The accused in the Hathras gang rape and murder case have written to the district police chief from jail claiming innocence in the incident and sought “justice” even as the Allahabad High Court dismissed a plea by the victim’s family seeking release from the alleged “illegal detention” of the U.P. police in their native village. Also read: Hathras case: U.P. govt. extends time for submitting SIT report by 10 days A Division Bench of Justices Prakash Padia and Pritinker Diwaker on Thursday noted that State government had already been directed to file affidavits clarifying its stand in the entire case by the Supreme Court. “In the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, judicial propriety demands that it will not be proper for this Court to entertain the present petition on merits, especially when security has been provided to petitioners 1 to 6 and other family members of the deceased victim-girl on the observation made by the apex court,” said the HC. Similar …
Vyapam scam: twists and turns
The scam involves massive irregularities and corruption in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) or MP Vyavsayik Pareeksha Mandal, abbreviated in Hindi as Vyapam. 34 deaths Noting that it will not allow even one more death, the Supreme Court transferred all criminal and death cases linked to the Vyapam scam to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a “fair and impartial” probe. The Supreme Court has ordered a CBI probe into the multi-crore cash-for-jobs scam in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board that has resulted in unexplained deaths of key accused and witnesses. A Trail of graft and gore 1982: Vyaysayik Pareeksha Mandel (Vyapam) set up to conduct entrance examinations for pro-fessional courses 2008: Recruitment tests for government Jobs also included July 5, 2009: Widespread irregularities in recruitments come to light 2009: Medical exam paper leaked; first complaint filed December, 2009: Chief Minister …
The Railways in twelve charts
The following is a graphical representation of the Indian Railways by the numbers – and the challenges it faces. The Indian Railways transported 8,397 million people last year, or over 23 million people a day. These people between them travelled 1,159 billion kilometres on Indian trains last year, which means they could have circumnavigated the earth 29 million times. They earned the railways Rs 37,000 crore last year, roughly a quarter of its revenues. More than half of the railways’ passengers – 4,500 million every year - travel on its suburban rail networks, in big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai, but it’s journeys in the rest of the country that brings in the money. The Railways are unequivocally propelled along by the poor of the country; sleeper class and second class passengers between them formed over 95 per cent of all passengers last year. They also contributed over 70 per cent of earnings from passengers. But overall, freight …
A year on, Hathras victim’s family awaits justice
The posters of gods and goddesses that adorned the walls of the inner courtyard, when this correspondent last visited, were missing. A CRPF jawan was guarding the roof of the two-room house. Another was in the thatch-roofed kitchen, perhaps heating some eatables. Outside, mounds of dung were raising a stench. A year after a Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped by four men of other caste and left bleeding in the field in the Hathras village, the family of the victim is still struggling to come to terms with the constant gaze of CCTV cameras and the presence of a posse of security men. Also Read Recognising caste-based violence against women “It feels frustrating and suffocating. We know we are safe because of them, as the incident has made us even more untouchable than before in the village, but we also want to lead a normal life,” said the victim’s father. Only a Brahmin family, he said, had agreed to till our 3.5 bighas of land and share the produce. Recalling …
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