Crime and Court

2010-09-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Hindu : News / National : Force of faith trumps law and reason in Ayodhya case

Prosecute CBI men for falsehoods Ram

2010-09-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer :: Home : >> Prosecute CBI men for falsehoods Ram

Sohrabuddin case witness shot at in Udaipur - Hindustan Times

2010-09-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

Sohrabuddin case witness shot at in Udaipur - Hindustan Times

Close aide blows whistle on Teesta

2010-09-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Close aide blows whistle on Teesta

Amit Shah attacks Supreme Court, says judge, Govt & CBI did deal to fix Sohrabuddin case

2010-09-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

Amit Shah attacks Supreme Court, says judge, Govt & CBI did deal to fix Sohrabuddin case

Ruchika case HC dismisses Rathores appeal

2010-09-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Ruchika case HC dismisses Rathores appeal: "Former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore would have to undergo his 18-month prison term with the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday dismissing his plea challenging the sentence awarded to him for molesting 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra about 20 years back."

SC reopens Bhopal gas case; sends notice to 7 accused - Hindustan Times

2010-08-31T05:43:00.000-07:00

SC reopens Bhopal gas case; sends notice to 7 accused - Hindustan Times

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Geeta CBI forcing me to sing its tune

2010-08-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Geeta CBI forcing me to sing its tune

CJI leads by example No trips abroad on court days

2010-08-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> CJI leads by example No trips abroad on court days: "No foreign trips for judges during court days. This is the latest missive from Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia, who has himself set a precedent in this regard.

The Chief Justice refused to attend an international conference, organised by the International Law Association at The Hague between August 15 and August 20. Being the president of ILA’s Indian Chapter, the CJI is an official invitee at the biennial event and CJIs in the past have never missed attending the conference, even when it fell on days when the court was in session."

Man battered ex-wife over Facebook taunts

2010-08-17T14:43:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Man battered ex-wife over Facebook taunts: "The day before her death, Miss Beverley's Facebook profile was updated to say: 'Now whose laughing? U've got done big time by the CS, so now leave us alone for good, your son hates u and so do I.'
Hours before the victim's death, Mann telephoned the CSA saying he had no money and would not pay, said Mr Donne"

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> SC rejects women panels plea against rapist

2010-07-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> SC rejects women panels plea against rapist

BBC News - Switzerland rejects US extradition of Roman Polanski

2010-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Switzerland rejects US extradition of Roman Polanski

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Judges and judgments: a correctional inquest

2010-07-06T13:23:00.000-07:00

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Judges and judgments: a correctional inquest

V. R. Krishna Iyer writes: The Union Carbide facility to produce a lethal gas was installed in India without due safety tests or experimental checks. It was a U.S. corporation and a multinational that was involved, and it could walk through to India as if the country was a mere dollar colony. The catastrophic leakage was the biggest industrial disaster in history. A Bhopal tragedy of Hiroshima magnitude — I call it a ‘Bhoposhima' calamity caused by ‘gasassination.' According to some estimates, around 20,000 people died in the tragedy.

In the first place, the government was grossly negligent in permitting the installation of the unit. A mega-criminal case came up, involving charges under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. But a pachydermic court, at the level of the Supreme Court, without care or conscience reduced the gravity of the offences to those involving Section 304A of the IPC. The accused corporate, UCIL, and Warren Anderson, its Chairman, were not prosecuted. When the Chairman came on a visit soon after the tragedy, he was promptly given bail and he went home.

O, the pity of it. How frivolous was the prosecution that ended in lesser officials of the company being sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment. A Himalayan offence ended in a molehill sentence. The state — which is also a suspect in the bargain — settled the case under its unknown unlimited power of patria potestas — no more future cases, no more cases from the same catastrophe. The shocking settlement made a mockery of the Indian Penal Code. No real compensation has been paid yet. The law is not merely an ass, but verily a barbarian in this instance. Social justice and economic justice in the Constitution would seem to have become frivolous phrases in this context.

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Judges and judgments: a correctional inquest

2010-07-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : Judges and judgments: a correctional inquest

The Union Carbide facility to produce a lethal gas was installed in India without due safety tests or experimental checks. It was a U.S. corporation and a multinational that was involved, and it could walk through to India as if the country was a mere dollar colony. The catastrophic leakage was the biggest industrial disaster in history. A Bhopal tragedy of Hiroshima magnitude — I call it a ‘Bhoposhima' calamity caused by ‘gasassination.' According to some estimates, around 20,000 people died in the tragedy.

In the first place, the government was grossly negligent in permitting the installation of the unit. A mega-criminal case came up, involving charges under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. But a pachydermic court, at the level of the Supreme Court, without care or conscience reduced the gravity of the offences to those involving Section 304A of the IPC. The accused corporate, UCIL, and Warren Anderson, its Chairman, were not prosecuted. When the Chairman came on a visit soon after the tragedy, he was promptly given bail and he went home.

O, the pity of it. How frivolous was the prosecution that ended in lesser officials of the company being sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment. A Himalayan offence ended in a molehill sentence. The state — which is also a suspect in the bargain — settled the case under its unknown unlimited power of patria potestas — no more future cases, no more cases from the same catastrophe. The shocking settlement made a mockery of the Indian Penal Code. No real compensation has been paid yet. The law is not merely an ass, but verily a barbarian in this instance. Social justice and economic justice in the Constitution would seem to have become frivolous phrases in this context.

Damage can be claimed for the lost sperm samples from the hospital

2009-02-05T04:21:00.000-08:00

What's the difference between sperm samples and discarded toenails?
Former is still a man's property, judge rules in landmark case

By Robert Verkaik, Law Editor
Thursday, 5 February 2009

Sperm samples - given by the men after they were warned by doctors that chemotherapy might damage their fertility - were the property of the six NHS patients who can claim damages for the loss according to the ruling today

Six cancer patients whose sperm samples were lost by the NHS have won their claim for damages in a landmark judgement which establishes the legal principle that a man's semen is his own property.

The case, which could cost the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation, is expected to lead to a review of the law relating to ownership of human body parts.

In yesterday's judgment the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, the most senior judge in England and Wales, rejected the notion that sperm held by North Bristol NHS Trust had the same legal status as a discarded toenail or hair cut at a barber's shop. More

Liberal Criminal Procedure Code comes into effect - lawyers and Police not happy

2009-01-18T16:48:00.000-08:00

President okays 7-year hitch for arrests
19 Jan 2009, 0048 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan, TNN

NEW DELHI: The recently-revamped Criminal Procedure Code, which divests police of arrest powers in cases where maximum sentence is upto seven

years, become law with President Pratibha Patil finally giving her assent last week.

The presidential assent, which came nearly three weeks after the bill was sent to her after getting it passed from Parliament, has now paved the way for the government to notify it.

Once the law, CrPC (Amendment) Act 2008, becomes effective, the police, instead of arresting the accused, will be obliged to issue him/her a "notice of appearance" for any offence punishable with imprisonment up to seven years. The person can be arrested only if he/she does not appear before the police in response to the notice.

Seven years or less is the maximum penalty for a host of offences, including attempt to commit culpable homicide, robbery, attempt to suicide, kidnapping, voluntarily causing grievous hurt, cheating, outraging a woman's modesty and death caused by negligence. more

The radical change in the CrPC has, however, drawn flak from a number of Bar associations across the country. Lawyers -- who also observed strike in various courts after the bill was passed in Parliament -- argue that the amendment (in Section 41) doing away with mandatory arrest provisions would remove fear from the minds of criminals who would misuse the provisions under the garb of personal liberty.

.....
CrPC amendment Bill is seen as a setback by certain senior police officials who readily

admit they are ill prepared to implement it.

One senior officer went to the extent of saying: "Delhi is not ready to usher in such liberal and revolutionary changes." However, the top brass put up a brave front saying the amendments would be implemented in "letter and spirit". more

HC issues notice to former Orissa Speaker

2008-12-26T21:10:00.000-08:00

By our Correspondent
Last updated: Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:02:06 GMT

Cuttack (Orissa): In a significant development, the High Court has admitted a petition of Gayatri Panda, a suspended women employee of the Legislative Assembly who had brought sexual harassment allegations on former Assembly Speaker Maheswar Mohanty.

Panda has urged the HC to quash the August 7, 2007 order of Orissa Human Rights Commission (OHRC) in which the Commission had given "clean chit" to the political leader saying there was no credible evidence against the former speaker.

Admitting Panda’s petition, HC Bench of Justices I. M. Qudussi and Justice B.P. Ray issued notices to the former Speaker, State Women Commissioner, OHRC, represented through its secretary and to the State government to file counters to the petition. more

Orissa High Court acquittal in rape case “borders on the absurd”

2008-12-20T23:07:00.000-08:00

J. Venkatesan
Conclusion contrary to law; name of victim revealed flouting order; apex court
It’s non-application of mind: Bench

Matter remitted back for disposal afresh

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed all trial courts and High Courts not to disclose in their judgments the names of rape victims.

Revealing the names will amount to judicial indiscipline, said a Bench consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma.

‘Judicial indiscipline’
Notwithstanding a series of decisions by the apex Court that the name of a rape victim should not be indicated in the judgment, the Orissa High Court did the reverse.

“This speaks volumes of judicial indiscipline.”

The Bench faulted the High Court also for acquitting a convict on the absurd reasoning that the victim was a healthy tribal woman capable of resisting rape and that there was only one eyewitness.

Trial court order reversed
The High Court acquitted Sukru Gouda, reversing a trial court order convicting him of raping the woman on September 4, 1993.

The High Court said: “Admittedly she was an able-bodied tribal lady, capable of taking care of herself. It was natural that she would have resisted to the best of her ability if sexual intercourse was being committed on her against her consent.”

Baffling
Allowing the appeal by the State of Orissa against this judgment, the apex court said: “A bare reading of the High Court’s order shows a complete non-application of mind. Some of the conclusions are clearly contrary to the law as laid down by this court. The conclusions are not only confusing but border on the absurd. It baffles us as to why the High Court says that ‘law is well settled that it is not possible for a single man to commit sexual intercourse with a healthy adult female in full possession of her senses against her will’.”

‘Not fathomable’
The Bench said the basis on which High Court came to this conclusion was not fathomable.

“To say the least, the conclusion is not only contrary to law laid down by this court, but also shows scant regard for law declared by this court.”

Accused ignores notice
It remitted the matter back to the High Court to hear the appeal afresh for disposal, as the accused-respondent (Sukru Gouda) had not appeared before the court in spite of notice, keeping in view the correct legal principles. more

"Don't convert this court into police station," SC to Yuva Shakti

2008-11-21T20:52:00.000-08:00

SC no to PIL for invoking MCOCA against Raj Thackeray

New Delhi, Nov 21: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a petition seeking registration of a criminal case under MCOCA against MNS chief Raj Thackeray for the his party's hate campaign and violence against north Indians and non-Marathis in Maharashtra.

"It is not our duty to pass orders for registering cases," said a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, warning an NGO against filing petitions for registration of cases under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act).

"Don't convert this court into police station," the Bench, also comprising Justice P Sathasivan, said, expressing its displeasure against the NGO, , for filing the petition.

"How can we pass such type of directions," the Bench said referring to the petition in which the NGO had also sought that liability should be put on MNS and its chief for the damage caused to public property during the violence.

The PIL had also sought a direction to the Election Commission for de-recognising MNS as a political party.

Advocate Rakesh Kumar Singh said that the NGO was approaching the apex court as the fall out of the violence was not restricted to Maharashtra but had also spread to other parts of the country.

He submitted that how can the apex court be silent when a political party was encouraging and spearheading violence against citizens, many of whom were students going to Maharashtra to appear in competitive examinations.

Bureau Report

SC asserts the judiciary’s primacy over the executive

2008-11-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

Apex court collegium puts its foot down

J. Venkatesan

Refuses to reconsider elevation of 3 judges

New Delhi: Asserting the judiciary’s primacy over the executive in the appointment of judges, the Supreme Court collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, on Tuesday refused to reconsider its decision on elevation of three High Court Chief Justices as apex court judges.

The collegium reiterated its earlier recommendation on the elevation of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court A.K. Ganguly, the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court R.M. Lodha and the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court H.L. Dattu and sent back the file to the Union Law Ministry for being sent to President Pratibha Patil.

The recommendations were sent to the Law Ministry in the middle of October for forwarding the names to the President through the Prime Minister’s Office.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) fights Indian guest workers' cause

2008-11-18T16:23:00.000-08:00

Leading US rights body fights Indian guest workers' cause

Tue, Nov 18 08:51 PM

New York, Nov 18 (IANS) A leading US rights body has joined a class-action lawsuit against the federal government, filed early this year on behalf of about 500 Indians, alleging they were trafficked into the US through the H-2B guest worker programme.

The guest workers, who were brought from India to work in shipyards after Hurricane Katrina, were misleadingly recruited, exploited and mistreated, alleged in a statement Monday.

The federal government has fallen short of its responsibility to protect the rights of guest workers in this country, it alleged.

One of the most active civil-rights activist groups in this country, ACLU has charged that these workers were given dishonest assurances of becoming lawful permanent US residents and subjected to squalid living conditions, fraudulent payment practices and threats of serious harm upon their arrival.

Observing that immigrant guest workers are among the most vulnerable groups of workers, Chandra Bhatnagar, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program and co-counsel in the case, demanded that the government must take immediate action to stop sanctioning worker abuse and fix this dangerous system.

'Often paying exorbitant sums of money to deceitful and abusive recruiters in their home countries, these guest workers are subject to the control of a single 'employer-sponsor' once they've arrived in the US, with no safeguards in place to protect even the limited rights guaranteed by law,' he alleged.

The class action lawsuit was filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in March 2008 by Southern Poverty Law Center, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Louisiana Justice Institute and the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice.

It came after a campaign early this year spearheaded by the Alliance of Guest Workers for Dignity, a project of the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice.

The lawsuit complains that recruiting agents hired by Signal International, the marine industry company, held guest workers' passports and visas; coerced them into paying extraordinary fees for recruitment, immigration processing and travel, and threatened the workers with serious legal and physical harm if they did not work under the Signal-restricted guest worker visa.

The complaint also charges that once in the US, the men were required to live in Signal's guarded, overcrowded labour camps, subjected to psychological abuse and defrauded out of adequate payment for their work.

Signal has denied the charges.

courtesy

Primacy of executive, a dangerous move - by Anil Divan

2008-10-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

The Hindu Wednesday, Oct 22, 2008 Opinion - Leader Page Articles

...............
Crisis in the higher judiciary

The Ghaziabad Provident Fund Scam was followed by Rs.15 lakh in cash being sent by a law officer to a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court now allegedly meant for another woman judge.

Justice Soumitra Sen, a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court has been identified by the Chief Justice of India as fit for impeachment. A few years ago, Justice Shamit Mukherjee of the Delhi High Court was accidentally discovered to be indulging in dubious transactions when phones of certain other officials were under surveillance by the police.

The reputation of the higher judiciary is at a low ebb. To quote from the author’s article “Judging the judges” ( December 5, 2002), “Unless vigorous in-house action is taken by the judiciary to repair the damage, public opinion will call for legislative intervention by Parliament. A legislative mechanism unless properly framed may be subversive of judicial independence … Every adversity is an opportunity”.

There is well-intentioned and legitimate criticism of the collegium system as now functioning. The present system of appointment requires radical restructuring — but the reform must be in the right direction. Reviving a failed system is a recipe for disaster. The final word in appointments to the higher judiciary can never be safely entrusted to fractious coalition governments — weak on governance, soft on terrorism and high on corruption. Each coalition partner will demand its quotas on the High Bench as well as the High Courts — on occasions threatening withdrawal of support. An increasing politicisation of the judges indebted to political factions is not a result “devoutly to be wished.”

In our dissatisfaction with the present system, let the family silver not be stolen by the executive. Let the Bar and civil society give a clear response to the Law Minister that under no circumstances can the old system of primacy of the executive be restored.

The way forward is a transparent, accountable and open merit system, but that is another call.

read it all

Aarushi Murder update

2008-10-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

Aarushi murder: Accused Rajkumar leaves India

SC refuses to stay Nanavati report

2008-09-26T05:23:00.000-07:00

Godhra train fire: SC refuses to stay Nanavati report
26 Sep 2008, 1334 hrs IST,PTI
:

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the circulation of Justice G T Nanavati report relating to the Godhra carnage in Gujarat. ( Watch )

A petition seeking a stay on the report was mentioned before a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan which posted its hearing for October 13.

The NGO, Citizen for Justice and Peace, approached the apex court contending that a report by Justice U C Banerjee Committee on the same carnage has been stayed and a similar step should be taken for the Justice Nanavati Commission report which was tabled in the Gujarat assembly on Wednesday.

More

35 Sitting Judges to be questioned by CBI for Fraud

2008-09-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

CBI to probe PF scam, gets 3 months to file report
24 Sep 2008, 0347 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN

NEW DELHI: A "willing" CBI was tasked on Monday by the Supreme Court to pinpoint the "black sheep" from among 35 sitting judges — one in SC, 11 in HCs and 23 in district courts — suspected to have played a role in the fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 23 crore from the provident fund accounts of class IV court employees in the Ghaziabad judiciary.

The urgency to weed out the corrupt from judiciary was evident from the detailed order passed by a Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, V S Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi, which set a three-month deadline for CBI to file its first status report on the investigation not only into the scam but also all dealings relating to it.

Jamia Milia Islamia to take care of the arrested students

2008-09-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Indian Express > Delhi >

Jamia to provide legal help to two arrested students
Hamari Jamatia
Posted: Sep 23, 2008 at 0913 hrs IST

New Delhi, September 22 In an unexpected turn of events, Jamia Milia Islamia on Monday evening decided to provide legal help to its two students arrested for alleged connection in Saturday’s serial blasts across the Capital.
Mohammad Shakeel, a second-year MA student, and Zia-Ur-Rehman (third year BA) were arrested on Sunday.

Jamia Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan told Newsline in the evening that he would take steps to look into the “well being” of his students.

Jamia’s media coordinator Rakhshanda Jalil told Newsline, “The university has now decided to provide legal help to the two students caught on Sunday.” Since the two are students of Jamia, “the university feels it is a responsibility to safeguard them until they are proven guilty.”: Sep 23, 2008 at 0913 hrs IST

New Delhi, September 22 In an unexpected turn of events, Jamia Milia Islamia on Monday evening decided to provide legal help to its two students arrested for alleged connection in Saturday’s serial blasts across the Capital.
Mohammad Shakeel, a second-year MA student, and Zia-Ur-Rehman (third year BA) were arrested on Sunday.

Jamia Vice-Chancellor Mushirul Hasan told Newsline in the evening that he would take steps to look into the “well being” of his students.

Jamia’s media coordinator Rakhshanda Jalil told Newsline, “The university has now decided to provide legal help to the two students caught on Sunday.” Since the two are students of Jamia, “the university feels it is a responsibility to safeguard them until they are proven guilty.”

Link

Art and Films: Supreme Court clears M.F. Husain of any Blasphemy

2008-09-16T19:19:00.000-07:00

Art and Films: Supreme Court clears M.F. Husain of any Blasphemy

Ex-Punjab CJ wanted judge moved out in 'interest of justice'

2008-09-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

Fri, Sep 12 02:32 AM
"In the interest of justice, he should be transferred," this is what former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice V K Jain wrote - barely weeks before his retirement on August 1 - to Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, recommending that Justice Mehtab Singh Gill be moved out.

In his 12-page letter, Justice Jain questioned the judicial propriety of Justice Gill opting to be administrative judge of Ludhiana when he was aware that a property case involving his son, advocate Amandeep Singh Gill, was pending in Ludhiana.Read

Impeachment of Judges

2008-09-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

Govt to move impeachment motion against HC judge Sen
9 Sep, 2008, 0344 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: With Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan recommending removal of Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen on charges of financial misconduct, Union law minister H R Bhardwaj on Monday said the UPA government would soon move an impeachment motion against the judge in Parliament. The CJI had sent his recommendation to the prime minister last month after Justice Sen refused to step down despite being found guilty of misappropriating Rs 32 lakh from the receiver’s account to his personal account. Read more

Failed Impeachment of Justice V Ramaswami in 1993

With 196 votes for, no votes against, and 205 abstentions (by the ruling Congress and allies) in a House with 401 members present and voting, the motion to impeach Justice V Ramaswami of the Supreme Court failed on May 11, 1993. The Constitution requires a motion for the removal of a judge to be carried by a special majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of each House present and voting and an absolute majority of its total membership. Read more

Woman charged in death of eviscerated pregnant teen - CNN.com

2008-07-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

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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Gmail - [WaronTerror] European Parliament on Kashmir - jacobthanni@gmail.com

2008-07-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

tag: human rights

Gmail - [WaronTerror] European Parliament on Kashmir - jacobthanni@gmail.com

Aarushi murder: The narco-test that cracked the case

2008-07-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Goa villagers file petition against SEZs land allotment

2008-07-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

US woman gets 4 years jail for killing Indian

2008-07-08T17:58:00.000-07:00

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.

Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela

2008-07-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

Malayala Manorama Indian Newspaper of Malayalam Language from eight places in Kerela

Social activist Lalit Mehta killed by Jharkhand contractors?

2008-07-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

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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Jail Time for Millionaire in Teen Sex Scandal

2008-06-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Jail Time for Millionaire in Teen Sex Scandal
Palm Beach Financier Jeffrey Epstein Reported to Jail This Morning
By VIC WALTER and MADDY SAUER
June 30, 2008

Almost two years after being charged with solicitation, the Palm Beach financier and former friend of President Bill Clinton was booked today after pleading guilty to the charge and an additional charge of procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.
Jeffrey Epstein
Former math teacher, now wealthy financier, Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation and procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.

55-year old Jeffrey Epstein, a former math teacher, still faces civil lawsuits that accuse him of sexually assaulting high school students as young as 15 years old.

Epstein was booked and processed this morning, according to the Palm Beach County sheriff's office. He is now at a county jail where he will remain for the next 18 months.

After his jail time, Epstein will be placed under house arrest for one year and will have a lifelong obligation to register as a sex offender, according to a report in the Palm Beach Post. The Post is also reporting that Epstein must submit to an HIV test within 48 hours and that the results will be provided to the victims or their parents.
in's office released this comment earlier today. "Mr. Epstein fully resolved his case this morning in Palm Beach County state court. Mr. Epstein accepted responsibility for the charges, relating to conduct that occurred several years ago. By agreement, he will begin serving his sentence immediately."

Epstein was charged back in July 2006 after a lengthy probe by the Palm Beach police department. Despite only being charged with solicitation at the time, the allegations in the official police affidavit were much more serious and included charges that he repeatedly paid young, and some underage girls, to come to his house, massage him, and on a few occasions have sex with him.

Read the Probable Cause Affidavit Alleging "Unlawful Sexual Activity with a Minor" by Jeffrey Epstein.

Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter was so angered at the time that he sent a letter to the parents of the girls he said he believed were victims of sex crimes saying, "I do not feel that justice has been sufficiently served."

Epstein, once a math teacher at an elite private school in New York, became rich as a financial adviser to the wealthy. His friendship with former President Clinton began after Clinton left office. Epstein lent his private 727 jet to Clinton for his 2002 trip to Africa. Epstein ha

ABC News: After 36 Years in Solitary, Judge Says Conviction Should Be Overturned

2008-06-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

ABC News: After 36 Years in Solitary, Judge Says Conviction Should Be Overturned: "After 36 Years in Solitary, Prisoner's Conviction Could Be Overturned
Judge Wants Ex-Black Panther's Murder Conviction Tossed, State Disagrees
By MEGAN CHUCHMACH
June 27, 2008

An ongoing legal battle in Louisiana could result in the overturning of a murder conviction that sent a prisoner there to solitary confinement for 36 years. A judge recently recommended that the murder conviction of former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, be overturned. The State of Louisiana disagrees.
albert
Ex-Black Panther Albert Woodfox, now 61, spent 36 years in solitary confinement. Now a judge is recommending his murder conviction be overturned.
(Courtesy State of Louisianna )

In her report, Magistrate Judge Christine Noland said that Woodfox's attorneys were ineffective and had been unable to cross-examine the state's lead witness 'regarding the promises made to him in exchange for his testimony because such information was still being suppressed by the State at the time of the 1973 trial.'

Earlier this week, the State of Louisiana filed an objection denying allegations that it suppressed information that would have discredited its lead witness, a convicted rapist imprisoned at the time, and that Woodfox's attorneys at his second trial in 1998 failed to r"

Romanian girl permitted abortion

2008-06-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

Romanian girl permitted abortion
A pregnant woman (generic image)
Late-term abortions are outlawed in Romania

An 11-year-old Romanian girl who is 21 weeks pregnant after being raped by an uncle will be able to have an abortion, even though it is forbidden by law.

A government committee said the procedure should go ahead due to the exceptional circumstances of her case.

Romania's abortion limit is 14 weeks. It had been suggested the girl might have to go to the UK for the abortion.

Some 20 Christian Orthodox groups had threatened to press charges if the girl was allowed to abort the foetus.

In a letter to the government committee, the girl said she wanted to be able "to go to school and to play".

"If I can't do this my life will be a nightmare," she said, according to a text read out by government committee member Vlad Iliescu.

Another committee member, Theodora Bertzi said the decision was made focusing on "the rights of this child who was subjected to rape and incest".

Family decision

The girl was raped by a 19-year-old uncle who has since disappeared.

Her family only discovered she was pregnant when they took her to the doctor because she seemed sick.

While some pro-life Christian Orthodox groups had urged the family to keep the child, and offered to raise it in a church institution, the Romanian Orthodox Church said any decision on abortion should be left to the family.

The girl's parents had said they wanted to travel to a country where such a late-term abortion was legal.

In Romania abortion is only normally allowed beyond 14 weeks if the mother's life is deemed to be at risk. In Britain, they can be carried out up to 24 weeks in some circumstances.

A Romanian living in the UK had offered to cover the costs of a termination there.

Murder defendant apologizes for causing SoCal commuter rail derailment deaths

2008-06-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

Defendant 'Sorry' for SoCal Commuter Rail Deaths

By LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent
LOS ANGELES May 27, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press

A murder defendant apologized Tuesday for causing a commuter train disaster that killed 11 people, testifying that he was trying to kill himself and never meant to harm anyone else.
n
Juan Alvarez, 29, gazes towards the ceiling after his conviction of 11 counts of first-degree... Expand
Juan Alvarez, 29, gazes towards the ceiling after his conviction of 11 counts of first-degree murder, Thursday, June 26, 2008 in Los Angeles. Alvarez claimed he was attempting suicide when he triggered a 2005 rail disaster and could face the death penalty. Two commuter trains collided into a tangled mass of smoking wreckage littered with victims after Juan Alvarez left a gasoline-drenched sport-utility vehicle on railroad tracks, Jan. 26, 2005 in Glendale, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Collapse
(Bob Chamberlin/AP Photo)

On the witness stand, Juan Alvarez, 29, asked for forgiveness from families of those killed in the January 2005 disaster involving two Metrolink trains. Some relatives of the dead were present as Alvarez testified.

Alvarez said he poured gas over himself and his Jeep, took out a lighter and then decided he did not want to burn himself to death because it would be too painful. He said he then drove onto railroad tracks northeast of Los Angeles in Glendale, hoping a train would smash into his vehicle and kill him quickly.

Prosecutors allege that Alvarez had made not a suicide attempt, but a bid for attention from his wife. He had fled the Jeep by the time a Metrolink train hit the vehicle, then struck a parked freight train and was struck by another Metrolink train going the other way. About 180 people were injured.

Alvarez has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of murder and one count of arson. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Alvarez said after he decided not to kill himself, he tried but couldn't move the SUV. He said he saw the train's bright lights before jumping out of the vehicle.

"I feel terrible and I ask for forgiveness," Alvarez said. "I know some of the family members are here today. I'm very sorry for what happened. I never meant to hurt any of your loved ones. That could have been my mom or dad."

Alvarez said several times that he did not think anyone else would be hurt and had no idea that the train could derail.

Alvarez testified he had made other suicide attempts, once laying down on a road waiting for a car to run over him and twice stabbing himself.

Deputy District Attorney Cathryn Brougham said in opening statements last month that Alvarez had threatened to kill his wife and staged the accident to get her attention. She said he succeeded because after he was jailed on murder charges his wife withdrew a restraining order and visited him regularly.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Raped after mistaking stranger for hubby!

2008-06-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

tag: rape

Court dismisses case on emergency landing and fines Rs. 10,000

2008-06-18T02:15:00.000-07:00

Blue Star
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Court dismisses case on emergency landing

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has taken serious view of people using courts to settle scores with individuals or an organisation by filing suits under the garb of Public Interest Litigations.

The court dismissed such a petition filed by a former Indian airlines pilot and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. P.N. Sharma’s PIL sought directions to Indian airlines to review the emergency landing procedure followed by its A 320 aircraft, contending that the existing “faulty and unsafe” method put the lives of passengers at risk.

The petition was dismissed after the airlines convinced the judges Sharma –– who claimed to have 30 years experience of 16,000 flying hours flying various aircraft like DC-3, Boeing 737, Airbus A 320 –– had filed the PIL out of personal vendetta.

The airlines stated in the court that Sharma’s “professional background has been such that he has tried to implicate his seniors who had found his job performance to be unsatisfactory”.

“We are of the view that the present petition is without merit and is misuse of public interest litigation…Indian Airlines claim the petitioner was suffering from an attitude problem and also anxiety and depression. In these circumstances we would give to the petitioner the benefit of doubt that it may be the action of a person who misdirected himself and not one with oblique motives,” observed a Bench of Justices Manmohan Sarin and Manmohan.

The court also took note of a civil suit Sharma had instituted against the airlines, claiming a compensation of Rs 2.6 crore for cutting short his career by 10 years by “relentless harassment at work place” and “forcing him to fly the unsafe A 320 aircraft”.

Pointing out that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is the only statutory authority having expertise to deal with the petitioner’s contentions, the airlines said the court was not the appropriate forum for such an exercise.

© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

14,000 flock to Aarushi's Facebook tribute

2008-06-16T05:01:00.001-07:00

Monday, June 16, 2008

14,000 flock to Aarushi's Facebook tribute

New Delhi: ‘Into your hands, O Lord, We humbly entrust our sister, In this life you embraced her with your tender love; Deliver her now from every evil, And bid her enter eternal rest.’

With these words, a Facebook community was created by friends of murdered Noida teenager Aarushi Talwar. The community now has over 14,000 members, each describing how they feel for Aarushi or commenting on how the crime brought them together.

It is striking how people from different age groups are following the case, as shown by the Hindustan Times-C Fore survey. This leads to a dilemma on the best ways of dealing with children who are less mature yet overly curious. Is it wise to acquaint them with the harsh realities of life?
“It is our responsibility to talk to our children about the case. They are exposed to various sources of information and will get to know about it. Why can’t it be from parents then?” asked Neelakshi Barua, mother of Neesha, one of Aarushi’s friends.

Meanwhile, city schools are gearing up for the new session, the first time when students will officially meet after the murder.

“I will talk to my students and hold a prayer meeting on the first day,” said Darshan Sodhi, Aarushi’s class teacher.

Added N.M. Williams, principal, Mount Carmel School: “We won’t discuss Aarushi’s case but will address related queries.”

© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

16-year-old ruled cyber fraud gang from Mumbai

2008-06-14T17:45:00.001-07:00

16-year-old ruled cyber fraud gang from Mumbai
15 Jun 2008, 0118 hrs IST, Parth Shastri,TNN

AHMEDABAD: Ajay is 16 and studies in Class X. But let him loose in cyberspace and he's a millionnaire, leaving hundreds of credit card holders broke across the globe.

Ajay was picked up from Mumbai on Thursday and detained by the Gujarat police in a hacking case that left them baffled with its global spread.

This St Ann's student from Mulund has mastered the ability to hack online shopping websites and channel the money paid by cyber buyers into his own account.

The racket surfaced when Ahmedabad crime branch sleuths were investigating a case of hacking of a popular online shopping site and arrested three boys in the city. They turned out to be part of Ajay’s gang.

Probe has revealed that his network spreads across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. His mentors live in the US, Vietnam and other countries.

Ajay, the son of an employee of a textile firm, would give instructions to Wahid Khan, a resident of Kalupur, and Shahid Khan and Haadi Ghoghai of Juhapura, both in Ahmedabad, until they were arrested on Thursday. Ajay had taught them to create fake accounts and crack into others’ credit card accounts to make big bucks.

His prowess in hacking high-security and government websites let Ajay into a hacking community, which gave him access to a huge database of credit card Customer Verification Value (CVV) numbers of prominent banks across the globe.

Ajay’s tools included his laptop, a communicator and a cellphone. But, police say, Ajay’s PC has no data and he has covered his tracks.

All the evidence available is from Shahid Khan’s laptop which has folders and files that hide cracked passwords and the IP addresses of internet domains that were hacked into for fraudulent financial transactions.

Ajay got in touch with online fraudsters during gaming and was hooked fast. He has told the police that after connecting with international hackers in the US, Vietnam, and other countries, he spent over 15 hours a day on the computer trying to figure out how it worked.

“He has a database of over 4,000 international credit cardholders, their CVV numbers and expiry dates,’ said a senior crime branch official.

He fooled the cyber police by using proxy servers for illegal transactions. “After making money illegally at the online shopping giant’s expense for over four months, he got in touch with Shahid Khan and Wahid Khan in Ahmedabad and let them into some secrets of the fraud,’’ said the official.

(Some names have been changed to protect identities.)

Gujarat lawyers want judges transferred over 'misuse of position'

2008-06-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 13, 2008
Gujarat lawyers want judges transferred over 'misuse of position'

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court Advocates Bar Association on Friday raised the issue of lawyers related to judges of the court misusing their position and called a meeting over the matter June 19.

Yatin Oza, president of the bar association, said that it was necessary to request the chief justice of India and his companion judges in the collegium - Justice B.N. Agrawal, Justice Ashok Bhan, Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice C.K. Thakker and Justice J.M. Panchal - to transfer all judges of Gujarat High Court whose children or parents were practicing in the same court.

"This step is necessary to bring purity in the administration of justice," Oza said.

He has written a letter to all bar council members, calling them for a meeting June 19 to discuss the issue of lawyers misusing their relatives' position.

In his letter, Oza said: "Large number of advocates, more particularly junior advocates, have complained to me about the misuse and abuse of kith and kin (mainly children and parents) of honourable judges, misusing the position of their father/son. The coterie has become so strong that not whispers, but loud shouts, have been heard around, both within and outside the courts, about one honourable judge taking care of the kith and kin of another honourable judge and vice versa."

Oza, however, admitted that it would be wrong to brand all the judges in negative light.

"There could be an exception and only a few could be involved. But it is virtually impossible to subjectively pinpoint someone in an atmosphere of suspicion."And therefore in larger interest of justice, it is necessary to transfer all the honourable judges who fall in the above category from our court," he said.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan :'Judiciary makes executive accountable',

2008-06-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

'Judiciary makes executive accountable'
14 Jun 2008, 0135 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN

NEW DELHI: It is the judiciary which makes the executive legally responsible to the people for its actions, Chief Justice of India (CJI) K G Balakrishnan has said giving the formal stamp on the watchdog status of the courts.

Proper functioning of a democracy requires harmonious balance in the functioning of the three separate state organs, he said.

Differentiating judiciary from the other two organs, he said this provided the people with 'auxiliary precaution' required to ensure that the government functioned in favour of the people.

"When the executive asserts itself in a manner that it accords to itself increasing power and an unusually high level of control over state functions, the judiciary has a right to exercise its constitutionally-mandated role and exert pressure by providing oversight in order to maintain the balance between co-equals," he said. It was the principle of 'democratic accountability' that determines the legitimacy of a public authority under the Constitution, he said.

While the legislature was directly elected by the people, the executive was made accountable to the legislature through the principle of collective responsibility of the Cabinet and the individual responsibility of the ministers, Justice Balakrishnan said.

Though the judiciary was vested with the power to interpret law and settle disputes arising between government and private parties, it was also saddled with responsibility to ensure that corrective measures were taken where government failed. "Judicial power also includes the power to take corrective action whenever other branches of the government fail in their duty to respect the rights of the citizens and protect them," the CJI said answering a wide-range of questions from TOI.

In the endeavour to secure the rights of the people from being transgressed by the executive, the courts for arriving at a decision could not be accused of embarking on a 'law-making' exercise, which was the sole discretion of the legislature, he felt. "Judicial determination of whether the other branches of the government are, or are not, functioning in favour of the society cannot be said to constitute 'law-making', but is a exercise of judicial discretion where standards established by the Constitution are not met," he said.

Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan for Judicial Intervention

2008-06-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

'Where does common man go when executive fails?'
13 Jun 2008, 0053 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra,TNN

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan on Thursday stepped out to strongly defend the conduct of the judiciary, saying if its interventions annoyed other organs of the state, so be it.

"The only function of the court is to protect the rights of the people, and all its actions are directed to further this function," CJI Balakrishnan said in comments that acquire significance in the wake of the criticism by the executive and the legislature that the judiciary was meddling in businesses which belonged to others' domain.

"...Before criticizing the court, which serves as the whip hand of the people towards any wrong being done by the state, other organs of governance must make sure their conduct is exemplary... so as to deserve the trust of the people," he said.

He was responding to questions from TOI on the role of the judiciary — especially the Supreme Court — in matters of public interest, the criticism it drew and the role it sees itself playing in view of the challenges, from poverty to lawlessness, facing the country.

Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan's assertiveness to defend the conduct of judiciary may appear important also because he had initially appeared to take in his stride the criticism that the top court attracted whenever it entertained PILs.

In a democracy, he said, people were paramount and it was the inherent duty of the executive, legislature and judiciary to perform meaningful roles in making the life of the common man better.

Giving an example, the CJI said that in many instances, people were promised better amenities, towards which significant amounts of money were spent, but many of those promises were never fulfiled and on occasions, private players were seen to have taken undue benefit of these.

"Given these circumstances, it is incumbent on the Supreme Court to take necessary steps to alleviate the dismal conditions of the people, and pay particular attention to the dismally depressed," he said, referring to the apex court as the "doyen of public interest litigation".

On many occasions, the Supreme Court has faced criticism for "usurping" the power of the executive, he said and asked: "What is most often overlooked by all critics is the fact that where is the common man to go when the executive fails to perform its duties properly?" As a power regulator, he said, the SC has two functions — first, to limit government arbitrariness and power abuse; and secondly, to make the government more rational and its policies more intelligent.

"PIL is one of the many innovations that give life to the Supreme Court being the bulwark for maintenance of democracy and a bastion of civil liberties," he said and termed PIL a potent instrument of social justice to bring about equality.

Taking note of the argument that the apex court should exercise restraint and not violate the constitutional demarcation, he said the court, before entertaining PILs, undertakes strict scrutiny of each of them and the relevance and importance of the issues raised. "Directions are given only when it is absolutely necessary," he said.

The argument for the apex court exercising restraint and staying within limits failed to recognise "the constant failures of governance taking place at the hands of the other organs of the state, and that it is the function of the court to check, balance and correct any failure arising out of any other state organ", the CJI said.

Balakrishnan said right to life of every citizen did not mean animal existence but a fruitful living, which could come only if they enjoy their fundamental rights — such as living in a healthy, clean and safe environment; compulsory education and access to basic amenities of life.

On various occasions, the state failed to exercise its duty of providing these rights to the people who often had to suffer for no fault of theirs. At these junctures, "it becomes an imminent necessity for the Supreme Court to intervene in a timely manner and curtail the violation of fundamental rights, and further its duty to protect the rights of the people", he said.

"It is improper, therefore, to accuse the court of taking any unfair advantage of this instrument (PIL) to further any vested interest," he said.

To preserve the supremacy of the Constitution — from which flows the fundamental rights to equality, speech and life — the role of the courts in today's world has become more onerous and it could help little if it is criticized for giving relief to people, the CJI said.

"The supremacy of the Constitution can be preserved in no other way except through the courts that would step forth and declare all acts 'contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution' void," he added.

Couple convicted for poisoning ex boy friend to death

2008-06-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Blue Star
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Couple convicted for Pune murder

Pune: A city court in Pune held a management student couple guilty of murdering the girl's former boyfriend.

The district sessions court held Aditi Basu Deo Sharma, 25, and her boyfriend Praveen Premswaroop Khandelwal, 25, both students of a management institute in Pune, guilty of poisoning the girl's former boyfriend Udit Ashwin Kumar Bharti on April 22 last year.

According to the police, all three were residents of Jammu and had come to Pune to study after their graduation. Udit and Aditi became close to each but their relationship did not last long.

Later, Aditi started having an affair with Praveen that was resented by Udit. According to the police, Udit continued to pester her with calls. Aditi conspired with her new boyfriend to poison him.

Both Aditi and Praveen confessed to having murdered Udit by mixing poison in prasad (offering to the gods).

The court will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Thursday.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Sirhan Sirhan: kennedy's Assassin 40 yrs in prison

2008-06-11T00:56:00.000-07:00

RFK's Assassin Sirhan Sirhan Getting Old in Prison
By MARK MOONEY
June 10, 2008

With a day's worth of stubble and his cheeks turning jowly, he looks no more dangerous than an aging uncle. But this is the latest mug shot of the killer who was once the most hated man in America — Sirhan Sirhan.

Sirhan Sirhan, charged with the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy during a campaign stop in California, is the subject of intensive investigation by the US Government after an Arab government provided new evidence about his identity.

The mug shot was taken March 27 in California State Prison in Corcoran, two months before the 40th anniversary of his assassination of Robert Kennedy Jr. It was first made public by TheSmokingGun Web site.

"Offender photos are taken periodically throughout an inmate's incarceration because a person's appearance does change over the years," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation.

Sirhan is housed in the prison's protective custody unit "due to his infamous notoriety," said the Corcoran facility's public information officer, Sabrina Johnson.

"Because we are already providing him with protective custody, we didn't take any extra precautions" as last week's sad anniversary was widely observed, Johnson said.

Sirhan is secluded and protected from the general prison population. He takes meals in his cell, and his only companions are other notorious inmates who need protective custody, like serial murderer Charles Manson, Johnson said. Now 64, the country's most notorious living assassin was largely forgotten last week when the nation again mourned Kennedy's death in the June 5, 1968 shooting.

When asked if Sirhan gets many visitors, Johnson said, "Not often."

Sirhan was 24 when he shot RFK in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Tried and convicted, he was sentenced to death, a verdict that was later commuted to life in prison.

Sirhan claimed he killed Kennedy because he was angry over Kennedy's support for Israel. Sirhan was born in Jerusalem to Arab Christian parents who had moved to America when Sirhan was 12. The assassination occurred on the first anniversary of the Six Day War in which Israel had humiliated the combined armies of its Arab neighbors.

Sirhan's next chance at parole is scheduled for 2011.

Murder of social activist Lalit Mehta:Centre for CBI probe

2008-06-10T17:47:00.000-07:00

Centre for CBI probe into activist's murder

Wed, Jun 11 02:20 AM

With "no substantial progress" in the investigation into the murder of social activist Lalit Mehta, the Central Government now wants the CBI to investigate the case.

Mehta, a close aide of noted National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme activist and economist Jean Dreze, was found murdered in May. He was involved in the social audit of the scheme in Chatarpur block of Jharkhand's Palamau district. He was also the founder of Vikas Sahyog Kendra (VSK), an NGO that successfully supervised construction of over 110 check dams in drought-prone Palamau since 1997.

Minister of Rural Development Raghuvansh Prasad Singh on Tuesday wrote a letter to Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda 'advising' him to 'hand over' the investigation to the CBI as "no substantial progress has been reported in the investigation by the state Government so far".

"This will give the right signal of the Government's commitment to integrity, transparency and accountability and boost the confidence of vigilant social organisations in engaging with the field level implementation of NREGA and other rural development programmes," said Raghuvansh in his letter. He also asked Koda to provide compensation to Mehta's family.

The Jharkhand Government had earlier transferred the investigations to the state CID, but with the Centre expressing its "doubts", the state would now have to hand over the case to the CBI. It would be the first criminal case related to the NREG scheme to be referred to the CBI.

The Central Government has also planned to set up a toll free voice activated helpline number that would be accessible to the common man to voice their grievances on the implementation of the scheme.

Woman ends life at police hqs alleging rape by cops

2008-06-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

who held husband for theft, woman ends life at police hqs

Tue, Jun 10 02:49 AM

After two months of struggle for justice, a 25-year-old woman who was allegedly raped by two policemen committed suicide at the Haryana police headquarters in Panchkula today.

Sarita, 25, came from Rohtak with her daughters, five-year-old Muskan and three-year-old Heena, submitted a written complaint to the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) V B Singh and committed suicide in his office.

She was allegedly raped by head constable Balraj Singh and constable Silk Ram of Rohtak crime branch on April 10. She had complained that the police refused to register a case and harassed her instead.

"It was around 12.10 pm that Sarita came to the Police headquarters along with her two daughters. She was the third one in the queue to meet me in my office. The moment her turn came, she gave a written application alleging that she was raped by head constable Balraj Singh and constable Silk Ram on April 10. Both the police officials are from the Rohtak crime branch staff and the police department, instead of taking any action against the two, was trying to protect them," said Singh. He said that she also told him that she had consumed some poisonous substance minutes before coming to the room.

"I immediately asked my staff to rush her to the General Hospital, Sector 6, from where she was referred to the PGI (Chandigarh's Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research) where she breathed her last," said Singh.

He said Sarita had also come to the office on May 29 along with her husband and other relatives. "It was on the basis of her complaint on May 29 that an FIR was registered by the Rohtak police against the two police officials on May 31."

A senior police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Sarita's husband Subhash Kumar was arrested by the Rohtak crime branch in a case of motorcycle theft. Sarita alleged that when her husband was in police custody, she was called by the Head Constable Singh and Constable Ram who raped her. "Though she met the SP, Rohtak, and other senior officials, no action was taken against the accused," said the officer.

When contacted, SP, Rohtak, Hanif Quraishi said: "The two police officials involved in the case have been put under suspension and a three-member Special Investigation Team headed by DSP (Headquarters) Manbir Sheoran, has been formed to investigate into the matter."

'Rajbir was murdered by professional killer'

2008-06-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Blue Star
Monday, June 09, 2008
'Rajbir was murdered by professional killer'

New Delhi: High-profile Delhi Police official Rajbir Singh was not murdered by realtor Vijay Bhardwaj but by a hired killer as part of a larger conspiracy, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sources said on Monday.

The CBI, which took over the probe into the sensational murder case, has come to the conclusion that Bhardwaj, who had confessed the crime, was only taking the blame on himself, they said.

After initial investigations, it has been found that two Dubai-based companies, which suffered losses due to Singh's actions, had hired a professional killer to murder him, the highly placed sources said.

According to the CBI probe, the private companies had been keeping a track on Singh's movement. The sources said a large amount of money was transferred to Bhardwaj's account after the murder. The role of Bhardwaj's servant Krishna is also under the scanner, the sources said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Singh, 48, was shot dead March 24 in the Mehrauli-Gurgaon road office of property dealer Bhardwaj.

Bhardwaj, who claimed to be Singh's acquaintance of 20 years, confessed within hours that he had killed Singh as the latter had been threatening him to return some money.

The Gurgaon police that probed the crime earlier said Bhardwaj, 42, said in his confessional statement that he fired two bullets at Singh's head with a .32 bore revolver which, according to him, Singh had given him three days earlier.

The CBI took over the case June 3 after the victim's family complained that the police were not investigating the case properly.

Singh had earned the reputation of a super cop, taking on tough cases and solving them - even if it involved extra-judicial methods and violation of the suspects' basic human rights. He was instrumental in cracking the terror attacks on the parliament complex in 2001 and the Red Fort in 2000.

He was nicknamed "encounter specialist" - a euphemism for a cop who tracks down and kills suspected gangsters and terrorists without due process of law. He had over 50 kills to his credit.
Singh was granted the highest level of security cover. His personal security officer (PSO) and driver, accompanying him on the night of the crime, had left the spot after Krishna told them that Singh wanted them to wait at the IFFCO Chowk in Gurgaon, a suburban area on the outskirts of the national capital.

The Gurgaon police claimed that Singh was killed with a revolver, which was missing from a Hissar police official, under a “pre-meditated conspiracy”. The police were not been able to establish the route through which the revolver, belonging to additional superintendent of police Ashok Shoran, reached Singh, as claimed by the accused.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Mohammed Afza lwishes Advani to become India's prime minister

2008-06-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

Blue Star
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Man on death row slams Congress
Mohammed Afzal

New Delhi: On death row for the last three years, India's most controversial convict, Mohammed Afzal, wants a speedy conclusion to his ordeal and says Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani would act swiftly in deciding his plight one way or the other while the present government is dilly-dallying his death sentence.

"I don't think the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government can ever reach a decision. The Congress party has two mouths and is playing a double game," said Afzal, convicted for the December 2001 Indian parliament attack in an exclusive interview to IANS in Tihar prison's Jail No 3.

"I really wish L.K. Advani becomes India's next prime minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang me. At least my pain and daily suffering would ease then," said Afzal, who has been in solitary confinement in the capital's high security Tihar Jail.

Incidentally, Advani has criticised the delay in carrying out the death sentence.

"I fail to understand the delay. They have increased my security. But what needs to be done immediately is to carry out the court's orders," Advani had remarked in November 2006.

In this rare interview, Afzal's first since he was convicted by the Supreme Court in 2004 that was subsequently upheld a year later, he says the death sentence had made him delusional. He, too, has filed a mercy petition - along with 40 others - that is pending before the president.

Cumbersome legal procedures and prolonged periods of solitary confinement, he said, were inhuman and cruel.

Psychologists call this condition the 'death row' phenomenon, in which prisoners spending years awaiting their execution go through excruciating mental torture, a fact that was recognized by the European Court of Human Rights in 1989.

"Life has become hell in the jail. I requested the government to take an immediate decision over my sentence just two months ago. I don't wish to be part of the living dead," said Afzal, whose moods swung frequently between being stoic and being defiant.

"I have also requested that till the time they (government) take a decision, they shift me to a Kashmir jail," said Afzal, who now sports a long black beard.

Dressed in a spotless white kurta-pyjama and a sports cap to hide his shaven head, Afzal, who is in his mid-30s, said he sympathised with Sarabjit Singh, an Indian lodged in Pakistan prison for nearly two decades, but said no parallel could be drawn between the two of them.

"Please don't compare me with Sarabjit. The issues are separate. My sympathies are with him, but my fight is for the Kashmir conflict. Now, I am not even seeking any clemency and have no objection to the government deciding my fate."

Last month Home Minister Shivraj Patil's controversial statement saying those demanding Afzal's hanging could not seek reprieve for Sarabjit Singh drew considerable publicity.

"If you are asking for Afzal Guru's hanging, then how can you ask for pardon for Sarabjit Singh?" Patil had asked.

Sarabjit Singh has been held guilty for bombings in Lahore and Multan in 1990 that left 14 people dead. He was to be executed April 30. However, the intervention of the Indian government led to the execution being postponed by Pakistan.

Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on India's parliament that killed six security personnel and one civilian.

"I long for my eight-year-old son, Ghalib. In jail, it is not possible to meet them easily as intelligence officials unnecessarily harass my family and wife, Tabassum, when they come here," he remarked.

In jail, Afzal is reading a book called "India wins freedom" by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad that details events of the country's independence movement.

There is pressure to issue clemency to Afzal from political groups in Kashmir, who believe hanging Afzal would have negative effects on the peace process in Kashmir. Human rights activists too have demanded a reprieve, as they believe that the trial was flawed.

"I only asked for pardon to stop millions of Kashmiri people hitting the streets. If I am hanged, I would take it as a sacrifice towards the people of Kashmir," Afzal told IANS.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Narendra Rastogi, accused of defrauding the exchequer is to tbe brought to India

2008-06-08T18:24:00.000-07:00

unday, June 08, 2008
India set to bring back 3rd Rastogi brother

New Delhi: India is all set to send a team to the US to get extradited Narendra Rastogi, who along with his brothers including influential London-based businessman Virendra, has been accused by the CBI of defrauding the exchequer to the tune of Rs 43 crore while exporting scrap to CIS countries.

The CBI, which had launched a hot pursuit of the four Rastogi brothers -- Virendra, Narendra, Ravindra and Subash -- since early 2000, will now bring back the third brother to India as his sentence in the US was near completion. The American authorities have asked their Indian counterparts to send a team for his extradition.

The FBI had arrested Rastogi and three others in May 2002 for defrauding banks around the world of an estimated 600 million dollar by obtaining finance for sham transactions and then pledging them as collaterals for loans.

The US Federal agency had also sent a request to the Central Bureau of Investigation to give details about the frauds committed by him in India before he fled to the US.

When he was about to be extradited to India, the accused pleaded guilty before a New Jersey court which sentenced him to imprisonment till June 2008.

The CBI team led by the then Joint Director Neeraj Kumar, at present Special Commissioner in Delhi Police, had conducted a painstaking investigation into the case and collected evidence before chargesheeting them in the case. The CBI had then also managed to arrest Subash Rastogi and get extradited another brother Ravindra from Dubai.

© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

Murder slur on UP minister, supporters

2008-06-08T18:21:00.001-07:00

Sunday, June 08, 2008
Murder slur on UP minister, supporters

Gorakhpur/Lucknow: Utar Pradesh police have filed a murder case against a minister and 50 others after his supporters allegedly opened fire, killing a constable and attempted to ransack a police station in Mahrajganj district to protest the release of a rape case suspect.

While locals alleged that fire came from inside a car carrying Minister of State for Fisheries Jamuna Nishad and his supporters, he denied that he was present near the Kotwali police station, the scene of the mayhem, last night.

The Kotwali police have registered a case against Nishad and 50 other unnamed people under section 302 (murder) and other relevant sections of the IPC and the Arms Act, Deputy Inspector General, Gorakhpur Range, G L Meena said today.

Witnesses alleged that a red-beacon vehicle, in which the Minister was present along with his supporters, came to the area and the occupants had an altercation with a police guard. A crowd was already present at the spot.

As a commotion ensued, other policemen rushed to the spot and tried to chase them away when someone opened fire, police said, adding a bullet hit constable Krishna Nand Rai. He was rushed to a hospital here, where he died.

The mob also tried to ransack the police station and loot the armoury, Meena said maintaining that three rounds were fired -- one from a rifle and two from a pistol.

Nishad said: "I was never near the Kotwali last night. However, I had called up some officials and asked them to probe the rape case impartially".

He said the mob that gathered there to protest the alleged shielding of a suspect in the rape of a minor girl from the Nishad community had opened fire. His supporters had not fired, he claimed.

Additional Director General (Law and Order) Brij Lal said a report has been sought from the police station. He declined comment on whether the Minister was present.

© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

Court clears Salem gang of bid on film maker

2008-06-06T18:20:00.001-07:00

Blue Star
Friday, June 06, 2008
Court clears Salem gang of bid on film maker

Mumbai: A sessions court on Friday acquitted five men involved in a plot to kill film maker Manmohan Shetty in May 2001.

According to the prosecution, Shetty was then the owner of Adlabs Studios and members of the Abu Salem gang were trying to extort money from him. When they failed, they decided to kill him.

There were seven accused in the case but the trial of the two (who have already been acquitted last month for lack of evidence) was separated from the rest.

Police said they had recorded conversations of Salem gang members in which they were planning to kill Shetty. Thereafter five men - Nurul Qadri, Salim Jamadar, Arif Akbar, Siraj Shaikh and Mohammed Ghous - were arrested in a trap laid by police at Fame Adlabs in Andheri. Some weapons and cartridges were also allegedly recovered from them.

However, when the matter reached trial all five were acquitted for lack of evidence. The defence lawyers had cast doubts on the veracity of telephonic conversations that had been recorded by the police.

The accused were out on bail while the case was pending. The two others, who were acquitted in the case - Zamir Ahmed and Mushir Ahmed Iraqi, were arrested from Azamgarh, UP in March 2006.

They were caught by the crime branch after Salem, who was deported to India in 2005, said during his interrogation that the two of them had arranged the weapons that were to be used for attacking Shetty. Interestingly Salem himself was never tried in connection with this case.

According to police officials Salem is being tried only for three cases against him in Mumbai as per the terms under which he was extradited from Portugal. The cases pertain to the ferrying of arms to Mumbai before the serial blasts of 1993, the murder of Manisha Koirala's secretary Ajit Dewani and the killing of builder Pradip Jain.

© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

Lifers request prez for mercy killing

2008-06-06T18:16:00.001-07:00

Friday, June 06, 2008
Lifers request prez for mercy killing

Allahabad: Jailed for around 14 years, 97 lifers lodged at the Naini central jail here have, in an unprecedented move, written to the President of India seeking mercy killing.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by IANS Friday from jail sources, was signed by all 97 lifers and was sent by registered post last Thursday.

In the emotionally charged letter, the prisoners stated that all of them had served more than 14 years in prison and displayed good conduct. They said their families had lost all hope of their return home.

"Instead of waiting for death in jail, we would prefer to embrace death earlier so that our family members, who are waiting for us, could start a new life," said the prisoners.

"This way our families would be able to live in peace instead of running from pillar to post to secure our release," they said.

The jail inmates wondered about "the purpose of remaining alive when we cannot do anything for society and our families."

"Are we not a burden on the government? Why is the government wasting money on us when we are of no use?" they asked.

The jail inmates Vinod Tiwari, Vansh Gopal, Ram Chandra, Bhagirathi Singh, Udit, Islam and 91 others have also sent the copy of the letter to the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Governor of UP and UP Chief Minister Mayawati.

When IANS contacted him, Jails DIG Rajendra Prashad feigned ignorance about the letter.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service

Land Ceiling:PILagainst the Union and the Maharashtra Government

2008-06-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

Thursday, June 05, 2008
Centre, M’rashtra told to file say on ULCRA repeal

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today asked the Union Government, the Maharashtra Government and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai to file their replies within four weeks, regarding a PIL challenging the repeal of the Urban Land Ceiling and Regulation Act (ULCRA).

The Division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice V M Kanade was hearing the PIL filed by suburban Mumbai residents P B Sawant, Mrunal Gore, Vasant Shirali and Kamal Desai, all of them former members of the Legislative Assembly here.

The PIL says that the state entered into a MOU with the Central government for funding under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission in October 2006, accepting the condition "that ULCRA would be repealed" to get funding from the Centre to develop Mumbai.

The petitioners contended that the Central Government does not have the power to levy this condition as the JNNURM was included in Appropriation Act 2007-08 and no such condition was imposed by Parliament for disbursement of grant to state governments. Also, the MOU is opposed to public policy and should be set aside.

According to information under RTI, the states and Union Territories did not make sincere efforts to implement the 1976 Act till June 1998, the PIL states.

On account of non-implementation, the sale of land was frozen leading to land prices rocketing sky-high and creating an acute shortage in cities like Mumbai.

The PIL also states that the reasons for Union government to repeal the ULCRA were neither accurate nor correct.

The government could have acquired the land at Rs 7 crore from 335 land holders, created 26 lakh tenements and earned profits of around Rs 2,000 crore by selling them, it says. But by repealing the Act, state government lost a lot of money and also aggravated the problem of housing in Mumbai.

"Their (union and state) bureaucrats and builders have conspired to defeat the object of the 1976 Act," the PIL says.

The Petitioners said that the Chief Minister had moved the resolution to repeal the Act in Maharashtra in April 2007 before the Legislative Assembly but the same is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.

Also, it is illegal because it was moved before the Assembly before obtaining approval from the Council of Ministers as prescribed under Maharashtra Government Business Rules, the PIL states.

Repealing the Act violates various articles of the Constitution and is liable to be declared "ultra vires' and struck down, the PIL said.

Murder of Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police Rajbir Singh: CBI Probes

2008-06-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday,June 03,2008
Rajbir Singh murder: CBI starts probe

New Delhi: The CBI on Tuesday registered a case to probe the murder of Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police Rajbir Singh. The case was registered following a request by the Haryana government for a CBI probe which was approved by the Department of Personnel on May 27.

Rajbir was gunned down allegedly by his friend and property dealer Vijay Bhardawaj on March 24 at Gurgaon. A team of CBI officials accompanied by forensic experts reached the spot where the murder had taken place.

© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scarlett Keeling murder

2008-06-03T18:46:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 03, 2008
2 charged for Scarlett Keeling murder

Panaji: The Goa police today filed a charge sheet against two persons who were arrested for raping and murdering British teenager Scarlett Eden Keeling.

Anjuna police, which are investigating the case, charge sheeted Samson D'Souza and Placido Carvalho before the Goa Children's Court, charging them with murder.

Scarlett's bruised body was found at Anjuna shore on February 18 and police had arrested the two locals after a thorough investigation.

The 287-page charge sheet has testimonies of 87 witnesses including Scarlett's mother Fiona Mackeown, lawyer Vikram Varma, prime British witness Micheal Mannion, dismissed police sub-inspector Nerlon Albuquerque, Goa Medical College and Hospital's Forensic Department experts and others.

Both the accused are charge sheeted under Section 302 (murder) and other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code and Section eight of Goa Children's Act.

The Goa police had come under fire for its initial bungling in its probe into the murder of Scarlet and is now in the process to hand it over to the CBI.

"The CBI may take over the case any time. All the formalities are completed," Goa Chief Secretary J P Singh told PTI.

Samson D'Souza, the main accused in the case, is already in custody for almost three months since his arrest on March 12.

Placido Carvalho was given bail by the court as the evidence against him was inadequate.

The police have stopped investigating the case since the last one and half months after the state government transferred the case to the CBI.

© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

2008-06-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Husband accused of killing Vadodara social worker in Sydney

Wed, Jun 4 02:27 AM

A prominent NGO worker from Vadodara, Jyoti Mehta (37) and her nine-year-old daughter, Ujalla, were found murdered in a park in Sydney, Australia, on Monday. Though a motive for the murder is uncertain, Sydney police have arrested Jyoti's husband, Sanjay Mehta (41), for the crime; he was denied bail when produced in court. Mehta allegedly killed the mother-daughter duo earlier in May and registered a missing persons' complaint with the Sydney police on May 5.

It was through television media reports that Jyoti's father, Bharat Bhusan Sharma found that his daughter was brutally murdered. A tearful Sharma said, "My daughter had shown some dissatisfaction about her marriage while talking to her mother few months ago."

He added that his wife is now on dialysis and she was not informed about the murders because of her failing health. Sharma stated that Jyoti and Mehta, both divorcees with children from their previous marriages, met each other on the Internet and wed in May last year.

According to reports from Sydney, Mehta, after killing his wife and stepdaughter, put their bodies in the boot of his car and took them to a tourist site called Echo Point atop a hill in Sydney early in May. Those close to the victims' family stated that Mehta threw their bodies down a 150-metre cliff. A pair of morning walkers found the two bodies the following day and alerted the police, who immediately arrested Mehta and charged him with murder. Apparently, Jyoti had earlier complained to a domestic violence social worker about Mehta verbally abusing her, which her sister Poonam Sharma, who lives and works in Sydney, also confirmed to the police.

A social worker, Jyoti, born and brought up in Vadodara, worked for the welfare of street children who lived in and around railway stations in Vikas Jyot Trust.

Incidentally, The Indian Express carried a story about Jyoti Mehta and her work with railway street children just a few months before she left Vadodara to get married in Sydney.

Jyoti's marriage to Mehta, her second, was solemnised without her parents' knowledge. "Jyoti was married when she was 37 years, she met Mehta through an Internet marriage site. Since my younger daughter is also in Sydney, she went there and married him a year ago. The marriage occurred in my and her mother's absence, though we were not annoyed by it," said Jyoti's father.

According to Jyoti's friends, she was not happy in her married life.

India tops world murder count

2008-06-01T16:16:00.001-07:00

India tops world murder count
2 Jun 2008, 0050 hrs IST,TNN

NEW DELHI: India has earned the dubious distinction of being the country where maximum number of murders takes place in the world, three times more than its neighbour Pakistan and double the figures in United States.

There were more than 50 lakh incidents of crime reported in 2007-08 which included murder, rape and drug offences, a government report said. There were 32,719 incidents of murder recorded in India, whereas there were 16,692 in the US and 9,631 in Pakistan, the report compiled by National Crime Records Bureau and released by the Union Home Ministry, said.

India was followed by South Africa which registered 30,960 incidents of murders. Austria had recorded just 148 murders, whereas Israel registered 177 such incidents.

However, the rate (per lakh population) of murder and other crimes in India was much less compared to other countries. The murder and rape rate in India is three and four (per lakh population) respectively whereas South Africa recorded occurrence rates in the two categories as 65.27 and 115.8 respectively.

"Most of the murders take place due to passion, sudden provocation, crime related and family disputes,’’ Delhi police spokesman ACP Rajan Bhagat said. Delhi has recorded an increase of 1.08% in murders in 2007 compared to 2006.

The number of rape cases was maximum in the US which recorded 93,934 such assaults followed by South Africa 54,926 and India 18,359.

The data was compiled in 22 countries which included Australia, Argentina, Austria, Bulgaria, Japan, Canada, England and Wales, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka besides others. In India, there were 44,159 incidents of sexual offence, 2,70,861 cases of serious assault and 22,814 robbery and violent theft-related incidents, the report said.

The maximum number of robbery related cases were reported in Japan which had registered 17,25,072 such counts.

The US topped the crime list with 2,31,13,708 total crime related incidents, whereas India registered overall 50,26,337 criminal cases.

Megan Meier victim of cyberbullying

2008-05-30T19:18:00.000-07:00

MySpace Suicide Mom Takes Action
Suburban St. Louis mother in Internet bullying case channels grief into activism
By BETSY TAYLOR Associated Press Writer
DARDENNE PRAIRIE, Mo. May 30, 2008 (AP)
The Associated Press

A mother from Missouri faces criminal charges for her role in an Internet hoax.

When Tina Meier's 13-year-old daughter committed suicide after being bullied on the Internet, her grief was so encompassing she felt at times she couldn't breathe. She had trouble being around loved ones who reminded her of her child. Even today, recollections of those first holidays after Megan's death are foggy at best.

But in recent months, the Missouri woman has focused on ways to protect other children from bullying, even leaving her job as a real estate agent to dedicate herself to the Megan Meier Foundation.

"Megan is still my daughter, no matter what, and I am going out there and fighting for her still because she is still my daughter," Meier said.

A group of friends and relatives helped Meier create the foundation, which seeks to educate and encourage positive changes to prevent bullying and cyberbullying. Meier and the volunteers are working to improve laws. They speak at schools and to parent groups. They hope to begin offering scholarships to children who help other children in some way.

Megan hanged herself in her closet on Oct. 16, 2006. Her tragic story became public only last fall following an article in a suburban St. Louis newspaper that prompted widespread interest in her case.

Megan had a history of attention deficit disorder and depression. Her suicide came soon after she received mean messages through the MySpace social networking Web site.

Earlier this month, a federal grand jury indicted 49-year-old Lori Drew, a neighbor of Megan and her family. She is accused of one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to get information used to inflict emotional distress. The charges were filed in California where MySpace is based. MySpace is a subsidiary of Beverly Hills-based Fox Interactive Media Inc., which is owned by News Corp.

Authorities have said Drew, Drew's teenage daughter and another teen took part in an online hoax, creating a fake boy named Josh Evans who befriended and flirted with Megan online. Drew allegedly wanted to know what Megan was saying about her own daughter online. Shortly before Megan's death, the comments from Josh and some other Internet users turned cruel, with "Josh" allegedly saying the world would be better without Megan.

Nitish Katara murder: Vikas Yadav found guilty

2008-05-28T09:03:00.000-07:00

Nitish Katara murder: Vikas Yadav found guilty

Wed, May 28 11:12 AM

It's justice for Nitish Katara at last. The trial court hearing the six-year-old murder case held prime accused Vikas Yadav guilty. His cousin Vishal Yadav has also been found guilty in the case.

Neelam Katara, mother of Nitish has sat through 400 hearings for this day fighting not only against the system but amidst tough political pressures. Vikas Yadav is the son of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav's and Vishal Yadav is his nephew. The two were accused of killing Nitish and then setting his body on fire.

"I found the body badly charred and the head had been struck with a hard object. There was a crack on the head and after that the body had been badly burnt. Everything was charred. God forbid that any parent ever has to see the child like that," Neelam Katara said as per news reports.

Past details:

Nitish was at a wedding along with Bharti Yadav - daughter of Uttar Pradesh politician DP Yadav. Bharti's brother Vikas and her cousin Vishal were also at the wedding. They allegedly left the party with Nitish that night in their SUV and killed him because they didn't approve of his romance with their sister.

When Nitish was found dead the Yadav boys were already missing. Their father, then a Rajya Sabha Samajwadi Party MP, spoke in their defence.

However, a few days after Nitish's death, Vikas and Vishal Yadav were found and arrested in Madhya Pradesh. Vikas first confessed that he got into a fight with Nitish at the wedding.

But a week later, came his retraction, "I have never heard that name. I have never seen him in my life, I just went to the wedding and came back."

Bharti was oscillating between family pressure and the truth. She told the press that despite all the Valentine's Day cards, she had never dated Nitish.

Bharti was then sent to London to study. In the next four years, one witness after another turned hostile. But Neelam Katara's was successful in having the case transferred out of Ghaziabad on the grounds that D P Yadav was influencing proceedings.

The last six years have seen Neelam quitting her job, she has lost her husband but her mission was this case.

Neeraj Grover murder: Mathew, Maria want to come clean

2008-05-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

Mathew, Maria want to come clean

MUMBAI: Jerome Mathew, prime suspect in the Neeraj Grover murder case, wants to confess before a magistrate. Police sources said he broke down before interrogators and said that he had stabbed Grover in a fit of rage and now wanted to come clean.

Mathew's girlfriend, Maria Susairaj, who was arrested for helping him dispose of the body and for abetment, has independently expressed a desire to confess.

After the Kannada actress made her request, crime branch officials moved her application before a magistrate, who remanded her from police to judicial custody.

Joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said that Susairaj had on Sunday expressed her desire to make a confessional statement before the police but since such a statement does not stand up in a court of law, the police have moved her application to the court. "The court will record her statement in-camera on Wednesday," he said.

Susairaj has already admitted to the cops that she was the only eye-witness to Grover's murder and that she had aided and abetted in the crime.

Rakesh Maria rubbished questions on whether Susairaj would turn approver.

"She is a co-accused who has participated equally in the crime by bundling the chopped pieces of Grover's body into three bags, which she helped her boyfriend Emile Jerome Mathew carry to the car, purchase petrol and a lighter, and helped him burn the body." But legal experts say that if the court allows Susairaj to turn approver, she may be pardoned or given lesser punishment.

The police are still looking for the kitchen knife with which Mathew stabbed Grover in Susairaj's Malad flat on May 7 after he found him naked in her bedroom. They have, however, found the second knife that was used to cut up Grover's body. Rakesh Maria said that since both the accused have been arrested and most loose ends in the case have been tied up, the police want to "submit the chargesheet within 30 days".

Susairaj told investigators that when Mathew and Grover were fighting, she had tried to stop Mathew by grabbing his hand but he flung her off. When he first stabbed Grover, the latter begged him to hear him out but Mathew was in a rage and wouldn't stop until he had knifed him about seven or eight times.

A police officer said, "As of now we know that Susairaj helped him to conceal the crime and destroy the evidence. She did not participate in the killing. But if at a later stage we learn that everything was planned by Mathew and her in advance, we will modify the charges."

Susairaj and Mathew were interrogated at the Bandra crime branch office separately and not allowed to meet.

Sources said that Susairaj's father (a builder from Bangalore) and Mathew's parents have arrived in the city and are seeking legal help.

Aarushi and Hemra killing: Police story has holes

2008-05-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Police story in Noida murder case has holes

Noida: While the Noida police claimed to have cracked the double-murder case on Friday, senior police officers failed to explain some very basic details of the investigation and what led them to conclude that Dr Rajesh Talwar was the killer.

What was the motive?

Senior police officers say a person killing his servant as he had an affair with his daughter is possible but why would he go on to kill his daughter? The biggest mystery of the case — the motive behind the killings — remains a puzzle. Since the last one week, police has attributed various motives to the murder but on Friday when they announced they had arrested the killer, they were at a loss to explain as to what had angered Talwar so much that he decided to kill Aarushi and Hemraj and that too in his own house.

Police say Hemraj and Aarushi were aware of his extra-marital affair and his daughter objected to it often and they had heated discussions on this. Police said Hemraj had discussed this with some of his friends and when Talwar came to know about it, he had scolded and even beaten Hemraj. But this wasn’t the reason why he murdered the two, the police said.

The two — Hemraj and Aarushi — had become close and developed physical relations and when Talwar came to know about it he had threatened his servant. However, he had known for sometime about their relationship but what made him react the way as the police say he did last Friday is not known. Was something else the trigger?

Why his own house?

Senior police officers say a person killing his servant as he had an affair with his daughter is possible but why would he go on to kill his daughter? Police haven’t been able to exactly explain why Talwar killed Aarushi. Even if he had decided to kill them, couldn’t he have taken Hemraj out with him on some pretext and kill him?

Hemraj, the police said, had often told his friends that he feared for his life. Why had Hemraj stayed back when Talwar had come to know of his relationship with his daughter some months back? “He could have easily left the place the day Talwar had threatened him the first day,” an officer said.

It is perplexing why Talwars continued with Hemraj as their domestic help after coming to know of his physical relations with their daughter.

What was Nupur doing?

Police have failed to say what Aarushi mother, Dr Nupur Talwar, was doing on the night of the murder. Police said around 1 a.m., when the murder, even the slightest of noise can be heard. “As there is no traffic and the colony is very peaceful, you can’t miss shouts of this nature. Even if someone walks on the terrace, you can hear the noise. If you pull open the cover of the cooler it makes enough noise for the person in the bedroom to hear,” said IG (Meerut) Gurdarshan Singh.
The police went on to explain that anything that would have happened in Aarushi’s room would have been easily heard in Nupur’s room.

“The doors of the two rooms are hardly four feet away and if you take the position of the beds they are hardly six feet away. It cannot be possible that the person in the other bedroom does not come to know what’s happening in the other,” Singh said.

Who was killed first?

Another mystery is the timings of the two murders. Singh initially said Talwar killed Hemraj to eliminate all witnesses to Aarushi’s murder. He then went on to say that Talwar murdered Hemraj first and then killed Aarushi. So was the possible witness to the murder that hadn’t been committed till then eliminated first so that there doesn’t remain a witness to the crime? The police were as confused as anyone else on this.

Also the police had earlier said the murders were committed within minutes of each other. Later they said there was a difference of 3-4 hours between the two murders.

Where is the weapon of crime?

The weapons used to commit the crimes, a hammer and scalpel, haven’t been recovered till now. The failure to recover the weapon of offence can become the deciding factor when the case goes to trial. Delhi Police’s failure to recover the pistol used to kill Jessica Lall was one of the strong points used by the defence counsels in their favour in court.

Moreover, the police haven’t recovered the clothes that Talwar was wearing at the time when he allegedly committed the murders. Police haven’t recovered the mobile phones of Aarushi and Hemraj till now. The lax attitude of the Noida Police has already ensured that they lost crucial evidence that could have been lifted from the crime spot.

Who helped Talwar?

Police have maintained from the beginning that 3-4 persons were involved in the crime. They had also recovered atleast three glasses used to consume liquor from Hemraj’s room. “We have leads that point to the presence of at least 3-4 assailants in the house on the night of the murder,” A Satish Ganesh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Noida had said.

Who found Hemraj’s body?

While it is well known that retired DSP, K.K. Gautam, discovered the body, police on Friday said it was Rajesh Talwar who had called from Hardwar to inform that they body was lying on the terrace. This is confusing as police did not say whom did Talwar call to inform and if he had called why wasn’t the case cracked earlier?

Police said when Talwar reached home last Friday he saw his daughter and Hemraj in a “objectionable position”. However, there are three doors to cross before one enters the house and Talwar must have rung the doorbell. How come, Hemraj still remain in Aarushi’s room till Talwar arrived.

© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

Arushi Killing: Nupur defends her husband, Rajesh Talwar

2008-05-24T17:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 24, 2008
Nupur defends husband, says he can't be killer

Noida: Nupur Talwar, the wife of dentist Rajesh Talwar, arrested yesterday for allegedly killing his daughter and domestic help, today claimed that he was totally innocent and she would fight his battle for justice.

She also denied there were any illicit relations between her husband and Anita Durrani, a dental surgeon, which the police said was one of the reasons for the twin murder.

"Even after all this, I can say it has nothing to do with this. There is no such thing," she told NDTV.

Coming out in strong defence of her husband, Nupur said, "with all conviction I can say it (Rajesh killing Arushi) can't be the way it is suggested (by the police). He was a doting father. It is doubly untrue.”

"In fact I used to feel that I had done something good in the past to be part of such a wonderful family. I have faith in the legal system and I have faith in God," she said.

Nupur, who is also a dentist, said she cannot believe that her husband could be behind the murders. "It is not possible, just not possible. The killer is out there somewhere. We will have to fight it out in the court. The truth is there. The truth has to come out."

Breaking her silence ever since the murder came to light Friday last week, Nupur said they were a very close knit family and on the night of the murder, the family had food and watched television together like any other family before they went to sleep.

"I have been in the house. Is such a thing possible? Do you think...Can any mother sleep throughout...I think it is beyond anybody's imagination. Utter nonsense, baseless nonsense. They (police) can say whatever they want. I know it is not true. God knows it is not true," she said.

Asked as a mother can she be part of a cover-up to save the husband from law, she said "would any mother do that? Then I don't think she is a mother. She is not a human being. She is an animal. Even a father would not do it."

To a question about the police charge of an extra-marital relationship between Rajesh and Anita Durrani, she said, the Durranis were like an extended family.

"I have known her since Arushi was born. Her daughter may be six months older than Arushi. Her daughter and my daughter were like sisters.”

"Whenever we have had medical problems, her husband (Praful) would come and give medicines for Arushi. Even when Rajesh gets asthmatic attacks, the first to be called would be Praful. In fact, we never had a family doctor. Praful was our doctor," she said.

On domestic servant Hemraj, who the police claimed had developed a relationship with Arushi, Nupur said he was a person whom she had trusted. "He was 45 years, turning grey, an elderly person, who had sons and a grandchild. I never had any problems with him. Even on the day of murder, he had told me how happy he was that Arushi had eaten for the first time 'palak paneer' (spinach and cheese).

"He had cared for her," she said and denied suggestions of an intimate relationship between Hemraj and Arushi.

"It is not at all true. We knew everything about Arushi, she also went through what teenagers normally go through," she said.

Nupur said Rajesh never uttered a word to Arushi and whatever he wanted to say, he always conveyed it through her.

"It (Arushi's murder by him) is not possible. I know Rajesh. He had a lot of patience. He was one of the most gentle souls. It is unimaginable. I hope the person (murderer) would be caught," she said.

Asked about who could be the killer, she said she had no idea. "First when the murder came to light, first I thought that it was the servant. But when his body was recovered, then I thought probably it was some enmity the servant had with someone."

Recalling the night before Arushi was murdered, Nupur said Rajesh had bought a camera for the girl's 14th birthday (which incidentally is today) and both of them took it to her room. She wanted to give it to Arushi on the same day, but Rajesh wanted to wait till birthday.

Nupur said Arushi kept calling her friends to know who all are coming for her birthday party.
"I will not just sit back and see. I will fight for justice and for my family's name," she said.

© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

10 killed in police firing on Gujjars

2008-05-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, May 24, 2008
10 killed in police firing on Gujjars

Daussa/Bayana: At least 10 people were killed today and scores wounded when police opened fire on a mob that set ablaze a police station in the Daussa district of Rajasthan as the Gujjars agitation for ST tag spread to new areas of the state.

Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bhainsala said he was ready to talk to the government but said the agitation would continue till their demand was met.

Police opened fire when a mob of Gujjars, protesting the police firing on their community members in Bayana in Bharatpur district yesterday and pressing for ST status, stormed the police station at Sikendra in Daussa district, after overpowering the policemen and set it on fire, SHO Bane Singh said.

With this, the death count in two days of firing and clashes between Gujjars and police mounted to 26 of whom 16 lost their lives yesterday.

"The situation is extremely tense and additional police force has been requisitioned to handle the situation," Singh said.

Police had opened fire on Gujjar agitators at Philpura village of Bayana yesterday when they pelted stones on them after tear gas shells failed to disperse the protestors who damaged the railway tracks.

Eight hundred army men were deployed today in violence-hit Dhumiria and Karwari villages of Bayana tehsil, joining CRPF and Rapid Action Force to restore law and order.

© Copyright 2008 PTI. All rights reserved.

Dad killed Aarushi: Cops

2008-05-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

Dad killed Aarushi: Cops
24 May 2008, 0231 hrs IST,Lalit Kumar,TNN

NOIDA: What was widely suspected but was virtually unspeakable has apparently come true. Dr Rajesh Talwar, one of the city's most successful dentists, killed his own daughter, Aarushi, and manservant Hemraj in cold blood to write an utterly depressing chapter in parent-child relationships, according to police.

To give a murkier twist to this dark tale, police said, there were two motives to the murders: Dr Talwar's extramarital affair with his professional partner, Dr Anita Durani, which was known and deeply resented by Aarushi, and the 14-year-old girl's "proximity" and "closeness" to the 47-year-old servant.

While police didn't say that Dr Talwar had confessed to the killings, the details they gave of the sequence of events on the fateful night of May 15-16 indicate that the doctor has sung. And a part of the song was Aarushi's "closeness" to Hemraj, offered perhaps as a mitigating circumstance for his murderous rage.

The sequence of events, however, doesn't necessarily bear out this rage. Dr Talwar had gone out that evening at 9.30pm and returned home two hours later. On his return, he surfed the net, and then went looking for Hemraj to his room.

He didn't find him there and went to Aarushi's room to find Hemraj with the girl in — as IG, Meerut Zone, Gurdarshan Singh, put it — an "objectionable but not compromising" position. It's not that blood rushed to the doctor's head and he killed in blind rage. Instead, he persuaded Hemraj to come with him to the terrace.

Once there, Dr Talwar struck Hemraj on his head with a hammer. As he fell bleeding, he took out a surgical knife and slit his throat. The doctor came down, fixed himself a whisky, had it and then entered Aarushi's room. He hit the girl with the hammer and then slit her throat with a surgical knife. It's interesting that when Dr Talwar discovered Hemraj with Aarushi, he was already armed with a hammer and a knife.

Why did he do it? Although there are two reasons on offer — him being consumed by passion for a woman and enraged by his daughter's opposition, as well as a desire to save the family's "honour" by killing his "loose" daughter — only further investigations will bring out the truth.

On his part, Dr Talwar vehemently denied his role in the murder. When he was being taken away, the harried doctor told reporters that he was being "framed". He said he didn't know why he was being framed. "It is being done by Dinesh Varma," he added. Now, who is this? Dr Talwar's brother is also a Dinesh, but he is Dinesh Talwar, not Varma. Also, the murder weapon has not yet been found.

After days of intense speculation over the culprit — ranging from domestic helps to the girl's friends — the cops on Friday gave out their definitive story. IG Gurdarshan Singh in Noida and additional DGP (law and order, crime and STF), Brij Lal, in Lucknow unravelled the plot at televised press conferences.