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U-turn by SC judge, says no pressure to change judge

     New Delhi: In an absolute U-turn on the controversy related to the pressure on him for change of the trial judge in the high-profile Fodder scam case, the judge today clarified that there was absolutely no pressure on him for change of the trial judge in the case. The judge said that the controversy created by large-scale media coverage was unwarranted as the indirect inquiry made to him from the High Court was whether the trial judge could be promoted. Clarifying his stand on the issue, Justice S N Variava said, "My reply was that the High Court could do whatsoever was possible under the rules." Variava said the clarification is being issued by him to put an end to the unnecessary controversy. Earlier, Variava on Tuesday revealed that someone from the Patna High Court approached him to check if he could change the trial court judge in the fodder scam case against the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad. The trial court judge in Patna is hearing the case involving allegations of misappropriation of public funds amounting to Rs 950 crore (Rs 9.5 billion) against Lalu Prasad, who also heads the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and a case of disproportionate assets against his wife Rabri Devi. Variava, who is heading the three-judge bench, is hearing a petition filed by Sushil Modi and Rajiv Singh Lallan, Lok Sabha members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal- United, seeking cancellation of the bail granted to Lalu Prasad and his wife.

Nepalese newspaper editor shot at in Siliguri (Go To Top)

     Siliguri (West Bengal): Suspected Maoists reportedly shot and injured Khagendra Shrestha, the editor of a Nepalese news daily "Dharam Today". Shrestha, who shot at on March 15, is recuperating in a private nursing home. He was shot at by two unidentified men in his office He sustained two bullet injuries in the back of his head. "He was sitting and working in his office in the morning when two unidentified men came and fired at Shrestha. Then police and the Army came and started searching for the accused but they could not succeed",said Ram Avtar Sharma, Vice President of Nepal Rashtriya Samaj. "There are only two powers in Nepal which can be blamed for the incident, the government or the Maoists. We are getting a lot of support from the government in relation with the treatment of Shrestha. We don't have any problems",said Ram Avtar. "Dharam Today" is a traditionally pro monarchy newspaper and is supporting King Gyanendra's royal coup on February 1. The shooting occurred at Dharan, 540 kilometers east of the capital, Kathmandu. Shrestha was taken to B.P. Koirala Medical Institute and was reported to be in critical condition. The Committee to Protect Journalists is investigating to determine whether the shooting was connected to Shrestha's work.In the past, journalists have been targeted for arrest, abduction, and physical attack by both sides of an ongoing conflict between the government and Maoist rebels.

Kanishka victims react with mixed emotions to court verdict (Go To Top)

     Amritsar: Families of victims killed in the June 1985 bombing of the Air India jetliner "Kanishka" on Thursday appeared resigned to their fate of not getting justice for the tragedy, as a Vancouver court declared defendants' Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri not guilty and ordered them to be acquitted. There were mixed emotions across the country. While the families of the victims and the public at large expressed surprise, horror and anguish over the ruling, the families of Malik and Bagri celebrated by distributing sweets. The jetliner blast over the Irish coast claimed the lives of 329 passengers and crew. The verdict was also connected to a related explosion at Tokyo's Narita airport that killed two people. Verdicts were read following a 19-month trial of Malik, 58, and Bagri, 55. Shocked families of the 329 victims of the bombing have urged the Canadian government to establish a public inquiry into the crime and how it was investigated. R.S. Sandhu, brother-in-law of Capt S.S.Bhinder, the pilot of the ill-fated plane said it would not be easy to appeal against the verdict.

      "Appeal against this judgment when everything has been decided on merit is not easy. Appeal should be for finding the culprit who has done it, so that such desire or intention does not give any inkling to the individuals to repeat. It has been a saddest fact that if lapse law prevails then... at least with the amount of effort that has gone in, something should have been done. After all it remains a fact that bomb was there, it remains a fact that it exploded, it has come to aircraft. There must have been backward linking somewhere, which have been missed," Sandhu said. Muktaben Bhat, whose aspiring poet son, air hostess daughter-in- law and six month-old grandson were among those who perished said the verdict, coming nearly two decades after the incident, did not matter much as they had lost all hope. "Twenty years is not a small time. It's a very very long time. Most of the relatives of those died are also not alive. In 4-5 years, if the verdict comes out, people can still hope for something, but after 20 years, it does not matter," said the 73- year-old widow. The judge who heard 115 witnesses in one of the most complicated and costly cases in Canadian history, called the bombing "fanaticism at its basest and most inhumane level" and agreed the devices that exploded off the Irish coast and in Japan probably originated in Vancouver. But British Columbia Supreme Court Judge Ian Bruce Josephson said he could not believe key prosecution witnesses who testified Malik, a wealthy Vancouver businessman, and Bagri, a Kamloops, British Columbia, sawmill worker and Sikh priest, had admitted their roles in the plot.

     Meanwhile, it was a moment of jubilation for the extended families of Malik and Bagri, who believed they were innocent. "I am very happy. Our son can now return home", said Ratan Kaur, Bagri's mother in Chak Kalan village in India's northern Punjab state. "The court's verdict is great. We were hoping that he would be acquitted. We knew that he could have never done such a thing. We have been fighting this case for so many years. We are very happy," said Pyara Singh, Bagri's younger brother. In Abohar district of Punjab, members of Malik's maternal family distributed sweets after the news of his acquittal. "We have been getting congratulatory calls since last night. We are very happy," said Malik's aunt, Surinder Kaur. Leading Sikh religious organisation, Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), cautiously welcomed the ruling. "I want to congratulate both Malik and Baghri. We have our condolences for the relatives of all the 329 people who were killed on board, but we are also happy for the right justice given to both of them," said Rajinder Singh Mehta, member of the SGPC.

     Prosecutors had accused the two Indian-born Sikh separatists of seeking revenge for the Indian army's 1984 storming of Sikhism's holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar. That operation, aimed at ousting militants in the temple, left hundreds of people dead. The two men were charged with planning to destroy two aircraft simultaneously. One bomb struck Flight 182 while it was on its way from Canada to India, via London, on June 23, 1985. The other exploded 54 minutes earlier in baggage being transferred to Air India Flight 301. Malik and Bagri were arrested in October 2000. The defense acknowledged in the trial there may have been a conspiracy, but denied Bagri and Malik were part of it. The case was made difficult by problems in the long investigation, including the erasure of wiretaps of the suspects in the weeks before and after the explosions. Malik and Bagri were originally scheduled to be tried with Inderjit Singh Reyat, but he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge before the trial began. Reyat was called as a witness, but denied knowing who asked him to assist with the bombs. The judge referred to Reyat as "an unmitigated liar," whose testimony "bordered on the absurd." Police say the mastermind of the plot was Talwinder Singh Parmar, a founder of the Sikh militant group Babbar Khalsa, who was killed by Indian police in October 1992.