Ahmedabad, August 7
The CBI today took custody of former Gujarat minister Amit Shah after the High Court accepted the agency's plea for his two-day remand in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case.

The central investigating agency team accompanied by doctors reached the Sabarmati jail here early this morning and took Shah into custody after a routine medical check up.

The High Court had yesterday, setting aside a lower court order, remanded the former Minister of State for Home in two-day CBI custody, beginning today and rejected a plea for videography of his questioning.

Before giving Shah's custody to CBI, Justice Akil Kureshi had noted that since investigation in the case was on, it would not be appropriate to elaborate or give an extensive observation in the matter.

After the order was read out, one of Shah's lawyers, Mahesh Jethmalani had sought videography of the 46-year-old BJP leader's interrogation. CBI counsel K T S Tulsi had opposed the plea, saying "it was a waste of time".

Shah's lawyers had also sought a stay on the order to approach a higher court. However, both requests were rejected.

In its petition, CBI had sought quashing of the August 4 order of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate AY Dave rejecting the plea for remand of Shah, arrested on July 25.

Enumerating the grounds for Shah's remand, Tulsi had said that the former minister was the "kingpin" of the entire conspiracy leading to the encounter of Sohrabuddin, killing of his wife Kausar Bi and also Tulsi Prajapati, a key witness.

He contended that CBI had statements of witnesses, who said it was on Shah's orders that Kausar Bi and Prajapati were eliminated by other accused in the case.

Tulsi said CBI had got details of the phone call records from Gujarat CID, which was probing the case before it was transferred to CBI by the Supreme Court in January this year.

Besides Shah, other accused in the case include suspended IPS officers D G Vanzara, Rajkumar Pandiyan and M N Dinesh. — PTI

Hyderabad, August 7
As the CBI probe into the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case moves into top gear, the focus may soon shift on the role of Andhra Pradesh police in the sordid episode.

The state police had provided assistance to Gujarat ATS team in keeping a tab on Sohrabuddin’s movements and finally nabbing him, along with his wife Kauser Bi, while they were on their way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra in November 2005. However, intelligence sources here maintain that the state police had helped their Gujarat counterparts as part of an informal inter-state cooperation. They said they never knew that Gujarat police would eliminate Sohrabuddin.

Though there are reports that the crime branch of the AP police had extended logistic support and arranged vehicles and staff to escort Gujarat ATS team, there are no official records in this regard. It is a normal practice to provide informal assistance if the police teams from other states come looking for dreaded offenders. In this particular case, it was a known fact that Sohrabuddin was a notorious gangster with criminal cases in several states, the intelligence sources said.

There was no way the state police could have prior knowledge of the fake encounter, the source said. However, the worrying factor is that proper procedures, like insistence on warrant and entry in official records, may not have been followed in the entire operation. In this case, the CBI has enough evidence in Gujarat itself to nail those involved in the fake encounter.

The case has acquired political overtones with the BJP recently alleging that Andhra angle was not being probed because it is a Congress-ruled state while Gujarat was being targeted to defame Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

An investigation by Gujarat CID had revealed that seven Andhra police officials were involved in providing support to the ATS team, led by Rajkumar Pandian, which came to Hyderabad in November 2005. The local police had also reportedly arranged for Pandian’s stay in IPS officers’ mess here, apart from providing some vehicles.

With local support, the Gujarat police intercepted a bus in which Sohrabuddin and his wife were travelling on the intervening night of November 22-23, 2005 and took them into custody. From there, the couple was whisked away to Gujarat and killed.

As part of the probe, the Gujarat CID’s investigating officer Geeta Johri visited Hyderabad in April 2007 and spoke to several senior police officers, including Rajiv Trivedi who was Additional Commissioner of police (Crime) and T V Sashidhar Reddy who was Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) at the time of the incident. While directing the CBI to take over the probe, the Supreme Court had expressed displeasure over the shoddy investigation done by Johri.

Chandigarh, August 7
‘E-filing’ or the online filing of the Income Tax returns has surely made life easier for net-savvy people, but it has a flip side, too, as “mismatches” in the system are leading to inordinate delays in refunds. If figures are any indication, 13,590 refund cases, totalling a whopping Rs 20.43 crore, are pending in the North West Region for the last two fiscals.

According to senior I-T officials, over 13,000 people who filed their returns in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and are due to get refunds are still waiting to get their money back. In most of the cases, the delay has been due to the “mismatch” between the information filed by their respective employers while filing information about the Tax Deducted as Source and the details later filled by individuals in their tax returns.

Dubbing the delays as a “transitional problem”, officials said the department had been computerised and all processing is now done on the computers rather than the traditional method of assessment, officers making entries manually and matching them. Since computers now do the same task, any mismatch of entries in the uploaded statements of the TDS and the tax returns filed by taxpayers/employees are rejected by the system and the tax refund isn’t credited to the individuals’ account. These mismatches can even arise if initials are used instead of the full name of the employee while filing the TDS.

Of these 13,590 refund cases in the NWR, comprising Haryana, Punjab, J&K, Himachal and the UT, 2,600 are from this city. Officials said though the refunds had not been made and verifications were being made, the money owed by the department had been put in a “suspense” account. The department was also paying interest at the rate of six per cent interest per annum on all the delayed refunds.

Admitting that there was a problem and the same was being overcome, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Northwest Region) BS Dhillon said, “We are trying to clear the claims by arranging extra manpower to complete the processing.” He said the department had issued notices to all the assessees whose details were mismatching.

Dhillon said to address the issue of mismatching records, the department had launched the Tax Credit Statement (Form 26 AS) through, which individuals can get information of their tax deducted and collected at source, details of refunds paid, etc, on the National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) website.

Hyderabad, August 7
The CPM today made a strong pitch for initiating dialogue with all sections of the people in Kashmir valley to resolve the imbroglio and put an end to the cycle of confrontations and killings in the border state.

“The people of Kashmir have to be assured that their identity and special status is expressed through a new political framework in which maximum autonomy is the bedrock,” CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said in his inaugural address at the party’s extended Central Committee meeting at the coastal Andhra city of Vijayawada.

Making it clear that Kashmir problem could not be resolved through conventional means, the Marxist leader called upon the UPA government to immediately initiate a dialogue process with all sections to contain the situation.

Voicing concern over the death of young men and women in police firing in violence-hit Kashmir, Karat said, “This has brought out the intensity of alienation among the youth against the Indian State in the valley. This has to be stopped."

In a draft political resolution, to be discussed at the three-day meeting, the CPM said though there was a “notable reduction” in the level of terrorist violence in the Valley, the people’s alienation was “still deep”.

“This has been expressed through periodical outbursts and mass protests on the issues of state repression and violation of human rights,” the resolution said and called for immediate steps to end the “atrocities and violations of the basic human rights”.

Stating that confrontation between stone-throwing young men and the police had further aggravated the situation, the party accused the UPA government of failing to carry forward any worthwhile political process for a dialogue and a solution.

“The Centre must devise a package for speedy development and creation of jobs for the youth,” it said. The resumption of Indo-Pak dialogue would help in creating an atmosphere for carrying forward the political process, the CPM said and cautioned that there would be no progress towards a political solution without the provision of “maximum autonomy” for the state and regional autonomy for the three regions within the state.

New Delhi, August 7
Within a year, the government hopes to make quality medicines available to people at affordable prices. The commitment comes after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health raised the alarm over the scarcity of cheap essential drugs at a time when evidence has linked high medicine prices with poverty.

Estimates suggest that drugs comprise 40 to 80 per cent of the total cost of treatment of an average family. Yet, just 74 are under price control, with pharma firms free to fix prices of the rest. Since some of these are now outdated and in the process of being replaced, only 50 common medicines are practically in the price control category. In 1979, prices of 347 medicines were controlled by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). This was down to 142 in 1987 and 74 in 1995. Alarmed, the House panel, in its report to Parliament on Thursday, said it was shocked to find few drugs under price control when the 11th Five Year Plan’s vowed to bring all essential drugs under price regulation.

The panel has directed the government to evolve a policy for essential drug supply immediately. The policy must have components of generic prescribing (generic drugs being cheaper than branded), adoption of essential drug list, standard treatment guidelines, drug procurement through open tender and distribution of low cost drugs through government stores, it said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health has listed shocking practices in pharma sector. It said many companies retained brand names of price-controlled products (which are cheaper) but changed ingredients to evade ceiling prices.

“In Aciloc-RD (JB Chemicals), price controlled pseudophedrine was replaced with phenylepherine and in Normet (Encure), norfloxacin was replaced with ofloxacin. In other cases, manufacturers just added another agent of hardly any clinical rationale to hike prices like Norflox of Cipla (where lactobacillus was added to price-controlled norfloxacin) and Doxy-1 of USV (where lactic acid bacillus was added to price-controlled doxycycline),” the committee said.

It also documented cases where current drug prices were being inflated with no relation to costs. “Whereas printed maximum retail price of NICIP (Nimesulide) by Cipla is Rs 21, retailers’ purchasing price is just Rs 1.88. Obviously on this price, the company is making ‘some profit’,” it says.

It added, “We know the cost of producing a strip of 10 tablets of Nimesulide tablets is just Rs 1.40. It is evident that huge margins are being pocketed by companies and traders. The cost of producing a strip of 10 tablets of Progesterone is Rs 18 but it sells for Rs 180,” the committee observed, chiding the government for failing to control drug prices. In India, one lakh branded medicines are being sold by just 8,500 companies.

The government has told the panel it has formed an inter-ministerial coordination committee to develop affordable drug pricing policy in a year.

Mumbai, August 7
Two cargo ships collided off the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Mumbai today this morning, according to the Mumbai Port Trust.

The incident happened a little before 10 am when MSC Chitra, which was departing the Mumbai port, collided with MV Khalija III which was coming in to berth, port authorities said. Both the vessels were carrying dry cargo and had 33 crewmembers on board all of who were rescued.

Officials said MSC Chitra, which apparently suffered maximum damages in the collision, got grounded near the Prong Reef lighthouse, officials said. Oil from both ships is leaking though there is no danger of marine pollution, port authorities said.

Shortly after distress signals were sent from both ships the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) pressed in a helicopter and a rescue ship from the Coast Guard to save the crew members on board both vessels. No one was injured in the incident.

The cause of the mishap will be probed by the Directorate-General of Shipping and port authorities.

So far there is no danger of any of the ships sinking. They are likely to be towed out of the mouth of the port when conditions permit, port officials said.