Page 267 - Law Crime
CJI trashes sexual harassment charge, sees larger plot (3rd Lead)
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday rubbished an allegation of sexual harassment against him, saying there was a "larger conspiracy" to destabilize the independence of the judiciary, which, he said, is "under very serious threat".
Chain snatcher nabbed in Ghaziabad
A chain snatcher was arrested after a brief exchange of fire with the police at Sahibabad Industrial Area Site-4 here, officials said Saturday. The arrest was made on Friday night when the arrested tried to snatch a necklace off a woman who had come to a hotel here for a marriage function, they said. As the man tried to grab the necklace, the woman started screaming and a beat constable reached the spot, an official from Link Road Police Station said. Seeing the constable, the accused tried to run away and opened fire, the official retaliated and the accused sustained a bullet injury on his right leg, they said. He was rushed to the hospital and is said to be stable, police added. The accused has been identified as Kishan Lal Bhutani, resident of Jwalanagar Colony, Shahdara Delhi, DIG Upendra Agarwal said. During the preliminary investigation, Bhutani confessed to have snatched over five hundred chains and jewellery items in the last five years from Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad and ...
Teenager dies after being gang raped in Jharkhand
A teenaged girl died hours after being allegedly raped by at least five persons, who were members of a marriage party, in a village in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, police said Saturday. All the five, including two minors, have been apprehended, they said. The marriage party had come from Jamtara district of the state to the village under East Tundi block. Some of the wedding guests went to meet their relatives in another part of the village. The victim was a neighbour of their relatives, Superintendent of Police (Dhanbad Rural) Aman Kumar said. At least five persons, who were drunk, lured the tribal girl to a deserted place between 9 pm and 10 pm on Friday and raped her, he said. The victim's father told reporters that his daughter came home limping and fainted after narrating her ordeal. She was taken to a hospital where she died, he said. The body has been sent for post-mortem at Patliputra Medical College Hospital here, police said. "We suspect more than five persons were ...
119 candidates in Odisha face criminal cases: ADR
As many as 119 (34 per cent) of 354 candidates contesting in the third phase of Odisha Assembly elections have declared criminal charges against themselves while 101 (29 per cent) are charged with serious cases, according to Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR).
63-year-old Mumbai doctor arrested for molesting teenage girl
A 63-year-old doctor was arrested for allegedly molesting a minor girl at his residence in suburban Khar, a senior police official said Saturday. The victim's mother told police that she had left her house keys with the accused and had asked her 14-year-old daughter to collect it from there, an official said. "According to the victim's mother, the doctor hugged and kissed the victim when she went to collect the keys. She has told police that the incident happened on April 14," he said. A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code and the doctor was arrested Friday night, he added. The doctor was produced in court Saturday and was remanded in judicial custody, his lawyer Laxman Kanal said. Kanal told court that the complaint against the doctor was filed at the instigation of the latter's housing society members.
Sadhvi Pragya's comments 'shameful': BJP MLA
BJP MLA Radha Mohan Das Agarwal Friday condemned his party's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's remarks on IPS officer Hemant Karkare, who was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, saying the comments were "shameful". Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, is under fire for claiming that Karkare died in the attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her. "Hemant Karkare fought terrorists without wearing a bulletproof jacket. Calling his martyrdom a result of her curse is very shameful and terming him an anti-national is an act of treason," the Gorakhpur MLA said in a tweet. When contacted, he said, "Yes, I have tweeted that Pragya Thakur's statement on Hemant Karkare's martyrdom is an act of treason and I am standing by it. Hemant Karkare is a martyr and was a great police officer." On the BJP's decision on selecting her as a candidate for the seat in Madhya Pradesh, the MLA said, the party has already disassociated itself from Thakur's
CJI cites 'criminal record' of woman who has accused him of sexual harassment
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, who held an extraordinary hearing in the Supreme Court on Saturday over allegations of sexual harassment against him, cited "criminal record" of the accuser during the proceedings. The CJI, who along with Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna assembled to hear the matter which was described as of "great public importance touching upon the independence of judiciary", said that the woman, a former apex court employee, had a criminal record and two FIRs were lodged against her. In a letter addressed to 22 other apex court judges, the woman had said that she was a junior court assistant in the apex court. She said she had joined the service on May 1, 2014 and her service was terminated on December 21, 2018. During the hearing, Justice Gogoi said when she was employed with the apex court, an FIR was pending against her. "How can she become a Supreme Court staff when an FIR was pending against her?" the CJI said, adding that two criminal cases were also
Nobody should insult 'martyrs': Uddhav on Sadhvi Pragya's comments
Nobody should make statements that insult "martyrs", Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray said Saturday, referring to BJP's Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur's controversial comment on IPS officer Hemant Karkare, who was killed during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Thakur, the BJP's Bhopal Lok Sabha seat candidate and an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, is under fire for claiming that Karkare died in the attack as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her. "Nobody should make statements that insult martyrs. Sadhvi made a wrong comment, for which she later apologised," Thackeray told reporters here. Thakur's comments had drawn flak from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis as well on Friday. "Late Mr Karkare was a very brave and upright police officer and will be revered as a martyr forever. Sadhvi Pragya's remark is her personal opinion and we don't support it," Fadnavis had said. "She has also apologised and said that it (the statement) was made out of personal pain. However, I feel ..
Story cooked up to plot big conspiracy against Supreme Court: Bar Council of India
A cock and bull story has been cooked up to plot some big conspiracy against the institution of Supreme Court, said the Bar Council of India (BCI) here on Saturday while condemning the sexual harassment allegations against Chief Justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi."The cock and bull story has been cooked up to plot some big conspiracy against the institution. The Bar is fully standing with our CJI and the Judges of the Supreme Court," the Bar Council of India said in a statement."Bar Council of India strongly condemns attempt to malign the image of our Chief Justice of India and the highest judicial institution. The allegations levelled by the lady against Hon'ble Mr J Ranjan Gogoi are all false and concocted," the council said.The BCI has appealed to the people and entire legal fraternity to stand with the Supreme Court in order to save it."I have called an emergent meeting of the Council tomorrow to decide the course of action in this regard. The delegation of Council will also ...
IS case: Four detained in NIA raids in Hyderabad, Maharashtra (2nd Lead)
The NIA on Saturday carried out searches at four places in Hyderabad and Maharastra's Wardha and detained four people for questioining in connection with its investigation into the Abu Dhabi Islamic State module case, officials said.
Notice to Tripura Congress chief for hitting tribal youth
Police will soon serve a notice on the Tripura Pradesh Congress chief for slapping a supporter of the ruling BJP's junior partner IPFT inside a police station, a police officer said on Saturday.
Allegations made as bench headed by me will hear many sensitive cases next week: CJI
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Saturday hinted in the Supreme Court that allegations of sexual harassment against him could be due to the fact that the bench led by him will deal with "many many sensitive cases" next week. The CJI did not name any of the cases. However, a lawyer who was part of the hearing, on condition of anonymity, said many cases with political overtones are slated to be heard by the apex court in the coming week. A contempt plea against Congress President Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on the Rafale deal attributed to the Supreme Court will come up in the court in which the leader has been asked to submit his response. A bench headed by Justice Gogoi is also scheduled to hear on Monday the West Bengal's chit fund case in which the CBI has sought custodial interrogation of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar. His bench is also scheduled to hear the plea of producers of the biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi challenging the Election ...
Sexual harassment allegations against CJI; Gogoi says 'bigger force' wants to deactivate CJI office
Allegations of sexual harassment have cropped up against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi prompting him to convene an urgent extraordinary hearing on Saturday and assert that the charges by a former apex court staffer were "unbelievable" and part of a conspiracy by some "bigger force" to "deactivate" the CJI's office. As the allegations by the former woman staffer who had worked at Gogoi's home office in Delhi and dating back to October stunned the judiciary, Gogoi said he would not stoop too low even to deny them. At the hurriedly called hearing in Court No 1 presided by him after the allegations were carried by some news portals based on the affidavit by the woman, the apex court said it is leaving it to the "wisdom of media" to show restraint and act responsibly so that independence of judiciary is not affected. The court, however, decided not to issue any gag order. A three-judge special bench headed by Gogoi was constituted after a sworn affidavit by the woman, copies of ...
Mumbai FOB collapse: Bail plea of auditor, engineers rejected
A sessions court here Saturday rejected the bail plea of a structural auditor and two civic corporation engineers arrested in connection with the collapse of a foot over bridge near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus last month in which seven people were killed. Neeraj Kumar Desai, a structural engineer whose firm had carried out audit of the bridge and declared it safe despite finding some corrosion, was arrested on the charge of negligence along with Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) engineers Anil Patil and S F Kakulte. Opposing their bail plea, public prosecutor Mangesh Arote submitted that prima facie a case is made out against the accused. "If released on bail, they might temper with the evidence because they have relations with BMC officials and the investigation into the matter was still underway," the public prosecutor said. The bail plea of the three officials were rejected by additional sessions judge M S Azmi. Earlier, their bail application had been turned down ..
Should CJI be sitting in the bench to hear case against him?
Should Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi against whom sexual harassment allegations are levelled have heard the matter sitting in the bench? The question remains even though the CJI opted himself out midway in the hearing and left it to the other two judges, who were nominated to be a part of the bench, to take a call for passing the judicial order. Some senior advocates agreed to speak on the issue, but wished not to reveal their names. A senior law officer, who is aware of the development, said there was nothing wrong in the CJI sitting in the three-judge bench as he had already made it clear that he will not be a part of the judicial order which would be passed by the other two judges of the bench. The law officer said as judges cannot go to the press or communicate to the public, the "CJI wanted to justify himself" and "made the remarks while sitting on the bench which should be given publicity". However, Justice Gogoi, before becoming the CJI, was part of the four senior-most ..
Bangladeshis protest after sexually assaulted girl burned to death
Demonstrations were held across the Bangladesh capital Saturday for the tenth consecutive day after a teenager who accused a head teacher of sexually harassing her was burned to death. The killing of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi has sparked outrage across the South Asian nation and put police action in the case under the spotlight. Protesters in Dhaka chanted slogans demanding the death sentence for the killers of the girl, who police say was lured to the rooftop of the Islamic seminary she attended in Feni, south of the capital. Police said the attackers then ordered her to withdraw a police complaint against the head of the school. When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire. Rafi died in hospital on April 10 after suffering 80 percent burns. Eighteen people, including the head teacher, have been arrested. Her death has set off demonstrations in several cities across the Muslim-majority country of 165 million. Many believe the murder has exposed a "culture of ...
Pragya's Karkare remarks: MP minister files police complaint
Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Tarun Bhanot Saturday lodged a police complaint seeking action against BJP's Bhopal Lok Sabha candidate Pragya Singh Thakur for her remarks against former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare. Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, had earlier claimed Karkare died in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks as she had "cursed" him for "torturing" her. Bhanot said he had filed the case with the city's Gorakhpur police station as a private citizen and not in the capacity of a state minister. "I as a citizen filed a complaint with the city police demanding action against BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya Singh for making derogatory remarks against Hemant Karkare," Bhanot told PTI here. "I am hurt with her remarks against a martyr and filed the complaint as a citizen and not a minister. I am seeking action as per law against her," he added.
NIA picks up a youth in Hyderabad for ISIS links
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday conducted raids at a few places in Hyderabad and arrested a youth for his alleged links with an ISIS module.
CJI-led bench set up to hear sexual harassment allegations against him, order by 2 other judges
A three-judge special bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was hurriedly constituted in the Supreme Court Saturday to deal with allegations of sexual harassment against the CJI, but as the hearing progressed, he opted out midway from passing any judicial order. The CJI, against whom a former apex court staff levelled the allegations, left it to justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna to take a call on the issue of passing judicial order. "I am not going to be a part of the judicial order. Justice Arun Mishra is the senior most judge available in Delhi and he will dictate the order," the CJI orally said during the hearing. In the nearly half-an-hour proceedings, CJI Gogoi made several remarks. The notice issued by the apex court registry, that became public around 10:15 AM said, "Take note that a special bench consisting of the Chief Justice of India, Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna is being constituted to have a special sitting at 10:30 AM. Today, i.e. the 20th ...
Two bodies found on beach near Machilipatnam in AP
A 45-year old man drowned in the Manginapudi beach near here Saturday, police said Abdul Ajeez from Pedana town, who came along with his family members to the beach, entered the waters to bathe when the tragedy occurred. The body of Ajeez, a worker in the construction field, was washed ashore later, police said. In another incident, the body of a 40-year old unidentified man was found on the beach. A pesticide bottle was noticed beside the body and the police said they suspected it to be a case of suicide, adding further investigations were on.