Actress faces kidnap, murder charges

MUMBAI, Feb 28: Small-time Bollywood actress Huma Khan and a male acquaintance have been arrested on allegations of kidnapping, rape and criminal intimidation of a minor girl, police said today.

The 12-year-old victim was working as a maid servant in the actress’ household at Bhayendar in the neighbouring district of Thane, police said.

Khan and her male acquaintance had taken the victim to Pune, where the latter allegedly raped her, they said.

Both the accused were arrested yesterday, police said, adding that the actress has been charged with kidnapping and attempt to murder while the acquaintance has been booked for rape.

Khan featured in a string of C-grade films in the late 80s and 90s. She was seen in many horror films made by the Ramsay brothers.

The starlet, who has not been there in the Bollywood scene for sometime now, has been sent to five days of judicial custody after being charged by the Mira Road police. (PTI)

After Ayurveda, Kerala astrology finding favour

KOCHI, Feb 28: After Ayurveda, it is the traditional Kerala Astrology which is finding favour, especially among foreigners, keen to tap the traditional wisdom of ancient science in God’s own country.

According to astrologers, the Kerala method of delineation of horoscopes using ‘cowries’ (sea shells) is highly valued for its accuracy.

The city has been bustling with astrology-keen people from the country, and abraod to participate in ‘International Conference on Astrology’, which ends today.

There is great demand for the Kerala method, Kailsnath, who is here to take lessons for delegates attending the conference, says.

Hailing from Parappanangadi near Kozhikode, Kailasnath says that no time of birth or place of birth is required for doing the predictions, in Kerala astrology.

Drawn by the uniqueness of Kerala astrology, John Ryder from Australia, a structural engineer, who takes classes in Melbourne University on Indian Astrology, is here to learn ways to remove ‘vastu doshas’ (ill-effects of the construction style of buildings).

Kailasnath, a self-confessed astology student since 24 years, says the workshop is an effort to teach delegates the unique aspects of the state’s rich astrological wisdom, particularly ‘prasnam vekkal’ (suggesting causes of certain events and possible remedial measures).

The participants have been given practical instructions on ways to use the ‘cowries’ since the last three days, he said.

The workshop has been organised and coordinated by UK-based astrologer, Komilla Sutton, who has been practising astrology in the UK and US since 1995. (PTI)

Man conferred ‘Best Student’ award at age of 76

JAIPUR, Feb 28: It was a very long wait for Triloki Das Khandelwal to get his due. But as the addage goes it is better late than never.

After a long wait of 56 years, perseverance and persuasion paid of as Khandelwal was conferred the gold medal for the best academic student of the year 1951 at the age of 76.

Khandelwal was a student of Maharaja’s College, Jaipur and passed the Intermediate Examination in the year 1951 securing first division and third position in the university. He was also the honorary secretary of the Maharaja College Union during the accademic year 1951-52.

He was declared the ‘Best Academic Student of the Year 1951’ by the College and it was announced that he would be awarded the Glancy Medal.

Sir B J Glancy was the president of the council of state of Jaipur during the Minority Administration of Maharaja Man Singh II. He was also instrumental in the present Maharaja College building construction.

In order to commemorate his distinguished services to the then Jaipur state, the Maharaja ordered to constitute a Gold Medal in his honour, to be awarded to the student who secured the highest marks among all the three faculties of science, arts and Commerce. But he could not be conferred the award due to financial crunch.

When the matter came to notice of present Governor and Chancellor of the universities S K Singh, he decided to confer the award to Khandelwal.

Khandelwal was honoured with the award at a special function held at the Raj Bhawan on January 5.

Mr Khandelwal is the founder and secretary general of the Social Security Foundation, an NGO for the cause of the elderly. His efforts were instrumental in the revision of the old age and indigent pension from Rs 75 to 200 in the Union budget 2006. (UNI)

New book offers insight into Naxalism

NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Naxalbari has not died and it will never die. Charu Muzumdar, founder of the Naxalbari movement wrote in ‘Liberation’ in 1971. Naxalbari lives and Maoist strikes have been adding up in the new millennium. And with extreme inequity, the ‘two Indias’ will irrevocably remain two. And often, at war with each other, says a new book.

From 2004 Maoist strikes have been spectacular even before their two dominant groups- CPI (ML) Peoples War and Maoist Communist Centre India (MCCI) joined together to form the agglomerate that now controls the show across the country: the Communist Party of India (Maoist) or CPI (Maoist), the book ‘Red Sun, Travels in Naxalite country’ by journalist Sudeep Chakravarti says.

Nearly every other week there is news of strikes and counter strikes by the Maoists and the security forces. But what stands out is are the precisely planned and focused Maoist attacks on the security, on vigilante groups like the Ranvir Sena and Salwa Judum. In Maoist parlance this is known as Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign or TCOC.

They (the Maoists) carry, according to intelligence estimates, between six and seven thousand regular weapons-AK series of automatic rifles, INSAS rifles used by the army, ancient .303 Enfield, and a range of revolvers and pistols- some bought, but mostly grabbed from polie and paramilitary personnel or guards at railway stations in snatch-and-run or kill-and-take strikes.

In addition, they carry an entirely incalculable arsenal in country made handguns, choppers, knives, bows and arrows. They build rudimentary but devastatingly effective mines from robbed explosives using know-how initially learnt from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). They have also developed basic designs for rocket launchers, made through fronts in small foundaries across the country, the book says.

Maoist militia is estimated by several intelligence analysts at over 50,000.

Reeling out statistics that three quarters of the one billion Indians still lived in rural areas where about 280 million comprise landless agriculture labour, the author says all these states in their rural entirety or in vast rural pokets count left wing extremism as severe manifestation. On the other hand, our policy makers remain mesmerized by the promise held out by the so-called BRIC report of 2003 that Brazil, India, Russia and China would over thenext four decades overtake the economies of UK, Italy, France, Germany and Japan.

The author quotes a spokesperson of CPI (Maoist), who goes by name of Azad saying, "Our beloved country, so rich in natural wealth, human power and ingenuity, has been reduced to a condition that is, in some respects, worse than that of countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the author writes adding that both the exhuberant and the cautious signal a set of truths. With extreme inequity, the two Indias will irrevocably remain two. And often, at war with each other, the author says.

Chakravarti traveled extensively in the heart of Maoist zones in the country: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and met Maoist leaders and sympathizers, policemen, politicians, security analysts, development workers, farmers and tribals.

"What emerges is a sobering picture of a deeply divided society, and the dangers that lie ahead of India," he says.

"They are closer to the book," he quotes an unidentified Naxal sympathiser as saying- referring to the Red Book, a popular name for the writings and revolutionary philosophy of Mao Zedong with its cornerstone phrase: to rebel is justified.

"Of course, in China today, May exists mainly as a watermark on currency notes, as a portrait at the Tiananmen Square and as chic memento, an unlikely witness to the countrys runaway economic growth," the author says.

He says while disturbingly parallel that commentators draw of the Dragon versus the Elephant comparing economies of China and India, they choose to ignore that China is a country where three-fourths of the population is forcefully kept away from the urban magic of the eastern seaboard.

The Chinese government admitted mass incidents of riots and protests related to povrty, corruption and loss of land and livelihood in the previous year tolling 87,000- an increase of seven per cent from the preceding year.

"Tellingly, the Chinese appointed a senior minister just to deal with poverty," he says.

Indian Maoists have taken general guidelines from Mao: protracted peoples war and extensive use of gurrilla tactics to build guerilla zones in rural areas, then liberated zones before finally encircling the citry or citadel of Maoist lore.

Indian Maosts have also, chillingly, gone lateral, moving with the times: they believe that while rural action remains the core, ground must be simultaneously be prepared from inside out; from the heart of urban, industrialzed consumerist India, the book says.

The stealthy spread of Maoist practice and intent in India is stunning, the book says adding that yet the Home Ministry in its reports mildly terms left extremism as ‘another area of concern,’ the author says.

By Government’s own admission, the number of Naxalite affected districts is 165- that is nearly 30 per cent of the countrys 602 districts. The author quotes revolutionary poet and Maoist ideologue P.Varavara Rao- popularly known as VV- saying that at the place of its birth-Naxalbari the movement was crushed in six months. Yet it had by then hyuper-jumped into several areas of Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Orissa.

"The danger lies in increasing the degree of denial. By all accounts half a billion people will remain a long way away from the countrys high-growth party in the foreseeable future. They wont like it one bit, and many-even a modest one per cent of this amounts to five million people- could do anything to crash the party, to destroy the framework, if they cannot join the merrymaking," the book says.

The author quotes the unidentified Naxal reeling out statistics- "You approve 150 billion rupees for fresh paramilitary forces, you can write off 1000 billion rupees in non-performing assets fo companies, but you cannot write off the rs.75 bnillion in agricultural indebtedness that will immediately raise the the lives of the 700 million who depent on agriculture."

In 2006, India’s economy touched a growth rate of 8 per cent a year. The World Economic Forum in Davos heralded India as a showcase country. In neighbouring Nepal, Maoism won, and the revolution, after getting rid of the kings absolute power, engaged in co-writing an interim constitution, showing what armed struggle triggered by decades of neglect, nepotism, and corruption can achieve. "It ws a classic case of privileging violence: nobody listens in this part of the world unless fire is lit," the book says. (PTI)

CBI says Rizwanur committed suicide

KOLKATA, Feb 28: Computer graphics teacher Rizwanur Rehman,who died under mysterious circumstances, had committed suicide, the CBI concluded and wanted a chargesheet to be filed against his wife’s Todi family and policemen concerned for allegedly abetting the crime.

The CBI in its much-awaited report on Rizwanur’s death also recommended action against senior police officers, including the then Kolkata police commissioner Prasun Mukherjee in this connection putting at rest the controversy as to whether it was a case of a murder or a suicide.

The salient features of the report was today made public by Justice Dipankar Dutta of Calcutta High Court, which had ordered the central agency to investigate the cause of the death of the Muslim computer teacher who had married Priyanka Todi, daughter of a Hindu industrialist.

The CBI sought permission to file chargesheet against Priyanka’s father Ashok Todi, uncle Pradip and maternal uncle Anil Saraogi and Mohiuddin alias Pappu for abetment to suicide, criminal intimidation and conspiracy alongwith the then deputy commissioner (detective department) Ajoy Kumar and two officers of his department.

It also recommended departmental action against former police commissioner, who is at present the ADG (telecom) with the West Bengal police, while asking for major disciplinary action against the then DCP (headquarter) Gyanwant Singh and some officers of Karaya police station.

Rizwanur, whose body was found beside railway tracks on September 21, a month after his marriage to Priyanka, had allegedly been intimidated by senior police officers of Kolkata Police at its Lalbazar headquarter a few days before his death at the behest of her relatives.

The matter would come up for hearing again on March 12.

The death of the youth from a modest background following his marriage to the daughter of a rich industrialist had snowballed into a public outcry and resulted in the shunting out of the three IPS officers-Prasun Mukherjee, Gyanwant Singh and Ajoy Kumar.

Justice Dutta, however, rejected the prayer by the police officers for supply of copy of the CBI report while asking the West Bengal Government on the action taken against the police officers in this regard.

The central investigating agency had on January 8 submitted its report in a sealed cover before Justice Dutta.

Following a petition by Rizwanur’s elder brother Ruqbanur and mother Kishwar Jahan, the High Court had on October 16 directed the CBI to investigate the issue and submit its report within two months.

The agency had then started a murder case against Priyanka’s father Ashok Todi and others.

Rizwanur had married Priyanka Todi, daughter of Ashok Todi under the Special Marriage Act on August 18 and begun living with her at his residence from August 21.

It was alleged that Rizwanur and Priyanka were summoned to the Kolkata Police headquarters Lalbazar thrice at the behest of Todi and his relatives and she returned to her father’s home on the third occasion on September eight following a written assurance by her uncle that she could return to her in-laws after a week.

But she never returned. (PTI)

SC dismisses rapist’s plea for leniency, upholds life term

NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Terming the gang rape of a house wife as a "dastardly act" on a "defenceless woman", the Supreme Court has rejected the leniency plea of an accused who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court.

A bench of Justices S B Sinha and V S Sirpurkar refused to reduce the punishment of life sentence awarded to Ramesh Kumar, who along with two others was sentenced to a life term by a sessions court. The decision was later affirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The High Court had earlier reduced to four years the sentence of 10 years awarded by the sessions court to three other accused found guilty of facilitating the gang rape.

According to the prosecution, the three main accused Veer Bhan, Ajmer Singh and Ramesh gang raped the wife of Lalchand, an alcoholic, in the early hours of February 6, 1999 in Haryana’s Rajapur village after taking her to fields on the pretext that her husband was lying there in a drunken state.

The trio committed the offence even as their three other friends Bagicha, Raju and Suraj Bhan threatened the woman with dire consequences if she raised an alarm.

Though other accused did not appeal against their conviction, Kumar filed an appeal in the apex court claiming that he was poor and had already undergone nine years sentence. He pleaded his elderly parents needed his company.

Rejecting Kumar’s appeal, Justice Sirpurkar writing the judgement observed "there would no question of taking a lenient view particularly because of the dastardly act on the part of the accused in which the appellant took an active part... He was one of the three accused who had committed the rape on the lady". (PTI)

Sanjay, Manyata withdraw marriage declaration

PANAJI, Feb 28: Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt and his wife Manyata have filed a joint declaration with South Goa’s registration authorities seeking withdrawal of their marriage declaration.

South Goa’s Salcette Sub Registrar’s office said that both have filed a joint declaration stating that they do not desire to solemnise their marriage under the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867.

The duo in their affidavit has said that they have been informed that marriage in Goa is governed by the Portuguese Civil Code, 1867. Both have declared that they intended to get married as per the Special Marriage Act, 1954.

"We are now informed that this Act is not extended to the state of Goa," the declaration reads.

With a desire to revoke and withdraw their declaration of marriage, the duo has said the documents annexed therewith be treated as withdrawn and cancelled from all legal effect.

Sanjay Dutt and Manyata had filed a declaration before Salcette Sub Registrar Chandrakant Pissurlekar on February seven.

The declaration, which was marred with controversy and allegation of forgery, was supposed to be confirmed within 90 days.

The authorities, who prima facie found that the Goa residence certificate given by Manyata was questionable, had kept the marriage registration on hold after suspending the certificate.

The South Goa district administration had also issued show cause notice to Manyata asking her why her certificate should not be cancelled.

Even as Manyata’s residence certificate was being probed, the joint declaration seeking withdrawal of marriage has came unexpectedly for the authorities. (PTI)