Kerala lashes out at Rawal remarks on firing from ship

April 21, 2012

kerala-chandy

Kochi, April 21: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Saturday lashed out at Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal for his mark that the state government had no jurisdiction to detain the Italian ship as firing from it took place outside India's territorial waters.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a party function, Chandy said the additional solicitor general's remark before the Supreme Court was contrary to the stand of the state government and that it as "not the position of state or centre".

"We checked up with the central government and it has been found what he said in the court yesterday (Friday) was not the stand of the centre. The centre's stand is the same as to what we have taken," Chandy said.

All hell broke loose Friday when Chandy and the state government came under fire from the opposition after Additional Solicitor General Harin Rawal during a hearing informed the apex court that the state government had no jurisdiction to detain the Italian cargo ship as the firing from its took place outside the Indian territorial waters (20.5 nautical miles off the coast while Indian territory extends to only 12 nautical miles).

Two Italian marines Massimillano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, the Italian naval Marines detailed as security crew on cargo vessel Enrica lexie, were taken into judicial custody Feb 20 for the Feb 15 shooting of two Indian fishermen, Ajesh Binki, 25, and Gelastine, 45, about 14 nautical miles off Alappuzha coast in Kerala.

The Chandy government has decided to request the central government to ensure exclusion of Rawal in the next hearing of the case on April 30.

Central Minister M. Veerappa Moily, speaking to reporters in Thrissur, denied the opposition allegation that the change in the centre's stand was effected due to external influences.

"What was told in the court yesterday (Friday) was his personal opinion and not the position of the centre. Corrective measures would be taken," said Veerappa Moily.

CPI-M state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan Friday alleged that the development proved the "relationship between the Congress party and Italy".

"There was a lot of delay as police got access to the ship after a few days of the shooting and by then vital evidences might have been erased. With Friday's stand of the centre, it is now clear that even the state government played hide and seek in this case," Vijayan said.

Apart from the already appointed state government counsel, a senior lawyer would appear for the April 30 hearing.

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March 24,2020

Gautam Buddh Nagar, Mar 24: As many as 96 First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered and more than 2000 challans issued in Noida yesterday for violation of lockdown rules, police said. The lockdown was imposed in a bid to contain the spread of coronavirus, which has taken more than 14000 lives across the globe.

The FIRs were registered against people for allegedly flouting Section 144 and not adhering to the orders of the state government for staying indoors.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday stated that all borders adjoining Uttar Pradesh should be completely sealed.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16, 2012 were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on Friday, ending a horrific chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul. Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya, the fearless one.

This is the first time that four men have been hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. The executions were carried out after the men exhausted every possible legal avenue to escape the gallows. Their desperate attempts only postponed the inevitable by less than two months after the first date of execution was set for January 22.

They were hanged at 5.30 am, Director General of Prison Sandeep Goel said.

After raping and brutalising the woman, the men, one of whom was a juvenile at the time, dumped her on the road and left for dead on the cold winter night. Her friend who was with her was also severely beaten and thrown out along with her. She was so severely violated that her insides were spilling out when she was taken to hospital. She died in a Singapore hospital after battling for her life for a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and the juvenile, were named as accused.

While Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case, the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.

The road to the gallows was a long and circuitous one, going through the lower courts, the High Court, the Supreme Court and the president's office before going back to the Supreme Court that heard and rejected various curative petitions.

The death warrants were deferred by a court thrice on the grounds that the convicts had not exhausted all their legal remedies and that the mercy petition of one or the other was before the president.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for March 20 at 5.30 am as the final date for the execution.

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News Network
March 13,2020

New Delhi, Mar 13: Delhi's Tis Hazari Court on Friday sentenced expelled Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar and six others to 10 years imprisonment for the death of Unnao rape survivor's father. Sengar is already serving life imprisonment for raping the minor.

While sentencing them, District Judge Dharmesh Sharma said, "There can be no denying that rule of law was broken. Sengar was a public functionary and had to maintain the rule of law. The way the crime has been committed, it does not call for leniency."

Sengar and his brother Atul has been directed to give 10 lakh compensation to family of the victim for loss of their father. "There are four minor children involved, three girls and one boy. They have also been uprooted from native place," the judge said.

Seven people, including Sengar, his brother and two police personnel, were held guilty for culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy, earlier this month.

The case pertains to the death of rape survivor's father in custody on April 9, 2018. It was alleged that he was assaulted following a quarrel with some of the accused in the case.

He was taken to the police station and then framed for allegedly possessing an illegal firearm. Pursuant to this, he was sent to custodial remand, during which he died.

The case was transferred to Delhi from a trial court in Uttar Pradesh on the Supreme Court's directions in August last year. Both the death and illegal firearm case was later clubbed by the court.

During the arguments on sentencing on March 12, Sengar had told the court that he should be "hanged and acid poured into his eyes if he has done anything wrong".

The former MLA had also raped the daughter of the deceased in 2017 in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district and was sent to jail for "remainder of his natural biological life", last year.

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