Chennai, February 10
The junior Shankarachraya got some relief today as the Madras High Court granted conditional bail to him and stated that there was insufficient evidence to establish the charge of conspiracy against him in the Sankararaman murder case.

Mr Justice M. Thanikachalam granted bail exactly a month after Sri Vijayendra was arrested on the same afternoon after the Supreme Court had given bail to Sri Jayendra Saraswati.

While the Supreme Court had held that there was no worthwhile evidence against the Shankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati, the Madras High Court today held that the materials relied upon by the prosecution against the junior seer were inadequate, slim and lacked corroboration.

Delivering the order, the Judge observed, “For the limited purpose of establishing a prima facie case of conspiracy, the materials relied upon by the prosecution appear insufficient.”

Sri Vijayendra Saraswati was not present in the court as he was taken to the Kancheepuram judicial magistrate’s court from the Chennai central prison. However, he will be released only tomorrow as some formalities needed to be complied with.

Mr Justice Thanickachalam granted him bail on the condition that he execute a bond for Rs 50,000, along with two sureties for a similar sum, before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Chengalpattu.

He has been forbidden to leave the city unless required to attend a court hearing and report to a local police station here every Sunday. He was also asked to surrender his passport, if he had one, and give an undertaking that he would not tamper with evidence or seek to influence witnesses.

The prosecution’s case was that the junior seer had carried out the senior Shankaracharya’s directives through his brother, Raghu, and was involved in the conspiracy and murder.

But the prosecution failed to produce sufficient details to prove its contention that a demand draft had been drawn from the mutt’s account in favour of a company owned by a real estate developer, Mr Ravi Subramaniam, an approver in the case.

The Judge was not convinced that the company belonged to him and stated: “No material has been placed before me to show that the company belongs to one of the accused. No document has been produced for my perusal to show that it was drawn in favour of that company. Therefore, it is impossible at present to say that in pursuance of the conspiracy hatched between the Senior Acharya and the other accused, this petitioner (Sri Vijayendra), on being informed of it, had carried out the same.”

On other materials submitted by the prosecution before the court to prove that the killers had been paid from related bank accounts, the Judge observed that those, too, failed to give any support to the case against Sri Vijayendra.

The court also expressed doubts about three cheques shown to the Judge as further evidence as they were all dated prior to September 1, 2004, when the prosecution alleged the conspiracy was hatched. Sankararaman was hacked to death inside the Varadaraja Perumal temple on September 3 last year.

Mr Justice Thanickachalam observed, “At present, in the absence of clear materials to prove the meeting of minds between the conspirators, it may not be possible even prima facie to say that this petitioner (Sri Vijayendra Saraswati) was party to the conspiracy.”

Referring to the apex court’s order while granting bail to the Shankaracharya, he said, “In that case, the materials relied on to rope in this petitioner, are not so strong as that of the first accused, and the role said to have been played by the junior pontiff is very limited, even according to the prosecution.

Kancheepuram (UNI): Amidst speculations that there was a rift, the first meeting between the two Kanchi Shankaracharyas since the arrest of senior seer Jayendra Saraswati on November 11 last, not only had a sense of bonhomie and camaraderie, but also several firsts to it.

There were reports that differences existed between the two seers. This was heightened if the alleged statements of the senior seer during the custodial interrogation were to be believed. The video footage containing a portion of the senior seer’s interrogation, were telecast by some private TV channels.

Bangalore, February 10
The Indian Air Force (IAF) will shortly sign a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the DRDO for the supply of 20 Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) with an option of an additional 20, in what will become the first IAF contract for an indigenous combat aircraft in several decades, following the demise of HF-24 Marut.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, making the announcement at Aero India here today, said each aircraft will cost Rs 100 crore. It would be difficult to come up with a time frame for the actual formation of the squadron, but he was looking at 2008-2012 for the deliveries, he added.

The IAF was not looking at any other aircraft in the light fighter category, and the projected requirement for 126 Multi-Role Combat Aircraft for which an international Request for Information (RFI) had gone out was in the 20-tonne class, he said.

India has already signed an agreement with General Electric Corporation of the USA, also cleared by the US State Department, after sanctions were lifted, for the supply of 40 GE-404 engines to power the LCA.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) had already cleared a list of weapons to be integrated into the platform, he confirmed. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Director (Design and Development) Yogesh Kumar said HAL had completed developing the algorithms for the weapons systems integration and these were being loaded into the Mission Computer for the second prototype vehicle (PV-2) which is to fly in a couple of months.

PV-2 will be the fourth LCA to fly along with PV-1 and the first two technology demonstrators (TD). All three LCAs are featuring in Aero India 2005.

The Air Chief acknowledged that ideally, the indigenous Kaveri engine should be powering the aircraft. “GTRE (Gas Turbine Research Establishment) are confident that they will produce the engine, and I have no reason to doubt them. Let us hope they succeed. It will good to fly an Indian fighter with an Indian engine powering it.”

TYPHOON RULED OUT: The RFIs for the 126 MCRAs had not targeted the Eurofighter Typhoon, as it was not in the class that the IAF was looking for, he said.

Bangalore, February 10
The spectre of sanction laws over both buyer and seller notwithstanding, requests for information has gone out from the Indian side, and top American defence equipment companies at Aero India are lining up a variety of products for sale to Indian armed forces, including an unmanned, completely programmable helicopter from the house of Northrop Grumman (NG).

This unusual, ‘autonomous’ helicopter is being developed for the US Army and the US Navy. This helicopter, based on a commercially available platform from Schweitzer, has no pilot’s joy stick and will be flown completely by a computer into which various parameters can be programmed in such a way that it can perform anything from reconnaissance to rescue missions.

Dubbed the ‘Firescout,’ this helicopter, version RQ-8B, has already logged over 140 hours of flight time. A ship deck landing will be tried out soon, NG Unmanned Systems director George Smith told The Tribune. Depending on the payload, the chopper can cover distances of 700 miles. “The idea is to make it in such a way that it can be turned around for different missions by putting in different systems. A radar for airborne early warning in one role, stripped for rescue mission, border patrol, etc. Nothing like it is in existence.” It is expected to be inducted into the US forces in 2008. The US Navy will fly it off small combat ships known as the LCS — Littoral Combat Ship.

“We will definitely like to offer this to India. The platform has already got State Department clearance for export, and we will have to go back to them for the systems, but India can even put in her own systems.”

The other system that NG is offering is a Hawkeye 2000 airborne early warning fixed-wing aircraft that can be flown off land or an aircraft carrier. The Indian Navy last October asked for `price and availability’ information for six Hawkeyes, and this has been responded to, company officials stated. NG conducted an assessment exercise to see if it could be flown off INS Vikramaditya, formerly Admiral Gorshkov, the Russian aircraft carrier currently in the acquisition process.

New Delhi, February 10
A native of Punjab whose allegations of corruption had forced the Canadian Immigration Minister to step down has been deported to India after a federal court rejected his claims for staying on in that country.

Harjit Singh (49) landed in New Delhi last week a few days before Hindi cinema actress Negar Khan was asked to leave the country in similar circumstances.

A Canadian High Commission official told The Tribune that Harjit Singh was deported on Thursday last. He had been staying in Canada as a visitor for the past 17 years. He had also been in detention for the last few weeks leading up to his deportation.

Harjit Singh, who ran a pizzeria near Toronto, was in the centre of a row for alleging that the minister had promised to help him stay on in Canada if he supplied free pizzas for her election campaign. The controversy forced the minister to eventually step down last month.

Harjit Singh had arrived in Canada in March 1988. Since then, he has sought to stay on in that country first as an asylum seeker and then as a refugee. His claim for seeking refugee status on the ground of maltreatment was turned down.

Taking advantage of the liberal immigration laws in Canada, Harjit Singh had persisted with his court battles. He was, however, refused residency after Canadian immigration authorities found out that he had been accused of certain offences in India.

The Canadian High Commission official said under the Canadian system, people wanting to stay in that country are afforded a number of reviews (refugee determination, leave to federal court, humanitarian and compassionate considerations).

“If at the end of the process, the answer is that the person is required to leave Canada; it is the mandate of the Canada Border Services Agency to carry out the removal.

Harjit Singh was required to leave Canada and was deported to India on
February 3, 2005,” the
official added.

According to Punjab’s Principal Resident Commissioner J.S Maini, Harjit Singh’s whereabouts are uncertain. ‘‘He must have been picked up by immigration officials for interrogation after he landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport’’, Mr Maini said.

New Delhi, February 10
The Supreme Court has sought a status report from the Centre and the BSF on reported presence of the paramilitary force’s ex-personnel Surjit Singh from Punjab in the Kot Lakhpat Rai jail in Pakistan, whom the government had declared dead in the 1971 war.

“Taking into account the peculiar features of the case, we direct the opposite parties to look into the grievance of the petitioner within a period of four weeks and file a status report by the next date,” a Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia said.

The court issued the direction to the Ministry of Home Affairs to submit the report on a writ petition by Surjit Singh’s wife Angrej Kaur, claiming that her husband was lodged in the Pakistani jail and one Khushi Mohammad of Malerkotla, released from there after 14 years in September last year, had met him in the prison.

Seeking direction to the Union Government to take up the issue of her husband and other Indian prisoners’ release with Pakistan, Angrej Kaur in the petition, filed by her counsel Abha Jain, said as per Mohammad’s statement, published in the media, at least 85 Indians, mainly soldiers captured during 1971 war, had been languishing in jails in that country in “pitiable conditions”.

She said her son Amrik Singh had met Khushi Mohammed after his return from Pakistan and showed him the photograph of his father, which the released prisoner had immediately identified and confirmed of having seen him in the Kot Lakhpat Rai jail. Another released prisoner Jagjit Singh confirmed the same.

New Delhi, February 10
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has approved a list of "Policy Thrust Areas" for 45 major ministries and departments of the government, including the PMO.

The PMO and the Press Information Bureau put up the 'policy thrust areas' on its respective websites today.

The implementation of policies under these thrust areas, based on the list approved by the Prime Minister, would be reviewed by the Prime Minister's Office on a regular basis, a PMO official said. The ministries are being asked to prepare a schedule of sequential steps with time frames for each thrust area, so that progress can be benchmarked against these.

This list has been drawn up in consultation with the respective ministries. It is based on the major commitments of the National Common Minimum Programme, the commitments made by the government through the President's Address to Parliament last year, the Union Budget speech of 2004-05, and the Prime Minister's announcements through his various speeches.

Some of the important 'policy thrust areas' include: proactive engagement with neighbours with a view to improved border management and emphasis on related infrastructure development, implementing the J&K Reconstruction Plan, tackling terrorism in the north-east and J&K and finalise within next six months the approach to rehabilitation of Tsunami-affected persons.