With a view to checking increasing number of suicides by inmates inside jails in Uttar Pradesh, jail administration will profile the tendencies of prisoners who had committed the act in past few years and study their family background to prevent such incidents.

“We are profiling prisoners who have committed suicide inside jails in past 4-5 years and preparing a data to find out as to why they had taken the extreme step. After we profile them, we will be in a better position to deal with those who might be having suicidal tendencies,” Additional Director General (Jails) RR Bhatnagar said.

While profiling the prisoners, their family background, nature of crime they had committed and cases lodged against them will be taken into account, he said.

“The idea is to put in place preventive measures that could be initiated to check prisoners from taking the extreme step,” he said.

“There are different parameters on which we are studying inmates like cases against them and nature of crime they have committed. Many times, suicide stems from remorse after committing social crime. Sometimes, it occurs due to feeling of loneliness if family members do not come to meet them in jail,” said Bhatnagar, who initiated the study.

“The profiling will include the number of times the family visited the prisoner and the financial condition at home,” he said.

A total of 17 inmates had committed suicide in various UP jails in 2014, as against 14 persons in 2013 and 10 such cases 2012. In nearly all the instances, the deaths were caused by hanging.

The state has 76 jails, including five central jails, housing a total of over 90,000 prisoners, of whom over 64,000 are undertrials and rest convicts. Bhatnagar said the study will help in identifying and treating those inmates who may be at high risk of committing suicide and those developing suicidal tendencies.

“We will sensitise jail staff also to deal with such inmates and they will be kept under observation and provided treatment, if needed. Counselling of such inmates will also be done by experts. Presently, we have no way to identify such inmates,” he said.

VHP leader Praveen Togadia was issued a notice by the Bengaluru police on Tuesday.

He was barred from entering the city from February 5 to 10.

According to sources, Togadia was prohibited from entering the city because of his previous provocative statements.

Togadia was expected to take part in a VHP convention, ‘Hindu Viraat Samavesha’ in the city on February 8. VHP was planning to organise “Ghar Wapsi” after the convention.

“If a person adopts western, Chinese or Japanese way of life, it can`t be called religious conversions. Similarly, if a group becomes Hindu and adopts Hindu way of life, it can`t be called conversion,” Togadia claimed.

“Ghar Wapsi is different. We are in favour of it. All Muslims and Christians living in India are children of those who got converted after sixth century,” he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi chief Satish Upadhyay released the vision document in the presence of Kiran Bedi, Harsh Vardhan and VK Malhotra on Tuesday, three days before Delhi goes to polls.

The document lists all the promises the party has made for the national capital to make it a world-class city with zero tolerance towards corruption.

The party majorly lists issues of women safety, civic infrastructure, electricity and water supply, housing for all, which would be addressed at the earliest by the government.

While presenting the vision document, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi said that the government would work on six principles – utmost transparency, unimpeachable integrity, fullest accountability, maximum measurability, fiscal prudence and zero tolerance to corruption.

Bedi said her proposed monthly programme ‘Dil ki baat’ would give a detailed performance review of all the actions taken by the government. Bedi mentioned that women security would be the top priority of the party.

Giving an overview of the document, Bedi said, “Rs 500 crore has been allocated by the central government to work on water related issues.”

“Will make Delhi soon a knowledge and skill hub and will incorporate the best practices from other states as well,” said Bedi.

Promising to make every resident of the city proud of being a Delhiite, Bedi said, “There will be complete alignment, not confrontation, with the government of India.”

“It’s not just about making a government, but about good governance,” she said. The party has promised that the CM’s office will be well connected with all departments through video conferencing for communication and constant monitoring.

As it comes to grips with the Maoist menace in Jharkhand, the Raghubar Das government is aiming to address the lack of development in the rural parts of the state — where years of left-wing extremism has hampered the building of roads and bridges — by involving security personnel in infrastructure creation.

As many as 17 districts of the state are eligible to receive funds under Additional Central Assistance, but at least four districts have fallen well short of the target of realising the Rs 30 crore given to each of them for the 2013/14 fiscal, government documents show. The shortcoming is, for the most part, attributed to the presence of Red ultras.

“The progress under this (ACA) yojana was unsatisfactory during 2013/14,” said letters issued to the deputy commissioners of the four districts on August 1, 2014, by a senior official in the erstwhile Hemant Soren government with the directive that there should not be a “repeat” of the performance.

The new BJP government led by Raghubar Das has now made it clear during the one month it has completed in office that development alone can eliminate Naxalism and that security personnel will be involved in carrying out such work in the Naxal-affected areas.

“It’s a good thing to involve security forces in development as Naxalites don’t want construction of roads and bridges as it will enable the administration reach remote areas,” said Radhakrishna Kishore, the BJP MLA from Chhatarpur constituency, which lies in the Maoist-affected Palamau district.

“The Naxalites also demand a cut (extortion money) on such schemes… Affecting the quality of work,” he added even as he called for hardcore Naxalites to be dealt with sternly.

Another BJP MLA, Bimla Pradhan, said, “In my Simdega constituency, there is no industry or mineral resources, so people depend upon agriculture.”

“(But) lack of permanent irrigation facilities for taking up agriculture means unemployed youths are prone to getting misguided. Hence, the ACA funds should be increased and more developmental work should be done.”

However, the opposition JMM MLA Kunal Sarangi claimed that the state government was “over-simplifying the complex problem of Naxalism” by its decision to involve security personnel in developmental work.

“Sometimes a person joins extremism on personal or other grounds. So, the government should take people into confidence by fulfilling its promises, and it should separate development work from tackling Naxalism. Speed up the delivery mechanism,” Sarangi stressed.

The National Human Rights Commission on Tuesday issued notice to the Union Home Ministry, Delhi government and Delhi Police for a detailed report, including the status of investigation, into the ransacking-cum-theft in a Delhi church.

The NHRC issued notice to the secretary of the home ministry, chief secretary of Delhi government and the Delhi Police Commissioner to submit their reports on the allegations of desecration of the St. Alphonsa’s Church in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj in the early hours of Monday.

“Home ministry, Delhi government and the Delhi Police have been given ten days’ time to respond,” said a NHRC release.

The NHRC intervened in the matter after taking suo motu cognizance of media reports about the incident of breaking open the doors of the St. Alphonsa’s Church and defiling of the place of worship and the objects held sacred, the release said.

The church’s administration Monday claimed it did not seem to be just an incident of theft as this was the fifth case within nine weeks when a church in Delhi was targeted.

A few sacred items, including a ciborium (receptacle) and a monstrance kept inside a tabernacle, a cabinet made of wood and glass, were taken away.
The release said the NHRC also received a telephonic information from advocate Manoj V. George alleging that the police were not taking necessary and appropriate action.

“The commission has observed that the intention of the offenders appears to be to insult a particular religion and…promote disharmony… the matter involves serious issues relating to violation of human rights and requires the intervention of the commission to ensure prompt investigation,” the release said.

Earlier, NHRC member Justice Cyriac Joseph accompanied by some officers visited the church Monday and met Fr. Vincent, the priest at the church.

“Fr. Vincent explained to the NHRC team the nature and the extent of damage caused to the church. He said that the miscreants entered the church by breaking open the front main door. The tabernacle on the main altar directly below the main crucifix was opened and the Chalice and the Monstrance were removed from the tabernacle and the Holy Communion Hosts were thrown around the place,” the release said.

Fr. Vincent informed the NHRC team that the adjacent room called the Sacristy in which vestments and clothing and valuable articles like Chalice were kept, was also ransacked, the release said.

“He alleged that the intention of the miscreants was not to commit theft or burglary, as neither the money kept in three offering boxes nor any valuable objects were taken away. The act was to desecrate the sanctity of the church and to create a sense of insecurity in the minds of religious minority,” the release said.

Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher sexually exploits Class XII student, forces abortion in UP.

A 12th grade student of a Lucknow-based Kendriya Vidyalaya was allegedly sexually exploited for two months by her school teacher, who also forced her to terminate a pregnancy, police said on Tuesday.

According to the FIR filed by the girl’s family, 47-year-old RC Tiwari, a teacher at the central government-run school in Gomti Nagar area, had been sexually exploiting the girl since December last year on pretext of extra classes.

Tiwari and wife Anita along with two women doctors, Vijay Shree and Ashaqa Siddiqui, are also accused of forcing the minor to terminate her pregnancy at a private hospital on January 10, they said.

Upon her mother’s suspicion, the girl revealed the incident, police said.

The complaint was lodged on Sunday and the FIR was filed yesterday.

Tiwari was arrested yesterday on the charges of rape, criminal intimidation and under provisions of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences. His wife and the two doctors were also taken into police custody, they said.

Meanwhile, the school officials said they have recommended Tiwari’s dismissal.

The government will “trace” cases of “extraneous influence” in the clearance of specific files during Jayanthi Natarajan’s stint as Environment Minister under the previous UPA government, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Tuesday.

Alleging that the Prime Minister under the UPA government was powerless, the Environment Minister also accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi of interfering in important decisions during her party’s rule at the Centre.

“She (Natarajan) has mentioned certain files and she has not mentioned certain files but she indicated what was happening. But one thing is clear, that the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) was in office, but not in power.”

“The power was concentrated in 10, Janpath (residence of Sonia Gandhi). So, we will definitely look into the cases mentioned and hinted at, where some extraneous influence has happened. We will see if there is any trace of such extraneous influence,” the minister said on the sidelines of a function.

Natarajan had written to Sonia Gandhi alleging that she had received specific requests from her son and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on environmental clearances and, consequently, had rejected big ticket projects.

Javadekar had earlier termed it a “serious issue” and said he would review the files regarding which allegations of extraneous influence have been made.

Natarajan had quit the party last week after launching a scathing attack on Rahul and Sonia Gandhi.

She had claimed she had followed the Congress vice president’s directions but he later “changed his stand in favour of corporate” and she was “vilified, humiliated and sidelined” by the Congress leadership.

Launching a full frontal attack on the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday called for a SIT probe and appealed to the Supreme Court for an investigation into the funding of all three parties.

“We welcome a debate on funding of parties, although this debate has been initiated by a party which gets 70-80 percent funding from unknown sources. We have appealed to the Supreme Court that accounts of all the three parties namely the Congress, BJP and AAP, for the last five years be investigated. We have called for an SIT probe over the funding of all three parties,” said party leader Yogendra Yadav.

The party has also appealed to the Supreme Court to derecognise any party or party leader who is found to be guilty.

“Our party’s primary agenda is against corruption and we are more than happy to call for a probe to maintain transparency. The party guilty of any wrongdoing should be derecognised and guilty members should be punished. If the companies have not followed law, then action should be taken against the companies, we are open for any probe,” said AAP leader Kumar Vishwas.

“We have also written letters to BJP president Amit Shah and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and have asked them to submit an approval letter for the same so that the SIT can investigate the funding of all the three parties. If by today evening the BJP doesn’t initiate a probe against these companies, we will go to investigating agencies and ask them to initiate the probe. We feel that there is a conspiracy behind these allegations and we want the truth to be revealed,” he added.

Furthermore, AAP leader Meera Sanyal said that an investigation on the matter was not a complex procedure as Indian banks have the strictest anti-money laundering norms.

“All that the finance minister has to do is call the CEOs of the banks and he will get the answer. It is not a complex procedure. We have the strictest anti-money laundering norms; our banking system has the strictest laws. To put 50 lakh in an Indian bank without being detected is making mockery of our bank system,” she added.

The party further said the BJP’s two-pronged strategies have been exposed and that the people who have left AAP and joined the former have been given the task of attacking the party all day long.

They also accused the BJP of bribing AVAM to put false allegations on the party.