Four years of hoodwinking
It has been four years since the Narendra Modi led government assumed power in the centre. Now it is time again for them to go seeking votes again. The overall picture of unfulfilled promises is pretty grim. Hence, BJP is not in a celebratory mood over completing this milestone. Instead of bringing solace to people, this government has increased their miseries. The Prime Minister is busy travelling abroad, and addressing people through Mann Ki Baat through radio. He is occasionally in India, in these four years. There have been no exceptional achievements of this government. The acche din promise has remained a mere dream. The government had assured they would create 2 crore jobs every year if they came into power. They had assumed Minimum Support Price to farmers’ produces and check unbridled increase in prices of essential commodities. In a nutshell, they had painted beautiful dreams of amazing hues of stupendous development and assured they would bring unforeseen progress since independence, to the people of this country.
They had blamed Nehru for everything that was wrong with the country, and that they’d fix the course soon as they came to power with ‘Sab Ka Saath, sab ka Vikaas’ as the slogan. But, forget bringing country on the growth trajectory, they couldn’t fulfil even the smallest of promises. Forget 2 crore jobs, they couldn’t manage to create even 2 lakh jobs annually. Essential commodities cost a lot more than they did before. The gas cylinder that was available for Rs 390 in 2014 now costs nearly Rs 800. Though crude oil rates have come down in international market, petrol and diesel are close to Rs 100 per liter now. The poor are burdened with taxes while the corporates are enjoying freebies and tax holidays. This is the achievement of this government. Prime Minister Modi had called himself Pradhan Chaukidar and Pradhan Sevak. But right under his nose, banks have been looted by Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya to the tune of thousands of crores. The culprits managed to escape abroad too while the government stood mute. Nirav Modi had even appeared in the picture with PM Modi during his Davos visit.
Along with this, the lakhs and crores of loans raised by big corporates such as Ambani, Adani and others have been waived off. Banks are close to declaring bankruptcy. People have been pushed to the brink in the last four years. That apart, the democracy that runs this country is facing the threat. The foundation of democracy is being weakened. During his early years, Modi closed the Planning Commission, and started NITI Aayog. He is using CBI and Enforcement Directorate to suit his politics. Autonomous institutions such as CBI are being used to shut the voices of his and Amit Shah’s political opponents. One might even wonder if the duo are using even Election Commission to suit their narrative. Amit Shah as protected from being caught under Sohrabuddin encounter case in Gujarat. Death of Justice Loya is ridden with suspicions. The government has been making massive mistakes on its foreign policies.
The diplomatic formalities followed since Nehru’s time have been thrown to air. The government is dancing to the tunes of American diktats. Forget the good days, people were put to face discomforts with demonetization and thrusting of GST taxing method without any preparation whatsoever. This has dealt a severe blow to Indian economy. There have been rumours that the decision of demonetization wasn’t even made known to the RBI governor. Also some interpretation about demonetization was necessary to bring out black money, were also made. The government never gave official statement on such interpretations or about how much black money was recovered. Every field has been opened for FDI now. This has led to the closure of small and medium businesses. Amendment to labour law has led to labourers being denied their rights. Efforts have been on to close HAL and BEL by rendering them useless. Public sector undertakings and higher education institutions are under threat. JNU continues to be in the eye of controversy. To cover its lacunae Modi government is triggering off communal tensions. Innocents are being killed in the name of Gaurakshak teams working to safeguard cows. As a result of all this, BJP lost in the bypolls. The Lok Sabha elections are looming large at a distance and BJP is not confident of another astounding victory here. Though the government is trying hard to cover up for losses of four years, people have lost faith on this government.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
