NEW DELHI, Apr 16: A special court today fixed May 1 to consider the CBI’s supplementary report filed in a coal blocks allocation case allegedly involving Vikash Metal and Power Limited (VMPL) and others.
During the hearing, the court sought some clarifications from the investigating officer regarding the further probe conducted by the agency in the case.
“Certain further clarifications sought. Put up for consideration on supplementary final report on May 1,” Special CBI Judge Bharat Parashar said.
The final report was filed by the agency on April 7 in pursuance to court’s order of October 15 last year refusing to accept the CBI’s closure report and directing it to further probe the case.
The case pertains to alleged irregularities in allocation of Moira and Madhujore (North and South) coal blocks in West Bengal to VMPL.
The agency on March 10 had informed the court that it had received the approval of competent authority on its final report of further probe into the case.
The court had earlier directed CBI to expeditiously submit the final report on its further probe into the case allegedly involving VMPL and its officials in which they are accused of making false claims relating to land allocation to get undue advantage in the coal block allocation.
The FIR in the case was registered in September 2012.
CBI, however, had later filed a closure report saying that charges against VMPL or its directors or even against public servants could not be substantiated during the probe.
The court, in its October 15 last year’s order, had noted that it would have taken cognisance of offences of criminal conspiracy and cheating against the firm and its directors or others involved, but investigation into the alleged roles of officers of the Coal Ministry and other public servants in the entire process was required to be further carried out.
The FIR was registered against VMPL, its directors, including Vimal Patni, Vikash Patni and Anand Patni, and Anand Mallick who was the authorised signatory for the company.
They were booked for alleged offences under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC.
CBI, in its FIR, had said that VMPL had wrongly claimed it had been allocated 300 acres of land in Begusarai in Bihar by the Bihar Area Development Authority.
The agency had found that the land was de-allocated and directors of the firm had failed to inform the screening committee members about it, it had said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16: The Dalai Lama is collaborating with Archbishop Desmond Tutu for a new book that explores the topic of joy, publishers Penguin Random House said today.
The two spiritual leaders are set to meet in Dharamshala later this month for the Buddhist leader’s 80th birthday celebrations where they will work together to create “The Book of Joy,” themed on “finding enduring happiness in an uncertain world.”
The meeting allows for the two Nobel Peace Laureates to spend a week together in “deep dialogue and playful laughter as they share their experience of how to find joy in the face of life’s challenges.”
Set for 2016 publication, the book in the form of a series of dialogues reflects extraordinary friendship of the authors, who call each other “spiritual brother.”
Hutchinson, part of Penguin Random House UK, has acquired the UK and Commonwealth (ex-Canada) English language rights to the book.
“The ultimate source of happiness is within us,” the Dalai Lama said in a statement.
“Not money, not power, not status, which fail to bring inner peace.  Outward attainment will not bring real inner joyfulness.  We must look inside,” he said.
Archbishop Tutu added, “Sometimes life can be challenging and we can feel lost. But the seeds of joy are born inside each of us. I invite you to join His Holiness and me in creating more joy in our world.”
The pair of spiritual leaders are inviting people to ask questions about joy and happiness they most want answered on the authors’ Facebook pages. The most popular will be addressed during the meetings in Dharamshala this month.
Video footage of the answers will also be shared later, publishers said.
Archibishop Tutu has encouraged people to “Send us your questions and help us write ‘The Book of Joy.'”
The book would be co-written by Doug Abrams, who has worked with Tutu on previous books, and who will conduct the interviews.
“While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, His Holiness and the Archbishop believe that joy comes from an internal state of being. They will share how joy animates our lives and leads ultimately to a life of greater meaning and purpose and greater love and contribution,” Abrams said.
Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu regarded as an world statesman, was a prominent leader in the crusade for justice and racial conciliation in South Africa.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso known as ambassador of peace had for many years developed dialogue with scientists, in psychology, neurobiology, quantum physics and cosmology that has led to a collaboration between monks and scientists in trying to help people achieve peace of mind. (PTI)

JALANDHAR, Apr 16: Five persons were arrested and 1.25 kg of heroin worth Rs 6.25 crore in the international market was recovered from their possession here today, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, police intercepted a car coming from Jammu and Kashmir towards Bhogpur area and recovered the drugs today, Senior Superintendent of Police of Jalandhar (Rural) Jaspreet Singh Sandhu said.

“Around 1.25 kg of heroin worth Rs 6.25 crore in the international market, one kg opium and drug money of Rs 10 lakh in cash were recovered from the specially designed car,” Sandhu said, adding that the vehicle too has been seized.

Those arrested have been identified as Anil Kumar, Jasbir Singh alias Sheera, Tarsem Singh alias Khona, Jitender Singh alias Chikna and Balwan Singh, police said.

While Balwan Singh is a resident of Jammu and Kashmir, the rest are from Punjab, they said.

Cases under NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act) Act have been registered against the accused who also face previous charges of drug and murder, police said, adding that investigation is underway. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16: A three-member committee of bureaucrats today decided to revisit the existing instructions for classifications of Government documents, amidst growing chorus for declassification of all files related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

The panel, comprising Secretaries of Home, Law and Personnel, also decided to throughly examine the earlier suggestions regarding the need to amend the Official Secrets Act.

The committee, which was constituted yesterday, in its first meeting decided to have a fresh look at the existing instructions on classifications of Government documents, official sources said.

The panel decided to involve officers of security and intelligence agencies in its future deliberations.

The committee was set up yesterday to go into implications of the Official Secrets Act in view of the RTI law.

Sources said the committee may suggest upgrading the authorisation for classification of documents from under secretary level officer to joint secretary level officer in the Government.

Sources said the committee favoured a thorough review on the declassification process.

The Government’s move to set up the committee came amidst growing demands for declassification of nearly 90 files relating to Bose which are yet to be made public.

A grandnephew of Netaji Bose, Surya Kumar Bose, had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin on Tuesday and requested him to declassify all files related to events since his death or disappearance in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.

The issue of Netaji related files came to the fore last week when a controversy broke out following reports that his family was kept under surveillance by the Intelligence Bureau for 20 years, much of it during the tenure of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sources said that among nearly 90 classified files relating to Bose, around 27 are with the Ministry of External Affairs while the rest with the Prime Minister’s Office.

There is no file related to the freedom fighter with the Home Ministry as all have already been declassified and handed over to the National Archives.

After meeting Modi in Berlin, Bose’s grandnephew had claimed that he got an assurance that his demand for declassification of all secret files related to the freedom fighter would be looked into.

According to archival material, which set off a political controversy, Bose’s close relatives, including his two nephews, Sisir Kumar Bose and Amiya Nath Bose, sons of his brother Sarat Chandra Bose, were spied upon for 20 years between 1948 and 1968. Nehru was Prime Minister for 16 of these 20 years.

The files, now with the National Archives, said the Bose family homes at 1, Woodburn Park and 38/2 Elgin Road, were kept under surveillance.

The IB sleuths intercepted and copied letters written by the Bose family and even trailed them on foreign tours.

Bose had quit Congress before independence over differences with Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi and launched an organised military resistance against the British after raising the Indian National Army. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Apr 16: RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has received an e-mail that threatens to harm him and seeks to extort money as police launched a probe and sought Google’s help to track down the sender.

Rajan received the mail from a gmail account, prompting authorities to step up his security. Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police today registered a case against unknown persons.

“A case (no. 20/15) has been registered with us under the Sections 387 (demanding extortion), 506-2(criminal intimidation) of IPC and Section 66-D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of IT Act,” said Mukund Pawar, Investigation Officer of Cyber Cell.

He declined to divulge the line of investigation.

The message, which threatened to eliminate the Governor, was received last month at the RBI’s official e-mail address, police said.

Though the police did not elaborate on the content of the threatening mail sent from isis583847@gmail.Com, police sources said it warned Rajan that he would be eliminated as a contract had been received to execute him.

The Reserve Bank had not issued any official statement on the matter till late in the evening.

RBI spokesperson said Rajan was in Washington along with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the annual World Bank Group meeting and it will take some time to get his comments.

According to police sources, the electronic mail reads: “If Rajan pays more than the contract amount received to kill him, then he (perpetrator) would think as to what can be done (whether to kill Rajan or not).”

Preliminary probe suggests that the gmail account has been accessed from different countries, including Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, the US, Nigeria, Poland, Belgium, Hong Kong and Ukraine, in a span of a few days, and the police said a proxy Internet Protocol address was used to send the email.

“We have taken note of it (threat mail) and the RBI Governor’s security has been beefed up,” Maharashtra Additional Chief Secretary (Home) K P Bakshi told PTI here.

Police spokesman Dhananjay Kulkarni said the e-mail was received by Rajan’s office 20-25 days back.

“This e-mail, it seems, has been sent using proxy server and it appears to be an act carried out by some Nigerians running a racket who are experts in doing so (sending threatening e-mails),” Kulkarni said.

“We (Cyber Cell) have also asked Google officials to trace down the details of the log-in ID and we may receive their reply in a week,” he added. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16: The “in-house” procedures, devised by a five-judges panel and adopted by the Supreme Court way back in 1999, on taking “suitable remedial” actions against judges, accused of misconduct and impropriety, of the apex court and the high courts was today put in public domain.

The apex court registry put the report of the committee on its website in pursuance of a direction issued by the court while deciding a sexual harassment complaint of a former woman judicial officer against a sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

The 1997 report of the panel, consisting of SC judges, Justices S C Agrawal, A S Anand, and S P Bharucha and two senior-most Chief Justices of High Courts, P S Misra of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and D P Mohapatra of the Allahabad High Court, was adopted with some changes by the Supreme Court in its full court meeting on December 15, 1999.

The report prescribes three different sets of procedures for taking action on complaints against judges of the High Courts, Chief justices of HCs and judges of the Supreme court respectively.

The procedures to deal with complaints against HC judges says that if a complaint is received by the Chief Justice of the High court concerned then “he shall examine it”.

“If it is found by him (CJ) that the complaint is of a serious nature involving misconduct or impropriety, he shall ask for the response thereto of the judge concerned,” the report said, adding if the CJ is satisfied that no further action is needed, then he shall close the proceedings and inform the CJI accordingly.

If the Chief Justice is of the opinion that the complaint needs “deeper probe”, then he shall forward to the CJI the complaint alongwith the response of the judge concerned and his own comments.

The panel further suggests the procedures when the CJI either directly receives the complaint or they are forwarded by the President against a HC judge.

“If it is found by him (CJI) that it is either frivolous or directly related to the merits of the substantive decisions in a judicial matter or does not involve any serious complaint of misconduct or impropriety, he shall file it,” it said.

If CJI is of the view that it needs probe then he “shall forward” the complaint to the Chief Justice of the High court for further comments and the same procedure would be followed as in the case when the complaint is first received by the CJs of the High Courts.

The panel further suggested that if the CJI is of opinion that a deeper probe is needed against the HC judge, then a three-member committee of two Chief Justices of other High Courts and one High Court judge would be formed to conduct an inquiry by devising its own procedures.

The committee further said there could be three findings — either there is no substance in the allegations or there is sufficient material but which are “not so serious” to call for the judge’s removal or there is evidence for initiation of removal proceedings of the judge.

If the enquiry panel finds that there is substance in the allegations in the complaint and the misconduct disclosed is such that it calls for initiation of proceedings of removal of the judge, the CJI will first advise the judge concerned to either resign or seek voluntary retirement.

If the judge refuses to put in his papers, then CJI would ask the Chief Justice of the High Court not to assign any judicial work to him and intimate the development to the President and the Prime Minister.

The CJI will also convey to the Prime Minister the seriousness of the allegations and seek “initiation of proceedings for removal and the copy of the report of the committee may be enclosed,” the report said.

On similar lines, the committee has prescribed procedures to deal with complaints against the Chief Justices of the High courts and the apex court judges.

In relation to complaints against the CJs of High Courts, the CJI would first examine them and may seek a response of the CJ concerned, the panel said.

If the CJI is of the opinion that the complaint needs further probe then he would constitute a three-member enquiry committee, consisting a judge of the Supreme Court and two Chief Justices of the High Courts.

Similarly, the complaint against SC judges would be first examined by the CJI himself and if he is of the opinion that a “deeper probe” is needed, then the allegations would be enquired into by a three-judges panel of the apex court.

So far as the removal procedures are concerned, they will be same as in the case of high court judges. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Apr 16:  RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has received a threatening e-mail following which his security has been stepped up, a top Home department official said here today.
“The said letter was received a few days back. We have taken note of it and the RBI Governor’s security has been beefed up,” Maharashtra’s Additional Chief Secretary (Home) K P Bakshi said here.
However, he did not elaborate on the contents of the threatening e-mail. After the e-mail was received, the RBI officials alerted the police crime branch.
The cyber crime investigation cell of police is looking into the matter and trying to trace the origin of the e-mail. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 16: Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari has set up a three-member panel to investigate sexual harassment charges against S K Gangele, a sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, nearly a month after admitting a motion supported by 58 Rajya Sabha members to impeach him.
The committee, to be headed by Supreme Court judge Vikramjit Sen, will have Justice Manjula Chellur, Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and jurist K K Venugopal as its members, a Rajya Sabha notification said today.
Last month, 58 MPs including Digvijaya Singh (Congress), Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), Derek O’ Brien (TMC), Ram Gopal Yadav and Jaya Bachchan (SP) had submitted a motion to Ansari for initiating the impeachment process against Justice Gangele for alleged sexual harassment of a woman judge in Gwalior.
The committee will now investigate the charges and grounds for removal of the judge and submit its report to the Rajya Sabha Chairman. The report will then be tabled in both Houses of Parliament along with evidences.
Posted in the Gwalior bench, Justice Gangele is now serving in the principal bench at Jabalpur.
The motion was admitted by Ansari following which he wrote to Chief Justice of India H L Dattu to nominate a judge from the Supreme Court and a Chief Justice of a High Court for the probe panel.
The motion lists three “grounds of misconduct” for impeachment: “Sexual harassment” of the woman judge; “victimisation” of the judge “for not submitting to his illegal and immoral demands”, including, but not limited to, transferring her from Gwalior to Sidhi; and “misusing” his position as the administrative judge of the MP High Court  to use the subordinate judiciary to victimise the judge.
Other signatories include Satish Mishra (BSP), Anu Aga and H K Dua.
As per provisions of the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968, if the motion is admitted, the Speaker (of Lok Sabha) or the Chairman constitutes an investigation committee consisting of three members.
The issue had hogged media headlines after the former Additional and Sessions judge resigned on July 15 last year days following her transfer to a remote district. She then sent representations to the President, the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on August 1 in which she had made serious allegations against Justice Gangele.
Chief Justice Dattu had also set up a three-judge panel for a thorough probe into the sexual harassment complaint against Gangele after receiving a preliminary inquiry report on it.
If the Rajya Sabha takes up the impeachment motion, it will be the third such case in Parliament’s history and the second in the Upper House.
Justice Soumitra Sen of Calutta High Court had faced impeachment proceedings in Rajya Sabha in 2011 for misconduct” and “misappropriation of funds” in the capacity of a Calcutta High Court receiver.
The Rajya Sabha had voted in favour of impeaching him and while the proceedings in the Lok Sabha were in progress, the judge resigned. Subsequently, the impeachment proceedings were dropped, taking into consideration his resignation.
Under the constitution, a judge of a high court or the Supreme Court can be removed by the President by a motion adopted in both the Houses of Parliament by two-thirds majority in the same session on “proved misconduct and incapacity”. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Apr 16: India has the potential to make nine to 10 per cent growth rate “a new normal”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today while asserting that high growth was essential to meet the challenges posed by the country’s burgeoning young population.
“India has the potential to make nine to ten per cent its new normal in the years to come,” Jaitley said in his keynote address at the day-long conference ‘Deepening the US-India Commercial Partnership: The First Year of the Modi Government’.
“India’s own normal in terms of its growth rate has to target anything close to a double digit. India growing at five per cent, six per cent or even seven per cent is not an India that is going to face up this challenge (of large young population),” Jaitley said at the conference organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based top American think-tank.
He made the remarks in his maiden public appearance hours after arriving here to attend the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Listing out the steps being taken by the new Indian government like giving more financial powers to states, increased investment on infrastructure, emphasis on manufacturing, Jaitley said the roadmap laid out is to open the door for investment.
“By and large it is a welcome move in India. There are very few sectors now, almost insignificant, that remain closed. Everything has been opened up,” he said citing insurance, defense, railways and real estate sectors in this regard.
When both domestic and international investors come in, the next step is to develop a system in which investing in India itself becomes attractive.
Jaitley acknowledged that land reforms bill remains a contentious issue in India today.
“I have no hesitation in saying that the land law if it remains in the present shape is a big hurdle to employment creation. One of the areas where we are trying to ease the (land) acquisition process is creation of industrial corridor. This is capable of providing employment to a vast number of people in rural areas,” he said.
Jaitley said the government is trying to “narrow down” the period in opening up new projects.
“I have set up a new committee to look up into the whole mechanism of how, whole institution of prior permission can be replaced by regulatory mechanism where it is far easier to start your business just complying with the guidelines that have been stated in that area,” Jaitley said.
As these efforts would start yielding results in the next few years, Jaitley exuded confidence that India would enter a phase of double digit growth from what he hoped a eight per cent growth this year.
Referring to the latest growth rate projection of 7.5 per cent this year, Jaitley in response to a question said the feeling in India is this “is not our” real potential.
When the net impact of all the latest reforms is realised, he said, it is capable of “taking us close to what we thought we can never reach and today there is a realisation that that is a realisable target.”
Responding to another question, Jaitley said among various reforms labour laws will remain a challenge. (PTI)