Surgery succeeds: bedridden boy gets new life
Mangaluru: After being entirely bedridden for eight years suffering from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a young man has gained new life after a successful hip replacement surgery.
Giving details about the disease and patient's condition, Dr. Deepak Rai, the chief orthopedic surgeon at Yenepoya Specialty Hospital, said, "Jayant was suffering intolerable pain in both hips and was leading a terrible life. He was completely dependent on family and caretakers to perform his day to day activities. There was no option but to undergo a replacement surgery of both the hips to bring him back to his feet. It took nearly one-and-half hour to replace each hip. After a few days of the surgery, it has become possible for him to stand on his feet and now he can walk like other human beings."
Dr Rai said "many people are suffering from such deceases, but due to lack of awareness they are not taking treatment. But now, Jayant's new life will motivate such patients."
"while Jayant was studying PUC I, the pain was started in one leg and later it was reduced. But after completing the mid-term exam in PUC II, Jayant was completely unable to walk. We were doing his routine activities. Treatment was continued for three years before meeting Dr Rai. Later, Dr Rai informed them about the surgery. But due to financial crunch, we decided to proceed with normal treatment. Not only that, but we also started Ayurvedic treatment. But even after completing five years, there was no improvement. So, we decided to meet Dr. Rai, and he advised us to go for surgery. Now I am happy to see my brother walking on his feet. This became possible by the service of Dr Rai," Jayant's brother Gangadhar said.
Financial help needed
"My brother had opted science in PUC after securing 85 percent of marks in SSLC. But in the middle of PUC II, he became the victim of such decease. Due to financial problems, we had to suffer a lot for his treatment. So far, Rs. 6 lakhs have been spent for his treatment. We have received no aid for his operation. It would have been helpful for us if we had got financial help from the government," Gangadhar lamented.
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Kerala: ED files money laundering case in Sabarimala gold loss case
Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate on Friday filed a money laundering case in the Sabarimala gold loss case in Kerala, official sources said.
The federal probe agency's Kochi zonal office has registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), an ED equivalent of a police FIR, under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.
The politically sensitive case is already being investigated by a state special investigation team (SIT) under the supervision of the Kerala High Court.
In December, the high court had allowed the ED to undertake an independent investigation into the case after it dismissed objections raised by the SIT against sharing the case information with the central agency.
The SIT is probing two cases related to the gold loss incident and has arrested 11 people so far. The latest to be arrested by the SIT was Kandararu Rajeevaru, the chief priest of the Lord Ayyappa temple.
The other prominent persons arrested in the case by the SIT are Bengaluru-based businessman and prime accused Unnikrishnan Potty and former Travancore Devaswom Board president A Padmakumar.
The ED is expected to soon look for more evidence, question the accused, and it may also go on to attach certain assets of those involved if it finds that they generated "proceeds of crime", according to the officials.
The probe is related to a series of irregularities, including official misconduct, administrative lapses and a criminal conspiracy to misappropriate the gold from the various artefacts of the Lord Ayyappa shrine.
The investigation by the SIT, and now by the ED, is related to the loss of gold from the gold-cladded copper plates of the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and the door frames of the Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) of the temple.
The SIT has informed the High Court that its probe found "a series of serious official misconduct and administrative lapses on the part of the Devaswom officials right from the initial correspondence till the handing over of the door frame plates, connected plates, Dwarapalaka plates and pillar plates to Unnikrishnan Potty without proper authorisation".
It further said in its statement that Govardhan, Pankaj Bhandari, the CEO of Chennai-based Smart Creations, which carried out the electroplating of the artefacts from the temple, Potty and the other accused hatched a criminal conspiracy with malicious intention to misappropriate the gold cladded on the copper plates in and around the shrine.
"It is found during the investigation that all these criminal activities were part of a large conspiracy and an organised crime committed by the accused persons.
"They had a larger plan to dismantle other gold-clad items on the Sabarimala Sreekovil and to extract the gold from them for misappropriation," it said.
