Apex court nod to clean up Red Fort

New Delhi (PTI): The Centre on Monday received the go-ahead from the Supreme Court to remove all encroachments in the Red Fort, whose restoration and renovation has been questioned by a litigation alleging that it was not up to international standards.

A bench of Chief Justice V.. Khare and Justices A.R. Lakshmanan and S.H. Kapadia passed the order, granting attorney-general Soli J. Sorabjee four days to consult all concerned parties on the constitution of a high-level committee to supervise the conservation and restoration work at the 17th century Mughal monument.

Sorabjee submitted that the government had been unable to remove encroachments inside the fort because of an earlier oral order to maintain status quo.

A public interest litigation filed by Rajeev Sethi had alleged that the Red Fort was being endangered because of shoddy restoration work carried out by a team from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Appearing for the petitioner, counsel Akhil Sibal contended that the ASI had neither drawn up a blueprint for the restoration efforts nor kept any record of the work completed so far.

However, when he alleged that the Centre was not accepting the names suggested by the petitioner for inclusion in the committee, Sorabjee said a PIL could not be used as a weapon to include the names of certain individuals in the committee.

SC notices in Nitish Katara case

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government on a petition filed by Neelam Katara seeking reappointment of S.K. Saxena as special public prosecutor in the case relating to the murder of her son Nitish.

Nitish Katara was murdered allegedly by politician D.P. Yadav’s son.

A bench of Justices K.G. Balakrishnan and B.. Srikrishna issued the notices after hearing Neelam’s counsel, who alleged that the special public prosecutor was removed at the crucial juncture when the main witness, Yadav’s daughter Bharati, was to be examined.

Reposing faith in the special public prosecutor, the victim’s mother alleged that Saxena was removed half-way through the trial because of “political” reasons.

The murder trial was transferred from Ghaziabad to Delhi on the orders of the Supreme Court when Neelam complained that the accused, Vikas Yadav, and his father wielded considerable influence there.

Police had alleged that Vikas had objected to Nitish’s closeness to his sister Bharati at a wedding reception in Ghaziabad and murdered him.

Crystal study pioneer dies

Bangalore (PTI): Professor S. Chandrashekhar, known as a pioneer in liquid crystal research, died here on Monday of cerebral haemorrhage, family sources said.

The 73-year-old scientist is survived by his wife, a son and daughter.

Chandrashekhar, a student of Nobel laureate Sir C.V. Raman, was associated with the Royal Institute of England. He initiated research on liquid crystals in 1961 and later founded the Centre for Liquid Crystal Research here. He won several awards, including some from the prestigious Royal Society.

TN terror law plea

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a batch of petitions by Tamil Nadu government challenging the jurisdiction of the Central Pota Review Committee to go into the legality of the arrests under the anti-terror law, reports out legal correspondent. MDMK leader Vaiko, Tamil bi-weekly Nakkeeran editor Nakkeeran Gopal and six others had been arrested under the anti-terror law. A division bench of Justices S.. Variava and H.K. Sema dismissed the petitions, observing that it was the duty of the review committee to go into the grounds on which an individual was arrested under the stringent provisions of the anti-terror law.

Rape on Holi eve

New Delhi (PTI): A businessman has been arrested on charges of raping a Fijian girl here on the eve of Holi. Police said Abhinav Kocchar, 28, allegedly raped the 19-year-old after offering to drop her home on Saturday night. A court on Monday remanded Kocchar in judicial custody.

Phoolan killer aide

New Delhi: Delhi police have arrested one more person for meeting Phoolan Devi’s alleged killer, Sher Singh Rana, in Tihar Jail under a false identity, reports our special correspondent. Sunil Agarwal was picked up by Delhi police’s special cell from Roorkee in Uttaranchal on Sunday. He is the third person to be arrested in connection with Rana’s February 17 escape from the high-security jail. Sandeep Thakur, who posed as a constable of Delhi Armed Police’s 3rd Battalion to get Rana out of Tihar on the pretext of producing him before an Uttaranchal court, and Vikram, the prisoner’s brother, were arrested on February 28.

Celebrating World Women’s Day, Air-India operated its first flight to Singapore via Delhi (AI 470) with an all-woman cockpit crew. Capt. Rashmi Miranda, who became Air-India’s first woman commander last year, and Capt. Kshmata Bajpai piloted the flight.