Woman hit by court sign awarded Rs 19 lakh

July 9, 2012

new_delhi

New Delhi, July 9: A woman who became mentally disabled after a signboard at the Rohini district court fell on her head has been awarded a compensation of Rs 19 lakh by the Delhi High Court, which brushed aside claims of the defendants that the incident was an "act of God".

The victim, Harinder Kaur, was in the court premises pursuing a dispute against her estranged husband when the 'District Court Rohini' board fell on her from the rooftop, where it was loosely tied.

Justice Vipin Sanghi, in an order released earlier this week, asked the Rohini district court, PWD and MCD to compensate Kaur for their negligence that left her with permanent, 70% mental disability.

The high court also rapped the court administration and other civic agencies for ignoring municipal bylaws in putting up the board. "Facts speak for themselves and tell their own story of negligence, so as to establish a prima facie case against the respondents... The respondents have shifted liability from one to another," Justice Sanghi noted, holding the authorities responsible for the injury.

Kaur's 65-year-old mother had approached HC for compensation through advocate Pankaj Batra, who first argued that the placement of the signboard violated laws. He also placed on record RTI replies that revealed that PWD had failed to take mandatory permission from the MCD commissioner before putting up the board. The petition said the board was installed above a passage in the complex and it fell on Kaur as she was walking into the complex.

Citing Kaur's medical reports, Batra alleged that the injuries had resulted in her being unable to sleep and left her totally disoriented with no possibility of being employed.

After initially passing the blame amongst each other, the Rohini court administration, the PWD and the MCD attributed Kaur's injury to an "act of God" in view of the inclement weather on the day of the incident. They argued that the board fell due to strong winds and rains, and not because of negligence on their part.

But HC brushed aside the explanation saying squalls, duststorms and rain were a regular feature in Delhi. "Negligence is writ large on the part of the respondents. They can't in the garb of inclement weather shirk from their responsibility of complying with provisions of law and taking reasonable precautions so as to keep away all persons from harm," the court added.




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News Network
May 28,2020

Hyderabad, MAY 28: A three-year-old boy who accidentally fell into a newly drilled open borewell in Telangana's Medak district was found dead in the early hours of Thursday, police said.

The kid's body was retrieved at around 4 am after a nearly 10 hours' long rescue operation involving different agencies, they said.

"He died a while before we evacuated him, most likely due to the mud that covered him from the top sealing off necessary oxygen supply, " Medak District Superintendent of Police Chandana Deepti told PTI.

The boy had accidentally slipped into the 120- feet borewell at around 5 pm on Wednesday in an agricultural field located in Papannapet mandal of the district when he was walking with his grandfather and father, police earlier said.

As part of rescue efforts, a parallel trench was dug along the borewell hole with the help of earth excavating machines and oxygen was supplied into it, but the efforts went in vain as the boy's body was found stuck at a depth of around 25 feet, the police said.

Apart from the police, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel were also involved in the rescue operation.

The borewell into which the child fell was one among the three dug by the family since Tuesday night to try and find water for their fields. But none of them yielded any water, police had said.

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Agencies
January 21,2020

Tengnoupal, Jan 21: A woman IPS officer has alleged that a rifleman of Assam Rifles physically assaulted and molested her at a check post near Moreh town in Manipur's Tengnoupal district, police said on Tuesday.

Based on a written complaint of the IPS officer, an FIR has been registered against rifleman P K Pandey and a summon has been issued to him to appear before the concerned police station, the police said.

Manipur DGP L M Khaute told reporters on Monday, "We have made contacts with the Assam Rifles authorities. A complaint has been lodged by the officer." In her complaint, the IPS officer said that on reaching Khudengtabi check post on Sunday afternoon one of her escorts, who was not in uniform, told the frisking party of Assam Rifles to register their entry.

Despite showing their identity cards, the rifleman allegedly detained them, she said.

"We offered to search ourselves and the vehicle, but he was not interested", she said.

The rifleman began hitting the official vehicle and "misbehaved, humiliated, harassed and assaulted me and my escort personnel," she alleged.

The IPS officer also alleged that the rifleman molested her and when her escorts tried to intervene, he thrashed them.

She further accused the rifleman of making "sexually coloured" remarks against her, using abusive language and even tried to snatch her phone when she tried to call her senior officers.

The issue was brought under control after the matter was reported to the Brigadier of 26th Assam Rifles and the Major of the D-company of 12th AR, police said.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Lucknow, May 1: Six members of a family were allegedly hacked to death by another family member over a property dispute in Gudauli village in the Banthra area on the outskirts of the city on Thursday, police said.

The accused, Ajay Singh (26), went to the local police station after committing the crime and surrendered, they added.

Singh allegedly had a heated argument with the family members over a property and attacked them with a sharp-edged weapon, the police said.

The accused allegedly killed his mother, father, elder brother, his wife and two children -- a son and a daughter -- they added.

The victims were identified as Amar (60), Ramsakhi (55), Arun (40), Ramdulari (35), Saurabh (7) and Sarika (2).

When asked, Commissioner of Police Sujeet Pandey said six members of a family were killed and the accused surrendered before the police.

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