The Court Bombay High Court today asked the magistrate in Maval taluka of Pune district to decide on the closure report filed by police in case of alleged forgery and cheating in land deals exposed by slain whistleblower Satish Shetty.
The direction was given by Justice N A Patil who asked the magistrate in Maval taluka to reconsider the C-Summary (closure report) and decide on it.
The matter has been posted after two weeks.
Earlier, the court had asked the state to file an affidavit explaining on what basis it had filed a closure report and had concluded that no offences have been attracted under IPC in this case.
CBI had moved the High Court seeking to quash an order of the Maval magistrate accepting the closure report filed by the police. In its petition, the central agency sought reinvestigation into alleged bogus land deals.
According to CBI counsel H R Venegaonkar, huge tracts of land were acquired by the state government from villagers near Lonavala for Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which became operational in 2002. However, these lands were fraudulently sold in bogus deals by IRB Developers.
CBI argued that once the land was acquired by the government for the highway project and compensation paid to the villagers, the property was vested in the state and could not be given away or returned to the original owners.
The agency pleaded that entries in 7/12 extracts (a revenue document of land ownership) were interpreted to mean the land was returned to the villagers and IRB purchased the same from them through bogus sale deeds.
The police closed the case by filing a C-summary report in a court at Lonavala in Pune district. It concluded that the deals did not attract offences under IPC because they were made between the parties due to “misunderstanding” that the land had been returned to the villagers, CBI said.
It was also alleged that RTI activist and whistleblower Satish Shetty was killed after he exposed these land deals.
Congress alleged thatRSS workers wearing burkhas were present at NarendraModi’s public rally in Goa.Addressing a press conference, Congress spokesperson BabuAzgaonkar said: “RSS workers were given burkhas specially tailored and they were seated at the rally to make it appear that minority community members were attending his rally in large numbers.”He also named two BJP party leaders who Azgaonkar said were responsible for tailoring nearly 5,000 burkhas for the meeting.Over one lakh people, an unprecedented number in Goa, attended Mr Modi’s public meeting held on the outskirts of Panaji. Modi and minority isthe biggest issue in our country, after Gujarat riots he is been labelled as Muslim haters. In between, he tried his level best to correct his image too, by taking a bold step;Modi called on BJP to unite with the minority community, saying that if around 25% of minority voters had supported the saffron party in his state, the same could be possible in other parts of the country. India needs leaders who unite the communities rather than divide them. Whether he wants to become PM or not, it is always better to connect with each and every person. Particularly with the blames he got, it is necessary to connect with minority in particular. No doubt that Muslims in Gujarat have voted for him and many Muslims in India too are fond of him, in Hyderabad rally we have seen the Minority attendance.
The change is predictable, people are going to vote for him decelerating all the barriers of religion, caste or creed and this will be the biggest game changer for him and for the BJP. Those who are still in misperception about Modi must rethink his thrice win in Gujarat which couldn’t have been without his confidence in Muslim voters. In fact it will give him extra push. His Muslim voters in Gujarat should come forward to campaign for him on national level. Now if they come forward then the situation would move in favour of BJP.
Muslims at large are conditioned and guzzled with the impression that they belong to secular parties or they should go with Congress. There are many political parties who have equally treated them as any other Indian without bifurcating them to minorities or vote bank politics. There is a stable government in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; these two chief ministers are secular and they just want development in their states. Whatever development work is done in these states is for the people of the state, not for any particular religion or people. In these states, both Hindu and Muslims are given equal status and opportunities. BJP always attacked Congress for their so called minority card politics. Many Muslims have supported BJP and brought revolution in elections in the past. Some of them sabotaged the notion that Minorities are the vote bank for Congress. But in the recent past, that too after 2002, wrong political agenda and incorrect way of campaigning has damaged the election scenario. There should be no such terminology called as Minority in a modern day India. Development is for Indians irrespective of their religion, caste, language, and domicile. Whether you are Hindu, Christian, Muslim, and Sikh or of any other religious background, you are Indian. Indians are special and the development story belongs to you.The development has to be in the form of Education, Food, Health and Infrastructure in the same order of priority. In five years of time, there should be no village without electricity or drinking water. There should be no child below the age of 14 not going to school. If we are able to achieve this, then we are talking about true development.
Setting out “272-plus” as the ambitious target for BJP, Modi seemed to elaborate that governance should not discriminate and emphasised that the only “prayer book” for any government was the Constitution. The emphasis was seen as an attempt to correct or soften a hard saffron image. He asked his party not to exclude sections among minorities who remain unrepresented and are searching for an identity of their own. Modi made very strong statement that no one should divide communities but ensure all sections are represented.The Gujarat example may rile his rivals, but Modi insisted that BJP benefits from a significant section of Muslim voters who have been convinced of the party’s credentials. The approach has shown results in local body elections with the election of Muslim councillors.
Mosi said there is a particular section of society which has been used by Congress for political gains and is vulnerable to the ruling party’s shenanigans. This section should be brought on board. Modi set out some specifics before a meeting of national office-bearers, state presidents and state organising secretaries. He said there was a need to form constituency level plans to track local issues so that anti-incumbency against the Congress could be fully exploited. He said BJP needed to identify opinion makers at the local level and make sure they were associated with the BJP campaign. Young voters were clearly a target constituency given the efforts made by the Election Commission to add new voters and encourage them to cast their votes. Modi said BJP did not have much time to get its act together as the countdown for the LokSabha elections was ticking away. Supplementing the presentation by IT expert Rajesh Jain, Modi also stressed the importance of social media in forming opinion, at least in urban areas. Modi’s minority pitch seems to hinge on the assessment that there are large sections which have failed to benefit from the sops promised to them and who need not be seen as “out of bounds” for the BJP. It is not about what happened in 2002, it is about what is going to happen after 2014. We have witnessed a great leader who led a state with one of the fastest growing states with a growth rate of 10 percent. India needs such a leader and its important Muslim voters support him. The party which has ruled this country for a long time and has wrongly given the impression that they are the messiahs of the minorities should be kicked out only for bad governance. Elect good candidates who can deliver results for all of us. Let’s see where this new found love of Modi makes him Prime Minister of this country or not.
Indian Diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s issue has been blown out of proportion with both the countries adamant on their stand. The stand taken by both the countries are partially justified. While America is trying to uphold its labour laws, India is trying to protect its diplomat by means of diplomatic immunity. It is difficult to say who is the villain in this regard. Surely, there is no real villain, tragic hero who is the victim of circumstances in this regard. Devyani has breached the law, and justice has to be done. However, America also knows that diplomats enjoy immunity so it was unfair of them to treat her thus. Here comes the larger question of America’s racist attitude towards Indians.
Devyani Khobragade, 39, was arrested on Dec. 12 while she was dropping her kids in schools. She was arrested on account of committing a visa fraud. She was also held guilty of underpaying her maid. According to reports, Richard, Devyani’s domestic help, went missing since June and appeared two weeks later accompanied by a lawyer and demanded a sum worth $ 10,000 and a regular visa against the diplomatic one which she had. Thus Devyani had landed herself in doldrums.
Then followed an arrest which India termed as unfair. She was handcuffed during her arrest and was cavity searched. Her lawyer emphasised upon the fact that the nature of her crime was civil, not criminal. Yet America stuck to its deeds. India tried to prevent her from undergoing such an ordeal, but all in vain. This led to some protests in India, some ministers suggesting that US diplomats practising homosexuality should be arrested. India’s reputation was at stake as Devyani was a representative of the nation. Unable to protect her under the US laws, India asked Washington to accredit Devyani at the U N. It did so and in return, asked India to do away with the diplomatic immunity. India naturally refused, following which Devyani was asked to leave the country.
Now, the tragedy is that Devyani has to live away from her family. If her children decide to reside in US, then she will have to live apart. Besides, lots of Indians settled in America have hired maids by following similar procedure. Now they too are at a risk of being arrested, looking at which, the government is looking forward to amend the law relating to this issue. There is also a question of whether Bharara was trying to get Devyani arrested for his own political gains. Whatever the reasons be, one should be aware and adhere to the laws of the country they reside in.
India and Bangladesh are jointly patrolling their common border specially in the unfenced, sensitive and vulnerable areas, an official said here on Monday.
“Jawans of Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) have been carrying out joint patrolling along the borders to prevent unwanted elements from crossing the borders in view of the political turmoil in Bangladesh,” a BSF official told reporters.
“Such mutual patrolling would continue until the situation becomes normal in Bangladesh. The combined guarding is being done specially along the unfenced, sensitive and vulnerable bordering areas,” the official said.
India’s five states – West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram – share a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh. A large portion of the International Border remains unfenced and porous.
There are a large number of thickly populated Bangladeshi villages and towns on the other side of the International Border, making patrolling a delicate task for the Indian border guards and other security forces.
In view of the ongoing political turmoil in that country, India had earlier tightened the vigil along its border with Bangladesh.
Tripura Director General of Police C Balasubramanian said: “The government has asked the BSF to keep maximum alert along the border. We have asked the superintendents of police of bordering districts to take necessary measures to deal with the situation.”
BSF director general Subhash Joshi last month inspected the India-Bangladesh border in Tripura and other northeastern states to review the security.
According to media reports in Bangladesh, over 200 houses and shops belonging to the minority Hindu community have been vandalised and looted by the Jamaat-e-Islami activists in different parts of Bangladesh’s Jessore and Dinajpur districts.
Fresh incidents of rapes and attacks were reported from a village close to Jessore district.
Both majority and minority communities should work together to maintain harmony, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday.
“To maintain communal harmony, both majority communities and minorities have to work together to create an atmosphere of acceptance and harmony,” the Prime Minister said while addressing the annual conference of state minority commissions here.
Without referring to any particular incident, the Prime Minister said: “In most parts of the country the relationship between majority and minority communities is harmonious, although there have been instances where this relationship has been put to severe test, especially of late.”
“These aberrations tarnish the image of our country and our society. They cause pain and suffering to the affected people. They also disrupt the ability of large sections of our society to contribute to the rapid economic progress of our country.”
Muzzafarnagar riots last year left nearly 40 people dead according to some estimates, and over 50,000 homeless.
Stating that secularism has been an “age old tradition”, Manmohan Singh said we should be “cautious of people who work against India’s secular thought by attempting to redefine secularism”.
“Our strength as a country lies in our unity. We should be vigilant against forces that seek to exploit our diversity in religion, language and culture to divide our people,” he said.
Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan on Monday said the government is looking into the issue of reservation for minorities as per the recommendations of the Ranganath Misra Commission report.
“The ministry is looking into recommendations of the Justice Ranganath Misra Commission for identification of socially and economically backward sections among religious and linguistic minorities and to recommend measures for welfare,” Khan said, addressing the annual conference of the state minority commissions.
The National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities, headed by former chief justice of India Ranganath Misra, had suggested that instead of the 27 percent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 15 percent be set aside for Muslims and Christians, leaving 12 percent for the OBCs.
Khan added such reservation would be in tune with the spirit of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution.
Article 15 of the Indian Constitution talks about prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and Article 16 is about equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.
He also said that the Jain community may soon be added to the list of minorities.
“The government is actively considering the inclusion of Jains in the minority community so that the benefits of welfare schemes run by the government of India could be extended to the Jain community also,” Khan said.
At present, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) are notified as minority communities under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
A Pakistani newspaper on Monday compared the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI).
“Both parties are challenging the existing political forces, and are actually a vote of no confidence in their ability to express the wishes of the masses,” said an editorial in The Nation.
It said both the AAP and PTI enjoyed the support of the youths and middle class.
“The similarities of the PTI and AAP are too many to be missed. Both are parties from outside the normal political spectrum, with the support base of urban youth and the middle class,” the editorial said.
Both parties preside over a provincial government. The AAP rules Delhi and the PTI governs the Kyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, it said.
The PTI is also the main opposition in Punjab.
The editorial said the AAP’s success has inspired many politicians everywhere. In Pakistan, perhaps its greatest admirer is PTI’s chairperson Imran Khan.
Amidst tensions on the border with Pakistan, Army Chief General Bikram Singh on Monday rejected allegations that the Indian Army was not retaliating strongly during ceasefire violations by its South Asian neighbour.
Speaking to media at the annual press conference on the enhancement of combat power and operational readiness in the Indian Army, General Singh said that the Indian Army makes attempts to control the situation at the border and not escalate it.
Any militant who crosses the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir will be fired at, General Singh said.
His comments came as reports in the Pakistani media blamed India for violating the ceasefire and firing at a civilian near the LoC.
He, however, added that “attempts are on to ensure ceasefire agreements are adhered to by both sides. It is our endeavour to control it, not escalate it”.
“If rules are followed by our neighbours, we follow them too. If rules are broken, we won’t sit on it, we will break them too,” he said.
“We will pay Pakistan back in the same coin,” added the Army chief.
Uttam Khobragade, the father of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade who recently returned home after her indictment in the United States in a visa fraud case, is likely to enter politics ahead of the upcoming General Elections.
He is also currently in talks with various political parties and is keen to contest the General Elections this year as well, as per reports.
It is not the first time that the retired IAS officer has hinted at joining politics. The senior bureaucrat had reportedly hinted at joining politics few years back as well.
The retired bureaucrat is a Dalit and 1984 batch IAS officer and has been in news after his name got involved in multi-crore Adarsh Housing Society scam.
His daughter, Devyani Khobragade, was indicted in US for visa fraud and making false statements. The arrest triggered a controversy and strained the diplomatic ties between the two sides after news of Devyani being strip-searched in the US on December 12 last year spread.
The senior IAS officer said that he will continue to struggle till charges against his daughter Devyani are dropped.
Lashing out at the West Bengal government for its alleged apathy towards the Madhyamgram gang-rape victim, a state BJP leader has urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to conduct a probe into the incident.
“The teenager was a victim of the state’s apathy at various levels – the law enforcement agencies, the hospital and the child welfare committee of the district. Not only did the state failed to provide a rape victim security but tried to hush up the incident by trying to hijack the body of the victim,” BJP state secretary Ritesh Tiwari said in a letter to NHRC yesterday.
Demanding an enquiry into the role of police, he said, “The role of hospital where the victim was treated for seven days should be thoroughly looked into. A proper complaint of intimidation against the police officer who had threatened the father of the victim to force him out of the state should also be initiated,” he said.
The Court Bombay High Court today asked the magistrate in Maval taluka of Pune district to decide on the closure report filed by police in case of alleged forgery and cheating in land deals exposed by slain whistleblower Satish Shetty. 
India and Bangladesh are jointly patrolling their common border specially in the unfenced, sensitive and vulnerable areas, an official said here on Monday. 
Both majority and minority communities should work together to maintain harmony, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday. 
Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan on Monday said the government is looking into the issue of reservation for minorities as per the recommendations of the Ranganath Misra Commission report. 
A Pakistani newspaper on Monday compared the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI). 
Amidst tensions on the border with Pakistan, Army Chief General Bikram Singh on Monday rejected allegations that the Indian Army was not retaliating strongly during ceasefire violations by its South Asian neighbour. 
Lashing out at the West Bengal government for its alleged apathy towards the Madhyamgram gang-rape victim, a state BJP leader has urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to conduct a probe into the incident.