Man attends virtual hearing at Gujarat HC from toilet, video goes viral
Ahmedabad, Jun 27 (PTI): A video showing a man attending a virtual hearing at the Gujarat High Court from a toilet seat went viral on Friday.
The incident occurred on June 20 when Justice Nirzar S Desai was hearing a case.
A man wearing a yellow t-shirt logged in using a mobile phone, with the name on the screen identifying him as `Samad Battery'.
Shockingly, the video shows that he had been sitting on a toilet seat while he attended the proceedings through video link.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gujarat High Court has allowed both lawyers and litigants to join through the virtual mode, and the proceedings of each hearing are broadcast live via the court's YouTube channel.
The short, about one minute-long video showed that the man had kept the mobile phone on the floor of the toilet with the camera facing him.
After finishing his business in the toilet, he picked up the phone and left. Justice Desai apparently did not notice his actions or the surroundings.
The same person, wearing wireless earphones, can be seen logging in again later in the livestream, sitting in a room and waiting for his turn.
After nearly ten minutes, Justice Desai asked his name and he identified himself as Abdul Samad, a resident of Kim village of Surat and the complainant in a case of assault.
His lawyers informed the court that Samad had recently lodged a complaint of assault against two persons in Kim, but both the parties have arrived at a compromise.
Hearing the petition filed by the two accused seeking to quash the First Information Report, Justice Desai asked Samad if he consented to it. He told the court he had no objection, following which Justice Desai granted the accused's plea.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
