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Supreme Court rejects Bhullar’s mercy plea
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) terrorist Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar’s plea for commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment on ground of delay in deciding his mercy plea.
Delivering the verdict in a packed courtroom, a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya said that the petitioners failed to make out a case for commutation of sentence.
Today’s decision will pave the way for his hanging and is likely to have an impact on 17 other convicts on the death row, including those held guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
Bhullar’s Canada-based wife, Navneet Kaur, who was present in the court when the bench read out two sentences of the operative portion of their verdict, looked dejected and refused to respond to questions from reporters as she left the court premises.
The Supreme Court had reserved its order on April 19, 2012, on the plea of Bhullar’s family, which had filed a petition on his behalf pleading that his capital punishment be commuted to life imprisonment as there has been “inordinate” delay in deciding his mercy plea and he is not mentally sound.
It was submitted that prolonged incarceration of a death row convict awaiting his/her execution amounted to cruelty and violated the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
Bhullar was awarded death penalty for triggering a bomb blast in Delhi in September 1993, killing nine people and injuring 25 others, including then Youth Congress president M.S. Bitta.
The Supreme Court had on March 26, 2002, dismissed Bhullar’s appeal against the death sentence awarded by a trial court in August 2001 and endorsed by the Delhi High Court in 2002.
He had filed a review petition, which was also dismissed on December 17, 2002. Bhullar had then moved a curative petition, which too had been rejected by the Supreme Court on March 12, 2003.
Bhullar, meanwhile, had filed a mercy petition before the President on January 14, 2003. The President, after a lapse of over eight years, dismissed his mercy plea on May 25, 2011. — PTI
Govt's resolve to spur growth unwavering: PM
BERLIN: Asserting that the spirit of adventure, enterprise and innovation in India is thriving, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that his government's resolve to spur investments, attract foreign investors and boost economic growth remains unwavering, and added that intense debates back home on the
policy issues have not stopped it from taking hard decisions.
"In a country of India's size, diversity and complexity, intense debates on the policy choices we make are inevitable. But these debates have not stopped us from taking some hard decisions in the long term interest of our country and our people," Singh said in his address at the closing ceremony of the Days of India in Germany.
"Looking to the future, we have set ourselves a target of over eight percent annual growth for the 12th Five-Year Plan. This is the rate of growth India recorded over the past decade and is, I believe, our potential rate of growth in the near future. We are confident that we can return to that growth path. Our economic fundamentals are strong. The spirit of adventure, enterprise and innovation in India is thriving," he said.
"The opportunities for investment abound. Our government's resolve to spur investments, attract foreign investors and boost economic growth remains unwavering. Towards this end, we have sought to make India more attractive to investors both at home and abroad and German investors have a special place in our hearts," he added.
The Prime Minister further pointed out that trials of the global economy have led to repercussions in India as well and India's economic growth has slowed down.
"The trials of the global economy have led to repercussions in India as well and our economic growth has slowed down in the past two years. In response, our government has considered several measures to revive the engines of growth," he added.
Emphasising that India's concern is not merely its rate of growth, but also the quality of that growth and living conditions of the people both in health and education, Singh said: "We want our growth to be inclusive and sustainable. This is not just a social and political imperative, but also a sound economic underpinning for sustained long term growth. Therefore, we have placed a special emphasis on livelihoods, food security, healthcare, education, skill development and on clean and renewable energy."
"Our message to the world is clear: India remains open and welcoming to foreign investment. We are aiming to attract an investment of nearly one trillion dollars in infrastructure over the next five years," he said.
"I hope German companies and companies from across Europe will make good use of these opportunities and help accelerate our growth process to our mutual advantage," he added. — ANI
Rajnath Singh speaks to 'sulking' Navjot Sidhu
NEW DELHI: BJP president Rajnath Singh on Friday stepped in to pacify sulking party MP Navjot Singh Sidhu who is said to be upset with the party leadership for "sidelining" and "ignoring" him.
Singh spoke to Sidhu in the morning and assured him of looking into his grievances, sources close to the BJP president said.
The Amristar MP will meet Singh in the capital after the ongoing IPL cricket tournament gets over, they said.
Sidhu was not available for comments as he is busy with his commitments in the IPL season.
The cricketer-turned-politician has been sulking for quite some time and the matter precipitated after he was recently dropped from Singh's new list of BJP office-bearers. He was secretary in BJP during Nitin Gadkari's tenure as president.
Sidhu is also keen to change his constituency following his differences with top Akali leaders in the area, including Punjab minister Bikramjit Singh
Majithia.
Majithia, brother-in-law of Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh
Badal, is the in-charge of Akali in the area.
Sidhu has won from the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency thrice. His wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu won as an MLA from Amritsar in the 2012 Punjab assembly elections.
Though Sidhu has remained silent, his wife, who is also a parliamentary secretary for health in the state government, has made utterances about Sidhu not contesting the Amritsar seat again after being "ignored" by the party.
A section of BJP is of the view that Sidhu is neglecting his constituency and he is keen on moving out.
"My husband will not contest parliamentary elections from Amritsar and a decision in this context was taken long back as the BJP ignored and sidelined him and his local team, which have been working in the constituency for more than a decade now," Kaur told PTI on Thursday.
Kaur had stirred up a controversy within the BJP's state unit by commenting on a social networking site that her husband felt "sidelined and ignored" in the party. — PTI
Social
media may influence 160 LS seats in 2014: Study
NEW DELHI: The 2014 general elections' outcome in 160 constituencies is likely to be influenced the most by social media users,
according to a study.
The study 'Social Media and Lok Sabha Elections', jointly conducted by the RIS Knowledge Foundation and supported by the Internet and Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI) said that "there are 160 high impact constituencies out of the total of 543 constituencies, which were likely to be influenced by social media during the next general election."
High impact constituencies are those where the numbers of Facebook users are more than the margin of victory of the winner in the last election, or where Facebook users account for over 10 percent of the voters.
The study found that there were 67 constituencies which have been identified as medium impact constituencies, while the rest were classified as low impact constituencies or no impact constituencies.
The corresponding numbers are 60 out of 543 in the low impact category and the remaining 256 out of 543 as being in the no ompact category.
Maharashtra has the most number of high impact constituencies (21), followed by Gujarat (17), the study said. — IANS
Senior leader approached me to topple UPA
govt: Gadkari
NAGPUR: Former BJP president Nitin Gadkari has claimed that a "senior leader" had approached him to topple the Congress-led UPA-II government at the Centre.
Though the "senior leader" got in touch with him during his stint as the BJP president, he maintained that he had outrightly rejected the "advice".
Gadkari did not reveal the identity of the "senior" leader.
"Main mard ka baccha hun jo karta hun saamne se karunga (I am a man of principle and whatever I do, I will do it publicly). No backstabbing," the BJP leader told a gathering at a ceremony here on Thursday evening.
"My conscience is clear and I have no separate agenda."
Referring to the recent developments in his political career, the former BJP president said he has done nothing wrong. The
Income Tax Department had conducted a probe into the alleged dubious investments in Gadkari's Purti group of companies. — PTI
Bollywood
star Pran to get Dadasaheb Phalke Award
NEW
DELHI: The arch villain of Bollywood, Pran Krishan Sikand — or Pran as
he is popularly known — was on Friday named for the Dadasaheb Phalke
Award.
The actor turned 93 in February this year.
Confirming the news, a source from the Information & Broadcasting
Ministry told IANS: "Yes, he (Pran) is getting Dadasaheb Phalke
award."
Pran acted in over 400 movies in a career spanning over six decades and
played a vast range of roles — from a hero to a villain to a character
artist.
He became a symbol of hatred after his portrayals of a bad guy in a
series of films including hits like "Madhumati", "Ziddi"
and "Ram Aur Shyam".
If he played a villain to the hilt, he was equally good when he stepped
into character roles and won many hearts as loveable Mangal Chacha in
"Upkar", thoroughly entertained as street-smart fraud in
"Victoria No.203", and epitomised on-screen
friendship in the role of a rough but kind Pathan in "Zanjeer".
— IANS
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