Victim’s mother sits on a protest outside court

13/02/2020, PRESS TRUST OF INDIA,NEW DELHI

Nirbhaya’s mother Asha Devi broke down at the Delhi court requesting a fresh date to execute the four death row convicts in the gang rape and murder case and sat on a protest outside the court premises. “I too have some rights,” she said after the court offered a lawyer to one of the four convicts, Pawan Gupta. After the hearing, Ms. Devi joined a protest led by women’s rights activist Yogita Bhayana outside the Patiala House Courts premises.

“There is no appeal pending in any court in the country... I appeal to the Supreme Court to issue the death warrant as this court (trial) is in no mood to issue one,” she said.

A child cannot be put behind bars, rules SC

‘Police have no right to detain children’

13/02/2020, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court has made it clear that the police have no right to detain children in conflict with law in a lockup or a jail.

A juvenile in conflict with law, if apprehended, has to be placed immediately under the care of the special juvenile police unit or a designated child welfare officer. The child has to be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB).

“Once a child is produced before a JJB, bail is the rule,” a Bench of Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose declared. If for some reason bail is not granted, a child cannot be put behind bars.

He has to be lodged either in an observation home or in a place of safety.

The law is meant to protect children and not detain them in jail or keep them in police custody, said the court.

The eight-page order on February 10 came after the court’s attention was drawn by the recent media reports about “children being detained in police custody and tortured in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh”. The order sends a significant message to the authorities in the light of reports about children detained in connection with the protests against the Citizenship (Amendments) Act.

The Bench has issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi Commissions for Protection of Child Rights and directed them to file their responses within three weeks.

Court offers lawyer to Nirbhaya convict

A condemned convict is entitled to legal aid: judge

13/02/2020, STAFF REPORTER ,NEW DELHI

Awaiting justice: Nirbhaya’s mother protesting outside the trial court in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI

A Delhi court on Wednesday offered Pawan Gupta, one of the four death row convicts in the December 16, 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, an advocate, noting that a condemned convict is entitled to legal aid.

Additional sessions judge Dharmender Rana adjourned the hearing for Thursday and told Pawan, who has removed his lawyer, that he could choose from a list of empanelled advocates to represent him in the case.

Nirbhaya’s parents and the Delhi government had on Tuesday moved the court seeking fresh death warrants for the four convicts, after the Supreme Court granted liberty to the authorities to approach the trial court for issuance of a fresh date for the execution of these convicts.

The trial court had on January 31 stayed the execution of the four convicts — Mukesh Kumar Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Kumar Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar (31).

Except Pawan, all convicts have exhausted their legal remedy to file a curative petition before the Supreme Court.

The President has also rejected the mercy pleas of Mukesh, Akshay and Vinay.

The four convicts have since been sentenced to death by a local court.

The order has been upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court.

VIT’s Riviera 2020 gets under way

13/02/2020, T. MADHAVAN,VELLORE

Rohit Kumar and Sankar Viswanathan at the event in VIT. C. VENKATACHALAPATHYC. VENKATACHALAPATHY

Riviera 2020, the international cultural and sports fest of Vellore Institute of Technology, began with a scintillating music show, and cultural and sports events.

The four-day extravaganza, expected to witness over 40,000 participants from 300 educational institutions across the country and outside, kicked off with a 9.9 km marathon. It was flagged off at Katpadi by Sankar Viswanathan, VIT vice-president, and about 5,000 students took part.

Arjuna awardee for kabaddi, P. Ganesan, inaugurated the fest and said that students should grab the opportunities that VIT is providing through the fest. Asian Games gold medallist (rowing) Rohith Kumar inspired students with anecdotes.

“Not getting comfortable and complacent, to keep challenging oneself and moving forward — these are mantras one has to keep in mind to scale new heights in life,” he said.

While the Vaak Yuddh event saw intense debating sessions, Sahiti tested knowledge of films and Super Singer brought musical talent to the fore. In the evening, thousands of students were treated to music by singer Sid Sriram and his band.

NEET scam: sleuths seek UIDAI assistance to track down suspects

CB-CID shares photos, biometric data for verification with Aadhaar database

13/02/2020, S. VIJAY KUMAR ,CHENNAI

The Crime Branch-CID of the Tamil Nadu police has written to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), seeking its assistance to track down those suspected of having acted as proxies in the sensational NEET scam.

Investigators have shared the photographs and biometrics of at least a dozen suspects with the UIDAI authorities for verification with the national Aadhaar database.

The suspects, booked on the charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery and impersonation, were hired as proxies by candidates from Tamil Nadu to write the test on their behalf in different centres across the country.

The scam first surfaced in the Theni Medical College in Tamil Nadu, where the first case of a candidate clearing NEET with the help of a proxy who took the test on his behalf in north India was exposed. After the case was transferred to the CB-CID, more such cases were detected, and the agency had arrested 15 persons, including seven medicos and six parents. An investigation is on to apprehend the proxies who were hired to write the examination for these candidates at centres in other States.

Since the proxies are suspected to be undergraduate or postgraduate medicos, the agency has written to the Board of Governors of the National Medical Commission, requesting that the photographs of the suspects be shared with all medical colleges in the country for identification.

“We have written to the Director-General of Health Services to verify data in deemed universities. The details of proxies have also been shared with the Directors of Medical Education (DME) of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan for posting the photographs of suspects on the notice boards in all medical colleges,” Superintendent of Police C. Vijaya Kumar told The Hindu on Wednesday.

Social media

After Director-General of Police M.S. Jaffar Sait held a review meeting with senior officials on the progress made in the case, investigators decided to write to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, seeking their assistance in identifying the suspects. “Since a majority of youth, particularly students, are active on social media, it is possible to identify the suspects if their photographs are shared with the administrators of such platforms,” he said.

Mr. Vijaya Kumar said the photographs/fingerprints of the proxies will not match with any records maintained by the National or State Crime Records Bureaux since they were not habitual offenders. “It has been almost three months since we wrote to the Central and State health authorities. Special teams are closely coordinating with these officials, and a breakthrough is expected soon. The possibility of a similar scam in NEET in other parts of the country cannot be ruled out,” he said. The CB-CID, which is currently focusing on the NEET scam in MBBS admissions, will soon start probing allegations of similar irregularities in postgraduate admissions, sources in the agency said.

LPG consumers are a worried lot as backlog goes up to 10 days

IOC says with one lakh new cylinders arriving in a week, issue will be sorted out soon

13/02/2020, , DEEPA H. RAMAKRISHNAN,CHENNAI

Out of gas: The lack of supply of fresh stock of cylinders to the plants is the main reason for the delay. K. PichumaniK. Pichumani

Panic calls to cooking gas agencies have increased in the last couple of weeks with the consumers getting their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) refill supplies after delays. The current backlog ranges between 5-10 days, which is much more than last month’s backlog of 4-8 days.

“The situation has been worsening since October last year; only consumers did not notice it. But between January and February, the delay has increased. While core city consumers are better off and get cylinders within 5-6 days, those on the outskirts get them in 10 days. In some rare cases, it even takes 15 days,” said a distributor, who did not want to be named.

Vatsala Kumar, a consumer, said she was worried about her refill supply. “I had waited for a week after the other cylinder got over to make the booking thinking that I would get the refill immediately since I needed to keep aside the required amount. Now I have an SMS saying four days to delivery. But it has been five days now. Hopefully, I will get it in a couple of days,” she said.

Oil industry sources said that the lack of supply of fresh stock of cylinders to the plants was the main reason for the delay. “The supplies have been stopped since October. Every month a certain number of cylinders have to get into the system so that older cylinders can be taken out for mandatory tests. Currently, a large portion of cylinders are being sent to consumers beyond the due date for such tests and they lead to leaks,” said a source in the know.

While admitting to backlog in supplies, official sources in Indian Oil Corporation said that it was limited to Chennai city and surroundings. “The rest of the State has not been affected. We are getting one lakh new cylinders in a week, which will ease the pressure. We are not compromising on safety aspects and are conducting the mandatory checks on bottles at the plant and also at the distributor point. We are also asking consumers to insist upon conducting pre-delivery checks before accepting the refills,” the official said.

On the complaint about commercial cylinders being given priority over production of domestic refills, the official denied it. “Our plants at Ennore, Chengalpattu and Athipattu supply LPG refills to Chennai area. Commercial cylinders bottling does not exceed 15 per cent,” he said.

MIOT Hospital celebrates 21st anniversary

13/02/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,CHENNAI

MIOT International Hospital celebrated its 21st anniversary on Wednesday by honouring its staff and a few local doctors for service beyond the call of duty. The hospital, founded by orthopaedic surgeon P.V.A. Mohandas, with a staff strength of 3,500 people had served people despite the hostile atmosphere it faced, said Managing Director Prithvi Mohandas. The hospital reflected the spirit with which his father and orthopaedic surgeon P.V.A. Mohandas worked, Dr. Prithvi said.

His father had cycled 12 km to his hospital from home on the day of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran's death, when the entire city had shut down and there were riots.

Hospital Chairman Mallika Mohandas said the anniversary celebrations had reaffirmed her belief that they were on the right track. On the occasion two doctors from the hospital presented the treatment of two patients — an 18-year-old engineering student from Nagpur who fell from the fourth floor and suffered multiple fractures and a 10-year-old boy of Tuvalu Islands, who fell from a tree and became paraplegic.

Tuvalu’s Health Minister Isaiah Tappe said with the help of the hospital, Tuvalu was setting up a dialysis unit.