Shatrughan Sinha joins Congress, terms BJP 'one-man show, two-men army'
New Delhi, Apr 6: Dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha Saturday joined the Congress, which welcomed him with a Lok Sabha ticket, as he lambasted his former party, terming it a "one-man show and two-men army".
The 72-year-old actor-turned-politician said he left the BJP, on its foundation day Saturday, with "immense pain and heavy heart". He alleged there is no place left in the party for dialogue and its leadership does not value its own veterans, and views its opponents as "enemies".
Sinha also heaped praise on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He is a dynamic, "tried, tested and successful" leader and the face and future of India, Patna Sahib MP said.
Within hours of joining, the Congress fielded Sinha from Bihar's Patna Sahib seat, where he will contest against BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Sinha had met Rahul Gandhi on March 28.
Attacking the BJP's top leadership, Sinha said, "Today there is no place left for dialogue in the BJP anymore," and if one speaks the truth he is termed as a rebel.
"If speaking the truth is rebellion, then I am a rebel," he said addressing a press conference at the Congress headquarters here.
Party veterans are not being looked after in the BJP and are being sent to 'margdarshak mandal', he alleged. "In the BJP, democracy has slowly and surely turned into dictatorship. The party has become a one-man show and a two-men army," Sinha alleged without naming anyone.
He claimed whenever he tried to make a point, he was called a "traitor".
That Sinha was not happy with the BJP and the government led by it was clear from the past few months, during which he put out several tweets critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party and the government. In his tweets, he has also been full of praise for Gandhi and RJD leaders, including its jailed president Lalu Prasad.
In an apparent reference to Modi, Sinha said, "People have called your bluff and understood your hollow promises. You have been exposed."
Sinha said the BJP has now been "exposed" and people can see through its "hollow" promises.
"It's with a heavy heart and immense pain that I finally bid adieu to my old party, for reasons best known to all of us, on 6th April, which also happens to be the Sansthapna Diwas (foundation day) of BJP.
"I don't hold any ill will for our people as they were like my family and I was groomed in this party," Sinha later tweeted.
He alleged that, like BJP's founding member L K Advani, other stalwarts including Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha were not given respect and not "treated properly" in the party.
He also attacked the Modi government, alleging, "everything happens from the Prime Minister's Office...ministers can't work freely."
Terming demonetisation as "probably the world's biggest scam", Sinha said, "It was a mindless decision...Several people died and we were told it was normal."
Sinha also said the country would have transformed if the money splurged by the BJP on its publicity campaign was spent on development.
Lauding the Congress' proposed Nyuntam Aay Yojana (Nyay) scheme, he said the country has not seen such thing in past.
"I am hopeful that the Grand Old National Party which I'm stepping into, will provide me with opportunities to serve our people, society and nation in terms of unity, prosperity, progress, development, and glory," he also tweeted.
He hailed the Congress as a "party of great nation-builders and luminaries like Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and many others" and exuded confidence that the grand alliance in Bihar will emerge victorious.
"Under the present President of Congress the very dynamic, able, tried, tested and successful face of today and tomorrow's India, Rahul Gandhi, I hope, wish and pray that I'm heading into a better direction. Long live democracy and the Congress party, along with the alliance of Lalu and Tejasvi's RJD. Long live our great India. Jai Hind," he also tweeted.
Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal, chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and AICC in-charge for party's Bihar unit Shaktisinh Gohil welcomed Sinha into the party fold.
Venugopal said Sinha was "in wrong party" earlier and has "now joined a right party".
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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.
