The order to this effect was passed by a Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal, Justice Arijit Pasyat and Justice S H Kapadia which was informed by the Ministry of Forest and Environment that it has already handed over to CBI the probe into the diminishing population of big cat in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan.

500 stranded at Leh airpot

Jammu, Jan 6 Over 500 Jammu bound passengers were stranded in Leh town of Ladakh region in Jammu and Kashmir for last two days due to non-availability of flights, a senior government official said.

During last two days, Indian Airlines flights between Jammu and Leh were cancelled as a result of which 200 Jammu bound passengers could not leave Leh, the District Development Commissioner (Leh) Satesh Nehru told newspersons.

There are 300 other Jammu bound passengers also awaiting their turn to leave Leh for Jammu, he said.

However, neither normal flights or additional flights could operate between Leh and Jammu in the last two days.

Nehru said the government has already taken up the issue with Indian Airlines authorities and requested for additional flights between Jammu-Leh and Srinagar-Leh as the Srinagar-Leh road remained closed during the winter months.

3 LeT men held with arms cache

Mumbai, Jan 6 The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Mumbai Police arrested three suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militants from Nagpada area on Friday morning.

The suspects were arrested on a tip-off by a central agency, ATS sources said.

Police Commissioner A N Roy said the three men are members of the Lashkar e Tayyaba and were caught with bomb making equipment, including a remote control device, five timer switches and 20 detonators.

They came to spread their network here that seemed to be their aim. They had not yet begun any operation here, Roy told newsmen while addressing a press conference.

The suspected LeT terrorists were hiding in Mumbai. Police are trying to ascertain their identity, the sources added.

"It is too premature to say that they are linked to the recent shoot-out at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore," they added. Reports said the men were planning to carry out an attack in the metropolis on Republic Day

2 Sena MLAs join Cong

Mumbai, Jan 6 In a setback to the Shiv Sena, two party MLAs and supporters of Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, today resigned from the membership of the Legislative Assembly and joined the Congress.

Kalidas Kolambkar and Shyam Sawant submitted their resignation from the Assembly this afternoon to Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar, and later proceeded to the Congress office in south Mumbai, where they formally joined the party in the presence of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prabha Rau and Rane.

After being expelled from the Shiv Sena in July last year Rane had joined the Congress and was made Revenue Minister.

Earlier, three Rane supporters quit their Assembly seat which they had won as Sena nominees in the 2004 polls and had joined the Congress.

The Congress has fielded the three, Ganpat Kadam (Rajapur), Subhash Bane (Sangameshwar) and Shankar Kambli (Vengurla) for the January 21 Assembly bypoll for the three seats.

FIR against Karunanidhi

Chennai, Jan 6 Tamil Nadu police have filed a first information against former chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M Karunanidhi for alleged irregularities in construction of a bridge that collapsed during heavy rains in November in Karur district.

The FIR was filed in the last week of December 2005 in the court of chief judicial magistrate, Karur, about 350-kms from Chennai. The New Aamravati Bridge was washed away during the heavy rains in November.

The FIR, filed under Section 13(1) of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Sections 408 and 409 (criminal breach of trust) read with 120B (conspiracy) of the IPC, also names former chief secretary C S Nambiar, former municipal administration secretary Malathi and Abdul Rahman, managing director of city-based East Coast Consultant and Infrastructure Limited.

Boy abducted in Patna

Patna, Jan 6 The son of a government official has gone missing from the state capital and is suspected to have been kidnapped, police said today.

Naseem Akhtar, 15-year-old son of the sub-divisional officer posted at Darbhanga Naeem Akhtar, left his home in Pataliputra Colony around 7.30 pm yesterday to buy a pen but did not return.

His family members, who began a frantic search for Naseem, a class VIII student of Don Bosco academy, reported the matter late last night to the police, who have registered an FIR.