Shimla, May 19
The state government has set the ball rolling for appointing Chief Secretary Sudripta Roy as the Adviser to the Himachal Government in Delhi so that P Mitra, Officiating Chief Secretary, can be made the regular Chief Secretary.

An indication to this effect was given here today by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. “There were certain allegations levelled against Mitra which I am verifying and once that is done, he will be made the Chief Secretary in a day or two,” said Virbhadra. He also added that Chief Secretary Roy would be made the Adviser to the Himachal Government.

It is learnt that the government has also cleared the decks for making Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Kumar the regular DGP. Though Kumar had been appointed as the DGP on July 31 last year, since he had not completed the mandatory 30 years of service he was not made the regular DGP and had been the officiating DGP. The notification is likely to be issued late in the evening.

The need for appointing a regular Chief Secretary and a DGP was being felt as problem was being faced in taking several decisions which only a regular Chief Secretary or a DGP could take.

Mitra had been appointed the Officiating Chief Secretary on October 15, 2013. This was following hospitalisation of Roy who had suffered a brain stroke on October 10, 2013. Roy after remaining in hospital for almost three months is now recuperating at his home in Delhi. “Since it is not possible for him to come and serve here, we will appoint him as the Adviser in Delhi,” said Virbhadra. 

Shimla, May 19
Himachal BJP president Satpal Singh Satti today accused Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of squandering money by giving posts of chairperson to defeated candidates to save his chair.

Apprehending a revolt in the party following a humiliating defeat of the Congress, he was trying to placate party members, Satti said.

Reiterating the BJP demand for the resignation of the Chief Minister, Satti said his son Vikramaditya Singh had publicly said during the elections that leaders in whose constituencies the party failed to get a lead would have to forgo their posts.

Since the party had lost in the Shimla (Rural) Assembly constituency represented by Virbhadra Singh, he should be the first to resign from his post.

But Virbhadra was not responding and, on the contrary, appointing more defeated candidates as chairpersons, he said adding that senior leader Vijai Singh Mankotia, who had been a Cabinet minister, should not accept the post of chairman.

Satti also accused the Chief Minister of rewarding Acting Chief Secretary P Mitra by appointing him the Chief Secretary as he got prosecution sanction against former Chief Minister PK Dhumal and HPCA president Anurag Thakur from the government in just one day.

"The state government will not last long and these tactics will not help in giving lease of life and the best course for him is to resign on moral grounds," he added.

Dharamsala, May 19
Overconfidence in leadership is blamed for the defeat of the Congress in the Lok Sabha poll. Minister for Food and Civil Supplies, Technical Education and Transport GS Bali said this while addressing a press conference here today.

He said the leadership of the party was overconfident of its position during the poll. It could not apprehend the strong marketing strategy of the BJP that led to a Modi wave that swept the state. The Congress failed to apprehend the undercurrent in people during the elections.

"I being a seniormost minister from Kangra district take up moral responsibility for the defeat of the party in the area,” Bali said.

Bali, however, claimed that he had informed the state and Central high command about the wrong selection of candidates and poor position of the party in the Kangra constituency. He said even during the election campaigning, he had informed the party high command about the poor campaigning of the Congress in Kangra.

He further said the Congress would take up the defeat in Himachal as a challenge and work hard to improve its position.

He said the BJP now had four MPs from Himachal and there was a BJP government at the Centre. The BJP MPs should give their road map for the development of Himachal within three months of their taking oath. They had made big promises to the people and these should be fulfilled, Bali said.

He said, "We now hope that the new government would enforce price rise, generate jobs, keep the prices of LPG cylinders and fuel under check."

Bali said he had not participated at a meeting of Congress dissidents held in Chandigarh. He had no information regarding the meeting, he said.

He said the statements being made by BJP leaders that the Congress government would fall were baseless. The Congress government would complete its term, he said. Bali also denied that he had a verbal spat with the CM in the recent Cabinet meeting.

Shimla, May 19
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said it was former Chief Minister Shanta Kumar who deserved to be in the Union Cabinet more than anyone else as he had a very dignified political career.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Virbhadra said he was hopeful that Shanta would get a ministerial berth in the Cabinet. “Politically, we might be on the opposite side of the fence, but Shanta deserves to get a ministerial berth,” he said.

Reacting to the Congress drubbing, he said despite the best efforts of everyone, there was little anyone could do due to the tsunami led by Modi.

“We failed to anticipate the impact of the Modi wave, but after his tour of Himachal, we had sensed it. But there was little anyone could do,” he remarked.

He, however, added that it was not a vote against his government, but a vote to make Modi the Prime Minister. “Modi has raised the expectations of people with respect to generating employment and controlling price rise and he will have to fulfil these aspirations as people will not accept any excuse,” he remarked. He, however, added that though he wished Modi well, the kind of meteoric rise he had had, his graph could come down with the same speed.

On the steps that his government would take in view of the poll results, he said efforts would be made to implement the government policy with greater vigour.

“The UPA regime did try to help Himachal, but there could have been financial constraints and I hope that the Centre will help Himachal and extend a financial package,” he said.

Virbhadra lashed out at his predecessor PK Dhumal for landing the state in a financial mess. “Dhumal did a great disservice to the state by ruining the financial position of the state for his own political ends, not releasing that governments come and go, but the state interest must be given top priority,” he said.

He said Dhumal during the last six months of his tenure opened 15 degree colleges with no budgetary provision.

He said the state had had to bear an expenditure of Rs 1,300 crore as Dhumal gave enhanced salaries to the employees. “The government has always given scales to its employees on the Punjab pattern, but Dhumal implemented the benefits doled out by the Punjab Government to its employees just before the elections, putting unnecessary burden on the state,” he said.

He said the state government would now act with prudence and and try to cut down the wasteful expenditure.

“The 13th Finance Commission also did a lot of injustice to the state by giving nominal enhancement as a result of which the state’s financial position is under tremendous stress,” he said.

He said the probe in the phone-tapping case was complete and the charge-sheet would be put up in a court shortly. 

Palampur, May 19
Shanta Kumar, MP, said here yesterday that he would make serious efforts to start tea plantation in the abandoned tea gardens in the Kangra valley.

He said he was aware of the fact that the Kangra tea industry was facing a crisis and it would be his top priority to provide financial and technical assistance to tea growers through a Union Government project which was in the pipeline.

Addressing newspersons here, he said he would take up this matter with the government soon. Thereafter, a survey for the identification of the abandoned tea gardens would begin. He said he had plans for the revival of tea plantation. He said stress would also be laid to take up new plantations in the valley.

He said since there was an acute shortage of labour, the Kangra tea industry also needed complete mechanisation for the plucking, manufacturing and pruning of tea on the pattern with North-East states and Kerala.

There are over 3,000 abandoned tea gardens in Kangra where tea growers have stopped cultivation because of the high cost of the production of tea and it has become difficult for them to compete with the international market. 

Shimla, May 19
Passengers, including schoolchildren and tourists, who board or alight from buses for the Tutti Kandi inter-state bus terminus or the city centre at the Shimla Bypass junction, rough it out. And they do so in the open in the rain or the scorching sun. Reason: There is no rain shelter or proper bus stop here.

The Shimla Bypass junction has become a hazard for the passengers as the PWD and National Highway (NH) authorities pass the buck to each other. They have to cross the cross-section of the national highway and the circular road at the bypass, which has no zebra crossing and proper bus stop, while they get down on either side to board buses for the city or Tutti Kandi bus stand, rued passengers.

The PWD, NH authorities and Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) have remained indifferent to construction of a rain shelter or a bus stop at the Shimla Bypass for the last four years.

The passengers get down at the Shimla Bypass junction before they board the buses for the city or Tutti Kandi main stand every day to leave for different destinations in the state or outside.

Former Chief Minister PK Dhumal had inaugurated the Tuttikandi bus stand on August 29, 2011, but the PWD did not pay any heed to the problems that passengers suffered there, resented Paras Ram and Nirmala Devi, who were waiting for a bus for Tutti Kandi at the Shimla Bypass.

“There is no proper bus stop and zebra crossing at the junction. As such, schoolchildren, patients, old people and women face lots of problems here,” the passengers complained. They have to rough it out in the open during the rain or scorching sun as there is no rain shelter," rued Piyush Thakur, a college student.

Superintending Engineer, PWD, BS Chauhan admitted that passengers were facing problems there, but the Shimla Bypass was dealt with by the NH authorities. "We will take it up with the NH and the SMC,” he added.

Superintending Engineer, NH, BS Pardesi said they had considered having a rain shelter-cum-parking lot at the bypass, but the land was in dispute there. “We will take up the matter with the SMC and the PWD for a joint proposal as passengers are facing problems there,” he added.

Shimla, May 19
The Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) today gave a month to the BJP-led Centre to bridle the prices of commodities and petroleum products.

The party also decided to raise farmers' issues, including monkey and wildlife menace, and unemployment in the coming days in the state as a part of the HLP strategy for Mission-2017, the state Assembly elections.

Though the HLP has supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha elections, all four AAP candidates, mainly in Mandi and Shimla constituencies, lost their security deposits as the electors rejected the third party front.

AAP candidates Jai Chand Thakur (Mandi) got 9,343 votes despite HLP chief Maheshwar Singh represented Mandi as an MP and is the sitting legislator from Kullu Sadar, where Jai Chand got just 1,036 votes.

The HLP's fragmented core group met here today under Maheshwar Singh and mustered courage to take on the Modi-led Centre. "We have given the BJP a month to take steps to control the prices of commodities and petroleum products, which the BJP had made an election issue," core group members Maheshwar Singh, Shayam Sharma, Baba Ram Mandyal, Dharam Chand Guleria, Subhash Chand Sharma, Shyam Lal Pirta and others said at the meeting.

The HLP, a breakaway group of BJP men, most of them from the Shanta Kumar faction, was fighting a battle of survival as most of the leaders, Khushi Ram Balnata, Dulo Ram, Naveen Dhiman and others, have rejoined the BJP before the poll.

Despite the complete rout of AAP and the CPM in the poll, HLP leaders still claim that there is a scope for the non-BJP non-Congress third alternative in the state. "We are looking for Mission-2017 when the state Assembly poll will be due," HLP leaders claimed.

Hamirpur, May 19
The death of a girl child due to sudden failure of her kidneys and liver, and a report of her cousin showing similar symptoms in Baddu village of Khayah panchayat of Hamirpur have triggered panic among villagers.

Seven-year-old Shehja, daughter of Subhash Chand, who was referred to the DRPGMC, Tanda, from the Regional Hospital, Hamirpur, died on Sunday.

The child, suffering high fever and vomiting, was brought to the Hamirpur Regional Hospital on Saturday and died after about 12 hours at the Tanda hospital due to failure of her kidneys and liver.

The same evening, her cousin Kashish (9), was brought to the Hamirpur Regional Hospital in a similar condition and was also referred to the Tanda medical college the same day.

These incidents created panic among the family members and the villagers as both the girls were eating food prepared in the same kitchen and a few other children were consuming the same food.

This also alarmed the health officials who immediately rushed to the village to rule out the possibility of a communicable disease in the village.

A team of health officials took drinking water samples from the village and distributed medicines among the villagers.

The District Medical Officer had sought a report from the Tanda medical college about the reasons for the death of Shehja and Kashish's illness.

Dr Sanjay Jagota said, “Both the children reported similar symptoms. We rushed a medical team to the village to rule out possibility of an epidemic.”

“Since both the children are from the same family and have been eating food from the common kitchen, we wanted to check possibility of any communicable disease. We took drinking water samples and distributed medicines as there are other children in the family,” he said.

“The deceased child was suffering from a critical disease and the other child is recovering in the hospital. It was a co-incidence that both fell ill and had almost similar symptoms,” he added.

Dharamsala, May 19
Girls dominated the merit list of Class X Board examinations in the results declared by the Himachal Pradesh School Education Board (HPSEB) today. As many as 20 girls figured in top 10 positions in the board examinations vis-a-vis 14 boys.

HPSEB secretary Balbir Thakur said 1,42,128 students had appeared in the Class X Board examinations this year. Out of these, 80,650 students were declared pass, while 26,205 students got compartment in one subject. The overall pass percentage in Class X Board examinations remained at 57.19 per cent, he said.

He said students who wanted to apply for re-evaluation or rechecking could do till June 2.

As per the merit list declared by the HPSEB, Diksha Sharma of Bharti Vidyapeeth Public Senior Secondary School, Baijnath, topped the exams scoring 682 out of 700 marks. Jatin Kanwar of Saraswati Vidya Mandir Suni in Shimla district and Preeti Chandel of Aryan Public School, Bilaspur, jointly stood second scoring 681 out of 700 marks.

Nitika of Himalayan International School, Fatehpur in Kangra district and Prerna Kargil of Summer Hill Public School, Lodhwan, in Kangra jointly secured the third position scoring 679 marks.

Vaishali Sharma of Bhartiya Public Senior Secondary, Jogindernagar, in Mandi district stood fourth scoring 678 marks. Kirti Mahajan of Kids Camp School Chowari in Chamba district and Akriti of Little Angels Public School, Mehre, in Hamirpur district remained jointly at the fifth position scoring 677 marks.

Another important fact that came up in the results declared was that almost all students who bagged top 10 positions were from private schools.

In the Class XII results declared by the board in the recent past, girls had dominated top positions.

Shimla, May 19
Facing an acute financial crunch due to the burgeoning resource gap, Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) may resort to hike in fee as the only choice for resource mobilisation.

“The annual expenditure of the university is between Rs 115-120 crore, while the government grants are pegged at Rs 69 crore and the revenue generated by the university is Rs 30-35 crore, leaving a huge deficit of Rs 12-15 crore. As a result, the university is handicapped to meet the expenses on pensions and medical bills,” HPU Vice-Chancellor ADN Bajpai told mediapersons here today.

Listing his achievements, the Vice-Chancellor, whose three-year term was expiring on May 24 today, said HPU ranked second in the country after JNU with 172 students qualifying NET/JRF in 2012 and 162 students in 2013.

Bajpai said a new campus would come up at Ghanahatti near Shimla in a 40-acre area for BBA, BCA, UILS, UIIT and the number of undergraduate and postgraduate courses would be started. In addition, 150 bighas of land had been identified for satellite campus at
Mandi, while the process of identifying land in Una was underway.

The Vision Document-2020 prepared by the university envisaged 57 new courses, opening of 10 new departments and 11 specialised research centres and establishment of seven “chairs”. A students’ charter was also prepared for the evaluation of teachers by students.

The 20th and 21st convocation address was delivered by the President of India and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, respectively. For the first time in the history of the university, Reserve Bank of India Governor Dr Raghuram G Rajan visited the university and interacted with teachers, students and research scholars.

He said during his short tenure, the university had got its own anthem, implemented the Rashtriya Uchhatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and choice-based credit system (CBCS) through a semester system, started Him Shikhar, a bilingual newsletter and created a publication division.

However, he admitted discrepancies in the conduct of examinations and a timely declaration of results and said the campus had not been fully made wi-fi.

Shimla, May 19
Permitting students placed under compartment in Class XII to seek admissions in undergraduate courses in private universities will result in deterioration of quality of higher education which is detrimental to the interests of students.

This was stated by Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) Vice-Chancellor Prof ADN Bajpai here today.

The revival of regulatory commission for private educational institutions by the Supreme Court would now be able to take action against erring universities, he told The Tribune.

The standard and quality of education must be maintained to ensure that the pass-outs from the university had a competitive edge, he added.

Reiterating his stand that students’ politics should be banned in the state in the interest of the students and educational institutions, Professor Bajpai said these institutions were meant for imparting quality education to enable students to excel, but politics vitiates the academic atmosphere and students suffer.

Expressing his anguish over the protests by the SFI over the dissolution of the Students Central Association (SCA), he said it was unfortunate that political parties, especially the CPM, sought my resignation on this issue and was actively involved in politics on the campus.

Moreover, the student election invariably triggers factionalism and violence among students, pollutes the academic environment of educational institutions and studies and academic takes a back seat due to heat generated by political activities, he said.

The Superintendent of Police (SP), Shimla, has given us a list of more than 120 students allegedly involved in anti-social activities and a majority of these students against whom an FIR has been registered under various sections are directly or indirectly associated with some party or the other, Bajpai said.

"We have written to the parents and guardians of these students about the activities of their wards and also cautioned them that a registration of cases against their kins would jeopardise their future job prospects," he said.

Strongly opposing the involvement of teachers in politics, Professor Bajpai said, “We are for an amendment in the act to bar teachers from taking part in political activities and even disapproved an active participation of teachers in NGOs, saying that teachers should give their 100 per cent to academics."

Solan, May 19
With the new academic session on the anvil, the Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission (HPPEIRC) has issued directions to educational institutions to strictly adhere to the laid admission norms and criteria or else face punitive action.

Emboldened by the apex court’s decision which has revived the commission after striking down the Himachal Pradesh High Court’s earlier orders of quashing the HPPEIRC Act, officials are now gearing up to streamline admissions.

There are 16 private universities in the state, besides a number of private institutions governed by the commission.

In a bid to discipline the admission process, the state government has approved new courses and fee structure for each institute. The commission has directed the institutions to admit students only in approved courses and follow the eligibility criteria of various national-level entrance exams for courses such as engineering, pharmacy, management, etc.

It is worth mentioning that a chaotic situation was created last year when despite notifying the eligibility criteria, including admissions to engineering courses on the basis of the All-India Engineering Entrance Examination, some institutions admitted students in violation of the earlier norms. Later, they got relaxation by a Cabinet decision.

The admission to various technical courses such as engineering, MBA and pharmacy will be made through various national-level entrance examinations while for law and hotel management, the private universities will have to admit students on the basis of their internal entrance examinations where the minimum eligibility criteria will be 50 per cent and the qualifying criteria be 65 per cent, confided an official of the regulatory commission.

Interestingly, Himachal Pradesh University and its affiliated institutions will be able to admit students in MBA and MCA courses through an entrance exam conducted by the university itself while from the next year onwards, admissions will be made only through the national-level examinations.

Managements of private universities, who chose to remain anonymous, however, said some relaxation should be given for admitting students on vacant seats as this leads to exodus of students to neighbouring states where no such norms exist. While this puts an additional financial strain on the parents for arranging lodging and boarding of their wards, seats remain vacant in the state.

Shimla, May 19
The state medical authorities and medicos in the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (DRPGMC), Tanda, have accused the Medical Council of India (MCI) of creating a controversy over the inspection of 50 undergraduate MBBS seats in the Tanda college. The college is apparently better equipped with staff and labs as compared with its counterparts in the private sector in the state.

Faculty members of the medical colleges and the HP Medical Officers Association (HPMOA) have expressed their concern over certain deficiencies in the staff, mainly meant for the additional 50 MBBS students added to the Tanda medical college in 2011.

"The Health Department should recruit staff and set up labs in the college as required under the MCI guidelines," they added.

They termed the MCI observations biased when comparing the college with the private medical college in Solan where the MCI had allowed 150 MBBS seats despite the fact that the college was allegedly being run by an ad hoc faculty and had no proper hospitals and patients, charged the HPMOA and faculty members. The MCI team inspected the IGMC and Tanda colleges recently and observed certain deficiencies in staff for the superspecialty subjects at the IGMC and staff for the undergraduate subjects at the Tanda medical college.

“It is a question of the future of the 50 students. The government should recruit proper staff and set up labs as per norms mainly at the Tanda medical college," said Dr JN Chauhan, general secretary, HPMOA.

“We oppose the MCI's selective observation about the government medical colleges and the private medical college, which are more deficient in both staff and equipment,” he charged.

Director, Medical Education and Research, Dr Jayshree Sharma, said there was no problem for the IGMC undergraduate courses. “We have got nothing in writing from MCI as far as the Tanda college is concerned. The government is filling vacant posts through the commission or otherwise," she added.

Kangra, May 19
Resentment prevails among oustees who were denied compensation for land acquisition by the state government for Pong Dam in 1961.

Instead, the land at Ganganagar, Rajasthan, earmarked for Pong Dam oustees was unauthorisedly occupied by Rajasthan Government officials ranking from patwari to high-level officers, which was a violation of the apex court decision.

Ashwani Kumar Sharma, senior vice-president of the Pradesh Pong Bandh Vishthapit Samiti, said the Supreme Court in a judgment on July 26, 1996, had directed that land allotted to oustees in Ganganagar district of Rajasthan in lieu of their acquired land for Pong Dam, if cancelled, be utilised again for the rehabilitation of remaining oustees who were not yet settled.

Sharma said in view of this judgment, a selected piece of land was under unauthorised possession of Rajasthan Government officials for the past 22 years.

Sharma alleged the failure of the Rajasthan Government to dispose of 1,188 Rajasthan residents from unauthorised possession of the land was a violation of the apex court direction.

Ashwani alleged that instead of providing succour to Pong Dam oustees, both Himachal and Rajasthan governments during a meeting held in Shimla on August 8, 2008, decided to relinquish the land claim in favour of Rajasthani possession holders as an out-of-court settlement. Sharma said an RTI inquiry revealed that the petitioner party neither signed the so-called tripartite agreement nor passed any resolution in the committee to authorise its members to attend the meeting.

He said there was no agenda of the meeting on record with the Himachal Pradesh Government but was allegedly organised to violate the right of Pong Dam oustees.

He said no one was authorised to override the apex court judgment and indulge in the fake out-of-court settlement.

Meanwhile, Ashwani Sharma said he had served a notice to the respondents concerned either to enforce the apex court judgment or face contempt proceedings. Sharma appealed to Narendra Modi to take up the matter with both Rajasthan and Himachal Governments to sort out the issue as soon as possible.

Kangra, May 19
To boost sports in the state is a priority with the state government and in this connection, a national level chess championship was organised in the state.

GS Bali, Transport and Technical Education Minister, today stated this at the valedictory function of the 52nd National Challengers Chess Championship 2014.

He said it was a priority with the government to boost rural sports.

He said such sports programmes were strengthening tourism in the state besides helping in exchange of culture of different states.

Mukesh Mehra, state vice-president of the HP Chess Association said 222 chess players from 25 states participated in the 11-day event organised by the Himachal Pradesh Chess Association in collaboration with the District Kangra Chess Association at the indoor stadium at Dharamsala.

He said grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrati of Gujarat PSPB became the champion today after a quick draw with GM Sashaj Grover of Delhi. It was a tie between eleven players with 9.5 points, said Mehra. He said that with a better tie-break score, Vidit Santosh Gujrati was declared a winner.

Top nine players qualified for National Premier Chess Championship to be held in November in Kerala. Vidit Santosh Gujrati with rating 2606 was given a citation, champions trophy and a cash prize of Rs 60,000. The second prize was bagged by Sashaj Grover of Delhi with a rating of 2469 and third prize went to Shyam Nikil of Tamil Nadu with a rating of 2422. Sashaj and Shyam received, besides trophies, a cash prize of Rs 35,000 and Rs 25,000.

Kullu, May 19
In yet another incident of theft in temples of the valley, robbers managed to flee with gold ornaments worth Rs 1,32,000 from the Durga Mata temple on the Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) Basic Training Centre premises at Shamshi, 8 km from here, yesterday.

It is pertinent to mention that a passing-out parade of new recruits was held on May 17 and a large number of people visited the complex to attend the ceremony. The campus is heavily guarded and the entry and exit is restricted. The theft on the premises signals the involvement of miscreants having a thorough knowledge of the area.

The police is clueless as no CCTV cameras are installed on the premises and it will be difficult to nab the culprits. The incident has again highlighted the emergence of steps and measures to be taken by the authorities concerned to protect the wealth and ancient heritage of religious places of the valley.

The district police seemed to be handicapped as most of the theft cases could not be solved during the past six months. A spate of thefts in temples of the district was being reported every other day. 

Shimla, May 19
Enraged over the delay in nabbing the accused in a minor gangrape case, SFI activists of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU) protested in front of the Boileauganj police station here today.

Students alleged that a 17-year-old minor girl was raped near the railway track in the vicinity of Summer Hill on Friday evening and even after three days, the police had failed to nab the culprits.

Student Central Association (SCA) secretary Monika said the incident had put a question mark on the safety of women and demanded the immediate arrest of the culprits.

The SFI also demanded the deployment of police force in deserted areas.

A minor girl was allegedly raped by two unknown persons near the railway track on Friday evening. A case was registered under Section 376, Indian Penal Code, against two unknown persons.

SP, Shimla, Abhishek Dhullar said the sketch of one of the accused had been prepared and widely publicised while the sketch of other accused was being drawn, he added.