The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Accused jumped traffic light: Police
Shaurya Karanbir Gurung
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3
Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde was on his way to the Indira Gandhi International Airport when his car was hit by a speeding Tata Indica car at an intersection.

The driver of Indica that hit Union Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde’s car, in police custody in New Delhi. PTI

The Delhi Police said Munde was travelling in his official Maruti SX4 car and was seated in the rear seat, while his personal assistant Surender Nair was seated right next to the driver, Virender Kumar.

Gurvinder Singh (32), who was driving a Tata Indica car that broadsided the SX4 at the Aurobindo intersection located in the VIP area of Delhi, was arrested by the Delhi Police. He lives near south-Delhi’s Mehrauli locality and works as a driver for a hotel at Janpath.

The police have registered a case under Sections 279 (rash driving) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code against him on Virender’s statement.

The accident

Munde left his 21 Lodhi Colony residence for the airport just after 6 am. As his car crossed the traffic signal on the Prithviraj Road and was about to enter the Safdarjung Road, the Indica broadsided his car on the left side where he was seated. The Indica was coming from the Aurobindo Marg and heading to the Tughlaq Road. The Indica driver was on his way to the hotel for work.

Ominous No. 3?

May 3, 2006: Gopinath Munde's brother-in-law and former BJP leader Pramod Mahajan dies in a Mumbai hospital.
He was shot at by his brother Pravin Mahajan inside Pramod's apartment on April 22, 2006 over a dispute
June 3, 2006: Pramod's personal aide Vivek Moitra is found dead in his official bungalow in Delhi. His son Rahul is found unconscious after alleged drug overdose
March 3, 2010: Pravin Mahajan dies in a Thane hospital following brain haemorrhage
June 3, 2104: Gopinath Munde dies in a car crash while on his way to the Delhi airport

“Virender told the police that the Prithviraj Road traffic signal still had 26 seconds of the green light when he crossed it,” said a police officer, adding that it indicated that the traffic light of the Aurobindo Marg was red.

“The SX4 was hit by the Indica on its rear left side and the Indica was badly damaged on its front. The Indica driver should have seen the vehicle and stopped. But Gurvinder jumped the red light and was speeding. The Indica skidded for 31 feet after the collision before coming to a halt,” said the officer.

Munde was taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre around 6.30 am. AIIMS hospital spokesperson Dr Amit Gupta and other doctors tried to revive him. “He had no heart beat and was not breathing. We started his cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which continued for 50 minutes, but he could not be revived. At 7.20 am, he was declared dead,” Gupta said.

Accused gets bail

In the evening, the police produced Gurvinder in the Patiala House Court, which granted him bail. The police had demanded judicial custody of the accused on the plea that they wanted to conduct a test identification parade. The police also told the court that the Intelligence Bureau and the Special Cell of the Delhi Police were investigating the possibility of a conspiracy behind the incident.

The court, however, granted bail to Gurvinder on the grounds that Sections 279 and 304 A were bailable offences.

Autopsy suggests internal injuries

The post-mortem on Munde’s body was completed at the AIIMS Trauma Centre around 12.30 pm. The body was later embalmed.

“The post-mortem points towards internal injuries, suffered during the accident, as the cause of death. The details of the injuries will be given to the investigating officer in the post-mortem report,” said Dr Gupta.

Dr Gupta said the internal injuries seemed to have been caused by sudden deceleration. Such injuries occur when a vehicle moving at a high speed stops abruptly.

There were no “significant external injuries”, he said. Munde suffered a bruise on the nose, but that was “not significant”, he added.

‘Munde’s death a conspiracy’
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, June 3
Supporters of Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde, who died this morning following a road accident in Delhi, are terming his death a conspiracy. Two senior BJP leaders, who were close to Munde, today demanded a CBI probe into the mishap.

“There is hardly any traffic on Delhi roads at 6 am. So, it’s hard to believe that an official car with a red beacon could be hit from the rear,” Prakash Anna Shendge, spokesman for the Maharashtra unit of the BJP said.

Avadhoot Wagh, another BJP spokesman from the state unit of the party, seconded Shendge. “How come Munde ji was traveling in a normal car when he usually travels in a big car with full security?” Wagh said.

“How Munde’s driver could have jumped a red light. Was the driver inexperienced? How could a car overtake Munde’s vehicle from the left and crash into it?” he said. Munde’s death comes at a time when a section of the BJP opposed the party’s tie-up with the Shiv Sena and has been pressing for the party to go it alone in the forthcoming Assembly elections. While the party had initially decided to contest the elections under the leadership of Munde, the Shiv Sena had yesterday named its chief Uddhav Thackeray as the CM candidate.

BJP sources say Munde, who along with his late brother-in-law Pramod Mahajan, crafted the alliance with the Shiv Sena was to hold talks with Thackeray later this week. With the demise of Munde, the reins of the party will move into the hands of his rival Nitin Gadkari and state BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis.

Maharashtra politics enters a new phase
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3
A day before his demise, the BJP’s Maharashtra ally Shiv Sena had taken a dig at Gopinath Munde for his chief ministerial aspirations.

State BJP chief Devendra Fadnavis had said: “The party has sent Munde on a three-month loan to Delhi after which he will lead Maharashtra.” In what may be his last byte on the brewing turmoil between the BJP and Shiv Sena, Munde said: “If Shiv Sena gets more people (elected representatives), they will get the CM post. The BJP has not declared any CM candidate, and neither does it intend to. There is no fight within for the CM candidate. The NDA will decide.”

All of it stands to change now. Munde was believed to be one of the front-runners for the CM’s post. His death may have stopped for now the tussle for power. But the BJP has lost a mass-based OBC leader with a finger on the pulse of the people.

UP rape horror
Media singling out UP for rape cases, says Akhilesh
Cops to forward family’s CBI probe request to Centre
Tribune News Service

Lucknow, June 3
With the Baduan twin rape and murder case hitting national and international headlines CM Akhilesh Yadav today charged the media with singling out such cases from UP while disregarding others occurring elsewhere. The UP police also received a letter demanding a CBI inquiry into the case from victims' kin.

The five accused in police custody in Badaun. PTI

"An incident happened in Bangalore, was it shown on national channels? Incidents are taking place in Madhya Pradesh. I have got information that the chain of senior minister was snatched near her home. Rajasthan is before you. Only UP is visible and this is more visible to cunning people," said Akhilesh.

Following NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma's suo moto notice to state DGP AL Bannerjee today, he visited Badaun's Katra Sadatganj village under Ushait police station where he met the family of the two minor cousins who were raped and murdered. DGP Bannerjee received a formal letter from the bereaved family seeking for a CBI inquiry into the case. The DGP said the letter would be forwarded to the Centre.

He said a high-powered monitoring cell has been set up at the DGP headquarters to monitor the Badaun incident and other cases of gender based violence in the state. Senior women IPS officers — Sutapa Sanyal, Tanuja Srivastava and Tilottma Verma — would look after this cell.

Following the spate of rape cases being reported CM Yadav has directed all district magistrates and senior police officers to impose the stringent National Security Act on those who threaten a rape victim or her family, and warn of strict action if the officials failed to attend to acts of crime swiftly.

Following the political outrage over the Badaun rape case, Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani was summarily removed along with Bareilly divisional commissioner Ajay Kumar Singh. Yesterday the Principal Secretary Home A K Gupta was also shown the door.

Minor found hanging from tree, six booked
Sitapur: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly murdered and her body was found hanging from a tree in Misrikh area of the district, police said on Tuesday. The girl went missing on Monday from Benipur village and her body was found today in Misrikh area, police said. Ruling out possibility of rape, police said the body has been sent for post-mortem. Six persons were booked on a complaint filed by the girl's father

Clash in Auraiya; Bareilly girl attacked
Residents of Auraiya district on Tuesday clashed with the police after the body of a woman was recovered. In Bareilly, a girl was admitted to a hospital with serious injuries after a group of ruffians pushed her off a train after she refused to befriend them

Judicial officer escapes rape, murder bid

Aligarh, June 3
A woman judicial officer has accused her two distant relatives of attempting to rape and murder her at her official residence in judges' compound here, police said today.

According to the police, the incident occurred on Sunday night when the two accused - Pankaj Gupta from Farrukhabad and Gopal Gupta from Bareilly - broke into her flat on the first floor using a ladder. When the woman resisted and raised the alarm, they force-fed her some pesticide and stuffed her mouth with a handkerchief before fleeing the spot. The incident came to light yesterday when the woman's maid arrived in the morning and found the door locked, police said. - PTI

Govt to prepare priority list of equipment for defence forces
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3
Faced with a dilemma of balancing the available financial resources with needs of impending equipment purchases for the defence forces, the new government will draw up a list of priorities in the next couple of weeks.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley was today briefed by Defence Secretary RK Mathur on all pending purchases, their status and glitches. The minister was also informed about the status of various ongoing acquisitions.

Jaitley was today given the priority list which included the purchase of 126 fighter jets from French aviation major Dassault. On January 31, 2012, Rafale was announced as the winner among six manufacturers after being tested on 643 parameters between 2009 and 2010. but even after two years, there is no clarity on the deal.

The Ministry will soon have to decide on the purchase of six additional strategic airlifters — the C-17 Globemaster. Tenders for the 155 mm artillery guns have been cancelled at least six times in the past 10 years. Not a single new gun has been inducted since the purchase of the 155 mm Bofors in 1987.

The Army’s artillery modernisation plan is about US $ 3.8 billion and this includes howitzers that are towed, self propelled and mounted. This will include 1,580 towed guns, 100 track-mounted, 155 mm, 52 calibre howitzers and 180 similar vehicle-mounted guns for self-propelled artillery regiments.

The Mountain Strike Corps needs the lighter howitzer. The last proposal to buy 145 ultra-light howitzers (ULH) from BAE Systems has not been cleared.

The acquisition of helicopters has been hit affecting all three services. The tender for replacement Cheetah, which is based on French origin Lama Alouette Ill, has been recalled once and is mired in delays since 2007. The tender was to buy 197 helicopters and these were to be used by the Army Aviation Corps in the Himalayas.

The heavy lift helicopters of the Boeing, Chinook CH-47F, have been selected for 15 copters at cost of US $ 1.4 billion while the company’s Apache AH-64D has been selected for 22 attack copters. There has been no movement while the Indian Navy’s tender for 16 multirole helicopters at the cost of US $ 1 billion. In January 2013, Indian Navy sent out a global request for information for acquiring 120 Naval Multirole Helicopters (NMRH) costing nearly US $ 6 billion.

Defence Secy briefs Jaitley

* Defence Minister Arun Jaitley was on Tuesday briefed by Defence Secretary RK Mathur on all pending purchases, their status and glitches.

* The minister was also informed about the status of various ongoing acquisitions.

* He was given the priority list which included the purchase of 126 fighter jets from French aviation major Dassault

SC verdict on Sahara properties today
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, June 3
The Supreme Court will deliver tomorrow its verdict on Sahara’s plea to sell its properties at nine places across the country and defreeze some of its bank accounts to enable the group to raise funds for securing the release of its chief Subrata Roy on bail.

A Bench comprising Justices TS Thakur and AK Sikri would assemble at 2 PM to deliver the judgment, reserved on May 29 while directing the group to provide within a week details of its three premier hotels in New York and London for considering its plea for selling these properties as well.

The group plans to raise Rs 4,298 crore by selling nine real estate properties in Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhavnagar, Jodhpur, Pune and Vasai. It also wants to mortgage part of its holdings in the Aamby Valley project near Mumbai. Further, it would utilise Rs 2,421 crore lying in bank accounts for mobilising the bail amount of Rs 10,000 crore once the court defreeze these accounts.

Roy was arrested on February 28 and sent to Tihar jail here on March 4 along with two of his directors — Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary — for the group’s failure to return about Rs 20,000 crore to about 30 million investors through market regulator, SEBI, as directed by the SC.

Two companies of the group had collected about Rs 25,000 crore from the public under a fully convertible debenture scheme which was subsequently declared illegal by SEBI.

Jaya keeps options of backing BJP in Rajya Sabha open
K V Prasad
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa today sought allocation of resources from the Centre and formation of a panel for raising the height of Mullaperiyar dam while keeping open the issue of her party’s crucial support to the BJP-led NDA in the Rajya Sabha.

Jayalalithaa called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and, during the 50-minute meeting, presented a long list of demands for the state, including funds due to it for implementing Central schemes. While the Prime Minister’s office sought to describe the visit as a “courtesy call”, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister characterised it as “very useful”.

On the issue of support to the NDA, her approach was clear, the BJP does not need it in the Lok Sabha and deciding on it when the need arises in the Rajya Sabha.

As leader of the AIADMK, which has the third largest contingent of 37 MPs in the current Lok Sabha, she said the ruling coalition in general and the BJP in particular has a majority of its own and does not require additional help. “The NDA has got an independent majority. They don’t need support from outside,” she said.

To a specific query whether the party could bail out the BJP in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling coalition is in a minority, Jaya said: “We will see when the situation arises”.