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SIT asks police to arrest 22 accused
No tampering, says Kejriwal in his minister’s defence
AAP rolls out 2 more phone numbers
Shinde, RK Singh continue on collision course |
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Congress huddle on poll strategy today
US: Expelled diplomat’s remarks on India his own
Services told to appeal against verdicts in favour of ex-servicemen
India, Japan hold joint exercises off Kochi
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SIT asks police to arrest 22 accused
Lucknow, January 14 These cases pertain to Phugana village, one of the nine worst-hit villages in Muzaffarnagar. The SIT team has asked the local police to arrest the identified accused. The police said cases had been separately registered against 27 persons. Of them, the SIT had identified 22 accused and ordered their arrest while the remaining five cases are still being probed. Six women had lodged criminal cases alleging gang-rape during the communal violence when their houses were ransacked and burnt down during the riots. The rape survivors were produced in the court where their statements were recorded. The local police said
the accused were at large and none had been arrested so far. With rioters roaming freely in the worst-hit villages, riot survivors have refused to move out of their relief camps to return to their homes. The National Commission for Minorities has also expressed concern over the delay in the arrest of gang-rape accused. Two accused - Bhullar Singh and Rampal - from Bahawdi village under Phugana police station were yesterday produced in the court, which remanded them in 14-day judicial custody for ioting, destruction of property and killing during the communal riots of September 7. The communal violence in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining districts had left at least 64 persons dead and 50,000 homeless.
Gang-rape cases
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No tampering, says Kejriwal in his minister’s defence
New Delhi, January 14 Media report said Bharti and his client Pawan Kumar were facing prosecution on corruption charges after the CBI accused them of influencing a prosecution's witness by speaking to him on phone and discussing it. "Bharti was trying to save a junior-level official and the sting operation that has been done is being called tampering of evidence by the judges," said Kejriwal. "We are ready to give the recording. You can see and tell if it was the tampering of evidence. I have told Bharti that the recording should be played in the media," he said. Explaining the case, the Chief Minister said, "We need to understand the entire case. This is almost a Rs 100 crore corruption case. It was a fraud within the bank." "Whenever anybody exports something, a letter of credit is received against the consignment. False letters of credit were raised and senior bank officials were involved," said the Delhi CM. He also pointed out that the CBI made a junior-level desk official Pawan Kumar a scapegoat and arrested him. "Everybody was talking in the bank and openly accepting that they had put Pawan in the trap. He did a sting operation and called all senior officials," Kejriwal said. "Whatever they were saying was recorded. There was no tampering of the evidence," he said. — IANS
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AAP rolls out 2 more phone numbers
New Delhi, January 14 Gopal Rai, in charge of the drive at the party headquarters in Ghaziabad, said the two new numbers-- 08082807715 and 08082807716- would help those who wished to join the party. In the first four days of its free membership drive, the Aam Aadmi Party has enroled over 10 lakh people across the country. The party started its nationwide campaign on January 10 with a target of enroling at least one crore members by January 26 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Rai said the party, with a base in 300 districts, was thrilled by the extent of support it was getting from several quarters.
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Shinde, RK Singh continue on collision course
New Delhi, January 14 RK Singh , who recently joined the BJP and is eying a Lok Sabha seat from his native Bihar, launched a frontal attack on his former boss accusing him of ‘lying’ and of shielding a businessman close to India's most wanted Dawood Ibrahim. The former bureaucrat said, “Shinde prevented the Delhi police from interrogating a businessman in the IPL match fixing case. Agencies suspect this businessman has links with the underworld don Dawood. There is even no assurance from the FBI (of US) on nabbing Dawood. I was present at that conference with Shinde; he is lying,” RK Singh said. On January 10, Shinde had said India and the US were cooperating on nabbing Dawood. RK Singh's statement comes after Shinde had said the Indian government, along with the US intelligence agency FBI, was working towards bringing Dawood Ibrahim to India. "Efforts are on to track Dawood. We are in talks with the FBI," Shinde had asserted. Further, damaging Shinde, RK Singh alleged that the Home Minister regularly interfered in Delhi Police's work. "The staff at Shinde's residence would regularly send chits with names of people who should be posted as SHOs and I heard this was done in lieu of money," he alleged. The BJP today joined the chorus saying Shinde should be sacked if it was proved in an inquiry that he tried to prevent the Delhi police from taking action against an associate of Dawood Ibrahim. Deputy leader of the BJP in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said if Shinde did prevent the Delhi police from taking action against a key aide of Dawood in the IPL betting scandal, then it was a serious matter that should be probed thoroughly. The Congress has in turn attacked RK Singh over the allegations. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Manish Tewari today questioned as to why the bureaucrat had not spoken up earlier. “If RK Singh was so concerned, then why was not the matter put on record?” he said. “He could have articulated his concerns to the Cabinet Secretary or to the PM. Therefore, after retirement and that too after joining a political party, to try and shoot from the hip is really low," Tewari added.
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Congress huddle on poll strategy today
New Delhi, January 14 The meeting convened by Defence Minister AK Antony will take stock of the current political situation in the country and discuss issues to be flagged in the run up to polls including the possibilities of pre poll alliances. All general secretaries of the Congress have been invited for the meeting, which will submit its recommendations to both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Antony heads the Congress committee on pre poll alliances, which could debate the pros and cons of the party going with Laly Prasad’s RJD in Bihar, which has 40 LS seats. Views of Congress leaders on alliances would be taken to facilitate later discussions. Sources said the meeting will also discuss the points to be incorporated into the manifesto, and the shape to be given to the publicity and campaign of party’s programmes and development initiatives. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi have repeatedly said the Congress was not able to communicate its good initiatives well enough to the people. The meeting tomorrow under Antony’s chairmanship will discuss ways of improving communication strategy and devising campaign contours to ensure that Congress’ legislative and other achievements reach people. The sources said a discussion on slogan for Congress LS campaign was likely to take place. “By far we don’t have any slogan to catch voters’ attention. Some discussion on that is expected. Also a debate on the content of Congress manifesto will happen. We have already concluded three major consultations with common people on their wish list for the Congress manifesto. These were held on the themes of SCs and STs, minorities and youth. A road forward would be debated.”
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Pro-people initiatives on Akhilesh government’s mind
Lucknow, January 14 The first initiative is the decision to dedicate the bungalow next to the Chief Minister’s official residence as the Jan Sunvaee Bhawan, where a string of ministers would address public grievances. The second initiative is senior minister Shivpal Singh Yadav imposing a virtual ban on employees going home on extended lunch breaks. Party spokesperson and minister Rajendra Chaudhury said Akhilesh wanted to streamline the system to grievances redressal by allotting a permanent address for the janata darbars and allocating a specific day for each minister.
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US: Expelled diplomat’s remarks on India his own
Washington, January 14 “Those comments absolutely do not reflect US Government policy, nor were they made on any official US Government social media account,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters at her daily news conference. Citing privacy reasons, Harf refused to identify the diplomat who was asked to leave India last week. But Indian sources have identified the diplomat as Wayne May, who left along with his wife Alicia Muller May, also a diplomat. She was responding to questions on the Facebook postings by May and
his wife in which they made offensive comments about India and appear to be insensitive to
Indian culture. Harf said she has not seen the comments on Facebook. “I’ve seen the reports of them... Again, I would underscore that these do not in any way represent the US Government position,” she added. The couple were not available for reaction. Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was arrested on December 12 on visa fraud charges, strip-searched and held with criminals, triggering a
row between the two countries with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats among other steps. Khobragade was indicted on visa fraud and making false statements by a US grand jury. She returned to India after she was asked to leave the US by the State Department.
— PTI
Devyani arrives in Mumbai
Devyani seeks dismissal of criminal case New York: Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's lawyer on Tuesday asked a US judge to dismiss immigration and employment charges against her that led to a major diplomatic spat between the US and India. Reuters
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Services told to appeal against verdicts in favour of ex-servicemen
New Delhi, January 14 There is no need to seek sanction before filing appeals against such verdicts; go ahead and contest the case right up to the Supreme Court, imply the instructions. The Department of Ex-Servicemen under the MoD issued the instructions on January 2 and asked the legal wings of the Army, the Air Force and the Navy to automatically appeal against the verdicts going in favour of soldiers in courts or the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT). In case a retired soldier wins a case of increase in disability pension in a lower court or the AFT, the Judge Adjutant General (JAG) in the services has been told to file an appeal. The orders of the MoD list six-categories of cases and each category has been backed by an example of an important pending case and the advice of the Attorney General’s office in that particular case. Using the AG’s pre-existing advice in that particular case, the MoD has said that all similar cases should be appealed against automatically. The six categories of cases are: Extending benefit of broad banding of disability meant for “invalidated out” soldiers to personnel who retired/ got discharged/ or released from the service (both pre-1996 and post-1996 cases); granting disability pension to personnel who have been assessed and graded by a medical board holding that the disability was neither attributable nor aggravated by the military service; granting benefit of trade rationalisation to pre-96 retirees from January 1, 1996, irrespective of the government instructions providing for benefits from July 1, 2009; granting parity of pension to personnel below officer rank (PBORs) vis-à-vis Viceroy commissioned officers; grant of reservist pension to ineligible personnel who have not rendered required length of nine years of active service plus six years of reserve service. This will mean the soldiers seeking small additional pension benefits will have to contest the case right up to the Supreme Court, resulting in an expense of lakhs of rupees in legal fees that the retired soldier or his widow may not be able to afford.
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India, Japan hold joint exercises off Kochi
Kochi, January 14 The Japan Coast Guard Ship Mizuho and its integral helicopter, Indian Coast Guard Ship Samrat, Chetak helicopter, Dornier aircraft, and Coast Guard participated in the exercises titled Sahayog- Kaijin 2014, and was held approximately 20 nautical miles off Kochi. Admiral Yuji Sato, Commandant of Japanese Coast Guard, and Vice Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal, Director General of Indian Coast Guard, who were on board Indian vessel 'Samrat' witnessed the exercises, which included cross-deck landings, anti-piracy drills, search and rescue demonstration and a fire fighting demonstration.— PTI
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The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Muzaffarnagar riots has finally identified 22 of the 27 accused in six gang-rape cases.
These cases pertain to Phugana village, one of the nine worst-hit villages in
Muzaffarnagar. The SIT team has asked the local police to arrest the identified accused.
