News Digest: Mother of two from Mumbai becomes face of Brussels horror

Here are some important reports from the biggest newspapers of India:

1. Mother of two from Mumbai becomes face of Brussels horror

There are seminal photo graphs that define his toric episodes. The picture of a naked Vietnamese girl running away from a napalm explosion in Vietnam in 1968 was one such image, leaving revulsion in people's minds about the human cost of war.

Photographs of the “walking wounded“ after terrorist attacks in London in 2005 will similarly remain embedded in memory: Of a blood-splattered man walking out of Edgware Road tube station to be treated at the Hilton Metropole, unassisted.

Wednesday's Brussels blasts produced a similar iconic moment. With blood dripping from her injured forehead and her clothes in tatters, images of Nidhi Chaphekar, a Jet Airways in-flight manager from Mumbai, sitting injured at Brussels airport, epitomised the horror of the terror attack.

2. Kids pool in Rs 2.8 lakh, secure prisoners' release before Holi

Eight people languishing in jail walked free on the eve of Holi thanks to the efforts of schoolchildren who collected Rs 2.77 lakh to pay the court fines on their behalf.

Authorities at Bareilly district jail recently received a letter from a local public school that they wanted to use the Rs 2.77-lakh fund to free prisoners serving additional sentences for being unable to pay fines imposed by courts, the Times of India reported.

A team of officials from St Maria Goretti School arrived on the district jail premises this week, completed the necessary formalities and deposited the money . Talking to TOI, distric jail superintendent B R Maurya said, “ After the school authorities sent the ir request, we identified eight prisoners who owed fi nes of Rs 20,000 and above."

3. Nigerian man assaulted for protesting Holi balloon in Delhi

Two Nigerian nationals, including a football coach, were brutally assaulted with cricket and baseball bats after one of them protested and scolded a child for hurling a water-filled balloon on him in a West Delhi locality.

They were attacked by a group of 12 young men soon after. The incident occurred in Sunday and police, who registered a case 24 hours later, after senior officers intervened, are yet to make any arrest, The Indian Express reported.

The victims have not returned to their house in Dwarka Mor since the incident. They said they have been receiving threatening calls.

4. AIIMS fined Rs 25 lakh for medical negligence

Holding the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) responsible for negligence, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) asked it to pay Rs 25 lakh in compensation to the kin of a cardiac patient who died after being “tossed like a chattel“.

An employee of the erst while Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking was advised by AIIMS on April 21, 1997 for coronary artery bypass graft and asked to deposit Rs 70,000, the Times of India reported. He arranged the money and deposited it with AIIMS on July 23, 1997.Two days later, he was rushed to the emergency ward at 2am with severe pain in the chest and the left side of the neck. AIIMS referred him to Safdarjung Hospital at 5am on the ground that it had no bed to spare. No ambulance was provided and he was shifted to Safdarjung Hospital in a car. However, the employee of the erstwhile Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking was shifted back to AIIMS on July 30, 1997 and he passed away at 9 pm the next day. His daughter Charul Manu sued AIIMS for medical negligence and demanded a compensation of Rs 37 lakh.

5. Centre asks states to adopt Rajasthan law on littering

Peeing in public places may attract a spot fine of ` 200, while throwing garbage on roads could cost you `100 per day. The Centre has asked all states to emulate a Rajasthan law by April 15 which has penal provisions for littering. The move is seen as the biggest upgrade to Swachh Bharat Mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Centre had earlier planned a central legislation but changed its plans on being advised that states would have to legislate on the subject. BJP-ruled states are now expected to immediately play ball with the Centre's letter to chief secretaries of all states on March 17 asking them to introduce an enabling provision in their state municipal bye-laws by April 15 for levying a spot fine on citizens who defecate in the open or indulge in littering.

A timeline has been issued by the Centre asking states to ensure the roll-out of spot fines is done in at least one ward of each city by this April 30 and all cities by September 2018, The Indian Express reported.

6. Mumbai: Fed up of drunkard son's abuse, 79-year-old man murders him

A 79-year-old man was arrested by the Kamothe police in Navi Mumbai for brutally murdering his 35-year-old son with a knife on Monday afternoon. The Kamothe police also registered a cross complaint against the deceased, as he had first assaulted his father with a grinding stone. After the son succumbed to his injuries, the father was booked for the murder.

According to the police the accused has been identified as Shankar Howal, the deceased is Rahul Howal, the Mid-Day reported.

7. Airport operator asks airlines not to distribute newspapers

The Delhi International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (DIAL), the GMR-led consortium that runs the Capital’s IGI airport, has asked airlines not to display newspapers at their counters at the airport’s Terminal 1D. The move is being seen as a bid to push retail merchandise, the Hindustan Times reported.

“Newspapers displayed at counters and provided free to passengers have been banned inside the T1D as they apparently have a direct impact on impulse buying by passengers,” said an executive of a budget carrier that operates out of T1D.

8. Mumbai: Gambler cooks up kidnap saga to escape wife's wrath

How far would you go to save face after gambling away your life’s savings? We bet it won’t be as far as Lakharam Mali went. Afraid of facing his wife’s wrath after mortgaging her jewels and gambling away the proceeds from it, the 38-year-old temple cook concocted a kidnap and robbery story. So smug was he about his ‘foolproof’ plan that he even went to the extent of filing a police complaint.

Mali, who hails from Rajasthan and works as a cook at the Gaodevi temple in Santacruz, filed a complaint on March 16, saying he was accosted by three men at 11 am that day and pushed into a nearby car while on his way to work. Mali claimed that he had Rs 1 lakh on him, meant to be deposited in a bank, the Mid-Day reported.

9. UK clears extradition of Indian-origin trader

Navinder Sarao, the “flash crash” trader who allegedly contributed to a 1,000-point fall in the Dow Jones index that temporarily wiped out nearly $1 trillion worth of share value, can be extradited to the US, a British court ruled on Wednesday.

Sarao, 37, traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange through his laptop from his parents’ house in west London when the incident occurred on May 6, 2010. He denied the charges but the Westminster magistrates court ruled he could be handed over to US to face trial, the Hindustan Times reported.

10. Congress blames Ramdev for `provoking' Uttarakhand MLAs

Congress on Wednesday accused yoga guru Ramdev of “masterminding“ the current political turmoil in Uttarakhand and acting as a “BJP agent“ to broker a deal be tween its rebel MLAs and the saffron party.

Defection by nine MLAs has jeopardised what was a comfortable lead for the Congress-led government, and the party has also accused BJP president Amit Shah of “laying a trap to destabilise“ its four-year-old regime in the state, the Times of India reported.

State Congress chief Kishore Upadhyay claimed that he had evidence to show that the yoga guru was in touch with the nine rebel MLAs and was “the key man behind the disarray in the ruling party“. “Ramdev spoke to the rebels and was instrumental in provoking them against the party. I have evidence to support my claim,“ Upadhyay said.