SRINAGAR 
Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar is the new Chief Justice of J&K High Court. Born in 1953, he graduated in law from Punjab University, Patiala and later did his post-graduation from Birmingham in UK. During 1977-79, Justice Kumar practised in Sangrur and also in the High Court. He was Additional Advocate General for Punjab between October 1995 and November 1996 and was also appointed an Additional Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 2, 2001 before becoming a Permanent Judge on November 9, 2001.
NEW YORK
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed South Korean Major General Young-Bum Choi as Chief Military Observer and the head of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). He succeeds Major General Raul Gloodtdofsky Fernandez of Uruguay. Two UNMOGIP are in J&K, in Srinagar and PaK, on either side of the LoC since 1949. The new General is assuming charge July 1.
BADAMIBAGH
Lt Gen Om Prakash is the new general officer commanding (GOC) of the army’s15 Corps headquartered in Srinagar. He succeeded Lt Gen Atta Hasnain. Gen Prakash, a Kumaon regiment soldier, was commissioned as an officer in the Indian Army in 1976. He has commanded a division at Rajouri, worked at the Siachen brigade and also at Nagrota based 16 Corps.
JAMMU
Creating a new historic first, the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) arrested a foreign national and Managing Director of a Multi National Company (MNC) along with his Deputy General Manager (DGM), a Chief Engineer of Mechanical Engineering Department and an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) as soon as the MD and his associate paid Rs 1.80 lakh graft to the engineers for securing Rs 30 lakh worth contract of Weighing Pads. An FIR has already been registered. Those arrested include Zahoor Ahmad Zargar (Hyderpora), Chief Engineer Mechanical Engineering Jammu, Ranjan Kumar Langar (Sarwal), an AEE besides South Korean resident Celvin Yoon, MD Cas India Private Limited, Gurgaon, and Anil Dhar, his Deputy who lives in Uttam Nagar, Delhi.
RAJOURI
A man was murdered by his brother in Pangai village of Thanna Mandi. Sons of Bahadur Ali, Mohammad Hussain and Fateh Mohammad had issues related to property. Though squabbles were routine, last week the two sides wanted to settle it down by force. Fateh, the elder one, hammered his younger brother. As they reached hospital, he was declared brought dead.
UDHAMPUR
Eleven years after Afatb Ahmed Chandail kidnapped a minor girl Meenakshi from Udhampur and crated a crisis for the state government, Additional Sessions Judge Jammu RN Wattal awarded him 14 years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping and rape. Amid a serious crisis starting February 8 when the ‘kidnapping’ was reported, the CBI took over the case in March 2001. CBI filed the charge sheet on April 11, 2001.
