Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Saibaba is 90% disabled and there are no facilities in the jail for disabled persons, said Prof Hargopal By Dheeraj Fartode Senior Human Rights Activist Prof Hargopal on Saturday met Delhi University’s arrested Professor G N Saibaba for his alleged Maoist links at Central Jail and demanded immediate bail to him citing his health condition. “Saibaba is 90% disabled and there are no facilities in the jail for disabled persons. Government must grant him bail on humanitarian grounds,” said Prof Hargopal. G N Saibaba (File Picture) Addressing a press conference at Tilak Patrakar Bhavan, Prof Hargopal said that he met Saibaba in the jail and discussed his problems. His health is deteriorating and needs super specialty treatment, said Prof Hargopal. “According to law every disabled jail inmate should get proper facilities. However, there is no facility for Saibaba, whose life depends on wheel chair,” Hargopal informed. The under-trial is being treated as a prisoner,...