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Archives for November 2018

CBI appeals against Bofors acquittals 13 years too late, SC dismisses case

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The Supreme Court Friday dismissed a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation against a high court order that had quashed charges against all people accused in the high-profile Bofors scandal. The court reasoned that the CBI’s appeal could not be entertained since it had been filed after a delay of more than 13 years.

The Bofors scandal, which revolved around the purchase of guns for the Indian Army, has been an albatross around the Congress party’s neck with allegations being made that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi received a payoff on the deal to purchase the Bofors guns.

Gandhi, however, was exonerated of wrong doing by the Delhi High Court in 2011. As was Ottavio Quattrocchi, a friend of Rajiv Gandhi and who is accused of being the middleman in the Bofors deal.

In 2005, the Delhi High Court quashed charges against all other people who were accused in the Bofors case. This included the Hinduja brothers, who were also accused of being middlemen in the deal.

The CBI had appealed this 2005 Delhi High Court verdict in the Supreme Court. The plea against the high court verdict was filed in February this year after an extraordinarily long delay of 13 years.

It must be noted there is another appeal against the high court verdict that the Supreme Court is already hearing.

BJP leader and advocate Ajay Agrawal had filed an appeal against the Delhi High Court judgment in 2005 itself. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Agrawal’s plea and the case is currently pending in the court.

Today, the Supreme Court told the CBI that it could make itself heard during the hearings on Agrawal’s plea.

The scandal around the Rs 1,437-crore Bofors deal erupted after a Swedish newspaper reported that Bofors AB, a Swedish arms manufacturer, had paid bribes to ensure that the company received a contract to supply the Indian Army with howitzers.

The Swedish newspaper’s story was picked up by Indian media that carried out investigations of their own. The scandal ultimately led to the door of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with claims being made that he himself had received a bribe.

US-based journalist alleges she was raped by Akbar

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After several women accused former Union Minister M.J. Akbar of sexual harassment in the wake of the #MeToo campaign, an allegation of rape has now surfaced with a US-based journalist narrating her ordeal of working under him when he was the editor of The Asian Age.

Pallavi Gogoi, Chief Business Editor at National Public Radio, in an article written under her byline for The Washington Post published on Friday (Thursday, India time), narrated her detailed account and described the incident of rape and various others incidents of sexual assault on her 23 years ago as “the most painful memories of my life”.

Akbar’s lawyer, Sandeep Kapur, told the Washington Post that his client “states these (incidents and allegation) are false and expressly denied.” When contacted by IANS, Kapur said the same thing adding that “any further course of action would be decided by the evening.”

After two incidents in Delhi and Bombay where Akbar had sexually molested and assaulted her, she said, one news story took her to a remote village a few hundred miles from Delhi.

“The assignment was to end in Jaipur. When I checked back, Akbar said I could come discuss the story in his hotel in Jaipur, far from Delhi.”

“In his hotel room, even though I fought him, he was physically more powerful. He ripped off my clothes and raped me. Instead of reporting him to the police, I was filled with shame,” said Gogoi.

“I didn’t tell anyone about this then. Would anyone have believed me? I blamed myself. Why did I go to the hotel room?” she added.

She said after the Jaipur incident, “his grip over me got tighter”.

“I stopped fighting his advances because I felt so helpless. He continued to coerce me. For a few months, he continued to defile me sexually, verbally, emotionally,” she added.

After several women journalists charged Akbar with sexual harassment and assault in the past one month, he resigned as Minister of State for External Affairs on October 17. He has filed a defamation case against one of the first accusers.

In her 1,800 word article, Gogoi attacked the ruling BJP for letting Akbar continue as its member.

“He’s still today a member of the Indian Parliament and a member of the ruling party, which prides itself on advancing rights for young girls,” she wrote.

Gogoi added that he would burst into loud rages in the newsroom if he saw her talking to male colleagues of her age. “It was frightening.”

Later, when Gogoi was posted in London, she felt that the abuse would stop because she would be far away from Delhi office “except the truth was that he was sending me away so I could have no defenses and he could prey on me whenever he visited the city where I would be posted.”

She also alleged that Akbar was hit her when he saw her speaking to a male colleague in London office and “went on a rampage, throwing things from the desk at me — a pair of scissors, a paperweight, whatever he could get his hands on”, she said.

“I was in shreds — emotionally, physically, mentally…” she wrote

She said it was difficult to explain why she didn’t fight him back then.

“I cannot explain today how and why he had such power over me, why I succumbed. Was it because he was so much more powerful than I was?…”

She said over the years, she did not bring up Akbar in conversations as “I’ve always felt that Akbar is above the law and justice doesn’t apply to him. I felt he would never pay the price for what he had done to me.”

“But I am writing this because I know what it is like to be victimized by powerful men like Akbar. I am writing this to support the many women who have come out to tell their truth.”

IANS

Over 300 policemen on rampage in Patna

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Hundreds of police officials are on a rampage here damaging police vehicles and attacking officers following the death of a woman police constable early on Friday.

More than 300 trainee officials, including a large number of women, at the Patna Police Lines ransacked officers quarters after their fellow member lost her life “due to sheer negligence and inhuman authoritarian stance of her seniors”, the protesters said.

They complained that they were exploited in the name of duty for hours without even being provided basic facilities. “We do duty without food, water and toilet facility. It is impossible to get leave for genuine reasons,” they said.

The dead official has been suffering from dengue, and had applied for leave. However, despite repeated requests she was not granted permission, a police official said.

Tension gripped the police lines in the heart of the city after the ramapaging mob damaged a temple structure nearby and general public turned on them.

The protesting officials have attacked City Superintendent of Police, his Rural counterpart, Officers-in-charge at half a dozen police stations besides others.

The mob even chased away seniors who approached them to pacify the situation. They pelted stones and even thrashed some of the senior officers, police said.

IANS

Centre hits out at RBI Acharya’s ‘wrath’

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 The standoff between the Centre and Reserve Bank of India continued on Friday with Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg dismissing RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya’s comments about incurring the market’s wrath if the central bank’s independence was harmed.

Garg was sarcastic as he mentioned the recent macroeconomic developments — the performance of rupee, oil and stock markets — that did not reflect any “wrath”.

“Rupee trading at less than 73 to a dollar; Brent crude below $73 a barrel; markets up by over four per cent during the week and bond yields below 7.8 per cent. Wrath of the markets,” he tweeted.

Garg’s remarks came after Acharya, during a lecture last week, made out a strong case for the central bank’s autonomy, saying that governments that do not respect its independence “will sooner or later incur the wrath of financial markets, ignite economic fire, and come to rue the day they undermined an important regulatory institution”.

On Thursday, he said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) collections exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore, the rupee appreciating by 40-50 paise and the performance of crude and bond yields were “very good developments essential for sound macroeconomic performance of India”.

Acharya’s remarks brought into spotlight the differences between the RBI and the government, as reports also suggested that the Centre has invoked a never-before-used section of the RBI Act to make the central bank fall in line.

IANS

Snow on Himachal hills

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Temperatures across Himachal Pradesh on Friday dipped as high altitudes received mild spells of snow while others experienced rains.

The Met Office has forecast snow and rain across the state due to active western disturbance till Sunday.

The high hills in Kullu and Lahaul and Spiti districts have been experiencing light snowfall since early Friday, a Met official told IANS.

The skies over Shimla and nearby Kufri were overcast. There was possibility of rains later in the day.

The picturesque tourist resort of Manali was at 5.8 degrees Celsius after mild rain. The Rohtang Pass, just 52 km from Manali, received snowfall.

The minimum temperature here was 10.5 degrees. Kalpa, 250 km from Shimla, and Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district recorded the night temperature at three degrees and minus 1.1 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Lower hills of Dharamsala, Kangra, Palampur and Hamirpur saw rains.

IANS

Privacy is human right: Satya Nadella

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has called on technology companies to defend users’ privacy as human right, urging firms and governments to collectively work together to protect the most vulnerable section in society.

Speaking at an event “Future Decoded” here on Thursday, Nadella applauded the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as first step towards securing data privacy, The Registrar reported.

“All of us will have to think about the digital experiences we create to treat privacy as a human right,” Nadella was quoted as saying.

“GDPR as a piece of legislation, a piece of regulation is a great start and we’ve done a lot of hard work to become compliant with GDPR,” Nadella added, adding that the companies need to develop ethical standards around Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Nadella said that 54 Azure Cloud regions worldwide is “more than any other provider”.

According to him, underwater data centres will play a key role in expanding Microsoft’s Cloud computing platform.

Under its “Project Natick”, Mictosoft has already deployed a 40-foot data centre pod on the seafloor off the coast of Scotland.

“Since 50 per cent of the world’s population lives close to water bodies, we think this is the way we want to think about future data centre expansion,” Nadella said.

Microsoft also unveiled an AI report titled “Maximising the AI Opportunity” for businesses.

The company announced at the event that the health agency NHS Scotland will deploy Office 365 to all of its 161,000 employees, moving away from a complicated organisation that included more than 100 separate computer systems.

Microsoft also formed a strategic partnership with Centrica, the British energy and services company behind brands like British Gas, Dyno and Direct Energy.

Centrica plans to transform field operations by leveraging Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Artificial Intelligence, providing employees with real time and actionable insight so they can improve customer service.

IANS

Inter-State robber arrested and recovered stolen property worth Rs.90 lakhs

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By : Pramesh Jain

Inter-State robber arrested by Madiwala Police and recovered intact stolen property worth Rs.90 lakhs.

The Madiwala police have arrested a domestic help who had allegedly stolen gold and diamond jewels worth Rs.90 lakh from his employer’s house and hided it in a pit at the backyard of his house in his home town Madhubani in Bihar on October 16.

The accused,has been identified as Akhilesh Kumar Mato, 21,year old a resident of Madhubani in Bihar.

Bengaluru city police Commissioner, T.Suneel Kumar,told media persons that as,On October 16th,Satyaprash and his family went out of station.and on 17th October they returned to their house and found that someone has gained entry and burgled the house and took away the locker containing gold and diamond valuables and then he went on terrace to see the servant where in he found the door was locked and he tried his phone which was also switched off and he grew more doubt and suspicious on his servant and lodged a complaint against him

He stated in his complaint that the suspect identified as Akhilesh has broke open the locker, took away the valuables worth of Rs.90 lakhs and filed a complaint with the Madiwala police, who suspected Akhilesh,as he was missing and his phone was switched off.After registering the complaint the team led by DCP,Southeast,Dr.M.B.Boralingaiah,under the supervison of ACP, Madiwala Sub-division,Somegowda and Madiwala Police Inspector,Bharath.B,and his crime staff visited the spot and after checking the CCTV footage and analysing other CCTV cameras installed in the area they got a vital clues and the complainant suspect turned into real and after collecting all the information from the complainant a special team swung into action and with the investigation skills the team found the accused is in his native immediately a team was sent to Bihar and the team successfully nabbed the accused with the help of local police as the accused has confessed the crime and he revealed where he hided the gold and diamond jewels by digging a pit in his house premises at native and in presence of Witnesses and local police our team recovered intact stolen property from his possession and he was brought to Bengaluru and during interrogation a detailed investigation by the team

He revealed that he took away the locker and broken it in Indiranagar area and after taking all the valuables from it he has destroyed the locker and then returned to his home town by train without a ticket,with this the team was successful in recovering intact gold and diamonds ornaments from the accused worth of Rs.90,Lakhs,and it was found that the accused Akhilesh was employed as domestic help in the house of city-based industrialist Satyaprakash over a year ago,after working for a few months Akhilesh went to Mumbai to earn more money and returned six months back.Since then,he was working at Satyaprakash’s house and was staying in the outhouse and to lead a lavish lifestyle he has committed this offence

He said and with this the team has recovered,2 kg diamond studed gold ornaments,half a kg Silver articles,gold and silver case wrist watches altogether worth of Rs.90 lakhs from him,and finally Bengaluru Police commissioner,T.Suneel Kumar has appreciated,Addl CP East,Seemanth Kumar Singh,DCP Southeast,Dr.M.B.Boralingaiah,ACP, Madiwala Sub-division,Somegowda,PI,Bharath.B,PSI, Sanjeev Kumar and his whole crime staff who has successfully nabbed the notorious burglar and recovered the intact property from his possession who was hiding in his native and for their exemplary work and tremendous efforts shown in detecting the case a reward of Rs.1 Lakh will be given to the team he added.

 

 

India: Suspected separatists shoot dead five in Assam

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Suspected separatist gunmen shot dead five people they singled out in northeastern India’s Assam state where ethnic tensions are simmering over the government’s plans to amend a law on citizenship.

Authorities said they suspected a faction of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) of carrying out the killings on Thursday, as well as a bomb attack in the state’s largest city, Guwahati, last month.

ULFA rebels, who want a breakaway homeland for ethnic Assamese people, have threatened attacks over proposed amendments to India’s citizenship law that would grant citizenship to Bengali-speaking Hindus.

Gunmen in military fatigues entered the village in Tinsukia district and ordered ethnic Bengalis out of their home, officials said.

Four people were killed on the spot and a fifth died in hospital, they said.

ULFA chief Paresh Baruah recently threatened Bengalis who wanted to stage a rally in support of the citizenship amendment bill being pushed in parliament by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The bill aims to give citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Christian minorities from India’s neighbouring countries who arrived in the country before 2015.

Activists and opposition leaders say the bill discriminates against Muslims and violates the secular constitution of India.

In protest against the brutal killings in Assam @AITCofficial will organise protest rallies tomorrow ( Fri Nov 2) in different parts of north and south Bengal including Siliguri and Kolkata

Political and social groups in Assam have accused the BJP of seeking to use the law to naturalise citizenship of Bengali-origin Hindus to get their votes.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said “strong action” would be taken against the killers, but he also appealed for calm.

Assam’s migrants question
The state of Assam has been rocked by protests over undocumented immigration from Bangladesh for decades.

India this year published a provisional list of people in Assam eligible for citizenship, called the National Register of Citizens (NRC), in a bid to identify undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.

The draft list effectively stripped nearly four million people of the 32 million in Assam of their citizenship.

Voices From Assam: India’s Four Million Unwanted
Those who proved they came to the state by March 24, 1971 – the cut off date to be eligible for Indian citizenship – were included on the NRC.

The people whose names were not included on the NRC have been allowed to file their claims and objections by December 15.

Experts, meanwhile, say it will take several years to produce a final version of the list.

Bengali Muslims still fear they could be deported while rights groups have said there could be attacks on Assam’s ethnic minorities.

In February 1983, more than 2,000 Bengali-speaking people were killed in Nellie in central Assam. In recent years, hundreds of people have been thrown in detention camps in the border state.

Aljazeera

Ex-Goldman Sachs bankers charged over Malaysian investment fund scam

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The US Justice Department has announced multiple charges against two former Goldman Sachs bankers linked to Malaysia’s state investment fund scandal.

The agency said on Thursday that Tim Leissner, former Southeast Asia chairman, conspired to launder money and violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying bribes to government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, reports CNN.

Leissner has pleaded guilty and will forfeit $43.7 million.

The Justice Department also unsealed an indictment against Roger Ng, a former Goldman Sachs banker, and Malaysian financier Jho Low, who allegedly played a central role in the scheme to launder billions of dollars from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund.

The US government has said that Ng and Low also paid bribes to foreign officials.

Ng and Leissner allegedly worked to circumvent internal accounting controls at Goldman, which underwrote more than $6 billion in bonds issued by 1MDB in 2012 and 2013.

The bank made about $600 million in fees and revenue for its work with the fund, according to the indictment.

Ng was arrested earlier on Thursday in Malaysia, according to the Justice Department, while Low remains at large.

Another Goldman banker, Andrea Vella, has been placed on leave, pending a review of alleged conduct related to the 1MDB case, an informed source told CNN.

A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs (GS) said in a statement that the firm continues to cooperate with all authorities investigating the matter.

A spokesperson for Low said that he maintains his innocence, and “simply asks that the public keep an open mind regarding this case”.

Low held no formal position at 1MDB and was not employed by Goldman Sachs, or the governments of Malaysia or Abu Dhabi, the spokesperson added.

The Justice Department has previously filed civil asset forfeiture suits to reclaim goods they said were bought with money stolen from the 1MDB fund.

Federal officials have claimed that laundered funds were pumped into New York condos, hotels, yachts and a jet, and used to fund Hollywood films such as “The Wolf of Wall Street”.

The agency alleges that $4.5 billion from 1MDB was misappropriated by high-level officials at the fund.

Trump says Nauert ‘under very serious consideration’ for UN envoy

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US President Donald Trump has said that Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the State Department, is “under very serious consideration” for the post of the country’s ambassador to the UN.

Trump told the media at the White House, “She is under very serious consideration” to replace Nikki Haley for the job, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

“She’s excellent. She’s been with us for a very long time. She’s been a supporter for a long time,” Trump said. “We’ll probably make a decision next week,” he added.

US media outlets reported a few days ago that Nauert had been offered the job, but it remained unclear whether she would take it.

Reuters quoted a source familiar with the selection process as saying that Nauert was “at the top of the list,” while Bloomberg reported that Trump met with Nauert on Monday.

Nauert has not attended any press briefing recently, and her deputy Robert Palladino has chaired three briefings this week.

Asked about the nomination on Thursday, Palladino said “any announcement like that is the prerogative of the White House.”

Nauert, 48, a former anchor at Fox News Channel, has worked for the State Department as a spokeswoman since April 2017. She was named acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs earlier this year.

Haley announced in early October she would step down from her position by the end of the year, saying she needed a break after decades of public office.

The appointment of Nauert, if confirmed, would be unorthodox, given that she had no prior political or foreign policy-making experience before joining the State Department.

However, she has reportedly gained the trust of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and is also close to Trump’s daughter and son-in-law.

Nevertheless, the US media have complained about the falling frequency of the State Department’s press briefings under Nauert.

“In keeping with broader administration practice, Nauert has cut back State Department briefings from almost every day to, at most, twice a week,” Bloomberg noted.

US media earlier reported that Kelly Craft, the US ambassador to Canada; Dina Powell, a former White House aide; Kay Bailey Hutchison, US ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Jamie McCourt, US ambassador to France and Monaco; and Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, were among the candidates being considered.

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