Man held for threatening to commit suicide over shrine verdict
Kochi: A man was arrested Monday for allegedly threatening to commit suicide in protest against the recent Supreme Court verdict allowing entry of women into the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. Police said Sreeraj, an activist of a right wing Hindu outfit, had said in a Facebook post that he would commit suicide upset over the apex court verdict. In his post two days ago,he had allegedly said he would take the extreme step at the High Court junction here. With his post going viral, police was deployed at the junction to prevent any such incident, they said. Sreeraj was arrested when he reached the spot at around 11.30 am with a can of petrol to commit suicide, police said. He was taken for a medical check up at a government hospital. A five-judge constitution bench had last week lifted the ban on entry of women of menstrual age into the shrine, saying it amounted to gender discrimination and violated rights of Hindu women. (PTI)
Chetak helicopter crash-lands at INS Rajali in TN, crew safe
Vellore: A Chetak CH 442 helicopter of the Indian Navy on a training sortie crash-landed at INS Rajali near here on Monday and the crew were safe, a defence official said. “Chetak CH 442 on a training sortie at Rajali….whilst carrying out dry winching dual sortie, the helo (helicopter) crash landed,” a defence public relations official told PTI. INS Rajali is Arakkonam Naval Air Station, about 75 km from here. Damage was reported to the main and tail rotors, the official said, adding the crew were safe. (PTI)
Rahul Gandhi likely to visit Bengal during Durga Puja
Kolkata: Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has asked the party’s West Bengal unit to strengthen the organisation in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, is likely to visit the state during Durga Puja, a senior state Congress leader said Monday. Gandhi had held a meeting with the newly appointed Bengal Congress leadership, led by state Congress president Somen Mitra, on Saturday in New Delhi and discussed the organisational and upcoming election issues. It was at the meeting that the proposal for Gandhi’s visit to Bengal during Durga Puja – the biggest festival of Bengal, came up, according to state Congress sources. “The schedule is being chalked out. Nothing has been finalized as of now. We hope that he will visit the city for a day during Puja,” Congress MP and chairman of the coordination committee Pradip Bhattacharya said. (PTI)
Roof collapse in under-construction building in northwest Delhi kills 1
New Delhi: A man died of injuries sustained in a roof collapse in northwest Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar Monday, police said. The deceased was a labourer who got trapped under debris after a portion of a roof of an under-construction building collapsed, they said. Two more people were injured in the accident and were undergoing treatment, officials said. A Delhi Fire Service officer said a call was received about the roof collapse around 1.10 pm and five vehicles were rushed to the spot. He said the department rescued three men and rushed them to a hospital. Among them, the condition of one person was critical and he succumbed to injuries later, he added. Last week, a five-storey building collapse in northwest Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area had led to the death of seven people. (PTI)
Man gets new life after successful liver transplant
Kolkata: A man got a new lease of life after a successful liver transplant surgery at a hospital here, in what was the third implant operation in Kolkata in a week. The organ was transplanted in the 40-year-old man, who was suffering from chronic liver disease, following an almost three-hour-long surgery on Sunday, a senior doctor at Apollo Hospital said. “The surgery is successful. The patient is fine and is kept under observation,” he said. The liver was donated by a 47-year-old woman, who was declared brain dead at Medica Superspeciality Hospital, where she was admitted last week. “The patient was diagnosed with massive intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) with intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). Following massive bleeding and poor glasgow coma scale (GCS) of the woman, operative intervention was ruled out and she was declared brain dead,” Kunal Sarkar, a cardiac surgeon at the hospital, said. The woman’s relatives were counselled for the organ donation and her husband agreed to donate her heart and liver, following her death due to brain hemorrhage, he said. “However, only the liver could be retrieved, as her heart was not fit for harvesting,” the doctor said. A green corridor of around 10-kilometre was set up from Medica to Apollo Hospital in the EM Bypass with the help of Kolkata Traffic Police to transport the organ. (PTI)