AROMA MURDER

Charges framed against eight accused

Chandigarh, August 17
A local court today framed charges of culpable homicide against eight accused involved in the murder of a youth at Aroma lights in January this year. Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Preeti Sahni framed charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the IPC against all the accused.

While the UT police had initially registered a case of murder following the incident, it had dropped the charges of murder and converted the charges to culpable homicide in the chargesheet filed in the case in April.

The court framed charges under Section 304 IPC against Sukhjit Singh Sooch, a Mohali resident, Harsimranjeet Singh (28), a resident of Sector 44, Chandan Singh (24), Sandeep Kumar (27), Gautam Singh (23), all residents of Burail, Anand Singh (27) and Mahavir Singh (25), both residents of Sector 41, and Prashant Kumar Dabral (31), a resident of Sector 49.

The incident had occurred past midnight when 28-year-old Harminder Singh was killed following a scuffle outside the Aroma lights in Sector 22. The victim, an MBA student, had recently returned from Ireland and had gone to Aroma when he got into a scuffle with a group of youths. He was murdered in a spur of a moment and the attack was not pre-planned, the police had stated.

During the course of arguments of framing of charges, it was argued that the accused came out of the coffee shop while they were having ice-cream. The group then got into a scuffle with the youth and following verbal arguments, they beat Harminder up and stabbed him to death. The assaulting youths had fled leaving behind their Scorpio's number.

The case is now listed for next hearing in September when the trial will begin.

Balkrishan released from jail

 

Dehradun, August 17
Balkrishan, close aide of yoga guru Ramdev, was released from the Sadhowala jail in Dehradun this evening after he was granted bail by the Nainital High Court yesterday. A single Bench of Justice Tarun Aggarwal granted bail to him. He also ordered Balkrishan to furnish two personal sureties of Rs 10 lakh and directed him to appear in person in lower court for further hearing.

Balkrishan was arrested by the CBI for forgery and the violation of the Indian Passport Act. He appealed to the high court for bail after his bail plea was turned down twice by lower courts. A Special CBI court rejected his bail plea on July 20, the day he was arrested from Haridwar and by the Dehradun District Courts on July 31.

After coming out of the jail, Balkrishan said the UPA government would not be able to quell discontent growing against black money stashed in banks in foreign countries. He added he along with Ramdev would continue to wage a fight against corruption and black money.

Balkrishan said the UPA government had implicated him in a false case to divert attention from its scams and it would not be able to prove anything against him.

Ramdev said his fast against black money held in New Delhi was a runaway success. He added trust shown by the public in him had encouraged him to intensify his agitation. The convoy of Ramdev and Balkrishan passed through many parts of the city, including Clock Tower and Rajpur Road, where their supporters raised slogans in their favour. They also showered flowers on the duo. 

6 killed, several hurt in U.S. gurudwara shooting

Wisconsin - At least six persons have been killed and several injured, some critically by one or more gunmen at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, a gurudwara, in what appeared to be a hate crime in Oak Creek, a quiet suburb of Milwaukee. (reports said that an "active shooter” killed at scene and 6 others have been killed at the gurudwara).

After news of the shooting broke around mid-day local time, media reports quoted Lee Biblo, Chief Medical Officer at nearby Froedtert Hospital, saying that three male adults had been brought into the operating room in critical condition, with gunshot wounds to abdomen and the face.

Meanwhile aerial television footage showed at least one body lying near a parking lot outside the gurudwara. A CNN report quoted Gurcharan Grewal, president of the Sikh Religious Society of Wisconsin, saying that multiple sources had confirmed that “there were wounded people still inside the temple and that there may have been multiple perpetrators.”

Reports also quoted an unnamed member of the Sikh community saying that a Sikh priest visiting from New Delhi, India, was said to have been shot at, at the scene of the crime. Even as breaking news indicated that at least one gunman may still be inside the gurudwara, law enforcement officers were said to have “returned fire and [a] shooter was put down.”

One police officer was injured in an exchange of fire. Chief Bradley Wentlandt of the Greenfield, Wisconsin Police said that “multiple rounds were exchanged and the officer was shot multiple times,” and the shooter was “presumed deceased.” Mr. Wentlandt however noted that based on information on police scanners there was still no clear evidence that there were multiple perpetrators.

While Mr. Biblo said no women or children had been brought into the hospital yet, Rajwant Singh, Chairman of the Sikh council on Religion and Education in Washington said that women and children may have been among those in the gurudwara at the time of the shooting, generally on site at this time of day to prepare the community meal.

However, other local hospitals reportedly received victims from the shooting incident too and a full list of potential victims was not yet available. Amardeep Kaleka who said his father was in the gurudwara at the time of the attack, said to media outlets that his father had sought refuge apparently hid in a closet and said to his son on the phone, “They’re out there.”

Mr. Kaleka added that the police informed him around "26 to 28 people had been shot", including the head priest who was "bleeding profusely."

Meanwhile the Indian embassy in Washington said that it was "seized of the situation and has been in touch with the National Security Council in Washington, D.C." While the Indian Consulate General in Chicago too has been in "close touch with the local authorities to monitor the situation," the embassy also noted that an official has been deputed to visit the site "to ascertain the situation on-the-spot."

Police describe chaotic scene

Authorities were on the scene on Sunday of shootings at the Sikh Temple near Milwaukee, where police and witnesses described a chaotic situation with an unknown number of victims, suspects and possible hostages.

Police were called to the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in the suburb of Oak Creek on Sunday morning, when witnesses said several dozen people were gathering for a service. They responded with a dozen ambulances, although Greenfield Police Chief Bradley Wentlandt said it wasn’t clear how many people had been shot.

Mr. Wentlandt also said it wasn’t clear how many suspects were involved, although one opened fire on an officer and the officer “put down” that man. Wentlandt said the officer was shot multiple times.

Three shooting victims, all men, were taken to Froederdt Hospital in Milwaukee, the main trauma center for the area, spokeswoman Carolyn Bellin said. One was in the operating room, another in a surgical intensive care unit and the third was being evaluated in the emergency room, she said.

Sukhwindar Nagr, of Racine, said he called his brother-in-law’s phone and a priest at the temple answered and told him that his brother-in-law had been shot, along with three priests. The priest also said women and children were hiding in closets in the temple, Mr. Nagr said.

Vijay Kumar wins silver to give India second medal at London Olympics Games

LONDON: Army sharp shooter Vijay Kumar today fought a nerve-wracking battle with five other top marksmen to clinch the silver medal in the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Olympic Games here today. 

Kumar beat back the challenge of world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia, Chinese duo of Ding Feng and Zhang Jian and German Christian Reitz in the 40-shot final to finish runner-up in a thrilling finale behind Cuba's Leuris Pupo who shot his way to the gold with a world record equalling score of 34. 

The 26-year-old army subedar from Himachal Pradesh found the target 30 times out of 40 attempts in the series comprising eight rounds of five shots each. 

This is India's second medal in the ongoing quadrennial extravaganza after fellow marksman Gagan Narang's bronze in the 10m Air Rifle event on July 30. This was also the country's fourth medal in shooting in Olympic history. 

The other medal winners are Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (silver in 2004 Athens) , Abhinav Bindra (gold in 2008 Beijing) besides Narang. 

Kumar started with a bang, hitting the target all five times and kept himself in the hunt for a medal by consistently finding the target. 

After a perfect five out of five at the start, Kumar, a double gold medallist in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, found the target four times in the second and third series, but missed it twice in the fourth. 

He came back strongly by finding the target four times in the next three rounds and assured himself of a silver. In the last round after Pupo shot four to clinch the gold, Kumar seemed to relax a bit and missed three targets.

The bronze medal was won by Feng with a tally of 27. 

In the final, Kumar was assured of a medal after the the elimination of the trio of Klimov (23), Jian (17) and Christian (13) leaving himself, Pupo and Feng in the fray. 

The silver was in his bag when Feng missed twice in the seventh round and Kumar replied with four. 

Kumar had earlier lifted the Indian shooting team's spirit after the flop show by Narang, who failed to qualify for the final of the 50m Rifle Prone, by entering the finals of his event through the preliminaries. 

En route to his total score of 585, Kumar became the second shooter to break the previous Olympic record of 583 to give a hint of his potential during the second stage of qualification. 

Placed fourth in the list, Kumar, who had scored 293 in stage 1 of the qualification yesterday, shot a series of 98 97 97 in the second stage to take his total score to 585. 

He shot a sequence of 99 96 98 at the Royal Artillery Barracks. 

The Army man then successfully competed with five shooters for a medal. 

Pre-Games medal favourite Ronjan Sodhi had yesterday failed to qualify for the double trap event. 

Klimov had created a new world record by shooting 592 but he could not replicate that in the final. 

He scored a total of 592 after Stage 2, breaking the existing world record of 591 and Olympic record of 583, with 294 points in Stage 1 and a staggering 298 out of 300 in Stage 2. 

Centre biased against non-Cong states: Sukhbir Badal

 

Baba Bakala, August 2
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal today charged the Congress-led UPA Government with “blatant discrimination” against Punjab and other non-Congress states by denying them drought relief.
Addressing a rally here to mark Rakhar Punia, Sukhbir said: “The Centre does not appear to be moved by the plight of Punjab farmers and has not awarded a single rupee to the state as drought relief.This is despite Punjab contributing 65 per cent foodgrain to the central pool.” He said though the government had already purchased power worth Rs 7,000 crore, which is 10 per cent more than last year’s peak demand, the failure of monsoon had raised power consumption in the state.
He refuted allegations of power overdrawal by Punjab, saying the Northern Grid had tripped because of 51 per cent overdrawal by Haryana and 29 per cent overdrawal by UP.
“I salute our enterprising farmers who have put everything at stake to ensure that their crops do not wither away,” Sukhbir said.
He said work on three power plants was underway and these would start functioning by the end of 2013. “With new power plants coming up at Goindwal Sahib, Talwandi Sabo and Rajpura, we will get 3,920 MW of extra power which would reduce our dependence on the Centre and make us self-dependant,” he claimed.

The Deputy CM said all major cities would be connected with four-lane roads and Rs 13,000 crore would be spent on the road network in the next three years. He said he had directed the SSPs to intensify the police drive against petty crime such as snatching. He said non-performing police officers would face the music.

Mining mafia now digging an environmental grave in Sutlej riverbed

Shifts base from Ropar to Nawanshahr district for its nefarious activities 

Nawanshahr, August 2
The powerful sand mining mafia seems to have shifted its base from Ropar to Nawanshahr for extracting sand and gravel from the Sutlej riverbed.
A lax administration has ensured that the mafia gets away with everything - altering the course of the Sutlej, breaking the dhussi bundh (that protects villages along the Sutlej in case of floods) making way for trucks to ferry sand and gravel and mining the material right under the big bridges in violation of law.Mining is banned 1 km upstream and 500 metres downstream from big bridges.
Even worse, the mining contractors are using big excavators to dig the riverbed in addition to earth mowers. Residents of nearby villages allege that their protests and appeals to the district administration have fallen on deaf ears.
With hundreds of trucks ferrying sand and gravel quarried illegally, dhussi bundhs near Saidpur Kalan and Phul Makauri villages have sunk.
Though the district administration has imposed Section 144 of CrPC, banning the plying of heavy vehicles on dhussi bundhs, trucks ferrying sand and gravel continue to use these.
Santokh Ram, sarpanch of Saidpur Kalan village, said that miners had begun digging 10 ft to 12 ft deep trenches along the banks of the Sutlej in April this year.
“As a result, the Sutlej, with its course altered, has started flowing near populated areas,” he said.
The fertile land along the river, which was once cultivated, now has over 10 ft deep pits. Other than the legally auctioned quarries of Malakpur, Behlur Khurd, Madhala, Mehndipur, Sedpur Khurd, Knaun, Lalewal, Begowal, Burj Tehildas, Jhungian, Khoja, Bersal and Baramad Rel, illegal mining is going on at Phul Makauri, Saidpur Kalan and the riverbed near Niyamatpur and Shekhan Majara.
More importantly, the miners are targeting larger areas around the legally auctioned quarries than areas auctioned by the Industries Department. In Saidpur Khurd, the government has allowed mining on 11.60 acres. But miners are extracting minor minerals from 100 acres of land. This includes land owned by the Forest Department. Mining in forest land is banned.
Similarly, in Behlur Khurd, quarrying is allowed only on 9.84 acres of land, but the miners are extracting material from over 25 acres of land.
It is learnt that mining is allowed in 13 quarries, covering 115.97 acres.

As per the terms of the auction, the miners can lift 5,22,765 tonnes of riverbed material from these quarries avery year. But with an estimated 3,500 trucks (each truck ferrying 29 tonnes) carrying material daily, over one lakh tonnes of sand and gravel is being lifted from here everyday. This means almost 365 lakh tonnes of material is being lifted every year and over 360 lakh tonnes illegally.

Ruining Ecology

Miners dig 10 ft to 12 ft deep trenches along the banks of the Sutlej

With hundreds of trucks ferrying sand and gravel quarried illegally, dhussi bundhs near Saidpur Kalan and Phul Makauri villages sink

Illegal mining at Phul Makauri, Saidpur Kalan and the riverbed near Niyamatpur and Shekhan Majara on

Miners target larger areas around legally auctioned quarries

In Saidpur Khurd, miners illegally extracting minor minerals from 100 acres of land

This includes land owned by the Forest Department. Mining on forest land is banned

Modus Operandi

The illegal slips, called the ‘jhhota parchi’, are used rampantly here to allow the movement of the trucks ferrying illegally mined sand and gravel. The legal slips are called ‘weighment slips’ and should mention the quarry from where the material has been mined. The illegal slips are called “stand slips”, and are given to truck drivers and checked by goons who then collect ‘royalty’ from the truck owners.

Demand Up

With mining in Haryana banned, Punjab is now the sole supplier of sand and gravel in the region. With major infrastructure and real estate projects coming up in the region, there is a high demand for construction material. The supply, however, is at an all-time low. The price of sand has zoomed to Rs 2,300 per 100 cubic ft.

President Pranab takes charge as 13th President of India

At impressive swearing-in, new Prez focuses on tackling poverty, pushing growth

President Pranab Mukherjee waves from his horse-drawn carriage at Rashtrapati Bhawan after his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.  

DIDI COMES FOR DADA

After bitterly opposing Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature, key UPA ally Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee attended his oath-taking ceremony. Mamata, who reached Delhi on Tuesday night in a special plane sent by the Centre, went straight to Mukherjee’s residence and the two reportedly chatted till midnight. Actor Mithun Chakraborty, who is said to be Mukherjee’s mascot, was among a host of persons who came to witness the swearing-in of the country’s first Bengali President.

THE POMP AND THE BIG SHOW

Before the swearing-in, Pranab was driven to the Rashtrapati Bhawan in a black limousine  Both Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil were given the national salute by members of the three Services lined along the road leading to Raisina Hill  The two then left for Parliament House in a cavalcade. After the function, Mukherjee inspected his first guard of honour in a horse-driven buggy  Later, the new President escorted his predecessor to her new residence at Tughlaq Lane. Patil will stay there for some months before she moves to her residence in Pune

New Delhi, July 25
After five decades in active politics, Pranab Mukherjee today began a new innings when he took oath of office as India’s 13th President at an impressive ceremony in the historic Central Hall of Parliament. As he himself later put it, it is a journey “from the flicker of a lamp in a small Bengal village to the chandeliers of Delhi.”

Attired in a black sherwani and white churidar, 76-year-old Mukherjee was administered the oath by Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia in the presence of a huge gathering which included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, all ministers, UPA partners, Opposition leaders, Governors and many Chief Ministers. Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were among the Opposition leaders who especially flew down for this occasion.

The ceremony began with the arrival of Pranab Mukherjee along with outgoing President Pratibha Patil, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and the Chief Justice. Soon after being seated on the dais, the veteran Congress leader took oath.

Pranab then exchanged chairs with Pratibha Patil while a thunderous applause echoed through the high dome Central Hall. As soon as he assumed the top Constitutional post, a 21-gun salute was offered to Pranab. It was an announcement that the country had got a new President.

In his acceptance speech, Mukherjee underlined that his high office demands that he must rise “above personal or partisan interests in the service of the national good” and vowed to “to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution.”

Touching upon issues ranging from hunger to global terrorism, Mukherjee unveiled his vision of a modern India, which, he said, is built on fundamentals of secular values, economic equity and gender equality.

The speech bore Mukherjee’s distinctive imprint as he made a passing but telling reference to the touchy issue of tackling poverty and pushing growth. Stating that there is no humiliation more abusive than hunger, the new President underlined, “Trickle-down theories do not address the legitimate aspirations of the poor. We must lift those at the bottom so that poverty is erased from the dictionary of modern India.”

Mukherjee, who was the Finance Minister till last month, was known for his conservative views which have been at variance with those of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who believes in economic liberalisation. While those with socialist moorings contend that people at the bottom of the pyramid have to be pulled out of their poverty stricken condition by adopting a “bottom-up” approach, others pushing for economic reforms maintain that poverty can be erased by pushing for high growth as its benefits would percolate down to the poorest.

Mukherjee’s remark did not go unnoticed by Congress leaders who believe he will not be a “rubber stamp” President but will carefully scrutinise all the legislations sent to the Rashtrapati Bhawan for approval.

With Team Anna beginning another indefinite fast to press for the passage of the Lokpal Bill and action against tainted ministers, corruption too found a mention in Mukherjee’s speech. “Corruption is an evil that can depress the nation’s mood and sap its progress. We cannot allow our progress to be hijacked by the greed of a few,” he said.

Not forgetting that as President he is also the supreme commander of the armed forces, Mukherjee made a special reference to their role in the battle against terrorism.” I am proud of the valour, conviction and steely determination of our armed forces as they have fought this menace on our border,” he said.