Air traffic officers in dock for strike

Mumbai (PTI): For the first time in the country’s aviation history, four air traffic controllers will face trial on the charge of endangering passengers’ lives by resorting to a work-to-rule agitation in 1999.

Fixing the trial for June 29, the special court of Roshan Dalvi has issued notices to the four officials. A fifth accused died in the five-year period.

The accused — P.. Bahuguna, M.K. Sinha, P. Srinivas and S. Gupta — have been charged with offences under the Separation of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation and the Indian Penal Code. They were charged with Section 3(a) ib of the Separation of Unlawful Acts and Sections 120-b, 283, 290, 291, 341 and 342 of the IPC read with Section 34.

Pilots, airlines, industrialists and politicians had filed complaints against the air traffic controllers who went on the work-to-rule agitation for a fortnight in January and February 1999. Taking evidence of air traffic control tapes on record, the government booked them under the special laws, which could attract life imprisonment.

An FIR was lodged with airport police and deputy commissioner of police M.L. Singsit conducted a probe and filed a chargesheet running into more than 650 pages.

The court framed charges against them but the accused challenged it in Bombay High Court which dismissed their plea. An appeal was submitted to the Supreme Court which also rejected it.

Special public prosecutors M.V. Kini and Rohini Salian will conduct the trial which begins on June 29 when the prosecution will submit a list of witnesses.

Indian held for Sharjah murder

Dubai (PTI): An Indian has been arrested in Sharjah for allegedly murdering a Sri Lankan housemaid and dismembering her body in several parts, police said.

The murderer, whose identity has not been revealed, had been living with the woman for the last one year, police were quoted as saying by Gulf News.

The Indian man claimed that he had killed the woman for insulting Islam, the report said, adding that the man dismembered her body before stuffing them in plastic bags.

The victim, whose identity was also not revealed, is said to be in her mid 30s. Her dismembered body was found in rubbish bags in al Nasiriyah in Sharjah on Friday by refuse collectors working for Sharjah municipality. The woman had a housemaid’s visa and had been working in the UAE for several years.

After kulhar, it’s coir for rail

Gorakhpur (PTI): Mahavir Prasad, the Union minister for small scale, agro and rural industries, has said he would ask the railway ministry to use coir in place of synthetic foam in the seats of train coaches so that the coir industry could get a boost.

Prasad hailed the decision taken by the railway to use kulhars and khadi in trains. He also said middlemen would be eliminated from the process of getting loans to set up small scale industries.

Johar critical

Mumbai (PTI): Filmmaker Yash Johar, admitted in Leelavati Hospital on Saturday for severe chest infection, continues to be critical, hospital sources said. “Johar is still critical and in the ICU. His response to the treatment is slow,” a hospital spokesperson said.

Husband killed

Allahabad (PTI): A woman in Phulpur allegedly killed her husband following a domestic quarrel, police said on Sunday. Ajay Kumar Kindo, a resident of the railway colony, had assaulted his wife Jogha on Saturday night in an inebriated state. Fed up with the routine abuse, Jogha allegedly attacked Kindo with a sharp weapon and inflicted fatal wounds, the police said. A case has been lodged against her with Phulpur police.

Train mishap

Coimbatore (PTI): A teenaged girl was killed and another seriously injured after they were run over by a train near Peelamedu in the city on Sunday. The second girl, with head injuries, is being treated at a government hospital here, police said. The two were found lying in a pool of blood on the tracks between Peelamedu and Irugur stations. The injured girl is said to have told the police that they hail from Panrutti in Tamil Nadu. As they were short of money, they had slept on the railway tracks.

Flight delay

Leh (PTI): An Indian Airlines flight from Delhi could not land here on Sunday due to bad weather, leaving several passengers — mostly tourists to the Sindhu Darshan festival — stranded. The flight returned to Delhi and arrived here four hours later.

The Brindavan garden in Mysore is set to get a new look. A restoration plan of over Rs 5 crore is in the anvil for this beautiful garden, under which refurbishing of fountains, pathways and lighting will be taken up, the horticulture department has said.