First conviction after SC verdict, Rasheed Masood set to lose MP seat

September 19, 2013
New Delhi, Sep 19: In the first conviction after the Supreme Court struck down a law that provided immunity to MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification, a Special CBI court today held Rajya Sabha member Rasheed Masood guilty in a case of corruption and other offences and he is set to lose his seat. rasheed

Masood, Minister of Health in the VP Singh government between 1990 and 1991, was held guilty of fraudulently nominating undeserving candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool.

Special CBI Judge J P S Malik held Masood guilty of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 468 (forgery). He has, however, been acquitted of the charge under Section 471 IPC (using as genuine a forged document).

Masood's conviction is the first case after the July 10 Supreme Court judgement that struck down sub-section 4 of Section 8 of Representation of the People Act, under which incumbent MPs and MLAs can avoid disqualification till pendency of the appeal against conviction in a higher court. The appeal has to be made within three months of the conviction.

Congress member in Rajya Sabha and a party Working Committee member, Masood is all set to be disqualified under the provisions of RP Act that disqualifies anybody who has been convicted under sections of various laws including the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.

The quantum of punishment on Masood will be pronounced on October 1. The provisions under which Masood has been convicted attract imprisonment upto seven years.

66-year-old Masood has been held guilty on same counts in two other similar cases.

The three cases in which the Congress leader has been convicted form part of the eleven similar cases registered by CBI in 1996.

Besides Masood, the court has convicted on similar counts former top bureaucrats Gurdial Singh and retired IAS official Amal Kumar Roy, the then secretary of Tripura Chief Minister Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar, in six and five similar cases respectively.

Nine students who had fradulently got admission in the medical colleges have also been convicted for cheating. Two of them, including Masood's nephew, were juvenile at the time of the offence and their case had been transferred to the juvenile justice board on January 25, 2007.

The then Chief Minister of Tripura Sudhir Ranjan Majumdar and then health minister of the state, Kashi Ram Reang were also accused in the case. They passed away pending trial.

Masood had between 1989-91 illegally and fraudulently, in conspiracy with the then resident commissioner of Tripura, Gurdial Singh, nominated his nephew (who was a juvenile at the time of the offence), one other (also a juvenile) and Sachidanand Dwivedi to seats allocated from central pool for students of Tripura.

Sachidanand, one of the three students who secured admission in medical college through Masood, has also been held guilty for conspiracy, cheating, forgery for purpose of cheating, and also under the provisions of PC Act.

He was, however, acquitted of section 471 IPC (using as genuine a forged document).

In its charge sheets against Masood and others, the CBI had said that Tripura does not have any medical college of its own.

"Consequently some MBBS and BDS seats are allocated every year from central Pool by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India in various medical colleges across the country like Bhagalpur medical college, Bihar, Patliputra college (Dhanbad) and Gwalior Medical College (MP) etc," CBI counsel V N Ojha had told the court.

These seats are made available to Tripura for allotment to eligible students from the state on the basis of merit and only those students are eligible for taking the examination who are permanent residents of the state or whose parents have been residing there or are employees of Tripura government.

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News Network
May 9,2020

New Delhi, May 9: The Trinamool Congress on Saturday responded to Union home minister Amit Shah’s charge that the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government is not facilitating the movement of stranded migrant workers.

Amit Shah has written to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, saying her government is doing “injustice” to migrant workers by not allowing the special Shramik trains to reach the state.

“Union home minister Amit Shah speaks after weeks of silence only to mislead people with lies,” the TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“The Centre is lying… West Bengal is running 711 camps for migrants in the state. We are taking good care of them,” Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the chief minister’s nephew, said.

Amit Shah had pointed out in his letter that the Centre was not receiving the “expected support” from the state government in helping stranded migrant workers from West Bengal.

“West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrants reaching the state. This is injustice with WB migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them,” Amit Shah had said in his letter to Mamata Banerjee.

The issue of migrant workers is the latest flashpoint between the Centre and the West Bengal government amid a row over the state’s efforts to control the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The Centre and the state have exchanged allegations over the criteria for reporting deaths from the infection, and while While Bengal says the Centre is trying to politicise a public health crisis, the Union government maintains that state officials are ignoring repeated warnings to step up the fight against the disease.

Federal officials have said that the region has not conducted adequate tests and that there has been mismanagement over identifying hotspots and containing them.

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla also slammed the state government for a very low rate of testing and high rate of mortality, 13.2%, by far the highest for any state.

The Centre has also accused the state government of not allowing cross-border movement of goods trucks to Bangladesh.

There are 1,678 Covid-19 cases and 160 deaths in West Bengal until Saturday morning.

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News Network
June 30,2020

New Delhi, Jun 30: The Home Ministry on Monday issued guidelines for 'Unlock 2.0' phase across country between July 1 and July 31. The report stated that COVID-19 lockdown shall continue to remain in force in containment zones till July 31. In containment zones, only essential activities to be allowed. The government's guidelines come on a day when Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu extended lockdowns in their respective states to July 31.

Unlock 2.0 Guidelines:

•   Schools, colleges, educational institutes wil remain closed till July 31. Online/distance learning shall continue to be permitted and shall be encouraged

•   Lockdown shall continue to remain in force in containment zones till July 31st.  In containment zones, only essential activities to be allowed.

•   Night Curfew shall continue to remain in force, between 10:00 pm and 5:00 am, except for essential activities and other relaxations.

•   Social/ political/ sports/ entertainment/ academic/ cultural/ religious functions and other large congregations remain prohibited.

•   International air travel, except as allowed by MHA, will also remain barred.

•   Shops depending upon their area, can have more than 5 persons at a time. However, they have to maintain adequate physical distance.

•   Training institutions of the central and state governments will be allowed to function with effect from July 15 and SOP in this regard will be issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla wrote to Chief Secretaries of all states and UTs, urging them to ensure compliance of Unlock 2 guidelines and direct all concerned authorities for their strict implementation.

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Agencies
January 24,2020

New Delhi, Jan 24: The Election Commission of India on Friday told the Supreme Court that its 2018 direction asking poll candidates to declare their criminal antecedents in electronic and print media has not helped curb criminalisation of politics. The poll panel suggested that instead of asking candidates to declare criminal antecedents in the media, political parties should be asked not to give tickets to candidates with criminal background.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat asked the ECI to come up with a framework within one week which can help curb criminalisation of politics in nation's interest.

The top court asked the petitioner BJP leader and advocate Ashiwini Upadhyay and the poll panel to sit together and come up with suggestions which would help him in curbing criminalisation of politics.

In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and had called for a wider publicity, through print and electronic media about antecedents of candidates.

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Satya Vishwasi
 - 
Saturday, 25 Jan 2020

What about those criminals who were already in parliament and vidahan sabhas? shall the ECI cancel their positions?

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