SC awards death penalty to rapist

     New Delhi: The Supreme Court today awarded the death punishment to a person holding him guilty of rape and murder of a six-year-old around four years ago. The apex court set aside the Allahabad High Court order and restored the trial court sentence convicting and sentencing Satish to death after noting that the case fell within the "rarest of rare" category. While awarding the capital punishment, Justices Arijit Pasayat and Justice S.H. Kapadia observed that showing leniency in punishing grave crimes would have "serious consequences". The Court said the offence became "abominable" and "diabolical" as the victim was a child who was brutally killed after the "depraved" act. In his judgement, Justice Pasayat wrote that awarding disproportionate punishment to an offence "has some very undesirable practical consequences" on the society. Vishakha, a student in a Sarvodaya Public School in a village of Uttar Pradesh, was lured on some pretext by the accused and was last seen by three witnesses taking her on a bicycle on March 16, 2001. Her body was found a day later in the nearby sugarcane field.

Two soldiers trapped in avalanche rescued (Go To Top)

Srinagar: The Army today rescued two soldiers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) after a gruelling hunt of 35 hours. The soldiers were trapped under an avalanche, which occurred during a rescue operation launched in search of nine missing ITBP personnel. They were found inside a fibre glass toilet buried under 10 feet snow. At least six soldiers were killed in Monday's avalanche, which led to the blockade of the national highway for more than three days. "We were carrying out the rescue work at the avalanche hit area. Snow clearing work was in process. Then for a few minutes I went to the toilet, all of a sudden another avalanche struck and next we realised that we were trapped under snow. And we were later on rescued after 35 hours," said Ghulam Rasool, a rescued soldier who is undergoing treatment at a Srinagar hospital. The avalanche blocked the main Jawahar Tunnel cutting off road links between main cities Srinagar and Jammu. The IAF is also flying regular sorties to evacuate the stranded Army men.

     Ram Narayan, another rescued soldier, who received minor injuries on his hands, said: "We were trapped for more than 34 hours praying that somebody listens to us. We were shouting for help but all in vain. But then we were rescued today by the grace of God." Dr MM Arora, physician, said: "It's a miracle despite being trapped in avalanche they got trapped in air pocket. Had they been trapped up in the mud pocket then these men would have also met the same fate as other six soldiers." Due to continuous snowfall, rescue operations have been stalled on the highway. Authorities say at least 1500 people have been shifted to shelters, government buildings and private houses along the highway. They say snowfall in Kashmir during this winter is the heaviest in five years. The Srinagar-Jammu highway passes through some of the most tricky mountain terrain in the Pir Panjal mountain range. The road gets blocked each time there is a heavy snowfall in the winters or landslides due to heavy rains in summers.

Rahul calls for revival of Congress in UP (Go To Top)

     Amethi: Congress MP from Amethi Rahul Gandhi today called upon his party activists to revive the fortunes of the party in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul said that the revival of the party could only bring about a change in the state, one of the most backward in the country and also considered instrumental in deciding as to which party would rule at the Centre. The state has a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats, the maximum any state has in the country Talking to reporters on the second day of his visit to his parliamentary constituency Amethi, Rahul said: "UP is the biggest state, so it is important for Congress party to be revived here. I met my workers yesterday. I have visited southern states Kerala, Karnataka. They are far developed. But, here there is no development," said the son of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Once a pocket borough of the Congress, today Uttar Pradesh is ruled by the Samajwadi Party-led coalition government headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav. During the last parliamentary polls the party finished a poor fourth.