliment by accepting the invitation and followed it up by praising the Prime Minister and extending his party’s willingness to cooperate with the government.

“I have great respect and admiration for the Prime Minister...this is a reinforcement of the warm rapport between the PM and me,” Amar Singh told mediapersons at the dinner, adding in his typical dramatic style, “The morning shows the ray, let’s enjoy the ray.”

There was, however, no reference to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who studiously avoided the SP leader and walked past him without even an acknowledgement. It was left to the Prime Minister to entertain Amar Singh.

Nevertheless, Amar Singh’s arrival at today’s dinner and the welcome he received from the Prime Minister is a far cry from the manner in which the SP leader was cold-shouldered at a dinner hosted at Sonia Gandhi’s residence in 2004 in the run-up to the formation of the UPA government. A miffed Amar Singh had vowed to avenge his humiliation and the SP and the Congress have been engaged in a bitter slanging match since then.

However, there were several anxious moments before Amar Singh put in an appearance. The buzz went around that the SP leader had declined the invitation as the chair earmarked for him at Manmohan Singh’s high table remained vacant. However, when he did arrive, the Prime Minister personally got up to greet him and sat with him while Amar Singh deftly fielded questions from mediapersons. Dr Manmohan Singh stuck a conciliatory note, saying “there are no permanent friends or foes in politics” and that there is a need for everybody to work together in these tough times.

Amar Singh was more expansive when asked about the possibility of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party doing business in the future. “Why future...we are ready to work with them even today,” he remarked dramatically. He was also far more accommodating on the prickly issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal which has been rejected by the Samajwadi Party. “We are willing to reconsider our stand if the government presents us with fresh facts,” he added.

While Amar Singh was holding forth, Congress president Sonia Gandhi was deep in conversation at the next table with CPM’s “power couple” Prakash and Brinda Karat. Sonia Gandhi refused to take any questions on the Karnataka elections, saying she would rather wait for the results this Sunday. The Congress president, however, made it a point to draw attention to the party’s good performance in the West Bengal local elections. When asked if she had commiserated with Prakash Karat over the CPM’s showing, she added diplomatically, “Haar jeet to chalta rehta hai election mein.” 

New Delhi, May 22
As the UPA marked four years in office, the BJP today dubbed Manmohan Singh as a “lame duck” Prime Minister and dared the Congress to project him as its prime ministerial candidate if it was confident that his government has performed well.

The Opposition came out with a list of “failures” of the government which included “bartering” the national security for votes, “imperilling” food and economic security and “sanctifying” corruption.

The party used the occasion of the fourth anniversary to launch a scathing attack on the Prime Minister, calling him “lame duck”, “non-performing” and “weak”, who was heading a “squabbling cabal of the opportunist parties”.

“Normally, a non-performing Prime Minister becomes lame duck in the last year of his tenure. For the first time, India has seen a Prime Minister who is lame duck from the very beginning,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

He sought to know from the Congress whether Singh would be projected as its prime ministerial candidate in the next Lok Sabha elections if it feels that the government has done so well in the last four years.

Prasad said the question arose especially when senior ministers of the Manmohan Singh government were pitching for Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial nominee.

Accusing the Congress of “devaluating” the office of the Prime Minister, he said, “Singh has no control whatsoever over his government or his ministerial colleagues, including those from the Congress, as they openly ignore and defy his authority.” — PTI

New Delhi, May 22
Red in the face over home minister Shivraj Patil’s remarks drawing a parallel between Sarabjit Singh and Afzal Guru, senior Congress ministers on Thursday tried to wash their hands off the controversy.

“I don’t want to comment...If he has said so, ask him why he said it,” science and technology minister Kapil Sibal said.

Drawing a parallel between Sarabjit Singh - an Indian in a Pakistani jail awaiting death sentence on charges of carrying out bomb blasts there - and Guru, who was found guilty in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, Patil reportedly said seeking the latter’s death did not go well with demanding clemency for the former.

“If you are asking for Afzal’s hanging then how can you ask pardon for Sarabjit? What are you doing?” Patil was quoted as saying in Marathi in Latur on Wednesday.

Another of Patil’s cabinet colleagues, information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, was softer. “If anything has been stated by the honourable home minister, how can you expect that another Cabinet colleague will differ from him on the whole issue?” asked Dasmunsi. “But certainly in the UPA government none of our ministers differ with another minister,” he added. — IANS

New Delhi, May 22
The government today removed the last visible hurdle in the way of the OBC quota implementation, with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) giving its “in-principle” approval to the outlay required for rolling out the ambitious reservation plan.

That the approval of Rs 10,328.20 crore for infrastructure development in Central Educational Institutions (CEIs) in the country comes ahead of the general elections scheduled next year is no surprise, considering the government’s repeated commitment to its quota policy.

Only a fortnight ago, finance minister P. Chidambaram, while reacting to the temporary crisis created by an unfavourable ruling by the Calcutta High Court, had said the government would do “everything it can to see that 27 per cent quotas for the OBCs are implemented from this academic session.”

Today, Chidambaram walked many steps further in the direction by announcing the approval granted by the CCEA to the outlay of Rs 10,328 crore recommended by the Expenditure and Finance Committee, for the purpose.

The Department of Higher Education in the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had mooted the proposal considering grave infrastructural challenges to be met in the view of the quota implementation. The outlay will expectedly take care of facility enhancement in central universities, management and technical institutions and enable them to expand their capacity by 54 per cent to accommodate the increased intake of students consequent upon the PBC quota.

“The outlay approved by the CCEA will provide for the basic physical infrastructure at central educational institutions (CEIs) without affecting the open competition candidates,” Chidambaram today said, after the meeting of the CCEA and the Cabinet.

Out of the sanctioned amount, Rs 4,107.91 crore will be of recurring nature, while the remaining Rs 6,220.29 crore will be non-recurring expenditure. The recommendations, as approved by the CCEA, were earlier sent in by the Oversight Committee and the Empowered Committee looking into the ministry’s requirements for implementing quota.

New Delhi, May 22
Sleuths of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police foiled designs of the Harkat-ul- Jehadi Islami (HUJI) commanders last night when they arrested Mohammad Iqbal alias Abdur Rehman from New Delhi railway station.

Iqbal had come to the Capital with instructions to explode bombs on the pattern of the Rajasthan blasts. The police recovered 3 kg of RDX, one timer and five electronic detonators from his hideout.According to Alok Kumar, DCP, Special Cell, his team had been tipped about the movement of the arrested terrorist by intelligence agencies. “ The Central Intelligence Agency had informed us that Qamar alias Nata, Commander of HUJI in Bangladesh,was planning to send trained terrorists of HUJI to India for blasts in the crowded places in Delhi”, said the DCP.

During interrogation of Mohammad Iqbal, it was revealed that Qamar alias Nata handed over him a consignment of explosive material for terrorist activities in Delhi year which he kept in a safe custody here. However, the plan could not be executed as his accomplices, Babu Bhai and Naushad, were arrested in Uttar Pradesh. After their arrest, Iqbal buried the consignment in open space in D-block, Janakpuri, and left Delhi. “After leaving Delhi, he stayed in western UP for some time and later went back to Dhaka. He stayed there for a few months and in the beginning of May 2008, he was specially trained in making Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and bombs for blasts. Finally, Qamar tasked him to use the buried explosive material for use in blasts in Delhi”, said the DCP.

New Delhi, May 22
The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) today stayed away from the dinner that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh threw for his UPA partners and supporting parties, including the Left and the Samajwadi Party, here to mark the completion of four years of his government.

The two junior partners of the Left Front in effect broke ranks from the bigger members of the alliance, the CPM and the CPI, who put aside earlier hesitations and prevarications to attend the Prime Minister’s annual dinner in full strength.

General secretary Prakash Karat and Politburo members Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat represented the CPM and the CPI marked its presence through their general secretary A.B. Bardhan and national secretary D. Raja.

The decision of the RSP and the Forward Bloc to chart a course independent of the CPI and the CPM on this issue merely highlighted growing tensions between the Left parties resulting in their slow but visible drifting apart.

Already, the RSP has made public its annoyance with the CPM during the recently concluded West Bengal panchayat elections. It had blamed the CPM for poll violence.

On record, most Left parties tended to underplay the differences at least on this score, but not the RSP which admitted that differences do exist.

Said its general secretary Abani Roy, “I wont say Left Front is breaking. But we have to examine more seriously and with greater resolve the unity of the Left Front”.

He blamed the recent panchayat poll reverses suffered by the CPM on “the respect granted to the junior partners has come down. Besides the unity that existed between the Left partners is also no more there”.

Lending voice to Mamata Banerjee and Congress campaign against the CPM, Roy said, “People were not happy with them because they behaved like dadas (bullies)”.

Forward Bloc leader Debabrata Biswas tried to play down the differences saying, “There is no formal decision as such but we don’t feel comfortable going for this dinner as such when outside we are agitiating against inflation and price rise.”

Biswas avoided talking of West Bengal panchayat elections, but said, “This is normally not raised at the national-level meetings of our parties but if bilaterally some party seeks a report, we may give our report on May 23.”

Kolkata, May 22
The Politburo and the CPM state committee in West Bengal will soon meet and review the party's poor performance in the recently held panchayat elections.

Though a large section in the party, including veteran Jyoti Basu, is convinced that the government's wrong industrialisation policy vis-à-vis party’s big-brotherly attitude towards the front partners are primarily responsible for the poor
performance.

The leaders also feel that the present policy should be withdrawn though they rejected the demand for abandoning the Tata's small car project at Singhur and the proposed chemical hub at Nayachar near Nandigram.

Meanwhile, incidents of large-scale violence were reported at many places since last evening even though various political parties agreed to bridge their differences and help the police and the administration restore peace and normalcy. In most places, activists of several political parties, including the CPM, were directly involved in the fresh violence.

According to official reports, fresh violence erupted at Nandigram as well as Singhur, several areas in North 24-pargans and South 24-parganas, Murshidabad, Malda, Coochbehar, Nadia and Howrah districts.

Home secretary A.M. Chakraborty said additional paramilitary forces had been sent to the disturbed areas. He said the police had been told to take strong actions against the guilty irrespective of their political affiliations.

Talking to the mediapersons at the Writers Buildings today, the industries minister said he did not agree that the new industrialisation policy was responsible for the party's poor performance in the elections.

Party secretary Biman Bose and senior CITU leader Shyamal Chakraborty also expressed similar views.

We have won in most of the panchayats and the results at some places were satisfactory, said the industries minister, adding that the results in no way reflected the people's mandate against the CPM. But he admitted that the party could not get the expected results in some places and he wanted the leadership to identify the causes.

Accordingly to the latest reports, of the total 17 districts, the CPM and its allies would be jointly controlling the panchayats in 13 districts.

However, since 1978, the CPM had been controlling 15 districts, expecting Malda and Murshidabad. This time, the party had been routed at Nandigram and the entire east Midnapore as well as Singhur and the adjoining places in Hooghly district, which clearly reflected the rejection of the party on the back of Tata project and the Nandigram impasse.

In Murshidabad though, which had been the stronghold of the Congress for the past two decades, the CPM captured the panchayats for the first time by winning the majority of the seats.

New Delhi, May 22
In an open court held today to examine the problem of food scarcity in Uttar Pradesh, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson Justice S. Rajendra Babu said a link between BPL card holders and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was vital.

Stressing that the process of identification of eligible persons for the issue of BPL and Anthyodaya cards should be transparent, Justice Babu told the Uttar Pradesh government to evolve a system of link between the card holders and the NREGS. In a recent survey in Uttar Pradesh, 29,000 bogus card holders were detected. The state is now in the process of revising the list of card holders.

In the meantime, the NHRC has underlined the need to strengthen the public distribution system in Uttar Pradesh and called for an effective implementation of the job scheme in the state. The open court was today held in pursuance of the investigations conducted into UP’s food situation by a nine-member team headed by SSP Mukesh Singh. The team visited seven districts of Bundelkhand for the purpose and submitted its report to the commission, which today raised relevant issues in the open court.

The court was attended by food commissioner Deepak Trivedi, who said a fresh survey for the identification of persons eligible for BPL and Anthyodaya cards in Bundelkhand was in progress and the final list was likely to be prepared by May 31. Trivedi stressed that after the disposal of objections the list would be finalised within a month. He also informed the commission that an exercise for the identification of bogus cardholders was undertaken and 29,000 bogus card holders were identified. “The state government will provide relief to the affected persons,” he said, adding that about six lakh persons in Bundelkhand had been issued BPL and Anthyodaya cards.

The commission would again take up the case on July 10, when representatives of the UP government would come up with a comprehensive scheme on the issue.

New Delhi, May 22
Wheat procurement in the current season is all set to cross the record high of 206.30 lakh tonne set during 2001-02. Food Corporation of India (FCI) officials told The Tribune today that the target was likely to be achieved by the end of the day.

“In the 44-year-old history of procurement, beginning 1964-65, the 2007-08 season will set a new record,” they say, adding that by the time the procurement finishes for the central pool this year, the country would have added 220 lakh tonne of wheat to the existing stock of 55 lakh tonne.

Given that wheat availability has increased in the country, as part of steps to control inflation and augment availability of essential commodities, the government is also replacing some quantity of rice with wheat for the public distribution system (PDS) and other welfare schemes.

This year the wheat procurement has gone down rather well and the buying is going to continue till wheat is offered in mandis at the MSP of Rs 1,000. The procurement will continue in Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and western Uttar Pradesh till June 30 and in the northeastern areas like Bihar, where the harvesting gets delayed due to late ripening, the procurement process will carry on till July 31.

Not just this, upbeat food ministry officials said there was also no problem of storing the extra food grain as the country was geared up to hold an inventory of around 630 lakh tonne.

For the government, weighed down with spiraling commodity prices and worries on the front of food security, this comforting news has another silver lining. The plan is to increase the quota of wheat to rice-eating states. The officials say while the amount of food grain allocated to states will remain the same, some quantity of rice would be replaced by wheat.

“The procurement of wheat has been more than satisfactory while rice procurement is likely to fall short of the mark because some states like Punjab are yet to deliver their quota of levy rice to the central pool. While the food grain quota delivered to states will remain the same, some amount of rice will be replaced with equal quantity of wheat,” he said.

With 272 lakh tonnes of rice as the target for the central pool, the FCI has procured 232 lakh tonnes during the kharif procurement for 2007-08 from all over the country.

Though rice procurement in this period rose 9 per cent over the corresponding period last year, due to lower levels of rice stocks in the central pool, the move has been considered. However, it is likely to be opposed by states with rice as staple diet. The monthly intake of rice in the country is around 22 lakh tonne and that wheat is between 10 to 12 lakh tonne.

As far as wheat is concerned, like always the two states of Punjab and Haryana have been major contributors. From Punjab, 98.22 lakh tonne out of 104 lakh tonne wheat brought to the market has been procured and from Haryana 52 lakh tonne out of 52.72 lakh tonne has been bought till date. This year, states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have also contributed.

Guwahati, May 22
The Assam government has put conditions for responding to the unilateral ceasefire declared by the Black Widow or Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) on May 16 last, immediately after it had killed 22 persons, including two Railway staffers in the previous week.

Assam government’s spokesman and a cabinet minister, Rockybul Husain, who made a visit to the violence-affected hill district to take stock of the situation, told the media that the DHD (Jewel) outfit would have to behave and stop killing innocent people to create a conducive atmosphere for the government to reciprocate the olive branch extended by it.

“The government has conveyed the message to the DHD (Jewel)) group through the North Cachar Hill District Council and Dimasa tribes organisations that killing of innocent people, while talking of ceasefire will not be tolerated by the government any more,” the minister said.

He said if the outfit could convince the government about its sincerity by mending its way, the state government would take up its peace overtures with the Centre, but it would take time as certain laid down procedures had to be followed.

Chief minister Tarun Gogoi stated that the government couldn’t declare ceasefire in no time just because an insurgent group had written a letter to it expressing a desire to make peace with the government.

“It takes time. The Bodo militant group, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) had declared unilateral truce in June, 2004, but the government responded to it after about a year completing certain formalities,” Gogoi said.

The DHD (Jewel) had earlier declared unilateral truce on March 25 last, giving the government three months time to respond. However, the outfit claimed that it was forced to break truce after the Army had killed 12 of its cadres on March 10 last.

Meanwhile, the ruling coalition of the BJP and the Autonomous State Demand Committee (ASDC) in the North Cachar Hill district Council has alleged that the police, paramilitary forces and the Army had totally failed in containing the DHD (Jewel) insurgents and the only option left with the government was to initiate process of dialogue with the outfit to restorer peace in the hill district.

New Delhi, May 22
Twenty-two protesters from Bhopal, including 15 women and six youngsters, who were arrested yesterday for chaining themselves around the Prime Minister’s house were released without any charge by the Special Executive Magistrate at Parliament Street police station today.

The magistrate asked the protesters to avoid demonstrating near the Prime Minister’s house. However, speaking for all Bhopal organisations gathered at Jantar Mantar, 28-year-old Meera More refused to make any such promise. “We will use every opportunity to remind the Prime Minister that we are here and that we will not leave until all our demands are met,” she said. The Bhopalis are demanding that the Prime Minister set up a special commission for the rehabilitation of Bhopal gas leak survivors, and legal action against Dow and Union Carbide.

At a solidarity meeting to mark the 90th day since the protesters left Bhopal on foot to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister, Rajya Sabha MPs D. Raja (CPI) and Abani Roy (RSP) supported them saying “he UPA government has no moral right to be in power if it is insensitive and unresponsive to the people of Bhopal.”

More than 20 organisations, individuals, and students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Indraprastha University also visited the dharna site in solidarity.

Muzaffarpur, May 22
A local court today ordered issue of summons to Congress President Sonia Gandhi for allegedly outraging religious feelings of Hindus for her depiction as Goddess Durga in a poster at the party’s Muradabad office in Uttar Pradesh.

A fast-track court judge Vijay Kumar Mandal ordered issue of summons to her after hearing the complainant, an advocate Sudhir Ojha.

The court also issued summons to Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Rita Bahuguna and Muradabad District Congress Committee president Ajay Taleshwar Soni.

Mandal directed that Sonia Gandhi, Bahuguna and Soni should appear in person or their counsels on the next date of hearing on June 26, failing which the court would be compelled to take an unilateral decision. — PTI

Dehra Dun, May 22
In the wake of the May 13 Jaipur blasts, the Uttarakhand police today sent back 34 Bangladeshs found to be staying illegally in the state.

Roorkee SP Ajay Joshi said 34 Bangladeshi nationals, residing illegally, were deported by rail to West Bengal under the supervision of the BSF personnel from where they would be handed over to the police at the Bangladesh border.

These Bangladeshi nationals were earlier arrested and produced before a local court for residing illegally in India. They were slapped with a fine of Rs 1,000, failing which they incurred an additional imprisonment of 10 days, Joshi said.

The police has increased the security at many places, including religious, in the state capital.

The state has a large number of Bangladeshis residing illegally particularly in Dehra Dun, Uddhamsingh Nagar and Hardwar.

Last week the police arrested a Bangladeshi in Mussorie after he failed to produce a valid passport. —UNI

Mumbai, May 22
The Mumbai Police today arrested M.L. Jerome (25), a lieutenant in the Navy, from the Cochin base and brought him to Mumbai in connection with the murder of a television executive last week.

The police said Jerome stabbed Neeraj Grover (25), creative head of television production house Synergy Adlabs, at the suburban residence of television actress Maria Monica Susairaj (27), before chopping his body into little pieces. The chopped body parts of Grover were then taken to a forest on the outskirts of Mumbai and burnt with petrol.

The police said Jerome was arrested by the naval police yesterday itself shortly after Susairaj confessed to the murder and brutal hacking of the victim’s remains.

According to the police, Maria and Jerome were childhood sweethearts before

the former took up an acting career. In Mumbai to seek work, Maria came into contact with the victim while they were working together in a television serial, it said.

On the fateful day earlier this month, Grover was to spend the night at Maria’s residence when Jerome telephoned her from the naval base in Cochin. On hearing Grover’s voice in the background, Jerome grew suspicious and decided to leave for Mumbai immediately by a night flight. On arriving at Maria’s residence, Jerome spotted Grover and flew into a rage. After an argument, Jerome stabbed Grover to death with a kitchen knife.

Maria and Jerome then decided to dispose of Grover’s body. The police says it took the couple more than nine hours to chop the body into little pieces, pack it into two bags and transport the remains to Manor, a forest area in Mumbai’s outskirts, where the bags were burnt. In between Maria went shopping at a suburban mall for curtains and bedsheets to wrap the remains in, the police said.

After disposing of the remains, she then filed a missing person complaint saying Grover left her residence immediately after arriving and was not traceable.

The police, however, questioned Maria thoroughly as she was the last person to meet with Grover. After sustained questioning, she confessed to the crime on Tuesday night a week after the murder, the police said.

According to police officials, the key evidence provided by the watchman of the building Maria lived in proved to be her undoing. He told the police that he had seen Jerome and Monica leave together with heavy bags in a car. The police said it had recovered the half-burnt remains of Grover’s body from the spot where they were dumped. The victim’s parents identified the remains from the silver chain and clothes worn by him, the police said.

Dehra Dun, May 22
The Uttarakhand police constable Ashish Kumar Singh has made the entire police as well as people of the state proud by conquering the Mount Everest today morning. Proving the spirits of the Uttarakhand police song “Him shail shikhar jaise hum atal prahri” (We are rock steady as big Himalayan mountains) true; Ashish, who was a part of the “Mount Everest Campaign - 2008”, successfully unfurled the flag of the Uttarakhand police in between 5 am to 6 am today at the Mount Everest.

This initiative taken by the ministry of home affairs and there were total of 15 members in the mission. Ashish, along with nine others, tasted success today, thereby showing their courage and commitment. DGP Subhash Joshi had handed over the state police flag to Ashish on May 1, when he left for the mission. The 15-member team started its expedition to the Mount Everest from base camp Jhangmu on May 11 and it took 11 days for the group members to achieve their goal.

Ashish, who hails from Chamoli, is currently posted as constable in Uttarkashi. DGP Subhash Joshi has announced a cash reward of Rs 20,000 for Ashish. Besides, the police administration will also be recommending Ashish’s name for ‘out of turn’ promotion to the post of sub inspector. He will also be honoured during the foundation day of the state.

Dehradun, May 22
Doctors at Women's Hospital here are in a state of distress due to a unique case of anencephaly (brain disorder) reported in 18-week-old foetus to which the doctors are planning to abort.

Dharam Singh and his wife Suman, resident of Shaspur, were shocked after receiving the ultrasound reports from the hospital. The reports revealed that foetus is suffering from anencephaly. This acute disorder results from neural tube defect that occurs when the cephalic end of neural tube fails to close. The foetus is growing normally without any development in the brain.

Dr Rita Dhawan, gyneocologist, says, “This disorder is very rare and is seen in a ratio of 1000:1. It is generally witnessed after 28th day of pregnancy resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp”.

She further says children with this disorder are born without forebrain, which results in poor development of the organs and brain. If the infant is not stillborn, then he or she usually dies within a few hours or days after birth. Also known as congenital malformation disorder, this disease often results in the death of the infant.

Dr Dhawan says the only option is to abort the foetus. She says, “There is no cure or standard treatment for anencephaly. Treatment is supportive but we cannot take risk. Therefore, we will have to abort the foetus”.

Despite being aware of the situation, Suman does not want to kill her child. Speaking to The Tribune, she says, “This is my first child and I do not want to abort it. The doctors say that there is no way out, but I am sure killing is not the solution”.

Dehra Dun, May 22
Friends of a young girl landed in police custody when they tried to “teach a lesson” to the son of a senior bureaucrat of Uttarakhand who allegedly misbehaved with the girl in a local restaurant last night.

According to eyewitnesses, Shobhit Sharma, son of P.C. Sharma, principal secretary, Industrial Development and Civil Aviation, misbehaved with Garima Kakkar, who had gone to a local restaurant to celebrate her performance in class XII examination.

According to a complaint lodged by Shweta Kakkar, younger sister of the victim, Shobhit came to the restaurant and tried to grab the hand of her sister and also tried to kidnap her. He fled after people present at the restaurant gathered there. The girls, meanwhile, rang up their family and friends who rushed to the spot. Shobhit was later caught and was thrashed following which he lodged a complaint with the police. The police nabbed four youths from the victims' side. They have been identified as Hemant Malhotra, Shasnak Anand, Vibhor Nautiyal and Gaurav.

BRIEFLY

19 Indian fishermen released
RAMESHWARAM (TN): The Sri Lankan government released 19 Indian fishermen on Thursday, taken into custody earlier this month, reportedly for straying into the island's waters. The fisheries department officials said that all 19 fishermen, who hail from the coastal town in Ramanathapuram district, were released by a court in Talaimannar. The fishermen, who ventured into sea from Thangachimadam, were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan naval personnel along with their four country boats. — PTI

50 ill after consuming stale food
BARABANKI: About 50 people fell ill after consuming stale food in the Peer Patavan area here, the police said. The patients complained of vomiting and diarrhoea after consuming food prepared at a wedding a day earlier. All of them were admitted to the district hospital, the police said. — PTI

Jawan jailed for rape bid
IMPHAL: An Assam Rifles jawan has been sentenced to two-year imprisonment and subsequently dismissed from service for attempting to rape a girl in Manipur last year. Assam Rifles sources said Rifleman Namthuipou Gangmei attempted to rape the girl in March 2007 during which he also hit her with a stone. A Staff Court of Inquiry was instituted by Headquarters 9 Sector of the Assam Rifles, which found Gangmei guilty. — UNI