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Tuesday,
April 15, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Smuggled
weapons sold to 653 MPs PM:
cross-border terrorism must end Pak fit
case for attack: Sinha Karunakaran’s
defiance irks Congress men |
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Togadia
sent in judicial custody CRPF jawan
killed in attack on camp Fernandes refuses to comment Centre
giving in to WTO terms: manch 
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Smuggled weapons
sold to 653 MPs New Delhi, April 14 A Division Bench comprising Ms Justice Usha Mehra and Mr Justice Pradeep Nandrajog, while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) highlighting the issue, was not satisfied with the reply by the Revenue Department and directed the Centre’s counsel to place before it the policy regarding the seized weapons as well as the date of the allotment made since 1987. The PIL, filed by former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s organisation — People For Animal (PFA) — has alleged that the MPs were given preference in the sale of arms over their allotment to government officials in contravention of the Centre’s policy. PFA’s counsel Raj Panjwani has contended that costly weapons of different foreign makes, including some “prohibited bore” rifles have been allotted to the MPs since 1987 for prices ranging between Rs 7,000 and Rs 32,000, while their market price is not less than Rs 2 lakh apiece. At the current market rate, the total value of the 653 weapons sold to MPs could be more than Rs 16 crore, while the government has got only a little over Rs 1 crore from the sale, as per the list, Mr Panjwani said. The court, which has taken serious view of the government “violating” the guidelines, told its counsel S. S. Gandhi that as per the Centre’s own policy, the first preference in the allotment of the seized weapons should be given first to Custom and Central Excise Department officials and then to other government officials, who face a threat perception in the course of discharging their duties. While directing Mr Gandhi to submit the policy, the court has directed him to furnish the complete data about the allotment and sale of 961 smuggled weapons, seized since 1987, stating that the arms could be sold to the MPs only if those were spare after being given to the officials. “Such weapons can be misused if they fall in the wrong hands of the children of the politicians,” the Bench observed, adding, “there has been allegation of licensed weapon being used in the Jessica Lal murder case in which the son of a politician, is allegedly involved”. However, Mr Gandhi said such allegations against the Jessica Lal murder accused (Manu Sharma) were based on “media’s speculations”. The prosecution has “failed” to recover the weapon in that case, he said. Incidentally, the name of Manu’s father Vinod Sharma, a Chandigarh-based politician, figures at serial no 522 in the list.
He was sold a “Webly Revolver” for Rs 9,000 when he was an MP. Prominent among the beneficiaries are Union Ministers Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, Vinod Khanna and Vijay Goel, former Union Ministers R. L. Bhatia, Margaret Alva, Arun Nehru and Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, former Haryana Chief
Minister Bansi Lal, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi and UP Chief Minister Mayawati. The list also includes the names of BJP leaders Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Vinay Katyar, S. S. Ahluwalia, Prem Kumar Dhumal, Uma Bharti, Vasundhra Raje Scindia, Chetan Chauhan and Maheshwar Singh, Akali leader Sukhbir Singh Badal, Congressmen Suresh Kalmadi and Jagdish Tytler, INLD’s Ajay Singh Chautala and scores of other former and present MPs. The weapons sold to them include ERMA, Arminious, Magnum, Colt, Webly Scott, Benetta, Smith and Wesson, Walther, Browine, Bretta, Lahmaha revolvers and pistols and Parker Hale, 30.06 bore RS-Rifle and Remishg Rifle, the government list indicates. |
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PM:
cross-border terrorism must end Gangtok, April 14 “To create a conducive atmosphere for talks, it is imperative that cross-border terrorism is stopped immediately,’’ Mr Vajpayee told a news conference at the end of his four-day visit to Sikkim. He said talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf could not succeed because he refused to accept Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India. On India-China border dispute, Mr Vajpayee said talks were on to resolve the issue. “Talks are going as scheduled and will continue in future. We also want good trade relations with China,’’ he added. About militant training camps in Bhutan, the Prime Minister said talks were on with the Bhutanese government in this regard.
UNI |
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Pak fit case for attack: Sinha Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), April 14 Mr Sinha told reporters that there were three reasons which drove the Anglo-US forces to attack Iraq — possession of weapons of mass destruction, export of terrorism and absence of democracy — all of which existed in Pakistan. He said Pakistan was not only proliferating weapons of mass destruction, but they were also exporting cross-border terrorism and there was no democracy in that country which made it the ‘fittest’ case for an Iraq-like military action. Mr Sinha cautioned the people against being over-sensitive to ‘each and every comment that is being made by some countries’ over the developments in Jammu and Kashmir. He made this comment when asked to react to the US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s recent statement that the US focus would be on India-Pakistan after Iraq. Mr Sinha said the US administration had warned Pakistan to put an end to the cross-border terrorism and imposed sanctions recently. He reiterated that India would not hold talks with Pakistan till they end the cross-border terrorism and also stop exporting terrorism to other countries.
PTI |
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Karunakaran’s defiance
irks Congress men New Delhi, April 14 There was an evident sense of relief at the AICC over the results of the Rajya Sabha elections from Kerala. Soon after it was known that the two official Congress nominees, — Mr Vayalar Ravi and Mr Madhavan Pillai — had won, senior leaders started getting congratulatory calls. Sources said Mr Nair got 26 first preference votes, including 20 from the Congress, five from the UDF allies and one from the Left Front. Both the Congress candidates got more than 35 first preference
votes. The victory, which was facilitated by the presence of AICC observers Ghulam Nabi Azad and R K Dhawan in Kerala, has saved the situation for the Congress in the state. The defeat of any official candidate would have its impact on the stability of the Antony government in the state besides causing an embarrassment to the high-command. The sources said Mr Azad and Mr Dhawan, who are returning to the Capital tonight, will submit a report to Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the developments in Kerala. Before deciding its next course of action, the high command will factor in the report of the observers and the response of the Karunakaran faction to the Rajya Sabha results. A senior Congress leader here said there was “anger” among Congress workers on the “defiance” by Mr Karunakaran. However, a section of the party is against precipitating the matters by acting against a leader who has proved that he commands loyalty of more than a third of the Congress MLAs in the state. Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Uttar Pradesh Governor Motilal Vora today denied the charges levelled against him by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at the party’s “pardafash” rally in Lucknow. |
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Togadia
sent in judicial custody Ajmer, April 14 Togadia will be produced before the court again on April 16, District Collector Niranjan Arya said. Togadia was arrested last night in Ajmer district. Meanwhile, the police arrested three VHP leaders Sarveshwar Agarwal, Gopi Krishna Shriya and J. L. Choudhary on the same charges in the wee hours today.
PTI |
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CRPF jawan
killed in attack on camp Kolkata, April 14 The CRPF jawans fired at the fleeing terrorists and the exchange of fire between the two groups lasted for about 10 minutes, which resulted in the killing of a terrorist of the disbanded Hikma group of Bangladesh. The CRPF camp was attacked within 24 hours following the arrest of 12 Hikma terrorists in the border areas in three north Bengal districts, Malda, Murshidabad and West Dinajpur, in a joint operation by the state police and the CRPF in the three hours on Friday. This was the second time during the past three months that the terrorists from across Bangladesh border attacked police camps in north Bengal and snatched several arms and ammunition. The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, expressed concern at the fresh terrorist attack and the arrest of the Hikma activists of Bangladesh. He alleged despite repeated requests to the Home Minister, Mr
L. K. Advani, for persuading the Bangladesh Government to dismantle all terrorists camps in the border areas, nothing had been done. |
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Fernandes
refuses to comment Dhanbad, April 14 “I would not like to make any comment (on the issue) at this stage,” Fernandes, also the Defence Minister, said. Nitish Kumar loyalists yesterday expelled five senior leaders and ousted pro-Fernandes leader of the Samata Legislature Party in Bihar, Umashanker Singh, and the party’s leader in the state Legislative Council, P.K. Sinha, from their posts. Amid a boycott by Fernandes supporters, Nitish loyalists had held meetings of the state executive committee, state council and the legislature party in Patna where they appointed new leaders.
PTI |
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Centre giving in to WTO terms: manch New Delhi, April 14 Launching the “Sangharsh Yatra”, against the “anti-labour, anti-farmer and anti-small scale industries” policy of the Vajpayee government, SJM founder Dattopant Thengadi said these were the “direct manifestations” of accepting WTO’s terms and conditions detrimental to the Indian economy. |
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INSAT-3A in final orbit Bangalore, April 14 |
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Vijay Mallya joins Janata Party as chief Bangalore, April 14 “The Janata Party national executive meeting in Bangalore recently had offered the post of national working president to me. I have conveyed formal acceptance of the post. I am now its president”, Mr Mallya said. Mr Mallya said his decision to join the Janata Party of Dr Subramaniam Swamy was “irrevocable”.
PTI |
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