Muslims question Bhojshala order

Jabalpur (PTI): A group of Muslims have filed a writ petition in Madhya Pradesh High Court challenging the order of the Centre and the state government to open the controversial Bhojshala shrine every Tuesday for worship by Hindus.

The 85-page petition contended that a mosque could not be used for any other purpose according to the principles and tenets of Islamic law.

“But Union of India and superintending archaeologist along with Madhya Pradesh government... arbitrarily and capriciously attempted and ostensibly converted the said mosque into a pujaghar and also without the consent and concurrence of the Muslim denomination of Dhar, so that with the passage of time the character of the said mosque could be converted to a different desired goal and purpose inconsistent with its long-standing existing character,” the petition said.

Challenging the Madhya Pradesh government’s April 7 order, the petition said it was “bad in law to permit Hindu community to a right of access and, therefore, deserved to be annulled”.

The petition said the government order constituted “not only a flagrant violation of the Indian Constitution but also utter transgression of Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act of 1958 and of Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991”.

The petition was filed two days back and is yet to be listed for preliminary hearing.

Woman suspect in pistol theft

New Delhi (PTI): Almost three weeks after a pistol handed over by Pakistani troops during the 1971 surrender mysteriously disappeared from the high-security national museum here, Delhi police seem to have got a crucial clue from a close-circuit TV recording.

The TV footage, watched by officials of police and navy, allegedly showed a woman opening the screws of the small glass case in which the pistol had been kept, police sources said. The woman’s face, however, was not visible, they added.

Three police teams, they said, have been sent to Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana in the case.

The pistol, displayed in the navy gallery of the museum here, went missing on June 28.

Initially believed to be the one handed over by the then eastern sector commander of Pakistan Army, Lieutenant General a.a.k. niazi, it later turned out that the missing pistol was the one handed over by a commander of Pakistan Navy during the surrender.

Karishma case judgment

Calcutta: A Calcutta High Court division bench of Justices A. . Ray and J. Banerjee started delivering the judgment in the copyright infringement case between Barbara Taylor Bradford and Sahara Manoranjan, on Wednesday, says a staff reporter.

The appeal court is hearing the case after Justice M.H.S. Ansari’s June 30 ruling that vacated the earlier stay order and gave the channel the go-ahead to beam the serial from July 7.

Life sentence to 12

Chinsurah: An additional district judge awarded life sentences to 12 men, including a former CPM panchayat pradhan. They were found guilty of murdering a physically challenged youth in 1995. According to trial records, Sukumar Ghosh from Hooghly was beaten to death by 14 youths, led by Nemai Ghosh, the pradhan of Rishra. One of the attackers was acquitted, the rest were sentenced for life.

Singer found dead

New Delhi (PTI): Kashmiri singer Gulam Nabi Sheikh, who had gone missing on Monday while on a train journey from Jammu to New Delhi, was found dead near Mookeria railway station in Punjab. Sheikh, aged about 50, was a programme executive with Prasar Bharti’s Radio Kashmir and had boarded the Shalimar Express at 8.45 pm on Sunday.

Editor jailed

Mumbai (PTI): Jayashree Khadilkar Pandey, editor of a Marathi newspaper, on Wednesday surrendered before Bombay High Court in keeping with a verdict which found her guilty of contempt for publishing articles against Justice b.. srikrishna who had probed the 1992-93 communal riots. Jayashree, editor of Navakal, has been remanded in custody for seven days.

Street school

Sonepat (pti): A government primary school of Idgah colony has been functioning on a street since July last year because of the lack of a building. Students are forced to attend classes in the open on the street as the authorities have so far failed to provide any building for the school. The state government had opened the school in 1993 for students of a minority community.

A fortnight-long festival of ayurveda has been launched in London to highlight the various aspects of this ancient Indian system of medicine. Gopi Warrier, chairman of Ayurvedic Company of Great Britain, inaugurated the festival at Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan.