Briefly State

Malda: Three persons have been reported as drowned in the flood waters in the last 24 hours in Malda even as one person went missing after a boat capsized Wednesday,officials said. Among the dead were two children who drowned Tuesday and a 14-year-old boy who met a similar fate today.

20 ill after taking mango drink

Canning: Around 20 people Wednesday fell sick after consuming a mango drink here in South-24 Parganas,sources said. They said Sanyasi Mandal in Gutiari Saheb village had brought the fruit pulp-based drink from Kolkata and gave it to his friends and family members who fell ill later in the day. All 20 were admitted to a local hospital.

Lafave appointed US Counsul General

Kolkata: Helen Lafave has been appointed as the new US Consul General in Kolkata on August 24. Prior to this,she served as the Deputy Director for Arabian Peninsula Affairs in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau at US State Department.

HC seeks case diary of Garbeta skeleton recovery

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court Wednesday directed the CID to produce the case diary pertaining to recovery of skeletons from near the ancestral house of former minister and CPM legislator Sushanta Ghosh at Garbeta in West Midnapore district two years ago. The directive came while hearing a petition filed by Ghosh challenging an FIR and a chargsheet against him in the case.

In June,2011,several human skeletons were recovered from a pit in Benachapra village under Garbeta police station in West Midnapore.

Later,one Shayamal Acharya lodged an FIR claiming that one of the skeltons was that of his father Ajay Acharya,a TMC activist,who had went missing on September 22,2002. He claimed Ghosh and several others had got his father killed. A DNA test had confirmed one of the skeletons as that of his father.

The CID had then filed a chargesheet against Ghosh and the other accused. Ghosh has challenged the FIR and the chargesheet. The court fixed September 17 for next hearing.