Gangrape: Two accused want to become state witnesses

January 6, 2013
New Delhi, Jan 6: In a desperate bid to escape punishment, two of the six accused in the Delhi gangrape case today told a court that they want to become witnesses on behalf of the state while two others pleaded for legal aid.

Out of four accused, who were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Jyoti Kler inside her chamber after expiry of their 14-days of judicial remand, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma refused to take the service of legal aid counsel and expressed their willingness to become witnesses in the gangrape-cum-murder case.gangrape

Besides the two, Ram Singh and his brother Mukesh who were also produced before the court, have asked for legal aid counsel in the case for their defence.

Legal experts feel that an accused cannot hope to become a witness especially in a case of heinous crime like the Delhi gangrape-cum-murder to escape punishment.

Usually in a case where investigators find it difficult to gather evidence, they could ask for an accused to become an approver to get crucial evidence and in return, the accused could get lighter sentence or escape punishment, the experts said.

The magistrate, meanwhile, extended their judicial remand till January 19, and asked them to appear before the court concerned on January 7 as per the production warrant issued to them after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed against the accused on January 3.

"All the accused persons were informed that they can seek legal aid in the case, if they have not engaged any counsel. Accused Pawan and Vinay have refused to take service of the legal aid counsel and have submitted that they want to become witnesses on behalf of the state," the magistrate said in the order dictated in the open court room after the accused were sent back to jail.

The court also said, "Accused Ram and Mukesh have not engaged counsel so they want legal aid. They be provided the legal aid counsel.

"Let all the four accused persons be produced before the court concerned on January 7."

The magistrate in her order said, "Accused Pawan and Vinay have been directed to move an appropriate application to become witnesses in the case before the court concerned."

The fifth accused arrested in the case Akshay Thakur will also be produced before a court tomorrow as he is in judicial custody till January 9.

However, the case of sixth accused - a minor - will be heard by a Juvenile Justice Board.

While the accused were produced before the judge in her chamber, she dictated the order in open court room and no direction was given by her for prohibiting any media person from publishing or printing the proceedings.

A court had taken cognisance of the charge sheet against five of the accused yesterday under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (2)(g) (gangrape), 377 (unnatural offences), 395 (dacoity), 396 (murder in dacoity), 394 (hurting in dacoity), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120-B (conspiracy), 34 (common intention) and 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) of the IPC.

The victim, a paramedical student, was brutally raped and assaulted in a moving bus here on the night of December 16 and died of her injuries on December 29 in multi-speciality Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has won from New Delhi assembly seat. He polled 46,758 votes, which is 61.1 per cent of total votes polled in the high profile constituency.

Kejriwal defeated Sunil Kumar Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who polled 25,061 votes, which is 32.75 per cent of total votes polled. Congress candidate Romesh Sabhawarl could get only 3,220 votes.

So far, the AAP has won 55 seats and is leading on seven seats. The BJP has won seven seats and is leading on two. The Congress is nowhere in the reckoning.

As per the details on the website of Election Commission of India at 8.27 pm on Tuesday, the AAP has secured 53.60 per cent votes, BJP 38.49 per cent, BSP 0.71 per cent, CPI 0.02 per cent, CPI-M 0.01 per cent, Congress 4.27 per cent, JDU 0.90 per cent, LJP 0.35 per cent, NCP 0.02 per cent, and NOTA 0.46 per cent.

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News Network
August 3,2020

Aug 3: Iqbal Ansari, who was a litigant in the Ayodhya land dispute case, has decided to gift a 'Ram nami' stole and a copy of the Ramcharitmanas to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he attends the bhoomi pujan ceremony for the Ram temple here on Wednesday.

"Yes, I have received the invitation from Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust for the bhoomi pujan ceremony. I will certainly attend it. The dispute is over now after the court's verdict," Ansari, 69, told .

"Our Prime Minister is coming. I will meet him and give him a 'Ramnami' stole (with Ram's name written on it) and Ramcharitmanas as a present," Ansari said.

His father Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi land dispute case, died at the age of 95 in 2016 after which the son started pursuing the case in the court.

Talking about Wednesday's ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of a grand Ram temple here, Ansari said, "I belong to Ayodhya. All this (temple's construction) will change the fate of Ayodhya. We all want our child to get better opportunities".

He further said, "I respect sadhus and saints. I am happy to have received the invitation for the ceremony. I think it is Lord Ram's will that I attend it".

When asked what he would have done had the court decided the case in his favour, Ansari said he had wanted the construction of a school and a hospital on the disputed land.

"I feel the city needs development. The future of our children should be safe and secure and they should get employment. Dispute in the name of religion should end now and we should let the city witness a new beginning," he said.

The Supreme Court had in November last year paved the way for the construction of a Ram temple by a Trust at the disputed site of the Babri Masjid's demolition in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot an alternative 5-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a "prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.

The state government has allotted a five-acre land in Dhannipur village in Sohaval Tehsil of Ayodhya for the mosque's construction.

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Agencies
July 21,2020

New Delhi, Jul 21: Air India trade unions have complained to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri that the government has now turned a blind eye to the management's ethnic cleansing at lower levels through compulsory leave without pay (LWP), redundancies and wage cuts.

In a letter to Puri, the Joint Action Forum of Air India unions said, "We are deeply ashamed to say that it seems that after praising our Air Indian Corona Warriors at grand functions, respectfully, the government has now turned a blind eye to this management's ethnic cleansing of Air Indians at the lower levels, through compulsory LWP, redundancies and wage cuts."

The Joint Action Forum of Air India unions strongly opposes this Compulsory Leave without pay scheme as it is an illegal practice and is not a voluntary scheme.

"In fact the Board resolution itself empowers the Chairman and Managing Director with extraordinary powers, which seem akin to a High Court, to pack off employees on 2 years leave (extended to 5 years) at CMD's discretion or at the arbitrary whim of the Regional heads," the trade unions said.

"This said Compulsory LWP scheme violates every labour law put in place by Parliament and orders of the Supreme Court and various other courts and seeks to dispossess the lower categories workers of their legally guaranteed rights," it added.

The trade unions have pointed out that the redundancies are at the elite management cadre level and not the workers.

"We are indeed shocked that the management of Air India could prepare and formulate a scheme for compulsorily sending workers on leave without pay, which is akin to an illegal lay-off, under the garb of a Leave Without Pay, when ironically the redundancy actually lies in the upper echelons of management and not with the humble workers of Air India, who have slogged to make our Airline the treasure it is," they complained to Puri.

"It must be noted that out of 11,000 permanent employees, our management occupies almost 25% as Executive Cadre, with little or no accountability. Solely amongst the Elite Management Cadre, we have 121 top officers ranking from DGMS, GMs, EDs to Functional Directors, most of whom are either performing duplicate job functions or are indeed redundant and not to mention the retired relics serving as consultants and also the CEOs of various subsidiary companies," they added.

Trade unions said the redundancy or compulsory leave without pay scheme if any at all, has to apply only to these Executives, more so, when they do not even have protection of labour laws or Supreme Court orders.

Strangely, the topmost corporate executive cadre and the backroom Generals, have saved themselves from the axe of wage cuts, by sacrificing a piffling of a few grand, whilst the frontline warriors of flying cabin crew, engineers, ground staff have borne the biggest brunt head on, the unions said.

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