Speeding Merc hits biker in Civil Lines
Almost exactly a year after a business consultant was killed by a speeding Mercedes car in North Delhi’s Civil Lines, a similar accident involving another Mercedes in the same area on Tuesday night left a 22-year-old student injured.
The white colour Mercedes hatchback drove away after the accident. Though police have found some broken pieces of the car at the accident spot, the car and its driver remained unidentified till Wednesday.
The injured youth has been identified as Trinesh Kumar Kaim, who lives in Mori Gate. He was returning to his home on a Yamaha motorcycle from Derawal Nagar when the accident happened near Civil Lines Metro station around 10.45 pm.
The allegedly speeding Mercedes car that was arriving from IP College side took a U-turn at a traffic signal, its left side hitting Kaim’s motorcycle. Kaim fell down even as the Mercedes sped away towards under Hill Road.
Kaim and his friend who was accompanying him on another motorcycle could not note down the car’s registration number. Kaim was rushed by his friend to Sushruta Trauma Centre and referred to Lok Nayak Hospital.
The police reached the accident spot and collected evidence from the accident spot.
A case pertaining to rash and negligent driving and causing hurt by act endangering life and safety of others was registered at Civil Lines police station on Wednesday and a team formed to identify the offending car.
For his part, the Dalai Lama said, “India has never used me against China. I am a messenger of the ancient Indian thought and I talk about ahimsa, peace, harmony and secular ethics wherever I go”.
He was talking to reporters in Arunachal’s Bomdila on the second day of his week-long visit.
It wasn’t immediately clear how China will target India for inviting the Tibetan leader to Arunachal but from the tone of Hua’s statement on Wednesday it was amply clear that Beijing was furious: Hua’s statement was peppered with phrases like “obstinate India”, “escalate border dispute” and “empty words”.
It was by far China’s strongest reaction since the time it had begun to warn India about the impending visit.
“India in disregard of Chinas concerns obstinately arranged Dalai’s visit to the eastern part of India China border causing serious damage to China’s interests and India-China relations,” Hua said. “I want to add the issues concerning Tibet have a bearing on China’s core interests. India is in disregard of China’s concerns and obstinately arranged the visit,” Hua said again.
“We demand the Indian side immediately stop wrong actions, not hype up sensitive issues and take concrete steps to safeguard growth of India-China relations,” she said.
To India’s assertion that the visit was an internal matter, Hua said China didn’t interfere in the internal affairs of any country but the Tibetan leader’s visit wasn’t one because it was linked to a “disputed region”. “The visit goes beyond (India’s) internal affairs,” she said.
Dismissing India’s statement that the visit was religious in nature, Hua said no one believed that the Dalai Lama was visiting a “disputed region” for religious reasons alone.
Beijing sees the profile of this visit as higher compared to earlier visits as this time the Dalai Lama is accompanied by Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju, who hails from the Tawang district of Arunachal.
Earlier in the day, the Chinese state media lashed out at India, saying China would not allow New Delhi a “free ride” on its economic growth while it endangered Beijing’s core interests.
BJP leaders Prakash Javadekar and Mukhtar Naqvi rejected the charges.
“There is no logic behind these allegations. EVMs were used in Bihar, in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls. When SP won in UP, the votes were casted in the same EVMs,” said Naqvi.
The EC has dismissed the allegations and said its systems were tamperproof. It asked the AAP to introspect on its poll performance in Punjab, instead of blaming the EVMs — a comment that Kejriwal and other leaders have bristled against.
Kejriwal’s party came a distant runner-up, bucking projections that it will form the next government in Punjab.
The Congress too joined the anti-EVM chorus after a purported video of an EVM tested ahead of by-polls in Madhya Pradesh showed the paper trail attached to it generating a receipt for the BJP. The state chief electoral officer Saleena Singh had pressed the button for the Samajwadi Party candidate.
A voter-verified paper audit trail or VVPAT allows a voter to know if the machine registered a vote for the candidate selected. The slip is visible for seven seconds before it drops into a box.
Kejriwal said his “experts” can show in 72 hours how the machines could be tampered to suit a political party.
He bought a canister of sulphuric acid, entered the woman’s home from the backyard that leads to an under-construction house around 3am on March 21, and emptied the concentrated liquid on her, police said.
The suspect escaped, leaving behind an empty plastic can and a woman screaming in pain.
Gulista suffered more than 50% burns and was dashed to Safdarjung Hospital for treatment. The acid scalded the woman from head to torso, and blinded her.
Police groped in the dark for clues and registered a “blind case” — one in which there are no suspects and no identification of the attackers.
Also, Gulista was too traumatized and in pain to recollect her past and suspect Shahrukh for the crime. But the man dug his own trap when he visited “the hospital a couple of days ago and enquired about my sister’s health”, said the woman’s brother, Zahid.
“He spoke to my mother and my sister overheard the conversation. We were surprised that an unknown man knew so much about her condition,” he said.
“My sister asked my mom if the man was Shahrukh. She said Shahrukh had once threatened to deface her. My mother informed my father immediately about this man. We then called police.”
It didn’t take police long to arrest Shahrukh thereafter.
“He was anticipating her death after the attack. Since she didn’t die but her eyesight was dam- aged, he went to the hospital and spoke to her family. His voice gave him away,” superintendent of police Salmantaj Patil said.
Besides, police have footage from a surveillance camera at a nearby temple that shows Shahrukh and two more men on a bike around the time the attack happened. The arrested man told police that he was keeping track of Gulista through her brotherin-law, who was an acquaintance.
“To provide an immediate check on unlawful activity should be simultaneous with facilitating the carrying of lawful activity, particularly that relating to food, food habits and vending thereof that is undisputedly connected with the right to life and livelihood,” justices Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Sanjai Harkauli said on April 3.
“Food that is conducive to health cannot be treated as a wrong choice” and it was the duty of the state to ensure supply of healthy foodstuff, a copy of the order available on the high court website said.
In response, the state government told the court here was no plan to ban consumption of meat or to close all slaughterhouses. The intention was to ban illegal slaughter houses and regulate their functioning in keeping with a Supreme Court order, it said.
The court appeared to agree with that, saying the government had not banned the sale of meat. It had only barred illegal abattoirs, permitting licensed slaughterhouses to run.
Delay in renewal of licences and various approvals have been cited by several shop and slaughterhouse owners whose units have been shut down.
The court clubbed with the current plea all the petitions filed before the Lucknow bench against the crackdown. The case will now be heard on April 13.
Appearing for the state government, Dheeraj Srivastava said a meeting would be convened shortly under the chairmanship of the chief secretary to decide on the issue of illegal slaughterhouses.
A day after he was sworn in as the chief minister on March 19, Yogi Adityanath ordered a clamp down on illegal slaughterhouses, butcher shops and mechanised abattoirs in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s biggest meat producer.
While meat traders went on strike against the alleged harassment, rivals said the BJP government’s decision was a move aimed at forcing people not to eat meat.
The strike was called off on Sunday after a meeting between Adityanath and the meat sellers association.