After 17 years ofwait and legal entanglements, efforts of Amit Khare,
the then district commissioner of Chibasa in south Bihar whose raid on
the animal husbandry department unearthed the Rs 950 crore fodder scam,
bore fruit on Monday when Lalu Prasad Yadav and others were convicted.
Recounting the raid he conducted on January 27, 1996, Khare, who is now
a joint secretary in the union ministry of human resource development,
says, “We never thought it would turn out to be such a big thing. But
any upright and honest officer would have done the same.”
The 1985-batch IAS officer smelt a rat when he was investigating inputs
from the state finance ministry about irregularities in use of funds at
the district animal husbandry department. His office learnt that the
district animal husbandry department had withdrawn Rs 10 crore and Rs 9
crore twice without giving any details, which was abnormal.
Even after repeated communication, nobody from the the animal husbandry
department responded, which forced Khare to conduct the raid.
“Everybody, including the district animal husbandry officer, had fled
from the office. Bogus bills were scattered all around and none of the
bills was of more than Rs 10 lakh. I immediately sealed the office and
the rest is history,” said Khare
Immediately after the raid, Khare informed the state finance
commissioner, after which raids were conducted in other districts and
the scam was unearthed.
Khare was later transferred to revive the then defunct Bihar State
Labour Corporation. Due to the parliamentary elections in 1996 and his
transfer, Khare did not face any political pressure within the state.
Later, Khare also served as director (primary education) of government
of Bihar; state HRD secretary in Jharkhand; and also as in-charge
vice-chancellor of Ranchi University.
Khare, who was born in Nagpur, completed his schooling in Ranchi and
did graduation in physics (hons) from St Stephen’s College. He completed
his PG in management from IIM Ahmedabad.
“There are many honest officers working in the system and I am sure they are doing great work,” 52-year-old Khare adds.
He is presently holding the charge of joint secretary, International
Cooperation, Book Publishing and Copyrights and Education Policy and
Planning in the Development of Higher Education in the union HRD
ministry. His responsibilities include bilateral as also multi-lateral
dialogues and negotiations as also interacting with UNESCO and WIPO.
Crime
A 14-year-old girl reportedly committed suicide on Tuesday after she was allegedly stalked and humiliated on Facebook by a 16-year-old boy in Mumbai.
The girl ended her life after she was continuously stalked by a boy who posted explicit material on her Facebook page, said a newspaper report.
The Class IX student was a resident of Kandivali West.
The girl's parents called the police that they found her body hanging in the study room.
According to the girl's father, a 16-year-old boy was posting obscene messages on his daughter's Facebook page for the past few days.
He had also gone to a police station to lodge a complaint against the boy.
He also alleged that police did not take any interest in the case and told him to go back without filing any complaint.
A police official said they had identified the boy. He has not yet been arrested.
Bollywood, Crime, Entertainment
Trouble seems to be a never ending chapter in Salman Khan’s
life. As Salman Khan is charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder
in 2002 hit-and-run case, on Tuesday the session court has heard three applications.Regarding the first application where Salman Khan’s made an appeal to the court about unfair media coverage of the case, court orally asked the media for fair reporting of the case.
The court has also heard application for the second plea of activist Santosh Daundkar's plea in which he has asked the court to transfer false evidence case from Bandra to the sessions court. The court rejected his plea saying that it did not have suo moto powers to transfer the case.
Regarding the third plea, the court allowed the intervene of activist Abha Singh's plea to assist the Public Prosecutor only at the final stage.
Advocate Abha Singh is represented in court by her son, Aditya Pratap. Abha Singh conveyed that as a general public, who is not concerned with any criminal case, she still has right to intervene in the court case against Salman Khan. She can prepare notes and can submit written notes to the public prosecutor thus helping him indirectly in his case.
While hearing the arguments, Judge SD Deshpande said that in a criminal case, the role of intervener is limited to submissions of written notes and nothing beyond that.
On the other hand, Salman’s lawyer, Shrikant Shivde feels that advocate Abha Singh has no business in Salman’s case. She just wants to defame the actor. She has already made up her mind that Salman is guilty and so she is trying her level best to defame him.
Shivde told the court, “They are not interested in justice. They have been giving number of interviews to media. If this application is allowed, then 100 people will come in. Today we should have been examining witness, but we are wasting time on this application.” Shivde further said about media coverage that, “We do not want an in camera trial but since beginning, an attempt is being made to pollute the mind of the public.”
September 28, 2002. Salman Khan’s Toyota Land cruiser drove over five people who were sleeping on the footpath near Hill road in Bandra. In this accident, one lost his life and four others were severely injured.
After the accident, Salman Khan drove away in his car and appeared for surrender after eight hours. Eye witnesses said that it was Salman who was driving the vehicle though Salman denies the allegation. Since, he surrendered after eight hours, he and his family maintain the incident as accident though police reported it as hit and run case. Medical report further revealed that Salman was under the influence of alcohol when the incident took place.
Crime, India
Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Mukesh
Singh, Pawan Gupta (L to R) arrive for an appearance at the Delhi High
Court on Sept 24. (AFP)
The court said hearings would start from tomorrow "on a day-to-day basis". It also rejected the plea of the convicts' lawyers for a week's time.
On September 13, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh were sentenced to death by hanging at a fast-track court, for a crime that the judge said had shocked the collective conscience of society. Their lawyers have said they will challenge the verdicts.
During the hearing, advocate V K Anand, representing convict Mukesh, told the court that he will file an appeal within the stipulated time (30 days) given by the trial court. He said the court should hear the reference along with the appeal of the convicts.
Advocate Vivek Sharma, appearing for Pawan, also made a similar request to the bench, saying the court should hear the matter at least after one week. The bench, however, declined their requests.
One of the six men arrested in connection with the attack committed suicide in prison in March; another was a teenager who has been sentenced by a juvenile court to three years in a reform centre.
The trial court has to refer every death penalty case to the High Court for confirmation.
