Jaipur:The Rajasthan government has decided to challenge in the Supreme Court the acquittal of four accused in the Jaipur serial blasts case by the High Court, an official said.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the government will file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in this matter in the top court.
An official spokesperson said the decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Gehlot at his residence Friday night.
Gehlot said the state government is determined that the culprits are given the harshest punishment.
A Special Leave Petition (SLP) will be filed in the Supreme Court against the decision of the Rajasthan High Court, he said in the meeting.
The chief minister also decided to terminate the services of Additional Advocate General Rajendra Yadav, who was appointed to appear in this case, the spokesperson said.
“After examining in a high-level meeting, a decision has been taken to appeal in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision in the Jaipur bomb blast case. The state government will ensure justice to the victims by engaging the best lawyers,” Gehlot tweeted.
Chief Secretary Usha Sharma, Principal Secretary (Home) Anand Kumar, Director General of Police Umesh Mishra and other officers were present in the meeting.
The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday had acquitted the four accused in the case, who were sentenced to death by a special court in 2019. The high court also pulled up the probe agency for its “poor” investigation.
The special court on December 18, 2019 had convicted accused Mohd Sarwar Azmi, Mohd Saif, Mohd Salman and Saifur Rahman in the case while giving benefit of doubt to Shahbaz Hussain and acquitted him. The state government challenged the acquittal of Shahbaz Hussain in the high court. At the same time, all four convicted had filed an appeal against the sentence.
A division bench of high court Justice Pankaj Bhandari and Justice Sameer Jain on Wednesday acquitted the four accused. The court, in its order, also confirmed the acquittal of a fifth person — Shahbaz Hussain — by the trial court.
Jaipur was rocked by a series of blasts on May 13, 2008 when bombs went off one after another at Manak Chawk Khanda, Chandpole Gate, Badi Chaupad, Chhoti Chaupad, Tripolia Gate, Johri Bazar and Sanganeri Gate.
The explosions had left 71 people dead and 185 injured.
One live bomb was recovered near Ramchandra Temple which was defused by a bomb disposal squad.
Hyderabad: The Charminar police booked a case against a group of Muslim youngsters for allegedly attacking two persons belonging to another community on Thursday night. The incident took place when the Sri Ram Navami Shobha Yatra was held by right-wing groups in a grand way, and passed-off relatively peacefully.
Sources said the two youngsters who were part of the Sri Ram Navami festival rallies stopped near a mosque closr to the Shehran Market and raised slogans when prayers were going on. An argument happened between the local Namazis and the two youngsters after which the duo were attacked and reportedly chased away.
The police late in the night booked a case under sections 341, 323 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and investigation is ongoing.
While the Ram Navami procession in Hyderabad passed-off peacefully otherwise for this incident, a portrait of Godse appeared at the suspended Goshamahal BJP MLA Raja Singh’s rally, which joined during the procession at Mangalhat. People who joined Singh’s fringe rally waved photos of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, now a beloved Hindutva figure.
The annual Sri Ram Navami Shobha Yatra here has become a show of strength for Hindutva groups to flex. The procession has also become a launchpad for Hindutva mascot and suspended BJP MLA Raja Singh to release new inflammatory ‘songs’ every year. In 2022, he sang a song degenerating Muslims and threatened to “kick” them out of India if they “don’t chant Ram’s name”. This year was no different.
Raja Singh as a practice has been singing songs and releasing them during the Sri Rama Navami festival each year. One of latest songs, ‘Baap Tu Baap Rahega’, was clearly a dig at the ruling government (or even the cops) for arresting him last year and putting him in the jail under the PD Act after he released a video passing derogatory comments against Prophet Muhammad. He did that in retaliation against the state got allowing comic Munawar Faurqui to hold a show.
The lyrics also make mention his PD Act detention following registration of a series of cases for making derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed in a video and also old cases booked against him for delivering hate speeches. The lyrics goes ‘Jail Ka Taala Tuth Gaya, Baap Tumhara Choot Gaya’. The song is of 5:10 minutes duration.
Ayodhya: Former BJP MLA from the Gosaiganj constituency of Ayodhya Indra Pratap Tiwari who has been convicted in a fake mark sheet case, surrendered before the MP-MLA court here on Friday.
Tiwari was currently out on bail.
The surrender has come after the Allahabad High Court dismissed his appeal on March 17 against a trial court order that led to his conviction.
Talking to PTI, Dinesh Tiwari, Council for the MLA, said, “Indra Pratap Tiwari surrendered on Friday in the court of Special Judge MP-MLA Additional District Judge Ashok Dubey. The court took the former MLA in custody and sent him to jail.”
Dismissing Tiwari’s appeal, the Lucknow bench of the court, earlier this month, noted that the former legislator should be taken into custody forthwith to serve out the sentence awarded to him by a sessions court in Ayodhya.
In its order, the court took note of the fact that Tiwari had a criminal history of 35 cases. Besides the former MLA, the two other appellants were Kripa Nidhan Tiwari and Phool Chand Yadav.
“From the evidence led by the prosecution, the offences under sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC are fully made out and proved against the appellants and the trial court rightly convicted and sentenced the appellants for the aforesaid offences,” the HC order read.
In separate appeals, the three had challenged the 2021 judgment of a special MP-MLA court in Ayodhya, sentencing Tiwari to five years in jail.
After his conviction in the case, Tiwari was disqualified.
The appellants were put on trial for the offences committed while getting themselves admitted to Saket Mahavidyalaya in Ayodhya on the basis of fake mark sheets.
A complaint was filed by the then principal of the college, Yaduvansh Ram Tripathi, on February 14, 1992, and February 16, 1992, with the senior superintendent of police (SSP), Faizabad. Subsequently, a chargesheet was filed in the case.
The MP-MLA court convicted the trio of the charges against him on October 18, 2021.
Jaipur: The four men who were acquitted by the Rajasthan High Court earlier this week in the 2008 Jaipur serial blasts case are yet to be set free as a related case is pending against them in a trial court, officials said.
The pending case pertains to the recovery of an unexploded bomb after the serial blasts in Jaipur which had claimed 71 lives and left 185 injured.
Their lawyer S S Ali said a bail application of the four will be moved in the trial court on Monday.
On Wednesday, the Rajasthan High Court acquitted Mohammad Saif, Mohammad Salman, Saifur and Mohammad Sarvar Azmi, who were given the death sentence by a lower court in December 2019 for the serial blasts, and slammed the investigating agencies for their “shoddy investigation”.
It also affirmed the acquittal of a fifth accused, Shahbaz Hussain, by the trial court.
While Shahbaz Hussain is currently on bail, the four are lodged in a jail in Jaipur.
According to lawyer Ali, a charge sheet in the bomb recovery case was filed against the five men.
They have been charged under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 124-A (sedition) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and relevant provisions of the Explosives Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In the serial blasts case, the trial court had awarded capital punishment to the four and acquitted Shahbaz Hussain in December 2019. The state government had filed an appeal against his acquittal. At the same time, the four challenged the verdict in the high court.
Jaipur was rocked by a series of blasts on May 13, 2008 when bombs went off one after another at Manak Chawk Khanda, Chandpole Gate, Badi Chaupad, Chhoti Chaupad, Tripolia Gate, Johri Bazar and Sanganeri Gate.
The explosions in the evening left 71 people dead and 185 injured.
One live bomb was recovered near Ramchandra Temple which was defused by a bomb disposal squad. The case which is currently going on is related to this.
Meanwhile, the state government will challenge the high court verdict in the Supreme court, a government counsel has said.
BJP national general secretary and state in-charge Arun Singh targeted the Congress government over the acquittal of the four, saying that it happened due to weak prosecution.
“Seventy-one people lost their lives and hundreds of people were injured. Many affected families are still struggling but the Rajasthan government could not field big lawyers in the court and could not follow the whole matter properly,” he told reporters in the party office here.
New Delhi: The Congress on Friday took a swipe at the government, saying there is a limit to even transparency in ‘New India’, after the Gujarat High Court set aside an order of the Central Information Commission asking the Gujarat University to provide information on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s degree.
The high court set aside the seven-year-old order of the commission, asking the varsity to provide information on prime minister’s degree to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Allowing the Gujarat University’s appeal against the Central Information Commission (CIC) order, Justice Biren Vaishnav also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on Kejriwal and asked him to deposit the amount within four weeks to the Gujarat State Legal Services Authority (GSLSA).
Reacting to the verdict, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh in a tweet in Hindi said, “There is a limit to even transparency in New India. This is what the ‘Entire Political Science’ teaches.”
Asked about the issue at a press conference, Congress’ media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said, “See, why this matter went to the court. Courts have lot of pressure… PM’s educational qualification, whether his degree is genuine or not, this matter going to a court is astonishing.”
“It’s a matter of paradox in India, in a country where four crore cases are pending in courts, a hearing is happening on the prime minister’s degree. So, why this situation came up, we need to understand. ‘Entire Political Science’, I haven’t heard of it, if you have heard about it, please tell me,” Khera told reporters in response to a query.
“Even if today such a degree is offered then, I would like to take it,” he said.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday dismissed a bail plea of former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia in the excise policy case lodged by the CBI.
Special Judge M K Nagpal dismissed Sisodia’s plea.
On March 24, the Delhi court had reserved its order.
The agency on February 26 had arrested Sisodia in connection with alleged corruption in the formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22.
The Justice Department has 45 days to bring a case once it is referred. If it declines, the FTC can proceed on its own.
An FTC spokesperson declined to comment. It could not be learned whether the FTC is interested in settling the case, and the company declined to comment. The company previously said it is in compliance with COPPA, and that its Amazon Kids offering for Alexa requires parental consent and gives parents full control over their children’s use of the product.
Much of the attention on the FTC’s investigations of Amazon has been focused on a yearslong antitrust probe of every part of the company’s business, and President Biden’s hard-charging FTC chair, Lina Khan, first gained international prominence with a legal paper outlining an antitrust case against the tech giant.
However, the agency has several ongoing consumer protection investigations into the company, including for potential privacy and data security violations in its Ring camera and home security business.
Financial penalties under COPPA are limited to just over $50,000 per violation, though each affected person is considered a separate violation and the total number can add up quickly for a company the size of Amazon.
The details of the FTC’s COPPA case couldn’t be learned. However, in 2019, a group of consumer and digital rights organizations filed a complaint with the FTC over a version of the company’s Echo Dot smart speaker geared toward kids. Among the allegations, the groups claim Amazon doesn’t properly provide notice to parents on the exact information collected by children using the device, and makes it too difficult to delete data, including transcripts of kids’ interactions with the devices.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Trump’s lawyers continued to maintain the former president’s innocence on Thursday.
“President Trump has been indicted. He did not commit any crime,” the attorneys Joe Tacopina and Susan Necheles said in a statement. “We will vigorously fight this political prosecution in Court.”
Trump released a statement shortly after the news of the indictment broke, calling it a “witch-hunt,” and saying the move was an attempt by Democrats to interfere in the 2024 election.
“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history,” Trump wrote in his statement. “The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable — indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.”
Trump also went after District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he was “doing Joe Biden’s dirty work.”
The district attorney’s office requested that Trump surrender on Friday, but Trump’s lawyers replied that the timeline was too tight, saying the U.S. Secret Service needed more time to prepare, according to a law enforcement official. Tacopina confirmed the exchange, adding that no date had been set for the former president’s surrender.
“This evening we contacted Mr. Trump’s attorney to coordinate his surrender to the Manhattan D.A.’s Office for arraignment on a Supreme Court indictment, which remains under seal,” a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said. “Guidance will be provided when the arraignment date is selected.”
Trump has already tried to use the charges to rally his base, calling on his followers to protest and “take back our nation.” But there’s no precedent for a presidential candidate campaigning during his own criminal trial. And while the case could stretch beyond November 2024, a conviction before then would spark a host of constitutional issues.
Despite concern that Trump’s indictment could spark protests from his supporters, a spokesperson for New York Mayor Eric Adams said on Thursday that there were no credible threats of violence.
“The NYPD continues to monitor all activity and there are no credible threats to the city at this time,” Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said. “The NYPD always remains prepared to respond to events happening on the ground and keep New Yorkers safe.”
Dozens of court and police officers swarmed lower Manhattan after the indictment was announced. A chopper hovered overhead. Outside the courthouse, a handful of pro-indictment protesters praised the grand jury’s decision.
Bragg left the courthouse just after 7 p.m., ducking into his car without taking questions from reporters. Police officers surrounded his black SUV. A group of about 10 protesters in favor of the indictment draped a 25-foot banner outside the courthouse that read “Trump lies all the time.”
“I’m out here celebrating the fact that one of the most evil men on the planet has been stopped at least temporarily,” said Robert Hoatson, 71, who drove over from West Orange, N.J., after he saw the news on TV. “I’m so proud to be an American today.”
Hoatson runs a nonprofit for victims of sexual abuse. He held two signs, one that read “Throw away the key” and the other that said “Lock him up.”
Trump’s indictment follows the unrelated December conviction of his family business, the Trump Organization, for tax fraud in a case also prosecuted by Bragg.
The indictment of Trump stems from the 2018 federal conviction of his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations for facilitating the payment to Daniels. That payment came during the heart of the 2016 presidential campaign. And both Cohen and federal prosecutors have said that he acted “in coordination with and at the direction of” the former president.
“I stand by my testimony and the evidence that I provided to the district attorney of New York,” Cohen said on Thursday during an interview on MSNBC. While the indictment is “significant,” Cohen said, “it’s extremely important that we let the process work out, and that people do still understand that there is a presumption of innocence in this country.”
The Trump Organization later reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, prosecutors said in court filings. The company’s executives authorized $420,000 in payments to Cohen in an effort to cover his original payment and tax liabilities, and to reward him with a bonus, according to prosecutors. The Trump Organization falsely recorded those payments in their books as legal expenses, prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office subsequently pursued a criminal inquiry into whether those payments violated campaign finance law, but they later ended the probe without bringing charges.
The company’s former chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, who was given immunity by federal prosecutors in their investigation of the hush money that led to the charges against Cohen, pleaded guilty to an unrelated tax fraud scheme in August 2022.
Cohen testified before the grand jury in the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation of Trump. It’s unclear whether Weisselberg, who is now serving a five-month jail sentence, was also called as a witness.
Though the district attorney’s office offered Trump the opportunity to testify before the grand jury prior to his indictment, he declined to do so.
The indictment is sure to cloud Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and triggers a number of unprecedented scenarios. If he pleads not guilty and the case goes to trial, a process that can take many months, he could face the possibility of campaigning for the White House while undergoing a criminal trial. And if he were to win a second term while facing or serving a prison sentence, that would give rise to a host of constitutional issues.
Trump has said an indictment would not stop him from campaigning for another term. When asked whether he would stay in the 2024 race if formally charged, Trump told reporters at CPAC in March: “Oh absolutely. I wouldn’t even think about leaving.” He has said his supporters were “very upset” about the multiple investigations he’s facing, and added that he thought the probes would “enhance” his poll numbers.
Throughout his presidency and in his post-White House life, Trump has cast himself as a victim of partisan “witch hunt” investigations targeting him and his business dealings. His fellow Republicans have largely echoed that claim, though it remains to be seen whether those running for the party’s presidential nomination will rally to Trump’s side or cast him off.
At least one potential 2024 Republican rival, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, has said that Trump should end his campaign if charged.
“It is a dark day for America when a former President is indicted on criminal charges,” Hutchinson said in a statement following the news of the indictment. “Donald Trump should not be the next president, but that should be decided by the voters.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge (File Photo)
New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday said that a legal team is working on the case in which former INC chief Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a Gujarat court following which he was disqualified from the Lok Sabha.
Kharge said that the party is ready to face the matter “politically and legally”, and also criticised the Central government for disqualifying Rahul Gandhi “in haste”.
The Congress president termed the disqualification “vengeance”.
As a mark of protest against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha, and to press its demand for a probe into the allegations of fraud levelled against the Adani Group, the Congress has launched ‘Jai Bharat Satyagraha’ across the country against the Centre .
The party has set up a war room to monitor the ‘Satyagraha’, which will culminate in Delhi with a rally.
Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal had said: “The ‘Jai Bharat Satyagraha’ is a protest against the erroneous conviction and disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, and to express the party’s strong resolve to keep raising the voice of the people against the blatant loot of people’s money and nation’s wealth.”
As part of the programmes planned to be organised during the protest, all block/mandal units of the Congress will hold ‘nukkad sabhas’ and address the public on relevant issues.
Social media campaigns focusing on Rahul Gandhi’s message to the people will also be carried out to appeal for public support for the ‘Satyagraha’.
Jammu: J&K Police said on Thursday that it has booked a suspected bodyguard of fugitive ‘Waris Punjab De’ leader, Amritpal Singh under the Arms Act in Kishtwar district.
Varinder Singh was booked under the Arms Act in connection with a gun licence issued to him in 2014 by the District Magistrate of Kishtwar, police said.
The Kishtwar district administration has cancelled Varinder Singh’s licence, and decided to probe as to how the former army jawan, who was sacked in 2015, obtained the licence and then kept renewing it from different districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Police said Varinder Singh, also known as Fauji, was part of a private security set up of Amritpal Singh, and a video clip recently showed Varinder Singh opening fire in the air.
After the clip appeared, the Punjab Police arrested him last week under the National Security Act and lodged him in a jail in Assam.
Kishtwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Khalil Poswal said: “We have lodged an FIR number 52/2023 under section 3/25/30 Arms Act and the provisions of IPC in police station Kishtwar.
“The details of the case have been sent to Punjab Police and we have sought documents from them. We will seek the presence of Varinder Singh, who will be brought here to conduct investigation and to find out how he reached here and how he got licence from here.
“He was a soldier and was terminated in 2015. After issuance, his gun licence was getting renewed. The licence has been validated till 2025 from Ramban, Reasi, Baramulla and Kathua districts.”
