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Aseemanand does a U-turn
Bansal calls Joshi a liar
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SC restrains trial court from passing orders on Hasan Ali
Dawood in Pakistan, says Chidambaram
HC relief for Greater Noida village Voice is mine, but tapes spliced: Amar Singh
US Secy of Homeland Security to visit India
Plan to recruit 20,000 women in paramilitary
‘Army nurses not at par with officers’
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Aseemanand does a U-turn
Panchkula, May 12 Aseemanand was brought here from Jaipur jail to be produced before the specially designated National Investigation Agency (NIA) court here today. Placing his new statement before the court of Subhash Mehla, he said his confessional statements recorded earlier, “were involuntary and under duress”. The court, however, rejecting the bail plea of the accused extended his judical custody till May 26. He moved the application on the grounds that NIA had failed to file a challan against him within 90 days of the registration of the case. A total of 68 people, mostly Pakistanis were killed in Samjhauta Express blast, at Panipat’s Diwana village, about 80 km from Delhi. Earlier on May 7, a CBI court at Jaipur, Rajasthan had also rejected his bail application in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case, extending his custody till the next date of hearing on May 14. Apart from Ajmer Dargah blast, which claimed three lives and left 15 others injured, Aseemanand is an accused in several other blast cases across the county including those at Hyderabad's Mecca Masjid and Malegaon. He was arrested by the CBI last year from Haridwar in Uttarakhand for his alleged role in the Mecca Masjid blast case.
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Bansal calls Joshi a liar
New Delhi, May 12 Expressing no-confidence in Joshi, reappointed last week as PAC chief, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal today said by repeatedly proclaiming that the Congress had turned the PAC into a captive committee, Joshi was acting as a “puppet in someone’s hands and compromising the credibility of PAC”. He accused the Varanasi MP of using PAC as his comeback vehicle in the BJP. “So far as we go, there is no 2G scam report which Joshi keeps describing as a PAC report. It was rejected by a majority of 11 members on April 28 when Joshi walked out of the meeting, crushing dissent. By unilaterally submitting a rejected report, Joshi is undermining democratic principles. He is also spreading lies that four ministers, including myself, tried to influence members by sending in chits on April 28,” Bansal said, adding that the government was concerned about the dictatorial stance Joshi had adopted as he entered his second term as the PAC chairman. Asked if the government could resist Joshi’s continuation in the position, Bansal clarified that a PAC chairman could only be removed if the Speaker felt he is too incapacitated to work. Committee members have no right to remove him. Even the last time when the BJP wanted to remove the then PAC chairman Jaswant Singh, it had no means. Eventually, Singh resigned after his own party colleagues started bunking meetings.
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SC restrains trial court from passing orders on Hasan Ali
New Delhi, May 12 A Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar passed the order after senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for the PIL petitioners in the black money case, took exception to the ED filing the chargesheet without getting the approval of the high-level multi-departmental monitoring committee headed by the Revenue Secretary in the Union Finance Ministry. Divan also expressed the apprehension that the Mumbai Special Judge with whom the chargesheet was filed might refuse to take cognizance, observing that there was no evidence to proceed against Hasan. In this connection, he cited an earlier development when a Mumbai special court had granted bail to Hasan while considering the ED’s plea for his remand despite the fact that he had been arrested at the instance of the SC. The bail was subsequently cancelled by the apex court. Endorsing the contentions of the PIL petitioners, the Bench assured them that “nothing of that sort will happen. We are here.” Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium sought to assure the Bench that the 900-page chargesheet against Hasan Ali would be placed before the high level committee and until then the chargesheet regarding money laundering would not be pursued in the special court. The Bench was not convinced. “The fact is that the chargesheet was filed without placing it before the committee. It is rather surprising.
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Army aims high with ‘Vijayee Bhava’
These are facets of modern-day warfare already enjoyed by leading global armies like the USA, the UK and France. The Indian Army conducted its last transformation exercise, with a very limited scope, in 2000. Since then, technology and equipment have taken giant leaps. Once the transformation is done, it will bring about quicker deployment of land and air forces. The soldiers will have the advantage of the next level of battle technology. The will be totally networked and fully backed by real-time intelligence inputs provided by over-flying UAV’s, geostationary satellites, ground-based sensors and human intelligence. All these inputs will be of immense help while using tanks, aircraft etc. Even the advancing infantrymen and those para-dropped behind enemy lines would also be in an advantageous position due to the new technology. Commanders on the field and generals sitting in war rooms will be seeing the same live pictures as the entire battlefield will be connected in a seamless fashion. The data will be beamed across laptops using a mix of satellites and radio communication. “All this will have a very high encryption levels and will be very secure so as to prevent snooping,” explained a Brigadier who is part of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance unit. The ongoing exercise “Vijayee Bhava” did all this and more across an area of 2,400 sq km in the deserts that are just 50-60 km away from Pakistan. The exercise ends on May 15 and the searing heat is testing the machines and the men to the hilt. GOC-in-C of the Western Army Lt-Gen Shankar Ghosh today described the exercise as “a major step forward”. “Evaluations have been done and will be reviewed. The Army is testing some new equipment that is still not known in the public domain,” said General Ghosh. The exercise saw indigenous Dhruv chopper in a new role, it was used by the Army Aviation to carry a 950 kg air defence gun ZU-23, slung under its belly. The spectrum of exercise includes joint operations of T-90 tanks, T-72 tanks, Bofors artillery guns, infantry carrying vehicles, fields radars, UAV’s, fighters MiG 29, MiG 21, Jaguars, transport planes IL 76, AN 32, attack choppers Mi-35 and medium choppers Mi-17 used for slithering operations.
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Dawood in Pakistan, says Chidambaram
Talking to reporters, he said India would continue to maintain pressure on Pakistan to get extradited the main accused in the 1993 Bombay blasts case as also the masterminds of the 1993 Mumbai terror attacks. Besides building international opinion in that regard, India would also continue to engage Pakistan in talks, he added. “We think Dawood Ibrahim has a home in Karachi. Whether all the time he is in Karachi, I cannot say…but we have seen that most part of the year he is in Karachi or at another place in Pakistan,” the minister said. He was responding to a question a day after India released a list of 50 fugitives enjoying safe havens in Pakistan. Asked whether India would continue to talk to Pakistan despite its stand on the issue of cross-border terrorism, Chidambaram said there were issues between the two countries and “we need to keep Pakistan engaged”. He said India would engage Pakistan “wherever we can” on issues like visa, fishermen, cross-border trade and exchange of prisoners. “Those are matters on which we are engaging Pakistan. I don’t think there is dichotomy or contradiction. This is the policy spelt out by the Prime Minister and I think this is the right policy,” he added.
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HC relief for Greater Noida village Allahabad, May 12 A division bench, comprising Justice Sunil Ambawani and Justice Kashi Nath Pandey, while allowing a bunch of writ petitions filed by residents of Shahberi village in the district, said the entire action of acquiring the land was a “colourable exercise of powers” and ordered return of the land to their owners. The bench set aside two notifications issued by the state government on June 10, 2009, and November 9, 2009, for acquiring the land. In the notification dated June 10, 2009, the state government had proposed “to acquire 156.93 hectares of land in the village, while the one dated November 9, 2009, published in the official gazette had declared the acquisition of land. “The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority was fully aware and was planning to use the land in Shahberi village and neighbouring villages for multi-storey housing complexes to be developed by builders on relaxed conditions.” Quashing the notifications issued by the government and “all consequential actions taken by GNOIDA”, the court ordered “the respondents will hand over the possession of the land back to the land owners”. The court also held that all the petitioners would be “made entitled to the costs of prosecuting the cases in accordance with the rules of the court”.
— PTI
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Voice is mine, but tapes spliced: Amar Singh New Delhi, May 12 “I don’t say it was not my voice. But if you are tapping someone’s phone for over an year, the conversations can be put in other context. The tapes are spliced, it is a cut and paste job,” Amar Singh told reporters. He, however, said he would not file any case against any company for the phone tapping. Amar Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP, filed the petition in 2006 after some of his telephonic conversations were illegally tapped and were in circulation. He moved the apex court and got a restraint order against their publication in media.
— IANS
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US Secy of Homeland Security to visit India
New Delhi, May 12 “We will obviously like to know how the operation was carried out. After all, we have our own concerns about the security environment in the region,’’ said official sources. Napolitano will be the first top level US official to visit India since the Al-Qaida chief was hunted down and killed deep inside Pakistan. FBI chief Robert Mueller was scheduled to visit India in the first week of this month, but his trip was called off in view of Laden’s killing. The Indo-US cooperation on counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and activities of various extremist groups in the region would be high on the agenda in talks between the two sides during Napolitano’s visit. She and Home Minister P Chidambaram would jointly launch the Indo-US homeland security dialogue, a critical component of the strategic dialogue between the two countries. This would be the first meeting of the homeland security dialogue that would seek to coordinate bilateral counter-terrorism and law enforcement cooperation as it related to the internal security of the two countries. The security situation in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the wake of Laden’s killing is also likely to be discussed threadbare by the two sides. India is also expected to convey its reservations about hasty withdrawal of US-led coalition forces from Afghanistan.
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Plan to recruit 20,000 women in paramilitary
New Delhi, May 12 According to the new plan formulated by the Home Ministry, all paramilitary forces, the CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and the NSG, will essentially have 5 per cent of their total force strength as women personnel in three to five years and 10 per cent in the subsequent five years. These women will be hired and deployed for general guard duties, patrolling, frisking suspects and other normal policing activities undertaken by their male counterparts. The government also plans to enhance the facilities being offered to women security personnel.
— PTI
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‘Army nurses not at par with officers’
Chandigarh, May 12 Disposing of a bunch of petitions filed by MNS officers seeking a higher pay-band and associated benefits at par with Army officers of equivalent rank, the Tribunal observed that the recruitment process and nature of duties of the MNS and Army officers is different and simply because the MNS officers are being granted ranks and perks admissible to combatant soldiers and officers, the position of MNS officers
cannot be elevated to that of regular troops. The MNS officers contended that making a distinction on the basis of being a combat and non-combat force and thereby placing them in a lower pay-band was discriminatory. They also contended that some other branches like education, postal and JAG were also non-combatant, but were granted higher scales. Observing that it was clear from the Army ordinance that the MNS was an auxiliary force and not the main combat force, the Tribunal ruled that the difference between the two is right from the induction into service and this distinction has been kept in view by the government while fixing their pay-band. Ruling that it was a “total misnomer” to say that the nursing staff are same in status as the regular combat force, the Tribunal also observed that there would be functional and command difficulties in hospitals. Nurses have to work under the directions of doctors and have to follow their command. Directions given by doctors to persons of the same rank and status may cause difficulty in functioning.
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I-T dept quizzes Kanimozhi SC notice to Modi SC Bar Assn chief AI reinstates pilots Ishrat case
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Panchkula, May 12
Keeping itself on a learning curve, the Indian Army is conducting its first full-scale exercise to transform itself into a force aided by high-end technology that will ramp up the speed and accuracy of its striking capabilities, besides provide a seamless integration with attack choppers and fighter jets of the IAF.
New Delhi, May 12
CHENNAI: