Drunk drivers are a “lethal weapon”, a Delhi court has said while refusing to set aside three days imprisonment awarded to a youth for driving his vehicle in an inebriated state.

The court said drunken driving has become a menace which may cause disabilities and fatalities having devastating effect on the victims and their kin and also causes colossal loss in terms of economy of the State.

District Judge Rekha Rani dismissed the appeal filed by Delhi resident Gaurav Singh, who was found riding a two wheeler under the influence of alcohol on May 15, and ordered that he be taken into custody to undergo the sentence.

22-year-old Singh, who was working in a restaurant, was sentenced to three days jail by a magisterial court and a fine of Rs 3,500 for drunken driving and inability to produce valid driving licence and insurance papers at the time of challan.

The court, in its order, observed that “human life is precious and road users have fundamental right to life and liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution”.

“Consumption of alcohol impairs vision, focus, reflexes and consciousness which make the automobiles ‘death traps’ and the drunk drivers ‘lethal weapon’.

“According to National Crime Records Bureau, drunken driving is major factor for road accidents in India. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand as declared by the Constitution. Those who flout responsibility forfeit their right to freedom,” the court said.

In the wake of terror groups using Internet to incite religious intolerance, the government has ordered blocking of at least 40 webpages with inflammatory content relating to a minority community, including posts on social media and popular video-sharing platforms.

“Government has issued order under Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009 to block some…videos that could incite minority community,” an official source said.

The order to block the online videos, dated June 29, was issued to all Internet service providers, who have now blocked most of such posts. However, a few of them are still accessible and the Internet service providers claim these can not be blocked totally as they have been posted through a ‘secure Internet protocol’.

“We cannot block all videos and websites because they are on https (secured) website. The DoT is well aware of the technical issues regarding this,” a top official at one of the Internet service providers said.

The DoT issued another order on July 8, directing the ISPs to block the social media accounts and posts, as well as videos posted on popular video-sharing platforms, which were found to be containing content aimed at inciting a particular minority community in the neighbouring country Myanmar.

In December also, the government had ordered blocking of 32 websites on national security concerns, as they were allegedly carrying anti-India material from terror groups such as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and actor Shatrughan Sinha on Sunday said that one should not politicise his praise for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

“There is nothing wrong in praising him, he is an able person. I am from Bihar and if I do not praise my Chief Minister then will I praise the Chief Minister of some other state. The person, who is our Chief Minister, is our guardian,” Sinha said.

“I have not said anything to damage my party…There is no need to dramatise this, there is no need to look at it from a political angle,” he added.

Sinha, who met the Bihar Chief Minister at the latter’s residence, had described him as guardian of the state.

He also said that Nitish is the best chief minister the state has ever seen.

CBI on Sunday registered an FIR in Vyapam scam against former Officer on Special Duty of Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav and 37 others for alleged irregularities in selection of police officers.

CBI spokesperson said in New Delhi that a case of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating, forgery under Indian Penal Code, violation of provisions of Information Technology Act and under Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered on the basis of FIR registered by Special Task Force.

FIR has been registered against 38 persons including Pankaj Trivedi, then Controller of Examinations, Vyapam; Om Prakash Shukla, then OSD to the Minister for Technical Education; Dhanraj Yards, then OSD, Raj Bhavan; and Nitin Mohindra, then System Analyst, Vyapam, sources said.

As part of standard procedure, CBI takes over the FIR of state investigation agency but its outcome may or may not be same as that of the state body.

The agency has registered the FIR to probe alleged illegalities committed in Madhya Pradesh Police Subedar/Sub Inspector/Platoon Commander recruitment examination conducted by Vyapam in 2012.

It is alleged by the Special Task Force which investigated the matter that Vyapam officials manipulated the OMR answer sheets by taking them out of the strong room in these examination.

STF had alleged that the OMR sheets were intentionally left blank and numbers were awarded to the candidate. These sheets were later filled according to the numbers awarded to the candidates, CBI sources said.

CBI has registered 13 FIRs linked to Vyapam scam after Supreme Court handed over probe to it early this month.

A top Army commander said there are no large footprints of ISIS in Jammu and Kashmir but the outfit was “creeping towards this side” and the security grid has to stop the “terrible” organisation from getting a foothold in the country.

Northern Army Commander Lt General DS Hooda also expressed concern over a number of youth joining militancy, but said the numbers were not large to transform the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to reporters after laying wreath at the war memorial here and paying homage to the martyrs of the 1999 Kargil war, he said, “There are no large footprints of ISIS in Jammu and Kashmir. Yes, there are incidents of flag waving that we have seen.

“Is it a matter of concern, yes it is. Because ISIS is such an organisation with such radical sort of ideology and views that we should make sure that it doesn’t even get a hold and it has no place in a democracy.

“And therefore, there is a reason for us to see how to fight this ideological battle and frankly that is the plan at which it will get fought.So for us who are concerned with security and those concerned with governance, everybody has to put his head together and make sure that this very terrible organisation, if I may call it, doesn’t get a foothold in India,” he said.

The army commander said the creeping of ISIS into the region is a matter of concern.

“We are seeing it (footprints of ISIS in the region) slowly. We have already seen it in Afghanistan. There have been numerous incidents of conflict between ISIS and the Afghan Taliban. The ISIS is trying to gain some influence in Afghanistan. We have also seen factions of TTP which operates in Pakistan which has pledged their allegiance to ISIS.

“So there is a creeping towards this side and definitely it is a matter of concern that their coming into closer and closer into our region,” he said.

The army commander also voiced concern over a number of youth joining militancy.

“There are reports that last year, according to our intelligence figures, about 60 local recruits, mostly from south Kashmir, and this year about 30-35 is the figure that we have. The number is not that large that it will transform the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.”

“But obviously, it is a matter of concern when young people have now slowly again started picking up the gun because two-three years back, the numbers were single digit – five, six or seven – that was the kind of recruitment taking place,” he said.