14 years after arrest, case of Tihar’s Pak inmate splits SC

Vijaita Singh, New Delhi, Tue, Jan 17, 2012

Mohammad Hussain, a Pakistan national sentenced to death for his alleged role in the 1997 Delhi blast case, came to the city with a delegation of 25 students from his country when the incident took place, his counsel said.

Hussain, who was 21 years old at the time of his arrest, has been in prison for 14 years.

He was arrested by the Inter State Cell of the Crime Branch after a blast in a Blueline bus killed four persons and injured 24 on December 30, 1997.

Hussain was picked up on February 2, 1998.

On January 11, a division bench of the Supreme Court gave a split verdict on Hussain’s appeal against the conviction and death sentence.

While Justice H L Dattu said a fresh trial should be conducted as the witnesses were not cross-examined by the accused, Justice C K Prasad did not hold the same view. The matter has been referred to the Chief Justice.

Police maintain that Hussain’s arrest helped them get to the bottom of 32 serial blasts that took place in Delhi then. The blasts were carried out at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI and Hussain had been chosen by Abdul Karim Tunda of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, police said.

According to police, Hussain was arrested from a house in Lajpat Nagar where he had been hiding. Three others arrested with Hussain were acquitted.

Mobin Akhtar, Hussain’s counsel, has a different account. “I met him in jail. He told me he had come to Delhi as part of a student delegation on a four-city tour. From Delhi, he went to Agra and from there to Jaipur with one of his friends without informing officials. He told me he was in Jaipur when he was picked up by police. He was later paraded as a suspect in the bomb blast case,” he said.

Currently lodged in Tihar Jail, Hussain told his lawyer he was a first-year college student at the time of his arrest.

“He said he is from Pakistan Punjab and has two siblings. In all these years, he has had contact with his family only once. That was when he received a letter from his brother,” Akhtar said.

“He told me he came to Delhi in January 1998. That was after the blast. His passport was never found on him nor were other documents handed to him. He said he was detained by police and kept in custody for quite some time,” Akhtar said.

The police, however, maintain that it was Hussain who placed a bag containing explosives below a seat reserved for women on the bus. “While he purchased a ticket for Nangloi, he got down at Karol Bagh and, minutes later, the bomb exploded,” the police chargesheet said.

Police presented 65 witnesses. Only the bus conductor identified Hussain.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/14-years-after-arrest-case-of-tihars-pak-inmate-splits-sc/900395/0

2,500 Tihar inmates granted remission

Abhishek Sharan, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, January 27, 2012

On May 20, Suresh Kumar would be able to give his six-year-old son an unlikely birthday gift by attending the celebrations at their Munirka residence. Kumar, who was convicted for attempt to murder and is lodged at Tihar Jail, was given a 45-day remission in his jail-term.

Kumar was among the Jail’s 2,500 inmates who were granted remission in their sentences on the occasion of the country’s 63rd Republic Day by the Delhi Lieutenant Governor.

The remission was granted to convicts on the basis of their good conduct, said a jail source. “Convicts who were charged with serious offences including those covered under Narcotics Drugs Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act were excluded from the remission grant,” said the source.

The minimum remission was of 15 days, the maximum of 60 days.

“The remission is sought to encourage convicts to improve their conduct, to shun negative instincts and get reformed,: said  prison’s Law Officer Sunil Gupta.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/2-500-Tihar-inmates-granted-remission/Article1-802633.aspx

‘I pleaded with cops to find my husband, but no one listened

Express news service : New Delhi, Fri, Jan 27, 2012

The inter-state coordination and use of ZIP net software to share information, which the Delhi Police highlights among its strenghts, failed the test when a 30-year-old woman knocked on the doors of a police station at least 50 times in the last five months searching for her missing husband. Sarita, mother of three, received no news of her husband, even though his body had been lying abandoned in a mortuary all the while.

Sarita sat alone at her one-room rented house in West Delhi’s Uttam Nagar, trying hard to come to terms with the harassment she faced from the police. Her husband Saroj was found in an unconscious state by the police officials of the Nihal Vihar station in September last year. Saroj died at the hospital on September 18, but instead of trying to trace his family, police packed off his body to DDU Hospital mortuary.

“In the last six months, I must have been to the Uttam Nagar police station at least four times a week. The duty officials stopped listening to my plea after the first two visits. I thought they would have a change of heart and make an effort to trace my husband, but they never bothered to check the other police stations. One of them also threw me out of the police station two months ago,” she said.

Married at a young age, Sarita said she had spent 19 years with her husband and regretted the evening of September 2 when she allowed him to go out and meet his friends.

Additional Commissioner of Police of the district, V Renganathan, told the family that on September 4 Saroj was found in an inebriated state near a drain in Nihal Vihar. He did inform the police about his father’s name and locality where he lived in Uttam Nagar, but police did not work on the information.

It was only during a routine police check at DDU Hospital police post last time that the information about the body was conveyed to other police stations and Saroj’s family was traced.

Two years ago, Sarita had lost her son when he fell off the terrace while playing with his friends.

Her husband was the only breadwinner in the family, and Sarita is worried about the future of her children. Saroj worked at a factory and earned Rs 5,000 per month. “There is no one to take care of us. I have taken loans from my neighbours to pay for the fare of autos for my trips to the police station. We will go back to our village now,” she said.

Two ASIs from the Nihal Vihar police station and a head constable from Uttam Nagar police station have been suspended. However, no action has been taken against the SHOs of both the police stations. The police are yet to ascertain the cause of Saroj’s death.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/i-pleaded-with-cops-to-find-my-husband-but-no-one-listened/904408/0

Salman to bail out 250 poor prisoners in UP

Jan 15, 2012 - Amita Verma | Age Correspondent | Lucknow

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, in a rare gesture, has offered to bail out about 250 jail inmates in Uttar Pradesh who are languishing behind the bars because they cannot afford to pay the fine that the court has fixed for them.

Salman has offered to bail out the hapless prisoners through an NGO that recently approached the state officials with the offer.

Officials are now preparing to seek permission from the Election Commission before they get down to working out other modalities. According to a senior official, the total amount that the star will have to pay to ensure the release of about 250 prisoners is around `44 lakhs.

“Most of these prisoners are petty criminals and majority of them have completed their jail sentence but cannot be released because they have not paid the fine amount imposed by the court at the time of conviction. Their fine amount ranges from `2,000 to `10,000 and they have overstayed in the jail by two to five years because they could not afford to pay the amount,” the official said.

For instance, Rani Devi has completed her seven-year term in the women’s jail in Lucknow but has already spent an additional three years because she has been unable to pay the fine amount of `2,000.

In Gorakhpur jail, one inmate Rajiv Kumar Shah has not been able to pay the fine amount of `200 and has spent 15 days over his one-year term. The tentative number of such prisoners is about 38 in Bareilly, 28 in Moradabad, 26 in Varanasi, 23 in Sitapur, 18 in Gorakhpur and 17 in Naini central jail. Information from the other jails is still being compiled.

http://www.asianage.com/india/salman-bail-out-250-poor-prisoners-635

Help for ‘holiday wives’

Anju Agnihotri Chaba, Sun, Jan 01, 2012

Parneet Singh, the new passport officer at Jalandhar, the buckle of the NRI belt—Doaba—in Punjab, has brought a ray of hope for wives deserted by the NRI husbands. “Now my husband cannot go back to the US until our matrimonial case is decided by the court,” says Nandini Sharma of Amritsar, who was deserted by her US-based husband. Saravjit Kaur, who married a UK-based NRI in 2002 and was deserted in 2003, says, “He got married twice but couldn’t escape the passport office net.” The Jalandhar office has impounded passports of both the NRI husbands.

Like Nandini and Saravjit, thousands of deserted wives have found relief at the Women Grievance Section, which Singh set up in February this year at the passport office. When he joined in August 2010, he found an alarming number of women being deserted by NRI husbands who married them while holidaying in India and then left the country alone—never to call their wives abroad.

According to the National Commission for Women, out of 30,000 women deserted by NRI husbands, 15,000 belong to the Doaba region alone. And only 159 of such husbands have been booked in the past three years. Singh says he brainstormed for six months and realised that the existing laws were enough to tackle this problem; he decided to impound passports of the runaway husbands who were moving freely abroad. “I found that in Section 10 (3) of the Passport Act, 1967, the NRI grooms who have deserted their brides and fled from the country can escape no more. For perhaps the first time in the country, this section was used against offending grooms,” says Singh.

Till date, the Women Grievance Section has received 205 complaints. Passports of 62 accused have been impounded and among these, 19 were found to be proclaimed offenders.

Singh has also asked the state government to make it mandatory while registering a marriage to mention the NRI groom’s social security number, permanent address and contact number in the foreign country and submit an affidavit on the matrimonial status and a copy of the passport.

The affected women or their families can email their complaints to the Women Grievance Section at atrpo.jalandhar@mea.gov.in or call their helpline at 0-84274-71823. The passports of the accused are impounded either by the passport office here or the Indian missions abroad.

Parveen Bhatti says her husband had deserted her just after their wedding in 2008. On her complaint, the passport office impounded his passport—just a few hours before he was to fly out of the country, posing as single. 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/help-for-holiday-wives/894258/0

His classroom is a jail

Gopu Mohan, Sun, Jan 01, 2012

When one of his students passed class X, scoring over 50 per cent marks, Rajendran knew this was an idea that was going to stay. For, this was not an ordinary student. He was a prisoner, a man convicted for 12 serious crimes including murder. Sitting for and passing the examination, Rajendran believes, is a test of character.

Every Sunday morning, S Rajendran, an ardent follower of the father of Dravidian politics, Periyar, makes a trip to the Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai. There, he interacts with the inmates, teaching them, guiding them and, some times, merely talking to them about world and life. The effort, he says, is to understand them and transform them one step at a time. “The basic idea of prison system is to reform the convicts, isn't it?” he asks. He himself is not well educated, having dropped out after completing class X three decades ago from a government school in Sendhurai in Ariyalur district. He has been a full-time activist ever since, traversing the state to take part in matters of public interest, attend and speak at meetings, and sometimes merely to travel.

After several years of work at the grassroots level, someone advised him to work for the welfare of prisoners. “We need to work with them, give them basic education so as to equip them to earn an honest living. They have to be taught skills including modern computing,” he says. Rajendran says it is not a one-man job, as he receives help and support from many, including prison authorities and in some cases, even the educated among prisoners.

This work by a team of committed people has begun to show results: last year, all students who took the exam for classes VIII, X and XII passed, a rare 100 per cent result that even the better-equipped schools outside find difficult to achieve. And the numbers only increased this year. This has encouraged prison authorities to spread the initiative to other prisons across the State, with positive results. For instance, B Raja, a life convict at Tiruchy Central Prison, scored an envious 902 out of 1,200 for class XII, results of which was announced in mid-2011. Many others scored a commendable first class in the same exam. Elsewhere, there were prisoners who are pursuing BA, MBA and MPhil, depending on their basic education background

“In all, 400 prisoners are preparing for various examinations and other educational activities including graduate and post graduate courses, diploma courses by IGNOU and Tamil Nadu Open Universities, computer courses like Tally, higher secondary, SSLC and the like in the Puzhal central jail alone. We are trying to take this initiative to all prisons in Tamil Nadu,” he says.

There are several illiterates among the inmates, who are given basic education to clear class VIII first and then classes X and XII. Even in the case of those who don't wish to pursue education further, Rajendran is happy that they are now able to write to their family members without having to seek anyone else’s support.

“There are several life convicts who are attending the classes. We are hoping that acquiring qualifications like these would perhaps help in securing an early release from prison. This encourages them to study, and studies would equip them to make an honest living once outside. When you teach a man to fish, it enables him to put a stop to the need to steal to make ends meet,” he says.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/his-classroom-is-a-jail/894266/0

Policing by SMS

Ashwani Sharma, Sun, Jan 01, 2012

On December 16, Jairam Thakur, the state Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, found that someone had hacked into his Facebook account. Not wasting a moment, he sent an SMS to 9459100100—a dedicated, 24x7 SMS gateway service of the Himachal Pradesh police. “Somebody has hacked my Facebook account. Pls take legal action,” wrote Thakur. Within a few hours, the police were on the job and his complaint was lodged at the police station.

Thakur is just one of those thousands of mobile-phone users in the state, including tourists, whose SMSes have prompted instant action and even resulted in lodging of FIRs.

The biggest advantage of the SMS service is that a mobile phone user, whether a tourist or a local, doesn’t have to go to the thana. The SMS is received at the control room set up at Shimla, where a policeman forwards the information to the police station concerned, the SHO and the SP of the district. “The action begins instantly as all 100 police stations in Himachal Pradesh are online, and the staff is equipped with mobile phones, landline phones and also the wireless,” says Diljeet Singh, the state’s Director General of Police.

Till date, the police have registered 59 FIRs on the basis of SMSes in cases of threats, robbery, accidents caused by rash driving, obscene calls, etc. In fact, for complaints against crime against women, the police have found the service very useful as the identity of the complainant can be easily kept secret.

Senior officers, headed by the DGP and the additional DGP (law and Order), are monitoring the SMSes and action taken reports on daily basis.The officers are required to send the feed-back within 24 hours to the control room. The SMS facility supplements already offered services such as online FIRs and phone number 100 for police assistance. The SMS service is found particularly useful in offences that require swift action. High tele-density in Himachal Pradesh is another reason for the success of this service.

The elderly and women have turned out to be the biggest beneficiaries. The police get 14 to 20 messages every day, even in the night.

The service has become so popular that people are sending SMS complaints against overloading in buses, reckless driving, use of mobile phone by bus drivers, shortage of ration at PDS outlets in far-flung villages and snow-covered areas, encroachment on government land, drug abuse among children, traffic jams and even misbehaviour of policemen.

“The service helps us monitor the working of our own force. We get complaints about policemen smoking at public places, misbehaving or harassing the public, or not helping people,” says the DGP.

A girl from Killar in Pangi valley of Chamba district SMSed about an alleged rape attempt and the local police not lodging her complaint. Soon, a case was registered against the accused. 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/policing-by-sms/894259/0

US looking at India for legal aid lessons

Satya Prakash and Bhadra Sinha, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, December 07, 2011

The judiciary in the US is looking at India for tips on how to provide legal assistance to the poor on a shoestring budget. Although the slowdown-hit US economy is generating more civil cases of foreclosure, consumer credit and eviction, the litigants simply don’t have the money to pay for a lawyer.

And unlike in criminal cases, the US government is not mandated to provide legal aid in civil cases.

More than 90% litigants in civil cases go unrepresented in New York State alone with US authorities having slashed the legal budget by $170 million from $2.5 billion in 2010.

“We have come here to understand the access to the justice system and intend to replicate India’s best legal aid practices,” Justice Fern Fisher, deputy chief administrative judge and director of New York State access to justice program, told HT.

Justice Fisher and Fred P Rooney, director of the Community Legal Resource Network of the City University of New York School of Law (CUNY), have been scouting for legal aid programmes in India.

They were in Delhi after visiting Symbiosis Law School in Pune and a law college in Goa to study the involvement of law students in legal service programmes.

Justice Fisher said during her earlier visit 19 months ago, she learnt about the mobile justice system in Haryana.

“I had this idea, but didn’t know how to implement it. On learning about this system already working in India, I decided to launch it in New York,” she said.

The mobile system will work for those who can’t reach the court. “A trailer would have CUNY law students on board to assist senior citizens or the poor who can’t afford lawyers.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/US-looking-at-India-for-legal-aid-lessons/Article1-778826.aspx

Activist Khalra custodial death: SC upholds life in jail for Punjab cops

Express news service, Sat, Nov 05, 2011, New Delhi:

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the sentence of life imprisonment to five Punjab Police officials including DSP Jaspal Singh in the custodial death case of Amritsar-based human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra in 1995.

Jaswant Singh Khalra was a human rights activist and had been general secretary, Human Rights Wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal. He had been working on abduction and cremation of unclaimed/unidentified bodies during the disturbed period in Punjab, particularly in Amritsar and Taran Taran districts, a Bench led by Justice B S Chauhan quoted from CBI records.

“The police had been eliminating the young persons under the pretext of being militants and was disposing of their dead bodies without maintaining any record and without performing their last rites,” the court observed in its judgment on Friday.

Recounting the prosecution version, the judgment records that the police had hatched a conspiracy and abducted Khalra on September 6, 1995 from his residence, kept him in illegal detention, killed him and disposed his body in a canal.

Noting that “police atrocities are always violative of the constitutional mandate”, the judgment said “tolerance of police atrocities, as in the instant case, would amount to acceptance of systematic subversion and erosion of the rule of law”.

“We do not find any reason to interfere with the well reasoned judgment and order of the High Court. The facts of the case do not warrant review of the findings recorded by the courts below,” the Bench said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Activist-Khalra-custodial-death--SC-upholds-life-in-jail-for-Punjab-cops/871023/

J&K: Another ‘custodial death’, 4 cops suspended

Express news service, Sat, Nov 05, 2011, Jammu:

The Jammu and Kashmir Police are in the dock once again over the death of a youth under mysterious circumstances a day after he was arrested on November 1.

The body of 25-year-old Vijay Kumar, a former private transport vehicle driver who had turned to farming, was found in the fields near his house in Gulbadechak on November 2. His family members alleged that he was killed in custody and dumped there.

Four policemen including incharge of the Gajansoo police station, ASI Om Parkash Sharma, have been suspended and attached with the District Police Lines at Jammu. An SPO, Ranjit Singh, has been disengaged from service.

A departmental inquiry has also been ordered into the matter. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner, Jammu , Sanjeev Verma, has also ordered a magisterial inquiry. The probe will be conducted by Additional Deputy Commissioner Rohit Khajuria.

The police said Vijay was taken into custody on November 1 for a theft case and that he had fled the next morning. They claimed he had been arrested on charges of selling intoxicant capsules earlier too.

Vijay’s brother Kuldeep Raj, however, said that he was killed in police custody. He said on November 1, in the afternoon, Vijay was going to the fields where he along with his father had harvested the paddy crop. On the way, some policemen including SPO Ranjit Singh in a Gypsy stopped him.

Kuldeep alleged that Vijay was handcuffed and made to run along the police Gypsy for nearly a kilometre up to the Gajansoo Chowk, where the policemen beat him before before taking him to the nearby police post. The police, however, deny the charge.

Vijay’s mother Sushma Devi, 60, went to the police post where ASI Sharma told her that her son had been sent to Kanchak police station.

Vijay’s father Puran Chand, 65, said the next day a youth brought him a message from the Munshi at the police post to settle the case for Rs 2,000. According to him, he along with his cousin went to the police post where they were made to give their thumb impression on blank papers. The Munshi then asked them to bring back Vijay to the police post, saying he had fled earlier in the day.

The same evening, the family found Vijay’s dead body from the agricultural field near their house.

The next day when doctors were preparing to conduct postmortem, the police claimed to have seized intoxicant capsules from Vijay’s pocket, triggering protests from the villagers. Accusing the police of planting the capsules, the villagers held a demonstration outside the hospital. The authorities then suspended the policemen at Gajansoo post.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/j&k-another-custodial-death-4-cops-suspended/871020/0

Mirchpur: Life term to 3, five get 5 yrs in jail

Express news service, Tue, Nov 01, 2011, New Delhi:

A Delhi court today awarded life sentence to three persons for their role in the April 2010 killing of a 70-year-old Dalit and his physically-challenged daughter in Haryana’s Mirchpur.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Kamini Lau sentenced Kulwinder, Ramphal and Rajender to life under the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The court sentenced five others to five years’ jail along with a fine of Rs 20,000 each. Baljeet, Karambir, Karampal, Dharambir and Bobal were convicted for rioting, causing hurt, and setting ablaze victims’ houses.

The court said the fine recovered from the convicts would be given to the victims as compensation.

Seven convicts were released on probation of good conduct for a year with supervision after furnishing of personal bonds of Rs 10,000 each. The court held that Sumit, Pradeep, Rajpal, Sunil, Rishi, Monu and Pradeep were first-time offenders and were not guilty under the SC/ST Act.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Mirchpur--Life-term-to-3--five-get-5-yrs-in-jail/868537/

95-yr-old gets life sentence for murder

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times, New Delhi, October 19, 2011

A 95-year-old woman was on Tuesday given life sentence by the Delhi High Court for burning to death her daughter-in-law and her seven-month-old grandson 15 years ago for dowry. The order comes 13 years after a trial court acquitted her. The high court held Sumitra guilty of committing the double murder in collusion with her elder son and daughter-in-law after setting aside the trial court’s 1998 order, acquitting the trio. The woman’s elder son and daughter-in-law, however, died early this year before the high court could conclude its hearing.

The high court convicted Sumitra, relying upon the dying declaration of the victim Meenu, who had told the sub-divisional magistrate the three had set her ablaze after dousing her with kerosene oil even as she held her child in her arms.

She said though her husband and her father-in-law never harassed her, her mother-in-law and her elder son and his wife used to harass her for dowry.

“Finding the dying declaration of Meenu to be inspiring utmost confidence, with no iota of doubt about her mental faculty, we unhesitatingly rely upon it to hold that the charge of murder stands proved beyond doubt against the respondent-accused, as she was instrumental in setting Meenu on fire,” the bench said, convicting the nonagenarian woman.

Pulling up the trial judge, the high court said “such an approach of the trial court is not only patently perverse but has also resulted in a grave miscarriage of justice”.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/95-yr-old-gets-life-sentence-for-murder/Article1-758917.aspx

Man, wife get life term for killing child

SATURDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2011, SANA SHAKIL | NEW DELHI

A harmless argument between two five-year olds deteriorated into a fatal act of retribution with parents of one of the children being awarded life imprisonment, after the couple was proved guilty of murdering a little girl, by a city court. The couple, in a fit of rage after their tiny tots had a quarrel, set alight their jhuggi in Jahangirpuri area of the capital which led to the death of five-year old Tamanna. Tamanna’s parents and three other siblings escaped the fire with non-life threatening burns but Tamanna was consumed by the flames.

The root cause of the gruesome crime was a petty quarrel which had taken place between Aman (Tamanna’s brother) and Ravi and Kundan, sons of the convicted couple. On the fateful evening on February 8, 2009, after the children had an argument, Tamanna’s father Firangi sat with the quarelling children, gave them some counselling and put matters to rest. Ravi and Kundan’s mother Guddi, and her husband Kamal got annoyed with the situation and threatened Firangi with dire consequences. Threatening to burn down their jhuggi, Guddi told Firangi, “Ab toh tum bach gaye, jao aaj raat ko tumhein dekh loongi, tumhari jhuggi ko aag laga doongi.”

According to prosecution witnesses present at the spot, which included the neighbours, Guddi refused to heed to numerous suggestions to calm down and called the cops.

Relatives of the deceased told the cops that it was just a quarrel between the two children, after which the cops left.

Tamanna’s uncle Mukesh told the court that on February 9, 2009 when he went outside to answer nature’s call at around 4 am in the morning, he saw Kamal and Guddi standing outside their jhuggi with a bottle of kerosene in hand and sprinkling the same all over the jhuggi.

As Mukesh rushed to stop them from setting alight their home, Guddi immediately lit a match which engulfed the jhuggi and resulted in the death of the little girl.

Mukesh raised an alarm and with the help of the neighbours they tried to save all the family members, but unfortunately not Tamanna. They rushed her to BJRM Hospital, where the doctors declared her ‘brought dead’.

In the course of investigations, police recovered two two-litre bottles of kerosene in the jhuggi of the convicted couple with remnants of kerosene still present. Tarun Khurana, witness in the case, who was working in an MCD Park nearby said in his statement that he saw accused Kamal running out of the lane of the victim’s jhuggi. Furthermore, in his statement Tarun said that on that day he saw Kamal taking tea near A-1 Market, Jahangirpuri at 4.10 am.

After finishing his tea he got up and left and soon after there were flames coming from the A-1 jhuggis. While convicting the accused of murder charges, Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Dudeja said “I have no reason to disbelieve the testimony of Mukesh (Firangi’s brother) who has been able to prove that it was accused Kamal who had sprinkled kerosene on the jhuggi of Firangi and it was accused Guddi who had set the jhuggi on fire resulting in the death of a small child. I therefore hold both the accused guilty and convict them under Sections 302/436/34 IPC. Considering the totality of facts, the accused are sentenced with imprisonment and a fine of 5,000.”

http://www.dailypioneer.com/sunday-edition/others/townhall/7127-man-wife-get-life-term-for-killing-child.html

Youth lands in jail for stealing Rs 115 20-yr ago

SUNDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2011, AMARNATH TEWARY | PATNA

It’s the perfect case of fact being stranger than fiction. A man from Buxar district of Bihar, who was caught picking pockets at the age of nine, was sent to jail after 20 years when he turned 29 last fortnight. He now needs Rs 5,000 as bail for allegedly stealing Rs 115 but is unable to do so as he is a marginal worker.

This amazing story of Shera Singh began in 1991, when he was caught picking pockets at Dumaron bus-stand in Bhojpur. He was nine years old at the time.

According to Buxar lawyer Shashi Kant Ojha, Shera was produced in chief judicial magistrate court in Ara in 1991 despite being a minor. Buxar was not a separate district at the time. The Ara court released the ‘delinquent’ Shera on bail but the case was not closed.

However, in 1994, Buxar was carved out as a new district and the court handling Shera’s case was shifted to the new district. For 16 years, Shera’s papers could not be traced.

There was no follow-up until 20 years later, the day he turned 29 years old and was sent to jail for a ‘crime’ he had forgotten all about.

A non-bailable warrant was issued against Shera and the police moved to attach his properties. The order came as a bolt from blue for Shera and he surrendered before the designated court to avoid confiscation of his properties. He was sent to jail and has been languishing there. He now requires Rs 5,000 for the bail bond, which appears a daunting task for him.

Shera appeared clueless about the incomprehensible example of justice meted out to him. Legal experts say the maximum sentence for his offence could be three years.

But whose fault is it after all? According to Ojha, “It happened because of his lawyer’s mistake and since there was no juvenile court in Ara at that time. Of course, the misplacement of court documents during shifting from Ara to Buxar, which kept his case hanging for such a long period of time, is also to be blamed.”

According to a recent report released by the Bihar social justice department, there are 16,000 juvenile cases pending in different courts of the State. Patna alone accounts for more than 1,500 cases till March 31. The cases remain pending despite Section 14 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2000, mandating disposal within four months of registration.

Department officials now only express optimism that the trial of juvenile cases would be fast-tracked in the districts following constitution of the proposed juvenile justice tribunal.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/pioneer-news/nation/7241-youth-lands-in-jail-for-stealing-rs-115-20-yr-ago.html