Can’t assume act forced: HC clears man of ‘raping’ his 17-year-old lover

Can’t assume act forced: HC clears man of ‘raping’ his 17-year-old lover

Subrata Chattoraj TNN

Kolkata:23.09.2021

The Calcutta high court on Tuesday acquitted a man convicted and jailed for raping a 17-year-old girl he had had a relationship with on the ground that the accused being a male wasn’t “enough to presume that sex between two sufficiently mature persons was forced and not consensual”.

The legal definition of rape or sexual abuse of children “has to be construed as a unilateral act on the part of the accused”, Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya said.

He observed that rather than automatically charging the accused under Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act), it was essential to ascertain “whether the act was unilateral or participatory, along with the level of maturity and psyche of the victim as well as the accused, before convicting the accused under such serious allegations of rape and penetrative sexual assault, which might ruin an otherwise bright career at the bud”.

In November 2015, the accused had been accused of rape by the girl he had been in a relationship with for two-and-a-half years. The girl alleged that the man cajoled her into a sexual relationship by promising marriage. Since the girl was underage when the alleged incident took place, the police slapped both charges under Pocso on the accused. In 2017, a trial court convicted the youth and sent him to prison.

College students race against time to get mandatory shots

College students race against time to get mandatory shots

Ramendra.Singh@timesgroup.com

Bhopal:23.09.2021

After the higher education department has made it compulsory to submit the vaccination certificate to gain entry to the campus, students above 18 years of age are rushing to vaccination centres to get their jabs.

First year classes is to start from October 1. The higher education department has issued guidelines to colleges and universities across the state to ensure that students with first dose of vaccination attend the offline classes. Students and college staff have been asked to submit their certificates of first dose of vaccination without which they will not be able to continue their offline classes.

“I have been sitting home and depending on online classes for almost two years now. I do not want to miss my actual classes on any condition now,” said Sujoy Gupta, a first-year student adding that he is waiting for the second dose date for his second shot. There were even students who took both doses to avoid any problem in attending classes. “I was little casual after first dose of vaccination. However, I have now completed both doses as in its absence it won’t be possible for me to enter the campus,” said second year student Vineet Sharma.

Students even hailed the decision of taking vaccination certificates by the colleges. “It is a good initiative. Even those students who were avoiding vaccination will also have to take it,” said a student Anant Shastri.

Higher education minister Mohan Yadav said that the academic activities of all the universities and colleges of the state have started from September 15, 2021 with physical presence of the students.

“Classes are being conducted with 50% attendance of students,” he said. Yadav added that it will be mandatory for the academic and non-educational staff and students of the college to submit the certificate of first dose vaccination of Covid-19.

A college student gets her Covid-19 vaccine at Katju Hospital in Bhopal

4 convicted in Vyapam police entry scam

4 convicted in Vyapam police entry scam

Bhopal:23.09.2021

A special CBI court on Wednesday convicted four persons in a Vyapam-related case, and sentenced them to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment.

Those convicted have been identified as Pushpendra Singh Jadon, O K Yadav, Manoj Singh Kushwaha and impersonator Shrinivas Singhal. CBI had registered the case on August 5, 2015, in compliance with an SC order after taking over the Vyapam probe from MP STF.

It was alleged that selection of police constables in the 2012 recruitment test, conducted by Vyapam, was done through unfair means. CBI filed the chargesheet on July 28, 2018, in the court of ninth additional sessions judge, CBI Vyapam cases. Those accused included candidates who had allegedly managed their selection in the recruitment test through unfair means and by using impersonators. The court found them guilty and sentenced them. TNN

After two days, daily cases in India cross 30,000 again

After two days, daily cases in India cross 30,000 again

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

23.09.2021

After remaining below 30,000 for the first two days of the week, cases again crossed that mark on Wednesday. Despite this expected increase in cases that happens in the middle of the week, India’s Covid situation has remained quite stable in the past week.

The seven-day average of cases has remained stable for the country as well as for the worst-affected states. Overall, compared to September 15, the average saw a 2.4% increase on Wednesday. From 29,575 cases last Wednesday, the average marginally increased to 30,289.

Kerala saw its seven-day average dip by 3.6% while the decline was 21.6% for Maharashtra. Last Wednesday, the average was 20,079 for Kerala, which reduced to 19,365 this week. The corresponding figures were 3,589 and 2,814 for Maharashtra.

The state that saw the highest spike in the average is Mizoram. From last Wednesday’s 1,023 cases, the average spiked to 1,250 cases – an increase of 22.2%. India reported 31,995 fresh infections and 281 deaths on Wednesday.

CoWin vax certificate foolproof, has all details, say govt officials

CoWin vax certificate foolproof, has all details, say govt officials

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:23.09.2021

The Covid vaccination certificate generated through CoWin is “foolproof ” and linked to the level of the vaccination centre with information validated on the system, top government officials said. Responding to reports that the UK has raised doubts over vaccination certificates, even as it reviewed its order not to recognise Covishieldvaccinated persons, officials said India's digital platform has proved itself. In a recent press conference, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had said the Centre and states have "line data" on those vaccinated, down to names, telephone numbers and addresses.

While reports on the UK's alleged misgivings did the rounds, National Health Authority chief executive R S Sharma, who also heads the CoWin team, said he was unaware of any queries over data. “I am not aware of any concern being raised by any of their (UK) officials over Covid vaccine certificate generated by CoWin. It is an absolutely foolproof certificate with each and every information validated on the system,” Sharma told TOI.

The UK on Wednesday added Covishield to its list of approved Covid jabs for travel to the country. However, confusion persisted as despite recognising Covishield – which accounts for around 88% of the total immunisation in India -- it is not yet on the approved list of 17 countries.

The CoWin system captures the batch number of the vaccine administered to any particular individual, name of the vaccinator, date and time of vaccination along with recipients details. "Few countries have this kind of a robust system," said another senior government official.

In its revised guidelines, UK said formulations of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, including Covishield, would qualify as approved vaccines. It said a traveller must have had a complete course of the approved vaccine at least 14 days before arriving.

The development comes days after India raised strong objections to the non-recognition of Covishield, manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India, by the UK. India called it a “discriminatory policy” that impacted Indian citizens wishing to travel to the UK.

Beneficiaries wait to receive vaccine dose in Patna on Wednesday

Maha guv returns OBC ordinance, raises queries

Maha guv returns OBC ordinance, raises queries

Priyanka Kakodkar and Clara Lewis TNN

Mumbai:23.09.2021

In a new twist in the feud between Maharashtra governor B S Koshyari and the MVA government, the gover nor retur ned the state’s ordinance to provide for the OBC quota in rural local bodies after raising queries. “The governor asked for the Supreme Court to be informed before sending the ordinance to him,” said rural development minister Hasan Mushrif.

The state cabinet on Wednesday decided to re-submit an amended ordinance to governor Koshyari. It also decided to issue another ordinance on the same lines for urban local bodies to provide for OBC quota, apart from reservations for SCs and STs within the 50% quota limit for local bodies. The next hearing of the OBC reservation case in Supreme Court is on Thursday. The state is likely to mention the two ordinances in court.

MVA ministers hit out at at Koshyari for not signing the ordinance. “Ever since this governor came, he has been under influence of the BJP. He should act like the head of the state. If the ordinance had gone through, it would have helped in the upcoming zilla parishad bypolls,” said Mushrif, who belongs to the NCP. “If he does not sign the amended ordinance, it will send the message that BJP is not allowing OBC reservations,” Mushrif said.

OBC affairs minister Vijay Wadettiwar said Koshyari’s decision to return the ordinance was akin to sprinkling salt in the wound of OBCs. “The governor’s advisors seem to want to keep the OBC reservation issue hanging and blame the government,” said Wadettiwar, who belongs to the Congress. The Sena also attacked the governor. “How long does it take for the governor to get legal advice? The BJP should tell us why he has still not approved the 12 nominees the cabinet had approved for the legislative council. According to the law, the governor has to act on recommendations of the cabinet,” said Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

The BJP said the governor was merely acting on the view taken by the state’s law and judiciary department on the OBC ordinance. “The law and judiciary department had opined that SC permission should be taken before issuing the ordinance, so that it would not be rejected in court. The state should have got an opinion from the state advocate general to overrule this view. Without doing this, they sent the ordinance to the governor,” said BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

Full report on www.toi.in

Kamal calls NEET ‘killer exam’, Anbumani dubs it ‘student killer’

Kamal calls NEET ‘killer exam’, Anbumani dubs it ‘student killer’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:23.09.2021

MNM leader Kamal Haasan and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss have demanded that the Centre do away with the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) “to protect social justice”.

While Kamal urged the Tamil Nadu government to wage a legal battle against what he dubbed was ‘uyir kolli’ (killer exam), Anbumani termed the entrance test as “maanavarkolli” (killer of students).

Their demand comes days after the Justice A K Rajan committee report on the impact of NEET was made public by the Tamil Nadu government. The committee made it loud and clear that NEET was an exam “that kills lives” (students). The report has also listed out the adverse impact and revealed that it favoured CBSE students and those who studied in English medium schools.

Kamal insisted that the purpose behind the NEET exam was commercial. “This has been verified as 90% of the medical students, who pass this exam, are trained in private coaching centres. This makes it difficult and puts a question on students who cannot afford to pay for such expensive coaching,” said Kamal Haasan in a statement on Wednesday.

“Since the beginning, I have been saying that commercialisation is behind NEET. The data (in the A K Rajan committee report) has confirmed it,” said the actor-turned-politician. He said NEET would destroy the state medical infrastructure, which is the best in the country.

Anbumani tweeted demanding the Centre do away with NEET. He pointed to Maharashtra Congress leader Nana Patole's letter to CM Uddhav Thackeray demanding scrapping of NEET and said, “It is proof that NEET is anti-social justice” and it is an "early sign that an anti-NEET wave is all set to begin across the nation".

UP IN ARMS: (L-R) Kamal Haasan, Anbumani Ramadoss