Thursday, January 19, 2012

Kalmadi gets bail:

Kalmadi gets bail: Delhi High Court grants bail to CWG OC chairman Kalmadi.

Behind bars for nearly nine months, former CWG Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi was on Thursday granted bail by the Delhi High Court in a 2010 Games-related graft case.
The court also granted bail to OC former director general and co-accused V K Verma.While granting them bail, Justice Mukta Gupta directed them to furnish before the trial court a bail bond of Rs 5 lakh each and two sureties of the like amount.
Justice Gupta said, “There is no allegation that the petitioners are likely to flee from justice and will not be available for the trial.”
The court directed them not to leave the country without prior permission of the trial court.
Kalmadi was arrested by the CBI on 25th April, 2011 while Verma was arrested on 23rd February, 2011 in the Timing, Scoring and Result system scam.
While allowing their plea for bail which cited Supreme Court’s judgement in 2G spectrum case wherein it was held that “bail is rule and jail is exception”, Justice Gupta said, “There is no allegation of money trail to the petitioners. There is also no evidence that the petitioner is threatening witnesses or interfering with evidence during investigation or trial.”
Kalmadi had moved the High Court in January, seeking bail citing the Supreme Court’s judgement in 2G spectrum case and said it has been held that “bail is rule and jail is exception”.
Kalmadi said only a charge sheet has been filed against him and there was remote possibility of commencement of the trial in the near future.
The CBI had, however, opposed the bail pleas of Kalmadi and Verma and referred to the trial court’s 4th January order submitting that it has been decided that the case would be heard on a day-to-day basis soon after scrutiny of documents.
It had also said that there was nothing new in the “bail-is-rule-and-jail-an-exception” remark of the apex court while granting bail in the 2G case.
Kalmadi, Verma and nine others have been accused of allegedly awarding a contract to a Swiss firm to install a Timing-Scoring-Result (TSR) system for the Games at an exorbitant rate, causing a loss of over Rs 90 crore to the state exchequer.
The CBI had in its charge sheet filed in May 2011 described Kalmadi as main accused in the case.
Besides Kalmadi and Verma, others who are accused in the TSR scam include OC former Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, OC Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal, Joint Director General (Sports) A S V Prasad, Treasurer M Jayachandran, Managing Director A K Reddy of Hyderabad-based AKR Constructions and promoters A K Madan and P D Arya of a Faridabad-based firm Gem International.
Two companies AKR Constructions and Swiss Timing are also accused in the case.
The Special CBI court had on 23rd May, 2011 given a go-ahead for their prosecution under various provisions of the IPC dealing with criminal conspiracy, forging documents and using fake documents as genuine and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The contract was illegally awarded to Swiss Timing which further sub-contracted it to Gem International.
Gem International then sub-let the TSR work to AKR Constructions.

Tibetans call for independence

Fresh protests in Serthar, Tibetans call for independenceJanuary 18, 2012

DHARAMSHALA, January 18: Tibetans in the eastern Tibetan region of Serthar, Kardze carried out fresh protests calling for Tibet’s independence on Monday.

According to a report by AP, “dozens of Tibetans, including monks, held up a portrait of the Dalai Lama” in an act of defiance against Chinese rule. In January alone, four Tibetans in the adjoining regions of Kardze have died after setting themselves on fire demanding the return of the Dalai Lama and protesting China’s continued occupation of Tibet.

The report quoted an official from Serthar county public security bureau as saying that “on Monday, fewer than 100 Tibetans gathered and held a portrait of the Dalai Lama.”

However, the Chinese official declined to give further details on whether any arrests were made after the peaceful demonstrations.

Writing on her blog, Beijing based Tibetan writer Woeser also confirmed the protests in Serthar.

“Hundreds of monks from Kardze protested with Tibetan flags and portraits of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” Woeser wrote.

The award-winning Tibetan writer also said that Tibetans in Darlag County, Golok, on Monday, removed the Chinese flag from a local government building and replaced it with the “banned in Tibet” snow lion national flag of Tibet.

Thousands of Tibetans had attended the funeral of Sopa Rinpoche in Darlag a day earlier. Rinpoche set his body on fire on January 8 shouting slogans calling for Tibet's freedom and the long life of the Dalai Lama.

Reporting on the Serthar protests, Dharamshala based radio service VoT said the protests by over 200 Tibetans were sparked when two monks from a nearby monastery started a demonstration raising slogans for Tibet’s independence and throwing leaflets in the air.

Chinese security personnel are reportedly on the look out for the two monks who were rescued from the clutches of the police by the Tibetan crowd.

In October last, hundreds of Tibetans had carried out an impromptu protest in front of the main entrance of Serthar after a photo of the Dalai Lama and a huge Tibetan flag were removed from a four-storey building and thrown in the street.

INDOLOGY IN HUNGARYJanuary 23, 2012

Hungarian Information and Cultural Centre
cordially invites you to an

INDOLOGY IN HUNGARY
An open house discussion
(in Hindi and English)

with
Dr. MᲩa N駚esi
Head of Department of Indo-European
Studies, ELTE University, Budapest

on Monday, January 23, 2012 at 6:00 pm
at 1/A Janpath, New Delhi 110 011
(Near Hotel Claridges)

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