Bail denied, Lalu may miss campaign for 2019 elections

Ranchi:11.01.2019

The Jharkhand high court rejected on Thursday the bail petition of RJD president Lalu Prasad in three cases of the multi-crore fodder scam. Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh turned down Lalu’s bail plea in cases related to fraudulent withdrawal of money from Dumka, Deoghar and Chaibasa (RC68A/96) treasuries, assistant solicitor general of India and CBI lawyer Rajeev Sinha said.

The rejection of his bail plea means Lalu will not be able to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections unless he gets a reprieve from the Supreme Court.

The court had reserved its order after a hearing on January

4. “The bail pleas in all three cases have been rejected on merit. The order is very satisfying to us,” Sinha said. He pointed out during the argument that Lalu’s lawyer, Kapil Sibal, had reasserted the same grounds which the court had rejected during a hearing on his bail petition in the Deoghar case earlier. He said the only new point made by Sibal was that Lalu was the RJD president and his presence was required to manage party affairs during the elections. Regarding the plea filed by Lalu’s lawyer for bail on medical grounds, Sinha said they had submitted medical reports to show that Lalu was not in critical condition. “In any circumstance, he can approach the court with a medical board report if his health deteriorates,” Neeraj Kumar, another CBI lawyer, added. TNN

Baby’s head severed in delivery botch-up

Syed Intishab Ali & Vimal Bhatia TNN

Jaisalmer:11.01.2019

Two nurses of a primary health centre in Jaisalmer botched a delivery of a pre-mature baby, pulling the child too hard out of the womb such that the body detached from the head. The head remained lodged inside the woman’s womb and had to be removed surgically.

The incident has shocked the state’s health department and the health minister has ordered an inquiry into the matter.

The botched delivery took place at the Ramgarh Primary Healthcare Centre on January 7 (Monday).

Two male nurses — Amritram and Jhunjhar Ram — were on duty when 24-yearold Deeksha Kanwar was brought in. She was seven months pregnant. Despite it being a high-risk, premature delivery, the two male nurses took the case in their hands without the presence of a doctor.

When the delivery went awry, the nurses told the family that there was an obstruction at the opening of the womb, and the 24-yearold needed immediate referral. By then, the child had already died from being yanked with force, as his head was still in Deeksha’s uterus.

The woman was then rushed to Jodhpur, where she was operated upon, and the head finally removed. That is where the family got to know of what had transpired in the primary health centre.

Deeksha’s family alleged the errant nursing staff did not apprise them of the full situation before asking them to get a referral, and had hidden the dead baby’s body. They said the remains were only handed over after a police complaint was filed. The police complaint was filed on January 9 (Wednesday).

This would be Deeksha’s fourth child.

Jaisalmer chief medical officer Dr B L Bunkar said the nurses took on the case as the gynaecologist was on leave.

“I visited Ramgarh and investigated the matter. There were two male nurses present when the woman was brought to the PHC before midnight,” he said. “The baby was half out when the pregnant woman was brought to the PHC. It was a pre-term baby,” added.

An inquiry was also initiated by state health minister Raghu Sharma on Thursday. “Guilty will be punished and strict action will be taken on the basis of investigation,” he stated.

Health department’s joint director (Jodhpur) Dr SK Parmar on Thursday rushed to Jaisalmer from Jodhpur to investigate into the matter. “I will prepare a complete report on the incident and hand it over to the health directorate.”

Rajasthan human rights commission chairman Justice Prakash Tatia has sought a factual report from Jaisalmer district police superintendent and chief medical and health officer (CMHO) on the incident of the botched-up delivery. The report is to be presented by February 11

Appointment of VC..Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University.. 11.01.2019 TOI

Pongal cash: Govt moves HC for ‘sugar cards’ too

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai/Trichy:11.01.2019

A day after the Madras high court restrained the government from providing ₹1,000 as Pongal gift to financially sound ration card holders, the state has moved a modification plea seeking to add one more category – ‘sugar cards’ — to the green list. The plea is likely to be taken up by the bench on Friday.

On Wednesday, a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam passed an interim order preventing the state from distributing the cash gift to non-priority household only for sugar (NPHH-S) and no commodity (NC) category of cardholders. The state was permitted to distribute the cash gift to other three categories — all commodities including rice (PHH), all commodities including 35 kg of rice (PHH-AAY), and all commodities including rice (NPHH).

Now, claiming that most of the families in NPHH-S category also belong to economically weaker background, the government wanted the court to modify the January 9 order and allow the state to extend the cash gift to NPHH-S category also.

“The numbers of such families cannot be arrived at this juncture as the economic indices are not available, as the government is issuing the family cards on the basis of residential proof only. Of 10,11,330 NPHH-S card holders as of Thursday, 4,12,558 have received the gift. The balance card holders under this category, most of whom are also from below poverty line category, are affected and are highly disappointed by nonreceipt of the benefit,” the government said.

The high court restricting Pongal gift of ₹1,000 to below poverty line people had sugar and no commodity cardholders returning empty handed in various parts of the state on Thursday. The PDS outlets in Trichy continued distribution till Wednesday evening for all cardholders. The outlets in Shanmugha Nagar and Bheema Nagar saw serpentine queues for several hours to get the state’s “cash support.” The distribution of cash resumed in the morning on Thursday and ineligible categories joined the queues in the district.

The distribution was disrupted, however, in the afternoon after the staffs were informed about the state government’s directive following court’s restriction. According to district sources, about 60% of the cardholders of all five categories already received the money from January 7 to January 10 noon.

Claiming that most of the families in NPHH-S category also belong to economically weaker background, the government wanted the court to modify the January 9 order

2-room fake alternate med univ functioning since 2013 sealed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Trichy/Chennai:11.01.2019

A fake university in Nagapattinam that doled out degree certificates in alternative medicine to more than 1,000 people from across the country was sealed by the state health department and police on Thursday. Although documents including bank accounts details were seized from the Open International University for Alternative Medicine, its chairperson, T Selvaraj, 54, evaded appearing before the health officials or the police for inquiry.

The university has been functioning in a two-bedroom rented house with at least five staff on Mela Chetty Street in Kuttalam since 2013. Tipped by an advertisement which appeared in a vernacular daily, officials visited the premises on Thursday. They found five employees and two people from Kerala had come to pay money to get medical degrees in alternate medicine. “They pay a fee and take the certificate,” said deputy superintendent of police Thomas Prabhakar. “To convince people that it was genuine, the university even managed to publish names of people as doctors in the state gazette to obtain legal sanctity,” he said.

Starting in 2013, the National Board of Alternative Medicine published the names of at least 522 individuals as alternative medicine practitioners in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette. TOI exposed the illegality in March 2018. “The gazette publications have stopped because the government became cautious. We have been tracking him for several months now,” said a senior health department official. The university has collected several lakhs of rupees as cash and through at least five bank accounts, officials said.

Ex-min moves HC against conviction by special court

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:11.01.2019

Two days after losing his ministerial post following a conviction ordered by a special court for cases against MPs and MLAs, Balakrishna Reddy has moved the Madras high court challenging the conviction and four-year sentence.

Reddy also wanted the high court to suspend his sentencing till the disposal of the appeal.

On January 7, special court judge J Santhi found Reddy and 15 others guilty of offences under Sections 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint) of IPC and Section 3 of Tamil Nadu Public Property (Prevention of Damage and Loss) Act.

In view of the conviction, Reddy immediately stood disqualified from being a member of legislative assembly as per the provisions of the Representation of People Act.

The case pertains to a FIR registered in 1998 by the Bagalur police in Krishnagiri district over violence caused during a protest staged by BJP against illicit arrack. Reddy, who was a BJP member at the time, and 107 others attacked police personnel with iron rods, bottles and cycle chains. Three policemen were grievously injured, five buses were damaged in the stone pelting, and a police MUV and a bike were burnt in the violence.

Of the 108 suspects, Reddy was cited as the 72nd accused. As 27 accused died during the pendency of the case, only 81 faced trial and the special court in Chennai declared Reddy and16 others as guilty. Reddy was imposed a fine of ₹10,5000 besides four year imprisonment.

Now challenging the conviction, Reddy alleged that the special judge recorded the conviction without any legal evidence.

“The appellant is a MLA, the conviction disqualifies him from holding the position. Since the consequence that ensue the conviction is irreversible upon appellant succeeding in the instant appeal, he has also preferred application for suspension of conviction and sentencing till the disposal of the appeal,” Reddy’s counsel said. The appeal is likely to be heard on Friday.

I-T dept submits report on raid at min’s house  Informs Court That ₹4cr Was Seized In Total

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:11.01.2019

The Income Tax department on Thursday furnished to the Madras high court reports pertaining to raids and seizures made in the residences of Tamil Nadu health minister C Vijayabaskar and others in connection with bribing voters of RK Nagar assembly constituency during the 2017 byelection.

The department informed the court that ₹4.71 crore was seized from the minister and others.

“ ₹3 lakh from Vijayabaskar, ₹3 lakh from Srinivasan, ₹1.10 crore from Kaplesh S Shah, ₹6 lakh from Sadique Batcha, ₹8 lakh from V Karthikeyan, ₹11 lakh from R Sarathkumar, ₹20 lakh from R Chinnathambi, ₹15 lakh from R Senthil Kumar, and ₹2.95 crore from Nainar Mohammed was seized,” counsel for the department, A P Srinivas, said.

He made the submissions before a division bench of Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam on the plea moved by DMK RK Nagar candidate Marudhu Ganesh and others.

The petitioners wanted the court to order a CBI inquiry into money distribution to voters in RK Nagar constituency during the byelection.

When the plea came up for hearing, the bench received the reports filed in a sealed cover and directed the registry to keep the documents in safe custody.

Appearing for Marudhu Ganesh, senior counsel P Wilson submitted that after the Income Tax department decided to share its confidential documents and secret reports with the Election Commission of India (ECI) based on which the commission cancelled the elections, the department cannot claim it was a secret document.

“In a case of this nature involving public interest, questioning wastage of public money and to initiate criminal action for acts of bribery, there should be absolute transparency in the court proceedings,” Wilson said.

He further added that at the next hearing he would submit judgments that held no privilege or confidentiality can be claimed by the department over the reports and documents submitted to the court in a sealed cover.

Recording the submissions, the bench posted the pleas to January 18 for further hearing.