THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2017 15TIMES NATION
Lucknow: Tightening the no-ose around controversial UPminister Gayatri Prajapati,police on Tuesday detainedhis sons for questioning forclues regarding the whereabo-uts of their absconding father.Police were also set to move co-urt on Wednesday to seekpermission to attach hisproperties.
Apart from detaining histwo sons, Anil and Anurag, po-lice have arrested three aidesto the minister, Rupeshwar, Vi-kas Verma and AmrendraSingh.
Earlier, police had arrestedAshok Tiwari and AshishShukla from Jewar, on the Ya-muna Expressway, on March 7.All the arrested associates ofPrajapati have been named asco-accused in the case.Thoughthe minister’s sons reported-ly told the police they had notbeen in touch with Prajapatisince February 27, sourcessaid the two had divulged thenames of some contacts ex-pected to be in touch with the
minister and efforts were be-ing made to track them. “Wehave taken their call detailsand are trying to zero in onsuspected locations, some ofwhich are in other states,” asenior police officer said.
Police have been on the loo-kout for the minister since anFIR was lodged against himand six others by a woman ac-cusing them of gang-rape andsexually assaulting her minordaughter. The FIR was lodgedon the directions of the Supre-me Court, in the thick of cam-paigning for the UP elections.
Prajapati had contestedfrom Amethi seat as an SPcandidate but lost to the BJP’sGarima Sinh.
While SP chief and outgo-ing chief minister Akhilesh
Yadav saw the FIR against hisminister as politically moti-vated, the BJP attacked theSP government in UP forsheltering him. Both PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andBJP chief Amit Shah usedthe Prajapati case to back the-ir charge of lawlessness inthe state. In one campaignspeech Shah had announcedPrajapati would be jailed on-ce a BJP government was inplace in UP. “Agar pataal me-in bhi chhup jayega to wahanse nikal kar jail mein da-lenge” Shah had said.
Prajapati had posed fornews cameras while leavingthe polling station after vo-ting on February 27; he hasbeen “missing” since, accor-ding to the police.
Three MoreAides Of The
Ex-Mantri Held
Prajapati still absconding,UP cops detain his two sons
Anurag Prajapati, son of former UP minister Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, atGautam Palli police station in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday
Dehradun: After dodging poli-ce for over two months, NikhilPriyadarshi, the main accusedin the sexual exploitation caseof former Bihar minister’s mi-nor daughter, was nabbed bythe Uttarakhand police on Tu-esday morning from Rishikesh.His father, Krishna Bihari Pra-sad Sinha, a retired IAS officer,was also arrested by Pauri Policeas he too is an accused in the case.
Former Bihar Congress vi-ce-president Brajesh Pandeywas also an accused in the case.The girl alleged that the Cong-ress memeber had also sexuallyassaulted her. Pandey had ten-dered resignation from his postafter being booked under POC-SO act.
Speaking to TOI, senior su-perintendent of police (SSP)Patna, Manu Maharaj, said:“Priyadarshi is a prime accu-sed in the rape case, while hisfather was charged with crimi-nal intimidation and using cas-teist remarks. In all, there areeight accused in the case and wehave been able to nab six ofthem.”
Ex-IAS officer,son arrested inBihar rape case
New Delhi: The Central Boardof Excise and Customs (CBEC),the agency responsible for col-lecting indirect taxes, has beenthe biggest litigant in the lastthree years, filing twice as ma-ny appeals in the Supreme Co-urt than private companies, astudy by the government’s offi-cial auditor showed.
Acase study for financial ye-ars (FYs) 2014, 2015 and 2016 onthe total pendency of cases rela-ted to indirect tax disputes showsthat on an average, the govern-ment has been filing over 1,700appeals annually in the apex co-urt, despite the fact that its suc-cess rate (winning cases) camedown from 19% in 2014 to 11% in2016.
In addition, the governmenthas been filing at least 5,000 casesevery year before various high
courts. The success rate in highcourts was worse — comingdown from 34% in 2014 to 18% in2016. If we combine cases pen-ding before several appellate tri-bunals and commissioners ofappeal of the CBEC, the revenuelocked in litigation was estima-ted at Rs 1.89 lakh crore at theend of March 2016.
The Comptroller and Au-ditor General, which raisedthe issue in its latest reporttabled in Parliament on Fri-day, has suggested that stepsshould be initiated to bringdown litigation, particularlyin view of the department lo-sing a large number of casesin the highest court.
“Huge amounts of reve-nue remain outside the Con-solidated Fund of India forsubstantial periods of time,”the CAG said, based on dataanalysed from CBEC records.The auditor tabulated the
pendency of cases in various fo-rums, segregating them by tho-se filed by private entities andthe number of cases in whichthe government has gone in ap-peal before higher courts.
The revenue locked in liti-gation was to the tune of Rs 1.37lakh crore in 2014, which wentup to Rs 1.55 lakh crore in 2015and to Rs 1.89 lakh crore in 2016.Disputes related to indirect tax-es take decades to get resolved,starting from department rela-ted appellate authorities, thesettlement commission, highcourts and the Supreme Court.
In many cases, the disputearose due to “the departmentresorting to coercive recoverymeasures” while in some in-stances a dispute was allegedlyallowed to remain unresolvedfor years which benefited priva-te companies that find enoughfiscal space by holding back onpayment of assessed taxes.
Govt filing twice as manycases as private cos in SC
In a case similar to the one inBadaun in 2014, where two
minor cousins were foundhanging from a mango tree,the body of an 18-year-old girlwas found hanging from atree in a village in UP’sLakhimpur Kheri district onMonday. The father of the girlalleged that his daughter waskilled after being raped by twolocal residents. Amid protestsfrom villagers, police tookcustody of the body and havesent it for post-mortem onTuesday. Police said one of theaccused has been arrested.
The college student wasmissing since Sunday, andpeople saw her body hangingfrom a tree the next morning.
Kanwardeep Singh TNN
In Badaun redux?18-year-old girlraped, foundhanging in UP
New Delhi: Not one Indian mega-city has found place in the top 100 listof cities worldwide on “quality oflife” parameters. Hyderabad, Pune,Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Kol-kata and New Delhi appear below150 among the 231 cities globallyranked by the 19th Quality of Livingsurvey of consulting firm Mercer
The ranking, released on Tues-day, comes at time when the centralgovernment’s smart city mission todevelop 100 cities with better qualityof life is nearing its second anniver-sary. In its bid to sensitise city man-agers and local administration totake proactive steps the Union gov-ernment is also launching the “live-ability index” for all the cities in In-dia.
Singapore topped the list of citiesin Asia offering the highest qualityof life and infrastructure, thoughglobally it ranked 25. According tothe survey, Vienna in Austria hasbeen ranked as the world’s best placeto live for the eighth year in a row.Baghdad has been found as the
worst city to live. Mercer’s surveyhelps companies and organisationsdetermine compensation and hard-ship allowances for internationalstaff. It uses different criteria suchas political stability, health care,education, crime, recreation andtransport while ranking the cities-.“Despite increased political and fi-nancial volatility in Europe, manyof its cities offer the world’s highestquality of living and remain attrac-tive destinations for expandingbusiness operations and sending ex-patriates on assignment,” Mercersaid in an official release.
The consulting firm has alsoranked cities on infrastructure pa-rameters this year, which assesseseach city’s supply of electricity,drinking water, telephone and mailservices, and public transportationas well as traffic congestion and therange of international flights avail-able from local airports. Singaporetops the city infrastructure rankingglobally, followed by Frankfurt andMunich.
The Indian ranking of cities islikely to be out by early 2018.
Holi ended in violence at Shekhpuravillage in Haryana’s Hisar district’sHansi subdivision on Monday, afteran alleged exchange of fire betweentwo groups killed three and injuredtwo men critically. Three peoplewho died on the spot include BorderSecurity Force (BSF) trooper Pra-deep Kumar, truck union leaderRam Kumar Kasana, and Pradeep’scousin Mukesh. One of the twoinjured — Mahinder Singh — is in acritical condition at the hospitalwhile his brother is now out ofdanger, police said.
2 killed in Metal and Still Factory explosion: Two employ-ees of the Metal and Still Factory, runby the defence ministry, were killedin an explosion in a furnace of itsfactory at Ishapur in West Bengal’sNorth 24 Parganas, a defence spokes-man said on Tuesday. The blast in thefurnace took place on March 11injuring nine employees, ministry ofdefence CPRO in Kolkata, WingCommander S S Birdi, said.
Five-year-old charred to deathin UP’s Etah: A five-year-old boywas charred to death while he wasasleep in his house in Etah’s Maha-virganj village in Uttar Pradesh. A firebroke out at the house on Mondaynight while the victim’s parents hadgone out. The deceased has beenidentified as Shiraj. According toJalesar station officer Hempal Singh,the fire started after a burningcandle fell over a pile of clothes keptnear the victim’s bed.
Massive fire breaks out at glassfactory, two dead:Two workerswere charred to death and severalothers injured after a massive firebroke out at a glass factory in UttarPradesh’s Firozabad. Over 25 workerswere inside the factory at the time ofthe incident on Monday night. Goodsworth several lakh rupees were alsogutted in fire. The deceased havebeen identified as 22-year-old Neerajand Puran Singh.
INDIA DIGEST
3 killed, 2 injured inHoli violence
Not one Indian city in top 100 list of
‘quality of life’ surveyTIMES NEWS NETWORK
Pratapgarh (UP): A 26-year-oldyouth was allegedly shot deadover an old enmity in Kharvaivillage in Mandhata area onTuesday triggering a caste clashand arson. Devesh Pratap Singhalias Rohit Singh was allegedlyshot dead by a group of Dalitsover the old enmity. PTI
Clash, arson after youthshot dead in UP village
