Man ends marriage after wife fails virginity test in Nashik

MUMBAI, Jun 02, 2016, DHNS

A 20-year-old girl was abandoned by her husband at the insistence of a Jat-panchayat within 48 hours after marriage because she failed to pass a virginity test. 
However, hours after the news spread and there was pressure from all quarters and intervention by police, the 25-year-old man, for whom this was the second marriage, took her as his wife again. 

The incident was reported in Nashik, where the boy hails from and in Ahmednagar district, where the girl hails from. On Wednesday morning, Vidya Thakur, the Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Vijaya Rahatkar, the Chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Women took cognizance of the reports and asked the police and local administration to intervene. 

The Jat panchayat in Nashik district had advised the boy to annul the marriage because she did not bleed. The couple got married on May 22 and the marriage ended within 48 hours. The girl, however, had pleaded that she was a virgin, which was not accepted by the jat-panchayat and she was sent to her parents in Ahmednagar district. 

Social workers Ranjana Gavande and Krishna Chandgude, who exposed the incident, said that the 20-year-old girl had been preparing for physical tests for recruitment in the police and was involved in running, long jump, cycling and other exercises. “It’s a serious issue and we have taken a cognizance of it,” said Thakur assuring that the case would be monitored by the police. Rahatkar said that the commission would extend all help to the girl. 

Earlier in the day, the boy claimed that the “virginity test” was done at the insistence of the parents and relatives of the girl. However, he was called to the Sangamner police station and the police explained the consequences and the law against such rulings of the jat-panchayats. The girl was also called to the police station. Later, emerging out of the police station, the boy said that there were some domestic issues, which have been sorted out.

 

Hike in prices of LPG, jet fuel adds to consumer woes

NEW DELHI, Jun 02, 2016, DHNS

Farm cess, petrol, diesel rates hit budgets

Consumers will feel the pinch further with oil companies on Wednesday steeply hiking the price of non-subsidised LPG and aviation turbine fuel.

The hike comes a day after petrol and diesel prices were revised. 

In addition to these, the introduction of a 0.5% Krishi Kalyan Cess on Wednesday would make eating out, phone bills, internet, movies, healthcare and banking transactions costlier.

Non-subsidised LPG cylinders will cost 12% more than the previous month’s price, affecting the household budget, which will also be impacted by the fuel price hike. Air travellers will also have to shell out more for tickets due to a 9.2% hike in jet fuel prices.

Non-subsidised LPG cylinders, which consumers buy after exhausting their quota of 12, would cost Rs 548.50 in Delhi as against Rs 527.50 on May 1 while it was Rs 509.50 on April 1.

Since April, the price of non-subsidised LPG cylinders has been on the rise. However, the price is lower compared to the January 1 price of Rs 657.50 a cylinder.

Oil companies — Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum — also increased the price of air turbine fuel by a steep 9.2% to Rs 46,729.48 per kilolitre. Though the ATF price has been on the rise since March, Wednesday’s hike has been the steepest.

This January, ATF cost Rs 39,892.32 per kilolitre in Delhi while it sunk to Rs 35,126.82 the next month, the lowest this year so far. March initially saw ATF prices at Rs 39,301.31 only to be revised to Rs 38,785.46 later. April saw a further hike to Rs 42,157.01 as against Rs 42,784.01 last month.

Sharing the apprehension in some sections about the air fare hike, president of travel portal Yatra.com Sharat Dhall, said, "Lower air fuel prices have acted as a stimulus for air traffic growth over the past few months, encouraging people to take flights for their summer holiday travel. This (rise) could result in an increase in airfares as fuel constitutes approximately 40% of an airline’s operating costs.”He said any increase in airfares will act as a damper for travellers planning trips. Airlines did not comment on the matter. On Tuesday, oil companies hiked petrol prices by a steep Rs 2.58 a litre and diesel by Rs 2.26 a litre, the third increase in five weeks. 

Trai wants powers to tackle call drops

NEW DELHI, Jun 02, 2016, DHNS

With the call drop menace yet to subside, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday asked the government for powers to penalise mobile operators as most of them have failed to meet the quality benchmark.

“As the Supreme Court in its judgment has observed that Trai does not have power to impose such (call drop) penalty on telecom operators, we will write to DoT for amendment in Trai Act to give us more power,” Trai secretary Sudhir Gupta told reporters here.

As per the test drive conducted by Trai to study the quality of services in Delhi, all telecom operators, except RCom and Vodafone, have failed to meet the benchmark.

“All telecom operators are performing below call drop rate and it has degraded further compared to previous tests,” Trai adviser Robert A Ravi said while releasing the reports.

Trai has launched a website to publish results of its test drives. On Wednesday, it published the result of test drive conducted in Delhi between May 3 and 6. The regulator found that Aircel was using Radio Link Time Out more than its peers to mask call drops.
The regulator also launched mobile app for filing pesky calls and SMS complaints.“The application is available on Android and will be soon launched for Apple iOS. It will ease filing of complaints and also help us in monitoring action taken by telecom operators on complaints,” said Trai member Anil Kaushal. The Supreme Court recently quashed a Trai rule which mandated telecom operators to compensate consumers Re 1 for each call drop.

At present, disputes between consumers and telecom operators are not taken up by consumer courts as a Supreme Court judgment of 2009 had barred seeking any such relief under the Consumer Protection Act, saying a special remedy is provided under the Indian Telegraph Act.

Bihar toppers told to write exam again

PATNA, Jun 02, 2016, DHNS & Agencies

Stung by a media expose, three ‘dubious’ toppers of the class 12 examination conducted by the Bihar board will have to appear for a re-examination on Friday. 
The students are from the Science, Arts and Commerce streams. 

According to media reports, Humanities topper Ruby Rai, when asked by some television channels about the subjects she had opted for, pronounced Political Science as ‘Prodigal Science’. 

To queries as to what was taught in this subject, she said it was about cooking, confusing the subject with Home Science. Ruby has scored 444 marks out of 500.
 Reports said she was not even aware of the total marks of all subjects in the board examination, which she said was 600 instead of 500. She is a student of Bishun Rai college in Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district.

Likewise, Science topper Saurabh Kumar of the same college while speaking on a television channel expressed ignorance about electron and proton and could not figure out the link between water and H20. 
With the state drawing flak on social media over the quality of teaching and the way examinations are conducted, state Education Minister Ashok Choudhary has set up a high-level probe panel to re-check the merit of the toppers. It was Choudhary, who, after taking over as the state education department, enforced CCTV-generated surveillance and made district magistrates responsible for the fair conduct of examinations. As a result, a large number of students were unable to clear their intermediate examination this year. 

On Tuesday, when Ruby’s interview was telecast across different channels, L P Singh, chairman of Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB), which conducts the plus-two level intermediate examination, asked for her answer copy. 

Video footage“After a relook, I found her answers were perfectly alright. But since the video footage has cast a doubt, we have asked all the toppers (of different streams) to appear again for a ‘small test’ on June 3, followed by an interview by a group of experts. This will clear all doubts and put a lid on the controversy,” he said.“We have taken this matter seriously. After the probe is over, we will take strict action against those officials found guilty in this episode,” said Choudhary.
 

24 convicted in Gulberg massacre case, no conspiracy charge

Ahmedabad, Jun 2, 2016, PTI:

Fourteen years after the gruesome massacre of 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in the Gulberg Society here, a special court today convicted 24 of the 66 accused, 11 of them for murder, but dropped conspiracy charge against all.

Special Court Judge P B Desai also acquitted 36 others including sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel. While the charge under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC was upheld conspiracy charge under Section 120 B was dropped against all the accused.

Out of the 66 accused, six had died during the trial. Of the 24 convicted today, 11 have been charged with murder, while 13 others including VHP leader Atul Vaidya have been convicted for lesser offences.

The court said that there is no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case while dropping section 120 B of the IPC. The quantum of sentence for those convicted in the case will be delivered on June 6.

The Gulberg Society case shook the nation when a mob of 400 people set about attacking the society in the heart of Ahmedabad and killed the residents including the former MP Jafri. It was one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

The incident had taken place a day after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra train station on February 27, 2002 during which 58 'karsevaks' were killed.

Reacting to the judement, Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, expressed disappointment over the verdict, saying all of them should have been punished because they killed people and destroyed their property.

"I saw them doing so with my own eyes," she said, adding as a woman she does not have the courage to demand capital punishment but they should get stringent punishment.

Her son Tanvir Jafri said he would consult lawyers on how 36 others were acquitted before deciding their next strategy. Tanvir expressed surprise how only 24 people were convicted when a mob of 400 were involved in the rioting.

He said it was a tough time for the family, neighbours and other residents of the society who had to approach the highest court for the legal fight.

Congress corporator Meghsinh Chaudhari and K G Erda, then police inspector of the area under which the Gulberg Society was located, are among those acquitted.

The Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31.

Of the 66 accused named by the SIT in the case, nine are behind bars, while others are out on bail.

Bipin Patel, who is acquitted in the case, is a sitting BJP corporator from Asarva seat. He was also corporator in 2002 when the massacre happened and won the election for fourth consecutive term last year.

During the trial, riots victim's lawyer had argued that the massacre was a pre-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused to kill minority community members of the Gulberg Society.

The defence had refuted the conspiracy theory of prosecution and claimed that the mob resorted to violence only after Jafri fired several rounds at them.

Siwan journalist murder case: Key accused surrenders

Siwan, Jun 2, 2016, PTI:

Laddan Mian, one of the main accused in journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case and a close associate of jailed RJD strongman Mohammad Shahbuddin, today surrendered before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court's in Siwan.

Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Arvind Kumar Singh remanded Laddan Mian to 14-day judicial custody.

Mian, who is the resident of Ram Nagar area under town police station of the district, surrendered three days after the CJM court ordered pasting of notice to attach his properties.

The notice gave two days' time to Laddan Mian to give himself up to the police else his house would be attached.

Following the issuance of notice for attachment, Mian's three sisters had moved the court saying that they too had share in the properties for which notice was issued.

Rajdeo Ranjan, district bureau head of a leading regional newspaper, was shot dead by unidentified men when he was going on his motorcycle near a fruit market on station road in Siwan on May 13.

RJD strongman and four time former MP from Siwan Mohammad Shahbuddin has been shifted to Bhagalpur jail from Siwan after the incident. The Siwan police had on May 25 last arrested five persons from different localities of Siwan in connection with the killing of the journalist.

The police had also recovered 7.65 bore country-made pistol used in the crime from one accused Rohit Kumar who the police claimed having confessed firing at the scribe.

During questioning of the five accused in the scribe case it came to light that Laddan Mian, an history-sheeter who had come out of Siwan jail on April 27, had given contract for murder of the journalist, a senior police officer had said.

The accused told police that Laddan Mian had given Rs 15,000 to the main shooter Rohit Kumar for the murder of Ranjan. He had also promised to help another accused in settlement of a land dispute at his in-laws place, the officer had added.

With murder of the journalist drawing countrywide criticism, the state government had on May 16 formally recommended CBI probe into the Ranjan murder case in deference to the wishes of the bereaved family.

UP school principal divides class on caste basis, removed

Hathras (UP), May 13, 2016, (PTI)

A principal in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district worked out his own "caste arithmetic", segregating students of Class IX on the basis of their caste and appointing class teachers on a similar basis, prompting authorities to remove him.

Acting on complaints that Radhey Shyam Varshney, Principal of Seth Phulchand Bagla Inter College, a government- aided institution, had segregated students on the basis of their caste -- Scheduled Caste, Backward and General -- District Magistrate Avinash Krishna Singh ordered a probe by the District Inspector of Schools (DIoS).

After the matter was found to be true, the principal was removed.

Varshney had also appointed same caste teachers in the class and three of them, working as class teachers, have also been removed from their respective posts.

As per Varshney's scheme of things, a general category teacher was appointed for a classroom having general students. Likewise, a a scheduled caste teacher was chosen for a classroom with SC students, and an OBC teacher for OBC students.

"We had received a complaint of discrimination against Principal of Seth Phulchand Baagla Inter College for separating classes on the basis of caste. We conducted an inquiry and found that three sections -- A, B, C -- of Class 9 had difference in ratio over the distribution of General, SC and OBC students," Singh said.

"Section A had more of General category students as compared with OBC and Schedule Caste, in the same way section B had more OBC students and similarly section C had more SC students," he said.

Some students had alleged that discrimination was being done in the class on basis of caste in seating arrangements and admissions in the college.

They had complained that the absurd practice was going on since April 1, the day new session started.

"We are planning to take strict action...We have advised the college administration to distribute the students evenly in the class and this should be done urgently," the DM added.