A panchayat in Bihar has ordered one of its members accused of raping a woman to pay her Rs. 31,000 and asked the victim to forget the incident, police said on Tuesday.

But the accused, a member of a powerful local family in Nawada district about 150 km from Patna, refused to pay the money, threatened the victim and her family and told them not to disclose it to anyone, police said.

“The accused’s family has threatened her with dire consequences if she opens her mouth,” police official Virendra Kumar Sahu said.

This forced the victim to approach police and thanks to pressure by the local media, an FIR was lodged against the accused.

“Initially, police refused to register a case but after local media persons inquired about it, a case was lodged,” the victim’s father said.

Sahu has ordered an investigation into the incident.

According to police, the incident occurred last week when the victim was going to answer nature’s call. The accused abducted her and raped her for two days.

Early last month, a panchayat in Katihar district ordered one of its members accused of raping a Mahadalit woman to pay her Rs. 41,000 and asked the victim to not report the incident, police said.

Last year, a panchayat in Kishanganj district ordered a minor girl, who was raped by four brothers and was seven months pregnant, to take Rs. 50,000 and undergo an abortion.

The death toll due to swine flu is increasing with each passing day and has claimed over 596 lives this year. Altogether 8,423 people have contracted swine flu this year with Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the worst-affected states with their respective tolls standing at 176, 150, 76 and 58, official figures said.

The Centre has ordered additional stocks of medicines and diagnostic kits following a spurt in cases of swine flu.

In Gujarat, the total number of deaths since January has reached 150, an official release said. Apart from these deaths, 107 new cases of swine flu were recorded across the state, taking the total number of cases to 1,781 till date.

One of the worst-affected states is Rajasthan, where the death toll has reached 176. While 33 districts in the state have reported cases of swine flu, eight districts of Sawaimadhopur, Dholpur, Sirohi, Jalore, Baran, Jhalawar, Pratpagarh, and Rajsamand have not reported any mortality due to H1N1.
In Karnataka, 1,057 positive cases have been registered since January and 285 people have died so far. As many as 46 patients have succumbed to swine flu and 1,068 cases of the deadly H1N1 virus have been reported in Telangana this year.

Delhi and Tamil Nadu have reported a high incidence of swine flu cases but death toll in the two states is relatively low due to high level of awareness and a better developed health sector. Punjab has the highest ratio of the number of deaths to those affected by the disease. Thus, 25 of the 68 people who contracted the virus in the state this year have succumbed to swine flu.

Apart from ordering additional stocks of medicines and diagnostic kits, Health ministry officials said they have sent central teams to the worst-affected states like Rajasthan and Gujarat and have developed appropriate guidelines.

“The government has already placed an order for enhancing stocks of diagnostic kits – for testing for the H1N1 virus – to be supplied to the lab network under Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme.

“To enhance the level of preparedness, additional stocks of the drug, Oseltamivir, and 10,000 N-95 masks are also being procured,” an official statement said.

Concerned over reports of shortage of medicines used for treating swine flu, drug price regulator National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has asked pharmaceutical majors including Cipla and Ranbaxy to keep adequate stocks of the drugs.

“It has been reported to this office that the medicines used for swine flu, oseltamivir, zanamivir, rimantadine are in short supply in the country. The non-availability of these vital drugs may lead to higher risk of complications to the patients infected with H1NI virus,” NPPA said in a letter to the companies.

A day after being attacked on the issue of MPPEB scam, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday accused Congress of making completely baseless and untrue allegations against him.

Congress had on Monday alleged that the original excel sheet seized from a computer was tampered with to shield Chouhan and his family and had demanded his resignation.

“This is not the first allegation and certainly not the last. Investigation is being done, under the supervision of the Supreme Court, with an unbiased approach,” said Chouhan.

Accusing Congress of making untrue allegations out of frustration, Chouhan said he was a thorn in the opposition party’s side because he was, despite being a common man, has been the chief minister of the state for such a long time.

After submitting documents claimed to be in support of their charges to Special Investigative Team (SIT) which is overseeing the Special Task Force (STF) probe into Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) scam in recruitment examination for various government posts, the Congress leaders had yesterday alleged the original excel sheet was tampered with.

Senior Congress leaders, including Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Suresh Pachouri, PCC president Arun Yadav and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Satyadev Katare in a joint press conference had demanded a CBI probe into the scam and Chouhan’s resignation.

The Prime Minister has no power to declassify secret files relating to the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the Prime Minister’s Office has clarified in an RTI reply.

“There are no mentions in Manual of Office Procedure or Public Records Rules, 1997, regarding any discretionary power vested in PM to de-classify records,” the PMO said.

Sreejith Panickar, an IT professional based in Thiruvananthapuram, had sent an RTI application to the PMO asking, “Does the Prime Minister have any prerogative to issue an order to declassify the files and send them to the National Archives?”.

Last year, when Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Agarwal appealed to the PMO to disclose records relating to Netaji it had had refused arguing that the “disclosure would prejudicially affect relation with foreign countries”.

When under house arrest by the British in then Calcutta, Netaji had escaped in 1941 to seek international support for his efforts to free his country and formed the Indian National Army with Japanese help.

He went missing in 1945 and since then little has been known about his whereabouts. The Mukherjee Commission had rejected reports that he had died in a plane crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

Panickar, a part of research group ‘Mission Netaji’, had also asked the exact number of secret Bose files.

“As per record, this Office has 41 classified files,” the PMO said while giving out names of 36 such files.

It said that the remaining five files are exempt from disclosure under Section 8(1)(a) read with 8(2), of the Right To Information Act, 2005.

The section deals with disclosure which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the state, relation with foreign state or lead to incitement of an offence.

According to the list of the classified files whose names have been disclosed, a file dealing with the funeral of Netaji’s widow in Germany in 1996 has been classified as ‘Confidential’; whereas another file about Netaji’s widow and daughter has been classified as ‘Top Secret’.

One file concerning the abortive bid to confer Bharat Ratna on Netaji in 1992 is stamped ‘Secret’.

Also classified as Secret is a file dealing with the ‘disposal of properties of INA in Far East’.

One of the secret files relates to construction of an INA memorial in New Delhi as suggested by Bhupinder Singh Hooda, then Chief Minister of Haryana.
A file on transfer of his ‘ashes’ to India is classified as ‘top secret’.

At least 10 people were killed and over 40 others were injured tonight when a private bus in which they were travelling fell into a deep valley in Machalia Ghat in neighbouring Dhar district.

The bus was on its way to Galiakot in Rajasthan from Indore when the mishap occurred. The driver of the bus lost control while traversing through Machlia Ghat following which the bus fell into a deep valley, officials said.

At least 10 people have been killed in the mishap and several others are injured, they added.

Rescue operations are underway. Senior officials from Dhar and Jhabua districts have reached the spot.

Jhabua district hospital’s civil surgeon R G Kaushal said that so far six dead bodies have arrived here and at least 40 persons have suffered injuries in the mishap.

Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed concern over how Sahara Group would raise money to secure its chief Subrata Roy’s release, as the group sought extension of facilities inside Tihar jail premises by four to six weeks to enable him negotiate deals with prospective buyers.

The apex court expressed concern about the payment of money to be made by Roy to secure his release from jail. “You are struggling to pay Rs. 10,000 crore. How will you pay Rs. 30,000 crore after coming out,” the bench asked.

A bench headed by Justice T S Thakur also asked the counsel for Sahara group to file an appropriate application in regard to its request.

Earlier in a new turn of events in the case, RBI had moved the apex court seeking to implead itself as a party in the company’s tussle with SEBI and sought to stop one of its firms from disposing off assets for securing Roy’s release.

In an application, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) urged the apex court to restrain Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd (SIFCL) from utilising any of its assets, including securities, for paying dues to SEBI on the ground that SIFCL is Residuary Non-Banking Financial Firm and fell under its (RBI) regulatory control.

Prior to this, the Sahara group had informed the apex court that the proposed transactions for a loan of around US dollar 1,050 million from abroad for raising Rs. 10,000 crore to ensure Roy’s release from jail had failed.

The apex court, on January 9, had allowed Sahara Group to go ahead with its proposed transactions with some conditions including the approval of RBI for the transfer to India of the funds raised in the US to meet the requirement set for release of Roy, who is lodged in Tihar jail since March 4 last year for non-refund of over Rs. 20,000 crore with interest to depositors.