25 booked charges of gangrape during communal violence
Muzaffarnagar:Twenty five persons accused of gang-rape during Muzaffarnagar riots have been booked under one more section which includes charges of gang-rape during communal or sectarian violence. Investigation officer Mala Yadav has added section 376 (2) (g) (rape during communal or sectarian violence) of the IPC against 25 persons accused of six gang rape cases during last year’s riots. The section was added after the Special Investigation Team, probing the riot cases, sought permission from the court here on Monday. The case was not added earlier by the police which had booked the accused only under section 376 (d) of the IPC, SIT officials said. Seven gang-rape cases, one in Lank village and six in Phugana in the district, were registered by the police during riots. One case of gang-rape in Phugana was closed due to lack of evidence. 18 out of the 25 accused have been arrested while remaining seven were absconding. Chief Judicial Magistrate Narender Kumar had summoned the accused who were arrested in this connection. The court has already initiated attachment proceedings against absconding accused of Phugana village. (PTI)
Tourist trampled to death by elephant in Kerala
Idukki :A school teacher from Gujarat on a holiday here was crushed to death by an elephant as she fell to the ground while clicking pictures with her four-year-old son. The police Tuesday described it as an accident. Deepali, 27, was part of a 14-member holiday group from Gujarat’s Narmada district. The incident took place Monday evening at the elephant camp here. “The couple along with their four-year-old son were taking pictures standing near the elephant. Suddenly the elephant swayed its trunk and it hit the woman who fell down near the elephant’s leg. In the melee, accidentally she came under the elephant’s feet and was seriously injured,” said a police official. Police said she was taken to a hospital but could not be saved. “Since this incident occurred late in the evening, the inquest will be conducted Tuesday,” the police official told IANS. “In the evening, the body will be flown to her home place,” the official added. Jacob Cheeran, an expert on elephants, told IANS: “This was purely an accident and not a case where an elephant turns violent.”(IANS)
Ban proposed on drugs having serious side effects
Hyderabad:A society, which looks after the detection, assessment and prevention of adverse effects of drugs on humans, has proposed a ban on codeine–used to relieve cough and treat pain– claiming that it has serious side effects. Founder and patron of Pharmacovigilance India (SOPI) Prof K C Singhal said nearly a dozen drugs in India need deregulation but codeine sulfate (used in cough syrups and pain killers), which gets “converted into morphine”, needs to be immediately removed from the market. “There are variations in each individual in conversions of codeine to morphine and each individual reacts differently. However, there is no facility in India to measure the enzyme which converts codeine to morphine. Excessive morphine in some individuals can be disastrous leading to several side effects including abnormal heart rhythms,” he said speaking on the sidelines of a conference on pharmovigilancce.(PTI)