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Indian Express
11-08-2025
- Indian Express
3 missing students of Shimla boarding school found in Kotkhai; one arrested
Three Class VI students of a boarding schools in Shimla, who went missing under mysterious circumstances on Saturday, were found 60 km away in a small town of Kotkhai after a 24 hours search operation, police said on Sunday, adding one person was arrested in this connection. Shimla Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Gandhi said, 'The students were found at Kokunala village in Kotkhai. Sumit Sood, a resident of Kokunala who runs a bakery, has been taken into custody. A lead came from a suspicious vehicle, which directed the course of the investigation. We also checked CCTV footage, phone records and found that calls were made from a virtual number originating in California. We have arrested the accused, who is an alumnus of the school, impounded the vehicle and recovered sharp-edged weapons. A kidnapping case was registered based on the principal's complaint with the New Shimla police under Section 137(B) of the BNS,' the SP said, adding the students are all fine. The SP added, 'We will arrange for a medical examination to be conducted on them.' SHO Manoj Thakur said, 'About 150 police personnel were pressed into service to trace the missing boys. Besides, cyber teams were at work, and drones were deployed.' Upon being informed, the families of the missing students arrived in Shimla and were accompanying police teams searching for them. The missing students hail from Kullu in Himachal Pradesh, Mohali in Punjab and Karnal in Haryana, while one of them is a distant relative of a minister in a neighbouring state, sources said. According to police, the boys left the school at around 12.05 pm on Saturday and failed to return by 5.30 pm, the deadline, prompting the school authorities to alert the police. 'The missing students were in school uniform. Two of them had left their cell phones in their hostel rooms. Collectively, they were carrying around Rs 3,000 when they left. No staff member accompanied them,' a source said. A police officer said the boys had gone out on the school's designated 'Outing Day', when students are allowed to leave the campus for up to six hours. CCTV footage showed the students leaving the school gate at 12.05 pm, after which no trace of them was found. 'Apart from the missing boys, many other students also went to Mall Road. While some claimed the missing boys were with them, we checked CCTV footage from Mall Road and adjoining areas, but did not find them,' the officer said. The officer further said, 'The school administration is yet to provide any standard operating procedure (SOP) governing how students are allowed to leave the campus on Outing Day. We have learned that on several occasions, students have also hired private taxis to travel to different places in and around Shimla.' Himachal Education Minister Rohit Thakur commended Shimla police for their 'excellent work'. 'We will see if there was any shortcoming on part of the school management,' the minister added. Meanwhile, repeated attempts to contact school representatives went unanswered.
NDTV
10-08-2025
- NDTV
3 Boys Go Missing During Weekly Day Out From Shimla's Oldest Boarding School: Cops
Shimla: Three minor students of one of the oldest premier boys boarding schools for boys in Asia, the Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, founded in 1859, have gone missing under mysterious circumstances while on a weekly day out in the Himachal Pradesh capital, police said on Sunday. One of the students, who belongs to Mohali, is related to a minister in Punjab, while another is from a prominent business family of Karnal in Haryana, and the third one is from the state's Kullu. The three students of Class 6 had gone to Mall Road for shopping on an outing on Saturday. The other students who had gone with them returned, but the three's whereabouts are still unknown, said the police. Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Gandhi told the media here that police teams have been formed to search for the children. Delhi and Haryana Police have also been contacted to trace their whereabouts. He said a case has been registered. With the police launching a search operation to find them out, vehicles going towards Shoghi, the entry and exit points of the state capital on the Shimla-Chandigarh national highway, are being searched. It is believed that the children have gone somewhere without informing anyone. The police have not ruled out the possibility of their kidnapping. Police investigations showed that the children were seen in different localities of the city in CCTV footage during the outing, particularly on Mall Road, but disappeared after some time. BCS is an elite boarding school in the country, and children from India and abroad come here to study. Every week, the children go on an outing on Saturday. Except for the three students, all other children returned to the school on time. The school management has lodged a complaint with the police about the three missing children. Their disappearance has raised safety concerns about the students in the boarding school.
Indian Express
10-07-2025
- Indian Express
Series of e-mails threaten to blow up 5 district courts, Lawrence School; turn out to be hoax
A series of separate e-mails, all from the same source, threatened to blow up at least five district courts — Shimla, Kullu, Kinnaur, Nahan (Sirmour) and Chamba — and The Lawrence School at Sanawar, prompting authorities to evacuate the buildings, beef up the security and carry out a search of the respective premises. The proceedings at the court complexes were suspended as bomb disposal squads and sniffer dogs were deployed and police teams, under the supervision of senior officers, carried out extensive search operation at the buildings, said a statement issued by the police headquarters in the evening. As a precautionary measure, a search operation was also conducted at the secretariat in Shimla. No explosives or suspicious items were found, a senior police officer said. The proceedings at the court complexes later resumed amid heightened security. The first e-mail was delivered to the mailbox of District and Sessions Judge, Chamba, at 12.04 am followed by one at the e-mail id of the headmaster of The Lawrence School at 5.01 am. The other e-mails landed in the mailboxes of the District and Sessions Judges of Shimla, at 5.15 am, Kinnaur at 5.35 am, Kullu 5.36 am and Nahan in Sirmour at 5.39 am. 'All the e-mails were sent by one 'Jayanti Karrampa'—a likely fictitious identity — claiming that RDX-based improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been planted at the court complexes and at The Lawrence School in Solan district and will go off in within five hours,' police said. An investigation has been launched to trace the origin of the e-mails, which were reportedly sent in the name of former students of Anna University. In Shimla, Superintendent of Police, Sanjeev Gandhi, said following the information about the threat e-mails, preventative action was taken and police teams headed by DSP-level officers evacuated the premises and carried out an in inspection. In Sirmaur, Additional Superintendent of Police Yogesh Rolta said the officials came to know about the threat e-mail at 10 am when court staff staff switched on the computer to carry out the judicial work. DIG (Cyber Crime), Mohit Chawla, said the police teams in the respective districts followed the standard operating procedure (SoP). 'The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), was informed. Preliminary investigation suggests that all emails were sent from a single e-mail ID but at different times. The e-mail IDs targeted are publicly available. It is yet to be ascertained whether the e-mails were sent from within the country or outside,' said Chawla. The police statement said that similar threats have been reported in other states over the past year. 'Himachal Pradesh received 8 to 10 such threats in recent months. Cases have been registered in Kullu and Shimla districts, and investigations are ongoing. In a related case, Kerala Police have arrested an accused individual, and efforts are underway by Himachal Pradesh Police to obtain custody for interrogation,' it added. Earlier, bomb threats were received at the High Court of Himachal Pradesh, the state secretariat, and at Deputy Commissioner's offices in some districts. In the second week of June, the state police traced the origin of one of the seven threat emails received between April 16 and June 9. That e-mail had claimed that sensitive government infrastructure — including the offices of Chief Secretary Prabodh Saxena, Deputy Commissioners of Mandi, Kullu, Hamirpur, and the Himachal Pradesh High Court—would be destroyed using explosives. 'Although the pattern and method of the seven e-mails were similar, one was sent using a different handle. All the e-mails were routed through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Six were traced to a European country, while one originated from within India. That particular email, received on May 2, threatened to blow up multiple government offices, including the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Kullu. The investigating agency, with assistance from the State CID Cyber Cell, has also identified the Indian state from which the email was sent,' an officer, privy to the instigations, said.
ABC News
04-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Federal government commits $430 million to prop up Newcastle hydrogen hub
The federal government has committed more than $430 million to help bring large-scale hydrogen production to the New South Wales Hunter region despite uncertainty in the market. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen made the funding announcement on Friday. The proposed hub would include a 50-megawatt hydrogen electrolyser to be constructed at Kooragang Island, near the Port of Newcastle, which would split water into hydrogen and oxygen. That could produce 4,700 tonnes of green hydrogen each year, much of which would be used by explosive manufacturing company Orica at its nearby site to help make its products emission-free. "Green hydrogen does have a future in Australia," Mr Bowen said. The announcement comes months after Origin Energy pulled out of the project citing high input costs and challenges regarding technological advancement. The project was to be delivered by Origin Energy in partnership with Orica and in 2023 the government awarded the joint venture $70m to help with construction costs. Orica managing director and chief executive officer Sanjeev Gandhi said the company remained committed to the project and was gauging interest from potential partners for the venture. "We will continue to invest in this site," he said. Mr Gandhi said the funding announced on Friday was an incentive to deliver the project. "It's not easy to build these kind of projects," he said. "We will need a lot of support from the local authorities, from the state government, from the federal government and, obviously, from the Orica workforce." The ABC understands the the funding will be used to subsidise every tonne of hydrogen produced from the facility. Mr Bowen's announcement comes days after the Central Queensland Hydrogen Project (CQH2) was scrapped. State-government owned energy company Stanwell withdrew its support for Gladstone project on Monday. Earlier this year the Queensland government withdrew its funding for the project on the grounds that the financial demands were too high. In May billionaire Andrew Forrest's company Fortescue abandoned both stages of its hydrogen projects in the city. Energy consultant Geoff Bongers told ABC Newcastle that the cost of production was the major barrier. "There's a gap between what [industry] would like to do and what's available and economic," he said. "Electrolysis is a relatively expensive capital project, so the the capital cost is reasonably high and the ongoing costs are relatively high. But Dr Bongers said there was "relatively high" demand for hydrogen. "[Japan and South Korea] have both expressed interest in using hydrogen as a fuel source," he said. "Japan would be keen to take as much hydrogen as we could produce, almost." Orica said it planned to scale the project in accordance with demand would consider exporting in the future. The hydrogen hub was originally set to be built in 2025 and was to be operational by 2026. It is now projected to be operational in 2028.
Hindustan Times
06-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Himachal: CBI probe to continue into Negi's death case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe will continue into the death of Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Limited chief engineer-cum-general manager Vimal Negi as the double bench of the Himachal Pradesh high court on Thursday refused to interfere with the decision to transfer the investigation to the CBI, terming that part of the plea as non-maintainable. Though a division bench comprising Chief Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia and Justice Ranjan Sharma partial relief to superintendent of police Sanjeev Gandhi has accepted the plea only to the extent that it pertains to the personal and professional reputation of Gandhi and the other SIT members, stating that their professional standing should not be undermined. The division bench while hearing Gandhi's Letters Patent Appeal (LPA), refused to 'modify' and interfere with the transfer of the probe to the CBI, but issued notices to all respondents, including the Union of India, the CBI, the State of Himachal Pradesh and the family of the deceased, on the issue of personal and professional remarks made against Gandhi and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) he had constituted. The High Court has now issued notices to all parties involved in the original proceedings, the Union of India, CBI, State Government, and the deceased's family on the limited issue of personal and professional comments in the earlier order. The next hearing is scheduled for July 14, and respondents have been permitted to file replies in the meantime. The court held that observations made by Justice Ajay Mohan Goel in its order of May 23, against Gandhi, as supervising authority of the SIT, were not maintainable to the extent that they impacted his service record. The court, however, refused to interfere with the decision to transfer the investigation to the CBI, terming that part of the plea as non-maintainable. It reiterated that a central agency probe is warranted to ensure crucial evidence and witness statements are preserved. Gandhi's counsel, advocate Sanjeev Bhushan while speaking to reporters said, 'Our concern is professional reputation. We had investigated the matter diligently and honestly. Remarks based on reports that were never shared with us should not stand uncontested.' He had earlier argued in the court that certain references to the status reports by the DGP and ACS (Home), adopted by the single judge, 'unfairly tarnished his image'. He had submitted that the status report filed by the then Director General of Police and the report by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) had not been shown to Gandhi or the SIT, and no opportunity was provided to respond. Sanjeev Gandhi, currently on medical leave, has filed a Leave Petition in his personal capacity before the Himachal Pradesh High Court, challenging the May 23 single bench order that transferred the investigation into the mysterious death of Negi to the CBI. Gandhi through the petition has urged the high court to modify the order passed on May 23 be ordered to be 'modified to the extent that instead of handing over the investigation may be very kindly be ordered handed over to SIT being constituted by high court rather than handing over to CBI or central agency which is under control of UoI in order to avoid any conflict of interest.' Negi went missing on March 10 and his body was recovered from Bhakra Dam in Bilaspur on March 18. Kiran Negi, the deceased's wife, moved the high court on April 9 seeking a CBI probe which was allowed on May 23. Through the petition Gandhi said that as the affidavit filed by DGP HP 'was with ulterior motivate therefore the scathing observations qua the investigation based upon the said affidavit may be set aside and the contents of the said affidavit may be set aside.' The high court while allowing petition seeking CBI investigation on May 23, had observed, 'If the Director General of Police of the state himself has a concern about the fairness of the investigation, then even if this investigation is being carried out by the SIT in right earnest, it shall never instill confidence whatever may be the report of the SIT.' 'This court is of the considered view that in this case, there is an exceptional situation, which requires that the matter be investigated by the CBI,' ruled the high court while allowing the petition seeking CBI investigations.
