Irregularities Unearthed At Annamalai University

Government alleges abuse of power conferred on the varsity’s 

founder as reason for serious malpractices. 

A special audit ordered by the State government following the recent staff unrest and financial crisis in Annamalai University has unearthed large scale irregularities, malpractices and mismanagement in the university’s affairs.

Holding the alleged abuse of powers conferred on the university’s founder responsible for the serious malpractices, the government has warned that necessary changes were required to regulate the exercise of powers and privileges by the founder “to ensure that the university is administered in fulfilment of the purposes for which it was established”.

The audit findings led to the government demanding accountability from the University’s Senate and Syndicate. On Wednesday, a special meeting of the Senate was convened, at which several members demanded that the university be brought under government control.

One shocking revelation found in the audit report is that contributions to provident fund and pension funds amounting to Rs. 178 crore had not been remitted into the respective accounts. Further, the university authorities have diverted Rs. 268 crore from the General Fund, Examination Fund and Distance Education fund to run self-financing courses, which are supposed to be self-sufficient.

Armed with a detailed Inspection Report, the State Higher Education Secretary has shot off a letter to the Annamalai University vice-chancellor and demanded that the audit report be placed before special meetings of the Syndicate and Senate and their opinion and action sought. The State government has given the University’s Syndicate seven days to send a report to the government on the action it has taken or plans to take on the Inspection Report, along with the Senate’s opinion.

“The government is of the view that in spite of receiving grant to the tune of Rs. 42,798.24 lakh [Rs. 427.98 crore] during the period from 1998-99 to 2012-13, the university has landed in serious financial crisis. The serious malpractices have occurred due to gross abuse of powers and privileges conferred on the founder,” said the letter to the Annamalai University Registrar and Vice-Chancellor on March 7.

The government had ordered the special audit under provisions of the Annamalai University Act, following a series of events since November 2012, when the campus near Chidambaram was gripped by an agitation marked by protest meetings and fasts by the Joint Action Council of the Annamalai University Teachers and Staff Associations. A Special Local Fund Audit Team was constituted by a December 14 order.

Other key audit findings were: the University has not adhered to UGC or government norms or statutory provisions regarding appointment, promotion and fixation of pay, often fixing far higher scales of paythan permissible. The recurring financial burden as a result for 2009-10 and 2010-11 alone were Rs. 22 crore. It incurred excess expenditure amounting to Rs. 109.98 crore in 2010-11 alone by way of extra posts under Regular Education, Distance Education and Self-Financing courses, and a cumulative superfluous spending of Rs. 576.35 crore.

Violations of the Tender Transparency Act, which is applicable to the University, were noticed, as between 2008 and 2012, construction work was mostly awarded to Chettinad Builders at rates much above the estimates. The lack of an internal mechanism to oversee financial transactions has led to an overall deficit of Rs. 272 crore in the last 15 years and liabilities amounting to Rs. 238 crore.

When contacted from here, a spokesman for the Annamalai University, declining to be quoted, confirmed receiving the audit report from the government. “We received the audit report very recently and we will go by proper procedures,” he said. He added that members of the Syndicate and Senate would pass on their suggestions to the government, and only thereafter would the institution be able to comment on the issue.

At a special meeting of the University’s Senate on Wednesday, members of the Joint Action Council and several others, including vice-chancellors of other universities and governmentofficials recommended that the University be brought under the government’s control completely.

Members of the Joint Action Council of the University said they had protested many times against the illegal appointments that were being made, but were silenced by the management. “In 2010, some protesters were arrested, after which the teachers were reluctant to protest. In November last year, however, we were told the staff strength will be reduced massively and the salaries cut to meet financial problems,” said C. Subramanian, president of the Annamalai University Teachers' Progressive Association and member of the JAC. “The irregularities and malpractices started way back in the 1990s. Most government policies regarding admissions, reservation and appointments have been overlooked,” said Mr. Subramanian.

The University has 12,500 staff, of which 8,900 are non-teaching staff.

Paying The Price For Bad Management?

By KHALIDA YOUSUF | INNLIVE

A survey by leading UK-based consultancy Auditel has found that 70 per cent of organisations do not have a cost management strategy in place.

The consultancy surveyed 120 business leaders worldwide and less than two per cent of them claim to track costs, or have an on-going programme to do that.

“Most organisations do not have the sophisticated analytical tools to benchmark costs accurately and monitor them after implementing cost savings,” says Chris Allison, Auditel’s managing director.

Autistic Attitude: 'The Boy Who Doesn’t Talk In Class'

By Prashant Munde / INN Bureau

Dear Principal: do you have a problem with an autistic child in your school? On a rainy June morning, a mother in her late thirties sat on a chair in a school corridor trying to convince her five-year-old son to enter a classroom. It was the boy’s first day in school. Aiding the mother was her elder son, a boy of less than 10, who had excused himself from class in the same school. Half an hour passed, but the younger one would not budge. Eventually, a peon had to forcibly carry him in.

Adolescent Girls Count

A global investment and action agenda seeks to put adolescent girls at the centre of development initiatives in developing countries. These girls, say the authors of a new report, form a special category, deserving exclusive attention of the state, donors and NGOs. 

Adolescent girls have so far occupied a marginal position in the discourse on development, which either directs the gender lens on the girl child or on adult women. The awkwardness of adolescent girls' position between childhood and adulthood render them a 'controversy-generating' category which governments and donors have so far been uncomfortable dealing with. Dealing with these girls requires dealing with the fraught areas of gender roles, sexuality and parental domination and control, and many of these define the core of a society's ethos. 

Now, a global investment and action agenda seeks to correct this imbalance and put adolescent girls at the centre of the development agenda in developing countries. The agenda has been put out in a report titled Girls Count, as a combined effort of the Centre for Global Development, Population Council and International Centre for Research on Women. 

At one-eighth of the world's population, young people between 10 and 19 years of age are the fastest growing segment of the world population. Moreover, the poorer a country, the larger is its share of young people. This age group is also the period in which there is a marker divergence in roles of boys and girls and the cultural and social disadvantages of being a girl start becoming obvious. As a girl moves from childhood to puberty and beyond, her roles as a wife, mother, worker and citizen begin to take shape with consequences that have lifelong implications. 

The opportunities, choice and freedom available to boys usually expand while those available to girls undergo many curtailments. As compared to boys, fewer girls go to school, do more domestic work, can go out of home less often, have fewer friends and mentors and have fewer public spaces and leisure activities available to them. Often lacking the right to vote, own property and shun unwanted sexual advances, girls in this age group are a very vulnerable section of the population. In these respects, as on indicators of health, education and labour force participation, girls are considerably behind their male peers. Marriage practices including child marriage and the rule of residence with the husband's family after marriage, etc., increase girls' vulnerability and also do not allow their natal families to appreciate their full potential. 

The report suggests that economic opportunities for women in the future will be substantially greater. In particular, with the reduction of the burden of unpaid domestic work due to improved technological devices, the authors believe young women's labour would increasingly be available to the non-domestic economy. But are large segments of the adolescent and young female population getting exempted from the burden of household work due to availability of household gadgets? This is not clear from the report; in any event, it is hard to imagine which gadgets have made any real difference to the condition of rural women who neither have running water nor electricity to put such appliances to use. 

The broad agenda set out by Girls Count is that development data should be disaggregated by sex and age to make girls clearly visible to policymakers. It recommends strategic and significant investments in programs focused on girls, and demands that rights and benefits be distributed equitably once this segment of the population is clearly identified. 

The report suggests increased government activity in the domain of ensuring legal rights to girls, delivering social services and employment guarantees. Curbing child marriage and ensuring equitable inheritance laws should be major focus in the legal domain. Significantly, the report also recommends compulsory registration of births, and even issuance of an identity card to all children above 12 years. Further, it recommends that education and health services should be proactively delivered to reach the most vulnerable girls. Apart from training young girls for participation in emerging economic opportunities, governments should also address their specific needs for employment keeping in view their more constrained spatial mobility. 

Apart from supporting the above thrust areas, the report further recommends that donor agencies and UN bodies should specifically focus upon prevention of HIV/AIDS, and on promoting post-primary education which is crucial for realizing the full economic potential of young women. The transition from primary to secondary education requires specific attention as adolescent girls are most likely to drop out due to societal pressures during this stage. This issue requires specific attention by way of creation of a gender sensitive learning environment for girls who are either approaching or past puberty. 

Significantly, the report suggests that multinational companies have a vanguard role to play in every country, and urges them to invest in schools for girls. Private employers are urged not to discriminate on grounds of gender, marital status, or pregnancy. In addition to facilitating access to micro-credit, private employers are also urged to facilitate onsite-banking facilities for young women, which allow them to have savings independent of their families. Private companies must also push the state to invest in infrastructure like water and transport, say the authors. This would indirectly help young women by easing their domestic burdens. 

The report envisages a vast role for civil society organisations to further the agenda it lays out. Apart from being pro-active in seeking appropriate policy changes, CSOs are urged to reshape family and community expectations through community sensitisation and social marketing programs. Creating safe spaces for adolescent girls to congregate, share information and ideas and seek support is another task such organisations could fulfill. This would be a crucial step towards enhancing the social and cultural capital available to girls. 

The report has done a good job of highlighting how adolescent girls form a special category, deserving exclusive attention of developmental agencies, whether it is the state, the donors or the NGOs. But it is not clear whether the situation of these girls can change drastically as long as large segments of the population remain economically marginal. 

If the report falls short, it is in not recognising the enormity of some of its recommendations. The authors admit that formal employment opportunities are minimal in most developing countries, but do not dwell upon the immense significance of this for the economic opportunities and conditions of employment for both young men and women. The report also urges civil society groups to organise workers in the informal sector, but the gulf between those employed in the formal and the informal sectors is too vast and significant to be dealt with in this cursory manner. Moreover, while gauging the economic and social opportunities of the marginal sections of the population, it can hardly be ignored that sweeping current trends in globalisation and liberalisation are implicated in widening this gulf.

What Is The Truth Behind Sonia Gandhi’s Trips To The US?

By Rahul Seth | INNLIVE

SPECIAL REPORT Last year in September, a US court had reportedly served a summons to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a human rights violation case related to the anti-Sikh riots of 1984. The summons were served after a group called SFJ (Sikhs for Justice) filed a civil suit in a Brooklyn Federal Court alleging that Mrs Gandhi was guilty of shielding some Congress members who had played an active role in the 1984 riots.

Special Report: This Little-Known 'Hyderabadi Studio' Made The 'Baahubali' A Visual Mega Spectacle

India’s most expensive motion picture, Baahubali, owes its world-class special effects to a very young company.

Makuta, established just five years ago, was the principal studio for S S Rajamouli’s blockbuster film, which consists of 90% computer-generated imagery (CGI) and graphics, with some 4,500-5,000 visual effects (VFX) shots.

Everything about the period drama set in medieval India appears larger than life—including the kingdom of Mahishmati, with its gigantic temples and courtyards, the landscapes comprising mystical waterfalls and mountains, and the epic battles.

Zakir Naik Speeches Pro-Terror, IRF Paid Money To Lure Youth For Conversion: Mumbai Police

By NEWS KING | INNLIVE

No member of the IRF or any other NGO run by Naik was questioned.

In a 71-page report on controversial televangelist Dr Zakir Naik, the Mumbai Police have said his Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) paid anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 50,000 to lure a youth to convert to Islam.

The Unholy 'Nexus' Between India Inc ‘Electoral Trusts’

By Debayan Das | Kolkata

SPECIAL REPORT Money can't really decide elections. But why does India's poll finance remain so murky? An intriguing paradox of contemporary Indian politics has been insufficiently noted: corporate India finances India's elections, substantially if not wholly, but it is unable to determine election outcomes. Money matters, but it is not always electorally decisive.

By now, it has become a well known fact that Electoral Trusts play a very significant role in the funding of both national and regional political parties that make use of these funds. And now, as the general election of 2014 is knocking on the door, the number of electoral trusts, set up by the top corporate houses, is also getting bigger.

WILL 'MARUTI' BECOME 'TATA MOTORS' IN GUJARAT?

By Poonam Mondal / Ahmedabad

Narendra Modi’s political strategy may be working wonders for him, but definitely not his business strategy.

According to a report, discontent is brewing in 44 villages covering 126,000 acres of land in the Mandal Becharaji belt, which has been notified as special investment region (SIR).

SIRs are similar to special economic zones, but units established here are not just export-oriented. Apart from commercial and industrial units, such regions can also house residential areas and offer logistic connectivity.

Access To Health: Nowhere Near To Being A Healthy Nation

-----------------------------
SPECIAL REPORT
------------------------------

The out-of-pocket health expenditure by the poor is spiraling and the government spending on public health care is reducing. The existing public health programes and insurance schemes are failing; private health care sector is not properly regulated; INNLIVE finds the health of our nation worrisome.

Despite our efforts and best wishes, our modus vivendi, work atmosphere and environment often lead to situations where we have to consult medics and get treatment. The Country Cooperation Strategy brief of the World Health Organization (WHO) informs that India accounts for 21 percent of the world’s global burden of disease.

Telangana IPS officer in trouble? News report alleges serious abuse of power

Tension is brewing between a newspaper and an IPS officer from Telangana. This after the newspaper  claimed to have accessed a report that makes serious allegations against the police officer.

In a piece for The New Indian Express on Thursday, Vikram Sharma reported that an enquiry by the Telangana State Intelligence Department had made several charges against IPS officer Tejdeep Kaur Menon, Director General, Special Protection Force.

Quoting the intelligence report, TNIE claims that Tejdeep was involved in misappropriation of funds meant for the Swachh Hyderabad programme and also harassed hundreds of Telangana SPF employees, including 32 posted at her house.

According to the report, these officers were allegedly used as "drivers, carpenters, cooks, attenders, gardeners and others."

The report also alleges that she showed favouritism to Andhra personnel, while also "deliberately delaying the process of distribution of SPF personnel between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by refusing to relieve AP-native personnel." 

Lastly, TNIE also reported that "a water tanker from the SPF academy, Ameenpur, makes 150 trips to Tejdeep’s residence every month and she was faking all bills."

Tejdeep was promoted to her present post in May last year. Before that, she had served as Additional Director General, (Sports), for the combined Andhra Pradesh Government.

She is known locally, for attempting to make the Ameenpur Panchayat, garbage-free, while also taking steps to clean the Ameenpur lake.

In a rejoinder to the TNIE report, Tejdeep issued the following statement: 

"The allegations about internal organizational and resource matters of what is a security organization coupled with imputed motives of working against the interests of the Telangana state are tenuous and baseless...It is apparent that the report was written and published only to tarnish my name and reputation. The reports are highly slanderous and intended to malign the work that the TSSPF and I are involved in...The report is per se defamatory as it is a deliberate attempt to needlessly, or at the behest of some, to project me in the darkest light possible and to scandalize me in public and tar my reputation."

The INNLive reached out and spoke to both, the TNIE reporter and the IPS officer in question. Both of them assured that they would revert shortly, but did not.

The copy will be updated if and when they respond. 

Special Report: Why Blame Mufti On 'Masarat Alam', When BJP Wooed 'Separatists'?

The saffron party allegedly reached out to NDFB insurgents in Assam during the Lok Sabha elections.

It is very easy to adopt a hardline national interest view and hurl fire and brimstone at Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for ordering the release of Masarat Alam, supposedly the architect of the 2010 protests.

The BJP, being part of the ruling coalition in Jammu and Kashmir, is party to the government's decision to release Alam.

Special Report: Cows Are Dying Mysteriously In India And A New Vaccine Might Be To Blame

The Ministry of Agriculture has ordered an investigation into the three companies manufacturing foot and mouth disease vaccine.

The major outbreak of foot and mouth disease last year, that killed thousands of cattle in India’s five southern states, may have been caused by the use of substandard vaccines, says a new report.

A team of scientists from the Chaudhary Charan Singh National Institute of Animal Health in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, tested samples from 52 batches of vaccine provided to the Foot and Mouth Disease Control Programme by three companies.

Special Report: Who Among India’s Young Are Likely To Become Modern Slaves?

India has the largest youth population as well as the highest number of people trapped in forced labour and trafficking.

Last month, the United Nations Population Fund released its State of the World’s population report. At the same time, an international activist group, the Walk Free Foundation, released its Global Slavery Index 2014, which estimates the global extent of forced labour, human trafficking and other forms of slavery. In both reports, India gets the highest rankings.

Sardar Sarovar Project: NaMo Narmada, Who Gains, What?

By Himanshu Upadhyaya (Guest Writer)

As elections draw closer, state rhetoric over the Sardar Sarovar dam heightening project is slowly reaching a crescendo as evident from various media reports, but who will finally benefit from the moves on the ground?

Even as The Indian Express reports on the steadily rising water storage in the Sardar Sarovar Dam over the river near Kevadiya in Gujarat, farmers who have been waiting for the last three decades for Narmada waters to irrigate their farms intensify the stir.

Special Report: A Story Of 'Bhang' And 'Hangover' In India

From the Vedas to Holi today, bhang has been a key part of Indian life and culture.

What coffee was to the American television sitcom, Friends, the cannabis drink bhang was to Hindi’s greatest satirical novel, Raag Darbari. Set in an Uttar Pradesh village during the 1960s, bhang is ubiquitous in the novel and even the children of the village, some of whom are too poor to even know what milk tastes like, are familiar with it.

Special Report: The Great Drain Robbery

India has lost nearly a half-trillion dollars in illegal financial flows out of the country, says a new study by Global Financial Integrity. P Sainath writes.

India is losing nearly Rs.240 crores every 24 hours, on average, in illegal financial flows out of the country. The nation lost $213 billion (roughly Rs.9.7 lakh crores) in illegal capital flight between 1948 and 2008. However, over $125 billion (Rs.5.7 lakh crores) of that was lost in just this decade between 2000-2008, according to a study by Global Financial Integrity (GFI). These "illicit financial flows," says GFI, "were generally the product of corruption, bribery and kickbacks, criminal activities and efforts to shelter wealth from a country's tax authorities."

GFI is a programme of the Center for International Policy, Washington D.C. It is a non-profit research and advocacy body that "promotes national and multilateral policies, safeguards, and agreements aimed at curtailing the cross-border flow of illegal money."

In just five years from 2004-08 alone, the country lost roughly Rs.4.3 lakh crores to such outflows. That is - nearly two and a half times the value of the 2G telecom scam now exercising Parliament and the media. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pegs the 2G scam at almost Rs.1.8 lakh crores.

Accounting for the rate of return on those illegal outflows, the present value of that $213 billion reaches $462 billion (Rs.21 lakh crores) says GFI. Astonishingly, over $96 billion of that amount left the country between 2004 and 2008. As the report's author, Dev Kar, says, "India is losing capital at an average rate of $19.3 billion per annum ... India can ill afford to ignore such a loss of capital."

As the report puts it: "Had India managed to avoid this staggering loss of capital, the country could have paid off its outstanding external debt of $230.6 billion (as of end-2008) and have another half left over for poverty alleviation and economic development."

At the 2004-08 pace (if it has not gone up), the economy is haemorrhaging at a rate of nearly Rs.240 crores every day on average. And even the total $462 billion, says GFI Director Raymond W. Baker in a letter prefacing the report, is "a conservative estimate. It does not include smuggling, certain forms of trade mispricing and gaps in available statistics." Factor these in, and "it is entirely reasonable to estimate that more than a half-trillion dollars have drained from India since independence."

The study

The GFI study is titled "The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008." Authored by Dr. Kar, formerly a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and now Lead Economist at the GFI, it defines 'illicit flows' as "comprised of funds that are illegally earned, transferred, or utilised - if laws were broken in the origin, movement, or use of the funds then they are illicit." Such fund transfers are not recorded in the country of origin for they typically violate that nation's laws and banking regulations.

So massive are these illegal outflows, says the study, that the "total capital flight represents approximately 16.6 per cent of India's GDP as of year-end 2008." Its estimate falls far short of the $1.4 trillion figure cited in the India media prior to the 2009 general elections. But, says the report, "the figure still represents a staggering loss of capital." Illegal flight of capital, it says, "worsens income distribution, reduces the effectiveness of external aid, and hampers economic development."

That does seem an obvious outcome in a country where according to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), 836 million human beings live spending Rs.20 a day or less.

The illegal outflows also account for most of India's parallel economy. "The total value of (such) illicit assets held abroad represents about 72 per cent of the size of India's underground economy which has been estimated at 50 per cent of India's GDP (or about $640 billion at end-2008) by several researchers. This implies that only about 28 per cent of illicit assets of India's underground economy are held domestically." It also strengthens arguments that "the desire to amass wealth without attracting government attention is one of the primary motivations behind the cross-border transfer of illicit capital."

The GFI study makes two vital points amongst others that will surely stoke ongoing debates in the country. One: the drain bloated massively in the era of economic liberalisation and reforms starting with 1991. Two: "High net-worth individuals and private companies were found to be the primary drivers of illicit flows out of India's private sector." Conversely, "India's underground economy is also a significant driver of illicit financial flows."

Tax havens

As Mr. Baker says: "What is clear is that, during the post-reform period of 1991-2008, deregulation and trade liberalisation have accelerated the outflow of illicit money from the Indian economy. The opportunities for trade mispricing have grown, and expansion of the global shadow financial system accommodates hot money, particularly in island tax havens.

"Disguised corporations situated in secrecy jurisdictions enable billions of dollars shifting out of India to "round trip," coming back into short and long-term investments, often with the intention of generating unrecorded transfers again in a self-reinforcing cycle." Interestingly, the points about high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and corporates and 'mispricing' take the debate way beyond the clichéd 'corrupt politician' explanation.

Lauds reform

The report, while stressing these factors, says that given the limitations of available data, it found "scant evidence that imprudent macroeconomic policies drove illicit flows from the country." It lauds the post 1991-reform era. And praises Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for launching "India's free market reforms that saved the country," in its view, "from financial ruin and placed it on a path to sustained economic growth." On the role of macroeconomic policies in the outflows, it says there is yet work to be done, data to be generated.

But its own evidence on how the outflows escalated post-1991 is pretty damning. And India's liberalisation itself - in which period the GFI study records the greatest drain - was about a sea change in macroeconomic policies. The study notes a rise in inequality in the reform period. And acknowledges, in its summary, that "A more skewed distribution of income implies that there are many more HNWIs in India now than ever before." It implies that governance issues, deregulation without new oversight and a complex web of other factors were more to blame.

GFI calls for measures that would require country-by-country reporting of sales, profits and taxes paid by multinational corporations. It recommends India should curb 'trade mispricing.' Because "transfers of illicit capital through trade mispricing account for 77.6 per cent of total outflows from India over the period 1948-2008." It advises steps that would require automatic cross-border exchange of tax information on personal and business accounts. And actions that would harmonise vital matters under anti-money laundering laws across nations.

Did Home Ministry Sit On Crucial Info That Could Have Prevented Hyderabad Twin Blasts?

Every time terror strikes the country, questions over failure of intelligence and information sharing crop up. Thursday's twin blasts in Hyderabad may well be yet another such instance. Did the Home Ministry sit on crucial information? CNN-IBN accessed a key interrogation report of an Indian Mujahideen (IM) suspect where he confessed to doing a recce of Dilsukh Nagar in 2012.

Four months ago, Delhi police had arrested a suspected IM operative Maqbool who informed the interrogators about a possible blast in Hyderabad. Maqbool and his associates conducted a recce in three areas of Hyderabad on a motorcycle. The areas included Dilsukh Nagar, Begum Bazaar and Abids in Hyderabad. He also provided details of who all he was in contact with locally and how he trained many in assembling bombs using urea, diesel and cracker powder.

The suspect even told interrogators that they wanted to prepare IEDs so that blasts can be triggered near theatres. Maqbool and his associates were involved in explosions in Hyderabad and Nanded.

Significantly, Thursday's twin blasts took place near two old city theatres - Konark and Venkatadri. The police's interrogation report also states that Maqbool was an associate of the Riyaz Bhatkal and his targets included Bodh Gaya in Bihar. The report states his involvements in blasts in Lamba theatre in Secunderabad in 2000. Sharda theatre in Maharashtra's Nanded in the year 2000 and blast in Lal Darwaza area of Hyderabad in the same year.

This interrogation report now raises a big question mark - was all this was shared with Hyderabad Police and whether the fresh inputs Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde spoke of were different from what was already known four months ago. Or, was this an intelligence failure again?

Here's the full text of the Delhi Police Special Cell interrogation report:

• The Special Cell, Delhi Police had busted an Indian Mujahideen Module with the arrest of four persons, namely, Asad Khan (aged 33 years) r/o Tawakkal Nagar, Naigaon, Distt. Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Imran Khan (aged 31 years) r/o Peer, Bhurahan Nagar near Masjid-e-Saalehind, Nanded, Maharashtra, Sayed Feroz @ Hamza (aged 38 years) r/o Shukarwarpath, Pune, Maharashtra and Landge Irfan Mustafa (aged 30 years) s/o Landge Mustafa Usman r/o Raj Nagar Dargah, Darya Road, Mukund Nagar, Ahmed Nagar, Maharashtra and explosives, detonators and other incriminating material had been recovered. With their arrest the serial blasts of 1stAugust, 2012 were worked out.
• Sustained interrogation of the accused arrested by us revealed that a person, namely, Sayed Maqbool @ Zuber, S/o Syed Haji, R/o Samtam Nagar, Near Madina Masjid, Dharmabad, Nanded, Maharashtra was in close association with them and together they planned to commit fiyadeen attacks on the Buddhist shrines in Bodh Gaya in Bihar as retaliation to the alleged atrocities being committed upon Muslims in Myanmar. Their plan had the approval and support of the Bhatkal brothers. Sayed Maqbool was arrested after great deal of efforts on 23rd October 2012 from Hyderabad where he had been hiding to evade his arrest.
• Maqbool came in contact with Imran through a common friend. The latter introduced Maqbool to Asad and Irfan. Maqbool taught them how to make a bomb by using urea, diesel and fire cracker powder at Asad's farmhouse in Aurangabad. In April 2012, Imran introduced Maqbool to the Bhatkal brothers. Before the Pune serial blasts of 1st August, Maqbool, Irfan, Imran and Asad had discussed their plan of carrying out a fidayeen attack on Buddhist shrines at Bodh Gaya, Bihar. Since Bhatkals wanted to avenge the death of Qateel Siddiqui, they decided to carry out bomb blasts at Pune first.
• About a month before Ramzan in 2012, Maqbool helped Imran in doing a recce of Dilkhush Nagar, Begum Bazar and Abids in Hyderabad on a motorcycle. This was done on the instruction of Riyaz Bhatkal.
• Maqbool began his criminal career along with one Azam Gauri @ Aleem r/o Warangal, Andra Pradesh (killed in a police encounter in 2000). His first criminal act was the murder of Krishna Moorthy (FIR No. 220/1999, u/ss. 302/120-B/34 IPC read with sec. 25/27 Arms Act, PS Bodhan, District Nizamabad in which he has been convicted for life. However, he was released from jail in October 2009 after commutation of his sentence.
• His next criminal act was the murder of one Devender (Case FIR No. 195/1999, u/ss. 302/120-B/34 IPC read with ss. 25/27 Arms Act, PS CID, Andhra Pradesh), who had allegedly encroached on a Masjid land in Uppal, A.P.
• Maqbool was also involved in the murder of Mahaveer Prasad (Case FIR No. 172/2000, u/ss. 302/34 read with s. 6 Explosive Substances Act, PS Afzal Ganj, Hyderabad City), a jeweller. Here the motive was robbery.

Maqbool was instrumental in the formation of IMMM (Indian Muslim Mohammadin Mujahidin; a terrorist organization) at village Mancharia in 1999 alongwith Azam Gauri and Roshan Baig. They worked under the garb of social reformists by showing that their objectives were -

(1) To stop dowry system in society.

(2) To fight against corruption and

(3) To stop pornographic films.

Azam Gauri had taught Maqbool how to prepare IEDs so that they can cause blasts in those theatres where blue films were being shown.

Maqbool alongwith others were involved in the following bomb blast cases:

• Bomb blast at Kaketiya Hotel, Lal Darwaza (FIR No. 01/2000, u/ss. 4/5 Explosive Substances Act, PS Moghalpura, District Hyderabad City)
• Blast at Sharda theatre (FIR No. 28/2000, u/ss. 307/120-B IPC read with ss. 3/4/5 Explosive Substances Act, PS Itwara, District Nanded.
• Blast in Lamba Theatre, Secunderabad (FIR No. 31/2000, u/s. 120-B IPC read with ss. 4/5/6 Explosive Substances Act, PS Begumpet, Secunderabad, Hyderabad City,
• Blast in the House of Azam Ghori while preparing IEDs. (FIR No.28/1998 u/s 307 IPC read with Sec. 3/4/5 Explosive Substances Act, PS Dharmabad, District Nanded.
• Other cases in which he is involved are as below:-
• FIR No. 39/2000, u/ss. 120-B/153-A IPC, PS CID, Andhra Pradesh (a case of conspiracy).
• FIR No. 28/2000, u/s. 25 Arms Act, PS Dharmabad, District Nanded (recovery of fire arms only).
• Maqbool is also close to Abdul Rauf, r/o Shahidabad (leader of AIMIM - All Indian Majlis Itehad-ul Muslimi, a political party) and one Nashruddin. Both Abdul Rauf and Nashruddin have been involved in Hiren Pandya murder case of the year 2003. Maqbool was appointed as the Dharmabad District President of AIMIM by Abdul Rauf.
• Further investigation is going on.

Why Intel Agencies Are Wary Of Hiring Muslims And Sikhs?

SPECIAL REPORT: In the third year of UPA-2, the then prime minister Manmohan Singh called a meeting of top officials of the Special Protection Group (SPG), the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to seek advice on whether the representation of Muslims in the intelligence agencies could be increased, whether they should be allowed to join RAW and whether to end the ban on the entry of Sikhs and Muslims into SPG. The officers reportedly pointed out that any such move would be risky. They asked who would take the blame if something went wrong after the established system was tinkered with. Nothing came out of that meeting and the issue was never raised again.

Intelligence agencies in India have long followed an unwritten ‘no entry’ policy for Muslims (though there have been a few Muslim officers in the IB), while Sikhs are banned from SPG, formed in 1984 to provide security to the prime minister, and the National Security Guard (NSG), the elite anti-terror force functioning under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. “This is not a new policy. There have been no Muslim officers in RAW since its formation in 1969,” says a former RAW officer. “It has its own reasons for following this policy.”

Why PMO Is Protecting The Uusecured 'Defaulters'?

By Rajinder Puri / New Delhi

Recall the Oil for Food scam probed by the UN appointed Volcker Committee which submitted its report seven years ago.  Natwar Singh was sacked from the cabinet for alleged involvement in that deal after the Justice Pathak Commission probing the deal submitted its report. One would like to refresh the reader’s memory by what appeared in the article "Can Corrupt Politicians Preserve Freedom?" on August 15, 2006.

One wrote: “The Pathak Report most conveniently dovetailed with the political objectives of the Congress.  Natwar Singh "misused" his position but took no money. Therefore he deserved cabinet expulsion but no legal conviction.