HC brakes on Siachen sentence

New Delhi (PTI): Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained the army from confirming the sentence awarded to Major Surinder Singh, who was found guilty by the general court martial of faking encounters with the enemy on the Siachen glacier.

?The sentence awarded to the petitioner (Major Singh) shall not be confirmed till further orders by this court,? a bench of Justices D.K. Jain and H.R. Malhotra said.

The order was passed after additional solicitor-general P.P. Malhotra told the bench that the Centre will not confirm the proceedings of the general court martial against Major Singh till further order.

The court issued notices to the defence ministry and army authorities, asking them to file replies within two weeks and fixed February 15 for further hearing.

Major Singh, a Gorkha Rifles officer, was dismissed from service and sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment on December 21 after he was found guilty of all charges by the court martial held in Jodhpur in August-September last year.

He has approached the court for a stay on further proceedings with regard to the confirmation of findings and sentence awarded to him during the pendency of his petition and also sought the records of the proceedings.

Father kills children

Hyderabad: Police are hunting for a man suspected of strangling two infants and leaving them to be devoured by scavengers to take revenge against his wives reports our correspondent.

Dilip Kumar, a 36-year-old tribal, had married two sisters, Sravanti and Manjula, and had three children by them. One had died two months ago because of illness.

The marital life of the factory worker, who lived at Alwal on the outskirts of the city, turned turbulent following the loss of his job two years ago. His wives threw him out for beating them and getting involved in drunken brawls.

Dilip Kumar?s anger was building against his wives as he wanted to live with them but they always refused to do so. Last Sunday, he kidnapped his two children, strangled them and left their bodies in a deserted place.

After a futile search throughout the night, the mothers gave up hope and filed a complaint against their husband. The half-eaten bodies of the children were found by the rail track half-a-km from their houses.

Telgi let off for funeral

Pune (PTI): The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act court on Tuesday allowed prime accused in the multi-crore fake stamp paper case, Abdul Karim Telgi, to attend the last rites of his mother who passed away in Belgaum in Karnataka on Monday.

Special judge S.M. Shembole also allowed Telgi?s brother Azim and nephews Tabrez and Parvez, also accused in the case and in judicial custody in the Yerawada Central Jail, to attend the funeral.

Amte stable

Nagpur (PTI): The condition of veteran social worker Baba Amte, who complained of sudden pain in the chest on Monday, is stable, family sources said. Amte, 91, suffering from a chronic heart ailment, was also down with fever.

LPG racket

New Delhi (PTI): Police busted a racket of illegal filling and sale of LPG cylinders and arrested three persons. Balvinder Singh, Deepak and Satbir Singh were picked up from Najafgarh area while filling domestic gas in commercial gas cylinders. As many as 108 cylinders were seized.

Petrol pumps

Jammu (PTI): Police team sealed 45 illegal petrol pumps in Rajouri district and arrested six operators for defying the district magistrate?s orders to stop the illegal business. Tanks and pumps belonging to the operators were put under lock and key.

Timber seized

Jammu (PTI): Police seized 100 timber sleepers worth over Rs 70 lakh and arrested a smuggler in Rajouri district. Abdul Aziz was smuggling the timber from the Ghambir Moghala forest area when he was intercepted by the police, official sources said.

Bank robbery

Jaipur (PTI): A gang of armed robbers looted Rs 22 lakh from a bank at Mania in Dholpur district. The motorcycle-borne robbers looted the money from the cashier of a Punjab National Bank branch, superintendent of police Hemant Priyadarshi said.

Sixty two students from Doda and Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir have embarked on a Rashtriya Rifles-sponsored 14-day educational tour of the country. They will visit Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Delhi.