Nine persons, including a woman, were killed and 59 others injured when a Kerala-bound bus and a private bus collided near here, a senior police official said on Sunday. The air-conditioned bus was on its way to Kottayam from Bengaluru while the other was proceeding to Dharmapuri from here when the mishap occurred at Sandhai Thadam village on the National Highway-7 past midnight on Saturday, Salem DIG Venkatraman said. The head-on collision occurred when the driver of the Salem-Dharmapuri bus suddenly swerved to the right while overtaking.
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NIA, Natgrid are out of RTI ambit
age correspondent
New Delhi
June 26: The National Investigation Agency and the National Intelligence Grid (Natgrid) along with the CBI have been kept out of the purview of the RTI Act. There are a total of 25 intelligence and security agencies which have been exempted under the transparency law.
“In the second schedule of the RTI Act, 2005, after serial number 22 and the entry relating thereto, the following serial numbers and entries shall be added, namely : 23. CBI, 24. NIA, 25.
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Dayal: Maid case now with Indian govt
New York, June 26: Indian consul general in New York, Prabhu Dayal, who is accused of treating a former domestic help as a slave and making sexual advances, has said the Indian government will now have to decide how to proceed with the forced labour lawsuit filed against him by his former maid.
Mr Dayal said he had received summons from the court and had turned the matter into the hands of the Indian government.
The government would have to see whether to resolve the matter in court or go through the US State department, he said.
“It is not for me to make that decision,” Dayal told PTI. “The government will have to decide.”
Santosh Bhardwaj, 45, accuses Dayal of making her work for long hours everyday at $300 a month.
—PTI
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‘Sai money belongs to devotees’
New Delhi, June 26: Late Sathya Sai Baba’s nephew R.J. Ratnakar, who was on Saturday questioned by police in connection with the seizure of `35.5 lakh in cash, today said the money belonged to the “devotees” but refused to elaborate more.
“This 35 lakh belongs to devotees. Now that this is in the court and investigation is on, more details cannot be told,” he said.
The cash was recovered a day after Sai Baba’s personal chamber “Yajur Mandir” was opened and it was disclosed that it contained 98 kg of gold, 307 kg of silver, apart from `11.56 crore.
Mr Ratnakar refuted as “mud-slinging” and “totally false” allegations that trust members were trying to siphon out funds. —PTI