SC clears man held for rape after 4-yr live-in

SC clears man held for rape after 4-yr live-in

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:29.09.2020

No woman, after being sexually assaulted at knife-point, would write amorous love letters to the accused and share a live-in relationship for four years, the Supreme Court said on Monday while acquitting a man of 20-year-old charges of rape and cheating, for which he was convicted by the trial court and the Jharkhand High Court.

The first point of doubt for the bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee was the woman’s version of her age at the time of the alleged sexual assault in 1995.

Though she claimed to be 13 years, it was found that at the time of lodging the FIR in 1999, before the man was getting married she was 25 years old.

‘Lived like husband-wife’ but later filed rape case

Though she claimed to be 13 years, it was found that at the time of lodging the FIR in 1999, a few days before the man was getting married to another woman, she was 25 years as per medical opinion.

The complainant claimed that she kept quiet for four years from the date of sexual assault as the man promised to marry her and their families had got them engaged. She also said they lived like “husband and wife” and that on coming to know that he was getting married to another woman, she had filed the FIR accusing him of rape and cheating.

The bench sifted through the evidence and found the two belonged to different religions and that was the main constraint for solemnising the marriage — while the girl’s family wanted the wedding in a church, the boy’s family insisted on a temple ceremony.

Writing the judgment, Justice Sinha said, “The man belonged to the Scheduled Tribe while the woman belonged to the Christian community. They professed different religious beliefs in a traditional society. They resided in the same village Basjadi and were known to each other. The nature and manner of allegations, coupled with the letters exchanged between them, make it apparent that their love for each other grew and matured over a sufficient period of time.

“They were both smitten by each other and passions of youth ruled over their minds and emotions. The physical relations that followed were not isolated or sporadic in nature, but regular over the years. The woman had even gone and resided in the man’s house. In our opinion, the delay of four years in lodging the FIR, at an opportune time of seven days prior to the man solemnising his marriage with another girl, on the pretext of a promise to the prosecutrix raises serious doubts about the truth and veracity of the allegations levelled by the complainant.”

The bench further said, “She was conscious of this (religious) obstacle all along, even while she continued to establish physical relations with the man. If he had married her, she would not have lodged the case. She denied having written any letters to him, contrary to the evidence placed on record by the defence. The amorous language used by both in the letters exchanged reflects that the man was serious about the relationship...”

WORLD HEART DAY

WORLD HEART DAY

Have heart condition? Don’t delay check-up even during pandemic

A Central Registry On Heart Failure Needed To Save Lives: Doctors

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

29.09.2020

In the last six months, since the Covid-19 lockdown in the country, non-Covid illnesses have taken a back seat. Even many heart patients have delayed routine check-ups. There have also been instances of patients delaying hospital visits despite complications, leading to exacerbation of the existing condition and even death.

On the eve of World Heart Day, cardiologists say, it is important to make patients aware not to neglect non-Covid illnesses. “I am regularly seeing patients who have delayed their treatment till they are forced to come to hospital at an advanced stage. Some of them may even have succumbed to it,” said Dr Ashok Seth, chairman of Fortis Escorts Heart Institute.

The fear of going to hospital despite worsening of a disease is not the right way because timely treatment saves lives, he pointed out. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), World Health Organization (WHO) says, are the number one cause of deaths globally. It has many causes — from smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity to air pollution, and rare and neglected conditions such as Chagas disease and cardiac amyloidosis.

During Covid-19, WHO adds, CVD patients are faced with a double-edged threat. “Not only are they more at risk of developing severe forms of the virus, but they may also be afraid to seek ongoing care for their hearts,” the UN body states.

Disruption in travel and transport have prevented many people from smaller towns and rural areas from reaching hospitals. While there is no data or analysis to understand what is happening to these patients, Dr D K Jhamb, director and head of the cardiology department at Paras Hospitals in Gurgaon, said it was clear that many of them had not been able to receive medical care and treatment on time.

“Patients with cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and diabetes, among others, are experiencing delay in diagnosis and treatment, which, in turn, will significantly increase the burden of heart disease and preventable deaths,” he added.

Heart failure is the end result of many conditions of the organ, for example, heart attack, valve disease and viral infections of heart, Dr Seth said. “There is no centralised registry for heart failure patients in India. It is needed to make a fair assessment of the burden of the disease and save lives.”

The Times of India has launched Beat Heart Failure in partnership with Novartis to create awareness about timely diagnosis and management of heart failure and the need to create an effective national heart failure registry.

 

Make sure you or your loved ones don’t ignore the common symptoms of heart failure

To take the heart failure symptom checker test, log on to

www.toibeatheartfailure.com

OR scan this QR code

Top court cites love letters, acquits man of rape charges

Top court cites love letters, acquits man of rape charges

Says No Woman After Being Sexually Assaulted Will Be In Live-in Relationship For Four Years

Dhananjay.Mahapatra@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:29.09.2020

No woman, after being sexually assaulted at knife-point, would write amorous love letters to the accused and share a live-in relationship for four years, the Supreme Court said on Monday while acquitting a man of 20-year-old charges of rape and cheating, for which he was convicted by the trial court and the Jharkhand high court.

The first point of doubt for the bench of Justices R F Nariman, Navin Sinha and Indira Banerjee was the woman’s version of her age at the time of the alleged sexual assault in 1995. Though she claimed to be 13 years, it was found that at the time of lodging the FIR in 1999, a few days before the man was getting married to another woman, she was 25 years as per medical opinion.

The complainant claimed that she kept quiet for four years from the date of sexual assault as the man promised to marry her and their families had got them engaged. She also said they lived like “husband and wife” and that on coming to know that he was getting married to another woman, she had filed the FIR accusing him of rape and cheating.

The bench sifted through the evidence and found the two belonged to different religions and that was the main constraint for solemnising the marriage — while the girl's family wanted the wedding in a church, the boy’s family insisted on a temple ceremony.

Writing the judgment, Justice Sinha said, “The man belonged to the Scheduled Tribe while the woman belonged to the Christian community. They professed different religious beliefs in a traditional society. They resided in the same village Basjadi and were known to each other. The nature and manner of allegations, coupled with the letters exchanged between them, make it apparent that their love for each other grew and matured over a sufficient period of time. “They were both smitten by each other and passions of youth ruled over their minds and emotions. The physical relations that followed were not isolated or sporadic in nature, but regular over the years. The woman had even gone and resided in the man’s house. In our opinion, the delay of four years in lodging the FIR, at an opportune time of seven days prior to the man solemnising his marriage with another girl, on the pretext of a promise to the prosecutrix raises serious doubts about the truth and veracity of the allegations levelled by the complainant.”

The bench further said, “She was conscious of this (religious) obstacle all along, even while she continued to establish physical relations with the man. If he had married her, she would not have lodged the case. She denied having written any letters to him, contrary to the evidence placed on record by the defence. The amorous language used by both in the letters exchanged reflect that the man was serious about the relationship, desiring to culminate the same into marriage. But, unfortunately, for societal reasons, the marriage could not materialise as they belonged to different communities.”

They were both smitten by each other and passions of youth ruled over their minds and emotions. The physical relations that followed were not isolated or sporadic in nature, but regular over the years

SUPREME COURT

Sparks fly between EPS & OPS over CM candidature at AIADMK meet

Sparks fly between EPS & OPS over CM candidature at AIADMK meet

Decision To Be Announced On October 7

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:29.09.2020

Powerplay between deputy chief minister and AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and chief minister and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami over early announcement of CM candidate for the forthcoming assembly election was in full display during the party’s executive committee meeting convened on Monday morning.

After five hours of muscle flexing, arguments, and attempts to reason, deputy coordinator K P Munusamy came out to tell reporters that the CM candidate will be announced “by the leadership” on October 7. Both EPS and OPS neither “agreed nor disagreed” to the final decision, sources confirmed. A total of 276 members out of 294 invited, attended the meeting.

OPS argued he had been chosen to be chief minister by ‘Amma’ (former chief minister J Jayalalithaa) twice and EPS by her aide V K Sasikala. EPS pointed out that his deputy had been picked by Sasiakala too when Jayalalithaa passed away in December 2016. When it came to the subject of CM candidate, OPS and his supporters felt the selection should be made by a steering committee, yet to be constituted. EPS loyalists said the announcement should be made sooner rather than later.

Palaniswami is keen on being projected as the CM candidate, having steered the government for about three years, overcoming challenges thrown his way and showcasing his achievements. Sparks flew at the Monday meeting, after some 20 ministers, leaders and senior party functionaries spoke on the need to decide on the CM candidate soon.

“When OPS detailed his contributions for the party and government -- how he was chosen twice by Jayalalithaa for CM post, and his dharmayudh to rescue the party from the clutches of a family, EPS pointed out how the former had voted against his government in February 2017. He said OPS would have been held responsible if his government had been dissolved,” a senior leader, privy to the meeting said.

Panneerselvam sought to downplay the criticism by stating he and his supporters voted against the EPS government as part of his ‘dharmayudh’ against Sasikala and the chief minister chosen by her, and that at no time did he nurse a personal grudge against EPS.

Palaniswami recalled how Sasikala had told him, ministers P Thangamani and S P Velumani, besides OPS to choose a CM candidate. The trio told her she could go ahead with her choice and she settled for OPS. Panneerselvam said he merged with the EPS faction on the advice of PM Narendra Modi, and that the agreement was that he would be deputy CM for this term alone. For his part, Palaniswami said Modi had congratulated the government for effectively managing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier, OPS supporter and organising secretary, P H Manoj Pandian said, “Both EPS and OPS were like the two leaves and we need both to help the party win the election,” Pandian said.

Coimbatore girl tops TN engg rank list

Coimbatore girl tops TN engg rank list

1.6L Seats Up For Grabs, Online Counselling From Oct 1-30

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 29.09.2020

Sasmitha M S of Coimbatore got the highest cut-off marks in the state at 199.67 in the engineering rank list released on Monday, with centums in maths, physics and near-perfect marks in chemistry. R Navaneethakrishnan of Tiruvannamalai, with the same cut-off, was placed second rank, while R Kavya, C Aditya and Praveen Kumar R with 199.5 were ranked third, fourth and fifth. Higher education minister K P Anbalagan released the list.

Sasmitha said she planned to take up BE computer science at College of Engineering, Guindy. “I then want to get placed in a dream company such as Facebook or Amazon, experience the work ambience for a few years, come back and take up civil services.”

The native of Namakkal, allotted the cut-off by the Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) based on the 989/1000 marks in the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education at Hyderabad, now stays in Coimbatore with her uncle, a forest official. She wanted to join an IIT, but unsure of the scores in JEE (Advanced), decided on Anna University.

Praveen Kumar wants to join either electrical engineering or computer science at Anna University.

The TNEA committee awarded ranks to 1,12,406 eligible candidates, using a 10-digit random number for breaking ties for 791 candidates.

Anbalagan said online counseling will be held from October 1 to 30 — for special category from October 1 to 5 and for general category from October 8 to 27.

There are 1,63,154 seats available in 461 colleges, a reduction of just 9,786 seats over last year despite the number of participating colleges coming down to 461 from 479 in 2019-20. Colleges surrendered 27,466 seats, increasing total seats to 1.63 lakh from 1.35 lakh.

On the proposal to change the name of Anna University, the minister said it was made after keeping the interests of all students and colleges in mind. He further said the state government would discuss any implication of name change before the bifurcation.

On reopening of colleges, the minister said the state government would take a call only after assessing the number of colleges needed for Covid-19 care centres. “Still, many colleges are functioning as such centres. We will assess the situation and take a decision,” he said.

2nd phase of Covid vaccine human trial begins in Tamil Nadu

 2nd phase of Covid vaccine human trial begins in Tamil Nadu

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.09.2020

The phase-2 human clinical trials of Covishield, developed by Oxford University, commenced in the state on Monday even as the health department invited volunteers to enroll and participate in the trials. The safety and immunogenicity or the immune response of the vaccine candidate will be studied upon administering shots to healthy volunteers. Two centres in the city are among the17siteschosen for the trials initiated in the country by Serum Institute of India, which has an agreement with AstraZeneca that has collaborated with Oxford University.

A state health department official confirmed that volunteers were given shots of the vaccine candidate on Monday. However, officials did not reveal details on the number of volunteers who were administered the shots. The state health department started calling for volunteers on September 9 through social media.

Earlier Dr T S Selvavinayagam, director of public health and principal investigator of the project, had said, “This phase requires 110 to 150 volunteers. Screening of volunteers to see if they are fit enough for the trials is going on.” In Tamil Nadu, trials will take place at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Porur.

According to the Clinical Trials Registry India, 1,600 volunteers of more than or equal to 18 years will be enrolled in the study across17 sites in the country. Of them, 400 participants will be part of the immunogenicity cohort. They will be randomly assigned on a 3:1 ratio to receive either Covishield or Oxford/AZ-ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. The rest of the 1,200 volunteers from the safety cohort, also randomly assigned in a 3:1 ratio, will receive either Covishield or placebo. Covishield was made from ChAdOx1 virus, a weakened version of a common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees that has been genetically changed. Genetic material has been added which is used to make proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 virus called spike glycoprotein. By vaccinating, researchers hope the body will recognise and develop an immune response to the spike protein that will help stop the coronavirus from entering human cells and prevent infection.

Premalatha tests positive for Covid-19

Premalatha tests positive for Covid-19

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:29.09.2020

Actor and DMDK leader Vijayakant’s wife Premalatha has tested positive for Covid-19. She has been admitted to the same ward where her husband in undergoing treatment, doctors in Chennai’s Miot Hospital said.

Premalatha was asymptomatic but she decided to get admitted because she wanted to take care of Vijayakant, they said.

On September 22, Vijayakant tested positive for the viral infection. “Both of them are doing well and are likely to be discharged in a couple of days,” a doctor said.

Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam tweeted wishing Premalatha, who is DMDK treasurer, a speedy recovery.

A medical bulletin issued by Miot on September 24 said Vijayakant was stable and was expected to make a full recovery.

On the same day, the DMDK issued a statement saying Vijayakant had mild symptoms. “Vijayakant undertakes complete health check-up once every six months. When he went to MIOT for check-up this time, it was detected that he had mild symptoms. He has been treated for it,” the party statement said.