NEW DELHI, June 20: The Delhi High Court today sought CBI’s response on the plea of former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, serving a 10-year jail term in teachers recruitment case, for extending by four weeks his interim bail for completing his brother’s post-cremation rituals as he was currently hospitalised.

The high court had on June 3 granted three weeks’ interim bail to 79-year-old Chautala for carrying out the post-cremation rituals of his brother, who died on June 1.

A bench of justice Siddharth Mridul today asked CBI to file a status report before the next date of hearing on June 23 even as the agency opposed the plea and said Chautala’s health condition should be checked in AIIMS.

“Issue notice. Counsel for CBI seeks time to file a status report. Let status report be filed before the next date of hearing,” the court said.

The order was passed after hearing arguments by advocates R K Anand and Amit Sahni on behalf of Chautala and CBI respectively.

Anand told the court that Chautala will perform the rituals or ceremonies if he is well enough.

This submission came in response to the court’s query, “Is he well enough to perform the ceremonies?”

Chautala has sought extension of his bail by four weeks on the ground that he is currently admitted in the ICU of Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon due to bad health and if allowed by the doctors, he would like to attend the remaining post-cremation rites of his brother Pratap Singh.

Chautala was set free by the court on interim bail for 21 days while asking him to furnish a personal bond of Rs five lakh with two sureties of the like amount.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader has sought extension of bail on the same terms and conditions as given in the June 3 order.

Earlier, on May 30, the high court had issued notice to CBI seeking its reply by July 11 on Chautala’s plea for regular bail citing his ill health.

In his regular bail plea, Chautala, had contended that he is a physically disabled senior citizen having 60 per cent permanent disability.

He had contended in his plea that he is suffering from diabetes as well as chronic obstructive airway disease and is prone to both respiratory and cardiac ailments.

On January 22, 2013, a special CBI court had sentenced Ajay Chautala, Om Prakash Chautala and eight others, including Vidya Dhar and Badshami, to 10 years jail term for illegally recruiting 3,206 junior teachers in 2000.

Among other convicts in the junior basic trained (JBT) teachers’ recruitment scam case, 44 have been sentenced to four years in jail and one to five-year jail term.

All of them were held guilty of cheating, forgery, using fake documents as genuine, conspiracy under IPC and for abusing their official position under Prevention of Corruption Act. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: Having suffered its worst-ever poll debacle, Congress will begin its review exercise tomorrow when a panel headed by A K Antony is set to meet party leaders from Delhi unit to pinpoint the reasons for defeat.

All the seven candidates of Congress, who lost in the Lok Sabha polls including Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken, J P Agrawal, Sandip Dikshit have been called for the feedback.

Antony and AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik will be taking stock of the reasons for the 7-0 defeat of the party in the national capital.

Party sources said Antony will also be meeting PCC chiefs, CLP leaders and other party functionaries from various states in the days to come to find out what went wrong with the party in the Lok Sabha polls.

The exercise is being undertaken at the behest of Congress President Sonia Gandhi who has been assinged by the party’s apex decison-making body Congress Working Committee to effect the necessary changes in the organizational set up.

Antony will prepare a report which may be finalised before the budget session of parliament.

The party is reported to be contemplating changing Chief Ministers in Maharashtra, Assam and Haryana besides replacing PCC chiefs in around ten states including that of Maharasthra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Congress has got its lowest tally of 44 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha in elections held in April-May this year. (PTI)

MUMBAI, June 20: A CBI court here today reprimanded the counsel of former Gujarat Minister of State for Home, Amit Shah for seeking yet another exemption for his client without assigning any reason for the BJP leader’s non-appearance in connection with the 2006 Tulsiram Prajapati fake encounter case.

“Every time you are giving an exemption application without assigning any reason,” said special CBI judge J T Utpat after CBI counsel B P Raju opposed Shah’s exemption application.

However the court allowed his exemption application and fixed the next date of hearing on July 4.

Earlier, on June 6, the court had allowed the exemption plea of Shah and postponed the hearing till today.

Shah in his exemption application today said he could not attend the court hearing as he was in Delhi. “Shah is engaged in political work in New Delhi and therefore not about to come to court,” read his application filed by his lawyer Robin Mogera.

The court is also likely to pass an order on the discharge application filed by Shah on June 25.

The court had on May 9 issued summons to Shah and other accused in the case, which was transferred from Gujarat to Mumbai this year.

The CBI had charge-sheeted Shah and 18 others, including several police officers, in the case in September 2013.

According to CBI, gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, claimed to have links to Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba, and his wife Kauser Bi were abducted by Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorism Squad when they were on way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra and killed in an alleged fake encounter near Gandhinagar in November 2005.

Tulsiram Prajapati, an eye-witness to the encounter, was killed by police at Chapri village in Banaskantha district of Gujarat in December 2006.

Shah, who was then Minister of State for Home was allegedly involved in the conspiracy behind both the incidents. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: India and the UK are likely to explore ways of cooperation in fields of next generation telecommunication and stem cell, the Government said today.

In a meeting here between Union minister Jitendra Singh and British High Commissioner James Bevan, the two countries discussed a new joint programme ‘Invest’, aimed at addressing basic needs of the lower strata of society in relation to health, sanitation and other basic amenities.

India and the UK share a traditional and historic relationship in the areas of science and technology based on mutual trust, partnership reciprocity and parity which could cover a wide gamete of basic and applied research, Singh was quoted as saying in a release.

The Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said that various departments of India are already cooperating with departments of business, innovation and skills (BIS), British Council and Royal Society.

Singh told the High Commissioner that major areas of cooperation that can be covered included next generation telecommunication, solar voltaic material, weather science and stem cell, it said.

Bevan had called on Singh to convey his Government’s wishes to the Narendra Modi Government.

Singh said the NDA Government desires to work in close collaboration with all countries including the UK in a spirit of mutual coexistence, collaboration and cooperation.

Referring to an MoU with UK on civil services reforms, he said that officers from India are sent to London School of Economics, King’s College, University of Manchester and other renowned institutions in UK on regular basis.

“Soon, the Government of India will also be sending a task force to UK to discuss the new initiatives,” he said.

Referring to the Ministry of Science and Technology under him, Singh also observed that the India-United Kingdom Science and Innovation Council has played a vital role in stepping up bilateral science and innovation collaboration from two million pounds in 2008 to 150 million pounds of co-funding from both sides. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: President Pranab Mukherjee today appointed and transferred several judges in various State High Courts.

Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu, Additional Judge of the High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has been transferred as the Additional Judge of the Kerala High Court and has been directed to assume charge on or before June 30.

Justice Ashutosh Mohunta, Judge of the High Court of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has been transferred to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. He will assume charge of his office on or before June 30.

Ms Rekha Mittal and Inderjit Singh have been appointed as Additional Judges of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana for a period of two years with effect from June 15. (UNI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: India today made strong objections to the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) once again making an “incorrect and misleading” reference to the status of Kashmir.

The Kashmir issue finds mention in the resolutions adopted during the 41st Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from June 18 to 19.

“We note with regret that the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has once again made factually incorrect and misleading references to matters internal to India, including the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said here replying to a query from the media.

“We reject all such references/resolutions. The OIC has no locus standi on matters concerning the internal affairs of India,” he said. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI, June 20: India today criticised mentioning of “misleading references” to Jammu and Kashmir in a resolution by Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in its meeting in Jeddah.

“We note with regret that the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation has once again made factually incorrect and misleading references to matters internal to India, including the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India.

“We reject all such references/resolutions. The OIC has no locus standi on matters concerning the internal affairs of India,” the Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.

He said this in response to a question on resolutions adopted during the 41st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC in which has mentions about Jammu and Kashmir along with countries like Yemen, Mali Bosnia and Herzegovina. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP Meenakshi Lekhi today took over as the chairperson of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).

An official notification regarding the appointment of the New Delhi MP as chairperson of NDMC was received from the Home Ministry late yesterday.

Lekhi takes over from Jalaj Srivastava, a 1984-batch IAS officer who was appointed the NDMC chairperson in August last year.

Lekhi will be the second MP to be part of the Council after amendments were made in the NDMC Act in 2011. Before Lekhi, the Congress MP from New Delhi, Ajay Maken, was its member.

As per the 2011 amendment, the MP and MLA of the New Delhi Lok Sabha and Assembly constituency automatically become members of the council.

The area under NDMC’s jurisdiction comprises the territory known as Lutyen’s Delhi and covers the VIP zone that houses the seat of authority in the national capital. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: A BJP MP Udit Raj has sought action against a former top official of AIIMS, Vineet Chaudhary for alleged misuse of his official position, allegations that the senior IAS officer has strongly denied.

In a letter to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, the BJP leader referred to the complaint made by the NGO Janhit Abhiyan in September 7, 2012 against the ex-Deputy Director Administration for alleged “abuse of official position, corruption and wasteful expenditure of public funds”.

Chaudhary, an IAS officer of 1982 batch belonging to Himachal Pradesh (HP) cadre completed his tenure in AIIMS in November, 2012 and is currently serving as the Additional Chief Secretary in HP government.

Raj also attached a copy of the complaint with his letter.

However, Chaudhary had in the past rejected the allegations as “baseless and incorrect”. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, June 20: Sixteen Indians stranded in violence-affected areas of Iraq have been evacuated and one of the 40 kidnapped Indians has escaped from captivity in Mosul town even as Government said it was “knocking at all doors” to rescue its citizens.

As concerns mounted for the kidnapped Indians and 46 nurses trapped in Tikrit, Government said it was making all out efforts and was in touch with a number of countries in the region besides Iraqi authorities to resolve the crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the situation at a high-level meeting which was attended by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and heads of intelligence and security agencies.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the meeting reviewed the “entire dimensions” of the situation taking into consideration all facts and information available to the Government.

“We are knocking at all types of doors, front, back, trapped,” the MEA spokesperson said when asked whether negotiations had been initiated with the militants who kidnapped the Indians.

Asked whether Government was considering flying them as well as those stranded in conflict zone, he said, “when lives of our nationals are involved no option is off the table”.

He said one of the kidnapped Indians has fled from the captors and is in touch the embassy in Baghdad while all those in captivity were “safe”.

The 40 Indian construction workers were kidnapped in from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city which was seized by Sunni militants.

Eight Indians have been moved out of trouble-torn Baiji while eight others, who were working with Lanco at its project in Anbar were also evacuated. All them were first brought to Baghdad and then travelled out of the country, said the spokesperson.

The Government is in constant touch with the 46 nurses stranded in Tikrit town, which was also taken over by Sunni militants.

Akbaruddin said Indian officials were in regular touch with the nurses trapped in a hospital.

There is electricity in the hospital and arrangements for food have been made. Nobody intruded the hospital and they felt that the situation there was “quiet” as there was no gunfire, he said.

“We are making every efforts so that it is resolved at the earliest,” he said refusing to share more details on an “extremely sensitive operation”.

He said at least 120 Indians were trapped in strife-torn areas which included 46 nurses in Tikrit and those kidnapped in Mosul. 16 have already been moved out of Anbar and Baiji.

The Indian mission in Baghdad was in touch with various other diplomatic misions there to coordinate efforts to rescue the Indians.

The Government has also decided to provide financial assistance through Indian Community Welfare Fund to those Indians who are indigent and want to return to India.

India has also requested Iraq to lift restriction on the visa norm that if a person comes to the country through a port of entry then he will have to go back though the same port of entry. He said India hoped that the matter will be sorted out in a day’s time.

“This has caused some concerns to those of our nationals who have come through certain ports of entry but would like to go through other ports of entry. We have taken this up with the Iraqi authorities who are amenable to our request,” Akbaruddin said.

The issue has been taken up with Iraqi authorities so that trapped Indians can cross Iraqi border to neighbouring countries through nearest land boundary.

Instructions have also been issued to Indian missions in countries around Iraq to take up the matter with their host Governments to facilitate movement by those who wish to cross the land boundary from nearest place of their stay.

“We have informed all our missions in the region to work on this matter with their respective Governments to ensure that in case people want to cross land boundary they should be assisted,” Akbaruddin said.

The Government has also stopped issuing immigration clearance for travel to Iraq for next one month.

Emigration clearance for certain categories of Indians is required in 17 countries of which 12 are in the Gulf region including Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

On safety of kidnapped Indians, the MEA spokesperson said information collected by the Government from multiple sources have indicated that all the kidnapped Indians are “safe”.

“This information is coming to us not from one source but from a multiplicity of sources. Based on that, I can indicate to you that the Indian nationals who have been abducted remain safe,” he said.

The External Affairs Minister held a meeting earlier in the day to review the situation.

On evacuation of remaining trapped Indians, the spokesperson said the land routes are extremely difficult to use to bring anybody from the conflict zone.

“That’s a major issue in terms of bringing out people from the conflict zone. There is no issue about logistics and willingness,” he said.

The Government was also in touch with various humanitarian agencies, the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) and Iraqi Government to gather more information about its citizens.

Iraq is witnessing serious strife with Sunni militants, backed by Al-Qaida, capturing two key cities and marching towards Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced in the fighting that broke out on June 10. (PTI)