Goodbye my lighthouse, Tata's long-time associate Naidu bids adieu to his boss
Mumbai (PTI): Shantanu Naidu, a long-time associate of Ratan Tata, on Thursday bid adieu to the industrialist, comparing his boss to a "lighthouse".
"The hole that this friendship has now left with me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to fill," Naidu, a general manager in the Office of RNT, wrote on a professional networking site in the early hours.
Later in the morning, everybody saw Naidu riding out of Tata's house on a Yezdi motorcycle, leading the truck carrying his boss' mortal remains.
"Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse," said the short post, accompanied by a picture of the two in what seems like a chartered aircraft.
It was the mutual love and concern for dogs which had formed a bond between Tata and Naidu, a Pune-based youngster who had started working for a Tata group company.
Pained by the sight of a stray dog's death, Reddy created a reflective collar to help motorists notice the strays quicker and wrote to Tata about the same.
Tata replied with much more than an acknowledgement. Naidu received an investment from Tata for this venture and an enduring bond.
Naidu soon went to the US for his masters and on the return, got placed in the Office of RNT, the private office of the industrialist post his stint as Tata Sons Chairman.
Outside of his day job of managing affairs for Tata, Naidu kept creating socially relevant platforms and services, and his indulgent boss often backed these ideas, up prime among them was Goodfellows, a subscription-based companionship service for senior citizens started in 2022.
Though struggling on the health front, Tata made sure that he attends the launch event for the startup in which he had invested an undisclosed sum.
Visuals of that event are fresh on everybody's mind, as are the ones of Naidu celebrating his boss' birthday a few months before.
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Karnataka HC acquits three men in 2012 Bengaluru terror conspiracy case
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka High Court has acquitted three people, including a Pakistani national, from charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) related to a 2012 terror conspiracy allegedly plotted inside Bengaluru Central Prison.
The court found a procedural flaw in the prosecution sanction granted by the state government, leading to the acquittals.
The accused – Syed Abdul Rehman from Bengaluru, Afsar Pasha alias Khushiruddin from Chintamani in Kolar district and Mohammed Fahad Khoya from Karachi, Pakistan – were charged under various provisions of the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
However, while acquitting them of these charges, the court upheld Rehman’s conviction under the Arms Act, 1959, and the Explosive Substances Act, 1908.
Rehman was found guilty of illegal possession of a revolver and concealing explosives, leading to a revised sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.
A division bench, consisting of Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar and Justice J M Khazi, allowed the petitions filed by Pasha and Khoya challenging their 2023 conviction and life imprisonment sentence.
However, the bench only modified Rehman’s conviction under the lesser offenses of the Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act.
The court found that the sanction for prosecution was flawed. The Principal Secretary to the Home Department at the time, Raghavendra H Auradkar, admitted during cross-examination that he could not recall whether an independent review committee was involved when he granted the sanction.
The court noted that under Section 45(2) of the UAPA, it is mandatory to consider the review committee’s report before granting sanction.
As the trial court overlooked this procedural lapse, the High Court concluded that the sanction order was invalid, thereby vitiating the charges under the UAPA.
The court also noted the absence of independent evidence to substantiate the charges of criminal conspiracy to recruit youth for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and conduct attacks in Bengaluru, allegedly planned during the accused’s imprisonment.
The charges largely relied on confessions from the accused, which the court deemed insufficient for conviction.
The bench concluded that there was no proof linking Rehman to any activities directed by the other accused during their time in prison.
Consequently, Pasha and Khoya were ordered to be released unless they are implicated in other cases, with the latter slated for deportation to Pakistan.
