Verma Commission Report goofed up by government

Has Govt of India changed Verma Commission Report? Yes, Indeed! But how? When we look into the details we find huge ramification by the changing words here & there!

At the onset let me put some disclaimers:

1.        I don't oppose death penalty in heinous crimes such as rape.
2.        I'm not against conviction in Marital rape or rape by armed forces.
3.        I am not a huge fan of the Verma commission sentences, on the contrary I think some of them are very lenient. But after reviewing govt of India ordinance, I've found that many sentences have been deliberately diluted by the government.

Lets start reviewing IPC (Indian Penal Code) changes proposed by Verma Commission:

1. Section 100 of the Code shall be modified as follows:

When the right of private defence of the body extends to causing death:

The right of private defence of the body extends, under the restrictions mentioned in the last preceding section, to the voluntary causing of death or of any other harm to the
assailant, if the offence which occasions the exercise of the right be of any of the descriptions hereinafter enumerated, namely:-
Firstly, Such an assault as may reasonably cause the apprehension that death will otherwise be the consequence of such assault;
Secondly, Such an assault as may reasonably cause the apprehension that grievous hurt will otherwise be the consequence of such assault, which shall include a crime punishable under Section 326A of the Indian Penal Code.
Thirdly, An assault with the intention of committing rape
Fourthly, An assault with the intention of gratifying unnatural lust;
Fifthly, An assault with the intention of kidnapping or abducting;
Sixthly, An assault with the intention of wrongfully confining a person, under circumstances which may reasonably cause him to apprehend that he will be unable to have recourse to the public authorities for his release. 

Ordinance proposes "In section 100, in the clause Secondly, after the words "grievous hurt", the words "including the offence of grievous hurt punishable under section 326A" shall be inserted." 

So govt is retaining old section, instead of modifying , note how cleverly words "an reasonable cause the apprehension" gets lost in clause 2.
3rd, 4th, 5th & 6th clause got lost all together. 

2. Addition of Section 166A:

After section 166 of the Indian Penal Code the following section shall be inserted,

namely:—

166A. Public Servant knowingly disobeying direction of law

Verma Committee recommends "shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years rigorous imprisonment and fine."

Ordinance proposes "shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or with both"

Why this lenience?

3. After section 326 of the Penal Code, the following sections shall be inserted,

namely:—

‘326A. Voluntarily causing grievous hurt through use of acid etc:

Verma Committee recommends "rigorous imprisonment" which shall not be less than ten years but which may extend to life, and shall also be liable to pay compensation to the victim, adequate to meet at least the medical expenses incurred by the victim.

Government's ordinance calls same prison terms but conveniently forgets the word "Rigorous" and omits the explanation given by Verma commission. Wonder why? Government also restricts fine upto rupees 10 lakh and drops "at least the medical expenses", wonder why? Is face-reconstruction surgeries & medication & rehabilitation possible is that amount, in today's India?

Same dilution as above in fine is also noted in govt. ordinance in respect to, newly inserted IPC section 326B. Voluntarily throwing or attempting to throw acid etc.  Here even minimum fine amount is not even mentioned. However explanations are included in this section.
One strange clause inserted is "intention of .... maiming or disfigurement or disability or grievous hurt", and we thought "grievous hurt" is covered 326A???!!!!

4. Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code shall be replaced by the following:
 And Verma Committee detailed a refurbished section, with two subsection, i) carrying 5 years prison, ii) carrying 1 years prison but govt kept the old law by modifying:

 In section 354 of the Penal Code, for the words "shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both", the words "shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term of one year which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to fine" shall be substituted.

Once again govt choice "ambiguity" over "fine law making".
5 & 6. Verma committee recommendations on voyeurism, stalking & Trafficking are done exactly same.  
7. Section 375 shall be replaced as suggested below:
Section 375: Rape 

Here huge changes has taken place making the law ambiguous, easy to misconstrue! Firstly this section is no longer go under the title Rape but "Sexual assault", throughout government avoids the term "rape" or "intercourse" however mentions "consent" in many a places! Who gives Consent to Sexual Assault! How ridiculous!

• Verma commission stated "A man is said to commit rape if he—
  (a) penetrates the vagina or anus or urethra of a person with—
  (i) any part of his body including his penis or,
  (ii) any object manipulated by him, except where such penetration is carried out for
  proper hygienic or medical purposes; or,
  (b) manipulates any part of the body of a person so as to cause penetration of the vagina
  or anus or urethra of another person; or,
  (c) engages in “cunnilingus” or “fellatio”,
  under the circumstances falling under any of the following six descriptions:—"
• Government of India ordinance now defines sexual assault as "A person is said to commit "sexual assault" if that person--
  (a) penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth urethra or anus of another person or makes the person to do so with him or any other person; or
  (b) inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of another person or makes the person to do so with him or any other person; or
  (c) manipulates any part of the body of another person so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any part of body of such person or makes the person to do so with him or any other person; or
  (d) applies his mouth to the penis, vagina, anus, urethra of another person or makes such person to do so with him or any other person;
  (e) touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the person or makes the person touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of that person or any other person,
  except where such penetration or touching is carried out for proper hygienic or medical purposes under the circumstances falling under any of the following seven descriptions:--"

•  Consent given "impliedly" as mentioned in sixth case of Verma commission dropped.

 Marital rape defining explanation of Verma commission is dropped.

" Consent will not be presumed in the event of an existing marital relationship between the complainant and the accused."

 In fact, to guard & perhaps to not to provoke some pervert vote-bank created a banal, foolish, ambiguous exception:

"Exception.-- Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being under sixteen years of age, is not sexual assault."

 I will give you 3 reason why this is ambiguous, eminent legal experts can give more:

1. Minimum Legal age for marriage of women in India is 18 not 16.
2. In this same section the ordinance goes on to say : "With or without the other person's consent, when such other person is under eighteen years of age." so even government agreed that it is 18, then why reinvent 16 from old IPC clauses? 

1. Later in CrPC amendments same government goes on to say "198B. No Court shall take cognizance of an offence under section 376B of the Indian Penal Code where the persons are in a marital relationship, except upon prima facie satisfaction of the facts which constitute the offence upon a complaint having been filed or made by the wife against the accused husband."

          So Criminal Procedure says Marital rape punishment of IPC 376B is valid, but IPC 375 calls it not   a rape, oh sorry, I should say "Sexual Assault"


Now which section should police file a case on Section 354 for sexual assault, or will it be section 375! 
I need to a do a part II on this topic to finish many more ambiguity fostered by this government.

Law Minister Salman Khurshid lied about his & his spouse's assets

It saddens me to admit as an proud Indian, but its true Yes, Government of India's Law Minister Salman Khurshid lied about his spouse's assets. According to Indian election laws, it is mandatory for candidates running in election, so Mr. Salman Khurshid duly filed his and his family asset details! Here is the link of his disclosure put up by association for democratic reforms:

So on 2009, the minister & his family was found to be doing well! Good for them, Mrs. Khurshid did not own any house on her name, but Mr. Khurshid stated she owned:
Agricultural Land

           45,00,000  45 Lacs+
           JOINT WITH CHILDREN - AREA : 90 NALI 17.5 MUTTHI LAND
Non Agricultural Land
          10,20,000  10 Lacs+
         JOINT WITH CHILDREN - AREA :11.90 ACRES LAND

For those who don't know what a lac is, it is 100 thousand, a crore is 10 million.

Fine, still no problem! Doing well and owning property is not a crime, but when in 2011 the Union Ministers were told to give current assets, which started showing first chinks in his armor! His assets found to be skyrocketed from 26 million to 62 million INR! http://myneta.info/unionministers2011/candidate.php?candidate_id=29 gives us the details:

He & his family had Rs.1,44,42,965 (14 million) in cash only. He had 7 million himself, when his total salary for that period of 2 years was less than 2 million! So how can have that much of cash??? Since this was in public domain and I am ordinary citizen, I hoped that media will take up this matter. Somehow Minister managed stay out of trouble!

In 2011, Mrs. Khurshid is found to have following lands & buildings:

Agricultural Land

AGRI LAND VILL.SATOLI, DISTT. NAINITAL PROP. IN THE NAME OF MY WIFE AND THREE DEPENDENT SONS
Total Area 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
47,00,000  47 Lacs+ 

AGRI LAND VILL.ROHILAPUR, DISTT. GAUTAM BUDH NAGAR PROP. IN THE NAME OF MY WIFE AND THREE DEPENDENT SONS
Total Area 31 BIGHA 15 BISWA 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
1,30,81,000  1 Crore+ 

AGRI LAND VILL. DHARAMPUR, DISTT. FARRUKHABAD PROP. IN THE NAME OF MY WIFE AND THREE DEPENDENT SONS
Total Area 60 BIGHAS 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
15,00,000  15 Lacs+


No detail was given for purchase date, we will find that this was not full disclosure; which will be a criminal case! Since no declaration was given about the income of his family, I thought may be someone is doing exceedingly well in his household.

2 Building Mrs. Khurshid received gift from her father seemed to be shown of highly low value:

APARTMENT IN GOA, H.NO.129/4 BERNARD SIMAO RESORTS, BEHIND HOTEL CALANGUDE GOA, THESE APARMENTS HAVE BEEN PURCHASED BY FATHER AND GIFTED TO HER
Total Area 110 SQ.MT. 
Built Up Area 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
4,29,200  4 Lacs+ 

APARTMENT IN GOA, H.NO.129/4 BERNARD SIMAO RESORTS, BEHIND HOTEL CALANGUDE GOA, THESE APARMENTS HAVE BEEN PURCHASED BY FATHER AND GIFTED TO HER
Total Area 102 SQ.MT. 
Built Up Area 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
3,94,400  3 Lacs+ 

You can't even rent those premises for 6 months at the price mentioned, So again Mr. Khurshid deliberately understated this data also! These disclosures are proper legal disclosure and deliberate falsification is a crime, as Law Minister of India Mr. Khurshid is well aware of that fact. Still it looks like allegation not evidence, Right! Then came the final revelation is 2012, when Mrs. Khurshid came up to fight local assembly elections.

Here is the clinching  evidence http://myneta.info/up2012/candidate.php?candidate_id=1114 Mrs. Khurshid's disclosure

She states that same family asset is 48 million and not 62 million, poor Salman, surely in 2012 your bad times  has come up; But Devil lies in details:

This time election commission had asked to furnish income also and Mrs. Khurshid complies ( and I copy & paste ):
Person                      Financial Year      Taxable Income

Mrs. Khurshid 2010 - 2011 Rs 3,07,102 ~ 3 Lacs+
Mr. Khurshid 2010 - 2011         Rs 8,61,115 ~ 8 Lacs+
dependent1 2010 - 2011         Rs 1,48,970 ~ 1 Lacs+
dependent2 2010 - 2011         Rs 1,51,890 ~ 1 Lacs+


OMG! No Bill gates or Donald Trump or Ambani scale earning? Then how could he or Mrs. Khurshid purchase all these land!

Those huge cash given in 2011 are now back in the banks! Good good, has Mr. Khurshid shown the interest of the bank accounts inn the taxable income from Rs. 12.5 million (1,25 crore) in taxable income??? Not clear, facts show very less chance of being so! At least 5 lacs of bank interest is not shown in taxable income! 

Remember those buildings Mrs. Khurshid received from her father as gift, they are shown at 15 lacs and not 4 lacs, still nowhere near the real value of a beachfront property at Calanghute, Goa. She further states these were not gifts but "Inherited". Another discrepancy!


RESIDENT FLAT A BERNARD SIMON COMPLEX CANDILIM GOA 
Total Area 
Built Up Area 2000Sq.fit 
Whether Inherited Y 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
15,00,000  15 Lacs+ 

RES FLAT B BERNARD SIMON COMPLEX CANDOLIM GOA 
Total Area 
Built Up Area 2000Sq.ft. 
Whether Inherited Y 
Purchase Date 0000-00-00 
Purchase Cost 0.00 
Development Cost 0.00
15,00,000  15 Lacs+


She further states, she owns a residential building since 2002, which Salman had never mentioned in his previous disclosures, neither in 2009 nor in 2011 ( Once maybe a mistake, twice proves a pattern for a crime), how can you forget to mention something you own for nearly a decade,Mr. Khurshid, when you don't really own that much.:)

 VILL.SATOLI TEH DIST NENITAL 
Total Area 
Built Up Area 4Nali 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2002-11-15 
Purchase Cost 1400000.00 
Development Cost 0.00
16,50,000  16 Lacs+ 

Louise Khurshid also mentioned that she had 6 plots (huge ones) not 3 as Salman khurshid had stated, and the purchase dates show that she had most of them before 2009 (Marked in Red) also!


JAFAR,KHURSHID ,SAMAR AND UMAR VILL.STORI DIST NENITAL 
Total Area 90Nali 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2002-03-31 
Purchase Cost 814765.00 
Development Cost 0.00
58,56,000  58 Lacs+ 

JAFAR,KHURSHID ,SAMAR AND UMAR VILL.STORI DIST NENITAL 
Total Area 19Nali 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2001-03-30 
Purchase Cost 497000.00 
Development Cost 0.00
14,96,000  14 Lacs+ 

JAFAR,SAMAR,UMAR VILL.DHARMPUR BLOOK KAYMGANJ JANPAD FARRUKHABAD 
Total Area 32Bidha 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2010-03-09 
Purchase Cost 820500.00 
Development Cost 0.00
12,00,000  12 Lacs+ 

JAFAR,SAMAR,UMAR VILL.DHARMPUR BLOOK KAYMGANJ JANPAD FARRUKHABAD 
Total Area 31Bidha 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2010-03-09 
Purchase Cost 775000.00 
Development Cost 0.00
8,50,000  8 Lacs+ 

JAFAR,SAMAR,UMAR VILL.GANIPUR JOGPUR BLOCK NVABGAN JANPAD FARRUKHABAD 
Total Area 31Bidha 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2010-03-09 
Purchase Cost 775000.00 
Development Cost 0.00
8,50,000  8 Lacs+ 

JAFAR,SAMAR,UMAR VILL.ROHILA DIST GOTAM BUDDHNAGAR 
Total Area 30Bidha 
Whether Inherited N 
Purchase Date 2006-01-01 
Purchase Cost 300000.00 
Development Cost 0.00
1,20,00,000  1 Crore+ 

That means Lousie Khurshid bought land worth 28 lakh in just one day, 9th March 2010! Now her annual income is just 3 lakh, total family income is just 13 lakh a year! So what was the source of this money. Please explain!

If it is just astute financial planning, we demand to know the details.
They claim to be social workers and devoted their life well-being of poor people, when we in India, have highest number of malnutrition cases, poverty is increasing, global economy in turmoil, he himself & his family goes scouting for agricultural land, which are close to F1 racing circuit at Goutam Buddhanagar & owning more 40% of a cold storage ( Value shown Rs. 0) ! On some searching on google, I find that kaimganj area has just 4 cold storage with combined capacity of 2545 mt., the value can't be 0.

So some pointed questions for them.

1. Name the sources of Income for Mrs. Louise Khurshid's one day land buying spree on 9th march 2010 amounting over 28 lacs?

2. Name the sources of Income for purchase of following cars ( as they are shown as dependent and having taxable income of 1 lakh each and they also don't have car loans)?

VERNA  7,50,052

MARUTI SWIFT  5,47,766

3. Why are they buying agricultural land and showing no development cost, are they doing real farming? if so, how many people they employ? Why their salary will not go under development cost?

4. What are their agricultural income from farming & cold storage? Why are they not showing them in any asset & income disclosures?

Nation needs answers and accountability, Mr. Law Minister! Shape up or Ship out! 

That's the call from me as one of 

common Indians, The Mango People! 

10 Things Everyone Should Know about Quebec's Student Movement | Occupy.com

10 Things Everyone Should Know about Quebec's Student Movement | Occupy.com

Why students be debt-ridden by Greedy Bankers. Bankers enslaving the future.

2012 Indian Monsoon is faltering

The Great Indian Monsoon is faltering, it has failed in the very fast fortnight of June, 2012  and shows no sign of picking up.

One may say, what's the big deal? Well, India, which hosts 1/6th of humanity, has 66% of population directly involved into monsoon-fed agriculture, which means 1 out of every 9 human being on the planet depends on it! Too much rainfall would flood the plains, too little will create heatwave and of course, on long-term (say a  couple of weeks to months) cause severe drought.

Indian Met Office has become very pro-active in releasing data regarding monsoon rainfall now. As can be seen from http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/rfmaps/sddaily.htm

But this is just number crunching, and might not interest all. IMD also creates a Map of the rainfall data. Since the image file changes from time to time, I have saved the rainfall map of 1 june to 13 June. IMD maps excess that usual in blue, Normal in green, red as deficient, yellow as scantly rain.

Now you get the picture, Excess rainfall is only remote islands of Andaman & Nicobar, Normal rain is in Himalayan & North-east states. Apart from North-east other places are not known for cultivation, none of them are hub of agricultural employment.

In India, we have a culture of gentlemanly lethargy, we expect media & govt to take all action. We would take comfort that India has its own satellite to track rain, storm etc. Unfortunately for us, satellites can't create rain (though impression of clouds can be made by tweaking frequency of IR). And satellites has been reporting the truth to us, perhaps we are blind or just too naive to see realize it.

 Lets compare two satellite images of last year and this year:

Image taken on Jun 14, 2012 23:30 IST

Image taken on Jun 14, 2011 23:30 IST

Is there any human cost of a failed/delayed monsoon. Well, of course, heatwave has killed hundreds in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa & West Bengal. Imagine hundreds of normal people (not counting sick or elderly) dead due to heatstroke. Summer vacation of schools extended. Since India is in tropics without the shade and cooling of monsoon, things will only be worse.

Another side-effect of failed monsoon will be inflation, since commodity market is mostly unregulated and unorganized, hoarding and speculation will be rampant. Due to federal structure of Indian governance, a blame game would ensue between union and state governments. The food price will hit sky-high in India. That was the experience of the last drought.

Lets hope, we do better in coping with this natural calamity this time.

   

A 2G Corruption case evidence (Src: RTI)

I had read this pdf file in some blog, creating public awareness against Crony Capitalism and corruption in the highest places.

This PDF is supposedly created by Govt of India ministry officials in response of a "Right To Information" appeal by an some aware citizen of India.

This PDF contains A. Raja's letters to the Prime Minister at the time of cooking the 2G corruption.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2vhutsrU7hfMjkzOGRiYWMtZjBlOC00MGJiLWI5Y2ItNzk5NTdkMzkzYTUw

This document shows that MMS was clearly aware of TRAI's issues and was the "watchdog" in this matter.

Page 4 of the document shows MMS' letter to A. Raja (Dated 2 Nov 2007)on official capacity of Prime Minister that MMS was more aware of TRAI's issues on 2G than perhaps even Raja.

Raja's last letter of depicting the cover-up under the garb of officialese, showed that other Ministers were also in constant touch regarding #2g case, namely Mr. Pranab Mukherjee (then External Minister).

Page 17 of the page shows that MMS had acknowledged Raja's letter (Signed by the Man himself).

Why we should not prosecute the whole corrupt lot? MMS, Pranab, Chidambaram, Raja and the whole lot.

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : The glory and the blemishes of the Indian news media

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : The glory and the blemishes of the Indian news media

Brilliant piece by Dr. Amartya Sen on state of Indian news media.

Proof of Pakistan's Terror acts

As the present Government of India has turned a blind eye to terror cells and terror acts against India.
Present day city opinion is we, the Indians must act like USA and Israel to combat terror, but the fact is USA too has been doing nothing but lip-service to help India.

Remember David Coleman Headley has struck a deal with US authorities, notwithstanding prior verbal commitments to India. Let me upload the video's FBI interrogation of Rana, which clearly showed FBI even tacitly acknowledging that they knew and believed ISI was supporting LeT and other Islamic terrorist organizations.

Now that Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State is here, could we ask that Tahawwur Hussain Rana& David Coleman Headley are handed over to India for interrogation on 26/11 and other terror plots against India.

                  Part one : Rana being told his rights, what about the rights of the terror victims

Part two: These were presented as evidence against Rana

Part 3: Noticeable that few minutes were missing since the last piece, Would Homeland security care to bring these minutes.

Part 4: Rana by now clearly acting now.

Part 5

Part 6: One for the gallery by Rana

The way Rana keeps talking about ISI and terror operatives, I wonder why he does not deserve the fate of Guantanamo prisoners. Yet there was no water-boarding for him, he is seen sipping mineral water during the interrogation. Although I do not support use of torture during interrogation, this surely looks a walk in the park for Rana, he smiles at the camera at times and even heard to be sharing a joke about headley with his interrogators.

Different sets of terror victims in different places evokes different sets of response for the US Government.
I don't blame them alone; our very own ministers are so busy with making money for themselves that they can't make a stand. They have plenty of dossiers to hand over, but don't have the guts to ask for justice for the slayed countrymen whom the swore to protect & serve.