Man kills labourer, burns body to fake his own death for insurance claims; nabbed
Shimla (HP), Dec 5: A man faked his death allegedly for making insurance claim, but ran out of luck as the police nabbed him on suspicion that he had killed a labourer and burnt his body in his car.
Aakash, a resident of Chandigarh, was arrested on Tuesday from Palwal Railway Station in a joint operation of the Sirmour Police and the Government Railway Police, Haryana, Sirmaur Superintendent of Police Rohit Malpani said Wednesday.
Prima facie, Aakash and his family wanted to grab the huge life insurance money, the value of which will be estimated after further investigation and interrogation of the accused, the SP said.
He said Aakash's nephew Ravi Kumar (29) was also involved in planning and executing the alleged crime and he was arrested on Monday from Himachal Pradesh's Nahan.
Elaborating, police said a case of accidental death was registered at Nahan police station on November 20, stating a car had collided with a parapet at Judda Ka Johar and it got completely burnt before police could arrive.
It was also stated that a person named Aakash had died in the alleged accident and got burnt with the vehicle, they said.
A team of Forensic Science Laboratory visited the spot the next day.
The SP said police suspected some foul play when Aakash's family started to pressure the police to release 'death certificate' from the very next day of the accident , he said.
"and grew suspicious when a team of the Punjab Police came to Nahan a few days ago in search of a missing labourer from Rajasthan who was working with Aakash and was last in touch with him", the SP said.
Meanwhile, Ravi visited Nahan on December 3.
The SP said as suspicion grew, police nabbed Ravi from Nahan and produced him in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, which sent him to five-days' police remand.
During interrogation, police found out that Ravi was with Aakash when he burnt his car and then they left for Haryana. Aakash was further planning to flee to Nepal, the SP said.
As per their plan, Aakash had deliberately collided his car with the parapet on the intervening night of November 19-20 and set it afire before police reached the spot, Malpani said.
A police team chased Aakash till Varanasi but, he managed to escape.
Finally, he was detained on December 4 at Palwal Railway Station while he was travelling in a train from Bihar to Delhi, the SP said.
The accused will be produced in a court to seek his police remand for interrogating him and finding out the modus operandi used to kill the unidentified labourer, police said.
A fresh case has been registered under section 302 (punishment for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and both Aakash and Ravi have been arrested, the SP said.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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