Mallikarjun Kharge to formally take over as Congress president
New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) Veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge formally took over as Congress president on Wednesday after he was handed over the certificate of election to the top post at a function at the AICC headquarters here.
Kharge, the first non-Gandhi to head the party in 24 years, had defeated Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest for the president's post in the grand old party after the Gandhis opted out of the race.
Kharge was handed over the certificate of election as the Congress president by the party's central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry.
Mistry said he hopes other parties will draw a lesson from the Congress and hold polls for party presidency by secret ballot.
Outgoing Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were also present at the event which was attended by several top party leaders.
Ahead of his taking over, Kharge visited Rajghat and paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi. He also visited the memorials of former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and former deputy prime minister Jagjivan Ram, and paid tributes to the leaders.
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Advocate finds copy of century-old Thane court order in mango theft case
Thane (PTI): An advocate has stumbled upon a copy of an order pronounced by a court in Maharashtra's Thane 100 years ago in a case of theft of mangoes, providing a glimpse of the legal proceedings at that time.
In the order dated July 5, 1924, the then magistrate TA Fernandes convicted four persons of mango theft and released them after admonition, considering they were all young men and he did not want to ruin their life by sentencing them.
Advocate Poonit Mahimkar told PTI on Sunday that while shifting from his previous house in Thane city, he found a bag lying unattended in the mezzanine for years, possibly left by the earlier house occupants.
When he opened the bag, he found some old property papers and a copy of the magistrate's order.
The order was pertaining to the case titled 'Crown Vs Anjelo Alwares and 3 others', charged under sections 379/109 of the Indian Penal Code for the theft of "185 green mangoes".
The judgement, by magistrate Fernandes, recounted the prosecution's case alleging the accused were caught red-handed while plucking mangoes from a field belonging to Bostiav Ellis Andraden.
Witnesses testified to seeing the accused selling the stolen mangoes to a local dealer, prompting Andraden to reclaim his property (mangoes) and seek legal action.
The defence argued claiming innocence, but the magistrate convicted the accused of theft.
"Considering the whole evidence, I am satisfied that accused are guilty of the offence of theft. But they are all young men and I have no wish to ruin their life by sentencing them, and they have moreover no previous conviction. Accordingly I convict them under section 379/109 and release them after due admonition," the magistrate said in the order.
Mahimkar said he now plans to preserve the document.
