Doctor declares four Nirbhaya case convicts dead: Jail official

PTI | Mar 20, 2020, 06.47 AM IST

New Delhi: Doctor declared all the four convicts in the Nirbhaya case dead after they were hanged at Tihar Jail, an official said. The four convicts -- Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) -- were hanged at 5.30 am.

According to the official, their bodies remained suspended in the air for nearly half-an-hour.

"Doctor has examined and declared all four dead," Director General of Tihar Jail Sandeep Goel said.

Even on last day, Nirbhaya convicts kept hoping against hope

TNN | Mar 20, 2020, 04.11 AM IST

NEW DELHI: A day before their scheduled execution, the four Nirbhaya convicts were anxious. They were eager to know about the plea filed for stay on hanging on Friday.

Jail officers were planning to keep an extra vigil on the convicts through Thursday night to ensure they don’t hurt themselves. All the staff, including the hangman, were counselled earlier in the day and their phones confiscated.

Sources said that the four convicts were also counselled. An excerpt from the Gita was read out to them and they were told about the karma.

“Pawan broke down after this and asked for forgiveness, while Mukesh kept on claiming that he was suffering for something he had not done. He blamed his past lives for this. Akshay said he had reformed himself and wanted to do something good for the society. Vinay was hopeful that the hanging would be stalled at the last moment,” a jail officer said.

On Thursday, the hangman conducted a dummy test using the actual hanging ropes. The whole hanging operation will be conducted by two officers of additional superintendent rank and monitored by Tihar DG Sandeep Goel.

A team of 50 jail officers have been tasked to ensure that the execution process is undertaken smoothly. The team has been divided into four groups to, respectively, look after security of the four convicts, preparation of the hanging well, coordination with the district magistrate and Delhi Police, and the post-execution formalities.

The families of the four convicts were waiting outside the jail gate since Thursday evening. Security around the jail premises may be tightened on Friday morning.

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

Delhi: Little has changed on nightmare stretch

TNN | Mar 20, 2020, 04.13 AM IST

NEW DELHI: The measures taken to ensure the safety of women in the capital since the rape of 23-year-old Nirbhaya look as dark as the route taken by the bus that day seven years ago. In all these years, little has been done to ensure that a woman feels safe walking alone on these roads. TOI retraced the course of the private bus that horrific December night in 2012 from Munirka to Ravidas Camp in RK Puram and found the stretch poorly lit and unmanned by police control room teams.

What has, however, increased at some places is the traffic. This helps because the vehicles light up the area with their headlights. But that’s still not enough to compensate for the missing and dysfunctional street lights on the 12-km stretch. Munirka resident Kajal said, “I have been living here for two decades and haven’t ventured out after 9pm ever. Why? Because I don’t feel safe. I don’t want to be the next Nirbhaya.”

Between Munirka bus stand and Rao Tula Ram Marg flyover leading to IGI Airport and back via Ravidas Camp there’s a conspicuous lack of road illumination and police security — two critical requirements for any woman on the road to feel safe at night. TOI traversed the route on Wednesday night and found dangers still lurk on the infamous stretch.

At 9.40pm on Outer Ring road where the Munirka bus stand is located, a board flashed the Women Helpline number. It seemed a good change from the numbing night when Nirbhaya and her friend got on the bus around a kilometre down the road. The new flyover was well illuminated by street lights and the bus stand too had lights. However, the road below the new and old RTR flyovers was isolated, with no police patrolling vans to be seen around. The market alongside was pitch dark too and could easily be a safe haven for criminals.

Around 6 km down towards NH8, nothing appeared to have changed in seven years. Half the street lamps skirting Shankar Vihar on the left were not functioning. The saving grace was the continuously moving traffic, the headlights of which comprised the ‘light generators’ on this stretch.

Further ahead, the first and the only police barricade had three cops loitering around in a dark corner. It was from here that the bus bearing Nirbhaya and her ravagers had turned towards Mahipalpur, opposite the airport approach road. The area is filled with hotels with neon boards and, therefore, was comparatively bright.

The bus had then taken a U-turn to get onto the other side of NH8. Not surprisingly, this road too was unlit because the street lamps again were not working. TOI followed the route taken by the bus and reached the Dwarka road, which was again devoid of police presence and proper illumination. This road didn’t have as much traffic as the Mahipalpur road did.

The bus then drove on NH-8 and soon after, the six convicts had dumped the brutalised Nirbhaya and her friend bleeding and almost naked. The vehicle then went towards Dwarka, took a U-turn and headed towards Outer Ring Road from where the men finally drove to their houses in Ravidas Camp. The approach to RK Puram Sector 3 was isolated and very dimly lit.

Seven years since the crime, Wednesday’s drive showed that street illumination and police presence continued to be problem areas on the route.

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

Tirumala, Puri temples to be shut from today

Sandeep.Raghavan & Debabrata.Mohapatra TNN

Tirupati/Bhubaneswar:20.03.2020

For the first time in living memory, the Sri Venkateswara temple in Tirumala will be shut to devotees for a week starting Friday while the Shri Jagannath temple in Puri will remain closed till April 1as part of a countrywide coronavirus-induced lockdown in public places.

Daily rituals will be conducted inside the sanctum sanctorum of two of India’s holiest and most-visited shrines behind closed doors, officials said. In Gujarat, the Sommath, Dwarka and Ambaji shrines will be indefinitely shut from Friday. The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam, which administers the Venkateswara temple, said 50 other subshrines across the country will also be closed for a week. This is the first time in 128 years that public worship has been suspended at the 2,000-year-old Tirumala temple. According to temple records, the last such shutdown was in 1892 for unspecified reasons.

“Unless some tough decisions are taken, the (Covid-19) pandemic will impact the lives of more citizens. Based on a collective decision taken in consultation with the Andhra Pradesh government, the devasthanam has decided to close the temple from Friday,” temple trust officer, said. In Puri, the decision to shut the 12th century Shri Jagannath shrine was taken after the Odisha government ordered the temporary closure of all religious places in the state — temples, mosques, churches and gurdwaras — till April 1.

Cremate, don’t bury, says Waqf

UP Shia Central Waqf Board chief Waseem Rizvi on Thursday said that Muslims who die of coronavirus should not be buried but cremated in electric crematoriums because that would burn the virus and help contain its spread. TNN

Tension in Madurai as flyers from Dubai object to quarantine

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:20.03.2020

Tension prevailed at the Madurai airport on Thursday after 144 passengers who returned from Dubai by a SpiceJet flight refused to co-operate and be quarantined for 14 days as mandated as a precaution against Covid-19 spread. However, after health officials and police held talks with them, they were shifted to the quarantine facilities.

The passengers arrived at the airport where they were mandatorily screened by health officials for Covid-19. All of them were to be quarantined for 14 days. However, asection of them started to argue that only those with symptoms need to be quarantined while the others should get to go home. They refused to board the bus kept ready to take them to the quarantine facilities. The passengers were also reportedly not happy with the arrangements made at the facilities.

Finally, after the intervention of health and police officials, all 144 passengers were taken to the quarantine facilities at Chinna Udaipu and Austinpatti on the outskirts of Madurai, where 120 beds and 60 beds each have been set up. “Only a few among the 144 were resisting. We later ensured all of them are in quarantine,” said a health official.

Earlier in the day, residents in and around Chinna Udaipu protested near the facility stating that they fear the possible spread of Covid-19 from those quarantined. Officials held talks with the residents and allayed their fears.

“People’s irrational fear of Covid-19 is the reason for such protests. We urge the public to be aware of the facts and not believe in rumours. As for quarantine, we are already only letting those without symptoms stay in the facility. If anyone is showing symptoms, we have ambulances ready and will immediately shift them to a hospital,” said a health official.

Meanwhile, as many as 10 people were booked for triggering a panic about Covid-19 spread and staging a road roko against setting up a temporary medical camp at a private women’s college hostel at Sainathapuram in Vellore city on Wednesday night .

Residents living close to the college registered their opposition to the move fearing they would be easy prey to the Covid-19. Officials from the district administration have decided to set up the facility elsewhere.

Police detained 10 people for staging the road roko, triggering panic among other residents , police said.

MKU files plaint over fake image of Prime Minister’s twitter handle

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:20.03.2020

Madurai Kamaraj University registrar Sankar Natesan filed a police complaint on Wednesday after a fake image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official twitter handle with a comment on the university was circulated on WhatsApp.

The photo-shopped image of the PM’s twitter handle carried a request to MKU vice-chancellor Dr M Krishnan to close down the university in the light of the Covid-19 scare. It read, “I request the Vice Chancellor of #mku Madurai Kamaraj University to shut down immediately, It is one of the best university of our country and we can’t risk the life of country’s best students.” The tweet was dated March 16, the day from which schools and universities across Tamil Nadu shut down following a state government order to that effect. Shankar said that an FIR has been registered under three sections, including under the IT Act. “We filed the complaint immediately when we came to know about the image and that miscreants were misusing the Prime Minister’s name,” he added.

It has been reported that the same image has been used by miscreants by replacing MKU’s name with those of other popular colleges in Madurai.

The Nagamalai-Pudukottai police are investigating the matter.

Meanwhile, police have been ordered to deal strictly with anyone spreading rumours regarding Covid-19 via social media including Twitter and Facebook.

The photo-shopped image of the PM’s twitter handle carried a request to MKU vice-chancellor Dr M Krishnan to close down the university in the light of the Covid-19 scare

Colleges, univ exams postponed

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:20.03.2020

The state higher education department on Thursday postponed all practical and semester exams in colleges and universities until March 31to contain the spread of coronavirus following a University Grants Commission (UGC) directive. Many colleges are currently conducting practical exams.

Earlier, announcing closure of educational institutions, the state exempted board exams in schools and semester exams in colleges.

A circular on Thursday issued by UGC secretary Rajnish Jain requested universities to postpone all evaluation work and change to online mode.

“We have postponed practical exams for affiliated and autonomous colleges till March 31 and are thinking of rescheduling theory exams scheduled from April1,” said P Duraisamy, vice-chancellor of Madras University. However, the state government has not given any direction on whether faculty members should come to the colleges or not.