“The death toll can rise but we can confirm 25 deaths till now. Most of those killed are policemen,” an interior ministry official told this newspaper. The official toll, however, stood at 19 till the time of filing this report.
The Pakistan government declared a “red alert” throughout the country.
One person was killed when the police opened fire on agitators, blocking traf fic on the national highway at Patti Kalyana in Panipat district, while the other died in a stampede reportedly triggered by the police action at Samalkha in Haryana. State Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the death of the two persons.
On the warpath over their demand for Scheduled Tribe status, the Gujjar community, observing “martyrs’ day”, poured into the national capital region since the early hours of the morning and blocked major roads leading to New Delhi.
The security forces resorted to lathicharges, lobbed teargas shells and fired rubber bullets to disperse violent mobs at Mehrauli, Mathura Road, Gazaipur and Anand Vihar, among other areas.
Nearly 110 agitators were detained by the police.
The agitators fought pitched battles, hurled stones and other missiles at the police.
Life came to a standstill in the affected areas as shops downed shutters and people stayed indoors, while marauding mobs moved around brandishing lathis and spears.
The agitators, demanding scheduled tribe status for their community, put up roadblocks at several important junctions. A high alert has, meanwhile, been sounded in Delhi and neighbouring parts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, with the Gujjars declaring that they would observe Thursday as a “black day” to mourn its “martyrs” killed in police firing in Rajasthan.
Earlier in the day, the protesters struck fear among both commuters and local residents as they moved around brandishing swords and other weapons and set ablaze tyres on Gurgaon’s M-G Road area, the hub of the satellite township where most of the major shopping malls are located.
The Gujjars have threatened to bring the entire national capital region to a halt on Thursday. The Centre, fearing that the situation could get out of hand in the Gujjar-dominated areas, has ordered the beefing up of security in sensitive zones: Mehrauli, Ghazipur, Patparganj, Badarpur, Khanpur, Ayanagar, Chilia village and Rampur. Security forces are expected to cordon off these areas.
The Union home secretary, Mr Madhukar Gupta, who is personally monitoring the situation, is in touch with the Delhi police commissioner and the DGPs of UP and Haryana.
The BJP, meanwhile, sent two of its leaders to Jaipur to review the situation.
Chief Minister, Ms Vasundhra Raje, met her ministers and party leaders, including Prakash Javdekar and Kalraj Mishra.
Gujjars at Bayana and Sikandara in eastern Rajasthan have blocked the rail route connecting Mumbai to Delhi, and the national highway linking Jaipur to Agra. Hit by turbulence, the railways on Wednesday cancelled 10 trains passing through Rajasthan for the fifth consecutive day and diverted several others to different routes.
Kirori Singh Bainsla (Retd), turned down the Centre’s invitation for talks and he also refused to travel to Jaipur to meet the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Ms Vasundhara Raje.
With the death toll rising to 38, the Centre rushed additional companies of paramilitary forces to Rajasthan to bring the violence under control. On Sunday, 21 companies (about 2,500 personnel) of the paramilitary forces, drawn from the Border Security Force (BSF), Rapid Action Force (RAF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), are stationed in violence-hit districts of the state.
The “rail roko” call given by Col. Col. Bainsla resulted in the disruption of rail traffic between New Delhi and various destinations in Rajasthan on Sunday. The rail traffic was disrupted ahead of the anniversary of last year's Gujjar agitation, which had claimed 26 lives between May 9 and June 4, 2007. Railway officials here said at least seven trains passing through Rajasthan, including the AmritsarMumbai Golden Temple Mail and Nizamuddin-Bandra Garib Rath Express, were cancelled in the interest of passenger safety.
The Centre has issued advisories to the states neighbouring Rajathan — Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi — to remain alert in order to prevent any untoward incident in the wake of the Gujjar violence.
The Rajasthan Gurjar Arakashan Sangarsh Samiti, which is spearheading the agitation, has rejected the Rajasthan government's special relief package of Rs 282 crores for Gujjar-dominated districts, as was suggested by the Ramdas Agarwal committee. The committee was constituted on the recommendation of the Justice Chopra committee,which had rejected a demand for ST status for Gujjars last year. Instead, the Chopra committee favoured the provision of special relief for the uplift of Gujjars.
The CPI(M) has condemned the police firing in Rajasthan on Friday and Saturday, and a politburo statement said,0 “The Vasundhara Raje government, which has earned notoriety in police firings, is solely responsible for the present killings. The BJP government has not learnt any lesson from last year's incidents and completely bungled in tackling the agitation.The sale of land in the border area has brought considerable embarrassment to the ruling BJP government as a local BJP leader is reported to have played a key role in the land deals and earned huge amounts in commission.
According to sources, the Registration authorities found that such deals were finalised through power of attorney documents.
The sources said the registration department has given one month to the buyers to prove their credentials otherwise the authorities will recommend an investigation by the CID. The registration authorities have already referred 500 such deals to the CID when the buyers did not turn up to reply.
According to the revenue authorities, such buyers acquired huge areas of land in the border districts of Barmer, Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jalore despite the Central government notification for these districts in 1996 which does not allow any outsider to move there without permission. A BJP leader allegedly acted as middleman in land deals and is reported to have earned Rs 19 crores as commission.
He acted as middleman in deals for the sale of 1,90,000 bighas of land.
Two cars, together worth not more than Rs 7 lakh, are among the first seizures of the don-turned-politician Arun Gawli’s benami properties. The Mumbai police on Sunday confirmed having seized the two cars bought by Gawli in the name of one of his acquaintances.
A Maruti Suzuki Versa and an Alto have been seized by the police in Mumbai. Police informants reportedly tipped off the police about the cars being used by Gawli for his personal use, which actually belonged to the gangster himself and it, was just that he had bought it in the name of one of his accomplices.
The man on whose name the cars were bought, the police said, is also a member of Gawli’s political outfit, the Akhil Bhartiya Sena. “We have seized both the cars in Mumbai.
Gawli’s acquaintance has confessed that the cars which are in his name were bought from Gawli’s money and were being used for Gawli’s personal use,” said Mr Deven Bharti, deputy commissioner of police, detection, crime branch.
Sridhar, MD of Orpine Systems, and A. Sundar, MD of Daisy Systems Limited. Most of the addresses given by the companies could not be traced and there was no response from the phone numbers either.
The FIRs were lodged as per the directions of co-ordination monitoring committee consisting of Sebi chairman and officials of the ministry of corporate affairs.
The ROC alleged that there were exhaustive complaints about the breach of trust by the directors of the various companies. Mr D. Vijay Bhaskar, Deputy ROC, has been appointed as nodal officer to address the grievances of the investors and also to coordinate and facilitate police officers in the investigation.
An official of the ministry of corporate affairs said that some companies tried to file balance sheets after learning that complaints had been lodged merely to hoodwink authorities. Sebi accuses a company of having vanished if it does not comply with listing requirements such as submission of annual reports and if the office is not located at the address given. After Gujarat, Hyderabad is earning the dubious distinction of playing host to vanishing companies.
Swal Computers Ltd. issued an IPO for collecting Rs 2.6 crore in 2000 and listed in Mumbai and Hyderabad stock exchanges and Orpine Systems promised in December 1999 to set up overseas subsidiaries in the United States, Australia and Singapore. But both of them vanished.
Similarly, Sequel Soft India Ltd issued IPO in 2001 and was listed in Hyderabad and Mumbai stock exchanges. But it also disappeared.
Cases are also pending against vanishing companies in Panjagutta, Bowenpally, SR Nagar and Kushaiguda.
Earlier, ROC lodged 15 such FIRs with the state police and 11of them are being investigated by CID and different police stations. ROC officials at Sultanbazar in Hyderabad prepared the entire evidence and documents related to the erring companies and filed a comprehensive complaint. of Amberpet and managing director of Swal Computers Limited, Pankaj Gupta, MD of IMAP Technologies, M.
Sridhar, MD of Orpine Systems, and A. Sundar, MD of Daisy Systems Limited. Most of the addresses given by the companies could not be traced and there was no response from the phone numbers either.
The FIRs were lodged as per the directions of co-ordination monitoring committee consisting of Sebi chairman and officials of the ministry of corporate affairs.
The ROC alleged that there were exhaustive complaints about the breach of trust by the directors of the various companies. Mr D. Vijay Bhaskar, Deputy ROC, has been appointed as nodal officer to address the grievances of the investors and also to coordinate and facilitate police officers in the investigation.
An official of the ministry of corporate affairs said that some companies tried to file balance sheets after learning that complaints had been lodged merely to hoodwink authorities. Sebi accuses a company of having vanished if it does not comply with listing requirements such as submission of annual reports and if the office is not located at the address given. After Gujarat, Hyderabad is earning the dubious distinction of playing host to vanishing companies.
Swal Computers Ltd. issued an IPO for collecting Rs 2.6 crore in 2000 and listed in Mumbai and Hyderabad stock exchanges and Orpine Systems promised in December 1999 to set up overseas subsidiaries in the United States, Australia and Singapore. But both of them vanished.
Similarly, Sequel Soft India Ltd issued IPO in 2001 and was listed in Hyderabad and Mumbai stock exchanges. But it also disappeared.
Cases are also pending against vanishing companies in Panjagutta, Bowenpally, SR Nagar and Kushaiguda.
Earlier, ROC lodged 15 such FIRs with the state police and 11of them are being investigated by CID and different police stations. ROC officials at Sultanbazar in Hyderabad prepared the entire evidence and documents related to the erring companies and filed a comprehensive complaint.
"The stations should be ready in a month's time. Many policemen have been given training on board ships and coaching in deep-sea swimming. We will be taking over the buildings as soon as the Tamil Nadu police housing corporation finishes constructing them. The work is progressing fast and senior government officials are monitoring the growth every month," Mr. Seshadri said.
These marine police stations have been established in all coastal states under a Union government scheme. Each station will receive two well equipped vessels, costing Rs 3.5 crore. In total, the Centre will be providing 24 vessels to the state police and will also bear the fuel expenses for the first five years, said senior police officials.
In Tamil Nadu, the Nagapatinam district will have three marine police stations, while Tanjavur, Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram districts will have two each. And the Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts will have one marine police station each. "Each police station will have 42 policemen attached to it," the officer said. Currently, the state does not have any marine police station, expect the B6–Port Marine station, attached to the city police and managed by the Chennai port trust. It maybe recalled that in January, the police arrested five persons and seized three tonnes of steel ball bearing that were being smuggled to the LTTE. In February, the Indian Coast Guard intercepted an explosive laden boat near Kodiankarai (Point Calimere) and held a hard core LTTE member and four others. The Tamil Nadu police and the Coast guard later destroyed the fibre boat after its sides were found to be stuffed with improvised explosive devices. Incidents like these have heightened the need for marine police stations.The Special Branch of city police will open receipt centres so that applicants can submit application directly.
A senior police official said, in this practice special branch police personnel accept the applications and verify them. After verification the application is sent to the passport office. So far in Hyderabad the passport applications were received by the passport officials or post office personnel. So the applicants have to go to the police for verification. This takes a few days. The centres are set to become operational this month, the official sources said.