TERI boss R.K Pachauri was charged
with sexually harassing and outraging the modesty of an ex woman colleague
More than
a year after an FIR was registered against him, Delhi Police has formally
charged former Teri boss R K Pachauri with sexually harassing and outraging the
modesty of an exwoman colleague.
Filing a 100-page chargesheet in a trial court with
annexures running into 1,250 pages -police said Pachauri not just sexually
harassed the woman, he also stalked and intimidated her. Metropolitan
magistrate Shivani Chauhan will hear the case on April 23.
Pachauri has denied the allegations. If convicted, he faces
imprisonment of up to seven years.Police have prima facie found no sub stance
in Pachauri's claims that his computer and email account were hacked although
the forensic reports in this connection are awaited. Police will file a
supplementary chargesheet with these reports.
Pachauri
has been chargesheeted for offences punishable under sections 354
(assaultcriminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 A
(sexual harassment), 354 D (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509
(word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.
Special team comprising doctors and
forensic scientists to examine the medical reports and evidence in the Sunanda
Pushkar case
Delhi
Police has written to the director general of health services (DGHS) to form a
special team comprising doctors and forensic scientists to examine the medical
reports and evidence in the Sunanda Pushkar case. The move comes in the wake of
the differences between Delhi Police and the AIIMS medical team over this case.
The cops and the AIIMS team have had a number of exchanges
for nearly a year but they are not on the same page over a number of aspects.
The move, however, is just another formality which will not make any difference
to the case, said a police officer.
While the SIT is on the verge of winding up its probe, the
economic offences wing has already completed its investigation. The cops will
soon file a status report in the court and seek a lie detector test on Shashi
Tharoor. How ever, senior officers maintain that the probe may reach a dead end
if the exact cause of Sunanda's death is not established. The FBI report on her
viscera samples has revealed she died of poisoning but has ruled out any
radioactive substance.
The
police and the AIIMS team had discussed two probabilities apart from the
obvious one: murder. While one was suicide, the other was of an overdose of
Alprax.
The AAP government has formally
asked CBI to probe the distribution of auto permits
The
AAP government has formally asked CBI to probe the distribution of auto permits
in the city . In December last year, the government had suspended three
officials of the transport department for allegedly colluding with
intermediaries over distribution of auto permits. It went on to cancel all 932
letters of intent (LoI) issued in December.
Air pollution: NGT notice to 13
cement firms for violation
National
Green Tribunal issued notices to 13 cement manufacturers in Delhi and the rest
of NCR for allegedly violating its order on overloading of vehicles. It also
pulled up the companies for allegedly flouting provisions of the Motor Vehicles
Act and causing air pollution.
Petitioner Neena Pradeep, in her application, said the
companies have been overloading their trucks with cement and clinkers in order
to save toll tax. Despite having their own private independent railway siding,
the cement manufacturers have been transporting cement by road, the plea said.
Court again drops case for bid to
kill self against Irom
Human
rights crusader Irom Sharmila Chanu, who has been fast ng for over 15 years
demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Po wers) Act in Manipur, was
on Monday released by an Imphal court which acquited her of charges levelled
against her under Section 309 IPC (attempt to suicide).
Sharmila was last arrested on
January 23, 2015. For he last 15 years, police have been arresting her every
year, charging her with the same crime attempt to suicide every time.
Interestingly , for the last few years, courts have been acquitting her every
year.
Enforcement Directorate gets court
nod, will seek to extradite Lalit Modi from UK
A special court in Mumbai allowed the Enforcement
Directorate (ED) to initiate extradition proceedings against former IPL
chairman Lalit Modi, who is wanted in several cases of tax evasion and
violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act and the PMLA Act.
The ED will now seek Modi's extradition from the UK through
the ministry of external affairs. Modi has been living outside India since 2010
and has refused to join the probe. The income tax department, the Directorate
of Revenue Intelligence and the ED have cases pending against him.
The
former IPL chairman came on the radar of investigating agencies for the first
time in 2009 when an income tax search on his premises revealed huge financial
irregularities in the conduct of IPL tournaments.
Army under High Court glare for
stripping youths at job test
The Patna high court took suo motu cognizance of pictures
published in a newspaper showing candidates taking an Army recruitment exam in
Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Sunday in undergarments.
Altogether 1,159 candidates wrote the test, which the Army Regional
Office (ARO) in Muzaffarpur conducted for recruitment of clerks.
After advocate Dinu Kumar mentioned
the pictures in the court, a division bench of acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed
Ansari and Justice Chakradhari Saran Singh treated it as a PIL. The bench
directed ministry of defence secretary to file his reply explaining why the
candidates had to remove their clothes to prevent cheating.
New bill to `settle' surrogacy
issues
The
government has devised provisions in an upcoming bill to bring transparency in
dealing with issues related to the parentage of surrogate children.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for
health Shripad Yesso Naik said, “Yes, to make issues of
parentage of children born out of surrogacy , legal and transparent, provisions
have been made in the draft surrogacy (regulations) bill, 2016.”
However, by defining a couple as a married man and woman,
the proposed bill shuts the door on homosexuals and people in live-in
relationships.
Currently,
the surrogacy business is estimated at around Rs. 900 crore in the country and
is a growing industry.
NHRC notice to govt for scrapping
relief on key drugs
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent notices
to finance ministry and health ministry for the recent withdrawal of customs
duty exemption on a host of life-saving drugs, including some for cancer and
kidney stones.
The government's move was criticised
as it would lead to a rise in prices of essential medicines. Taking suo motu
cognizance of the matter, the commission has sought responses from the
ministries within four weeks.
Court: Apple can't be forced to hack
iPhone in NY drug probe
A federal
magistrate judge has denied the United States government's request that Apple
extract data from an iPhone in a drug case in New York, giving the company's
pro privacy stance a boost as it battles law enforcement officials over
unlocking the device in other cases.
Judge
James Orenstein took particular aim at a 1789 statute called the All Writs Act
that underlies many government requests for extracting data from tech
companies. The act says courts can require actions to comply with their orders
when not covered by existing law. The All Writs Acts also being invoked in the light
over an iPhone in the San Bernardino shooting, which has pitted Apple against
government. Both the FBI and Apple have called for Congress to step in to help
settle the question of when law enforcement should get access to citizens
private data.
Sikh sues US Defence Department for
religious bias
A Sikh
combat soldier sued the US defense department saying his beard and turban had made him the
subject of religious discrimination because the army was putting him through
arduous helmet and gas mask tests that no other soldier goes through.
The complaint, filed in federal district court in Washington
by Captain Simratpal Singh, a decorated West Point graduate, said unlike other
soldiers he had been ordered to undergo three days of performance tests that
“target him solely because of his religious beliefs.”Singh was ordered on
Friday to begin three days of tests to determine if his helmet would fit over
his hair and if his gas mask could seal to his face. He passed the gas mask
test .
Singh,
28, grew up in an observant Sikh family in Seattle and was awarded the Bronze
Star for exemplary service in Afghanistan.
Court
rejects application for Bhatt's remand
The sessions court rejected Gujarat
government's demand for seven-day police custody of sacked IPS officer Sanjiv
Bhatt more than four years after his arrest in connection with an FIR accusing
him of coercing his subordinate to swear on a false affidavit.
Police sought his custody on the
ground that the investigator wanted to seize his laptop to find out the
communications he made with regard to the affidavit he had tendered before the
Supreme Court appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran. This was after Bhatt
had filed an affidavit in the SC accusing then chief minister Narendra Modi of
asking officials to allow the Hindus to vent their anger in the aftermath of
Godhra train carnage. Principal district judge PR Patel turned down the remand
plea mainly because of the lapse in time and that a chargesheet was also filed
in this case.
Bhatt
was arrested in September 2011 after his subordinate KD Panth filed an FIR
accusing him of forcing him to swear an affidavit supporting his claims of
being present in the meeting at Modi's residence on February 27, 2002 evening.
Supreme Court notice to Centre over
petition challenging talaq
The Supreme Court sought the response of the Centre on a
petition filed by a Muslim woman challenging the triple talaq provision in the
Muslim personal law for grant of divorce.
A bench of
Justices Anil R. Dave and A.K. Goel issued a notice after hearing senior
counsel Amit Singh and counsel Balaji Srinivasan questioning the legality of
the provision.
The
petitioner, Shayara Banu, is a female Muslim citizen who was divorced by her
husband as her family was unable to meet the demands for additional dowry. The
divorce was by way of triple-talaq (talaq-e-bidat) which was confirmed by a
divorce, she said and prayed for quashing the provision. The petitioner wishes
to secure a life of dignity, unmarred by discrimination on the basis of gender
or religion. She, therefore, seeks a writ or order or direction declaring the
practices of talaq-e-bidat (instantaneous triple-talaq), nikah halala (bar
against remarriage with divorced husband without an intervening marriage with
another man), and polygamy under Muslim personal laws as illegal, unconstitutional
and violative of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.
The practices
under challenge, which practically treat women like chattel belonging to men,
are neither harmonious with the modern principles of human rights and gender
equality (as enshrined in the Constitution as well as various international
treaties and covenants), nor an integral part of Islamic faith. Various noted
scholars have also expressed the view that talaq-e-bidat has no foundation in
the holy Quran.
In fact, many Islamic nations,
including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iraq, have banned or restricted such
practices, while they continue to vex not only Indian Muslim women like the
Petitioner but also the society at large, notwithstanding that the Muslim
community of India has itself been clamouring for reform and ban of oppressive
practices that have no basis in Islam or the Holy Quran.The Petitioner has been
divorced by her husband as her family was unable to meet the demands for
additional dowry. The divorce was by way of triple-talaq (talaq-e-bidat) which
was confirmed by a divorce, she said and prayed for quashing the provision.
Lady Shri
Ram College has started a special law course on women's issues
Lady
Shri Ram College For Women has started a certificate course titled 'Women and
Law' to give legal literacy to girls and educate them about the practical
application of laws pertaining to women's issues. The course started with an
interactive session attended by around 50 students.
The sessions are being organised by Women's Development Cell
and the internal complaints committee at LSR in collaboration with Delhi State
Legal Services Authority. The course consists of six sessions of two hours
twice a week and a field trip to Saket district court and the high court.
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