First time ever: Govt to come out with Rs 20 coins
New Delhi, Mar 7: The Government will come out with the first ever Rs 20 coin which will be shaped like a 12-edged polygon with design of grains to denote farm dominance in the country.
Besides, new series of one, two, five and ten rupees coins too would be minted, which will be circular in design and have denominations written in Hindi script.
Later in a tweet, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday released the new series Rs 1, Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 10 and Rs 20 coins.
"These coins contain design features which will be of great assistance to visually impaired persons," Jaitley said.
He further said, the Government, in 2015, had released a new series of banknotes which incorporated braille like signs for the benefit of visually impaired persons.
Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said, the new coins would be easily distinguishable from old coins.
The exact date of issuance of these new series coins is yet to be announced.
The Rs 20 coin will weigh 8.54 gm and its outside diameter will be 27mm with the outer ring made of nickel silver and the centerpiece of Nickel brass, a finance ministry notification said.
The face of the new Rs 20 coin shall bear the 'Lion Capital of Ashoka Pillar' with 'Satyameva Jayate' inscribed below. The left periphery will have the word 'Bharat' in Hindi and the right periphery will have the word 'India' in English.
The reverse side of the coin would have the denominational value '20' in the international numerals along with the Rupee symbol.
"The design of grains depicting the agricultural dominance of the country is flanked on the left periphery of the coin," the notification said.
The year of minting in international numerals shall be shown on centre of left periphery of the coin, it added.
According to the notification the new Rs 10 coin will have a outside diameter of 27 mm and weigh 7.74 gm, while the Rs 5 coin will have a diameter of 25 mm and weight of 6.74 gms.
The new series one rupee and two rupees coin will weigh 3.09 gm and 4.07 gm, while the diameter would be 20 mm and 23 mm respectively.
The face of all these coins shall bear the Lion Capital of Ashoka Pillar with the 'Satyameva Jayate' inscribed below, flanked on the left periphery with the word 'Bharat' in Hindi and on the right periphery with the word 'India" in English.
As per Coinage Act, 1906, the Government of India has the sole right to mint coins and the responsibility for coinage vests with the Government. The designing and minting of coins in various denominations is also the responsibility of the Government.
Coins are minted at the four India Government Mints at Mumbai, Alipore (Kolkata), Saifabad (Hyderabad), Cherlapally (Hyderabad) and Noida (UP).
The coins are issued for circulation only through the Reserve Bank in terms of the RBI Act.
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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.
