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September 25, 2006

Madhya Pradesh police chief removed for 'fraud'

India News, September 23, 2006

Madhya Pradesh police chief Swaraj Puri was Friday removed from his post after being charged with fraud, cheating and misusing his office.

The government took the step after the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the state police registered a case against Puri accusing him of fraudulently getting his son admitted to an engineering college in Indore under the NRI quota.

A court here had Sep 15 directed the EOW to probe the matter, submit a report Sep 27 and complete investigation within a month. The EOW found that Puri had furnished false information in obtaining admission for his son in 2001.

When contacted, Puri retorted: "The matter is already in the court."

EOW Director General Anand Rao Panwar will replace Puri as the new police chief.

Posted by bhola at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2006

Foreign banks to open branches in Bhopal

Adapted from report in the Bhopal Central Chronicle, September 22, 2006

Sources within the financial world say that more than 18 foreign banks, encouraged by India's economic liberalisation, have applied for licenses to open branches in Bhopal and other cities.

The big attraction, according to banking expert JN Kapoor, is the greatly increased buying power of Madhya Pradesh citizens.

Foreign banks are not bound by the same rules as their Indian counterparts, which are obliged by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to offer banking services in rural areas whenever they open a branch in a new city. Foreign banks are under no such compulsion.

Posted by bhola at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

‘Murdered’ boy reappears to save his parents

INDIA NEWS, AUGUST 27, 2006

Bhopal - In a scene straight out of a Hindi movie, a 14-year-old boy who had disappeared six months ago made a dramatic appearance in a Madhya Pradesh court where his parents were being tried for his murder.

Gabbar went missing Feb 10 from Hoshangabad district. On March 20, the police found a body, took it to be Gabbar’s and promptly arrested his parents - Ramesh Yadav and Neelu - on charges of murdering him even as they pleaded innocence.

Gabbar, who mysteriously reappeared Thursday, was taken to the district court where the hearing over his ‘murder’ was scheduled Friday.

Lawyer Ramraj Singh Thakur, the distraught parents’ lawyer, asked the court to free them because the boy was alive.

Thakur explained to IANS what had happened: ‘Gabbar used to sell peanuts on trains. One day he took a train to Jalgaon in Maharashtra where he was arrested and handed over to a remand home.

‘Since he belonged to Madhya Pradesh he was sent to a juvenile home in Bhopal. The juvenile home officials took several weeks to inform his family,’ the lawyer said.

On receipt of the startling information, the boy’s uncle, Punamchand, and elder brother Kallu rushed to Bhopal and brought him back - just in time.

But the police still have their doubts.

‘The case is pending in court. We are trying to verify if the boy is indeed Gabbar,’ Hoshangabad additional superintendent of police A.K. Pande told IANS.

Posted by bhola at 12:07 AM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2006

Poachers held in Bhopal, animal skins seized

INDO ASIAN NEWS SERVICE, AUGUST 25, 2006

Bhopal, Aug 25 (IANS) Four poachers have been arrested here and a tiger and panther skin seized from them, a senior official said.

The arrests followed a tip off to wildlife department officials that some people were trying to strike a deal to sell the animal skins to traders in Maharashtra, said H.S. Pabla, additional principal chief conservator of forests.

'The officials laid a trap by posing as traders and struck a deal with three poachers,' he said.

Pabla said once the deal was struck, the poachers brought the skins and were caught.

'Further investigations revealed that all three - Durgesh, Kamlesh and Nandlal - belonged to Betul district. A person, Jawan Singh, who is also involved in the trade, was arrested from Dadukheda village in Betul district,' Pabla said.

A case has been registered against the four under various sections of the wildlife act. The four confessed to have sold the skins of many big cats in the past to traders in Maharashtra's Dharmi area.

In 1994, a resident of Betul district had admitted to killing 30 big cats - tigers and panthers - in a span of two years. The police also recovered trapping equipment like iron snares and electric wires from his possession.

The remains of 28 tigers were recovered from 12 districts of the state between 1998 and 2004, though, as one official said: 'The latest figures are yet to be compiled.'

Madhya Pradesh has 712 tigers, spread across nine national parks and 25 wildlife sanctuaries.

'It is home to the largest tiger population in the country but it is also a poachers' paradise,' said an official of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

Posted by bhola at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)