Law to prevent 'honour killings' : difficult to fix a timeline as consultations with stakeholders needed: Union Law Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda

As many as 22 states and Union Territories have supported a Law Commission recommendation to bring a bill to prevent 'honour killings', but the Union Government on Thursday refused to fix a timeline to put in place a legal framework, saying a decision will be taken after due consultations.    A decision on introducing a legislation to prevent honour killings will be taken only after due consultations, said the Union Law Minister Union Law Minister Mr. D.V. Sadananda Gowda informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday that the policy decision to enact a legislation on the issue will be taken after considering the comments of all states and holding consultations with the stakeholders. "In view of the above, it would be difficult to fix a timeline in this regard," he said. The Law Commission’s report on 'prevention of interference with freedom of matrimonial alliances (in the name of honour and tradition)' was circulated to states for their comments.

"Till date, 22 state governments and Union Territories have sent their responses and are in support of the recommendations made by the Law Commission," he said in a written response. The response of other states are awaited and reminders have been issued to them. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, West Bengal and UTs of Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep and Pudducherry have supported the proposal to bring in a legal framework to prevent honour killings. The Law Minister said as the subject of the report falls in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, consultation with states is necessary. In its 2001 report, the panel, then headed by Justice P V Redi, had recommended brining a Bill "to provide for, in the interests of protecting individual liberty and preventing victimisation, prohibition of unlawful assemblies and other conduct interfering with the freedom of matrimonial alliances in the name of honour and tradition and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto." The draft legislation was named 'The Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances Bill'. The report had referred to a Supreme Court decision "wherein a direction of far-reaching consequences has been given while laying down the proposition that the so-called honour killing comes within the category of rarest of the rare cases deserving death punishment.”

Odisha chit fund scam : CBI files chargesheet against former Advocate General of Odisha, Ashok Mohanty and 15 others

The Central Bureau of Investigation today filed a preliminary charge sheet in the case before the Special CBI Court in Bhubaneswar, against the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group, a major player in the  multi-thousand crore chit fund scam in Odisha. 

  

16 persons have been charge-sheeted in the case including AT Group chief Pradeep Kumar Sethy, BJD MLA from Banki Pravat Tripathy and former Advocate General of Odisha, Ashok Mohanty. 

The charge sheet, which cites 250 witnesses, has framed charges against the accused under several sections of the IPC, including 120 (B), 406, 411, 409, 420, 468, 471 of IPC and sections 4, 5, 6 of the Prize Chitt and Money Circulation (Banning) Act, 1978.

The preliminary charge sheet laid against the AT group said it duped investors of at least Rs 200 crore by floating seven companies in the state : : AT Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society, AT Multi state Cooperative society, AT Infra India Limited, AT Enterprises Private Ltd, Orison Properties Pvt Ltd, Kamyab TV Private Ltd, Tilakraj Publication Private Limited.

This is the second chargesheet filed by the CBI in the mega chit fund scam in Odisha which it is investgating as per the orders of the Supreme Court. The CBI had first laid a chargesheet in the chit fund scam case against Green India Private Limited on December 2.

The agency has registered 44 cases against as many companies for alleged swindling of deposits of investors who were lured through the offer of attractive returns on their investment. 

The complete list of the 16 persons charge sheeted today are as follows:

1- Pradeep Sethy, Chief Managing Driector (CMD)

2- Jyotiprakash Jayprakash, Director

3- Sambit Kumar Khuntia, Director

4- Shreekrushna Padhi, AT Accountant

5- Bikash Swain, Proprietor of Odia daily ‘Suryaprava’

6- Ranjan Kumar Dash, Co-founder of the Artha Tatwa (AT) Group and Founder of Swastik India Multi-State Cooperative Agency

7- Manoj Kumar Dash, Kamyab Television owner

8- Madhusudan Mohanty, Proprietor of Odia newspaper ‘Odisha Bhaskar’

9- Dharmendra Kumar Bothra, Real Estate broker

10- Deepak Chandratan Parekh, Mumbai-based stock exchange broker

11- Ashok Mohanty, Former Odisha Advocate General

12- Preeti Bhatia, Mumbai-based Model and Television Serial Producer

13- Pravat Kumar Tripathy, BJD MLA from Banki

14- Vineet Kumar Lalani, Builder

15- Dillip Kumar Mohanty, Businessman

16-Sagar Kumar Ray, Builder and Director ofOrisons Properties Limited

Penalty imposed on Telecom operators for non-compliance of customer verification guidelines, says Union Minister for Communications and IT,Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Minister for Communications and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, said that a total of Rs. 2,179.41 crore was imposed on various telecom operators till September 30, 2014 for violation of customer verification guidelines. 

The maximum penalty was imposed on Aircel (Rs. 486.48 crore) followed by Reliance (Rs. 454.62 crore), BSNL (Rs.329.14 crore), Airtel (Rs. 309.87 crore), Vodafone (Rs.211.85 crore), Idea Cellular (Rs. 123. 44 crore), Tata (Rs. 172.80 crore), Sistema Shyam Teleservices (Rs. 52.31 crore), Uninor (Rs.11.17 crore), MTNL (Rs. 11.17 crore) and STel (Rs. 10.92 crore)

Mr. Prasad added that the Department had found from the audit of customer application forms (CAF) that only about 4% of CAF were non-compliant with the subscriber verification guidelines during 2013-2014. The reasons for non-compliance include missing CAF’s, missing photo/proof of identity/proof of address on CAF, bulk connections issued to an individual or a company or an organization.

No less than 3 cases of rape are reported in the State everyday : Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala

Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala informed the Kerala legislative Assembly on Wednesday that at least three cases of rape are reported in the State every day. He was quoting figures from a report of the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) which was tabled in the Assembly. 

 

Home Minister, Ramesh Chennithala

As many as 981 rape cases were reported in the State during the January-September period year. Of this, 550 related to rape of those in the 1-17 age group, Mr. Chennithala said in reply to a question by K.S. Saleekha of the Communist Party of India. Thirvuananthapuram district recorded the highest number of rapes (143), followed by Kollam (121), Ernakulam (93), Thrissur (90), and Kozhikode (68). 

Among the cities, Thiruvananthapuram registered 52 cases, followed by Ernakulam (47), and Kozhikode (23). Kasaragod district registered the lowest number of rapes-  37. 

January-September period also saw 3,390 cases of molestation, 111 kidnap, 206 eve-teasing, 16 dowry deaths, 3,705 cases of cruelty by ‘husband and relatives,’ and 2,281 other offences against women. In all, 10,690 cases of crime against women were reported until September this year. 

As many as 223 male children were sexually abused during the period, resulting in 211 arrests. The police arrested 1,089 persons in connection with the 981 rape cases, but trial had not been completed in even one. 

As many as 625 persons had been arrested for rape of those in the 1-17 age group. Of the accused, 19 were government, semi-government, public sector, IT, and private sector employees. The accused included government doctors; police, forest, Fire and Rescue Services, and excise personnel; teachers in the government and aided sector; and Kerala State Electricity Board and Kerala Water Authority officials. Mr. Chennithala added that as many as 124 harassment and 13 rape cases were registered against police personnel after the United Democratic Front-led Government came to power

In 2013, 1,221 cases of rape, 4,362 molestation, 185 kidnap, 404 eve-teasing, 21 dowry death, 4,820 cases of cruelty by ‘husband and relatives’ and 2,725 other offences had been reported to the police.