Massacre of 11 people of Indian origin in Port of Spain

Bounty on Guyanaese Indians’ killer

Port of Spain: The government of Guyana has offered a reward of $150,000 for fugitive Rondell Rawlins, who is believed to be behind the massacre of 11 people of Indian origin last Saturday. 

     An official of the Guyana Police Tuesday confirmed that Rawlins, a former soldier of the Guyana Defence Force, was on the run and all efforts were being made to capture him dead or alive. 

      There are reports that he is dead, but police cannot confirm this. Guyanese of Indian origin are in a state of shock since the Saturday massacre of the 11 people in Lusignan village, about 15 km from capital Georgetown. Most residents of the village are of Indian origin. 

     Police believe that Rawlins, who belongs to the Buxton community that is dominated by Guyanese Blacks, is behind the murder of the people. 

     The Buxton community is known as the hotbed for racial strife, killings and protests against the Indian-led government. And Rawlins had last week allegedly threatened mayhem if the Georgetown Criminal Investigations Department (CID) failed to find his pregnant 19-year-old girlfriend, who has gone missing. 

      The ethnic Indian community has launched protests, condemning the government for failing to offer them safety and security. President Bharrat Jagdeo has sought assistance from the United States and other developed nations to provide more aid to the country’s impoverished security forces.
 
     The roughly 3,000 police officers and 2,000 soldiers of the country are ill equipped to handle the threat posed by increasingly brazen gangs.

Kidney sale by desperate parents

     Patna: At a time when an international kidney sale racket on the outskirts of Delhi is making headlines, the impoverished parents of a toddler suffering from blood cancer in Bihar say they are willing to sell their kidneys to raise money for his treatment.

     Amarjit Rai and his wife, residents of Shahpurpatori in Samastipur district, about 100 km from here, are desperate to sell their kidneys to save their only son, Sunni, who has blood cancer.

     They have been roaming the streets of Samastipur looking for prospective buyers over the past few days. They require Rs.250,000.

The couple is desperate. “Sir, I am ready to sell my kidney for the treatment of son,” Rai told IANS.

He left his native village along with his wife and son last week to hawk his kidney for money in the state capital.

“Our kidneys are up for sale. But we will sell them for not less than Rs.250,000,” Rai said. A landless farmer, Rai was working as a rickshaw-puller in Delhi till last year to earn a livelihood for his family.

Rai said his son developed health problems after a quack (doctor) in Delhi administered some medicine that had expired.

“Since then, my son has been ill and when we consulted the Delhi-based Hindu Rao Hospital for treatment, the doctors told us that he was suffering from blood cancer,” Rai said.

Doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital as well as those in Patna said the treatment was costly and “would not be possible without money”.

“I returned from Delhi along with my family because life in the capital was expensive. I made efforts to raise money, knocked on all doors but everything failed. Now I have no option but to sell a kidney for my son’s treatment,” Rai said.

Like thousands of poor people in rural Bihar, Rai migrated to Delhi in search of a livelihood and worked as a rickshaw puller. But he was forced to return to his native village after his son was found suffering from blood cancer.

Rai’s son Sunni was admitted to the children’s ward of the Sadar Hospital in Samastipur Monday for treatment and doctors assured him of help.

“They promised to arrange for a medical loan of Rs.25,000 for initial treatment. But it will not meet the cost of treating blood cancer,” Rai said.

(The author can be contacted at imran.k@ians.in) 

SC grants succession right to live-in partner

SC grants succession right to live-in partner  

Ruling Despite Man’s Wife Being Alive  

Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN  New Delhi:

     Setting a precedent, the Supreme Court has granted succession certificate to a woman after the death of the man she was living with and despite the fact that his legally-wedded wife was alive. 

        This gives a new twist to the concept of live-in relationship. In the past, the court had repeatedly shown inclination to assume valid marriage between a man and a woman who lived together as husband and wife for ‘long years’ without specifying the inheritance rights of the woman in such a relationship.

        In this judgment, the court gave succession certificate to the live-in partner on the ground that the children born out of the relationship were legitimate disregarding the fact that the man had a legally-wedded wife, who never lived with him.

        One Vidyadhari had lived for a long time with Sheetaldeen and gave birth to four children from him. After the death of Sheetaldeen, Vidyadhari claimed succession certificate on the basis of her being mentioned as the nominee by him in the provident fund and life insurance policies.

        After the death of Sheetaldeen, both Vidyadhari and his legally-wedded wife, Sukharna Bai, filed petitions before a Madhya Pradesh trial court seeking right of succession to his properties.The trial court rejected Sukharna Bai’s claim, but the high court reversed the decision saying there was no evidence to substantiate Vidyadhari’s claim that there was a customary divorce between Sheetaldeen and his legally-wedded wife. After reaching this finding, the HC had held that Sukharna Bai alone was entitled to the right of succession and not Vidyadhari. 

        An apex court Bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and V S Sirpurkar came to the rescue of Vidyadhari and said though the HC was right in reaching the conclusion about subsisting marriage between Sheetaldeen and Sukharna Bai, it was wrong in denying succession certificate to Vidyadhari for the purpose of collecting provident fund and life insurance amounts.
   Whatever be the status of Vidyadhari, there was no doubt about the legitimacy of the four children born out of her relationship with Sheetaldeen, said Justice Sirpurkar, who wrote the judgment on behalf of the Bench.

       “No doubt Vidyadhari herself claimed to be a legal heir which status she could not have claimed, but besides that she had the status of a nominee of Sheetaldeen. She continued to stay with Sheetaldeen as his wife for a long time and was a person of confidence for Sheetaldeen who had nominated her for his PF, life cover scheme, pension and amount of life insurance and other dues,” he said.

Congress MP on camera assaulting police

Cop attack: Bhadana PSOs suspended

     New Delhi: Two Delhi Police constables deployed as Personal Security Officers (PSO) of Faridabad’s Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana have been suspended after it was learnt that the PSOs allegedly assaulted Delhi Police inspector Vimal Kumar on Sunday night at Taj Mansingh Hotel.

      The MP Bhadana too has been caught on camera assaulting the police officer when he was stopped by him while handling the security of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. 

        The police CCTV footage obtained from the hotel staff showed Bhadana assaulting Kumar along with his men. He was joined by men in Khaki and other people when they were assaulting him.

      The two constables, identified as Vishnu Dutt and Vinod Kumar, have been placed under suspension. ‘‘It has also been learnt that there were four more security officers from Haryana police who were present with Bhadana and all of them had assaulted Kumar.

      The CCTV footage has been seized and will be used as evidence,’’ said a senior officer.
   A case under has been registered at Tughlaq Road police station. TNN

A TRUE HERO

A TRUE HERO  

Singh Happy With Noble Act, Rues Labourer’s Death  TIMES NEWS NETWORK  New Delhi:

      Would you risk your life for a stranger? The thought did not even cross 20-year-old Happy Singh’s mind as he jumped into a 12-ft ditch in Malviya Nagar to save the life of a labourer working on a sewer line there.
   On Wednesday morning, Singh was at home when he heard a commotion of men screaming and women crying for help.
   Said Singh: ‘‘When I heard everyone shouting that a boy had fallen into the pit, I just jumped into it. I didn’t even have the time to think of the consequences. If someone is in need of help, how can you turn your back on him? I did just what I would expect anyone to do for me, if I was in such a situation.’’
   Singh, who stays with his parents in H-block, helps out in the family’s jewellery business. Residents of the area said that this was not the first time that the 20-year-old had risked his life for a stranger.
   As Satyapal Gulati, RWA president of the area, pointed out: ‘‘There was an accident in our colony sometime back. Happy was the first one to pitch in with help. He rushed the injured boy to the hospital. We are all very proud of him. Very few people would have the courage to risk their lives like this.’’
   Singh, who suffered minor bruises while trying to rescue 20-year-old Ashok Kumar, has just one regret that the labourer could not be saved. Once inside the pit, Singh had started out by digging the mud under which Kumar lay buried.
   He was helped by the policemen, who came 15 minutes later, and the fire fighters who had by then arrived at the scene.
   Said Singh: ‘‘I am just sad that I couldn’t do more for the labourer and Kumar passed away. It is unfortunate that no lessons are learnt by government agencies even as people continue to get hurt by falling into open ditches. A few days ago, another labourer had fallen into the pit and hurt himself.’’
   toireporter@timesgroup.com

MCD: Negligence bordering upon criminal carelessness

New Delhi:

Negligence bordering upon criminal carelessness on the part of civic agencies and contractors hired by them led to the death of a labourer in Malviya Nagar on Wednesday — 20-year-old Ashok Kumar fell into a 12-ft sewer which he was digging along with 14 other labourers.

     Forget safety equipment for workers, there was not even a rope at the site to pull him out of the ditch. And precious moments were lost waiting for the fire-fighters to arrive with help.
   Residents of H-7 block said this was not the first time that someone had fallen into the under-construction sewer and hurt himself — as there were no barricades — but that obviously had not served as a wake-up call for the contractor laying the sewer line for the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).

        Said RWA president Satyapal Gulati: ‘‘Ten days ago, a labourer had fallen into the sewer and hurt himself, while another one had injured his eye. No barricades had been put up around the pit to prevent people from coming near the area and no safety equipment had been provided to workers.’’

        Said Ajmer Singh, elder brother of the deceased: ‘‘After the first mishap, we were all scared to work, but the contractor forced us to work. We had no option. Not even a rope was provided to pull my brother out of the pit.’’ The fire brigade arrived an hour after the accident and a rope was provided by them to pull Kumar out. 

        It was only after Kumar’s death that barricades were finally put up around the pit. The police have arrested the contractor, Atam Prakash, for causing death due to negligence. However, the loss of life could have been easily avoided if it wasn’t for apathy of officials concerned.

     Said Gulati: ‘‘We had complained several times to DJB officials about the risks involved in carrying out digging without putting up proper barricades, as anyone could have fallen into the pit. Even earlier, a little boy had fallen into one such pit being dug up by DJB in the area. In that case, the work was at least completed the next day.’’ 

         Said Bhupinder Kaur, a resident: ‘‘I have two small children and I don’t let them play unsupervised, as they might fall into the pit. It is sad that no value is attached to a person’s life. Though we had approached various agecies, nothing was done in terms of precautionary measures.’’
   Even the councillor of the area had apparently alerted the DJB about the risk posed by the open sewer. Said councillor Mudita Gupta: ‘‘After the incident, I tried contacting DJB officials, but to no avail. I even tried getting in touch with them months before, looking at the security risk the open pit posed, but got no response.’’

        Work on the sewer line had begun one and a half months ago after residents of H-8 and H-12 blocks complained of contaminated water flowing out of their taps. The dirty water was causing various ailments among the elderly and children. The DJB had hired a contractor to lay the sewer line. When contacted after the death of the labourer, its officials were quick to pass the buck.

      ‘‘Since the work was contracted out, we are not responsible for providing safety equipment. We have not received any complaints from residents of the area,’’ said a DJB official. 

        As for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), they were quick to point out that they had not granted permission to DJB to carry out digging in the area.

     On their part, the DJB official said: ‘‘We have not got any formal letter from MCD to carry out work here, but we have paid them about Rs 4 lakh as road and restoration charges. Normally, in cases where the financial implication is not huge, informal permission is taken from MCD.’’
   

Unified Traffic and Transportation Centre

     THE UNIFIED Traffic and Transportation Centre set up by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has finally become operational.

     The centre – set up following the direction of Delhi lieutenant governor Tejendra Khanna – will coordinate with different civic agencies who are in the process of planning or implementing over a dozen transport projects in light of the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

      “The centre will help in better coordination between different agencies so that various projects are implemented fast and in a time bound manner. At present there are so many different agencies like MCD, PWD, NDMC, DMRC and NDMC involved in various transport projects that coordination has become a problem. This centre will be the unified apex coordination body,” said a DDA official.

     The DDA Board approved the setting up of the Centre in December 2007. “The centre will not only be responsible for preparing inventory of corridor wise traffic and transportation issues, traffic management strategies and enforcement guidelines but will also develop protocols and norms for signages, street furniture, lighting, signals, hoardings, roadside landscape, zebra crossings, pedestrian passages, commuter facilities,” said a senior DDA official.

      The agencies with whom the traffic centre will coordinate includes MCD, PWD, NDMC, NHAI, Traffic Police, DTC, DMRC, Delhi Integrated Multi-modal Transport Services, Ministry of Surface Transport, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Civil Aviation, airport Authority of India, Central road Research Institute, Centre for Science and environment and School of Planning and Architecture (SPA).

      The centre is headed by Delhi L-G and will have DDA vice chairman and senior officials from the agencies concerned as its member

Court wants ambulance service free of cost

     IN A significant patient-friendly order, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the centre and the Delhi Government to take steps to make ambulance service free of cost.

      The HC also took serious exception to the misuse of ambulances in government hospitals and dispensaries and delay in carrying out post-mortem examination by hospitals. Justice VB. Gupta gave orders while dismissing an appeal filed by a bus owner convicted of rash and negligent driving and ramming a Maruti can A woman was killed, while three of her family members were injured in the accident.

     Justice Gupta said: “In the hour of grief, little solace can be provided to the family of the deceased by the authorities concerned by ensuring that at least post mortem is conducted as early as possible and the ambulance service is provided to the victim or injured free of cost. It is hoped that the respective government would take necessary steps in this regard.” Varun Goswami, the lawyer who had filed a PIL in the court complaining about the misuse of ambulances, welcomed the court’s direction.

      “Considering the number of accidents occurring in Delhi, ambulance operators should not be allowed to exploit the poor and needy victims. I have been making repeated requests to the court, which only left it to the government and market forces. In that context today’s observations are landmark.”

     ‘Do not delay post-mortem’ Justice Gupta noted that the plight of family members is worse in case a person dies in a road accident.

     “The culprit is bailed out then and there and he happily goes back to his family, whereas the family members of the deceased undergo trauma and torture at the hands of police and hospital authorities and they run from pillar to post to get the postmortem done. It takes hours and sometimes days to conduct postmortem of a victim. This situation should change,” said the court. harish.nair@hindustantimes.com

NRI: Indian Students Feeling Insecure in US

     NARESH RAMMOHAN, a “firstgeneration ABCD” and a student of New York’s Syracuse University, is disturbed after the murders of three Indian students in the US in the last five weeks.

     “I feel very insecure with the recent tragedies and I know my parents worry more than I do,” he said. “The Louisiana slayings in December opened my eyes. I admit that even in this day and age, people of colour, in general, may be the targets for heinous crimes.”

     Then came the death of Abhijeet Mahato, the 29-year-old PhD student at Duke University Naresh’s sense of shock reson- ates with a large number of Indian students across US campuses.

     “The Indian community at MIT is shocked to hear about the recent crimes against graduate students of Indian origin,” Aditya Undurti, president of Sangam, an Indian students’ association at MIT, said.

      At Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, the recent killings have brought back memories of last year’s bloody carnage that claimed 32 lives – two of Indians. “Abhijeet Mahato’s killing has shocked everyone in the US, especially the Indian community because we are a peace-loving community,” says Rohit Rangnekar 

      ROBBERY IS being seen as the motive behind the murder of Abhijeet Mahato, the 29-yearold Indian PhD student at Duke University. Mahato was found dead by friends on Friday when his cellphone did not respond to calls. He had been shot.

      The theft theory was buttressed by two incidents of robbery in the Duke University area on Sunday night. In both cases – one reported by a university student and the other by an employee – an African-American man, 5 feet 8 inches tall, brandished a gim and robbed them. Both incidents took place off the campus. Abhijeet’s apartment, where he was found dead, was also outside the Duke premises.

     His family has authorised a friend, a professor in Michigan University, to fly to Durham, North Carolina, to help arrange for the body to be flown to India. Two Indian embassy officials, Sanjay Sinha and Alok Pandey, went on Monday to Durham for the same purpose. Larry Moneta, the vice-president for student affairs at Duke, has been quoted as saying that “it seems to be a case of robbery”. He said there was no evidence this was a race crime.

     “Mahato had no enemies,” he said. Moneta also said there had never been any racial incidents involving Indians in Duke.

      There are about 200 Indian students and 20 faculty members of Indian origin in the university The murder of two Indian doctoral students at Lousiana State University in December is being seen as a hate crime

      ”What else can I say about myself, except that I am the son of my parents, brother of my sister and brother-in-law of her husband?! And I have a cute and naughty nephew. Even that would be equally lame introduction. This webpage has not reached its final stage. I am trying to improve it as and when I got the time and idea. I have not yet found a proper subject for the page… This is how Abhiject Mahto described himself on his webpage.

NRI: Another student killed in USA : North Carolina

      A STUDENT from Jharkhand doing research in an engineering college in the US was found shot dead at an apartment complex in the second incident of gun violence against Indian students in five weeks in that country .

     The body of Abhijeet Mahato (29), who was doing his PhD in computational mechanics at the Dukes Pratt School of Engineering in Durham, North Carolina, was found by his friends on Friday, his grandfather Dhananjoy Mahato said on Sunday .

     The body was noticed around 11.30 pm local time on Friday in the 1600 block of Anderson Street, several blocks south of the Duke campus. Durham police was quoted as saying that they do not yet know the motive.

     Dhananjoy, a former MLA, said he would ask the government to make arrangements for bringing home the body after post-mortem on Monday .

     In an earlier case On December 13, two Indian doctoral students from Andhra Pradesh were found shot dead in Louisiana State University campus at Baton Rouge.

    Third in a month, Indian PhD student killed on US campus  Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN  Washington:

     Yet another Indian doctoral student has been shot dead — the third in a month — on a US university campus, raising questions about the safety of the American academic environment. 

   The bullet-riddled body of 29-year-old Abhijit Mahato was found inside his Anderson Street apartment in North Carolina’s Duke University on Friday, nearly a month to the day after two other Indian PhD students were killed execution-style at Louisiana State University.
   Police are still investigating the cause and motive for Mahato’s killing, even as the December 17 LSU murders are yet to be solved.

        Mahato, originally from Tatanagar in India, was studying for an engineering doctorate degree focused on computational mechanics at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, university officials said. He was in his second year. 

        Earlier, he had earned his mechanical engineering degree from Jadavpur University in 2001 and an MTech from IITKanpur in 2004. Before coming to Duke, Mahato worked for two years for the GE Global Research Center in Bangalore, where he focused on finite element analysis, a computer-simulation technique used in engineering. The experience prepared him for his graduate work, according to Mahato’s adviser, professor Tod Laursen.

        ‘‘We were working together on an industry-funded research project and Abhijit’s prior industry experience helped him develop close working relationships with our partner,’’ Laursen said. ‘‘He understood their needs as a business and was a pleasure to work with.’’

        Even as the incident sent shock waves among the huge Indian student community in the US, the biggest from any foreign country, Duke officials tried to reassure the students. 

          ‘‘This is a tragic circumstance, and we are doing everything possible to assist those who may be affected by it,’’ Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said in a statement issued by the university.

        Some 80,000 students come to the US each year for studies and the total Indian student population in the US is said to be over 250,000 at any given time. 

        Duke is one of the biggest campuses in the US with a racially and ethnically diverse student population (from 117 countries). The university’s Pratt School of Engineering is particularly popular among Indian students.  

Fond of ‘adda’, he was popular  TIMES NEWS NETWORK  
   Humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them…. I am one of them and I don’t repent my choices” That’s what Abhijit Mahato has to say about himself on a social networking site.
   The 29-year-old, who had joined the social networking site looking for friends, has a number of photographs of himself on the album: showing him enjoying a hearty meal at a restaurant, dressed in a traditional kurta with friends. There’s always a smile on his face. Now only memories of that smile remain. Abhijit was found shot dead in his apartment at Durham in North Carolina. He was pursuing a PhD at Duke University.
   His “testimonials” from friends describe Abhijit as affable and helpful. “A person who is good at heart and always ready to help friends in need,” says a friend.
   “One would be really blessed to have him as a friend for all of his qualities makes him a real human, with humanitarian values and morals,” says another. Others remember him as someone fond of “adda” and with a vast network of friends. He also had a quirky sense of humour. This is how he described his job — “making sense out of nonsense”.
   His list of favourite movies names Satyajit Ray classics like Agantuk and Goopi Gyne Bagha Byne as well as Raging Bull and Hotel Rwanda. His profile mentions that he loves Chinese, but most of all food cooked by his mother at home.
   The last few scraps (notes) in his scrapbook are a pointer to how popular he was. As news of the death spread, friends started writing in, their messages fervent pleas wishing him the best and hoping that the terrible news they had heard was not true. Later, the refrain becomes a common “may your soul rest in peace”.

 

Dec 13, 2007: Louisiana State University Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma (31) and Kiran Kumar Allam (33), two PhD students from Hyderabad, were found murdered at the latter’s apartment on the university campus. Police could not dig out a clear motive.
   
May 7, 2007: Texas A&M University, Kingsville Bodies of Pravesh Kumar and Vijay Mahadvan were found in a swimming pool in an apartment building in Kingsville, Texas. Both were graduate students of the university. Police said it was an accident, but suspicions linger.
   
April 16, 2007: Virginia Tech University

First-year architecture student Minal Panchal and Professor G V Loganathan were among the 32 gunned down by Korean student Seung Hui-cho in the worst campus massacre in US history.