Huge pendency of economic offence cases,
HC summons top brass

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Expressing displeasure at the huge number of pending cases of economic offences, some of which are in the investigation stage despite being registered up to 24 years ago, the Delhi High Court has summoned the Enforcement Directorate’s Chief to appear before it.

Justice A K Sikri sought the personal appearance of the top Enforcement Directorate official on November 11 so that he could be apprised of the grim situation for necessary remedial action.

The court passed the direction on a petition filed by Brindavan Enterprises Limited, which complained a case of economic offence registered against it was still stuck at the pre-charge evidence stage though it was registered 20 years ago.

According to the petition, Enforcement Directorate officials searched the company’s premises on December 14, 1980. Thereafter, a complaint was filed against the firm by the officials in the court of the concerned Metropolitan Magistrate on February 21, 1986, more than six years after the searches.

However, even 20 years after the searches, the case was still at the pre-charge evidence stage and the company sought its quashing on the ground that such an unnecessary delay was negation of an accused’s right to speedy trial.

The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) in her report also stated that scores of cases registered prior to 1990 were still at various stages of investigation.

While prosecution evidence is yet to be concluded in many cases, even charges have not been framed in some. All these cases are 18 to 24 years old, the ACMM said in her report.

Justice Sikri noted that the very pendency of these cases for such a long time is a cause of concern and since many such cases are at initial stages, there is no likelihood of their conclusion in the near future.

"All these cases relate to economic offences and by these delays, the very purpose of institution of criminal proceedings is frustrated," the court observed while directing the Enforcement Directorate Chief to appear before it.

"It not only causes harm to the department/public exchequer, it negates the right of the accused also to have speedy trial which is guaranteed to the accused in Article 21 of the Constitution," the court said. (PTI)

FM issues guidelines on austerity for ministries/depts

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: In a bid to meet Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management(FRBM) target and release funds for social sector schemes under the NCMP of the ruling coalition, the Finance Ministry has issued additional guidelines for various ministries and departments to undertake austerity measures.

As per the recently issued guidelines, every ministry and department would make 5 per cent cut on non-plan expenditure for the current financial year every.

However, interest payment, repayment of Debt, Defence Capital, Salaries, Pension and the Finance Commission Grants to the states do not come under this head.

The guidelines further said no appropriation of funds to augment the non-plan heads of expenditure would be allowed during the current financial year.

The implementation of this cut would be reviewed on quarterly basis.

As a part of austerity measure, foreign travel of officers has also been brought under the scanner with restriction being imposed on foreign trips in a year.

No officer should undertake more than four official visits abroad in a year, the guidelines said.

If in certain ministries, the nature of work demands a larger number of visits, a calender of visits for the entire year would be prepared as far as possible and visits should be prioritised, they added.

Besides, various Government offices under Central Government shall make every effort to avoid unnecessary expenditure. Day-to-day functioning of the Government offices would be managed with utmost economy in operating expenses such as maintenance of building offices equipment, furniture and hospitality.

The guidelines also asked the ministries and departments to use ICT as part of cost saving measures.

The Finance Ministry issues guidelines on "austerity measures" from time to time with an intention to promote fiscal discipline without restricting operational efficiency of the Government.

"Now due to unforeseen developments resulting in additional demands which have been made post-budget on the central exchequer, it has become imperative to curtail and rationalise government expenditure, and in particular, to avoid ostentatious and superfluous expenditure," the office memorandum, containing the guidelines, said.

The memorandum further said economy measures are called in for day-to-day planning and functioning of the government and other areas like fiscal transfer to states and PSUs.

The Centre’s fiscal deficit figures for the first five months of this fiscal have already touched 61 per cent of the target for the entire fiscal.

The budget has targeted fiscal deficit at 3.8 per cent of GDP for this fiscal.

The Centre’s revenue deficit during April-August, 2006 crossed 93 per cent of the target for the whole fiscal. The centre has targeted revenue deficit to be 2.1 per cent of GDP this fiscal.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had earlier attributed the rise in deficit figures to higher devolution to states and exuded confidence that the deficit targets would be met this fiscal. (PTI)

Man gets two-year prison term for standing false surety

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: A court here has sentenced a man to rigorous imprisonment for two years for giving false surety in court to secure bail for the accused in a criminal case.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau convicted Rahul alias Jai Prakash of standing surety for Jitender Singh by impersonating as Narender Kumar by using a stolen ration card and registration certificate of a scooter.

The court observed that the identity of Rahul, who posed as Kumar, had been established beyond doubt and slapped a fine of Rs 2,000 on him.

The court relied on the testimony of nine prosecution witnesses including Metropolitan Magistrate L K Gaur, Advocate Mohammed Talat and Kumar. Talat was the lawyer through whom the bail bond was presented.

Gaur, in whose court the fake surety was produced, supported the prosecution’s case and said that on August 6, 2003, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Jitender for non-appearance in court and a notice was issued to Kumar.

Kumar later appeared in his court and said he had never stood surety for Jitender. He also said his stolen ration card and registration certificate were used in commission of the offence.

According to the complaint lodged by Gaur, Rahul had on March 11, 2002 stood surety for Jitender, the accused in a criminal case registered at Badarpur Police Station in south Delhi. He was arrested from the Special Executive Magistrate’s Court in Patiala house on July 6, 2005, while being produced in another case. (PTI)

Charges framed against ex-minister

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: A court here has framed charges against former Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Rasheed Masood and two senior Government officials for alleged irregularities in allocating MBBS seats to private persons in 1990-91.

Special Judge Sunil Gaur took cognisance of the chargesheet filed by the Special Branch of CBI last week and framed charges against Masood, Gurdial Singh, former Resident Commissioner of the Tripura Government, and senior officer Sachidanand Dwivedi of Gandhinagar, Lucknow.

The court framed charges against them under sections 120-b (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (breach of trust) and 471 (conspiracy for cheating) of the indian penal code on the order of the Gauhati High Court in Assam.

The CBI alleged that a Deputy Secretary in the Union Health Ministry wrote a letter addressed to the Secretary for allocating three additional MBBS seats for 1990-91 to the Tripura Government, the chargesheet said.

A letter was also endorsed to the Resident Commissioner of the Tripura Government, requesting him to inform about the additional allocation of seats in some medical colleges.

Gurdial Singh, in his then capacity as Resident Commissioner allegedly signed nomination letters without any authority on December 7, 1990 in favour of three students being admitted to MBBS courses in some colleges.

Gurdial Singh was allegedly involved with some other officials in the Health Ministry to make illegal gain and defame the Tripura Government, the CBI alleged in its chargesheet.

However, on August 24, 1994, the Central Government made it clear that the Health Ministry had never been issued any such letter and claimed that the letters were fake.

"Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, the contentions raised by the accused persons can be well appreciated only after the evidence is led by the parties," the Judge said in his order.

"However, at present, on the basis of the material placed before me, a strong prima-facie case is made out against all the accused persons." (PTI)

Arun Nayar to wed Liz Hurley in Udaipur next Feb: Report

LONDON, Oct 22: Britain’s actress-turned beachwear designer Elizabeth Hurley will marry Indian businessman Arun Nayarm in February at the 18th century Devigarh Palace in Udaipur, a media report today said.

The wedding is expected to involve camels and elephants, a series of lavish feasts and an exchange of vows at a specially constructed mandap (flower bedecked platform) before the newly weds retire to a Presidential suite, the observer claimed.

The wedding guests including Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish, soccer star David Beckham and his wife Victoria, Pamela Anderson as well as Hurley’s ex-boy friend Hugh Grant and his partner Jemima Khan, will be accommodated at suites at nearby Udaipur’s famed lake palace, the setting for the James Bond movie Octopussy.

41-year-old Hurley - who achieved fame in a versace dress fastened together with safety pins at the 1994 premiere of four weddings and a funeral - recently appeared on the cover of the Italian edition of vanity fair and was pictured inside modeling several daring examples of her new Bikini designs.

After months of rumours, she finally admitted to the magazine that she and Nayar 42, are to marry. "I cannot reveal to you the exact date but it is very close. We are even thinking of having a child," she told the magazine.

The report said the former Estee lauder model, who has a five-year-old son by Hollywood producer Steve Bing, is planning two weddings and 13 designer gowns. The first, described as a small family affair, is set to take place imminently at gloucestershire’s grade II-listed Barnsley hotel close to her home in Ampney Knowle, in London.

The second will be at the Devigarh, a former Maharaja’s palace which has established itself as one of the most exclusive boutique hotels in the world.

The hotel offers the last word in opulence - four staff members for every suite, Indian Haute cuisine, a traditional Ambassador car and Chauffeur at hand for each guest - yet hurley is said to be making adjustments.

Not content with the hotel’s first class reputation for cuisine, she plans to fly out three specially hired michelin starred chefs from london to create a series of menus for the wedding.

It said an as yet unnamed magazine will sponsor the event and will foot the bill for seven charter flights from New Delhi and Mumbai to Udaipur to ferry the guests.

It said a pre-wedding party will be held on November 9, again at the Devigarh, where the couple became engaged. All 39 suites have been hired for 80 of her closest friends and relatives for an event in honour of Hurley’s future mother-in-law, the Indian textiles millionaires Gunay Nayar. A senior manager at the hotel told the newspaper that gunar stayed in the Presidential suite a fortnight ago to make preparations.

Arun Nayar proposed to Liz at the poolside at Devigarh on November 4 last year and since then they have been intent on a wedding there, the report said.

Hurley’s agents in both Britain and US declined to comment.

According to hotel sources, the wedding ceremony itself will be a traditional Punjabi affair with the turbaned groom arriving on a white horse with the male members of his family on camels and elephants. The report said Gunar Nayar is also planning a huge post-wedding celebration in Mumbai for about 5,000 guests. (PTI)

BJP criticises TRS for hobnobbing with Congress

HYDERABAD, Oct 22: The BJP today criticised the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) Chief and former Union Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao for colluding with the Congress to achieve Telangana State.

Talking to newspersons here, BJP senior leader and former Union Minister CH Vidyasagar Rao said the regrets expressed by the PCC Chief on Congress party’s challenge to Mr Rao’s offer to resign from his Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat and the regrets offered by the PCC Chief on the challange thrown at him was self-explanatory.

Mr Vidyasagar alleged that Mr Rao’s offer to withdraw his resignation, if the State Government held out a promise to create Telangana State was dubious. The backing out of Mr Rao has created a lurking suspicion that there was an active connivance between the Congress and TRS to deceive the people of Telangana, he added. (UNI)

Show cause to Centre, Rajasthan Govt on Haj House issue

JAIPUR, Oct 20: The Rajasthan High Court today issued show cause notices to the Central and state governments on a petition challenging the "Constitutional validity" of allotment of land on the city’s outskirts for a Haj House.

A division bench of Chief Justice S N Jha and Justice Ajay Rastogi issued the notices after it was told that the MP and MLA Local Area Development Scheme funds were being used for the proposed Haj House in Sanganer, which was prohibited under Parliament guidelines.

It was alleged in the petition by Kanshi Purohit that the state government had sponsored a particular faith by allotting land for construction of a Haj office along with a mosque besides promoting other facilities for performing religious activities.

The court issued notices to the state chief secretary, secretary of Jaipur Development Authority secretary, president of Rajasthan State Haj Committee, secretary of Rajsthan Department of Home Affairs and secretary of Department of Social Welfare, New Delhi on the point of Constitutional validity of the allotment of land. (PTI)

Tribals to paint on historic themes

BHOPAL, Oct 22: Art lovers in the Madhya Pradesh capital are in for a veritable treat as more than a dozen tribals from this state will create paintings, at a camp here, centred on those historic days when the deprived and exploited ‘adivasi’ community raised banners of revolt against the British Raj.

This is possibly the first event of its kind in India and will take place between November 1 and 7.

"The subjects will include the Sanyasi Revolt (Bengal and Bihar), Chakma Revolt (Northeast), Chero Revolt (Palamau) and Bagdi Nayak Revolt (Medinipur)," Swaraj Sansthan Directorate chief Shriram Tiwari told UNI. The Directorate will exhibit the paintings in the near future.

India’s struggle for independence and Hindustan Socialist Republican Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad will be among themes at a two-day exhibition, beginning on October 25, of the world-renowned Buddhist pilgrim centre Sanchi.

"Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Jatindranath Das will also be subjects.

The camps are a tribute to the freedom fighters. Books on the independence struggle abound but pictorial material is comparitively rare," Mr Tiwari added. (UNI)

11 members of Shetty gang arrested

THANE, Oct 22: Police today claimed to have crushed the notorious Santosh Shetty gang with the arrest of its 11 hardcore criminals, including the vagabond son of a police constable and four others, from Varanasi.

The gang had unleashed a reign of terror in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivili and Ambernath.

Addressing an impromptu news conference at the police headquarter here in the midst of the festival of lights, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sanjay Shintre told mediapersons a team of police personnel deployed on this special task also recovered arms from them.

The gangsters, arrested from Kalyan, Girgaun Court and the VT area, were mostly in the age group of 20-30 except for one, who was over 40, the DCP said.

Since last six months, the gang had unleashed a reign of terror in and around Thane. Gang members were assigned different tasks including collecting information of probable victims, providing accessories, actual implementation of the task, and post operation care, Mr Shintre said.

Each gang member worked in isolation and was not aware of what the other person did, he pointed out.

The gang had a meticulously planned network for conducting their operations. Therefore, in the same manner, a network of policemen was set up in the Thane police to nab them, the DCP said.

"That were finally nabbed in the in the midst of Diwali, which symbolises the triumph of good over evil," he added.

The team was set up by the Thane Police Commissioner D Shivanandan, and it functioned under the guidance of Mr Shintre.

The DCP said the local court remanded them to the police custody for relatively long periods.

Giving details of the modus operandi of the gang, Mr Shintre said they would initially gather details of the politician or businessman, who was to be made a target.

The criminals would later give him threatening calls, and scare him with a revolver. If the victim did not succumb and give in to their demands, they would then wound and terrorise him.

They would only select big politicians or prominent businessmen, so that the attack created a fear psychosis in the society, Mr Shintre added.

Various crimes, including murder, attempt to murder, extortion, criminal intimidation, among others, had been registered against them at several police station in the state.

The DCP is hopeful that the arrest of these criminals, would help the police get some leads of the gang kingpin, Santosh Shetty.

The criminals had allegedly been involved in attacks on Gulab Karanjule, Ambernath, Pradeep Joshi, Dombivili, Ramesh Mhatre, Dombivli and Chetan Budela, CP Tank, Mumbai.

The arrested were identified as Sachin Sakharam Yadavade (Kalyan), son of police constable, Tushar Balkrishna Thorat, (Kalyan), Dilip alias Ashok Bunty Varma, Kalyan, Mohan Haribhau Kapde alias Inverter alias Fouji alias Master of Lonavala, Pune (he was the supplier of weapons and is a black belt), Pravin Nivrutti Pagare alias Surya, Ambernath, Budharam Ganpat Sarnobat, Titwala, and Sachin Ramchandra Bhagat of Dunga in Bhiwandi.

The Varanasi-based gangsters were identified as Ajaykumar Vijaykumar Dhavan, Sajan Ramchandra Gound, Abhishekh Shobnath Prajapati, and Ashok Mohan Yadav.

Another member of the same gang, who was considered to be one of the leaders, Bobby alias Rajesh Nair, was killed in an encounter with the Thane Police team a few days ago. (UNI)

Bank strike may paralyse services on Oct 27

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: Banking services are likely to be affected severely on October 27 as the United Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella of nine unions, have called a strike to oppose outsourcing, privatisation and the proposed increase in voting rights of foreign investors in private banks.

The strike action was announced after the conciliation meeting held on October 18 by Chief Labour Commissioner with the Unions and Indian Banks Association (IBA) failed.

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) blamed the casual approach of the Government and IBA for the failure of the meeting, in which UFBU had also demanded fresh recruitments, restoration of compassionate appointments and one more option to join pension scheme.

"If the Government and the IBA continue to adopt their ostrich-like policy and not come forward to resolve the issues by meaningful discussions, the agitation will be further intensified into more strike actions in the banks," UFBU general secretary C H Venkatachalam said in a statement.

Venkatachalam said employees and officers of public sector banks and private banks will participate in the strike on October 27.

UFBU comprises of All India Bank Employees Association, (AIBEA), All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC), National Confederation of Bank Employees (NCBE), All India Bank Officers Association (AIBOA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI), Indian National Bank Employees Congress (INBEC), Indian National Bank Officers Congress (INBOC), National Organisation of Bank Workers (NOBW) and National Organisation of Bank Officers (NOBO). (PTI)

Congress wary of ‘trust deficit’ with NCP ahead of polls

NEW DELHI, Oct 22: The Congress has asked the NCP, with which it shares power in Maharashtra, to address a "trust deficit" between the two parties ahead of civic elections in the state scheduled for January next year.

The charge was made by Congress leaders at the first meeting of the high-level state coordination committee held recently to drive home the point that the party led by Sharad Pawar has much to do to bridge the deficit.

Congress sources said the trust deficit is becoming a key issue in the party in Mumbai as party members in overwhelming numbers are expressing their opposition to any truck with the NCP in next year’s civic elections.

Calls by senior NCP leader and state Minister Chaggan Bhujbal that the Congress and NCP should jointly fight the polls to oust the Shiv Sena-BJP combine from power in the country’s economic capital have had little impact.

This is despite the NCP suggesting that it would be foolhardy to assume that Shiv Sena is "dead" in view of recent bickerings and internal turmoil, and former Chief Minister Narayan Rane joining the Congress, while Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s nephew Raj floating a parallel outfit.

The refrain in the state unit of Congress is that the NCP has often "ditched" it, whether in assembly polls or the Rajya Sabha elections earlier this year, when Pawar sided with BJP-Shiv Sena to ensure the victory of his industrialist friend Rahul Bajaj, who contested as an independent.

Congress leaders say they want to avoid a division of secular votes in the key polls, which will be an acid test for the Shiv Sena, whose rise in the state was phenomenal since it captured the 227-member Mumbai Municipal Corporation over a decade ago.

They, however, say an alliance for this purpose could take shape only if the NCP adopted a practical approach and refrained from making exhorbitant demands.

The ideal formula for seat-sharing, according to Congress leaders, would be that it and the NCP contest seats won by them in the last civic polls as well as those where they emerged second.

If this formula is accepted, the Congress could contest 158 seats, as it won 70 seats and was number two in 88 seats. As against this, NCP will have to be content with a mere 44 seats, including 11 it won and 33 in which it was second.

The Congress, in such an eventuality, is ready to accommodate smaller allies like the RPI to forge a formidable secular alliance that could easily shake off the Shiv Sena-BJP challenge in the civic polls.

Besides, the problems faced by the saffron partners in recent days has been a matter of jubiliation in the Congress camp, as the BJP is seeking to find its place in the sun and wanting a level playing field in the changed scenario in Maharashtra.

In an indication that the battle has started for political supremacy between itself and the NCP, the Congress has announced that it is going it alone in the local body polls and not in an alliance with the NCP, but it has not taken a decision as regards Mumbai. (PTI)

SAD PAC meeting on Nov 2

CHANDIGARH, Oct 22: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal has convened a meeting of party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) here on November 2 to chalk out strategy to gear up for the coming Assembly elections.

SAD secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said today that preparations for the elections would be reviewed at the meeting.

The current political situation in Punjab would also be discussed at the meeting, he said. (PTI)