Juvenile to be charged with rape, murder

Gangrape Juvenile Justice Board to begin witness examination next week.The Juvenile Justice Board on Thursday ordered framing of charges against a 17-year-old boy, one of the six accused in the December 16 gangrape of a 23-year-old woman who later died in a Singapore hospital.

He will be tried for the offences of gangrape, murder, kidnapping, unnatural offences, attempt to murder, dacoity, destruction of evidence and conspiracy. Since he is a juvenile, separate proceedings are being carried out before the board. But he faces the same charges as the other adult accused in the case.

The board, presided by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel, ordered ‘framing of notice’ — the form in which charges are framed against a juvenile in conflict with law. Examination of witnesses in the case will begin on March 6.

The male friend of the gangrape victim and all witnesses who have been named in the chargesheet will be examined by the board. The trial of the adult accused is currently underway in a Saket fast-track court but the media has been restrained from reporting the proceedings.

Framing of notice has also been ordered in a case of robbery against the juvenile. According to police, the six gangrape accused had robbed a carpenter before assaulting the woman on a moving bus. She died thirteen days after the assault.

Last month, the board accepted the plea of the accused that he was a minor. Citing the date of birth as mentioned in his school records, the board ruled that he was 17 years, six months and 11 days old at the time of the offence.

The records taken from his school in an Uttar Pradesh village mentioned his date of birth as June 4, 1995. Police had earlier pressed for an ossification test to establish his age. But age documents submitted by school officials were accepted by the board, thereby ruling out any age-determination test.The angry family of the victim said if the police didn’t appeal against the ruling, they would approach a lawyer.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/juvenile-to-be-charged-with-rape-murder/1081435/0

Cabinet clears flat in Dwarka for family of gangrape victim

The government on Thursday decided to allot a Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flat to the family of the 23-year-old woman who was gangraped and tortured on a moving bus in South Delhi last December. She died in a Singapore hospital 13 days after the assault that sparked outrage across the country.

Officials said a middle-income group flat, which costs around Rs 50 lakh, is likely to be allotted from the vacant pool with the DDA. The proposal, mooted by the Urban Development Ministry, got the Union Cabinet’s approval during a meeting on Thursday evening.

“The Cabinet approved the sanction and grant of an apartment of DDA to the unfortunate victim of the Delhi gangrape case,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters.

An official statement said the allotment will be done in relaxation of the existing policy/guidelines of DDA for allotment of houses on out of turn basis. The cost of the flat will be borne by the Delhi government.

Until Thursday evening, the family seemed unaware about the allotment. The victim’s brother said no official had informed them about the allotment in Dwarka.

On February 2, when UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi visited their house, the family expressed unhappiness over the location of the accommodation the government planned to provide.

“We were told the flat was on the outskirts of the city, far from our current residence, somewhere in Bawana. My mother told Soniaji that we want to stay somewhere closer, so Soniaji told us we will be getting a flat, possibly in Dwarka,” the brother said.

The family had also urged Sonia to ensure swift justice in the case. The trial has already begun in a fast-track court in Saket but the media has been restrained from reporting proceedings in the case. Five men have been charged with rape and murder of the 23-year-old. The sixth accused is a juvenile who is facing proceedings before the Juvenile Justice Board.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cabinet-clears-flat-in-dwarka-for-family-of-gangrape-victim/1077892/0

Union leaders among 120 held in Noida, looted goods recovered

The Noida police have identified leaders of an assortment of trade unions as “motivators” of the violence that wrecked hundreds of companies in sectors 83 and 84 on the first day of the nationwide strike called by trade unions on Wednesday.

Police said 122 people had been arrested till 6 pm on Thursday and some were union leaders of organisations such as Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS).

Offering to cooperate with the investigations, representatives of these trade unions said they wanted the protest to be “a peaceful protest march”.

Among those arrested are: Shyam Kishore and Ram Roop, national and state counsellors of AICCTU, Surinder Singh of BMS, and Om Prakash, secretary of CITU.

Eight other leaders have been named in a written complaint by the Noida Entrepreneurs Association, but are yet to be arrested. “We have appointed a judicial officer who is remanding the accused to judicial custody from the premises of the Noida Phase-II police station,” SP (City) Yogesh Singh said.

Ranjana Nirula, all India treasurer of CITU, said: “Members of CITU were part of the protest, but the violence was caused by others who joined in. There were lots of non-unionised workers. We have been targeted because we organised the protest, but our intentions were for a peaceful protest.”

ADG of UP Police O P Singh confirmed that “others” joined in the protests. “There were anti-social elements who joined in from adjoining areas, primarily seeking an opportunity to loot. A majority of those involved were youngsters, between the ages of 18 and 25.”

District Magistrate M K S Sundaram said so far 184 complaints have been received and more arrests are likely. He said more than 200 companies were vandalised.

A three-member fact-finding team has been set up under the Additional Commissioner, Meerut.

Police sources said villagers from Yakupur, Nayagaon and Ilawas joined the violence and were out “only to create trouble”, but there were a few who could have “intentionally egged them on”.

Residents of Yakupur and Nayagaon confirmed that several from their villages had been picked up by police after the violence.

“On Tuesday night, there were some people who came and talked to the tenants here about joining the protests. Those of us who didn’t go, found out about the violence when these tenants rushed back home around 3 pm,” Rahim Singh, of Yakupur village, said.

SP (City) confirmed that arrests have been made from the surrounding villages. “We have made some arrests. Some stolen property has been recovered from them,” he said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/union-leaders-among-120-held-in-noida-looted-goods-recovered/1077891/0

CBI probe against Noida top brass

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a preliminary inquiry against the former CEO and present chairman of Noida. The move came after Allahabad High Court asked the CBI to investigate appointments of CEO Sanjeev Saran and chairman Rakesh Bahadur and their alleged involvement in allotment of land by the Noida authority.

While the UP government transferred Saran from the post of CEO after the High Court order, Bahadur is still the chairman of Noida authority.

After registering the preliminary inquiry, the CBI asked the Noida authority to provide files relating to land allotments made during the tenure of Bahadur and Saran. The agency also told the UP government that for a fair probe into the case, Bahadur should be transferred.

Sources said that the agency will bring the matter to the notice of the court if Bahadur continues to be the chairman. The High Court had already asked the UP government to transfer Saran and Bahadur and directed the CBI to initiate a probe. The agency plans to question the two officials on the decisions taken by them.

The officials were initially posted as CEO and chairman during the earlier stint of the Samajwadi Party in power. When the BSP came to power, the two officials were suspended. They were re-appointed to the posts when the SP was voted back to power in 2012.

The court said they must be transferred “away from Western Uttar Pradesh” as their presence in the region could “affect the enquiry against them”.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cbi-probe-against-noida-top-brass/1077890/

Noida Mobbed: 18 injured 65 cars damaged 65 arrested

Day 1 of the two-day nationwide strike, announced by trade unions weeks ago, took Noida police by surprise on Wednesday when the protesters turned violent, damaged vehicles, vandalised and looted properties, and hurled stones at security personnel.

Eighteen people, including six policemen, were injured in the violence. Clashes broke out in sectors 83 and 84 of Noida Phase-II, where a 1,000-strong mob set fire to 15 vehicles and damaged 50 others parked within the premises of private companies. The protesters also torched a fire tender that went to the spot to douse the flames.

“A similar protest was reported from Sector-58 around the same time. Here, a mob of a few hundred people hurled stones at windowpanes of factory buildings,” a senior police officer said.

In Lucknow, Arun Kumar, ADG (Law and Order), admitted that “police force deployed was inadequate”. “Police had not thought that workers of private organisations would join the strike. The strike call was meant for government sectors like transport, banks and railways. It took about two hours for additional police force to reach the spot.”

Factory owners in sectors 83 and 84 said they heard of a mob “on the prowl” around 8 am, but the first report of protesters turning violent came around 9.30 am.

A resident of the area, Aneesh Sharma, said: “There were at least 500 in the group, some identified themselves as workers at the factories nearby and demanded better salaries. They hurled stones and smashed the windowpanes of several cars and set fire to at least six of them. Much of this took place on the premises of International Print-o-Pac. Then the mob moved to Motherson Sumi automotive factory and damaged vehicles in the compound. They looted computers and other items and then went on to attack other company offices along the stretch.”

Eyewitnesses said they called police soon after violence began, but the force arrived more than an hour later. “When the first fire tender arrived, policemen accompanying it were overpowered and the vehicle was set on fire. Additional force arrived two hours later, though the Phase-II police station is barely a kilometre away,” a witness said.

Police resorted to lathicharge and fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd. Sporadic incidents of violence continued till 2.30 pm.

ADG Kumar said a majority of protesters were members of Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS).

“The mob led by CITU and HMS office-bearers vandalised factories and torched vehicles. The rioters also looted garments from an outlet. Cases of arson, vandalism, loot and attack on police force have been registered. The factory owners have filed complaints, for which separate cases are being registered. Legal notices to the leaders of the two organisations will be served to realise money against loss of public property,” Kumar said.

Senior Superintendent of Police Shalabh Mathur said a five-member committee has been appointed and a magisterial inquiry ordered. “We have arrested 65 people and detained several others. We are in the process of collecting CCTV footage and media video recordings to identify those involved,” Mathur said.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/noida-mobbed-18-injured-65-cars-damaged-65-arrested/1077241/0

Schools heave sigh of relief, CM favours RTE extension

Delhi schools heaved a sigh of relief and welcomed the decision of the Delhi High Court, which made it clear that there was no stopping the nursery admission process currently underway.

In first comments, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said: “We are going through the order. The government is considering options.” She said personally she would like the ambit of the Right to Education Act expanded to include children under the age of six.

Ameeta M Wattal, principal of Springdales School and vice-chairperson of National Progressive Schools Conference, said: “We support the court order, the autonomy of schools has to be maintained.” She said had there been any delay in the order, it would have been a big issue for parents.

With the High Court ruling that the RTE Act does not apply to nursery except the provision to reserve 25 per cent seats for the economically weaker sections, Madhulika Sen, chairperson of the Forum of Public Schools, said “that is what we have been saying all this while that the RTE does not apply to nursery and KG.”

Sen also raised the point of autonomy of private unaided schools and said “the other 75 per cent should be left to us”. She said the forum held a meeting on Tuesday.

The petitioners, on the other hand, called the order “a partial victory”. Ashok Agarwal, counsel for petitioner Social Jurist NGO, said they will move the Supreme Court in the next two weeks regarding extension of the RTE.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/schools-heave-sigh-of-relief-cm-favours-rte-extension/1076670/

RTE Act does not apply to nursery, rules HC

ORDER Schools can continue with admission process; HC says govt must consider extending RTE to nursery.

Ending the uncertainty over the ongoing nursery admission process in private unaided schools of the Capital, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday ruled that the Right to Education Act is not applicable to nursery schools. But the court also said “it is the right time for the government to consider” applying the Act to nursery classes as well.

Disposing PILs filed by NGO Social Jurist and Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights, a bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain did not quash the two notifications, which the petitioners claimed had allowed private unaided schools to formulate their own admission criteria.

“We hold that the guidelines issued by the Government of India and the order issued by the Government of NCT of Delhi under Section 35 of RTE Act, 2009, do not apply to 75 per cent of the admission made to pre-elementary (pre-primary and pre-school) classes by private unaided schools, though they do apply to to the remaining 25 per cent admission made by such schools to such classes,” the bench said, referring to the 25 per cent reservation for children belonging to the weaker section and disadvantaged group.

“Though we have held that the Right to Education Act is not applicable to nursery schools… there cannot be any different yardstick… for education of children up to the age of 14 years, irrespective of the fact that it applies to only elementary education. It is the right time for the government to consider the applicability of Right to Education Act to the nursery classes as well, as in many of the states admissions are made right from the nursery classes and the children so admitted are automatically allowed to continue from Class I,” the bench said.

Last week, the Central government informed the High Court that the Right to Education Act applies only to “elementary education”, which is defined in the Act as education from Class I to Class VIII. Provisions of the RTE Act, the government said, are available only to children in the age group 6 to 14 years and do not affect primary education.

In its order, the bench said, “The importance of education is per se applicable to every child, right from admission to nursery classes till it completes the eighth standard.” While noting there is obligation on the state to provide free and compulsory education to children and the responsibility of the institution to afford it, the bench said “educational institutions cannot be allowed to run as teaching shops” since that “would be detrimental to equal opportunity to children”.

Asking the state not to ignore observations made in the judgment, the bench said the state should consider making necessary amendments that will allow benefits of the Right to Education Act to a child seeking admission in a nursery class.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rte-act-does-not-apply-to-nursery-rules-hc/1076667/0

Delhi unsafe for women, step in: Sheila writes to PM

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has written to the Prime Minister asking him to intervene in the functioning of Delhi Police. Dikshit, in her letter, cited the gangrape case to draw home the point that police has failed to ensure women’s safety in the capital.

According to sources, in the letter Dikshit complained about the lax security, apathetic attitude in policing and towards issues like security of women. The letter also states that no visible improvement in policing has been witnessed in the city in the past two months, despite assurances of enhanced security for women following the gangrape incident. Dikshit requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take the appropriate necessary steps.

Sources said in the letter, dated February 13, Dikshit also wrote about functioning of the security commission, which frames guidelines on maintaining law and order and suggested that its recommendations should be considered seriously. A source said Dikshit has written a similar letter to Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, asking him to take effective steps to improve policing in the city so that women feel secure.

At the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express last week, Dikshit had reiterated that police should be under state government’s control. During the interaction, she said except VVIP security, normal law and order policing should come under state government.

“I don’t think any state government can have the wherewithal to take on the security needs of the VVIPs and diplomats who live in Delhi. But where normal policing in Delhi is concerned, it should be with the state government. At the time of the gangrape, I raised certain issues like how a policeman can reach a person’s house in five minutes when a window is broken but took so long to reach this victim? Everybody is scared of going to the police station. Everybody is scared of picking up persons hurt on the roadside and taking them to the hospital because they are detained for six to eight hours,” Dikshit said at the Idea Exchange.

“I feel that a policeman should be perceived as a friend. Also, the equipment being used is not always appropriate. To patrol narrow lanes, they need motorcycles. There is no point having motorcycles and PCR vans in Lutyens’ Delhi and not patrolling the outer areas where these incidents happen,” she said.

Dikshit said her government has asked for control of traffic police and law and order — the services that concern the ordinary citizens. (With PTI)

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/delhi-unsafe-for-women-step-in-sheila-writes-to-pm/1075741/0

Before she hanged herself, she wrote to her son: Tonight, I will sleep with Geetika

Every day since her daughter Geetika Sharma hanged herself on August 5 last year, Anuradha Sharma (51) spent hours thinking and talking about the case.

Her routine remained unchanged — every morning she would prepare lunch for her husband and son. Later, her husband, Dinesh, dropped Anuradha to her office.

At 2.30 pm, she took a Metro to Hauz Khas, where her son Ankit (22) works as a fashion designer. Here, Anuradha and Ankit would have lunch together and then go for a short walk near the lake located inside the 13th Century Hauz Khas Fort. During the walk they would discuss “the case”.

At night, Anuradha went through the diary she maintained on the trial of Geetika’s suicide. She noted every development — significant or minor — and would often check the meaning of legal terms on the Internet

Ankit recalls: It was “a battle she was determined to fight”.

On February 15, the routine was altered. “She (Anuradha) called me at 2.30 pm on Friday saying that she was busy and asked me to have lunch without her. Something happened between 2.30 and 5.30 pm, (during this period she) returned home, went to my sister’s room and hanged herself exactly the same way Geetika had. Those three hours have the missing link to my mother’s death,” Ankit told Newsline on Sunday.

Geetika, a former MDLR airhostess, was found hanging in a room at the family’s Ashok Vihar residence in Northwest Delhi. In her suicide note, Geetika named her boss, former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda and MDLR general manager Aruna Chadha.

The two names figure in Anuradha’s suicide note as well.

Ankit has reportedly asked police to inspect call records of Anuradha’s office phone, which he believes can provide vital clues to what made his mother take her life.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) P Karunakaran did not respond to Newsline on this.

Ankit says his mother was very scared. She was also concerned about Ankit’s career and safety.

“She would tell me that Kanda can harm me once he is out of jail. If someone had been threatening her, it was done very neatly. I checked her phone (call and text logs) and found nothing suspicious. Perhaps, someone called her on the office landline,” Ankit says.

He says he wanted his mother to stay happy.

“I wanted to show her that I needed her. So, I would eat the food only when she cooked it. We had made plans that I would go to London for my post-graduation after the trial ends and mom would come along. She supported me. She was sad, terribly sad after Geetika’s death, but even that grief had a fighting spirit. I was convinced she was normal now and would live for me. Her death shocked me; I feel broken, lonely,” he says.

Apart from her suicide note, police found a letter that Anuradha addressed to Ankit. She asked him to “be very strong” and fight for Geetika.

“She wrote ‘tonight, I will sleep with Geetika. You are now a grown-up, son’. The battle has just begun. I am going to fight this case till the end. I am the only and the biggest threat to them,” Ankit says.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/before-she-hanged-herself-she-wrote-to-her-son-tonight-i-will-sleep-with-geetika/1075743/0

Juvenile accused in gangrape faces robbery charge too

The Delhi Police on Thursday filed a chargesheet in the Juvenile Board relating to a robbery case against the juvenile accused in the Delhi gangrape case.

According to police, the six men accused of the brutal gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedic student, also stand accused of robbing vegetable seller Ramadhar Singh at Hauz Khas, before assaulting the woman and her male friend aboard a moving bus on December 16.

The chargesheet against the five adult accused in the case will be filed in the Saket court in the coming days, sources said.

The gangrape case is being heard in the special fast-track court of additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna.

Separate proceedings are being held in the Juvenile Justice Board against the juvenile accused, who was held to be 17 years and six months of age by the Board.

The chargesheet against him, known as police inquiry report (PIR), relates to the role of the juvenile in the robbery incident.

Police also filed a supplementary PIR in the gangrape case against the accused juvenile before the JJB on Thursday.

While the media is not allowed to publish the details of the proceedings in the JJB, it has been learnt that the Board, presided over by Principal Magistrate Geetanjali Goel, has taken cognisance of the chargesheets.

The Board will take up both the PIRs for arguments on framing of charges on February 28.

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/juvenile-accused-in-gangrape-faces-robbery-charge-too/1074543/