New Delhi, April 27
The “Bharat bandh” called by the 13 non-UPA and non-NDA parties failed to evoke any strong response in the national Capital.

However, passengers heading out of the city bore the brunt as rail and road traffic in the neighboring areas, including Ghaziabad, Noida and Gurgaon, was hit by sporadic protests.

Even as no trains were cancelled from New Delhi Railway Station, passengers faced inconvenience as several trains were stopped midway at Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar and other areas after their departure from Delhi. Similarly, a few late arrivals at the New Delhi station worsened their problems.

Bandh workers hit the lanes and disturbed rail traffic at many places, including the Lucknow Janshatabdi Express that was stopped near Ghaziabad and the Patna-Delhi Rajdhani Express near Lucknow.

The Saharanpur- Delhi Express and Allahabad-Saharanpur Express were stopped at Muzaffarnagar. The Udhyan Express has been cancelled.

Thankfully, road traffic in Delhi continued to ply smoothly without any problem during the 12-hour nationwide strike to denounce the government over the rising food prices. All the government and non-governmental offices and shops were functioning normally.

The only major demonstration in the Capital was a march by the Left parties in central Delhi’s Daryaganj that affected traffic for several hours.

The bandh also hit air traffic from New Delhi to Kolkata. Several flights, including 9W 914, 9W 913, IC 201 and others, were delayed while a couple of arrivals at Indira Gandhi International Airport were even cancelled which included the SG 219 scheduled to arrive at 7.45 pm.

However, the situation became better as the day progressed with most flights boarding on time during the night.

New Delhi, April 27
With Rajender Prasad (35) succumbing to the after-effects of the gamma radiation last night, doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences seem to be unsure of the prognosis of the remaining four patients—Ram Kalap (33), Gaurav (19), Himanshu Jain (20), Ramji Yadav (28).

The first death, an acute case of radiation syndrome, has added to the gloom among the family members of victims.

While the condition of the other two persons, Mayapuri scrap dealer Deepak Jain and his neighbour Ajay Jain currently recuperating in Indraprastha Apollo Hospital and Army Research and Referral Hospital, continues to fluctuate with no significant improvement in their TLC and platelet counts. After, Rajender gave in to multi-organ failure, doctors of Apollo have initiated consultations with the Army Research and Referral Hospital for bone marrow transplant though nothing has been decided as of now.

Deepak Jain’s cousin Rajesh Jain, said, “A week back, it was found that Deepak’s sister’s blood matched his profile, but nothing has been told to us as of now and it would be clear only by tomorrow in the morning.”

Over the past one week, there hasn’t been much improvement in the haematological status of Deepak.

Moreover, doctors of even the premier institute have said that due to the absence of definitive protocols and past medical experience for handling radiation patients, they have failed to judge the exact line of treatment that could be given to the patients.

According to professor of medicine Dr A B Dey, “We are keeping a close watch on the condition of all the patients, with three (Gaurav, Himanshu Jain and Ramji Yadav) being stable and Ram Kalap, who is being given granulocyte colony stimulator factor (GCSF), prophylactic antibiotic and antifungal agents, is still serious. If they are able to pull out by another four weeks, they could be on the safer side.”

New Delhi, April 27
A trade union activist and his wife have been detained in connection with an investigation of Maoist network in the national Capital.

While no official confirmation could be obtained, an NGO, Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP), claimed that Gopal Mishra was taken into custody on April 25 from his residence in east Delhi while his wife Anu was picked up by the police yesterday. 

Quoting Ritesh Kumar, owner of the house in which Mishra was staying as a tenant, the CRPP said the police along with Ritesh reached the residence at 11 am yesterday and waited till evening for Anu to return. 

“The police told the house owner that Anu was being taken to police station. Later, it was learnt that another trade union activist, Pradeep, was also taken away by the police,” the CRPP said, adding that the special cell of the Delhi police was responsible for the detention.

On April 4, Sunil Mandiwal, an assistant professor with Delhi University’s Dayal Singh College, was detained for suspected links with Maoists, including arrested leader Khobad Ghandy. He was released after questioning. 

Police sources had earlier said that during investigation it had come to light that the ultra Left was infiltrating into trade unions in the Capital.

The CRPP has demanded unconditional release of the trade union activists and a lawyer for Anu. The NGO has also shot off a letter to the National Human Rights Commission, seeking its intervention to get them “released” from the police custody.

New Delhi, April 27
Putting an end to speculations regarding the extension of vice chancellor BB Bhattacharya’s term at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), the executive committee (EC)of the university today dismissed the proposal.

The 12-member EC also set up a search committee to decide the prospective candidate for the vice chancellor’s position.

Six members from both science and humanities were proposed and their names would be sent to the ministry of human resource development for the final nod. The ministry will pick three persons from this set of six and these three will zero in on the next VC.

The six members include P Balaram, a teacher in Indian Institute of Science; Nitin Desai, a well-known economist and former RBI governor; Goverdhan Mehta, a scientist; and TN Tandon, a teacher of technology.

JNU sources have tipped Balaram and Desai to make it to the final three-member team due to their impressive profile. The chairperson of the committee would be a nominee of the President of India.

The atmosphere outside the administrative block, the venue of the meeting, started heating up since the beginning of the meeting at noon as JNU teachers and students had gathered there to protest against the proposed amendment.

While discussing the agenda of amendment in university statutes, the members of the most powerful JNU committee went all-out against the proposal.

According to the EC sources, there was a near-unanimous opposition to the move except one member, Prof Indira Ghosh, who was in the favour of amendment.

“It looked like the vice chancellor had got the message that his extension was not welcome so he decided not to push for it as he did not place it for voting,” said university sources.

The vice chancellor told the committee members that he was not interested in seeking another term for himself and it was probably the last EC meeting he was attending.

“An emotional vice chancellor also decided that he would not take any more decisions regarding the functioning of JNU as his term was almost over,” said sources.

Bhattacharya’s term ends in June and university rector would take over the administrative responsibilities if a new VC is not selected by then. Or, the vice-chancellor could also retain the position till the time a replacement takes over.

New Delhi, April 27
It was yet another hot day for Delhiites today as the mercury touched a scorching 42.8 degree Celsius in the national Capital.

Even though the city saw partly cloudy sky and thunder-like developments in the later part of the day, it remained hot.

The weatherman has predicted no relief from the heat wave conditions for the next couple of days.

Today’s maximum temperature, which was one degree higher than yesterday’s, was five degrees above the normal temperature for this time of the year.

The minimum temperature was 25.3 degree Celsius, up from yesterday’s 24.4 degrees and two degrees above average for this time of the year.

The humidity oscillated between 54 and 13 per cent. Predicting a rise in temperature for tomorrow, the Met office has said that the maximum is expected to reach 43 degrees, while the low is likely to be around 28 degrees Celsius.

New Delhi, April 27
The CBI had gone against the advice of its legal experts in filing in a court a discharge application for Rajesh Talwar, who was arrested by the Noida police in the sensational murder case of his daughter Aarushi Talwar (16) and servant Hemraj.

Following the mysterious and still-unsolved murder of Aarushi, whose throat-slit body was found at her Noida resident on May 16, 2008, the Noida police had arrested Rajesh Talwar, a doctor, on May 23 and claimed it was a case of honour killing. However, the shoddy probe by the police—they first claimed Hemraj was a suspect but discovered his body a day later in the house—and absence of any evidence made people wonder if the police had framed her father.

The CBI took over the investigation on May 31, 2008, and filed a discharge application in court later under Section 169 of CrPC, admitting that there was no evidence against him and he should be discharged.

Official sources, however, told The Tribune that CBI’s legal team had not supported filing a discharge application.

“Seeking release under Section 169 is like telling the court that the person is innocent. It is like a giving a positive character report,” an official said.

Legal team believed that if the investigating team felt that Talwar was innocent, then they should have chosen not to challenge his bail plea and he would have come out of custody.

But the CBI top brass was apparently swayed by the groundswell of sympathy for the victim’s family after the mental agony they suffered due to half-baked theories offered by the Noida police to link her parents with the twin murder.

The future event, sources said, proved that the filing of discharge application was wrong as the CBI wanted Talwar and his wife Nupur Talwar, also a doctor, to undergo narco analysis test.

The CBI team heading the probe was dismantled as it became clear that they were not making any progress in the case. The then joint director Arun Kumar, who headed the team, was taken off the case and he returned to his parent cadre of UP. SP Nilabh Krishna was made the new investigating officer with a supervisory role assigned to joint director (Lucknow) Javed Ahmed and special director S C Sinha.

The CBI has now asked UP police to hand over the doormat of Aarushi’s room and bed sheet wrapped around her body for any forensic evidence which can lead to the murderer.

New Delhi, April 27
With the extension of its network in phase II and at least a new line opening every month, the Delhi Metro has expanded its training institute.

A new block has been added to the Metro training institute building. Besides, an additional driving cab stimulator has been commissioned to train maintainers and operators.

“With this block, the training institute now has 30 classrooms, seven model rooms, two simulators for train operators and one simulator for maintainers, one library and an auditorium with a capacity of 125 persons,” said Anuj Dayal, spokesperson, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

The train stimulator acquired by the institute is static equipment. “It helps in training train operator trainee in controlled environment so that they improve in areas like knowledge of railway line, driving rules and signaling,” said Dayal.

Most of the trainees at the institute would be deployed on the Central Secretariat-Gurgaon line of the Delhi Metro that is scheduled to open the next month.

This year, 1,084 staff has joined the training institute. Presently, over 900 people are being trained at the institute.

The expertise of the Delhi Metro institute is likely to be useful for cities like Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Pune as they are planning to develop Metro rail systems.

New Delhi, April 27
Cracking the whip on the DCP (west) Sharad Aggarwal, a Delhi court has termed his action as ‘irresponsible’, in a matrimonial case wherein the police arrested the accused, including the victim’s husband and his parents, even when the hearing on the anticipatory bail plea was pending and the parties were trying for settlement in the mediation centre.

The court also mentioned the names of ACP Param Aditya, inspector Satya Dev Dahiya and ASI Joginder Singh Rathi for acting hastily in arresting the accused.

“The sanctioning authority did not bother to see that if bail has not been granted, it has not been dismissed also and efforts for settlement by both the parties were a continual process and date was already fixed for arguments. There must have been some cogent reasons for adjourning the bail application,” additional sessions judge Pratibha Rani said on April 24.

The accused were arrested on August 11 last year, a day before the hearing of the anticipatory bail application.

Terming the action taken by the police as irresponsible, the court said, “It did not apply its mind to the facts of the case and acted blindly in granting permission to arrest. This speaks volumes of how irresponsible the DCP must have been acting in matters which are not pending before court.”

The court referred to a high court’s order and guidelines issued by the commissioner of police which restricted powers to arrest in such cases, as in matrimonial cases, arrest may spoil the chances of reconciliation, it said.

Kamini had filed a complaint under various provisions of the IPC last year in Tilak Nagar police station stating that she is tortured and harassed by her husband Deepak Sen, father-in-law and mother-in-law.

New Delhi, April 27
Speculating the possibility of higher transmission of HIV virus during the Commonwealth Games, a non government organisation working for the welfare of prostitutes has approached the government requesting test of foreigners for detection of the virus before issuing them visa.

The members of the NGO, Bhartiya Patita Uddhar Sabha, said lakhs of foreigners were expected to visit Delhi during the sporting event and therefore the possibility of prostitutes getting infected with the virus increases.

“It is expected that during the Games, the cases of AIDS may rise further as thousands of foreigners will visit India,” said the president of the NGO, Khirati Lal Bhola.

The NGO has asked the Union health minister and external affairs minister to instruct Indian diplomatic missions abroad not to issue visa to any foreigner or NRI without production of a medical certificate stating that he or she is HIV negative.

“Any foreigner if found HIV positive, should be hospitalised and action taken against the embassy which had issued visa for him or her,” he said.

Greater Noida, April 27
Farmers under the banner of Zamin Adhigrahan Andolan Samittee today observed district bandh and blocked road and rail traffic for a few hours. Markets too reamined closed.

Led by Kisan leader Sardaram Bhatti, the farmers stopped a train around 6.30 am at Bodaki halt. This led to disruption of traffic on Dadri-Allahabad track. Around 16 trains, including four Rajdhani, two Shatabadi, Express and Delhi-bound EMU trains were affected as they were forced to halt at Dadri, Dankore, Vair and Aligarh railway stations. Around 9 am, the rail traffic was restored after the administration pacified the farmers and cleared the track of hurdles.

Farmers later blocked the roads at various places in the city. Surajpur, Dadri, Tugalpur and other markets downed their shutters in support of the demands of the farmers. However, in the evening the shops opened as usual.

Farmers have been demanding hike in land compensation and non-acquisition of abadi land. Talks with the authorities had failed on April 15 and the farmers announced district bandh on April 27.