Anti-rape bill gets Lok Sabha nod
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Only 196 MPs of 539 MPs present in the House during debate
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DNA Correspondent l @DNA
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New Delhi: Braving over 50 amendments moved by opposition and allies, Lok Sabha finally passed the much-awaited criminal law amendment bill providing stringent punishment for crime against women. The bill has sought to widen the definition of rape, broaden the ambit of aggravated rape and enhance the punishment for such crimes.
With the DMK’s pull out taking much of political limelight, the introduction of bill was lukewarm. Most of the time during debate, the House was empty and when voting was taking place, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and many senior ministers were missing. Only 196 MPs were present in the House during the debate and voting. Winding up a five-hour debate, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said the law was aimed to act as deterrent. He tried to allay fears expressed by several MPs that various provisions were prone to misuse. He also moved an amendment to drop a clause that had fixed the age of consent for sex at 16 years. It shall now remain at 18 years, as in the Ordinance promulgated on February 3, which will expire on April 4. “Time has come to send out a loud, clear and deterrent signal that the society will not tolerate such errant behaviour,” he said, underlining that the Bill was being brought to plug loopholes in the law. With an aim of providing a strong deterrent against rapes and gangrapes, the Bill states that an offender can be sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 20 years, but which may extend to life, meaning imprisonment for the remainder of that person’s natural life and with a fine. It has provisions for handing out death sentence to offenders who may have been convicted earlier for such crimes. The bill, for the first time, defines stalking and voyeurism as non-bailable offences if repeated for a second time. Earlier, while moving the bill for consideration, Shinde sought the support of all parties, saying “let us honour the braveheart”, referring to the 23-year-old victim of gangrape by six persons in the national capital last year. He said the bill has for the first time defined acid attack as a crime and grants a victim the right to self-defence. It also has provisions for awarding a minimum 10-year jail term for perpetrators of the act. The amendments seek to make specific provisions for punishment for offences of causing grievous hurt by acid attack and also for such an attempt. It also seeks to define and prescribe punishment for the offences of stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment. During the debate, CPI leader Gurdas Dasgupta and Odhisa BJD’s Pinaki Mishra opposed raising the age of consent to 18. They blamed the government for caving in under the pressure of the BJP.
DNA, 20-03-2013, p.11, http://epaper.dnaindia.com/story.aspx?id=41606&boxid=18125&ed_date=2013-03-20&ed_code=820009&ed_page=11
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
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Milestones: Directory of Open Access Journals Reaches 1 Million Searchable Articles (Gary Price, InfoDocket, Library Journal March 14, 2013)
Friday, March 15, 2013
SC sets aside 2009 ruling, says kicking daughter-in-law is cruel
Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN
New Delhi: Four years after it shocked women by ruling that kicking a daughter-inlaw was not an act of cruelty as defined under Section 498A of IPC, the Supreme Court on Thursday erased it from court records.
Allowing a plea by National Commission for Women (NCW), a bench of Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices P Sathasivam and G S Singhvi set aside the July 27, 2009 judgment by which it had quashed the charges under Section 498A against Bhaskarlal Sharma and his wife Vimla Sharma who were summoned by the trial court for allegedly kicking their daughter-in-law Monica Sharma.
A bench of Justices S B Sinha and Cyriac Joseph had said in the 2009 judgment, “Allegations that appellant No.2 (Vimla) kicked the respondent (Monica) with her leg and told her that her mother is a liar may make out some other offence but not the one punishable under Section 498A.
“Similarly, her allegations that the appellant No.2 poisoned the ears of her son against the respondent, she gave two used lady suits of her daughter to the complainant (Monica) and has been giving perpetual sermons to the complainant could not be said to be offences punishable under Section 498A.”
Appearing for NCW, senior advocate Indu Malhotra on Thursday argued that if allegations of physical violence and taking away of ‘stree-dhan’ (valuables of the bride) did not constitute an offence under Section 498A of IPC, then it would send a very wrong signal and have retrograde effect on the object of the provision to curb violence and cruelty against women in matrimonial homes.
Source:::: The Times of India, 15-03-2013, p.13, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW
Cabinet clears anti-rape bill, includes acid attacks, voyeurism and stalking
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The Cabinet on Thursday approved a bill that will make rapists-murderers punishable by death and provides for stringent punishment for offences like acid attacks, voyeurism and stalking women.
The bill also lowered the age of consent for sex from 18 to 16 years and made ‘rape’ a gender-specific offence under which only men can be charged for it. There is a provision for death sentence if the rape victim dies or is left in a ‘persistent vegetative state’ or if the rapist is a repeat offender.
Rapists will be liable to a minimum jail term of 20 years extendable to imprisonment till the natural life of the convict according to the anti-rape bill that was cleared by a group of ministers and accepted by the Cabinet. The bill will be placed before an all-party meeting on March 18 to build consensus before it is brought to Parliament.
The government has time till March 22 to get Parliament’s approval on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2013. The decision comes three months after the Delhi gang-rape brought focus on strong punishment for offences against women.
The Cabinet decision comes after sharp differences over the age of consent and possible misuse of certain provisions forced the government to set up a GoM to thrash out contentious provisions. The GoM finalized the draft on Wednesday.
Source:::: The Times of India, 15-03-2013, p.13, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW
Sting op reveals money laundering in top banks
Execs Flout Rules To Get Easy Cash
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: An undercover sting investigation across India has shown up startling videos of bank executives of three leading private banks —HDFC, ICICI and Axis—providing ready assistance to a reporter, posing as a minister’s aide, for laundering black money into white through the banking system in clear contravention of banking norms and laws.
Shaken by the disclosure, the three banks asserted that they were committed to transparent and lawful banking norms, while saying that they have instituted inquiries into the allegations. Finance minister P Chidambaram told the media that he had spoken to the chairman of two banks (the third, he said, was abroad). He added that the government wasn’t jumping to conclusions of the basis of the disclosure.
The investigative website, Cobrapost, claimed on Thursday that it has collected hundreds of hours of secret video recording showing bank executives suggesting various ways in the banking system to launder money. It uploaded at least 45 tell-tale videos on its website and claimed these were of bankers in cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur and Hyderabad.
Fact is many Switzerlands are here in India: Sting site
New Delhi:A sting-op by an investigative website, Cobrapost, has indicated ‘rampant’ money laundering in at least three leading private sector banks.
Among the methods of laundering offered by bank executives on camera was insurance, where big-amount premium payments don’t have to be reported by banks. The executives shown also suggest that the reporter, posing as a high networth client, deposit his cash in several smaller amounts to evade the attention of tax sleuths. Requirements like PAN card number and other KYC requirements are also offered to be short-circuited. Bank executives were also shown offering large lockers to stash huge amounts of cash (bank lockers can’t be used for storing cash, according to the law.)
The website claimed that, given the number of bank executives who offered to launder money, it seemed this was a common practice in private banks for access to cheap deposits and added that the scale indicated that the top management of the banks could not be completely ignorant of the malpractices.
“Our investigation, conducted across dozens and dozens of branches of these banks and their insurance affiliates, across all five zones of the country, revealed-...that these money laundering practices are part of a standard set of procedures within these banks,” the site said in a statement. “We talk about people stashing illgotten money in tax havens like Switzerland. But the fact is Switzerlands are here in India,” it said. The investigation showed that the money laundering services are “being openly offered to even walk-in customers who wish to launder their illicit money”, he said.
“The evidence is graphic, crystal-clear and clinching,” the site said. “The investigation finds the banks and their managements systematically and deliberately violating several provisions of the Income Tax Act, FEMA, RBI regulations, KYC norms, the Banking Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with utter disregard to consequences, driven by their desire to boost cheap deposits thereby increasing their profits,” the site said.
The investigation, code named Red Spider, was conducted across India and showed executives of these banks offering various options to wash black money into the banking system.
In one instance, an ICICI Bank manager offered to give the politician’s henchman an NRI account if he had a passport showing at least one trip abroad.
Another video, purported to be that of a HDFC bank manager in Delhi, showed the executive telling the reporter: “HDFC baitha hi hua hai black money khane ke liye (HDFC is here to eat up all the black money).” The site said ways suggested to transform the black money into white were “both imaginative in their range and brazen in their approach”.
The bank officers were also shown offering to invest large amounts of cash in insurance products and gold, or to route the cash into various investment schemes of the bank.
The officers suggested that the money be split into tranches to get it into the banking system without being detected, and many also suggested using “benami” accounts to facilitate the conversion. For a fee, some executives even offered to use accounts of other customers to channelize the black money into the system. Some of these bank executives suggested that the black money be used to get demand drafts either from their own banks or from other banks to facilitate investment without it showing up in the client’s account.
They also suggested they could open and close multiple accounts at will to facilitate the investment of black money.
Cobrapost said it had hundreds of hours of raw video footage and was willing to hand them over to any authorized law enforcement agency that wants to look into the matter.
New Delhi:A sting-op by an investigative website, Cobrapost, has indicated ‘rampant’ money laundering in at least three leading private sector banks.
Among the methods of laundering offered by bank executives on camera was insurance, where big-amount premium payments don’t have to be reported by banks. The executives shown also suggest that the reporter, posing as a high networth client, deposit his cash in several smaller amounts to evade the attention of tax sleuths. Requirements like PAN card number and other KYC requirements are also offered to be short-circuited. Bank executives were also shown offering large lockers to stash huge amounts of cash (bank lockers can’t be used for storing cash, according to the law.)
The website claimed that, given the number of bank executives who offered to launder money, it seemed this was a common practice in private banks for access to cheap deposits and added that the scale indicated that the top management of the banks could not be completely ignorant of the malpractices.
“Our investigation, conducted across dozens and dozens of branches of these banks and their insurance affiliates, across all five zones of the country, revealed-...that these money laundering practices are part of a standard set of procedures within these banks,” the site said in a statement. “We talk about people stashing illgotten money in tax havens like Switzerland. But the fact is Switzerlands are here in India,” it said. The investigation showed that the money laundering services are “being openly offered to even walk-in customers who wish to launder their illicit money”, he said.
“The evidence is graphic, crystal-clear and clinching,” the site said. “The investigation finds the banks and their managements systematically and deliberately violating several provisions of the Income Tax Act, FEMA, RBI regulations, KYC norms, the Banking Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with utter disregard to consequences, driven by their desire to boost cheap deposits thereby increasing their profits,” the site said.
The investigation, code named Red Spider, was conducted across India and showed executives of these banks offering various options to wash black money into the banking system.
In one instance, an ICICI Bank manager offered to give the politician’s henchman an NRI account if he had a passport showing at least one trip abroad.
Another video, purported to be that of a HDFC bank manager in Delhi, showed the executive telling the reporter: “HDFC baitha hi hua hai black money khane ke liye (HDFC is here to eat up all the black money).” The site said ways suggested to transform the black money into white were “both imaginative in their range and brazen in their approach”.
The bank officers were also shown offering to invest large amounts of cash in insurance products and gold, or to route the cash into various investment schemes of the bank.
The officers suggested that the money be split into tranches to get it into the banking system without being detected, and many also suggested using “benami” accounts to facilitate the conversion. For a fee, some executives even offered to use accounts of other customers to channelize the black money into the system. Some of these bank executives suggested that the black money be used to get demand drafts either from their own banks or from other banks to facilitate investment without it showing up in the client’s account.
They also suggested they could open and close multiple accounts at will to facilitate the investment of black money.
Cobrapost said it had hundreds of hours of raw video footage and was willing to hand them over to any authorized law enforcement agency that wants to look into the matter.
Bank executives even offered large lockers to stash cash in though it is illegal to do so.
Source:::: The Times of India, 15-03-2013, p.01, http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Anti-rape law hangs for lack of consensus
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DNA Correspondent l @DNA
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| New Delhi: Amid persisting differences in the cabinet, the prime minister referred the home ministry’s draft law against rape and other crimes to an empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by finance minister P Chidambaram. The minister got cracking and convened a two-hour meeting in his office. He is expected to complete the work by Wednesday evening and the bill will be ready to go before the Union cabinet on Thursday. “The sections that we have covered... all points of view have been taken into account and reconciled and a final version of the clause has emerged. We can do that for the remaining sections as well,” Chidambaram told reporters after chairing the meeting. Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath spoke to BJP’s Sushma Swaraj and proposed an all-party meeting on March 18 to sort out the differences in the draft bill before it is introduced in the Lok Sabha, possibly on the 19th. The other members in the EGoM are home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, law minister Ashwani Kumar, women and child welfare minister Krishna Tirath and telecom minister Kapil Sibal. At Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, Tirath objected to reducing the age for consensual sex from 18 to 16. She said lowering the age would have a cascading effect on other laws. She also insisted on using the term “sexual assault” — used in the February 3 ordinance — instead of replacing it with “rape”. Kumar said provisions pertaining to voyeurism and stalking could be misused to file false complaints. Sibal, who is also a senior lawyer, termed the bill language “too loose” which may not stand “legal scrutiny”. After the cabinet meeting, Kumar told reporters: “There is a need to make the law civil, so that it’s not used for corruption. We will bring this law before March 22 in this budget session.” Shinde too expressed confidence that the bill would be passed in the budget session. Source:::: DNA, 13-03-2013, p.01. |
Italy keeps its Marines
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Duo was allowed to go home to vote; now they have voted not to return
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Rome: Two Italian marines being tried for the murder of two fishermen in India will not return to the country as New Delhi does not have jurisdiction over the case, the Italian foreign ministry announced on Monday.
“Italy has always argued that Indian authorities have violated their obligations under international law... especially the principle of immunity from trial by the organs of a foreign state and the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. The decision not to send Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, who had been allowed to head home to vote and meet their families, back to India was taken by Italy’s defence and justice ministries in consultation with the prime minister’s office, it said. Italy “is ready to reach an agreement to resolve the controversy including through international arbitration or a judicial resolution,” it said. The statement said Italy’s ambassador in New Delhi has informed the Indian government of its decision. The two marines have been at the centre of a year-long international row for allegedly shooting dead two Indian fishermen after mistaking them for pirates off Kerala in February 2012 while guarding an oil tanker. Italy claims the incident occurred in international waters and has been trying to get Latorre and Girone tried in Italian courts, while India contends the shooting occurred in its own territory. India’s Supreme Court last month allowed Latorre and Girone to return home to vote in the February 24-25 national elections since Italy does not allow postal ballots for non-expatriates. It had earlier allowed them to go home for Christmas. Reacting to the development in Delhi, source in the ministry of external affairs said, “We received a communication from Italy late on Monday. We will examine it carefully.” He, however, did not say what the communication said. Source::::: DNA, 12-03-2013, p.01. |
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