Mighty rats bring down three-storey Agra building

Deepak.Lavania@timesgroup.com 16.04.2018

Agra: Thousands of rats, burrowing underground for years, made a three-storey building fall down in Agra on Sunday morning. The incident occurred near Mankameshwar temple, an area which has grocery traders’ establishments which are very old. The rat population of the area, which has always been high, has exploded so much in recent years that the rodents have been burrowing under houses, damaging sewage and pipelines and other infrastructure. The foundations of dozens of houses have been weakened, officials said.

On Saturday evening, after heavy rains, water entered these underground burrows and the owner of the house vacated it along with his family. Hours later, the building collapsed. The entire incident was caught on camera and went viral on social media.

Sudhir Kumar Verma, the owner,Verma said, “My ancestral house was destroyed in seconds. My family and I had a narrow escape. We tried everything possible to get rid of the rats, and stop the damage to the foundations, but nothing worked. After the recent rains and highspeed winds, the walls developed cracks. We knew it was a dangerous situation, but not that the building would collapse like this.”

Agra mayor Naveen Jain said, “Although the house that collapsed was old, it is true that several localities in the old city area have a major rodent problem and foundations of houses have been damaged. Crores of rupees of development works in the last few years have been wasted. I will meet with councilors and officials to work out a problem.” 



TUMBLING DOWN: The house collapsed at Kacheri Ghat locality

Students ‘told to do sexual favours’, teacher suspended

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   16.04.2018

Madurai: A woman assistant professor working in a private college at Aruppukkottai in Virudhunagar has been placed under temporary suspension after a group of girl students in the college complained to the management that she tried to lure them into doing sexual favours for higher officials of Madurai Kamaraj University to get marks and money. A phone conversation that took place on March 15 was recorded by the girls and has been doing the rounds on social media. The incident resurfaced on Sunday as a private Tamil news channel telecast the response of the faculty member to the complaint.

The girls, studying in the Devanga Arts College, approached the college authorities on March 19 and complained about the faculty member who works in the mathematics department.

The faculty member admitted that it was her in the conversation with the girls, but said it was wrongly understood by the girls.

“There was no reason on record for my suspension from the college, but after inquiring, I came to know that it was due to this (audio conversation) reason. They said the committee will investigate further, but they have not called me so far,” she told the reporter on television. When questioned further about the conversation, she said, “It was me who spoke and I have already admitted it, but the message was not how it was understood by the girls.”

Meanwhile, secretary of the college R Ramasamy held a press conference on Sunday explaining the action taken by the college. He said the faculty member had gone to attend a refresher course in MKU on March 9. As soon as the complaint was received, she was asked to report back to the college. As soon as she returned on March 21, the suspension order was handed over to her.

A committee formed by the college is conducting a probe and further action would be taken based on its outcome.

When contacted, Virudhunagar superintendent of police M Rajarajan said they have not received any complaint so far.

Vice-chancellor of MKU P P Chelladurai said, “I suspect the entire episode was stagemanaged by the college management as I formed a committee 25 days ago to investigate misappropriation of funds in the college. We are planning to file a complaint on Monday,” he said.

‘Student was suspended on disciplinary grounds’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   16.04.2018

Coimbatore: Principal of the Government Law College KS Gopalakrishnan on Sunday denied that first-year student R Priya was suspended for speaking on the rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl in Kashmir.

“In the second hour on April 13, the English lecturer, a guest faculty, asked the students to speak on a subject-related topic. Priya, who rose to speak, accused the boys in her class of being male chauvinists. That led to a quarrel. When professor R Ammu went to inquire, Priya banged on a table, shouted at her and stopped the professor from doing her duty,” Gopalakrishnan told reporters.

However, the students who had given the complaint against Priya, said she had indeed spoken about the Kashmir incident. “She started by speaking about the minor victim and then went on to say male chauvinism was the cause. It turned into a heated argument about women’s choice of clothes. After her speech, Priya created a commotion when another boy student started speaking. Later, she also got into a quarrel with professor Ammu,” said a student, who had given a complaint against her.

Priya was suspended based on written complaints from 10 boys as well as from the professor, said Gopalakrishnan. “Immediately after the suspension, we formed an inquiry committee comprising senior professors Durga Lakshmi and Kumuda, which would submit a report in two days. Now, as the issue has gained so much publicity, we would submit the report to the director of legal studies, and based on his direction, take further action,” he said.

When asked why Priya was not asked for an explanation before being suspended, Gopalakrishnan said she had not approached him on Friday. “I was expecting her to give her version, but she didn’t come. Also, as a professor had given a written complaint, I suspended her,” the principal said.

Gopalakrishnan said the suspension was issued to prevent clashes between students and also to ensure Priya’s safety. “In the past months, about seven students were suspended for various reasons. Their suspensions were revoked within a week.”

Priya had been instigating students to protest against the government, he said. “While students have the right to be part of any political outfit, they should not bring their political activities into the campus. For the past two years, the campus has been free of politics and clashes. We have been taking action to keep such incidents away from the campus,” he said.

While the students and professor Ammu, who had filed complaints against Priya, were present at the press meet, there was no representation from Priya’s side.

Forum directs college to return certificates of student who dropped out 8 years ago

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  16.04.2018

Chennai: A consumer forum came to the aid of a student whose original certificates were held up by a city dental college, where she discontinued the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course after a year, eight years ago. District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai (North) directed the management of a city dental college to return the original certificates of a student, who had discontinued the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) course after a year, eight years ago, and also slapped a fine of ₹55,000 on the college management for causing her mental agony.

According to a petition by the student’s father, M Sundaravadanam, his daughter Thirupurasundari had joined the BDS course in July 2010 at Priyadarshini Dental College and Hospital in Aminjikarai under management quota.

“While she was in her second year, she developed health complications, due to which she had to discontinue (the course) in August 2011,” the petition noted.

Sundaravadanam had paid a fee of ₹3.64 lakh for the first and second academic years in separate instalments— in September 2010 and December 2011. Since his daughter had discontinued her studies, he requested the college management to return her original certificates and the transfer certificate in January 2013. However, the management demanded that Sundaravadanam pay the pending fee of ₹2 lakh for the academic year 2012-13 and said that the original certificates would not be returned till then.

In his petition, Sundaravadanam stated that he then approached various government authorities to instruct the college to return the certificates. His attempts bore no fruit and hence he approached the consumer forum. In its counter petition, the college management claimed that the student discontinued due to family circumstances.

“It was clearly explained that the total number of students admitted for the particular year was fixed at 100 by the authorities and any discontinuation in the middle of the course cannot be filled, and the vacancy will continue for the remaining period causing monetary loss to the institution,” the counter petition stated.

The consumer forum bench comprising president K Jayabalan and member M Uyirroli Kannan after perusing the documents said there was no rule produced by the college management that says a student had to pay remaining academic fee and ruled that the college committed deficiency in service.

The bench imposed a fine of ₹55, 000 on the management and directed the management to return her original certificates — Class X and XII marksheets, transfer certificate and community certificate — within six weeks.

Cheat takes worker for job, robs her of ₹1.7L gold

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   16.04.2018

Chennai: A 45-year-old woman on Saturday night lost her seven-sovereign gold chain worth nearly ₹1.7 lakh to a man who promisedher a job at a construction site near Pallikaranai.

The suspect took the victim on his two-wheeler and abandoned her after relieving her of the chain.

The police identified the woman as C Parvathi, a construction labourer from Narayanapuram in Pallikaranai. After work, she was waiting at a bus stop on Medavakkam Koot Road when the accused saw her holding equipment related to construction work. He then approached her by referring to the name of one of her friends to kill doubt and then offered to pay her ₹500 a dayfor work on a construction site. He then took her his bike and when they reached Mambakkam, the man asked the woman to get down from the vehicle claiming he had to attend nature’s call. He later pushed her down and snatched her gold chain before fleeing.

The woman shouted for help but there was no one around. In a complaint with the Selaiyur police, she said she did not note down the vehicle’s registration number.

Boy, 10, dies after 25ft fall as bag snags in railing of mall escalator

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 16.04.2018

Chennai: A 10-year-old boy died on Saturday of severe head injuries sustained four days earlier, when his school bag snagged in the moving handrail of an escalator in Express Avenue mall on Tuesday evening, throwing him off the second floor and to the ground 25ft below.

The police on Sunday said S Naveen, a Class V student, died in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where doctors at Royapettah Government Hospital had referred him when his condition deteriorated.

The Anna Salai police said they learned of the accident only on Saturday evening, when Naveen’s father, R Sanil Kumar, 44, an autorickshaw driver from Korukkupet, lodged a complaint against the mall’s safety manager.

Sanil Kumar accused the mall authorities of laxity, saying there was no security guard in the vicinity to prevent the accident. He said no employee or administrator offered to help get medical assistance for the injured boy.


Expert says lack of maintenance leads to such accidents

Sanil Kumar said his eldest daughter, Geetha, 22, who was visiting from Madurai, had taken her younger siblings, Naveen and Divyashree, eight, to Express Avenue when the accident took place at 5.30pm.

“The mall was bustling at the time, like most evenings,” Sanil Kumar told TOI. “Geetha had taken the children to play games and buy toys at the mall.”

As Naveen and his sisters were riding the escalator to the second floor, an investigating officer said, the moving handrail caught a loose end of the adjustment band on a shoulder strap of his bag. When Naveen reached the second floor, the bag with its snagged strap headed with the moving rail into the escalator pulley, dragging him along and causing him to choke. Seconds later, the escalator mechanism hurled the boy over the railing.

“Witnesses said someone shouted out to the boy, telling him to free himself from the bag, but he held on tightly,” the officer said. “He hit the side of the escalator railing and fell around 24ft to the ground floor.”

Customers at the mall helped Geetha take her brother to a private hospital and then to Government Royapettah Hospital. Doctors had Naveen moved to Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where he battled for life in an ICU for three days before he died on Saturday evening.

The Anna Salai police registered a case under IPC Section 304 (a) (causing death by negligence).

Another officer said the accident could have taken place because the child did not have someone looking out for his safety.

But Prabhakaran Moorthy, an elevator expert, said the accident that claimed Naveen’s life takes place very rarely. “The owners of a building must undertake periodic servicing and maintenance of an escalator themselves, once the manufacturer’s warranty period ends,” he said. He was unaware of the elevator in question, he said, but, added, “Lack of maintenance could lead to such accidents.”

“Every escalator has button that switches it off immediately. A trained person should be present to oversee operations,” he said.

Another girl child held captive, raped, killed — this one in Surat 

86 Injury Marks On Unidentified Victim’s Body

HimansshuBhatt@timesgroup.com 16.04.2018

Surat: Amid nationwide outrage over the gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Kathua, Surat police told TOI on Sunday that an 11-year-old, whose body was found about 10 days ago, had been raped, tortured and strangled to death. There were at least 86 injury marks on her body.

There were severe injuries to the girl’s private parts caused by a blunt object, according to the autopsy report. It seems she was confined, raped and brutally tortured before being killed, cops said.

Police are yet to make any headway on the girl’s identity or the perpetrators of the ghastly crime.

The girl’s body was found under the bushes near a cricket stadium in Pandesara area of Surat city on April 6 morning.

“We will widen our investigations to trace the perpetrators of the crime,” Surat Police Commissioner Satish Sharma told TOIafter visiting the crime spot along with other officials. 



49 retired officers write to PM, say govt has not done enough in ‘darkest hour’

In a hard-hitting letter to PM Modi, a group of 49 retired civil servants referred to the Kathua and Unnao incidents as post-Independence India’s “darkest hour” and wrote, “...we find the response of our government... inadequate and feeble... we hang our heads in shame.” The signatories, including former senior police officers Meera Borwankar and Julio Ribeiro, also wrote, “In both cases, Prime Minister, it is your party in power. Given your supremacy within the party and the centralised control you and your party president exercise, you more than anyone else have to be held responsible for this terrifying state of affairs...” P 10

Police circulate posters to identify Surat girl

“All residential colonies and societies near the crime spot would be checked again to get clues. We will scan CCTV footages of nearby places,” he said.

The details of the case came to light on Sunday, with Sharma holding a press conference. An FIR has been lodged under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 376 (rape) of the IPC and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) against unidentified persons, Sharma said.

Police had printed 1,350 posters of the girl and circulated them on social media and declared a cash reward of ₹20,000 for anyone helping in identifying the girl or giving information about the perpetrators, Sharma added.

A senior officer said the girl could have been raped, tortured and killed elsewhere and then dumped in Surat. He said the Surat police were checking with their counterparts in Odisha and West Bengal.

Ganesh Govekar, a doctor at the City Civil Hospital where the autopsy was conducted, told PTI, “Going by the nature of injuries, they seem to have been caused over a period ranging from one week to a day prior to the recovery of the body, suggesting that the girl might have been held captive, tortured and raped.”