Woman charged in death of eviscerated pregnant teen - CNN.com
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- A Pennsylvania woman has been charged in the slaying of an 18-year-old woman who was found with her uterus cut open and her fetus removed, authorities said Sunday.
Andrea Curry-Demus is charged with homicide in the death of a woman whose uterus was cut open.
Andrea Curry-Demus is charged with homicide in the death of a woman whose uterus was cut open.
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Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg was charged Sunday with criminal homicide kidnapping and unlawful restraint in connection with last week's death of Kia Johnson, Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said.
Police found Johnson's body in Curry-Demus' apartment Friday, two days after Curry-Demus arrived at a hospital with a newborn and falsely claimed that the baby was hers, authorities said. Police have not confirmed whether the infant belonged to Johnson, whose family reported her missing last week.
Johnson's eviscerated body -- which police said they found after receiving calls about a foul odor coming from the apartment -- "was in a state of moderate decomposition," and she had been dead about two days, Medical Examiner Karl Williams said. The cause of death hasn't been determined, he said.
The woman's hands and feet were bound by duct tape, police said. A placenta was found at the scene, Williams told reporters.
Authorities said they used dental records to confirm Johnson's identity.
Drugs were found at the apartment, and authorities are awaiting toxicology results to determine whether she was sedated, Williams said. It's unclear whether Johnson was alive when her infant was taken, he added.
Wilkinsburg Police Chief Ophelia Coleman said Johnson's body was not found earlier because Curry-Demus' sister led investigators to another apartment. The sister has not been charged, Coleman said.
Police said Curry-Demus arrived by ambulance at a local hospital with a newborn boy Wednesday, claiming that she had just given birth. Hospital personnel determined that she hadn't given birth, so they contacted police, authorities said.
According to a criminal complaint, Curry-Demus told Detective Rich Grande that she purchased the baby from a woman named Tina for $1,000. Curry-Demus told Grande she had suffered a miscarriage in June and "did not want her mother to get upset," according to the complaint.
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According to the complaint, Curry-Demus said Tina showed up with her newborn wrapped in a towel and left. Curry-Demus said she called medics because the baby was still "dirty from birth," the complaint said.
The baby is in good condition, a hospital spokeswoman said, and will be released to child welfare workers when he is ready.
Curry-Demus was charged Thursday with endangering the welfare of a child, a felony, and dealing in infant children, a misdemeanor, after she brought the newborn to the hospital, authorities said. Video Watch Andrea Curry-Demus being taken into custody »
Moffatt said investigators don't know how long Curry-Demus and Johnson knew each other. Investigators have reason to believe that the two recently were visiting inmates at the Allegheny County Jail at the same time.
"We don't know if they met there," Moffatt said.
Friends and relatives said Curry-Demus had told them she was pregnant for months, even having a baby shower.
"I went to the baby shower and her wedding," Ivee Blunt said. "I had no idea something like this could happen. I'm totally shocked. And she was so nice and kind. It's just unbelievable."
But sister-in-law Stephanie Epps said Curry-Demus would never allow her to touch her stomach.
"Pregnant women do things like that," Epps said. "They're happy because they're pregnant. But she would never do none of that."
Being led out of the Wilkinsburg Police Department, Curry-Demus told reporters, "I didn't do nothing," according to WTAE.
According to court records obtained by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Curry-Demus became pregnant at 12 and miscarried four months later. She had a second miscarriage in 1990, when she was 21, the paper said.
Only a few months after the second miscarriage, Curry-Demus befriended a woman who had just given birth but later attacked her with a knife and tried to steal the baby, the paper said, citing the court records. The woman's husband intervened, the newspaper reported, and she fled.
The next day, she went to a hospital and befriended a woman who had brought her 3-week-old daughter to the hospital to be treated for meningitis, the Tribune-Review said. When the woman went home for the night, Curry-Demus left the hospital with the baby. It was found at her home, unharmed, the following day.
In 1991, according to the records, she pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from both incidents and was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison, the newspaper reported. She was paroled in August 1998 and ordered to serve 10 years of probation, the paper said.
The newspaper reported, citing court records, that Curry-Demus was examined by psychiatrists at the Allegheny County Jail before her sentencing and was diagnosed with severe depression, personality disorders and auditory hallucinations. She told doctors she spent a lot of time thinking about her miscarriages and "kept hearing babies cry," the Tribune-Review said.
Wilkinsburg is just east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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This year, a Kansas woman was sentenced to death in the 2004 killing of a Missouri woman whose baby was cut from her womb.
Lisa Montgomery was convicted in October in the death of Bobbie Jo Stinnett, 23, who was found strangled in her Skidmore, Missouri, home. Stinnett's womb was cut open, and her unborn child was missing. Montgomery was found days later at home in Kansas, where she was attempting to pass the baby off as her own.
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Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Aarushi murder: The narco-test that cracked the case
Aarushi murder: The narco-test that cracked the case
Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru
July 11, 2008 19:54 IST
Finally, the Central Bureau of Investigation appears to have located some clarity in the Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj murder case after groping in the dark for almost a month.
While the scientific tests conducted on suspects Krishna and Rajkumar in Bengaluru recently helped the CBI obtain vital clues, it was the narco-analysis test conducted on Vijay Mandal alias Shambhu, a domestic help of one of Dr Rajesh Talwar's neighbours, that went a long way in helping the agency crack the case. Dr Rajesh Talwar, Aarushi's father, was released on bail on Friday after being initially named the prime accused in the case by the Noida police.
Rajkumar confirms revenge was motive
Shambhu's name first cropped up when Krishna was subjected to a narco-analysis test in Bengaluru around two weeks back. Although Krishna did not pin-point exactly who Shambhu was, the CBI discovered who he was.
The CBI brought him to Bengaluru and subjected him to a narco-analysis test a few days before Rajkumar's test. During his test, the CBI secured a clear picture on who committed the murder and the motive. Shambhu said Krishna had a problem with Dr Talwar as the dentist had shouted at him at the clinic three days before the murder. He, like Krishna and Rajkumar, mentioned that the main motive was to take revenge against Dr Talwar. He further stated that Krishna slit Aarushi's throat with a khukri. Hemraj was killed after he developed cold feet and threatened to expose the others.
How and why Aarushi & Hemraj were murdered
Rajkumar, in his narco-analysis test, confirmed what Shambhu told interrogators during the test.
Meanwhile the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, has sent its report to the CBI regarding the T-shirt belonging to Rajkumar. Sources told rediff.com that the report states that the bloodstains, which were found on the T-shirt, were not Rajkumar's.
The CBI will now take blood samples of the accused as well as the deceased and get it compared to one found on the T-shirt.
Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru
July 11, 2008 19:54 IST
Finally, the Central Bureau of Investigation appears to have located some clarity in the Aarushi Talwar-Hemraj murder case after groping in the dark for almost a month.
While the scientific tests conducted on suspects Krishna and Rajkumar in Bengaluru recently helped the CBI obtain vital clues, it was the narco-analysis test conducted on Vijay Mandal alias Shambhu, a domestic help of one of Dr Rajesh Talwar's neighbours, that went a long way in helping the agency crack the case. Dr Rajesh Talwar, Aarushi's father, was released on bail on Friday after being initially named the prime accused in the case by the Noida police.
Rajkumar confirms revenge was motive
Shambhu's name first cropped up when Krishna was subjected to a narco-analysis test in Bengaluru around two weeks back. Although Krishna did not pin-point exactly who Shambhu was, the CBI discovered who he was.
The CBI brought him to Bengaluru and subjected him to a narco-analysis test a few days before Rajkumar's test. During his test, the CBI secured a clear picture on who committed the murder and the motive. Shambhu said Krishna had a problem with Dr Talwar as the dentist had shouted at him at the clinic three days before the murder. He, like Krishna and Rajkumar, mentioned that the main motive was to take revenge against Dr Talwar. He further stated that Krishna slit Aarushi's throat with a khukri. Hemraj was killed after he developed cold feet and threatened to expose the others.
How and why Aarushi & Hemraj were murdered
Rajkumar, in his narco-analysis test, confirmed what Shambhu told interrogators during the test.
Meanwhile the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyderabad, has sent its report to the CBI regarding the T-shirt belonging to Rajkumar. Sources told rediff.com that the report states that the bloodstains, which were found on the T-shirt, were not Rajkumar's.
The CBI will now take blood samples of the accused as well as the deceased and get it compared to one found on the T-shirt.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Goa villagers file petition against SEZs land allotment
Thursday,10 July 2008 20:13 hrs IST
Goa villagers file petition against SEZs land allotment
- Panaji: Goa villagers have approached the Goa bench of Bombay High Court appealing against the Special Economic Zones(SEZs) land allotment by State government-run Goa Industrial Development Corporation(GIDC).
The villagers, in their petition before the court, have termed the land allotment as "fraudulent".
The villagers from Keri, Sancoale and Verna, have filed a petition challenging GIDC's decision to allot land to these SEZs in their villages, on 95-year-lease basis.
The petition mostly concerns three notified SEZs-- Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, K Raheja and Peninsula Pharma Research Pvt Ltd.
The petition has also questioned land allotment in seven SEZs including these three. The villagers have complained that the land was allotted without involving public in the land allotment process.
"In some case, the land was allotted as quick as within seven days of the application," Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer representing the villagers, said.
GIDC which faced severe criticism for allotment of the land, has already issued showcause notice to all the seven SEZ promoters.
GIDC officials said that they have decided to revoke the land allotment acting on the directives of the government.
"We have issued showcause notices and final step to revoke the land will be decided after the meet by board of directors" a senior official said.
Also, SEZ issue is a hotly debated issue in the state with Digamer Kamat-led government taking anti-SEZ stand bowing to the pressures of the masses
Goa villagers file petition against SEZs land allotment
- Panaji: Goa villagers have approached the Goa bench of Bombay High Court appealing against the Special Economic Zones(SEZs) land allotment by State government-run Goa Industrial Development Corporation(GIDC).
The villagers, in their petition before the court, have termed the land allotment as "fraudulent".
The villagers from Keri, Sancoale and Verna, have filed a petition challenging GIDC's decision to allot land to these SEZs in their villages, on 95-year-lease basis.
The petition mostly concerns three notified SEZs-- Meditab Specialities Pvt Ltd, K Raheja and Peninsula Pharma Research Pvt Ltd.
The petition has also questioned land allotment in seven SEZs including these three. The villagers have complained that the land was allotted without involving public in the land allotment process.
"In some case, the land was allotted as quick as within seven days of the application," Colin Gonsalves, a lawyer representing the villagers, said.
GIDC which faced severe criticism for allotment of the land, has already issued showcause notice to all the seven SEZ promoters.
GIDC officials said that they have decided to revoke the land allotment acting on the directives of the government.
"We have issued showcause notices and final step to revoke the land will be decided after the meet by board of directors" a senior official said.
Also, SEZ issue is a hotly debated issue in the state with Digamer Kamat-led government taking anti-SEZ stand bowing to the pressures of the masses
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
US woman gets 4 years jail for killing Indian
The Hindustan Times - Indian Newspapers in English Language from three editions
US woman gets 4 years jail for killing Indian
Press Trust Of India
Washington, July 08, 2008
A US woman, whose car accidently ran over an Indian student last year, has been sentenced to four years in jail by an Ohio court.
The 27-year-old Hankinson crossed a red light, struck another car with her sports utility vehicle and spun up onto the sidewalk, pushing the victim into the Hocking River on June 30 last year, police said.
Abhishek Singh (22), who hailed from Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh in India, was a graduate student at Ohio University.
As part of her sentence, Hankinson has agreed to pay $15,465 in restitution to the deceased's family while walking across the bridge.
However, his body was found the next day in the Hocking River.
In a plea deal with prosecutors, she also has had driver's license suspended for eight years, besides admitting that she was drunk at the time of the incident.
US woman gets 4 years jail for killing Indian
Press Trust Of India
Washington, July 08, 2008
A US woman, whose car accidently ran over an Indian student last year, has been sentenced to four years in jail by an Ohio court.
The 27-year-old Hankinson crossed a red light, struck another car with her sports utility vehicle and spun up onto the sidewalk, pushing the victim into the Hocking River on June 30 last year, police said.
Abhishek Singh (22), who hailed from Faizabad district of Uttar Pradesh in India, was a graduate student at Ohio University.
As part of her sentence, Hankinson has agreed to pay $15,465 in restitution to the deceased's family while walking across the bridge.
However, his body was found the next day in the Hocking River.
In a plea deal with prosecutors, she also has had driver's license suspended for eight years, besides admitting that she was drunk at the time of the incident.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Social activist Lalit Mehta killed by Jharkhand contractors?
Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 14 :: Jul. 05-18, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
CRIME
Murder and worse
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
in Ranchi
The killing of Lalit Mehta raises disturbing questions about the future of the fight against corruption that hampers development.
“WE know the killers of Lalit Mehta and they will be brought to justice. We will make the perpetrators of heinous crimes such as murder pay with their lives. We have started the process for this and it will soon culminate in strong and decisive action.” So says a leaflet circulated by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on June 22 in Chattarpur and adjoining areas of Palamau district in Jharkhand. It even names a few Palamau-based contractors who were involved in public works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) as suspects in the conspiracy to kill the social activist Lalit Mehta. The leaflet further states that Mehta and his associates were on the verge of exposing the rampant corruption practised by the contractors and their colleagues in NREGS activities in the district. This, it asserts, was the primary reason for the killing of Mehta in the third week of May.
The leaflet did indeed create a flutter, not just in Chattarpur, where the mutilated body of Lalit Mehta was found on May 14, and its adjoining areas but also in Ranchi, the State capital.
Senior officials in the State administration and the police as well as a number of social activists are a worried lot. They had not expected the extremist CPI (Maoist) – or naxalites, as the party is referred to in common parlance – to take an active interest in the Lalit Mehta case. Especially since the paths of Mehta and the CPI (Maoist) were different.
Mehta, a 36-year-old engineer-turned-social-activist, was involved in activities that sought to advance rural employment, basic health facilities, right to food, and child rights. His organisational involvement was essentially with foundations that had a Gandhian orientation and outlook. Mehta was a full-time activist of the Right to Food Campaign and the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan; he was also the secretary of the Vikas Sahyog Kendra (VSK), a non-governmental organisation based in Palamau. The VSK, among other things, was involved in the social audit of NREGS in different parts of the district and sought to ensure better and transparent implementation of the prestigious programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The NREGS audit was guided by the noted development economist and activist Jean Dreze.
The faltering of government and police officials in the murder investigation could have provoked the naxalites to take an active interest in the matter. The investigation by the local police was, right from the beginning, indolent and raised suspicions that it was designed to protect the culprits. When Mehta’s body was found near the Kandra jungles of Chattarpur, his bike, Rs.12,000 in cash, his mobile phone and other documents were reported missing.
The first reaction from the police, even before they started a formal probe, was to highlight the loss of cash and other valuables and portray the murder as a consequence of robbery. The fact that the murder took place just a day after a team of NREGS volunteers from Delhi and elsewhere arrived in Chainpur and Chhattarpur blocks of Palamau district was not considered at all by the local police. This anomaly was pointed out by many social activists including Manoj Kumar Singh, president of the VSK and a long-time associate of Lalit Mehta.
Even when it was taken into consideration later, the reactions from the local administration and the police were strange. The district administration, in its first official report on the murder dated May 31, rejected the linkage between the timing of the murder and the NREGS social audit by Mehta and his associates.
The report, which was filed by Palamau District Commissioner Nagendra Prasad Singh and Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar Verma, accused Dreze of orchestrating a campaign to malign the district administration. It claimed that Dreze and his team of social auditors were “creating an environment to paint the Palamau administration, along with the Jharkhand government, as deeply entrenched in corruption and suggesting that works under NREGS in all districts of Jharkhand, including Palamau, are being done only on paper.”
The report also slammed a social audit, done by Dreze and his team, that specifically pointed out to irregularity and corruption by two officials of the Chattarpur block as an allegation “without substance”. It said that Dreze and his team “took advantage of semi-literate tribal workers” and got them to “sign on a complaint” that the two officials had taken a bribe of Rs.4,500 in two instalments.
According to the report, the “substancelessness” of the charge was established through an inquiry conducted by district officials. It claims that it was found out during the inquiry that the workers had got proper wages but Dreze and company misled the complainants who were semi-literate. The report, referring to statements by Mehta’s brothers and wife, suggested that the motive to murder Mehta could well have been monetary gain since “Lalit Mehta played an important role in large sums of monetary transactions” involving the VSK.
“Obviously,” pointed out Manoj Kumar Singh while talking to Frontline, “there was a deliberate attempt to sidetrack the investigation and take its focus away from the real culprits.” However, he added, the attempt had been defeated to a large extent through committed action by a number of social activists and politicians.
The report of the district administration evoked widespread condemnation and many social activists – including Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India and senior journalist Prabash Joshi – came together under the auspices of the Daman Bhrashtachar Virodhi Samiti and initiated an agitation in Palamau. Pressure was exerted in New Delhi, too, by a delegation of about 100 social activists who met Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
The Minister endorsed the value of social audits and made it clear that his Ministry was committed to protecting people and organisations associated with them.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, too, took note of the events and said in a message that the killing of Mehta “was engineered by vested interests that were apprehensive of Lalit’s exposing their corrupt practices”.
All these pressures at the high level forced the Jharkhand government to change tack. Chief Minister Madhu Koda recommended a CBI inquiry on June 18. He admitted that this move was necessary because the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the State police and the Palamau district administration had not been able to make much headway in the case. “Though the CID probe, which I had earlier ordered, was following the case very closely, I chose to go for the CBI inquiry as a section of people had started suspecting the role of the State police,” Koda said.
Lalit Mehta’s friends, relatives and associates perceived the announcement of the CBI inquiry as a kind of victory in their struggles and expected a speedy investigation.
However, the intimidating message from the naxalites – four days after the announcement of the CBI probe – has added a new dimension to the sequence of events. The consequences of this involvement are not predictable. There are apprehensions that the atmosphere could be further vitiated by this.
In the meantime, VSK activists, in association with their colleagues who have come from outside the district and even from outside the State, have resumed the social audit that Lalit Mehta had to leave unfinished. “This is our tribute to a dear colleague and it would continue irrespective of the challenges that come in various forms and shapes,” Manoj Kumar Singh told Frontline. He added that there was an environment of fear and tension, constantly created by the nexus of local contractors, middlemen, bureaucrats and politicians in activities relating to the NREGS and food supply under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The VSK and its fraternal organisations are determined not to succumb to any form of intimidation that might come up against them while working in these areas. Clearly, Lalit Mehta’s spirit is very much alive among his activist colleagues.
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Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of Frontline
Volume 25 - Issue 14 :: Jul. 05-18, 2008
INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU • Contents
CRIME
Murder and worse
VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
in Ranchi
The killing of Lalit Mehta raises disturbing questions about the future of the fight against corruption that hampers development.
“WE know the killers of Lalit Mehta and they will be brought to justice. We will make the perpetrators of heinous crimes such as murder pay with their lives. We have started the process for this and it will soon culminate in strong and decisive action.” So says a leaflet circulated by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on June 22 in Chattarpur and adjoining areas of Palamau district in Jharkhand. It even names a few Palamau-based contractors who were involved in public works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) as suspects in the conspiracy to kill the social activist Lalit Mehta. The leaflet further states that Mehta and his associates were on the verge of exposing the rampant corruption practised by the contractors and their colleagues in NREGS activities in the district. This, it asserts, was the primary reason for the killing of Mehta in the third week of May.
The leaflet did indeed create a flutter, not just in Chattarpur, where the mutilated body of Lalit Mehta was found on May 14, and its adjoining areas but also in Ranchi, the State capital.
Senior officials in the State administration and the police as well as a number of social activists are a worried lot. They had not expected the extremist CPI (Maoist) – or naxalites, as the party is referred to in common parlance – to take an active interest in the Lalit Mehta case. Especially since the paths of Mehta and the CPI (Maoist) were different.
Mehta, a 36-year-old engineer-turned-social-activist, was involved in activities that sought to advance rural employment, basic health facilities, right to food, and child rights. His organisational involvement was essentially with foundations that had a Gandhian orientation and outlook. Mehta was a full-time activist of the Right to Food Campaign and the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan; he was also the secretary of the Vikas Sahyog Kendra (VSK), a non-governmental organisation based in Palamau. The VSK, among other things, was involved in the social audit of NREGS in different parts of the district and sought to ensure better and transparent implementation of the prestigious programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The NREGS audit was guided by the noted development economist and activist Jean Dreze.
The faltering of government and police officials in the murder investigation could have provoked the naxalites to take an active interest in the matter. The investigation by the local police was, right from the beginning, indolent and raised suspicions that it was designed to protect the culprits. When Mehta’s body was found near the Kandra jungles of Chattarpur, his bike, Rs.12,000 in cash, his mobile phone and other documents were reported missing.
The first reaction from the police, even before they started a formal probe, was to highlight the loss of cash and other valuables and portray the murder as a consequence of robbery. The fact that the murder took place just a day after a team of NREGS volunteers from Delhi and elsewhere arrived in Chainpur and Chhattarpur blocks of Palamau district was not considered at all by the local police. This anomaly was pointed out by many social activists including Manoj Kumar Singh, president of the VSK and a long-time associate of Lalit Mehta.
Even when it was taken into consideration later, the reactions from the local administration and the police were strange. The district administration, in its first official report on the murder dated May 31, rejected the linkage between the timing of the murder and the NREGS social audit by Mehta and his associates.
The report, which was filed by Palamau District Commissioner Nagendra Prasad Singh and Superintendent of Police Deepak Kumar Verma, accused Dreze of orchestrating a campaign to malign the district administration. It claimed that Dreze and his team of social auditors were “creating an environment to paint the Palamau administration, along with the Jharkhand government, as deeply entrenched in corruption and suggesting that works under NREGS in all districts of Jharkhand, including Palamau, are being done only on paper.”
The report also slammed a social audit, done by Dreze and his team, that specifically pointed out to irregularity and corruption by two officials of the Chattarpur block as an allegation “without substance”. It said that Dreze and his team “took advantage of semi-literate tribal workers” and got them to “sign on a complaint” that the two officials had taken a bribe of Rs.4,500 in two instalments.
According to the report, the “substancelessness” of the charge was established through an inquiry conducted by district officials. It claims that it was found out during the inquiry that the workers had got proper wages but Dreze and company misled the complainants who were semi-literate. The report, referring to statements by Mehta’s brothers and wife, suggested that the motive to murder Mehta could well have been monetary gain since “Lalit Mehta played an important role in large sums of monetary transactions” involving the VSK.
“Obviously,” pointed out Manoj Kumar Singh while talking to Frontline, “there was a deliberate attempt to sidetrack the investigation and take its focus away from the real culprits.” However, he added, the attempt had been defeated to a large extent through committed action by a number of social activists and politicians.
The report of the district administration evoked widespread condemnation and many social activists – including Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, Annie Raja of the Communist Party of India and senior journalist Prabash Joshi – came together under the auspices of the Daman Bhrashtachar Virodhi Samiti and initiated an agitation in Palamau. Pressure was exerted in New Delhi, too, by a delegation of about 100 social activists who met Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
The Minister endorsed the value of social audits and made it clear that his Ministry was committed to protecting people and organisations associated with them.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, too, took note of the events and said in a message that the killing of Mehta “was engineered by vested interests that were apprehensive of Lalit’s exposing their corrupt practices”.
All these pressures at the high level forced the Jharkhand government to change tack. Chief Minister Madhu Koda recommended a CBI inquiry on June 18. He admitted that this move was necessary because the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the State police and the Palamau district administration had not been able to make much headway in the case. “Though the CID probe, which I had earlier ordered, was following the case very closely, I chose to go for the CBI inquiry as a section of people had started suspecting the role of the State police,” Koda said.
Lalit Mehta’s friends, relatives and associates perceived the announcement of the CBI inquiry as a kind of victory in their struggles and expected a speedy investigation.
However, the intimidating message from the naxalites – four days after the announcement of the CBI probe – has added a new dimension to the sequence of events. The consequences of this involvement are not predictable. There are apprehensions that the atmosphere could be further vitiated by this.
In the meantime, VSK activists, in association with their colleagues who have come from outside the district and even from outside the State, have resumed the social audit that Lalit Mehta had to leave unfinished. “This is our tribute to a dear colleague and it would continue irrespective of the challenges that come in various forms and shapes,” Manoj Kumar Singh told Frontline. He added that there was an environment of fear and tension, constantly created by the nexus of local contractors, middlemen, bureaucrats and politicians in activities relating to the NREGS and food supply under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The VSK and its fraternal organisations are determined not to succumb to any form of intimidation that might come up against them while working in these areas. Clearly, Lalit Mehta’s spirit is very much alive among his activist colleagues.
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Subscribe | Contact Us | Archives | Contents
(Letters to the Editor should carry the full postal address) Home | The Hindu | Business Line | Sportstar | Publications | eBooks | Images Copyright © 2008, Frontline.
Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the written consent of Frontline
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