QBullet: Journalist Held for Extortion; HC Says Can’t Gag ‘Mersal’
The Quint’s roundup of top headlines from national dailies.
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1. Chhattisgarh Police Arrest Journalist Vinod Verma, He Says He’s Framed, Has ‘Sex CD’ of Minister
A Chhattisgarh police team arrested senior journalist Vinod Verma from his residence in Ghaziabad at 3:30 am on Friday, 27 October, on charges of extortion. Denying the allegations, Verma claimed that he was “being framed” and the Chhattisgarh government was “not happy” with him as he had a “sex CD” of state PWD Minister Rajesh Munat.
In Raipur, Munat said the contents of the CD were fake. Addressing a press conference, he said: “This has been done to ruin my reputation. I will ask the Chief Minister to probe the case. In all my years of politics, it has never stooped this low.”
Sources said the Chhattisgarh police team arrived in Ghaziabad late on Thursday, 26 October, after taking the last flight out of Raipur. They told their counterparts at the Indirapuram police station that the arrest was “urgent” as Verma had threatened to release the purported sex tape in Ghaziabad and Raipur.
(Source: Indian Express)
2. Mersal Anti-GST Dialogue Is Just Opinion, Can’t Gag It: Madras HC
Anti-GST dialogues in actor Vijay's blockbuster Mersal were a mere expression of opinion in a film and courts cannot interfere and order their deletion, the Madras High Court said on Friday, 27 October. Refusing to entertain a PIL filed by an advocate to revoke censor certificate for the film, a division bench of Justice MM Sundresh and Justice M Sundar said that if the petitioner had genuine concerns about public interest he should have started campaigns against social evils like untouchability, women’s safety, alcoholism and smoking. But he had chosen to attack a particular movie, the judges remarked.
Rebutting the contention of the PIL-petitioner that movies should not contain dialogues criticising schemes of government, particularly with incorrect facts, the bench said:
(Source: Times of India)
3. Supreme Court Upholds Woman’s Right to Abort
The Supreme Court has dismissed a man's petition seeking damages from his estranged wife for undergoing abortion without his consent, and ruled that an adult woman had an unimpeachable right to give birth or terminate pregnancy.
Terming the abortion, to which he had objected, "illegal", the husband had also demanded compensation from the woman's parents and brother, and two doctors. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had dismissed the husband's plea saying termination of pregnancy was the sole prerogative of the woman.
An SC bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud upheld the decision of the HC, which had said:
(Source: Times of India)
4. Gujarat CM Links ISIS Case With Ahmed Patel, Congress Says BJP Nervous
Seeking the resignation of Ahmed Patel, political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rajya Sabha MP, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on 27 October that the hospital that employed one of the two youths arrested for suspected ISIS links in Gujarat was being “managed” by Patel. And that he should explain the circumstances behind employing the youth and why the accused resigned days before he was arrested.
“I congratulate the ATS (Anti-Terrorist Squad) for having caught two terrorists (lawyer Ubed Mirza, 29, and Kasim Steamerwala, 31) in time. Had it not been so… a big disaster would have happened,” said Rupani in a late-evening briefing held at BJP headquarters in Koba, Gandhinagar on Friday. He said that the terrorists had planned to attack a Hindu Godman, Hindu shrines and a synagogue. They were well-prepared with passports and visas to flee abroad, Rupani said.
(Source: Indian Express)
5. Crisis Looms for Indian Sports If BCCI Stays out of Anti-Dope Pact
The continued refusal of Indian cricketers to submit themselves to the drug testing regimen that all global athletes follow is threatening to snowball into a major crisis for Indian sports.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to direct the Indian cricket board, BCCI, to allow drug-testing of Indian cricketers by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA). Failing this, it has warned, NADA could lose its accreditation with WADA. The threat, which could create a crisis for all Indian sports, came in a WADA letter addressed to Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
If NADA loses its compliance with the WADA Code, it could affect Indian sport's fight against doping and also negatively impact its participation in global sports. This is because India would then be left with no WADA-accredited agency to test its athletes.
The world body sought sports ministry's “urgent assistance” in “addressing the anti-doping issue with BCCI and ensuring NADA can implement the anti-doping programme in cricket with full cooperation of BCCI”.
(Source: Times of India)
6. CBI, ED Widen Investigation Against Karti, Will Probe More Decisions by Chidambaram
Federal investigation agencies will examine at least six more foreign investment approvals given by former finance minister P Chidambaram, as part of their probe against his son, Karti, who is accused of benefiting from his father’s decisions.
The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate will also question officials who were part of the then Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) which recommended those proposals, sources at the agencies told Hindustan Times.
Karti, 45, is accused of receiving bribes from companies that benefitted from his father’s decisions. Chidambaram, 72, and Karti deny any wrongdoing.
Until the Narendra Modi government disbanded it in 2017, the FIPB used to approve foreign investment deals of up to a certain value. The FIPB made its recommendations to the finance minister.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
7. SC Frames New Norms
to Evaluate Work of HC Additional Judges
A committee of two Supreme Court Judges will henceforth evaluate the judgments of Additional Judges of High Courts to decide whether they should be promoted as permanent judges. This marks a departure from the earlier practice of their performance being reviewed by High Court Judges. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the Supreme Court Collegium on Thursday, 27 October.
The Collegium, comprising Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra and Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph, partially modified its 3 March 2017 order, by which it had done away with the professional evaluation of Additional Judges – a practice which has been in place since 2010.
As per the guidelines issued by then Chief Justice of India SH Kapadia in October 2010, a committee was to be constituted by High Court Chief Justices for evaluating the judgments of Additional Judges. Since it was a committee of High Court Judges, this was seen as a kind of peer review.
(Source: Indian Express)
8. Inflating Imports: DRI Drops Second Case Against Adani
The adjudicating authority of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), KVS Singh, has struck down the second show-cause notice issued by the agency against an Adani Group firm for alleged 380 percent inflation of imported power equipment.
Maharashtra Eastern Grid Power Transmission Company Ltd (MEGPTCL), a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, Electrogen Infra FZE, UAE (EIF) and Ahmedabad-based PMC Projects (India) Private Ltd were accused of inflating the total declared value of goods imported under power and infrastructure heads, which attracts zero or less than 5 percent duty, to the extent of Rs 1,493.84 crore.
“I drop the proceedings initiated against MEGPTCL, PMC, EIF, Vinod Shantilal Adani @ Vinod Shantilal Shah…” said Singh in the order issued on 18 October. The Adani Group did not respond to phone calls and an email from The Indian Express seeking comment.
(Source: Indian Express)
9. Dalit Entrepreneurs Get Their Own Business Magazine
The Dalit Enterprise, a magazine that aims to celebrate the success of Dalit businessmen and motivate more people from the community to become entrepreneurs, was launched on Friday.
The magazine will be on the same lines as the Black Enterprise, which was launched in the US in 1970, and became the first publication ever devoted to African-American entrepreneurs and corporate executives.
“As Dalit businessmen, our problems are very specific and need to be highlighted specifically. We need to celebrate our success stories and also bring out the problems faced by the community’s businessmen when they try to enter the Indian market. The aim is to at least have 100 dalit billionaires in India. When people talk about Dalit empowerment, people just talk about gareebi hatao, it’s time to talk about ameeri badhao now,” says Chandra Bhan Prasad, a Dalit entrepreneur and author, who will be the editor of the magazine.
(Source: Hindustan Times)