Rights notice on prisoner tattoo

New Delhi (PTI): The National Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Punjab inspector-general of prisons on the alleged “branding” of an undertrial in Amritsar Central Jail.

Jail wardens allegedly tattooed yeh chor hai (he is a thief) on the back of Rocky, arrested for theft, with burning iron rods.

Taking suo motu cognisance of newspaper reports, the rights panel called for a report from the IG (prisons) within six weeks, a release issued by the commission said.

The IG has ordered a probe into the incident, the reports said.

Rocky alleged that on the night of June 30, some jail wardens pushed him out of his cell when he demanded water and other facilities listed in the jail manual.

He was later beaten up “brutally” with belts and the jail staff allegedly tattooed the letters on his back with burning iron rods, he has said.

Shilpa mother pats ‘nice’ Modi

Ahmedabad: At last there is someone who thinks Narendra Modi is a “nice person”.

The character certificate should perk up the much-reviled Gujarat chief minister. It has come from no less a person than the mother of Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty.

And he has something to flaunt, too — after all the angry calls for his scalp for the riots.

Sources said Sunanda Shetty called on Modi to seek his intervention in clearing her family’s name in an extortion case involving a Surat-based businessman. Sunanda said “it was a courtesy visit”. But the sources said she urged the chief minister to order a CID probe into the case filed in Surat against her and her husband Surendra by Pankaj Agarwal, the owner of Prafful Sarees.

Shilpa’s parents had allegedly hired an underworld gangster to extort money from Agarwal. The money, the Shettys claimed, was due to Shilpa for an ad film she had done for Agarwal’s firm in 1998.

SC sets Bilkis plea date

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has fixed July 26 for hearing a petition filed by Bilkis Yakub Rasool, a victim of gangrape during the Gujarat riots, seeking transfer of her trial outside the state, reports our legal correspondent.

A division bench of Justices Ruma Pal and Arun Kumar, which fixed the date for hearing, also directed the petitioner to serve copies of the transfer petition to the state government, the CBI and other accused in the case.

‘Bleed’ snag

Chennai (PTI): An Indian Airlines airbus arriving from Mumbai was given priority in landing on Wednesday after the pilot noticed a “technical snag arising out of a bleed problem”. Sources said flight IC 972, carrying 103 passengers, landed safely here at 9 am, 10 minutes after its scheduled arrival. “Such problems are likely to affect the cabin pressure when the aircraft flies beyond the height of 8,000 feet,” an IA release said.

Nurse shot

Srinagar (PTI): A nurse was gunned down by militants who stormed her house in a village in Budgam district on Tuesday. Four other persons, including three soldiers, have been killed in the Valley since Tuesday night with militants ambushing a security patrol in Udhampur district and triggering a powerful blast in Poonch.

Slaughterhouse

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the closure of the capital’s biggest slaughterhouse at Idgah within six months. It directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to construct a temporary slaughterhouse at Ghazipur in east Delhi.

Suicide bid

Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): Burdened with mounting debts, a family of six allegedly consumed pesticides on Tuesday. The head of the family, 65-year-old Vema Gopala Krishnamurthy, died while the rest are struggling for their lives at a hospital.

J&K forest ban

Srinagar (PTI): The Jammu and Kashmir government has imposed a blanket ban on the extraction of minor forest produce from demarcated forests in the state for five years.

The Times, London, has paid rich tributes to Yash Johar saying the filmmaker “took all the Bollywood staples and carried them to new levels of grandeur”. It said Johar saw the potential of the Indian diaspora, who wanted the same themes but better made.