NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today adjourned to August 27 the hearing on a public interest petition seeking the quashing of the appointment of R C Sharma as CBI chief, allegedly done to ``scuttle and delay the investigation of politically sensitive cases'' by the investigating agency. Counsel for the petitioner Shanti Bhushan had submitted that the appointment of Sharma was malafide and motivated to delay the probe of politically sensitive cases which involved powerful politicians and bureaucrats. The petition alleged that ever since Sharma took over as the joint director on deputation with the CBI in March 1991 and was made incharge of the Special Investigation Group (SIG) within the CBI, almost no progress was made in any of the cases of which he was incharge.

Asia's most modern mint in AP

HYDERABAD: Asia's most modern and sophisticated mint, built at a cost of Rs 130 crores was inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Finance Satpal Maharaj at a function at Cherlapally near here today. Speaking on the occasion, Maharaj said coin production capacity of the four mints in the country, including the one at Noida was expected to go up to 4,700 million pieces per annum from their existing installed capacity of 3,900 million pieces. The Cherlapally mint which is equipped with the state-of-the-art technology, will produce 700 million pieces per annum, he said.

Ancient Buddha statue retrieved

CHENNAI: An exquisite Buddha statue, dating back to the first or second century AD, has been retrieved by a fisherman from the sea-bed off Chinnamedu village in Tamil Nadu's Nagapattinam district. The statue, which depicted Buddha in a standing posture, was found pierced due to sedimentation. An official press release here said the rare find was a breakthrough in the excavation work for locating the submerged city of Poompuhar, which was once the capital of Chola dynasty.

Fodder accused remanded to custody

PATNA: P K Jaiswal, a fodder scam accused today surrendered before a special court which remanded him to judicial custody for 14 days in a conspiracy case of the multi-crore scam. Jaiswal surrendered before the designated judge, S K Lal, following the issue of an arrest warrant against him in the case.

Express train to start amid protest

RANCHI: The Hatia-New Delhi Jharkhand Swarna Jayanti Express is scheduled to be flagged off from here on Thursday amidst protests from different organisations demanding a change in the proposed route. Railway Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan will flag off the bi-weekly super fast train. The organisations are demanding a change of the route from Ramgarh-Barkakana to Bokaro-Gomo which according to them would take less time. BJP MP from Ranchi, Ramtahal Chaudhry has threatened to organise a bandh on Thursday if Paswan fails to announce the change of route of the train.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.