HC asks for Bihar road plan proof

Patna (PTI): Patna High Court on Monday directed the Union government to certify that work on the Golden Quadrilateral in Bihar was progressing smoothly.

The court has refused to take the state government’s word that work on the Prime Minister’s dream project was progressing under “foolproof” security.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ravi S. Dhavan and Justice Shashank Kumar Singh directed the central government, through the secretaries of the Union home and surface transport ministries, to file an affidavit in two weeks on whether work on the project is progressing smoothly.

“If the central government is not facing any law and order problem, then it is all right. Otherwise, we will come back to you (the state government),” the bench said.

State chief secretary K.A.H. Subramanian, inspector-general of police, Patna, A.C. Verma and district magistrates and superintendents of police of the four districts — Gaya, Aurangabad, Kaimur and Rohtas — were present in court during the hearing.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by advocate M.P. Gupta, alleging that the killing of National Highways Authority of India project manager Satyendra Dubey last November and “bad law and order situation in the state” had put the ambitious project in jeopardy.

During the hearing, Gupta said another engineer, Amit Kumar, working on the same project, recently died in Gaya “in mysterious circumstances”.

Shahabuddin granted bail

Patna (PTI): Patna High Court on Monday granted regular bail to Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin in the alleged kidnapping and murder of a CPI-ML (Liberation) activist.

Justice P.. Yadav accepted the argument of petitioner’s counsel Y.V. Giri that there was no evidence against the Siwan MP and granted him bail.

The case had been registered at Hussainganj police station of Siwan against Shahabuddin and his four associates in the kidnapping and murder of Chote Lal Gupta in 1999.

A Siwan court had earlier denied bail to the MP in this case along with two others in which ousted Bihar police chief D.P. Ojha had ordered the investigating officer to file a chargesheet against the accused.

The bail, however, will not set Shahabuddin free from Siwan jail as he is yet to acquire bail in the other two cases.

Indians held on Russian border

Moscow (PTI): Seventeen Indians have been detained on Russia’s border while attempting to illegally cross into neighbouring Ukraine, border officials said on Monday.

Russian and Ukrainian border guards in a joint operation detected some movement and detained the immigrants in the Bryansk sector of the common border on Sunday, Itar-Tass quoted the officials as saying. Last year, 530 Asian immigrants heading for western Europe were detained on the Russian border.

Heritage sermon

New Delhi (PTI): Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani on Monday said everything should be done to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the Chandni Chowk area. Inaugurating the new building of the Jama Masjid police station, he said: “This heritage should be preserved.” He said he had accepted the invitation for the inauguration as this was a “special area”.

Bus mishap

Chamba (PTI): All 19 passengers of a bus were killed on Monday when it plunged into the Ravi at Garola, 55 km from here. The bus was on its way from Holi to Bharmaur when the accident occurred around 9 am. A three-year-old also died in the mishap. All the victims have been identified.

Cops die in crash

Jaipur (PTI): Three policemen were killed when their patrol jeep collided with a truck in Tonk district. The driver of the jeep and a constable died on the spot. An assistant sub-inspector died on the way to hospital.

Poacher in net

Madurai (PTI): A poacher and one of his accomplices have been arrested in the Saptur forest area in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district. Kutti Veerappan, who has been poaching for 15 years, was arrested during a search after a tip-off from local residents.

Youth shot dead

Sonepat (PTI): A youth was allegedly shot dead by his friend, Naresh, in a village in the district. Mukesh died of multiple bullet injuries on Sunday, a day before his marriage.

The number of vultures arriving in Jodhpur during winter has fallen drastically this year due to drought in Rajasthan last year, a member of Jai Narain Vyas University’s zoology department said. The drought has adversely affected the vultures’ reproduction, he said.