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SC firm on decision to transfer Gujarat riots case

           New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Gujarat government's appeal to review its decision to transfer the riot cases to Maharashtra. The court also dismissed an application by the accused in the Best Bakery case, which involved the killing of 14 Muslims in a bakery by a frenzied mob during the savage communal riots in 2002, challenging the transfer of the case.

          "The application filed by the accused as well as the state has been dismissed particularly on the ground that the rounds of transfer had been taken in the petition filed by Zaheera Sheikh to the question of not have been argued or prayed for, does not arise. Secondly, it has distinguished judgement cited by the state of Gujarat. They have relied on some judgements. I said this was unprecedented, that has been set aside," Aparna Bhatt, counsel of the Zaheera Sheikh, the witness in the Best Bakery case told reporters. The counsel added that the court has rejected the appeal of both the state and the accused on technical grounds. "They have said the proper course would have been filing a review and not filing an application of modification because after SLP (Special Leave Petetion), an appeal has been dismissed. This is not the right course for them and have been dismissed," Bhatt added.

          The court had also refused to accede to the request of the government to expunge certain observations made in the judgement including the one in which the government officials were referred to as "modern day Neroes". The Best Bakery trial has become a test case of the freedom of judiciary and the rule of law in the western state where at least 1000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the February-March riots. A local court in last June had acquitted all 21 accused in the case, one of them a Muslim, for lack of evidence. The order was quashed on directions of the Supreme Court after protests by human rights groups, but later the state high court upheld the lower court verdict. The Supreme Court had shifted the cases to Maharashtra after Zahira along with Citizens for Justice, a forum representing the riot vicitms, filed a petition against the verdict of the high court.

UP Govt informs SC on status of Taj corridor case (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that top bureaucrats involved in the controversial Taj Corridor scam have been relieved of their duties pending investigation. The Rs 175 million project envisaged construction of shopping malls, entertainment complexes and amusement parks in the backdrop of the Taj Mahal, among the seven wonders of the world. The issue, which snowballed into a national controversy, led to the fall of former chief minister Mayawati-led government in August last year, besides suspension of some top officials.

          Earlier, the apex court had rapped the state government for reinstating the top officials involved in the case, and had instructed the government not to reinstate them till the inquiry was over. The court had ordered the state government to explain their side of story before the apex court closes for summer vacations. "When the case opened today, we were told that from 1st of May P L Punia, the Principal Secretary to the chief minister, against whom besides the Taj Corridor case, a separate case of disposable assets is on, has gone on leave. The next hearing will take place in July 2004.

IAF fighter plane crashes near Ambala (Go To Top)

          Ambala: A Jaguar fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday crashed shortly after taking off from the airbase. Both pilots bailed out and there was no report of any casualty, official sources said. The plane crashed in the fields in Manmohan Nagar, three km from Ambala at around 4.40 p.m., they said.

Senior Oppn MP shot dead in Bangladesh (Go To Top)

          Dhaka: A senior Bangladesh lawmaker belonging to main Opposition party the Awami League was gunned down by unidentified armed assailants in his constituency of Gazipur, around 40 km from here, on Friday. Protesters set fire to homes and offices of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), a container train, the train station and shops immediately after the news broke that Mohammad Ahsan Ullah, 56, MP succumbed to his injuries at Dhaka Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the afternoon, witnesses said. "The entire area turned into an inferno as the angry protesters have been setting fire on vehicles, homes, offices and nearby train stations," a reporter visiting the spot told the Asian News International by cell phone. He added that the Opposition workers were fighting with the members of paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) forces, deployed instantly to ward off destructive activities. The police and BDR members fired bullets and teargas to disperse the mob. Ahsan and eight of his fellows of the Opposition party received bullet wounds when a armed gang opened fire at a rally of Bangladesh Sechha Sebak League, a front organisation of the Awami League, at about 12.55 p.m. local time.

13 killed in Karachi bomb blast (Go To Top)

          Karachi: At least 13 people were killed and more than 50 injured when a bomb exploded in a Shiite mosque here on Friday. The blast occurred shortly after 13:00 hrs at a mosque inside a government-run religious school, shattering windows and pocking the walls with shrapnel and splattered blood. Bits of flesh and pools of blood lay all around as rescue workers tended to the wounded. "We have identified 13 bodies. They are lying in the city's two hospitals," police officer Salman Waheed told news agency. The dead included the imam of the mosque Khawaja Kumail, government officials said. The school which houses students aged 4-18, has separate mosques for Sunni and Shiite Muslim worshippers. Witnesses said the school had been let out early, as it normally does on Fridays. Most of the victims were adults who came to the mosque for prayers. An employee of a brokerage house said he heard two consecutive explosions. "Our office on the 14th floor was shaken," he said. "We saw plumes of smoke, blood and bodies."

Nepal PM resigns (Go To Top)

          Kathmandu: Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa announced his resignation on Friday, after weeks of massive protests for the return of democracy in the Himalayan kingdom Thapa had served as prime minister since King Gyanendra appointed him in June last year. It was not immediately clear if his resignation had been accepted. "I have tendered my resignation to the king so that a national consensus can be reached to protect multi-party democracy and the interest of the nation," Thapa said on state-run Nepal Television. Nepal's political crisis began in October 2002 when Gyanendra fired then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on accusations of incompetence and failing to end a Maoist insurgency. The king then dissolved Parliament, assumed executive powers and appointed a new government.

Butler links MI5 to Diana's car crash (Go To Top)

          London: The mystery surrounding the death of Princess Diana has deepened further with her ex-butler, Paul Burrell, telling police of an MI5 link to a chilling letter in which Princess Diana had predicted that she would be killed in a car crash. Burrell told the police that the late princess had struck a secret friendship with a former MI5 intelligence officer, who had warned her of the crash ten months before it happened. According to the Mirror, detectives grilled Burrell for three hours regarding the letter, which she is supposed to have written a few months before her death. "It was a delicate and sensitive meeting, and I helped the officers as much as I could. I mentioned everything that I believed was relevant," Burrell was quoted as saying.

Pak Panchayat orders rape of two village women (Go To Top)

          Islamabad: In a bizzare incident, a local jury (Panchayat) in Pakistan's Punjab Province recently ordered the rape of two village women, both related to each other by marriage, as retribution for the alleged illicit relations of a landlord's daughter with the brother of one of the girls. The incident, which took place in Multan's Dinga Kabirwala village on April 30, has sent shock waves across the country and through the ruling political establishment. Even Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has taken strong exception to it, saying that such incidents contravene the basic social tenets of Islam. Musharraf has directed the federal Interior Minister, Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat, the Punjab Governor and its Chief Minister Chaudhary Pervez Elahi to order an investigation into the incident and to present the report to him. "When a proper legal system exists in the country then who allows such decisions to prosper that not only destroyed the life of two girls, but has ruined an entire family," the Daily Times and Online News quoted Musharraf as saying about the rape of the two women in Dinga Kabirwala village on the orders of a local jury.

          According to the local dailies, a landlord with full knowledge and cognizance of the local jury raped a young girl and her sister-in-law on April 30 in Basti Danga Naich, a suburb of Kabirwala. The order to rape the girls was given after the brother of one them was accused of having illicit relations with the rapist's daughter. Muhammad Saeed of Kabeerwala police station told Daily Times a case had been registered against the alleged rapist and members of the jury. One of the accused has been arrested and the other five are at large.

          On April 30, Ghaffar allegedly sent his daughter Shahina, alias Sanee, to Mumtaz's house while her brother Muhammad Riaz was inside. Ghaffar reportedly then locked the main door of the house and called the other villagers around, accusing Riaz of having an affair with Shahina. Ghaffar then arranged for a panchayat of 50 people in his house. The jury, headed by Haji Muhammad Sultan, Haji Afzal Jeer and Ahmad Nawaz called Mumtaz and Riaz's sister-in-law Mudasan and ordered Ghaffar to rape them. Ghaffar allegedly took them to an outhouse and raped them. Kabeerwala police registered a case against Ghaffar Jeer, Zahoor Jeer, Bashir, Haji Tajamal, Amir Nawaz and Haji Sultan on the complaint of Mumtaz's father Muhammad Nawaz.