Heads roll after Tihar escape

New Delhi: The cleansing operation continued in the high-security Tihar jail, with a deputy inspector-general (prisons) being transferred and another deputy jail superintendent suspended on Monday as a fallout of Phoolan Devi’s suspected killer Sher Singh Rana’s escape, reports our special correspondent.

DIG Mukesh Prasad was shifted as director, technical education, in the Delhi government. Devinder Singh, who has earlier held the post, will replace Prasad.

Deputy jail superintended Ved Prakash Garg, who was caught on February 13 in the company of two criminals — Satender Pal Singh alias Twinkle and Yogesh Saini alias Yogi — was suspended.

The crime branch, which is investigating the case, has already interrogated Garg for his suspected role in the escape, sources said. With this, the number of suspended Tihar authorities has come to five.

The sources said that Tihar’s resident medical officer Aruna Jain has also been transferred following Rana’s co-accused Dhan Prakash consuming phenyl inside the prison on February 20. Aruna has been asked to report to the office of the Delhi health services director with immediate effect, the sources added.

Police are conducting raids in Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal in search of Rana and his associate, who had introduced himself as a constable at Tihar.

SC raps magistrate-lawyer nexus

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday said there was a “complete” nexus between the magistrate and the lawyers in the “cash-for-warrants” scam leading to the issuance of arrest warrants against President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Chief Justice V.. Khare.

Raising a question mark over the credibility of the justice delivery system in subordinate courts, a bench of Chief Justice Khare and Justice S.H. Kapadia said the incident was an “eye-opener” and that the “cash-for-warrants” scam was not confined to Gujarat alone.

The bench took into account the second status report filed by the CBI, which is probing the Ahmedabad incident.

“The happening of the incident in Ahmedabad does not mean the malady is confined to Gujarat alone. It is happening all over India,” the Chief Justice said.

The Chief Justice, who advocated taking immediate steps to “break this nexus between lawyers and judiciary”, said he would convene a meeting of all the chief justices of the high courts to establish an internal vigilance system to keep watch on judges.

Sikander Bakht passes away

Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Kerala governor Sikander Bakht died on Monday night at the Medical College Hospital here, hospital sources said. Bakht was put on ventilator the previous night. He had been recuperating after an emergency surgery for an intestinal block on February 19.

Calligraphy

New Delhi (PTI): A Malaysian Sikh has copied out the Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib. Jaswant Singh Khosa, a 66-year-old retired security guard, took three years to complete the 1,430-page book. “What makes this copy different from the usual printed copies is that it is written in Gurumukhi calligraphy, which involves linking all the words. Moreover, every page in the handwritten copy starts and ends with the same word,” says a report by Sikhnet, an online Sikh community.

Marriage party

Nawada (PTI): The father of a groom was abducted near Biji village here on Monday. Police said unidentified assailants on Sunday night waylaid a bus carrying a marriage party and opened fire. They snatched ornaments and other valuables and abducted the groom’s father.

Bilkis case

Ahmedabad (PTI): A fast-track court on Monday rejected a CBI plea in the Bilkis Bano case to conduct scientific test, but allowed it to conduct fingerprint and footprint tests on the 12 accused. The application was rejected on the ground that the accused were “not agreeable” for the scientific tests — lie detector, narco-analysis test and identification parade.

Rebels kill 2

Hyderabad (PTI): People’s War Group activists shot dead two persons even as a hardcore extremist of the banned outfit was killed in an encounter on Monday.

Face reconstructed

Sirsa (PTI): A doctor here reconstructed the severely damaged face of a woman, injured in a road accident. Jamna Devi was on February 19 rushed to a hospital with her face and nose crushed beyond recognition. Dr V. Bhushan operated on her for eight hours to repair the face and also reconstructed her nose.

The tourism department’s “Incredible India” campaign has won the Pacific Asia Travel Association’s Gold Award. Announced by the association’s president, Peter D. Jong, in Bangkok, the award will be presented in April at its 53rd annual meet in South Korea.