SCAM/CORRUPTION â 2010 - Indian Social Institute

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police might frame me, I gave them in writing. But later I wrote to the Delhi Police Commissioner, Vigilance Wing and Delhi Health Minister Kiran Walia about it,” said Mr. Nagar. Mr. Nagar alleged that the police were trying to shield two minor accomplices in the case. “The two minors, who have not been apprehended so far, belong to influential families. The police are under pressure to shield them,” alleged Mr. Nagar. The case pertains to alleged sexual abuse of a minor school girl and her two younger brothers by a private school van driver and his four minor accomplices for over eight months. (The Hindu, 5/10/2010) Haryana home secy booked in multi-crore land scam case CHANDIGARH: The CBI has booked three senior former officials of the Chandigarh administration, including Krishna Mohan, an IAS officer who is now the home secretary of Haryana, in connection with irregularities in awarding a multicrore mega project — a theme-cum amusement park. Those named in the CBI FIR apart from Mohan, were the then adviser to the administrator Lalit Sharma and director, tourism, HCS Vivek Atray. Also named was the management of real estate company Unitech. Sharma has retired and Atray is now with a multinational consulting firm, KPMG. The FIR was registered by the anti-corruption branch of the CBI under section 420 (cheating), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and under section 31(D) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. CBI zonal director, DIG Mahesh Aggarwal said that 73.65 acres of land in village Sarangpur was allotted to M/s Unitech Ltd in December 2006 for the project. CBI sources said statements of all the accused have been recorded. The CBI had done a preliminary inquiry in this connection on January 19 this year. Earlier, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) had conducted a probe and detected irregularities in the awarding this project to Unitech Ltd. The sources said that though the project was floated on public-private partnership (PPP) basis under a new mode of annual revenue sharing of 33 years, approval had also not been sought for the model while awarding the project to Unitech and it was in violation of lease rules. (TOI, 6/10/2010) Police as predators The shocking rape and murder of Maya Yadav, a police constable, by her colleagues at Kota in Rajasthan has once again raised questions about the integrity of our law-enforcers in the States. This is not the first time that the police have turned into predators, but what makes this incident particularly heinous is that the victim was one of their own. Police constable Desh Raj and cook Tulsi Ram entered the quarters of Maya Yadav on the pretext of watching television, raped her and then killed her to prevent her from lodging a complaint against them — all within the premises of Chechat Police Station. As if this were not bad enough, the Rajasthan Police, rather than act against the villains, tried to sweep the sordid truth under the carpet, hoping the stain on its uniform would remain a secret. The police acted against the guilty only after Chechat erupted and people attacked the police station. A similar incident surfaced recently in Jaipur when a tribal woman from Dausa district reported that a top cop had raped her 13 years ago and she had been denied justice since then. Under mounting pressure, the Rajasthan Government has finally asked the Special Operations Group of the State police to locate and arrest the absconding former DIG and find out how he escaped the law. Neither this official nor the men who raped Maya Yadav are alone in committing criminal misdeeds: A former DGP of Haryana, SPS Rathore, has been held guilty of molesting a minor girl and subsequently harassing her and her family till she committed suicide. Last month, people took to the streets in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur and clashed with the police after a constable raped a 12-year-old girl. What makes this story particularly poignant is that the victim of the constable’s lust had lost her way and innocently sought his help. It would be easy to wave away such ghastly instances of policemen committing crimes which they are supposed to be fighting as aberrations. But that would be self-defeating. The steep increase in the number of custodial deaths, rapes and other horrendous atrocities shows that the rot continues to get deeper with each passing day, week and year. A law-abiding society is supposed to respect those entrusted with the noble task of enforcing the law of the land, but the reality in India is to the contrary: People either fear policemen in uniform or have nothing but contempt for them. This is hardly conducive to either the functioning of the police force or maintaining law and order. Those guilt of bringing disrepute to the profession should be given exemplary punishment. But that would be only half the job done. What is needed is the implementation of police reforms and the demonstration of political will by the State Governments. Tragically, while there has been little or no movement forward on implementing reforms, the political class has abjectly failed to address the problem, too. This is best exemplified by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s callous comments following Maya Yadav’s rape and murder. (Pioner, 6/10/2010) Prisoner becomes dad, court asks how AHMEDABAD: A city sessions court has asked police to inquire how could a prisoner, lodged in
Vadodara central jail, father a child in Ahmedabad when he has not been out on bail or furlough for nearly two years. The inquiry may reveal a murky side of the prison lives of high-profile inmates, who allegedly enjoy several liberties. Gova Rabari, who is convicted in the murders of a municipal corporator and a prison inmate in Sabarmati Central jail, became a father on Tuesday after his wife Sitaben delivered through a planned caesarean section. Rabari's brother Praveen moved an application last week in the city sessions court urging the court to release Gova for a week so that he could stay with his wife and child. In his bail plea, Rabari's brother claimed that the child was conceived with IVF technology. Principal sessions judge P B Desai, who heard the application, refused to release Rabari for such a long duration considering his criminal past. However, the judge permitted Rabari to stay with his family on Tuesday and Wednesday under tight security. Rabari has been asked to return to jail on October 7 morning. The court's relief, however, came with questions. The investigating officer has been asked to report at the earliest to the court showing how Rabari's wife became pregnant. The court seemed perplexed with the family's claim of IVF technology. Rabari, who was in Sabarmati central jail for killing Congress corporator Amtha Desai, was also an accused in the audacious murder of another prisoner Chetan Battery in 2005. (TOI, 6/1/2010) One year on, no progress in J&K custodial death The Government has no answers for the family of a Jammu-based businessman, which has been waiting for justice after its sole breadwinner died a year ago, allegedly following police brutality. Exactly a year ago, Rajneesh Sharma was found hanging inside Ram Munshibagh Police Station, in Srinagar. Sharma had no criminal background when was picked by the police on September 30 from Jammu in connection with the kidnapping of a girl, whom he had married on August 21, 2009. The girl, identified as Ameena Yousaf, converted to Hindusim and was renamed Anchal Sharma. She had gone against the wishes of her parents. After her husband’s death, she ran away from Jammu to reunite with her parents and took a U-turn, apparently under pressure from her family. Earlier, she had blamed her parents and brothers for hatching a conspiracy in connivance with local policemen to eliminate Rajneesh. She had addressed numerous Press conferences in Jammu, alleging her parents’ role behind the brutal torture that led to Rajneesh’s death in police custody. She retracted all her statements in a Srinagar court. Now, a year later, Rajneesh’s 71-year old mother Raj Rani and other close relatives are still groping in the dark. “I have failed to get justice from the State Government,” Raj Rani told The Pioneer. “My son was not a terrorist. He was not a criminal. He had only taken an extreme stand and decided to marry a girl belonging to a different religion as they both fell in love. If that is a crime, I admit he committed it but why kill him for that?” she lamented. Rajneesh’s elder brother, Pawan, pitched in. “Over the past year, we have knocked at the doors of politicians, senior State Government and police officials. Their statements were recorded before a probe panel set up by the State Government but we do not know what happened to all that,” he stated. The family accused the Centre and State Governments of applying different yardsticks to cases of people belonging to different regions in the State. They have now pinned their hopes on the Supreme Court. The family had earlier declined an offer to accept ex-gratia payment announced by the State Government and pledged to fight for justice. Additional DC Srinagar Mohd Akbar Ganai, who conducted the probe, told The Pioneer over telephone from Srinagar, “I have already submitted my inquiry report to the State Government.” (Pioneer, 7/10/2010) Priyadarshini killer let off with life term NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction of lawyer Santosh Kumar Singh for the rape and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo 15 years ago, but spared him the noose, saying the case did not fall in the ``rarest of rare'' category. Commuting death sentence to life, a division bench of Justice H S Bedi and Justice C K Prasad held that the balance sheet of mitigating and aggravating circumstances ``tilts marginally in favour of the accused''. The mitigating circumstances found by the apex court in Santosh's favour were: * In 2006, the Delhi high court reversed the trial court's acquittal on the basis of ``circumstantial evidence''. * Santosh was `à young man of 24'' on January 23, 1996 when he raped and killed Mattoo, who was his junior in law college. * After his acquittal in 1999, he got married and became ``the father of a girl child''. * In the last 15 years, Santosh would have had ``time for reflection .. to ponder over the predicament that he now faces, the reality that his father died a year after his conviction and the prospect of a dismal future for his young family''. * There is ``nothing to suggest that he would not be capable of reform''. On the other hand, in a reference to the manner in which Santosh's police officerfather used his clout to derail justice, the apex court said the `èxtremely'' aggravating circumstances included ``the tendency of parents to be over indulgent to their progeny, often resulting in the most horrendous of situations.'' Significantly, the Supreme Court reduced the sentence on Santosh even as it acknowledged the evidence of ``regular and alarming incidents'' involving those with `ùnlimited power or pelf or even more dangerously, a volatile and heady cocktail of the two''. The bench observed: ``The
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Page 3 and 4: could come back," says the 70-year-
Page 5 and 6: Prakash, who is in the dock in the
Page 7 and 8: decision was "hasty and top-driven
Page 9 and 10: commodities trading, distribution o
Page 11 and 12: addressed “fairly and squarely”
Page 13 and 14: whether any action is required. (Re
Page 15 and 16: signal the end of the investigation
Page 17 and 18: they managed to get key postings wh
Page 19 and 20: fear that the “unholy nexus” wi
Page 21 and 22: said. Attacking the AGP for allegin
Page 23 and 24: problem can be gauged from the fact
Page 25 and 26: paid by IPL's sub-continent broadca
Page 27 and 28: quality parachutes, trousers and ja
Page 29 and 30: said. TOI, 9/8/2010) SIT names Zada
Page 31 and 32: HC rebukes CBI for 17-year-probe in
Page 33 and 34: Tamil Nadu this year, compared to t
Page 35 and 36: Robbery cases on rise in NCR Incide
Page 37 and 38: claims being made by both the Union
Page 39 and 40: passengers hurt when a bogey of How
Page 41 and 42: scrutinising his track record. Not
Page 43 and 44: Thiruvananthapuram. (Pioneer, 28/9/
Page 45: Police harass neighbour of sexual a
Page 49 and 50: the spot. Bablu rushed him to gover
Page 51 and 52: eceived from "various sources", sai
Page 53 and 54: egistering a case against them unde
Page 55 and 56: comprising plainclothesmen, will ca
Page 57 and 58: My conscience is clear, says Ashok
Page 59 and 60: MUMBAI: The Adarsh housing society
Page 61 and 62: said: “One who is capable, can de
Page 63 and 64: (Post and Telegraph), according to
Page 65 and 66: said Mandal. Arjun Munda has report
Page 67 and 68: policemen too much in a high. Even
Page 69 and 70: picked up the duo for interrogation
Page 71 and 72: Anchal, another accused who had ear
Page 73 and 74: esident of Panchkula, claimed that
Page 75: Malayalam television channels had a

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SCAM/CORRUPTION â 2010 - Indian Social Institute