Kyunki producer ducks hearing
New Delhi (PTI): Television producer Ekta Kapoor, summoned by the National Commission for Women over a marital rape scene in her serial, failed to appear before the commission on Wednesday, resulting in the hearing being adjourned to December 14.
Kapoor had sent two lawyers to the women?s body to represent her, but commission chairperson Poornima Advani adjourned the hearing saying ?lawyers cannot represent their clients in the commission?.
On whether any reasons were cited for Kapoor?s failure to appear before the commission, Advani said: ?It appears she was under the impression that lawyers can represent the person summoned by the commission. But NCW has never entertained such a procedure. So we are giving her another opportunity.?
The commission had served a showcause notice to Kapoor and summoned her over ?objectionable? depiction of marital rape in her popular soap Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.
Advani said Kapoor, through her lawyers, submitted a CD of the episode in question to the commission.
?I have not seen the episode myself, but the other NCW members have. And all have taken objection to the way marital rape has been depicted in the serial,? she said.
The episode in question was aired on October 12.
Satellite aid for villages
New Delhi (PTI): The government is setting up satellite-based village resource centres in different parts of the country to make available the benefits of space technology, like tele-education and tele-medicine, to rural people, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
The initiative is being taken up by the Indian Space Research Organisation in association with some non-government and voluntary agencies, minister of state in the Prime Minister?s Office Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply.
These village resource centres are meant to reach a variety of services and products to rural communities, he said. They include interactive advisory services related to agriculture development, advisories on fisheries potential, etc.
CD sex racket probe begins
Jammu (PTI): The Jammu and Kashmir crime branch on Wednesday constituted a five-member team to investigate a pornographic CD sex racket involving former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta, official sources said.
The team, headed by DIG (crime branch) Gulzar Singh Slathia, will conduct the investigations, the sources said. The team includes additional superintendent of police Sewa Singh Mankotia, deputy superintendent of police Abdul Rouf Lone, inspector T.P. Singh and a sub-inspector.
Skull in court
Jammu (PTI): A human skull was found in the record room of a local court in Jammu, official sources said. During cleaning, some employees opened a box in the record room of the sessions judge?s court and found a skull lying there along with other items, they said. A probe has been ordered.
IAS shunt-out
Jaipur (PTI): The Rajasthan government has transferred two top officials of Sriganganagar district where farmers are agitating for irrigation water. One IAS officer and 12 officers of the Rajasthan Administrative Services, two of them from Sriganganagar, have been reshuffled, an official release said.
Weapons gang
Jaipur (PTI): Rajasthan police have busted a gang of weapon dealers with the arrest of five persons in the Malviya Nagar area. The alleged kingpin, Prashant Mishra, was nabbed at his home late on Tuesday night, an official said. About a dozen illegal pistols and 50 live cartridges were seized, he said.
Cyclone weakens
Pune (PTI): The severe cyclonic storm over the southwest Arabian Sea has weakened and is likely to move in a west-northwesterly direction, the meteorological department has said. The cyclone was positioned at latitude 7 degree north and longitude 59.5 degree east at 8 am. On Tuesday, it had intensified into a cyclonic storm moving north-westwards in the Arabian Sea before beginning to weaken some hours later.
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To check the rising number of hoax calls in Coimbatore, the government has started fixing caller ID to phones in its offices and schools. It has started working on 2,700 phones already.
