Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday returned here after attending the Hannover Trade Fair in Germany and holding talks with business leaders there on investment in the state.

The five-day fair was jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

India was partner country at ‘Hannover Messe 2015’, the world’s largest industrial trade fair.

“India is the destination for the foreign investors. Our ‘Make in Maharashtra’ initiative is a mission to open up greater opportunities for foreign investors,” Fadnavis said.

The Chief Minister led a delegation comprising state Industries Minister Subash Desai and senior bureaucrats.
PTI

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Thursday asked MNS chief Raj Thackeray to refrain from making statements against non-Maharashtrian people, as it reserved order on his plea for quashing of summons issued against him for allegedly making a hate speech in 2012.

“No one has a problem with any individual promoting his state or language. You promote Maharashtra, no one has problem with that, but don’t interfere in the rights of others,” Justice Manmohan Singh said.

The bench observed “everyone has their own rights and he (Thackeray) should not say such things against the people of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.”

During the hearing, Arunabh Chowdhury, counsel appearing for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) head, said no prior sanction for prosecution from the Centre or the state was taken under section 196 of CrPC, before the magistrate took cognizance of the offence of promoting enmity between different groups against his client under sections 153 (a) and 153(b) of the IPC.

He argued that even the police has filed a closure report in the case but magistrate rejected it and summoned Thackeray.

“This summoning order is bad in law and no requisite procedure was followed and is without any jurisdiction. This summoning order as well as the FIR lodged at Dwarka police station should be quashed,” he said.

When the bench asked the counsel for Thackeray whether a probe is being carried out in the case, he replied in affirmative and said no hate speeches were given by his client in Azad Maidan or at any other instance.

Complainant Mithilesh Kumar Pandey, on whose complaint the summons were issued by the court, accepted that there is a mandatory provision for prior sanction from Centre or state government for summoning any accused for these offences.

“There are more than 173 FIRs pending against Thackeray with respect to hate speeches and he has never appeared before any court, or no one from MNS has appeared. Trial should not be stalled in the matter. Summons can be held back for some time till the requisite sanctions are received,” Pandey said.

Pandey contended that the FIR could be kept in abeyance and not quashed as prayed by Thackeray because the question of sanction for prosecution was also involved.

The bench then asked Pandey to show a single line in his complaint where Thackeray gave statements against people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

However, he was unable to do so but said Thackeray’s statements at Azad Maidan had led to violence and promoted hatred among masses.

Counsel for Delhi Police said the Centre or state government was not party in the case and it can proceed only after they are impleaded as a party in the matter.

The bench, while posting the matter for April 24, said it will consider the matter and pass an appropriate order.

Thackeray has been summoned as accused for April 25 by the trial court.

On March 17, the court had issued notice to complainant and Delhi police on the plea of Thackeray.

The trial court had issued the summons on October 7, 2014, on Pandey’s complaint referring to a rally in Mumbai addressed by Thackeray, in which he had allegedly blamed Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand for violence during protests against Assam riots in 2012.

In his complaint, Pandey had said that the MNS chief, in his political rally, had repeatedly targeted these migrants and even declared them as “insurgents” and threatened to throw them out of Maharashtra.
PTI

New Delhi: The CBI Thursday arrested a Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax at his Central Revenue Building office here for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from an industrialist for settling tax issue.

CBI sources said an IRS officer of 2008 batch M Logapathy, posted as Deputy Commissioner Income Tax here, along with an alleged middleman Hitesh Kumar, Logapathy’s personal attendant Abhishek Kumar and businessman Vikas Singla were arrested in connection with the bribery case.

The sources said the four were detained yesterday and were taken into custody early this morning after a thorough search and seizure operation during which the bribe amount was recovered by CBI.

They claimed the agency has recovered property documents worth crores of rupees from Logapathy’s possession indicating his alleged connivance in many other such cases in which it suspected that he was taking one per cent of the tax demand as Commission for settling these issues.

The sources said bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh was allegedly given to Logapathy by Vikas Singla, Director CBS Steel Private Limited, through advocate Hitesh Kumar in a case of alleged tax evasion.

Giving details of the operation, the sources said Kumar and Logapathy were under the scanner of the agency for quite some time and CBI was keeping an active surveillance on them listening to their conversations through phone intercepts and other means.
PTI

Kolkata: Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda on Friday said that the files pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose should be declassified and the truth should come out.

The Netaji files should be declassified and laid in the Parliament. The truth should come out”, Hooda, a Lok Sabha MP from Rohtak constituency, told reporters here.

The statement from the Congress Parliamentarian came amidst the growing demand for declassification of the files by a section of Netaji’s household, particularly after revelation of reports of snooping on his kin’s family.

Saying that Netaji and Jawaharlal Nehru were never at loggerheads as portrayed in the media, Hooda said that both of them had the same economic ideology of socialism.

“In fact, Sardar Patel and Netaji were at loggerheads, and not Bose and Nehru”, he said.

The friendship between them was such that Netaji named his INA regiments after Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and and Maulana Azad.

Hooda said that he had moved a private member bill in the budget session for creation of two regiments in the Indian Army named after Bose.

“I think this is the most unique way of showing respect to the great leader”, he said.
PTI

Senior Congress leader and former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today said the Centre as well as the West Bengal government must reach out to Indian Gorkhas and the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha to resolve the problem in Darjeeling hills.
Former union home secretary RK Singh also endorsed the option of a union territory for Darjeeling hills, supporting the proposition suggested by senior journalist Swaraj Thapa that a centrally administered model in the form of a union territory may be a permanent solution to the issue.
“I agree that a union territory can be considered for Darjeeling provided that the West Bengal government is agreeable to the idea,” he said speaking at a seminar organized by the Darjeeling Foundation, a Delhi based think tank promoting the cause of separate state of Gorkhaland. The foundation has been initiated by Swaraj Thapa and a few other like minded individuals in Delhi. Criticizing the Trinamool Congress for its unyielding attitude , Aiyer said he was its founding member but quit within three months after realizing that Mamata Banerjee was not democratic in her approach .

Senior BJP leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh also supported the idea of a union territory, recalling that the sacrifice of Gorkhas towards the nation is commendable.
Speaking in the seminar, Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha spokesperson and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri maintained that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was only a temporary arrangement and the GJM was committed to the issue of Gorkhaland.
Telengana Rashtra Samiti leader and former MP B Vinod Kumar said that the demand for Gorkhaland was being misrepresented in the national media in general and in the Telegu media in particular. “The media is very biased and it has tried to project it as if creation of Gorkhaland will lead to disintegration of India. This is wrong. You must counter it effectively” he said and added that more states were necessary for the country if development was to reach to all segments of the people. He also contended that national integrity would be strengthened if more states were formed.
Addressing a packed audience at the Teen Murti Auditorium here in Delhi, the speakers acknowledged the contribution and role of Indian Gorkhas in the development of the country and said that they would have to be given their due. Mani Shankar Aiyar specifically recalled his association with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and said that as an OSD in the then Prime Minister’s Office, he had been assigned to organize the (infamous) public rally in Darjeeling in 1986 which was boycotted by the then GNLF. Disregarding the advise of the PMO and state Congress leadership, Rajiv Gandhi went ahead with the rally and addressed just a handful of policemen and Congress workers at the St Joseph’s grounds for over an hour. “Later while I was travelling back with Rajivji in the car, I asked him what possessed him to agree to such an embarrassment and address empty stands. Rajivji told me that people may not have come to see him but they were hearing every part of what I said. ” Mani Shankar Aiyar said. In other words, Rajiv Gandhi wanted to reach out to the Indian Gorkhas notwithstanding the fact that they had boycotted him. And the results paid when two years later an accord was signed with the GNLF leading to the creation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
“We need to help Indian Gorkhas rather than alienate them. An answer has to be found” he said.

Aiyar also gave a historical perspective to the DGHC accord, saying that much of the autonomy proposals and devolution of powers through the DGHC was actually drawn from the Sri Lanka accord. “At that same time, Rajiv Gandhi was tackling the Sri Lanka problem. We in the PMO had to devise proposals that were aimed at devolution of powers in the Sri Lanka provinces, especially to the provinces in the Tamil majority Southern part of Sri Lanka. Much of the DGHC proposals were modeled along the same lines as the Sri Lanka devolution of powers proposal” he said. Supporting the concept of smaller states, he said that they were easier to administer.
Former union home secretary RK Singh conceded that he had earlier opposed statehood for Gorkhaland as well as Telengana on the ground that it would lead to more such demands elsewhere. However, after listening to the participants like Swaraj Thapa and Harka Bahadur Chettri, he said that he was convinced that there is considerable merit in their arguments. He admitted that the region had been neglected for long and development was negligible in the Darjeeling hills.
Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh underlined the need to narrow down differences in the perception on Gorkhaland between the Indian Gorkhas and the Centre and the state government.

Ranjan Sharma , Media Coordinator has in a press report stated that the response of the guests was positive and they supported the idea of creation of a state of Gorkhaland. We shall frequently organize such events in future and support our cause . After all we are not asking anything out of the box and it is a constitutional demand which should be treated at par with Telangana.

The seminar, organized by the Darjeeling Foundation was held at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Auditorium, Teen Murti House.

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GANGTOK
15 Apr 2015

Judge Minakshi Madan Rai was on Wednesday sworn in as the first woman judge of the Sikkim High Court by Governor Srinivas Patil at a function held at the Aashirvad Hall of Raj Bhavan in Gangtok. She was administered the oath and sworn to secrecy by the Governor. The function had the presence of Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, Sikkim High Court Chief Justice SK Sinha, senior judge SP Wangdi, Sikkim Legislative Assembly speaker KN Rai, Ministers, Chairmen and Bar Association members among others. Rai has taken over the charge her office after the swearing in ceremony. The dignitaries present at the function offered the traditional “Khadas” to the newly sworn-in judge and congratulated her. Rai is also only the third person from the state to be sworn in as the judge of Sikkim High Court. (HS)

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday granted conditional bail of three weeks to Narayan Sai, son of self-proclaimed godman Asaram, who has been behind bars for more than a year in connection with a rape case filed against him by a Surat-based woman.

Justice Paresh Upadhyay granted the relief to Narayan, who has been lodged in a Surat jail since his arrest in December 2013, to enable him to attend to his ailing mother Lakshmiben Harpalani.

The bail order will be applicable from May 4, the judge said, adding Narayan will be under the police surveilence during the bail period and state DGP will deploy an officer for this purpose.

Narayan had said in his plea that his mother had been suffering from a spinal cord-related ailement and that doctors at Ahmedabad’s Sterling Hospital had suggested surgery.

The woman had accused Narayan of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at his Surat ashram, following which he was booked under various sections of IPC including rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement etc.

Interestingly, the elder sister of the victim had lodged a separate complaint against Narayan’s father Asaram accusing him of repeated sexual assault between 2001 and 2006 when she was living in his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Lakshmiben was also booked by police for abetment, but was later granted bail by a local court in 2013.

Asaram is currently lodged in a Rajasthan jail since his arrest in September 2013 for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl at his Jodhpur ashram.

MUMBAI: Stocks of Tata Motors went up by 2 per cent on Thursday as the company reported a 9 per cent growth in in global sales, including those of Jaguar Land Rover, in March.

The stock rose by 1.38 per cent to Rs 550.80 apiece on the BSE.

On the NSE, it gained 1.99 per cent to Rs 551.25 per scrip.

Even as sharp movements in air fares continue to raise concerns, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is “reluctant” to regulate the ticket prices on grounds that any such move would be against free market principles.

Currently, airlines have been allowed to fix fares on their own depending on supply and demand.

Sources said that more than 100 Parliamentarians have written to the Ministry raising concerns over the movement of air fares over the past six months and most of them are in favour of regulations to control the prices.

Parliamentarians, cutting across party lines from various states, including Jammu and Kashmir, northeast India and Andaman and Nicobar, have been raising concerns about the matter from time to time, source added.

Despite receiving representations from various quarters, a section of top Ministry officials is averse to the idea of regulating air fares and want them to remain market-linked, they said.

According to sources, some Ministry officials are “reluctant” as they feel that when there are no such international practice of regulating the price of air tickets, why should India be moving in the opposite direction.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, on several occasions in the past, has said that putting caps and floors for air fares would have their own implications and that pricing should be left to the carriers to decide.

Interestingly, the Ministry had last year circulated a note for internal discussion where it suggested steps to cap air fare at minimum and maximum levels for the economy class in airlines.

As per that note, the maximum economy class fare need to be capped at Rs 20,000.

However, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had last week pitched for regulating “predatory” air fares rather than having a total pricing control.

“We understand that the predatory price (of air fares) at lower end or higher end should have some regulation. This is my individual opinion but this is subject to discussion and a Cabinet decision has to be taken on this issue.

“…In principle, I feel there should be some regulation on the prices at both ends. Of course we will not totally regulate prices but some regulation has to be there,” he had said.

Nevertheless, aviation regulator DGCA recently asked domestic carriers to provide the quantum (percentage) of the tickets sold by domestic carriers at different pricing levels (highest and lowest fares buckets) for each sector over the next few months.