Archives for October 2022

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal are being compared to Mughal ruler Aurangzeb by the BJP for banning firecrackers in the national capital ahead of the Diwali celebrations.

BJP Yuva Morcha National Secretary Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, on Thursday, posted a picture on his Twitter handle depicting Arvind Kejriwal as Aurangzeb.

The photo was captioned “New age Aurangzeb govt banned firecrackers in Delhi.”

Bagga on Friday also staged a protest outside the house of the Delhi CM and said “Just like Aurangzeb, Kejriwal also banned crackers”.

The Delhi government on October 19 rolled out its decision to impose a fine of Rs 200 and six months of jail for bursting firecrackers on Diwali in Delhi.

The government has declared manufacturing, storing, and selling firecrackers a punishable offence with a fine of up to Rs 5,000 and three years’ imprisonment under Section 9B of the Explosives Act.

Kadaba: Two men who pretended to be door-to-door bed sheet vendors are reported to have tried to molest a woman near her house.

Kadaba police have registered a case against Rafique and Ramizuddin, following a complaint by a woman living in Kayar, Dolpady village, in the taluk, said sources.

The duo apparently went about on Thursday evening, pretending to be salesmen. When the complainant opened the door of her house, the accused are said to have attempted at molesting her, said the sources.

The accused, however, ran away after the woman raised a holler in protest, the complainant has told the police.

Mangaluru: The additional district and sessions (POCSO) court here has sentenced a constable attached to the district armed reserve (DAR) police to life imprisonment for instigating a minor girl to suicide after sexually abusing her.

The POCSO court judge Manjula Itty also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convicted person, Praveen Salian (35) of Bajpe in the city.

The prosecution case was that Salian befriended the minor girl on Facebook in 2015 and was in touch with her through social media and phone and used to have obscene sex chats with her.

Later, he demanded Rs one lakh cash or gold from her threatening to reveal the chats, after which the panicked girl committed suicide at her home. She left a death note holding Salian responsible for her death, which turned out to be the crucial evidence in the case.

The case was investigated by Ullal police and a charge sheet was filed in the court. Special public prosecutor Sahana Devi appeared for the prosecution.

Vishweshwar Bhat

New Delhi: The National Commission for Women (NCW) has summoned Vishweshwar Bhat, editor-in-chief of Kannada daily ‘Vishwavani’ for making ‘demeaning’ remarks against President Droupadi Murmu.

“The National Commission for Women has taken cognizance of the demeaning post against Hon’ble President. The Commission has issued a notice to journalist Vishweshwar Bhat to appear in person for a hearing at 12:30 pm on October 26,” the Commission has posted on Twitter.

The Commission had taken cognizance of a tweet that posted the paper clippings of an opinion piece published in ‘Vishwavani’.

Bhat was accused of ‘demeaning’ the President in his editorial recently. He was also criticized strongly on social media for his comment on the skin colour of the President.

The journalist had, however, justified his remarks in spite of the criticism.

Bantwal: One person died and four others were injured in a serial accident involving two cars and a bus in Manihalla here on Friday.

A E Praveen Joshi, who worked with Mescom (Vitla) and was in one of the cars, is learned to have died in the accident.

Joshi was travelling in his car from Madva Mane in Vagga, while the second car was going from Bantwal to Vagga. The two cars collided forcefully in Manihalla, which is situated within Bantwal Town Municipality limits, said sources.

A KSRTC bus, which was behind the collided cars, hit the vehicles in front too.

The front of Joshi’s car has been shattered due to the impact of the collision. As a result, the people who rushed to help the accident victims had to struggle to get Joshi out of his vehicle. He was admitted to a private hospital in Mangaluru, but failed to respond to the treatment and died, the sources added.

Four passengers, who were in the other car, were injured and have also been admitted to a private hospital in Mangaluru.

Supreme Court of India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday junked a plea seeking a “fact-finding inquiry” into the history of the Taj Mahal and the “opening of 22 rooms” on the monument’s premises, terming it “publicity interest litigation”.

 A bench of justices M R Shah and M M Sundresh refused to interfere with the Allahabad High Court order that had dismissed the plea.

“The high court was not in error in dismissing the petition, which is more of a publicity interest litigation. Dismissed,” the bench said.

The high court had, on May 12, said petitioner Rajneesh Singh, who is the media in-charge of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Ayodhya unit, had failed to point out which of his legal or constitutional rights were being infringed.

It had also pulled up the petitioner’s lawyer for filing the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition in a “casual” manner and said it could not pass an order under Article 226 of the Constitution in the matter.

The article empowers a high court to issue orders or writs to any person or authority in the area under its jurisdiction to enforce fundamental rights.

Several Hindu right-wing outfits had claimed in the past that the Mughal-era mausoleum was a temple of Lord Shiva.

The monument is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The petition had also sought the setting aside of certain provisions of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Declaration of National Importance) Act, 1951 and the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, under which the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, the Agra Fort and Itimad-ud-Daulah’s tomb were declared historical monuments.

Itanaga: An Army helicopter crashed at Migging in Upper Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh on Friday morning, a defence official said.

The advanced light helicopter, carrying Army personnel, was on regular sorties, he said.The incident took place at 10.43 am, and search operation is underway, the official said. Upper Siang SP Jummar Basar said the crash site is a mountainous region, and it would take time for the search and rescue team to reach the spot.

This is the second incident of an Army helicopter accident in the state this month. A Cheetah helicopter crashed in Tawang district on October 5, killing one of the two pilots onboard.Another Cheetah chopper crashed in March near the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. The pilot died in this incident, too.

Ghaziabad: The police on Thursday dismissed as “fabricated” a Delhi woman’s claim that she had been gang-raped and brutalized by five men here.

Police claimed that the entire “conspiracy” was hatched over a property dispute. Three associates of the woman have been arrested, police said, adding that they have been identified as Azad, Afzal and Gaurav.

The police had on Wednesday said four people had been taken into custody in connection with the case. Asked if a clean chit will be given to the four of them, Inspector General, Meerut, Praveen Kumar told reporters, “We have not got any evidence against them…Prima facie, in this case, no such incident has taken place. So, there is no question of getting evidence.”

Asked whether the woman was kidnapped or illegally confined, the officer said,” No. She had gone to a designated place at her own will. Chats analysed by us also show that money was also paid to individuals to publicise the case”, he said.

The woman had claimed that she was raped by five men for two days. Following the incident, the Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal also claimed that the 36-year-old woman was found wrapped in a jute bag, with her hands and legs tied, and an iron rod was inserted in her private parts.

Maliwal had said the incident reminded her of the Nirbhaya case. She was referring to the brutal gang-rape and assault of a 23-year-old paramedic student on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before being thrown out on the road.

The DCW has also issued a notice to Ghaziabad police in connection with the case. The senior officer said during investigation, it was found that Azad’s phone was switched off around the time the woman purportedly disappeared.

Azad is the main conspirator, the vehicle used belonged to Gaurav and the help of the woman’s associate Afzal was also taken, police said. In her statement to the police earlier, the woman had said she had been to Ghaziabad to celebrate her brother’s birthday, a day before the incident.

Police had earlier said that the victim’s brother dropped her back and some people, who were known to her, picked her up from there. The woman had earlier alleged that she was forced to get into the car at gunpoint.

The senior police officer said the dispute was about a small property. “A woman named Sameena gave the property to Azad in 2021 who in turn gave its power of attorney to a man named Deepak Joshi. There was talk about giving this property to the Delhi woman. The case regarding this was going on in the court, the officer said.

Authorities at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital had on Wednesday said the woman’s condition is stable and no internal injury has been found yet.

Nipun Agarwal, Superintendent of Police (City-I) Ghaziabad, on Wednesday had said the victim claimed that after raping her, the accused had inserted an iron rod in her private part but when the police tried to get her medically examined at a Meerut hospital, she refused.

“Doctors then referred her to the Meerut Medical college for treatment but she refused to go there as well. The woman was then taken to a Delhi hospital,” the SP had said.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan

Pune : Chief scientist at the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr.Soumya Swaminathan on Thursday said the death of children in Gambia, potentially linked to four Indian-made cough syrups, was a serious issue.

Swaminathan was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) here. A WHO report has linked the death of 66 children in Gambia to four Indian-made cough syrups.

“Certainly, the government is in touch with WHO as WHO actually provided the report based on the investigation which was done to prove that it was because of the diethylene glycol contamination. It is a very serious issue and it has to be taken very seriously,” said Swaminathan.

In India, there are central as well as state-level drug regulators and there is a need to harmonize their operations, she said.

“There are no mechanisms where regulators of different states can actually work together, do the inspections on each other’s products,” she said. For India to remain a leader in generic medicines and vaccines space, it is important to prove that “we have a very strong regulatory system,” she said.