Bishop Franco Mulakkal, who has been named in a sexual abuse case by a senior nun, is likely to join an ongoing investigation into the matter with the Kerala Police soon and will hand over charge of his Diocese to his second-in-command during his absence.

“It is reported that I am likely to be called for further clarifications by the Investigating Officer in Kerala. I request you to continue to pray for me and for the alleged victim and her supporters who have come out against me so that divine intervention may bring about change of heart and the truth of the matter may be revealed,” Mulakkal of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar, said in a statement.

“I leave everything into the hands of God as I await the result of the findings of the team probing the allegation. In my absence Msgr. Mathew Kokkandam will administer the Diocese as is the normal practice when I am away.”

Mulakkal has been served a notice to appear before the probe team on September 19.

He got a breather from the Kerala High Court on Thursday as it said that the “arrest (of the Bishop) is not the issue”.

Expressing satisfaction over the ongoing probe, the court observed that since it was an old case the probe and the investigation will take time and “not the arrest but final punishment of the accused is more important”.

However, the nuns supporting the victim have expressed their disappointment with the court’s observation.

The victim has accused Mulakkal of repeatedly sexually abusing her between 2014 and 2016. There are five other nuns of the same congregation who have supported her claim.

(IANS)

A team of Assam Police reached Uttar Pradesh on Saturday after a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist from the northeastern state was arrested in Kanpur earlier this week.

Qamar-uz-Zaman from Hojai district, was arrested by the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the UP Police on Thursday. He has been missing since 2017.

“We have sent a team to Kanpur. They will coordinate with the ATS who are interrogating Zaman. We will try to get more information about the network in Assam,” a senior police officer said here.

Meanwhile, another person was arrested in Hojai on Thursday for maintaining close links with Zaman and the banned terror outfit.

(IANS)

 Over three days after a 19-year-old board examination topper was gang-raped in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district, the police has failed to make any arrests, officials said on Saturday.

The state police has set up a special investigation team (SIT), to be headed by Nuh Superintendent of Police (SP) Nazneen Bhasin, to probe the incident.

Though the victim initially told the police that she was allegedly gang-raped by three men, her father claimed that she had seen eight to 10 men around her when she regained consciousness following the gang-rape on Wednesday near Kanina village, around 350 km from here.

The three accused continued to evade arrest on Saturday, more than 72 hours after the incident.

The victim, who has identified her attackers, and her parents had said earlier that the police were not taking action in the matter and were dealing with it casually.

The accused, who belong to the same village as the victim, allegedly kidnapped the victim from Kanina bus stand while she was on her way for coaching classes.

She said that they gave her water to drink which was laced with sedative. They then took turns raping her in a room adjoining agricultural fields till she fell unconscious.

They later dumped her at a bus stop near the village.

The victim, a second year student in a college, topped the board examination and was felicitated by the President.

The Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), A.S. Chawla, told the media here on Friday that all efforts were being made to arrest the accused.

(IANS)

A court here on Friday ordered framing of sexual harassment charges against noted environmentalist R.K. Pachauri, who has been accused of outraging the modesty of his colleague.

Metropolitan Magistrate Charu Gupta fixed October 20 for formal framing of charges under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), Section 354A (advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures) and Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the India Penal Code.

However, the court dropped charges under Section 354B (using criminal force against a woman), Section 354D (stalking) and Section 341 (wrongful restraint) levelled against the former chief of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

The Delhi Police had booked him under the sections related to use of criminal force against a woman, stalking and others.

Pachauri was accused of sexually harassing a female colleague in 2015. He stepped down as Chairperson of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in February 2015 and proceeded on leave from TERI, where he was the Director General. Later, he also stepped down from his post in TERI.

Pachauri has, however, denied the charges against him.

(IANS)

Three men accused of allegedly gang raping a 19-year-old board examination topper in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district continued to evade arrest on Friday, more than 52 hours after the incident.

The Haryana Police on Friday launched a manhunt after the girl alleged that she was raped by them on Wednesday near Kanina village.

The victim, who has identified her attackers, and her parents have said that the police were not taking action in the matter and were initially dealing with it casually.

The victim, a second year student in a college, topped the CBSE board examination in 2017 and was felicitated by the President earlier this year.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) A.S. Chawla told the media here on Friday that all efforts were being made to arrest the accused.

The three accused, who belong to the same village as the victim, allegedly kidnapped the student in their vehicle from Kanina bus stand on Wednesday while she was on her way for coaching classes.

She said that they gave her water to drink which was laced with sedative. They then took turns raping her near the Kanina village till she fell unconscious, she said.

They later dumped her at a bus stop near the village. The victim’s family said that the women police station in Rewari initially refused to entertain their complaint citing issues of jurisdiction.

“We want justice. They have ruined the life of my daughter who is so good in studies. Where is the ‘Beti Padaho Beti Bachao’ slogan of the government now? The police harassed us while registering the case,” the mother of the victim said.

The police later registered a ‘Zero FIR’ (in which the case is later transferred to the concerned police station).

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the accused would be arrested soon and would face action as per law.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the incident showed the poor law and order situation in Haryana where women were not safe at all.

(IANS)

The Delhi Police has registered a case against the son of one of its officers after his video of beating a woman went viral on social networking sites.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Monika Bhardwaj said “a stern action” has been taken against the accused Rohit Tomar, son of Delhi Police Sub-Inspector Ashok Singh Tomar.

A case has been registered against him on the charges of assaulting a woman with intent to outrage her modesty and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code. Action is being taken to arrest him, the DCP added.

According to police, the video was shot in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar on September 2.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh directed Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik over the phone to take action against the accused.

(IANS)

A day after the Delhi High Court granted bail to Kashmiri businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali in a terror funding case, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed the order.

A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said it would hear the matter on September 26.

The order came on a plea filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) challenging the Delhi High Court’s order, saying that it has ignored the evidence against Watali.

Appearing for the NIA, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told the apex court that there were “very serious charges” against the businessman and he should not have been granted bail.

The Agency further contended that documents recovered from the premises of Watali’s accountant have showed that money had been received from Pakistan-based terrorist leaders Hafiz Saeed, Syed Salahuddin and the Pakistan High Commission which was distributed to Hurriyat leaders to finance terror activities.

Forensic analysis of Watali’s signature proved his involvement, but the high court ignored the documents as a “piece of paper”,the NIA told the apex court.

A counsel appearing for Watali said he was 75-years-old and has been in jail for months and there were no grounds for the NIA to make a case against him.

Watali, arrested for his alleged role in a terror-funding case involving Saeed, was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on Thursday, directing him to not leave the country without permission.

He had challenged the trial court’s June 8 order rejecting his bail plea.

Watali was arrested on August 17, 2017, and was charge-sheeted by the NIA on January 18 along with Saeed, Salahuddin, seven Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in the case.

(IANS)

A 21-year-old man committed suicide after his minor girlfriend was allegedly raped by two men in Chhattisgarh’s Korba district, police said Thursday.

The 17-year-old revealed this during the suicide investigation of Savan Sai, her boyfriend.

Two men, Ishwar Das (22) and Khem Kanwar (21) were arrested on the charges of gang-rape and abetment of suicide Wednesday, the official said.

The girl told police that men accosted them when she was with Sai near a school on the evening of September 1.

The accused allegedly thrashed them and raped her in front of her boyfriend before leaving them at the spot, she said. The next day, on September 2, Sai learnt that the accused had told some others in the village about the incident.

After the girl told the police about the alleged rape, the two men were arrested Wednesday.

(PTI)

Former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi and others were granted bail by a court here on Wednesday in a money laundering case related to the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar asked Tyagi and others, who appeared before him, to furnish a personal bond of Rs one lakh and surety bond of like amount each.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a supplementary charge sheet in the chopper deal case against 34 individuals and foreign and Indian companies, including Tyagi, his two cousins, advocate Gautam Khaitan and Italians Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke.

Former AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini, and Giuseppe Orsi, former chief of Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica, and others were also chargesheeted in the case.

The charge sheet, which mentions money laundering of around 28 million euros, named Orsi, Bruno, Tyagi’s cousins Sanjeev Tyagi and Rajiv Tyagi along with Rajeev Saxena, Director of Dubai-based firm Matrix Holdings, his wife Shivani Saxena and Khaitan’s wife Ritu Khaitan.

Among the Indian and foreign companies named are Aeromatrix Info Solution Ltd, Windsor Group Holdings, Ismax International Ltd, Cricklewood Ltd, Long Lasting Ltd, Matrix Holding Pvt Ltd, UHY Saxena, Dubai Interstellar Technologies Ltd, O.P. Khaitan and Co International Mediterranean Consulting, Tunisia Infotech Design Systems, Gordian Services, Finmeccanica SPA and AgustaWestland.

The ED said kickbacks were paid by AgustaWestland through two different channels — one handled by middleman Christian Michel James and the other by Gerosa and Haschke.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) too has filed a charge sheet in the case.

On January 1, 2014, India cancelled a contract with Finmeccanica’s British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF, over alleged breach of contractual obligations and on charges of paying kickbacks totalling Rs 423 crore.

The CBI alleged that the then Indian Air Force chief took bribes of several crores from AgustaWestland through the middlemen — and a complex set of companies in several countries — to change specifications of the contract.

(IANS)

Nearly 71 per cent of Australians have been victims of sexual harassment at some point in their lives, a report published on Wednesday by the Australian Human Rights Commission said.

One in every three have experienced it at work in the last five years, Efe news quoted the study as saying.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins indicated in the report that sexual harassment is generally perpetrated by a man and “in many cases it is ongoing over an extended period”.

The main forms of sexual harassment cited in the study are sexual jokes and comments, inappropriate physical contact and rape.

At least 23 per cent of women have been victims of an attempt or an act of rape or sexual assault in their lives, the report said, adding that 89 per cent of women have also suffered other types of harassment.

The study also reveals that more than 85 per cent of women and 56 per cent of men under the age of 15 say they have been sexually harassed at least once.

The rate of sexual harassment is higher among people between 18 and 29 years old while indigenous Australians are the most vulnerable to these crimes, according to the research.

The data adds that 83 per cent of homosexuals and 90 per cent of bisexuals have been victims of sexual harassment compared to 70 per cent of heterosexuals, while 68 per cent of disabled people have been sexually harassed at some points in their lives.

The research indicates that 64 per cent of sexual harassment cases in the workplace are carried out by a single perpetrator who most often is a co-worker at the same level as the victim.

Jenkins stressed that the workplace harassment rate is “particularly high in the information, media and telecommunications industries”.

About 19 per cent of the workers who made a formal complaint on sexual harassment in the workplace were labelled troublemakers, another 18 per cent were isolated or ignored and 17 per cent quit their jobs, while the perpetrator experienced no consequences in 19 per cent of the cases.

(IANS)