Loya CASE: 4 JUDGES’ statements ‘UNIMPEACHABLE’, MAHA TELLS SC
NEW DELHI: The Maharashtra government on Monday told the Supreme Court the statements of four judges, who were with special CBI judge BH Loya on the last day of his life, and had termed his death as “natural”, were “unimpeachable”.
Loya, who was hearing the high-profile Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case, had died allegedly of cardiac arrest in Nagpur on December 1, 2014 when he had gone to attend the wedding of a colleague’s daughter.
“According to me, statements of four judges (J Kulkarni, J Barde, J Modak and J R R Rathi) are unimpeachable that the death of Loya was natural and unfortunate.
“The judges were with Loya since November 29 to December 1, 2014. The statements were signed by the judges. Are not they trustworthy?” senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Maharashtra, told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.
“If you (the court) want to reject the statements of the judges who said that Loya’s death was natural, then it has to be prima facie accepted that they were co-conspirators...,” he told the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.
Referring to judgements on public interest litigations (PILS), he said the apex court amended its rules and laid down guidelines as to who can file PILS to ensure that motivated petitions are discouraged and not entertained.
Alleging that petitioners were “creating castle in the air”, Rohatgi said the PILS cannot be based on unconfirmed and “hearsay” media reports solely, and the courts should verify
the credentials of such petitioners.
Referring to contents of petitions, including those filed by Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala and journalist B S Lone, Rohatgi said they had only relied upon unconfirmed news reports, published November last year onwards, and filed PILS without any further detail and they “are now arguing as if these are murder appeals”.
“Nobody, including PIL petitioners, did anything for last three years and now they have come out of slumber. They are saying that they want to protect the judiciary. However, they are standing for scandalising the judiciary,” Rohatgi said.
“All the petitioners did not do anything on their own.
This is just ‘cut-and-paste’ job. There was nothing amiss. The state is fully satisfied. It would be appropriate to bring the curtains down,” he said.
“None of them (petitioners) had the courage to read the statements of judges who were with the judge (Loya) like shadow and are the eyewitness of the events,” he said, seeking the case to be closed, unless “the court holds the judges co- conspirators”. NEW DELHI: In India, around 35 per cent chief ministers have criminal cases against them and 81 per cent of the total are crorepatis, according to an ADR report released on Monday.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have analysed the selfsworn affidavits of current chief ministers (CMS) in state assemblies and Union territories across the nation.
These were the latest affidavits filed by them prior to contesting the elections.
“Out of the all 31 chief ministers analysed from state assemblies and Union territories, 11 (35 per cent) chief ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves,” the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report noted.
Further, 26 per cent CMS have declared serious criminal cases, including related to murder, attempt to murder, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property, criminal intimidation, among others.
Interestingly, as many as 25 CMS, or 81 per cent, are crorepatis, with two of them having assets to the tune of over Rs 100 crore. The average assets of CMS are worth Rs 16.18 crore.
According to the report, Andhra Pradesh’s Chandra Babu Naidu has emerged as the wealthiest chief minister with declared assets worth over Rs 177 crore, followed by Arunanchal Pradesh’s Pema Khandu (over Rs 129 crore) and Amarinder Singh of Punjab (over Rs 48 crore).
The CM with the lowest declared asset is Tripura’s Manik Sarkar with assets worth Rs 27 lakh, followed by West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee (over Rs 30 lakh) and Jammu and Kashmir’s Mehbooba Mufti (Rs 56 lakh).
In terms of educational qualification, 10 per cent of 31 chief ministers are 12th pass, 39 per cent graduate, 32 per cent graduate professional, 16 per cent post graduate and 3 per cent doctorate. JAMMU: The Army said on Monday that the search operation was underway in its Sunjwan camp, which was attacked by a group of suspected JEM terrorists, killing six persons, including five soldiers.
Three suspected Jaish-eMohammad terrorists involved in the attack were killed in the retaliatory action by the Army inside the camp and a large quantity of arms and ammunition was seized from them.
“The search operation is still on (at the camp),” Jammubased Army public relations officer Lt Col Devender Anand told PTI.
A group of heavily armed men struck the sprawling camp of the 36 brigade of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry before dawn on February 10. Five Army men, including two Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOS), were killed in the attack.
Several blasts were heard inside the camp late last evening, breaking a lull after the initial exchange of fire, but the Army said the blasts were the result of sanitisation operation and there was no fresh contact with terrorists.
Parliamentary Affairs minister Abdul Rehman Veeri told the Legislative Assembly that the operation was in the final stages.
He said that the injured CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Monday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would inaugurate the KMP and KGP expressways in March.
He said that the Kundlimanesar-palwal (KMP) and the Kundli-ghaziabad-palwal (KGP) expressways are scheduled to be completed by March 31. The chief minister announced this after inspecting the intersection of KMPKGP and National Highway-1 at Rai in Sonipat district.
Khattar said that the construction work on these expressways would be completed within the prescribed time frame and it would help in getting rid-off of traffic jams.
Earlier, during a review, he had sought a report from the officers of the construction company, an official release said here.
Khattar also visited Badkhalsa in Sonipat where he said that under the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ programme, the sex ratio in the state had improved, and now it was 914 girls per 1,000 boys. In Badkhalsa village, this figure has crossed the 1,000 mark, he said.
“Welfare and upliftment of girls is necessary for building a strong and stable society,” Khattar said, exhorting villagers to educate girls. “Sonipat is fast developing as an education hub and more reputed institutions will soon come up in this area,” he added.
Army personnel included a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major. The latest attack on the Army camp took place nearly 15 months after the Jammu region was hit by a similar attack.
The last terror attack in the Jammu region had taken place on November 29, 2016, when terrorists stormed the Army’s Nagrota camp on the outskirts of Jammu city, killing seven Army personnel including two officers.
Three terrorists were
gunned down in the operation.
The terrorists had struck before dawn on Saturday and managed to sneak into the camp from the rear side of the base after a brief exchange of fire with the sentry on its periphery.
“The terrorists entered the family accommodation complex after which quick response teams cordoned off the area and isolated the terrorists, who are holed up in a few houses (inside the camp),” an official said.