Rewari :

Despite the death of a farmer barely two months ago as he accidentally touched a hospital transformer while scaling the hospital’s outer wall, the Rewari Civil Hospital authorities have not learnt any lesson. 

With the entrance to the hospital inundated, patients continued to jump over the wall, putting their lives in danger. Sources say the district administration has installed motors near the hospital to drain out the water, but the process will take some time. 

“The hospital transformer has been barricaded and rear gates opened. Next, we plan to raise the height of outer wall,” explained Civil Surgeon Krishan Kumar.

Panchkula :
Former Investigating Officer (IO) of the CBI M Narayanan deposed before the CBI Special Court, Haryana, on Monday in the Ram Chander Chhatrapati murder case and supported the agency’s version.

He had appeared as there was an order in this regard from the apex court in view of Khatta Singh’s statement, which was important evidence regarding criminal conspiracy charge in the murder case against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. During the cross examination on Monday, former IO said he had recorded the statement of Khatta Singh, former driver of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, on June 21, 2007. After that, his statement was recorded before magistrate on June 22, 2007, where he had given evidence against Ram Rahim.

“The IO was asked whether he was aware that Khatta Singh had filed an application that the CBI wanted to get recorded his statement forcefully. He replied that Khatta Singh had told him that Dera men had taken his signatures on blank papers,” said CBI counsel HPS Verma. An application in this regard was filed at Ambala court, but it was dismissed and even the revision was dismissed.

Former driver of dera chief Khatta Singh had told the court on May 5 that he was appointed the driver of personal vehicles of the dera head during 1996-97.

On October 23, 2002, Ram Rahim had met Krishan Lal, Nirmal Singh and Kuldeep Singh in his gufa at Sirsa where they showed him the copy of the newspaper Poora Sach that had published the anonymous letter. “I was present there at that time. After going through the contents of the news, Gurmeet Ram Rahim got very angry and directed manager Krishan Lal, Nirmal Singh and Kuldeep Singh that before Ram Chander Chhatrapati (who owned Poora Sach) again publishes any other article or news in his newspaper about him or the activities of the dera, his voice be silenced forever,” Khatta Singh had told the court.

He had added that Krishan Lal then left the gufa and after sometime returned with a walky-talky set and his revolver and handed over these to Nirmal Singh and Kuldeep Singh in Ram Rahim’s presence.

According to his version, he had then left for Delhi on October 24, 2002, and by the evening, he received a call that Chhatrapati was shot at and Kuldeep Singh had been apprehended. Soon after, Nirmal Singh and Krishan Lal were also apprehended. Chhatrapati died on November 20, 2002.

New Delhi :

Congress president Rahul Gandhi Saturday said there was “clear-cut” corruption in the Rafale deal and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clear his position on the issue.

Gandhi's blistering attack on Modi during a press conference came a day after former French president Francois Hollande was quoted as saying that the Indian government proposed Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as Dassault Aviation’s Indian partner in the Rs 58,000 crore Rafale jet fighter deal.

The prime minister must clear his stand on the Rafale deal after Hollande's remarks, he said.

"Why is the prime minister silent? It is a matter related to defence forces, it is a matter related to corruption," he said.

He also claimed that various defence ministers of the NDA government have been lying to protect Modi.

Gandhi demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe and Hollande can also be called.

“We are absolutely convinced that the prime minister is corrupt... He must clarify,” Gandhi said.

“It is very important for the prime minister now to either accept Mr. Hollande's statement or state that Mr. Hollande is lying and tell what the truth is,” he said.

‘Surgical strikes’
Taking to Twitter earlier in the day, Gamdhi called Reliance Defence’s involvement in the deal “surgical strike” on the country’s defence forces.

 “The PM and Anil Ambani jointly carried out a One Hundred & Thirty Thousand Crore SURGICAL STRIKE on the Indian Defence forces. Modi Ji you dishonoured the blood of our martyred soldiers. Shame on you. You betrayed India’s soul,” Gandhi tweeted.

The report in ‘Mediapart’, a French language publication, quoted Hollande as saying recently: “It was the Indian government that proposed this service group, and Dassault which negotiated with Ambani. We had no choice; we took the interlocutor who was given to us”.

Modi had announced the procurement of a batch of 36 Rafale jets after holding talks with then French president Hollande on April 10, 2015, in Paris. The opposition party has been accusing the government of choosing Reliance Defence over state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd to benefit the private firm even though it didn’t have any experience in the aerospace sector.

Hollande’s remarks contradict the central government’s stand that Dassault chose Reliance Defence as an Indian partner to fulfil its offset obligations and that the establishment had nothing to do with it.

Jalandhar/Kottayam :

The bail plea of Bishop Franco Mulakkal, arrested by the police over allegations of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun, was on Saturday rejected.

He will be in police custody till September 24.

The 54-year-old clergyman was produced in a magistrate court in Pala.

Earlier, Mulakkal was discharged from the government hospital in Kottayam where he was admitted following complaints of chest pain, official sources said.

He had complained of pain in his chest while being taken to Kottayam Police club from the Crime Branch office in Thrippunithura in Ernakulam district on Friday night, they said.
He was under observation in the cardiology section of the Medical College Hospital for over six hours after his blood pressure shot up, they said.

Sources said the ECG and other cardiac-related tests were performed. His health condition is said to be normal.

In her complaint to the Kottayam police in June, the nun had alleged that Bishop Mulakkal raped her at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014 and later sexually exploited her on several occasions.

She said she had to approach the police as the church authorities did not act on her repeated complaints against the clergyman.

However, the bishop has denied the charges.

Two of the youths were wearing helmets, while the third’s face was covered with cloth

Hisar :
Three armed youths allegedly looted Rs2.47 lakh from a branch of Punjab National Bank (PNB) at Petwar village in Narnaund subdivision on Friday. They fired two shots inside the bank, though no one was hurt.

The police said the robbers arrived on a motorcycle in the afternoon. One of them opened fire at the entrance to the bank to scare off people. Two of the youths were wearing helmets, while the third one covered his face with a cloth. One of them opened fire at the cashier, Satish Kumar. He had a narrow escape.

The robbers asked the cashier to put money in a bag, while one of them entered the cabin of the branch manager. The entire episode took place in two minutes. They fled on their motorcycle while brandishing pistols.

A villager said employees of a nearby liquor vend chased the robbers in a vehicle. The robbers, however, managed to escape as the vehicle of vend employees got stuck in a horde of buffaloes near a village pond.

A case was registered on a complaint by bank manager Jai Singh Dahiya.

“The police have sealed roads in Baas, Hansi and Narnaund. All vehicles are being checked on these routes. The CIA branch of the police has started a hunt for the accused. They will be arrested soon,” Narnaund DSP Joginder Rathi said.