Monica Bedi may be out soon

Almost five years after her arrest in Portugal, a Bhopal court has acquitted underworld don Abu Salem’s companion Monica Bedi in a fake passport case. As early as this month, Monica may walk out of jail with Supreme Court-imposed conditions. Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM)  Ajay Shrivastava acquitted Monica Bedi, Salem’s estranged friend Siraj and his brother Kabir of all the charges of forgery sections 420, 467, 471 and 12 of the Passport Act.In his 62-page judgement, the CJM observed that the prosecution failed to establish any of the charges it levelled against the accused. Monica was facing two passport forgery cases — one in Hyderabad and the other in Bhopal. In a Hyderabad court she was convicted and given a three-year sentence. However, she went in appeal and the Supreme Court suspended her sentence and granted her bail. But she could not execute the bail bond as she was facing another passport forgery case in Bhopal. She will now be taken to Hyderabad as she was brought to Bhopal on a production warrant. Now that she has been acquitted, she will execute the bail bond in the Hyderabad case. Only then she can walk free.

Explosion injuries

At least 24 people were burnt, 17 of them seriously, after a blast furnace explosion in a private steel plant in Orissa. The mishap occurred at the VISA Steel complex in Kalinga Nagar, the state’s steel hub located in Jajpur district, nearly 150 km from Bhubaneswar. The injuredwere taken to a private clinic in Cuttack.

“After the explosion, gas in a pipe connected to the blast furnace caught fire, worsening the situation,” a company official said.

“All the injured have received burn injuries and are under treatment in the clinic. Every attempt has been made for the best treatment to them,” Jagat Parija, vice-president (corporate) of VISA Steel, told IANS.

Plea rejected

The sentencing of the remaining 24 convicts, including film actor Sanjay Dutt, in the 1993 serial blasts case is likely to resume on Tuesday. The special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court on Monday denied a stay on its earlier order rejecting an application moved by 16 convicts.

The application had challenged the constitutional validity of TADA. The development means sentencing can now resume. The court is likely to start with senior customs officer S.N. Thapa and the planter of an unexploded bomb, Imtiaz Ghavate. Special Judge Pramod Kode has also summoned eight other convicts who had planted bombs at different locations in the city. Judge Kode resumed court last week after an accident at home indisposed him last month.

OBC quota

India’s Supreme Court recently stayed the implementation of 27 a per cent quota for OBCs in Delhi University and the Pune-based Symbiosis International University. Symbiosis, a certified university, had voluntarily decided to implement the OBC reservation from this academic year while Delhi was reluctant students applying for admission to its bachelor courses to indicate if they belonged to OBC category. A bench headed by Justice BN Agrawal also issued notices to the two universities, Centre, All India Council for Technical Education and University Grants Commission. It asked them to respond to the petition filed by Ankit Kumar and Shashank Shekhar of the Youth for Equality. The petitioners said the two universities’ move to implement the OBC quota was illegal in view of the court’s March 29 order staying the implementation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 envisaging 27 per cent OBC quota. Hours before the order on Monday, the Centre moved an application requesting the court to vacate the March 29 stay on the Act’s implementation. A bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan -- which will on Tuesday hear a batch of petitions challenging the 93rd Amendment and the law providing the OBC quota -- agreed to Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium’s request to take up the Centre’s plea with the main case.

Tying with Africa

China has outpaced India in the race for influence in Africa, but India has signaled that it is not about to give up the fight. During his recent visit to Ethiopia, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated an e-network initiative that will enable Delhi to reach out to people in Africa’s 53 countries. The pan-African e-network will allow schools and hospitals across Africa to link up with top institutions in India. The initiative will bring Indian expertise in health care and education to the African people at low cost. Indian diplomats will hope the initiative will earn the Indian public and government goodwill and influence in Africa. India doesn’t necessarily lack for goodwill in Africa, however. India’s cultural and trade ties with the continent go back several centuries, and its support for decolonization and its struggles against apartheid are well known.