Autopsy Shows Sfi Student Leader Beaten To Death

The post-mortem report of 22-year-old SFI student leader Sudipto Gupta, who allegedly died in police custody under controversial circumstances and sparked an outrage, is contrary to what the cops have been claiming. A doctor, who performed the postmortem on Sudipto, said that he received a fatal head injury after being hit by a blunt object. He also said that the details will be mentioned in the postmortem report to be submitted within the next 48 hours. Meanwhile, the SFI has observed a student strike to protest the death of its leader Sudipta Gupta, setting up roadblocks in West Bengal, including the capital. SFI members blocked busy roads in the metropolis and other parts of the state for 15 minutes at 11 am. Several schools and colleges remained open ignoring the SFI’s call for a student strike. The Mamata Banerjee Government in West Bengal came under fire from opposition parties, which pressed for a judicial probe into the death of the young SFI leader.

40 New Lpg Agencies In HP

In order to ensure ready availability of LPG in the rural and remote areas at lower price, about 40 new LPG agencies will be opened in the far-flung areas of Himachal Pradesh under the Rajiv Gandhi Yojana. Replying to a question of Maheshwer Singh (HLP), the state Transport Minister G S Bali said in the Assembly last week that 49 gas agencies had been allotted to state under the Rajiv Gandhi Yojana by the Centre and so far nine agencies had been allotted and 40 more agencies would be opened in the state soon.

It is noteworthy that Singh had pointed out that people in remote areas, specially in the Malana area of Kullu district, were forced to bear high price of up to Rs 1,200 even for a single subsidised LPG cylinder, due to heavy carriage charges. He, therefore, wondered when people were protesting over increase in LPG prices in urban areas, how could poor people in remote areas bear this high cost of LPG. “If the government failed to provide LPG at normal rates, people will be inclined to indulge in illegal activities,” Singh had cautioned.

Six Fake Encounters In Manipur

A bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai perused the committee’s report which says none of the six cases qualify as encounters and they are fake. The committee, comprising of former Supreme Court judge Santosh Hegde, ex-chief election commissioner J M Lyngdoh and a senior police officer, has said in its report that the probe showed that none of the victims had any criminal records.

The bench said the report makes it clear that the guidelines on encounters laid down by the apex court in the Naga People’s Movement case was not followed. The bench said that the appropriate directions would be passed on the basis of the panel’s report next week.It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court on January 4 had decided to appoint the committee to hold an inquiry into the alleged fake encounter killings in Manipur. The panel was set up to probe six cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in the Northeast state where a magisterial inquiry had raised questions on genuineness of the encounters.

Rs 15.69 Crore On VIP Security

The Supreme Court was informed that the Punjab government spent Rs 15.69 crore per month for providing security to VIPs, who comprised 65 people facing criminal charges. Senior advocate Harish Salve, who is appearing before a bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi, and assisting the court as amicus, placed data on the security cover given by different state governments to public functionaries and private individuals. The data was prepared on the basis of the state government’s affidavit. “Total expenditure is Rs 15.69 crore per month plus the expenditure incurred on 20 sections of CRPF and 4 sections of CISF. As many as 1,294 public functionaries and private individuals have been provided security. Twenty-five people, who are children and family members, have been provided such security,” he said while referring to Punjab.

Gujarat Under Scanner

Gujarat is once again sitting hot on the terror radar, with cops claiming that six terrorists, who have reportedly entered Gujarat, are planning to blow up a refinery and a fertilizer & chemicals factory in Vadodara within this month. The terrorists are in the state, cops assert, to avenge detection of the Sabarmati jail tunnel and subsequently foiling diggers’ ploy.

Vadodara is one among the places in the state which has been put on high alert. Agencies like the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS), Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), Special Operations Group (SOG), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and state police, among others, are on their toes to avert any subversive design. Commissioners of police of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat have belted up for the purpose with the department taking these threats seriously. Police sources reveal receiving inputs about six men travelling by train from Rajasthan and heard discussing the Sabarmati tunnel case as well as making plans to blast the Vadodara refinery and chemicals factory as ‘their men’ had been apprehended. Since this led to failure of their ‘mission’, the terror elements were also planning attacks in Ahmedabad, once their Vadodara plan is successful. They were reportedly carrying two big bags marked ‘Vimal Gutkha’ along with two smaller ones.

Two Maoist Nabbed In West Singhbhum

Security forces got major success last week when they arrested two suspected CPI (Maoist) members who guided the rebels through jungles as they moved from Jhumra in Bokaro to Saranda in West Singhbhum. According to police sources, they had been tipped off about presence of Maoists in the Garuapiri jungle. A joint search operation was launched by district police and CRPF in jungles from where the duo was arrested. The two arrested rebels have been identified as Binu Munda and Ramchandra Munda and both were active in the organization for over 10 years.

Ranchi SSP Saket Kumar Singh said the two rebels were involved in a large number of cases of extortion, loot and murder. “The main role of these two rebels was to guide other members of the organisation whenever they moved from Jhumra in Bokaro district to Saranda in West Singhbhum,” said Singh.The duo was aware of every part of the jungles and was capable of guiding the members even during night. After every major incident they were entrusted with the job to guide the members through the jungles and ensure safe exit either in West Bengal or Odisha.

Cial-Model Water Project In Kerala

The Kerala government has given administrative sanction to the Kerala Drinking Water Supply Company Ltd, a company on the lines of Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL), for drinking water supply across the state. Kerala’s Chief Minister Oommen Chandy stated last week that the government had already constituted a drinking water company with the Water Resources Minister as Chairman and Kerala Water Authority as MD and other top officials as directors. He informed that people, who sold drinking water in lorries, were exploiting the people and the new company was for selling potable water in jars at a relatively lesser price. He pointed out that such a project was set up at Malda in West Bengal during the Left government’s tenure. He said it was a practice here to oppose all good projects citing one reason or other.

“If we had implemented the industrial water supply project envisaged by the previous UDF government, hitech hotels and hitech hospitals could have been kept away from availing subsidised water supply of KWA,” he said. He further said the Water Resources Regulatory Authority was a proposal of the Finance Commission and the Subject committee of the State Assembly had already expressed some reservations and wanted public opinion.

“The SFI student leader has died in police custody, so the state government is solely responsible.”

—Sitaram Yechury

“It is possible that Lok Sabha polls can happen in 2013…it is possible that they could be held with state elections later this year.”

—LK Advani