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AARUSHI
MURDER
MINING SCAM
Centre to issue advisory to states on N-E students
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Jaya gets her way; Singhvi goes on leave
SC notice to Centre on Chisti’s plea
Films can’t escape anti-tobacco scrolls
Engineer abducted, killed in Assam
Western Command war exercise under way in Punjab
Overarching health regulator Bill vetoed
Sukma Collector reaches home
Andhra temples to go hi-tech
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CBI has framed me, claims Nupur
R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, May 4 Arguing before a Bench comprising Justices AK Patnaik and JS Khehar, senior counsel Harish Salve said the CBI had fabricated evidence against his client, a dentist, while ignoring the ‘crucial material’ available against her clinic assistant, Krishna. Salve said the trial court had decided to proceed against Nupur and her husband, Rajesh, who is also a dentist, primarily on the basis of the ‘last seen theory,’ arrived at on the premise that only the two victims and the two accused were inside the house on the fateful night. However, the statement of the maid servant who reported for work the next morning clearly showed that the both the grill doors at the entrance were open while the wooden door had an inbuilt lock which could be opened with a key from outside. This lock was similar to the locking system used in hotel rooms. This demolished the presumption against the parents, he contended. Further, blood stains had been noticed on the pillow cover of Krishna, who was staying in the vicinity, but this fact had been ignored by the CBI, the trial court and the Allahabad High Court, Salve reasoned. While there was a need for the CBI to produce strong evidence to prove the allegations particularly in view of the fact that these were against the parents, the agency did not even have a shred of material to show their guilt. Rather, the CBI was ignoring leads against others, while cooking up stories against the Talwars, he said. While the post-mortem report relating to Aarushi did not have anything against the parents, the doctor who conducted the medical examination had gone on improving his statement months later by talking about things that were not in the report, he contended. Rajesh is already on bail.
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Yeddy opposes SC panel’s move for CBI probe
R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, May 4 The panel, known as the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), in its report submitted to the SC had said there was need for directing an “investigating agency such as the CBI to investigate the payments made” by some of those who got mining leases to companies “whose directors/shareholders are the close relatives of the then CM.” Senior counsel V Giri, arguing for Yeddyurappa, contended that it was not proper for the SC to order a CBI probe on a PIL while the Karnataka High Court had quashed the FIR in the case and an appeal against the HC order was pending in the apex court.
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Centre to issue advisory to states on N-E students
New Delhi, May 4 Responding to a calling attention notice by Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley in the wake of deaths of students from the region in NCR and Bangalore, the Home Minister said he would soon forward to all states the routine currently being followed by the Delhi Police for their safety. “I wish to state that any student belonging to the North-East is free to travel and reside in any part of the country. They have right to security and peace. Governments are obliged to ensure their safety and security,” he said. “As North-Eastern children are going to other parts of India, I intend to issue this circular in a modified form as an advisory to all state governments and state police to adopt this and re-issue the circular to their own police in whatever form they want,” the Home Minister added as the House in unison expressed concern about “discrimination” against North-East students and allegations of racial profiling against Tibetans during the recent BRICS summit. He, however, rejected the contention that students from the North-East were subjected to racial profiling. Referring to the recent death of Dana Sangma in Gurgaon and of Richard Loitum in Bangalore and allegations of racial profiling against Tibetans, he said the incidents had caused disquiet and agitation among the community, especially students from the region.
Recent INCIDENTS
l Dana Sangma, an Amity University student from North-East, committed suicide on April 23 after being allegedly insulted by an exam invigilator l Delhi University student Samiran Saikia from Assam also committed suicide due to examination pressure
l
Richard Loitam from Manipur was found dead in his room in Bangalore, allegedly after being thrashed l
On Thursday night, an engineering student hailing from Manipur Jackio Heisnam allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in Bangalore
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Jaya gets her way; Singhvi goes on leave
New Delhi, May 4 Ace cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, another nominated member, has been allotted seat no 103 amid liquor baron Vijay Mallya and eminent agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan. Mallya, an independent member from Karnataka, occupies seat no 102, while Swaminathan's seat no is 104. Industrialist Anu Agha, another nominated member, has been allotted seat no 98, in between nominated member HK Dua and Rekha. Sources say the Samajwadi Party decided to rearrange the seat arrangements of their members after Jaya sought to change her seat with fellow member Kiranmoy Nanda (seat no 143). While Jaya has cited the demise of party colleague Brij Bhushan Tiwari, who was allotted the seat next to her, as the reason, there is speculation that she wanted to be at a distance from Rekha. In the present arrangement, Rekha would have sat in the row just behind Jaya. Every time the Rajya Sabha camera would have zoomed on to Jaya, her husband’s rumoured ex-flame would have also come in the frame. The on-screen and off-screen relationship of Jaya's husband Amitabh and Rekha has always been like fodder to Bollywood gossip mills. The two acted in hit movies like ‘Do Anjaane’, ‘Muqaddar ka Sikander’, ‘Mr Natwarlal’, ‘Suhaag’ and ‘Silsila’, in which Rekha played the other woman. Meanwhile, citing “illness and family commitment”, Singhvi has sought leave from April 24 to May 22, which has been granted.
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SC notice to Centre on Chisti’s plea
New Delhi, May 4 The SC had granted him bail on April 9 on humanitarian grounds. He was convicted in a case relating to a 1992 murder when he was on a visit to Ajmer to spend time with his ailing mother. A Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar directed the Centre to file its response by Monday when the case would be taken up again. Born in Ajmer to a prosperous family of caretakers of the Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti shrine, Chisti was studying in Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947 and chose to stay back.
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Films can’t escape anti-tobacco scrolls
New Delhi, May 4 In a major setback to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting which had on its own, through an administrative order, stayed the operation of this vital notification after it was issued last year (thereby granting immunity to filmmakers), the Government’s Law Department has clarified that no ministry can overrule a notification issued by another under an existing legislation. The legislative department, in its reply to a query raised by the Health Ministry in this respect, said a notification issued under a law can only be struck down by a court of law and not by a ministry through an administrative order. Armed with this explanation, the Health Ministry has decided to write to I&B Ministry to honour the November 2011 notification which was issued in the wake of growing evidence of tobacco addiction among the youth. The I&B Ministry had earlier overruled this order on the insistence of the Censor Board which sought a balance between artistic expression and health concerns. The Censor Board said it would on its own regulate films and restrict the display of tobacco when needed. Accordingly, it had asked the makers of Hrithik Roshan starrer “Agneepath” to run a warning scroll for the item song “Chikni Chameli”. Subsequently, however, films like “The Dirty Picture” went without these warnings. Clearly unimpressed, the Health Ministry approached the Law Department for a clarification on whether its notification could be stayed by I&B through an administrative order. “This stay was issued after we incorporated all major concerns of the I&B Ministry and held several talks. Now the Law Ministry has upheld its validity and we will ask I&B and the Censor Board to respect it,” Health Ministry sources said. In another significant development, Kerala High Court on March 26 issued a notice to the I&B Ministry and the Censor Board on a petition filed by a local NGO against the former’s disregard of the anti-tobacco rules. The high court has given I&B Ministry two months to comply with the notification or face contempt. The Health Ministry said it would also be apprising the Law Department of the Kerala HC order. The notification in question requires all old movies and running TV programmes to display anti-tobacco health spots or messages of minimum 30-second duration each at the beginning and middle of the film or the TV programme and run warning scrolls if a tobacco product is displayed. It says new film and TV programmes must offer a strong editorial justification to feature tobacco products and must include a disclaimer of minimum 20-second duration by the actor displaying the product regarding its adverse impact. This disclaimer should be run in the beginning and the middle of the film or TV programme. Films that don’t comply would have to accept cuts in scenes to get the Censor Board certificate.
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Engineer abducted, killed in Assam
Guwahati, May 4 In yet another such case, a superintendent engineer of Assam Agriculture Department, G Pathak, was abducted and subsequently murdered by unidentified armed miscreants. An executive engineer of the department F Islam was also abducted by the miscreants and has remained untraced since then. Both the officials were coming back to Bongaigaon after carrying out work in Dhubri when their vehicle was waylaid at Khargarpur on National Highway 31 on the night of May 2 by a group of armed youth. The officials were abducted at gunpoint after the miscreants had overpowered the driver of the vehicle. The bullet-ridden body of engineer Pathak was recovered from a nearby village yesterday while the vehicle was found abandoned near the incident site. The police, so far, is clueless about the identity of the assailants. Sources said that the engineers, earlier in the day, had a heated argument with a group of contractors. The injured driver of the vehicle, who managed to give the miscreants a slip, is now undergoing treatment in a Bongaigaon hospital. The police said the driver hasn’t been able to provide much information about the assailants. As many as 86 persons were abducted from various parts of Assam by armed miscreants during the first three months of the year.
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Western Command war exercise under way in Punjab
Jalandhar, May 4 The combat exercise, which is aimed at achieving “battle field transparency” and providing “real-time information” of the battlefront to the field commanders would play a major role in synchronising “quick decision making” during different operations. Sources said the exercise would also see unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), attack helicopters
and frontline fighter aircraft of the Western Air Command (WAC) carrying out battle drills in synergy with the Army. Around 20,000 soldiers from two major formations - Headquarters Vajra Corps, Jalandhar Cantonment,
and Rising Star Corps, Yol Cantonment in Himachal Pradesh, are taking part in the exercise. The exercise that started four days ago
is slated to conclude by May-end. While soldiers of the Vajra Corps are conducting exercise somewhere near Hoshiarpur, the Rising Star Corps is holding it in the areas of Pathankot and adjoining places of Punjab. “The Army has based its formations in different plains of Punjab to acquaint the soldiers with tactical might of the Army. Towards May-end, the soldiers would carry out the final manoeuvres of the war exercise,” sources said. During the exercise, thrust would be on operational preparedness, Army’s fighting concepts and the induction of new warfare technologies. “The soldiers would practice the infusion of latest warfare technology focusing on “network-centric operations”. It would also include infantry combat vehicles, T-72 tanks, mechanised vehicles in the exercise,” said an officer. It is pertinent to mention here that a similar combat exercise, “Shoorveer” involving 60,000 soldiers under the aegis of the South Western Command concluded yesterday at Hanumangarh on the India-Pakistan border. Army Chief General VK Singh also went to review the exercise and the operational readiness of the troops. The exercise also saw participation of fighter aircrafts like C-130J Super Hercules, MiGs, Jaguars, Mi-17 and spy drones of the
IAF.
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Overarching health regulator Bill vetoed
New Delhi, May 4
The allies and the Opposition also collaborated in the Lok Sabha today to demand immediate scrapping of the Medical Council of India Board of Governors (BoG) and restoring the elected composition of the MCI. They said the BoG should at the most be given a six-month extension.
The opposition to the National Council for Human Resources in Health Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2011 and referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, came today when the Bill seeking extension of another year for the MCI BoG was moved in the Lower House.
This is the third extension the government is seeking for the MCI BoG, first established through an ordinance on May 14, 2010 in the wake of arrest of former MCI chief Ketan Desai for corruption. At that time, the government had sought to set up a BoG for one year assuring its replacement with a duly elected MCI as per the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956. The term of the current BoG ends on May 14.
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Sukma Collector reaches home
Sukma (South Bastar), May 4 The Maoists released Menon (32) in the Tadmelta forest, 85 km from here, on late Thursday evening. Because of darkness and bad road conditions, he spent that night at the Central Reserve Police Force base camp at Chintalnar, around 8 km from the spot where he was set free after his abduction by the rebels on April 21. As per an agreement reached between the BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh Government on April 30 night, Menon was to be released within 48 hours, but that deadline was extended by one more day. The state administration had claimed that no Maoist would be set free for his release. However, the Maoists issued a press statement on Friday, demanding “immediate release” of their three comrades and fast tracking the release of five others. The Maoists claimed that the Chhattisgarh Government had agreed to their demand. There is a speculation in the corridors of power at Raipur whether any secret swap deal was worked out for Menon’s release. The negotiators from the Maoists’ side, BD Sharma and Prof G Hargopal, said they had been given a list of five persons by the Naxalities. After five rounds of talks with the state government’s two representatives, Nirmala Buch and S Mishra, had agreed to release any three of them. Meanwhile, Meena Chaudhary and Malti, two Naxalite women lodged in a jail, filed bail applications in the court today. The court rejected their bail petitions. They were among those whose release was demanded by the Maoists. Asked whether the government was not going to oppose their bail, Chief Minister Raman Singh told the Press in New Delhi that “no assurance has been given other than the agreement reached with the Maoists…there is no secret deal with the Maoists”. This morning, Menon flew from Chintalnar to Sukma. He was accompanied by the negotiators from the Maoists’ side. After landing, Menon went straight to his home where his family and some relatives were eagerly waiting for his arrival. “I am okay,” Menon told a large contingent of television and print media assembled outside his house. Asked whether he would like to continue to work in Sukma, he said, “It depends on the state administration.” Thanking everybody for support, the 2006-batch IAS official Menon said, “I am fine.” Asked to narrate his experience in the Maoists’ captivity, he said, “It was tough.” He refused to say more than this on the plea that “it was a bad experience and I do not want to talk about it again and again…I want to forget about it and move ahead in life”. An agreement arrived at by the two mediators each of the Chhattisgarh Government and the Maoists during their fifth round of talks on April 30 night paved the way for Menon’s release. Under the agreement, the state government had agreed to set up a high-powered committee under the chairmanship of Nirmala Buch to review the cases of all prisoners languishing in Chhattisgarh jails, including the cases demanded by the Maoists. The three-member committee also include the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police. The committee has started examining the issue of delay in cases of undertrials lodged in different jails in the state. The CM said, “Kidnapping is a national problem. There is a need for a unified national policy on such issues. We will take up the issue with the Prime Minister.” He said the Chhattisgarh Government would be putting up its views on the revised NCTC draft at the chief ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.
Govt mulls hostage policy
The Centre is planning to seek the cooperation of states in formulating a national policy to deal with hostage crisis in the backdrop of Maoists taking hostages in Odisha and Chhattisgarh and Chief Minister Raman Singh demanding such a policy. The Home Ministry is planning to write to all states to put forward their views on formulating a policy to deal with any hostage situation. The necessity for such a move arose in view of the problems being faced by Odisha and Chhattisgarh governments following a series of abductions by the Naxals in the recent weeks
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Andhra temples to go hi-tech
Hyderabad, May 4 Nearly 36,000 temples would be covered under the scheme aimed at infusing transparency in the administration of temples and prevent encroachment of their properties. For this purpose, a uniform software is being customised by the Centre for Good Governance (CGG), a state-owned institute for implementing e-governance initiatives. In the first phase, the property records of the temples under 6A category — temples with an annual income of Rs 1 crore and above — will be computerized, the State Endowments Minister C Ramachandraiah said. The exercise would be completed in six months. It would include the details such as land, jewellery, Panchaloha idols, movable and immovable properties owned by the temples with their value and names of donors. The Endowments Department would computerise the section 43 of the register which is a true account of all the properties owned by temples along with other necessary information. All the temple records would also be uploaded on the official website of the Endowments Department in a standard format so that a common man can access the details, the minister said. The instructions have been issued to the authorities to conduct a thorough physical verification of the property registers, which would be certified by the senior departmental officials. In view of the growing threat from terror elements, an electronic surveillance system will be installed at all major temples. The Hyderabad-based Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) has been asked to prepare maps for the major temples on the basis of which security requirements will be assessed during festivals when a large number of devotees visit.
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The Supreme Court today said it would pass an order only next week on the bail plea of Nupur Talwar even as she contended that the CBI had framed her in the case relating to the murder of her 14-year-old daughter, Aarushi, and domestic servant, Hemraj, on May 16, 2008.
Nupur Talwar
Guwahati, May 4
Sukma (South Bastar), May 4
