In the High Court

The status report gives details of the correspondence between the agency and the government. Some of the letters seeking replies on pertinent questions are shown to have been received by the government more than 30 days after being posted by the CBI. Moreover,the report does not mention the names of the officers responsible for the delay in providing the replies. The CBI,which was given two months to complete the probe in July,had sought extensions pleading that certain government officials were not cooperating. The court,in its July 16 order,had given the CBI a free hand in probing the case. In the last hearing,it had asked the agency to name the persons responsible for delay.

Taj corridor case: Litigant alleges threat to life
Anupma Singh,whose PIL seeking a resumption of proceedings against Chief Minister Mayawati in the Taj Heritage Corridor case is pending in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court,moved an application on Tuesday,alleging threat to her life.

Claiming that her movements had been under constant surveillance by unknown persons,Singh said that one K G Gupta,who called himself an inspector from the Drug department,had illegally inspected her house on January 18. According to her,Gupta had claimed that an inquiry was on against her husband on the direction of the Chief Minister’s Office. Singh’s husband runs a medical shop in the Aminabad area.

Singh claimed to have been pressurised by the management of the school where she was a teacher not to pursue the petition against Mayawati and PWD minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui. A resident of Vishwas Khand Gomti Nagar,Singh charged Mayawati of using her influence to compel her to withdraw the case. The court will likely hear the matter on Thursday.

SMS case: HC dismisses writ petition against FIR
Allahabad: A writ petition challenging the validity of an FIR lodged against a judicial magistrate,Pramod Gangwar,and his friend Vivek Kumar Gupta for allegedly sending obscene text messages to a woman,was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday.

Gupta,who had filed the writ petition,had challenged the validity of the FIR under the IT Act but the Division Bench comprising Justices Imtiyaz Murtaza and N A Moonis,dismissed the petition saying the petitioner had not brought forth any convincing argument to show that no cognisable offence was made out in the FIR or that there was any statutory restrictions operating on the police to investigate the case.

The FIR was lodged against Gupta and Gangwar at Mahila police station in Bareilly district on January 6.

The victim,Anju Singh,had alleged that the accused had sent vulgar messages on her mobile phone and even made some calls at odd hours. The mobile number through which the text messages were sent belonged to Gangwar.