Tuesday, May 10, 2011

High Court of Delhi directs BSF to convene COI: Writ Petition

New Delhi 
10.5.2011

In an important decision last month the Hon’ble Delhi High Court has directed Border Security Force to convene a Court Of Inquiry in a eleven year old case of an injury sustained by an officer of BSF. The order, whose copies were received last week, directs the Force to order COI within eight weeks of the order dtd 18 April 2011. 

During arguments learned counsel for BSF informed that it may be difficult for a unit officer to affirm or deny nature and other facts of injury. The counsel stated that the correctness of the fact can be ascertained only at a Court Of Inquiry.

Setting aside BSF counsel’s contention that the concerned officer is now medically fit and that some of the witnesses have since retired, the double bench of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Hon’ble Mr. Justice Suresh Kait directed the respondents to convene a Court of Inquiry with respect to the alleged incident dated 28.09.1999.

The petitioner Raj Kumar Basatta, Second-in-Command in BSF, had claimed to have suffered an injury in an operation against armed militants during Anti-insurgency Operation on 28.09.1999. The petitioner claimed that as a result of the fall he received an injury in the knee and his jaw got fractured.

However, his Deputy Commandant Sh A. Asthana,  considered the injury as a minor injury and accused officer of feigning a serious injury. Sh Asthana further did not report the matter to his Hqrs and did not order the mandatory Court Of Inquiry to find out facts of the injury resulting in delay in treatment and other complications.

Further due to misrepresentation of facts by Sh A Asthana and Sh Sushil Kumar Singh, 2IC, the officer was charge-sheeted for being absent from duty for treatment of his injury and was tried and punished by GSFC in 2001. 

Arguing for the officer Ms Rekha Palli, Advocate pleaded that in the absence of a fact finding Court Of Inquiry the nature of the injury and urgency of treatment could not be considered by his commanding officer and later by Hon'ble GSFC. She further pleaded that though there is permanent deformity in the jaw still its status of having been sustained during an operation is not officially established and this might harm the interests of the officer in future as well.

The Hon’ble Court has directed that the order convening Court of Inquiry would be issued by the competent authority within a period of 8 weeks from the date of judgement.

PIB Release:Information on Accused Named in Second Charge-Sheet Filed by US Government in 2008 Mumbai Blasts Case

Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Home Affairs

09-May-2011 17:30 IST

A report which appeared in the media today states that the Chicago trial of the 2008 Mumbai attacks will be held from the 16th of this month. The report also states that the federal prosecutors indicted some more suspects last week in this case. Information available with the Government of India on the five persons named as accused in the second charge-sheet filed by the United States Government in the case is given in the annexure.

OK/PKM

* The annexure contains details of five accused

Monday, May 9, 2011

Police without own chopper since Jan.


Ranchi, May 7: Jharkhand’s saga of grounded choppers continues with the one bought by the state for its police force lying at a hangar in Bangalore with manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd refusing to take up maintenance work.
That’s because HAL’s maintenance contract with the government has expired as of February 2011, and HAL has been plagued by problems of its own, including a manpower crunch.
Meanwhile, the security forces continue to suffer whenever there is a need to evacuate the injured as was the case in Lohardaga on Tuesday when as many as 11 personnel lost there lives with the DGP, no less, noting that at least six of them could have been saved if a BSF chopper — one of two sent by the Centre to help out in Operation Greenhunt — reached the forest on time (see chart).
But, the state police has been without a chopper of its own since January as the lone Dhruv, bought for Rs 45 crore using police modernisation funds in 2007, was lying at HAL’s Bangalore headquarters.

Six out of seven helicopters for anti-Naxal ops unavailable

From The Indian Express
Sun May 08 2011,Raipur
Only one helicopter is catering to over 70,000 central police troops deployed for anti-naxal operations as six other choppers – emergency lifelines during casualty evacuation and reinforcements-- are out of service for various reasons for almost two months.
Government has deployed a fleet of seven helicopters-- four of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and three Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) 'Dhruvs' of the BSF-- for use by 72 battalions of the CRPF, BSF, ITBP and local police units of the states. They have their bases at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and Ranchi (Jharkhand).

Pak returns Indian intruder

JAISALMER: In a rare case, a man who sneaked into Pakistan from Indian territory through the international border in Sriganganagar on Friday night was handed back to the BSF by Pak Rangerson Saturday. The BSF claimed that the man had been spotted by Indian jawans and fired at, but he succeeded to trespass. Later he was caught by Pak rangers who interrogated him and handed him over to the BSF.