Army, infiltrators exchange sporadic fire, no fresh casualty
Srinagar: Army personnel and a group of heavily armed terrorists backed by suspected Pakistan Army Special Forces troopers exchanged sporadic fire along the Line of Control in Keran sector of Jammu and Kashmir for the tenth day on Thursday but there was no fresh report any casualty. Intermittent firing between the 30-40 infiltrators and the Army continued throughout the night as security forces maintained a tight vigil over the cordoned off area, defence sources said. Five Indian soldiers have been injured in the gunbattle that started on September 24, while 10 to 12 terrorists were believed killed in the operation launched to foil the major infiltration bid. Army had yesterday termed as “absurd” the reports about capture of some Indian posts by the infiltrators, saying the troops are in total control of the operation. “We are in total control of the operation. The reports of our posts being captured by the infiltrators are absurd,” General Officer Commanding of the Army’s 15 Corps Lt General Gurmit Singh had said. Although Lt Gen Singh maintained it will be premature to say whether the Pakistan Army was involved in infiltration, he said there were definite indications that some special troops were part of it. He said the analysis of this infiltration bid indicated the involvement of Border Action Team (BAT), a mixture of Pakistani regulars and militants. In Islamabad, a Pakistan military spokesperson dismissed as “baseless” that its Army troops were involved in infiltration attempts. (PTI)
Asaram aide Shilpi sent to eight-day judicial custody
Jodhpur: A local court on Thursday sent Shilpi, a key aide of Asaram Bapu and co-accused in the case of alleged sexual exploitation of a teenage girl, to eight-day judicial custody. Shilpi, the warden of Asaram’s ‘ashram’ in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, had allegedly conspired to send the girl, who was a student there, to Asaram in Jodhpur. After the District and Sessions Court order, her counsel moved a bail application in the same court and it will come up for hearing tomorrow. “We moved a bail application in the court immediately after that (the order of judicial custody),” said her counsel. Shilpi’s counsel said that as the police did not seek any extension in her police custody, the court sent her to judicial custody. Shilpi had surrendered before the court here on September 25 after Rajasthan High Court had rejected her anticipatory bail plea on the same day. With this, all five accused in the case, including Asaram himself, have been sent to judicial custody and they will be produced before the court on October 11. Besides Asaram, the other accused in the case are Shiva (attendant of Asaram), Sharad Chandra (director of the Gurukul), Prakash (Asaram’s cook) and now Shilpi. Police, which has so far collected all evidences relating to the allegations of the girl, is likely to file the charge sheet in the court in two weeks, a police officer associated with the investigation said. “Now with all the accused in jail and investigation of the case wrapped up, we will sit down to prepare the charge sheet, which we are hopeful of filing in the court in the next two weeks,” the officer said on condition of anonymity. (PTI)
HC dismisses petition by Trust
Chennai: Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition by Sri Devi Karumariamman Educational Trust, which challenged the rejection of approval by MCI, to establish a medical college near Sriperumbudur. Justice K K Sasidharan said the materials available on record showed that the building was constructed only after submitting the application and the 300-bedded hospital was not functioning even during the time of inspection. The judge, while justifying the rejection made by Medical Council of India (MCI) said an attempt was made to submit the application first and thereafter to provide the institutional and infrastructural facilities. The trust wanted to establish a medical college and hospital and submitted its application before the MCI. The MCI found several deficiencies in the premises and called the Trust in June to appear for personal hearing, which the administrators obliged and filed a compliance report to iron out deficiencies. After a second inspection, the MCI rejected the trust’s application for the approval and hence the trust moved the Madras High Court. The MCI in its counter said that even before completing construction of building and establishing the hospital, the trust submitted its application for approval. The Trust also failed to satisfy even the essential eligibility criteria. (PTI)
Two children killed in wall collapse
Kanpur: Two children were killed while three others along with an elderly man were injured today when the boundary wall of a school in Bajaria district collapsed on them when they were asleep, police said. Five children and an elderly man were sleeping beside the boundary wall of the school when it collapsed around 4 AM.(PTI)