#Andhra Pradesh Gang Rape Case

[sarhadkasakshi]

मॉर्निंग न्यूज ब्रीफ: बाबा सिद्दीकी मर्डर की जिम्मेदारी लॉरेंस गैंग ने ली, सलमान की सिक्योरिटी बढ़ी; केजरीवाल बोले- सरकार चलाने में उमर की मदद करूंगा

Hindi News National Dainik Bhaskar Morning News Brief; Baba Siddique Murder | Lawrence Bishnoi Salman Khan 3 घंटे पहलेलेखक: शुभांक शुक्ला, न्यूज ब्रीफ एडिटर कॉपी लिंक नमस्कार, कल की बड़ी खबर बाबा सिद्दीकी के मर्डर से जुड़ी रही। उनकी हत्या की जिम्मेदारी लॉरेंस गैंग ने ली है। इसके बाद सलमान खान की सिक्योरिटी बढ़ा दी गई है। दूसरी बड़ी खबर पूर्व CM केजरीवाल के बयान को लेकर रही। उन्होंने कहा कि…

[antoine-roquentin]

Christianity could not provide social upward mobility, but it ensured that Satyam and his siblings received a proper education, despite taunts from caste Hindus. Because they were educated, Gidla’s relatives could get jobs in Christian schools and hospitals. But a brown-skinned Christian was still treated very differently from a white-skinned one, and brahmin converts to the imperial religion refused to marry untouchable Christians. Conversion didn’t erase the stigma of untouchability. As a teenager, Satyam was hostile to Nehru and Gandhi – he saw them as products of British rule and tied to it in too many ways – but sympathetic to the militant, secular nationalism of Subhas Chandra Bose. From here, Satyam moved the short distance to the Communist Party, inspired by the accounts that student CP members gave him of the Telangana peasants’ struggle. Until a few years before his death in 2012, Satyam was engaged in the peasant resistance in Andhra Pradesh. After the Communist Party split in 1967 he became involved in the Naxalite, Maoist wing of the party, backing an armed revolt. After its failure, and the killing of many Naxalite leaders, he cofounded the People’s War Group, which Gidla describes as the ‘most notorious, famous and successful Naxalite party, a thorn in the side of the Indian rulers’. He was eventually expelled from it after complaining about the party’s treatment of untouchables. ‘Talk of caste feeling within the party had always been taboo,’ Gidla writes, but young untouchables were beginning to see it as a political issue. They told Satyam that ‘when they joined, they were not given a gun. Instead, they were handed a broom and told to sweep the floors.’ For a long time, too long, he’d preferred to believe that caste prejudice was false consciousness and would disappear in time. It never had. Even in the People’s War Group, members of the barber caste shaved their comrades, washer-caste members washed the clothes and the untouchables ‘were made to sweep and mop the floors and clean the lavatories’. This was life in a revolutionary group committed to an armed struggle to liberate the poor. 

Satyam can’t have been too surprised by this. He had suffered many insults from upper-caste members of the party, some of whom would leave money in the lavatory in order to see if he pocketed it. Feeling that the question of caste had now reached a new stage (there had been massacres of untouchables and angry responses), he confronted his comrades on the Central Committee. Their response was ‘swift and ruthless. He was expelled on the spot for “conspiring to divide the party”.’ The news of his expulsion became public when Gidla’s mother wrote a letter to a newspaper explaining what lay behind it. That was when most people found out that the founder of the People’s War Group, whom they knew as a revolutionary and a poet, publishing under the pseudonym Siva Sagar, was also an untouchable. 

*

Gidla, born in appalling conditions in an untouchable ghetto in the city of Kazipet in Telangana, now works as a conductor on the New York subway (she lost her job as a software programmer in a bank after the 2008 financial crash). Her experiences in the United States pushed her to write this book, an attempt to explain to her new friends and colleagues the difference between caste and race. Race is visible. Caste is a hierarchy established more than 2500 years ago. ‘What comes by birth and can’t be cast off by dying – that is caste,’ Arundhati Roy describes it in an essay introducing B.R. Ambedkar’s 1930s classic, The Annihilation of Caste:

What we call the caste system today is known in Hinduism’s founding texts as varnashrama dharma or chaturvarna, the system of four varnas. The approximately four thousand endogamous castes and sub-castes (jatis) in Hindu society, each with its own specified hereditary occupation, are divided into four varnas – Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (soldiers), Vaishyas (traders) and Shudras (servants). Outside of these varnas are the avarna castes, the Ati-Shudras, subhumans, arranged in hierarchies of their own – the Untouchables, the Unseeables, the Unapproachables – whose presence, whose touch, whose very shadow is considered to be polluting by privileged-caste Hindus … Each region of India has lovingly perfected its own unique version of caste-based cruelty, based on an unwritten code that is much worse than the Jim Crow laws.

Unsurprisingly, Gidla’s tone in her portrait of everyday social and political life in India over the late 19th and 20th centuries is defiant, sometimes angry: Gandhi is portrayed as a hypocrite, Nehru as a conscienceless Kashmiri brahmin who was happy to send troops to crush the Telangana peasant uprising and remained unaffected by the resulting thousands of deaths. Unlike his many apologists, Gandhi never concealed his views on the caste system. He was opposed to treating untouchables badly, but defended the system itself: ‘I am one of those who do not consider caste to be a harmful institution,’ he wrote in the journal Young India in 1920. ‘In its origin, caste was a wholesome custom and promoted national wellbeing. In my opinion, the idea that inter-dining or intermarrying is necessary for national growth is a superstition borrowed from the West.’

Contrary to the radical slogans of the late 1940s, India’s wasn’t a ‘fake independence’. Self-rule was achieved at a high price and it meant something, but it incorporated many colonial practices. The new masters benefited, but for the untouchables, tribals and others conditions remained the same or got worse. According to recent estimates by India’s National Crime Records Bureau, every 16 minutes a crime is committed by caste Hindus against an untouchable – or Dalit, as they prefer to be called. The figures are horrific: every month 52 Dalits are killed and six kidnapped; every week almost thirty Dalit women are raped by caste Hindus. This will be a serious underestimate. Most victims of caste violence don’t report the crime for fear of reprisals, notably death by burning.

In 2012 the Indian and Western media extensively covered the gang rape and murder of a single woman in Delhi, largely because students and feminist groups had protested on the streets and made it an issue; that same year 1574 Dalit women were raped and 651 Dalits murdered. Add to this the regular mob punishment of Dalit and low-caste women: they are forcibly stripped then paraded through villages to humiliate them further. Politically a democracy, constitutionally secular, India has, since 1947, been a caste Hindu dictatorship. During the run-up to independence, B.R. Ambedkar pinpointed the futility of ‘rights’: ‘If the fundamental rights are opposed by the community, no law, no parliament, no judiciary can guarantee them in the real sense of the word … What is the use of fundamental rights to the Negro in America, to the Jews in Germany and to the Untouchables in India?’ He also advised the leader of the Muslim League, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, not to place any trust in the brahmin-dominated Congress and to fight hard for a Muslim state. Ambedkar considered demanding a separate status for untouchables, slicing them away from Hinduism. This would have given them separate electoral representation as was the case with Muslims and other minorities. Gandhi talked him out of this by flattery, and by arguing that since Ambedkar would be drafting the new Indian constitution he could write in all the safeguards he wanted. This did happen, but had little impact. ‘Implement the Constitution’ remains a Dalit demand to this day.

[abbu52]

Atal Bhujal Yojana PM Modi Launched a central sector scheme with an outlay of Rupees 6,000 crores

The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL) in an event held in New Delhi on the birth anniversary(25th Dec) of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The CCEA approved for implementing Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL). It is a central sector scheme with an outlay of Rupees 6,000 crores. 

It will be implemented for a 5-year period (2020-2021 till 2024-2025). 

The aim of the scheme is to improve groundwater management in 7 states, they are Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh(MP), Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh(UP). 

Out of the Rupees 6,000 crores total outlay, 50% will be given by World Bank as a loan, The remaining 50% will be obtained through Central Assistance from regular budgetary support.

Aadhar made mandatory for PMVVY pension scheme

The Union Ministry of Finance in its latest notification has made it mandatory to submit the proof of Aadhar number of senior citizens who have invested in the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY). 

This move was done to bring transparency to financial processes and to reduce the incidence of fraud. 

PMVVY is a senior citizen pension scheme launched by the govt on May 4, 2017, as a way of providing additional investments to senior citizens. 

Investment of up to Rupees 15 lakhs can be made in this scheme. 

Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) of India is the sole operator of PMVVY.

Govt approved projects worth Rupees 7,000 crores under the Nirbhaya fund

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWandCD) has announced the approval of projects worth Rupees 7,000 crore including setting up 1023 fast-track courts under the Nirbhaya fund. 

These courts were decided to be set up in order to provide speedy trials of over 1.66 lakh pending cases of crime against women and children in India. 

The Nirbhaya fund was set up in 2013 with Rupees 1,000 crores corpus by the Congress party-led govt. as a tribute to a 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim.

Future Skills PRIME: Government approves Rupees 436 crore for skill IT professionals

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has approved Rupees 436 crore for Future Skills PRIME (Programme for Reskilling/Upskilling of IT Manpower for Employability) over a period of three years. 

The program aims to skill 412,000 IT (Information Technology) professionals in new technologies. 

The training will be executed by the Ministry of Electronics, IT, and Nasscom.

Every learner will be provided with a skills wallet in which he/she will get an opportunity to receive 12,000 from the government of India as an incentive. In February 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Future Skills Initiative.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana: Tamil Nadu tops in coverage under micro-irrigation for 2019

The Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) (https://pmksy.gov.in) released the data on states with coverage of area under micro-irrigation (MI) for the year 2019. 

As per the data, Tamil Nadu topped the list in coverage under micro-irrigation. 

Out of the 3.64 lakh hectares brought under micro-irrigation, Tamil Nadu accounts for around 1.39 lakh hectares, 38% of the total coverage in the country. 

Other top-ranked states: TN was followed by Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh (AP), Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (UP) in the 2nd 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively.

[vsplusonline]

At least 720 executions in India since 1947

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/at-least-720-executions-in-india-since-1947/

At least 720 executions in India since 1947

NEW DELHI: India has carried out at least 720 executions since Independence, nearly half of them in Uttar Pradesh, according to data collated under a project of the National Law University here. The actual number could be much higher, a project official said, as there are no proper records maintained by the government on executions.

Before Friday morning’s hanging of four Nirbhaya case convicts in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Yakub Menon was the last person to be sent to the gallows in July, 2015.

According to the Project 39A data, 354 executions were carried out in Uttar Pradesh since Independence, followed by 90 in Haryana, 73 in Madhya Pradesh, 57 in Maharashtra, 36 in Karnataka, 30 in West Bengal, 27 in Andhra Pradesh, 24 in Delhi, and 10 in Punjab.

Eight deaths by execution were recorded in Rajasthan, five each in Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir, and one in Goa, it added.

Executive Director of Project 39A Anup Surendranath said the figures gathered by them are based on records shared by states under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, while the actual number could be much higher.

“Collecting data on executions is difficult as there are no proper records maintained by the government. Our data is based on information procured through RTIs and the actual number could be in thousands but we do not have any record for that,” he said.

He said the evidence of this mismatch between the records that governments have and the actual numbers lies in a 1967 Law Commission of India report on the death penalty.

“That report recorded we had executed nearly 1,500 people by then but as you can see now, governments seem to have a record of only about 720 executions. It shows how callous we can be with the state taking human life,” added the Executive Director of Project 39A.

In February 2013, Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged.

In 2004, rape convict Dhananjoy Chatterjee was executed after a period of about 7 years since the last execution.

After 2004, India had an unofficial moratorium in executions for eight years, until Kasab was executed in November 2012, according to the Law Commission.

In its 2015 report, the Law Commission concluded that the death penalty does not serve the penological goal of deterrence any more than life imprisonment.

“Further, life imprisonment under Indian law means imprisonment for the whole of life subject to just remissions which, in many states in cases of serious crimes, are granted only after many years of imprisonment which range from 30-60 years,” it stated.

“Retribution has an important role to play in punishment. However, it cannot be reduced to vengeance. The notion of ‘an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ has no place in our constitutionally mediated criminal justice system. Capital punishment fails to achieve any constitutionally valid penological goals,” the commission said.

Based on its conclusion, the Commission had recommended that measures which include provisions for police reforms, witness protection scheme and victim compensation scheme should be taken up expeditiously by the government.

“Although there is no valid penological justification for treating terrorism differently from other crimes, concern is often raised that abolition of death penalty for terrorism related offences and waging war, will affect national security,” the commission said.

“However, given the concerns raised by the law makers, the commission does not see any reason to wait any longer to take the first step towards abolition of the death penalty for all offences other than terrorism related offences,” it stated.

“The Commission accordingly recommends that the death penalty be abolished for all crimes other than terrorism related offences and waging war,” it added.

Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31), convicted for the 2012 gang rape and murder of the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern, who later came to be known as ‘Nirbhaya’, were hanged at 5.30 am inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

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[todaybharatnews]

via Today Bharat nbsp; It has been around one and a half years since the trial began in the Vakapalli gangrape case mdash; where 11 Adivasi women were gangraped in 2007 mdash; at a special court in Visakhapatnam, but the Andhra Pradesh police seem to be stalling the probe. Despite repeated requests by the court, the authorities have failed to produce key documents claiming that they are 'untraceable'. On August 20, 2007, 11 Adivasi women, belonging to Kondh tribe of Vakapalli hamlet in the Nurmati panchayat of Visakhapatnam's Agency area, were allegedly gang-raped, at gunpoint, by the Greyhounds personnel, an elite anti-Naxal force. It was only in August 2018 that the trial even began, as the survivors had alleged that a massive cover-up was carried out by the police. After years of running from pillar to post, it was the Supreme Court which intervened in September 2017 and issued orders to begin the trial. Even before the trial began, two of the 11 rape survivors had died. Speaking to TNM, Special Public Prosecutor Sunkara Rajendra Prasad, said that despite the court asking the police to submit the duty roster and armoury general diary from the date of the crime, investigation officials have been asking for more time during each hearing. "They filed a memo that they have not traced the documents and they do not have any record of the destruction of these documents. We have been asking for the documents for the last three months. Finally, it seems they have admitted that they are not in a position to produce the documents at all," he said. As per procedure, when the police department destroys an old register after the passage of a stipulated time period, this must be noted in a 'Destruction Register.rsquo; However, the police have failed to even produce such a document showing that the old records had been destroyed. "We have to see what the next step we can take legally is. We have to check the police's claim on whether the documents were really untraced or if they were intentionally suppressed," Rajendra Prasad said. Asked about what recourse was possible, he added, "We have to pursue other records and collect evidence to establish that they visited the village on that particular day." A long delay The trial itself, which is ongoing with the 11th Additional District Sessions Judge-cum-special Court under the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Visakhapatnam, comes after a long delay. In 2007, the Adivasi women from Vakapalli alleged that Greyhounds personnel entered their village to conduct routine anti-Maoist combing operations. Seeing that the men in the area had gone to work, they allegedly raped the women in their homes and in the fields. Activists from several groups like the Human Rights Forum, Progressive Organisation for Women, and Civil Liberties Committee have alleged that since then, the government machinery has worked to defend the accused personnel. A criminal case was first registered with the Paderu police, under Section 376 (2) (Rape by police officer) of the IPC and the relevant sections of the SC amp; ST (POA) Act. With investigation progressing slowly, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had put the Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) in charge of the case. Activists say that there were several lapses here as medical examinations were delayed and the women were questioned instead of the accused, before a final report was filed that no incident of rape had happened. Initially in 2007, even prior to the registration of the crime, the then DGP MA Basith had claimed that the allegations were a 'Maoist ploy' to stop combing operations in the area, while then Home Minister K Jana Reddy also feigned ignorance on the matter. Referring to this, Prasad says, "If they issued statements like that even before the crime was registered, how will the systems subordinate to them, work?" "Subsequently, the police closed the case as well. it was the influence of the court that the trial is going on now," he added. TNM has reached out to senior police officials for a comment. In 2008, the women challenged the CB-CID's report with a local magistrate, following which the case moved to the High Court again. In 2012, it moved to the Supreme Court, which finally paved the way for the trial to begin, six years late in 2018. The next hearing of the case will be held on February 14.

[gethealthy18-blog]

Move Over Trump! Did You Know That These Things Were Actually Said By Real Politicians In India?

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/move-over-trump-did-you-know-that-these-things-were-actually-said-by-real-politicians-in-india/

Move Over Trump! Did You Know That These Things Were Actually Said By Real Politicians In India?

Chaitra Krishnan May 31, 2019

Politicians are the leaders that we choose to govern us, but sometimes they outrightly prove that they aren’t worthy of holding that power. Corruption, dirty political games, and never fulfilling promises are what a majority of the politicians today stand for and we are all weary of this fact, aren’t we? However, even some of the most educated lot among them have made shocking remarks in their speeches that we can never forget. Donald Trump is considered to be the king of such remarks and he not only “bestows” such comments on the public through his speeches but he also uses his social media accounts to do that! Nonetheless, even he might cringe at some of the remarks made by our very own Indian politicians (yes, that is the height of horror).

Well, some of the politicians who say totally unacceptable things do apologize once the media stirs it up. But there are some others who are gutsy enough to just let it be and face the public without even a bit of shame. So, before you feel proud about any of these politicians and think about voting for them the next time, take a look at these instances when they‘ve put their foot in their mouth. We won’t judge you if you laughed after reading them!

Moon Moon Sen

“They gave me my bed tea very late so I woke up very late. What can I say? I really don’t know”

aajtak / Instagram

When the workers of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Trinamool Congress (TNC) ended up in a clash that forced the police to resort to baton charge on the crowd, this was the response of Moon Moon Sen. The incident took place in Asansol, West Bengal which was the constituency where Sen was representing TNC for the Lok Sabha elections this time. We feel sorry for the people of Asansol who voted for her.

“Virgin as per the dictionary means unmarried and pure girl”- Mangal Pandey

When questions were raised regarding a form that was issued by Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in which the options given to disclose the applicant‘s marital status included “virgin,” the Health Minister of Bihar himself came to their rescue. He said that the institute did “nothing wrong” when they asked the applicants about their virginity. He also added that the word isn’t objectionable. Well, it isn’t objectionable as long as you know how to use it!

Mulayam Singh Yadav

“Boys will be boys, they commit mistakes”

mrsonuyadav / Instagram

Samajwadi Party head, Mulayam Singh Yadav made this shocking comment in support of three men who were convicted in a gang rape case in Uttar Pradesh. According to him, girls get friendly with boys and when they have issues between them, the former declares it as rape.

This is not the first time that Yadav has made such an insensitive and misogynistic comment. In the year 2015, he had told that the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh is much better when compared to all the other states, and that the gang rape cases are actually just one person’s crime to which his family or acquaintances get pulled into. Well, he should probably trade lives with the rape victim’s father.

Tarun Vijay

“We have black people all around us “

prabhasakshi / Instagram

Tarun Vijay who was a BJP Rajya Sabha member, made this extremely racist comment back in 2017 referring to South Indians. He was then the president of the India-Africa Parliamentary Friendship Group and was talking in an Al Jazeera show about the racist attacks in India that happened during the time.

“If we were racist, why would we have all the entire South (India) which is… you know Tamil Nadu, you know Karnataka and Andhra… why do we live with them? We have black people all around us,” he said in response to a Bengaluru-based photographer when the photographer said that he found Indians racist.

Narendra Modi

“Boldly saying that she has zero tolerance towards terrorism”, “despite being a woman”

narendramodi / Instagram

Our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi ignited a controversy in 2015 with his sexist comment “congratulating” Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina. Despite being from a country that cherishes the bravery of women like Rani Lakshmi Bai and many other bold women leaders, Modi went on to allude that women aren’t brave enough. Well, this is just sad. He probably forgot that there are women in the army and police forces of many countries including the one that he is governing.

Satyapal Singh

“Darwin’s Theory is wrong“

galgalianil / Instagram

Yes, he’s talking about Charles Darwin who plays a very important role in everything we know about evolution. Singh who was the Minister of State for Human Resource Development probably didn’t hear himself when he said that nobody “saw an ape turning into a man.” Higher education is one among the responsibilities of the post that he held. (tears)

If you are interested in reading such sexist/racist/misogynist/ irrational remarks, you’re never going to get disappointed in this country. With more and more politicians churning out comments that are nothing but painfully funny, we can’t stop but worry about the future of our nation (facepalm). What do you think was the most hilarious comment made by an Indian politician? Share with us in the comments section below.

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Chaitra Krishnan

Source: https://www.stylecraze.com/trending/things-that-were-said-by-real-politicians/

[thehushpost]

6 months after she was allegedly gang-raped, Andhra woman wakes up to lodge an FIR

6 months after she was allegedly gang-raped, Andhra woman wakes up to lodge an FIR

The 23-year-old woman has alleged that she came to know that she was sexually exploited when she regained consciousness hours later

The Hush Post: Six months later when she was allegedly gang-raped by four unidentified men, a woman from Andhra Pradesh has now woken up to get a rape case registered in this regard.

The alleged victim is a 23-year-old woman from Andhra Pradesh and the alleged rape…

[optimisticprincepainter]

As many as five lawmakers from Odisha including two ministers have cases pertaining to crimes against women, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-profit election watchdog, report released.  Among the five, four are from the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and one is from Independent party. While the BJD has 118 MLAs in the 147-member Assembly, the Congress and the BJP have 15 and 10 legislators respectively. Bijay Kumar Mohanty (MLA of Bhubaneswar Central), Samir Ranjan Dash (MLA of Nimapara in Puri), Nrusingha Charan Sahoo (MLA of Parjanga in Dhenkanal), Pratap Jena (MLA of Mahanga in Cuttack) and Sanatan Mahakud (MLA of Champua in Keonjhar district) are facing charges of crime against women, the ADR report revealed. The report assumes significance as politicians in the country are facing criticism for increasing incidents of rapes of minors especially after an 8-year-old girl was gang-raped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district. Odisha has five MLAs who have declared cases of crime against women same as Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra has the highest number of MPs and MLAs (12) followed by West Bengal (11). The Delhi-based think-tank further stated that as many as 37 cases of crime against women were lodged against five Odisha lawmakers. Nrusingha Charan Sahu, Minister of state for commerce and transport and Pratap Jena, who holds two important portfolios such as Law and Health and Family Welfare, have charges related to assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty (IPC Section – 354) among others, the report said. Charges related to word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman (IPC Section – 509), charges related obscene acts and songs (IPC Section -294) were framed against Bhubaneswar (Central) MLA Mohanty. Mahakud, the richest MLA in the State, is booked under many such cases like obscene acts and assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, it added. So far, none of the five has been convicted. The report is based on an analysis of 4,845 out of 4,896 election affidavits of current MPs and MLAs. This includes 768 out of 776 affidavits of MPs and 4,077 out of 4,120 MLAs across the country. With regard to the number of such candidates given election tickets by parties, Maharashtra tops the chart with 65, followed by Bihar with 62 and West Bengal with 52 candidates. Among the political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has the highest number of MPs/MLAs – 12, followed by the Shiv Sena with seven and the Trinamool Congress with six MPs/MLAs who have declared cases related to crimes against women. As many as 47 candidates with declared cases related to crimes against women were given tickets by the BJP. The second highest number of candidates – 35 – who had declared cases related to crimes against women were given tickets by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), followed by 24 candidates from the Congress. The ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) demanded that candidates with criminal background should be debarred from contesting elections, political parties should disclose criteria for selecting candidates and that cases pending against MPs and MLAs should be fast-tracked.  The Odisha Sun Times Bureau : 19th. Apr,18

GREAT SAHAME AS FIVE MLA LAW MAKERS OF ODISHA INCLUDING TWO MINISTERS HAVE CASES PERTAINING TO CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN : As many as five lawmakers from Odisha including two ministers have cases pertaining to crimes against women, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a non-profit election watchdog, report released. 

[vsplusonline]

A New Direction

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/a-new-direction/

A New Direction

On February 24, Chittoor’s first additional district judge, M. Venkata Harinath, awarded the death sentence to Mohammed Rafi, 27, for the rape and murder of a five-year-old girl at Angallu village, near Madanapalle, on November 7 last year. A 100 member police team tracked down and arrested Rafi 10 days after the crime, while he was trying to escape to Chhattisgarh. The charge-sheet was filed 17 days after the arrest, and the trial completed 90 days after that .

Keen to broadcast his government’s steps to speed up judicial closure of crimes against women, Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy says, It has taken eight years to punish the offenders in the Nirbhaya case, but under the Andhra Pradesh Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2019, offenders will be punished in less than a month. To be sure, there is a need for swift action in such cases, as proved by the overjoyed public reaction to the encounter killing of the four accused of the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian on November 27 last year in Hyderabad.

To this end, the state administration has earmarked 18 police stations, one in each police unit, to exclusively investigate heinous crimes and crimes against women and children. These stations have adequate staff half of whom are women and have been incentivised with 30 per cent additional pay to ensure efficiency and timeliness. The forensic capabilities of the state have also been beefed up to provide technical support to these investigations, and one court in each district has been dedicated to fast-tracking such trials. A mobile-based app has also been launched for such crimes to be reported without delay.

This has already led to a spurt in recorded offences. Between December 13 last year when the legislation, also known as the Andhra Pradesh Disha Bill, 2019, was adopted and the end of February 2020, there has been a 39 per cent increase in reported crimes, compared to the same period in 2018-19. Charge-sheets have been filed within seven days in 53 such cases, and trials have commenced in 20. Our experience of the past two months is that both the expectation and the standards of police performance and delivery have been raised, with [the government’s initiatives] creating a holistic ecosystem that makes delivering speedy justice possible, says the state’s director general of police Gautam Sawang.

Meanwhile, the new law is awaiting the President’s assent. It provides for death sentences for the offences of rape and gang-rape, and mandates the completion of trials within 21 days. Investigations are to be completed in seven days in cases where there is conclusive evidence, with trials to be concluded in 14 working days. It also prescribes life imprisonment for other sexual offences against women and children. Those found guilty can appeal to the higher courts within 60 days after the special court pronounces the verdict, with the higher courts required to announce their final decision within 45 working days. The lawyers’ fees for victims will be paid by the government.

The state’s record when it comes to women’s safety is mixed. National Crime Records Bureau data for 2018 reveals that in state rankings of crime rates, Andhra Pradesh is 11 in recorded crimes against women, #25 in registered rapes and #30 in crimes against children. It is hoped that the new law will improve this record and that other states will also take note. The new law instills a sense of fear among anti-social elements and the stringent provisions needs to replicated, says Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, who led a team to Amaravati for a first-hand appraisal of the new measures. Delhi and Odisha are among the other states said to have shown interest.

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via Today Bharat nbsp; Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurated the first Disha Mahila Police Station in the state in Rajahmundry on Saturday. Speaking at the inaugural address, Jagan said that a total of 18 such police stations will be set up across the state by the end of the month to exclusively deal with crimes against women and children. Each police station will be headed by a DSP rank officer and have a staff of 26 to 47 police officers, Jagan said, adding that the staff will mostly comprise of female officers. The state government is implementing a series of measures under the name of Disha, as a tribute to the veterinary doctor gang-raped and murdered recently in neighbouring Telangana. Disha (name changed) was brutally raped and killed in the outskirts of Hyderabad on November 26 last year. Four suspects in the case were arrested on November 28 and killed in an alleged encounter by the Telangana police on December 6. The 18 Disha Women's Police Stations will be upgraded versions of existing women's police stations. While the present staff will continue their functions, the additional staff, headed by a DSP, will deal with crimes covered under the Disha bill, including IPC section 376 (rape and gang rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and the POCSO Act. 30 per cent special allowance has been announced for the staff of Disha police stations, apart from an investigation expenditure of Rs 1 lakh per month. According to the recently introduced law called the 'Andhra Pradesh Disha Act Criminal Law (AP Amendment) Act, 2019rsquo;, apart from special courts, police stations, additional forensic labs and a mobile app for sending SOS alerts to the police will be set up. The Disha Act mandates completion of the investigation into cases of sexual offences within 7 working days from the time of record, and the trial must be concluded within 14 working days from the date of filing the charge sheet. The appeal against the sentence passed under the new law has to be disposed of within six months. The Bill, which amend the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to enable speedy investigation and trial, and award of death penalty in cases with adequate, conclusive evidence has been passed by the Assembly, but is awaiting Presidential assent. ldquo;Since law and order is not just a state subject, the Act is in the Concurrent List. We have done our part and are now waiting for the presidential assent. The Home Ministry has to move the file. We are hoping it is approved, although it is not entirely in our hands,rdquo; Jagan said. ldquo;We are doing whatever is in our hands at state level,rdquo; Jagan said, adding that funds have been sanctioned for setting up 13 special courts across the 13 districts of the state. ldquo;Rs 26 crore have been sanctioned for setting up special courts. Rs 1.65 crore has been sanctioned for arranging special public prosecutors for these courts. Once the High Court approves, the courts will be set up,rdquo; he said. Jagan also added that Rs 31 crore have been allocated for setting up additional forensic labs in Tirupati and Visakhapatnam, apart from the one in Mangalagiri, as the existing staff and equipment were found inadequate. The lsquo;Disha Forensic Science Labsrsquo; are set to have lsquo;advanced DNA equipment, serology/biology equipment and cyber forensic toolsrsquo;, according to an official statement. ldquo;These are things that could be done at the state level in preparation for the act to be approved,rdquo; he said, adding that all of these mechanisms would be fully implemented within 3 to 4 months. An amount of Rs 21 Crore has been allocated for the lsquo;Disha Women Police Stationsrsquo;. The police stations will reportedly be equipped with facilities like creche, rooms for taking care of babies, waiting halls and counselling rooms. An exclusive control room in the name of Disha call centre will also be set up to handle distress calls, apart from the Disha app, which includes an SOS alert feature. The app will also send the location of the caller, and the audio and video of 10 seconds of the call duration to the control room for assessing the situation. Rs 7.26 crore have been allocated for the maintenance of the app and call centre. The Disha app will send the location Speaking about the Disha incident, Jagan said, ldquo;When such incidents occur, everyone feels that therersquo;s nothing wrong in giving the harshest punishment to the culprits. In films, when such crimes happen and the hero shoots the culprits, we applaud. Unfortunately, in the case of law and order, the laws donrsquo;t give us that freedom.rdquo; After the alleged encounter of the four suspects in Disharsquo;s case, the death penalty was given in two more rape-murder cases in Telangana. On January 30, a special fast track court in Adilabad gave the death sentence to the three accused in the gruesom case of gangrape and murder of 30-year-old Samata (name changed). The judgment came two months after the incident. On February 6, a special court in Nalgonda sentenced to death Marri Srinivas Reddy, who was found guilty in the Hajipur triple rape and murder case.