J-K governor appoints Kathua gang rape accused’s advocate as state law officer
New Delhi, July 18: The appointment of Aseem Sawhney, the lawyer for one of the accused in the Kathua gang rape and murder case, as an additional advocate general for the Jammu and Kashmir High Court by the state governor has come as a surprise to many.
Aseem’s father A.K. Sawhney — also a lawyer — has been representing the accused in the Pathankot district and sessions court, which is conducting the trial in the case on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Sometime back, Sawhney had purportedly made a startling claim that Pakistan-backed terrorists were trying to use Rasana — the place near Kathua where the eight-year-old victim was kept in confinement and repeatedly raped — as a base for launching attacks on Army establishments. He had also alleged that he was being threatened for representing the accused.
According to the order issued by the J&K law department Tuesday, Aseem Sawhney has been appointed to represent the government in the J&K High Court’s Jammu bench. He is one of the 16 lawyers appointed as law officers.
Sawhney’s Twitter bio identifies him as “a lawyer, journalist and honorary chief editorial consultant of Journeyline daily newspaper published from Jammu J&K”.
The Kathua case
The gang rape-cum-murder of the eight-year-old girl in January this year had led to massive outrage across the country. It also led to straining of ties between the then coalition partners in the J&K government — Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP and the BJP.
Investigation by ThePrint had brought to the fore the horrific manner in which the girl was raped.
The presence of two BJP ministers and some BJP MLAs at a protest meeting organised to rally support for the accused, where the ministers and MLAs also criticised their own government, had turned into a flashpoint between the allies, with the BJP finally pulling out of the government with the PDP last month.
Courtesy: theprint.in
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Notices issued to Himachal conductor, driver for anti-Rahul Gandhi audio clip playing in govt bus
Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.
A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.
In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.
Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.
However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.
The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.
Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.
"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.
Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.
