CBI SP Vivek Dutt Being Framed?

     As per news agency report an officer of the CBI Mr Vivek Dutt, has been arrested along with another inspector for ‘ taking bribe of Rs 7 lakh for settling a land dispute’ . The CBI has sought the removal of the officer from the extremely sensitive Coal Gate case that he is investigating.

      The officer has denied the charge, and his counsel has told the court ‘ that his client is being targeted and nothing has been recovered from his possession by the agency.

    “He is investigating an important case under the supervision of the Supreme Court and somebody wants him not to be the part of the probe team… This is simply a device to divert the attention that the investigation in the coal scam is vitiated and the officer is corrupt,”

      The history of the Coalgate report and the actions to change it clearly point the needle of suspicion to the Prime Minister himself . The highly sensitive case case has already claimed the the Law minister Ashwini Kumar , Additional Solicitor General Harin P. Raval , and thrown up a great deal of muck.

      Improper actions of the Attorney General G E Vanahvati , Babus from the PM’s secretariat and coal ministry and the arrogance and total disregard for norms of the govt in interfering with the report has left all right thinking Indians shocked. The abject condition of the ‘premiere investigating agency’ was an open secret all along, and so its abysmal self debasing conduct and tattered reputation is no surprise to anyone..

     What however is intriguing is the timing of the arrest of its senior officer Mr Dutt by the CBI and the rush to the Supreme Court to remove Mr Dutt from the Coal Gate investigations.

      The following scenarios come to mind.

                • The officer took a bribe to settle a case and the CBI has taken correct action.
   

• The officer has been taking bribes earlier also , but the CBI found his                           report on the Coalgate unhelpful to the government and wanted him shunted out. Since the Supreme court had prohibited the govt from interfering with the investigating officers this was the only option available ; to tarnish his reputation, and remove him.
     

         • The officer has impeachable integrity, so a case has been cooked up to tarnish his reputation and remove him.

     In the sorry state of affairs that exists today, official actions and statements are liable to be doubted at every step. The fact that the governments of the day have been known to foist cases on innocent persons and tarnish their reputation is well known.

      Vineet Narain who broke the Hawala Case, was hounded for years, Tehelka ‘s Editor and staff have faced innumerable raids and harassment, Officers like Khemka of Haryana and a host of others who have disclosed the ill gotten wealth of politicians have had to pay heavily for their sincerity and devotion to probity.

       So is it not possible that Mr Vivek Dutt is being framed?

    ED:
Extracts from News reports

       CBI to move SC to seek removal of officer arrested for bribery

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday will move the Supreme Court to seek the removal of the officer who was arrested on Friday while taking a bribe of Rs 7 lakh for settling down a land dispute.

Superintendent of Police Vivek Dutt, along with Inspector Rajesh Karnatak and two others, was arrested by the internal vigilance unit of the CBI from Lodhi Colony area in south Delhi. Notably, Dutt was said to be an investigating officer in the coal scam.

“Dutt was taking bribe of Rs 7 lakh for settling down a land dispute related to the Delhi Police. He was accompanied by the inspector,” an agency official told a news agency.

“We had information about the dealing and we continued to maintain surveillance on them. After monitoring them for pretty long, today (Friday) they were arrested for taking the bribe”, CBI director Ranjit Sinha said.

Sinha further said that the CBI would apprise the apex court of the developments since the SC had ruled that no official associated with the investigation into the coal

CBI’s coalgate investigator arrested for taking bribe

In another embarrassment to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), two of its officers – Superintendent of Police Vivek Dutt, also the investigating officer in the coal block allocation scam, and Inspector Rajesh Karnatak – were arrested on Friday for accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh from a person. CBI’s internal vigilance department did the arrests. Sources said Dutt was trying to use his influence to help a person settle a case in connection with a land dispute.

CBI is under the scanner of the Supreme Court for sharing its coal allocation probe report with the former law minister, Ashwani Kumar, and two joint secretary-level officers, of the coal ministry and the prime minister’s office. The Supreme Court had rapped the CBI for being a “caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice.”

The latest development comes after the formation of a Group of Ministers to prepare a draft law to insulate CBI from external influence.
scam would be transferred without informing it.
Further investigations are on.

First Published: Saturday, May 18, 2013, 10:50

Arrested coalgate probe head alleges plot against him

    CBI SP Vivek Dutt, Inspector Rajesh Chandra Karnatak, 2 others are accused of taking bribe to favour a businessman in a land dispute

    Senior CBI officer Vivek Dutt, who headed the coalgate scam probe team, and three others were on Friday sent to three days in the agency’s custody by a Delhi court for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs. 7 lakh from a businessman to favour him in a land dispute case.

   “All the accused are remanded in CBI custody till 21 May,” Special CBI Judge V.K. Gupta said.

    Mr. Dutt, however, claimed innocence and alleged a conspiracy has been hatched to keep him out of the Supreme Court-monitored coalgate probe team.

He said Mr. Dutt is being targeted as there is no direct involvement of the CBI’s SP and nothing has been recovered from him.
“You (CBI) are diluting the important investigation which the whole country is seeing…You are diluting the probe which is being monitored by the Supreme Court,” the counsel said.

Pakistan Elections 2013: Colorful with Caste Calculations and Lunatic Fringe

                                   

Elections in the sub continent are always colorful. In Pakistan of 2013 it is  more so with the people full of life if not joy at the never before prospect of voting in an election not distorted by the ISI and the Army. And a civilian government which has run a full term of 5 years, never before has this happened.

      Even if the Army is not directly interfering this time its presence will be felt in every booth. Gen Kayani has offered ‘protection’ by the army of every booth.

      Baddies this time are the Taliban and other fanatic organisations who have openly declared that they will adopt any means to ensure that the elections are not held. Repeated bomb blasts at election meetings , murders and kidnapping of candidates indicate that they have  the capacity to create a great deal of fear among the candidates and the public.

        The latest is the abduction of Haider Ali Gilani, son of former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani in his home constituency in the outskirts of Multan. The abduction was not a an amateur or ham handed affair, clearly planned and organised by professional terrorists.

       Nawaz Sharif is expected to reap the maximum number of seats, however PML -S will not have a clear majority. Najam Sethi the caretaker in Punjab has moved out a great many beauracrats who would have helped Sharif to influence the voting pattern.

      PPP is on the back foot this time. With many allegations of corruption and mis-governance. Death threats forced Bilawal to opt out. Candidates are afraid to campaign freely.

              

IMRAN KHAN while he may have won the world cup in cricket for Pakistan has no real experience  of Pakistani politics. How far his image of a honest person boosted by his recent hospitalization due to an injury received while campaigning will bring in votes is yet to be seen.

Nigel Evans : As a Minister he would have been safe in India

This guy should have been in India. No policeman would have dared touch him.

Even if the allegations are true he would have been shielded by the prime minister, all his cabinet collegues, and his party men.

Ed:

       Deputy speaker of Britain’s lower house of parliament and Conservative gay lawmaker Nigel Evans has been arrested by police for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting two men in their twenties.

     Detectives visited his home in Pendleton, Lancashire, yesterday following allegations by two men who were in their 20s at the time of the alleged attacks, which are said to have taken place at the property in July 2009 and March 2013. British Prime Minister

      David Cameron, the Prime Minister of UK is understood to have been informed about the arrest of the 55-year-old MP for Ribble Valley, one of the few Tory strongholds in the north – See more at:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/deputy-speaker-of-british-parliament-arrested-on-suspicion-of-raping-2-men/1111751/#sthash.6csNxmfG.dpuf

MUSHARRAF AN UNSOLDIERLY SOLDIER: HIS COMEUPPANCE AT LAST ?

An opposite of what a honorable soldier is expected to be

       A rogue soldier and a rogue general who cheated his way to be a president of Pakistan, ditched all his friends, lied without a sense of shame.

     He acted in a most unsoldierly manner when he plotted the Kargil Fiasco, depriving the gallant dead soldiers of Pakistan right to a decent burial as war heroes.

      He cheated the people of Pakistan, dismissed a government elected by the people of Pakistan.He cheated the government of  of India and also cheated the US administration.

     The US administration was willing to be cheated. Indian Prime Minister was willing to be cheated .  No one need weep for them.

      But the hundreds of lives lost on the Kargil, Afganistan, and Baluchistan.

      He was an avid sympathiser and supported of  terrorists. He was also the bosom pal of the CIA.

EXtracts from Indian Express of 30 April 13

 ’Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was today sent to judicial custody for a fortnight by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.’

         ’The court in Rawalpindi had said at the last hearing that Musharraf should be produced for today’s hearing but he was not presented before the judge for security reasons, said chief prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali of the Federal Investigation Agency.’

           ’The FIA’s joint investigation team had completed its investigation against Musharraf and gathered “solid evidence” that “directly connects the accused with the commission of the offences with which he has been charged”, Ali said. “Musharraf has tried to shift liability and responsibility on others but there is solid evidence which proves he is guilty,” he said.’

        ‘Musharraf returned to Pakistan on March 24 after a nearly] four-year long self imposed exile abroad to contest the May 11 general elections. However, Pakistani authorities disqualified him from contesting the election, effectively putting an end to his ambitions for a political comeback.’

UTTAR PRADESH & PUNJAB : Police beats up elderly women and men

SHAME: Yet another case of Police Brutality Against Innocent Persons

UP minor raped, dumped in garbage

Policemen Beat Up Women Protesters

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

      Lucknow: Women protesting against cops’ refusal to file an FIR on a missing six-year-old child were beaten up pitilessly by policemen in Aligarh on Thursday, with TV cameras recording the stomach-turning visuals of several activists brutalized by men in uniform.

      The child, who’d gone missing on Wednesday, was later found dead. This led to angry women and men taking to the streets demanding action against cops who had refused to file the complaint, and had instead asked the parents to look for their kid themselves.

      Later, Aligarh senior superintendent of police Amit Pathak admitted the police had mishandled the protest and the circle officer of Banna Devi was transferred. Two junior officers were suspended.

      On Thursday, the discovery of the girl’s body in a garbage dump triggered largescale resentment in the area. It was alleged she was sexually assaulted before being strangled, which added to the anger among family members and their neighbors. Cops reached the spot to videograph the crime scene and complete other formalities. However, angry women insisted that they were treated badly and blamed the police for the girl’s death. They said had cops acted on the parents’ complaint, her life could have been saved.

     Police brass learnt about the incident through TV channels, that broadcasted the footage of women being beaten up incessantly on Thursday.

     On their part, cops said they were outnumbered with crowd hurling stones. By the time additional forces reached the site with, mob frenzy had damaged police vehicles and wounded at least three cops. Rumors of police firing triggered panic in localities near the Banna Devi.

Cop thrashes woman, tears off her clothes 

A woman was allegedly assaulted and her clothes torn off by a policeman in Amritsar district of Punjab. Kuljit Kaur (43) from Nandwala Nawan village 20 km from Amritsar alleged on Thursday that she was assaulted when she was on her way to deliver medicines to her husband on Wednesday night. TNN

A policeman thrashes an old woman during a protest over the alleged rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in Aligarh on Thursday

Superstition: Scared Politicians from UP

       Politicians in India take recourse to Astrologers, Babas, Gurus, many of whom have turned out to be the power behind the throne. Dhirendra Brhmacharis and Chandra Swamis are dime a dozen.

     ’Secular’ politicians are no less in need of ‘spiritual guidance’. Come election time many are the poor innocent goats and chicken that are slaughtered, to provide ‘victory’ at the hustings. 

      May be there is something about NOIDA that is really dangerous to Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh.  Records indicate that CMs who visited NOIDA paid heavily, The heaviest price that can be demanded from a politician. The loss of his/her chair. 

Noida ‘jinx’ keeps Akhilesh away

Ayaskant Das TNN

Noida: With Akhilesh Yadav inaugurating infrastructure projects in Gautam Budh Nagar on Tuesday without actually visiting the city, political grapevine is abuzz that the CM chose to stay away fearing the ‘Noida jinx’.

       The jinx, as per political circles, has in the past caught up with several chief ministers of UP, including Veer Bahadur Singh, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Kalyan Singh and Mayawati, who lost their chairs soon after visiting Noida.

      The young CM, who rode to power projecting himself as a tech-savvy environmental engineer, gave in to superstitions when he preferred to inaugurate the Yamuna Expressway last year by the press of a button from Lucknow.

       Despite the Samajwadi Party’s grand attempt at an image makeover during their fresh term in office, political observers say that Akhilesh would at best be viewed as a chip of the old block if he continues to avoid Noida purely for superstitious reasons. The party, which had promised the ban of computers as part of their election manifesto of 2007, has actually been distributing free laptops and tablets to students after storming to power in 2012.

       “In these circumstances, Akhilesh’s decision to skip Noida just because of a superstition is an aberration from the party’s new stand,” said an SP insider. 

       Akhilesh’s fear is not wholly unfounded as the ‘jinx’ has had its effect on the Yadav clan too in the past. Samajwadi Party chieftain, Mulayam Singh Yadav, who had visited Noida as UP chief minister in 1995, lost the polls that were held immediately thereafter. 

       As per political circles, the fear of the jinx is so well entrenched that Rajnath Singh, former BJP chief minister of UP, had chosen to inaugurate the DND flyway from the Delhi side in 2001 without visiting Noida.

SUPERSTITIOUS?

Obscurantism:

A WOMAN’S PLACE IS AT HOME…’

Says the grand mufti of J&K though his daughter-in-law is a scientist working in Abu Dhabi

Mohammed Wajihuddin | TNN

 

    The original job of Jammu and Kashmir’s state-backed Mufti Azam (Grand Priest) Bashir-u-Din was to confirm moon sightings before Eid and Bakrid. That was till a couple of years ago. Now Bashir-u-Din is known more for his fatwas, the latest of which declared that the state’s first all-girl band, Pargaash, is “un-Islamic”.
The fatwa earned him admiration as well as hatred in the cyber sphere depending on which side of the debate you were on. Pargaash has called it quits and the Mufti is unrepentant and ecstatic. “I am glad the girls have abandoned the band. We cannot allow our daughters to get exploited by the Western culture,” he says on phone from his home in Soura on the outskirts of Srinagar. “There are so many other decent fields for girls to excel in. I have never met them but was shown the videos and thought this needed to be stopped.”
In his mid-70s, Bashir-u-Din says he was appointed Grand Mufti by late Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, the state’s last prime minister in 1960. A third generation mufti, neither Bashir-u-Din’s father Kawam-u-Din nor grandfather Jalal-u-Din ever issued fatwas, though they were held in reverence. But with a Masters degree in Arabic from the Aligarh Muslim University and the knowledge of Islam — which he says he received at a local madrassa in Srinagar — Bashir-u-Din has taken on the task of righting many “wrongs” in society.
Why did he oppose the all girl-rock band? “According to Islam, a woman’s preferred place is her home. She should step out or do a job only when it is essential,” he says. This theory had been stated earlier too in a fatwa issued by Darul Uloom in Deoband, an institution that many now jokingly refer to as India’s “fatwa factory”. Incidentally, the mufti’s own daughter-in-law, Dr Neelofar Ali, works as a scientist in Abu Dhabi.
Bashir-u-Din surprised many when, in 2011, he appointed himself the chief of the self-styled Supreme Court of Islamic Shariat. “No one had heard of this post in the Valley before he floated it and started using it on his letterhead,” recalls a local journalist who has been following his pronouncements over the years. The mufti stunned everyone by appointing his son Nasirul-Islam as his successor in 2000. Islam had lived for years in Abu Dhabi where he is reported to have business interests and a legal consultancy job. He was an unlikely candidate for the Grand Mufti’s job.
Though J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah criticized the mufti, critics allege that it was at his government’s behest that the mufti issued a fatwa against stone-pelting in the Valley. The separatists alleged that the mufti was doing the government’s bidding. “I am doing only Allah’s bidding. I am not on government’s pay-roll. You journalists are out to malign me,” he says and hangs up.
TRACK RECORD
The Grand Mufti first made news when he issued a fatwa in 2007 against Ghulam Nabi Azad, then Jammu & Kashmir’s chief minister. When Azad had asked people to emulate Mahatma Gandhi, the mufti, through a fatwa, declared this “un-Islamic”.
He has since targeted many, including four Christian pastors allegedly involved in conversions in the Valley. The pastors denied the charge.
Last year, he asked Americans to leave the valley after an anti-Prophet video angered Muslims across the world. “I didn’t ask all Christians and Americans to leave the valley. I have enough evidence to prove that a few Christian priests are luring Muslim youth in the Valley to Christianity,” he says.

Delhi: Not Safe for Common Man : Unsafe for Women

Lutyens’ manned, rest unguarded

Capital Home To Both Safest, Most Dangerous Urban Areas Of Country

Josy Joseph TNN

New Delhi: Delhi Police is actually New Delhi’s police. The national capital’s police actually has two different yardsticks for law and order in the city. If you live within Ring Road, especially in Lutyens’ Delhi, you receive several times more attention than a person living beyond the exclusive zone.

       The statistics are there for all to see. They add to the recent debate kicked up by the findings of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) of the home ministry about the undue police attention for VIPs at the cost of ordinary people. BPRD found that almost three cops were deployed per VIP as against just one cop for 761 ordinary Indians. The study showed that states and UTs had deployed 50,059 police personnel to protect 16,788 VIPs in 2010.

      The VIP culture of police forces is best captured in Delhi, which is home to both the safest and some of the most dangerous urban areas of India. The safest part is Lutyens’ Delhi, where the national government is located and most politicians live. Some parts of the rest of Delhi are among the most crime-prone urban areas of India.

         Rashtrapati Bhavan, the President’s home and office, best symbolizes the VVIP obsession of the police force. Delhi Police has deployed one joint commissioner, one DCP, three additional DCPs, 10 ACPs, 20 inspectors and another 1,000 men in Rashtrapati Bhavan. This is besides the 200 ITBP personnel deployed there, and President’s Bodyguard, an elite army unit.

         This massive, top-heavy force is in contrast to a joint commissioner heading the entire Northern Range of the city, a 621.3 sqkm area of over 75 lakh residents. A DCP heads an entire district’s police force. The range saw 16,299 IPC cases in 2011. Just 54% of these IPC cases were solved. The statistics are better for heinous crimes — 80.7% murders, 91.7% kidnappings and 95.5% rapes solved.

         A senior policeman said the contrast was reflective of the complex policing of national capitals around the world. “This is the seat of power, this is what defines India,” he said. “Please do not just compare crime. Police officers in New Delhi are heavily involved in VVIP movement,” he added.

            Delhi has 11 police districts, and there are on an average 12 police stations per district. Anywhere between 120 and 150 personnel are posted in each police station.

        The irony of the VIP culture is starker when it comes to the level of police stations. In the New Delhi area, serious crime is a rarity. Connaught Place police station saw no murder or rape in 2011. It had one robbery and 28 vehicle thefts. In fact, vehicle theft is the most frequent crime reported in the police stations of New Delhi.
Chanakyapuri police station, too, saw neither a murder or a rape, and just two attempts to murder and eight vehicle thefts. Barakhamba Road police station saw one murder and two rapes.

           In contrast, police stations in the rest of Delhi witness several murders and rapes. For example, in Narela police station, there were 12 murders, three rapes, 13 attempts to murder, 17 robberies and 133 vehicle thefts. In Bawana, there were nine murders and five rapes. In Alipur, there were nine murders and five rapes.

Starvation Amidst Plenty

Food bowl overflowing, but 25% of population still hungry

Subodh Varma TIMES INSIGHT GROUP

     T he Indian government is sitting on one of world’s biggest hoards of food grains, about 667 lakh tons as of January 1, 2013. This is not some bizarre seasonal twist – monthly stocks of food grains averaged over 671 lakh tons for the whole of last year, including an all time high of 802 lakh tons in June. Just five years ago, in 2008, the food grains stock was 192 lakh tons in January. Since then, it has zoomed up by almost 250% to the present level.

       Government rules say that a buffer stock of 200 lakh tons and a strategic reserve of 50 lakh tons need to be maintained. But current stocks are more than two and a half times this benchmark.

      This would be a matter of celebration except that even as food grain stocks keep piling up, hunger and malnutrition continue to haunt a quarter of the population, over 200 million people, according to various estimates. Last year, India was ranked 65th in a list of 79 countries where serious hunger and malnutrition persists, made by the International Food Policy Research Institute. With over 43% babies suffering malnutrition, on this count alone India is ranked below Ethiopia and Bangladesh. So how come a mountain of life-giving grain is surrounded by a sea of hungry humanity? The reasons can be found in a mix of subsidy cutting government policy, bureaucratic bumbling, corruption and even profiteering, say experts .

      Successive bumper harvests since 2006, and better prices offered by the government procurement agencies have created these stocks. In April-March 2012, a record 380 lakh tons wheat was procured, while rice procurement during October 2011-September 2012, was also 350 lakh tons.

      So that explains the huge stocks. But why can’t it be distributed to the millions who need it? The government insists that it can only distribute food grain through its targeted public distribution system, fixed amounts, at low prices to those BPL, and at higher prices to those above poverty line.

        There are many problems with this approach, points out Biraj Patnaik, principal adviser to the Commissioners of the Supreme Court who are assisting the SC in tracking government policy.

        “The number of BPL families is based on projection for the year 2000 based on the 1991 Census. So their figures are off by 8-10 crore. We are trying to persuade them to adopt the 2011 population data,” he says.

        The committee headed by justice Wadhwa to suggest reforms in the public distribution system confirms this pointing out that the population of India was projected at 99cr in 2000 whereas in 2012 it is 122cr.

     The poverty line itself is a matter of serious dispute because it is pegged at Rs. 18 in urban areas and Rs. 12 in rural areas per person per day. Many families that are technically above the poverty line are so poor that they can’t afford the wheat and rice offered by the government.

         The most obvious solution is distribution to everybody. Economist Jean Dreze, a member of the NAC, sees the excess stock as a “great opportunity” to consolidate the Public Distribution System under the National Food Security Act. He said, “ It could be used to facilitate the transition to a more inclusive if not universal PDS within a few years.”

        The government, however, is not comfortable with this idea. And so, the warehouses will remain full in the months to come.

SIM CARDS: Perverts and Terrorists & Criminals Have Easy Access

SMS perverts use fake papers to hoodwink cops

V Narayan TNN

Mumbai: The incessant ringing of her cellphone in the dead of the night woke up Reema (name changed) from her deep slumber. The Chembur resident, who works as an executive with a private firm, answered the phone, only to hear the maniacal laughter of aman. A few days later, Reema received an obscene text message from the same number. To make matters worse, Reema’s two female flatmates also started receiving vulgar SMSes from the same number. They then approached the police. “The man told us the cops will never find him as he had procured six SIM cards using fake documents,” said Reema.

     The cops traced the number to a Goregaon man and learnt that he was unaware that his papers had been used to obtain the SIM card.

     Reema and her flatmates are not alone. Many women are still waiting for the perverts, who harassed them through obscene SMSes and emails, to be brought to justice. Investigators, too, admit that very rarely do such persons get caught. “Mobile service providers do not thoroughly check documents while giving out SIM cards. This negligent approach helps the perverts get away with their crime,” said an officer.

    According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Mumbai has the maximum number of registered cases of sexual harassment or obscenity through SMS, MMS or email.

Between 2007 and 2012 (till August), 84 such cases were registered in the city. When it comes to states, Maharashtra, too, doesn’t fare better. The NCRB data shows Maharashtra has the third highest number of such cases (169) registered in the country in the same period.

    JCP (crime) Himanshu Roy said, “We will take up the matter with the information technology ministry so that proper action is taken against erring service providers.”

     A spokesperson of a leading telecom operator said the cops were trying to pass the buck by blaming operators. Times View: Crack the whip B oth service providers and cops need to be more proactive when it comes to helping victims of online/mobile sexual harassment. The trauma that the victim goes through should not be compounded by official apathy and the gloves should be off while dealing with these predators. They are a real enough menace though they may be operating in the virtual world.