IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – March 8th, 2010

by iamcadmin on March 7, 2010

In this issue

Communal Harmony

News Headlines

Opinions & Editorials

Communal Harmony

Sukhbir vows to maintain communal harmony (Mar 1, 2010, The Hindu)

A day after violence rocked parts of Punjab following filing of a
fresh murder case against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim
Singh, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday warned no
one would be allowed to disturb communal harmony.

Addressing a
Holla Mohalla function here, Mr. Badal said anyone found whipping
communal passions or indulging in lawlessness would be dealt with
sternly. "Let there be no confusion in anyone?s mind: no one will be
allowed to get away with lawless acts. Peace and communal harmony will
be maintained at all costs."

He said 90 rioters had been
rounded up and the state DGP himself was supervising the law and order
situation in trouble-torn areas. On Saturday, the Dera supporters went
on a rampage setting ablaze four trains and around 37 vehicles,
including 27 buses, and vandalised property in several places in Punjab
and Haryana. The Deputy Chief Minister slammed the UPA Government at
the Centre for hiking petrol and diesel prices saying his party would
raise the issue in Parliament.

Raising the price of urea by 10
per cent and keeping Punjab out of the second Green Revolution plan
were aimed at "crushing the already indebted farmers in Punjab", he
said. Referring to the upcoming SGPC elections, Mr. Badal asked the
community to foil the "backdoor entry" of the Congress in the top
religious Sikh body.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/01/stories/2010030157020500.htm

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News Headlines

Gulberg Society massacre: Witnesses accuse judge of bias, seek transfer of case (Mar 5, 2010, Indian Express)

Seven eyewitnesses and victims of the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre
have approached the Gujarat High Court with a prayer to transfer the
case from the special trial court of Sessions Judge B U Joshi, calling
him biased. The application is likely to be heard on Friday.

The
petition was filed on Wednesday after Principal Sessions Judge G B Shah
rejected their prayer in January on ground of jurisdiction. He had
stated that the HC set up the special trial court after directions from
the Supreme Court and hence the Sessions Court did not have
jurisdiction over it.

The petitioners allege that the behaviour
of the judge is biased and he seems to have pre-judged the authenticity
of witnesses’ statements. In such a situation, they alleged that they
have no hope of getting justice in Joshi’s court. The petitioners have
cited various instances to substantiate their claim. Recently, Special
Public Prosecutor R K Shah and his assistant Nayana Bhatt resigned from
the case. Sources said Shah and Bhatt had expressed their
dissatisfaction with the SIT and the trial judge.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/587059/

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Sleazy godman under police net worth Rs 500 cr (Mar 4, 2010, IBN)

The latest godman in the Delhi police net, Swami Bhimanand, is worth
almost Rs 500 crore and used to cater to high end clients. The long,
divine sounding name Ichchadhari Sant Bhimanand Ji Maharaj could not
even save the godman from the long arm of the law. Swami Bhimanand
professed to be a devotee of Satya Sai Baba and among his thousands of
followers boasted prominent politicians and bureaucrats. But on the
side, he was running a sex racket for 10 years which the Delhi police
busted last week. "We will be booking him under MCOCA as his past has
all the necessary ingredients," said Delhi Police Commissioner HGS
Dhaliwal.

The 39-year-old Swamin Bhimanand, whose real name is
Shreemurath Dwivedi, started work in Delhi as a security guard in 1988.
In 1997 he was arrested for managing a prostitution ring. When he got
out of jail, he took up religion simply as a front to his sleazy
dealings. He used to supply women, including air hostesses, to high end
clients all across Delhi and used to earn approximately Rs 2.5 lakh
everyday. When produced in court on Wednestday, the godman of course
denied all these charges. "I have been framed. All allegations against
me are false," the swami said. But police have recovered five diaries
from him which have the names, phone numbers and even rates of certain
prostitutes.

Sources say Swami Bhimanand had a very wide network
of pimps and prostitutes and was worth more than Rs 300 crore. The
police now wants to take him on remand to know more about his dealings
and also about the politicians whose patronage he always enjoyed.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sleazy-godman-under-police-net-worth-rs-500-cr/111042-3.html

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One more godman caught in bed with Tamil actress (Mar 3, 2010, IBN)

A sting operation by a Tamil magazine and a local TV channel
revealed the spiritual leader Swami Paramahamsa Nithyananda in an
alleged sex scandal with a Tamil actress. Though both the channel and
the magazine have not revealed the location, the pictures show Swami
Nithyananda in compromising positions with the actress.

Minor
incidents of protests from various parts of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka
have been reported after the channel played the story on Tuesday,
following which the police has beefed up security at all his ashrams in
the state including Tiruvannamalai, which Swami Nithyananda visits
often.

Swami Nithyananda is a spiritual leader and runs the
Nithyananda Mission which is part of a world-wide movement for
meditation and peace.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/one-more-godman-caught-in-bed-with-tamil-actress/110982-3.html

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Ashram stampede: Pratapgarh SP admits lapse on part of cops at outpost (Mar 6, 2010, Indian Express)

While the district administration had tried to distance itself from
the tragedy in which 63 women and children were killed in a stampede at
the Bhakti Dham Ashram on Thursday, the fact is that there is a police
post near the ashram which did nothing to control the crowds. The
police post, which is actually known as Bhakti Dham outpost and is
under Kunda police station, has four policemen, including a
sub-inspector. They watched the crowds swell, but did not do anything
on their own, nor informed the higher authorities, it is learnt. On
Friday, Pratapgarh SP M P Mishra admitted that there had been
negligence on the part of the policemen at the outpost and that action
would be taken against them. On Thursday, officiating District
Magistrate Ashok Kumar Upadhyaya had said the administration had no
advance information about the event organised by the ashram, otherwise
they would have taken measures to regulate the crowds.

Allahabad
Commissioner A K Upadhaya, who was asked to conduct an inquiry into the
incident, and IG Chandra Prakash questioned Ram Kripal Tripathi alias
Kripalu Maharaj at the ashram. Upadhyaya also recorded the statements
of some victims and eyewitnesses, including men from the ashram.
Although the content of his interim report to the government could not
be known, it is learnt that he has blamed the organisers and also the
local police for the tragedy. Meanwhile, in a statement, Kripalu
Maharaj claimed that neither he nor any of his staff had invited the
people who had gathered at the ashram on the occasion of his wife’s
death anniversary. On Thursday evening, ashram’s spokesperson Radhika
Saran had told The Indian Express that keeping in mind the large number
of gathering anticipated, the ashram had informed Kunda police and
district administration on February 25.

The crowds from nearby
villages had gathered to collect the ‘prasad’ of Rs 20, one utensil,
one laddoo and one handkerchief that the ashram was to give to every
visitor. SP leader Ahikesh Yadav, Congress MP from Pratapgarh Ratna
Singh, and Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari visited the
spot where the incident took place and met the injured in the hospital.
Ram Kripal Tripathi (86), also known as Jagatguru Kripaluji Maharaj,
was born into a poor farmer’s family in Mangarh. He participated in a
religious competition in Allahabad and earned the title of ‘Jagatguru’
in 1957. Tripathi holds a master’s degree in Sanskrit and was a purohit
for some time. He has three daughters and two sons.

With help
from his foreign disciples, Tripathi set up the Mangarh ashram 20 years
ago. It is spread over 200 acres. He also has ashrams in Mathura,
Nagpur and Trinidad. He heads the Radha Madhav Society in Trinidad,
which has around 300 centres worldwide. His followers believe him to be
the fifth Jagatguru and the first in the last 700 years. He owns a
fleet of BMW and Mercedes cars. The Mangarh ashram has a helipad.
Tripathi was charged with kidnapping two girls, and in 1991, cases of
kidnapping and rape were registered against him in Nagpur. Another case
of raping a minor was also lodged in Nagpur the same year. He was
acquitted after the witnesses turned hostile. A 22-year-old Guyanese
woman in South Trinidad filed a rape case against him in May 2007,
which led to his arrest. He was in jail for over a month.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/587510/

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CID to probe girls death at BJP chiefs house (Mar 5, 2010, Rediff)

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday ordered an
inquiry by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) into the death of a
seven-year-old girl, whose body was found in a car that found at the
residence of Bharatiya Janata Party President Nitin Gadkari on May 21,
2009. "Prima facie, we are not satisfied by the investigations carried
out by the police. Therefore, we hand over the investigation to the
CID," the court said.

It was initially reported that the car in
which the girl’s body was found belonged to Gadkari. However, the
Kotwali police in Nagpur, which investigated the case, said that the
car was not owned by the BJP president, but by his former personal
assistant. The girl’s family, meanwhile, has not bought the argument
and has alleged that the girl’s murder was being covered due to
political pressure. They also alleged that the cover up could be at the
behest of Gadkari and other politicians.

While the cops claimed
that the girl died due to lack of oxygen in the car, the parents of the
girl demanded a CBI probe claiming that the post mortem report had
shown that the girl had sustained injuries and that someone had
‘smothered’ her. Gadkari was not present at the time of the incident.
The girl’s parents claimed that the official police version has many
holes.

According to the police version, seven-year-old Yogita
Thackeray’s body was found in the car when it was opened by policemen
deployed outside Gadkari’s residence in Mahal in Nagpur. The girl, who
was the daughter of a maidservant employed in a neighbouring household,
entered the car and then suffocated to death.

http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/mar/05/cid-to-probe-girls-death-at-bjp-chiefs-house.htm

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Two killed in Karnataka over Taslimas article (Mar 1, 2010, Express Buzz)

Two people were killed, including one in police firing, as protests
in Karnataka over the publication of a translated version of
Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen’s article in a Kannada daily turned
violent Monday, police said. Curfew has been clamped in Shimoga city,
about 280 km from here, and prohibitory orders imposed in Hassan
district, around 200 km from here, police said.

"One person died
in police firing and the other of injuries from assault," M.B. Pravin,
additional superintendent of police at Shimoga, told IANS on phone.
Shimoga is the hometown of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. The Kannada
version of the article was published Sunday. Groups of people went
round Shimoga forcing shops to close, pelted stones, set fire to many
two-wheelers and several four-wheelers, police said.

After a
baton charge failed to check the mobs, an order prohibiting the
assembly of five people or more was announced but that too failed to
end violence, a police spokesperson said. "Curfew was clamped on
Shimoga city after 4 p.m. and the situation was under control," he
said. "The situation will be reviewed in the morning," he said.

Protests
in Hassan, about 200 km from here, also turned violent with protestors
pelting stones and attempting to set fire to a few commercial
establishments, police said. Prohibitory orders have been imposed in
Hassan, home town of former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular
leader H.D. Deve Gowda, banning the assembly of five or more persons,
police said.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/print.aspx?artid=VU5Qe6GNFh8=

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Communal tension in UP village after gangrape of 17-year-old (Mar 1, 2010, Indian Express)

Three days after a 17-year-old Muslim girl was allegedly gangraped
by three boys of the Jat community at Hilwari village in Uttar Pradesh,
tension is running high. Communication has almost snapped between the
two communities, with allegations and counter-allegations flying thick
and fast. While the Jat community claims their boys have been framed
for political reasons, the Muslims maintain the more powerful
land-owning Jats are threatening them not to pursue the case.

Police
have already arrested two of the three boys who had fled the village
after the incident came to light. On February 25, Summi (name changed),
a 17-year-old Class XI student, was gangraped a few lanes away from her
house while she was on her way to the house of her best friend. "I was
about to reach my best friend’s house about 12.20 om when someone
gagged me from behind and carried me into an empty room. They were
three boys from my school, and they raped me for a long time and kept
beating me," says Summi.

"Since the incident, things have
changed here and there is a visible tension. We avoid going into their
(Jats) pockets and they also don’t come here now," says Sattar Ali, a
neighbour who was the first to find Summi after the rape. One of the
accused is the younger brother, a minor, of Summi’s best friend. The
other two accused who have been arrested are Karamvir, 19, and Vineet,
18. Police said the medical report of the girl confirmed rape and soon
after the incident, the three boys and their families fled the village.
The Muslims allege the Jat community, which is in majority, is creating
pressure on them not to pursue the case. "They told us not to defame
their innocent boys. Else, it won’t be good for our children. The
police, though, have arrested two of my daughter’s rapists, and we are
sure that we will get justice," says Munni, 33, the victim’s mother.

The
members of Jat community deny the allegations, saying their children
were brought there at gunpoint by the Muslims who want to exert power
in the village and get a bigger say in local politics. "The village has
3,000 Jats and around 1,000 Muslims, and they are all doing this to get
attention. They will make this an issue for the next panchayat
elections," says Om Sharma, a shopkeeper. Fearing further harm and
?shame’, Summi’s family has now decided to make her and her younger
cousin quit school. SHO S K Singh said they were hunting for the third
accused.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/585687/

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Rajan aide fake encounter: Another policeman held (Mar 5, 2010, Hindustan Times)

Inspector Pradeep Suryavanshi, one of the key accused in the "fake"
encounter killing of alleged Chhota Rajan gangster Ramnarayan Gupta
alias Lakhan Bhaiya, was arrested by the Special Investigation Team
(SIT) on Thursday night. Sources in the SIT told Hindustan Times on
Thursday that Suryavanshi was nabbed from a hotel at Andheri, which
belongs to one of his friends. Suryavanshi had gone on sick leave
following the arrest of police inspector Pradeep Sharma in January this
year for involvement in the fake encounter.

This was ostensibly
done in order to evade arrest. Suryavanshi got himself admitted to a
private hospital and went underground. The SIT had posted policemen at
his residence to arrest him. SIT chief, Deputy Commissioner of Police
(DCP) K M M Prasanna, confirmed the arrest but declined to speak
further. Seven more, including senior police inspector Pradeep Sharma,
earlier arrested in the case, are presently lodged in judicial custody.

On November 11, 2006, Suryavanshi, then posted at the D N Nagar
police station, had allegedly led a team of 13 policemen that killed
Gupta near Magnum Opus building, Opposite Nana Nani Park at
Juhu-Versova Link Road in an encounter. One of Gupta’s accomplices
managed to escape the scene. An initial report prepared by the Versova
police after the encounter stated that the police team fired five
rounds at an armed Gupta who did not pay heed to the repeated loud
warnings made by PI Suryavanshi and API Sarwankar to surrender.

While
Suryavanshi had fired two rounds, APIs Palande, Sarwankar and Sartape
had fired one round each. Gupta had allegedly fired two rounds from his
.32 caliber "Made In Japan" revolver. A magisterial inquiry – ordered
after Gupta’s brother Ramnarayan moved the Bombay High Court alleging
that his brother had been picked up from his residence in Navi Mumbai
and killed in a fake encounter – nailed the lies and concluded that the
encounter had been "faked" and Gupta was killed in cold blood.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/515357.aspx

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Maoists want to overthrow Indian state by 2050: Home Secy (Mar 5, 2010, Indian Express)

Maoists have plans to overthrow the Indian democracy through their
armed struggle and want to control the government by 2050, Home
Secretary Gopal K Pillai on Friday said. Addressing a seminar on "Left
Wing Extremism Situation in India", Pillai said the Maoists might be
getting the help of some former soldiers in carrying out subversive
activities.

"The overthrow of the Indian state is not something
they are willing to do tomorrow or the day after. Their strategy,
according to a booklet they circulated, is that they are looking for at
2050, some documents say in 2060," he said.

According to
Pillai, Naxals were not looking at to overthrow the Indian state in
2012 or 2013, it was a long steady plan and in the past 10 years they
slowly build up the movement. "Now they can bring many sectors of
Indian economy into their knees."

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/587304/

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PIL says cant have mosque in Hindu area, HC says intolerance has to go (Mar 4, 2010, Indian Express)

A resident of a Hindu-dominated locality in Navi Mumbai has
challenged the construction of a mosque; the Bombay High Court has told
her such intolerance has to go. The petition, filed by Sumitra Kadu of
Sector 50E, Nerul, alleges that CIDCO given a Muslim trust a
1042.27-sq-metre, reserved plot. Her advocate, G N Salunke, told the
court Wednesday that not one Muslim family lives in a radius of 1 km
from the site and only 331 Muslim families live beyond that radius.

"If
the mosque is allowed there is every possibility of encroachment on the
public open premises in the locality by Muslim encroachers which may
badly affect the development of the city," says the petition, heard by
a division bench of Justice F I Rebello and Justice J H Bhatia. "So
minorities cannot have their own place of worship? This intolerance has
to go. Either we should live together or pack our bags and go," the
bench said.

Kadu contends she is a project-affected person and
12.5 per cent of the area was reserved for their rehabilitation which
has not been completed yet. Her lawyer said the police commissioner has
repeatedly stated there is likely to be a law-and-order problem if
construction of the mosque is allowed, yet CIDCO has handed over the
plot to the trustees of the mosque. "Public in the locality is very
much annoyed and aggressive and there is every possibility to riot and
in law-and-order point of view the allotment is required to be
cancelled," the PIL states.

It says the trustees are neither
project-affected persons nor residents of Sector 50E. The construction
of the mosque, it says, will affect the construction of a college the
land was reserved for. The plot is also a mangroves bed but permission
has not been sought to hack it, the PIL adds. The court directed CIDCO
to file an affidavit and submit a map of the area in two weeks. The
court also told Salunke and the CIDCO counsel to come up with a
workable solution.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/586417/

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Opinions and Editorials

Targeting Husain – Editorial (Mar 2, 2010, Deccan Herald)

It is a matter of national shame for India that Maqbool Fida Husain,
the country’s most celebrated artist, has accepted the offer of
Quatar’s citizenship because he is unable to live and work in India.
Husain’s decision shows that the constitutional guarantees of freedom
of expression and even of life and liberty are dead letters when it
comes to the crunch. Husain has been at the receiving end of a virulent
campaign by Hindutva forces since 1996 for his unconventional portrayal
of Hindu deities in his paintings, notwithstanding the fact that such
creative freedom has been the hallmark of Indian art for ages. The
targeting of Husain had much to do with his own name, the rising tide
of intolerance in the country and the inability to judge art on its own
terms.

The 95-year-old artist has been in self-imposed exile in
Dubai since 2006, unable to face legal harassment and unsure of his
safety and security in the country. He has faced hundreds of cases,
launched in a concerted fashion to harass him. Some of the cases have
been rejected by courts but there are still others caught in judicial
delays awaiting a decision. But a judicial clearance is the least of
the problems. Governments have been unable to guarantee him adequate
security, though Husain has many times expressed his keenness to come
back to the country.

His works have been vandalised, his home
was once broken into and he has suffered threats and indignities. The
government’s pussyfooting even created the ridiculous situation of the
country’s best artist going unrepresented in the India Art Summit of
2008. The government’s proneness to pander to the narrow sensitivities
of a bigoted class rather than respect artistic sensibility and enforce
its mandate to implement the rule of law was at the root of this.

Related posts:

  1. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – March 1st, 2010
  2. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – March 15th, 2010
  3. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – March 22nd, 2010
  4. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – March 29th, 2010
  5. IMC-USA Weekly News Digest – March 9th, 2009

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