Death for 11, life sentence for 20 in Godhra train burning case 8
March
NEW DELHI: A special court on Tuesday pronounced the death penalty for 11 convicted in the Godhra train burning case and handed down life sentence to 20 others. Special judge P R Patel considering the case as "rarest of rare" pronounced death penalty for 11 out of the 31 convicted in the case while 20 others were sentenced to life imprisonment, PTI reported. "The court looking into their active role in the conspiracy and setting afire the S6 coach of Sabarmati Express train near Godhra, gave death penalty to 11 people," public
prosecutor J M Panchal said. The court also slapped punishment on them under various other sections, which will be concurrent to their life term. The prosecution had sought death sentence for all the 31 convicts, saying that it was a heinous act. Thirty-one people were convicted and 63 others, including the main accused Maulvi Umarji, were acquitted on February 22 by a special court here in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident that left 59 people dead and triggered violence in Gujarat that had claimed the lives of over 1200
'Pragya killed Sunil Joshi, feared he may spill beans'
DEWAS (MP): RSS activist Sunil Joshi was eliminated by fellow Hindu hardliners including Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for his "highhandedness and the fear" that his arrest would unmask right-wing plotters of explosions in several parts of the country. This has been stated in the 432-page charge sheet filed by the police before Judicial Magistrate Padmesh Shah here on Sunday which says the sadhvi was peeved with Joshi as he had personally misbehaved with her and "his overall behaviour was something not expected by a woman". Coming a day after Devas police formally arrested Thakur for the 2007 murder of the RSS 'pracharak', the charge sheet with 89 annexures also contains statements of 124 witnesses.
people, mainly Muslims. The court acquitted prime accused Umarji while other prominent accused Haji Billa and Rajjak Kurkur were convicted. Scientific evidence, statement of witnesses, circumstantial and documentary evidence placed on record formed the basis of the judgement. The trial conducted inside the Sabarmati Central Jail here began in June 2009 with the framing of charges against 94 accused in the carnage that had triggered widespread communal riots in Gujarat. The accused have been charged with criminal conspira-
US court summons Cong, Kamal Nath for 1984 riots CHANDIGARH: A US district court has summoned the Congress (I), earlier avatar of Congress, for ''conspiring, aiding, abetting and carrying out organized attacks on the Sikh population of India in November 1984''. On March 1, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, summoned Congress (I) following a law suit filed by Sikhs For Justice (SFJ). This is a US-based human rights group pursuing the 1984 antiSikh riots cases in India and US under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA). The SFJ, along with families of some of the Sikh victims, is pursuing the case in
the US court. The families had shifted to USA after the riots. Union minister Kamal Nath is also one of the respondents in the case. ''Within 21 days of the service of this summon on you... you must serve on the plaintiff an answer to the unattached complaint or a motion under rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil procedure,'' read the summons sent to Congress-I and Kamal Nath at the US office of Indian National Overseas Congress at Union Street, Flushing, New York. In a statement, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, SFJ's legal advisor, said, ''The gravity, scale and specially the organized
Barber gets Rs 2.5L in big, fat Gujjar wedding
NEW DELHI: The city`s big, fat Gujjar wedding lived up to its hype on Tuesday night. The reported Rs 100crore extravaganza saw two eight-acre farms in south Delhi`s Jaunapur, where mustard and sugarcane crops stood a month ago, being converted into a fivestar setting with wooden flooring. The barber from the groom`s side was reportedly gifted Rs 2.5 lakh. Artisans from across India spent the past month decorating the venues for the wedding of Lalit, youngest son of politician Kanwar Singh Tanwar, with Sohna ex-MLA Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria`s daughter, Yogita. A Rs 33-crore, seven-seater chopper, gifted by Jaunapuria, is likely to land at Tanwar`s farmhouse on Thursday afternoon. Tanwar confirmed that the seven-seater chopper would
cy and murder in burning of the S-6 coach of the train on February 27, 2002 near Godhra, about 125 km from here in which 59 people were killed. Defence counsel I M Munshi said the convicts will definitely appeal against the punishment awarded to them. "It (the punishment) is very difficult to swallow. Till we get the copy of the judgement, we cannot comment much," Munshi said. "We will definitely appeal against the verdict in the high court. Till the high court confirms the judgement, it cannot be implemented," he said.
land at his farmhouse in Asola about 3pm on Thursday. "But I don`t understand why there is so much hoopla about this marriage. All estimates of this marriage in the media are speculative. Had it been my intention to show off to the world, I would not have invited everyone to the wedding. There will be no film star at the reception," he added. Now all eyes on the grand reception that Tanwar is throwing on Sunday evening at a five-star hotel. Despite Tanwar`s denial, there are reports that top Bollywood stars including Bipasa Basu and Malaika Arora would join the party. Those close to Tanwars said actress Manisha Koirala had attended the reception party of his eldest son. The girl`s father, Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria, owns Gurgaonbased real estate firm — SS
Builders. About the transformation of the wedding venue to a five-star venue, Rupinder Walia of DS decorators said, "When we visited the site where the wedding took place, it was a mustard and sugarcane field. We took about a month to create this ambience and brought artists from different states." But Tanwar is not the only one to spend big on a marriage. Several Gujjar leaders from Delhi and its suburbs have hosted lavish weddings. Mercedes and BMWs have become common gifts. "An MLA`s son got a farmhouse, an Endeavour and two Santros recently besides huge cash. In several cases bride`s parents, who are into politics and are either sitting MLAs or ex-MLAs are gifting two Mercedes cars or a Hummer and huge quality of gold and silver,"
nature of these attacks was concealed by the Indian government portraying them as November 1984 anti-Sikh riots of Delhi. These attacks were neither riots nor were they confined to Delhi alone. In fact, during November 1984, Sikhs were attacked in 18 states and more than 100 cities of India in an identical manner and the attackers were led by Congress (I) leaders.'' Jatinder Singh Grewal, SFJ youth coordinator, said Congress (I) ''committed genocide against Sikhs as defined in Article 2 of UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948''.
Arbitrary detention, torture of terrorism suspects in India: HRW
NEW DELHI: "When I asked my son if he was tortured, he said, 'They were hardly going to treat me with love...They used to make us memorize the police version of the case. We were not allowed to sleep until we could recite that version.' " These words by Nisar Ahmed are an excerpt from the106-page report released yesterday, by Human Right Watch titled, "The 'Anti-Nationals': Arbitrary Detention and Torture of Terrorism Suspects in India." Ahmed's son, Saqib Nisar has been charged for his role in the 2008 bombings as a member of Indian Mujahideen. Three bombings in 2008, in Jaipur on May 13, in Ahmedabad on July 26, and in New Delhi on September 13 claimed 152 lives and injured many more. Ahmed's confessions about his son's experience who is still in police custody is one of the 160 or more interviews that HRW compiled with terror suspects, their relatives and lawyers, civil society activists, security experts, and law enforcement officials. The HRW report documents consistent abuse by Indian security forces in their response to the scourge of terrorism attacks.
INDIA NEWS
2,300 Indians evacuated from Libya over weekend
NEW DELHI: A record number of over 2,300 Indians were evacuated from Libya since yesterday and two-third of the estimated 18,000 Indian nationals would have been pulled out of the strifetorn country by this evening, government said today. "Three special Air India flights from Tripoli and one from Sebha (Libya), besides the Red Star One ferry (from Misurata) accomplished this task. By late evening today, more than 2/3rd of our nationals would have been pulled out of Libya, totalling over 12,000," External affairs ministry said in a statement. The second Boeing 747 sortie brought home another 400 passengers from Sebha (Libya) to Mumbai. Daily sorties have been scheduled to evacuate all the remaining persons from Sebha over the next few days. According to the ministry, Fly Dubai airline will undertake further daily sorties to clear the remaining 360 passengers from Dzerba ( Tunisia). 580 persons have already returned to India from Tunis in the last couple of days. "In the second round, MV Scotia Prince picked up all the remaining 972 of our nationals from Benghazi (Libya) and is headed back to Alexandria, where it is expected to reach in the afternoon of March 7. The passengers will be flown back to India on four special flights (one of them IL-76) on March 8 and 9," the ministry said. MV Red Star One commenced its return journey to Malta from Misurata (Libya) at 1730 hrs (LT) yesterday, with all the 301 Indians desirous of leaving Libya and 29 foreign nationals on board, including six from Bangladesh. "The vessel is expected in Malta by 0800 hrs today (local time). The evacuees will be flown back to India on a special Jet Air and Kingfisher flights," the ministry said.
India successfully testfires missile interceptor
BHUBANESWAR: India successfully flight-tested an indigenously built interceptor missile from Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast on Sunday, joining the US, Russia and Israel in an elite group of countries to have accomplished the mission. The interceptor, developed under the Ballistic Missile Defence System, destroyed the target, a variant of Prithvi-II mimicking an enemy missile, fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on-Sea in Balasore district, about 70 km from Wheeler Island at an altitude of 16 km over the Bay of Bengal. "The interceptor was fired five minutes after the target was set offaround 9:32 am," said director, ITR, S P Dash. Defence sources said within three minutes of the target's launch, the missile tracking network, comprising long range and multi-function radars and other range sensors positioned at different locations, detected and identified the incoming missile threat, paving the way for the interceptor, Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile, to zoom through the sky at a speed of 4.5 Mach and blast it. Several scientists and defence officers witnessed the achievement. Defence minister AK Antony congratulated scientists involved in the project. "It was an excellent flight. The interceptor completely destroyed its target. The trial, conducted from two launch sites of ITR off the Orissa coast, was a success," said Dash.