An international mobile phone SIM card that was used to direct the militants who carried out the Mumbai attacks, has been sent to Interpol in Saudi Arabia to establish a link to one the seven men who are on trial in Pakistan for the 2008 terrorist carnage.
A Federal Investigation Agency official told the anti-terrorism court that the SIM card used by accused Jamil Ahmed to give directions to the militants carrying out the attacks in Mumbai had been sent to Interpol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for forensic verification.
“We are awaiting the report from Interpol which will be submitted to the court in the next hearing,” he was quoted as saying by sources.
The court adjourned the hearing till April 9. After a delay of three weeks, the Mumbai case was heard in an Islamabad court.
A godown of a chemical company located in Dalmill Compound at Purna in Bhiwandi area of the district was gutted in the fire.
Santosh Kadam, chief of the Regional Disaster Management Cell, said the fire broke out at about 4.30 pm.
Some drums in the godown, filled with chemical, exploded, he said. Six fire engines were rushed to the spot and the fire brigade personnel brought the blaze under control after an hour.
The Crime Branch of Thane Police Unit-I raided a lodge in Shil Daighar in Mumbra and rescued as many as eight girls trapped in a flesh trade racket and arrested four people, the police said.
Senior police inspector Ravindra Doiphode of Crime Unit-I told that the police had received complaints that girls were being brought to the Sagar Lodge and forced into the flesh trade.
The police raided the lodge and arrested four men named Sudarshan Gangadhar Jena (29) who is the lodge manager, Shankar Jayram Shetty (32) who is its supervisor, Sakaldeo Kamdeo Rana (28) who is an agent who provided girls for flesh trade, as well as Sudhirkumar Singh Prayag Singh (32) who transported the rescued girls.
The court ordered that rescued girls have to be lodged in a rescue home in Thane, while the arrested have been remanded to police custody until April 3.
Those arrested have been charged under Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections and sections 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act (PITA) of 1956, the police said.
The police booked five family members, including a couple, for allegedly kicking a pregnant housewife due to which the foetus died the police said.
Police sub-inspector Avinash Mahajan of the Vartak Nagar police station told that the 22-year-old Chayya Prakash Rathod was married to Prakash Rathod in 2013 and she was four months pregnant.
Soon after she began residing with her husband and in-laws at Lokmanya Nagar, her husband and in-laws began harassing her constantly for dowry, demanding Rs 4 lakh from her family members.
After she expressed her inability to fulfill the dowry demands, her in-laws, including her husband, tortured her mentally and physically, though she was pregnant by four months, the complaint said.
Allegedly, they also kicked her in the abdomen after which the foetus died and she had to undergo abortion, the complaint said.
The police based on her complaint booked her husband Prakash Pattu Rathod (25), mother-in-law Yashoda Rathod (45) father-in-law Pattu Rathod (50), sister-in-law Mukta Rathod (22) and brother-in-law Vikas Rathod (20), the police said.
The five have been booked under Sections 498-A, 406, 313, 323, 504 and 506 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, the police said, adding that investigations are on.
Repeatedly, many times UPA and its leaders promised betterment of Dalit community and announced schemes ahead of elections. This is not the first time they failed to deliver what they actually promised. Let’s see how 2014 dosage of magic for the upliftment of Dalits and backwards work.
After attracting and securing minority vote bank, Congress is now shifting its focus on traditional Dalit voters. Rahul Gandhi believes that Dalits are not aware of what the government has done for their welfare and that’s why they are alienated from Congress. With the renewed focus on Dalits, Congress is trying to gain maximum votes especially in UP where Mayawati-led BSP controls the Dalit votes. He was all set to explain escape velocity theory in aeronautics comparing caste system. He thinks that caste system is like escape velocity. He used the energy of reservation and tried to get escape velocity for people. Rahul accused Mayawati for not allowing leadership to grow within scheduled caste. Frankly speaking, even the Jr. Gandhi knows that his family also never allowed any leader to grow in Congress party. Recently, we have noticed Ajay Maken addressing the Press and defending the Ordinance at that moment before Rahul called that ‘Nonsense’ and after Rahul left, Maken changed his stand saying what Rahul Gandhi is saying was his party’s stand. Following that, many Congress leaders like Rajiv Shukla, Manish Tiwari, Kapil Sibal and others started harping on the same tune and ultimately, the whole cabinet nodded their head including the Prime Minister. No one was allowed to grow in Congress right from the day of independence; they just behave like family slaves or bonded labour. There are many instances in the past and we will see in future also. Congress has always exploited minorities and Dalits for political gain. If Congress had worked on nation’s progress and not on vote bank politics, India would have been a great country and doing better than China today.
Dalits are still what they are not because of the so-called ‘upper-caste ruling Hindus’ in the government despising them, but because everyone is opportunistic. One only needs to look at the Dalit leaders like Lok Janshakti Party’s chief Ramvilas Paswan or Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) chief Mayawati. Everyone is busy carving a secure future for themselves. It’s preposterous to think that some of the highly educated cabinet members – whatever their character flaws might be – still harbour medieval mentalities. They are – like almost everyone else in politics – worried only about themselves. Reservation as a tool was built on lines of affirmative action but the results have been vastly different. In India, it’s marred with social apathy and political opportunism. Somehow, it has become a monster now, which can deepen the already existing divisions in society. Nevertheless, there are inherent defects in reservation which need to be addressed so that the benefits are accrued to the needy. Ultimately, society has to change its attitude towards its own people.
Today, Dalits are facing many problems on social, economic, and political fronts even after 66 years of nation’s independence. Generally, Dalits were voting for Congress. Congress government ruled India for nearly 55 years after independence. Congress is appointing a few Dalits in high posts to appease them. But, this is not enough to empower them. Now, Dalits have to introspect.
Dalits all over India need to organise themselves under a common umbrella irrespective of their sub-castes and languages. Only with the development of this solidarity, they can fight for their rights, self-respect and individuality.
Otherwise, the general apathy of the government at the center will only ensure that the Dalits continue to remain “the oppressed and disadvantaged section” of the Indian society. When non- Dalits agitate against reservations for Dalits in institutions of higher education and government services, the media generally joins the protestors. Media criticised Dalit leader Mayawati for her method of governance whereas others are appreciated for same governance. However, it occasionally carries a report on the travails of Dalits to clear its conscience. Government knows very well which side of the toast to be buttered at the time of elections to see maximum Dalits votes swing towards it. If we really want to see the change in India then any kind of reservation and policy provided by government should reach to the people who actually deserve it (financially weaker section) rather than the already existing financially, socially and culturally sound Dalits who are taking benefits from generation to generation. Under-development of Dalits and Tribal region is the main reason of slow rate of development of India. This is basically due to corruption and poor are the biggest victims of corruption. This is the reason why dissatisfaction is high among the poorer Indians against the government. UPA government needs to realise this. After independence, Dalits are still backward. Who is responsible for this? Congress has ruled this country for a maximum period of time but Dalits are still deprived of their rights. Rahul Gandhi needs to understand that the people of this country are not fools. They are not here to get satisfied with lip services and make false promises. To entertain Dalits, he has also promised maximum representation of Dalits in the upcoming elections. Under him, Congress had been trying to get back the Dalit vote bank which has now shifted to different regional parties over a period of time. Rahul started his efforts much before UP Assembly elections last year. His much hyped stopovers at Dalit villages and homes made national headlines. But despite all that, the party could win only five out of all the 85 reserved constituencies in UP Assembly elections.
Nation is in election fever and promises are done on large scale. Let us see further where Dalit and minority votes will swing this time.
Congress is facing anti- incumbency after 10 years in power, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh admitted on Thursday, saying it poses a challenge as the party lost the battle of perception as the top leadership was “not communicative”.
He acknowledged that it is a “challenging” campaign in the elections ahead but maintained that the party would get a decent, dignified and respectable three-digit number.
“Hyperactive judiciary, overactive constitutional functionaries like CAG, aggressive media and irresponsible civil society combined…”
“Our reaction was also slow. We came across…We did not communicate our point of view effectively. Our top leadership was not communicative. Politics is all about communication. So we lost the battle of perception and we did not take them seriously enough,” Ramesh said.
He was responding to a question as to what in retrospect went wrong in the last two years of UPA government to create a perception of corruption-ridden and indecisive government, pushing the party back to the wall in the elections.
However, Ramesh insisted that there was “no need to be defensive or apologetic” about the performance of UPA-II and Congress will be getting a “decent, dignified, respectable, three-digit number” in the elections.
Ramesh, however, acknowledged that after ten years in power, there is an anti-incumbency factor. “There is no doubt about that,” he said.
Criticising the BJP, the Union Minister suggested that the weakness of the party is reflected in the way it was going about forging alliances in different states.
“The fact of the matter is that there is a sign of desperation in the manner in which BJP is going about forming alliances as its footprint is limited,” he said.
BJP is having alliances in several states including in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.
Asked about the government’s performance, Ramesh said there was no need to be defensive about the government’s performance as UPA delivered 8 per cent rate of growth and UPA-II 7.3 per cent.
This is as against six per cent in the NDA rule.
“We do not have to feel defensive or apologetic about our performance. There is a new paper on the Indian economy during the UPA and the NDA tenures which has demolished the myth that UPA has not performed,” he said.
Detailing some of the achievements, he said, “We lifted 14 crore people above BPL….When we came to power the number of mobile phones in India was 3.5 crores, now it is almost 90 crores. We have the lowest call rates in the world.”
Asked how the party campaign was going, he said, “The Congress campaign is very much on track.”
It is a decentralised campaign. This time you see the Congress campaigning at the candidate level, DCC level, PCC level and AICC level. Traditionally, we have focused at the AICC level. This time, there has been greater emphasis on each of the four levels.
“We have released our manifesto on March 26 while BJP is yet to release its manifesto as also its vision document. Our candidate selection has been far smoother than candidate selection of the BJP,” he maintained.
Congress candidate from Vadodara, Madhusudan Mistry, was arrested by the police on Thursday for wilfully pulling down campaign posters of his heavyweight opponent Narendra Modi.
Mistry, who is one of Congress’ ace strategists, climbed up an electric poll, in presence of his supporters, to pull down Modi’s posters, following which the police detained him and other Congress workers.
Justifying his act, Mistry said, “The whole state machinery is working for the Chief Minister.” The Congress candidate alleged that his workers were not being allocated space to display campaign material.
Another Congress leader said Modi’s posters were removed because his supporters have not left any space for other parties campaign posters.
He added that the BJP has plastered every available space with Modi’s posters as they fear loss. He also said that the decision to field Modi from two places – the other being Varanasi – displays their fear of loss.
Gujarat BJP spokesperson Jay Narayan Vyas attacked the Congress for their act. “Is it the duty of BJP to make space for Congress posters? They want space for posters as they know that they don’t have any space in people’s hearts for them.”
Sahara Group on Thursday expressed its inability before the Supreme Court to immediately pay Rs. 10,000 crore for securing bail of its chief Subrata Roy and its two directors, who have been in jail since March 4.
The group told a bench of justices K S Radhakrishnan and J S Khehar that it can pay Rs. 2,500 crore immediately and rest Rs. 2,500 crore in cash within three weeks after release of Roy and two directors, Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary.
The apex court had earlier imposed a condition that Roy will be freed on bail only if he pays Rs. 10,000 crore out of which Rs. 5,000 crore has to be in bank guarantee and rest Rs. 5,000 crore in cash.
The court, however, asked Sahara to file its proposal before the Registry and then it will consider it.
The hearing will continue in post lunch session.
Roy and the other two directors of the Group have been in judicial custody since March 4 for not abiding by the apex court’s order for depositing Rs. 20,000 crore of investors money with SEBI.
65-year-old Roy had earlier submitted that the apex court’s order for detaining him for not paying Rs. 20,000 of investors’ money with SEBI was illegal and unconstitutional and sought quashing of the order.
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider the plea for an open court hearing on curative petitions filed by gay rights activists against its verdict criminalising homosexuality.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, before whom the matter was mentioned by senior lawyers appearing for different parties, said that it will go through the documents and consider their plea.
Curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances in court and it is normally considered by judges in-chamber without granting opportunity to parties to argue the case.
The petitioners, including NGO Naz Foundation which has been spearheading the legal battle on behalf of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community, contended that there was an error in the judgement delivered on December 11 last year as it was based on old law.
“The judgement was reserved on March 27, 2012 but the verdict was delivered after around 21 months and during this period lots of changes took place including amendment in laws which were not considered by the bench which delivered the judgement,” senior advocate Ashok Desai told the bench.
Other senior advocates Harish Salve, Mukul Rohatgi, Anand Grover and other lawyers also supported Desai and pleaded for an open court hearing.
They submitted that the case should have been heard by the Constitution bench instead of two-judge bench which heard and delivered the verdict on the controversial issue.
BSP supremo and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Thursday said that the people could not be swayed by the lucrative promises her arch-rival SP has made in its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“The ruling SP has lost its credibility among the people. And as expected the party has made lucrative promises in its manifesto, but the people are not going to believe in it,” Mayawati said.
Referring to the promises the SP had made for the Muslim community in the manifesto released yesterday, Mayawati said, “The loss which Muslims had to face during several riots that took place from Allahabad to Muzaffarnagar, they are not going to get lured by such promises.”
Congress is facing anti- incumbency after 10 years in power, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh admitted on Thursday, saying it poses a challenge as the party lost the battle of perception as the top leadership was “not communicative”.