Jun 24 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Guard's shot at party hits

woman
New Delhi
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

She Was Watching Celebration At Bank From Her Sixth-Floor Balcony

Celebratory ( Enjoy an occasion) firing outside the Oriental Bank of Commerce
on Minto Road went horribly ( , extremely, especially in a very bad or
unpleasant way ) wrong after the wife of a director at the Indian Meteorological (
, relating to weather conditions )Department was hit by a stray (, to travel
along a route that was not originally intended, or to move beyond a limited area: )
bullet around 10am on Monday . The guard, Ramkaran, had fired in the air with his .12bore double-barrel (the long part of a gun that is shaped like a tube ) shotgun during a
party outside the bank. The pellets (, small metal objects that are shot from some
types of gun) caused injuries to the woman's forehead (to take something quickly and
keep or hold it: ,the flat part of the face, above the eyes and below the hair) and
hands.
The guard has been arrested and the licensed weapon has been seized (If the police or
other officials seize something, they take possession of it with legal authority). The
victim, Zarina Begum (53), is seriously injured but has been declared out of danger.
, a gun that can be carried easily: )was valid only
The licence for the firearm (
in Uttar Pradesh, where Ramkaran lives, but it wasn't available at the time of the
incident. The bank officials told police that he had been hired by a private security
agency two months ago. The bank is on the ground floor of a building in a residential

area of central Delhi. On Monday morning, the bank had organized a party for
celebrating the chief manager's birthday and also planned to give him a farewell as he
was set to retire on June 30. They were also celebrating the arrival of a new manager,
who had just taken charge, said a senior bank officer.
The entire place was decked out (to decorate or add something to something to
make an effect) and drummers had been called. The officials were seen dancing and
making merry (happy or showing enjoyment) in front of the premises (the land and
buildings owned by someone, especially by a company or organization). The loud
celebrations drew (to attract attention or interest)

the attention of residents, mostly

housewives, who watched the go ings-on from their balconies.

Zarina, who lives on the sixth floor of the same building, was among the curious
(interested in learning about people or things around you: ) onlookers.( someone who
watches something that is happening in a public place but is not involved in it) Her
husband was at work and two of her three sons were attending college, police said.
Witnesses said the manager was walking in when the guard pointed the gun upwards
and fired a shot accompanied ( , to go with someone to a social event or to an
entertainment: ) by cheers. People were dancing when there was a loud noise like the
bursting of firecracker. It felt like I had been hit by a hammer or something. I caught
my forehead and saw blood oozing (to flow slowly out of something through a small
opening, or to slowly produce a thick sticky liquid: ) out. I cried for help and my son
came running. He made me lie down and I realized that it was gunshot wound ( , a
damaged area of the body, such as a cut or hole in the skin or flesh made by a weapon)
, Zarina told TOI later in the day once she was allowed to talk by doctors.
The bank officials panicked (, to suddenly feel so worried or frightened that you
cannot think or behave calmly or reasonably:) and rushed to help. Zarina was taken to
the nearby Sanjeevan Hospital, Daryaganj, where she was admitted in the ICU. The
pallets had scattered ( , to (cause to) move far apart in different directions:) after the
firing and hit the patient near the left eyebrow and hands. We referred her for a CT

scan

and

other

tests

to

ascertain

if

there

was

any

internal

injury

She is out of danger but under observation, her doctor said.

Before long SHO Kamala Market Yashveer Singh arrived and arrested the guard on
the spot. Ramkaran, police said, initially tried to mislead (to cause someone to believe
something that is not true: ) them by claiming the gun went off accidentally but
then he confessed to have fired in excitement. This was corroborated ( , to add
proof or certainty to an account, statement, idea, etc. with new information: )by
witness accounts.
We have registered a case of causing hurt by an act endangering others' lives
under section 337 of the IPC and invoked sections of the Arms Act. His licence has been
cancelled, said Alok Kumar, additional commissioner, central district.
The bank has initiated an inquiry and a report will be submitted to the regional
manager and other top officials, a bank official said.

MUMBAI/ NEW DELHI: In a massive relief for lakhs of Mumbai's suburban railway
commuters, the Modi government on Tuesday announced a partial rollback of the
unprecedented rail fare hike. Besides not hiking second-class daily ticket fares up to 80km,
first-class daily tickets and first- and second-class season tickets will now be increased by a
flat 14.2%. The unprecedented hike announced on June 20, ranging between 100% and
187%, had drawn a barrage of criticism from over 75 lakh Mumbaikars who commute by
local trains.
The new fares will be effective starting Saturday.

The rollback was announced by the Railway Board after a delegation of BJP and Shiv Sena
MPs from Mumbai met railway minister Sadanand Gowda in the capital urging him to
cancel the hike. With Maharashtra set to go to the polls in October, the Centre took note of
their criticism that the increase was too steep.
TOI was the first to report on Tuesday that the Centre was likely to do a rethink on the hike
announced last Friday.
The increase of 100%in some cases, nearly 200%had generated widespread anger
among Mumbaikars and led to a huge rush to buy season tickets before the new fares kicked
in. The Railways had decided to tweak the formula for computing the season ticket fare,
saying the monthly fare would, from now on, be charged on the basis of 30 single journeys
instead of the earlier 15-journeys formula.
With the rollback, this revised formula stands discarded, a senior official from the Central
Railway's commercial department said. However, the increase of 14.2% in passenger fares
for long-distance travel and 6.5% in freight services remains unchanged and would be
effective from Tuesday night.
The Railways were initially hoping to garner around Rs 9,200 crore from the fare hike. The
rollback comes as a setback for the department, officials said, as the major loss in the
passenger segment is due to highly subsidized fares in the suburban sector. This sector
constitutes 52% of total passenger traffic but generates only 6% revenue.
But it is a major reprieve for Mumbai's commuters; for them, a 14.2% increase places
minimal burden on their budgets.
For example, the second-class season ticket fare between Churchgate to Borivli on the
Western line and CST to Thane on the Central line could now be Rs 270 as against the
earlier 190, and a first-class season ticket on the same two stretches may cost Rs 750 per
month instead of Rs 655.
First-class daily fares will change, but here too the increase will not be unbearable. A WR
official said, "The first-class fare will increase by a minimum of Rs 5 and a maximum of Rs
30 on the 120km stretch between Churchgate and Dahanu."
The minimum first-class fare will be Rs 50 as against Rs 45. The fare between Churchgate
and Andheri is likely to go up from Rs 90 to Rs 105. On the Central line, the first-class fare
between CST and Thane could be Rs 140 as against Rs 120, and on the Harbour network,
the CST-to-Panvel fare is set to be Rs 165 instead of the earlier Rs 145.
Some commuters, though, criticized the government, saying the rollback should have come

before they had bought new passes to beat the hike.

Ramesh Joshi, a Matunga resident, said, "I bought the CST-to-Thane first-class annual
ticket worth Rs 5,400 in the morning as the railways had announced that the monthly fare
would increase from Rs 500 to Rs 1,310 from June 25. I feel cheated now because there were
still 25 days to go for expiry of my existing pass."
Another commuter, Aarti Naik, said, "I had to skip work because I had to stand in queue to
buy the season ticket pass to evade the hike."
A Railway official however said an opportunity to bring in reforms had been lost, and
populism had won again. "The CR suburban system suffers a loss of Rs 2 crore per day. How
do commuters expect us to provide decent services when we are bleeding in this manner," a
CR official said.