Nirbhaya case: Prosecution tells Delhi court Tihar Jail supplied all documents sought by convicts' lawyer

PTI | Jan 25, 2020, 11.04 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Saturday told a Delhi court that the Tihar Jail authorities have supplied all the relevant documents sought by the lawyer of the death row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case. The public prosecutor, appearing for police, told additional sessions judge Ajay Kumar Jain that the convicts are only adopting "delaying tactics".

An advocate appearing for three of the four death row convicts in the case has moved the court on Friday alleging that the Tihar Jail authorities were not handing over certain documents and this was causing delay in filing their mercy and curative petitions.

A P Singh had moved an application alleging that the jail authorities are yet to give the documents which are required to file the mercy petition for Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and curative petitions for Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Singh (25).

The Supreme Court recently dismissed the curative petitions of other two convicts -- Vinay and Mukesh Singh (32). Mukesh's mercy petition was rejected by the President earlier this month.

The hanging of all four is to take place on February 1 at 6am, according to the court order.

The 23-year-old paramedic student, referred to as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped and brutally assaulted on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012, in a moving bus in south Delhi by six people before she was thrown out on the road. She was flown to a hospital in Singapore where she died.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

Tamil Nadu: I-T searches at education group expose crores in illegal income

TNN | Jan 25, 2020, 10.27 AM IST

CHENNAI: The income tax department has seized 2 crore in cash and detected unaccounted income worth 532 crore during searches on a chain of leading educational institutions in the last few days in Chennai and Madurai.

Searches were held at more than 64 places, including the premises of the managing director of the group, and residences of several people close to him.

"The income tax department mounted a search on a group operating leading educational institutions, having a large number of schools and colleges in Chennai and Madurai region. The search was conducted at the office of the trust, residences of the trustees and key employees of the group," said CBDT spokesperson Surabhi Ahluwalia in a statement. The searches were held in Chennai, Madurai, Theni, Thanjavur and several other places.

The charitable trusts are running a medical college and hospital, engineering colleges and schools across Tamil Nadu.

During the raid, I-T officials found evidence showing collection of fee under various heads from students to evade tax, said a senior official. Schools run by the group received cash from students, but they were not accounted for in the books. Much of it was used for purchase of property and repayment of loans, said the official.

"The search has resulted in the seizure of 2 crore of unaccounted cash. Out of the unaccounted income detected so far, the group has admitted to 532 crore undisclosed income," said the spokesperson. The searches have been temporarily concluded. Further investigations are under way, the official said.

Chennai: Coronavirus may hit tourist traffic to Southeast Asia

TNN | Jan 25, 2020, 06.08 AM IST

CHENNAI: Travel to Southeast Asia and the Far East may be hit in the coming weeks as cases of coronavirus have been reported in Singapore, Japan, Macau, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.

Though the government of India has not issued a travel advisory against visiting these countries, tour operators say that outbound travel from Chennai to Southeast Asia will be affected. Foreign tourists planning to come to Chennai and other cities may not because of travel ban in some regions of China and due to heightened checks at airports in countries where cases have surfaced.

Basheer Ahmed of Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFE) said "There are no cancellations so far. But many people, especially those who have to travel with senior citizens, have started to enquire whether it is safe to travel. Though the travel season is dull, Macau, Hong Kong and Singapore are popular among tourists from the state."

The travel season is usually dull post Pongal and there will not be big tours heading to Southeast Asia and the Far East. Since Republic Day is not an extended weekend this year, those who go on short getaways are also not travelling. However, the spread of the virus will impact weekend travellers to Macau, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Sriharan Balan of Madura Travels said that "there will be an impact on travel. A clear picture will emerge only in a few days. The airports in the affected countries have strict screening. This gives some confidence."

Basheer Ahmed said "the news about the spread of cases in Singapore, Thailand, Macau has created concern among tour operators. But things are not as bad as we expected it to be. The people affected in Singapore are tourists from China. Changi airport has tightened screening."

Nevertheless, travel companies have started to advise travellers to opt for alternative destinations even if trips are planned for next month because of the uncertainty over the extent of shutdown in China.

Daniel D'souza, president and country head, Leisure, SOTC Travel, said, "In light of the present scenario in China, our teams on ground are monitoring the situation and sharing timely updates. Currently there are no departures as customers are scheduled to travel from March. We are focused on the safety of our customers and are recommending alternate destinations like Japan, Vietnam and Dubai."

However, the number of people, including tourists and Indians returning home for week-long Chinese New Year holidays will be high in the coming days. Flights from Singapore to Chennai are already full. Ministry of external affairs has issued a note detailing precautions to be followed by people travelling from China to India. Though there is no direct flight from the affected Chinese area to Chennai, there are connecting flights from Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. Airlines have alerted their crew to look out passengers who may look ill.

China has restricted people of 13 cities near Wuhan from travelling after the virus outbreak affected around 800 people.

Tamil Nadu: 99 scam TNPSC job exam with vanishing ink, banned for life

TNN | Jan 25, 2020, 06.08 AM IST

CHENNAI: Agents in collusion with government officials tried to outsmart a recruitment exam system by using a special ink that would disappear after a few hours and help them shade the correct answers on OMR answer sheets later. But, they manipulated answer scripts of 52 candidates with such perfection that 39 of 52 candidates ranked in the top 100 from Rameswaram and Keelakarai centres in Ramanathapuram, raising suspicion that led to busting of the scam.

The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) banned 99 candidates for life for resorting to malpractices in a Group IV exam held on September 1, 2019. On Friday, the state CBCID arrested a school education department staff member, an agent and an employee in the energy department, and detained at least 15 others including the tahsildars from Keezhakkarai and Rameswaram. The agents supplied the candidates pens filled with special ink and after changing the responses, the agents with the help of officials replaced the OMR sheets, a TNPSC release said.

‘Answer sheets of 52 candidates manipulated’

The arrested have been identified as E Ramesh, 39, of Triplicane, an office assistant in the directorate of public instruction (DPI), Mamallapuram resident M Thirukumaran, 35, an office assistant in the energy department who cleared the exam in 2017, and R Nithish Kumar of Triplicane, who cleared the Group-IV exam in 2019 and is now an agent.

The 99 candidates, now banned, appeared for the exam at Rameswaram and Keelakarai centres in Ramanathapuram district as instructed by the agents, the TNPSC said in a release, adding that detailed inquiries with the staff involved in exam work had confirmed that manipulations happened in these two centres.

Shocked to find more than 35 candidates from just two centres among top 100 rank holders, other candidates raised suspicion and the TNPSC conducted an inquiry with more than 50 toppers who wrote the exam at the two centres. It also called candidates who did not qualify in the exam to know what happened. “It was found that answer sheets of 52 candidates, of 99, were manipulated by scamsters who shaded correct responses after the exam and 39 ranked within the top 100,” the release said.

The TNPSC said it had replaced the 39 candidates on the merit list with new candidates and that an FIR had been registered against 99 candidates and brokers. “It has been confirmed that manipulations did not take place in any other centre in the state. So, TNPSC will conduct counselling after the certificate verification. The commission will undertake reforms to prevent such incidents in future.”

More than 13 lakh candidates appeared for the Group IV exam on September 1, 2019 to fill 9,398 vacancies for posts of junior assistant and typist among others. The results were out on November 12, the shortest time taken for announcing the results.

MVA govt spent ₹2.79 crore on swearing-in ceremony: RTI
MUMBAI Updated: Jan 15, 2020 23:08 IST

Shrinivas Deshpande

The newly formed Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government spent ₹2.79 crore on the oath-taking ceremony of chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and six of his cabinet colleagues at Shivaji Park, Dadar, on November 28, 2019. The event cost ₹1.81 crore more than what the Devendra Fadnavis-led government had spent when it was sworn-in in November 2014.

These expenses were disclosed by the government in response to a right to information (RTI) query by activist Nikhil Chanshetti.

Chanshetti had sought information about the expenses incurred on the oath-taking ceremony held in 2019, 2014, and 2009.

In reply to the query, the upper secretary of general administration department, RG Gaikwad, informed that the government had spent ₹27,907,374, of which ₹303,257 was used for floral decorations and ₹27,604,117 was the cost of electrification on the day of the swearing-in.

However, the government is unable to provide information about expenses incurred for the oath-taking held in 2009, citing documents were lost in the June 21, 2012 fire in the Mantralaya.

“The finance minister always says the condition of the state is so weak... Then why had the state government increased its spending on the swearing-in ceremony by almost threefold?” said Chanshetti.

In 2014, the BJP government had spent ₹9,837,950 for Fadnavis’s swearing-in ceremony which was held at Wankhede Stadium on October 31, 2014.

MBBS student goes missing, cops suspect suicide

TNN | Jan 24, 2020, 04.13 AM IST

Kanpur: A 24-year-old final year MBBS student of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial medical college went missing on Thursday. The girl left her hostel on scooty that was found parked at Ganga Barrage. A missing case has been filed in this connection but preliminary police probe states it to be a case of suicide. Her mobile phone and wallet were recovered from scooty’s dickey.
A massive search operation was launched in the Ganga with the help of divers.

“Amrita Singh of Jhansi left hostel on Thursday afteroon. She used to live with Anushi, her room partner at GSVM Hostel,” said inspector Swaroop Nagar police station, Ashwini Pandey.

“Despite repeated attempts to call her on phone, her room-mate Anushi alerted GSVM authorities who further informed Swaroop Nagar police,” said a police official.

“We are going through call details of the missing student and her parents have arrived in the City from Jhansi,” the official added.

Following this, a missing case was registered in Swaroop Nagar police station Teams have been formed to trace the missing girl. “Searches are underway with the help of e-surveillance and we will trace the girl soon,” added SP West Dr Anil Kumar.

MBBS Migration in Maharashtra: DMER opens application window

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