Monthly Archives: August 2018

The mangled remains of an Indian Air Force trainee aircraft in Keesara, Hyderabad, on Thursday. PTI

Hyderabad, September 28

An Indian Air Force (IAF) training aircraft on a routine flight today crashed in a secluded area of Telangana’s Medchal district before bursting into flames. The pilot, however, escaped unhurt, the police said.The crash occurred around 11.45 am at Ankireddypalli village, 30 km from the Telangana capital, but the pilot ejected safely. The Kiran trainer aircraft had taken off from the Air Force Station at Hakimpet here, ACP (Kushaiguda Division) Syed Rafeeq said.“The pilot, Aman Pandey, ejected safely. The aircraft crashed around 2 km from the point where the pilot ejected. It crashed at an isolated place near an agricultural field and burst into flames,” said Rafeeq, after visiting the crash site.The officer said there was no damage on the ground as there were no houses or people at the crash scene.The ACP cited a villager who had spotted the aircraft flying low and later heard a loud explosion. “According to the villager, soon after crashing the aircraft burst into flames,” Rafeeq said.Rachakonda Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat said IAF officials visited the scene of the mishap and took the pilot along. “Two fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the blaze,” he said.“The pilot is safe. A CoI (Court of Inquiry) will ascertain the cause of the accident,” an IAF statement said. On March 3, 2010, two pilots were killed after a Kiran MK-II plane, part of the “Sagar Pawan” aerobatic team participating at the India Aviation Show, crashed into a building here. — PTI

Prime Minister Modi had met President Xi on the sidelines of the 9th BRICS Summit.

Kolkata, September 23

China and India are working together to “take forward” their relationship leaving behind the Doklam episode, the Chinese Consul General here has said.

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Chinese Consul General Ma Zhanwu also asserted that by working together cooperation and exchanges can be further enhanced.

“India and China are working together. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping had a meeting on September 5 to discuss how to enhance the relationship,” Zhanwu said here on Friday night while addressing an event to mark the 68^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“As long as the two countries work together, we will able to enhance and develop exchanges and cooperation,” he said.

Asked if both the countries have left behind the Dokalam episode, Zhanwu said, “Yes we have left that behind and are working together to take forward the bilateral relationship”.

Prime Minister Modi had met President Xi on the sidelines of the 9^th BRICS Summit on September 5.

The two leaders had agreed that both the countries should put in more effort to strengthen the cooperation between their security personnel and ensure that Dokalam-like incidents do not recur.

The Chinese and the Indian troops were engaged in a prolonged standoff in Dokalam area of the Sikkim sector since June 16 after the Indian side stopped the construction of a road by the Chinese Army.

On August 28, India’s External Affairs Ministry announced that New Delhi and Beijing have decided on “expeditious disengagement” of their border troops in the disputed Dokalam area. PTI

New Delhi, September 18The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to provide the files on the basis of which the services of some ex-Army officers, caught for allegedly spying for Pakistan in 1978 in the infamous Samba spy case, were terminated.Between August 1978 and January 1979, several Army officers were arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan in the Samba sector of Jammu and Kashmir between 1972 and 1978.A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said a three-judge bench of the apex court had already decided the matter in 2014.Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for these officials, told the bench that a division bench of the Delhi High Court had in 2010, while setting aside the termination order of former officers Major SP Sharma, Captain Arun Sharma, Major Ajwani and Major RK Midha, had held that the action taken against them was bad in law.He said thereafter the matter came to the apex court and a three-judge bench had upheld the Centre’s decision to terminate the services of Army officers while overturning the high court’s verdict.Bhushan claimed that the government had shown some files to the three-judge bench to buttress its argument that these Army officers were Pakistani spies but these were not made available to them.“I am not challenging the termination of service at all,” he said, adding, “at least those files should be shown to these officials”.“This is a huge stigma. Please give us an opportunity to restore our honour,” he said, while referring to a book by a former chief of the Intelligence Bureau who had said the case was doubtful.He alleged that the case was based on false testimonies of two persons and there was no evidence against the officers whose services were terminated.“The petitioners have a right to access the documents on the basis of which they have been defamed, their reputation has been tarnished and on the basis of which the judgment of the High Court of Delhi was set aside by this court.”“Denial of documents which gravely concern and affect the petitioners is not only in violation of Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution but the same is also subversive of rule of law and democracy,” the plea said. — PTI

Thiruvananthapuram,September 28

A 24-year-old naval officer, declared brain dead after a road accident, has given a new lease of life to four people, with his family donating his organs.Sub-Lt Atul Kumar Pawar of INS Dronacharya, at the Southern Naval Command in Kochi, had gone to Wayanad on a short trip with friends on September 24.The bachelor from Panchkula in Haryana was seriously injured on his way back when the vehicle he was travelling in hit a road divider at Chalakudy in Thrissur district.Pawar was rushed to a hospital in Kochi where doctors declared him brain dead yesterday. Overcoming their grief, his father Rajbir Singh Pawar and others in the family expressed the wish to donate his heart, liver and two kidneys, a release from Thiruvananthapuram Medical College said today. Pawar’s heart will be harvested on a 50-year-old man at the Kottayam Medical College and Hospital. One kidney will be donated to a patient at the naval hospital in Bengaluru and the other to a patient from Kochi. The liver will be also be transplanted. — PTI

Amritsar: As many as 46,988 youngsters from the Majha region comprising Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran and Amritsar have applied to take part in a fortnight-long Army recruitment camp to be held at Khasa cantonment from October 4. Col (retd) Amarbir Singh Chahal, District Defence Services Welfare Officer, said candidates would appear for physical and written tests for various posts like soldier general duty, soldier technical and soldier clerk. He said the admit cards of all candidates had been mailed and according to them, they have to appear for tests on the given date, time and venue. He said they must bring a hard copy of the admit cards along with them. tns

A woman colonel filed a police complaint in Dwarka, alleging that she had been receiving morphed and obscene pictures through WhatsApp from two unknown numbers.

New Delhi, September 19A man suspected of having links with Pakistani spy agency ISI was arrested here for allegedly threatening to upload morphed pictures of a woman colonel on the internet, the police said.The accused, Mohd Parvez, who is in his early 30s, was arrested on September 13 by the local police but after it was found that he had visited Pakistan a few times, the matter was transferred to the Special Cell for probe, they said.A woman colonel filed a police complaint in Dwarka, alleging that she had been receiving morphed and obscene pictures through WhatsApp from two unknown numbers.

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She was threatened that if she did not speak to the sender of the messages, the pictures would be circulated on the internet, the police said.After she blocked the two numbers, the woman colonel’s daughter started receiving morphed pictures and messages from the Facebook profile of a woman, they said.The person sending the pictures and messages asked the woman’s daughter to speak to the sender and threatened her with uploading the pictures on social media.The woman colonel approached the police and a case was registered. On the basis of the information gained through the Facebook profile and the records of the two numbers, Parvez was detained.During his interrogation, it emerged that he had visited Pakistan and had made SIM cards available to some Pakistani nationals. It was suspected that he is linked with the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the police said.He was found to have suspicious antecedents and is being questioned by the Special Cell sleuths in connection with the matter, they said.It is suspected that he was threatening the woman colonel since he wanted to extract sensitive information from her, an angle that is currently being probed. PTI