Hathras case: Accused defended at meeting held at former BJP MLA's residence
Lucknow/Hathras: Scores of people held a meeting Sunday outside the house of a former BJP MLA in Hathras where they defended the accused in the alleged gangrape of a Dalit woman who later died and demanded registration of an FIR against her family members.
The heavy police force was deployed in the vicinity of the residence of former BJP MLA Rajvir Singh Pehalvan, located around 8-9 kilometers from the victim's village.
One of the organizers of the meeting and Pehalvan's son Manveer Singh denied that the gathering comprised members from the upper castes and said they were from different sections of society.
We welcome the CBI inquiry ordered by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. We have faith in the investigation, Singh told PTI while claiming that the victim's family members were changing their stand.
The entire scenario has been created to blame the government. The accused persons are in favor of any type of inquiry. But the victims are changing their stand every now and then. They do not want a narco test or a CBI probe. Now they want other kinds of inquiries, he claimed.
He said an FIR should be registered by police against the complainants in the case. "Our demand is that a case should be filed against those people who had filed the case in the first instance," he said.
The 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras on September 14. She died on September 29 at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital where she had been brought for treatment.
On Sunday, Singh also said various legal options were being explored to defend the accused in the case. He asserted that the arrest of some of the accused persons from their homes was proof of their innocence.
Had they been guilty, they would have run away from their homes. Why would they be present in their homes, he said.
He also alleged that the Congress and the Samajwadi Party were trying to influence the victim's family as they wanted to the issue to linger on.
The meeting assumes significance as it was held a day after Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra visited the victim's house and met her family members at a village in Hathras district, and the recommendation of a CBI probe by UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The victim was cremated in the dead of the night near her home on Wednesday. Her family alleged that they were forced by the local police to hurriedly conduct her last rites. Local police officers, however, had said the cremation was carried out "as per the wishes of the family".
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India to get first national security semiconductor fabrication plant
Wilmington (PTI): Under a transformative collaboration with the US, India will get a national security semiconductor fabrication plant that will produce chips for use in military hardware and next-generation telecommunications.
The India-US joint project was announced following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in Wilmington on Saturday.
A joint fact sheet on Modi-Biden talks said the two leaders "hailed" the semiconductor project as a "watershed arrangement".
It will be the first ever India-US semiconductor fabrication partnership.
It is the first time ever the US military has agreed to do a partnership for these highly-value technologies with India and it is a watershed moment as it is as significant as the civil nuclear deal, people familiar with the matter said.
"President Biden and Prime Minister Modi hailed a watershed arrangement to establish a new semiconductor fabrication plant focused on advanced sensing, communication, and power electronics for national security, next-generation telecommunications, and green energy applications," the fact sheet noted.
It said the "fab, which will be established with the objective of manufacturing infrared, gallium nitride and silicon carbide semiconductors, will be enabled by support from the India semiconductor mission as well as a strategic technology partnership between Bharat Semi, 3rdiTech, and the US Space Force."
The Fab becomes not only India’s first, but one of the world's first multi-material fabs for national security, the people cited above said.
The fact sheet said Modi and Biden praised combined efforts to facilitate resilient, secure, and sustainable semiconductor supply chains including through GlobalFoundries' (GF) creation of the GF Kolkata Power Center in Kolkata.
It said the project will enhance mutually beneficial linkages in research and development in chip manufacturing.
"The leaders welcomed steps our industry is taking to build safe, secure, and resilient supply chains for US, Indian, and international automotive markets, including through Ford Motor Company's submission of a Letter of Intent to utilize its Chennai plant to manufacture for export to global markets," the document said.
It said Modi and Biden commended ongoing efforts to build more expansive cooperation around 5G deployment and next-generation telecommunications.
This includes the US Agency for International Development's plans to expand the Asia Open RAN Academy with an initial USD 7 million investment to grow this workforce training initiative worldwide, including in South Asia with Indian institutions.
