Two stab friend to death over ₹2,000

youth was stabbed to death by his friends in Central Park on Friday.

Akash,24, was killed by his friends Ajay and Anil after an argument over Rs2000 that Akash had given to the duo, Akash’s brother, Sonu told police.

Additional deputy commissioner of police ( South), Chinmoy Biswal, said that a quarrel took place between them, following which Ajay stabbed Akash twice on his ribs. Akash was rushed to the Trauma Centre, where he died on Monday afternoon.

“Ajay and Anil are still at large. Efforts are being made to nab them at the earliest,” said Biswal. HTC

But for that to happen, things have to fall in place in Tamil Nadu.

The AIADMK has 134 MLAs in the 233-member House – a seat is lying vacant after the death of Jayalaithaa. The majority mark is down to 117 but if Dinakaran comes good on his threat of “activating sleeper cells within the AIADMK”, the government could be in danger.

If the 18 MLAs go against it, the strength of the ruling group would be reduced to 116. Dinakaran claims to have the support of 20 MLAs. Two more rebels mean more trouble for the ruling side.

The Opposition DMK has already announced it would move a no-confidence motion as “this was not a government that people had voted for”.

Dinakaran has threatened that the government will fall if Sasikala, who is serving time in a corruption case, were to be removed from the party.

On Monday, too, the merger that has been in the works for weeks was stuck over a demand for a written declaration ousting Sasikala. A last-minute intervention by RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy ironed out the differences, sources said. The RSS is ideological parent of the BJP.

Under the new arrangement, the 66-year Panneerselvam, who revolted against Sasikala in February after being pushed out as the chief minister, will hold housing and finance portfolios. Supporter K Pandiarajan will be the minister for Tamil language and culture.

Panneerselvam will also run the AIADMK as the head of an 11-member panel that will oversee party affairs. Palanisami is the co-coordinator of the panel.

Neither leader mentioned Sasikala but senior AIADMK leader R Vaithialingam said an emergency general council meeting would be called soon to remove her from the post of general secretary.

Purohit’s bail, opposed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is probing the 2008 attack, came months after the acquittal of Swami Aseemanand and six others in the bombing of the Ajmer Sharif mausoleum in Rajasthan a year earlier.

In all, the NIA investigated seven cases in which Hindutva right-wing groups are suspects. These cases – involving attacks where Muslims were targeted -were handed to the federal agency by the previous UPA government. This is also when the NIA made most of the arrests, including that of Purohit and Aseemanand.

But many of the cases, where the accused belonged to organisations close to the BJP or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have since begun to collapse. In the Ajmer blast, more than three dozen witnesses out of 149 turned hostile or, in other words, refused to confirm to the court what they had earlier told the police and NIA officers.

The trial into the 2007 bombing of the Samjhauta Express train, in which about 70 people were killed, has also seen more than two dozen witnesses rescind their initial statements to the NIA, dealing a blow to the prosecution’s case. Assemanand, an accused in this case as well, was given bail in 2014, which the NIA did not challenge.

The NIA has not been able to arrest any absconding accused in any of the seven cases it investigated since 2014, the year the BJPled National Democratic Alliance came to power.

In 2015, NIA’s former special public prosecutor, Rohini Salian, disclosed that she had been asked to “go soft’’ on the 2008 Malegaon investigations after the BJP-led government came to power.

On Monday, the top court said it was granting bail to Purohit because of contradiction in the charges filed by Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and the NIA. A special MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act) court had earlier ruled that the Maharastra ATS had wrongly applied this law against Purohit and 10 others, including Pragya Singh Thakur who was given bail earlier this year.

Purohit’s lawyer told the court that he was gathering intelligence on groups associated with “interior terrorism”. The court asked Purohit to give a personal security of Rs 1 lakh and two sureties for the same amount. He was also asked to surrender his passport.

The NIA opposed his bail on the ground that he also faced the serious charge of waging war against the unity and integrity of the country.

All three children died between 12.30pm and 10pm on Sunday.

This comes days after the death of at least 23 children in 24 hours in a state-run hospital in Gorakhpur, allegedly because of a snag in oxygen supply. Uttar Pradesh government has denied the charges and blamed the deaths on encephalitis, but has received widespread criticism for the poor infrastructure of Baba Raghav Das Medical College, which sees hundreds of similar deaths every year.

Families of the three deceased claimed that a drop in oxygen pressure was the reason for the deaths.

“Some people here told that there was some problem in oxygen cylinders, which could be the reason behind the death. When my son died last evening why the body was not given to me till now?” asked Prakash Vishkarma on Monday evening.

State health secretary Subrat Sahoo denied the allegations but admitted to a low pressure situation in the oxygen reservoir for 15 minutes. “These deaths have no connection with the so called disruption of oxygen supply,” he told reporters.

“Around 5 pm yesterday, a doctor in the pediatric unit observed that oxygen volume level in the reservoir (main oxygen tank) was low. Although there was no disruption in oxygen supply, the doctor immediately tried to contact Ravi Chandra but he could not be reached,” Sahoo said.

But this explanation failed to impress opposition parties, who alleged that the government was trying to cover up its negligence.

“How did the authorities conclude that the kids died not because of oxygen snag when postmortem was not done? We are demanding magisterial inquiry,” Congress state chief Bhupesh Baghel told HT.

The woman was travelling to Bangkok with her boyfriend. She hid behind the burqa to throw her mother off their trail, who came all the way to the airport looking for her.

Before she reached the airport, the mother even called police and complained that her minor daughter was being lured away by a boy and they were travelling to Bangkok by a Spicejet flight.

A police team swooped down on the airport to rescue the young woman.

“We brought three of them to police station for verification. We found the woman was 19 and was travelling with her boyfriend on her own volition,” said a police officer, who questioned them.

Once they were sure that the woman was not a minor, they allowed her to travel to Bangkok with her boyfriend.

As for the mother, she could only head home.

“I cannot assume they have diverted funds until we conduct a probe,” Panda said, adding that he is hoping to get clear details from the builders at the August 25 meeting.

He also said that a private agency could be hired to find out whether builders have diverted funds and the reasons for delay. “If survey finds out the builders are guilty, then law will take its own course,” Panda said.

The authority is yet to recover around Rs 7,200 crore in land dues from defaulting builders. Builders have failed to clear land dues citing dip in sales amid slowdown in realty sector.

Among the remaining 121 builders, 52 have sought for rescheduling their outstanding land dues under the Project Settlement Policy (PSP) and 49 have applied for occupancy certificates to offer possession to buyers.

GNA has asked 20 other builders to avail help if required for completion of their projects.

“Seventeen out of the 52 have already deposited their instalments while 35 builders who want land dues to be rescheduled are yet to deposit their installments,” said Panda.

Under the PSP approved by the UP government last December, a builder can deposit part of the land dues, for instance 25%, initially, and the rest can be scheduled later.

However, the policy, which expired on June 15, has failed to address issues and the government is planning to modify it.

A committee under GNA chairman Rahul Bhatnagar will submit its report on the modifications soon.

Of the 49 builders seeking occupancy certificates (OC), 27 have submitted the required documents, Panda said, promising OCs at the earliest.

Panda also said that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is “very worried about home-buyers”.

“He has directed us to address home-buyers’ issues. Our motive is to handhold builders and helps them finish the projects. But those, who have diverted funds collected from buyers will face legal action,” he said.

DINAKARAN HAS THREATENED THAT THE GOVT WILL FALL IF SASIKALA WERE

TO BE REMOVED