New Delhi, December 8
Rejecting Haryana government’s pleas, the Supreme Court today transferred the trial of more than 100 peorsons, allegedly involved in the April 21 attacks on Dalits in Mirchpur, from Hisar to Delhi.

A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly said in an order that the court was “convinced” of the necessity to transfer the trial to Delhi “for ensuring a fair trial, free from any pressure from any quarter.”

The Judges clarified that they were passing the order after a “careful perusal” of the report of the Additional Sessions Judge, Hisar, who was conducting the trial. The report had talked about advocates appearing for the victims feeling “scared and terrorised” at the presence of a large number of relatives and supporters of the accused outside the Hisar trial court.

The SC made it clear that Delhi was closer to Mirchpur than Chandigarh. The Bench directed the Hisar trial court, constituted under the 1989 Act for the prevention of atrocities against SC/ST, to the Additional Sessions Judge at Rohini in Northwest Delhi, which is also set up under the Act.

Directing the Hisar court to send related files to Delhi “at the earliest,” the apex court said the Rohini court would be “free to re-examine” the witnesses who had already testified in Haryana.

The first 10 witnesses had turned hostile during examination at Hisar. At least 150 Dalits of Mirchpur had fled to Delhi after the violence in which two persons were killed and their houses torched.

During arguments today, Haryana’s Additional Advocate-General Manjit Singh Dalal and senior counsel PN Misra pleaded for shifting the trial to Chandigarh, instead of Delhi.

They said the state government would provide adequate protection to the victims and witnesses, besides the advocates concerned. They also argued that only the victims’ counsel had complained of threat, not the victims themselves or the witnesses. Counsel for the state argued that it did not have “any control in Delhi. Delhi will be a problem for us. Security personnel would have to come from Chandigarh. If anything happens in Delhi, we are not responsible.

“It is our duty to have the prosecution witnesses examined without fear. It is our duty to provide proper security.”

The Judges pointed out that it was the Hisar trial court which had sent a report about the threat perception. “The court is not biased. Its views are on the basis of the scene at the court premises. We don’t have to make any guess.” Earlier, senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the victims, submitted a list of nine designated courts in Delhi exclusively handling cases related to atrocities 
against Dalits.

The state government said two such courts were functioning in Chandigarh and sought the transfer of Mirchpur case there. Gonsalves said his clients would feel safe in Delhi.

The orders came in the wake of the advice sought by the state Financial Commissioner from the Legal Remembrancer as to what action could be taken against the officials who had retired from service.

The Financial Commissioner in his letter dated October 15 this yea, had told the Lokayukta that seven officials of the board, including Superintendent Engineer Dinesh Garg, XEN Mukesh Garg, SDE GL Malik, executive officer Satpal Sandhu, assistant secretaries Ravinder Kumar and Ravi Kumar and another official BS Rao had been chargesheeted under Rule 7 of the Haryana Civil Services (Punishment and Appeals) Rules of 1987. In the same letter the commissioner had asked for advice on the action to be taken against retired officials.

Government records show that as many as 109 shops (out of a total of 151) have encroached 6562.65 square yards of land, valued at Rs 24.11 crore, meant for roads and laying of sewers.

Even though the board constituted a special committee in 1994 to ensure removal of encroachments, even after 16 years no concrete action was initiated against the offenders. 

Chandigarh, December 8
It is rallies galore in Haryana, keeping party leaders and workers on their toes. The Congress, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), all in the race for one-upmanship, are going to the public to “expose the wrongs” done by others.

The Congress has scheduled as many as five rallies and functions in just over a month, a record of sorts. The party seems to have decided to take on former Chief Minister and INLD supremo Om prakash Chautala in his bastion, Sirsa.

The offensive against Chautala was launched at a rally addressed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Fatehabad on December 5. While another function is to be held in Ellenabad on December 11, a rally in Sirsa on December 25 will be the last salvo fired at Chautala by the Congress this year.

“Contrary to Chautala’s claim, it is our party alone that has brought development in the area. Let Chautala explain why during his years in power no major project came to Sirsa district,” Congress working president Kuldeep Sharma, says.

Besides targeting the Sirsa vote bank, another Congress rally is scheduled to be held in Hisar on December 12.

In fact, the Bhiwani rally held on November 21 marked the beginning of a spate of public meetings by the Congress. Not wanting to be left behind, the INLD, too, has decided to “awaken the masses” by organising public meetings in all 90 assembly constituencies.

The campaign is designed to highlight “rampant corruption and land scams” under the Congress rule. Party leaders maintain that a high-voltage campaign headed by the party chief will be organised in the first week of January next year.

The HJC, despite being a one-man show after the party and its leader MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi was “deserted” by his five MLAs, has decided to “expose” the Congress. Bishnoi has already begun round two of his campaign to “showcase the wrongdoings” of the Congress after his Jind rally on December 2.

The BJP, for the time being, seems content watching from the sidelines as other parties battle it out. The party has decided to get going in January next.

“We will hold our working committee meeting and district workers’ meetings and round up the campaign with a rally in February,” BJP state chief Krishan Pal Gurjar explains. 

Rewari, December 8
The INLD leader, Satish Khola, along with party activists, visited Beharipur village today and heard the grievances of Scheduled Caste families.

Former sarpanch Shri Bhagwan, panch Prabhati Lal and others gave Khola details of the attack on Dalit woman Kiran Devi by members of the Bhagirath Yadav-led faction on December 4.

She sustained grievous injuries in the attack. the assailants also set her cottage on fire.

The police, which registered a criminal case, arrested 15 of the assailants.

Assuring the Dalits of INLD’s unstinted support, Khola announced that if the remaining assailants were not arrested within a week, the INLD would launch an agitation.

Claiming that the Dalits were in a state of panic, he complained that the government was not doing enough to address their fears.

Sonepat, December 8
The Chairperson of the Sonepat Municipal Council, Sadhna Taneja, who was elected councillor as BJP nominee but defected to the Congress after three months in office, and her husband Laxmi Narain, a former councillor, have both been expelled from the party for a period of
six years. In a press statement issued here today, district president of the BJP Manoj Jain said Taneja had betrayed the party by switching over loyalty to the Congress.

Her husband had also been indulging in anti-party activities and , hence, expelled.

He alleged the Congress had always encouraged defections, as was evident from the defection of five MLAs of the Haryana Janhit Congress.

“When the Congress failed to get its chairperson elected democratically, it manoeuvred defections even at the municipal council level,” he alleged.

Sirsa, December 8
The health authorities here have conducted a house-to-house survey at Malikpura village in Odhan block of this district after two women of a family were shifted to a private hospital in the town with symptoms of dengue.

Villagers had alleged that there was an outbreak of fever in the village.

Several teams of health workers started the survey yesterday to determine the number of patients suffering from fever.

Sheel Kaushik, Deputy Civil Surgeon said in all 40 persons were found suffering from fever in the village with 280 households. Samples of the two patients admitted to hospital had been sent to the Medical College, Agroha, for testing. She said during the survey, no aedes mosquitoes, responsible for dengue, had been found in the village.

She said till now 20 samples of suspected dengue from the whole district had been sent to the laboratory and of these five had been found positive.

Official figure puts the number of dengue cases at just five, of which three have been treated outside the district. Civil Surgeon Narender Chaudhary also visited the village and supervised the survey done by the health workers.

Karnal, December 8
The Karnal police today arrested two suspected gangsters at Santri village near Indri, 35 km from here, after they opened fire outside a dhaba, resulting in injury to a driver.

The duo, Ravi from Indri and Dharam Pal from the nearby Gudda village, were standing on the roadside under suspicious circumstances and asked the dhaba owner to remove a wooden plank from the roadside.

The owner of Mahalakshmi Dhaba refused to heed their demand and after an altercation, the assailants fired a shot, which missed the dhaba owner, Subash. However, a driver, Ibrahim hailing from Mewat, got injured. Hearing the gunshots, local villagers raised the alarm following which the assailants ran into the adjoining mustard fields. The villagers chased the culprits and virtually laid a siege to the mustard fields till the police arrived. Indri DSP Kiratpal Singh reached the spot with his team and arrested the culprits. The injured driver, a resident of Lingakhurd village in Mewat, was taken to a hospital in Indri and doctors attending on him said he was out of danger.

During interrogation, the police recovered a country-made pistol and some cartridges from the assailants. Sources said Ravi had a criminal past.