Sikh teen cooked up hair snip tale

london (PTI): A 15-year-old Sikh schoolboy, who had alleged that his hair were chopped off by a gang of four near his home in Edinburgh, has told police he concocted the story as he was experiencing certain personal problems.

The boy has now said he cut off his own hair, punched himself in the face and concocted the story, the Observer weekly reported on Sunday.

Scottish police have confirmed it and said the boy had expressed deep regret for the consequences of his action.

It is understood that no further action would be taken and the teenager would not be reported for wasting police time.

The boy’s allegation had attracted attention and condemnation from Sikh leaders from several countries.

Indian in ‘black magic’ cry

Karachi (PTI): An Indian settled in Peshawar has accused her neighbours of duping her of jewellery worth Rs 9 lakh by using “black magic” and of attempts to frame her in a kidnapping case.

Sheela, who hails from Bangalore, got married to a Pakistani 14 years ago in Dubai.

She said Palwasha, 19, who used to run a beauty parlour, visited her to show her some ornaments in November. “The moment I took those ornaments... I was under a spell of black magic... they ordered me to bring all my jewellery and give it to them, which I did,” she said.

She lodged a complaint against Palwasha, his mother and a few others after coming out of “the spell 12 hours later”.

Sheela has alleged that instead of helping her, police were “being pressurised” to register an FIR against her for kidnapping Palwasha.

Siachen fire

New Delhi (PTI): Two army officers were killed in a mysterious fire that destroyed a forward post in the Siala area on the Siachen glacier, sources said.

Major Sudhir Chikara of the Dogra Regiment and Captain Arun Shankar, a doctor at the post at over 20,000 feet, died in the fire. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

Virtual varsity

New Delhi (PTI): The UGC has proposed the setting up of a virtual university, which does away with the concept of classrooms and offers interaction with teachers via television and makes available study material on the Internet. Exams, too, would be conducted online.

Information rap

Ahmedabad (PTI): Gujarat BJP legislator Atul Patel, the chairman of a public trust, was fined Rs 25,000 for not giving information on the use of funds under the Right to Information Act, sources said.

A 100-foot-long sand sculpture of Santa Claus has been created on a Puri beach by sculptor Sudarshan Pattnaik, who worked 40 hours non-stop and used 1,000 tonnes of sand to make it.