'I said it...' Fadnavis admits to controversial audio-clip
Mumbai/Palghar, May 26: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday admitted to his voice and content in a audio-clip in which he exhorted his activists "to win Palghar elections" at any cost, which kicked up a massive political row in the poll-bound Maharashtra district.
However, he hit back by alleging that the original audio-clip was "selectively edited and doctored" to remove the context of his statement on "saam daam, dand and bhed" to party activists.
To prove his point, he played the entire 14-minute audio-clip before the media and accused the Shiv Sena of "resorting to such low-level tactics as defeat stares at it in Palghar".
"I said it... and that is my voice. But the following sentence has been deliberately knocked off to twist it completely out of context. I am sending it to the Election Commission with a request that if I am found guilty, they can take action against me," Fadnavis declared.
In the same breath, he demanded that if the Shiv Sena were found guilty of "editing and doctoring" the audio-tape, then they should also face action for playing it in public to misguide the voters on the eve of the Palghar Lok Sabha by-election.
The audio clip controversy erupted on a day when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi completes four years, and just two days before the high-stakes Palghar Lok Sabha by-election of May 28.
In the tape played by the Shiv Sena - which went viral on social media and television networks - Fadnavis is heard directing Bharatiya Janata Party activists to use "saam, daam, dand and bhed" and win Palghar at any cost.
"We have a huge challenge before us... Some people are challenging our very existence. They are behaving like friends but backstabbing us and we must hit back. If anybody is bullying us, we must attack them. They must know that I am a bigger bully. I am firmly standing behind you," Fadnavis said in Marathi, in the purported tape aired by the Shiv Sena.
On May 8, Fadnavis had thrown the gauntlet at the Shiv Sena, the Congress, the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and the CPI-M by saying: "Come what may, we shall win Palghar seat. This was a BJP seat. What the Shiv Sena has done is wrong. Winning it would be a fitting tribute to the late Chintaman Vanga."
Ruling ally and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray raised the hackles of the partner BJP by playing the audio tape in his public rally on Friday evening.
Thackeray, along with state Congress President Ashok Chavan, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi President Hitendra Thakur and other political leaders demanded that the Election Commission should take note of the "threatening" content in the audio-clip and initiate suitable action against Fadnavis.
Pouncing on Fadnavis, Palghar Shiv Sena leaders said that the Election Commission should conduct a forensic probe into the audio-tape on Saturday and if the Chief Minister was guilty "he should resign by this evening".
This was the second jolt for the BJP in two days as the curtains fall on Palghar by-election campaigning on Saturday.
A couple of days ago, Shiv Sena activists caught some alleged BJP workers with a large amount of cash which was reportedly intended for distribution among the voters.
The Palghar seat has become a matter of prestige for the two warring allies after the BJP accused the Shiv Sena of "hijacking" its prospective candidate, Shriniwas Vanga, son of the late BJP MP Chintaman Vanga this month.
Stunned by the Sena move, the BJP was compelled to nominate Rajendra Gavit, a Congress leader who walked into the party at the last minute before filing nominations.
The Congress fielded its veteran Damodar Shingada, besides the BVA's Baliram Jadhav and CPI-M's Kiran Gahala in the five-cornered main contest, with the BJP leaving no stone unturned to retain the seat.
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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.
