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A court has found the two former executives involved in the torture of workers during the dictatorship in the 1970s.
A court in Argentina has sentenced two former executives of Ford Motor company for colluding with the country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and early 80s.
They were found guilty of helping the regime detain union members, who were then tortured in detention centres.
Aljazeera
Former Jharkhand Minister Enos Ekka was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday in connection with a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case.
CBI sources said that he was arrested here. Ekka had not appeared in the CBI court despite repeated summons.
Ekka was a minister in the Madhu Koda government from 2006 to 2008.
A compliant was registered against him in the State Vigilance Department in 2009 for amassing assets exceeding his known sources of income.
Later the case was transferred to the CBI at the directive of the Jharkhand High Court.
In 2013, the CBI filed a closure report saying the assets were of small amounts. However, the CBI court refused to accept that closure report and asked the probe agency to proceed in the case.
Sources in CBI said that Ekka had disclosed Rs 60,000 cash and a Maruti vehicle in his name in the 2005 election declaration.
Between 2005 and 2009, Ekka purchased a flat worth Rs 8 crore in posh Vasant Vihar area in New Delhi. The payment for the flat was made by a private construction company, which was awarded the contract of stadiums of the 2011 national games in Ranchi.
There were also allegations that the former minister purchased 100 acres of land in the name of his relatives.
Ekka had won the Assembly poll for the first time in 2005. He lost the 2014 Assembly elections. At present he is part of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantraik (JVM-P).
IANS
The National Company Law Tribunal’s (NCLT) city bench has ordered winding up of 13 defunct companies of the Saradha Group and directed the official liquidator to take possession of assets and properties of all these companies.
The group companies are Global Automobiles Ltd, Saradha Tours and Travels, Saradha Shopping Mall, Saradha Agro Development, Bengal Media, Saradha Housing, Rose Capital Ltd, Saradha Construction, Saradha Educational Enterprises, Saradha Garden Resort and Hotel, Saradha Landmark Cement, Saradha Exports and Bhasank Foods.
The group had mopped up money from over 17 lakh depositors through a ponzi scheme before it collapsed in 2013.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry had authorised the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) to file winding up petitions against these companies on behalf of the Centre.
The SFIO had accordingly filed winding up petitions before the tribunal against the group’s entities to initiate proceedings on the grounds that the affairs of the companies had been conducted in a fraudulent manner.
The companies had been formed for “fraudulent and unlawful purpose” and as such the directors of the respective companies had been guilty of “misfeasance or misconduct”.
“I have minutely gone through the report filed by the SFIO after thorough investigation of the affairs of the above companies. The report reveals that the affairs of all the companies were being conducted in fraudulent manner.
“There is every reason for me to believe that the companies were formed for fraudulent and unlawful purpose. The promoters/directors of all the companies appeared to be guilty of offences of fraud, misfeasance and misconduct relating to affairs of the companies…
“Hence, I held that all the above companies are required to be wound up by this tribunal,” Justice Madan B. Gosavi said in his order.
According to the order, the agency, in its summary report, had produced before the tribunal details of the irregularities and contraventions of the provisions of the Companies Act being committed by the promoters and directors of all holding companies of the group.
After the investigation, the corporate frauds investigating agency had concluded that directors of the companies had cheated the public at large, violated provision of Companies Act, 1956, misappropriated Rs 2,542.62 crore, misappropriated funds of Rs 6.59 crore through illegal transfer of shares and prepared false financial statements, among others.
Justice Gosavi also said: “The official liquidator attached to the Calcutta High Court is appointed as the official liquidator for winding up of all the above companies with direction to take possession of the assets and properties of all the companies.”
Debjani Mitra was appointed as the official liquidator.
The tribunal has also restrained all the companies from disposing of their assets and properties.
IANS
A court here on Tuesday sentenced an Indian origin man to seven years in jail for stabbing his pregnant wife using a knife with a 10-cm long blade.
The incident took place on December 30 last year during which Jayselan N. Chandrasegar, 30, stabbed his 26-year-old wife Mayuri Krishnakumar twice in her abdomen and twice on her lower back, causing her to suffer puncture wounds. She was taken to hospital and was discharged after a few days.
The unborn baby was unhurt in the attack, the Straits Times reported.
According to the report, Chandrasegar flew into a rage after he spotted his pregnant wife, who used to be a sex worker, talking to a man he assumed was a pimp. He stabbed her and fled the scene.
Besides the jail term, Chandrasegar was also punished with six strokes of the cane.
He pleaded guilty to one count of causing grievous hurt to his wife with a weapon, and one count of failing to provide his urine sample after he was caught for suspected drug-related offences.
The court was told that the accused was overly possessive and distrustful of his wife as her former boyfriend was apparently trying to reconnect with her. He had banned the victim from going out of their house.
Later, when the woman informed her husband of her pregnancy, he refused to believe that the child was his and accused her of infidelity, the report said.
The accused’s wife later ran away from their house due to his verbal abuse and sought refuge with her friends.
Before this incident, Chandrasegar was caught for suspected drug-related offences.
Prior to the verdict, the defence lawyer pleaded for a jail term of between five and five and a half years for Chandrasegar, saying that the accused’s wife had forgiven him and the couple were still married to each other.
IANS
Beleaguered industrialist Vijay Mallya must be extradited from the United Kingdom to India to stand trial on charges of committing huge bank frauds, a London court ruled on Monday, saying there was no evidence that the prosecution was politically motivated.
“The criticism made of the possible effect of the considerable media attention which would attend a prosecution of Mallya is not significant enough for this court to find he would not have a fair trial,” Westminster Magistrates’ Court Chief Magistrate Judge Emma Arbuthnot said.
“There is insufficient evidence for this court to find that he will not be tried by a competent and fair court,” the court said.
The judge also noted that any suggestion that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) courts in India were too “pliable” when it came to CBI cases “is not borne out by reliable evidence”.
Arbuthnot, a senior district judge, said she accepted the Indian government’s contention that because Mallya had such a high profile, his trial would be under great scrutiny.
“I find that Mallya will be able to raise with the court any overly prejudicial publicity… It will not be a trial by politicians. Courts are used to dealing with high profile cases which are accompanied by often ill-advised political commentary.
“I do not accept that the courts in India are there to do what the politicians tell them to do. As I have already said, the court will be under great scrutiny. I do not find any international consensus which would enable me to find that the judges in India are corrupt.”
Referring to defence argument that there was abuse of legal process, the London judge said: “There is no evidence that the prosecution is politically motivated… I find no grounds for finding an abuse of process.”
The judge said she was sending Mallya’s case to the Home Secretary of State for a decision to be taken on whether to order his extradition.
The court ruling came six days after British national and middleman in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, Christian Michael, was extradited to India after his arrest in Dubai.
Mallya fled India in March 2016 but he has repeatedly denied fleeing the country and said he was ready to pay back the money he owed to Indian banks.
Earlier, before appearing in the court, Mallya told reporters: “Whatever the judgement, my legal team will review the judgement if required and take appropriate steps thereafter.”
He said he offered to repay the public sector banks and employees what he owed.
“But that has nothing to do with this extradition decision, this is a completely separate matter.”
Asked whether his offer of repaying the banks were genuine, he said: “There is nothing genuine or ingenuine. The offer has been made before a court of law, nobody disrespects the court of law by making bogus offers.”
He also said that his assets have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on their own admission, so they cannot be bogus assets.
“Today, those very same assets are before the court. The ED and the banks are fighting over the same assets. Same assets have a value that is more than enough to pay everybody and that is exactly what I am focusing on,” he said.
Welcoming the London court decision, the CBI officials in New Delhi hoped to bring Mallya back to India soon and said that the agency was always strong on facts and legally it was confident while pursuing the extradition process.
Proceedings are on in the Mumbai Special Court against Mallya under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act.
Kingfisher began defaulting on loans in 2009-10.
Late in 2017, India filed extradition proceedings against Mallya which he has contested. He is currently on bail in London.
On June 22, the ED had moved the Special PMLA Court to declare Mallya a “fugitive economic offender” and confiscate all his properties, estimated at more than Rs 12,000 crore, making it the first such case of its kind under the new FEOA (Fugitive Economic Offender Act) law.
IANS
“Seven whistleblowers felecitated by ACB Karnataka for raising their voice against corrupt officials to bring a change in the society”.
A total of 66 kg smuggled gold valued at Rs 21 crore was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) last week, taking the total seizure to about 2.63 tons of gold for the current fiscal till November, an official statement said.
The Indian Customs had seized 3.22 tons gold during the financial year 2017-18.
“In a major operation launched by DRI against an organised smuggling syndicate, 66 kg of smuggled gold valued at about Rs 21 crore has been seized on December 6 and 7,” the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Monday.
The seizure was made at Lucknow, Kolkata and two premises in Siliguri. In this operation, four persons were arrested and four cars used in smuggling were seized.
“A specific information was received by the DRI that a smuggling syndicate is actively engaged in smuggling of huge quantity of foreign-origin gold from Bhutan into India through Indo-Bhutan border in West Bengal and sending it to different parts of India,” it said.
On December 6, one car along with two occupants was intercepted by DRI officers after a high-speed chase near Lucknow. A search of the intercepted car resulted in the recovery and seizure of 33 bars of one kg each, valued at Rs 10.56 crore, concealed in a specially made cavity near the driver’s seat.
Of the two occupants, one was the main controller of the syndicate, the Ministry said.
In another related operation launched by DRI officers in the early hours of December 7, a car with two occupants was intercepted near Kolkata and 33 pieces of foreign-origin gold weighing 33 kg valued at Rs 10.46 crore were seized from the occupants.
“The smuggled gold was concealed in a specially built box fixed behind the dash board and also in a specially built cavity near the gearbox of the car,” it said.
In swift follow-up action at Siliguri, Rs 3.5 lakh cash, suspected to be the proceeds of smuggling, and two more cars were seized under the provisions of the Customs Act.
All the cars were found to have specially built cavities, indicating their usage for carrying smuggled gold in the past as well.
In the current fiscal 2018-19, a large number of cases of gold smuggling have been booked. During April to November, Indian Customs had seized about 2.63 tons of gold.
“During the financial year 2017-18 (April to March), Indian Customs had seized 3.22 tons gold which was 103 per cent higher than in 2016-17,” the Ministry said.
The gold is believed to be smuggled from India’s land borders with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
A Russian court on Monday sentenced a former policeman, described as the country’s “most prolific mass murderer in modern time”, to a second life imprisonment for committing 56 murders, while he is already serving one for killing 22 women, the media reported.
Mikhail Popkov, 53, was found guilty of murdering 56 women near the Siberian city of Irkutsk between 1992 and 2007. He is currently serving a life term given to him in January 2015 for 22 other murders.
His victims were all women between the ages of 16 and 40 apart from one male, a policeman, the BBC reported.
Popkov hacked women to death after offering them rides in his car late at night. At least 10 were also raped. In three cases he was on duty in his police car. He was caught in 2012 after a DNA match identified his car.
Popkov killed the women around the city of Angarsk, near Irkutsk, with an axe and hammer. Later, he used to dump their mutilated bodies in forests, by the roadside and in a local cemetery.
He had earlier claimed that he was “purging” Angarsk of immoral women.
Chief Public Prosecutor for the Irkutsk region, Alexander Shkinev, said that psychological and psychiatric examination showed that Popkov committed the crimes out of homicidomania — a mania for murder. Still, he was ruled sane, TASS news agency reported.
IANS
The National Commission for Women was told by Prasar Bharti that the charges against the accused were proved in the enquiries conducted by the AIR’s Internal Committee and it recommended the stringiest action.
“The disciplinary authority accepted the recommendations and the authority imposed a major penalty of reduction to a lower pay scale by two stages for one year and no increment during the reduction period. After the expiration of one year, the reduction period will have effects on subsequent increments,” the NCW said in a statement.
The Prasar Bharti report also mentioned that certain preventive measures have also been taken by All India Radio, like posting of women Programme Executives as station In-Charge, installation of CCTV cameras at vantage points, and providing transport facility to women employees during odd hours.
Further, the Prasar Bharati Secretariat has issued all its directorates to send quarterly progress reports in respect of sexual harassment complaints being inquired into by the respective Internal Committees.
The National Commission for Women has received an Action Taken Report (ATR) from Prasar Bharati regarding steps taken on sexual harassment complaints by women employees of All India Radio against an officer.
The NCW, in its letter dated November 15, had directed the CEO, Prasar Bharati to conduct an enquiry into the complaints after it received a formal complaint dated November 12 from the All India Radio Casual Announcer and Comperes Union alleging sexual harassment at workplace of casual announcers and comperes working in different stations of AIR throughout the country.
The NCW had sought an ATR within 15 days.
The matter was also brought to the notice of I&B secretary Amit Khare for his “personal intervention” in the matter.
Earlier on November 9, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi wrote to Information and Broadcasting Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to ensure that a “sensitive and fair system” is put in place at the state-owned AIR to address the sexual harassment complaints.
PTI