The Bihar sex scandal, which was argued by many in the local media as having the potential to rock local politics and unmask many high-profile people in the state, appears to be moving towards burial with the complainant girl ready to marry the person whom she had accused of running a sex racket and sexually exploiting her.
The complainant, who is from Dalit community and daughter of a Congress leader, had also named Brajesh Kumar Pandey – former Bihar Congress Vice President and brother of NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar – as one of the accomplices of Nikhil Priyadarshi, a businessman accused of running the sex scandal. The complainant girl had claimed that she was underage at the time she was sexually exploited.
The complainant had said that Nikhil and Brajesh not only sexually exploited her, but also ran a sex racket where many other high-profile people were involved. Media reports had indicated that such a racket could indeed be being run, with daughter of a top bureaucrat being forced to commit suicide after falling prey to it.
After the case came in public knowledge, Brajesh Kumar had to resign from his post in the Congress party while Nikhil ran away from the state. Arrest warrants against both of them were issued meanwhile. While Nikhil was finally arrested in March this year, Brajesh Kumar still is absconding. Some reports suggested that he was hiding in Delhi even as National Commission for Scheduled Castes had ordered his arrest.
There were reports about political pressure being put on police and investigating agencies to especially go slow on Brajesh Kumar, because he was the brother of an influential national journalist (Ravish Kumar). There were also reports that suggested that the case ‘had to be buried’ as it could expose too many skeletons in the cupboard of many influential people.
These were followed by reports about the complainant girl being harassed, senior official of CID himself raising fingers at investigations accusing the agencies of being lax in their probe, and Nikhil Priyadarshi reportedly claiming that he had ‘objectionable clips’ of many influential people and thus no one can dare touch him.
Now latest reports indicate that the complainant girl has agreed to ‘compromise’ and marry Nikhil Priyadarshi, who is currently lodged in a jail in Patna. Nikhil is son of a retired top bureaucrat himself and his father too is in jail along with him. Now both of them have reportedly been granted bail to attend the marriage of Nikhil and the complainant girl.
This ‘compromise’ is being opposed by the special public prosecutor, who has argued that the case is way too serious to be treated as a private matter between two individuals. The prosecutor is also reported to have claimed that the victim girl failed to get support from his politician father and thus had no option but to agree for the marriage to settle the case.
Media reports quoting ‘sources’ claim that this ‘compromise’ was brokered by a politician in the last week of May. Whatever be the reason, it appears that the case that threatened to derail many careers and rock Bihar politics, has now been successfully buried.
On 27th May shocking news had emerged from Delhi about an e-rickshaw driver named Ravindra Kumar getting beaten to death after he had objected to two people urinating outside the Gate number 4 of the GTB Nagar Metro station. Incidentally the public restroom was only 5 meters away from the spot and Ravindra had even offered to pay for their use. Apparently after the initial argument, the duo had returned a few hours later with 10-15 of their friends and after tracking Ravindra beat him to death with iron knuckles and stones wrapped in towels.
The duo who were urinating have since then been arrested and it turns out that one of the accused was Shekhar, a student in Delhi University, and other was a juvenile. During the interrogation, the DU student apparently claimed that he had felt humiliated after the driver had offered to fund their usage of the public toilet.
This incident had prompted condemnation from even Prime Minister Modi who had directed the authorities to bring the culprits to book and also announced an ex-gratia of 1 lakh for the family of the deceased driver. The Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu has since visited the family of the deceased and had tweeted that the driver was promoting Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan via his objection.
Now almost 10 days later, another such criminal incident has emerged from Delhi.
A 21 years old man was reportedly stabbed to death after he objected to another such illegal activity. The deceased named Rahul and his mother were caretakers of two public toilets in Delhi’s Nangloi area. The mother had reportedly seen three people taking drugs in one of the toilets and had objected to it. The trio didn’t like it very much and threatened her with dire consequences.
They came true with their threat and some time later came back and attacked her. This prompted her son to try and save her which resulted in him getting stabbed repeatedly. The gravely injured Rahul was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead on arrival. The two of the accused named Salman and Shahid have now been apprehended by the police.
Such incidents raise very serious questions about the safety of honest citizens who were just doing their civic duty in trying to prevent unauthorized activities from happening in public places. It also remains to be seen as to what deterrents would be placed by authorities in preventing such murderous acts as if these keep continuing any good Samaritan would think twice before prodding any individual to mend his ways.
Some voices within the journalistic community have now started to question NDTV’s dubious financial dealings during the UPA period. CBI had raided residences of NDTV founder Prannoy Roy on Monday in case of a financial fraud that involves causing losses to ICICI bank, which is being touted as an “attack on press freedom” by NDTV and its supporters.
On Tuesday night, Malini Parthasarathy, a Director in the company publishing the left-leaning newspaper The Hindu who has also served as its Editor earlier, said that she did not subscribe to the view that the case against NDTV was an attack on press freedom.
She was responding to an article written by S Gurumurthy – the former associate and confidante of Indian Express founder Ramnath Goenka who is also known to have exposed misdeeds by Reliance Industries in the mid 1980s – which detailed how NDTV was involved in a serious of dubious financial dealings during 2004-09, which incidentally is also the period when Congress came back to power at centre.
The article published in The New Indian Express showed how dozens of shell companies were formed by Pannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy, also a promoter in NDTV, and money transferred from one to another with unclear motives. The UPA government never asked the NDTV to disclose details of these companies, which finally caused loss to ICICI bank and helped NDTV cover its own losses.
“Media houses should be as transparently open to public scrutiny as any other business in order to retain credibility and public trust,” Malini Parthasarathy posted on Twitter, after saying that the case against NDTV did not qualify as an attack on press freedom.
As expected, she was attacked by NDTV cheerleaders and abusive trolls who tried to malign S Gurumurthy, but Malini stood her ground.
“Wouldn’t dismiss S Gurumurthy so lightly. His anti- corruption investigations have been truly exemplary and rigorous,” she told off a troll.
Her statement was countered by Times of India journalist Sagarika Ghose too – widely acknowledged as having shallow understanding of critical issues apart from indulging in spreading fake news and misinformation lately – who tried to reduce the financial wrongdoings by NDTV to a mere loan repayment issue.
To this, Malini said that NDTV should allow probe and not “retreat behind the shield of press freedom which is too weighty a concept to be invoked for personal issues”.
When one Twitter user pointed out that Malini was a victim of ‘attack on press freedom’ in 2004 when Jayalalithaa tried to arrest her, the former Editor of The Hindu said that there were no similarities between the two cases.
“Specious comparison! The arrests sought then were on the basis of a privilege motion filed for an editorial. No financial wrongdoing imputed!” she retorted.
Malini Parthasarathy is one of the rare ones from the journalistic community who has taken an objective stand on the issue. Most other journalists are preferring to go with the rhetoric of ‘press freedom’ over the facts about financial wrongdoings.
It should be noted that the rhetoric of ‘NDTV being punished for its “anti-establishment” journalism’ falls flat as there is nothing special in NDTV reporting in recent times that should trouble the government (assuming one means ‘government’ when they say ‘establishment’, which is not always the case). All that the NDTV has done “exclusively” recently are interviews of Narendra Modi’s cabinet ministers, which can’t be called “anti-establishment”.
When the government has not even bothered to punish propaganda websites run by various journalists that equate the Army chief with General Dyer of Jallianwala Bagh massacre, it is giving this government too much of credit that it will act against NDTV, which remains a favourite destination with many top BJP leaders.
Essentially, even the cheerleaders of NDTV won’t be able to point out any recent report “exclusive” by NDTV that should bother the government.
The only time NDTV was in news due to its reporting in recent past was when they allegedly put security forces at risk by giving away live information during an anti-terror operation at Pathankot last year. This irresponsible journalism by NDTV earned them a one-day token ban, which was again spun as “attack on press freedom” by NDTV and its apologists.
However, the BJP government chickened out and could not muster courage to impose even the token ban. The victory to indulge in irresponsible reporting was celebrated as victory of press freedom by NDTV and its cheerleaders back then.
Similar victory is being sought again by the channel and its cheerleaders as they claim that CBI raids are against ‘press freedom’.
In what might come as a blow to Maoists and their sympathizers, the Maoist movement in the state of Karnataka looks to be on the verge of extinction with the left-wing terrorists associated with various outfits choosing to surrender to the authorities rather than carry on with their violent ways.
As reported, three suspected Maoists named Kanyakumari, Suma, Shivu surrendered to the Chikkamagaluru district administration on Monday in the presence of the representatives of a state level committee which oversees the implementation of the surrender policy. So far 13 such extremists have surrendered in the state since 2010 and it is believed that the number of active Maoists has come down to a measly 3. Kanyakumari at the time of her surrender had 33 pending cases against her.
The SP of Chikkamagaluru was quoted as saying that the number of Maoists has come down drastically and fresh recruitment has also been stopped. The SP further stated that the Maoists are choosing to return to the mainstream and the government’s decision to develop the Maoist affected areas plus the surrender scheme is aiding in this regard. Even though the state of Karnataka is almost free of the menace, some Maoists who are choosing not to surrender seem to be moving to nearby Kerala.
The cases of Maoists surrendering seems to be on the rise in recent days. Recently we had reported how Kundan Pradhan a dreaded Maoist leader who had about 125 cases pending against him had surrendered to the Jharkhand police in May. His surrender had also punctured the “oppressed poor tribal becoming Maoist” narrative as it was found that he had joined the movement so that he could reoccupy 1350 acres of his whooping 2700 acre family estate which was illegally grabbed by his uncle.
The surrender is also happening in the so called Maoist bastion of Bastar in Chhattisgarh. In 2016 it was reported that 56 Maoists had surrendered in various parts of the region taking the total surrender tally in the region to 182 since December 2015.
New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV), its lobbyists and apologists call the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid on the residence of Mr and Mrs Prannoy Roy a “blatant political attack on freedom of press.”
But as skeletons tumble out of the closets, it has come to the light that NDTV has committed an unending fraud and the CBI is finally doing its duty, though late, as per the due process of law.
S Gurumurthy, a former associate and confidante of Indian Express founder Ramnath Goenka who is also known to have exposed misdeeds by Reliance in mid 80s through his reports and columns in Indian Express, has been among those in the forefront insisting the that case against NDTV is purely of financial fraud and the channel is hiding behind ‘press freedom’.
It is rank opportunism for NDTV or its apologists to talk of freedom when their fraud are being probed. They didn’t have the guts to sue me
CBI too issued a statement yesterday and clarified that the raids were entirely as per legal provisions.
CBI press release on @ndtv. Only the severely deluded would think these violations by a PUBLIC LISTED COMPANY aren’t worth investigating. pic.twitter.com/opktNfDQAr
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) June 6, 2017
The CBI case against NDTV is related to a Rs 375 crore loan from ICICI Bank and a corresponding wrongful loss of Rs 46 crore to the bank. But behind this, there is a chain of borrow, repay and borrow when Roys took a series of loans in 2008 as they sought to buy back a large chunk of NDTV shares from the market.
ICICI Bank loan interest fraud
In December 2007, Roys had bought 7.73 per cent of NDTV shares from General Atlantic. Minority shareholders of NDTV were made an open offer to sell shares. To fund the purchase of shares that the minority shareholders wanted to sell, Roys created a company called RRPR Holdings Private Limited. RRPR borrowed Rs 501 crore from India Bulls Ltd.
To repay part of the India Bulls loan, RRPR borrowed Rs 375 crore from ICICI Bank in October 2008. In August 2009, RRPR found another lender called Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL) to repay the ICICI loan. VCPL agreed to pay Rs 350 crore to RRPR in July, 2009.
RRPR’s balance sheets – filed before the Registrar of Companies in March, 2009 – however, showed that it had a loan of Rs 349,26,14,485 from ICICI Bank and an interest of Rs 17,21,80,697 on that loan. Between 31 March and 7 August, 2009 — when RRPR repaid ICICI after receiving the money from VCPL — an additional interest was accumulated and the bank therefore suffered a loss to the tune of Rs 48 crore.
Money laundering
It is not just the ICICI Bank loan interest fraud, NDTV’s story of deceit dates back to 2004. It was in that year, Prannoy Roy-led company suffered a huge loss of Rs 248 crore. Its shares were trading abysmally weak. This was at a time when the Congress-led UPA took the reins and there was a turnaround in NDTV’s fortunes.
NDTV raised funds by floating a galaxy of shell companies. S Gurumurthy, in a cogent article in New Indian Express, has written that between 2006 and 2010, NDTV India had floated 20 wholly-owned subsidiaries in different parts of the world. While seven were based out of Mauritius, eight subsidiary companies were based in India, two were located in Netherlands, one each in London, UAE, and Sweden.
These “letter-box companies”, which were wholly resting on the valuation of NDTV Ltd, together had raised $417 million. Of the $417 million, $267 million was invested by GE Corporation directly or indirectly. $310 million was raised through NDTV Network PLC UK and $117 million were raised via the sale of NDTV Imagine to GE Corporation.
NDTV was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2004. It had cash losses of 250cr. It got over 400 m dollars in shell companies abroad.
Quoting references from the internal e-mail communications of NDTV, obtained by the Income Tax authorities, Gurumurthy’s article has established beyond doubt that Roys and other directors of NDTV were struggling to justify before the tax authorities the huge funds raised by the company through subsidiaries.
“The mails disclose a clear intent to camouflage the money. The fraud is self-evident, pre-meditated and exposed in their own mails. This opens the possibility of action for money laundering,” Gurumurthy wrote.
Immunity from UPA
During the UPA regime, the NDTV did not disclose the identity of the investors in its shell companies. It did not attach its foreign subsidiary firms’ balance sheets, thanks to the immunity from the Company Law Department of the then UPA government.
In the process, NDTV successfully hid funds to the tune of $417 million out of its balance sheet. This is plain and simple tax evasion and money-laundering. These all happened when P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister.
NDTV: A party to Aircel-Maxis scam?
BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy had earlier written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to direct the CBI to file case against NDTV under Prevention of Corruption Act. Alleging that NDTV was a party to Aircel-Maxis scam, during the Congress-led UPA rule, Swamy had said it received illegal money from Maxis subsidiary Astro.
Swamy further said that the money, received by NDTV from Maxis, was “illegally approved” by then Finance Minister P Chidambaram to “benefit his son” Karthi Chidambaram.
How NDTV muzzled an honest tax officer
Gurumurthy hhas also highlighted the case of an honest Income Tax officer named SK Srivastava who unearthed the frauds committed by NDTV. Srivastava also sought to investigate the charges of pay-off involving Chidambaram. Following this, he faced sexual abuse charges by two lady officials and actions were recommended against him.
Husband of one of the lady officials was then working as a prime time anchor with NDTV. Srivastava had to face suspensions and a series of change sheets. Gurumurthy claims that this was purely a case of vendetta, which was dressed up as sexual harassment case.
The Ambani-Jindalconnections
According to Gurumurthy, a Mukesh Ambani company gave a virtually interest-free loan to another company for acquiring 26 per cent of NDTV shares for Rs 403 crore. The zero-interest bond is transferred to another company belonging to Himachal Furturistic Group for Rs 50 crore, with the Ambani company incurring a loss of Rs 353 crore and claimed it as tax expense.
“While the Mukesh Ambani company purchased 26 per cent NDTV shares for Rs 403 crore after valuing NDTV at Rs 1440 crore, it sold the same to Nahata of Himachal Futuristic who bought the 26 per cent shares of NDTV for Rs 50 crore at a total valuation of Rs 192 crore,” Gurumurthy said.
“NDTV valued itself before the tax authorities at Rs 10000 crore. It was valued at $2 billion by GE Corporation USA for one investment and at $200 million for another. The Navin Jindal group and Agarwal Agro Tech group bought 15 per cent of NDTV shares for Rs 26 crore on a value of Rs 173 cr. NDTV valued itself before SEBI at Rs 367 crore,” he said.
Why NDTV ran away from Gurumurthy’s questions?
When S Gurumurthy wrote a note to senior Supreme Court advocate Ram Jethmalani, in 2013, explaining the entire case of alleged NDTV fraud, Jethmalani wrote a stinging charge sheet against NDTV and Chidambaram.
“Jethmalani had sent a copy of my note to Mr Prannoy Roy who contacted me through an editor friend of mine and said that he would like to respond to that with documents. When his response came I found that the documents he had enclosed in support of the investments were not reliable.”
It was NDTVs own govt in 2013. Why didnt NDTV sue me then? Why did Pronnoy keep mouth shut. To talk of infringement of freedom now is joke https://t.co/ojJIC8EAMT
According to reports, the Modi government is all set to scrap the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and replace them with one higher education regulator with a legislation. The regulator has tentatively been christened as Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA).
The decision was reportedly taken at a meeting on education, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in early March.
A committee which has Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Higher Education Secretary KK Sharma as members, among others, is reportedly working on to prepare a detailed blueprint of HEERA. Work is on at a rapid pace to frame the HEERA legislation, sources in the government are quoted as saying. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and Niti Aayog are working in tandem to frame the new law.
The new regulatory legislation is likely to be short and clean and will outline minimum standards focused on outcomes. It will eliminate overlaps in jurisdiction and do away with regulatory provisions that may no longer be relevant. Since the separation of technical and nontechnical education is out of sync with global practices, a single regulator will bring in transparency and greater synergy among institutions.
“Though HEERA aims at putting an end to the inspector raj and harassment regime of the UGC and AICTE, the new body will be empowered to take strong penal action whenever necessary,” said a senior government official.
Since the process of replacing AICTE and UGC with HEERA – though a legislation – will take time, amendments to existing rules are considered among other options as interim reform measures.
It could be noted that the idea of replacing multiple regulatory authorities in education sector with a single and streamlined regulator has been mooted since long. Even during the UPA dispensation, several committees including Hari Gautam Committee, Yashpal Committee and even National Knowledge Commission had recommended the same. But the recommendations were never executed.
Former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa, who recently joined Al Qaeda to establish Islamic State of Kashmir, has released an audio recording calling the Indian Muslims as beghairat qaum (shameless community) for not joining Islamic jihad for the Ghazwa-e-Hind (the final and last battle for the conquest of India).
Ghazwa-e-Hind is a radical Islamic term predicting the conquest of the whole Indian sub-continent by Muslim warriors “in the last and final battle”.
In the 4-minute audio clip, shared via Telegram and WhatsApp groups, the tech-shavvy terrorist insisted that the “war” is not just limited to Kashmir. “It is a war between Islam and the infidel,” he said. “Our beloved prophet has assured Jannat to those who participate in the conquest of Hind,” he added.
Musa spoke in Kashmiri-accent Urdu. This was Musa’s first direct address to Indian Muslims as an Al-Qaeda operative. According to this report, two senior officials of Jammu & Kashmir Police confirmed it was Musa’s voice.
Musa began his audio message with a call to his supporters to come meet him with their weapons. “Those who claim to represent me must visit me with their weapons and I will serve them well,” the Al Qaeda terrorist said with a scornful laugh.
The clip shows a black Al-Qaeda banner, with a world map embed in it, as a background against Musa’s picture with Kalashnikovs rifles emblazoned on his two sides. The clip was interspersed with Islamic quotes in English and Urdu and pictures of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who was killed by the US Navy Seals in Pakistan in 2011. In addition, the clip carried a background display of the picture and quote of Al Qaeda’s former recruiter Imam Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in 2011.
“The fact that the whole world is against one religion shows just how powerful that religion is,” reads a background quote.
In an oblique reference to Hurriyat leaders who have been insisting on resolution of the Kashmir issue under UN resolutions, Musa quoted Laden, “If they want to solve our tragedies of today in the United Nations, then they are merely hypocrites who are seeking to deceive Allah and his messenger and the believers. Are not all our tragedies only because of the UN?”
In a rant against Indian Muslims, for calling that ‘Islam is for peace’, Musa said, “Indian Muslims are the most ‘beghairat qaum’ (shameless community) in the world who cannot speak up against ‘oppression’ and ‘injustice’. Is this what our Prophet and his ‘salafs’ (followers) have taught us? They should be ashamed of calling themselves Muslims.”
Referring to the Islamic Jung-e-Badr (The battle of Badr) of 624 CE, Musa said Indian Muslims have forgotten about the historic battle. “They were 313 and ruled the world. We are crores now but only as slaves,” he said.
The terrorist, who had succeeded Burhah Wani earlier, urged the Indian Muslims to show the “muscle of Islam” by joining jihad. “You still have a chance to stand up and join us. Come forward, we establish Sharia not just in India but across the world,” he said.
Zakir Musa recently featured in the list of 12 dreaded terrorists, operating in the Kashmir Valley, released by Indian Army. He has been marked as A++ category terrorist by the Indian Army.
Earlier, Musa as the Hizbul Mujahideen commander had called the separatist Hurriyat Conference leaders “hypocrites”, “infidels”, “followers of evil” and had threatened to chop off their heads and hang them in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk “if they create hurdles in the path of making Kashmir an Islamic state”.
Musa parted ways with the Hizbul recently in a step that could be a tactic to pander to Islamist crowd in Kashmir while keeping a ‘secular’ facade to get international and intellectual support.
After spending more than 8 years in custody, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur on April 25 this year was finally granted bail by the Bombay High Court. She was arrested on charges of plotting a conspiracy to carry out Malegaon blasts, which took place on September 29 in 2008 in the Malegaon region of Nashik district of Maharashtra that had left 4 dead and around 80 injured.
The lead counsel who represented Sadhvi Pragya in the case is Nagpur based senior advocate Avinash Gupta. Talking exclusively to OpIndia.com, Mr. Gupta shared some interesting information that shed lights over this important case, which is often touted as an example of “Hindu terrorism”.
Following are the highlights from the interview:
Q1: At what stage did you get involved with this case?
Ans: I was approached by some followers and relatives of Sadhvi around Diwali last year. They wanted to engage a designated senior counsel to argue on their behalf in the High Court, where they had filed an appeal in July last year. I think it was her fourth appeal for bail. The trial court had rejected the bail in the same month (July 2016) even though NIA had failed to find conclusive evidence against her a month prior to that. They decided to challenge that in High Court, at which stage I and my son advocate Aakash Gupta got involved.
Q2: Had you been tracking this case otherwise? What made you agree to argue the case for bail?
Ans: I had followed the case only to the extent it was in news. I was not privy to many details. It was an entirely professional decision. When I looked at the facts of the case, I wondered why she had been denied bail for so long. She should have got bail within half an hour in the first instance itself.
Q3: What makes you feel so?
Ans: It is not about my feeling, it is about facts. I will come to the facts later, but talking in layman terms, one can be granted bail if there is enough evidence to doubt the involvement in a crime or if the person is not in a position to influence probe when out on bail. Sadhvi met both these criteria.
Q4: In that case, why did courts deny her bail for so long?
Ans: Frankly one can only conjecture. Earlier denial could have been due to the fact that as investigations were still pending, and also the fact that acts like MCOCA were invoked. But her bail application being denied in July 2016, even after NIA failed to find enough evidence against her, goes against accepted logic. It was argued that there was ‘no change in circumstances’ even after the NIA gave clean chit. This was absurd.
The trial court repeatedly observed in the order rejecting the bail of Sadhvi that there were no change in circumstances, in spite of the High Court observing in the connected matter that the filing of the charge sheet by NIA as well as observations of the Apex court were material change in circumstances. In spite of these observations and the above order of the High court being on record, the trial court rendered such observations, which are contemptuous.
Maybe the media pressure could be a factor too. This case was prejudiced by media. Media published articles like ‘Indian Muslims will lose faith in democracy if Sadhvi Pragya walks free’. This is absurd and contemptuous, but many times judiciary also fails to ignore the media pressure and narrative. I can’t think of other reasons.
Such articles are virtual contempt of court as they question the competence of judiciary, advocate Gupta said.
Q5: You said there was enough evidence to doubt Sadhvi’s involvement, could you please share those details?
Ans: See, the biggest evidence that the ATS, which investigated the case till 2011 when NIA took over, claimed to have against Sadhvi was her motorcycle that was allegedly used in the blasts. She is supposed to have offered her motorcycle as plan of the conspiracy. But there are two glaring loopholes in this that dispute the ownership of the motorcycle.
First loophole is this: ATS says that the conspiracy was hatched between January 2008 and September 2008, where various closed-door meetings of Sadhvi and her colleagues took place. In two such meetings, she is supposed to have offered her support.
However, the material evidence on records reveal that she had sold her motorcycle much earlier than these dates. Coming from a poor family, she had taken bank loan to buy the motorcycle. Records show that she repaid the loan much earlier than the original repayment period, presumably because she got the money from the buyer after selling off her motorcycle.
Similarly, the ATS itself had recorded the statement of a garage owner and also seized contemporaneous records maintained by him which clearly demonstrated that the said motorcycle was regularly possessed and owned by the absconding accused Ramji Kalsangra.
All this happened much before the alleged period when the conspiracy was hatched. How can she offer her motorcycle when it was not hers in first place in those dates?
(Editor’s note: as per a former ATS officer, Ramji Kalsangra was killed by ATS and his body was disposed off as a victim of Mumbai terror attacks. Advocate Avinash Gupta refused to comment on this theory)
Now the second loophole is even more interesting.
After the blasts took place and a damaged motorcycle was found on the spot, which was assumed to have been used to carry the blasts, Nashik Rural Police started investigations. They found that a fake number plate was used. To ascertain ownership, they asked the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) at Nashik to decipher the chassis number and the engine number.
On 7 October 2008, FSL said that they were unable to decipher the chassis number and can not determine the engine number with certainty. They gave 3 possible engine numbers to the police, which was then forwarded to the motorcycle manufacturing company LML. On 6 November 2008, LML said that they did not manufacture any of these three numbers, but gave two closely matching numbers. Police then traced these two numbers, one of which was sold to Sadhvi in Surat.
Now this might look like a proper forensic analysis to you, but in legal terms, this is not something that passes as reliable evidence. Both the FSL and LML Motorcycles came up with estimations, not certain information. Further, what makes this entire investigation suspect is the fact that the station diary entry of the police mentioned the registration number belonging to Sadhvi on 11 October 2008. How did they find the registration number in October itself when LML came up with closely matching engine numbers only later in November?
Q6: Are you saying it was all set up to link it back to Sadhvi?
Ans: I don’t know. All I am saying is that there was no credible evidence that could prove beyond doubt that Sadhvi owned the motorcycle at time of the blast. This is why I said that she deserved to get bail in half an hour itself.
Senior advocate Avinash Gupta (sitting in front) and advocate Aakash Gupta, who represented Sadhvi in Bombay High Court.
Q7: Is the ownership of the motorcycle the only proof, rather argument, about her involvement?
Ans: There are statements of some witnesses too who claim to have attended the meetings where the conspiracy is alleged to have been hatched. These statements were recorded by the ATS.
First of all, ATS can’t really treat them as ‘witnesses’. If these people attended closed door meetings where a conspiracy to carry out bomb blasts was hatched, and they did not bother to inform the police, they should be considered conspirators and accused, not witnesses. They may turn approver later in the court and the court may pardon them, but the ATS has no power to pardon them.
Furthermore, most of these witnesses have retracted their statements given to the ATS after NIA took over the investigations, claiming they were pressurised and tortured into giving the statements. Some of them even claim that such meetings did not happen and ATS created this story.
As per my information, some of these ‘witnesses’ have even approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) with their complaint against the ATS.
Q8: Do you really think NHRC will give a favourable hearing? After all, “Hindu terror” theory is something the Congress-left ecosystem is supposed to support. Why will they support something that punctures this theory?
Ans: That is something I can’t comment upon. I can however tell you that these guys don’t appear to have any institutional or what you call as ecosystem support. My own involvement in this case is an example of that. These guys approached me on the recommendation of a retired judge who knew me. I charged them professional fees. There was no institutional involvement of any organisation or big figure.
Q9: Does the “other side” get institutional support?
Ans: I have heard that there is a big fund running in the range of over 100 crore rupees that is used to defend people who are suspected to have been wrongly accused of terror charges based on their religion. Big shot lawyers and activists are involved using the fund. But it is all activism, which I feel is lacking in the case of Sadhvi.
Q10: Some people may claim that NIA giving clean chit to Sadhvi itself is a part of institutional support. Because the clean chit came after there was BJP government?
Ans: First of all, the case was transferred from ATS to NIA in 2011, when Congress was in power in both Maharashtra as well as in centre, so I find this argument weak.
Secondly, you can’t choose to believe the NIA or ATS when it suits your theory. Remember there were two blast cases in Malegaon – one in 2008, where Sadhvi was accused by the ATS, and another one in 2006 where ATS had accused some Muslims. One Muslim in the 2006 blasts case had even turned approver.
However, when cases were transferred to NIA, it rejected the ATS investigation of 2006 Malegaon blasts and instead implicated some Hindus, who are still under trial. ATS maintains that their original investigation was right, but those people who are now doubting NIA in the Sadhvi case appear to have accepted the NIA version in the 2006 case.
Q11: Sadhvi Pragya has said she is a victim of an elaborate conspiracy to UPA trying to invent “Hindu terror” and has claimed she was tortured too.
Ans: As I said, I was involved only during the bail application. These matters should be brought up during the trial, and I will reserve my comments for that.
Q12: Will you represent Sadhvi in her trial too and try to get her acquitted?
Ans: Depends upon if my services are needed. But I think she has a strong case and should be acquitted.
Rahul Gandhi introspected, this time truly, on what he can do to seriously take on BJP and RSS. His jibes had fallen flat, or worse, ricocheted. So, Rahul had this brilliant idea one morning when he woke up at night, that he would read Gita and Upanishads.
There was a little problem though. Who would teach him to read? To read Gita that is.
Rahul first met his closest advisor, Digvijay Singh.
RaGa: Digvijay ji, tell me about Gita. Diggy (without hesitation): sau taka tunch maal, Rahul ji! RaGa (shaking his head): Bhagvad Gita! Diggy (at a loss): Bhagwat? Why don’t we release a book “Gita ki Saazish”? I will invite Mahesh and Zakir too.
Exasperated by this farrago of misunderstanding, machinations, and perversion masquerading as serious politics, Rahul decided to reach out to an erudite Shashi Tharoor.
RaGa: Shashi, can you tell me about Gita? ST: The figmental yet philosophical prestidigitation that the deity with pavonine plume on his diadem…
Not happening boss, Rahul said to himself. He wanted a simpler teacher. So that left Manish Tewari out. Rahul then talked to Mani Shankar Aiyar.
RaGa: Mani, Diggi and Tharoor couldn’t tell me about Gita. Can you help me out? MSA: I told you, Rahul ji, inhe hataaiye humein le aaiye.. RaGa:laayeing laayeinge, pahle aap humein bataiye.. MSA: Rahul ji, instead of teaching you what the terrible troglodytes talked about, why don’t we meet the descendants of Duryodhana?
Rahul shook his head and decided to look beyond his party now. He thought of his new friend, Stalin.
Stalin: Gita is an Aryan conspiracy to impose Inthi on…
Rahul fled before Stalin could explain how “Stalin” is a lovely Dravidian name. Just like his father’s.
The Congress vice president then went to meet comrade Sitaram Yechury. The CPM leader was with a Youth Congress leader when Rahul arrived. On seeing the party vice president, the 64-year old was excited and fell on Rahul’s feet. Yechury did a Lal Salaam.
A dead animal was lying on the ground, hacked and bloody. An NDTV journo was calling it an “ox” for some reason. Rahul was not bothered. He was determined to learn Gita, and Sitaram was his new hope.
RaGa: Yechury ji, do you know about Gita? Yechury (tapping on his iPhone): Comrade, Gita says that eating beef is a fundamental right.
It was frustrating now. He needed someone who could understand him better. Finally he thought about his family, and so he turned to Robbert Vadra.
RaGa: Jijaji, can you tell me about Gita lessons? Vadra: Same Gita that was narrated during the battle Kurukshetra? It has important lessons. Duryodhana was a genius man, took the whole land away.
Rahul was seriously worried now. That smile that he had after 2014 defeat was gone now. No one was helping him learn Gita to take over BJP. He then decided that he should talk to someone who is RW (Right Winger) and yet willing to help him out.
After a few weeks he was ready, a new Rahul. The dimples were deeper, the smile was sweeter, and the kurta was whiter with more holes.
He declared he was ready to take on BJP and RSS. Party workers and independent journalists danced in joy. A big rally was announced. All news channels were ready to beam it live. Even Narendra Modi and Amit Shah huddled together and switched on the TV.
Armed with Gita lessons, and bonus Upanishads lessons learnt from his last guru, Rahul went on stage and thundered.
“Do you know what the Gita says? Sangostavakarmani. Do you know what it means? The Sangh makes money.”
“You know there is a whole Upanishad called Isa which is about living cordially with Christians? RSS doesn’t want you to know this.”
“Even Buddha said, sangham saranam gachhami. You know what it means? Pray that the Sangh goes away. RSS doesn’t want you to know this.”
Modi and Shah were utterly awed as Rahul threw such gems at the unsuspecting public. They knew he was their asset, but this was just awesome. They looked at each other and smiled.
After finding out that even this bookish ploy of defeating BJP and RSS didn’t work, Rahul Gandhi never ever worked with Rahul Easwar again.
Rebel AAP MLA Kapil Mishra, who has made many sensational claims about corruption and misdeeds by Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP government of Delhi, has now claimed that his views critical of Arvind Kejriwal are being supressed by news broadcaster NDTV.
Yesterday, Kapil Mishra had shared a blog post that was published on the Hindi website of NDTV. The blog post was titled “yeh hain Arvind Kejriwal ke brahmastra”, which loosely translates to “these are the ultimate weapons of Arvind Kejriwal”:
Explosive blog by Kapil Mishra exposing “Secrets of dirty tricks of AK”https://t.co/n11NZC65oV
In the blog post, Mishra had claimed that Kejriwal uses lies, deceit, treachery and conspiracy as weapons against those whom he considers threat to his political ambitions. The AAP MLA claimed in the post that these ‘weapons’ were used against Anna Hazare, Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, and also against Kumar Vishwas, who is still with AAP.
The blog post made a sensational claim that emails and other messages that targeted Kumar Vishwas’s personal life by terming him a lecherous man who was cheating on his wife, originated from an IP address that was of Kejriwal’s house. The article claimed that a ‘report’ confirming the same exists and Vishwas is in possession of the same.
Another sensational claim made in the blog post was about the death of AAP worker Santosh Koli, who died after meeting an accident in 2013. Mishra claimed that he talked to parents and brother of Santosh and came to know that the death was a political assassination and Kejriwal had a role in it. The blog post though did not ascribe any direct role of Kejriwal in the alleged assassination.
The blog post further recalled an incident involving an unnamed AAP worker and close aide of Manish Sisodia, who apparently was removed from the party on behest of Kejriwal as he had tweeted in support of Kumar Vishwas. Later, Mishra re-tweeted a message by a person who claimed to be the same AAP worker who was removed for supporting Vishwas.
The blog post made news despite being published on a day India and Pakistan met in Champions Trophy. However, the post was gone early this morning. The link to the article was sending people to the home page of Hindi NDTV website. A google archive of the article is available on this link though.
Kapil Mishra claimed that NDTV did not provide him any reasons or explanation on why the blog post was deleted by them. He hinted that the broadcaster was biased in favour of Kejriwal:
बहादुर @ndtv ने AK की सच्चाई वाला मेरा ब्लॉग बिना बताये हटाया। AK का नाम आते ही NDTV के लिए सिर्फ बागों में बहार है।
Incidentally, Arvind Kejriwal later tweeted in support of NDTV condemning CBI raids at the residences of its founder Prannoy Roy. Mishra took a dig both at NDTV and the AAP supremo by reminding people how Kejriwal used to abuse media and that the case against NDTV and its founders was about financial fraud that had nothing to do with free speech or independent journalism.
