Electoral bonds 'world's biggest scam', ED 'extortion directorate': Rahul Gandhi
Hyderabad (PTI): In a scathing attack against the BJP-led Central government, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the electoral bonds scheme was the "world's biggest scam" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has "his people" in the election commission.
The Supreme Court had struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional in a ruling in February.
Addressing a rally on the outskirts of Hyderabad a day after the release of Congress's manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, he termed the Enforcement Directorate as "Extortion Directorate".
"What earlier used to be called as Enforcement Directorate, has become Extortion Directorate today. BJP is running the world's biggest washing machine," he said.
"The country's most corrupt ministers and most corrupt leaders stand with Narendra Modi ji. Narendra Modi ji has his people in the Election Commission also," he said.
The list of electoral bonds scheme shows that a company is threatened by the CBI and then the company hands over crores of rupees to the BJP. The company then gets infrastructure projects worth crores of rupees, he alleged.
The bank accounts of Congress have been frozen, but the Congress does not fear the BJP, he said.
Congress has defeated BJP's "B team" (BRS) in Telangana and it is now going to defeat the "A team" in Delhi (BJP) in the coming elections, he said.
Further charging that the BJP wants to scrap the Constitution, he claimed that the Congress would never let that happen.
"This fight is for safeguarding the Constitution and democracy. Narendra Modi ji works for three-four per cent of people. He has the media, money, intelligence agencies, CBI , ED and everything. We have truth and people's love. Truth and people achieve victory," he said.
Attacking the previous BRS regime in Telangana over the phone-tapping allegations, Gandhi alleged that Modi and BJP is doing what the previous Chief Minister of Telangana (K Chandrasekhar Rao) did. Rao had put the police and other agencies to wrong use, he alleged.
Phones of thousands of people were tapped and the government data and computers were thrown into a river following the change of government, he said.
Gandhi also claimed that 30 farmers commit suicide in the country every day. He alleged that Modi has waived loans to the tune of Rs 16 lakh crore of the rich, while not even one rupee of farmers' loans was waived.
He also alleged that after Modi's government assumed office, crores of people became poor in the country.
Rahul Gandhi, who observed that the Congress government is implementing the promises made to people of Telangana before recent assembly polls, said he would rush to help the people of the state whenever they seek his help.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, his cabinet colleagues and other party leaders attended the rally.
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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.
