NEW DELHI: A picture posted on Facebook led to such bitterness among two Class X students of a well-known private school in central Delhi that one of them stabbed the other with a paper cutter in school on Wednesday morning.

The victim suffered six stab wounds, with the cutter slashing through his veins. He was rushed to the Ganga Ram Hospital in Rajender Nagar where an operation was conducted to stop the bleeding. The boy is now reported to be stable.

On Sunday, the attacker had warned the victim through a text message that he would be attacked in school. Not taking the threat seriously, the victim deleted the message after sharing it with friends and did not inform his parents or the school authorities about it, police said.

Friends and family members of the victim said the two boys, both 15 years old, turned bitter rivals after they attended a party some time ago. “Someone clicked a group photo at the party. The accused allegedly circulated a cropped photo of the victim with another student which was objected to by the victim. This led to tension between the two,” said a family relative.

The attack took place around 7.25am near the school staircase. “The boys studied in different sections of Class X. For the past few days, there was some animosity between the two,” said the school principal when contacted on phone.

“The school starts at 7.30am. These two boys arrived at the staircase and started fighting. One of them attacked the other with a sharp object, leaving gashes on his left hand. We have a tie-up with Ganga Ram Hospital and the injured student was taken there. Since it was a medico-legal case, the hospital authorities asked us to join the investigations,” the principal said.

The principal said the school’s prime concern was to ensure the quick recovery of the victim. “We can then decide on some disciplinary action,” he added.

According to the victim’s mother, the teenager had earlier complained of being bullied by the accused. “We got a call in the morning that we should come to the school. Twenty minutes later, we were told that my son was being taken to hospital as he had suffered injuries,” she said.

She said she became aware of the alleged SMS only on Wednesday. “He had deleted the SMS threatening him of an impeding attack by the same boy,” the mother claimed. The victim’s father is a cloth merchant. Both boys live in west Delhi.

The accused’s mother said her son was “repentant” over his actions. “He has told me that he suddenly lost his cool when he heard bad words spoken about one of his sisters. However, we have told him his actions cannot be justified. He is at present not feeling well and has been advised rest,” she said.

Additional CP (central) Devesh Srivastav said a DD entry had been made about the attack at Rajender Nagar police station. Sources said the child will be asked to be present before the Juvenile Justice Board.

A Ganga Ram Hospital spokesperson said the boy was recovering well. “We found he had suffered six sharp wounds. But no major injury was noticed.”

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NEW DELHI: Needling India all along the unresolved 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC), Chinese troops have crossed over into Indian territory over 500 times since January, 2010.

But much more than the sheer number of these “transgressions” – the government refuses to call them “intrusions” – it’s the increasingly aggressive behaviour of the 2.5-million-strong People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the LAC that remains a major worry.

Many experts feel China, after building massive military infrastructure in Tibet Autonomous Region with five airbases, an extensive rail network and over 58,000-km of roads, is now resorting to “a slow but steady cartographic aggression” to keep India under pressure.

The government, as always, played down the issue by holding the transgressions took place due to “differing perceptions” about where the LAC actually lies. “Our security forces also continue to patrol all areas that fall within the Indian perception of the LAC,” said defence minister A K Antony in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

Union minister of state for home Mullappally Ramachandran, however, did admit the number of transgressions by PLA troops stood at 228 in 2010, 213 in 2011 and 64 till April.

Similar figures, if not more, have been recorded in earlier years. The number of Chinese transgressions, as Antony said, have “generally been as per established pattern” during the last five years.

But that does not detract from the fact that the PLA has been flexing its muscles through an aggressive border management policy to stake claim to disputed areas in all the three sectors – western (Ladakh), middle ( Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh).

Chinese troops, for instance, damaged a 200-feet long stonewall in Yangtse area of Tawang in Arunachal last year, which was subsequently re-built by India after lodging a strong protest with Beijing.

Armed motorized as well as boat patrols by PLA in the strategically-located Trig Heights and Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh have also intensified since 2009. Similarly, Chinese has stepped up claims along the 206-km border between Tibet and Sikkim, which India long considered was “a settled matter”, with the so-called 2.1 sq km “finger area” in the northernmost tip of the state remaining a specific matter of concern.

New Delhi hopes the new bilateral boundary coordination mechanism, which became operational two months ago after being inked during the 15th round of border talks between national security advisor Shivshankar Menon and his Chinese counterpart Dai Bingguo in January, will help prevent border flare-ups between the two armies.

India also takes up “specific incidents” of transgressions by PLA through hotlines, flag meetings, border personnel meeting (BPM) and diplomatic channels. During the 4th India-China annual defence dialogue last December, India also told China that military patrols along the LAC should not be undertaken at night, nor should they “surprise each other”. Moreover, laid-down stand-operating procedures to cool down tempers should be followed in the event of face-offs between the two armies.

India also suggested the proposed BPM mechanism at Lipulekh in the middle sector should be shifted to the nearby Mana Pass to make it operational, to follow the ones already in place at Nathu La, Bumla, Spanggur and Kibithu-Damai.

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MUMBAI: The Indian currency’s Greek tragedy continued on Wednesday, as the rupee closed at a new all-time low of 54.5, marking a 22% fall already this year.

All Asian currencies, not just the rupee, have lost value against the dollar due the euro-zone crisis triggered by Greece’s imminent exit from the common currency. But that is unlikely to be of much consolation to households that are set to suffer the effects of inflation as all imports, including oil, get costlier. Outbound tourists and students too will have to shell out more rupees for the same amount of dollars.

The falling rupee will also have an impact on businesses. “This could be a death blow for various Indian companies. One key aspect is the impact on Indian companies in terms of the mark-to-market losses on the borrowings they made through ECB and FCCB routes,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, strategist and head of research at SMC Global Securities. He pointed out that the 22% drop has imposed an additional burden of $6.6 billion on Indian corporates that have borrowed money overseas. Accounting laws require companies to make provisions on foreign exchange losses on a quarterly basis.

On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India lost a crucial battle to keep the rupee within earlier support levels as the domestic currency lost 70 paise from Tuesday’s close. Dealers said that having crossed the previous low of 54.3, the rupee is now in uncharted territory.

Although the root cause was global, dealers said the RBI’s hand was weakened due to the government’s inability to come out with policy measures to attract fund inflows or reduce the deficit.

“More than the rupee weakening it was the euro collapsing and the dollar gaining against all currencies. Although RBI managed to pull back the rupee to 53.8 on Tuesday, overnight there was news that the Greek president had failed to avert a repeat election (raising the possibility of a Greek exit from the euro) which resulted in the rupee opening below 54,” said Harihar Krishnamoorthy, treasurer, First Rand Bank. He added that although the rupee rallied briefly when finance minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke about austerity measures, it slipped again when no announcements were forthcoming from the government.

“This is not unique to India, we are part of a global economy,” said K R Kamath, chairman, Punjab National Bank.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, the ringgit slumped 1.1% in Kuala Lumpur, the Korean won dropped 1%, the Philippine peso weakened 0.9% and Thailand’s baht fell 0.5%. “Though measures like dollar bonds, creating a special window for dollar sales to the oil companies and enhancing the debt limit for foreign institutional investors apart from physical intervention may curb short-term losses, structural reforms and greater commitment by the government towards fiscal discipline are key for ensuring sustained gains in the rupee,” said Upasna Bhardwaj, economist, ING Vysya Bank.

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NEW DELHI: The BCCI on Wednesday began the probe into the spot-fixing scandal that has rocked the cash-rich IPL with one of the suspended domestic players Shalabh Srivastava deposing before the inquiry commission.

Barely a day after the BCCI cracked the whip by suspending five tainted players in the wake of the television sting operation which claimed to expose corruption in IPL, Ravi Sawani, who is heading the inquiry commission, met Srivastava to hear his side of the story on the sting operation.

The meeting, which took place at a five-star hotel, is learnt to have lasted for an hour.

There was, however, no official word from the BCCI on the development.

Sawani, a former chief of the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), has been asked to submit his report to the BCCI’s Discplinary Committee within 15 days. Sawani is now the chief of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption unit.

Apart from Srivastava, the BCCI had on Tuesday suspended Mohnish Mishra, TP Sudhindra, Amit Yadav and Abhinav Bali with immediate effect pending inquiry. The decision was taken after a lengthy tele-conference of top BCCI officials and members of the IPL’s Governing Council.

The Cricket Board had swung into action a day after the expose as the issue rocked Parliament and former players and cricket administrators called for strong action to rid the game of even a whiff of a scandal.

Sawani will meet the other four suspended players in the coming days before finalising his report, a top BCCI source said.

Television channel India TV had on Monday claimed to have blown the lid off “murky deals” in the IPL among players, organisers, owners and big guns of Indian cricket.

The TV sting operation which was aired at prime time created a flutter in the Indian cricket establishment prompting the BCCI to react quickly.

The channel had claimed it had done a sting operation in which many players confessed on hidden camera they get much more than their prescribed auction under the table.

According to the channel, its operation also revealed that spot-fixing is not only prevalent in IPL but also that first class matches are fixed and women played an important role in match-fixing.

The IPL’s Governing Council had sought video footage from the TV channel and is understood to have scrutinised the tapes before taking the decision of suspending the players.

Srivastava, who deposed before the Commission today, is a left-arm seamer from Uttar Pradesh and was India’s highest wicket-taker at the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka in 2000. After severing ties with ICL team Delhi Giants, Srivastava was signed up by Kings XI Punjab in 2011.

Four of the five players suspended had played in the rebel Indian Cricket League.

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NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: In an attempt to restore normalcy, Air India on Wednesday began international operations to the US and Europe as part of its contingency plan even as striking pilots asked the government to initiate preliminary talks.

As the stir by the pilots entered the ninth day, the airline curtailed and clubbed many of its flights to the US and Europe to stabilize international operations.

“We have put in force our contingency plan and started operating our international flights, which were affected for the past eight days causing great inconvenience to our customers. Slowly, we hope that our operations would normalise,” said an Air India official.

The national carrier, operated Delhi-Paris-New York (JFK) and Delhi-Frankfurt-Chicago flight early this morning while it would be operating Delhi-Shanghai and Delhi-London as per schedule.

“We have merged Mumbai-London and Mumbai-Shanghai flights with the Delhi-London and Delhi-Shanghai flights. We are operating these flights with Boeing 777 ER aircraft so we won’t have problem accommodating the passengers,” the official said, adding this will bring relief to many of our passengers who were anxious about their flights status.

Most of our passengers are those who have booked tickets months ago for their journey, he said, adding if situation permits then we may open our bookings for our ultra-long flights, which have been suspended till tomorrow.

“We have deployed Airbus 320 aircraft for our short haul flights to Bangkok, Singapore and other destinations,” he said.

In another development, the striking Air India pilots asked the government to at least initiate preliminary talks.

“The government should at least being preliminary talks. We are ready for talks but they should formally invite us for talks to resolve the issue,” Jitendra Awhad, head of the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) said.

‘Sick pilots’ return to work

Meanwhile, on day nine of the stir by over 200 Air India pilots, three pilots resumed duty today and the protesters said they were “open” to talks with the government to resolve the impasse.

IPG, which is spearheading the agitation, said in a statement it was “open to meeting with officials of the management and/or Ministry at any place at any time in order to resolve these issues and bring an end to the current impasse.”

An AI spokesperson said, “three sick pilots have resumed duty today”. The IPG claimed that they were not its members. The agitation has led to curtailment of the airline’s international operations.

Even as it offered to get to the negotiating table, the IPG accused the airline management of providing “incorrect” inputs on their demands to civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.

“The strike continues … We don’t want pilots to be martyred,” IPG president and NCP MLA Jitendra Ahwad told PTI when asked whether they were willing to call off their agitation that has led to a revenue loss of over Rs 150 crore to the loss-making carrier besides causing inconvenience to passengers.

Ajit Singh has promised to hear the pilots’ grievances unconditionally and appealed to them to return to work, saying they had the “last chance” to revive the “almost bankrupt” airline.

He has also assured them there would be no vindictive action if the striking pilots came for talks unconditionally.

Asked to comment on the ongoing stir, Hheavy industry minister and senior NCP leader Praful Patel said, “it is unfair for me to comment on anything that is going on. All I can say is that the aviation minister’s approach is right and I fully support the Minister for whatever steps he has taken and intends to take.”

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BANGALORE: A marriage between two cousins belonging to Rajasthan’s Shwetambar Terapanthi Jain community has come under the Karnataka high court scanner after a Mysore family court refused to decree a divorce on the woman’s plea that ‘an unwritten law’ of the community had barred them from tying the knot.

The Mysore court had also ordered the woman to stay with her husband. She had appealed to the high court against the order.

Asking the trial court to adjudicate the matter afresh within six months, a division bench of Justices NK Patil and BV Pinto asked the wife to prove that there is a law in her community prohibiting marriage between cousins.

The woman has been advised to prove that such a custom prevails in her community and the marriage is contrary to provisions of Section 5 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955.

The high court refused to buy an argument by the girl’s lawyer, who cited a Supreme Court judgment granting divorce to a Khatri community couple who were relatives.

“The husband and wife in the present case are Aroras (a community) who do not belong to the orthodox class of Hindus and known to be much more liberal (than Khatri community) over the prohibited degree between the two spouses,” noted the judges.

In 2008, Rakhi Shah, a resident of Mysore, filed a petition in a local family court seeking divorce. She alleged that she was married to her cousin brother, Rakesh Shah from Bangalore, against her wishes. Rakesh’s mother was the elder sister of Rakhi’s father.

She said Rakesh had forcefully married her at a lodge in Bangalore on February 16, 2005. The wedding was later registered in Bangalore. She sought nullity of the marriage saying her community does not permit the same between cousins.

Rakesh claimed Rakhi had willfully married him and she had sought divorce under pressure from her father and other family members. He also filed a petition in the family court seeking restitution of conjugal rights. He argued that marriage between cousins was permissible in their community.

Rakesh told the court that Rakhi stayed with him till April 15, 2005, when her family forcibly took her back. “She is ready to come back to me, but is acting under her family’s influence,” he contended.

(Names of the parties have been changed)

What the law says

Section 5(4) of Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, says a marriage may be solemnized between any two Hindus, if the parties are not in a prohibited relationship, unless the custom or usage governing each of them permits a marriage between the two.

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NEW DELHI: If inflation has broken the back of the aam aadmi, the biggest contributor to the pain in the UPA’s term is food prices.

Government data on wholesale price index (WPI) shows that there has been a 63% increase in the price of all commodities between April 2004, a month before UPA took charge, and April 2012, the latest period for which data is available. But when it comes to food products, the index has more than doubled from 98 to 206.4. So, you are now spending at least twice the amount you spent in April 2004 just to meet your basic consumption needs.

Of the 60-odd items analyzed by TOI and Crisil, there is just one case – ginger – where the price has decreased, going by the index. In all other cases, there has been an increase. Within these commodities, there are only eight products – guava, coconut, garlic, papaya, onions, turmeric, tea and chicken – where the rise in prices is less than 63%.

The spurt in food prices is mainly due to demand outstripping supply as productivity has remained stagnant for most of the commodities.

For households, especially the poor, food inflation can have the most damaging impact, given that a bulk of spending in the lower income strata is on this segment. While the poor can draw some comfort from the fact that cereal prices are not among the commodities which have seen the maximum jump, the overall increase is still over 90% with wheat and rice, on an average, seeing over 80% increase.

While protein-rich items such as milk, egg, meat and fish have seen prices more than double, it is vegetables that have caused the maximum dent to the housewife’s monthly budget. This segment has seen a 171% jump. So, if you spent Rs 3,000 a month on vegetables seven years ago, you would now be spending over Rs 5,000. Given that cabbage now costs six-and-a-half times more than April 2004, you can draw comfort from the fact that during this period, potato and brinjal prices have only gone up by 111% and 140%, respectively. Similarly, bhindi now costs four-and-a-half times more.

Even fruits have seen a lower spurt of around 90% with prices of mangoes, oranges, apples and pineapple more than doubling. When it comes to spices, black pepper has seen the biggest jump (335%). Coffee makes up the top five commodities in terms of price rise with an increase of 269%.

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