Delhi court...

The report highlighted the alleged sexual assault on minor inmates there.

Thakur, who ran the NGO Sewa Sankalp Evam Vikas Samiti, and seven others were arrested on June 3, 2018. In July that year, the Bihar government recommended an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which filed its charge sheet by the end of 2018 and named 21 people. One of them is absconding.

According to public prosecutors, the court in Delhi’s Saket, which heard the case on the Supreme Court’s directions, examined 69 prosecution witnesses and 20 defence witnesses during the trial.

The judge also held the convicts guilty of different offences from abetment to criminal conspiracy to causing hurt, and relevant sections of the POCSO and Juvenile Justice Acts. Rosy Rani, the former additional director of the district child protection unit under the social welfare department, Bihar government, was found guilty of not reporting the offence.

As the judge pronounced his order around 2pm, many of the convicts and their family members broke down in the packed courtroom. “I have not committed such shameful acts on the girls. You are sending me to jail for these acts. I will commit suicide inside the jail,” Ravi Roushan, a former member of the Child Welfare Committee said, alleging that the probe was not carried out properly.

The judge asked his counsel to console him. “You can approach the higher court against this judgment. It is your right,” the court said.

Thakur’s counsel, Pramod Kumar Dubey, said he would appeal. Advocate Gyanendra Mishra, who represented Verma, too, said he would challenge the order.

Soon after the scandal came to light, 44 inmates of the shelter home were shifted to other such facilities in Patna, Mokama and Madhubani. Their statements alleged rampant sexual abuse and raised suspicion of possible murders.

In its charge sheet, CBI said some employees of the shelter home coerced children to wear skimpy clothes and made them dance to “dirty” songs. Before the assault, children were administered injections that would make them fall unconscious, the agency said.

Amid nationwide outrage, the Supreme Court took note of the case, and ordered in October 2018 that Thakur be shifted to a jail in Patiala so that he could not influence the probe. In February 2019, the top court ordered that the trial be shifted from Patna to the POCSO court in Delhi.

In a political fallout of the scandal, Manju Verma, then Bihar social welfare minister and a former leader of the state’s ruling Janata Dal (United), resigned from her post on August 8, 2018, after it emerged that her husband, Chandrashekar Verma, had links with Thakur.

CBI officials dug up a cremation site close to the shelter home on October 4, 2018, and found parts of human skeleton. Last May, the agency told the Supreme Court that Thakur and his associates were suspected to have killed 11 girls.

Earlier this month, it told the top court that 35 girls believed to have been murdered were found to be alive, and that the agency had not been able to find any evidence regarding the alleged murders in the shelter home.

A political war of words broke out in Bihar soon after the verdict. Former chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Rabri Devi said the government led by Nitish Kumar owed an apology to the shelter home girls. “The tears of the helpless girls will not go waste,” she said.

Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav alleged that Thakur was a “disciple of CM Kumar”. “...Why was [then minister] Manju Verma ousted? What happened to the other NGO officials...,” he tweeted in Hindi.

Senior JD(U) leader and minister Neeraj Kumar rejected the allegations, and said: “The government ordered social audit of shelter homes across the state. It lodged an FIR and asked for a CBI inquiry...it also asked for the court-monitored inquiry into the case.”

Senior Congress leader Prem Chandra Mishra said the court’s verdict was a victory of truth. “However, justice to the victim would not be complete until all persons, who extended patronage to the kingpin, and those in power who indulged in a cover-up...are penalised,” he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prem Kumar, who is the agriculture minister, said the verdict had sent out a strong signal that people involved in such kind of crime will not be spared.

Modi said.

Shah was earlier joined by senior party leaders, including Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, and several functionaries from state units, in filing nominations in support of Nadda.

The process of electing the national president was undertaken after organisational polls were held in 21 states. The proposal for Nadda’s candidature was made by these 21 states and the parliamentary party. He takes over from Shah, who was appointed as full-term president on January 2016.

On Monday, Shah said: “Heartiest congratulations to JP Nadda on being elected the national president of BJP. I believe that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and JP Nadda, BJP will become stronger.”

Nadda was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students’ wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He joined electoral politics in the 1980s. He later worked alongside Modi in the 1990s. During the first term of the Modi-led government, Nadda served as the Union health minister.

The Prime Minister also used the occasion to hit out at political rivals protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. He said the parties that were rejected by people were left with few weapons, and were spreading confusion and lies.

“Those rejected by the people have limited means but one of them is to spread falsehoods. They have a full ecosystem for that. BJP karyakartas have always drawn their strength from the people of India. We do not need to seek validation an ecosystem that will never accept us,” the PM said.

“…There are some people who dislike the very principles which guide us. That is why there are attempts to create problems. For them, the problem is that the people of India are with us. These are the same people rejected by the people of India.”

Referring to his party’s structure, Modi said the BJP is not a temporary party or political arrangement, and that it is inspired by its ideals.

Shah, too, launched an attack on the Opposition. He said unlike the BJP, other political parties in the country follow a dynastic policy.

“The BJP stands apart in India because it does not function on casteism or nepotism. If you look at other parties, every party is family-based and is promoting their own people. Only BJP promotes every worker based on sheer quality and love for motherland,” Shah said.

(With inputs from PTI)

being detected, the official added.

The department has also written to the ministry of external affairs (MEA) for details of all visas sought from Wuhan since December 31, 2019, the official added. “As for e-visas, the ministry of home affairs is being approached,” this person said.

Representatives from the foreign ministry did not respond to requests for a comment.

Adding to the difficulties of containing the virus, hundreds of millions will be travelling domestically and abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday that starts this week. This is also the time when most foreign students travel back to their countries during this time of the year.

The outbreak appeared to widen as officials in China said the virus has spread to more cities, including the capital Beijing and Shanghai, while the number of patients more than tripled and a third person died.

Zhong Nanshan, director of China’s State Key Laboratory of Respiratory Disease, said transmission between humans was behind at least one confirmed case in Wuhan – a city that was connected to at least 95% of the cases — and also infections in two families in south China’s Guangdong province.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday the country will focus on curbing the spread, state television reported. “People’s lives and health should be given top priority and the spread of the outbreak should be resolutely curbed,” it quoted Xi as saying.

The confirmation of person-toperson transmission is worrying because it could accelerate the spread of the virus, which, until now, was believed to be purely zoonotic (spreading from animals to humans).

The virus belongs to the same family of coronaviruses as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people globally during a 2002-03 outbreak that also started in China.

Its symptoms include fever and difficulty in breathing, which are similar to many other respiratory diseases and pose complications for screening efforts.

The WHO also said that the situation was still evolving, and preliminary investigations suggested link to a seafood market in Wuhan.

“Coronaviruses are highly infectious and very prone to mutation; it’s difficult to predict their behaviour. Since it is an acute respiratory tract infection, its spread is easy and fast. However, India doesn’t need to panic as of now,” said Dr Ekta Gupta, senior microbiologist at a Delhi government-run hospital.

With the infection spreading to other countries such as Japan and Thailand, India on Friday issued a travel advisory asking passengers to maintain personal hygiene such as hand washing, and follow respiratory etiquettes such as covering mouth when coughing or sneezing.

“…one should avoid contact with live animals and consumption of raw and undercooked meats. Also, as far as possible avoid travel to farms, live animal markets or where animals are slaughtered,” Indian authorities advised passengers travelling from the region.

According to the health ministry official quoted above, hospitals attached to the seven airports that have incoming flights from Chinese cities has been reviewed for provisions of isolation and critical care facilities. “Immigration officers manning the counters have been sensitised at these airports,” the official said.

An official from the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute of Virology in Pune confirmed there has been no sample lifted of any suspected case for testing so far.

“There is no evidence of human to human transmission as of now. It appears to be a new zoonotic Corona virus, and the current pattern suggests that the new strain isn’t as virulent as H1N1 that broke out in 2009. However, we are prepared to investigate if necessary,” said the official. of the entire country. And you all know what happened after that,” the prime minister said.

To emphasise the need to soldier on even in adverse conditions, Modi also gave instances straight from the cricket field. He referred to the epic partnership between Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman who in a Kolkata match took India to victory from a hapless situation. In 2001, following on and staring an innings defeat against Australia in the face, the two stitched a 376-run partnership that eventually took India to victory. Modi also mentioned Anil Kumble bowling with a broken jaw. In Antigua in May 2002, Kumble , his jaw broken by a bowler in the previous innings, bowled with a bandage and even took Brian Lara’s wicket in a performance the great Viv Richards said was “one of the bravest things I have seen in a field of play.”

The prime minister also had some advice for parents. Groom your children through encouragement and not pressure, he said.

Good marks in exams are not everything even though they are important, he told the students. “We have to come out of the thinking that exams are everything.”

Modi also chose to dwell on technology addiction. Understand technology but do not become its slave, he said. “Just check how much of your time is stolen by your smart phone,” Modi said, asking students to observe a technology-free hour everyday. They could spend this time with grandparents or in other activities, he added.

HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank welcomed the prime minister at the event.