Chandigarh:

At a meeting of the Punjab Police top brass here Monday, Sukhbir Badal, who is also the state’s home minister, took strong exception to unauthorised gunmen, beyond the sanctioned strength of the security wing, given to those under protection.

Badal asked Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini to ensure that all unauthorised gunmen return to their units. He said the unit commanders should certify by Tuesday that they have not given any unauthorised gunmen to anyone.

Giving a strong warning to all district police chiefs (senior superintendents of police), Badal said it was their duty to maintain command and control and to keep all police officials under discipline.

“He said that he would not tolerate collusion of any police personnel in illegal possession of property, especially of NRIs, besides lodging of any false case against any innocent. He said that he has asked the DGP to shift out all SHOs/DSPs (station house officers/deputy superintendents of police) who were posted in district since last five years,” a police spokesman said here.

“He said that no SSP (senior superintendent of police) would be allowed to take his baggage of favuorite SHOs/DSPs along with him on his transfer,” the spokesman added.

Mumbai:

“It took a lot of people to convince me that I could do this. I love performing in front of a live audience. IIFA and I go a long way back, but we were never able to come together. So I am very excited that now I am being able to do something,” Shahid, who hosted this year’s Filmfare with Ranbir Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan, told reporters here Monday.

Bipasha Basu, who will attend the event, said, “Right from the time when I was a debutant and till now, it’s been almost 10 years and I think I had a wonderful experience with IIFA. I will be performing at the event as well.”

“For the first time, we have a choreographer like Prabhu Deva. I told him some time back that I am not a trained dancer, but I am energetic. So, hopefully, he will manage to make me dance well,” she added.

Bipasha was speaking at an IIFA event held here to announce the performance line-up at the forthcoming event.

Besides Bipasha, Shahid, Mika Singh, Sonakshi Sinha and Prabhu Deva himself will entertain the audience with their performances.

Patna:

Angry over the death of nine labourers, residents blocked roads and demanded the arrest of the shopkeeper who sold the contaminated ‘sattu’ to them.

“A police team raided the shop from where the labourers purchased ‘sattu’, but the shopkeeper ran away and is missing,” a police official said.

Four labourers were in hospital in a critical condition. “All four are battling for their life,” the police official said.

The labourers purchased ‘sattu’ from a shop in a village and ate it Monday afternoon, he said.

“Soon after consuming it, they complained of stomach ache and their condition deteriorated. They were admitted to hospital,” the official said, adding that nine deaths had been confirmed.

The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

The compensation of Rs.1 lakh each for the kin of the victims was announced by the state government.

Shimla:

The 22-year-old tourist , who also met senior police officers, claimed that she knew the accused and they had been in touch on social networking site Facebook

Superintendent of Police Ashok Kumar told IANS the police have got a medical examination of the girl done but report was awaited.

“The investigations are going on and we have recorded the statement of the victim and she claims that accused was a Chandigarh resident, and had fled after the incident as both had also stayed in a hotel at Kasol, 42 km from Kullu town.

The foreigner had met the accused Sami Sardana only two days back at a festival in Kasol.

The tourist told the police that she had a severe headache and eventually got a room booked at a hotel.

She fell unconscious after having some medicine given by the accused. Next morning, she found herself naked in a hotel room and Sardana had already fled.

Kumar said police teams have been sent to different places to search for the accused.

Madurai:

Addressing the party’s state conclave here, Advani said that the party can take credit for ensuring bi-polar polity in the country and the achievement was a result of systematic planning by the party leaders and workers.

In her address, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said that the parliamentary delegation led by her to Sri Lanka recently has served its purpose.

She said that the visit of the parliamentary delegation was not a junket and the apprehensions of some policitical parties were misplaced, regretting the decision of AIADMK and DMK to pull their members out of the delegation at the last minute.

She said the delegation had free discussions with the internally displaced people in the island nation and also told the Sri Lankan government to solve the problem politically.

New Delhi/Mumbai:

“We have sacked 26 more pilots. We are ready for talks, negotiations but we will also not tolerate this kind of illegal action which will permanently hurt the airline’s image,” a senior Air India official told IANS.

The flag carrier had sacked 26 pilots on Tuesday and derecognised their union – Indian Pilots Guild (IPG).

The Delhi High Court attempted to restore operations and issued restraining orders on pilots from going on strike. The flag carrier had moved the court against the agitating pilots.

Trouble started when pilots belonging to IPG, of pre-merger Air India pilots, had gone on mass ‘sick’ leave protesting the move by the airline to provide Boeing-787 Dreamliner training to pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines. The stir caused four international flight cancellations each on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the airline had to cancel three international flights from Delhi and one from Mumbai.

“Till now in the day, four flights have been cancelled, including New Delhi-Singapore, New Delhi-New York, New Delhi-Frankfurt and Mumbai-Newark,” the official said.

“We have called in reserve pilots and other flights are operating per schedule. Passengers are being updated about their flight status.”

Sources in the pilots union claimed that the disgruntled aviators had reached out to the chief labour commissioner’s (CLC) office. The IPG is likely to discuss the issue and the sacking of its senior pilots at a meeting later Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh slammed the agitation calling it illegal. “There are certain ways of even going on strike. The pilots may have grievances but they should have spoken to the management, to me and other well wishers.”

“How can they (pilots) go on strike when Air India is on the path of recovery and when it is not out of the woods,” he asked.

Ajit Singh further said that while in an earlier order the Delhi High Court had upheld the contention that the erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots cannot be trained on the Dreamliner, the Supreme Court had vacated the stay.

“How can the protesting pilots expect the government to go against the Supreme Court?”

Currently training for the first batch of pilot and crew members for the 787 is going on in Singapore. An aircraft like 787 requires around 10 pilots for operating a full day’s schedule or a connecting long haul flight.

Air India had booked 27 Boeing 787s in 2006 in a mega deal for 68 aircraft from Boeing. The first of the 27 Boeing 787 aircraft which were ordered in 2006 for IPG cadre pilots before the merger in 2007 is expected to join the fleet at the end of the month.

Air India is only the third global airline after All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines to receive the fuel-efficient and eco-friendly aircraft.

New Delhi:

In a statement, the PMO said its attention has been drawn to a news story published in Chauthi Duniya.

“The allegation that General Bikram Singh or his wife is related to the Prime Minister or any member of his family is completely untrue. This is a scurrilous, irresponsible and mischievous statement,” it said.

The statement said “other newspapers or media outlets should not reproduce or repeat the baseless story.”

Chandigarh:

A police spokesman said that the kingpin of the gang, Michael, a resident of south Delhi’s Ambedkar Nagar, has been arrested. His gang was involved in incidents of theft of laptops, bags and other valuables from parked vehicles on the highway (NH-1) around Karnal, 120 km from here.

“Michael has confessed that his gang has stolen a laptop and valuable documents from the white Ford Endeavour car of cricketer Harbhajan Singh which was parked in front of the Cafe Coffee Day shop on the highway on Dec 22, 2011,” the spokesman said.

The gang included four members, all youths from Delhi. Two other gang members, Sanjay and Ashish, have also been arrested while two others are on the run.

The Haryana police had constituted a special team to prevent thefts of parked vehicles on the busy Ambala-Delhi highway near Karnal.

The spokesman said that the youth used to travel from Delhi to Karnal to commit theft on parked vehicles.

Gurgaon:

Rachit alias Raju, 20, a care taker of Suparaana Ka Aangan was taken into police custody for allegedly sexually harassing several girls in the age group of 8 to 15 years.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East), Maheshwar Dayal told IANS: “After the confirmation of sexual harassment of minors, we have registered a case against NGO activist Rachit.”

Police have registered a case under the Indian Penal Code along with sections of the Juvenile Justice act. “Rachit was detained in the afternoon and later arrested late evening. We are questioning Suparaana Sethi, president of the NGO,” said a police officer.

The NGO Suparaana Ka Aangan arranges education classes for under-privileged children in sector 52 of Wazirabad here.

More than 60 students used to attend the classes organized by the NGO.

Lucknow:

According to police, a first information report (FIR) was lodged against Verma, a senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader, Wednesday night at the Hazratganj police station on charges of duping the sportsmen of several thousand rupees.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Lucknow Ashutosh Pandey told IANS that a case has been registered against the former minister and two of his aides under section 406 of IPC – breach of faith.

He added that Verma had collected Rs.20,000-25,000 from 20 sportsmen across the state.

According to police, the money was taken to organise a Twenty20 Uttar Pradesh Premier Cricket league. The money was deposited but no matches happened.

After receiving the complaints, a probe was ordered. Following the completion of the investigations, the FIR was registered.

The complainants had also met Chief Minister Akhikesh Yadav Wednesday and were assured all possible help.

Verma has been known for his proximity to the party supremo Mayawati. He has held important portfolios such as parliamentary affairs in successive BSP governments in the state.