The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Loyalty pays: Ex-hijacker, 3-time LS poll loser gets Cong ticket again Bhola Pande had hijacked an Indian Airlines plane to seek jailed PM Indira Gandhi’s release 36 years ago Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 1 While most ticket hopefuls in the Congress have to slug it out for months, even years, to push their case before they can get there, one man from Uttar Pradesh’s Salempur area has to do nothing of the sort. His ticket is guaranteed, thanks to his devotion and loyalty to the Gandhi family. And this guarantee, enjoyed by Bhola Pande, Congress candidate from Salempur parliamentary segment for the fourth time this year despite having lost the last three elections in a row, dates back to 1978. Pande along with another youth Congress leader had hijacked a domestic Indian Airlines flight to negotiate the release of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, then in jail for alleged corruption. On December 20, 1978, the scheduled Calcutta-Lucknow-Delhi IC 410 flight with 132 on board was “hijacked” by Bhola Pande and his friend who demanded immediate and unconditional release of Indira Gandhi from jail and dropping of all charges against her son Sanjay Gandhi. Though the attempt was nullified after a four-hour drama documented in Kishin R Wadhwaney’s work “Indian Airports (Shocking Ground Realities)”, Bhola Pande and his colleague Devendra Nath Pande were both rewarded by Indira with an Assembly ticket each in 1980 and both won. But Bhola Pande could not continue his winning streak for long and managed to get into the Assembly only once later in 1989. He then decided to graduate to the Lok Sabha elections and bagged a Congress ticket for the Salempur segment in 1999, 2004 and again 2009. He lost all three elections but in his case, the criterion of winnability never applied. But Pande had to contest with other ticket hopefuls to seek Salempur this year. Encouraged by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s focus on good work and winnability as key factors for ticket distribution, some UP Congress leaders applied for a ticket from Salempur knowing it would be an uphill task to upstage Pande. One of them, Pravin Singh, nephew of former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, told The Tribune: “Since everyone from Salempur knows Bhola Pande’s ticket is guaranteed on account of his loyalty to the Gandhis, no one cared to apply from the seat. This is the first time I contended for Salempur ticket alongside Bhola hoping my background in politics and field would help me. But that didn’t happen. I am not sure why Pande does not disclose in his election affidavits his past history as a hijacker, which is a crime.” Pande, however, detests being called a hijacker and says the case against him has long been dropped. Busy touring his segment ahead of LS elections, Pande told The Tribune today: “Ours was a unique and Gandhian way of protest. We wanted the former PM released because the then Janata Party government was murdering democracy. We went about our act peacefully. I am not a hijacker and I am winning this election as I lost the last one by a mere 16,000 votes.” Wadhwaney’s work which documents Pande’s hijacking says no explosives were found on him. All Pande and his friend had used to hold passengers to ransom midair were two toy pistols and a cricket ball! Nine months after the hijacking, Indira Gandhi got the criminal case dropped once the Choudhary Charan Singh’s government was in place. His 1978 ‘heroics’ In 1978, Bhola Pande and his friend Devendra Nath Pande ‘hijacked’ a domestic Indian Airlines flight with 132 on board demanding the release of Indira Gandhi, who was in jail on graft charges The two were rewarded by Indira with an Assembly ticket each in 1980 and both won; Bhola managed to get into the Assembly only once in 1989 He subsequently got a Congress ticket for the Salempur LS segment in 1999, 2004 and 2009 but lost all three elections
	SC: Trial of govt officers can't be quashed for sanction error New Delhi, April 1 Any error or irregularity in granting sanction by the government to conduct trial against its officials in corruption cases cannot be a ground to quash the criminal proceedings, the Supreme Court has said. Holding that requirement of sanction is designed just to check on frivolous and mischievous cases being filed against officials, a Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said a government servant cannot allowed to take undue advantage of it. "Any error, omission or irregularity in the sanction, which would also include the competence of the authority to grant sanction, does not vitiate the eventual conclusion in the trial, including the conviction and sentence, unless of course a failure of justice has occurred. "It is difficult to see how at the intermediary stage a criminal prosecution can be nullified or interdicted on account of any such error, omission or irregularity in the sanction order without arriving at the satisfaction that a failure of justice has also been occasioned," Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who wrote the judgment, said. The Bench passed the order on two petitions filed by Bihar government challenging Patna High Court's verdict quashing criminal proceedings against it officials on the ground that sanction against officers were granted by the Law Department of the state and not by their parent department. "We, therefore, hold that the orders dated March 23, 2012 and March 3, 2011 passed by the High Court cannot be sustained in law. We, therefore, allow both the appeals, set aside the said orders and direct that criminal proceeding against each of the respondents in the appeals under consideration shall now commence and shall be concluded as expeditiously as possible," it said. "...specific provisions have been incorporated in Section 19(3) of the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as in Section 465 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which, inter alia, make it clear that any error, omission or irregularity in the grant of sanction will not affect any finding, sentence or order passed by a competent court unless in the opinion of the court a failure of justice has been occasioned. This is how the balance is sought to be struck," it said. — PTI
	Commuters suffer as BEST drivers go on flash strike; HC steps in Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, April 1 Hours after BEST employees went on a flash strike to protest against the introduction of the new computerised scheduling system, the Bombay High Court asked them to end their stir and resume duty immediately. Justice NM Jamdar, who was hearing an application filed by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), directed the transport union to ask all its members to report to work immediately and call off their strike. Earlier today lakhs of commuters in Mumbai were left stranded as BEST buses remained off road due to the strike. At most places, auto-rickshaws and taxi drivers made a killing by over charging commuters. Late in the afternoon, the BEST management moved the court for its intervention. BEST General Manager Om Prakash Gupta told reporters that 40 per cent of the staffers had accepted the new scheduling system and even filled up forms to comply with the new requirements. However, following pressure from the unions all 26,000 bus drivers and conductors went on a mass casual leave today. BEST workers’ leader Sharad Rao said the employees were opposed to the 12 to 13-hour work schedule for 20 per cent staffers. Rao denied that the unions were forcing the staffers to go on strike. “This is a spontaneous move by the employees who went on leave to protest the new schedule," Rao said. “The workers, especially drivers and conductors, have been harassed by superiors at the 25 bus depots since March 29, when the court gave permission to BEST to implement the proposed scheduling system. While one of the workers who was threatened that he may lose his job if he did not sign the new schedule card suffered a heart attack, a few others had mental trauma and one even fainted. This led to mass protest and workers went on mass leave," he said. Threatening action against those on strike, Gupta asked the employees to rejoin work. “Those who join duties by evening will be spared of departmental action," he said. However, Rao said the strike would continue and further warned that auto-rickshaws and taxis would join the strike as well.
	On governance, UPA competing with itself, not NDA: Cong Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 1 The Congress on Tuesday said the BJP-led NDA was no competition to it so far as governance issues were concerned. The UPA was competing with itself on development front, it said. “The competition over good governance is just between UPA 1 and UPA II and not UPA and NDA,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said. Singhvi slammed BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi for “spreading lies and disinformation about his governance record in Gujarat”. “We have walked the talk when it comes to development. If anyone has the right to talk about good governance, it is the Congress party,” Singhvi said, listing a series of economic data to prove that the UPA is better than the NDA on all counts. Taking forward the assertions which Finance Minister P Chidambaram made about the state of Indian economy yesterday, Singhvi pointed towards the statistics for NDA, UPA 1 and UPA II to show that the real competition on indicators was between the latter two and the NDA was totally out of the picture. Average annual growth in GDP was 6 pc for NDA, 8.4 pc for UPA I and 7.3 pc for UPA II, said Singhvi, adding that similar data exists for agricultural growth, poverty reduction, average fiscal deficit, average savings and average investment rates.
	HC declines Jindal’s plea for stay on Zee TV news about him New Delhi, April 1 The Delhi High Court today refused to grant industrialist and lawmaker Naveen Jindal's plea for a blanket order restraining Zee TV from airing news reports which were allegedly defamatory in their content. Justice V K Shali said Jindal and his company Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL) "have not been able to satisfy that they have got a prima facie good case" and disposed of their plea. The court, however, directed Zee to follow the guidelines of the News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) as per which they would be required to obtain the views of Jindal and JSPL in case they intend to televise any programme pertaining to him or his companies. "The publications may be inaccurate, not fully or substantially true or may be distorted or may be offending sensibilities of the person against whom such allegations are made but that is not to be the ground to muzzle them altogether. "It is more so in a case when a person, holder of a public office or aspiring to become a member of an elected body is amidst the din of electioneering. It is a common knowledge that while the elections are on, all kinds of accusations and counter-accusations are bound to fly thick and fast in all directions of which a person must not complain unless and until the allegations against him are per se defamatory. "I do not prima facie find that except that there may be incorrect statements or inaccurate statements which are made by the defendants in its televised reporting or which may be not to the liking of the plaintiff or which may be causing annoyance to him are not per se defamatory," the court said. The court was also of the view that the best course of action is to "ignore such inaccurate reporting" rather than raise an objection." Justice Shali also said to restrain Zee at this stage from pre-telecasting of its programme or news "would not only be gagging the right to freedom of press but also gagging of the public to know about a candidate" who is to be elected. — PTI
	AAP candidates withdraw due to fund crunch Ananya Panda Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 1 The Aam Aadmi Party's coffers, as displayed on its website, might have crossed Rs 20 crore post-Delhi Assembly results, the availability of funds for its candidates to campaign remains a challenge. Insufficient funds have either led to withdrawal of candidates by the party or candidates themselves from the electoral race. The latest in the line is Mukul Tripathi in Farrukhabad whose candidature the party withdrew yesterday owing to “no contribution in efforts from him for arranging poll funds” as confirmed by the party today. Another retired defence personnel Abhilasha Jathav from the Jalaun Lok Sabha seat (SC) too surrendered her ticket on Monday citing fund crunch for canvassing. The party has already indicated that candidates would arrange money for canvassing, unless the party feels it is hopeful of scoring a win. AAP general secretary Pankaj Gupta said, "We have told the candidates to collect donations on their own. We would give money for winning seats. We are not an established party and we are still trying to identify places where we can build our base. This Lok Sabha elections is more about seeing whether we get recognised as a national party or not. We will contest from as many seats we find good candidates.” AAP is now faced with a crucial task to find a strong contender in Farrukhabad against Congress Union Minister Salman Khurshid after the withdrawal of Mukul , a physically challenged scribe. "Farrukhabad is important for us and with just two weeks left it is a major challenge. By late tonight or tomorrow, we would declare the name. It is up to the party to decide whom to field from the remaining six nominations in the category or from the top leadership," said Vaibhav. Further, AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal will now concentrate on crucial seats of Amethi and Varanasi after Delhi road shows.
	8 fishermen hurt in Lanka navy attack Rameswaram, April 1 Sri Lankan Navy personnel, who on Saturday surprised Indian fishermen trawling near Katchatheevu by offering them soft drinks and sweets, attacked eight fishermen in the Indian territory off Dhamushkodi coast early today, Fisheries Department sources said. Four fishermen suffered severe injuries on head, hand and shoulder while others sustained internal injuries. All of them were admitted to hospital, the sources said. Two boats and 10 fishing nets were damaged in the attack with bottles, stones and sticks. The Navy personnel also took away the fishermen’s catch, the sources said. “I don’t think our fishermen were at fault today. They have been hit with bottles, stones and sticks in the sea off Dhanushkodi coast. They made futile attempts to contact the Indian Coast Guard personnel,” local fishermen’s association President Emiret told reporters. He said the fishermen had enough evidence to prove that they were fishing in Indian waters. Sri Lanka has often accused Tamil Nadu fishermen of straying into their territorial waters, while the latter maintain they are only fishing in their traditional areas. Meanwhile, reports from Colombo said today Sri Lanka was waiting for India’s response on the resumption of talks between fishing delegations from the two countries to resolve the politically sensitive fishermen issue. “We await a request and waiting to respond on the prospect of future talks in order to come for a settlement,” Fisheries Ministry spokesman Narendra Rajapaksa said. On March 12, Sri Lanka had issued orders to release Indian fishermen, arrested for allegedly poaching in Lankan waters, ahead of the talks that were earlier scheduled for March 13 and later for March 25, but could not be held. — PTI
	Poll officials search Jaya’s helicopter Coimbatore, April 1 Election officials today carried out a search in the helicopter in which Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa arrived at Pollachi, near Coimbatore, to address an election meeting. The search was carried out by the flying squad to see whether any money or articles were kept inside, as per the instructions by the Election Commission, police sources said. However, nothing, violating the model code of conduct, was found in the helicopter, they said. Opposition parties, while criticising Jayalalithaa for using helicopter for campaigning, had questioned whether her helicopter would be subjected to search as their vehicles. — PTI
	Salman’s re-trial fails to begin Mumbai, April 1 The re-trial in the hit-and-run case involving actor Salman Khan was today deferred till April 28 by a sessions court as the prosecution sought time to produce witnesses in view of police deployment on election duty. Investigating officer Rajendra Kane informed the court that the police were deployed on election duty and hence they were not yet prepared to go ahead with the trial which was to commence today. Sessions judge D W Deshpande asked the prosecution to produce on April 28 the first witness who was injured in the mishap in which the actor was involved, followed by eye witnesses in May. This is the second occasion when the fresh trial has not begun. On March 26, three witnesses failed to turn up as they were either not available or untraceable. Salman's lawyer Srikant Shivade said the actor was ready to face the trial while prosecutor Jagannath Kenjalkar said they would produce witnesses from April 28. Clad in a white shirt and blue denim jeans, Salman came to the court and sat on a bench along with his bodyguard and sister Alvira. He keenly watched the proceedings and left as soon as the court announced the next date of hearing. The judge ordered a fresh trial in this case, 12 years after the actor ran over his car on people sleeping on the road. Although the prosecution has submitted a list of 64 witnesses, it would not examine all of them, according to the public prosecutor. — PTI
	Shakti Mills Case Court allows recalling of 3 witnesses Mumbai, April 1 A sessions court trying the Shakti Mills photojournalist gang rape case today allowed defence's application which sought recalling and examining three witnesses in connection with the additional charge framed against three common convicts in the case. The court had last month framed an additional charge under Section 376 (e) (punishment for repeated offence of rape) of IPC which attracts the maximum penalty of capital punishment. Kasim Bengali, Vijay Jadhav and Mohammed Salim Ansari are the common accused, who are also convicted in the telephone operator gang rape case. The telephone operator was gang-raped on the premises of Shakti Mills about a month before the brutalisation of the photojournalist. The court also recorded statements of Kasim Bengali, Vijay Jadhav and Mohammed Salim Ansari today on the newly added charge. Under Section 313 of the CrPc, the accused are given a chance to explain the circumstances and allegations against them through their statements. The trio told the court they were innocent. "We have not done anything", they said. — PTI
	Woman I-T officer held for graft suspended New Delhi/Bhopal, April 1 The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has suspended a Deputy Commissioner-rank Income Tax officer who along with her politician husband was recently arrested by the CBI in Bhopal on bribery charges. Sources said the 2007-batch IRS officer, Poonam Rai, has been placed under suspension and a parallel inquiry has been initiated against her by the Vigilance wing of the CBDT. A Bhopal court on Monday granted bail to Poonam Rai, her husband and two others after they furnished a bond of Rs 1 lakh each. An I-T team in Delhi recently collected the arrest documents of Rai and her husband Ganesh Malviya, a state BJP leader, from the CBI after which suspension proceedings were initiated against her. "According to procedures, a vigilance inquiry is on and she has been placed under suspension," sources told PTI. The CBI had arrested Rai, Malviya and two others on March 29 in the Madhya Pradesh capital. The probe agency had registered a case against the I-T officer on the basis of a complaint alleging that Rai had demanded a bribe of Rs 25 lakh for closing pending matter of income tax assessment of the complainant's firm. It was further alleged in the CBI complaint that Rai's husband Ganesh Malviya and middleman, identified as Preetam Chotrani, were negotiating the bribe amount at her behest. During the verification of complaint, Malviya allegedly agreed to receive the part payment of Rs 10 lakh of the demanded bribe and asked the complainant to deliver the bribe amount to the middleman, the CBI had said. The CBI laid a trap and the bribe amount was allegedly accepted by the middleman at his office in the MP Nagar area of Bhopal. Subsequently, the bribe amount was delivered to the residence of the I-T officer through Sanjay Raut, another person, where Malviya was arrested while allegedly accepting the bribe amount. — PTI Parallel probe initiated Poonam Rai, a 2007-batch IRS officer, was recently arrested along with her politician husband by the CBI in Bhopal on bribery charges The Central Board of Direct Taxes has placed under suspension and initiated a parallel inquiry against her