New York: India’s ban on the BBC gangrape documentary will “not last very long” as the country’s courts “are not puppets” of the government and civilised values will return, the British filmmaker behind the controversial film has said.
“My prediction is that the ban will not last very long at all because the courts of India are not puppets of the government,” Leslee Udwin, director of ‘Storyville: India’s daughter’ said.
“India is a democracy, it is actually a civilised nation even though the current ban would suggest otherwise — that the most important pillar of democracy, which is free speech, has been stamped upon in this ban. It (the ban) is temporary. It’s not going to last. Civilised values will return, the ban will be lifted and then I hope when all of this hysteria dies down, they will focus on saving the women of the world rather than hiding their particular shame,” she said.
The US premier of the documentary on the brutal gang rape of the 23-year old paramedical student was attended by Oscar-winning actress Meryl Streep, actress Frieda Pinto and Indian actor-producer Farhan Akhtar, who came with his wife Adhuna at the Baruch College on Monday.
Udwin faced backlash over her documentary, banned in India, with people saying the film gave a platform to the rape accused Mukesh Singh to air his views. Singh appears unrepentant in the documentary.
Udwin alleged that the comments made by Singh are not very different from what some Indian political leaders say about rape and its victim.
“What hypocrisy to scream in hysteria about the platform given to Mukesh who says exactly the same things as Indian politicians say day after day. It’s a reflection of the mindset of the society. And that’s what I learnt doing these interviews,” she alleged.
Udwin reiterated that the documentary was “never meant to single India out “for its record of offenses against women.”
“The film was meant to single India out in a particular way and that was in a very positive way as the only country in my lifetime that has stood up for over a month, day after day with unprecedented numbers of ordinary men and women out on the streets fighting for my rights.
“And that is why I came to India to make this film. If the protests had taken place as a response to any other case in any other part of the world, I would have gone there,” Udwin said.
She said she came to India “out of respect, admiration and gratitude” to those protestors who were “fighting for me on the other side of the globe.”

New Delhi: Top Lashkar-e-Taiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda, one of the 20 terrorists India had asked Pakistan to hand over after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, was on Tuesday discharged by a Delhi court in a case lodged against him in 1994 under the stringent Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA).

Additional Sessions Judge Neena Bansal Krishna discharged 73-year-old Tunda of the alleged offences under the provisions of TADA, Explosive Substance Act, the Arms Act and under section 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.

However, Tunda will have to remain in jail as there are several pending cases against him.

Special Cell of Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet against Tunda in the case in which five accused were arrested on January 17, 1994 and 150 kg explosives and six daggers were allegedly recovered from their possession.

The trial court in its judgement in December 1999 against the five accused– Abdul Haq, Aftab, Abdul Wahid, Afaq and Afran Ahmad– had convicted them under the provisions of Explosive Substance Act read with section 120(B) of the IPC.

The police, in its supplementary charge sheet against Tunda, had said that he was declared a proclaimed offender by the court earlier and he was involved in various terror cases in India.

Tunda was arrested by the Special Cell on August 16 2013 from the Indo-Nepal border.

During the arguments on charges, advocate M S Khan, appearing for Tunda, had argued that there was no evidence in the case and confessional statements of the other arrested accused in the case cannot be relied upon against his client.

Khan had also contended that there was no material to connect Tunda with the alleged recovery of the explosives.

Public Prosecutor Rajiv Mohan had argued that there was a disclosure statement of other co-accused who were convicted earlier in the case under provisions of Explosive Substances Act.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police had told the court that there was circumstantial evidence against Tunda as 40 kg explosives were recovered from the house of his brother in Delhi, where he was also residing, in 1994.

The police had said that other accused, who had faced trial in the case, had also given confessional statements that they had hatched the conspiracy for terror strikes here on instructions of Tunda.

Police had told the court that Tunda, suspected to be involved in 40 bombings in India, was declared a proclaimed offender in the case.

New Delhi: The partners in the ruling NDA combine are all on board on the land acquisition Bill and will vote in its favour in Lok Sabha after the government on Tuesday reached out to them in order to secure their support in this regard, sources said.
According to sources, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu at a meeting on Tuesday talked to leaders of all the NDA allies, who expressed solidarity with the government on the land Bill.
Naidu, the sources said, also talked to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and sought his cooperation in this regard. Thackeray told Naidu that his party would support the Bill and vote for it in Lok Sabha, the sources added.
Senior Akali Dal leader Prem Singh Chandumajra, meanwhile, told PTI, “Our party is on board and will support the Bill as the government has agreed to 90 per cent of our amendments. We will vote in favour of the Bill.”
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Naidu and Rural Development Minister Birender Singh briefed the NDA allies on the Bill and the amendments to be moved by the government to address the concerns raised over it.
The crucial Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, which was moved for consideration and passage by Singh yesterday in Lok Sabha, will be put to voting later today in Lok Sabha.
The meeting of NDA leaders was attended by TDP’s Ashok Gajapathi Raju and YS Chowdhary, Anant Geete and Anil Desai of Shiv Sena, Ram Vilas Paswan and Chirag Paswan of LJP, Anupriya Patel of Apna Dal, Neiphiu Rio of Nagaland People’s Front, Raju Shetty of Swabhimani Paksha, Prem Das Rai of Sikkim Democratic Front and Harsimrat Kaur Badal of Akali Dal.
PTI

A handwritten list discovered in the bedroom of one of the three London schoolgirls feared to have fled to join Islamic State (Isis), seen by the Guardian, details the items they needed to buy as well as the travelling costs of getting to Syria.

The items ranged from a mobile phone to underwear, makeup and an epilator. Plane tickets to get them to Turkey are listed at just over £1,000, using the French word for ticket. The list appears to be in keeping with an Isis online guide for potential recruits.
Shamima Begum, 15, Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15, travelled from London to Turkey last month. The girls, all from the Bethnal Green Academy in east London, were lured by Isis propaganda and are believed to be on a pathway to become so called “jihadi brides”. Police were handed the list by the family of one of the girls, who went through her things immediately after she disappeared.

Family members will on Tuesday testify before the home affairs committee of MPs. They will be followed by Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, from whom they want an apology for his force’s handling of the case. Last week the girls’ families spoke out against the police for failing to pass on information about another girl from the same school who disappeared and was believed to have travelled to Syria, arguing that had they known they might have been able to prevent their daughters from following.
The planning and costings suggest the three schoolmates were having to be careful about making sure they had enough money for the trip. Their families told the Guardian in an interview last week they had no idea where their the girls had got the money from. A grand total is written on the list of 2,190, most likely to refer to pounds sterling.
The list is written on a page from a diary and planner, and the handwriting is by two different people. At first glance it would appear to be a list that teenagers would draw up for a camping trip. The items are listed, then the initials of the girl’s first name, showing either who was to purchase them or who they were for, and then the cost. An epilator at £50 is to be purchased, as are two sets of underwear for two girls for £12, socks for £4, a phone for £75.

The three, who had been described as good students, fled on 17 February while they were on a half-term break, taking a flight from Gatwick to Turkey, which borders Syria. A few days later they are believed to have crossed the border and entered land in Syria held by Isis.

Also on the list are makeup, boots and a bra. The bottom of the list, seemingly in different handwriting to the top, lists the logistics and costs to Turkey, and then across to the border with Syria. These sums include money for visas, a coach, a hotel for one or two nights, a taxi and SOME EXTRA CASH.
CCTV footage after the girls arrived in Istanbul in Turkey showed them waiting at Bayrampaşa bus station in a suburb of the city after their flight landed. It is believed they waited 18 hours at the bus station.

Turkish authorities have said that the UK did not inform them for three days after their disappearance, but the British say Istanbul was told promptly.

Some people in east London claimed to have seen some of the girls the Saturday before they left at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, but they did not see what they were buying.

On Saturday the Met issued a statement apparently rejecting the families’ key claim that they had not been told that a 15-year-old friend of the girls had gone to Syria weeks earlier. The Met said the families had been told in December 2014 by the deputy headteacher of the Bethnal Green Academy, which all the girls had attended. Hours later it retracted its statement, citing “further discussions with Bethnal Green Academy”.
The Met statement followed media interviews with the families on Friday. The families accused the force of covering up their errors since the girls went missing. Police wrote letters to the parents saying their children had been friends with the pupil who had gone abroad and asking for permission to take formal statements. But instead of delivering the letters directly to the parents, police handed them on 5 February to the girls themselves, who hid them in their school textbooks in their bedrooms. The families only found the letters after the girls left.

The Met statement did appear to show some contrition, stating: “With the benefit of hindsight, we acknowledge that the letters could have been delivered direct to the parents.”