Rejecting his bail plea, the Midnapore court remanded Sushanta Ghosh, the alleged mastermind of the massacre of seven Trinamul Congress activists, in four days’ police custody on Wednesday for further progress in the CID probe. Mr Ghosh, taking cue from social activist Anna Hazare’s strategy of protest, however, threatened to go on an indefinite fast to skip interrogation.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, the CPI(M) strongman and MLA, wearing punjabi and pyjama, was released from SSKM Hospital. The CID took him out on a wheel chair instead of a stretcher, foiling his last minute ploy of showing himself ill. Sensing no way out, he raised his right hand and left the wheel chair to walk into a bullet-proof car which ferried him to the Kharagpur police station. He was kept there before court production and was offered food which he refused to take, declaring his intention to fast.
In the afternoon, he was produced before chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Manoj Rai under tight security arrangements to tackle an angry crowd. During the hearing, the CID produced a series of evidence, including two wireless transmitters before the CJM. Four keys, each being one-feet-long, were also produced. The CID told the court that it may belong to an armoury.
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Correct any mistake in anthem: HC
Umesh Mohite
Mumbai
Aug. 17: The Bombay high court on Wednesday observed that if there is a mistake in the usage of the word “Sindh” during recital or broadcast of the national anthem Jana Gana Mana, it should be corrected. The HC bench said that even if it is unintentional, if there is a mistake in usage of any word in the national anthem, the concerned ministry should correct it.
A division bench has now directed the Union ministries of home affairs, culture and information and broadcast to file their replies within three weeks on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the wrong usage.
Shreekant Malushte, a retired professor from Pune, has moved the HC on August 9 seeking the court’s intervention on the issue, wanting to replace the word “Sindh” with “Sindhu” while reciting and broadcasting the national anthem.
Arguing before the division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R.G. Ketkar, the petitioner said that the government in 1950 had replaced the word “Sindh” in the anthem with “Sindhu.” “However, the national anthem continues to be sung and broadcast in a wrong manner by using incorrect words,” the petition states.
The petitioner has relied on the information gathered under the Right to Information (RTI) reply given by the ministry of home affairs. The ministry has stated that “Sindhu” and not “Sindh” is used in the correct version of the anthem.
Advocate Niranjan Mogre, appearing for the petitioner, told the court that when the anthem was composed, Sindh was a part of India, but is now in Pakistan. Hence, it was replaced with the word “Sindhu”, which is a river in India.
“If the MHA says that it is ‘Sindhu’, then why is it not corrected? It seems like a mistake that has been continuing for several years. If it is, then it should be corrected immediately. In fact, it should have been done before August 15,” observed the high court.