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Four students get bail after Maya intervenes
Afghanistan Attacks
Gates: US may withdraw troops soon
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Judges give anti-Dinakaran meet a miss
Sajjan gets bail
SC reserves verdict in Lalu-Rabri DA case
Gorshkov deal finalised at $2.3 bn
Irom Sharmila’s condition worsens
Ashram Stampede
Terrorism being fanned to destabilise economy: PC
Indian courts can’t decide family disputes
of PIOs: HC
Ruchika Case Two MPs, US Congressman named Chatwal for Padma
TN coast under surveillance
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Four students get bail after Maya intervenes
Lucknow, March 10 Incidentally, all four boys are students of classes 10th and 12th and had to take their board examination from within the confines of the juvenile jail. "On learning about this incident today I took it seriously and called up the DIG (Lucknow) asking him to immediately release the students. Often children unknowingly make such mistakes. Taking such stern action against them is not justified. The police should exercise control and sensitivity in such matters. At the most they should have been scolded and made to realise their mistake," said CM Mayawati while answering a query regarding the incarcerated students. Later, announcing their release, ADG (Law and Order) Brij Lal said remedial action would be taken in the case to ensure that the students' future is not put in jeopardy. According to the sequence of events very late on the night of Holi (March 1), a police patrol had spotted four young boys tearing up a Department of Information hoarding carrying the photograph of the Chief Minister near Shanti Nagar under Sarojini Nagar police station. They ran away when the police gave them a chase. A couple of hours later they police caught them along with pieces of the damaged hoarding. On interrogation they reportedly gave the police fictitious names and addresses. A case was registered against them at the Sarojini Nagar police station. The four were booked for damaging public property and not revealing their correct names and addresses. The same day they were presented before the court that sent them on remand till March 12 without even informing their families. After spending eight days behind bars they were finally released today on the intervention of no less than the CM herself.
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India won’t scale down presence
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 10 “India’s commitment to its development partnership with Afghanistan remains undiluted,” the spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Media reports had recently suggested that India might reduce its presence in Afghanistan in the wake of the February 25 terror attack in the heart of Kabul, frequented by Indians. National Security Adviser (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon, who visited Kabul following the recent terror attack, had also made it clear that there was no question of India bowing down to terror threats and reduce its humanitarian mission in Afghanistan. However, Menon made it clear that the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital, the only children’s hospital in Afghanistan, will not reopen till proper security measurers are put in place. The medical missions in Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-sharif will, however, continue to function normal. Earlier, some reports had suggested that India was looking at various options, including paring down of the operations of its missions in Afghanistan, in the wake of terror attacks on Indians there.
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Gates: US may withdraw troops soon
Pul-E-Charkhi (Afghanistan), March 10 Without giving specifics, Gates said, “It would have to be conditions-based.” Gates made the remarks during a visit to a dust-blown training ground in Kabul province where Afghan soldiers come for weeks of training under US and British instructions.
— AP
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Judges give anti-Dinakaran meet a miss
Bangalore, March 10 Dinakaran, it may be noted, has been restrained from carrying out his judicial work in the wake of land-grabbing and other allegations levelled against by some Tamil Nadu lawyers. However, he continues to carry out his administrative work and allots works to various judges, besides discharging other works related to administration. Justice Shylendra Kumar, in a letter to his judicial colleagues in the Karnataka High Court, had asked them to join him for an informal meeting over tea today at the Conference Hall of the High Court to “seriously discuss about the current developments and the possible course of action that we are required to take, if we have to remain true judges of this court”. The “current development” mentioned in the letter is the impeachment motion against Dinakaran moved in the Rajya Sabha. “In the wake of these developments, I have written a letter to the Chief Justice of our High Court, requesting him to refrain from exercising even administrative functions when he is not discharging the judicial responsibilities,” Kumar wrote in his letter, which he has posted on his website also. However, none of the other judges joined him for the meeting. Later, Kumar refused to talk to this reporter about the proposed meeting. Kumar had asked the recipients of his letter to inform the Registrar General of the High Court if it was not possible for anyone to attend the meeting. It could not be immediately ascertained whether any of the absentees had complied with this request. The intrepid Karnataka High Court judge had earlier criticised the stand taken by Supreme Court Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan against disclosure of assets by judges. Kumar is also one of the first judges of the country to make public the details of his and his wife’s assets. In December, Kumar had convened another meeting on the PD Dinakaran. The December meeting, however, was attended by at least six other judges of High Court.
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Sajjan gets bail
New Delhi, March 10 Though Kumar’s bail was on expected lines after the High Court’s decision, what invited anger from some protestors, who had collected outside court, is the alleged manhandling of Jarnail Singh, a journalist who had hurled his shoe in a press conference of Home Minister P Chidambaram to express his disappointment over slow judicial process in riot cases, by Sajjan Kumar’s supporters. Jarnail Singh said he had gone with Neerpreet Kaur, CBI’s witness in the case, to watch the court’s proceedings when a group of around 20 persons jostled him. “I was roughed-up while I was leaving the court. They threatened me,” he said. Police officers present inside the court complex defused the situation and intervened in the scuffle and Jarnail Singh filed a complaint at the Karkardooma court police post. This was the first time Sajjan Kumar (64) appeared in person before the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar since the CBI filed charge-sheets against him and other accused in two cases.
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SC reserves verdict in Lalu-Rabri DA case
New Delhi, March 10 A three-member Bench, headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan, reserved the judgment after daylong arguments by their counsel and those of the state government and the CBI. The couple had filed the petition after the Bihar High Court had issued notice in 2007 on the state government’s appeal against the acquittal in the DA case investigated and pursued by the CBI. The apex court had issued notice to the Bihar government on May 9, 2008. Appearing for Lalu and Rabri, both of whom have been Chief Minister of Bihar, senior counsel Ram Jethmalani said since the CBI, which had prosecuted his clients, had decided against appealing against the verdict the state had no right to approach the HC. The CBI was a central agency of the Union government and was not under the state government. The state going in appeal in the CBI case amounted to undermining the authority of the investigation agency, which was against the federal set-up, he contended. Arguing for the state government, senior counsel L Nageshwar Rao, however, said since the fodder scam had taken place in the state’s animal husbandry department the state had every right to pursue the case in order to protect its exchequer. Citing various provisions in the law and court verdicts, he said Parliament never had the intention to allow CBI or any other agency to usurp the states’ powers to pursue cases. Supporting the couple’s contentions, CBI counsel said the state’s role in a case came to an end once the agency took over the prosecution. Earlier, the CBI has incurred the apex court’s wrath for constantly changing its stand in the DA case against SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members after every twist and turn in the political equation.
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Osmania varsity mourns student’s death
Hyderabad, March 10 M Sai Kumar, a second-year chemical engineering student of the Osmania University College of Technology, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his hostel room. His body was today taken to his native village in neighbouring Nalgonda district for last rites. A suicide note, purportedly written by him, blamed the politicians for delay in realising the statehood goal and appealed to the students to carry forward the movement. This was the fourth such incident on the campus in the last three months. In all cases, the suicide notes, purportedly left behind by the students, spoke of their anguish and frustration over delay in formation of Telangana state. However, unlike in the past when such suicide deaths triggered violence, the campus remained incident-free since yesterday. While police remained vigilant for any possible outbreak of violence, the university authorities postponed the semester examinations scheduled for today. This was the 12th time that the university had postponed the scheduled examinations since the Telangana agitation took a virulent form in November last year.
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Gorshkov deal finalised at $2.3 bn
New Delhi, March 10 “The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) that met here today has given its approval to the revised price for Gorshkov,” a Defence Ministry official said here. India and Russia are likely to conclude the fresh contract for the aircraft carrier, bought by the Navy in 2004 and rechristened INS Vikramaditya, during Putin’s stay in the Capital. The warship, purchased originally at a price of $974 million, is currently undergoing a refit at the Russian Sevmash shipyard. Since 2007, the shipyard sought a hike in the price for the warship’s refit programme and had revised the cost of the project twice to demand $2.9 billion. However, India had conveyed that it would not go beyond $2.2 billion as a revised price for the project. After renegotiation of the price for three-long years, the two sides finally arrived at a figure for the refit programme six months ago, but it had to go to the CCS for a final stamp of approval, which it received today. Along with the warship, India had also bought 16 MiG-29K naval fighter aircraft for $526 million. The first four of these fighters were delivered to India on December 4 last and were inducted into the Navy on February 18 this year. The delivery of Gorshkov, which was originally scheduled for December 2008, has already witnessed a delay due to the price negotiations for the refit project and India had to push the Sevmash shipyard to hasten the programme for rescheduled delivery in 2013.
— PTI
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Irom Sharmila’s condition worsens
Guwahati, March 10 Her elder brother and managing trustee of Imphal-based Just Peace Foundation Singhajit Singh informed The Tribune over the phone, “Sharmila declined to break her fast which she started way back in November 2000, after her release from judicial custody on Monday. She went straight to continue her fast-unto-death along with her supporters who have been on a relay hunger strike for over a year at Porompat PDA complex here.” “The police re-arrested her on Wednesday evening from the site of her protest and took her to the court of magistrate as she had become very ill and was running high fever. As of now, we don’t know where she will be kept by the police,” Singh said, denying media reports that said Sharmila was re-arrested on Tuesday. Who is Irom Sharmila? Irom Sharmila has been on fast since November 5, 2000 demanding repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, after the killing of 10 innocent civilians in Imphal West district by Assam Rifles personnel on November 2 that year shocked her.
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Manager, 2 others arrested
Tribune News Service
Lucknow, March 10 Ashram manager Hrinmaya Chatterjee and his two aides, Amit and Shiv Kumar, have been arrested on the basis of Commissioner Allahabad's preliminary probe report. Briefing the media about the follow up action in the case, Mayawati lashed out at the Congress led UPA government for drawing political mileage out of the ashram tragedy by announcing compensation for the victims but not releasing it even six days after the accident. In order to bring immediate relief to the dependents of the dead and the injured Mayawati announced a compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh to the kin of the dead and a sum of Rs 75,000 for the injured. On March 5 Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh speaking in Parliament had announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the dead. Charging the UPA government of attempting to get cheap publicity out of a human tragedy, Mayawati accused the central government of making a display of their generosity and sensitivity but not coughing up even a paisa for the next of kin of the dead and the injured survivors so many days after the incident.
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Terrorism being fanned to destabilise economy: PC
Ghaziabad, March 10 He said since the 1980s, India has emerged as one of the most happening economies of the world. “The past decade has seen good growth and our economy is on the threshold of a double-digit growth,” Chidambaram said. He said the country's growth depends on infrastructure and the CISF, which guards some of the most critical installations, is securing India's future. About the renewed mandate of the force to provide security to private installations also, the Minister said his Ministry continues to receive requests which are being examined and security will be provided as per priority. At present, the government has selected Information Technology, Power, Oil and Natural Gas sectors as the top three priorities.
— PTI
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Indian courts can’t decide family disputes
of PIOs: HC
New Delhi, March 10 The father had contended that Indian courts had no jurisdiction over the issue as he and his wife had taken US citizenship in 2004 and their son was born there in 2001. They had married in 1996. Subsequently, the woman had come to India following differences with her husband and refused to go back.
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Hearing adjourned till April 15
Chandigarh, March 10 Rathore arrived in the court accompanied by his lawyer-wife Abha Rathore, who told the court that Rathore’s counsel ND Sharma was still recovering from the assault on him outside the court premises. On Rathore’s request, Additional District and Sessions Judge Raj Sekhar Attri adjourned the hearing appeal till April 15. Sharma had received injuries on his hand while saving Rathore, who was attacked by a youth outside the court. The CBI had filed a counter appeal for the enhancement of sentence for Rathore in the case. — TNS
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Two MPs, US Congressman named Chatwal for Padma New Delhi, March 10 The four recommendations came from Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi, member of US Congress Joseph Crowley and Dalis Adler, Staff Associate, Sub-Committee on the Middle East and South Asia under the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Minister of State for Home Ramachandran told the House in reply to a query that as per guidelines regulating Padma award, nominations for it are open to all. — PTI
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TN coast under surveillance
Chennai, March 10 State police force in coastal districts had also been alerted against possible infiltration of LTTE cadres as a precautionary measure. The state government has also enforced a three-day ban from March 11 to 12, on the movement of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in coastal districts. Coast Guard officials had a meeting with police officials to discuss the security measures.
— TNS
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