Arunachal approves death for rape of girls under 12

GUWAHATI: Arunachal Pradesh on Friday became the fourth state in the country to pass a legislation approving death penalty for child rape. The Criminal Laws (Arunachal Pradesh) Amendment Bill-2018 was passed by unanimous voice vote in the state assembly by all members present. This development follows a series of incidents where the public resorted to vigilante justice to punish alleged child rapists. Similar legislations were earlier approved by the Bjp-ruled states of MP, Rajasthan and Haryana. The bill seeks to amend sections 376AA and Sec 376D of the IPC – which prescribes punishment for offences such as rape and gang rape of girls below 12 years – to include the death penalty as well as other punitive actions. The legislation also provides for amending the POCSO Act, the Indian Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure as consequential legislation. CHANDIGARH: The apology by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to former Akali minister Bikram Singh Majithia was not a sudden development, a senior leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has claimed.

It was the result of a series of closed-door meetings between AAP and SAD leaders in New Delhi and Chandigarh, said the Punjab leader who does not want to be named but was part of the behind-the-scenes talks.

Among the AAP leaders involved in the informal parleys was Ashish Khetan, who is said to have made frequent trips to Chandigarh but kept his visits under wraps, claims the SAD leader.

Other than Kejriwal and Majithia, leaders of both parties met at least four times, he said.

Among those who played a key role in bringing the AAP leaders to the negotiation table were Akali leaders based in Delhi, including Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who was elected to the Delhi assembly on Bharatiya Janata Party ticket in the 2017 bypoll. Sirsa is also the general secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). When contacted, Sirsa refused to comment on his role in the talks.

An AAP leader, on the condition of anonymity, said the apology from Kejriwal was “stagemanaged” and leaders of both AAP and SAD met several times before that.

Hindustan Times has also learnt that SAD leaders managed to convince their AAP counterparts that conviction in this case was certain. AAP’S Khetan went to Amritsar with his and Kejriwal’s apology letters to be given in the court, claimed the SAD leader. However, Khetan was not available for comments.

AAP’S former head of the legal cell Himmat Singh Shergill said something had transpired behind the scenes leading to the apology and he would take it up with Kejriwal as to why he took this drastic step.

THE CASE

A criminal defamation suit was filed by Majithia against AAP leaders Kejriwal, Khetan and Sanjay Singh on 20 May 2016. All the three secured bail and offered to face trial, stating they stood by the allegations made by them.

The defamation suit pertains to statements made on three occasions — the Maghi rally on January 14, 2016 addressed by AAP leaders, including Kejriwal; street-corner meetings by Kejriwal in Amritsar on February 27, 2016 and a press conference at the Chandigarh press club by Khetan and Sanjay Singh on March 30, 2016, in which allegations about Majithia’s involvement in the drug trade were levelled.

According to Majithia’s counsel Damanbir Sobti, the case was at the last stage now. “The case was at the post-charges evidence stage as the charges were already framed. Out of four witnesses, two were cross-examined,” he said.

After the apology letters from Kejriwal and Khetan, Majithia has withdrawn the defamation suit against them, but the case against Sanjay Singh continues and the next hearing is on April 2. Singh is facing a similar case in a Ludhiana court too.

Shergill, who represents Singh in the two cases, said that his client would not seek apology and would contest the case. CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab president Bhagwant Mann, who resigned on Friday to protest against national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s apology to an Akali Dal politician whom he allegedly defamed, said Kejriwal had betrayed the people of the state.

Kejriwal extended the apology in return for Bikram Singh Majithia, a former Akali Dal minister, withdrawing the defamation suit he filed in an Amritsar court against the AAP leader and Delhi chief minister for accusing him of involvement in the drug trade.

Calling the apology a ‘blunder’, Mann said party volunteers and leaders were fighting the drug menace, but the jarnail (general) had gone ahead and apologised to Majithia without consulting the local unit of AAP.

“About 34 lakh people had voted for the party and probably 25 lakh of them even put up posters on this issue.

Has Kejriwal apologised on their behalf or he just went alone to Majithia to ask for forgiveness? This thing has come as a shock to everyone,” Mann added.

Mann, the Lok Sabha MP from Sangrur and arguably the most popular face of the party in the state, posted a tweet in the morning to announce his resignation. He had been appointed in May.

On his resignation, Mann said the AAP was a democratic party and he has the right to protest.

The standup comicturned-politician said he was left with no option but to resign after Kejriwal apologised without consultations.

“If such a thing is done, I do not think there is any point in continuing in the position of the state chief,” he said, adding, “This post or being a member of Lok Sabha do not matter to me because I had staked my career and everything else in this fight.”

On the impact of the apology on the party’s prospects in the state, Mann, who has already started working in his constituency for the parliamentary election next year, said, one decision would not alter its future. “Two months ago, many people were raising questions about the future of the Samajwadi Party. Now, when it has won Gorakhpur, the same people are wondering about the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)’s prospects,” he said. “I will continue as an ordinary worker.”

AAP said on Thursday that Kejriwal would opt to “amicably sort out” other lawsuits, most of which it said required a personal appearance in the courts and had ben “filed by our political rivals to demotivate us and keep our leadership busy in these legal cases.”

AN AAP LEADER, ON THE CONDITION OF ANONYMITY, SAID THE APOLOGY FROM KEJRIWAL WAS ‘STAGEMANAGED’