YEH MERA INDIA

Conviction & Property attachment after death

New Delhi: The Supreme Court expressed shock over a trial court in Andhra Pradesh convicting a dead person of misappropriation of government funds, the district judge attaching his family's property in turn and even the High Court putting its stamp of approval on the attachment.  The issue before the Court was whether such a property can be attached even after the person's death and the Court said: "There is no legal provision which enables continuance of prosecution upon death of the accused." 

Allowing an appeal by wife and two sons of one U. Ramacharaiah booked for misappropriating Rs 6.57 lakh in 1987-88 by forging bills of teachers, the Apex Court slammed the trial court for convicting him in October 1993 despite his death two years ago in October 1991. 

The Bench of Justices S Bobde and Amitava Roy set aside the trial court's judgment holding Ramachandraiah as responsible for offences despite the fact that "he could not be adjudged guilty since he had expired," holding it as "illegal." 

In 1997, the state government sought attachment of the property allegedly acquired from the proceeds of the offence of corruption and succeeded in securing the attachment and the same was upheld by the High Court in June 2006. 

The Apex Court also set aside the High Court ruling as "unsustainable."

"Proceedings an decisions of the courts below are disturbing, to say the least," the Apex Court said, expressing surprise that the trial court recorded conviction two years after the accused's death and this null and void conviction was used as a basis for making an attachment of his properties before the sessions Court. "Astonishingly, all applications succeeded...and above all, the High Court upheld the attachment."

A gift to Bihar CM Nitish: A marriage that didn’t takes place

Call it an after-effect of Nitish Kumar imposing prohibition in Bihar or the general awareness being created about ill-effects of liquor consumption, a bride called off her marriage minutes before the jaimala (exchange of garlands) ceremony after finding out the groom was drunk. The incident took place at Naugachia in Bhagalpur district, around 300 km from here. The bride Preeti Lata, a teacher at a government middle school, was on stage when she found the groom misbehaving with some of her relatives. As she moved forward with the garland in her hand, she “smelt” a rat. Soon, she realised her would-be husband was completely drunk. She developed cold feet, threw the garland on the floor of the mandap (stage) and ran to her make-shift room, leaving all the guests stunned.Consumption of liquor is banned in Bihar ever since prohibition was imposed in the state in April this year.

“I cannot marry a drunkard, who has shamelessly consumed liquor even before the wedding,” the intrepid girl told her father Ashutosh Mishra. Preeti’s stand drew wide appreciation from her relatives, but left the groom and his family red-faced. She sought forgiveness from everyone for bringing disrepute to the family, but reiterated that she cannot compromise on certain values. “We should salute her for taking such a stand. After all, she is a teacher and needs appreciation for her initiative,” one of her relatives said, even as the groom’s kin reluctantly agreed to leave the marriage venue.

But there was a twist in the tale. The baratis (members of the groom’s side) were taken hostage till the dowry amount was returned to Preeti’s family. 

“Though we suffered a huge financial loss, we at least managed to get back the dowry amount,” a relative of Preeti later told a local daily.

Bihar leaders misuse JP for pension

Patna: In their affidavits while filing the nomination papers, leaders in Bihar had claimed their assets worth more than Rs 1 crore each and in the annual returns to the cabinet secretariat department, chief minister and other cabinet colleagues declared their assets, both movable and immovable, to be over Rs one crore each. Many of them are getting pension as ex members of the Parliament, state legislature and in some cases from the universities where they were teaching. But, they still could not resist the temptation of the pension approved by the state government for their participation in the Jayaprakash Narayan led movement and detention in jails during emergency.

Nitish Kumar introduced a pension scheme for the Senanis (fighters) of total revolution and it ranged between Rs 2500 to Rs 5000 per month depending on the duration of imprisonment. Last year, it was raised to Rs 10,000 per month with retrospective effect of July 2007. Bihar government’s home (special) department releases pension to the tune of Rs 2.43 crores every month.

The list of Senanis getting pension include the chief minister Nitish Kumar, RJD president and former CM Lalu Prasad, union food and consumer affairs minister and LJP president Ram Vilas Paswan ,union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, another former chief minister Ram Sundar Das (who died recently), former union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav who is president of state unit of Samajwadi party, another former union rural development minister and RJD national vice president Raghuwansh Prasad Singh and former deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, former state BJP president and PWD minister Nand Kishore Yadav.

The list of 3008 beneficiaries called Senanis include the finance minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui and his wife Nutan Sinha, rural development minister Shrawan Kumar, irrigation minister Lallan Singh, state JDU president and MP Bashistha Narain Singh, former minister Narendra Singh, former JDU MP and once national spokesman of party- Shivananad Tiwari, former Bihar Pradesh Congress chief and minister Ramjatan Sinha, former ministers Ram Jiwan Singh and ex-MPs Vijay Krishna, Ramdev Bhandari, Ashok Kumar Singh, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, Kaushalya Devi, Bikam Kuer, senior Mumbai based journalist  Kumar Prashant and Mumbai based activist Janki Devi,another Delhi based senior journalist -Ram Bahadur Rai ,Bhudan Yagna committee chairman Kumar Shubhmurti among others.

When money speaks law goes limp

Mumbai: The DB Marg police station is yet to register FIR or Non-Cognisable complaint despite well-known RTI activist Chetan Kothari having submitted a written complaint against a restaurant owner/manager who is illegally constructing a brick partition in a commercial building located near French Bridge in the Opera House area.

63-year-old Kothari told that the restaurant owner/manager has threatened him with dire consequences if he does not stop raising his voice against the illegal construction inside the restaurant named Tool House Cafe, which is located on the ground floor of Kothari’s office in the building.

“I have given written complaint to Senior PI of D B Marg police station but no case has been registered against anyone till date,” said Kothari.

When approached the Senior PI of the police station Pandurang Shinde regarding the matter, he said, “Kotahri visited the police station but I told him candidly to give a written complaint to duty officer but we have not received any written complaint yet. So we can’t force any complainant to give a written complaint.”

Kothari has already submitted a written complaint to DB Marg police station way back on May 31 and dispatch writer of the police station has received the complaint two-page letter on the same day at 12:15pm. 

“The Senior PI of DB Marg police station is telling a white lie. I strongly believe that he has taken under-table money to suppress the matter,” said Kothari.

“The restaurant owner/manager initially tried to bribe me to remain out of this matter but since I denied accepting the money (Rs.5 lakh) from him, so now he has threatened me thrice to kill me,” Kothari told FPJ and added that he has also written two-page letter to DCP Zone 2 Sandeep Karnik (the letter is in the possession of FPJ).

The activist further added that three young boys, who claimed to be MNS workers, visited his office on the third floor of the same building on June 20 and they threatened to face dire consequences.

“DCP Karnik has told me that he has already directed his subordinates to lodge trespassing case against the three boys who visited my office and an NC against the owner/manager of the restaurant,” said Kothari, who further added that till now no case has been registered yet.