New Delhi: The CBI on Monday told a court here that it has got sanction to try three former ISRO officials including ex-chairman G. Madhavan Nair in the Devas-Antrix deal case.

The CBI told Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal that the three accused were Nair, former ISRO Director A. Bhaskar Narayana Rao and former Antrix Executive Director K.R. Sridhara Murthi.

The court listed June 1 to consider the chargesheet filed in the case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a chargesheet on August 11 last year alleging a loss of Rs 578 crore to the exchequer in the deal.

The deal was inked between private multimedia company Devas and Antrix, the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Former Managing Director of US-based Forge Advisors and CEO of Devas Ramachandra Vishwanathan, then Director of Devas M.G. Chandrasekhar, three former directors of Bangalore-based Devas Multi-media and Murthi were also chargesheeted.

The CBI accused them of hatching a criminal conspiracy with an intent to cause undue gains to themselves or others by abusing their official position and causing loss to Antrix Corp and ISRO.

A case was registered against the accused on March 16, 2015.

The Antrix-Devas deal saw an early exit of Nair as ISRO Chairman since he was the head of Antrix Governing Council when the deal was finalised in January 2005.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police, on Tuesday, arrested the Ola cab driver, Ravi Kumar, who molested a woman inside his car in the wee hours of April 28 in Bommanahalli. Investigating officials have taken the accused to the spot and are verifying on the incident.

Meanwhile, Kumar told the police that the woman who was in an inebriated state that night had an argument with him over the cab fare after which she had cooked up the story of molestation to avenge him.

Bommanahalli police is verifying the case details and also the driver’s version. The woman, in her complaint stated the driver took a detour on the pretext of taking a shorter route and groped her after reaching a deserted spot.

She said she managed to get out of the car and started running while shouting for help, following which the driver chased her. She also said she then reached a small clinic and took shelter there and waited for her friend to pick her up.

(Agencies)

Bangalore: “Stick to journalism.” Siddharth Varadharajan, founding editor of The Wire, gave this piece of advice to a crowd of budding journalists entering the “working world of journalism.”

Speaking at the annual graduation ceremony of Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media on May 1, 2017, Varadharajan warned the trainee journalists of the difficult times that they are invariably going to encounter in their careers.

But the only way to survive it was to “stick to the fundamental traits of journalism,” said the former editor of The Hindu.

Addressing the graduating batch of 2016-17, he summed up the problem facing this profession and his solution, using the oft-used journalistic framework of Who, what, where, when, why and how.

He said the problem that confronts Indian journalists today (The What), is largely due to the culture perpetuated by the media owners (The How), because of their increased reliance on advertiser revenues (The Why).

He said that Indian journalism of today is as bad, if not better than that in the 80s, that there was never a golden era of journalism (The When). The new journalists (The Who), in his view, were lucky to have new story-telling platforms to tell stories effectively and engage with readers. (The Where)

Reinventing business models, using social media effectively were certain things that could alleviate this problem, said the winner of the Ramnath Goenka Award for excelling in journalism.

“Journalism requires courage,” said Varadharajan, adding that the students had accomplished their first act of bravery by having completed their course in journalism.

He warned that the governments and private establishments alike will use all means, fair and foul, to suppress good journalism. The trend of “SLAP litigations, where corporates have increasingly taken to the law to silence any uncomfortable questions, was another tactic he warned of.

To thrive in their careers while overcoming these obstacles, he advised the students to: “Be passionate but objective. Be interested in people, their stories and their problems. Learn how to ask questions, especially to those of authority. Learn how to write well.”

In his address to the graduating batch of 2017, Dean Abraham George asked them to remember that a free press is the voice of the people in a democracy.

At a time when national leaders have not lived up to the challenges facing their countries, and are many times the cause of the problems, the press needs to be strong enough to expose the truth to the public. Unfortunately, that is not the case, he said.

Pointing out that prosperity for a few cannot be the yardstick for a nation’s success, he said that it was for the young journalists to inform and bring about positive change by impacting public opinion.

At the Convocation students who excelled in certain areas were given awards.

New Delhi: Initiating changes in the Congress, party chief Sonia Gandhi Saturday removed senior leader Digvijay Singh as party’s general secretary in-charge of poll- bound Karnataka and Goa and replaced him with Rahul-loyalist K C Venugopal in the southern state.

Gandhi also elevated AICC secretary A Chella Kumar as incharge of Goa, replacing Singh who was embroiled in a fiasco in government formation in the coastal state.

Another party leader Madhusudan Mistry ceased to be a general secretary after he was made a member of the party’s Central Election Authority for holding the organisational polls later this year.

“Congress President Sonia Gandhi has assigned the tasks of looking after Karnataka and Goa affairs to new AICC teams.

While K C Venugopal has been made general secretary incharge of Karnataka, A Chella Kumar has been made AICC incharge of Goa,” party general secretary Janaradan Dwivedi said in a statement.

Venugopal, the Lok Sabha MP from Alappuzha in Kerala and the party’s deputy whip in the Lok Sabha, is a confidante of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

He will be assisted by four secretaries to take care of Karnataka affairs–Manickam Tagore, PC Vishnunadh, Madhu Yashki Goud and Sake Sailjanath.

In Goa, where the party failed to form its government despite getting 17 seats, Chella Kumar has been made the AICC incharge of Goa, while Amit Deshmukh will be the Secretary AICC of the state.

As Congress’s Goa unit incharge, Singh failed in government formation while the BJP retained power after getting only 13 seats.

Singh’s inaction evoked widespread criticism within the party, which had accused the BJP of creating an “artificial majority” to form its government.

Though removal of Singh, considered close to the Gandhis has shocked many, he continues to be general secretary incharge of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Meanwhile, Mistry also ceased to be the party’s general secretary as he was made a member of the Central Election Authority.

“The Congress president has approved the composition of the Central Organisational Election Authority of the AICC.

Mullapally Ramachandran will be its Chairman and Bhubaneshwar Kalita and Madhusudan Mistry will be its members,” Dwivedi said in another statement.

“Since Mistry has become the member of Central Election Authority, he will not hold any organisational post as per the party’s Constitution,” the statement said.

Gandhi also formed an Advisory Committee of CEA in which Shamsher Singh Dullo, Rajya Sabha MP, Ashk Ali Taq, former MP and Biren Singh Engti, MP, have been made members.

Gandhi had earlier appointed former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot as party’s general secretary incharge of Gujarat, slated to go to polls later this year, removing party leader Gurudas Kamat from the post.

Some more changes are expected in other states like Himachal Pradesh which goes to polls later this year along with Gujarat.

(PTI)

Guwahati: In yet another incident of violent cow vigilantism, two men were beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of stealing cattle in Assam’s Nagaon district. Two men were detained and were being questioned.

Senior police officials told PTI that the victims were aged between 20 and 25.

The mob continuously thrashed them with sticks while chasing them for about 1.5 km, from Kasamari in Nagaon police station area to Jajori police station area, he said.

Asked if it was a case of “cow vigilantism”, Upadhay said a lot of cattle thefts had been reported in the area. “In this case, I got reports that some people saw the two men trying to take away cows from the field and called more people from the village. When a large crowd gathered, they started thrashing them badly,” he told PTI.

He assured of an “impartial enquiry” into the episode.

The incident comes weeks after a 55-year-old man was lynched by alleged cow vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar, leading to uproar in Parliament and demands of action against ‘cow vigilantes’.

(With PTI inputs)