LEAD

The Centre and Gujarat governments on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that they will not seek a review of the top court`s earlier order directing them to place original records for remitting the sentence of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case. The state and central governments also told the apex court that they would not claim privilege over the documents on remission of sentence and agreed to share the documents with the top court for its perusal.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna also asked the convicts, who have not filed their response to the pleas, to file their affidavits within two weeks.

As several counsel appearing for the convicts raised objections on not being served the notice on Bano`s plea and sought time, Justice Joseph said, "It is obvious, rather more than obvious, that you all do not want the hearing to be conducted by this bench."

The Supreme Court on Monday extended its interim order by which it had stayed the trial court's proceedings against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a case registered against him in 2014 in Uttar Pradesh during the election campaign.

A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna adjourned the case after the State government said it needed more time to file a response to the plea.

The bench has posted the case for hearing in the third week of July.

At least 11 people were killed, and four more have fallen ill, after a gas leak incident in the Giaspura area in this Punjab district on Sunday. The source of the leakage and the type of the gas are yet to be ascertained, police said.

Meanwhile, the area where the leakage happened has been sealed while a fire brigade and an ambulance have been deployed there. A 50-member team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also reached the site.

Police said the casualties comprise five females and six males. Two boys aged 10 and 13 are among the 11 who died in the incident, while the four people, who were taken ill, are undergoing treatment at a hospital, they said.

A preliminary assessment by Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) – a day after 10 District Reserve Guard personnel and their driver travelling in a van were killed in an IED blast in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district – has revealed that Maoists allegedly received signals about the presence of uniform-clad jawans when some locals stopped the vehicle just 100 meters from the IED point, asking for some donation for Aamaa festival.

Minutes before the blast, another vehicle in the convoy, carrying two arrested Maoists, had crossed the same point safely, it has been learnt. The IED blast was triggered between 1 pm and 1.30 pm on Wednesday on the Aranpur road, around 50 km from the district headquarters.

Ten security personnel of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and a civilian driver were killed as the mini van they were travelling reportedly came under an ambush attack by Maoists using Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district on Wednesday.

The incident occurred in the Aranpur area when the DRG team was returning to its district headquarters in Dantewada between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.

DRG is a special force of the Chhattisgarh police, which mostly involves local tribals, for carrying carry out anti-Maoist operations. As per official sources, DRG teams were carrying out anti-Maoist operations in the Aranpur area for the past few days.