Student kills self after caught 'copying'; principal booked
Press Trust of India, Aurangabad, Apr 11 2018, 18:58 IST 



A police official said Wagh took the extreme step fearing that his parents might reprimand him. Image for representation

A 19-year-old student, who purportedly jumped off the fourth floor of his college here on Tuesday apparently after he was found copying during an examination, succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday, police said.

Police have booked the principal of MIT Nursing College and a teacher for purportedly abetting the suicide of Sachin Wagh who was caught for copying during BSc (Nutrition Biochemistry) examination by the invigilator and the principal of the college, who asked him to call his parents.

A police official said Wagh took the extreme step fearing that his parents might reprimand him.

He said Wagh was rushed to the ICU of a private hospital with multiple fractures.

"He died during treatment...," the official said.

On the complaint filed by Wagh's father, police on Wednesday registered an FIR against the college principal Helen Rani and teacher Rachna More, said a senior police officer.

"A case was registered under section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC against the principal and the teacher," said DCP Rahul Shrirame.

Meanwhile, MIT Nursing College Director Munish Sharma denied allegations that authorities were pressing Wagh to pay fees.

S’pore Airlines, BA among 4 foreign cos interested in AI

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com 12.04.2018

New Delhi: Four major international airlines — including British Airways and Singapore Airlines (SIA) — are among those that have shown interest in Air India’s disinvestment. A carrier from the Gulf and a European airline have also evinced initial interest, sources connected with the disinvestment process told TOI. One of the foreign airlines that is evaluating the disinvestment proposal already has a stake in an Indian carrier and marrying the Maharaja could mean divorcing its partner.

Sources said the foreign airlines are also in talks with leading Indian business houses to meet the criterion of “substantial ownership and control”. A foreign airlines can have a joint venture in India provided it has a local partner with at least 51% stake and effective control. Foreign carriers forming a consortium to make a bid for Air India will need to fulfil this rule. “The four airlines are in active consultation with us. Among the Indian players they are in touch with to form aconsortia is a medium-sized domestic airline. The head of an international airline is also eying the process with interest. A leading Indian industrial house is also in touch,” said a source, who did not wish to be identified.

The government has offered to sell 76% in the loss-making national carrier and will transfer a substantial chunk of its debt into a separate company.

When contacted, International Airlines Group (IAG) — parent company of British Airways — said: “IAG doesn’t comment on rumours or speculation.” SIA had also stated recently: “Our priority is the further expansion of Vistara (its JV with Tatas). However, we will keep our options open with respect to the proposed divestment of Air India.”

‘Airlines backing out want Air India for a song’ 



New Delhi: Airlines backing out of bidding for Air India are doing so to “degrade and devaluate” AI, the airline’s unions said in a joint statement on Wednesday. Till now, IndiGo and Jet Airways have said they will not bid for AI in the current terms of sale.

“The claimed probable buyers are using arm twisting tactics so as to put pressure on the government to change the terms and conditions (for) them (and ensure) AI is sold for a song,” said a “joint forum against privatisation” formed by 10 AI unions. TNN

Storm damages minarets, dome at Taj Mahal gates

Anuja.Jaiswal@timesgroup.com 12.04.2018

Agra: In a freak storm which saw winds with velocity of over 130km per hour sweeping Agra on Wednesday evening, stone minarets on the south and royal gates of the Taj Mahal were damaged.

According to sources, the incident occurred around 7.30pm when one of the minarets of the south gate fell off and one of the small white domes was hit too.

No official of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was available for comment despite several attempts.

A 12-foot minaret with a metal finial, which is part of the main gate, also called Darwaza-e-rauza, was blown away by high-speed winds. It is from this royal gate that tourists get their first view of the 17th century Mughal-era monument.

Earlier in 2016, too, one of the minarets of Taj Mahal was reportedly damaged. While reports had suggested that the minarets might have been affected during cleaning work which was underway, the ASI had then blamed monkeys for weakening it.

Several electricity poles and trees were also uprooted in the storm which killed four in Mathura and one in Bijnor. The storm was accompanied by hailstones.

The incident occurred around 7.30pm when one of the minarets of the south gate fell off and a small white dome was also hit

CBI gives rare clean chit to Vyapam scam accused

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  12.04.2018

Bhopal: CBI has given the clean chit to Rajasthan’s Arun Kumar Nimawat, a medical intern at Jhalawar Medical College, who was booked by Madhya Pradesh STF as a ‘middleman’ in the Vyapam scam.

It’s apparently the first time that CBI has removed a name from the list of accused in STF’s FIR, taking many police officers by surprise. STF had even declared a ₹5,000 bounty for his arrest.

CBI’s note for not chargesheeting Nimawat says: “Sufficient evidence regarding his involvement in the case could not be found despite all efforts made during investigation. Hence, the allegations against him could not be substantiated. Therefore, the accused is not sent for trial and no action is proposed against him.”

The case pertains to PMT 2012 scam in which STF filed an FIR on October 30, 2013, naming Nimawat and 10 others — Dr Pankaj Trivedi, Nitin Mohindra, Dr Jagdish Sagar, C K Mishra, Vikas Singh, Tarang Sharma, Sudhir Rai and Sonu Pachori.

Sources say STF put Nimawat’s name on record on the basis of the memorandum of Dr Sanjeev Kumar Shilpkar, who said he had given a list of 90 students to Vyapam’s chief system analyst Nitin Mohindra for “adjusting their seat” under the ‘Engine-Bogie’ scheme. The deal was ₹1 lakh per candidate of which ₹10 lakh was paid in advance to Mohindra, says Shilpkar’s memorandum with STF.

“The list handed over to Nitin Mohindra was given to me by different people, including Sudhir Rai of Paramount Academy Indore, MBBS final year student Sonu Pachori of People’s Medical College, Vikas Singh of GMC, Amit Kumar Nimawat, intern at Jhalawar Medical College, and Ram Nivas of Kota Medical College among others,” reads Shilpkar’s memorandum.

According to Shilpkar, Nimawat brought six ‘engine’ students — those who would solve questions for the bogies — and was paid ₹5 lakh in advance. It was after this statement that Nimawat was booked and a reward announced for his arrest.

The situation changed after Nimawat recorded his statement before CBI. According to sources, Nimawat told interrogators that he had come to Bhopal along with cousin Ashish Swami in the hope of bagging paid seats in any private medical college.

“Sonu Pachori introduced us to Sanjeev Shilpkar, who was a doctor in Bhopal. Shilpkar told us that he will ensure admission for less money and we would not need to wait for the last date. Ashish Swami gave his personal and education details to Shilpkar. After that we came back to Jhalawar and I have not been associated in the matter of Swami’s admission in Bhopal,” Nimawat told CBI DSP Kush, who gave him the clean chit.

Sources in STF, however, say that there was enough evidence against Nimawat. “CBI, it seems, did not investigate the money trail — the bank in which money was deposited in Rajasthan, call details, and a phone number that was used for filling up multiple PMT 2012 forms. They should examine his role in PMT 2013 also,” said an STF officer, requesting anonymity.

K’taka politician’s daughter moves SC
Says Parents Married Her Off Without Consent

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 12.04.2018

New Delhi: A Karnataka politician’s daughter, who ran away from her Kalaburagi home 20 days after she was forcibly married off to a man without her consent, moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Within hours, the court asked Delhi police to ensure her protection.

At 10.30am on Wednesday morning, counsel Sunil Fernandes sought urgent hearing of her petition and a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud agreed to hear it at 2pm.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising said the 26-year-old woman was physically and mentally tortured by her parents and her brother, who even threatened to rape her if she intended to marry her lover instead of the groom chosen by the family, into the marriage on March 14.

The marriage took place despite her complaint to police, she said. Jaising showed the text message sent by the woman to police and to the groom, clearly conveying that she was not interested in marrying him.

Jaising said it was a reverse of the Hadiya case, referring to the recent SC judgment protecting a girl’s choice to marry a Muslim man despite efforts to terminate the alliance by her Hindu parents.

“In this case, she does not want to live with the man the parents have chosen and forced her through physical abuse to undergo the marriage rituals. This is a void marriage as she had not consented to the marriage,” Jaising said.

She said in the Hindu Marriage Act, there was no specific reference to valid consent from a woman to marriage and the SC must declare that any marriage performed under the Hindu law or customs must have a valid consent from the woman.

But the CJI-led bench said this petition at best was in the nature of habeas corpus for protection of the 26-year-old electronics and communication engineer who did not intend to go to her matrimonial or parental home.

“We are not getting into deciding the constitutional validity of provisions of Hindu Marriage Act as it is not germane to the subject matter in the petition. We are also not concerned with codification of Hindu marriage rituals as that is in the domain of Parliament. On our part, we will always protect any woman from being forced to go anywhere against her will. If the petitioner wants to annul the marriage, she can approach a civil court and seek a divorce decree. Otherwise, no one can force her to go either to her parental or matrimonial home,” CJI Misra said.

The bench asked additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta to convey to Delhi police to give her protection and sought responses from the girl’s parents, brother and husband by May 4. It also asked Karnataka’s additional advocate general Devadatt Kamat to give the state’s response.

SEEKING JUSTICE: Senior advocate Indira Jaising told the Supreme Court bench that the 26-year-old woman was physically and mentally tortured by her parents and her brother, who even threatened to rape her if she intended to marry her lover

BDU denied access to 3K e-journals
MHRD Move Cited As Cost Cutting Initiative

Sambath.Kumar@timesgroup.com 12.04.2018

Trichy: In an unexpected development, research students as well as teachers of Bharathidasan University have lost access to 3,000-odd e-journals in various disciplines with the ministry of human resources and development blocking as many as 10 of the 19 eresource databases. These knowledge sources that were accessed free of cost by the students and research scholars at the university were allegedly blocked as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

BDU now has access to only 1,500 ejournals that are offered through Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) Centre. It is an autonomous interuniversity centre (IUC) of UGC involved in sharing information resources and services among academic and research institutions. These international e-journals were sources of information for students and faculty members for their research papers apart from scholars for their MPhil and PhD research activity.

Universities are categorised as phase I, II and III by MHRD based on the usage of e-resources with Bharathidasan University falling under Phase II. A section of faculty members related the MHRD’s decision to the NIRF ranking as Bharathidasan couldn’t make it to the top 50 in the university category. However, university sources say it is a cost cutting measure by MHRD. “It is unfortunate that MHRD failed to realise that this was an investment towards students and researchers,” said an official.

“Library resources or infrastructure in centrally-funded institutions run into crores of rupees but it is only a few lakhs that state-run universities get. That’s why such e-resources are significant for state-run universities which also have to cater to the knowledge requirement of teachers and students in their affiliated institutions,” said a senior faculty member of BDU.

DISOBEYING ORDERS

HC wants action against erring TNCSC officials

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  12.04.2018

Chennai: Slamming Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation (TNCSC) for “negligence, dereliction of duty and lapses”, the Madras high court has directed TNCSC managing director to take disciplinary action against officials who flouted judicial orders. The court has given him two weeks to spell out the details of action taken against the erring officials.

Justice S M Subramaniam, irked by the fact that officials had come back to the court after 10 months, that too seeking extension of time to comply with the court order, said: “The writ petition was preferred long after the automatic cancellation of the interim order. No such petition can be entertained, as it was filed in a casual manner by the officers of TNCSC. If at all there were any administrative difficulties, the authorities ought to have approached the court soon after the expiry of the time limit of four weeks granted by this court.”

The matter relates to an order passed by labour court in Coimbatore in November 2012, directing TNCSC to pay Rs 19,300 to R Thangavelu, who had worked as foreman and retired in February 2003. Challenging the order, TNCSC filed the present writ petition in 2017. The court granted interim stay of the labour court order, with a condition that the award amount should be deposited within four weeks, failing which the stay order granted by the high court would be deemed to be automatically cancelled.

But, without complying with the order, the TNCSC returned to court in January 2018 seeking extension of time.

When the case came up for hearing on Tuesday, Justice Subramanian said: “The writ petitioner had not complied with the order without any valid reason. The writ petitioner is civil supplies corporation, wholly owned by Tamil Nadu government. If such organisations are not taking any steps for complying with orders, the court has to draw a factual inference that the officials working in the corporation are committing lapses. Now, after a lapse of about 10 months, the present miscellaneous has been preferred. The managing director of TNCSC is directed to initiate appropriate disciplinary action against all officials responsible for such lapses, dereliction of duty and negligence in dealing with the court matters and report before this court within a period of two weeks.”