“We have filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, pleading for the transfer of the case to CBI as we are not happy with the progress made by local police,” Balsame Sangma, the victim’s elder sister, told reporters.

Dana, an MBA student, committed suicide in her hostel room April 24 after she was allegedly humiliated for cheating in an exam.

Balsame Sangma said her sister was subjected to a “different treatment”. However, when her father took up the issue with the university, Dana was told to concentrate on her studies.

“She had called our father a couple of times about being treated differently but she said she will manage it,” Balsame said.

Victor D. Sangma, a relative, said Haryana Police were favouring the institute.

“Dana’s family members were not allowed to enter the university and her body was removed from the hostel room before her local guardian arrived. This raises several questions,” Victor D. Sangma said.

He said that police had refused to share details of the case with the family members and urged Home Minister P. Chidambaram to take a tough stance on the matter.

The notice on the gate of a graveyard says bodies from other localities will be allowed to be buried here. It also says there is no permission to build 'pucca' graves

HYDERABAD
(IANS) “Mar ke bhi chain na paya to kidhar jayenge? (If there is no peace in death, then where will I go?” This Urdu couplet from Ibrahim Zauq aptly sums up the problem of the dead in Hyderabad.
In this booming metropolis, where thousands struggle for a place to live in, even death offers no solution. Rapid urbanisation, burgeoning population, escalating land prices and shrinking graveyards due to encroachments have virtually left no place to bury the dead.
Some graveyards have already hung “no space available” boards while others are refusing to allow the burial of “outsiders” or those residing in other localities.
The burial in any graveyard costs no less than Rs.10,000. Those attached to dargahs are charged anywhere between Rs.15,000 and Rs.50,000 for two yards. Still, in places such as Yousufain dargah at Nampally in the heart of the city, it comes for a whopping Rs.100,000.
Non-allocation of land for new graveyards, encroachments on existing ones, construction of concrete tombs by people and a high demand for burial grounds attached to dargahs have only compounded the problem.
The issue has religious, social as well as economic aspects. Some people consider it sacred to be buried near the tomb of a saint. It was due to such beliefs that the demand for such spaces increased and some custodians started taking advantage of the situation.
The management officials of some graveyards, however, justify the collection of money.
“We have only rocks left in the graveyard, hence we ask people to pay for the expenses we incur in clearing the rocks. This amount works out to anywhere between Rs.5,000 and Rs.6,000 for each grave. We also accept donations,” Mohammed Jahangir, secretary of the management committee at Jamia Masjid on A Battery Lane, told IANS.
The committee displays a board saying the graveyard is not for the burial of those from other localities. But people from several localities come here with recommendations from MLAs, Wakf board chairman and others. “They even fight with us,” said Jahangir, who has been heading the committee for 42 years.
The management committee has fatwas from Islamic seminaries which say after a grave turns old, one can dig it up to bury another body. However, people don’t allow this and even build concrete structures on graves.
Wakf board chairman Syed Ghulam Afzal Biyabani alias Khusro Pasha, however, says people are not coming forward to complain against ‘mutawallis’ (custodians) charging money. “We will definitely take action in such cases,” he said.
“The mutawallis tell us they have to collect the money to protect and maintain graveyards. We agree that charging Rs.2,000 to Rs.4,000 is fine, but it should not be more than this,” he told IANS.
“We are doing our best to address the space crunch by identifying new lands at a distance from the city,” he said.
“This problem is not of the Muslim community alone. Even Hindus and Christians are finding it difficult to cremate or bury their dead,” said Syed Amin Jafri, legislator of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM).
He pointed out that the number of graveyards or cemeteries has not increased in proportion to the population over the last four to five decades. From just 1.25 million in 1971, the population has gone up to 7.7 million.
“The problem is reaching an alarming level. Unless the government intervenes and provides land for new burial grounds the issue can’t be solved,” said Jafri.
“The government should allot 100 to 150 acres of land about 40 km away from the city for free burial,” said Syed Vicaruddin, chief editor of Urdu daily Rehnuma-e-Deccan. He blames encroachments on hundreds of acres of land belonging to the Wakf board for the present crisis.

The shattered vehicle in which the three judges were travelling

NEW Delhi

(IANS) Protesting the attack on three judges by bike-borne men in yet another incident of road rage in the capital, lawyers in all the six district courts of Delhi Friday observed a one-day strike, paralysing legal work, a lawyers’ body said.
“We condemn the attack on three judicial officers of Saket court complex,” said Kuldeep Sehrawat, chairman of the district courts bar association coordination committee.
What will be the condition of common masses, he asked, when city judges are not safe, he asked.
Madan Lal, president, Saket Court Bar Association, said government must provide proper security to judicial officers. He said that one of the arrested person involved in this case was also named in four other cases.
The strike paralysed the work at all six city courts– Saket, Patiala House, Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini and Dwarka.
Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Garg, Additional Sessions Judge M.K. Nagpal and Additional District Judge Inderjeet Singh were attacked by four young men on two motorbikes Thursday.
Metropolitan Magistrate Ajay Garg and driver Chaman Lal were hospitalized with head injuries after the bikers rained bricks on their windscreen soon after the judge’s car grazed one of the motorcycles, toppling two men.
The incident occurred at Dakshinpuri when the judges were returning home from the nearby Saket court, police said.

Anti Posco leader and former legislator Narayan Reddy

BHUBANESWAR
(IANS) A former Odisha legislator who was arrested in connection with clashes near the Posco steel plant site in Jagatsinghpur district last year was released on bail Friday, an official said.
N. Narayan Reddy, a Communist Party of India leader who represented Chhatrapur assembly constituency from 2004 to 2009, was arrested Dec 24 for his alleged role in the Dec 14 clashes in which one person was killed.
The court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class at the block headquarters town of Kujanga, about 120 km from here, granted a conditional bail to Reddy on the basis of a direction from the Odisha High Court.
As soon as the news of his release spread, hundreds of anti-Posco villagers converged near the Kujanga jail premises and gave him a heroic welcome.
“Police had framed me in false case to weaken the anti-Posco agitation. We will continue our protest against the project,” Reddy told reporters outside the jail after his release.
Reddy was arrested in connection with clashes between workers and local villagers that erupted after hundreds of villagers did not allow workers to carry out the construction of a road in the region.
The 10-km coastal road will help authorities speed up work for the South Korean steel major Posco’s $12 billion project for a composite steel and power plant, the country’s largest foreign direct investment.
Reddy was heading the villagers’ anti-Posco movement after protest leader Abhaya Sahu was arrested in November on various charges.

ollywood actor and Trinamool Congress MLA Debasree Roy seeks the blessings of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a National Rural Livelihoods Mission programme in Kolkata

KOLKATA
(IANS) Many women saw themselves in her. Trinamool Congress firebrand Mamata Banerjee, always clad in a simple cotton sari and slippers, gave rise to huge hopes when she took charge of West Bengal a year ago.
But incidents of crime against women increasingly highlighted by the media in the past one year of her rule as well as Banerjee’s casual response has many women questioning her priorities.
As in other states, crime against women was a problem in Bengal too though Kolkata was considered relatively safer as compared to other metropolises. But it is the off-the-cuff remarks by Banerjee, a single woman with no family of her own, that have drawn the most flak.
The frequently reported instances of rape in the state had the National Commission for Women (NCW) come calling to Kolkata to meet Banerjee.
It sent a missive to the government after a study pointed out that West Bengal recorded the second highest number of rape cases in the country and the rate of increase in the reported cases was twice the national average the past year.
Banerjee’s description of two rapes — on Park Street in Kolkata and at Katwa in Burdwan — as “fabricated” shocked many, said activist Anuradha Talwar, who was Banerjee’s comrade in the campaign against Tata’s Nano plant in Singur.
At the height of the movement, Tapasi, a teenager, was allegedly raped and murdered within the fenced-up Tata Motors site in 2006. The Trinamool chief had then stood rock solid by the victim’s family and pointed fingers at the Marxists for the crime.
Her reaction was quite in contrast after coming to power. Banerjee got flak for dismissing the Park Street rape when a victim was an Anglo-Indian woman. In Burdwan, one woman was raped earlier this year.
The chief minister ate her words after police arrested the alleged offenders.
The Park Street victim, who earlier accused the administration of being insensitive, however, praised Banerjee.
“I have been getting a lot of help from the government. I think she is doing a good job as a woman administrator,” the victim told IANS although she kept mum when asked if the city was safer for women.
Calcutta University professor Ishita Mukherjee said: “Forget about our expectations, she has not even been able to provide minimum security to women.
The report by NCW claimed that the rape victims included girls from the age of seven to women of 72 years.
Many working women now fear staying outside their homes late at night.
Banerjee also seems to have lost some of her appeal as a mass leader.
“We thought she was one of us. We believed in her promise of ‘parivartan’ (change). But it seems she is like all other politicians who make hollow promises,” said domestic maid Lakshmi Maa.
Some feel the feisty leader deserves more time.
“She has initiated many welfare schemes. Moreover, a year is too short a time to evaluate,” said professor Bonita Alleaz of Calcutta University.
Well known social activist Medha Patkar said: “Expectations from her are very high. Hope she can deliver.”

UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW
(IANS) Calling for stringent action against Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders found involved in graft, the Uttar Pradesh Congress Friday told the Samajwadi Party government that merely digging out corruption cases will not help.
Admitting that the Akhilesh government was doing service by bringing out scams that took place during the previous BSP government, Congress leader Siraj Mehndi said it would have been better had the government expedited action against corrupt officials and BSP leaders.
“It has been more than two months since this government came to power, but other than digging out corruption cases of the previous government, no tangible action has been taken by the government,” he said.
He pointed out that in the probes conducted by Lokayukta Justice N.K. Mehrotra, very strong cases were made out against several ministers and BSP legislators.
He also said that delay in follow up action against such tainted politicians would severely damage the “war against corruption” launched by the Samajwadi Party government.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

Friday appealed to the Mumbai Cricket Association to reconsider its five-year ban on the Bollywood actor from entering Wankhede Stadium for alleged misbehaviour.
“I appeal (to MCA); please reconsider the decision,” Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.
Khan, the co-owner of Indian Premier League (IPL) team Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and West Bengal‘s brand ambassador, had allegedly misbehaved with security personnel and MCA officials at the stadium Wednesday night.
Banerjee said she did not want to interfere in the matter and requested the media not to distort her comments because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
“Maharashtra is the capital of India in terms of business. From Sachin (Tendulkar) to Shah Rukh, they are very close to us. I don’t know if it is appropriate for me to comment on the issue,” she said.
However, she added: “Shah Rukh Khan is our brand ambassador. There is an emotional thing attached to it. He went there with some children.”

All India IIT-JEE topper Arpit Aggarwal celebrates his success at his school in Faridabad

NEW DELHI
The results for IIT-JEE, the joint entrance examination for the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, were declared on Friday with Arpit Aggarwal from Delhi topping the test.
In all, 4,79,651 candidates appeared in the examination held in April 8. “Of the total candidates,
24,112 have secured ranks in various categories and 19,426 have been shortlisted for counseling for admission to 9,647 seats in the IITs and other institutes,” JEE chairman GD Reddy said.
He said the counseling website will be open to the shortlisted candidates from today and all of them are expected to fill up their choice of courses up to 5pm till June 10.
For the first time this year, the scanned images of the answer script were shown to the candidates between May 8 and May 10 to help them submit online revision requests.
This year, of the total 1,50,431 girls appeared in IIT-JEE, 2,886 have secured ranks and the first 1,908 have been shortlisted for counseling.
Apart from the IITs, IT-BHU, Varanasi and ISM Dhanbad accept JEE scores for admission.