In-laws post video of woman’s suicide online as proof of innocence

In-laws post video of woman’s suicide online as proof of innocence

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Muzaffarnagar: 13.04.2021 

As a woman, 25, hanged herself to death, her in-laws lined up outside to shoot a video through the window and then shared it on social media to “absolve” themselves of murder. Her parents have alleged they had been hounding her for dowry, which led to her death. The woman’s father-in-law and mother-in-law have been arrested while her husband and her brother-in-law, also booked, are on the run.

The woman, Komal, lived in Muzaffarnagar's Datiyana village with her husband, Ashish, and in-laws. On Sunday, as she prepared to hang herself, her in-laws waited outside. In the video, she can be seen tying a noose around a beam lining the asbestos roof. She gasps once as she ties the blue stole around her neck, tightens it and tests the grip so it doesn’t give way. After one last check, she lets go and hangs herself as a man’s voice says, “Apne aap latak rahi hai (she hanged herself on her own).” The man’s voice is presumably that of her father-in-law. On Monday, they shared the video on social media, hoping it would go viral. It did.

While confirming the video had been shot from outside the room where she hanged herself, SP (city) Arpit Vijayvargiya said, “They had tried to stop her from killing herself.” Her parents, however, had a different story to tell. Komal and Ashish got married in September 2019. “I had given Rs 5 lakh and a bike to his family at the time. But his father Devendra, mother Savita and brother Sachin were not happy. About six months ago, they beat up Komal and drove her out of the house. The elders of the village sent her back,” her father Anil Kumar wrote in the complaint to the police. “Two months ago, they started demanding Rs 1.2 lakh. They said they would get Ashish married to someone else if she could not come up with the dowry. All four of them got together and killed my daughter.”

An FIR was lodged on Sunday, a day before the video went viral, against Ashish, his brother and his parents under sections 304B (dowry death), 498A (cruelty to married woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and under sections 3 (giving or taking dowry) and 4 (demanding dowry) of The Dowry Prohibition Act.

“His parents have been arrested and will be produced before the magistrate.” Ashish and his brother Sachin are on the run, SHO Yashpal Singh said.

The woman’s father-in-law and mother-in-law have been arrested while her husband & her brother-in-law, also booked, are on the run. The woman's parents have alleged they had been hounding her for dowry, which led to her death

Now, virus settling deep down in lungs

Now, virus settling deep down in lungs

Condition Making Diagnosis Tough: Delhi Docs

DurgeshNandan.Jha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: 13.04.2021 

The novel coronavirus variant that is causing the current wave of Covid-19 is not just highly infectious but also stealthy.

City hospitals say there are getting cases where a patient has typical symptoms of the disease but tests negative for the viral infection, sometimes twice or thrice even through RT-PCR, considered the gold standard for Covid testing. “We have received many such patients in the past few days. They had fever, cough, shortness of breath and the CT scan of the lungs showed lighter-coloured or gray patches. It is referred to as patchy ground glass opacity in medical terms. The condition is one of the defining characteristics of Covid-19,” Dr Aashish Chaudhry, managing director of Aakash Healthcare, said.

He added that some of the patients underwent bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), a diagnostic method in which a flexible scope is passed through the mouth or nose into the lungs with a measured amount of fluid introduced and then collected for examination, which confirmed the diagnosis.

“All such persons who tested negative through conventional Covid-19 testing methods but had disease symptoms came positive in the lavage test,” Dr Chaudhry said.

What could be causing this? Dr Pratibha Kale, associate professor of clinical microbiology at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, said, “It is possible that in these patients the virus didn’t colonise the nasal or throat cavity because of which swab samples taken from these areas didn’t yield a positive result.” The virus, she added, attached itself to the ACE receptors — a protein found on the surface of many cell types — in the lungs and “that’s why when the fluid samples from the organ were analysed, it confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis”.

Dr Vivek Nangia, the chief of pulmonology division at Max Healthcare, said nearly 15-20% of the Covid-19 patients suffered from this problem. “They are highly symptomatic of the disease, but test negative. This is a serious problem because such patients can continue to spread the infection if they are admitted in non-Covid areas. Also, it can delay the treatment,” he added.

The pulmonologist said the symptoms in Covid patients also varied significantly in the current wave compared to previous outbreaks caused by SARS-CoV-2. “A significant mutation in the virus cannot be ruled out. It is the most plausible explanation for the changes being witnessed,” he said.

Dr Arup Basu, senior consultant in the chest medicine department of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said nose running, cold and conjunctivitis like symptoms were also being seen in Covid-19 patients this time, which were not present earlier. “Many patients do not have cough or breathlessness and the result of the CT scan of their lungs is also normal. However, they have persistently high fever for eight to nine days that necessitates hospitalisation,” he said.

SCARY FINDINGS

Docs protesting VIP culture write to Modi

Docs protesting VIP culture write to Modi

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

13.04.2021

The doctors’ association Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has written to the Prime minister complaining against “the VIP culture in government hospitals” whereby government doctors were called to the homes of politicians to provide testing and treatment.

The letter pointed out that there were no facilities for doctors working on the frontline when they tested positive, while “priority is being given to all the so-called politicians and their party workers who have actually held rallies and increased the spread of the virus”.

“Central government hospitals have VIP counters for testing, allowing all party workers of politicians and ministries to get themselves tested but doctors have no separate counters for testing,” stated the letter. It added that even when the VIP counter was available for testing, a majority of politicians called doctors to their residence though there was no legal order from the medical superintendent to do so. This “informal” arrangement of using doctors working in government institutions in this manner was reducing and wasting the limited manpower available, said the FAIMS letter.

It concluded stating that as doctors they strongly opposed “this VIP culture being awarded (sic) to politicians, bureaucrats, party workers etc.” and sought the PM’s intervention in the matter.

Airlines can’t serve meals if flight time is less than 2 hrs

Airlines can’t serve meals if flight time is less than 2 hrs

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:13.04.2021

The gover nment has directed airlines to serve or sell inflight meals only on those domestic flights that have a duration of over two hours, in wake of the sharp surge in Covid cases in India. The new guildelines will come to effect on April 15.

There are so far no restrictions on inflight meals on international flights. There have been fears that passengers taking off masks to eat can lead to Covid spread. While this can’t be avoided on medium or long hauls, the restriction has been imposed on domestic flights of up to two-hour duration.

A senior aviation ministry official said: “We had (last year) issued guidelines for inflight meals and they have worked well. However, as an abundant precaution, additional provisions are being made. For domestic flights, an order is issued to consider inflight meal when flight duration is two hours or more.” The inflight meal SOP also calls for staggering them “among adjacent seats, as far as possible”.

The number of domestic passengers has been falling during the current spike in cases. The restriction on inflight meals will be yet another hit for low-cost carriers. “In the past few days with numbers rising, people on short flights preferred to stay firmly masked up. Fear is again in the air with aircraft occupancy falling to an average of less than 100 passengers,” said a worried airline official.

Negative report delayed, techie misses flight

Negative report delayed, techie misses flight

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:13.04.2021

A 27-year-old data scientist claimed he could not fly to Lisbon, Portugal, because a government facility in Marathahalli did not issue a Covid negative certificate in time. As a result, airline staff refused to allow him to board the flight.

Abhishek Gupta said he has now obtained a test report from a private laboratory and is scheduled to fly out on Tuesday.

Gupta said he was stopped from boarding an Air France flight to Paris from KIA on Sunday because he did not possess a negative certificate. The airline was only complying with guidelines issued by the state health and family welfare department.

Gupta, from West Bengal, had come to Bengaluru from Lisbon last October after his parents were admitted to Manipal Hospitals for treatment. When his parents were discharged and returned home healthy, Gupta decided to fly to Portugal via Paris early on Sunday.

“I took an RT-PCR test on Thursday at a government facility in Marathahalli and was promised the result online by Saturday morning,” Gupta said. “I trusted them and reached the place by Saturday noon, but nothing was ready and the response from staff was far from welcoming. I was forced to go to a hospital in Bellandur to get my results but there I was directed to the Marathahalli clinic.”

Gupta claimed that he contacted Air France’s customer care number only to be told that he doesn’t require a Covid negative certificate for the Bengaluruto-Paris leg of the journey. “But when I reached KIA on Saturday night, airline representatives refused to let me board even though I said my test results will come anytime on my email. The Air France website said I would be fined in Portugal if I did not have the certificate and I was ready to pay.”

He had to leave the airport and return home as the Covid report didn’t arrive even 48 hours after the test was taken. “Thorough inefficiency of government health staff cost me my trip,” Gupta said. “I received the test result, which was negative, on my mail on Sunday afternoon, but it was too late then.”

Govt, CBSE do a rethink on boards dates

Govt, CBSE do a rethink on boards dates

Manash.Gohain@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:13.04.2021

The fresh surge in the Covid pandemic has resulted in the possible rescheduling of Board exams being discussed, with the current plans for the Class X and XII exams to get under way from May 4.

The ministry of education and CBSE officials are considering whether the exams need to be deferred as students and schools are wondering over the feasibility of conducting the exams just 20 days away. Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad has postponed the Board exams, which was scheduled to start from April 24, due to panchayat elections and surge in Covid-19 cases.

“Cases are rising exponentially. Teachers are contracting corona, students and families are down with Covid-19. There is a sense of paranoia. Is CBSE holding the exams just for sake of a formality? It is advisable to review the dates as it is impossible to conduct the exams safely across the country for over 30 lakh students,” said the principal of a private school in Delhi.

Students and parents are also writing to MoE and CBSE as well as taking to the social media requesting for deferring or cancelling the exams. According to a senior MoE official, rescheduling the exams has come up though no decision has been taken so far. “This has been discussed with CBSE officials. The ministry is monitoring the situation,” said the official.

The official, however, said there are no plans to cancel the Boards altogether or make the exams online at present. “The only point of discussion are the dates. There are still around three weeks left and developments, including increase in the number of Covid infections and containment zones, are being discussed,” the official added.

Maha defers boards to May-end & June

The HSC (Std XII) and SSC (Std X) board examinations in Maharashtra have been postponed to May-end and June, respectively, due to rising Covid cases, the state’s school education minister Varsha Gaikwad said on Monday. Also, the state will write to other boards to reconsider their exam dates.The decision has not gone down well with students preparing for engineering and medical entrance exams. Gaikwad made the announcement after meeting CM Uddhav Thackeray. TNN

‘Covaxin, Covishield both work against UK strain’

‘Covaxin, Covishield both work against UK strain’

Officials: No Indian Variant Of Virus Yet

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:13.04.2021

Both Covaxin and Covishield — the two vaccines against Covid in use in India — are effective against the UK variant, which is one the two prevailing mutations found in the country, senior officials said. Officials said so far there has been no Indian variant as only a double mutation has been found in Maharashtra. It requires multiple mutations for a new variant to be recognised as such and to make a discernible impact.

So far, three “imported variants” — UK, South Africa and Brazilian — have been detected in India. During genome sequencing of samples, the total number of cases with these variants of the Covid-19 virus adds up to 948 till Monday evening.

The presence of UK and South African variants is more in samples sequences in India, whereas very few samples have tested positive for the Brazilian variant.

“Covaxin is effective against both UK and Brazilian variant, Covishield is effective against the UK variant but we are awaiting its efficacy data against Brazilian strain. The South African variant could not be cultured so far,” an official told TOI. Even as there have been concerns about double mutations being the cause of spread in Maharashtra and whether it can be an Indian strain, officials said data so far does not support such a conclusion.

ICMR researchers continue to study if the double mutations are causing faster transmission of the infection, an official said.

“The virus may continue to mutate and generate new variants. It is normal process but it takes multiple mutations to bring forth a new variant. While variants have a role in being more infectious, the remedy or measures to combat it remain same,” the official said.