Shakti Mills gangrape – death penalty (3)

The three repeat offenders get the death penalty.

We violently disagree with the death penalty (no ifs and buts), and we are happy that even though it is the law of the land it will probably never be acted upon given the recent Supreme Court rulings and it is much better to prescribe some diabolical punishment scheme like solitary confinement.

The three repeat offenders in the Shakti Mills gang-rape cases have been awarded death sentence by sessions court.

Awarding death penalty to the three, the court said, “Mumbai gang-rape
accused have least respect for law. They don’t have potential for
reformation as per facts of case.”

“The suffering that gang-rape survivor and her family has undergone is unparalleled,” the court said.

“Mumbai gang-rape accused were emboldened since law enforcing agencies
hadn’t caught them. If this is not the case where death sentence
prescribed by law is not valid, which is?” the judge asked.

“Exemplary and rarest of rare punishment is required in the case,” the
judge said, adding, crime violates all rights of survivor.

Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam had demanded the maximum punishment for the three repeat offenders.

Kasim Bengali, Vijay Jadhav and Mohammed Salim Ansari are the common
accused who are also convicted in the telephone operator gang-rape case.
The 18-year-old telephone operator was gang raped on the premises of
Shakti Mills in July last year a month before the photojournalist was
brutalised on August 22.

The 22-year-old photo journalist of a
magazine was gang raped by Vijay Jadhav, Kasim Bengali, Salim Ansari,
Siraj Rehman and a minor boy when she had gone to the Shakti Mills
compound in the Central Mumbai with a male colleague on an assignment.

…..

regards

ZA Bhutto murdered (5 April 1979)

He was a great man and if he had lived a full life then Pakistan certainly would have benefited from his services. However his actions were also problematic in terms of how Partition #2 could have been avoided (unfortunately the Hindu minority in Bangladesh did not fit into his calculations), and his actions led the way to demonization of the Ahmedis (which would have happened anyway). That said he died a horrible death (by the hands of General Zia whom he himself had promoted) and it was thus poetic justice that General Zia died an agonizing death when his turn came. A bad show all around.

My dear countrymen, my dear friends, my dear students, labourers,
peasants… those who fought for Pakistan… We are facing the worst
crisis in our country’s life, a deadly crisis. We have to pick up the
pieces, very small pieces, but we will make a new Pakistan, a prosperous
and progressive Pakistan, a Pakistan free of exploitation, a Pakistan
envisaged by the Quaid-e-Azam —Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 1971

regards

India ranks 102 out of 132 nations on social progress index

Of the BRICS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—only India ranked lower than the 100th position on the list of the Social Progress Index 2014 compiled by US-based non-profit group Social Progress Imperative…The report said that while the BRICS are generally seen as areas of great economic growth potential, social progress performance is mixed at best. Only Brazil (46th) ranks better on social progress than it does on GDP per capita (57th). Russia has a higher GDP than Brazil (39th) yet ranks lower on the Social Progress Index (80th); South Africa is 58th on GDP and 69th on social progress; China is 69th on GDP and 90th on social progress; and India is 94th on GDP and 102nd on social progress.

More here.

Justice delayed (denied) in Suryanelli

A totally barbaric case where a glimmer of light can (may) be seen. A sixteen year old tortured for 40 days with all the accused except the prime mover acquitted of all charges. Then came the log-term mental toruture where she was accused of being a “deviant girl.”

The only difference with the re-appeal is the ghost of Nirbhaya, which forced the Supreme court to scrutinize her case (after it had been lying idle for an unbelievable period of 8 years [ref wiki]).  

This poor girl can thank that poor girl for a bit of justice that may be flowing after such a long dry season.


24
accused in the Suryanelli rape case have been held guilty of gang rape
by Kerala high court on Friday after a rehearing in the case. All the 24 were acquitted 9 years ago by another division bench of the court.

The mass acquittal was challenged in the Supreme Court, which ordered re-hearing in the case last year.

It was on January 31 last year that the apex court had set aside the
high court’s mass acquittal in the rape case and had asked the high
court to take a fresh look at the case.

A division bench comprising Justice KT Sankaran and Justice ML Joseph
Francis pronounced its judgment today after completing fresh hearing.

The case relates to the abduction of a 16-year-old girl (16 years, 3
months, and 23 days as on January 16, 1996) from her school hostel at
Suryanelli in Idukki district on January 16, 1996 by a bus conductor,
first accused Raju, in the guise of love.

She was then handed
over by the conductor to second accused Usha and Dharmarajan and was
transported from place to place in Kerala and Tamil Nadu for 40 days.
During the 40-day period, she was presented to 41 men and was raped 67
times, until she was released on the morning of February 26, 1996. She
was transported for over 3,000 kilometres by the gang during the rapes.

Charges against the accused included rape, kidnapping, criminal
conspiracy, wrongfully concealing abducted person, selling minor girl,
procuration of minor girl, and gang rape.

On September 2, 2000,
a sessions court at Kottayam had convicted 35 of the accused to undergo
prison sentences ranging from 4 to 13 years and had acquitted four
persons.

A total of 40 persons had faced trial in the case,
which included 9 businessmen, 2 advocates, 2 railway employees, 3
vehicle brokers, 1 mechanic, 1 policeman, 5 drivers, 1 professor, 1
clerk, 5 coolies, 6 farmers, 1 bus conductor, 1 nurse, and sex worker
Usha who pimped the girl.

As the main accused Dharmarajan was
absconding, he faced trial separately later on. He was convicted and
sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001. Considering appeals
filed by convicts, a division bench of the high court had, on January
20, 2005, acquitted all the accused except Dharmarajan. He was convicted
only for procuration of minor girl, and not for rape. His sentence was
modified to 4 years of rigorous imprisonment from life imprisonment by
the high court.

Considering state government’s appeal, a
special bench of the apex court dealing with crimes against women had
set aside the high court’s judgment and had ordered a fresh hearing on
the appeals by the high court on January 31 last year.

State
government had assigned director general of prosecution T Asaf Ali to
present the prosecution’s case. A total of 27 appeals were filed by the
convicts, including prime accused Dharmarajan, through advocate George
Kutty Mathew. Hearing of the appeals had begun on March 13 last year.
……

regards

The prince is banished from the kingdom

We are actually held speechless (only for a moment to be sure). Is this actually India that we know so well of where a well-off person never bothers to stand in a queue. And these majestic words simply take your breath away: “If Gandhi has to apply, he should apply himself in person or send
application signed by him with all the essential documents”

Life is super strange these days but it is clear that the bureaucracy (aka steel frame) that actually rule India is showing its true colors. It will not bow to any man, common or royal. Whether it is a positive sign or not, the answer is blowing in the wind.

The local administration has cancelled application of Congress Vice
President and local MP Rahul Gandhi for issuance of domicile
certificate.

“The application should have been made by Gandhi himself with his
signature, which was not there. The application was made by one Rajendra
Singh with is against law”, District Magistrate, Jagatraj Tripathi
today told PTI when asked about cancellation of the application.

The papers needed with the application were also not there, he added.

“If Gandhi has to apply, he should apply himself in person or send
application signed by him with all the essential documents”, the DM
said.

Bank account of all the candidates are to be opened on dircetions of EC
and for this domicile certificate is needed, the officer clarified.

Congress Amethi spokesman Rajendra Singh had applied for the certificate
showing Munshiganj Guest house as temporary address of Gandhi and the
administration had cancelled the application terming it against rules
and regulations.
…..
regards

Saffron surge in Battleground States

Still no clarity on the magic number- 220 which will be required to convince new partners (my state is my kingdom) to join up. For now the likely list will include TDP (Andhra), AIADMK (Tamil Nadu) and BJD (Odisha). And that’s it. BJP is radio-active for the two Mullahs (Mulayam and Mamata) who have strong muslim backing. Mayawati may be persuaded to join but she will demand dismissal of Samajwadi Party from Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) in return.

It appears that Mission 115 looks to be a goal too far for the Congress (the south, in particular, Kerala, Karnataka and Telengana will be crucial). Also the AAP may not be making a large enough impact in this elections but hopefully will take over from Congress as a secular alternative. For that the AAP has to find a way to steal (and retain) Dalits and Muslim votes, which have always  been donated free to Congress.

The
Congress and UPA are facing decimation in a wide swathe of states from
Delhi and Rajasthan in the north to Bihar and Jharkhand in the east,
Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the centre, Maharashtra in the west
and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the south. In sharp
contrast, the BJP and its allies are riding high in almost all these
states, with Tamil Nadu being an exceptional case of neither major
alliance doing well, according to an opinion poll done for a TV channel.

The poll done by Hansa Research for NDTV and released on Thursday
estimated that the BJP would win 21 of 25 seats in Rajasthan, 25 of 29
seats in MP, eight of 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, 10 of 14 seats in
Jharkhand, 16 of 28 seats in Karnataka and four of seven in Delhi. Thus,
in these six states combined, the party would bag 84 out of 114 seats
on its own. The BJP with its allies would win 21 of Bihar’s 40 seats, 36
of Maharashtra’s 48, 16 of AP’s 42 and three of Tamil Nadu’s 39,
leading to a total of 76 out of 169 seats in these four states.

As against this, the poll predicts that the Congress will win just 29
seats in AP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Chhattisgarh and Delhi put together, while the party and its allies will
win 25 seats in Bihar, Jharkhand and Maharashtra. In short, the overall
tally in all of these states put together would be 160 for the NDA and a
mere 54 for the UPA. In
Tamil Nadu, the poll predicts that the AIADMK will win 25 seats, the DMK
alliance 11 seats and the BJP alliance three seats, leaving the
Congress facing a blank slate. In Andhra Pradesh, there would be two
distinctly different battles – mainly between the TDP-BJP and the YSR
Congress in Seemandhra and between the Congress and TRS in Telengana.
Put together, the TDP alliance is estimated to win 16 seats, the YSR
Congress 10, the Congress eight and TRS seven.

In Maharashtra,
the NDA will win 36 seats and the UPA just 10, the poll predicted. In
Bihar, the NDA gets 21, the UPA 11 and the ruling JD(U) a mere six. In
Delhi, AAP will win two seats and Congress one, the remaining four going
to BJP, the poll predicted.  
…..
regards

Dalit boy dumps Obama, picks up AK-272

He was a dead poor, rural boy whose mother was a rag-picker. He defied fate (and logic) by marching into the Indian Institute of Technology and then on to USA and had been an active supporter of the Obama campaign. However, now his homeland has called and he has returned to assist Arvind Kejriwal to achieve their (common) dream of a corruption free (less?) India. A true patriot, India needs many more of such bright, young stars who may one day grow into an(other) Ambedkar.

Much better than a few other disadvantaged people who grew too big too fast (and became too greedy and had to pay for their sins).
…
It’s
not often that the son of a dalit agricultural labourer from
Maharashtra’s farm suicide belt, whose mother once worked as a rag-picker
on the streets of Mumbai, makes it as an entrepreneur in America and
provides healthcare consultancy to the governments of New York,
Washington and New Jersey.


What are the odds that such a man
will throw up a life in New Jersey after a decade in the US to return to
his dusty village in rural Marathwada? That’s a question Aam Aadmi
Party’s Jalna candidate, Deelip Mhaske, is best suited to answer.

Mhaske (35) is a Dalit candidate contesting the elections from an open
seat in a Maratha stronghold, a rarity of sorts for Indian politics.
While Mhaske is no stranger to elections, having actively supported the
Obama campaign, the murky world of Maharashtra politics came as a bit of
a shock to him. His political opponents have used both his caste and
his US stint against him, calling him an outsider.

Some of his
campaigns have been disrupted by rowdy elements shouting casteist slurs
at him. He says other political parties have openly distributed alcohol
in the district to buy votes.

Mhaske, though, is no stranger to
challenges. When he made it to IIT Bombay for a degree in planning and
development, he doubled up as a construction labourer, while his mother
worked as a ragpicker to make ends meet. “I once landed up at a building
where my classmate lived in order to carry out some construction work.
That’s when she discovered for the first time that I worked as a
construction labourer,” he says.

Post IIT, a research paper he
wrote was selected for a conference at the University of Pennsylvania
where he got a scholarship to do his PhD. Mhaske, who went on to set up
his own outpatient clinic for mental health patients, also had a degree
in health sciences from Harvard Business School. He has been a
healthcare consultant with the governments of New York, New Jersey and
Washington.

His early success may have something to do with the
Central government scholarship he got at the age of 10, which gave him
entry to Navodaya Vidyalaya, one amongst a chain of schools that
provides quality education across India to talented children in rural
areas.

Mhaske has been intricately linked with India’s
anti-corruption movements, both while at IIT as well as during his
career in the US. “I have been an active member of Jayprakash Narayan’s
Lok Satta party in Hyderabad, and was involved in setting up a chapter
of the party in Maharashtra,” says Mhaske, adding that he had been a
part of Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption in 2003, as a student
at IIT, well-before Hazare shot to fame on the national arena.

While in the US, Mhaske joined the Aam Aadmi Party the day it was
launched and has worked on several campaigns, both online and offline,
to garner support for the party. “I’ve always felt the need to enter
politics in order to better the system. This is why I have supported
good parties such as AAP and Lok Satta,” says Mhaske.

…
regards

Free speech vs. Equality

America stands for both but as the article notes very difficult compromises need to be made.
Of course you can seek protection under the (broad) umbrella of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Still courts have now been consistently delivering the message that anti-gay viewpoints will lose out (however anti-women measures such as banning of aborti-facients will probably be still OK).

 

That said some one must feel the pain of being a true-blue social conservative in Silicon valley. The moment you dare to come out of YOUR closet (aka exercise your free-speech rights) the Hounds of the Bay-ville will be after you. They will tear out your heart out and eat it (with some fava beans and a nice glass of chianti). What a pity. But then again it must have been glorious for Brendan Eich to die for his belief that gays should not get married. All movements need (and feed on) martyrs, so this should be a red-letter day for the anti gay-rights cause.

Mozilla,
the company behind the popular Firefox web browser, on Friday announced
that their controversial CEO Brendan Eich is resigning.

Eich
has been under fire for his views on gay marriage and gay rights. He
reportedly donated $1,000 to an anti-gay organization that lobbied for
ban on same-sex marriages in California in 2008.

When Eich
became Mozilla CEO on March 24, a controversy started over his views on
same-sex marriage. Many Mozilla employees took to Twitter to register
their displeasure at Eich’s views. A few days ago, Ok Cupid, a dating
website, said that it would be asking its users to change their web
browser if they were using Firefox because of Eich’s position on
same-sex marriage.

The resignation comes a day after Eich said that he would not resign for his personal beliefs.

In a blog post, executive chairwoman at Mozilla Mitchell Baker, wrote,
“Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He’s made
this decision for Mozilla and our community … Mozilla believes both in
equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful
speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how
to stand for both at the same time can be hard.”
..
regards

Babri demolition was pre-planned

If this Cobra sting report is true then there should be charges of high crimes against the nation brought against the top conspirators.

What we found to be the most sickening was this viewpoint: young participants were deliberately used as
cannon fodder by provoking a police firing on kar sevaks in 1990 because
of the belief of some leaders that the movement would not gather steam
unless ‘some Hindus die’.



An
elaborate sting operation, conducted on 23 key people of the Ram
Janambhoomi movement, claims that the demolition of the Babri Masjid on
December 6, 1992, was elaborately planned by the various wings of the
Sangh parivar and executed with precision by trained volunteers. It
wasn’t, as it is claimed, a case of mob frenzy going out of control,
leading to the fall of the disputed 16th century structure.

The
investigation, carried out by Cobrapost, claims that by piecing
together the versions given by the top Ram Janambhhomi players, among
them Sakshi Maharaj, Acharya Dharmendra, Uma Bharti, Mahant Vedanti and
Vinay Katiyar, it is apparent that top BJP leaders like L K Advani and
the then UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, as well the former Congress PM,
P V Narasimha Rao, were aware of the planned demolition of Babri
Masjid.

Posing as a
would-be-author researching his book on the Ayodhya movement, Cobrapost
associate editor K Ashish travelled to Ayodhya, Faizabad, Tanda,
Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Mathura, Moradabad in UP, Jaipur, Aurangabad, Mumbai
and Gwalior interviewing 23 of those who participated in the operation.
He clandestinely recorded conversations with them.

If what
they claim is true, the Ram Janambhoomi leaders and activists toiled
secretly for months on a plan codenamed ‘Operation Janmabhoomi’ and
executed it with military precision. Volunteers were trained, logistics
painstakingly put in place and the assault on the disputed shrine
launched using large surging crowds with volunteers skilled in
demolishing structures embedded in it.

Not only do those
interviewed spell out details of the planning, they also allegedly
reveal how enthusiastic young participants were deliberately used as
cannon fodder by provoking a police firing on kar sevaks in 1990 because
of the belief of some leaders that the movement would not gather steam
unless ‘some Hindus die’.

Many of those interviewed by the
make-believe author are accused in CBI cases pertaining to the
demolition. Yet, they seemed to have no qualms in “confessing” (or
boasting) about their role in the episode that left a deep communal
schism in India.
….regards

Musharraf (just escapes) murdered

He is a good man (even though he launched a counter-productive war against India).

The Taliban have also made it clear that they want his head. Basically anybody who is not with them is by definition against them. It would help is the powers that be that are in charge of Pakistan hurry up and get rid of this growing menace before it consumes everybody in SAsia.
….
Pakistan’s
former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who is on trial for treason,
narrowly escaped an assassination attempt as a bomb went off shortly
before his convoy was due to pass on Thursday, police said.

The
bomb was planted on his route from an army hospital where he has been
staying since January to his home on the outskirts of Islamabad.

“Four kilograms of explosive device planted in a pipeline under a
bridge exploded around 20 minutes before the former president was
supposed to cross the spot,” senior police official Liaqat Niazi said.
…

regards

Brown Pundits