India's image taking a hit as country of rapes, crimes: Bombay HC
Mumbai, April 19: Against the backdrop of the nationwide furore over the recent rape incidents, the Bombay High Court on Thursday observed sharply that India's image has "taken a beating" with an increased perception abroad that it is a "country of crimes and rapes".
A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Bharati Dangre said besides an impression that "liberal and secular people are not safe", due to the prevailing scenario, the rest of world is hesitant to engage with India on educational or cultural matters.
"Anywhere we go, we have to answer a barrage of questions... Unfortunate that today, the image is such that those living abroad feel only rapes and crimes take place in India.
"They are under the impression that liberal, open-minded and secular people can't be safe here and are bound to be attacked. The country's image is suffering due to acts of a few," the bench observed.
It said that no international body is keen to be part of "our educational-cultural projects, and even investors show initial enthusiasm but pull out later".
"No institution, including the judiciary in the country, is spared from this... We are very sorry to see this... Do we want to live in a cocoon?" the bench asked.
The court's candid observations came while hearing the petitions filed by the kin of slain rationalists -- Narendra Dabholkar on August 20, 2013 in Pune and Communist stalwart Govind Pansare on February 20, 2015 in Kolhapur -- seeking a court-monitored investigation.
Representing the CBI, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh and Maharashtra CID's senior counsel Ashok Mundargi informed the court that there appears little hope now of achieving any substantial breakthrough from further field investigations.
"Now the only hope is scientific probe and evidence from the forensic evidences call detail records," Mundargi said.
To this, the court asked how could the case be taken to its logical conclusion and whether it should be permitted to reach a dead-end when such crimes are on the rise.
The judges asked why the investigating agencies could not initiate measures to "completely strangulate" the organisational backing enjoyed by the accused instead of merely waiting for them to surrender some day.
Though not critical of the investigations, the court warned that if the two agencies failed to report any progress at the next date of hearing, it would be compelled to summon senior officials.
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IPL mega auction to be held in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on November 24, 25: BCCI
New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.
This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.
The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.
Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.
The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.
Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.
This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.
The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.
Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.
As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.
Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.
The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.
Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.
