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Reformed killer gets invite from Pope

December 6, 2013

Pope_Francis_at_the_Vatican

Bhopal/Indore, Dec 6: Eighteen years after Samundar Singh brutally stabbed a Catholic nun in Madhya Pradesh and flung her on the roadside to bleed to death, the former convict has been invited to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.

The nun, Sister Rani Maria, was stabbed 54 times inside a packed Indore-bound bus passing through Udainagar village in Dewas in February 1995. The nun died by the roadside.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia from the Vatican invited Singh on behalf of the Pope through Swami Sadanand, a Catholic priest based at Chhindwara district.

The Pope was moved after watching a documentary film - The Heart of a Murderer - by award-winning Australian-Italian director Catherine McGilvray. This film depicts the ghastly crime and the power of forgiveness.

The slain nun's younger sister Selmy and Swami Sadanand have also been invited to attend the special screening of the documentary in Rome in the first week of March. Pope Francis will attend the function.

The message was conveyed to the Chhindwara-based priest Swami Sadanand through email, said church sources.

However, neither Sadanand nor Samundar Singh has a passport to travel to Rome. "I have not received any official confirmation and don't have a passport. I have lost all necessary documents to get one," Samundar Singh said.

Pope also wants to meet Sadanand as he was instrumental in 'changing the heart' of Singh, who spent 11 years and 6 months in jail after murdering Sister Maria.

In 1995, Samundar Singh acted at the behest of some landlords who opposed the nun's work among poor farm labourers. The nun had boarded the bus from Udainagar in Dewas and was on her way to Kerala. Singh, who was 22 years old at that time, was arrested and sentenced to death. His sentence was

later commuted to life term. Singh was freed in 2006 after serving the jail term and now earns his livelihood through farming at his village, 50 km from district headquarters.

Family members of the slain nun had forgiven him and accepted him a member of their family. Her younger sister Selmy - who is also a Catholic nun - ties a rakhi every year since he was in jail.

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News Network
June 22,2020

New Delhi, Jun 22: With an increase of 14,821 new cases and 445 deaths, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,25,282 on Monday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 13,699 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The rise in confirmed cases today is lower than the highest spike of 15 thousand plus cases registered on Sunday.

The count includes 1,74,387 active cases, and 2,37,196 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,32,075 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 60,161 active, 65,744 cured, discharged patients while 6,170 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital today became the second-worst affected region in the country with the number of confirmed cases in Delhi reaching 59,746 as opposed to Tamil Nadu's 59,377 cases.

While 2,175 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far, the toll in Tamil Nadu stands at 757.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Kochi, Jul 30: The Kerala High Court on Thursday refused to grant the extension for the stay of a 74-year-old US citizen, Johnny Paul Pierce, who had earlier said that he felt safer to remain in India than in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The single-judge bench of Justice CS Dias, which considered the writ petition, observed that the grant or extension of visa to foreign nationals fall exclusively within the domain of the Government of India (GoI) and that judicial review in such matters is minimal.

The power of the GoI to expel foreigners is absolute and unlimited, the bench said.

"In view of the categoric declaration of law by the Supreme Court, the plea of the petitioner to permit him to stay back in India cannot be accepted, as it falls within the purview of the guidelines and the discretion of the Government of India," the order said.

"The petitioner cannot be heard that the guidelines/policies/regulations formulated by the Government of India, that an American national though has been granted a visa having validity of five years has to leave India within 180 days, is irrational or unreasonable," it added.

The High Court, which was hearing a plea to permit the US citizen to stay in India for a further period of six months, said that the petitioner does not have a case that there is an infraction of Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The petitioner was well aware of the visa conditions when he arrived in India, and it is too late in the day for him to raise a grievance on the visa conditions," the bench said noting that the petitioner's love for India was heartening.

The High Court also directed the Foreigners Registration Officer to consider the petitioner's representation within a period of two weeks in accordance with the applicable guidelines and policies.

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News Network
June 13,2020

New Delhi, June 13: A quarantine notice pasted outside former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 3, Motilal Nehru Place residence has raised speculations among media and political circles.

According to reports, the daughter of a domestic help who works at Singh’s residence has tested positive. She and her family, who live in the servant quarters, have been quarantined.

Singh, who has not been keeping well for some time, is slowly getting active. Congress leaders said the former Prime Minister attended a meeting of the party’s consultative committee on Thursday through video conference.

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