L A T E S T      N E W S

Khobragade’s paperwork under review: U.S.

Washington: The United States is reviewing the paperwork it received from the United Nations about the diplomatic accreditation of the Indian diplomat

The United States is reviewing the paperwork it received from the United Nations about the diplomatic accreditation of senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade arrested early this month on visa fraud charges, an American official has said.

“We received the paperwork from the United Nations late on Friday. It is under review,” a State Department spokesperson said.

The spokesperson, however, refused to divulge any detail about the time the State Department would take to review the paperwork or if the entire paperwork was in order and when Ms. Khobragade would receive her identity card.

Ms. Khobragade, who was Deputy Consul General at the Indian Consulate in New York, was arrested on December 12 after a New York court issued arrest warrant against her on charges of visa fraud.

India has contested her arrest and subsequent treatment.

She was later released on a bail bond of $ 250,000 and she was asked to submit her diplomatic passport by the New York Court.

Soon thereafter, Ms. Khobragade was transferred by the Indian Government to its Permanent Mission to the UN so that she gets full diplomatic immunity.

Her transfer has been accepted by the United Nations, which sent the necessary paperwork to the US State Department for issuing the identity card that would grant her the full diplomatic immunity.

Intern hints at filing police complaint against Ganguly

New Delhi: A former law intern, who had accused the former Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly of sexual harassment, has hit back at him for denying the charges and hinted that she may file a police complaint.

“Those who have been spreading rumours and politicising the issue, are doing so out of prejudice and malice to obfuscate the issue and escape scrutiny and accountability,” the intern wrote on her blog on Legally India.

Her comments came a day after Justice Ganguly had written an eight-page letter to Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, denying that he had sexually harassed the intern and alleging there was a “palpable design” to malign him because of the judgements he had given against “powerful quarters”.

Indicating that she may lodge a police complaint, the intern said, “I request that it be acknowledged that I have the discernment to pursue appropriate proceedings at appropriate times. I ask that my autonomy be respected fully.”

The intern said that any one claiming that her statements were false was showing disrespect not just to her but also to the Supreme Court.

“I would like to state that I have acted with utmost responsibility throughout, keeping in mind the seriousness of this situation,” she said. 

Forum wants Ganguly removed from 
WB Human Rights commission

Kolkata: A group of lawyers and retired judges on Tuesday took out a protest march demanding that retired Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly, accused of sexually harassing a law intern, be removed as chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission.

“Ganguly must resign immediately to respect the institution of Human Rights Commission. If he doesn’t resign, he should be removed by the President who has the power to do so,” said Joydeep Mukherjee, Secretary of the All India Legal Aid Forum, which took out a protest march to the retired judge’s office said.

He also demanded that the Delhi Police register a suo moto FIR in the alleged incident which took place at a Delhi hotel on the night of December 24, 2012.

A meeting was held at Mayo Road before a procession was taken out to Justice Ganguly’s office. It was attended by retired judge of the Gujarat High Court and former Lokayukta of Gujarat S M Soni and president of International Council of Jurists Adish C Aggarwala, besides lawyers.

U.S. court dismisses Sikh group’s case against Badal

Washington: A U.S. court has dismissed an alleged human rights violation case against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, saying the New York-based Sikh group never physically served the summons on him.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in its order upheld the decision that Sikh for Justice (SFJ) did not effectuate service of the Federal Court summons on Badal.

Rights group SFJ and Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) headed by Simranjit Singh Mann, will now file a “Motion To Remand” the case to District Court to establish that alternative service of summons through Hague has been accomplished on Mr. Badal, a media release said.

The statement came after Court of Appeals dismissed the case that Mr. Badal was personally served with Federal Court summons at Oak Creek High School on August 9 as claimed by SFJ.

Ramdev to campaign against Sonia, Rahul

Lucknow: Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev will campaign against United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Announcing this at an event in the state capital late Monday, Baba Ramdev said he will “actively” campaign in Amethi and Rae Bareli, parliamentary constituencies of Mr. Rahul and Ms. Gandhi respectively, and ensure that they lose the polls.

He said that he would also be canvassing for BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and wished that he becomes the next prime minister of India.

He said he had “lots of hope and full faith” in Mr. Modi, but added that his support was for Mr. Modi and not the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I want to see that Modi romps home with 300 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and would put in my bit in doing so,” he said.

The yoga guru said the Congress party would be decimated in the general elections. He said the Congress would be a “thing of past and part of history” after the 2014 elections.

He attacked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra of amassing millions of rupees by land grabbing in Haryana. “I am sure that after the exit of the Congress government at the centre, Vadra will be booked and land behind the bars”, Ramdev said.

He, however, refused to comment on the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its poll prospects

Ramdev in the past has shared a personal rapport with SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. He is often seen ducking questions on the growing hooliganism in the party and the poor law and order situation in the state.

Ramdev also ruled out the possibility joining politics or jumping into the electoral fray and said he would never contest an election.

“I am completely ruling this out and saying categorically that neither will I join any political party nor will I contest elections,” he said.

Ramdev has been in the middle of controversy many times in the last two years after more than 100 cases were slapped on him and his Patanjali Yoga Ashram in Kankhal, Haridwar.

He has often accused the Congress government in Uttarakhand and also the central government of launching a vendetta campaign against him ever since he took up the matter of black money stashed abroad and attacked the Congress of not taking steps to bring it back.

Rajendra Kumar tipped to be Principal Secy to Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: A senior IAS officer, Rajendra Kumar, is tipped to become the Principal Secretary to Arvind Kejriwal, who is set to take over as Chief Minister of Delhi later this week.

Like Kejriwal, 47-year-old Kumar, at present Higher Education Secretary, is an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur.

Rajendra  Kumar met Kejriwal at his residence here. Chief Secretary D M Spolia also met Mr Kejriwal. They were described as courtesy calls.

Arvind Kejriwal may be sworn-in as Chief Minister once President Pranab Mukherjee clears the Lt Governor’s proposal in this regard.

Meanwhile, newly elected AAP MLAs Rakhi Birla from Mangolpuri constituency, Somnath Bharti from Malviya Nagar and Manish Sisodia from Patparganj, who are tipped to become Ministers, met him.