Varanasi blast: Maya calls emergency meet

 

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati held an emergency meeting of senior government officials in Lucknow on Tuesday after a blast shook the temple town of Varanasi killing a child and injuring 20 people.

 

She rushed a team of officials, besides BSP state unit president Swami Prasad Maurya to Varanasi directing them to monitor the relief measures and treatment of the injured persons at government expenditure, an official statement said.

Besides directing the officials to investigate the matter thoroughly, she asked them to take stern action against those found guilty, the statement said.

Condemning the blast and expressing grief over the death of a two-year-old child in the incident, she appealed the people to maintain peace and brotherhood and repulse the designs of anti-national elements.

 

The Chief Minister also directed the officials to make an assessment of the losses for extending proper financial help to the victims.

 

Opposition Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav meanwhile said the incident was a result of the government's "inefficiency".

 

"The prime duty of the state government is to ensure the security of life and property of its people but due to the inefficiency of the government, it has been jeopardised," Yadav said in a statement.

 

"The Ganga ghat in Varanasi is most sensitive but the state government has been found wanting in ensuring security there," he said describing the government as "insensitive".

 

State unit president of the BJP, Surya Pratap Shahi, who went to the spot, said the terror attack was the result of the "appeasement" policy being pursued by the state government.

 

"Both the Congress and BSP in power at the Centre and the state have failed to give a firm message to terrorists and disruptive elements," Shahi said.

 

In a statement, UPCC spokesman Subodh Srivasatava asked the government to take stern action against those who failed to ensure security in Varanasi leading to Tuesday's incident.

 

"Despite tall claims, the state government has failed to foil the designs of the terrorists on the anniversary of Babri mosque demolition," Srivasatava added.

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BPO rape case: Police arrests fifth accused

 

New Delhi: In another breakthrough in the Dhaula Kuan gang rape, the Delhi Police arrested the fifth accused late on Monday evening. The accused named Kamru alias Mobile was nabbed in Gurgaon.

Earlier on Monday, a Delhi court, sent two of the Dhaula Kuan gangrape accused to Tihar Jail for their identification by the victim, while remanding two others in five days of police custody for interrogation.

Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Singh Rajawat sent Shahid alias 'Chhota Billi' and Usman to Tihar jail under judicial custody for two days after police produced them before the court following their arrest on Sunday.

The two were remanded in judicial custody as police told the court that they have to be put to Test Identification Parade (TIP) by the victim. To rule out the chances of any allegation that they were shown to the victim by the police prior to their identification by the victim, they need to be kept in judicial custody, police said. The duo are to be produced before the magistrate again on December 8 after their TIP on Tuesday. The two others, Shamshad and Usman who were produced before the court after their identification by the victim on Saturday, were remanded in police custody to enable sleuths interrogate them and gather various evidence of their involvement in the crime. The two had been first produced before the court on December 3, when they were sent to Tihar for their TIP.

The rape took place on November 24 when a Mizo woman working in a BPO was abducted from her way back home and gangraped by five miscreants in a moving vehicle. She was walking towards her residence in Moti village near Dhaula Kuan in South Delhi along with one of her colleagues when the accused pounced upon her, put her in their vehicle and sped it off with her. They allegedly took turns to rape her in the moving vehicle and later dumped her near Mongolpuri in West Delhi. During the arguments, Delhi Police, seeking seven days custodial interrogation of the two accused - Shamshad and Usman - submitted that they need to arrest the fifth accused Kangru.

The police also submitted that they need to recover the country made pistol, allegedly used by the accused to threaten the girl and the clothes worn by all the accused during the commission of the offence. Defence counsel, however, opposed the prosecution's plea saying that the police does not have to recover anything now and they are simply taking custody of his clients for harassing them. The defence counsel also alleged that police had resorted to unfair ways for getting his client identified by the victim during TIP. Acceding to the arguments of the prosecution, the court, however, remanded Shamshad and Usman in five days police custody till December 11.

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