FROM THE HINDU

BY MAHIMA DAYAL

At the pre-Summer Storm music fest at Unseen underground. Photo: Special Arrangement

Headbangers celebrate with more music at the pre-Summer Storm party organised by Unseen Underground.

Saturday night brought with it the pre-Summer Storm party, which was a combination of rock and metal bands that set the drift for music lovers, at Geoffrey’s in Chennai.

Excitement for Summer Storm Festival, which is to be held in Bengaluru on February 5, was captured by Unseen Underground, which hosted four bands — Goddess Gagged from Mumbai, Deviance from Vellore Institute of Technology, Sycorax from Darjeeling and Trojan Horse from Chennai.

Line up

Four bands from sundry parts of the country came together to play the music that drives them. Deviance, which plays progressive metal, started with a song called Luminum. Jayakrishnan, the drummer for Deviance said, “We are all excited, for this is our first gig in Chennai.”

Trojan Horse a groove metal band based in Chennai started their set with Convoluted Entanglement and covered Toxic Garbage Island by Gojira and People=Shit by Slip Knot. The crowd spurred when they sang their own compositions, like Infiltration Achieved and LIMCA. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM ISIKKIM.COM AND SIKKIM MAIL

KALIMPONG: January 30, 2012: Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and other Darjeeling Hills political parties have strongly condemned the arrest of 92 year old Dr Mani Kumar Chettri. Dr. Chettri was on the board of directors at AMRI, Dhakuria which got into flames on December 9 claiming 93 lives. Last Friday, the police arrested 92-year-old Dr. Chhetri and Dr. Pronab Dasgupta, another Director of the AMRI. They were produced at the CJM Court, Alipore court on Friday. Both were remanded to police custody till February 2.

S K Kapor counsel of Dr Chetri pleaded that he was a reputed doctor and though he was managing director of the AMRI, he administered only the medical side of the hospital. Dr Chetri was never involved with security and safety affair of the hospital.

Senior leaders of the GJM met West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday and demanded immediate release of Dr. Chettri.

Senior GJM leader Harkabahadur Chhetri told after the meeting that the incident might spark unrest in the hills.

Another GJM Central Committee Kalyan Dewan said in a press conference held on Monday at GJM party office in Kalimpong, “Dr. Chettri is not a murderer in the AMRI case, why the police has been so cruel on him”. GJM expressed its sadness on the arrest of Dr. Chettri. He said that the arrest of the Dr. Chettri has led to a felling of insecurity which has been affecting the hills. Read the rest of this entry »

FROM THE ASSAM TRIBUNE

BY R DUTTA CHOUDHURY

GUWAHATI, Jan 31 – From a lower division assistant in a Government department to a crorepati. This is the story of a leader of a militant outfit in Assam. However, the person is losing all his properties in Nepal as the government of that country has started the process of attaching the properties following a request by the Government of India.

The militant leader that we are talking about is Niranjan Hojai, the commander in chief of militant outfit DHD(J), who managed to amass huge properties in Nepal over the years. But following the investigation of his properties by the Enforcement Directorate, the Government of India sent a letter through the Ministry of External Affairs to the Government of Nepal to seize his properties in that country and the process of doing so has started. Nepal Government has already attached his house and properties and seized vehicles.

Highly placed official sources told The Assam Tribune that during questioning by officials of different central agencies, vital information regarding the story of Hojai from a Government employee to a militant leader came to light. Hojai joined the Government service as an LD assistant in Public Health Engineering Department (PHE) in Umrangsho in 1997 and he attended office up to late 2003 or early part of 2004. However, he is yet to officially resign from service.

Hojai came into contact with DJD(J) chief Jewel Garlosa and joined the outfit. During a clash between two factions of the DHD, he went to Darjeeling and stayed in the residence of a Nepali family. He went to Nepal with the help of that family and paid around Rs 40,000 to one Jagat Rai of Nepal to show him as his son to get a citizenship certificate. After obtaining the citizenship certificate as Nirmal Rai, the DHD(J) leader started his own business in Nepal and started a company which dealt in real estate.  Read the rest of this entry »