HC orders CBI probe against Mussoorie MC officials

A black day for the Mussoorie Municipal Council
Mussoorie, December 14
What can be termed as the blackest day for one of the richest municipal councils in the state, an Uttarakhand High Court Bench comprising Chief Justice Baren Gosh and Justice UC Dhyani today ordered a CBI probe against the Mussoorie Municipal Council president OP Uniyal, other officials and members in response to the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by petitioner Vinod Prakash Thapliyal, who had levelled charges of financial embezzlement, nepotism and rampant corruption against the council and its president.
Speaking to The Tribune, the lawyer of petitioner A.Rab said that the High Court had also extended its previous order of restraining the MC from exercising its financial powers, except day-to-day work till six more months.
A.Rab also informed that the High Court in its order also said that the decision of suspending Mussoorie Municipal Council had been left to the state government.
The allegation of corruption and nepotism against the Palika began from the day when it awarded advance tenders benefiting a few individuals, including his own brother-in-law Manish Mamgain.
The issue of clock tower demolition and then its reconstruction also became the basis for such charges.
The raising of the price of the ticket at the ropeway at Gunhill point without providing any benefit to the council was also one of the issues in the PIL filed by the petitioner.

Sangathan seeks judicial rights for panchayats

Dehradun, December 14
The Uttarakhand Pradhan Sangathan has sought judicial rights for panchayats in the state as being provided in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh.
At a seminar held here today, sanghatan president Surat Singh Negi accused the Uttarakhand Government of doing a little to empower panchayats in the state.
He said while panchayats in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh were enjoying judicial rights, the panchayats in Uttarakhand lacked the same.
Chandra Singh, a former bureaucrat, said the panchayats had weakened considerably every since the judicial rights had been withdrawn from them. The sangathan has sought the restoration of these rights. He said there was a lack of commitment on part of political parties towards the strengthening of the panchayats. DP Uniyal, a senior journalist, said the panchayats must prepare a charter of their demands and submit the same to political parties in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
SD Petwal, an educationist, said it was strange that the government had failed to empower the panchayats.
Dwarika Prasad Bijalwan, Suresh Chandra Sharma and several other pradhans from various parts of the state attended the seminar.

HC judges, advocates donate blood

Chandigarh, December 14
The Bar, the Bench and the employees of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today came together for a cause -- blood donation.
Organised by the High Court Blood Contributors' Club through social activist-cum-senior advocate ML Sarin, nearly 288 donors came forward to donate blood in the camp this morning.
The donors included Justice Hemant Gupta, Justice Mahesh Grover, Justice Augustine George Masih, Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Rameshwar Malik. The camp was inaugurated by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who also appreciated the efforts of senior advocate Sarin for organising the camp.

Advocate’s licence suspended

The Bar Council of the Punjab and Haryana suspended the license of SC Seth, Tohana, Fatehabad district, for a period of five years here on Wednesday. Seth has also been imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on him. The complainant Bhupinder Singh, resident of Tohana, had filed a complaint of professional misconduct against the SC Seth.

Passion, revenge most fatal

Account for 90 per cent cases of murder this year
Chandigarh, December 14
Extreme emotions of passion and revenge account for more than 90 per cent murders in the city. More interestingly, all 22 murders reported this year so far had occurred in city’s colonies and slums owing to failed love affairs, matrimonial disharmony or old enmity which turned violent.
While all murder cases had been solved, the figure of murders reported this year had surpassed past year’s figure, when 20 murders were reported.
The areas of Mauli Jagran, Dadu Majra, Colony Number 4, Ram Darbar, Maloya and Kajheri had reported a majority of the murders.
Only one of the 22 murders had been reported in an urban part of the city. Two school students had stabbed a youth to death as he intervened in a scuffle at Sector 19 in September.
A staggering 70 percent of those arrested for committing these murders were first-timers, who had never any history of criminal offence and committed these murders out of sudden provocation. The police said though the number of murders was high, all cases had been solved. The police had also registered 38 attempt-to-murder cases and 64 robbery cases this year. “The trend of committing murder on account of revenge and prior enmity is on the rise. We have solved all murder cases this year. We have taken robberies and scuffles seriously, resulting in more hardcore criminals being behind bars,” said UT SSP Naunihal Singh.

Crimes of passion

• December 11: Man kills brother-in-law at Gwala Colony in Maloya after his wife refuses to return to stay with him.
• September 9: Sunita and her lover arrested for the murder of her husband, a rickshaw-puller, at Indira Colony.
• August 21: Reshma raped and murdered by four at Colony Number 4 after she told one of the accused, with whom she had illicit relations, that she was pregnant with his child.
• August 11: Mohali resident arrested for murdering student of Government High School at Sector 41, whom he had abducted, after her refusal to marry him.
• July 1: Man stabs sister-in-law to death and wounds wife at Dadu Majra while trying to force his wife to return with him.

Murder trial reveals ‘racist’ face of UK

At a time when racism seems to be part of a more distant and less pleasant era, an ongoing trial in London has reminded Indians and other non-white members in Britain just what it used to mean to have a different type of skin.
For many British whites in the 21st century, racial discrimination, including slurs and jibes, is now an obscene and totally unacceptable form of social behaviour that is firmly rooted in the past. All mainstream UK political parties seem to have endorsed this stand against racism. It is quite evident from the current tough legislation against racial abuse and creation of institutions like the Commission of Racial Equality.
But the trial of the two white men accused of killing a black teenager 20 years ago has revived uncomfortable memories of the past when racial bias was prevalent in London and other parts of the UK.
‘Paki’ and ‘nigger’ were common epithets used to describe south Asians and black people. Many Indian journalists and NRIs from those earlier days will testify to the ‘no blacks or Asians’ signs that used to appear on the windows of rental accommodation. Gary Dobson and David Norris, two white men now in their mid-30s, are alleged to have been part of a gang that stabbed and killed 19-year-old black teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993 as he waited for a bus in the south London suburb of Eltham.
Stephen, who was studying design and technology and physics at school, was the son of a carpenter, Neville, and his wife, Doreen, a teacher. Both parents fully supported their son who wanted to be an architect. One of the witnesses at the time heard a gang member shout, "what, what nigger" before crossing the road and stabbing the unfortunate teenager. Stephen tried to escape by running away, but he collapsed after covering a short distance.
The pathologist report commented: “It’s surprising that he managed to cover 130 yards with the injuries he had. Also, the deep penetrating wound of the right side caused the upper lobe to partially collapse his lung. It is a testimony to Stephen's physical fitness that he was able to run the distance he did before collapsing.”
Dobson was one of the members of the gang who was arrested, but never convicted for the murder, prompting an inquiry at the time to conclude that the London police had mishandled the investigation and that the police force itself was ‘institutionally racist’.
However, nearly two decades after the tragedy, and following discovery of new evidence, Dobson is one of two men on trial for Stephen's murder. Some of the evidence includes sensational hidden black and white recordings from a secret police camera hidden inside Dobson's London flat.
The video tape records him as saying, “If I was going to kill myself, do you know what I would do ? I would go and kill every black, every paki, every copper, every mug that I know, I'm telling you.”
He goes on to say, “I would go down to Catford and places like that, I am telling you now, with two sub-machine guns, and I am telling you, I would take one of them, skin the black alive, mate, torture him, set him alight. I would blow their two arms and legs off and say, ‘Go on, you can swim home now’.”
Dobson has told the court he is “disgusted and ashamed” by what he has seen of himself. Whether the jury believes him and his plea that he is not guilty of the Lawrence murder remains to be seen.
The Lawrence trial coincides with the recently released video footage of other, more recent incidents of racial abuse in the UK. Compared to 20 years ago, however, they seem to be less common than they used to be. One of the videos recently shot on a London bus is of a middle-aged and apparently drunk white woman who screams, 'I'm a great white c***' before adding: 'Do you know what, I really don't know whether you're afro-bian, Caribbean'." Another example is of a white woman on the London underground who confronts a non-white male passenger and screams, “Learn the lingo and then think about coming back you ******* r*****”. She goes on to screech, “We have got enough of you ******* muppets in our country, stealing out jobs, ******* taking the English jobs.”

Action against convicted police officials

Chandigarh, December 14
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today warned the State of Punjab "not to play games with the court" on the issue of initiating action against convicted police officials.
The verbal assertion came in reaction to the persistent demand by state's senior Additional Advocate-General Rupinder Khosla for the grant of additional time till mid-February next year for initiating action against convicted police officials.
Speaking for the Bench, Justice MM Kumar orally observed in the open court: "We know why you are asking for additional time…. The elections in the state have been (tentatively) announced". Mincing no words, the Bench warned: "You are an officer of the court…. Don't play games with the court".
Khosla had initially sought an additional time of three months from the court for taking action against the convicted police officials. Declining the request, the Bench observed that three years had already passed; and the matter did not require more than a month as the particulars of all convicted police officials were already on the record.
The Bench also gave the state government last opportunity to take action against the convicted police officials by January 31 next; and directed the listing of the matter the next day.
It was then Khosla persistently asked the court to give 15 days more to the State, resulting in the backlash of sorts by the Bench of Justice Kumar and Justice Rajiv Narain Raina.
The State also informed the Bench that the services of four convicted DSPs
had been placed under suspension and the matter had been forwarded to the PPSC for its advice. At the very outset, Khosla produced before the Bench a copy of the reference order, vide which the Punjab Government had forwarded the case of the four convicted DSPs to the PPSC for its statutory advice.
During the post-lunch session, the law officer produced an order passed by the government today itself, placing under suspension the services of the four DSPs, Bhupinder Singh Khatra, Parminder Singh, Arinderbir Singh, and Sukhdev Singh Chheena.
The High Court then directed that the PPSC through its secretary be made a party and directed it to take a decision within two weeks of receiving the communication.