Badals trial: VB DSP among 3 turn hostile

In a major reprieve to the Badals,a VB Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jaspal Singh among three court witnesses turned hostile before Special Judge J S Bhatia.

Taking a U-turn from his previous statement,VB DSP Jaspal Singh today submitted before the court that he had not given any statement as attributed to him on August 25,2003. He categorically stated that he had no role in the case and had made no such statement.

Another court witness Mehar Singh of Attari village in Muktsar,who had served as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the CM,also resiled from his previous statement given on October 29,2003,wherein he was quoted as alleging,“Badals indulged in corrupt practices and Badal’s another OSD Hardeep Singh used to collect the bribe money and further hand it over to the Badals”. He was also attributed as alleging in his previous statement that he had seen the alleged “corrupt practices” and “money exchanging hands” several times. Today,he claimed that he neither made any such statement nor was he aware of any such matter as alleged,while terming it as a “bundle of lies wrongly attributed to him”. A Sectional Officer (Audit) of VB S K Hari also denied from his previous statement given on November 6,2003,and claimed that he had not made any such statement or done any assessment of the Badals’ properties,as was attributed to him.

However,two other court witnesses — N Kamlesh Awra,Chief Manager,Indian Bank,Connaught Place,New Delhi,and S P Soni,Income Tax Officer,Ward 2,Muktsar — stood by their previous statements made on August 12,2003,and October 3,2003,respectively,and reaffirmed that the details of bank transactions and income-tax returns of the Badals’ family submitted by them were as per their respective official records.

Regarding another court witness Ram Saran Dass,Junior Engineer,VB,who was also summoned for examination,public prosecutor Vijay Kumar Singla submitted before the court that he had already been examined following which there was no need to re-examine him.

The court summoned four leftover and remaining court witnesses for examination on next date fixed for March 20.

Since August 27 when the court had ordered to summon 38 material witnesses under second part of Section 311 of the CrPC for proper adjudication of the case as their evidence was found to be essential,as many as 21 court witnesses were examined,of which ten court witnesses had admitted while eleven,including a VB Inspector,had not supported prosecution statements. Another court witness was dropped for re-examination as he had earlier resiled. Meanwhile,the Court of Additional District and Sessions Judge G C Garg,on Saturday,admitted the appeal challenging an order in which a petition against Parkash Singh Badal was dismissed by a lower court in January.

The court had fixed May 10 as the date for hearing the appeal. The court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate J S Sidhu had,on January 27,dismissed a petition in the ongoing recovery suit filed against Badal.

Man gets 5 years for rape

A local court today sentenced a youth to five years rigorous imprisonment in a case of rape. The court of Additional District and Sessions judge Ravi Kumar Sondhi sentenced Sector-40 resident Vinay Kumar to five years in jail and also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000.

The victim had said in her complaint in 2004 that she married her beloved Vinay Kumar on February 12,2004. Both were residing in a Sector 40 for the past four months when the accused refused to keep her with him as his wife.

Alleging that her life has been spoiled by the cruel behaviour of her husband and in-laws,she demanded action against the accused. Acting on her complaint,the police arrested the accused under Section 376 of the IPC.

“The accused raped a helpless orphan lady taking benefit of her ignorance and breaking the confidence reposed in him and also befooled her by alleging that he married her fully knowing that he had no intention to accept her as his legally wedded wife and continuously raped her. She is now living at her own at the mercy of society and during trial the accused tried to tarnish her character just to wriggle out of his faults,” said the court in the order.

Batra family dispute: defence moves application

The family dispute involving the owners of Batra Theatre in the city has gone murkier. The case of cheating and forgery against Naresh Batra,owner of Batra theatre in Sector 37,took a new turn today with the defence counsel moving an application urging court to review a recent order of attachment of property of one of the accused as it’s not maintainable under law. As per the application,while the court of JMIC Mahesh Kumar has issued warrants against the accused for his repeated failure to appear in court,the same court has ordered to attach the property of the accused including a house in Panchkula,his salary and also to sequest his passport.

The accused,Sandeep Kakkar,who has been declared a proclaimed offender in this case is based in USA since 1994,as per the claim of his father in the application. “While process has been initiated to bring him to India,the attachment of his property will debar him from coming to India,thus,court has been urged to review the order,” states the application.

The case in the matter was registered on October 1,1998,on the complaint of Naresh Batra’s brother,Mahesh Batra. It has been alleged that the accused had managed to get shares transferred on the basis of “blank signed share transfer forms”. An accused in the case and beneficiary of the shares,Sandeep Kakkar,has been declared a proclaimed offender. In 2002,a complaint was filed by Vikram Batra against Naresh Batra and seven others on same allegations. In 2009,both the state and criminal case were clubbed together amidst much resistance by the defence counsel.

Today,an application was moved by SN Kakkar,father of Sandeep Kakkar requesting court to withdraw the recent order. “It is surprising how this order dated February 17 for attachment of property of the accused was dispatched to USA on the same day of passing of orders. On this basis,a letter by the Consulate General of India has been received by Sandeep in USA on the very next day asking him to surrender his passport on basis of orders by Chandigarh court. It is not understandable as to how the Indian passport of Sandeep Kakar is requested to be attached to debar him from coming back to India when the process of issuance of warrants against him is going on to bring him to India,” said defence counsel AS Sukhija. It has been 12 years since the Batra-family dispute reached the courts. The family owns a group of companies,including the Batra theatre.

On the other hand,Vikram Batra when contacted said that the court orders are in the interest of justice and are as per procedure. “Once he surrenders the passport,he will be deported to India and thus there is nothing wrong with it as he is wanted in the case,lets see how the case unfolds,” Vikram Batra told Newsline.

The application will now come up for hearing on March 20.

Official liquidator sentenced to 2-year RI

The CBI Special Court of Darshan Singh convicted the then official liquidator of the Ministry of Company Affairs,Ashish Vajpai,attached with the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Himachal High Court,today and sentenced him to two years rigorous imprisonment in a corruption case. He has also been imposed a fine of Rs 35,000. Another accused in the case and promoter of firm Maa Bhagwati and Co,Satish Chaudhary,has also been sentenced to two years and will have to pay a fine of Rs 25,000.

The case dates back to 2006,when Vajpai conspired with Chaudhary and made a huge amount of illegal money by circumventing the laid down rules. According to the CBI theory,the Punjab and Haryana High Court,in February 2006,had ordered the sale of assets of the firm Kartar Glass Works in favour of Chaudhary’s firm and asked him to remit complete sale proceed with the liquidator’s office within three days of the order. During raids at Vajpai’s residence as well as two other places,the CBI then stumbled upon more than Rs 38 lakh. Reportedly,Rs 30.5 lakh were recovered from a locker in the Central Bank,Sector 17,belonging to Vajpayee and more than Rs 7 lakh were recovered from his residence in Sector 27.

Besides this,more than Rs 70 lakh were recovered from his lockers in other parts of the country and documents pertaining to property. While pronouncing the order,the court said both the convicts had wrongfully caused loss to the state exchequer.