Dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh granted 40-day parole
Chandigarh (PTI): Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who is serving a prison sentence in Haryana's Sunaria jail, has been granted parole for 40 days, official sources said on Friday.
The move comes just ahead of the Adampur bypoll, which is scheduled to be held on November 3. The Dera chief had earlier come out of prison on a month-long parole in June. Prior to that, he was granted three weeks' furlough in February.
The sect chief is serving a 20-year jail term for raping two women disciples at his ashram in Sirsa, where the Dera is headquartered. He was convicted by a special CBI court in Panchkula in August 2017.
He was last year also convicted along with four others for hatching a conspiracy to kill Ranjit Singh, a Dera manager, in 2002. The Dera chief and three others were convicted in 2019 for the murder of a journalist more than 16 years ago.
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Odisha govt halts salaries of 5 teachers after school fire injures 4 students
Bhubaneswar (PTI): The Odisha government on Tuesday halted the salaries of five teachers and issued show-cause notices to other staff of a state-run high school in Rayagada district, a day after four students sustained severe burn injuries in a fire incident on the premises of the institute.
School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond told PTI that he has directed the department secretary to submit a detailed report on the incident and ordered a departmental inquiry to ascertain negligence, if any.
The students suffered burn injuries while playing around a fire during school hours.
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“The department has stopped the salaries of five teachers and issued show-cause notices to other staff members in connection with the incident,” he said.
The minister said that further action would be taken against teachers or staff if negligence in duty was established.
School and Mass Education Secretary N Thirumala Naik said three of the injured students were undergoing treatment at a hospital in Rayagada, while one critically injured student has been shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
The school headmaster had lodged a complaint at Muniguda police station on Monday. Police have recorded statements of the injured students, officials said.
According to preliminary findings, the incident occurred when a classmate of the injured students allegedly threw colour thinner, an inflammable substance, onto a fire that had been lit by the students on the school building’s balcony.
Muniguda police station in-charge inspector Saudamini Behera said the students were playing on the school roof around 2 pm on Monday when they found a bottle of thinner stored there.
They allegedly poured it on the floor and set it on fire using a matchstick. One of the boys later added more thinner, causing the flames to flare up and injure four students, she said.
