Archives for 2021

Dehradun: Facing flak over his “ripped jeans” comment, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Tirath Singh Rawat on Friday said he apologises for the remark if it has hurt anybody.

But at the same time, he repeated his objection to ripped jeans, saying he has no problem with jeans with but wearing “torn” ones is “not right”.

Referring to his remark made earlier this week, Rawat told the media that he had commented that nowadays children bring a costly jean home and then cut it with a scissor.

He had only talked about the environment at home and this applies to him as well, Rawat said.

If we inculcate good values and discipline in children, they will never fail in future, the CM added, stressing that he had made the comment at a programme held to keep the children away from intoxicants and other evils.

Describing himself as a man from a rural background, Rawat on Friday said whenever his pant was torn in schooldays, he feared that his teacher would scold him. Due to discipline and values, we used cover it with a patch, he said.

Rawat had drawn flak after at an event earlier this week he said youngsters follow strange fashion trends due to a lack of values and consider themselves to be big shots after wearing jeans ripped at the knees. Women also follow such trends.

Rawat then went on to describe the attire of a woman who sat next to him on a flight. He described her as wearing boots, jeans ripped at the knees, bangles in her hands and with two children travelling with her. He also said she runs an NGO, goes out in society and has two children and wondered what values she would give them.

New Delhi: West Indies cricketer Chris Gayle on Friday joined a number of cricketing stalwarts from the Caribbean islands to thank India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for donating COVID-19 vaccines to their countries.

Gayle shared a message thanking India and PM Modi and called on the Indian High Commssioner there to express gratefulness.

The High Commission of India in Kingston, Jamaica and for Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, and British Virgin Islands also posted his message on its Twitter account.

“He thanked India for gifting the COVID19 Vaccines to Jamaica and shared how much he loves being in India,” it added.

Earlier, West Indies, whose cricket team is represented by players from a number of sovereign Caribbean islands, cricketing giants like legendary Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and Jimmy Adams had shared similar messages to thank the Indian government for sending the vaccines to their countries.

India has donated the COVID-19 vaccines to a number of countries as part of the “Vaccine Maitri” exercise.

Kolkata: A 40-year-old man was seriously injured after being attacked by a lion when he entered the animal’s enclosure at the Alipore Zoo here on Friday, an official said.

The unidentified man is undergoing treatment at the SSKM Hospital and his condition is “critical”, hospital sources said.

The incident happened this morning at around 11.30 am when the man after entering the zoo “somehow managed to climb the boundary wall before jumping over the two netted- boundaries to get inside the enclosure. The lion, which was out of its cage, attacked the man. He has been very badly injured,” an official said.

Alerted by the other visitors, security guards rescued the man and sent him to the SSKM Hospital after informing local police, the official added.

“We are checking the CCTV footage to get a clear picture of the incident. We are trying to find out his identity,” a policeman said.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala police have registered a case against the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials for allegedly forcing Swapna Suresh, key accused in the gold smuggling case, to give statements against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The case was registered two days ago on the basis of a report filed by the Crime Branch team which has been probing the leak of a voice clip, purportedly belonging to Suresh, police said.

According to the FIR, the ED officials who had questioned Suresh on August 12 and 13 last year allegedly forced her to give ‘false’ statements against the chief minister in order to make fake evidence.

“…the ED officials, probing the gold smuggling case while questioning an accused named Swapna Prabha Suresh on August 12 and 13, 2020, have forced her to give false statements against the state chief minister in order to make fake evidence…,” the FIR read.

The Crime Branch case has been registered under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 167 (public servant framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 192 (fabricating false evidence), 195-A (threatening any person to give false evidence) among others of the Indian Penal Code.

Suresh, a former employee of the UAE consulate here, is the prime accused in the case relating to the smuggling of gold worth 30 kg of gold worth Rs 14.82 crore in a diplomatic baggage and now under judicial custody since her arrest.

In a voice clip purported to be of Suresh, circulated a few months ago it was alleged that some ED officials had threatened her while being interrogated at the agency office in Kochi in August last year to give statements against Vijayan and some ministers.

Later two women civil police officers, who had been with Sureshwhen she was interrogated by the ED, had also reportedly claimed that they had heard the ED officials forcing her to name Vijayan.

Besides the ED, the Customs and the National Investigation Agency are also probing the smuggling of gold through the diplomatic channel.

Vijayan has been accusing the Central agencies of targeting his government.

Jaipur: Three people were killed and four injured when the roof of their house collapsed after an LPG cylinder exploded in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh district on Friday, police said.

The incident took place in Meetharam Kheda area of the district when the cylinder caught fire.

The deceased were identified as Purushottam Bhambhi (40), his wife Jamuna Bai (38) and his mother Sanjani Bai (60), Station House Officer (SHO) Darshan Singh said. Their bodies were handed over to their family members after postmortem, he added.

The injured, including Bhambhi’s three children, were referred to Udaipur for treatment, the SHO said, adding the fourth person wounded in the accident was also related to the family.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot express his condolences over the incident.

“The death of three persons in cylinder blast at a house in Meetharam ji ka Kheda village of Chittorgarh is sad and unfortunate. My condolences are with the bereaved family.

Egra (WB): Branding TMC turncoats as “traitors”, party supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday said it was good riddance they have moved out of her camp, but the “switch over has left BJP old-timers sulking” as the saffron camp has chosen to field the defectors over its loyalists.

Accusing the BJP of practising “politics of riot, loot and murder”, Banerjee, during a poll rally here in Purba Medinipur, urged everyone “to be on guard against outsiders appearing in their localities”.

The TMC, which has made ‘Bengali pride’ its core poll plank, calls the BJP a ‘party of outsiders’, as its top leaders hail from outside the state.

In an obvious reference to former state ministers Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee who have deserted her camp, the TMC supremo said, “Gaddars, mir jafars (traitors) have now become candidates of the BJP, much to the dismay of the saffron party’s old-timers.”

“The old-timers in the BJP are now shedding tears sitting at home,” she claimed.

Noting she had been subjected to grievous injuries in the past, Banerjee said, “Earlier, I was hit on my head, back and other parts of my body. My feet were spared. Now they are aiming for my leg to ensure I do not take part in campaigning.

But I am a street fighter. They cannot put me down.”

The CM, who sustained injuries on her leg during electioneering in Nandigram on March 10, has claimed that she was a victim of a conspiracy hatched by her rivals.