1. BJP Moves NHRC On Purulia Murder
Police have sought call detail records (CDR) from the service providers of two SIM cards found in the mobile phone of Trilochan Mahato, the 20-year-old BJP Yuva Morcha member found murdered on Wednesday, 30 May.
The mobile was found near the third-year college student’s body recovered from a forest barely a kilometre from his home in Supurdi village of Balarampur, Purulia.
Police have also asked for the tower locations of the SIM cards to ascertain the movements of the youth. They have further sought the tower dump of the spot where the body was found and its vicinity to trace other mobile users nearby. A tower dump comprises incoming and outgoing calls related to a particular tower within its operational radius.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. TMC Retains Maheshtala Assembly Seat With Better Margin, BJP Distant Second
The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday, 31 May, swept the Maheshtala Assembly bypoll with a margin of 62,765 votes — over five times what it had in 2016, when it had won by 12,452 votes. The BJP came a distant second, but increased its vote share. Despite receiving support from the Congress, the Left’s votes dropped by 25 percent from 81,223 to 30,384.
TMC candidate Dulal Chandra Das received 1,04,818 votes (58.13 percent), BJP’s Sujit Ghosh got 42,053 votes (23.28 percent) and CPM’s Prabhat Choudhury received 30,384 votes (16.8 percent). “This is a victory for the development initiatives of Mamata Banerjee. In the next polls we will further increase our winning margin,” said Das. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of his spouse, Kasturi Das.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Smuggled Animals and Birds Seized From Car
A pair each of hoolock gibbons and palm civets and 42 exotic birds of different species were seized on Thursday, 31 May, from a car that was to deliver the menagerie to a buyer at a location near Science City.
A team from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had been waiting along the Basanti Highway to intercept the Swift Dzire, which they knew was coming from Basirhat.
The car had started from Basirhat at 7.30am and was racing down the highway when it was stopped near Bhojerhat. The animals, smuggled into India from across the Bangladesh border, were found in the boot of the car. The birds, including 15 rosellas that are native to Australia and New Zealand, were cooped up in small cages.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. Metro Assault Witness Questioned
A witness who had clicked pictures of the assault on a young man and a woman by Metro passengers who saw them hugging on a train was questioned by Calcutta police on Thursday, 31 May, nearly a month after the incident at Dum Dum Metro station.
Ujjwal Chakrabarty was summoned to Sinthee police station on Thursday afternoon and questioned about the assault.
The police had earlier spoken to Chakrabarty over the phone and asked him about the assault and the photographs he had clicked on his mobile. On Thursday, he was asked to transfer the photographs from his cellphone to a computer at the police station.
"We have officially seized the photographs. They will be sent for forensic examination to ascertain their veracity. We also recorded his statements today," said an officer of Sinthee police station.
(Source: The Telegraph)
5. City In Cash Scurry
Most ATMs in the city remained shut on Thursday, 31 May, as well, the second day of the two-day bank strike, leaving Calcuttans looking for cash throughout the day.
Only a handful of kiosks remained open.
The United Forum of Banking Unions, comprising nine groups of employees, has called a 48-hour strike to press for a higher wage increase than the proposed two per cent.
Tapan Pal, 73, was walking from one ATM to another near the Southern Avenue-Sarat Bose Road crossing under the scorching afternoon sun, only to find the shutters down.
"I knew about the bank strike but thought at least a few ATMs would remain open," said Pal, who urgently needed cash to buy some household stuff.
The resident of Jatin Das Road said he was too tired to look further and would probably have to borrow money from a neighbour.
(Source: The Telegraph)
6. Catch Them Young and Stub Out the Habit
Schoolteachers will be trained to sensitise students about the harmful effects of tobacco as part of an awareness campaign launched on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day on Thursday, 31 May.
Bengal Oncology Foundation has taken the initiative to instil in young minds the ills of smoking or chewing tobacco so that they are discouraged from taking up the habit.
Statistics show that around 5,500 children start using tobacco every day in India and only three percent of them are able to quit, doctors said.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. Pockets in State Safe Haven for Bats Despite Scare
Though the entire nation is trying to distance itself from bats — the carriers for Nipah virus — the animals have found a safe abode in at least three pockets of the state. This despite the fact that the state had been hit by the outbreak of the disease twice, in 2001 and 2007.
At Subhasgram, barely 26km from the city, close to 5,000 bats live in six tamarind and mango trees and the villagers are keeping a strict vigil to ensure the animals remain protected. “These animals have been living here for several years. In fact, this neighbourhood is known as Badurpara because of the bats. Since there has been a scare that these animals are responsible for the spreading of the disease, we are taking precautions to ensure no one eats the fruits from these trees. We are also ensuring the fruits are not being consumed by any animals which can carry and spread the disease,” said Sudhangshu Biswas, 78, a retired professor of leather technology who lives a few blocks from the cluster of trees.
(Source: The Times of India)
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