New
Delhi: President APJ Abdul Kalam today rejected the
mercy plea of Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was sentenced to
death for raping and murdering teenager Hetal Parekh in
Kolkata in 1990. The clemency petition of Chatterjee was
rejected last night and sent to the Union Home Ministry,
official sources said today. It will later be handed over
to the Union Law Ministry for communicating the decision
to the West Bengal government. The President decided to
reject the petition after he had discussions with legal
experts, including Attorney General Milon Banerji. Sekhar
Basu, the lawyer representing Dhananjoy, said that his client
would move a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution
to the Supreme Court again. Earlier, the Supreme Court had
declined to entertain Chatterjee's plea against the West
Bengal Governor's order rejecting his mercy petition, leaving
the decision to President Kalam. Dhananjoy Chatterjee was
to be executed on June 25 this year, but the President stayed
his execution on June 24 in response to a mercy plea filed
by his friends, relatives and inmates. The matter had been
pending with the President since then. With Kalam finally
rejecting the mercy plea, the way has been cleared for Dhananjoy's
execution. This was Dhananjoy's second mercy petition before
the President. The first one was rejected on June 23, 1994.
A Calcutta Sessions Court sentenced Dhananjoy to death on
August 12, 1991 for the rape and murder of Hetal. The order
was confirmed by the Calcutta High Court and upheld by the
Supreme Court in January 1994.
UPA-Left
Coordination Committee meeting begins (Go
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New
Delhi: The first meeting of the UPA-Left coordination
committee has reportedly begun at Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's residence today. The panel is the latest addition
to the series of committees formed to coordinate between
various allies of the UPA. The 12-member panel was formed
after differences arose between the government and the Left
over the issue of FDI hike from 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
Both the Congress and the Left have six members each in
this panel. But the Congress has so far announced the names
of only five members.
French
Sikhs seek PM's intervention against turban ban in France
(Go
To Top)
Amritsar:
The Sikh community in France is reported to have forwarded
a plea to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to use his influence
to convince the French government to withdraw a law banning
the use of turbans and other forms of headgear. "We want
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to send a delegation to France
and explain to the government there how a turban is important
for the Sikhs. A Sikh cannot live without his turban, it
is his identity," Gurdev Singh, a representative of the
5000 Sikhs in France, told reporters here today. The new
French law was introduced to prevent public schools from
using noticeable religious symbols. It was mainly directed
at Muslim girl students wearing headscarves.
Tortured
girls rescued from circus (Go
To Top)
New
Delhi: Human rights activists are demanding massive
crackdown on human trafficking after a dozen minor girls,
most of them from Nepal, were rescued from a circus today.
The girls, aged between eight and fourteen, told the police
after their rescue by social activists, that they were beaten,
starved and sexually abused by their employers. They were
also barred from leaving the circus or writing to their
parents' back home. "We were not given anything to eat and
were not allowed to play. They used to beat us everyday,"
Nisha, a 10-year-old, said. "They used to beat us and force
us to do the trapeze and if we fell they used to beat us
again. If we were hurt and did not smile while performing
then also they beat us," Shabbo, another rescued minor,
said. Kailash Satyarthi, who is leading Save the Childhood
Movement, said it was high time the government took some
real action on the ground. "In most circuses, these girls
are brought from Nepal. Human trafficking is flourishing
across India and Nepal. They are assaulted, abused and not
even served proper food because if they gain weight they
cannot perform. Not even in a single instance have the girls
or their parents ever been paid. The children are held captive
and are not allowed to leave. They are treated inhumanly,"
Satyarthi told reporters here. India has officially prohibited
the employment of children under 14. But unofficial figures
put the number of working children close to 50 million,
the highest in the world.
Arrest
warrant on TRS chief KC Rao (Go
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Hyderabad/New
Delhi: An arrest warrant was reportedly issued today
in the name of Union Minister (without portfolio) and Telangana
Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao by a magisterial
court here. The non-bailable warrant was issued against
Rao in a case of alleged cheating by selling poll application
forms for huge sums. It was issued on the basis of a police
complaint filed by several TRS leaders, who claimed that
Rao had cheated party leaders by selling them application
forms for huge sums of money. However, reacting to the news
from New Delhi, Rao said no such warrant had been served
on him. According to the complaint, Rao had reportedly told
the party leaders that the TRS would contest all 107 Assembly
seats in the Telangana region, but eventually fielded candidates
in only 42 constituencies. The application forms were allegedly
sold for between Rs.5, 000 and Rs.10, 000. The TRS dissident
further said that Rao had promised to refund the money of
candidates who were not given tickets to contest the polls,
but later reneged on it. Rao had been directed by the court
to appear before it on May 16, but when he failed to do
so, he was given him time till August 4. His failure to
appear before the court again led to the issuance of the
arrest warrant. Rao countered this news by saying that the
court had only ordered that the hearing of the alleged case
be taken up on Thursday (August 5).
Rain
disrupts rail, road traffic in Maharashtra, Gujarat (Go
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Mumbai/Ahmedabad:
Intense rainfall in Maharashtra, Gujarat Daman and Diu
and Punjab has led to flooding in parts, dislocation and
a breakdown of road and rail links. Almost all commuter
and long distance trains were cancelled in Maharashtra where
huge traffic jams were reported on the Mumbai- Pune Expressway.
In south Gujarat, villages have been evacuated and the Army
has been called in. Floods have also been reported from
Daman and Diu. While at least 25 people have died in Gujarat,
over a dozen deaths have been reported in Punjab's Patiala
district. "The government's help has come so late. Most
of the areas are submerged. Many women and children are
so sick...there is no facility available. Even the phones
were not working here. The government did not respond properly,"
said Vithalbhai, a resident of Surat, one of the affected
cities. Daman was cut off after a newly built bridge collapsed.
The floods caused by four days of continuous rains have
swamped over 400 villages in southern Gujarat. More than
50,000 people have already been evacuated to safer havens.
In Maharashtra, rail traffic has been almost completely
stalled because of the rains. Only five trains will leave
Mumbai this evening. All of them are on the western line
- Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express, Jaipur Superfast Express,
Golden Temple Mail (to Amritsar), Vidarbha Express and Punjab
Mail. Palghar, north of Mumbai, is completely submerged
with several villages under water. Thousands of passengers
have been stranded across Maharashtra as a result of the
flooding. There was, predictably, chaos at Mumbai Central
today. The Vadodara cricket team, which was returning after
playing county cricket in London, was among the stranded
passengers. The heavy downpour has also forced the authorities
to restrict vehicular movement on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway.
Only one lane is now open to traffic because of which traffic
has slowed to a crawl. In Pune, people are being moved to
emergency shelters at schools and other public buildings.
NASA
dedicates super computer to Kalpana Chawla (Go
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California:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
has dedicated its new Altix supercomputer to the memory
of India-born astronaut Kalpana Chawla, who died along with
seven-crew members in Space Shuttle Columbia two years ago.
"It is indeed an honour to name NASA's new SGI Altix 3000
supercomputer after Kalpana Chawla. She was not only a member
of the NASA family, but also a special member of our own
Ames family. We all miss her and her many contributions
to the agency," said Ames Centre, Director G. Scott Hubbard.
NASA has a tradition of calling its new supercomputers after
pioneers in the supercomputer industry or individuals who
have significantly contributed to research at the aircraft
research laboratory, following which the new supercomputer
has been named 'KC'.
Kumaratunga
quits leadership of Freedom Alliance (Go
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Colombo:
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga today resigned
from the leadership of her Marxist-backed Freedom Alliance
amid a deepening internal rift on reviving peace talks with
the rebel LTTE. Kumaratunga quit the leadership of the coalition
of left-leaning groups including her own Freedom Party and
the Marxist JVP, "due to pressure of work," a statement
from her office said. It said a replacement would be named
from her party to lead the Freedom Alliance. Political sources
noted that the move followed differences between Kumaratunga
and the JVP over the handling of the Norwegian-backed peace
process with the LTTE. The JVP had threatened to pull out
of the coalition if Kumaratunga revived peace talks with
the LTTE based on the latter's demand for self rule. Kumaratunga
initiated the Freedom Alliance to topple the right- wing
United National Party government, which she sacked in February
after accusing it of conceding too many concessions to the
Tigers. The Freedom Alliance narrowly won the snap election
she called on April 2, but failed to secure a simple majority
in the 225-member parliament and is at the mercy of smaller
parties for its survival.
Asia
Cup nets India 2.5 million dollars profit share (Go
To Top)
Karachi:
Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will each
receive 2.5 million dollars from the profits generated by
the recent Asia Cup. According to The Nation, non-Test playing
participants UAE and Hong Kong would each get 300,000 dollars,
while associate members of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC)
will receive 200,000 dollars each.
