Archives for 2017

Kannur: Days after a 16-year-old girl gave birth to a baby boy, a church vicar was today arrested for “sexually exploiting” the minor.

He was also removed from office by the church authorities. The alleged offence came to light after the girl, a resident of Neendunokki in the district, gave birth to a baby boy at a private hospital in Koothuparamba on February 7.

Based on information from ‘ChildLine’, an NGO, the police conducted an inquiry into the incident. The girl, a Class 11 student of the school where the accused, Fr Robin alias Mathew Vadakkancheril, was the manager, had attended classes on February 6, a day before she gave birth to the baby boy, police sources said.

“Neither the minor nor her parents were aware that she was pregnant,” the sources told PTI. The girl was taken to a hospital after she complained of stomach pain and the doctors found out that she was pregnant.

She was then taken to a hospital run by the church where she gave birth to the baby boy. The newborn was shifted to an orphanage without informing its mother, the sources said, adding that the girl was told that she had undergone an appendicitis operation.

To ensure that the culprit’s name was not revealed, her family was allegedly forced to name two others, including her father, for sexually exploiting her, the police said.

However, the police questioned the girl and her father and subsequently, they named the vicar of St Sebastian’s church, Kottiyoor as the accused.

Robin had attended a public programme on February 25 and left the place the next day, after the police lodged a case against him under section 376, IPC (punishment for rape) and the Protection of Children From Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

He was picked up from Chalakkudy in Thrissur district last night and brought here. The newborn was shifted from an orphanage at Vythiri in Wayanad district to a government-run orphanage here.

Meanwhile, Mananthavady Bishop Jose Porunnedom removed Robin from the office of the vicar of the parish with immediate effect as per the Canon law.

He has also been suspended from exercising his priestly ministry, including the celebration of the Holy Sacraments and preaching in public, either inside or outside the diocese, a release from the Mananthavady Bishop’s House said.

“The suspension and prohibition will remain in force until the accused has undergone the prescribed legal procedures in this regard and declared innocent,” it added.

Reacting to the incident, the Syro Malabar Church spokesperson said, “It is an unfortunate incident. The church has suspended him and removed him from all posts.”

(PTI)

Jalpaiguri: The BJP has suffered a major setback as the key accused in the alleged child-trafficking case in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri has claimed that party national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and president of party’s women’s wing in the state Roopa Ganguly were involved in the racket.

According to reports, accused Chandana Chakraborty on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Mahila Morcha general secretary Juhee Chowdhury lobbied with Ganguly and Vijayvargiya to “resolve some issues” about her shelter home.

Chowdhury had sought the two BJP leaders’ help to influence Ministry of Women and Child Development’s Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to grant a central aid of Rs 22.5 lakh to her shelter home ‘Ashray’, renew its licence. She had also sought retransfer of 14 children, who were sent to other child care homes after district Child Welfare Committee noted irregularities at ‘Ashray’.

Chowdhury allegedly offered expensive gifts to Vijayvargiya and Ganguly in return for the favours.

Vijayvargiya has refuted the allegations, claiming the Kolkata Police is “being controlled by Trinammol Congress” and it is “conspiring against me”.

The West Bengal Crime Investigation Department (CID) has, however, claimed that it has audio evidence of conversation between Chowdhury and Vijayvargiya’s secretary. It is likely to summon Ganguly, Vijayvargiya and his secretary.

The West Bengal CID on Tuesday night arrested Chowdhury from the Batasia area close to the Indo-Nepal border in North Bengal for her alleged involvement in the Jalpaiguri child-trafficking case.

With Chowdhury’s arrest, a total of four people have so far been arrested in connection with the case for their alleged involvement in selling of babies and children across India and also to foreign couples in the last few months from an NGO Bimala Sishu Griho.

Sonali Mondal, Chief Adoption Officer the NGO, Chandana Chakraborty, Chairperson of Bimala Sishu Griho and Manas Bhowmik, Chandana’s brother, were arrested by a seven-member CID team.

The three were charged with selling at least 17 children, aged between 1-14 years, to foreign buyers at high price while falsely claiming that the children were handed over for legal adoption to needy couples after due screening and official procedures.

CID sources said Chowdhury was being brought to Jalpaiguri for further interrogation and would be produced before the District Court tomorrow.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has already said the party was looking into the allegations against Chowdhury and would take action if she was found guilty.

The CID blew off the lid of a child trafficking racket conducting raids in homes and nursing homes in Baduria of North 24 Parganas district, in Behala in the southern fringes of Kolkata and some other parts of south Bengal since November last year.

(Agencies)

Ahmedabad: Taarak Mehta, the popular Gujarati columnist, humorist and playwright, passed away at the age of 87 today.

The columnist’s most popular work, Duniya Ne Undha Chashma, was adapted to the small screen as Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah on SAB TV. The show became a household favourite because of its witty take on everyday, ordinary issues.

Mehta, who has been a resident of Ahmedabad for the last 16 years, used to write for Gujarati dailies like Divya Bhaskar, and other publications like Chitralekha.

The real Taarak Mehta, who passed away from a prolonged illness, was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015 for his literary contributions.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Goods and Services Tax is likely to be rolled out on July 1, 2017. Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das while speaking to reporters on Tuesday said: “GST implementation is a huge one and that is going to be implemented by July 1. Both federal and state government are working on this one.”

Das’ statement put an end to uncertainties over the implementation of GST. Last year in August, the Rajya Sabha cleared a bill that amended the Constitution to enable India’s biggest tax reform – GST.

However, there were many issues -division of tax administration, taxing high sea trade, compensation for revenue loss – that were to be resolved between federal and state governments. And, it was feared that GST could not be cleared before September.

After rounds of discussion over revenue loss, the GST Council last month approved a law to compensate states for any loss of revenue from the implementation of the new taxing system.

GST is a proposed system of indirect taxation merging most of the existing taxes into single system of taxation. It was introduced as The Constitution (One Hundred and First Amendment) Act 2016.

GST would be a comprehensive indirect tax on manufacture, sale and consumption of goods and services throughout India, to replace taxes levied by the central and state governments.

The GST is consumption based tax levied on the supply of Goods and Services which means it would be levied and collected at each stage of sale or purchase of goods or services based on the input tax credit method. Once it is in force, GST will replace at least 17 state and federal taxes.

(IANS)