IIT-Kanpur Dalit student commits suicide

Ahmadabad, July 17: The Gujarat high court has ordered the Bharuch superintendent of police to investigate and produce a 14-year-old girl before the court, who has allegedly eloped with a man. Ironically, the man was convicted two years ago on Pocso charges for eloping with another minor girl in 2016.

The high court has asked the government to file an application for bail cancellation of the convict because he has indulged in a similar offence after having come out on bail.

The case involved one Dilip Padhiyar (24) from Uchchhad village in Jambusar taluka of Bharuch district.

He was punished with 10 years in jail in December 2018 by a special court for kidnapping a 16-year-old girl in 2016. He was prosecuted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act and for rape and kidnapping charges. He got away with a 10-year-imprisonment because the girl was over 16 years and she had not alleged rape. However, Dilip Padhiyar was held guilty of statutory rape, abduction as well as under provisions of Pocso Act.

Dinesh Padhiyar got regular bail from the high court pending his appeal challenging his conviction in January 2019. In November 2019, he eloped with another minor girl.

Her father approached the high court complaining that though an FIR was registered with Vedach police station, the police have not made any effort to trace his minor girl. It was also contended in the habeas corpus petition that Padhiyar is a habitual offender.

Petitioner's advocate Imtiyaz Kureshi said that looking at the past of Dinesh Padhiyar, the high court asked the state government to initiate proceedings for cancellation of his bail.

The bench headed by Justice Sonia Gokani instructed HC's registry to treat the bail cancellation application as an urgent matter.

The high court has ordered Bharuch SP to produce the girl before the court by July 20, and in case she cannot be traced by then, he will have to submit an action taken report.

Kolkata, Mar 9: A diabetic man died in the isolation ward of a hospital in West Bengal's Murshidabad on Sunday, a day after he was admitted there with suspected symptoms of coronavirus following his return from Saudi Arabia.

According to doctors, he was admitted to the hospital with fever, cough and cold.

Though test results of his blood and swab samples for novel coronavirus were awaited, it can be said that he died probably of diabetes, Director of Health Services Ajay Chakraborty told PTI.

"The man was highly diabetic and was on insulin. He returned home from Saudi Arabia and had no money to take insulin for the last three to four days.

"He was also suffering from fever, cough and cold. He was admitted to the isolation ward of the Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital yesterday and died today," the health services director said.

"We are waiting for the results of medical tests. The possibility of his death due to novel coronavirus infection is remote," he said.

However, precautions will be taken during the last rites of the victim according to the directives set by the central and state governments for patients who die of the virus, another senior official said.

"Family members will not be allowed to touch the body since the man had been suffering from cough and breathlessness. Those performing his last rites will be given protective gear, masks and gloves. Though test results are yet to be known, we do not want to take any chance," he said.

Meanwhile, the state health department has issued a directive to all private medical facilities to create a system for assessing all patients at admission allowing early recognition of possible COVID-19 infection and immediate isolation of patients with suspected novel coronavirus infection in an area separate from other patients.

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.