Metro suicide bid foiled

KOLKATA: An alert RPF man prevented a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher from committing suicide on the Metro Railway tracks on Sunday by cutting off power supply to the third rail in the nick of time.

Purnendu Dutta, who had suffered only minor bruises, was taken to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The suicide attempt at Belgachia station did not disrupt services.

Dutta jumped on the tracks immediately after the Dum Dum-bound train left Belgachia at 6.20 pm. The handful of passengers on the platform saw him moving towards the third rail, but could do nothing. An alert RPF man, however, switched off the power supply to the rail immediately. So even when Dutta touched the line, he was unharmed, said Metro Railway spokesman R N Mahapatra.

RPF personnel rescued the old man and handed him over to Metro Rail Police (MRP). He was immediately taken to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. Preliminary investigation revealed that Dutta was suffering from acute depression because of financial insecurity. He has an unemployed son at home. Though he is from East Midnapore, he has been staying at his daughter's place at Baguiati.

Because of prompt action by RPF personnel, Metro services remained undisturbed. A few days ago, an alert motorman had saved the life of housewife Laxmi Agarwal, who had jumped before an approaching train. The motorman had reacted fast and applied the emergency brakes, leaving the woman safe.

Nine student nurses suspended for partying near ICU

JODHPUR: Nine student nurses were rusticated by S N Medical College administration here on Sunday for organising a high-voltage party adjacent to the ICU of Mahatma Gandhi School of Nursing.

Their principal Prahlad Singh Chaba has also been removed from the post. The incident occurred on Saturday night. The nursing school is affiliated to S N Medical College here.

According to sources, students of Mahatma Gandhi School of Nursing threw a farewell party for those completing their internship this year. However, the party turned into a high voltage bash without any consideration for the sanctity of the hospital or seriousness of the patients in the ICU. Generally, doctors at the hospital don’t allow any loud voice.

Superintendent of the nursing school, P D Motiani also participated in the party, from whom permission for the party was taken. But Motiani later claimed that he was kept in the dark about the party. He said students had sought permission for just a small farewell party with no noise and dance and that too for 1-2 hours.

“I had given permission on condition that no noise, no announcement or no music will be played. However, the students violated the conditions, which led to the massive inconvenience to patients in the ICU,” Motiani said.

About 30-40 nursing students had assembled in this farewell party which started at about 12 noon and Motiani himself was present for about half an hour. He claimed that when he was there, the party was going on as per the permitted lines.

However, it was unbelievable that any of the hospital staff could not learn about the nature of the party and report the matter to the responsible persons or even to Motiani.

Finally, the news reached him at about 4.00 pm and he forced the party to conclude. Till then, nobody emerged from the hospital to intervene and stop the students.

Meanwhile, the attendants of the patients also came out of the ICU and objected. However, the students did not lend ears to their requests and continued with high voltage music and dancing by closing down the gate of the lecture hall.

Motiani said they had ordered an inquiry, the report of which will be submitted to principal of the medical college, R K Aseri.

Fire at Thane industrial plant

THANE: A fire broke out in a blade manufacturing factory here in the Wagle estate locality on Monday, fire officials said.

The incident took place around 0230 hours destroying a major portion of the plant, they said.

More than two dozen fire tenders have been pressed into service to douse the flames, fire brigade said.

Firemen are still fighting the blaze that engulfed the Panama company, they said.

The cause of the fire is not yet known and fire officers are on the spot to supervise the operations.

24-yr-old girl found dead in her car

NEW DELHI: A 24-year-old girl was found dead inside her car near Karkardooma Court on Sunday evening. Police said Deepshikha, a teacher, was stabbed to death.

‘‘The victim’s body was found in her grey Wagon-R car at CB Ground. She had multiple injuries and prima facie it seems that she was murdered somewhere else and her body was dumped in this ground. Deepshikha was a resident of Jhilmil Colony in east Delhi,’’ said a police officer.

The officer said that a letter written by the son of a high court lawyer has been found in the car. The boy reportedly had a three-year-old affair with the girl and the police suspect that Deepshikha was killed after differences cropped up between the two.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, a jewellery shop owner in Tilak Nagar area of west Delhi was stabbed to death inside his shop by robbers in the crowded market near Chand Nagar Gurdwara on Sunday. After killing Ashok Prajapati, the robber picked cash and jewellery from the shop and fled.

Martyred cop's widow rues her lot

PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s good governance probably doesn’t mean prompt help to the widow of the cop who died confronting Maoists.

Even almost two months after Mithilesh Prasad, the SHO of Gaya’s Tekari police station who fell to the bullets of Maoists during an encounter at Majhiyawa village on February 13, his widow Meena Prasad has not been paid ex gratia by the government. The job, promised on the compassionate ground, has also remained elusive to her.

None other than the then state DGP, Anand Shankar, announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh and a government job to the next of kin of the martyred SHO. This was when he and other police and administrative officers were in Daudnagar, Prasad’s native village in Aurangabad district, for his cremation on February 14. The DGP also handed Prasad’s widow a sum of Rs 29,000, raised through donations from Prasad’s colleagues.

Shankar has since retired. And over 50 days on, all Meena Prasad has received is another Rs 21,000 and a citation posthumously praising her husband’s bravery. This was at a function in Aurangabad to celebrate Bihar Diwas on March 22. “We had Bihar Diwas funds, and we utilised a part of it for the purpose,” Aurangabad SP Nishant K Tiwary told TOI on

Tuesday.

ADG (HQ) P K Thakur said the ex gratia amount has been sanctioned and the payment would be made soon. “The delay was caused due to the fact that the financial year 2009-10 was coming to a close and people were busy,” he said.

Meena Prasad, meanwhile, is all alone, looking after her three children — Nilesh Ranjan who just wrote CBSE’s Class X exam, Sunny Prakash who studies in Class IX and daughter Nishu who is in Class VIII. “No senior police officer has cared to visit us after my husband’s death,” she told this paper.

Her two sisters keep sending their husbands to do the legwork and get the files expedited. “I come from Patna, meet officials and am told things are in the process,” said Sanjay Kumar, a railway employee who is married to Meena’s younger sister.

Gaya DM Sanjay Kumar was kind enough to tell Meena to contact him whenever in need. But the DM’s staff won’t allow them access to him “anytime and every time”. Like, they went to the DM’s house twice on Tuesday but returned empty-handed because he was “inside, and not sitting in his residential office”.

The promised job and the money, thus, remain a dream for the widow— even in sushasan!

Eight killed in road mishaps near Pune

PUNE: Eight persons were killed and 12 others injured in two separate road accidents near here, police said on Wednesday.

Four persons died and eight were injured when their car rammed into a sand-laden truck near Yavat on Pune-Solapur highway last night.

The victims, who hailed from the city, were on their way to the temple town of Tuljapur when the mishap occurred, they said.

In another accident, a car collided with a truck at Wakad near here on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway killing four of its occupants and injuring four others, police said.

Satish Shetty murder case transferred to CBI

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that it has decided to transfer the probe of Satish Shetty murder case to CBI.

A notification to this effect, requesting CBI to take over the case which was earlier being probed by Pune rural police, was issued yesterday, said government pleader N Deshpande.

Shetty, a Talegaon-based activist, who had unearthed many land-scams in Pune district using Right To Information (RTI) act, was murdered in January this year.

The High Court took a suo motu notice of the newspaper report on Shetty's murder, saying that attacks on social activists was a serious issue.

Shetty's brother, Sandip, had filed an intervention application in the matter, seeking CID or CBI inquiry.

The High Court has now issued notice to CBI, seeking its reply as to what steps it has taken regarding the probe by April 21.