Rohtak, June 12
The controversial rape-and-suicide case of local woman Sarita took a new turn today with supporters of the dismissed policemen named in the FIR pointing an accusing finger towards a DSP posted here.

The enraged villagers barged into the court complex where accused policemen Balraj and Sheelak Ram — who had surrendered before the police late last night — were brought to be produced.

The family members and other sympathisers of the accused raised slogans against the alleged unfairness in the probe conducted by the said DSP. The villagers also burnt an effigy of DSP Manveer Singh in front of the local Police Lines.

Demanding a fresh and fair inquiry, the villagers threatened to block the national highway near Lakhanmajra township and hold a panchayat of nearly 20 villages if their demand was not met.

Of the dismissed policemen, Balraj belongs to Gugaheri village, while Sheelak Ram hails from Nandal.

In a letter to the local deputy commissioner, residents of the villages of the accused, Balraj and Sheelak Ram, and some neighbouring villages have alleged that the accused had been falsely implicated in the case.

Levelling serious allegations against DSP Manveer Singh, the villagers accused him of having played a dubious role in the matter and instigating Sarita to demand money from Balraj and Sheelak Ram.

Deputy commissioner P.C. Meena accepted the memorandum and maintained that it would be forwarded to the state authorities for necessary action. However, DSP Manveer Singh could not be reached for his comments despite repeated attempts.

The supporters of the dismissed policemen created a scene at the local court complex where Balraj and Sheelak Ram were brought. They barged into the complex and kept on raising slogans even as the accused were produced in court.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhupendra Nath remanded both accused in police custody till June 14.

The police had sought seven days’ remand for the accused for the recovery of mobile phones and constructing a sequence of events by interrogating them, but the court allowed only three days’ custody.

The accused also expressed willingness to undergo narco analysis or any other scientific test to prove their innocence.

Chandigarh, June 12
It was a visibly moved Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who faced the Press today. Maintaining that rape victim Sarita’s death was being politicised by vested interests, he said it was “horrific” to play politics over the issue.

Expressing displeasure over the holding of darbars to redress public grievances, he said there should be a cell to deal with public grievances. “I am not in favour of darbars being held in the name of redressing grievances,” Hooda said.

Addressing a press conference after meeting block-level presidents of the Congress at the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee office in Sector 9 here today, he said strict action would be taken against those found guilty.

“We have transferred the officers not as punishment but with a view to having a fair inquiry into the matter. The guilty will not be spared,” he reiterated. He said there was no move to transfer the case to the CBI since nobody had approached him for the same.

Asked if the government owed an apology to the family of the deceased, Hooda said the police was repenting over the unfortunate incident. He added that the government had always acted promptly in case of any such unfortunate incident.

The Chief Minister, however, was on the back foot when asked if he thought the state required a human rights commission. “We have no human rights violations,” he emphasised.

In this first conference since the Sarita case happened, the Chief Minister said accidents and tragedies happened and the only thing that could be done was to respond promptly which his government had done. He added that Sarita’s fate would have been different had he been in the knowhow of things. “Nobody came to me,” he stated.

President of the HPCC Phool Chand Mullana said the Congress would begin block-level meetings to assess the party’s preparedness for the Lok Sabha elections.

Chandigarh, June 12
Rape victim Sarita’s ordeal with life is over. The accused are in the police net, her children have received compensation and her husband Subhash has been given a possible job offer. It no longer matters to her. She died before the ends of justice were met.

The big question, now, is that the police must come clean on the whole faux pas committed by one of its “own tribe” which led to this tragedy. The trial of the police by the police has only just begun. Investigations into the circumstances leading to Sarita’s death are unlikely to be a cakewalk and a number of questions are already hounding the investigation team.

The Haryana government has attempted to placate “wrangled nerves” by transferring the Rohtak range IG Anil Dawra, superintendent of police Hanif Qureshi and DSP Dheeraj Setia. The police department, on its part, has dismissed the cops, Balraj and Sheelak Ram, named by the deceased.

Sources said Sarita, accompanied by her husband, her father and a few relatives, first visited the IG’s office on May 23 to lodge her complaint against the cops. In her application, she mentioned that she had been raped by the two cops and had come to him for justice.

Acting on her complaint, IG Anil Dawra directed the superintendent of police to register a case. In his note, he said that the allegations were of “extremely serious” nature and asked him to explain why the case had not been registered so far. In his directions to the SP, Dawra said that “action be taken at once” and the report be sent to him in 10 days.

It is unclear why the police continues to maintain that the IG only “referred” the matter to the SP when, in reality, he was the only one to have asked the latter to register a case. However, it remains to be seen why the SP chose to sit over these orders by a senior.

Meanwhile, Sarita, disillusioned with the lack of action, approached the Police Headquarters from where again, ADGP V.B. Singh spoke to the IG about the matter. He asked him to look into the matter since serious allegations had been made. He was told that the matter was in the notice of the IG and the SP had already been asked to register an FIR and would be reminded again for the same.

Ironically, despite this, the SP asked DSP Setia to conduct an inquiry. A case was registered only two days after the Police Headquarters took up the issue, raising serious questions over the manner in which the hierarchy was cold-shouldered.

Then, there have been reports that the two accused were being shielded “under pressure” from certain quarters. This “pressure” needs to be identified as also the face behind the “tutoring” of officers who repeatedly tried to dodge the registration of a case. Their standard reply to the seniors was that the allegations were baseless and had been levelled by Sarita as retaliation against her husband’s arrest in a theft case.

Chandigarh, June 12
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that it would monitor the progress in Sarita’s suicide investigations.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, a High Court Division Bench of Justice Permod Kohli and Justice Rakesh Kumar Garg directed Haryana to file detailed status report within two weeks on circumstances that drove Sarita to take the extreme step.

Asking the investigating agency to carryout the investigations at utmost speed, the Bench also directed July 2 as the next date of hearing in the matter. Issuing the directions, the Bench ruled this was a case where the court was required to take cognizance and “also monitor the investigation,” and the shocking rape and suicide “had given shivers to the common man.’

“When the protectors of law become perpetrators of crime,” the Bench observed, “the life of common man becomes miserable.”

Referring to the compensation announced by the Haryana government to the minor daughters of the victim, the Bench stated compensation of any amount “cannot retrieve the honour of the deceased or the family”, nor it anyway can bring back the life of victim”.

The directions follow cognizance of the matter on June 11 by Justice Ranjit Singh. The judge had taken serious note of media reports, following which the matter was listed before the vacation bench today.

In his note, Justice Ranjit Singh had stated: “The possibility cannot be ruled out that all efforts would now be made by the police at least to save senior officers who have been found wanting in their respective duties…Can the DGP absolves himself of the lapse, being head of the force?”

Justice Ranjit Singh had added: “Sarita case is making headlines even on third day consecutively. What has happened is rather shocking to notice.

One is required to take a step like suicide to wake up the police to act against their own men. A rape inside a police station, by the protectors of law! What can be more shameful than this?”

Gurgaon, June 12
A large number of BSNL subscribers are bearing the brunt of telephones lines, which were cut off a week ago in the process of laying sewer pipes by the public health department. The pipes have not been repaired yet.

At least 1,000 subscribers are waiting for their telephones lines to be restored. As per local BSNL officials, at least 700 landline phones in Madanpuri Chowk and 300 in Patel Nagar and area near Shama Tourist Complex had been affected.

“When we approached BSNL officials, they attributed the problem to cutting of primary cables due to digging work by the public health department,” said some some of the complainants.

As the public health department is expected to take some more time to complete the work, the BSNL is finding it difficult to even install the already sanctioned phone connections.

Inquiries revealed that root cause of public inconvenience was lack of coordination between both the departments while undertaking new infrastructure-related works.

Superintending engineer B.S. Singroha said the problem was unavoidable because there was no proper alignment of underground telephone cables, which were cut during the digging work.

“Whenever we undertake digging work, we have to deal with a maze of small cables, which get cut in the process despite taking all care,” he added.

Claiming that the BSNL officials concerned were given prior information about the digging work, he alleged the officials were rarely present on the spot to guide them when digging was one.

Overseeing the pipe-laying work in Patel Nagar, contractor Manish Kumar claimed that no BSNL official came to the spot while digging work was on. On the other hand, divisional engineer, BSNL, R.N. Bhargava blamed that in 90 per cent cases no such information was provided to the department.

Panipat, June 12
The state labour department organised a function to observe World Anti-child Labour Day at Shivaji Stadium here today. The function was presided over by cabinet minister for labour and employment A.C. Choudhry.

Choudhry said it was a crime against humanity to engage children in labour. The state government was committed to eliminate this practice for which appropriate steps were being taken at various levels.

He said the state was the first in the country to have implemented a labour police for the welfare of the working class. Under the policy, the wards of the working class would be able to attend schools for which uniforms and other requirements would be met by the state government. The minister made an appeal to the NGOs and intellectual sections of society to generate awareness against child labour.

REWARI: A seminar to mark World Anti-child Labour Day was held in the conference hall of the district secretariat here on Thursday. Additional DC Mahender Singh Yadav urged parents of all such children, who were engaged in various hazardous occupations, to wean away their children and send them to schools for education. He also highlighted the measures taken by the district administration under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the benefit of child labourers.

Chandigarh, June 12
In a petition filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a Haryana district food and supplies officer has alleged attempt to implicate him in cases following deputy chief minister Chander Mohan’s annoyance with him.

The petitioner, Dilawar Singh, has also sought directions for punishing Haryana chief secretary Dharamvir for “disobeying” a high court order by recommending the registration of criminal cases against the petitioner “without any rhyme or reason”.

The petition was filed in the Registry this afternoon, and is expected to be taken up for hearing when the high court meets after the summer recess.

Going into the background of the matter, Dilawar Singh has asserted that a Division Bench of Justice Ashutosh Mohunta and Justice T.P.S. Mann had on September 17, 2007, observed that the Vigilance Bureau’s report clearly showed that the allegations were not established against the petitioner.

He added that the Bench, while allowing his petition, quashed an order dated August 22, 2006, vide which his services were ordered to be placed under suspension.

At that time, the bureau’s report was not finally accepted by the government.

In a subsequent order, the Bench disposed of an application filed by the state of Haryana with a direction to take a final decision on the Vigilance Bureau’s report within four months.

It was added that the petitioner, “based on impeccable documentary evidence, levelled serious allegations against the present Deputy Chief Minister, who is annoyed with the petitioner because of the shelter given to him by the high court”.

It was further added that the deputy chief minister did not like the filing of petitions in the high court. When the transfer and suspension orders could not withstand the scrutiny of the high court, he managed to get a recommendation made through the chief secretary to lodge criminal cases against him.

The petitioner added that the politicians and the bureaucracy at the helm of affairs were torturing him because of his approaching the high court, and were hell-bent on engaging the petitioner in civil and criminal litigations.

Yamunanagar, June 12
In a bizarre incident, a contractual driver of the Haryana Roadways, awaiting confirmation for the past six years and “frustrated” because of the “indifference” of the government, broke the headlights of two buses reportedly with his hands and fled with a roadways bus around midnight yesterday. He was later arrested and admitted to the civil hospital here.

The driver, Mukesh Kumar, went to the Yamunanagar bus depot of the Haryana Roadways and broke the headlights of the two buses and fled with a bus. He was, however, intercepted near Kail village on the Roorkee-Chandigarh highway and arrested. His hands were bleeding after breaking the headlights.

Mukesh said he was recruited in the roadways on contract about six years ago. He claimed that though he fulfilled all norms for confirmation, he was still a temporary employee.

Leaders of employees’ unions, including those associated with the Haryana Roadways, have sympathised with Mukesh.

Jagdish Rathi, depot president of the Haryana Roadways Workers Union, and state president of the Haryana Sarv Karmchari Sangh Hari Narayan Sharma expressed their support with Mukesh. They claimed that Mukesh should have been confirmed.

Mukesh, a resident of Bhiwani, is allegedly getting a meagre salary. Union leaders will meet the superintendent of police in the regard. Meanwhile, the police has registered a case under section 379 of the IPC on a complaint of Ashok Kumar, head mechanic, Yamunanagar workshop.

The general manager of Yamunanagar depot was not available for comments.

Yamunanagar, June 12
The level of the Yamuna river has risen to 28,000 cusecs due to heavy rains in the mountains during the past 48 hours.

As per information available from the Hathnikund barrage located 50 km from here, it would take 72 hours for water to reach Delhi.

At 2 pm today, the water discharge in the Yamuna river after distribution to states was 15,000 cusecs.

Sources in Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited said the river was bringing trash in large quantities from the mountains and the same was affecting power generation.

Chandigarh, June 12
The Haryana government has decided to extend the one-time settlement scheme for exemption of penalty and interest amount on the arrears of house tax in all municipal committees, municipal councils, Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, and water charges in the Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, and all municipal areas of the state up to June 30.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had announced the scheme, in which the entire surcharge, interest or penalty would be waived in case consumers deposit the actual amount of house tax and water charges in lump sum or in instalments.