THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABADWEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 20154 TIMES CITY

Ahmedabad: Three police-men including a home guardjawan were assaulted at VijayCrossroads by a group ofthree men and three women at2.30am on Tuesday.

MM Rajyaguru, inspectorof GU police station, said thatall six accused have beenrounded up. “The suspectshad consumed liquor andwere sent for medical examin-ation. The group membershave been booked for ob-structing a government offi-cial in performing duty andassault on government offi-cial,” he said. Two of the po-licemen who sustained minorinjuries in the scuffle wereprovided treatment at the VSHospital.

According to Gujarat Uni-versity (GU) police, a (PCR)van number 19 of the policecontrol room was stationedbetween Vijay Crossroadsand Helmet Crossroads on

Monday night for vehiclechecking. At 2.30am on Tues-day, the policemen spotted twomen on a scooter coming fromHelmet Crossroads cops onduty stopped them on the ba-sis of suspicion that they werehigh on liquor.

The group had been toDrive-In Cinema for the lastshow and was returninghome when the incident oc-curred. The two men ridingthe scooter were identified asAmit and Ritesh Padhiyar,residents of Dudhwala ni Polnear Gheekanta. The otherswere identified as Hitesh Pad-hiyar, the trio’s mother andwives of two of the brothers.

“As the questioning wasgoing on, another man andthree women got down froman auto and started quarrell-

ing and accusing the cops ofunnecessarily stopping themfor questioning. Hitesh, one ofthe accused, assaulted com-plainant Ajitsinh Ranjitsinhand slapped him and later hithim on head with a batonwhereas others got involvedin scuffle with the home guardjawans who had rushed tohelp. Khatrabhai Rudabhai, ahead constable, and Sure-shbhai Ganpatbhai, a homeguards jawan, were assault-ed,” said a GU police official.

While Hitesh and threeother women fled in the auto,the PCR gave message to con-trol room after which anotherPCR van was sent in pursuit.The auto driver tried to flee af-ter hitting the PCR van nearIncome Tax Crossroads butthey were eventually caught.

Two WomenAlso Involved;

Cops SufferMinor Injuries

Four of the six accused in police custody

Yogesh Chawda

2 ‘drunks’, their kin assault cops

Ahmedabad:A team of Rak-hial police had caught twopersons who were found ininebriated condition fromthe road on Monday night.As the duo was being taken tothe police station, a groupattacked the police teamin the auto and freedthe duo. Police laterregistered a com-plaint against amob of 50 to 60persons and ar-rested four.

Accord-ing to Rak-hial police, ateam of con-stables Revab-hai Hamirbhaiand Jayrajsinh Vikramsinhwere passing from near Ga-ribnagar crossroads duringpatrol at 10 pm on Monday. Atthat time, they found two –identified as Irfan Shaikh, aresident of Ambawadi, Rak-hial, and Abrar Shaikh, a

resident of Bapuangar – ininebriated condition. Theduo was apprehended fromthe spot as Revabhai got anauto to take them to policestation.

“When the auto was pass-ing from near Ambawadi, Ir-

fan’s supporters stop-ped the auto and

got the duofreed even asthe consta-bles tried tocontrol themob. As theduo fled,constablesasked forpolice en-forcement.When policeapprehend-

ed Irfan’s brother and fatherfor rioting, the mob latercame to the police station,”said a Rakhial police official.

Senior officials rushed tothe spot and controlled thesituation after the duo prom-ised Irfan’s return to custody.

Mob attacks policeteam in Rakhial, frees2 nabbed for drinking

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad:A twenty-three-year old man from Banaskan-tha district has moved Guja-rat high court to set his 4-month pregnant wife freefrom forceful detention by heruncle.

The court on Tuesdayasked Banaskantha police toensure that the woman re-main present before the courton May 26. The court has alsoissued notice to the woman’srelative asking to explain theissue.

This was the third timethat the youth had to move thecourt and filed second habeascorpus petition complainingthat his wife’s uncle illegallytook her away and has de-tained her against her wish.

According to case details,the boy eloped with his girlf-riend on November 12 andthey got married in Rajas-than. A week later, upon theirreturn, the woman’s uncletook her away. This led to fil-ing of a habeas corpus pet-ition. She was brought beforethe court on November 21,when she expressed her de-sire to live with her husband.The court put an end to the liti-gation.

Hubby movesHC, seeks

wife’s custodyTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Ahmedabad: A special SITcourt hearing the Naroda Gammassacre case of 2002, on Tues-day, summoned HimanshuShukla, the investigating offi-cer in the riot cases, to explainhow the CDs containing phonecall records of the riot periodgot misplaced.

This happened after the SITsubmitted before the court thatthe original CDswere misplacedand not de-stroyed asclaimed by the accused personswho are seeking prosecution ofretired IPS officer Rahul Shar-ma for allegedly ‘destroying’important evidence and of IPSofficer PL Mall, for not takingany action against Sharma un-der Section 201 of the IPC.Mall’s prosecution has alsobeen sought on the ground thathe has not taken any action inconnection with the false affida-vits filed by witnesses in the Su-preme Court. The SIT submit-ted that the matter of falseaffidavits is pending before theSupreme Court and hearinghas been kept for July 7. The SIT

court had ordered action in re-sponse to a complaint filed byone Rais Khan who had admit-ted to aiding witnesses in filingfalse affidavits that containedinformation that was not in theknowledge of witnesses.

As regards the phone dataCDs, last month the court hadsought explanation from IPS of-ficer Mall about his remark,“original CDs” that he hadmade while handing over the

evidence tothe court near-ly six yearsago. This was

because Sharma himself hadadmitted during his depositionthat the CDs he had provided tothe SIT officials were preparedon the basis of phone call datacopied from the original CDsprovided by the phone serviceproviders.

The persons on trial have al-so accused Sharma of “destruc-tion of evidence” by misplacingthe “original CDs”. They ar-gued that it had been revealed inSharma’s testimony that theoriginal CDs went missing afterhe sent a police rider to deliverthe CDs to then city crimebranch head, P P Pandey.

Shukla summonedfor clarification on

phone data CDs

NARODA GAMMASSACRE CASE

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Gandhinagar: Leaders of Guj-arat Congress plan to meet Pres-ident Pranab Mukherjee onMay 23 and request him to rejectthe controversial Gujarat Con-trol of Terrorism and Orga-nized Crime (GCTOC) Billpassed by the Gujarat assemblyin March this year.

Shankersinh Vaghela, lead-er of opposition in the state as-sembly, said they would meet thePresident and request him to re-turn the GCTOC bill because itwill lead to a draconian law.“Earlier, two Presidents rejectedan earlier version of the samebill. The previous version, Guja-rat Control of Organised Crime(GujCOC) was rejected by thecentral government and also thethen governor. The bill be mis-used by the BJP-led governmentin the state to settle political andpersonal scores,’’ said Vaghela.

Congress president SoniaGandhi's political secretaryAhmed Patel, Gujarat Congresspresident Bharatsinh Solankiand other MLAs will join party’sdelegation that plans to meetPresident Pranab Mukherjee.

State Cong leaders to meet Presidentover GCTOC bill

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Ahmedabad: In an initiativeto reach out to its subscrib-ers, the Ahmedabad office ofEmployers Provident FundOrganization (EPFO) hasstarted a campaign ‘PF ApkeDwar’. The focus of the campis to make PF subscribersaware of the universal ac-count number (UAN) and thevarious benefits that aremade available to the sub-scribers through the medi-um of UAN.

EPFO held a camp atGIDC in Anand on Tuesdaywhich was attended byaround 50 workers and execu-tives of 20 establishments inthe area. The officials of EP-FO also held an interactivesession with the subscriberswhere in the latter soughtclarification on various ben-efits of the scheme.

EPFO has been holdingcamps at various places inthe state since last week incollaboration with employ-ers’ association.

PF on yourdoorstep

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Ahmedabad: Former IAS of-ficer and ex-ecutive chair-man ofMetrolink Ex-press forGandhinagarand Ahmeda-

bad (MEGA), Sanjya Gupta,on Tuesday sought a ban onmedia coverageon the accusa-tions of his invol-vement in the Rs 113 crorescam.

When he was produced be-fore the court by the CID(crime) after his four-day re-mand, Gupta filed five appli-cations complaining aboutvarious things and soughtcourt directions. He has com-plained that all case detailsget leaked to the media.

Special judge at the citysessions court, N G Dave, senthim and co-accused RadheshBhatt to judicial custody and

adjourned the case to Thurs-day to hear his applications.

Gupta has also urged thecourt to record his statementunder section 281 of CrPC. Ithas a provision for the ac-cused person to present him-self as a witness before thecourt. Gupta alleged that hewas pressurized by investiga-tors to give certain kind ofstatement before them.

He hasalso re-quested

the court to seek clarificationfrom CID (crime) regardingthe presence of an unidenti-fied private person with theteam of investigators whilehe was being brought to thecourt.

The prosecution did notseek further remand of Gup-ta and Bhatt and public prose-cutor Sudhir Bhrahmbhattsubmitted that the probeagency has got sufficient evi-dence showing their involve-ment in the alleged scam.

Gupta seeks banon media coverage

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

METRO SCAM

Ahmedabad: Mobile phonesubscribers in Gujarat maysoon have to shell out more.Telecom operators are expect-ed to unload the increase incost per minute by 9 paise, orabout 20%, on voice calls overthe next few months followingthe auctions.

Leading telecom oper-ators spent anywhere be-tween Rs 3,000 crore to Rs7,000 crore in Gujarat, Maha-rashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Ra-jasthan, UP-East and UP-Westin the last airwaves auction torenew 900 MHz spectrum,which is likely to see thempassing on the additional costto subscribers.

The spectrum auction,

which came to a close after 19days of aggressive bidding forall circles, helped the Uniongovernment garner commit-ment of Rs 1,09,874 crore fromoperators.

As the impact of high spec-trum renewal costs for oper-ators is highest in these fivestates, industry experts saidthat these circles are expectedto see 20% jump in tariff.

“The tariff hike may notbe major and will be spreadover months but is justified as

most leading telecom compa-nies have debts, which will in-crease with the spectrum re-newal. The price of thespectrum, which is like theraw material for telcos, hasgone up due to aggressive bid-ding and the only option theyhave, as in most other sectors,is to pass it on to the subscrib-ers,” a Mumbai based indus-try analyst said.

Atop executive from a tele-com company said that thehike in tariff will come withmore efficient services. “Theprices may go up in the shortterm but the subscribers willalso get better voice and dataservices due to all the invest-ment made by telecom compa-nies into efficient utilizationof spectrum,” the officialsaid.

Telecom firms may hiketariffs by 20% in state

High Cost Of Spectrum Auction Will Be Passed On To Subscribers, Say Experts

Chitra.Unnithan@timesgroup.com

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Congress leader ShankersinhVaghela has accused thestate’s BJP government ofinvolvement in the Metro Railscam. Speaking to journalistson Tuesday, he said: “The BJPgovernment is a directbeneficiary of the scam and itshould publish a white paperon the metro project.’’ On May21, state Congress will hold ameeting in Rajkot to mark RajivGandhi’s death anniversaryand will launch a campaignagainst the state government .

‘Publish white paperon metro project’

Ahmedabad: Gujarat high court on Tuesday sought explana-tion from the state government and the Surendranagar-Dud-hrej municipality in response to a PIL alleging irregularities inawarding work order for construction of 960 houses under theRajiv Gandhi Awas Yojna.

The PIL has claimed that the work order of Rs 39 crore wasissued by the municipality without discussing it in the execu-tive committee meeting. The contract was awarded to a privatefirm at a price higher by 7%. The PIL also alleged that the workorder was issued without the district collector allotting theland for construction of houses. TNN

HC notice over allegations ofirregularity in housing scheme

After working for a digital marketing agency for a year, Mica alumnus Ab-hijeet Singh realized it was moun-taineering that gave him a ‘kick’. He

realized that a 9 to 6 desk job wasn’t his cup of tea. Singh, who was recently on a crowd-funded climbing expedition to Pangarchulla (15,675ft) in Uttarakhand, says: “I always loved travelling and photography, and I realized that I loved being on the mountains. So after quit-ting my job, I took a three-month road trip through Kashmir, Zanskar and Ladakh. And while I swam across Dal lake, studied Bud-dhism in various monasteries in remote Zanskar and taught little children in Chang Thang region of Ladakh, I realized I can’t ever work on a desk again. Meanwhile, in the same trip, I undertook and shot a couple of treks and expeditions and that’s when I decided to make adventure sports my profes-sion.” Singh, 30, is generally accompanied by his friend Akshat Jain, whom he met at advanced mountaineering course at HMI, Darjeeling.

IIT-Gn scholar wins ̀ 1.2cr fellowship

IIT-Gn research scholar in cognitive science, Neeraj Kumar, has won the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alli-

ance fellowship of Rs 1.2 crore. The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance is an £80 million initiative funded by Wellcome Trust, UK, and department of biotechnol-ogy, India. Its aim is to build excellence in biomedical scientific community by supporting future leaders. Kumar will do a research for designing novel rehabilitation approaches

for individuals with neurological disorders such as stroke. For the research, he will spend three years at IIT-Gn, two years at McGill University, Canada, and Haskin labs of Yale University, USA.

GU VC adopts Adesh Pal’s `75,000 chair

The Rs 75,000 chair, which former GUvice-chancellor Adesh Pal had brought

for his comfort, is now being used by current VC, M N Patel. The chair that had been pur-chased by Pal as soon as he took charge was rendered useless and had been lying beside the toilet. Our little birdie tells us Patel has got the chair shifted to the syndicate room and is seen using it on several occasions.

‘Third gender’ by mistake

GU, which has opened its doors to the third gen-

der, was in for a surprise on finding several applica-tions from transgenders. However, it turned out to be cases of mistaken identity where 13 students belong-ing to other genders had carelessly ticked the trans-gender box while applying for a course. This was re-vealed when officials were scrutinizing their applica-tions. In 2014, the Supreme Court had recognized transgender community as the third gender and asked colleges to create a separate category for them.

Mican quits job for mountains

St. Xavier’s College students promote a TEDx event through a flash mob on C G Road on Tuesday; (Right) Masters in Fashion Management students with their work on Nift campus