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All accused in 1996 Bihar Dalit carnage acquitted

April 17, 2012

Bihar_Panta

Patna, April 17: The Patna High Court has acquitted all the 23 persons accused of perpetrating the massacre of 21 Dalits at Bathani Tola in Bhojpur in 1996.

The accused were convicted by the sessions court in Ara district and sentenced in May 2010. While three persons were awarded capital punishment, the remaining twenty were handed life imprisonment.

A Division Bench of judges Navneeti Prasad Singh and Ashwani Kumar Singh cited “defective evidence” to acquit all of them.

The carnage took place on the afternoon of July 11, 1996. Upper caste (Rajput and Bhumihar) landowners of the Ranvir Sena — a private militia of the landlords — stormed Bathani Tola in Bhojpur district's Sahar block in Central Bihar and ruthlessly hacked the Dalits, among them women, teenage girls and babies less than 10 months old.

Ajay Singh was charged with brutally killing 10-year-old Phool Kumari, Manoj Singh was charged with the murder of the three-month-old daughter of Naimuddin (one of the prime eyewitnesses) and Nagender alias Narendra Singh was charged with slaughtering two women, Sanjharu and Ramratiya Devi. They were awarded the death sentence by the sessions court

Bathani Tola, along with Laxmanpur-Bathe (where more than 60 Dalit men, women and children were slaughtered by the Ranvir Sena), have since become bywords for caste massacres that engulfed central Bihar from the mid-1990s onwards.

An FIR was lodged against 33 people the day after the massacre. In all, the Bhojpur police framed charges against 63 persons in October 1996.

“I am shocked by the High Court verdict,” said Anand Vatsyayan, counsel for the witnesses in the Bathani Tola case. “The evidence at hand was more than sufficient to uphold the judgement passed by the Ara sessions court.

“The Supreme Court guidelines in the event of a massacre are quite clear. The eyewitnesses need not remember all the names. And, of the six prime witnesses questioned in this case, all had conclusively pointed fingers at the persons convicted by the lower court.”

In July last year, the supremo of the Ranvir Sena, Brahmeshwar Singh “Mukhiya,” known as the ‘Butcher of Bathani Tola,' walked out of Ara Jail.

Mr. Vatsyayan, however, said a case (no. 37/10) was on against the Mukhiya in the Ara sessions court and the evidence of official witnesses was being awaited.

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News Network
February 5,2020

New Delhi, Feb 5: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra, set up by the government for construction of a temple in Ayodhya, will have 15 trustees and one of them will be from the Dalit community.

The statement comes a little over an hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Lok Sabha about the constitution of the trust.

"There will be 15 trustees in the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust out of which one trustee will always be from the Dalit society," he tweeted.

Shah congratulated Modi "for such an unprecedented decision" that strengthens social harmony.

The home minister said the trust will be independent to take every decision related to the temple and 67 acres of land will be transferred to it.

"I fully believe that the waiting of millions of people for centuries will be over soon and they will be able to pay obeisance to Lord Shri Ram in his grand temple at his birthplace," he said.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India's gold demand in 2020 is expected to fall to the lowest level in 26 years with domestic bullion prices hitting a record high and as falling disposable incomes could curtail retail purchases, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

Lower demand by the world's second-biggest bullion consumer could limit a rally in global prices, which hit a record high earlier this month, although it could also reduce India's trade deficit and support the ailing rupee.

"Fast rising gold prices could act as headwinds," said Somasundaram PR, the managing director of WGC's Indian operations.

Local gold futures have jumped 35% so far this year after rising a quarter in 2019.

India's gold consumption in the first half of 2020 plunged 56% on-year to 165.6 tonnes. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-triggered lockdown also slashed demand by 70% in the June quarter to 63.7 tonnes, the lowest in more than a decade, the WGC said in a report published on Thursday.

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut after the country imposed a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people to curb the spread of the virus that has infected more than 1.5 million Indians.

Consumption is generally high during the June quarter due to weddings and key festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, but lockdown restrictions kept shoppers indoors this year.

The weak demand in the first half could drag down India's gold consumption in 2020 to the lowest since 1994, when demand stood at 415 tonnes, Somasundaram said, adding that it is still difficult to provide an estimate for full-year demand as the coronavirus crisis is still unfolding.

"Indian demand has previously jumped as much as 300 tonnes in a quarter. Latent demand could come out in the second half," Somasundaram said.

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News Network
July 12,2020

Hubli, Jul 12: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday said that the Monsoon session of Parliament will be held with the government ensuring all health precautions for COVID-19 are followed.

"Monsoon session (of Parliament) will certainly be held. The government will do all the formalities and take all precautions," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister told reporters here.

Earlier in March, the Parliament had passed 12 bills during the curtailed budget session with Lok Sabha passing 15 bills and Rajya Sabha 13.
During the session, 19 bills were introduced in the two Houses (18 in Lok Sabha and 1 in Rajya Sabha). The two Houses were adjourned sine die after completion of the budgetary process including passage of the Finance Bill.

The second part of the session was curtailed in view of the threat of the spread of coronavirus.
On June 1, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla had held a detailed discussion on holding the ensuing monsoon session of Parliament in view of the coronavirus-induced norm of social distancing, sources said.

They said the leaders have taken note of reports suggesting that the fight against COVID-19 is likely to be a long haul.

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