Excelsior... Nation

Complaint against 14 TV programmes.....

LIC exam paper leaked, main conspirator arrested....

Centre to train officials on cyber crime to come up in Hyderabad .....

Sudhir Mishra’s dream project with Saif Ali Khan put on hold.....

‘Presence of accused at crime scene sufficient
for conviction’

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Mere presence of an accused at the crime scene is sufficient to convict a person provided he had an "active mind in furtherance of the common object," the Supreme Court has ruled in a case where the groom was murdered on the very next day of his marriage.

A bench of Justices V S Sirpurkar and A R Dave passed the ruling while dismissing an appeal of four life convicts challenging their conviction on the ground that they were merely present at the site and their active involvement was not established.

"The law of vicarious liability under Section 149 IPC is crystal clear that even the presence in the unlawful assembly, but with an active mind, to achieve the common object makes such a person vicariously liable for the acts of the unlawful assembly," Justice Sirpurkar observed.

In this case, the groom Shankar Rai was killed after the convicts—Amerika Rai, Mithilesh Rai, Sanjay Rai and Sipahi Rai along with another Chulhan Raj shot him dead.

The irony was that the convicts and the deceased were all friends and relatives who had visited the bride’s village the previous day to attend the marriage at Ishupur village in Vaishali district in Bihar on June 26, 1995.

At the bride’s village there was an altercation between members of the two parties. On the next day, when Ram Babu, the brother-in-law of Shankar was assaulted by the convicts, Shankar intervened in the matter and after some time the convicts went inside their house and brought firearms.

In the melee that followed, Shankar was shot dead and another person seriously injured as he was presumed to be taking the side of his brother-in-law.

The sessions court awarded life imprisonment to six of them, including Darbesh Rai.

The Patna High Court dismissed their plea following which two of the convicts Amerika Rai and Mithlesh took the plea that they were merely present at the scene.

Rejecting the argument, the apex court said the evidence on record clearly established the involvement of the five convicts in the case.

"In that light, when the evidence is examined, it is obvious that Amerika Rai (A-1) who was the elder in the family, Mithilesh Rai (A-4) and Chulhan Rai (A-3), instead of acting in a responsible manner and preventing any unpleasant incident, exhorted the accused persons to bring the gun.

"The guns are normally not brought for making a show. The exhortation to bring the gun definitely speaks about the guilty mind of Amerika Rai (A-1), so also the use of guns by Mithilesh Rai (A-4), Sanjay Rai (A-5) and Sipahi Rai (A-6) is very clear that they also had guilty mind," the bench said.

The apex court said it was a cruel murder of a young bridegroom Shankar Rai who was married only a day before.

He was put to death virtually without any reason. All the accused persons appear to be either relations or neighbours of deceased Shankar Rai. The deceased had suffered as many as eight injuries, all attributable to the gun shot injuries.

"The presence of Ram Babu (PW-6) acted as a flash point. What happened is that deceased Shankar Rai seeing that his wife’s relation was being slapped and fisted by the accused persons, had resisted the attempt on the part of the accused persons and that ultimately proved to be the raison d’etre of his death.

"Therefore, there is no doubt in our mind that this was undoubtedly done with a common object of teaching lesson to deceased Shankar Rai who had taken –as was expected– side of Ram Babu (PW-6), the brother-in-law of his bride," the bench said.

The apex court however, acquitted Darbesh Rai another convict giving him the the benefit of doubt. (PTI)

LIC all-India exam question paper leaked

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: The question paper of an all-India examination for the post of assistant administrative officer of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) were leaked in the national capital ahead of the exam, police said.

The incident came to light after Delhi Police’s crime branch got hold of the copies of the question paper from some persons much ahead of the scheduled time of the exam.

"The question papers have been leaked. We got some copies of the question papers for the exam and when we tallied these copies with the original question paper, they were found to be the same," Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), told.

Sources said at least one person was detained in connection with the incident.

There was no immediate reaction from LIC. (PTI)

FM likely to raise IT exemption limit to
Rs 2 lakh:tax experts

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Tax experts are hopeful Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will increase the income tax exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh per annum from Rs 1.6 lakh to bring the rates in line with the Direct Taxes Code (DTC).

"To align the exemption limits under personal income tax with DTC, the Centre is likely to raise the IT exemption limit to 2 lakh," Balbir Singh Mastan, Partner, DSK Legal said.

High inflation, particularly in the food items, also makes a strong case for raising the tax exemption limit, experts argue.

"Taking into account rising inflation, the Government could raise personal I-T exemption limit," tax consultant Subhash Lakhotia said.

He further said that in the wake of the issues related to increasing blackmoney, the government should limit tax rates to upto 20 per cent for individuals and 25 per cent for corporates.

Tax gurus also said the limit for exemption through saving schemes like investments in provident fund and infrastructure bonds, may also be raised from the current Rs 1.2 lakh.

"The Finance Minister is expected to raise the deduction under 80 C of IT (tax saving) to Rs 1.5 lakh," Tax consultant Rakesh Gupta said.

In the budget of 2010-11, deduction of an additional amount of Rs 20,000 was allowed, over and above Rs one lakh on tax savings, for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds.

Aseem Chawla, Partner in Amarchand & Mangaldas, however, does not expect that Mukherjee would make any changes in rates of Corporate Tax and Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) but feels excise duty could be raised.

"The Corporate Tax and MAT will remain unchanged. The excise duty will be raised by 2 per cent," Chawla said.

The government is also likely to announce relief in the housing loan segment. They also expect Mukherjee to bring healthcare segment into service tax net.

Meanwhile, economists are expecting the government to further liberalise the foreign direct investment (FDI) regime to contain the dip in FDI inflows.

"Budget may contain steps to improve the FDI situation in the country, by introducing some procedural simplifications as well as opening up the FDI for more sectors," said Crisil’s chief economist D K Joshi. (PTI)

Pranab may dole out tax sops to salaried class, farmers

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to give tax concessions to the salaried class and offer incentives to farmers in his Budget 2011-12 tomorrow to give relief from high prices and keeping an eye on elections in five states.

It is widely expected that the Budget will raise the income tax exemption limit to Rs 1.80 lakh from the current Rs 1.60 lakh per annum.

The Finance Ministry is already committed to raising the exemption limit to Rs 2 lakh per annum in the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) which is to be implemented from April 2012.

Mukherjee may also consider raising the limit for investment in tax-free infrastructure bonds to give a boost to the fund-starved sector. Investments up to Rs 20,000 in infrastructure bonds enjoy tax exemption now.

Experts said with fiscal deficit projected to come down sharply to 4.8 per cent, the Finance Minister would have some leeway to provide these tax concessions.

The Economic Survey 2010-11 presented in Parliament projected fiscal deficit at 4.8 per cent, down from the budget estimate of 5.5 per cent for the current fiscal.

With five states—Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal—heading for polls, it is unlikely that Mukherjee would completely roll back the stimulus and come out with harsh measures to increase government revenues and bring down fiscal deficit, experts said.

Mukherjee’s third consecutive budget is also expected to increase the credit flow to the farm sector.

On tax rationalisation, Mukherjee had said, "The sustained growth has been possible due to rationalisation of tax structure, improvement in tax administration and persistent efforts of the employees of Income Tax department."

Inflation has remained above the comfort level for most part of the current fiscal and will be another focus area for Mukherjee.

The overall inflation at 8.23 per cent is higher than the comfort level of the Reserve Bank at 5-6 per cent. Food inflation had also touched at a high of 18.23 per cent in December, but moderated to 11.49 per cent in mid-February.

Industry fears that Mukherjee may roll back some of the stimulus to fight inflation. Moreover, the Survey had also projected the economy is recovering fast and is expected to return to the pre-crisis growth rate of 9 per cent in 2011-12.

Stimulus package provided by the government at the time financial meltdown helped India grew by 6.8 per cent in 200809, and by 8 per cent in 2009-10.

The economy grew by 8.9

per cent in the first half of 2010-11.

But the tax incentives and higher public expenditure also pushed up the fiscal deficit to 6.3 per cent in 2009-10. In the Budget 2010-11, Mukherjee had estimated fiscal deficit to be Rs 3,81,408 crore.

Even as there could be some decline in government revenue due to higher exemption limits, Mukherjee would pin hopes on increased economic activity with a high growth rate of 9 per cent to bring in money to Centre’s kitty. (PTI)

Mukherjee’s budget speech to be 80th in India’s history

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: It will be the 80th budget speech presentation in the history of independent India, when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tomorrow reads out his taxation and other economic policies before Parliament.

Parliament has so far hosted 79 budget speeches, including interim and special situation budgetary proposals, ever since the country’s first union budget presented by then Finance Minister R K Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947.

For individual records, Mukherjee would present the budget for sixth time in history, thus becoming the Finance Minister to have made third highest number of budget speeches.

The maximum number of 10 budgets have been presented by Morarji Desai, while P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Y B Chavan and C D Deshmukh have presented seven budgets each.

Mukherjee would tomorrow join the league of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the country’s fourth Finance Minister T T Krishnamachari, who have presented six speeches each during their tenures in the Finance Ministry.

So far, Mukherjee have presented four annual budgets, including the one for the current fiscal 2010-11, and one interim budget for the fiscal 2009-10.

Among others, R Venkatraman and H M Patel have presented three budgets each, while Jaswant Singh, V P Singh, C Subramaniam, John Mathai and R K Shanmukham Chetty have two budgets each to their credits.

Besides, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Charan Singh, N D Tiwari, Madhu Dandwate, S B Chavan and Sachindra Chaurdhuri have presented one budget each.

The budget was presented by Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi in their capacity as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

Charan Singh (once) and Morarji Desai (on four occasions) presented budget as Deputy PM and Minister of Finance.

So far, a total of 12 interim budgets and four special-occasion budgetary proposals, also known as mini budgets, have been presented before Parliamant, while the remaining 64 have been normal annual budgets.

The first such mini-budget was presented by T T Krishnamachari on November 30,1956 in form of fresh taxation proposals through Finance Bills, demanded by the prevailing domestic and international economic situation.

The step was also required to tackle issues like rising inflation and dwindling forex reserves at that time.

The second mid-year budget taxation proposals were also presented by Krishnamachari in August 1965, while the third mini-budget was presented by Y B Chavan in December 1971 wherein he proposed additional measures for mobilisation of resources for defence requirements.

The last mini-budget proposals in the Parliament was also made by Chavan in July 1974, wherein he made fresh taxation proposals to tackle inflation-related issues after only five months of the regular annual budget. (PTI)

JPC motion in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: The process of formation of the JPC for probing the 2G spectrum allocation scam will be completed on Tuesday when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh moves a motion in the Rajya Sabha, which is expected to approve it.

Singh, who is the Leader of the Rajya Sabha, will seek the approval of the Upper House for the motion for setting up the 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee.

The motion will also have the names of ten members from the Rajya Sabha for the JPC which already has 20 members from the Lok Sabha.

While BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and S S Ahluwalia have already been nominated by the party, the names of Tiruchi Siva (DMK), S C Mishra (BSP), Abhishek Singhvi and Jayanthi Natarajan (both Congress) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M) are doing the rounds.

After the adoption of the motion, the matter would be referred back to the Lok Sabha and Speaker Meira Kumar would nominate the Chairman.

The names of Congress leaders V Kishore Chandra Deo and P C Chacko are being mentioned to head the committee that was formed after a nearly three-month confrontation between the Opposition and the ruling UPA.

The appointment of the committee led to end of the deadlock in Parliament to probe what is being dubbed by the Opposition as the biggest scam in independent India. The stalemate had resulted in the washout of the entire winter session.

In the Lok Sabha, Leader of the House and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had last week moved the motion for appointment of the Committee to look into the telecom policy pursued from 1998 to 2009, including the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum.

The Committee will also examine "irregularities and aberrations, if any," and the consequences thereof in the implementation of government decisions and policy prescriptions.

The JPC, which will give its report by the end of the monsoon session of Parliament, will make recommendations to ensure formulation of appropriate procedures for implementation of laid down policy in the allocation and pricing of telecom licences.

The 2G spectrum scam, according to the CAG, has led to a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government and the issue has become a major one for the Opposition which has used it to target the government both inside and outside Parliament in the last few months.

In the wake of the CAG report, Telecom Minister A Raja was forced to quit and he is now in jail. The Public Accounts Committee, CBI and other agencies are looking into the issue. (PTI)

Former FM wants Pranab to raise IT exemption limit

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Millions of income tax payers expecting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to raise the tax exemption limit tomorrow, have a strong supporter in former finance minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha.

Sinha, who was in charge of the country’s finances during the NDA regime between 1998 and 2002 have a few tips for Mukherjee, who will present his Budget for 2011-12.

The former finance minister wants the Government to provide some relief to the middle class people from inflation, particularly high food and fuel prices.

"...He (the Finance Minister) should introduce some of the provisions, which are part of the DTC, like raising exemption limit on income tax," Sinha told.

There are about 40 million income tax payers in the country.

The annual exemption limit for income tax at present is Rs 1.6 lakh per annum for men and Rs 1.9 lakh for women. The threshold for senior citizens is Rs 2.4 lakh.

He said the minimum exemption limit should be raised to Rs 2 lakh in line with the proposed Direct Taxes Code, which is under examination of Standing Committee of Parliament on Finance, headed by Sinha.

He also pitched for reintroduction of standard deduction, which was stopped in 2006. A fixed amount is deducted from the earnings of salaried employees over and above the tax exemption threshold, for arriving their taxable income.

Sinha said the provision of standard deduction should be brought back to help the middle class people, who have been impacted by high inflation hovering around 8 per cent.

He also said that tax incentives on savings should be enhanced. At present, savings up to Rs 1 lakh is deducted from the taxable income. Extra deduction of Rs 20,000 is allowed for investment in infrastructure bonds.

"There is a case for going for a larger limit of exemption of savings, which is today limited to Rs 1 lakh," Sinha said.

He suggested that there should be a higher limit of deduction for taxable income for interest paid on housing loans. At present, it is fixed at Rs 1.50 lakh.

Sinha said these are the measures which people expect from the Finance Minister to limit the impact of the price rise, which has eroded the purchasing power of the common man. (PTI)

Maruti expects sales revenue to grow 25 pc this fiscal

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India today said it is expecting sales revenue to grow by over 25 per cent to nearly Rs 38,000 crore in the current financial year on the back of robust sales.

The company, however, sees vehicles sales growth rate to slow down to 12-14 per cent during 2011-12 financial year as against 27 per cent it has so far achieved in this fiscal.

"The demand has been very good so far. In the first three quarters, our income grew very strongly. For this quarter, we will have to see February and March, but it will be more or less the same. Our sales revenue will obviously grow over 25 per cent this fiscal," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Financial Officer Ajay Seth told.

MSI had reported a total revenue of Rs 30,119.77 crore for 2009-10. In the first nine months of this fiscal, it posted a jump of 26.33 per cent in its revenue to Rs 27,310.35 crore from Rs 21,617.65 crore in the year-ago period.

When asked about the company’s expectation from 2011-12, Seth said: "The industry has projected a volume growth of 12-14 per cent in passenger vehicles segment. Our performance will be in-line with that of the industry."

The sales of passenger vehicles by the company in the April-December period has grown by 26.91 per cent to 9,27,665 units as against 7,30,943 units.

He, however, declined to give any projection for MSI’s revenue growth during the next fiscal.

"We will have to consider some factors in next fiscal such as a possible excise duty hike in the Budget, liquidity condition, interest rates’ movements and rising commodity prices," he added.

Seth said commodity prices are still very high and are putting pressure on margins.

At present, MSI, which is 54.2 per cent owned by Suzuki, has an annual capacity of 8.5 lakh units at its Gurgaon plant, while Manesar can produce 3.5 lakh units annually.

The company had announced an investment of over Rs 3,625 crore to set up two new plants with 2.5 lakh annual capacities each inside the Manesar facility.

The carmaker had said it ramped up production by about 10 per cent to over 1.1 lakh units every month from October last year, taking its total annual output to about 14 lakh units in 2011-12. (PTI)

Complaint against 14 TV programmes

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Popular toon show ‘Shin Chan’, coverage of the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy’s death and sundry reality television shows were among the 14 programmes against whom the Information and Broadcasting Ministry received complaints for depicting violence, obscenity and vulgarity.

New age reality TV shows, ‘Emotional Atyahchar’ on Bindass, ‘Splitsville-3’ on MTV, ‘Chintamani’ and ‘Big Screen’ showing obscene visuals on TV 5, telecast of nude images of tennis player ‘Serena Williams’ on NDTV, telecast of misadventures of which shown visuals of a man lying naked with Sushi spread on him on Fox channel were among the programmes.

‘Life Sketches’ which denigrate women on Jai Hind TV, ‘Shin Chan’ on Hungama showing indecent and obscene content and soap opera ‘Tere Liye’ containing vulgar remarks likely to be offensive against one community are some of the other programmes.

The complaint against Channel ‘TV 5’ is under consideration for telecasting factually incorrect news item regarding the death of Reddy in September, 2009.

Notices have been sent to NDTV Imagine and Colors for telecast of reality shows ‘Rakhi Ka Insaaf’ and Bigg Boss which were against "good taste".

While some channels complied with the notices issued against them, some are yet to give any reply to them.

Officials said the Ministry in consultation with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation is looking at watershed hours between 11 pm to 4pm to show content that is considered unsuitable for children.

The content code is to be applicable to all entertainment channels is not likely to allow any adult content in regular time as India does not have adequate safeguards like parental lock on TV, they said.

The code could be ready in a month and will be implemented by a self-regulatory mechanism called the Broadcast Content Complaints Counil. (PTI)

LIC exam paper leaked, main conspirator arrested

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: The question paper of an all-India examination for the post of assistant administrative officer of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was today leaked in the city ahead of the test following which police arrested "the main conspirator" allegedly involved in it.

The incident came to light after Delhi Police’s crime branch got hold of the copies of the question papers for both morning and afternoon sessions from some persons much ahead of the scheduled time of the exam.

"The question papers have been leaked.We got some copies of the question papers for the exam and when we tallied these copies with the original question paper, they were found to be the same," Ashok Chand, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), told.

A senior police official said they have arrested a person identified as Pawan in this connection.

"He is believed to be the main conspirator of the fraud. It appears that no one LIC is involved. We had received the tip off last night," the official said.

The centres for the test in the capital were Kendriya Vidyalayas in Andrews Ganj and Janakpuri.

An LIC spokesperson said the entire examination process is being conducted by EDCIL, a public sector company.

"This contract has been given to EDCIL through an open tendering process. We have sought a detailed report from EDCIL. There is no report of leakage of question papers from any other part of the country," the spokesperson said. (PTI)

Centre to train officials on cyber crime to
come up in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD, Feb 27: In order to impart advanced training to law enforcement agencies for investigating cyber crime, the prestigious Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy here plans to establish a first-of-its kind Digital Crime Analysis Centre.

"As part of providing advanced training to deal with cyber offences, we intend to have our own centre at the National Police Academy. The process has begun and we have already drawn up a programme. A proposal will soon be submitted to the Central Government," Academy Director Rajiv Mathur told .

A senior official at the police academy said the National Digital Crime Resource and Training Centre would basically fill the gaps in the field of Digital Crime.

"The upcoming centre aims to provide training to police and agencies like customs, revenue and other parts of criminal justice system to deal with cyber crime. It would build their capacity to fight cyber crime," the official said, adding that once approved, the centre will be set up by the end of this year.

On the need for setting up such a centre, the official said, "We need to arm our personnel with the knowledge and skills to counter this kind of crime. We need to train our law enforcement officers through top class training".

The Academy, which offers in-service courses, would provide advanced training in cyber crimes to IPS probationers and different law enforcement agencies, he said.

"There is a need to have proper investigation on cyber crimes and this centre will provide expertise and training to officials investigating cyber crimes," the official said.

He said there was need for imparting uniform training for all states’ police as cyber offences happen anywhere.

"At the proposed centre, the police academy also proposes to have data on cyber offences as it is difficult to get information on such crimes from police stations," he said.

Through the centre, it is also proposed to create awareness on cyber crimes among the public on how and where they can report such cases, the official added. (PTI)

Sudhir Mishra’s dream project with Saif
Ali Khan put on hold

NEW DELHI, Feb 27: Sudhir Mishra’s dream project ‘The Nawab, The Nautch Girl & The John’s Company’, reportedly starring Saif Ali Khan, is put indefinitely on hold with both the director and actor moving on to other films.

"’The Nawab, The Nautch Girl & The John’s Company’ isn’t happening as of now. It is a bigger film when compared to the others that I have made and requires a certain amount of budget, commitment and concentration," Mishra told.

Set in the 19th century, ‘The Nawab The Nautch Girl & The John’s Company’ is a period drama, which Saif was apparently keen on producing as well. However, he later got busy with ‘Agent Vinod’ and Mishra too moved on.

"I will definitely make the film but not in the near future. Before that I would be making another film with Prakash Jha. Then my next would be ‘Dhruv’ with Kareena Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar and Chitrangda Singh," said Mishra.

His film with Jha as the producer would star Arjun Rampal and Chitrangda. Based on the issue of sexual exploitation at workplace, it would go on floors this summer.

Meanwhile, Mishra is happy that the audience is willing to listen to stories in a different format as long as they are entertainingly told, as seen in his latest release ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’.

"The success of the film is a clear example of how Indian audience is now open to new and good stories as long as they are told in a fresh format. The prime audience today comprise of youngsters and one has to cater to this market."

The national award winning director is glad that after the critical success coming his way through films like ‘Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi’ and ‘Dharavi’, he is getting commercial backing as well.

"I am enjoying this phase. I make films which aspire to connect to the audience. My upcoming films would be following the same mode as well, including ‘The Nawab, The Nautch Girl & The John’s Company’," said Mishra.

He also said that filmmakers are facing stiff competition from the small screen in terms of viewership these days.

"The challenge is not just from films being made by the peers but also from television. In the age of TV growing so huge and the biggest of stars addressing you right in your living room, what does a film maker do to attract audience attention to the big screen?"

"I have to make cinema which grapples you, influences you and creates an imagery which is interesting enough for you to step into theaters," said Mishra. (PTI)