India‑View Falak battles for life, 3 arrested NEW DELHI: Battered baby Falak
on Wednesday continued to battle for life with doctors diagnosing blood infection apart from her existing chest and brain infections while police claimed to be closer to cracking the case, arresting the father of the 14-year-old girl, who had brought Falak to AIIMS, and two other people who had forced her into prostitution. “Sandeep, his wife Pooja and Jitendra Kumar Gupta, the father of the teenage girl Mahi who brought Falak to the hospital have been arrested,” additional commissioner of police (southeast) Ajay Chaudhary told reporters here. Pooja is a human trafficker and Sandeep her husband. However, it was not clear if any of them were responsible for grievously injuring the baby as police refused to comment citing that many more people were involved in the case and answering the question might hurt investigations. IANS
SC restores Bihar MP’s seat NEW
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012
India unveiled
DELHI: The Supreme
Court on Wednesday set aside a Patna High Court order quashing the election of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) Lok Sabha member Mangani Lal Mandal from Bihar’s Jhanjharpur constituency for not disclosing his first wife’s assets. The apex court bench of Justice RM Lodha and Justice SJ Mukhopadhaya also imposed a cost of `100,000 on petitioner Bishnu Deo Bhandari. Bhandari initiated the petition contending that Mandal had not disclosed the assets of his first wife and her children while filing his nomination. Justice Lodha observed that the HC did not explain how the non-disclosure affected Mandal’s election. IANS
Madam, Behenji go for the jugular in UP
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Captain-Jaya honeymoon over CHENNAI: It was all-out war in the Tamil Nadu Assembly Wednesday with Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and one-time ally A Vijayakant, chief of the DMDK, exchanging bitter words. Vijayakant, whose party fought the April 2011 assembly elections with the AIADMK but parted ways later, and other legislators of his party were evicted from the house following the verbal duel. While Jayalalithaa said she regretted the decision of entering into an alliance with the DMDK, Vijayakant told reporters outside the assembly: “We are not allowed to speak in the house. We will fight the ensuing by-election for Sankarankoil if polls are held under governor rule.” IANS
SC to decide on Chidamabaram Supporters jubilate as they hold up the party symbol at an election campaign rally of Chief Minister Mayawati in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday. AFP LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI: A week before polling begins in Uttar Pradesh, the battle reached a feverish pitch on Wednesday as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BSP leader Mayawati crossed swords, calling themselves the saviour of India’s most populous state. Addressing major public rallies in UP where balloting will be staggered February 8 to March 3, Mayawati accused the Central government of starving the State of development funds. Sonia asserted that `100,000 crore given to the State did not reach the poor and linked Mayawati to corruption. An upbeat Mayawati pointed to the large crowds that had gathered to listen to her as a sign
of her invincibility. Asked if she was confident of winning, Mayawati said: “You can judge seeing the crowds.” Mayawati said: “There is need to ensure progress of all communities. Only the BSP can ensure that. “The Centre did not cooperate with us fully,” she charged. Holding her first rally in UP, Gandhi slammed the Mayawati government for “inefficient implementation of centrally funded programmes” and questioned the Dalit leader’s motives behind dismissing 21 of her ministers on the eve of elections. Sonia said that though the UPA government provided `100,000 crore in developmental funds to UP in recent years, it
had not reached the poor because of an “inept” State administration. “The present chief minister dismissed 21 of her ministers on election eve. She was not able to see their corruption in the past five years. I want to ask whether taking resignations has made her government clean? Is this not (a case of) cheating the people?” Sonia charged nonCongress governments of ruining the state since the Congress has been out of power in 1989. The Congress has shown signs of revival in the state. The Congress won only 22 seats in the 403-member state assembly in 2007. But it swept 22 of the Lok Sabha 80 seats in 2009. IANS
NEW DELHI: Three issues related to the 2G case, including home minister P Chidambaram’s alleged role in the scam, are expected to be decided by the Supreme Court on Thursday — the last day in office of Justice A.K. Ganguly who, along with Justice G.S. Singhvi, has been hearing the cases for over one year. The court will pronounce its verdict on Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy’s plea seeking CBI probe into Chidambaram’s role as the then finance minister in fixing prices for the allocation of 2G licences, along with former communications minister A Raja. The judges are also likely to deliver judgment on a plea by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) seeking the cancellation of 122 licences granted in 2008 to nine telecom companies during Raja’s tenure at 2001 prices and in breach of the first-comefirst-served policy. IANS
Sariska tigers feature in BBC series
Court seeks report on Baba ink attack
NEW DELHI: Life of five endangered tigers in the rugged hills of Rajasthan’s Sariska reserve captured by an Indian cinematographer is being shown in Britain as part of a special BBC series on endangered wildlife. The introductory episodes titled Tiger Dynasty was launched on Wednesday. The documentary, filmed by acclaimed wildlife cinematographer S Nallamuthu, tells the story of five translocated tigers from Ranthambore National Park, also in Rajasthan, to Sariska Tiger Reserve, an expanse of 800 sq km in the picturesque Aravalli range. The extermination of Sariska’s tigers by poachers had come to light in 2004.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has asked police to file a report by February 22 on an incident in which a man allegedly hurled black ink at yoga guru Baba Ramdev here last month. Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Jasjeet Kaur, in an order made available on Wednesday, directed police to file a report on the incident in which a man identified as Kamran Siddiqui, who allegedly hurled black ink on Baba Ramdev, was beaten up by the yoga guru’s supporters. The court direction came on an application filed by Siddiqui seeking prosecution of Ramdev and others for the offence of promoting enmity between different groups and related offences.
Nallamuthu says of the five translocated tigers he is fond of Baghani, a tigress portrayed in the documentary. “I have been filming her with my good friend and field assistant, Hemraj Meena, since she was a cub,” he says. “When the Rajasthan government and the Wild Life Institute of
India decided to translocate her, I wanted to follow her journey. In a sense we both began our journey in a similar fashion — blindfolded,” Nallamuthu said. “Days went by before I even caught a glimpse of this magnificent tigress,” he said of the tigress after her translocation to Sariska.
In 2010, Nallamuthu had made the Tiger Queen, a moving tale of rivalry and betrayal in a tiger family in Ranthambore. It was India’s first full length wildlife film shot in a high definition (HD) format. The film shows Machli, the tigress, who ruled the fort for over a decade, was overthrown in a battle by one of her daughters. Baghani, portrayed in Tiger Dynasty, is one of her daughters. Today, the population of prey animals in Sariska went up in the absence of major predators. Leopards, another key predator in the food chain, began to make a comeback into areas where the tigers had once ruled. They are their main competitors in Sariska today. IANS