AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday granted conditional bail of three weeks to Narayan Sai, son of self-proclaimed godman Asaram, who has been behind bars for more than a year in connection with a rape case filed against him by a Surat-based woman.

Justice Paresh Upadhyay granted the relief to Narayan, who has been lodged in a Surat jail since his arrest in December 2013, to enable him to attend to his ailing mother Lakshmiben Harpalani.

The bail order will be applicable from May 4, the judge said, adding Narayan will be under the police surveilence during the bail period and state DGP will deploy an officer for this purpose.

Narayan had said in his plea that his mother had been suffering from a spinal cord-related ailement and that doctors at Ahmedabad’s Sterling Hospital had suggested surgery.

The woman had accused Narayan of repeated sexual assault between 2002 and 2005 when she was living at his Surat ashram, following which he was booked under various sections of IPC including rape, unnatural sex, molestation, wrongful confinement etc.

Interestingly, the elder sister of the victim had lodged a separate complaint against Narayan’s father Asaram accusing him of repeated sexual assault between 2001 and 2006 when she was living in his ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.

Lakshmiben was also booked by police for abetment, but was later granted bail by a local court in 2013.

Asaram is currently lodged in a Rajasthan jail since his arrest in September 2013 for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor girl at his Jodhpur ashram.

MUMBAI: Stocks of Tata Motors went up by 2 per cent on Thursday as the company reported a 9 per cent growth in in global sales, including those of Jaguar Land Rover, in March.

The stock rose by 1.38 per cent to Rs 550.80 apiece on the BSE.

On the NSE, it gained 1.99 per cent to Rs 551.25 per scrip.

Even as sharp movements in air fares continue to raise concerns, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is “reluctant” to regulate the ticket prices on grounds that any such move would be against free market principles.

Currently, airlines have been allowed to fix fares on their own depending on supply and demand.

Sources said that more than 100 Parliamentarians have written to the Ministry raising concerns over the movement of air fares over the past six months and most of them are in favour of regulations to control the prices.

Parliamentarians, cutting across party lines from various states, including Jammu and Kashmir, northeast India and Andaman and Nicobar, have been raising concerns about the matter from time to time, source added.

Despite receiving representations from various quarters, a section of top Ministry officials is averse to the idea of regulating air fares and want them to remain market-linked, they said.

According to sources, some Ministry officials are “reluctant” as they feel that when there are no such international practice of regulating the price of air tickets, why should India be moving in the opposite direction.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, on several occasions in the past, has said that putting caps and floors for air fares would have their own implications and that pricing should be left to the carriers to decide.

Interestingly, the Ministry had last year circulated a note for internal discussion where it suggested steps to cap air fare at minimum and maximum levels for the economy class in airlines.

As per that note, the maximum economy class fare need to be capped at Rs 20,000.

However, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma had last week pitched for regulating “predatory” air fares rather than having a total pricing control.

“We understand that the predatory price (of air fares) at lower end or higher end should have some regulation. This is my individual opinion but this is subject to discussion and a Cabinet decision has to be taken on this issue.

“…In principle, I feel there should be some regulation on the prices at both ends. Of course we will not totally regulate prices but some regulation has to be there,” he had said.

Nevertheless, aviation regulator DGCA recently asked domestic carriers to provide the quantum (percentage) of the tickets sold by domestic carriers at different pricing levels (highest and lowest fares buckets) for each sector over the next few months.

Hillary Clinton’s views evolved on same-sex marriage within the first 72 hours of her presidential run, as her campaign said Wednesday that the former secretary of state now backs marriage equality as a US constitutional right.

The about-face, dropped as Clinton was preparing the second of two progressive-leaning appearances in Iowa, represents a significant – if not completely unexpected – shift from her previous statements that same-sex marriage should be legislated state-by-state rather than on the federal level.

LGBT activists said the move, while potentially motivated by politics and conveniently timed to Clinton’s presidential run and a looming US supreme court case, represented something of a milestone.

“Hillary Clinton supports marriage equality and hopes the Supreme Court will come down on the side of same-sex couples being guaranteed that constitutional right,” Clinton spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod said in a statement confirmed by the Guardian.

The supreme court is scheduled to hear arguments on the constitutionality of state bans of same-sex marriages on 28 April, with a decision expected in June that could effectively make marriage equality legal nationwide.

Last June, Clinton told NPR that she thought marriage was a state issue.

“[F]or me, marriage has always been a matter left to the states,” she said in the interview with public radio’s Terry Gross. “I fully endorse the efforts by activists to work state by state.”

Since then, Clinton had repeatedly dodged press inquiries on the topic.
Advertisement

The former secretary of state did not formally say whether she supported same-sex marriage at all until March 2013, when she appeared in an online video released by the LGBT advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Previously, Clinton had only said publicly that she supported civil unions.

The former first lady did advocate for LGBT rights while at the State Department: “Gay rights are human rights,” she said during a 2011 speech in Geneva.

HRC president Chad Griffin called Wednesday’s more direct federal coming-out party a “strong statement”.

Gregory Angelo, president of Log Cabin Republicans, a gay advocacy group, was less charitable.

“It was good to see that Clinton, after much heel dragging, has finally come into line,” he told the Guardian.

Indeed, Clinton has a complicated history on gay rights.

While first lady, former president Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (Doma), which prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. Much of that law was struck down by the supreme court in the 2013 case of United States v Windsor.

This year’s new landmark case before the high court, Obergefell v Hodges, represent a kind of full-circle rotation by the judiciary branch after Clinton long-derided 1996 signature of Doma, which he admitted to regretting just before the Winsdor case was argued.

Bill Clinton also approved the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell”, which prevented openly gay men and women from serving in the US military.

Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley – perhaps Hillary Clinton’s most aggressive competitor for the Democratic nomination in 2016, though he has not declared – has already said that same-sex marriage is a human right and should not be left to the states.

He released a video on Wednesday, in which his narration says, in a not-so-subtle dig at the competition, that “history celebrates profiles in courage, not profiles in convenience”.

O’Malley, who successfully pushed for the passage of same-sex marriage in Maryland, has also evolved on the issue and previously only supported civil unions himself.

Beleaguered national carrier Thai Airways International Plc (THAI) is expected to turn the corner by next year followingthe implementation of a business rehabilitation plan. The plan will start to improve…

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tourism/530199/thai-rehab-plan-set-to-stem-losses. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

The plan, approved by the State Enterprises Policy Commission, also known as the superboard, includes divesting ageing aeroplanes and non-core assets, scrapping unprofitable routes, lowering the size of…

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tourism/530199/thai-rehab-plan-set-to-stem-losses. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

Washington: Indo-US relationship is not merely government-to-government but is widely endorsed by the people and it is stronger than ever, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.

Jaitley made the remarks at a dinner reception hosted in his honour at the Indian Embassy which was attended by many senior Obama Administration officials and senior ministers.

It is rare for so many administration bigwigs, including three cabinet rank ministers, to attend a reception for a visiting Indian minister.

“This relationship is not merely a government-to- government relationship, it is a relationship widely endorsed by the people,” Jaitley, who is here to attend the annual spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, said.

In his brief remarks, Jaitley acknowledged that the presence of top officials was a reflection of the new era of India-US ties.

“Prime Minister Modi was here in the US last September. President Obama became the first President to visit India twice during his presidency. The kind of reception he received at our Republic Day where he was the chief guest is only an endorsement of the fact that…It is a relationship widely endorsed by the people,” he said.

India, Jaitley said, is going through a very transformational change.

“It’s a change where we can see the role ahead of us,” he said.

The role is to strengthen the economy, get rid of several legacies of the past so that the government is able to serve its people the most it can, Jaitley said.

The India-US relationship is stronger than ever, Jaitley said.

The Indo-US partnership now extends to various fields.

Jaitley said, it is not merely a partnership in terms of business activity, or creation of smart cities, or skill development, it is a partnership in strategic areas that impacts the lives of the people of the two nations.

The reception was attended by top administration functionaries like Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Transportation Secretary Anthony Fox and US Trade Representative Mike Froman.

Several powerful American lawmakers, including Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Congressmen Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Committee on Rules Pete Sessions and newly married Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, attended the reception held here.

The US India Business Council Chairman and Master Card CEO Ajay Banga and Honeywell CEO Dave Cote were among the top American corporate leaders to attend the reception.
PTI

The Chhattisgarh CID has registered a murder case in the killing of a minor tribal girl in an alleged fake encounter in 2011, based on the findings of a judicial inquiry into the incident.

“An offence under sections 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC into the case of killing of Meena Khalko has been lodged and a team has been formed to investigate the incident with a fresh view,” Additional Director General of Police (CID) Rajeev Shrivastav told PTI.

The action has been taken following recommendations of a judicial panel constituted to probe the incident that took place in Balrampur district’s Chando police station limits in 2011.

“Total 25 police personnel, including an inspector, were allegedly involved in the incident and charges will be framed against them after the inquiry,” Shrivastav said.

A team led by Assistant Inspector General, CID, Neha Champawat has been sent to Balrampur for further investigation into the case, he said.

Meena, 16, was killed in an alleged encounter by a team of policemen from Chando police station near Karcha village in Balrampur (then Surguja district) on July 6, 2011.

Police had claimed that Meena was a Naxalite and had been killed in retaliation after police party was attacked.

However, Meena’s family members and residents of Nawadih village had denied that any face-off took place that day and had accused the police of staging a fake encounter.

In the wake of allegations and protest by human rights activists, the government had constituted a judicial commission to probe the incident.

The report of the single-member judicial panel, headed by retired District and Sessions Judge Anita Jha, on the incident was tabled in the state cabinet early this month.

The judicial commission in its report has recommended the state government to re-investigate the incident and take necessary action. It has also pointed that police bullet had killed Khalko.

However, it has not clarified whether Meena was a Maoist or she was killed in an encounter.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has received a threat mail on his personal email ID.

Earlier this month, Rajan received a mail with the sender threatening to eliminate him. According to Mumbai Police sources, the email was sent from the ID [email protected].

According to reports, the mail said, “I have been given money by somebody to eliminate you. If you will pay me more than I have been paid, then we can decide on it.”

Mumbai Police has confirmed this development to Headlines Today saying, “Yes it is correct. It could be a mischief, but we are looking into it. The matter is given to the cyber cell officers. They are looking into it.”

The ID starts with Iraq-based terrorist outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). As soon as the email was received, RBI officials alerted the office of the joint commissioner of crime branch.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of the police is looking into it.

Sources say, the CCIC has sent requests to Google in the US to provide them details about the email ID.

Former Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa passed away late Wednesday night. He was 88.

Rashtriya Prajatantra Party’s joint spokesperson Kiran Giri confirmed Thapa’s death, according to the state-owned Nepal Television. Thapa had undergone a surgery at Medanta Hospital in New Delhi, India a few days ago. He was put on a ventilator after he complained of respiratory problems Wednesday evening.

Thapa served as Nepal’s Prime Minister for five times – a record that no other Nepali politician has ever made. In his political career spanning around five decades, he worked under three kings and was an outspoken advocate of the monarchy until the first people’s movement-1990.

However, even after restoration of multi-party democracy, Thapa became Prime Minister twice and also chaired some sessions of the Constituent Assembly (CA), which declared Nepal a republic in 2008, as the eldest lawmaker.

Thapa, who hails from Muga VDC of Dhankuta district, was one of the most influential politicians during the 30-year-long Panchayat system.

His son Sunil Bahadur Thapa is now serving as Minister of Commerce and Supplies.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday returned home from his 56-day unexplained sabbatical which had raised questions over his leadership of the party that is struggling to find its feet after a string of electoral defeats.

The 44-year-old leader arrived here at 11.15 a.m. on a Thai Airways plane from Bangkok, ending days of intense speculation over his return and amidst celebrations by party workers who burst crackers outside his residence.

Wearing a dark shirt and seated in the back seat of his vehicle, he arrived escorted by his security personnel and drove straight into the house without interacting with the waiting mediapersons.

The return of Mr. Gandhi comes ahead of the party’s planned farmers’ rally on the contentious Land Bill issue which he is likely to address.

The plane, which was scheduled to land at 10.35 a.m., was delayed by 40 minutes, sources said. Shortly later, Mr. Gandhi drove to his 12, Tughlaq Lane residence where his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka were waiting.

Mr. Gandhi had left quietly before the Budget session began on February 23 but it is still not known where he had spent the days.

The party had then said that he “requested Congress president Sonia Gandhi for some time to reflect on recent events and future course of the party“.

Ever since the announcement of his temporary break from political life, there has been speculation that he was unhappy with not getting a free hand to run the party, a contention which the party has officially denied.

Mr. Gandhi’s leave had come amid talk of an AICC session, where he was expected to be elevated as Congress president.

During his absence, several party leaders including former chief ministers Amarinder Singh and Sheila Dikshit came out in the open pitching for Sonia Gandhi to continue as president and raised questions over his leadership.

Congress leaders had announced that Mr. Gandhi would be back by April 19 as he would be addressing a farmers’ rally on land bill issue at the Ramlila maidan here on that day.

The rally is being held on the eve of the second phase of the Budget session of Parliament. Mr. Gandhi had skipped the first phase which saw the Congress taking on the government over the land bill issue.

Congress has been performing badly at the hustings, starting with the Lok Sabha elections last year. It was followed by a string of defeats in Assembly elections including in Delhi recently.

Sources also said that plans are underway to organise an interaction of Rahul Gandhi with a delegation of farmers on April 17, two days before he will address the Kisan-Khet Mazdoor rally of the party.

Party leaders on Thursday voiced confidence that Mr. Gandhi will provide leadership with dynamism and commitment and take pro-active measures.

“He is back and I have no doubt that he will be not only taking proactive measures but also with dynamism, with commitment provide leadership,” Congress leader Anand Sharma said, adding that farmers’ issue has been close to Rahul’s heart.

The BJP, meanwhile, took potshots at the Congress vice-president, saying he “ran away” as he had lost all confidence.