Sunday, July 29, 2012

A corporator from Shivaji Nagar, Sheikh Mohammed Firaz Iqbal Sheikh, was arrested by the Anti Corruption Bureau

Corporator in ACB net for extorting ` 30,000

A corporator from Shivaji Nagar, Sheikh Mohammed Firaz Iqbal Sheikh, was arrested by the Anti Corruption Bureau for allegedly demanding money from a private bus operator.
According to the police, Sheikh was caught red-handed while accepting Rs30,000 from an employee of the bus service company near Diamond Garden in Chembur. A person identified as Mohammed Naseem Siddique Kazmi has also been arrested as he was present with the corporator during the incident.
The accused was allegedly harassing the bus operator when their buses entered Mumbai. After a few days, the owner of the company realised that his buses were targeted to extract money.
The accused, an elected corporator from Ward No 130 in the Shivaji Nagar area, had given instructions to the octroi officer to check all the buses of the company.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The accused is absconding for one year; how do I ensure his presence?

The accused is absconding for one year; how do I ensure his presence?

Q: I am a senior citizen and filed a case against one of my creditors who issued me a cheque that bounced due to insufficient funds. The case was filed in 2011, and summons and warrants were issued by the honourable court. After the service of the warrants, the accused came to the court once and cancelled the warrant. Thereafter, he has never remained present. On the last date, even his advocate withdrew his vakalatnana stating that he is not getting any instructions from the accused and the warrant issued by the court is pending execution as the accused is not to be traced. My case has been pending for the past one year without any results. Is there any other way by which I can ensure that the accused remains present in court?
—Sadasivan

A: The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (CrPC), which governs the procedure to be followed in a criminal trial does provide for such situations under section 82- 86.
As per the provisions of section 82 of the CrPC, if any Court has reason to believe that any person against whom a warrant has been issued by it has absconded or is concealing himself so that such warrant cannot be executed, the court may publish a written proclamation requiring him to appear at a specific place at a specified time not less than 30 days from the date of publishing such proclamation. Such a proclamation shall be published by publicly reading it at some conspicuous place of the town or village in which such person ordinarily resides or by affixing a copy thereof to some conspicuous part of the house in which such person ordinarily resides/or to some conspicuous place of such village or town or by affixing a copy thereof to some conspicuous part of the courthouse, or by publishing the proclamation in a daily newspaper circulating in the place in which such person ordinarily resides.
Further section 83 of the CrPC provides that the court issuing the proclamation may, at any time after the issue of proclamation, order the attachment of any property, movable or immovable, or both, belonging to the proclaimed person. The attached property shall then be, subject to the provisions of section 84 and 85 of CrPC, at the disposal of the state government and can be sold.
Thus, it will be seen that in addition to the provisions of summons and warrants, CrPC provides for ‘proclamation and attachment’ to compel the attendance of an accused person before the court.
In your case, you may instruct your advocate to move such an application under sections 82 and 83 of the CrPC to compel the attendance of the accused.

Q: My wife and I had filed a petition for mutual divorce under 13B at the Bandra family court. However, after contemplation I feel there is still hope to save our marriage and I am not in favour of the divorce. I would like to withdraw my consent. Can I withdraw my consent after filing the petition? I signed the petition and confirmed that I wanted the mutual divorce. Will my backing off create any legal problems for me?
—Nitin

A: From the analysis of the section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, it will be apparent that by just filing a petition with mutual consent does not authorise the court to make a decree for divorce. There is a period of waiting from six to 18 months. This interregnum was obviously intended to give time and opportunity to the parties to reflect on their move and seek advice from relatives and friends. In this transitional period, one of the parties may have a second thought and change their mind of not proceeding with the petition. There is nothing in the section which prevents such course. Under section 13B, the court cannot pass a divorce decree at the instance of one of the parties and against the consent of the other.

Health officials crack down on bogus docs

Health officials crack down on bogus docs

Alarmed by the sharp increase in the number of bogus medical practitioners providing ‘treatment’ to unsuspecting patients, officials from the district health office (DHO) have been conducting continuous raids on such quacks, with the help of police officials.

This follows the government resolution (GR) issued by the Medical Education and Food and Drugs Department of the state government in the year 2000. According to statistics available with the DHO, they have booked as many as 67 bogus doctors practicing in the district as of May, 2012. Cases were registered against 40 doctors, while 11 are sub judice. Similarly, 15 doctors, who were carrying on their businesses illegally, have shut down their clinics after the DHO initiated action.

“As per the GR, every district administration has been asked to form a district-level review committee, which will ensure that strict action is taken against such quacks. This committee has to meet at regular intervals, and plan a proper line of action to arrest these fraudsters. This committee is headed by the district collector with the officials from the health, police and other departments as the members,” an official from district health office said, on condition of anonymity.

In its meeting held on June 18, the DHO tabled a detailed statistical data of the quacks operating in the district, following which the committee passed a directive to take stricter action against the offenders.

“Besides giving proper guidelines on how to go about this ongoing process of arresting bogus doctors who ply their ‘trade’ from small and crowded areas by taking rooms or shops on rent, the committee was of the opinion that the landlords who let out their premises to such illegal professionals should first verify their credentials. They (the owners) should contact the local primary health centre, and check the authenticity of these medical practitioners by verifying their documents and other certificates. If any landlord lets out his premises to such quacks without checking the papers, action will be taken against him,” the official added.

Of the 67 fake doctors arrested in the district in the first five months of 2012, Palghar taluka was found to have a maximum of 19, while 18 cases were registered at Murbad taluka. No such cases were found in Jawhar, Wada, Talasari, Vasai and Ambernath talukas. The DHO had registered 128 cases against bogus doctors during the same period in 2011.

“Going by the figures, this year the cases have fallen by almost 50%, which means that our drive against these quacks has been successful, and we will continue the same, so that this blatant violation of law is stopped and this noble profession is saved from them,” the official added.

The official said that upon verifying that the practicing doctor is a bogus one, a complaint is filed against him at the police station under whose jurisdiction the area comes, and accordingly a case is registered under sections 33, 33A and 38 of the Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act, 1961. If found guilty, the accused is subjected to rigorous imprisonment of two to ten years.

A senior police official said that the entire operation was conducted by the health officials, and the police department had to accompany them during the drive so as to prevent any untoward incident.

“The health department is provided six policemen, two officers and four constables, in the zone where they plan the drive. The police officials also help their counterparts from the health department in filing the complaints. Other than this, the police has very little role to play in this drive,” the police official added.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Senior bank manager caught taking bribe; cash, gold recovered

The anti-corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested the senior manager of Bank of India, Mumbai's main branch while accepting alleged bribe of Rs1 lakh from a financial consultant. During subsequent searches, the CBI seized Rs25 lakh in cash and gold coins collectively weighing 150 grams worth Rs4.5 lakh from his Titwala residence.
The CBI arrested Ganesh Das, a senior manager at the bank while he was allegedly accepting bribe at CST railway station.
The consultant had filed a complaint with the central agency on Wednesday that Das had allegedly demanded a bribe at the rate of 5% of the subsidy claims filed by him on behalf of his various clients. According to the complaint, Das directed the consultant to immediately pay an around Rs1 lakh. A CBI statement said that after Das was caught accepting the alleged bribe, his bag was searched. Officials recovered another Rs1 lakh in cash kept in various envelopes. Subsequently, the CBI conducted searches at his residence and office premises in Mumbai, Titwala and Kolkata. During the searches, the CBI team recovered Rs25 lakh in cash and gold coins weighing 150 gram from Das' Titwala home.
Das was produced before the special court and was sent to police custody till Tuesday. According to the CBI, Das joined the bank's Mumbai main branch last year, after being transferred from Kolkata.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

COPS DETECT CON PROMISING KIDS FILM ROLES

The Malad police on Sunday registered a case of cheating against one Aman Khanna for allegedly promising movie roles to two women’s children. The police arrested Khanna’s assistant on Tuesday.
Khanna, 30, is a resident of Andheri (West). He runs a website (www.foxfilmsindia.com) on which he advertises openings in films and TV shows for children.
The complainants paid Khanna Rs90,000 and Rs15,000 respectively for preparing a portfolio for their children and getting a role in films.
The police said Khanna’s office address given on the website is fake.

12 years after theft, jeweller to get Rs. 46 lakh as insurance claim

Twelve years after his shop was burgled, a jeweller in Vile Parle will receive more than Rs46.45 lakh as insurance claim for the stolen ornaments.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission on Tuesday directed United India Assurance Company Ltd to pay the claim amount to Champaklal Shah within six weeks.
The commission pulled up the insurance company for delaying the decision on the claim submitted by Shah. “The insurance company has taken more than eight months to consider the report of the surveyor. Only when the complainant pursued his case relentlessly that the company finally repudiated the claim,” it noted.
On January 25, 2000, Shah, owner of Rushabh Jewellers, discovered that his shop had been looted and gold ornaments weighing 6,810gm and Rs45,000 cash had been stolen.
The insurance company appointed a surveyor, who assessed the loss at Rs28.49 lakh.
However, the company rejected the jeweller’s claim citing
three reasons — stolen jewellery was not kept in burglar-proof safe, the shop was not occupied in the night, and the accounts maintained by the jeweller were not reliable.
The consumer commission, however, found that the insurance company had accepted the policy proposal only after approving the strong room to be constructed by the jeweller for storing ornaments in the night.
Besides, the commission noted, no specific design had been given in order to meet the company’s security requirements.

On the point of occupying the shop during night, the commission said as the shop was a protected enclosure without any windows and with only a door/opening in the front, it could not even be conceived of that anyone could stay inside during the night. It also discarded the last objection about reliability of accounts.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

GRAFT RACKET IN DEFENCE CANTEEN DEPT BUSTED, 2 HELD

A CSD OFFICIAL AND A PVT COMPANY OWNER ALLEGEDLY RAN A RACKET BY MANIPULATING THE DEMAND OF GOODS FOR CSD IN FAVOUR OF THE COMPANY’S CLIENTS
MUMBAI: The anti- corruption branch of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday arrested a senior official of the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) and a private company owner for allegedly running a racket by manipulating the demand of various goods for the CSD in favour of the clients of the company.
The CSD operates from its head office in Mumbai and has depots across the country to provide consumer goods to the personnel of Army, Navy and Air Force at uniform and concessional rate.
The CBI caught Bikas Ranjan Daschaudhary, joint general manager, CSD, and Milind Govilkar director of Sankalp Consumer Products Private Limited, while the former was collecting Rs1.25 lakh as illegal gratification from the latter. The CBI caught them at Daschaudhary’s residence in Napeansea Road in south Mumbai.
A CBI statement said that a case was registered on information against Sankalp Consumer’s unauthorised act as marketing arm of a number of companies, against the policy laid down by CSD. The statement said that Govilkar and officials of CSD entered into criminal conspiracy with each other and manipulated demand of CSD items in favour of the clients of Sankalp.
CBI said Sankalp was favoured at stages such as introduction of items, price revision delayed and excess supply demand creation and budget allocation. Govilkar had allegedly paid huge illegal gratification regularly to officers of CSD.
The CBI conducted searches at 20 places across the country at the official and residentia premises of the duo and other suspected officials. Severa incriminating documents, cash and jewellery were recovered.

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