Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today granted bail to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Takhur, accused of plotting the 2008 Malegaon blast, but denied any relief to co-accused former Lt Col Prasad Purohit.

The court directed Sadhvi Pragya to surrender her passport to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and not to tamper with the evidence. She has also been asked to report to the NIA court as and when required.

“The appeal filed by Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur is allowed. The applicant (Sadhvi) is directed to be released on bail on a surety of Rs 5 lakh. The appeal filed by Prasad Purohit stands dismissed,” said a division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi. “We have said in our order that prima facie there is no case made out against Sadhvi,” Justice More said while refusing to stay today’s order.

Eight persons were killed and nearly 80 others were injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle had exploded in Malegaon on September 29, 2008. Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit were arrested in 2008 and are in jail since then. Welcoming the order, Sadhvi’s brother-in-law Bhagwan Jha said the family will celebrate nationwide. “Finally, we have won. Nine years she was in jail without evidence. Now we will celebrate nationwide,” he told reporters outside while distributing chocolates. The court was hearing the appeals filed by Sadhvi Pragya and Purohit challenging an earlier order of a special court rejecting their bail pleas.

The families of the victims, who had filed an intervening application challenging Sadhvi Pragya’s bail plea, today sought from the court a stay on its order so that they can appeal against it in the Supreme Court. According to the investigating agencies, the blast was allegedly carried out by right-wing group Abhinav Bharat and a total of 11 persons are at present in jail in the case, including Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya.

In her appeal, Sadhvi Pragya argued that the lower court failed to take cognisance of the change in circumstances in her case considering that NIA had declared in its charge sheet that it had not found any evidence against her and that prosecution against her be dropped. The NIA, which was handed over the case much later, had earlier submitted to the high court that it has “no objections” to Sadhvi’s plea. When asked by the court for its opinion, the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had said that the ball was now in the NIA’s court and it wasn’t the prerogative of the terrorism squad anymore to support or oppose the plea.

The families of some of the victims of the blast argued that the plea be denied for there exist ample evidence in the ATS’ charge sheet to establish that Thakur was one of the main conspirators of the blast. The NIA had opposed Purohit’s bail plea and argued that there was prima facie evidence in the form of audio and video recordings, call data records and witness statements that prove his involvement in the case.

According to NIA, Purohit had taken active part in the conspiracy meetings and even agreed to arrange explosives to be used in the blast. Purohit had argued that the NIA was “selective” in exonerating some accused persons and that the agency had made him a “scapegoat” in the case.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A special court today awarded seven-year jail term to gangster Chhota Rajan and three retired public servants in a fake passport case.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal awarded the sentence to Rajan and others for offences including forgery of valuable security under the IPC which entails a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

Besides him, the other persons who have been convicted are three retired government servants — Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan. Rajan is lodged in Tihar Jail here. The other three persons, who were out on bail, were taken into custody yesterday after the verdict was announced.

The court had on March 28 reserved its judgement in the case in which Rajan allegedly procured a fake passport in the name of Mohan Kumar with the help of the three government officials.

Lakshmanan had approached the high court to transfer to Bengaluru her trial in the case but the petition was rejected on January 9 on the ground that a district court here could also hear the matter.

During pendency of the plea, the high court had ordered a stay on pronouncement of verdict in the case by trial court. However, the high court later rejected the plea.

All the four persons have been convicted of offences under sections 420 (cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 467(forgery of valuable security or will), 419(cheating by impersonation) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and section 12 (offences and penalties) of the Passport Act.

Deported after being on the run for 27 years, the 55-year old gangster, once a close aide of fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was brought to India to face trial in over 70 cases of murder, extortion and drug smuggling in Delhi and Mumbai.

Rajan was deported to India after his arrest in Bali in October 2015.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A court here on Monday convicted underworld don Rajendra Sadashiv Nikhalje alias Chhota Rajan and others in a fake passport case.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special judge Virender Kumar Goyal held Rajan guilty of possessing a fake passport

The court on June 8 last year framed charges against Chhota Rajan and then passport officers Jayashree Dattatray Rahate, Deepak Natvarlal Shah and Lalitha Lakshmanan under sections of the Indian Penal Code dealing with criminal conspiracy, cheating, cheating by impersonation and forgery of documents.

The CBI in its chargesheet alleged that Chhota Rajan got issued a fake passport from Bengaluru in 1998-99 in connivance with Rahate, Shah and Lakshmanan in the name of Mohan Kumar.

Rajan is involved in over 85 cases, ranging from murder to extortion, smuggling and drug trafficking.

He has cases pending against him in Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and with the CBI.

The don, held by the Indonesian police on October 25, 2015, was deported to India on November 6, 2015.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Amid a raging debate over cow vigilantism, the Central government has now proposed to give Aadhar-like unique identification number to cows in India.

The Centre has made this proposal to the Supreme Court, news agency reported on Monday.

In its report to Supreme court, the Central government said, “Each cow and its progeny across India should get a Unique Identification Number for tracking.”

The central government also recommended special care for cattle beyond age of milking, while stressing on launching of a scheme for distressed farmers.

In its report, the Centre also highlighted the issue of cow protection and smuggling of cattle across India-Bangladesh border.

Centre made this proposal on the basis of recommendations made by a committee headed by the Joint Secretary, Home Ministry.

The report also stated that each district should have a shelter home of capacity of at least 500 abandoned animals, which will help reduce smuggling of cattle across the country.

According to a previous report published in media, the animal husbandry department had assigned technicians to affix a tag with a 12-digit unique identification number inside the ear of cows.

As per the report, nearly one lakh technicians have been armed with 50,000 tablets. Their mission is to affix a polyurethane tag on the ears of the cattle with a tag applicator.

The yellow-colored tag is fixed in the centre of the ear lobe.

Continuing with PM Narendra Modi’s digital drive, the centre intends to reach out to almost 88 million cows and buffaloes this year.

These tags cost Rs 8 apiece and are light weighted.

Once the tag is fixed, the technician will use a tablet to update the number in an online database and also provide the cattle owner with an `animal health card’ recording the UID number, owner’s details, status of periodic deworming and vaccinations of the animal as well as breeding details.This will help track the cattle along with all relevant details.

The move will help in tagging and tracking cattle so that they are vaccinated on time and scientific intervention is made available for better breeding and increasing milk production, doubling income of dairy farmers in the process by 2022.

The Centre has set aside Rs 148 crore for procuring the tags, tag applicators, tablets and health cards, officials said.

It has also fixed targets for individual states to be completed within 2017.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Petrol and diesel may soon be home delivered as the oil ministry mulls options of door-to- door delivery on pre-booking to cut long queues at petrol pumps.

As many as 3.5 crore people currently visit 59,595 petrol pumps in the country for buying auto fuel. Often, long queues are witnessed at petrol pumps during peak hours, leading to congestion on roads.

Annually, Rs 2,500 crore of fuel is bought at petrol pumps and now a part of it being talked of being home delivered. “Options being explored where petro products may be door delivered to consumers on pre-booking,” the ministry said in a series of tweets.

Home delivery of fuel is being mulled as the world’s third biggest oil consumer experiments with daily price revision of petrol and diesel at select towns beginning May 1.

In another tweet, the ministry said home delivery of fuel “would help consumers avoid spending excessive time and long queues at fuel stations.” “About 3.5 cr people come to fuel stations every day; Rs 2500 cr worth of transactions every year,” it said in another tweet.

India consumed 23.8 million tons of petrol and 76 million tons of diesel in 2016-17 fiscal. This was higher than 21.8 million tons of petrol and 74.6 million tons of diesel consumed in the previous 2015-16 financial year.

The ministry also stated that a parliamentary consultative committee met in Srinagar today to discuss ‘digital modes of payment’ at fuel outlets. State-owned oil marketing companies IOC, BPCL and HPCL give “0.75 per cent discount on fuel purchase via cashless mode,” it said.

“About 40,000 ROs are with POS (machine), more than 86 per cent of ROs with digital infrastructure today.” ROs are retail outlet or petrol pumps. “Daily cashless transactions increased from Rs 150 crore per day to Rs 400 crore per day,” the ministry added.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) is in possession of documents which claim that the beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya laundered money from banks in India to ‘British companies’ situated in the UK.

As per a report published in the Times of India, ED has shared the documents with the UK government.

Additionally, CBI has already shared information about Mallya being wanted in India with regard to cases of cheating and criminal conspiracy.

The media report further states that Mallya laundered most of the money before he fled to London on March 2 last year.

The report states that substantial portion of the money was shifted to to shell companies and bank accounts in the UK, Cayman Islands, Mauritius and some other countries.

The 61-year-old liquor baron, wanted in India for defaulting on bank loans, was arrested after he appeared at a central London police station on Monday morning.

Mallya was released on conditional bail a few hours later after providing a bail bond of 650,000 pounds and giving an assurance to the court that he will abide by all conditions associated with extradition proceedings, such as the surrender of his passport and a ban on him possessing any travel document.

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will now argue the case on behalf of the Indian authorities.

Last month, setting in motion the process of extradition of Mallya, the British government had certified India’s request and sent it to a district judge for further action.

The extradition process from the UK involves a number of steps including a decision by the judge whether to issue a warrant of arrest.

In case of a warrant, the person is arrested and brought before the court for preliminary hearing followed by an extradition hearing before a final decision is taken by the secretary of state.

The wanted person has a right to appeal in the higher courts against any decision all the way up to Britain’s Supreme Court.

Under the 2003 Act, the British secretary of state may only consider four issues when deciding whether to order a person’s extradition.

They are whether the person is at risk of the death penalty; whether special arrangements are in place; whether the person concerned has previously been extradited from another country to the UK and the consent of that country to his onward extradition is required;?and whether the person has previously been transferred to the UK by the International Criminal Court.

(Agencies)