IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – April 26th, 2010

by iamcadmin on April 25, 2010

In this issue

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

News Headlines

Supreme court fumes over behind the scene drama in
Gujarat riots trial (Apr 19, 2002, DNA India)

The Supreme Court today expressed anger at "behind-the-scene"
activities even as the SIT probing the 2002 post-Godhra communal riots
sought reconsideration of its direction to drop senior Gujarat-cadre IPS
officers Geeta Johri and Shivanand Jha from the investigation. "Who has
told you? What we feel is that something is happening behind the scene.
If he has disclosed to the media, then he has no business to be the
public prosecutor," a three-judge bench, of Justices DK Jain, P
Sathasivam and Aftab Alam told Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam
acting as amicus curaie in the case.

The bench made the remarks
after Subramaniam submitted that another public prosecutor has written
to the SIT to transfer the trial outside Gujarat. Earlier, one of the
public prosecutors had resigned alleging lack of cooperation from the
SIT and the trial judge. "How did you learn this?" the bench told
Subramaniam who said he learnt it from media reports. The submission
provoked the bench which said "whatever happens between the SIT and the
public prosecutor the press comes to know. It is very unfortunate. But
we will not go by media reports".

Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi,
appearing for Gujarat government, objected to Subramaniam’s submission
and wondered what interest the Centre had in the present case. "The
Centre is not a privity to the case. So, how is it interested?" he said
adding it was surprising that even the state, which is a party, is not
aware of any such move by one of the public prosecutor’s plea for
transfer of the trial. The benchsaid it would pass an appropriate order
on the SIT’s plea to reconsider the apex court’s April 6 order asking
the probe agency to drop Geeta Johri and Shivanand Jha from the
investigation. "They have given reasons for it. We will pass appropriate
orders," the bench told the amicus who said the SIT’s plea to
reconsider the earlier judicial order was improper.

The apex court
also said it would consider at a later stage the plea of Shivanand Jha
that he should he heard before being removed from the SIT as otherwise
it would cause irreparable damage to his personal and career reputation.
"We did not seek your consent when we appointed you. Should we seek
your order before passing the order (removal)?" the bench snapped at
senior counsel Vikas Singh appearing for the IPS Officer.

The
bench granted three days time to certain NGOs to file their response on
the allegations of Gujarat government that they had made false claims on
the communal riots and tutored witnesses. Under the apex court’s
direction, the SIT is probing 10 cases relating to post-Godhra riots –
Gulbarg Society, Ode, Sardarpura, Narodao Gaon, Naroda Patya, Baranpura,
Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghavapura.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_supreme-court-fumes-over-behind-the-scene-drama-in-gujarat-riots-trial_1373250

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to Top]

Togadia fails to appear before SIT (Apr 20, 2002,
Rediff)

Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia, who was summoned by the
Special Investigation Team for questioning in a 2002 Gujarat riot case,
failed to appear on Monday before the Supreme Court-constituted agency
in Ahmedabad. Togadia, one of the 63 persons named in the complaint by
Zakia Jaffery, wife of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jaffery, was asked to
remain present before the SIT on Monday.

Meanwhile, sources in
the VHP said the 53-year-old leader, a cancer surgeon, was out of
Gujarat. Sources in the SIT said Togadia has been summoned in connection
with the complaint of Zakia, whose husband was among 69 killed in the
Gulburg Society riots on February 28, 2002, a day after the torching of
the Sabarmati Express. She has alleged Chief Minister Narendra Modi and
62 others, including his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior
bureaucrats, aided and abetted the post-Godhra riots.

According
to Zakia, Togadia, whose name appears as accused 20, "collaborated with
the other accused in perpetration of violence in pursuance of the
conspiracy". The SIT had questioned Modi for over nine hours on March 27
based on the same complaint. The Supreme Court on April 27, 2009 had
asked the SIT, led by former Central Bureau of Investigation Director R K
Raghavan, to inquire into the complaint. Zakia moved the SC after
Gujarat High Court refused on November 3, 2007 to give any direction and
asked her to seek redressal before the Magistrate’s Court.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/apr/20/togadia-skips-sit-summons.htm

SEE ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Batla encounter: Residents demand probe, go on
strike (Apr 19, 2002, Indian Express)

The issue of the controversial Batla House encounter has been taken
up again by the residents of Jamia Nagar. After the government denied a
judicial probe into the encounter, in which two members of Indian
Mujahideen (IM) and Special Cell Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma had died,
the residents have called an indefinite hunger strike since April 14.
The hunger strike has come a few days after the disclosure of the
autopsy report of two Azamgarh youths Mohammad Atif Ameen and Mohammad
Sajid as first reported by this newspaper last month.

The youths
were shot in the encounter on September 19, 2008 after police came
looking for terror suspects at L-18 flat at Batla House after the Delhi
serial blasts on September 13 that year. Demanding a judicial probe into
the incident, nearly 20 residents are on a hunger strike at Batla House
Chowk, 400 m from the L-18 flat. The strike has been orgainsed under
the banner of Batla House ‘Encounter’ Insaaf Committee. Committee’s
convener Amanatullah Khan told Newsline, "We are on hunger strike
because we want a judicial probe into the encounter. The postmortem
report clearly stated that the two youths were shot from a close
distance."

Referring to the recent National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) report on encounters across the country, Khan said,
"The report said of the total 2307 encounter in the country, 1,224 were
fake. So, there should be a judicial probe in this encounter. We lost a
brave police officer (Inspector Sharma), but the probe will also reveal
how he died". Khan said they will continue their strike till their
demand is met. "If the authorities do not take notice and institute the
probe, we will move to Jantar Mantar and continue our protest."

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/608172/

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to Top]

UP police knew Babri could be attacked: IPS
officer (Apr 23, 2002, Rediff)

A former personal security officer of senior Bharatiya Janata Party
leader L K Advani told a special court on Friday that the Faizabad
police had intelligence inputs about the possibility of attack on the
Babri mosque by "kar sevaks" and its demolition. "During a review
meeting held on December 5 (a day before the dispute structure was
demolished in 1992) the then inspector general of the zone A K Saran had
said there were intelligence information inputs regarding attack and
demolition of the disputed structure," senior Indian Police Service
officer Anju Gupta told Chief Judicial Magistrate Gulab Singh.

Gupta,
who was Advani’s personal security officer in Ayodhya at the time of
the demolition, is appearing as a prosecution witness in the special
Central Bureau of Investigation court in the case in which the BJP
leader, his party colleague Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and other
Sangh Parivar leaders have been accused of inciting violence that led to
the demolition. Gupta was cross-examined by the defence counsel for
over three hours, before the court posted the matter for next hearing on
April 29. The defence counsel asked Gupta whether there were
information that operatives of Pakistan’s intelligence agency might have
reached Ayodhya and made an effort to damage the disputed site by using
explosives or any other method.

"Threat from Pakistan’s Inter
Service Intelligence was mentioned by the IG, but he said there was a
serious threat from local level (kar sevaks) and there was a strong
possibility that they may attack and demolish the structure," she said.
The defence counsel also cross-examined Gupta while comparing her
statements before the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department and
the court. On asked whether she told the CBI that Advani expressed his
concern when informed that people were falling from the domes of the
structure and were getting injured, Gupta said, "I told each and
everything to the CB-CID and my statement was recorded under section 161
by the investigating officer."

During her deposition before the
court on March 26, Gupta had stated that Advani had given a provocative
speech in Ayodhya moments before the mosque was demolished by Sangh
Parivar activists. "On December 6, 1992, Advani made a spirited speech
from Ram Katha Kunj manch (dais), barely 150-200 metres from the
disputed site which charged the people. He repeatedly said that the
temple would be constructed at the same site," Gupta had said. She
reiterated that Uma Bharti and Ritambhara motivated people to demolish
the structure. When asked that there were several omissions in the
statement given to the CB-CID as compared to deposition made in the
court, including one that security arrangements were not according to
threat perception, Gupta said she told the state agency every detail.
"If it’s not there in the report then only the investigating officer can
tell the exact reason," she said.

"The CBI recorded my statement
in connection with Babri mosque demolition case. I cannot specifically
tell that in which case it has been used. I am not concealing anything
as I have no benefit from this," she said. On being asked that whether
she had any experience of administration’s weak writ in Ayodhya before
December 6, Gupta said she had one experience on December 5 when her
vehicle was stopped. "But I warned people and informed then senior
superintendent of police D B Rai about the incident verbally. There was
no need to initiate further action as I strongly reprimanded the trouble
makers," she said. The defence cousel also cross-examined Gupta about
her husband Safi Ahsan Rizvi, an IPS officer, and about his current
posting while on being deputation.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/apr/23/up-police-knew-babri-could-be-attacked-officer.htm

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Crime Branch to investigate custodial death (Apr
21, 2002, The Hindu)

Local police will henceforth not investigate cases of custodial
deaths and human rights violation with the Uttar Pradesh Government on
Tuesday deciding to refer all such cases to the Crime Branch of the CID
(CB-CID).

The Home Secretary, Mahesh Gupta, said here on Tuesday
that in such cases action is taken against the guilty persons, including
suspension and departmental proceedings. But it is not advisable for
the local police to investigate such cases, he added.

Four cases
of custodial deaths have been reported so far this year and these would
now be investigated by the CB-CID. The first case was reported from
Allahabad on February 13 under the Ghurpur police station area in
connection with a murder. The second incident occurred in Hardi police
station area of Bahraich district on March 20 in which a person died in
the lockup.

The station in-charge of Sardara police station in
Sitapur district was suspended following the death of one Harihar while
in custody in the night of April 16-17. The fourth case was reported
from Etah on April 17 when Vijay Singh, the father of a warranty, Ishwar
Dayal, died in police lock-up.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/21/stories/2010042158290500.htm

SEE ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Sex Swami Nithyananda arrested in Himachal (Apr
21, 2002, IBN)

Controversial self-styled godman Nithyananda Swami, who was
absconding for over a month in the wake of an alleged sex scandal, was
on Wednesday arrested in Solan in Himachal Pradesh. Nithyananda and four
of his associates were arrested from a house in Mamlig village under
Akri police station area in Solan District in a joint operation by
policemen from Bangalore and Himachal Pradesh, Deputy Commissioner,
Solan, Amar Singh Rathore said. He said Nithyananda, who is believed to
have been living in the Solan village for the last one month, and his
associates have been taken to Arki police station.

Bangalore
Criminal Investigation Department, investigating cases filed against
Nithyananda, said it had recently seized some documents and articles
during a raid on his ashram at Bidadi, about 35 km from Solan. During
the raid by a 15-member CID team, some documents pertaining to the
ashram, computers and its hardware had been taken away by police, which
had also questioned several ashramites, including Nithyananda’s brother
Nityeshwara.

Police were on the look out for Nithyananda who had
allegedly indulged in sleazy activities and a purported video footage,
aired by regional TV channels, had showed him in a compromising position
with a Tamil actress. Tamil Nadu police had registered cases against
Nithyananda for various offences under IPC including rape. The cases are
under investigation by Karnataka police, to whom they were transferred
to. Nithyananda had announced that he had quit as the head of his ashram
in Karnataka and associated trusts to lead a life of ‘spiritual
seclusion’.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sex-swami-nithyananda-arrested-in-himachal/113708-3.html

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Modi in land scams, Vasundhara was his accomplice:
Gehlot (Apr 23, 2002, Indian Express)

Ratcheting up the political pressure on IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi
and his supporters, Congress leader and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok
Gehlot issued an unusual communique late tonight in which he slammed
former CM Vasundhara Raje and alleged that Modi was involved in several
land scams in the state with Raje’s support. The communique was released
following a Cabinet meet this evening but the delay, according to the
CM’s press advisor, was because of the time it took to word it.

Speaking
out for the first time on the issue after becoming the CM and since the
run-up to the Assembly elections in 2008, Gehlot claimed that
ministers, politicians and bureaucrats had to wait outside Modi’s hotel
room for project clearances right through Raje’s five-year term in power
in Rajasthan. "It was in Rajasthan in collusion with the then CM
Vasundhara Raje, that Lalit Kumar Modi became the Lalit Modi we know
today. In fact for the first time in history, a Chief Minister passed an
Act in the assembly (Rajasthan Sports Act) solely to help Modi become
the president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) in 2005,"
Gehlot said. He added that five years of BJP rule in the state was a
blot on

Rajasthan as nothing was done to stop Modi from behaving
in an autocratic manner with all state officials. Gehlot’s remarks come
when Modi is at the centre of a controversy that has rocked the IPL and
the BCCI in the wake of Shashi Tharoor’s embarrassing resignation. The
BJP in Rajasthan was taken off guard with state unit chief Arun
Chaturvedi and Raje refusing to comment. Chaturvedi said, "I was out of
station at the time and will react to this tomorrow after studying the
release from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO)." Raje, who is touring in
South Rajasthan, when contacted, refused to comment.

Gehlot
accused Modi and Raje of scheming together in what he called "organised
land scams." "Ms Raje should be bold enough to comment on the organised
land scams, misuse of government machinery and international cricket
matches held during that time," Gehlot said. He claimed that all deals
Modi was involved in would not have been possible without the tacit
support of the CMO. Referring to the government-constituted Mathur
Commission, Gehlot said that had this commission been allowed to go
ahead with its work, truth would have been revealed. "The Mathur
committee was constituted to precisely reveal the corruption during the
previous BJP regime but has been held up in court. It would have shed
light on all these matters," the CM said.

According to Gehlot,
ministers, bureaucrats and even BJP politicians had to wait outside
Modi’s hotel room for not only project clearances but also to submit
accounts. "All officials had to submit their accounts to Modi, for
unknown purposes, and anybody who did not was penalised in subtle ways,"
Gehlot said. He added that sometimes, when Modi was in Mumbai, housing
board officials had to travel there to meet him and get his approval.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/610294/

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Medical Council chief demands bribe, arrested
(Apr 23, 2002, IBN)

Medical Council of India (MCI) chief Ketan Desai has been arrested
for allegedly demanded Rs 2 crore as bribe from a private medical
college to give it official sanction.

Desai was arrested on
Thursday night by the Central Bureau of Investigation along with two
other people Jiten Pal Singh and Kanwaljit Singh. The trio had allegedly
demanded Rs 2 crore for granting recognition to a private medical
college in Punjab.Kanwaljit Singh is a faculty at Gyan Sagar College in
Patiala.

They were arrested after the CBI laid a trap and
allegedly caught Desai red handed accepting the money. Desai is accused
of granting recognition to several colleges that didn’t meet required
criteria. In 2001, he had stepped down as MCI president after the Delhi
High Court indicted him on corruption charges.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/medical-council-chief-demands-bribe-arrested/113819-3.html

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Maoists attack four CRPF camps in Dantewada (Apr
21, 2002, Indian Express)

Maoists tonight carried out near-simultaneous attacks on four CRPF
camps in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, triggering gunbattles but
there was no immediate report of casualties.

About 300 to 400
Naxalites carried out the attacks on the camps of the paramilitary
personnel at Chintangufa, where 75 CRPF men and a policeman were killed
in the worst Maoist strike two weeks ago, Kanker Lanka, Potampalli and
Bheji in quick succession beginning at around 1930 hours, sources said.

The
CRPF men retaliated, sparking intermittent gunbattles with the Maoists
in all the four places till 2130 hours. There was no immediate report of
any casualty on either side, said the sources.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/608960/

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Dalit girl, father burnt alive in Haryana (Apr 21,
2002, IBN)

A physically challenged girl and her father were burnt alive when
some persons set afire houses belonging to dalits in a village in
Haryana’s Hisar district on Wednesday. Eighteen-year-old Suman was
charred to death while her father Tara Chand, 70, who suffered 90 per
cent burns, died later, officials said adding the incident happened in
Mirchpur village.

Members of a particular community raided the
village and set afire some 12 to 15 dalit houses, they said. Old enmity
between the two communities coupled with flaring up of the tension in
the past few days led to today’s incident, the officials said. A few
days back, some members of a community allegedly passed objectionable
remarks against dalit women.

This provoked retaliation from the
dalits who roughed up some youths of the rival community, villagers
said. Hisar Deputy Commissioner O P Sheron told PTI the extent of
damage to property and the exact number of houses torched were being
ascertained. A large posse of policemen were deployed in the village
where tension ran high. Haryana’s Director General Police Ranjiv Dalal
said 25 people hade been arrested in connection with the arson. The
trial would be conducted in a fast-track court, he said.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dalit-girl-father-burnt-alive-in-haryana/113732-3.html

SEE
ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Opinions and Editorials

Behind and beyond Tharoor – Editorial (Apr 20,
2002, The Hindu)

The resignation of Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi
Tharoor ends an unsavoury chapter in the politico-cricket scandal set
off by his lobbying for the Kochi franchise in the Indian Premier
League. Although belated and coming after much false protestation, the
resignation may help the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance
government blunt some of the Opposition’s attacks in Parliament. But it
does little to address popular misgivings about misuse of public office
by Ministers in search of private advantage. That Mr. Tharoor’s
"mentoring" of the bid for the franchise ended in a windfall for his
partner, Sunanda Pushkar, is not in dispute. Mr. Tharoor allegedly went
much further: he is even accused of negotiating the percentage of her
‘sweat equity’ in the consortium that successfully bid for the
franchise, Rendezvous Sports World.

Although Ms Pushkar has now
offered to surrender her windfall, this does not undo what constitutes,
prima facie, a corrupt practice by a public servant prosecutable under
Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. Actually, the
assignment of free equity to Ms Pushkar suffers from more than one
legal infirmity. Under the Companies Act, sweat equity shares are equity
shares issued only to employees or directors of a company for
consideration other than cash for providing know-how or making available
rights in the nature of intellectual property rights or value
additions. Further, at the date of the issue of sweat equity shares, not
less than one year should have elapsed from the date on which the
company was entitled to commence business.

But the rot clearly
goes beyond Mr. Tharoor and Ms Pushkar to the very core of the IPL.
Allegations have been made that the process of bidding for franchises
suffered from something like insider trading. There are also conflicts
of interest among those serving on the IPL’s Governing Council. Chairman
and commissioner Lalit Modi certainly did enough to provoke the Income
Tax department to carry out a survey on the IPL’s funding. The murky
practices go hand in hand with a lack of transparency about franchise
ownership and sources of funding. With franchise agreements
incorporating confidentiality clauses, truth, as happened in the case of
the Kochi franchise, is in the open only when a vested interest outs
it.

There is need for an immediate enquiry or investigation, if
necessary by the Central Bureau of Investigation, into Mr. Tharoor’s
egregious acts of ministerial misconduct. But the interests of justice
will be served only if this goes beyond the Kochi franchise into the
layers of corrupt and questionable practices involving big business and
powerful politicians in Indian cricket’s money-spinning, iconic show.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/04/20/stories/2010042054671000.htm

SEE ALSO:

[Back to
Top]

Ruinous civil war – By Praful Bidwai (Apr 24, 2002,
Frontline)

The killing of 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in
Dantewada by the Maoists has generated shock waves because of its sheer
scale, audacity and element of surprise. The effect stands magnified by
heavily biased media reporting, which presented the episode as "war",
"massacre" and worse, and by comments from high functionaries of the
state, including Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram. Television channels
hysterically attacked everyone from Gandhians, civil-liberties
defenders and Left-leaning intellectuals as part of a continuum
stretching from hardcore guerillas of the Communist Party of India
(Maoist) to social workers and health activists critical of the conduct
of Operation Green Hunt, the greatest military operation ever in the
Indian heartland. Some maliciously described the critics as Maoist
"collaborators" and "accomplices" who should be muzzled.

None of
these channels had bothered to report the countless civilian killings by
the paramilitary forces and police in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra, the depredations (including instances of beheadings, rape,
torture and arson) of Salwa Judum, the state-created militia of
right-wing thugs, and the circumstances that compelled 300,000 tribal
people to flee their homes. They have never linked the violence in the
tribal heartland to the impoverishment and dispossession of large
numbers of vulnerable people under shamelessly elitist economic
policies. Nor did they express an iota of sympathy for the victims of
the state and parastatal agencies. The number of deaths these have
caused are many multiples of the number killed in the latest ambush.
Pertinently, all 76 killed were combatants, not civilians. In 2009, 589
civilians were reportedly killed in the seven States that have a strong
Maoist presence. The bulk of them were in all probability killed by
police/paramilitary forces, which had earlier razed and cleaned out 700
villages in Bastar.

Media hypocrisy and blatant double standards
are deplorable in the best of circumstances. They partly reflect the
middle class’ jaundiced "us-versus-them" attitude to conflicts between
the tribal people and the state and complete incomprehension of the
social and economic realities of the Adivasi belt with its desperate
poverty, absence of public services, plunder of resources by the
state-forest-contractor-mining-industry mafia, enormous corruption, and
collapse of the state. What makes them particularly pernicious is their
purpose: to escalate Green Hunt by associating India’s regular armed
services with it and greatly raise both the technological sophistication
and lethality of the weapons used. None of this justifies the Dantewada
killings – except through some convoluted logic of retaliation to Green
Hunt, or as a means by which the Maoists demonstrate to their cadres
and the public that they are not cowed down by the state’s offensive;
they can kill massively and thus demoralise the paramilitary forces.

Indeed,
even those who are sympathetic to the justice agendas that underlie
naxalism must ask what such tactics achieve barring a hardening of the
official line that favours crushing the Maoists – even if that involves
high civilian casualties through the conscious targeting of tribal
people suspected to be sympathetic to the Maoists. Already, the CRPF has
begun a campaign of revenge in Mukram village, beating an Adivasi to
death. The Maoists surely know that even 10 Dantewada-style attacks will
not destabilise the state or lower the paramilitary forces’ morale
beyond a few months. If their military objective was to divert troops
away from their core control areas in the Dandakaranya forests, the use
of force was disproportionate and irrational – and causally unrelated to
a specific act of state violence.

Ethically, it is impermissible
for a movement or party that aims to create a just and equal society to
use excessively violent means, which show scant regard for human life
and a dangerously militarised notion of politics. Violence in
self-defence, or through the spontaneous exercise of the will, by an
oppressed community, to resist is one thing. Offensive violence by a
self-appointed guerilla army, which is excessive and unrelated to
military necessity is quite another. Such violence risks reducing
politics, centred on class agendas and the defence of the exploited and
oppressed, to military offensives and counter-offensives. Worse, it is
liable to be used by the state as an excuse to unleash yet more violence
against the underprivileged. P. Chidambaram and co. are doing just that
in a palpably devious manner. They threaten to use yet more violent
options, including, "if necessary", air power, because the state is at
war: "If this is war, and

Related posts:

  1. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – July 26th, 2010
  2. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – April 5th, 2010
  3. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – April 19th, 2010
  4. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – April 12th, 2010
  5. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – January 26th, 2009

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: