Amid public outrage over Kathua and Unnao rape cases, Congress President Rahul Gandhi today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fast track cases of rapes of minors and punish the guilty if he was serious about providing justice to the country’s daughters.

Gandhi pointed out that there were as many as 19,675 cases of rapes of minor children in 2016, terming them as “shameful”. “There were 19,675 rapes of minor children reported in 2016. This is shameful. PM should fast track these cases and punish the guilty if he is serious about providing justice for our daughters,” Gandhi said on Twitter, using the hashtag ‘SpeakUp’.

His remarks come days after the prime minister said that the guilty in the Kathua and Unnao incidents would not be spared and the country’s daughters will get justice. Expressing anguish over the two incidents which have triggered widespread outrage, the prime minister had said such crimes challenge the very concept of social justice “and as a society and a country we all are ashamed of it.”

“I want to assure the nation that no criminal will be spared. Justice will be done. Our daughters will get justice. We all will have to work together to end this internal evil,” he had said at an event last week. In Kathua, an eight-year-old girl was gangraped and murdered while in Unnao, a 17-year-old has accused a BJP MLA of raping her.

The Supreme Court will hear two separate petitions on the Kathua rape and murder case on Monday (April 16) @ 2 PM.

One petition has been filed by a Kathua-based lawyer, representing the family of the eight-year-old girl who was gangraped and killed.

Another plea filed by a Delhi-based lawyer seeks transfer of the case from Kathua trial court to a local court in the national capital. The plea also sought transfer of probe to the CBI, besides seeking exemplary compensation to the family of the victim of the case.

Hindusthan Samachar/Shri Ram Shaw

About the horrific rape and murder of an eight-year-old in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua, actor turned politician Kamal Haasan on Friday tweeted demanding justice for Asifa.

Does it have to be ur own daughter for you to understand? She could’ve been mine. I feel angry as a man, father and a citizen fr failing Asifa. I m sorry my child v didn’t make this country safe enough forr YOU. I’ll fight fOr justice at least fr future kids like YOU. we mourn u & won’t forget u,” he tweeted.
The rape-and-murder of the nomadic Muslim Bakerwal community girl – whose name is also spelt ‘Asifa’ – has created a controversy after lawyers in Jammu tried to prevent the Crime Branch from filing a chargesheet in the case. Meanwhile, on Thursday night, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led a midnight march to the India Gate to protest the Kathua and Unnao minor rape cases and said it’s time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to walk the talk on ‘beti bachao’ (save the girl child).

Amid slogans against the BJP and the Prime Minister during the march, Gandhi said the women of the country are afraid to go out today and the government must ensure their safety.

Gandhi was joined by his sister Priyanka and her husband Robert Vadra as also their children, besides scores of Congress leaders, party workers and others, who were seen shouting slogans, carrying candles and some even placards against the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir while demanding urgent action against the perpetrators of two heinous gang rapes — one in Unnao (UP) and the other in Kathua (J&K). Indian man jailed in Dubai for sending porn videos to friend’s daughter The lobbies of Karnataka and how they control the elections Telangana Inter Result 2018 I and II declaring tomorrow at this time Featured Posts

A Special Investigation Team, formed to probe the incident, has arrested eight people, including two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and a head constable, who was charged with destroying evidence. Jammu has been on tenterhooks since the brutal rape and murder. The city’s bar association has opposed the action against the accused and alleged that minority Dogras were being targeted. Subscribe to Oneindia. For breaking news & Instant updates throughout the day

Police in Uttar Pradesh today registered an FIR against ruling BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in connection with the alleged gangrape of a minor girl in Unnao, hours after the government said it would hand over investigation into the case to the CBI.

Till the premier investigating agency takes over, the local police will continue with the probe, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said. The letter for handing over the probe to the CBI for maintaining total transparency in the case will be sent today, he told reporters.

The decision on whether to arrest the accused MLA will be taken by the CBI on the merits of the case after investigations, he said. The Unnao police this morning registered the case against Sengar under various sections of IPC and provisions of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in the Makhi police station area. The FIR has been registered under sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her marriage,), 363 (kidnapping) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

“An FIR be lodged under appropriate sections considering the allegations of rape levied on MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and others and the investigation be handed over to CBI,” the Principal Secretary (Information) said in an statement late last night.

Addressing a press conference, the principal secretary home and state Director General of Police (DGP) O P Singh said the MLA had not been named in the FIR till now as the girl had not mentioned his name in the statement given before the magistrate earlier.

The case was registered now that she and her family had told the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which visited them yesterday, that they had not done so because of fear, they said. Refusing allegations that police was trying to shield the MLA, the officials said it was because of this that the probe was being handed over to the CBI. Besides, the government has also decided to extend security to the family of the 17-year-old girl, they said.

The officials assured that no one found guilty will be spared and added that action has already been taken against some policemen and doctors for laxity and negligence. The teen rape survivor, who had tried to immolate herself outside the chief minister’s house just a day before her 50-year-old father died on Monday, has alleged that she was confined to a hotel room by the district administration, leaving her “without a phone or water and guards at every corner”.

The Supreme Court has asked the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Waqf Board to produce documents that bear the signature of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to prove its claim of ownership on the Taj Mahal.

the apex court on Tuesday gave the board a week’s time to produce signature of emperor Shah Jahan, who died under house arrest in the Agra Fort almost 18 years after building the monument in the memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal.
In 2010, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) had petitioned the court against the waqf board’s July 2005 decision ordering that the Taj be registered as the latter’s property. There is a stay on the order.

While tracing the history of the monument, the Chief Justice of India asked, “Who in India will believe that the Taj belongs to the waqf board? How did Shah Jahan sign the waqfnama? When was it given to you?”

The Board through Senior Advocate VV Giri claimed that the monument belonged to the Waqf since Shah Jahan’s time and that it is a property under the Waqfnama. The claim is challenged by the ASI.

Appearing for the ASI, advocate ADN Rao said “there was no existence of waqfnama at that time”.

“Under the 1858 proclamation, the properties taken over from the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, by the British vested with the Queen. By the 1948 Act, the buildings were taken over by the Indian government,” advocate Rao added.

The three-member bench of CJI and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud reminded the board that the monument which was built in the 17th century was passed on to the East India Company after the fall of the Mughal dynasty and further vested in the ASI post-independence.

“Shah Jahan used to view the Taj Mahal from his cell in Agra Fort where he was sent to serve house arrest by his son Aurangazeb. How did he sign the waqfnama while in custody? Show us the documents signed by the emperor,” said CJI Misra demanding for documents with Shah Jahan’s handwriting.

The issue was first initiated in the court when a resident of UP moved the Allahabad High Court to push his claims to be appointed as caretaker of the Taj Mahal, as a Mughal descendent. The High Court back then had refuse to intervene into the matter and asked to make a representation to the Waqf Board instead.

The Waqf Board is also contesting another crucial battle with the Supreme Court over the ownership of the Ayodhya land on which the erstwhile (now demolished) Babri Masjid stood.

The Madras High Court has observed that the law of the nation must respect injured soldiers.

A division bench of Justices S Vimala and S Ramathilagam made the observation while enhancing the compensation to Havildar Mohan Kumar from Rs 4.57 Lakh to Rs 73 lakh.

Mohan Kumar (34), working at the frontier, was seriously injured in an accident during a visit to his native Tiruppathur in 2007.

The Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal awarded Rs. 4.57 lakh compensation to Kumar and his wife in 2012.

The soldier’s family challenged the order in the high court.

The bench observed that it was not in dispute that the claimant was totally paralysed and immobile.

“It is clear that the claimant would not be in a position to earn any more in his life. Not only the claimant who has suffered the loss, equally so his family,” it said.

The bench said the tribunal ought to have considered all aspects in proper perspective while quantifying the compensation towards loss of earning capacity.

“Therefore, it is incumbent on this court to see to it that the compensation granted is consciously just and reasonable and not for mere word sake to be termed as just and reasonable,” it said.

The bench then fixed the compensation at Rs 73 lakh and directed the New India Assurance Co Ltd in Tiruppathur to remit it to the credit of the claim petition within six weeks.

It also observed that it was high time necessary training was imparted to judicial officers regarding proper use of the ‘multiplier’ method.

The bench directed the registry to mark a copy of the order to the director, Tamil Nadu State Judicial Academy, Chennai, for necessary follow up action

IPL matches have been shifted to another venue amid the ongoing Cauvery protests.
Indian Premier League (IPL) matches which are scheduled to be held in Chennai have been shifted to another venue amid the ongoing Cauvery protests,

Recently, political parties and fringe groups have been demanding cancellation or postponement of all seven IPL matches in Chennai till the Centre constitutes the Cauvery Management Board (CMB). They have even asked spectators to boycott the matches.

An explosion that led to a building collapse in an opposition-held area of Idlib city has killed 31 people, activists said on Tuesday.

The cause of the blast that hit the city on Monday, killing 22 civilians and an estimated nine militiamen, was yet to be ascertained, UK war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was cited as saying by Efe news.

Members of the voluntary group Syria Civil Defence, better known as the White Helmets, scoured the rubble for victims.

Idlib province is almost entirely controlled by Islamist rebel groups, many of which are linked to Al Qaeda.

The region has also become a destination for thousands of civilians evacuated from other opposition-held pockets around Syria.

Two jawans were killed in heavy mortar shelling and firing by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

“Pakistan Army initiated unprovoked and indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics and mortars from 1715 hours in Sunderbani sector along the Line of Control (LoC) last night,” a defence spokesman said.

The Indian Army was giving a befitting reply, he said.Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were grievously injured in the firing and later succumbed to their injuries, the spokesman said.

Singh, 24, belonged to Danapur village of Akhnoor district in Jammu and Kashmir. He is survived by his father, Ajit Singh.

Sharma, 30, was from Sanhail village of Hiranagar district in Jammu. He is survived by his wife, Rajni Devi.

“Rifleman Vinod Singh and Rifleman Jaki Sharma were brave and sincere soldiers. The nation will always remain indebted to the brave hearts for their supreme sacrifice and devotion to duty,” the defence spokesperson said.