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Charges against Lalu Yadav in 1996 fodder scam framed

     Ranchi (Jharkhand): The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charges against Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on Tuesday in connection with his alleged role in perpetrating a multi-million dollar fodder scam, alongwith former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra in 1996. CBI Special Court judge Sanjay Prasad framed the charges against Lalu Prasad in connection with fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.13 crore from Dumka treasury between December, 1995 and January, 1996. Prasad was the chief minister of Bihar during the period. The framing of charges on Yadav refers to criminal conspiracy and misuse of official position.Mishra, a prominent Congress leader, has also been charged by the CBI, along with Yadav in the Rs.960 crore scandal. Mishra said he was being implicated in the case. "I told the court that there is nothing Lalu Yadav and I did. I am just being implicated in this," he said. The RJD leader was physically present in the court. The charges were framed under sections 420 (cheating), 120 b (conspiracy), sections 467 and 477 of the Indian Penal code (467, 477) and sections 13(1) and 13(1) d of the Prevention of Corruption Act. If he had failed to turn up before the court retired for the day, the court would have split the case while cancelling his arrest warrant, CBI court sources said.

     There were a total of 49 accused in the case relating to fraudulent withdrawal from the Dumka treasury. While six of the accused died, three of them turned approvals. On April 25, another special CBI court of Umashankar Prasad had framed charges against Prasad, Mishra and 68 others in a case relating to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 37 crore from Chaibasa treasury, now in Jharkhand, in 1996. The CBI has filed chargesheets in sixty cases, of which 53 are being tried in the courts at Ranchi and seven in Patna. The Rs 950 crore fodder scam was unearthed in Bihar in 1996. The fodder scam has become a bone of contention between the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), of which Yadav is an important ally, and the BJP-led opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which has demanded Lalu's resignation. The standoff led the opposition to boycott the recent Budget Session of Parliament, lashing out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for being soft on a charged minister. People convicted of serious crimes are barred from holding high office in India, but hundreds of state and federal politicians face charges of murder to kidnapping and corruption, staying while their cases drag on for years in courts. Yadav's party ruled Bihar, one of India's poorest states as well as the most lawless, until losing the February state polls.

411 tigers vanished during 1999-2003, Centre tells SC (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that as many as 411 tigers vanished from the forests across India between 1999 and 2003 of which 352 were killed by poachers. "An independent agency was commissioned to compile and analyze the available country-level tiger poaching data over a period of five years (1999 to 2003). The data collected records 411 cases during the five years out of which 173 records relate to mortality and 238 records relate to seizures," the affidavit said. This affidavit by Ministry of Environment and Forests was filed in response to environmentalist Ashok Kumar's application seeking extension of the CBI probe into the Sariska Tiger Reserve to other project tiger locations. While 238 related to seizure of tiger skins and other body parts, 114 tigers were killed by poachers taking the toll of big cats due to poaching to a whopping 352.

     Poachers were most active in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra accounting for 24 and 23 tigers respectively in the last five years, the affidavit said and added 13 tigers were killed in Madhya Pradesh during the same period. Interestingly, despite the CBI reporting that not a single tiger was left in Sariska tiger reserve, the Ministry said only two tigers were killed by poachers in the five year period. Only 59 tigers died a natural death in the five year period between 1999-2003 and only the states of Madhya Pradesh (15), Uttar Pradesh (12) and Uttaranchal (10) reported double-digit mortality figure. From the 238 seizure of tiger skins and body parts in 219 cases, Madhya Pradesh topped the list with 57 cases followed by Uttar Pradesh (44), West Bengal (39), Maharashtra (19), Uttaranchal (15) and Andhra Pradesh (11), the Ministry said. "The international border of India with Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar is relatively porus which facilitates illegal transfer of contraband including wildlife items across these borders", the Government said. The Steering Committee of Project Tiger in its meeting on April 12 this year listed the Tiger Reserves in States of Uttaranchal (Corbett and Rajaji National Park), Uttar Pradesh (Dudhwa), Madhya Pradesh (Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Pench and Panna), Maharashtra (Tadoba, Pench and Melghat) West Bengal (Sunderbans), Assam (Kaziranga), Tamil Nadu (Mudumalai), Karnataka (Bandipur and Nagarhole) and Rajasthan (Ranthambore) and said they deserve special attention for control of poaching of tigers.

     Among the key districts/States to be kept on watch for control of illegal trade in tiger parts were all of West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh (Balaghat, Jabalpur, Katni, Shadol, Mandla and Seoni), Uttar Pradesh (Lakhimpur Kheri and Pilibhit), Uttaranchal (Haridwar, Dehradun, Nainital and Pithoragarh), Maharashtra (Chandrapur, Nagpur and Mumbai), Andhra Pradesh (Adilabad) and Delhi, it said. A special census using electronic surveillance devices and digital cameras to track tigers has begun in Sariska Tiger Reserve and is expected to be completed by May 30. Methods like detection of pug marks and movement of tigers around water bodies would be used by forest and wildlife experts to trace the big cats, reported to have disappeared since November last year, Rajasthan Forest Minister L N Dave said. Electronic surveillance devices and digital cameras would be used to assist in the special census that would be carried out in three phases till May 30, he said. If there were indications of tigers, the experts would try to determine their sex, he said adding that other animals would also be considered during the census. The tiger census at Ranthambhore National Park in Sawai Madhopur district was already under way, he added.

Two killed, 15 wounded in a grenade attack in Srinagar (Go To Top)

     Srinagar: Suspected Muslim rebels threw a grenade at a group of mourners here on Tuesday, killing two and wounding at least 15. The attack took place as people gathered to mourn last week's murder of the brother of a former member of the frontline Hizbul Mujahideen rebel group. Unidentified gunmen killed Haji Abdul Gani Bhat, brother of former militant of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), Zaffar Abdul Bhat Fateh, who now heads the Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM), on Saturday (May 14). "At around 2 or 2.30 in the afternoon he (one of the killed) was standing with me. I asked him to come along with me but he said he had to go to someone's mourning. And then he was killed in the blast. Someone was killed a few days ago, people were supposed to go to his mourning," said Javed Ahmed, a local. No militant group has claimed responsibility for either of the attacks. Grenade attacks and gun battles between rebels and Indian troops continue in Kashmir despite an 18-month peace process between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars over the Himalayan region. There have a spate of bomb and grenade attacks over the past 12 days, including two earlier blasts in Srinagar. In the last blast on Friday, three family members were killed when a bomb wrapped as a gift exploded in their house. A Muslim separatist revolt in Kashmir against New Delhi's rule has killed over 45,000 people since 1989.

DU gangrape victim identifies assailant in parade (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Delhi University student who was gang-raped in a car earlier this week, has identified the main assailant during an identification parade at Tihar jail. The police who have been under tremendous pressure to crack the case have said that though the identification parade has proved that their investigation is on the right track, they, however, aren't relying on this alone for solving the case. "We are also collecting other evidence like forensics, etc," said Deependra Pathak, DCP, South West Delhi. Incidentally, the accused, Ajeet Katiyar is a known car thief and a part-time driver based in Noida. Police are also investigating whether he may have been following the girl and planned the rape. However, the three other men involved in the gang-rape are still missing.

SK Arora appointed as Secretary, Ministry of I and B (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Surinder Kumar Arora today assumed the office as Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. According to a press release, he was posted as Additional Secretary in the same Ministry since October 2004. Arora is the 1971 batch IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh Cadre. Born in October 1948, he is a postgraduate in Political Science as well as in Rural Development. Arora during his career has held prestigious assignments such as Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor for the Ministry of Commerce July 2003-July2004. He was Principal Financial Secretary in the Andhra Pradesh Government for 4-1/2 years (January 99-June 2003). From July 1998-January 1999, he held the post of Special Officer and Municipal Commissioner, Hyderabad, and was Director General of National Institute of Agriculture Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad under the Ministry of Agriculture from July 1992- July1997. Arora was on deputation to Government of UK from October 1997- June 1998, where he worked as a consultant to for the Rural Development projects in India.

Court dismisses appeal against `Jo Bole So Nihaal' (Go To Top)

     Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee's (SGPC) appeal to remove certain objectionable scenes from the film "Jo Bole So Nihal" which features Bollywood actor Sunny Deol. When the SGPC approached the High Court to remove the Sikh religious war cry from the title and song sequences of the film, the court directed it to move a formal petition later this week. "The counsel for the Censor Board has produced the fresh orders passed by the Censor (Board) accepting the movie without any further cuts. That order has been placed on record and the bench has adjourned the case to 19th to enable the petitioners to file proper case by way of affidavits or amended petitions to challenge the last order passed and placed on record today," said Rajiv Atmaram, counsel for the film's producers. Regretting the court's decision, the SGPC said that "Jo Bole So Nihal was a religious slogan chanted only inside a Gurudwara (Sikh shrine) or on the battlefield. In the past, the phrase was used to spiritually lift Sikhs believing in the eternal truth or god. SGPC say the title of the movie appeals to the religious devotees, but the film hurts their sentiments. "I am extremely sorry that the High Court did not consider the letter written by the SGPC (Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee) to the Censor Board. The idea of few people who are sitting in the Censor Board has been considered which is absolutely wrong. When the representative body has written that it is a wrong title to us, it should have been considered," said Hardip Singh, a member of the SGPC and the petitioner.

     The movie has invited the flak of several Sikh organisations who say that the title of the movie has nothing to do with the content. They say the film shows skimpily clad girls chasing the hero with a soundtrack which has quotes from the Sikh scriptures. The movie which stars Bollywood action hero Sunny Deol is about an innocent and lovable Sikh, who has a trimmed beard in half of the movie and is clean-shaven in the rest. Shaving off the beard is against one of the five tenets of Sikh religion. Deol is a constable in a small Punjabi town who gets duped by a criminal running a international crime syndicate. The story of the film revolves around Deol's quest to bring this crook to book, involving travel to New York. The first half of the movie can be described as a rollicking comedy of errors, but the storyline in the second half goes somewhat awry, leaving the watcher bemused.

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