Rohtak, May 4
The police has booked a youth hailing from the Gadiya Lohar (gypsy) community for allegedly kidnapped and raping a married woman of the same community recently. The accused is yet to be arrested. Around 20 cases of rapes have surfaced in the district this year so far.

According to the complaint lodged with the police, the victim, who is married and a mother of one, has alleged that she was kidnapped by the accused, identified as Lalit, on April 12 when she had come here to attend a marriage function at Sampla town. She alleged she was raped several times while being kept in captivity for several days at various places, including UP, before she managed to get free and reach her house recently. “This is perhaps the first rape incident reported from the community, as gypsies are known for resolving their disputes on their own and without approaching the police,” claimed a police official.

Hisar, May 4
A local court today sentenced four persons to life imprisonment for the gangrape of a Dalit girl at Dabra village in the district in September last year.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Madhu Khanna Lalli, who had convicted the four accused and acquitted six persons in the case yesterday, awarded life imprisonment to Pawan, Vikas alias Daaku, Baljit alias Seetu and Raj Kumar alias Raju, all from Dabra village.

The court also ordered the convicts to pay Rs 27,000 each as fine and Rs 1 lakh out of this fine would go to the rape victim as compensation.

The victim, a 16-year-old married girl was gang-raped allegedly by nearly 10 youths on September 9, 2012.

It was alleged that the police did not register an FIR on the complaint of the victim and the accused, who had made an MMS of the rape, circulated it through their mobile phones.

Unable to withstand pressure of the upper caste villagers to whose families the accused belonged and the police apathy to the victim’s plight, the girl’s father had committed suicide by consuming poison on September 18.

It was only after his death that the police registered an FIR on September 19.

However, the police arrested the accused on September 23 after residents held demonstrations and placed the body on a road.

The infamous incident had hogged limelight, as mediapersons from Holland, Sweden and some other countries visited Hisar to cover the crime.

The case was shifted to the Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge by the lower courts on December 17, 2012, and the judge took merely 138 days to decide the case that had as many as 38 prosecution witnesses besides the defence witnesses. The court heard the case almost on day-to-day basis. 

Chandigarh, May 4
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced to increase power supply for domestic use in villages in the state by three hours with immediate effect. The villages will now get electricity for 14 hours a day from 7.00 pm to 6.00 am during night and from 12.30 pm to 3.30 pm during day.

The Chief Minister said though it was planned to increase supply with effect from July, 2013, the decision to increase the supply hours with immediate effect had been taken in view of increasing temperature.

Hooda said the government intended to give power supply to villages on urban mode. For this, a scheme of Haryana’s power distribution corporations is already available under which villagers must bring down aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses to a level of less than 25 per cent on their feeder and get metres relocated outside houses. The government has introduced a new technology of power supply in villages which is safe and reliable. In case villagers opt for this technology of supply and bring the AT&C losses down to the level of less than 25 per cent, their villages would be declared zero power cut villages.

Under the new system of power supply, the low tension distribution system is being re-laid and metres are being shifted to pillar boxes. The old bare conductor is being replaced with accident-free insulated cables. Each consumer is given independent cable emanating from the pillar box. A proper energy audit and indexing of installations can be ensured. —TNS

Chandigarh, May 4
As if the already existing permutations and combinations within the Haryana Congress were not enough to justify the “divided house” tag, it is the turn of Dalit leaders to squabble and play politics.

While Union Minister Selja, a known detractor of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was so far singularly seen as the most prominent Dalit face of the party, the Congress president of the state unit, Phool Chand Mullana, a Dalit himself and Selja’s bete noir, was the government’s answer to her.

However, after nearly four years of obscurity, Congressman and Rajya Sabha Member Ishwar Singh seems to have finally come of age. Stepping up the ante against the Congress government in the state on the rising crime against Dalits, he first made his presence felt by organising a rally on regional bias in development in Gulha-Cheeka over a month back.

A staunch Selja loyalist, he invited her as the chief guest while Hooda-baiter Birender Singh was also invited to the rally along with Congress MLAs Rajpal Bhukri and Naresh Selwal, both from the Selja camp.

It maybe sheer coincidence but since the meeting between Hooda and Selja, called by the party high command to facilitate a “compromise”, the Union Minister seems to have toned down her “attack” while Ishwar Singh seems to have donned the mantle of “aggressor”.

Taking on the Hooda government for imbalance in development, his pitch on the increasing cases of crime against Dalits seems to be growing continuously.

Earlier this week, he announced that he would organise a conference of Dalits and for the Dalits on May 12 in Karnal to deliberate on the rising atrocities against their community in the state and the inability of the Hooda government to check these.

While all Dalit MPs and MLAs have been invited to participate in the conference to be chaired by Selja, Mullana, for obvious reasons, has been left out. The MP’s plan is to follow this up with meetings at all the district headquarters to highlight the grievances of the Dalits and end it with a rally in Jind or Kurukshetra.

Mullana, to counter this move by interpreting it as “anti-party” activity, has already shot off a letter to the high-command, apprising the leaders of the MP’s plan. The MP’s announcement and the party’s subsequent reaction have engaged the two Dalit leaders in a war of words over the past few days, each trying to put down the other with no outcome.

Sources close to Ishwar Singh, also a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, maintain that he has been “forced” to go public with his protests after repeated letters to the state government to address grievances of the Dalits and take steps to check atrocities against them, failed to yield results. They hold it against Mullana that he has never taken up the cause of the Dalits with the government despite being in a position of authority.

However, the pro-government camp feels that Ishwar Singh’s sudden waking up may just not be coincidental and that he is only acting at the behest of “some others” within the party without any real issues to take up. The Mullana camp feels that the pro-Dalit government is sensitive towards its problems and has initiated many welfare steps.

Sirsa, May 4
In a shocking incident, an unidentified woman was allegedly burnt alive in the fields of Ramnagaria village near here in the early hours today.

The police recovered an anklet and a syringe filled with some drug near the body and the second anklet was found on a charred leg of the woman.

Prima facie, it appears that someone might have set the woman on fire after administering her some poisonous or sedative injection.

Cow dung cakes and wheat stubble were used in burning the body. The police did not rule out the possibility of rape before she was done to death, as they recovered some incriminating material from a nearby discarded building. The police arrived at the spot about 9am and the body was still burning when Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raj Shri Singh reached there at about 11am.

The SSP said it appeared that the woman must be in the age group of 17 to 20 years. “There is no clue of the perpetrators of the crime. Nor has the identity of the woman been established so far,” the SSP said.

Chandigarh, may 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in a significant judgment, has quashed an FIR registered in an illegal mining case, as only a complaint under the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, was maintainable in the matter.

The ruling by Justice Sabina came on a bunch of two petitions filed by Hemlata and another petitioner through counsel Anuj Balian. They were seeking the quashing of an FIR registered on October 29, 2010, for theft and another offence, under Sections 379 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code registered at Mullana Police Station in Ambala district.

Prosecution story, in brief, was that the petitioners were indulging in illegal mining in the land belonging to the Department of Mines and Geology. The prosecution had added as per Section 4 of the Act, person shall undertake mining operation in any area only in accordance with the terms and conditions of reconnaissance permit or of a prospecting licence.

As the case came up for hearing, Balian submitted that offence, if any, could have been committed under the Minerals Act.

Elaborating, he said an FIR could not have been registered; and the court could take cognisance of the offence only on the basis of a complaint in writing made by the authorised person. As such, the FIR in question was liable to be quashed. The state counsel, on the other hand, has opposed the petitions.

Taking up the case, Justice Sabina asserted: As per Section 22 of the Act, no court shall take cognisance of any offence punishable under the Act except upon complaint in writing made by a person authorised in this behalf.

Since in the present case, the complaint should have been filed under the Act in writing by the authorised person, the FIR in question is liable to be quashed as the court cannot take cognisance of the offence unless there is a complaint in writing by the authorised person with regard to commission of offence punishable under the Act.

The authorised person instead of filing a complaint in writing sought registration of an FIR against the petitioners and their co-accused, which could not have been done in view of Section 22 of the Act. Accordingly, these petitions are allowed. The FIR and all the subsequent proceedings arising there from are quashed. 

Sirsa, May 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has promoted five Civil Judges (Senior Division) to the posts of Additional District and Sessions Judges in Haryana.

As per the order issued by the High Court, Rajesh Kumar, Civil Judge (Senior Division), Rewari, has been posted as Additional District Sessions Judge, Bhiwani.

The other promoted Civil Judges are Additional District and Sessions Judges with their present as well as the new places of posting are Sunita Grover from Panipat to Rewari, Rajan Walia from Karnal to Kaithal, Jasbir Singh from Gurgaon to Karnal and Parveen Kumar from Palwal to Sonepat. —TNS