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Jewellers call off strike after meeting Sonia, Pranab

NEW DELHI: Agitating jewellers and bullion traders on Friday called off their strike after meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Jewellers were on strike demanding roll back in hike on excise duty on gold and non-branded jewellery.

Earlier, jewelleres met Sonia Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee who assured them that their demands would be met.

"We today met Sonia Gandhi and requested her to tell the government to roll back excise duty on unbranded jewellery, reduce customs duty and lower TDS on sale of jewellery," All-India Swarankar Sangh president Madhukar Chachad told reporters after the meeting.

Gandhi, he said, "has assured us that she will forward our demands to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for further action".

Ahead of the meeting of jewellers with Gandhi, the Congress had asked the government to look into the demands of jewellers, who have been agitating for more than a fortnight.

"Congress has asked the government to consider the demand of jewellers sympathetically," AICC General Secretary and media department chief Janardhan Dwivedi said.

Bullion traders and jewellers are protesting since the presentation of the Budget which had imposed excise duty on unbranded jewellery, raised customs duty on gold and proposed TDS requirement on sale of jewellery.

The representatives of the jewellery associations had also met Mukherjee on Thursday to press for their demand for the removal of duties on gold and unbranded jewellery. They met the minister again on Friday.

Mukherjee, while replying to a debate on Budget in the Lok Sabha last month, had assured the jewellers that he would consider their demands but ruled out reduction in customs duty on gold, which was doubled to 4 per cent.

Various jewellers associations, including Bullion Traders Association, Market Sarafa Association, and diamond traders have been on strike since March 17.

Mukherjee in his Budget for 2012-13 had imposed 1 per cent excise duty on all unbranded jewellery and doubled the import duty to 4 per cent on gold. He also announced that quoting of PAN card would be mandatory for purchase of jewellery worth more than Rs 2 lakh. — Agencies

Abducted engineer killed by three friends in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A young engineer was strangled allegedly by his three friends in west Delhi for getting hold of the money the victim's father got in a land deal, the police said on Friday.

Johny Gupta (23), who works as a site engineer with a private company, was murdered on the night of April 3, hours after his close friend Anoop (25) allegedly took him to a godown in Kamruddin Nagar in west Delhi's Nihal Vihar, they said.

Anup, a marketing executive, and his friends Anil (26), a tempo driver, and Avinash (36), the godown owner, were arrested, R. S. Krishnaiah, Joint Commissioner of Police, said.

According to the police, the murder took place at around 9 pm on April 3 and the family received a ransom call of Rs 1 crore later. The police claimed that they received the information about the victim being missing around 11.30 pm that night.

"The deceased's father had received some money on a land deal. Anoop, the mastermind, and his friends wanted to get hold of that money and they executed the murder," Krishnaiah claimed.

Giving the sequence of events, he said, Gupta, who holds a diploma in civil engineering was last scene at Keshavpuram on April 3 at 6.30 pm with one of his friends Ashok.

Checking of Gupta's call records showed that after that he had received a call from Anoop and that the ransom call was made from the deceased's phone.

Anoop was questioned the next day but he "initially tried to mislead" investigators but later broke down and confessed to the crime, Krishnaiah said.

"Anoop had asked Gupta to come near Punjabi Bagh fly over on the fateful day. Gupta was made to park his motorcycle at Peeragarhi metro station from where both went to the godown owned by Avinash on Anoop's motorcycle," he said.

"Anil and Avinash were waiting for them at the godown. Gupta tried to leave the place later but was not allowed. The trio strangled him. After murdering him, a ransom call of Rs 1 crore was made to his family at around 11.30 pm," Krishnaiah said.

They allegedly buried him inside the godown and even put salt on it so that the body decomposed faster, he claimed.

Investigators said the ransom call was traced to Wazirpur area and that there were no second ransom call.

Following Anoop's questioning, the body was recovered as well as the deceased's mobile phone.

The victim's brother claimed, "the abductor called and asked for Rs 1 crore ransom. He said if you want him safe, don't inform the police or the media."

The brother alleged that police did not register a case at the first place. The police denied the allegations.

"The murder took place around 9 pm. We were informed about the missing of Gupta at 11.30 pm. When the ransom call came, we added charges of abduction in the case.

"There was no chance to save the victim as he was killed before we were informed," Krishnaiah said. — PTI

CAG also warned of serious gaps in nation’s defence

NEW DELHI: At a time when our politicians are blaming Army Chief Gen VK Singh for allegedly leaking a crucial report to media on country’s military preparedness, they had least bothered when the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had highlighted serious gaps in India’s defence in its critical report much earlier than him.

A report published in a leading daily claimed on Friday that the CAG had in December last year pointed to the hollowness in India's battle preparedness even more critically than Gen Singh’s March 12 letter addressed to the PMO.

What is more frustrating that the same MPs, who were outraged with the Army Chief’s alleged leakage of a crucial report to the media, did nothing to verify the frightening picture of the country’s military preparedness presented by the CAG in its crucial report.

In its report, the CAG had said, “At present the artillery arm of Indian Army comprises of regiments holding a mix of various gun systems whose technology ranges from World War-II and those developed in the 1970s". Indian artillery, in other words, was obsolete.”