Swiss national held for suspected Maoist link
Thrissur (Kerela): A 24-year-old Swiss national has been arrested after he allegedly attended a function organised in memory of a Maoist activist at nearby Valappad. Police said Jonathan Bold, who arrived in Kerala on a tourist visa, attended a meeting organised in memory of Sinoj, a Maoist activist from Kerala who was killed while making country bombs in Andhra-Karnataka border last month. The meeting was organised by a group having Maoists and Naxalite sympathies. Sinoj belonged to Valappad in Kerala. Jonathan has been charged under the Foreigners Act, Section 14(b), which pertains to violation of visa conditions. Police said some Maoist literature had been recovered from him. Jonathan arrived in Kerala on July 10 with a woman companion and had visited Kannur and other parts of the state before arriving here on Monday. Since he speaks French, the help of an interpreter conversant in French would be sought for detailed interrogation, police said. (PTI)
12-yr-old dies in freak shooting by cousin
Firozabad: A 12-year-old boy was killed by a bullet accidentally fired by his cousin in the Ramgarh area here, police said on Tuesday. Pankaj, a student of class three, was hit by the bullet as his cousin brother Yashkant was testing a loaded fire-arm in the Rapura locality on Monday, Ramgarh Station Officer Lokendra Pal Singh said, adding that the weapon was an illicit one. He said that Pankaj, who was hit in the chest, died on the spot. A case under Section 304 of IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) has been registered against Yashkant, Singh said. (PTI)
HC imposes cost on litigant for filing false complaint
Madurai: The Madras High Court here has imposed a cost of Rs 5,000 on a litigant, who gave a false complaint and filed a habeas corpus petition that his daughter was missing leading police to conducted searches in many places. A division bench of justices S. Manikumar and V.S. Ravi directed petitioner, Ramiah of Konnappanendhal in Virudhunagar district, to pay the cost, to the Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police in a month’s time. The petitioner had sought a direction to police to rescue his 19-year-old daughter who, he alleged, was abducted by one Periyasamy in January last year. Police submitted that it was the petitioner who had given his daughter in marriage to Periyasamy, knowing well that he was already married. Police charged that the petitioner had filed the habeas corpus plea to escape from being implicated in a case registered on the basis of a complaint given by Periyasamy’s first wife. The judges held that the petitioner had unnecessarily made police go to places in search of the girl. They said public money could not be allowed to be wasted on false complaints lodged by people like him, and dismissed it with cost. (PTI)
2 including child die as mosque wall collapses
Ahmedabad: Two people, including a child, were killed and over 10 others were injured on Tuesday when the wall of a mosque collapsed in Mahesana district just after the people offered ‘namaz’ on the occasion of Id-ul-fitr, police said. The police said the old wall of the mosque, situated near railway colony in Magpara, collapsed when a large number of the people were greeting each other. Two people died in the incident while more than 10 others were injured, the police added. Injured were admitted at civil hospital in Mahesana. (UNI)
Toll in Medak bus-train collision climbs to 18
Hyderabad: The toll in the school bus-train collision at an unmanned railway crossing in Telangana’s Medak district today rose to 18 after a 11-year-old girl succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital here, even as the condition of four other students remained critical. Vaishnavi, who was in “very very critical condition” after receiving injuries in the mishap, was declared dead at 5.28 AM, a release from Yashoda Hospitals said. Vaishnavi was a resident of Islampur of Toopran mandal of Medak district. Out of the 20 students admitted to the hospital at Secunderabad here, the condition of four students continues to remain serious and they are in the critical ward and under close observation while seven other students (including three girls) are in stable condition. Seven other students were discharged on Monday. Sixteen persons comprising 14 school children, driver and the cleaner of the private school bus were killed and 20 students were injured when a passenger train hit their bus at an unmanned railway crossing in Masaipet village on July 24. (PTI)