BSP MP Dhananjay Singh was on Monday put on trial by a Delhi court for allegedly raping a 42-year- old woman for nearly four years.

Additional Sessions Judge Sarita Birbal framed charges against Singh under various provisions of the IPC relating to rape, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.

The court has fixed April 1 for commencement of trial in the case by recording of statements of prosecution witnesses.

In its charge sheet, police has arraigned 13 persons, including three doctors, as prosecution witnesses.

It also dismissed the bail plea of Singh on the ground that he can influence the witnesses.

Earlier, during arguments on framing of charges against Singh, a sitting MP from Jaunpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, police had said they had the evidence which showed the involvement of the accused in the crime.

It had said the forensic and medical reports of the victim corroborated the statement given by her before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC.

The police had said the victim has given all the details of the incident in her statement under 164 CrPC.

Senior advocate Hariharan and advocate S P M Tripathi, who appeared for Singh, had said there were inconsistency and improvement in the statement of the alleged victim and police cannot solely rely on her statement.

The charge sheet was filed against Singh for offences under various penal provisions of the IPC, including 376(2)(h) (rape knowing that a woman is pregnant) and 376 (2)(n) (repeatedly raping the same woman), 377 (unnatural offence), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506(criminal intimidation).

In a huge setback for the Aap Aadmi Party (AAP), the Supreme Court on Monday refused to issue a notice to BJP and Congress in response to its petition challenging the imposition of President’s rule in Delhi.

The apex court also sought a response from the Centre in this regard within ten days.

A bench comprising justices RM Lodha and Dipak Misra issued notice to the Centre asking it to respond within 10 days on the issue raised by the AAP.

The bench, which posted the matter for hearing on March 7, refrained from issuing notice to BJP and Congress which were made party in the petition, saying it only wants to deal with the constitutional issue and does not want to have a political contest.

“It is a constitutional issue so whoever has passed the order has to answer,” the bench said and added, “We don’t want it to be a political contest”.

When it was stated that allegations have been made against the two parties, the bench said it will see when it will come. Senior advocate Fali S Nariman appeared for the AAP and explained the facts which led to the filing of the petition.

Earlier, on February 21, the apex court had agreed to hear on Feb 24 the petition seeking a direction to the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve Delhi Assembly and hold fresh polls along with Lok Sabha elections.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who had appeared for AAP, had said there was no possibility of any alternate government in Delhi and the Lieutenant Governor should have dissolved the Assembly.

The joint petition filed on the basis of newspaper reports and documents available in public domain by AAP and Saurabh Bhardwaj, who was the Transport Minister in Kejriwal Cabinet, challenged the decision to impose President’s rule in Delhi on the recommendation of the Lieutenant Governor alleging it was done to protect Congress leaders and former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit from corruption charges.

It contended that the February 16 order imposing President’s rule was with a motive to frustrate the ongoing investigation in those corruption cases in which FIR has been lodged by the Arvind Kejriwal government.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s plans for a comeback as a major political player in Bihar in the national elections, due by May, have been dealt a severe blow with a split in his party. 13 of his 22 legislators have announced that they are quitting.

The rebels, led by the RJD’s chief whip in the Bihar assembly Rakesh Kumar, better known as Samrat Choudhary, met speaker Uday Narain Choudhary this afternoon. The Speaker immediately recognized the breakaway faction as a separate group, declaring them “unattached” from the RJD.

One of the rebels, Javed Ansari, said the group would support the ruling Janata Dal (United), which will firm up the position of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has 115 legislators in the 243-member House.

“Whatever we need to do to help Nitish we will, if we need to merge with his party, we will,” Mr. Ansari said.

The rebel RJD legislators are said to be among those who wanted ticket for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, but believed that they would not get them as Lalu Prasad would offer these seats to the Congress as part of an expected pre-poll alliance.

Most of them are likely, said sources, to be offered Lok Sabha tickets by the JD(U) or then be given important roles in the Bihar government. “The party has become a B-team of Congress, we don’t feel like working with them,” Mr. Ansari said.

“Have heard about it. It’s not true. I will find out,” said Lalu Prasad, also refuting speculation that longstanding partner Ram Vilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party or LJP is looking to walk out on him.

Seat-sharing with the Congress has already put a huge question mark on Mr Prasad’s equation with Mr Paswan, who is said to be exploring rekindling his old ties with the BJP; he is reportedly worried that if the 40 Lok Sabha seats from Bihar have to be divided up between the Congress, RJD, Congress-ally Nationalist Congress Party and him, his party will get to contest very few.

In the 2010 assembly polls, the RJD was almost routed, managing to win only 22 seats in the 243-member assembly. The JD(U) had won 115 seats, and its alliance partner, the BJP, 91. The JD(U) parted ways with the BJP in June last year in protest against Narendra Modi’s elevation in his party.

It seems to be a ping-pong game between the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Within hours of a senior party leader announcing that a deal with the BJP has been finalised, the LJP has issued several denials. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag said, “There are no talks with the BJP at present. It will take shape only after the LJP’s parliamentary board meets in a day or two.”
Chirag Paswan’s alleged meeting with BJP chief Rajnath Singh last week had fuelled speculation that an alliance was on the cards.

Sources say that Chirag wants to contest from Jamui and Paswan wants to contest from Hajipur in Bihar. Sources say that the BJP is unwilling to concede to the requests.

“The person who chose to walk out of the NDA after the Gujarat pogrom will find it hard to make a U-turn now,” a senior Congress leader said, referring to Paswan who quit the NDA after the 2002 riots.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad too dismissed rumours of a LJP-BJP alliance. “I don’t believe what any other leader has to say (refers to LJP’s Surajbhan Singh who spoke of a possible alliance with the BJP),” he said.

A leopard on the loose has sparked a scare and shut all schools and colleges today in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, less than two hours from Delhi.

The animal, which is believed to have strayed from the forest on the edge of Meerut’s rural area, has attacked several people and is being hunted since Monday. The army is also helping in efforts to track the leopard down after it escaped from a hospital where it was locked in for hours.

The leopard was first spotted at a market complex in Meerut’s cantonment area on Sunday morning. When it attacked two men, people started running in panic and the police even had to use batons to try and control the crowd.

Six people including a photographer were hurt in the commotion. When the police reportedly fired a shot in the air, the leopard jumped on rooftops and walls till it entered a hospital.

The animal walked into a ward where five patients were admitted. The hospital staff managed to take the patients out and lock the leopard in.

Wildlife officers reportedly managed to fire a tranquilizer dart into the animal but after a long vigil, it managed to escape through a window and vanished.

The hospital is not far from a reserved forest area, but all of Sunday, there was no expert available to catch the animal, said the police. The leopard also strayed into a cinema hall and then an apartment block. Teams of experts are still looking for it.

People have been asked to stay in and most shops in the Cantonment area are also closed in the city of 3.5 million.

Meerut administration officials say wild cats have been known to stray into settlements from the thick forests nearby.

89 labourers were able to build 1284 check dams in compartment no 415 of Bilaigarh range within two days, according to documents with the Forest department.

The documents show that Rs. 1095 was given to 28 labourers for constructing dams in one place. The same day, these labourers were also paid Rs 1100 to construct dams in another place. The same labourers working in two places at the same time hinted at irregularities.

Usually, to build so many dams requires one months’ time. If 90 labourers are put to work, it takes at least 1 hour to complete the construction,. Even if the 84 labourers worked for 8-10 hours per day, they would be able to make 10-12 dams, the report said.
“To say that mere 84 labourers conctructed 1284 dams is is false. It is impossible, IFS officers told Bhaskar.

What was more shocking is that Bhaskar tried to find the labourers residing in the village, they could not find most of them.