New Delhi— A criminal case was registered Tuesday against unknown people who tried to fraudulently claim compensation for 41 people by getting their names added to the list of the dead during the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a police source said.

The Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police registered the case almost 10 days after the fraud came to light in a screening committee meeting of the police anti-riot cell and the Delhi government’s revenue department, the source informed.

The government had planned to give compensation to the residents of north Delhi’s Sultanpuri and Mangolpuri area who were killed during 1984 Sikh riots.

The anti-riot cell was instructed to check on the 41 names enlisted among those who were killed in the riots, sources said.

“During investigation, it was found that all the 41 mentioned people were alive. The list of names of these people was submitted after a forged verification letter of anti-riot cell,” said the source.

“As per the anti-riot cell’s record, the number of dead people was 1,553. But, around 2,200 people received compensation,” said a police officer.

The families of those killed in the riots were given Rs.7 lakh each. —IANS

London–A Sikh man has for the first time become the mayor of the town of Warwick in England’s West Midlands region.

Prabhjit Singh Dhillon, who has been elected the 280th mayor of Warwick, described it as a “privilege”, the Coventry Telegraph reported Friday.

“I have become the 280th mayor, a privilege for a local Warwick boy and first Sikh since that time,” Dhillon, a former local schoolboy, was quoted as saying.

“My mayoral year is a mere blip in the last 1,100 years of former mayors in this historic town.”

After being sworn in mayor, Dhillon asked everyone present to observe a minute’s silence in honour of Drummer Lee Rigby, the British soldier who was hacked to death at Woolwich in London May 22.

“I liken my year to the Olympic torch bearers of last year, in that I am picking up the torch of history from the outgoing mayor and carrying it forward, passing it on to the next mayor in a year’s time,” he said.

Dhillon said that this year’s theme is celebrating the town’s rich treasure trove and building a greater sense of community.

Warwick is the county town of the English county of Warwickshire.

Dubai—As Indian prisoners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) prepare to get transferred to some Indian jail under a bilateral prisoner exchange agreement, some of them are ashamed to take up the offer due to the nature of their crimes.

Those jailed for immoral crimes like trafficking women and forcing them into prostitution fear that they won’t be able to face their own people when they go to some jail in their own country, The National reported Saturday.

“People caught for immoral activities will not want to show their faces at home,” a prisoner, identified only by his initials BA, was quoted as saying.

He is serving 10 years for murder and hopes to serve his remaining three years in India.

“For people involved in that business, it will be difficult to go back because there is too much shame,” he said.

However, he said that he knew at least 200 Indians jailed in the UAE for murder and all of them want to make the move to a jail back home.

Last month, UAE president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan had ratified a deal that allowed the transfer of prisoners between his country and India.

The decree endorsed an agreement on the transfer of sentenced prisoners signed by the two sides in November 2011.

The agreement was signed to allow the prisoners to serve the rest of their sentences among their own communities

New Delhi believes there are 1,200 Indian prisoners in jails in the UAE.

MUMBAI: The city’s property market may be in a slump but that has not deterred another staggering realty transaction from taking place. In the second most expensive per-square-foot apartment deal in the country, a sea-facing duplex in Worli has been sold at an astoundingRs 43 crore.

A leading glassware manufacturer, Borosil, last week purchased the duplex spread on the ninth and tenth floors of the tony Samudra Mahalbuilding in a deal that works out to roughly Rs 1.18 lakh per sq ft.

The buy outstrips the earlier record of Rs 1.07 lakh per sq ft in the 28-storey marquee building, which is home to many corporate bigwigs, industrialists and erstwhile royalty. But it is still behind the June 2012 sale of a flat in Tahnee Heights on Napean Sea Road; struck at Rs 1.2 lakh per sq ft, that remains the costliest deal for a private apartment in the country.

In an email response, Borosil vice-chairman Pradeep Kheruka confirmed the Samudra Mahal deal, saying the duplex was purchased by the company for investment and after getting the approval of the board of directors. “The purchase is not by the Kheruka family,” he explained.

The four-bedroom apartment—spread over 3,638 sq ft built-up area and with servant quarters—was owned by Sonya Jethmal. Jethmal is reportedly related to the Mulchandani family, which owned the once famous consumer electronics brand Bush. An NRI settled in the US, Jethmal had been trying to sell the apartment for the last five years.

Industry experts said Borosil “was flush with funds and was looking for investment opportunities after selling its 18-acre factory at Andheri (East) for Rs 830 crore in 2010”. In a statement announcing that sale, Kheruka had said the company will “evaluate and deploy the sale proceeds” after considering strategic business opportunities in a manner that will “result in maximisation of shareholder value”.

Nearly half a century old, Borosil is engaged in producing sheet glass, laboratory glassware and microwavable kitchenware. Its main manufacturing operations are in Bharuch, Gujarat.

Experts said the Samudra Mahal transaction is a one-off and does not reflect general market sentiments. “Apartments in such landmark buildings of south Mumbai will continue to fetch premium rates because of their location and upkeep,” said Lakhi Batra, a property dealer in south Mumbai. Apart from servant quarters, building amenities at Samudra Mahal include a swimming pool, health club, children’s play area, and a garden.

“While the movement of luxury penthouses and duplex apartments in landmark buildings is slower in the current environment, supply too is restricted. There are not many buildings of such quality. So, they continue to fetch higher premium than many new developments,” Batra added.

MUMBAI: Global market tides have swept rupee close to an all-time low, raising current account financing and inflation risks, but for now policy makers are more likely to use small-scale intervention and administrative measures to defend the currency.

The rupee fell 4.8 per cent last month, and was the worst performing Asian currency as the dollar rallied broadly on speculation that the Federal Reserve will begin reducing its monetary stimulus later this year.

Trading at 56.65 per dollar on Tuesday, the rupee is not far from a record low of 57.32 hit on June 22, 2012.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has summoned Indian deputy high commissioner Gopal Baglay to lodge a protest over the road rage incident involving a Pakistani diplomat in New Delhi.

“He was summoned by director general South Asia to lodge a protest. She has asked him to conduct a thorough probe into the incident and to bring the guilty to justice. He was also asked to ensure security of our diplomats working in India,” an official source said.

Back in New Delhi, the Indian government today said police had responded promptly and extended due courtesies to the Pakistani diplomat, who along with his driver was allegedly roughed up after their vehicle hit a motorcycle in South Delhi.

Zirgham Raza, Pakistan’s first secretary (trade) suffered “minor bruises” in a brawl when his car and a motorcycle were involved in a “freak accident” in Ber Serai at around 7.25pm on Monday when he was returning to his Vasant Kunj home.

“Police responded promptly to calls for assistance and escorted the diplomats to safety from the crowd of onlookers who had gathered at the site of incident.

“The police extended the Pakistan high commission officials due courtesies and escorted them to the AIIMS trauma centre and offered medical assistance and examination,” official spokesperson in the MEA said.

The Pakistan high commission has lodged a strong protest with the ministry of external affairs over the issue, its spokesman Manzoor Ali Memon had said on Monday.

Afghanistan — A suicide bomber targeting U.S. troops outside an Afghan government office killed nine children walking home from school and two of the Americans, the latest sign that this year’s fighting season could be one of the deadliest of the 12-year-old war, according to Associated Press.

An increase in casualties among Afghan civilians and security forces reinforces fears that foreign combat forces will be leaving behind a country in the throes of relentless violence when they withdraw next year.

An Afghan official insisted that despite the escalating carnage, the insurgents have made no advances.

With peace talks apparently dead in the water, the Taliban and other militants have fiercely stepped up attacks in recent weeks, unleashing multiple bombings, sieges of international aid groups’ compounds and armed attacks on police posts nationwide, and testing the ability of Afghan soldiers and police to hold their ground by themselves.

“The level of violence this year is the highest it has been since the war started in 2001,” said Thomas Ruttig of the Afghan Analysts Network, who conducted a detailed study of the first two months of the annual Taliban spring offensive. His analysis of attacks over two months puts the violence on par with 2011, the deadliest year of the war up to now.

Afghan officials say the insurgents have won no new territory or advantage, beyond causing mayhem. But the death toll has soared. In the past two weeks alone, violence has killed 125 Afghan civilians and injured 287, a 24 per cent increase in casualties from the same period last year, the United Nations’ mission said.

Monday’s civilian death toll reached 16 when a family in another eastern province drove their vehicle over a roadside bomb, killing all seven people inside.

The U.N. blamed militant attacks for 84 per cent of the recent civilian casualties, saying that tactics like suicide bombings near schools and planting roadside bombs around the country may amount to war crimes.

The Afghan army and police are fighting the insurgency with little or no help from international forces set to pull out next year after fighting in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban for sheltering al-Qaida’s terrorist leadership after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Apparently to test the Afghan forces mettle, or rattle a nervous populace, the insurgents have chosen to ratchet up attacks rather than join a halting peace talk effort — or simply wait until after most international troops leave by the end of next year.

In the latest attacks, a bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in the eastern province of Paktia, said Gen. Zelmia Oryakhail. The apparent target was a U.S. delegation, but children were the main victims.

A local school had just let pupils, between 10 and 16 years old, out for the day. Nine students were killed, along with an Afghan policeman, he said.

Many of the children’s bodies were burned beyond recognition, he said.

A U.S. military delegation had just attended a security briefing at the district administrative office, said district chief Saleh Mohammad Ahsas, who was in the meeting. He said the bomber appeared to have been waiting for the delegation and struck as the Americans left the compound.

The U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan said that two of its service members died in the explosion. A Defence Department official in Washington confirmed they were Americans. He could not be identified because he was not authorized to discuss the nationalities with reporters.

NEW DELHI: Journalist Shivnath Jha has done what no Indian journalist, historian, or writer has done before.

After years of dedicated work and research which took him to obscure corners of India, Jha has come out with a coffee-table book titled `1857-1947: Forgotten Heroes and MARTYRS of India’s Freedom Movement.’

This book is the pictorial story of 207 forgotten heroes of India’s freedom movement, who were hanged, shot dead or died within the four-wall of jails and their 30 descendant families living in anonymity and abject poverty in the countryside And this book also highlights how soon after independence, an ungrateful nation cruelly forgot the memory and descendants of sung and unsung heroes who perished so that India could be free.
Jha, who worked with major English dailies in the Indian capital, took it upon himself to awaken India to the plight of the descendants of sung and unsung heroes of the Indian freedom struggle.
Newseastwest.com has this question-and-answer interview with Jha:

1: What inspired you to do this book?
A: It was on March 25, 2006, when Bharat Ratna Shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan expressed his life-time desire to perform at the India Gate to serenade the martyrs, while cutting a 91-kg birthday cake and launching a book Monograph on Ustad Bismillah Khan, authored by me and my wife Neena Jha who is a teacher. We did our best, got permission from the Home Ministry of India for July 15, 2006. But his failing health – and fate – did not let the Ustad fulfill his life-time desire of having such a book on the descendants of heroes of India’s freedom struggle. He died on August 21, 2006. At that point, we decided to launch a movement Andolan Ek Pustak Se to locate, identify and provide a dignified life to the descendants of forgotten heroes and martyrs of our freedom movement between 1857-1947. So this book “indirectly” fulfills his desire.

2. How did you plan doing this book?
A: During the past seven years we located almost 30 descendant families living in anonymity and penury in the countryside.We planned, wrote, made a dummy and requested people to support the mission – both publication of the book as well as support the descendants financially. Several people, especially Managing Directors of several companies, supported us in providing dignified life to the descendants of the heroes of our freedom struggle.

3. How did you track the families of these forgotten heroes?
A: It required a lot of leg work and travel to far-flung areas and villages of India. After getting small inputs and being a reporter, I would visit them in their villages to find out the records. We cross-checked with official sources, villagers, panchayats and others. We got some of the historical events from District Gazettes of the respective districts.

4. How many places – and where – did you travel to get to these families?
A: We visited the remotest areas/districts (at least 40) of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and others. (News East West)