Firing outside Salman Khan's home: 2 persons arrested from Gujarat
Mumbai/Bhuj (PTI): Two persons including a man who allegedly opened fire outside Bollywood actor Salman Khan's residence in Mumbai have been arrested from Gujarat, police said on Tuesday.
The two persons - Vicky Gupta (24) and Sagar Pal (21) - both residents of Bihar, were nabbed late Monday night from Mata No Madh village in Gujarat's Kutch district, Deputy Inspector General of Kutch-West, Mahendra Bagadiya, said.
Based on technical surveillance, joint teams of the Kutch-West and Mumbai police nabbed the duo, he said.
They were handed over to the Mumbai police as the complaint is registered there, Bagadiya said.
A preliminary probe suggested that both Pal and Gupta were hired by the gang of incarcerated gangster Lawrence Bishnoi to open fire at Khan's house, he said.
While Pal did the firing, Gupta was in touch with the gang members, Bagadiya said.
At around 5 am on Sunday, two motorcycle-borne persons fired four rounds outside 58-year-old Khan's house at the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra area of Mumbai and fled the spot.
They had rented a house for a month in Navi Mumbai's Panvel, where the actor has a farmhouse, an official said on Monday.
The police on Monday questioned three persons from Navi Mumbai, including the house owner, the previous owner of the two-wheeler used in the crime, the agent who facilitated the sale, and several others as part of the probe into the firing incident, the official said.
The motorbike was abandoned near Mount Mary Church in Mumbai, a little over a kilometre from the actor's house, the police said.
A Facebook post claiming responsibility for the firing surfaced at around 11 am on Sunday.
The IP (Internet Protocol) address of the FB post was traced to Portugal and the police were verifying it, a senior official said on Monday.
Prima facie, the shooters had conducted a recce around the Galaxy Apartment in Bandra a few days ago, he said.
Police suspect a VPN (virtual private network) was used for uploading the Facebook post, allegedly by Anmol Bishnoi, the brother of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi on Sunday, he said.
A VPN establishes a digital connection between a computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts personal data, masks IP addresses, and allows the user to sidestep website blocks and firewalls on the Internet.
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SC stays CBI probe into West Bengal govt officials' role in teacher recruitment scam
New Delhi, Apr 29: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed a Calcutta High Court order directing the CBI to probe the role of West Bengal government officials in a teacher recruitment scam. It, however, refused to stay for now the cancellation of the appointment of over 25,000 teachers and non-teaching staff.
The top court was hearing a plea by the West Bengal government against a high court order invalidating the appointment of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made by the School Service Commission (SSC) in state-run and state-aided schools.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra, however, refused to stay the high court order cancelling the appointments and said it will hear the matter on May 6.
Observing that taking away the jobs of about 25,000 persons is a serious matter, the top court asked if it is possible to segregate the valid and invalid appointments on the basis of the material available and who the beneficiaries of the fraud are.
"We will stay the direction which says the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will undertake further investigation against officials in the state government," the bench said.
Calcutta High Court had said the CBI would undertake further investigations with regard to the persons in the state government involved in approving the creation of supernumerary posts to accommodate illegal appointments.
If necessary, the CBI will undertake custodial interrogation of such persons involved, it had said.
Challenging the order, the state government, in its appeal filed before the top court, said the high court cancelled the appointments "arbitrarily".
"The high court failed to appreciate the ramification of cancelling the entire selection process, leading to straightaway termination of teaching and non-teaching staff from service with immediate effect, without giving sufficient time to the petitioner state to deal with such an exigency, rendering the education system at a standstill," the plea said.
Calcutta High Court last week declared the selection process as "null and void" and directed the CBI to probe the appointment process. It also asked the central agency to submit a report within three months.
"All appointments granted in the selection processes involved being violative of articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, are declared null and void and cancelled," the high court said in its April 22 order.
The high court said those appointed outside the officially available 24,640 vacancies, appointed after the expiry of the official date of recruitment, and those who submitted blank Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) sheets but obtained appointment to return all remunerations and benefits received by them with 12 per cent interest per annum within four weeks.
Observing that it had given "anxious consideration to the passionate plea" that persons who obtained the appointments legally would be prejudiced if the entire selection process was cancelled, the bench said it hardly had any choice left.
The high court held that all appointments involved were violative of articles 14 (equality before law) and 16 (prohibiting discrimination in employment in any government office) of the Constitution.
"It is shocking that, at the level of the cabinet of the state government, a decision is taken to protect employment obtained fraudulently in a selection process conducted by SSC for state-funded schools, knowing fully well that, such appointments were obtained beyond the panel and after expiry of the panel, at the bare minimum," the high court had said.
It said unless "there is a deep connection between the persons perpetuating the fraud and the beneficiaries" with persons involved in the decision-making process, such action to create supernumerary posts to protect illegal appointments is "inconceivable".
The division bench had also rejected a prayer by some appellants, including the SSC, for a stay on the order and asked the commission to initiate a fresh appointment process within a fortnight from the date of the results of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The bench, constituted by the high court chief justice on a direction of the Supreme Court, had heard 350 petitions and appeals relating to the selection of candidates for appointment by the SSC in the categories of teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 and group-C and D staffers through the SLST-2016.
In its 282-page judgment, the high court had said retaining appointees selected through "such a dubious process" would be contrary to public interest.
