Named by the CBI in the Ishrat Jahan “fake” encounter case, former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, Rajinder Kumar, has rubbished the allegations and reiterated his charge that Ishrat and her accomplices were part of a terror module.

Kumar claimed that he is innocent and that the case won’t stand in court. Speaking to a news channel, Kumar stressed that no criminality was involved in the 2004 operation in Gujarat that ended with the death of Ishrat, her friend Javed Sheikh alias Parnesh Pillai in Gujarat and two others believed to be Pakistani nationals. The entire incident was projected as an encounter by the Gujarat police.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet in the special court in Ahmedabad, last week, against Kumar, a 1979-batch IPS officer, and P Mittal, MK Sinha and Rajiv Wankhede. Kumar has been charged with criminal conspiracy and murder while the other three were slapped with charges of criminal conspiracy, wrongful confinement, kidnapping and wrongful concealment of facts.

Kumar was also slapped with additional charges under the Arms Act for allegedly providing arms and ammunition used in the case on June 15, 2004.

Defending the operation, Kumar said, “We are not vultures; we don’t target innocent people,” adding that the CBI had little clue about how counter-terrorism works.

“I performed my duty,” he said.

The CBI is set to approach the government seeking sanction for prosecution against Kumar and the other three Intelligence Bureau officials after Attorney General GE Vahanvati suggested that CBI needed a prior nod before prosecuting Intelligence Bureau officers in the case.

A 16-year-old married girl was allegedly kept hostage and gangraped by three men for three days in Alwar district, police said.
An FIR was lodged by the victim and her maternal uncle on Sunday against the accused–Surendra Meena, Ashok Meena and Mausam Meena– under IPC Section 363 for abduction, 376-D for gangrape and under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, officials of Baswa police station in Dausa district said on telephone.
All the accused are in the age group of 20-21, they said.
On February 4, the girl, a victim of child marriage, was standing alone at a bus station in Baswa to go to her parents’ place when the accused, known to her, offered her lift in their car.
However, they instead took her to a house in Alwar district, where she was kept hostage for three days and gangraped by them, they said.
On February 7, the victim was dropped at Malakhera village in Alwar district by the accused, who warned her against disclosing the incident to anyone, they said.
The girl somehow contacted her maternal uncle and the two reached her in-laws’ house. They then lodged the FIR. The location of the accused has been traced and they will be arrested till morning, they said. The victim has been sent to hospital for medical examination, they added.

Manjeet Singh of Sisaiya village, Sitarganj is the latest victim to what seems to be operating as a full-fledged ‘fake KBC lottery’ racket in the country. He was duped of Rs. 15,150 by a caller who claimed he was calling from popular show Kaun Banega Crorepati and that Manjeet had won Rs 25 lakh lottery.
However, the caller who was calling from an international number, laid down certain conditions fulfilling which Manjeet would get the amount.
Shockingly, he asked Manjeet to deposit Rs 15, 150 in a bank account if he wanted to get the lottery money. The caller told him he would get a call 10 minutes after he had deposited the money. Then, he would have to switch off his phone for 24 hours.
According to the Jagran report, when Manjeet tried to find out the details of account, he discovered it belonged to Keri Mahinder, not KBC. In spite of enough evidence that these fake calls could actually be a huge racket to rob people of money, police has not sprung into action yet.
The Sitarganj incident has come to light almost a week after another woman of Mandaur in MP was duped of a whopping Rs. 5 lakh though similar fake KBC calls.
Two similar incidents in almost a week’s time suggests there could be a bigger racket operating behind to rob people of money through such fake calls.

Penguin Books India has reportedly agreed to withdraw all published copies of Wendy Doniger’s book ‘The Hindus: An Alternative History’ from India and pulp their remaining copies, in a move that is seen as a curb on the freedom of expression and has angered many on social media websites.
The agreement signed by Penguin with the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Committee, represented by Dinanath Batra, was leaked online. The document was put up on Scribd and Twitter. While Penguin has not yet responded to the controversy, Doniger said in an email that the book is being taken out of publication in India.
The copy of the agreement said Penguin India shall, ‘with immediate effect recall and withdraw all copies of the book The Hindus: An Alternative History, written by Wendy Doniger from Bharat (Indian Territory)’.
It also said that Penguin will no longer sell, publish or distribute the book and that all recalled, withdrawn and unpublished copies shall be pulped by Penguin at its own cost. Penguin will have to ensure that the book is completely withdrawn from Bharat (Indian Territory) at the earliest and within a period not exceeding six months starting from the date on which the agreement is signed by the parties.
Amazon described the book as “an engrossing and definitive narrative account of history and myth that offers a new way of understanding one of the world’s oldest major religions, The Hindus elucidates the relationship between recorded history and imaginary worlds.”