SC helps widow get back girl

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of a widow from Punjab whose in-laws had been depriving her of her daughter’s custody to grab her property.

The attempts of the family to divest Nirmaljit Kaur of the property and keep the child away failed after a DNA test established that they were not producing the real daughter of the widow, forcibly taken away from her eight years ago.

The court has directed the family to produce the girl before it on January 6. “The result of the DNA test is now crystal clear that the child produced before this court is not the real child of Nirmaljit Kaur and her real child is in the custody of her in-laws,” it said.

Kaur, whose husband Surinder Singh Batra had died in 1997, had alleged that her in-laws had forcibly kept her daughter Simran whose whereabouts was not known since 2000. She also accused them of fabricating the will of her husband.

Driver killed in Babri protest

Kasaragod (PTI): A tanker lorry driver was killed when a group of people, observing a strike on the 13th anniversary of the Babri mosque demolition, pelted stones at the vehicle near here on Tuesday.

Sheen, 25, who was travelling from Thrissur to Mangalore, received severe head injuries in the attack around 3 am. He lost control of the lorry and rammed into a roadside tree, police said.

While the driver died on the spot, the cleaner of the lorry escaped with injuries.

Security was beefed up in the area and several other sensitive parts of the district after the incident.

Racial bias

London (PTI): An NRI has won a racial discrimination case against the Glasgow city council in Scotland that refused his promotion in favour of a less qualified woman five years ago.

The court said both Kuldip Dhesi and his colleague, Zimbabwe-born Clarence Bvunzai, were victims of racial bias and refused promotion.

Killer son

Baghpat (PTI): A youth allegedly bludgeoned his parents to death and then set himself on fire over a land dispute at a village in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. Shailender, 26, attacked his father, mother and brother with a blunt object when they were sleeping. The injured brother has been hospitalised.

Holy dip

Tirupati (PTI): About two lakh devotees took a dip in the Padmasarovar temple tank at Tiruchanur on the last day of the annual Brahmotsavam festival on Tuesday. The entire border belt in Jammu and Kashmir is being given a facelift to encourage border tourism. Suchetgarh, on the zero line, is coming up as a model village to attract tourists.

The entire border belt in Jammu and Kashmir is being given a facelift to
encourage border tourism. Suchetgarh, on the zero line, is coming up as a model village to attract tourists.