India, Switzerland deny sharing 'black money' details

Jan 31: Twenty-three children aged between six months and 15 years, who had been taken hostage by a murder accused after inviting them to his daughter's birthday party, were rescued late on Thursday night after police killed their captor in a village here.

The hostage drama began at Kasaria village in the afternoon and continued for about eight hours.

"The accused was killed and there were about 23 children who were rescued safely," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters at a hurriedly called press conference at 1.20 am.

"The accused had invited the children for the birthday party of his daughter and held them hostage. It started about 5.45 pm on January 30 and continued for about eight hours," Director General of Police (DGP) O P Singh said, adding that in the entire operation they had tried to "engage" the accused and were successful.

He said the accused, identified as Subhash Batham, had initially released a six-month-old girl by handing her over to his neighbour from a balcony.

Eyewitnesses said a restive crowd gathered outside the house where the children were kept with some women wailing and praying for their safe release.

The crowd broke open the door of the house to rescue the children, they said.

As the accused opened fire, the police retaliated killing him on the spot.

In the exchange of fire, the captor's wife was injured, but none of the children suffered any injury.

A man and two policemen also suffered bullet injuries.

The motive of the accused was not known immediately.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath monitored the situation in Farrukhabad, which is nearly 200 km from state capital Lucknow.

"The CM as soon as he got to know about the incident called a meeting of the crisis management group and personally monitored the situation and ensured children are rescued safely," Awasthi said.

Earlier, a team of NSG (National Security Guard) commandos had taken a special aircraft to reach Farukhabad, a senior security official in Delhi said.

Police said Batham, a murder accused, seemed to be mentally unstable.

Inspector-General of Police, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal, said, "The man called the children for a birthday party and held them hostage in the basement of the house. He fired six shots from inside the building."

Batham initially wanted to talk to the local MLA, but refused to speak to the leader when he arrived, Agarwal said.

New Delhi, Jun 4: Press Council of India (PCI) member BR Gupta has resigned from his post, saying he was unable to work individually or collectively for the media, which is in a "deep crisis".

"I have tendered my resignation as a Press Council of India member," Gupta told PTI.

He said the PCI had the responsibility to encourage media and media professionals constantly.

"But everyone now realises that the media scenario is in a deep crisis. The motto for which the Council was created was not being fulfilled and I felt I was not doing anything remarkable for the freedom of media," Gupta said.

He claimed that the PCI was not a wholly representative body for the media.

"Then how can we come out of the crisis being faced by the media and mediapersons? It is a big challenge for us. I have quit as I have not been able to work individually or collectively being a PCI member," Gupta added.

Referring to salary cuts and job losses, he said media and mediapersons were struggling for social, political and economic justice.

When contacted, PCI chairman Justice C K Prasad said Gupta's resignation has not been accepted yet.

"I have received it (the resignation). I have not gone through it. It has not been accepted," Prasad told PTI.

Gupta was appointed as a PCI member for a three-year term on May 30, 2018.

He said liberty is one of the basic features of the preamble to the Constitution that continues to inspire people and the media.

"It is difficult (for me) to fulfil the unbiased role and responsibility to help citizens and the media for making democracy stronger," Gupta said.