India to help in conservation of Maldives' Friday Mosque: PM Modi
Male: India will contribute to the conservation of Maldives' Friday Mosque, a unique place of worship made of coral stones, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced.
Modi made the announcement while addressing the Muslim-majority country's Parliament, The People's Majlis, on Saturday and noted that the relations between India and the Maldives were older than history.
He said India will contribute to the conservation of Maldives' Friday Mosque also known as Hukuru Miskiy.
"There is no such mosque elsewhere in the world like this historical mosque made up of coral," Modi said.
He said he was happy that the Maldives was working towards sustainable development and has become a part of the International Solar Alliance.
Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih thanked the Indian side for their offer to carry out restoration of the Friday mosque by the Archaeological Survey of India under an Indian grant, said a joint statement.
He also appreciated the recent visit of senior scientists of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and their ongoing cooperation with the Maldivian counterparts, it added.
Built in 1658, Friday Mosque is one of the oldest and most ornate mosques in the city of Male in Kaafu Atoll. The mosque was added to the tentative UNESCO World Heritage cultural list in 2008 as unique examples of sea-culture architecture.
Modi arrived in the Maldives on Saturday on his first two-day foreign visit after re-election as Prime Minister to strengthen the bilateral ties, reflecting the importance India attaches to its 'Neighbourhood First' policy.
His visit demonstrates the priority that India attaches to the SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) doctrine.
The relations between India and the Maldives deteriorated after the then President Abdulla Yameen imposed emergency on February 5 last year.
Some decisions by Yameen including imposition of restrictions on work visas for Indians and signing of a new Free Trade Agreement with Beijing also did not go down well with New Delhi.
However, the ties were back on track under Solih's presidency.
China views the Maldives as key to its Maritime Silk Road project in the Indian Ocean as it has already acquired Hambantota port in Sri Lanka and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
