Nasheman News : Controversial retired IPS officer DG Vanzara on Friday asserted that had it not been for the “genuine encounters” by the Gujarat police, Pakistan might have been successful in its design to assassinate the then chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi and turn the state into another Kashmir.
In a statement after the special CBI’s court’s judgement in the Sohrabuddin-Tulsiram Prajapti encounter case in Mumbai on Friday, Vanzara, who was earlier an accused in the case, said the police personnel of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh were made scapegoats in the “political war” between the then BJP government in the state and the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.
“The CBI court’s judgement acquitting all the 22 accused police officers in the Sohrabuddin encounter case has only corroborated the claims I had been making right from the beginning that none of these encounters was stage-managed but were all genuine to annihilate the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists who had been coming to Gujarat with the mission to kill Modiji.
“But for the encounters, it might have become difficult to ensure the safety of Modiji and Pakistan by now would have succeeded in turning Gujarat into another terrorist-ridden Kashmir,” he said.
Vanzara, who was initially a prime accused in the Sohrabuddin-Kausar Bi alleged fake encounter case but was exonerated by the special CBI court three years back, held some “anti-national elements” were responsible for turning the genuine encounter incidents into fake ones to assist the terror groups and harass the honest police officers.
He claimed that the Gujarat police had accurate information about the movements of the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists and acted swiftly to “ensure the safety of the country and protect the life of the then chief minister who was under constant threat.”
Meanwhile, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel hailed the CBI court’s judgment and accused the former UPA government of trying to tarnish the Modi dispensation in Gujarat in the name of “fake encounter.”
Patel also promised to consider restoration of the genuine promotions and other benefits due to the accused police officers in the last 13 years because of the pending case, now that they had been acquitted of all the charges.
Christian Michel produced in Delhi court, ED seeks his arrest
N Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case, was produced before a Delhi court Saturday.
Special Judge Arvind Kumar allowed the Enforcement Directorate to interrogate Michel inside courtroom for 15 minutes after the agency sought his custodial interrogation.
ED also sought to arrest the British national in a money laundering case.
The court had reserved the order on Michel’s bail plea on December 19 and had sent him to judicial custody till December 28.
Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.
PTI
126 held in Noida for extorting money posing as FBI agents
Nasheman News : The police on Friday busted a fake call centre in Sector 63 of Noida and arrested 126 persons for making fake calls posing as Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and extorting money from persons based in the US, an official said.
The police also seized 312 computers and as many headphones, apart from various computer accessories, Noida Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Pal said, adding that Rs 80 lakh in cash was also recovered during the raid.
The raid was conducted by Special Operations Group (SOG) personnel and the Cyber Cell of the Noida police, he added.
This call centre had been operating for many months was recently put on surveillance.
A case has been registered in Phase III Police Station under various sections of the Indian penal Code (IPC) and the IT Act.
The official said that the American nationals used to transfer money through Google Play cards.
The arrested call centre employees include Manish Balbani, Sunil Sharma, Mayur Vania, and Pradeep Rathore. All the accused have been sent to judicial custody.
Man sentenced to 14 years in jail for raping minor
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on cab driver Santosh Kumar.
Four years after a harrowing case of child rape was reported in Bengaluru, a sessions court in the city convicted a cab driver for repeatedly raping a 12-year-old girl for months.
The 71st CCH Court convicted Santosh Kumar (29) under section 376 (rape) of the IPC under Sections 3 (penetrative sexual assault) 4 (punishment for penetrative sexual assault), 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) and 7 (sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Santosh Kumar was given a 14-year life sentence and a fine of Rs 20,000 was imposed on him by the court.
In August 2014, 12-year-old Anu*, a resident of Bengaluru, experienced severe abdominal pain. Anu had lost her father when she was 6 years old and was living with her mother and younger brother in a small apartment in north-west Bengaluru.
When her mother, an employee at a garment factory, returned home, she was shocked to see her daughter in such pain. Anu was taken to the hospital immediately and the doctors declared that she was pregnant.
That’s when Anu told her mother about the abuse she had been facing at the hands of Santosh Kumar. According to the Peenya police, Santosh Kumar, a tourist taxi cab driver, was Anu’s neighbour.
Ever since her father died, Anu’s mother had taken up multiple jobs to make ends meet. “She couldn’t be at home a lot because of the work. Anu and her brother studied in a nearby government school. Her brother was poor at studies and Santosh used this bit of detail to abuse the girl,” the police said.
Santosh would walk into Anu’s home and scare her younger brother. “He would tell the boy to go into the room and study. He would lock the room door from outside and rape the girl,” the police added.
Santosh threatened to kill Anu’s brother and mother if she ever revealed the truth. After Anu became pregnant, her mother filed a complaint at the Peenya police station. The ACP of Yeshwanthpur began probing the case.
In 2015, Anu gave birth to a baby boy and the investigating officers sent Santosh’s blood samples for a DNA test, which came back positive. The baby, however, died four months later. A charge sheet was filed in December 2015 along with the DNA test results, the preliminary medical report and 15 witnesses.
Tnm
The story of Kolar Gold Field(KGF)
The 2018 movie ‘KGF’, touted as the biggest Kannada movie of the year, pales in comparison to the real story of the Kolar Gold Fields.
The year was 1871. Michael Fitzgerald Lavelle, a retired Irish soldier from the British Army, had made Bangalore cantonment his home. Retirement was a drag for Lavelle, who had just returned after fighting the Maori wars in New Zealand.
Although he hoped to make it big post-retirement, Lavelle spent much of his time reading; and a four-page article from the 1804 Asiatic Journal he came across, set Lavelle on a journey that eventually birthed the world’s second deepest goldmine – the Kolar Gold Fields.
While 2018 movie ‘KGF’, touted as the biggest Kannada movie of the year, has built curiosity about this forgotten mining town, and India’s gold rush, the makers admit the movie isn’t a historical account but a work of fantasy. However, this pales in comparison to the real story of the Kolar Gold Fields.
An article that started the gold rush
Lavelle had developed an interest in gold mining during his time at war in New Zealand. So, he was understandably excited, when an old report by one Lt John Warren spoke about possible gold reserves in Kolar.
Lt Warren’s encounter with Kolar gold began in 1799, after erstwhile ruler Tipu Sultan was killed in the battle of Srirangapatnam by the British.
The British decided to handover Tipu’s territories to the Mysore princely state, but for this land had to be surveyed. Warren, who was then serving in his Majesty’s 33rd regiment of foot, was summoned to Kolar for this task.
Warren had heard rumours of gold reserves and fables of people digging gold with their bare hands, during the time of the Chola dynasty.
Intrigued by the rumours, he announced a reward for anyone who could show him the yellow metal. Soon, villagers appeared before him with bullock carts filled with mud, which they washed in front of the officer to isolate gold powder.
After an investigation, Warren concluded that for every 120 lbs or 56 kg of earth, one grain of gold could be extracted using the villagers’ crude methods and in the hands of professionals, this could open up large gold reserves.
“Should we still fancy for the belief that gold occurs only on a narrow region? Why can’t the gold veins under the ground near Maarikuppam extend far beyond.” he wrote.
A Soldier’s Start-up
Between 1804 and 1860, there were several studies and explorations of the gold mines in the region, but in vain. As some explorations in the ancient mines led to accidents, underground mining was prohibited by law in 1959.
ABut in 1871, excited about a 67-year-old report by Lt Warren, Lavelle made a 60-mile bullock cart trip to Kolar. During his investigation, he identified several potential locations for mining. Unlike others, he was able to find traces of the gold deposits.
After more than two years of research, in 1873, he wrote to the Maharaja’s government seeking a licence to mine. Government authorities, who believed gold explorations were not viable only gave him permission to mine coal, but Lavelle insisted on searching for gold deposits.
“Should I be successful in my search, it will be of greatest value to the government; in case I fail, it will cost the government nothing as the only assistance I require is the right to mine…” he wrote in the letter to the chief commissioner Mysore and Coorg.
Lavelle securing the 20-year lease to mine in the Kolar, on 2 February 1875, started the era of modern mining in India.
The angel investors and modern tech
But more than a miner, Lavelle was the poster boy of the gold rush. Lavelle was not rich, which limited his capabilities to explore the gold reserves. But his vision of creating fields of gold and the dangerous gambles of mining, soon became the premise of a novel – ‘Living Dangerously’ by FE Penny. This made him a popular man, even though his savings were depleting.
But by 1877, the young entrepreneur was unable to scale his business further and was desperate to raise funds. But due to his popularity, support came from another armyman – Maj Gen Beresford of the Madras staff corps in Bangalore. He along with three others – McKenzie, Sir William and Col William Arbuthnot –formed a syndicate with several other army officers called ‘The Colar Concessionaries Company Limited’, which took over the mining operations.
AMining engineers were invited from across the world to dig shafts in Kolar to further the explorations.
But things changed, when the syndicate, under pressure from their investors, approached John Taylor and sons, a company which brought state of the art mining engineering to India. The arrival of these engineers from Norwich, England started the golden era of KGF.
India’s first power plant
As Operations in the KGF surged ahead, the British planned Asia’s second and India’s first power plant in Kolar. Officers of the Royal Engineers approached the Mysore Maharaja with a proposal to build a hydroelectric plant in the Cauvery river, in 1900. Central Electric Company from New York and Eicher Wyss from Switzerland were given the task of establishing the power plant and 148 km of transmission lines, the longest in the world. Machinery imported from Britain, America and Germany were transported in carts pulled by elephants and horses.
Soon, the candles and kerosene lamps in KGF were replaced by bulbs, even before Bangalore or Mysore were electrified. While in 2018, several parts of the state experience power cuts, by 1902, KGF had uninterrupted power supply.
Little England and The Hell Next Door
For British engineers and others from the across the globe, Kolar was ‘Little England’. Weather like England, bungalows and clubs made KGF an ideal home. Being a British mining colony, life in KGF was greatly influenced by British culture.
This was in sharp contrast to ‘coolie lines’, the name given to the makeshift homes occupied by miners, a majority of whom were Tamil migrants. Life was hard on the other side, with more than one family often occupying one such shed. It was famous for its rat invasion, where workers killed over 50,000 rats a year.
Workspaces were no different. Despite the constant supply of dehumidified air into the underground tunnels, temperatures in the tunnels shot up to 55 degree Celsius and accidents were commonplace.
The end of an era
As the gold reserves in KGF began to reduce, expatriates began to leave Kolar, however key positions were held by the English until Independence. When the central government decided to take over all the mines in 1956, ownership of most of the mines had already been handed over to the state government.
Apart from the British, many from the Anglo-Indian community, who were in managerial posts began leaving the country for greener pastures. Other mining experts from Europe left for the Gold Mines in Ghana and West Africa.
The mines that produced 95 per cent of India’s gold output, were nationalised to keep them from shutting down. However, in 2001, despite massive protests, Kolar Gold Fields were shut down.
The abandoned underground tunnels, once pathways of gold, are now flooded with groundwater. Despite government plans and multiple court orders, the resurrection of the KGF seems far-fetched.
Thus, even though KGF continues to bear gold in its belly, the cost of retrieving it would be greater than the value of the gold itself.
TNM
Karnataka cabinet set to expand today
With an eye on pacifying edgy MLAs with JD(S), Congress government, the Karnataka cabinet is all set to induct new ministers on Saturday.
Wheels for the much-expected cabinet expansion were finally set rolling after Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave the go-ahead for the induction of six new faces and the replacement of two ministers in the JD(S)-led coalition government in Karnataka, according to a report. Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is expected to meet Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala at 11 am to inform him of the government’s decision and schedule a swearing-in ceremony for the to-be ministers.
MTB Nagaraj, Raheem Khan, E Tukaram and PT Parameshwara Naik are among the six leaders whose names are understood to have been finalised after discussions with state leaders in a meeting.
Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, Pradesh Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao, Deputy chief minister G Parameshwara, and Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal were present in the meeting. Besides inducting six new faces, the sources said the Congress chief is understood to have approved dropping two ministers — Municipal Administration minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and Forest minister R Shankar — from the cabinet.
Jarkiholi, who has been allegedly hobnobbing with BJP leaders, will be replaced by his brother Satish Jarkiholi, whereas Shankar’s portfolio will be handed over to CS Shivalli from Kuruba community. Shankar, an Independent MLA from Ranebennur too had in the past interacted with the BJP ahead of the Karnataka government formation.
In the meeting, the Rahul gave the green signal for appointing Congress leaders V Muniappa as political secretary and Ajay Singh as state representative in the national capital.
Meanwhile, the cabinet expansion bore clear footprints of Siddaramiah’s influence. The Congress leader pressed for induction of more ministers from constituencies in Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka, besides batting for the inclusion of two Kuruba, reported in media.
The sources said the swearing-in ceremony of new members will take place depending on the availability of the governor.
According to the pact reached between the two partners at the time of formation of the coalition government in May, there are at present six vacant ministerial positions left for the Congress and two for the JD(S). The cabinet expansion is expected to pacify members of the Congress camp who have become restless following its repeated postponement.
PTI
Indian troops kill six rebels in Kashmir
Tension escalates in Kashmir as India intensifies operations, killing a record of 232 rebels so far this year.
Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir – Six rebels were killed in a gunfight in Arampora village of Tral in the southern part of Indian-administered Kashmir as India continues to intensify its operations in the disputed region.
Swayam Prakash Pani, the Kashmir police chief, told Al Jazeera that a search operation was launched in Tral on Saturday morning in which six rebels were killed.
“There was no collateral damage. We continue to urge people not to come near the gunfight sites as they are prohibited places. The operation took place in an open field in the morning,” the official said.
Another official said that all six rebels were locals and belonged to Ansar ul Gazwatul Hind, an armed Kashmir-based group that claims to be an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
The officials said that one of the rebels was a top commander of the group, who was active in southern Kashmir.
Soon after the encounter, residents in Tral and adjoining areas took to streets to protest the killings.
Authorities suspended mobile internet services acorss the district, saying as all the slain rebels belonged to the villages in southern Kashmir. The officials said that the train services have also been suspended for the day to avoid possible law and order problems.
“The fighters are from the adjacent villages and thousands of people are on roads to take part in the funeral. For us, it is a daily bloodbath. Every day, we wake up with the news of a death. We just want an end to it, so that we too can breathe,” said Munisa Ismail, 26, a resident of Tral.
The tension also continues to escalate on the Line of Control (LOC), a demarcation line that divides the two parts of the disputed territory between Indian and Pakistan administered parts.
Civilian casualties
On Friday evening, the Indian authorities claimed that two of its junior commissioned officers were killed in north Kashmir’s Jumgund area of frontier Kupwara in a cross-border attack.
The Indian forces have intensified the operation in Kashmir, killing a record number of 232 rebels so far in the year.
The civilian causalities this year have also been highest in the last nine years. According to a local human rights group, Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), 156 civilians have been killed in the violence this year.
Last week, the forces shot dead seven civilians in Sirnoo village of Pulwama after firing on demonstrators following a gunfight in the village in which three rebels of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit were killed.
Asmita Basu, Programmes Director of Amnesty International in India termed the civilian killings a “worrying pattern”.
She said that the “security forces are increasingly using indiscriminate and excessive force against civilians”.
Amnesty International has demanded authorities conduct a full and independent investigation into the incident, and those responsible prosecuted in a civilian court of law.
The Indian forces in Kashmir are protected by Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a law that provides the forces immunity from prosecution.
Amnesty in a statement said that the “law enforcement officials should distinguish between persons engaging in violence and peaceful demonstrators”.
The disputed territory, over which India and Pakistan have fought three wars, is currently under the president’s rule after India dissolved the state assembly last month.
After the six-month tenure of the governor’s rule expired, the president’s rule was imposed in the region on December 20, which will continue for six months after which fresh elections are likely to be held.
Aljazeera
At least 21 killed as bus crashes in Nepal’s mountainous area
Police said the bus carrying college students and teachers drove off a highway in a mountainous area.
A bus carrying college students and teachers veered off a highway in a mountainous area of southwestern Nepal and plunged into a river, killing at least 21 people and injuring 15 others, officials said.
The bus was returning to the town of Ghorahi from an educational trip to Dang district when the accident took place on a road near Tulsipur town on Friday, police officer Prem Bahadur Shahi said.
“It plunged about 700 meters below the road. We have found the bodies of 13 men and three women so far,” he said.
Those injured in the accident were being treated at a local hospital, Shahi said, adding that at least two of them were in a critical condition.
Reuters news agency reported that the rescue operation was difficult since the crash site is situated in a remote area, around 400km west of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
The students and instructors were from Krishna Sen Ichhuk Polytechnic Institute and were visiting a farm in a nearby district as part of their botany field trip.
Road accidents are common in mountainous Nepal, which in recent years has seen a drive to build roads connecting remote regions to towns and cities across the country.
Twenty people were killed last week when a mini-truck skidded off the road in Nuwakot district in central Nepal.
India: Opponents say Modi creating surveillance state
Several Indian government agencies have been armed with sweeping powers to intercept, monitor and decrypt information from any computer in the country, a move that critics say aims to make India the next “Big Brother state”.
After India’s Home Ministry issued a notification on Thursday authorising 10 agencies with the power to tap, intercept and decrypt all personal data on computers and networks in India, opposition parties said the government is attempting to create a “surveillance state”.
Among the agencies that are now enabled to exercise these snooping powers are the Research and Analysis Wing, the main foreign-intelligence gathering body, and the Intelligence Bureau report directly to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi said this move showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “an insecure dictator”.
Converting India into a police state isn’t going to solve your problems, Modi Ji.
It’s only going to prove to over 1 billion Indians, what an insecure dictator you really are.N
India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the move will help track “terrorists”.
“How else will terrorists who use technology extensively be traced? Otherwise, the terrorists will use IT, but the intelligence and investigative agencies will be crippled,” Jaitley tweeted.
‘No safeguards’
Privacy advocates argue that widespread government surveillance of this kind will have a “chilling effect” on democratic debate and dissent. In the world’s largest democracy, data security and privacy regulations are still to be framed.
Even though the orders are supposed to target everyone, most analysts say they could possibly be used to crackdown on critics, rights campaigners and political opponents ahead of a general election that’s slated early next year.O
“This would make data collection from critics and political opponents easier. This will facilitate targeted raids against the opposition and critics. In its ambition, this is similar to America’s spy programme PRISM. Indians need to press for surveillance reform urgently to protect us from a police state,” Srinivas Kodali, an independent security researcher in Hyderabad, told media .
Interception of phone calls was already authorized for certain federal agencies under India’s Telecom Act.
The absence of any oversight mechanism for such interception by federal agencies gives them untrammeled power, according to some analysts.
“This notification gives powers to a host of agencies with minimal oversight. There are no safeguards as to how this collected data will be dealt with, so concerns of civil society are not unwarranted. Governments once they are given unbridled power of this kind, end up almost routinely abusing it,” Sanjay Hegde, a supreme court lawyer, told media.
Indian intelligence agencies report straight to the prime minister and the home minister without any parliamentary or judicial oversight. On Friday opposition parties disrupted parliament, asking questions about the new notification.
Social media sites were also abuzz with criticism against the government move. While the Internet Freedom Foundation of India posted a “red alert” about the notification, a security researcher, who tweets under the pseudonym Elliot Alderson, described it as “a sad day for India”.
Right to privacy
In 2017, India’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled that individual privacy is a fundamental right, a verdict that should have a significant bearing on civil rights.O
On the question of whether Thursday’s notification would withstand legal scrutiny, lawyer Hegde said “courts often tend to duck these problems involving technology when faced with a broad spectrum challenge”.
“But a particular individual whose privacy is compromised can go to court and challenge this notification,” he said.
“It does not square with the recent right to privacy ruling of the top court but very often when questions of national security are used to defend anything, the court gives greater deference to government claims than to individual rights,” he added.
The rightwing BJP government said the new powers would help to protect the country against “terrorists” and other “national security threats”. But critics say the absence of requisite oversights only heightens fears about its intentions.
Aljazeera
Rahul doing fear-mongering, playing with national security: Shah
Nasheman News : BJP President Amit Shah on Friday hit back at Congress President Rahul Gandhi on the government order for monitoring of all computers, saying he was doing “fear-mongering” and playing with the national security.
“Yet again Rahul (Gandhi) does fear-mongering and plays politics with national security. UPA put no barriers on unlawful surveillance. When Modi government puts safeguards for citizens, Rahul cries conspiracy.
“Why are you lying so much and what is the fear that you are hiding,” he said in a series of tweets.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief also attacked the Congress saying that there were only “two insecure dictators” in the history of the country.
“There were only two insecure dictators in the history of India. One imposed emergency and the other wanted unrestricted access to read letters of common citizens.
“Guess who were they, Rahul Gandhi?” he said in an apparent reference to late prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
Shah’s remarks came soon after Gandhi called Modi an “insecure dictator”.
Earlier, the Congress chief said: “Converting India into a police state isn’t going to solve your problems, Modi Ji. It’s only going to prove to over 1 billion Indians what an insecure dictator you really are.”
The BJP and Congress traded barbs after the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday issued an order giving 10 central agencies, including the CBI, the ED and the Delhi Police among others to “intercept, monitor and decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer”.