INDIA HERALD • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015 • PAGE 19
INDIA Salman Khan hit-and-run case verdict on May 6 Jitan Manjhi: I unmasked Nitish
MUMBAI: “On May 6, at 11.15 am sharp,” announced Sessions Judge D W Deshpande to a packed court room at Bombay City and Civil Sessions court as he set the date and time for the final judgment in the 2002 hit-andrun case involving actor Salman Khan, who stands charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other offences. The trial, which began in 2003, saw some fresh arguments this month in the case, during which 27 prosecution witnesses were cross-examined. In comparison, only one defence witness has been
Salman Khan arrives at the Sessions Court with his lawyer
cross-examined. Both defence and the prosecution concluded their final arguments on April 20. The prosecution has sought to rest its case claiming that the actor was driving the car at the time of the accident and that he knew his act of drunk driving could cause an accident. Ravindra Patil, the actor’s deceased police bodyguard and the complainant in the case, had stated that Khan was drunk when he rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser
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into a bakery in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002, killing one and injuring four others. The prosecution also claimed that the actor did not possess a valid driving licence or a liquor permit. Khan’s “conduct” after the incident was also questioned by the prosecution, which claimed he ran away from the spot soon after the accident instead of helping the victims. The actor’s lawyer, Shrikant Shivade, has claimed that a “tyre burst” had caused the “unfortunate” accident. He also claimed that the fatality was caused after the accident, when the vehicle slipped off the crane lifting it. Shivade also argued that Khan’s blood samples were tampered with, which led to alcohol content being found in it. Khan’s driver Ashok Singh, the only defence witness, deposed in the case for the first time in over 12 years, claiming it was he, and not the actor, who was driving the car on the night of the accident. Singh has been employed as a driver with Khan’s father for 20 years. The court on Tuesday also disposed of contempt of court applications made by Khan against an inspector of Bandra police station for recreating the crime scene and two city newspapers for publishing those photographs. These papers gave an undertaking that they would not run reports on anything except factual court proceedings in the matter till the court delivered its judgment. The inspector too apologized in the court.
Cricketer dies in collision on field KOLKATA: A 20-year-old Indian cricket player died Monday, April 20, three days after he suffered a head injury in a match. Ankit Keshri was knocked unconscious when he collided with teammate Sourav Mondal while attempting to field a catch during the CK Nayudu national championship. Mondal’s knee hit the back of Keshri’s neck in what the player’s coach on the Bengal “A” side, Joydeep Mukherjee, told the Times of India “was one of the worst sights I have been witness to on a cricket field.” “To our horror, Ankit had lost consciousness,” Mukherjee said of Friday’s collision. “I could not feel any pulse. East Bengal player Anushtup Majumdar pumped his heart furiously while former Bengal left-arm spinner Shiv Sagar Singh applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive Ankit.” The life-saving intervention seemed to work at first, as Keshri initially regained consciousness and was taken to AMRI Hospital in Kolkata, where initial MRI and CT scans revealed no brain swelling or hemorrhaging. Doctors at AMRI eventually moved Keshri from the intensive-care unit to the general admission unit. Keshri’s family protested, however, noting the young player still had a fever and was experiencing nausea associated with severe head trauma. The family opted to transfer Keshri to Nightingale
PATNA: Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday, April 20, said he was a mere pro-Dalit “mask” of Nitish Kumar and “compromise choice in political instability” as were previous scheduled caste CMs Bhola Paswan Shastri and Ram Sunder Das. Manjhi also alleged that he was “made to sign his name” on files for the first three months of his tenure as CM till he realized that he should not be just a “yes man” to Nitish. Jitan Ram Manjhi Speaking at Garib Swabhiman Rally of his political front Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), Manjhi played pro-poor, pro-women and pro-youth card to the hilt and reminded how Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had been wrong in “reversing” his people-friendly decisions. “I would like to thank Nitish Kumar for conceding his mistake of making me CM. After all, he admitted that making a Dalit CM was a mistake. He took me as his pro-poor mask, but I ended up unmasking him,” said Manjhi, who was accompanied by all rebel JD (U) legislators. Former Gopalganj MP and brother-in-law of Lalu Prasad, Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, also attended the rally. Yadav had played role in mobilising support for Manjhi with an eye on contesting the Assembly polls later this year. Manjhi said: “Bihar’s political history has been a witness to the fact that an EBC or a scheduled caste man had been CM only when there had been political instability. Bhola Paswan Shastri became CM thrice, but he was hardly allowed to rule. The same happened with Karpoori Thakur and Ram Sunder Das who did not get full term. It can happen only to a Dalit”.
‘Indira’, ‘Rajiv’ dropped from award names NEW DELHI: The BJP-led NDA government has dropped the names of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi from two awards for propagating Hindi. The two awards have been discontinued by the Union Home Ministry, which instead launched two new schemes for doing outstanding work for promoting the progressive use of official language. According to a Home Ministry order, the ‘Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar’ and ‘Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik Pustak Lekhan Puraskar,’ launched more than two decades ago, have given way to ‘Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar’ and ‘Rajbhasha Gaurav Puraskar’ “It is purely an administrative decision to make the awards more useful,” an official said. Earlier, there were four categories of Rajbhasha awards of which two were named after the two former Prime Ministers. The four awards were merged into two now.
Tension in Aligarh over ‘conversion’ LUCKNOW: Tension prevailed at Mainath village in Aligarh district on Saturday, April 18, after a group of Muslim “preachers” were arrested for allegedly trying to “convert” villagers. The group was reportedly moving around the village preaching Islam, though the police said allegations of conversion were prima facie false. The village, incidentally, has no Muslims. Police said trouble began in the morning when some Muslim preachers stopped at the house of one Suraj Pal, who belongs to Kanjar community, for water. Suraj Pal offered them water. Since it was time for namaz, the group also offered prayers in the house. Suraj Pal told police that since it was time for namaz, they asked for his permission to offer namaz and he let them pray. Irked by this, some local residents gheroed Suraj Pal’s house and staged a protest claiming the preachers had come to convert the villagers. Hearing about the incident, district officials and police rushed to the spot and took the preachers and Suraj Pal to the police station.
51 arrested for torching train coach PURI: As many as 51 people were arrested on Sunday, April 19, for torching a coach of Puri-Barbil Express train and ransacking Delang railway station. GRP sources said the arrested belong to Gualipara village and nearby areas under Delang police station limits in Puri district. The arrest was made two days after a mob set on fire a coach of the train at Delang railway station and ransacked the station on April 17 following the death of a local boy who fell from a running train. The local people detained the train while it was returning from Puri on Friday morning and set on fire a general compartment. Though the coach was damaged badly, no passenger was hurt in the incident. Hospital on Sunday, where he later experienced a rapid decline. On Monday, the former captain of a Bengal Under-19 team died of cardiac arrest, leaving Keshri’s dad with questions about his son’s initial medical treatment. “I don’t know why he was transferred to a general bed from ICU,” Raj Keshri told the Associated Press after his son died. Doctors at AMRI defended their decisions, however, noting they weren’t given a chance to fully treat him.