‘Inspector’s murder was accidental’

Additional director general (Meerut zone) Prashant Kumar said the man, identified only as Jeetendra alias Fauji, was mentioned as one of the 27 accused named in the FIR on charges of murder and rioting. “His role is being investigated,” he said.

A senior officer privy to the investigation said the man had gone missing after the incident. His family reportedly claimed he was on leave and had returned to the place of his posting in Jammu.

His mother, Ratan Kaur, told television channels that the police raided their house, beat up his wife, and damaged household goods and the car. “If any evidence like a picture or a video emerges showing he killed the policeman, then I will kill him myself,” she said.

The officer said officials of the army man’s unit in Jammu had been contacted, but that he (the army man) remained untraceable.

An army spokesperson confirmed that the UP Police contacted the Northern Command and were assured cooperation; the spokesperson also added the “details would be released by the UP police at appropriate time after positive identification”.

The police have filed two FIRS – one in the mob violence case and the other over the alleged cow slaughter. In the first case, 27 people have been named, including the prime suspect, absconding Bajrang Dal office-bearer Yogesh Raj, who has claimed innocence over video and said he was never present at the spot.

A second suspect, local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shikhar Agarwal, also released a video on Thursday blaming Subodh Singh for the violence and claiming he wasn’t present when the shots were fired. Five more people were arrested in the mob violence case, inspector general (crime) SK Bhagat said on Friday. With this, the number of arrests in the case has gone up to nine.

Initial probe revealed both Subodh Singh and Sumit Kumar, who was allegedly a part of the rampaging mob, were shot dead by weapons of the same .32mm bore but whether those were fired from the same weapon would be known only after the report from the forensic lab was received. new list.

“It was on the basis of this committee’s recommendations that three public and three private institutions were chosen for the institute of eminence tag earlier. Today, the panel has given a list of an additional 12 names for public and an equal number in the private category to be selected as institutes of eminence,” the official cited above said on the condition of anonymity.

Iit-madras, Iit-kharagpur, Delhi University, Jadavpur University, Anna University, BHU, Tezpur University, Aligarh Muslim University, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Punjab University, Andhra University and the University of Hyderabad were the 12 picked for the ‘Institution of Eminence’ tag in the public sector. Indian Institute of Science (IISC), Bengaluru; and the IITS in Mumbai and Delhi had earlier been selected for the tag.

Among private institutions, the remaining nine the panel chose were Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bengaluru; Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi; Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar; Azim Premji University, Bengaluru ; the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru; Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar; Ashoka University, Sonipat; OP Jindal University, Sonipat; and the Satya Bharati University in Haryana.

“In the report submitted today, the panel has explained the reasons for choosing the institutions. It has looked at their managements, kind of research undertaken and also the financial resources while making its recommendations. For Greenfield projects, availability of land was a key aspect,” a second official said.

The panel, apart from Gopalaswami, included management guru Pritam Singh, Renu Khator of the University of Houston and Tarun Khanna of Harvard University.

The report of the panel is expected to come up for discussion at a meeting at the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Monday. The UGC will then forward the report to the government. conference.

Bengal is a focus state for the saffron camp that has set itself the target of wresting at least 22 out of the 42 Parliamentary seats in the state. Banerjee has vowed to win all 42. In the 2014 elections, the BJP could win just two of the Lok Sabha seats in the state and, two years later, won three of the 294 seats in the assembly polls.

Shah was to flag off the BJP’S Gantantra Bachao (Save the Republic) yatra from Cooch Behar on Friday, but the administration denied the party permission on grounds that it may disturb law and order in the region. The BJP had planned the three so-called ‘rath yatras’, covering most of the 42 parliamentary seats and 294 assembly constituencies in West Bengal over the next one-and-a-half months.

Jurapani area within Dhupguri police station limits in neighbouring Jalpaiguri district turned into a battlefield on Friday afternoon when Cooch Behar-bound BJP supporters clashed with the police. The additional superintendent of police of Jalpaiguri district was also injured. The clash ensued when policemen blocked the way of buses carrying BJP workers and moving towards the spot of a public meeting about 4 km from Cooch Behar town. A total of 20 policemen were injured, said an officer at Dhupguri police station who did not want to be named.

“I have been to West Bengal 23 times after 2014. Several union ministers and even the prime minister has addressed a public meeting. Let Mamata Banerjee show even one case where the law and order situation was disturbed after our rally,” Shah said.

Shah claimed the BJP had written to the home secretary and the director general of police on October 29, seeking permission, but they did not act. The party, he said, sent reminders even on November 5, 12 and 20. Separate letters were sent to the police chief on November 14, 20 and 23.

Mounting a scathing attack against the Banerjee government, he also alleged that the state led in the number of political killings in the country.

“She is losing sleep over the BJP’S expansion in the state,” he said. “In a state where one used to hear Rabindra Sangeet earlier, now we hear bomb blasts,” he said.

Shah also offered Mamata Banerjee some unsolicited advice. “She didn’t ask for it... yet I will give her some advice... Stopping the BJP yatra will not help her but will only make peo- ple more angry,” he said.

Trinamool Congress leaders refused to comment.

The division bench of Justice Somadder and Justice Arindam Mukherjee began hearing the matter at noon. The bench asked the advocate-general why the administration sat tight on the letters written to it by the BJP so many days ago.

Lashing out at both the state government and the BJP, Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), Lok Sabha MP and politburo member Mohammed Salim said, “One the one hand is the BJP, a party that murdered democracy in Tripura, talking of democracy. On the other, a state government that fails to take strong and timely decisions, paving the way for courts to intervene.”

“We don’t support the divisive agenda behind the rath yatra. At the same time, we cannot support the government dragging its feet and taking all political matters to court,” said Pradip Bhattacharya, working president of the state Congress and Rajya Sabha MP.