Sourav calls Chappell ‘ mad’and a failed coach

Mail Today, Dec 20th - Continuing his tirade against former India coach Greg Chappell, ex-captain Sourav

Ganguly has called the Australian "mad". It had been during Chappell's tenure that Ganguly was axed in the team, but with India team's performance heading down constantly, Chappell was shown the doorway in 2007 after a two-year stint.

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As India get ready for the four-Test series Down Under, reports have surfaced that Chappell would 'demystify' Sachin Tendulkar and other prominent players in the Indian line-up.

However, Ganguly feels that it was a good news for the Indian camp, particularly the type of record Chappell enjoys as it pertains giving coaching. "He has been a selector and also the head of their academy (Centre of Excellence in Brisbane) and he has been trashed after that as well," Ganguly told Aaj Tak.

"When he found India, it was asserted his Australian mindset won't work here but he couldn't work in the Australian set up as well."

Ganguly went on to add that Chappell had been a complete failure in every coaching assignment and said that it's evident that the problem actually lies with him and never using the teams he's worked with. "People should realise that the problem lies with him; he's the main one making mistakes. A person can be wrong once but when he commits the same mistake again and loses his job for that, then that man to me is mad," he said. "So, I'm glad that he is getting connected to the Australian team, it's good news for that Indian team. I am not surprised."

Ganguly recalled the then India captain Rahul Dravid just couldn't gather the courage to speak from the Aussie despite being fully conscious that things were heading in the wrong direction. "Dravid may be the kind of person who wanted everything to be good. He knew that that which was happening was wrong but he was without the heart to revolt and say that it was wrong because after what went down to me throughout the Zimbabwe tour, any captain would have wanted to maintain peace in the dressing room quite right," recalled Ganguly.

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It is thought that Ganguly, who was the captain of the Indian team when Chappell took over in 2005, played a pivotal role to get the Aussie the job. But Chappell did little to enhance their relations and in his autobiography, he called Ganguly a "panicker" who could not handle pressure situations.

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Ganguly asserted Chappell never really thought about the welfare of Indian cricket and was too adamant in implementing his plans. "You can say that Chappell's foresight and thinking wasn't cricket-oriented. He came here with a personal vendetta and it failed with Indian cricket. His mind accustomed to work in an alternative way. His rule in everyday life was my way or even the highway," he said.

School alumni, teachers rally to protest assault

KOLKATA: Countless Jadavpur Vidyapith's alumni and former teachers on Monday got a rally from the campus to protest the assault from the institution's teachers a couple of days back.

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They demanded immediate arrest of all of the accused regardless of their political affiliations. On Sunday, police rounded up Rupak Chatterjee, one of the accused identified in the video footage.

Students from the school as well as their guardians also condemned hooliganism inside the school premises and criticized the role of police during and after the incident. They alleged police have didn't do something against the main accused.

Since 11am on Monday, former students, teachers and guardians crowded in front of the school. The institution's managing committee, meanwhile, held a meeting about the incident when two Trinamool councillors led a mob that assaulted teh teacher-in-charge RN Mondal and other teachers.

Around noon, the scholars joined everyone else and sat on Raja SC Mullick Road demanding the arrest of all the accused. "We aren't pleased with the police. They rounded up just one person for eyewash and haven't touched the main accused," said a guardian.

The blockade continued for 25 minutes and a huge rally headed for Jadavpur police station thereafter. A group in the agitators also met senior cops.

"The officers assured us that the other accused is going to be arrested by Saturday," said a guardian. Biswarup Ghosh, deputy commissioner (south suburban division), said, "With the help of the recording footage, we are attempting to identify other accused. We're also probing the role from the councillors. Among the councillors claimed that he was beaten up by teachers and had lodged a complaint."

After the meeting, the managing

committee members blamed contradictory government notifications and letters issued by the training department officials

for the entire trouble. "We repeatedly informed the education secretary and other officials the primary school running inside our premises is entirely

a different organization. It's a privately run school. Based on a Calcutta high court judgment, our school doesn't have obligation to absorb students from the primary section," said Prabir Ganguli, president from the school managing committee.

The committee members alleged that regardless of conveying all these details, the training department officials failed to understand the scenario and issued contradictory notifications. "Moreover, we are able to comply with directives only in the secondary education board. They have not issued any order," said Ganguli.

On Tuesday, the managing committee from the school will meet obama from the secondary education council and can keep these things clarify the federal government notifications. "The board will need to declare its stand," said Ganguli.

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Two days following the attack on teachers of Jadavpur Vidyapith with a gang of miscreants led by local Trinamool Congress leaders, hundreds of the institution's alumni and former teachers got a protest rally to Jadavpur police station from the campus demanding immediate arrest of all of the accused, irrespective of their political affiliations. Earlier on Sunday, police rounded up Rupak Chatterjee, among the accused identified in the video footage.

Mob attack on hooch kingpin house

Diamond Harbour, Dec. 16: A 1,000-strong mob vandalised the house of Khonra Badsa in Diamond Harbour yesterday and demolished a liquor den of the hooch kingpin nearby.



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The toll from spurious liquor today rose to 166.

The villagers barged into the empty house around 8pm and broke furniture in 10 rooms. They threw almirahs and furniture outside and set ablaze a portion from the one-storey house in Belondapur village. They shouted slogans like “arrest the murderer without delay”.

The mob also ransacked an eatery owned by one of Badsa’s two sons, Aziz, half a kilometre from the house and near Mograhat railway station.

Police said Badsa, 51, had fled with his wife and sons hours after people started dying in the spurious liquor on Wednesday night. Eyewitnesses said the personnel posted at the Kalikapur police outpost, a stone’s throw from Badsa’s house, “ran away” yesterday fearing an attack through the villagers.

Law enforcement said Noor Islam alias Badsa got the moniker Khonra (lame) because he had lost his right leg inside a bomb duel with rivals in 1992.

“We wish to avenge the deaths of so many people. Badsa is a murderer. We want law enforcement to arrest him immediately,” said Fatema Bibi, who was part of the mob. She alleged that Badsa had links using the CPM. “We were always suspicious of his activities. He used to return home riding pillion on the bike of 1 of his aides every evening. We're able to not say anything due to his links using the CPM,” said Fatema, 35, who lives inside a house opposite Badsa’s.
Khonra Badsa. (Picture courtesy: NDTV)

Farmer Rahim Alam alleged that Badsa had sided with Trinamul following the Assembly elections. “He changed his political allegiance so that he could carry on with his shady business. You want to know why law enforcement are not arresting him. We don’t believe that law enforcement do not know his whereabouts. They're in cahoots with him,” Alam, 35, alleged.

A Trinamul general secretary denied the charge that Badsa had links with his party. “The CPM has launched an incorrect campaign to malign us. We would like Badsa to become arrested,” he said.

L.N. Meena, law enforcement chief of South 24-Parganas, said 12 people had been arrested so far. “But Badsa is still at large.” Meena said the villagers had lodged an FIR against Badsa and five others with Mograhat police station today. “This may be the first time we have got a particular complaint against Badsa,” he added.

The excise department today suspended its officer in charge of Diamond Harbour sub-division, Radheshyam Pande, for “not carrying out regular raids on illicit liquor dens”. He was replaced by Abhijit Halder, who had been earlier posted in Kakdwip.

The police and excise officials today demolished nearly 80 liquor dens across five blocks in Diamond Harbour.

N.S. Nigam, the district magistrate of South 24-Parganas, said at Writers’ Buildings that the viscera reports of the hooch victims had revealed an advanced of methyl alcohol, a poisonous substance. “The methyl alcohol content was 60 per cent, far above the limit of 25 %,” he explained.

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Post-mortem has been conducted on all 166 bodies, assistant chief medical officer of health Uma Prasanna Ghosal said. He said 76 everyone was still in hospital.

Hunt for hooch king & rival

MAGRAHAT (SOUTH 24-PARGANAS ): The poison that has killed 171 people on Kolkata's southern fringes flowed like rivers on Tuesday as policemen and angry residents smashed bhattis and dumped the illegal liquor in dried-up ponds and canals. The don who ruled over this empire of death, Khora Badshah, is really a hunted man but is it really a wide open and shut case?

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Amid cries of conspiracy from Trinamool Congress leaders, it's not escaped the police's observe that Badshah's one-time mentor and today sworn rival, Selim Laskar, has additionally been missing because the day people started dropping dead in Sangrampur . Police suspect Laskar has a role within the tragedy. Over the past Ten years, Badshah had virtually completed Laskar's hooch business to wield absolute monopoly in Mograhat.

Badshah, aka Nurul Islam, was the last word in the region. Each day following the Mograhat police firing on December 1, Badshah was reportedly seen going to the victims' homes with Union minister Mukul Roy, asking people to maintain peace and order. It was his political leaning that helped him evade police, his neighbours say.

The hooch don - now Bengal's popular man - started like a biscuit vendor on local trains. It had been his ruthlessness and hunger for risk that earned him cult status within an area where crime is just one other way of life. He is feared, revered, thanked and abused simultaneously. The impoverished populace held him in awe while he "employed " a lot more than 500 people. Hundreds others were indirect partners in his fast expanding hooch trade.

Badshah managed to begin a stranglehold around the trade and spread its tentacles to the remotest areas, where hooch may be the only affordable drink. He turned it right into a cottage industry . It's prepared everywhere - in shacks along railway tracks, on village backyards as well as in storerooms, balance out on view.

This week, he pushed his luck too far, or his past swept up with him.

On Thursday evening, locals stormed his sprawling house at Mahitala, 2km from Mograhat station , and stripped it bare. Whatever could be broke was smashed to bits. Whatever might be carried - furniture to valuables as well as window frames - was taken away. Badshah had fled with his wife and two sons on Wednesday. So did the majority of his associates and 'employees' . Selim , too, is untraceable.

The mob ransacked his other business establishments - an eatery along with a cellphone shop at Mograhat station. "He is solely accountable for getting thousands hooked on hooch. It was readily available, almost everywhere in Mograhat, because of Badshah. His gang either brewed or supplied it just for 15-30 at just about any village. He alone is responsible for the death of these innocent people," said Aminul Ali, a resident of Mahitala.

About six months ago, Badshah ended up his brewing units in Mograhat after a police crackdown . He even allowed a school on one of his smashed distilleries. But he had extended his supply and distribution network so well it didn't affect his business. He soon started sourcing hooch from neighbouring Gocharan, leaving the local bosses Babu Ghosh, Bakhtar and Lalit Naskar to manage its production. "It ended up being more profitable for him. He has steadily committed to other businesses in Mograhat, that is an indication of his growing financial clout," said a neighbour.

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Trafficking, arms cases against Badshah

Hooch baron Khora Badshah yet others like Kalo Siraj and Pora Gopal were also involved with trafficking and gun-running . It has now come to light that an FIR was lodged against them and many others at the Baruipur police station (No. 1090) on December 6, 2010, through the father of the woman they had allegedly raped and trafficked to Mumbai but no steps were taken to bring them to book. Two RPF officers were also named in the FIR. P 2

Poison peddler

Khora Badshah is both a revered and hated estimate diamonds Harbour subdivision. His 'industry' gives livelihoods but snatches lives He supplies hooch to a lot more than 400 outlets in the Mograhat-Sangrampur belt, locals say. More than 40 of those are in and around Sangrampur station, the epicentre of the tragedy There is a theory that the aide of Selim Laskar, who mentored Badshah but was displaced by him as the area's hooch baron, infiltrated Badshah's group and mixed a lethal dose of methyl alcohol in the brew

Don supplied hooch to 400 outlets: Locals

Magrahat (South 24-Parganas ): Khora Badshah, the hooch don of Magrahat area, accustomed to supply the brew to more than 400 'outlets' within the Magrahat-Sangrampur belt, according to locals. More than 40 of these were around Sangrampur station alone.

His sprawling house sticks out in a village of rickety shacks. Neighbours describe him being an amiable, soft-spoken individual who rarely interacted with them. "He kept to himself. The three months which i have been here, I don't think I've come across him greater than a handful of times," said Mohammed Anwar, Badshah's tenant.

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There is a theory that one of Selim's henchmen infiltrated Badshah's group and mixed a lethal dose of methyl alcohol in the brew. Others say Badshah turned greedy and was ready to do anything for money. "To start with, he would be a scrupulous man. But he lost his scruples since he started hobnobbing with political leaders. He is the most hated man in South 24-Parganas now," said Asghar, a resident of Gocharan.

Hooch tragedy in Bengal leaves 167 dead

The death toll within the hooch tragedy jumped to 167 on Friday with 19 more casualties reported from three hospitals as police arrested two more persons regarding the the incident.

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More deaths are feared within the state's worst-ever illicit liquor tragedy as condition of several from the victims was critical, health department sources said.

The hooch victims including labourers, rickshaw pullers and hawkers were admitted to Diamond Harbour sub-divisional hospital in South 24 Parganas district and M.R. Bangur Hospital and National Medical Hospital in Kolkata.

About 90 victims were receiving treatment at the Diamond Harbour Hospital where the condition of two was critical.

Post-mortem on most from the bodies continues to be done and also the bodies handed over towards the respective families, police said.

Two more persons were nabbed from near Sangrampur village and nearby area in South 24 Parganas district raising the entire number of those arrested to 12, even as the owner of the hooch den Badsha Khokan was still being absconding, the police said.

Health department sources said doctors, nurses, and para-medical staff whose leaves were cancelled were working overtime to attend to the hooch victims.

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The victims fell ill after eating and enjoying spurious liquor from several illegal joints on Tuesday night. Preliminary investigations suggest that the deaths occurred because of methyl alcohol toxicity which led to respiratory and cardiac failure.

The issue figured within the state Assembly with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announcing a CID inquiry into the tragedy which happened less than a week after the major fire in AMRI hospital which left 93 dead.

Hooch Tragedy in Bengal leaves 143 dead

SANGRAMPUR (W BENGAL): Toxic liquor claimed 143 lives in Bengal, the toll trebling overnight on Wednesday as daily wagers who composed most of the victims died unattended in the late hours. The deaths enraged villagers of Sangrampur in South 24-Parganas district and lots of people, from teenagers to 70-year-olds, ransacked one hooch den to another and torched the houses of hooch sellers.



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Ten everyone was arrested in connection with the hooch trade, but Khoda Badshah (lame king), the don of the local liquor mafia, was on the run. The sufferers had all drunk in the same stock - possibly laced with toxic methanol - sold at several vends.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee ordered a police probe as she attempted to steady her government that's been grappling with one disaster to another. "I don't wish to do politics with this particular tragedy. Let all parties come together and find a way," Mamata said, calling an all-party meet on Monday.

She hinted at "patronage through the previous ruling party" but added that illicit liquor would be a statewide problem. "If hooch sellers turn to legal businesses, just like a tea stall or fruit shop, their state will help them," she said.

Because the bodies from the hooch victims were delivered to the village of Sangrampur in South 24-Parganas, tempers flared andlocalsdirectedtheir anger as much at the police for neglecting to rein in the illegal trade. A police camp near the Sangrampur railway station was attacked and cops fled as the mob continued the rampage. "There's a policeman in the local outpost who'd collect money regularly. For this reason the policeturned a blindeyeto the spurious liquor outlets, which are just over the road," saidKarim Gazi, a vegetable vendor.

Gazi saw several neighbours dying after eating and enjoying hooch,known locally ascholai andsoldin polythene packsfor as low as Rs 10, on Wednesday morning. The victims were mostly poor vendors who sold fish and vegetables and relativessaid many diedfor lackof medical attention.

A lot more than 1,000 women and men from the impacted areas of Sangrampur, armed with rods, brought down the hooch shacks. The first shack was of Shiekh Yasin near the station. The homes of Khairul Bibi and Ayan Ali, both hooch sellers,were ransacked andseveral people were injured.

Locals asserted time was lost organizing vanstoferry patients to Diamond Harbour and Kolkata. "Few had the money to cover a van-rickshaw. Many victims died at home, with no treatment," said Giasuddin Mollah.

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Mamata Banerjee's government on Wednesday announced compensation for that hooch victims' kin. But problems have arisen as some didn't die in hospital or the cause of death was not mentioned in their death certificates.

Some of the people who died were buried without autopsy as well as their names don't feature in the official listing of victims. Though most of the families are poor, they aren't ready to exhume bodies to pick up the Rs 2 lakh compensation. Over 20 bodies were buried without post mortem, police say.

Khairul Gazi (48) of Khanpur village of Sangrampur was one of the primary to die at Diamond Harbour hospital. Yet, he is not one of many victims. Gazi was taken to hospital on Tuesday night, his brother Absar Ali says. "My brother drank poison liquor on Tuesday morning and complained of a burning sensation. We admitted him to hospital but his condition worsened. He died early on Wednesday. A doctor did not mention hooch in the death certificate with no post mortem was conducted. On Wednesday morning, we buried him. We're against exhuming the body," Ali says.

N S Nigam, DM, South 24-Parganas, said when autopsy was conducted, photographs were taken to facilitate the compensation payment.

He said if someone was not autopsied following the death from hooch, it would be difficult to give compensation.

CM's ultimatum to corrupt leaders

Clean up or re-locate. This is Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's clear message to party leaders on Tuesday. During an hour-long interaction with Trinamool Congress leaders at Town Hall, she issued an ultimatum against corruption and nepotism within the party.



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The principle minister clearly declared that she was alert to leaders who are associated with various rackets and such corrupt practices will not be tolerated whatsoever. The CM said there was also complaints of nepotism against some leaders. "If I buy any information regarding leaders' nexus with developer syndicates, the leaders concerned will likely be expelled from the party."

The chief minister met party MLAs and councillors from different municipalities and clearly spelt out that she was getting many complaints about party leaders being involved with building material business. "There was no syndicate member in my party and I shouldn't see any one getting a part of these syndicates. I don't want to see our partymen forcing individuals to buy building materials from their store."

Mamata lashed out on the leaders for infighting over spoils of promoting boom in Rajarhat along with other areas of Kolkata. Swapan Mondal, a Trinamool worker, was murdered on November 27 on account of rivalry among party factions in North 24-Parganas. During the past fortnight, the media has discussed various syndicates operating in Rajarhat belt and how Trinamool leaders were associated with it.

This isn't initially that the Trinamool chief has warned her partymen against being involved in supply syndicates. If one has to join such supply syndicate, you'll must quit the party, she said again on Tuesday.

Mamata clearly stated that the need for the hour was to setup a neat and transparent administration that will assist the people in a better way. "We ought to present people a good administration."

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She shared with her Cabinet colleagues, MLAs and councillors to target development. "Mon diye development korte hobe," the CM said even though reiterating that there was dearth of funds. "But negligence in development work will never be tolerated." Union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy was the lone MP present on the Town Hall meeting.