Mumbai, September 4

Lieutenant Colonel Prasad Purohit, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case, has filed a fresh petition in the Bombay High Court seeking that the charges against him be quashed.

Purohit was doing his job as a military intelligence officer and was “framed” in the case, his lawyer and former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told the high court on Friday.

The petition also contended that the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the prosecuting agency, did not seek a prior sanction under the Code of Criminal Procedure to prosecute him, though he was a serving Army officer.

Arguing before a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik, Rohatgi said that Purohit had been working for the Army’s military intelligence unit.

He attended conspiracy meetings before the 2008 Malegaon blast while “discharging his duties” as an intelligence officer, the senior counsel said.

Hence the NIA should have sought a prior sanction under Section 197 of the CrPC to prosecute him, Rohatgi argued. Section 197 makes it mandatory to obtain a sanction from the government before public servants are prosecuted.

The Army reinstated Purohit in 2017 after the Supreme Court granted him bail, Rohatgi pointed out, adding that the apex court had noted in bail order that Purohit attended conspiracy meetings as part of discharging his duties.

“His job was to infiltrate meetings of religious fanatics and report to the Army. He was framed in the case and spent eight years in jail until the SC granted him bail,” Rohatgi said.

The NIA, in its affidavit opposing Purohit’s plea, has claimed that while attending the conspiracy meetings, he was not working for the Army, so no sanction was required for his prosecution.

The trial court as well as the high court had in the past rejected his plea seeking discharge, and a criminal appeal seeking similar relief is already pending before the high court, so he can not file a fresh plea, the NIA said.

The high court granted Purohit’s lawyers time to respond to the NIA’s affidavit and posted the matter for hearing on September 23.

Purohit had argued earlier too that he attended the blast conspiracy meetings in Faridabad and Bhopal while doing his job as an intelligence officer with his superiors’ permission.

Six people were killed and 100 injured when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle went off near a mosque at Malegaon in north Maharashtra on September 29, 2008. As per the investigators, the bike belonged to co-accused and BJP MP Pragya Thakur. PTI

New Delhi, September 4

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe for over two hours in Moscow on Friday in the first highest-level contact after border tension erupted in Ladakh in May as the Indian leader said peace and security in the region demanded a climate of trust, non-aggression, peaceful resolution of differences and respect for international rules.

Read also: 

• Diplomatic options
• Won’t allow unilateral LAC change: Army
• De-escalation must for normal ties: India 

Indo-Russian maritime drill begins near Malacca strait

The navies of India and Russia on Friday started the 11th edition of exercise ‘Indra Navy’, a biennial bilateral maritime event. The exercise was conducted west of the Strait of Malacca. The exercise is aimed at enhancing interoperability, improving understanding and imbibing best practices between the two navies.

Rajnath’s comments, seen as a veiled message to China ahead of his bilateral talks with Wei, came at a meeting of the Defence Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Russian capital.

According to Indian Government sources, the bilateral meeting was requested by the Chinese Defence Minister. Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and Indian Ambassador to Russia DB Venkatesh Varma were part of the Indian delegation at the talks that began around 9.30 pm at a Moscow hotel and ended at 11.50 pm.

At the SCO meeting, Rajnath said “a peaceful, stable and secure region of the SCO member states – which is home to over 40 per cent of the global population — demands a climate of trust and cooperation, non-aggression, respect for international rules and norms, sensitivity to each other’s interests and a peaceful resolution of differences”.

The minister suggested the need for institutional capacity to deal with both traditional and non-traditional threats, above all, terrorism, drug-trafficking and transnational crime. “India unequivocally condemns terrorism in all forms and manifestations, and condemns its proponents. India values the works of SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure,” Rajnath said.

He said India was committed to the evolution of a global security architecture which would be open, transparent, inclusive, rules-based and anchored in international laws.

Meanwhile, the navies of India and Russia on Friday started the 11th edition of exercise ‘Indra Navy’, a biennial bilateral maritime event. The exercise was conducted west of the Strait of Malacca. — TNS

New Delhi, September 4

Army Chief General MM Naravane during his two-day visit to Ladakh made it clear that the force would ensure the status quo along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh was not unilaterally changed by the People’s Liberation Army of China.

Keeping in view the tense situation along the LAC, the Army has undertaken precautionary deployment in some areas. General Naravane today returned to Delhi from Leh where he met a section of troops and commanders. He asked all ranks to maintain high operational readiness.

Meanwhile, Brigadier-level officers of India and China met today for the fifth consecutive day at Chushul. — TN

Gopeshwar, September 3

The yatra to the Hemkund Sahib in Uttarakhand began on Thursday and the first batch of pilgrims was flagged off at Govindghat.

The Sikh shrine in Garhwal Himalayas will open for devotees on Friday.

Only a limited number of devotees led by ‘Panj Pyaras’ were allowed to proceed for the high altitude shrine amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Gurdwara Prabandhan Samiti officials said.

The pilgrims were gifted ‘saropas’ as per the custom, they said, adding that they will stop for the night at Ghanghariya.

The yatra is beginning late by three months this year due to the pandemic. PTI

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

With all existing peace agreements on managing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China having been breached, whatever little sanctity attached to the un-demarcated boundary is under serious threat.

Breach of agreements

• Don’t confront patrols in disputed areas, show a banner and retreat

Reality: Troops of both sides are now within rifle-shot range of each other

• Don’t tail patrols

Reality: Both sides have had casualties in clashes

• Control over aircraft flying

Reality: LAC seeing unprecedented activity by copters, fighter jets

• Resolve local issues at border meeting points

Reality: Till now, no impact of border meetings

Since 1993, there have been a series of peace agreements which maintained the LAC sanctity, but all of them have been violated by China over the past four months.

Military-level talks have so far ended in deadlock and armies of both nuclear-armed countries are making pre-emptive moves across the 826-km frontier in Ladakh. The Indian assessment is clear — the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China is

trying to alter the status of the LAC and is not open to reasoning. India’s plan for the short term is restoration of the April status quo ante while its long-term strategy demands demarcating the LAC on ground.

Since May this year, the PLA has been making a westward push to capture more territory. The PLA first prevented Indian patrols in ‘grey areas’ – the points where the perception of the LAC varies and both have been making claims and counter-claims.

“The situation is by far more serious than that in 1962,” said a functionary referring to the India-China war that year. This time, forces on either side are backed by latest technology such as satellite imagery, UAVs, long-range guns, missile launchers, fighter jets and radars.

After months of negotiations having yielded nothing, the PLA made another westward movement on August 29-30 night. The Indian Army quickly rushed to occupy mountain tops along a 70-km stretch on the southern bank of Pangong Tso, a 135-km glacial lake. The PLA had done the same on the northern bank of the lake when it prevented Indian movement east of Finger-4, a mountain ridge.

The LAC is at present not demarcated, but is assessed by the area under the control of troops of each country.

China has been rejecting every proposal to define the boundary in the last 174 years, or since 1846.

The British made five different proposals to define the boundary in 1846-47, 1865, 1873, 1899 and 1914, but China rejected all of them.

In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested demarcation of the LAC. China wanted special representatives (National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi) to resolve the issue. The talks are going on.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

The latest data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has revealed that 104 personnel of the paramilitary forces lost their lives in 2019 due to accidents, as the figures stand at 2,006 in the past six years.

A break-up of the data for 2019 indicates that at least two personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), which work under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), died in accidents every week.

Of the total 2,006 such fatalities in the past six years, the maximum of 1,232 died in 2014 and the minimum of 104 each in 2018 and 2019.

Fourteen personnel were killed in action in 2019. As on January 1, 2019, the CAPF had an actual strength of 9,23,800 personnel.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 3

Russia has assured India that it will not supply arms to Pakistan during an India-Russia meeting in Moscow on Thursday evening.

In the past, Russia supplied half a dozen helicopters to Pakistan that was objected by India and the supplies were suspended. Russia is the largest supplier of weapons and equipment to India, including the lease of a classified nuclear submarine.

Moscow also assured that it stands by New Delhi’s security interests at a wider level.

The discussions were part of an hour-long meeting the Indian delegation led by Rajnath Singh had with the Russian delegation led by Defence Minister Gen Sergey Shoigu.

The two sides also discussed the making of a new type of rifle, the AK203, in India. Both sides said the discussions were at an advanced stage for the establishment of an India-Russian joint venture for the production of the rifle, which is considered one of the most modern weapons available for infantry forces.

Besides, the two countries started a vital two-day “Indra” naval exercise to be conducted off the Straits of Malacca on September 4 and 5. At the meeting, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh noted “these exercises demonstrated the common interests of both countries in maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region”.

The Indian delegation comprised Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and other senior officials. Singh will also attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation here on Friday.