No relief to INX Media Co-Founder Indrani Mukerjea, special CBI Court rejects bail plea

Indrani Mukerjea with Peter 

Mumbai: A special CBI court here rejected the bail plea of Indrani Mukerjea, the prime accused in the Sheena Bora murder case, noting that the possibility of the accused influencing prosecution witnesses cannot be ruled out.

After failing to secure bail multiple times on medical grounds, Mukerjea in December last year filed another plea, seeking bail on "merits" of the case. Special CBI court judge J C Jagdale rejected the plea on Wednesday. The court observed thatsome important case witnesses like Rahul Mukerjea, son of accused Peter Mukerjea, and Vidhi, daughter of Indrani Mukerjea and her former husband and co- accused Sanjeev Khanna, were yet to be examined.

"There is no doubt that the accused is an influential and wealthyperson. Therefore, the possibility of influencing prosecution witnesses cannot be ruled out," the judge said. While arguing for bail, Indrani Mukerjea told court that the prosecution's case was "false and baseless" and she had nearly 120 documents to prove it.

She submitted that there is no scientific evidence to prove that the crime happened. She pointed out inconsistencies in the evidence put forth by the prosecution to prove her role as a conspirator and one of the killers of her daughter Sheena Bora. She also raised doubt about the "credibility and legality" of the probe.

Indrani Mukerjea claimed there are numerous contradictions in the testimonies of prosecution witnesses, including accused-turned-approver Shayamwar Rai. "They have either contradicted their own statements, or the statements of other witnesses, or the prosecutions story itself," she had submitted. However, the judge in his order observed that in the middle of trial, the court cannot declare that the part evidence is either wholly reliable, or partly reliable, or totally unreliable.

"At the present juncture, the courtcannot conclude that the evidence led by Shyamvar Rai (approver) has falsified or suffered from fatal infirmities due to cross-examination of the said witness," the court noted. The judge further observed that at this stage, the trial court cannot pass a final conclusion about the evidentiary value of the witnesses.

"In my opinion, the accused and the advocate concerned should co-operate with the trial court to finish the said trial," the judge added. Indrani Mukerjea is currently lodged at the Byculla women's jail in Mumbai. Last month, the court rejected her another bail plea, citing the risk of contracting coronavirus in the wake of the disease outbreak in the jail.

Sheena Bora (24) was allegedly strangled in a car by Indrani Mukerjea, her then driver Shyamvar Rai and Sanjeev Khanna in April 2012. Her body was burnt in a forest in neighbouring Raigad district. Indrani Mukerjea was arrested in August 2015. 

Former media baron Peter Mukerjea was also later arrested for allegedly being part of the conspiracy. He is currently out on bail, which was granted by the Bombay High Court earlier this year. His 17-year-old marriage to Indrani Mukerjea ended during the period of incarceration as the two got divorced in October last year.

Supreme Court of India extends protection to TV anchor from coercive action in defamation cases

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday extended the protection from any coercive action till August 31 to TV news anchor Amish Devgan in connection with the cases lodged over his alleged defamatory remark against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti during a show telecast on June 15. 

A bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari took note of the fact that one of the FIRs against Devgan has been transferred from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to Noida in Uttar Pradesh. The bench, during the proceedings conducted via video conferencing, said the news anchor, represented by senior lawyer Siddharth Luthra and advocate Mrinal Bharti, will have to now amend his plea accordingly and deferred the hearing to August 31.

Now the UP government will have to file its response to Devgan's plea in which he has sought quashing of the FIRs, stay on the investigation and the protection from any coercive action for his alleged comments against the sufi saint. The bench made clear that the interim relief of protection to Devgan, granted earlier, shall remain operative.

The apex court, while granted interim relief to Devgan, had also stayed the probe in the cases related to the June 15 telecast against the journalist. Five FIRs have been lodged against Devgan in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana for using a derogatory term for the Sufi saint in the news debate show called Aar Paar' on his channel on June 15.

However, he later tweeted an apology saying that he was actually referring to Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji and inadvertently ended up naming Chisti. As regards the interim relief, till the next date of hearing, we deem it appropriate to pass ad-interim relief in terms of prayer clause (A) and (B) (which seek stay of investigation in pending and future FIRs and the protection from possible coercive action), the top court had said in its June 26 order.

On July 8, the interim order of June 26 was extended till August 6 and now it will remain in operation till this month end. Issuing notices to Maharashtra, Telangana and Rajasthan, the bench had earlier asked the petitioner to make the complainants, who have lodged FIRs, as parties to his plea.

Two FIRs for the alleged offence have been registered at Ajmer and Kota in Rajasthan and one has been lodged at Bahadurpura in Hyderabad, the plea said, adding that two such FIRs have been lodged at Nanded and Pydhonie in Maharashtra. Devgan said he has already issued a clarification through a tweet and moreover, errors cannot be construed as criminal offences. The journalist has said the plea concerned his life and liberty.

In a well-orchestrated manner - the petitioner has been made a victim of country-wide filing of false and baseless criminal complaint and FIRs on the one hand, and on the other hand, petitioner, his family and his crew has been abused unabashedly on social media and by personal messages by unknown persons. The petitioner has also received several death threats from various anti-social elements, the plea submitted.

It said that Devgan was holding a discussion on a petition filed before the top court on his show on June 15 on the issue of the Places of Worship Special Provisions Act. During the course of the live heated discussion one of the panellists quoted Chisti (Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti) and inadvertently, petitioner (Devgan) who wanted to refer to the historical figure Khilji(Alauddin Khilji) as a marauder, mentioned the name Chisti' , the plea submitted.

That immediately on realising his inadvertent slip of tongue during heated debate in his news debate show petitioner tendered a clarification and clarified that the name Chisti was mentioned by error and inadvertently, it said. Devgan tweeted the clarification on his personal Twitter account on the intervening night of June 16-17 and moreover, the channel carried a video clarification featuring the journalist, the plea said.

One of the FIRs was lodged at Pydhonie police station in Mumbai against Devgan for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by referring to Chisti in derogatory terms in the TV programme on the complaint of Arif Razvi, general secretary of the Raza Academy.

Calcutta High Court remark: Reporter has fundamental right to publish news that may not be palatable to admin

Kolkata, India: The Calcutta High Court, allowing the anticipatory bail plea of an ETV reporter whose story on bribery among police officials resulted in an FIR against him, observed that it is a "fundamental right of a press reporter to publish any news which may not be palatable to the administration."

The police filed an FIR against ETV Bharat journalist Avishek Dutta Roy who reported that he witnessed police officers indulging in bribery and rash and negligent driving, resulting in the death of a person. The police filed the complaint against the journalist on 2 June, 2020, Bar and Bench reported.

A Calcutta High Court bench comprising Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Bibek Chauduri found prima facie the complaint to be ill-motivated and noted that the police seemed to have taken cognisance of the journalist's report that implicated some of its own personnel.


"It is the fundamental right of a press reporter to publish any news, which may not be palatable to the administration. It cannot be denied that incidents of the police taking bribes from vehicles are being frequently noticed and reported. We feel in order to stifle and muzzle the voice of the reporter this case has been registered against the petitioner," the bench observed.

The court also directed the police to initiate inquiries regarding the journalist's report of bribery on the part of the police personnel and the registration of the FIR against the reporter.

Rajasthan crisis: SOG arrests Sanjay Jain, BJP Demands CBI Inquiry Into Phone Tapping Allegations

New Delhi, India: Sambit Patra, speaking today on the allegations of horse trading made by Congress, asked if the phone conversation thus recorded was done through phone-tapping.

Congress had shared three audio clips as proof of horse-trading of MLAs, implicating a Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, as well. Patra asked whether all political groups were being phone-tapped in Rajasthan, and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter, while rubbishing claims that BJP was in any way involved in the political tussle

Our morality is crystal clear," he said, while demanding to know whether the Standard Procedure of Operations (SoP) regarding phone tapping was followed by Congress. BJP's Laxmikant Bhardwaj has filed a complaint against Congress leaders Mahesh Joshi, Randeep Surjewala, and others, at Ashok Nagar Police Station, over a "manufactured" audio clip and false statements by Congress.

Meanwhile, Special Operations Group (SOG) of state police on Friday arrested Sanjay Jain, whose name surfaced in one of the audio recordings pertaining to the alleged conspiracy to topple the Ashok Gehlot government.

Sanjay Jain has been arrested by the Special Operations Group (SOG) team of Rajasthan Police, under sections 124A and 120B of Indian Penal Code On Friday, two first information reports were registered by the SOG based on the complaint filed by Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi about audiotapes, which Congress said, had conversations about an alleged conspiracy to topple the Ashok Gehlot-led government.

Gajendra Singh, Bhanwarlal Sharma, and Sanjay Jain were named in the FIR. There were two complaints from Mahesh Joshi (Congress leader), it is with respect to the audio that went viral yesterday. We registered 2 FIRs under section 124A and 120B.

The veracity of clip to be investigated, Ashoke Rathore, ADG SOG

On Friday morning, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, citing a leaked audio clip, demanded an investigation into the alleged horse-trading and an FIR against Union minister and Jodhpur MP Gajendra Shekhawat for attempts to topple Ashok Gehlot government's in Rajasthan. Based on the transcript of the purported conversations read by Surjewala at a Press Conference in Jaipur, the Congress suspended two party MLAs Bhanwar Lal Sharma and Vishvendra Singh.

High-profile Twitter accounts hacked in massive bitcoin scam

San Francisco:A series of high-profile Twitter accounts were hijacked on Wednesday, with some of the platform's top voices- including U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden, reality television show star Kim Kardashian, former U.S. President Barack Obama, billionaire Elon Musk, and rapper Kanye West, among many others- used to solicit digital currency.

Nearly two hours after the first wave of hacks, the cause of the breach had not yet been made public. In a sign of the seriousness of the problem, Twitter took the extraordinary step of preventing at least some verified accounts from publishing messages altogether.

It was not clear whether all verified users were affected but, if they were, it would have a huge impact on the platform and its users. Verified users include celebrities, journalists, and news agencies as well as governments, politicians, heads of state, and emergency services.Twitter did not offer clarification but said in a statement that users “may be unable to tweet or reset your password while we review and address this incident.”

The unusual scope of the problem suggests hackers may have gained access at the system level, rather than through individual accounts. While account compromises are not rare, experts were surprised at the sheer scale and coordination of Wednesday's incident.

“This appears to be the worst hack of a major social media platform yet,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, who co-founded cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Some experts said it seemed probable that hackers had access to Twitter's internal infrastructure.

“It is highly likely that the attackers were able to hack into the back end or service layer of the Twitter application,” said Michael Borohovski, director of software engineering at security company Synopsys. “If the hackers do have access to the backend of Twitter, or direct database access, there is nothing potentially stopping them from pilfering data in addition to using this tweet-scam as a distraction.”

Twitter told Reuters just before 5 p.m. EDT that it was investigating what it later called a “security incident” and would be issuing a statement shortly. However, as of 7 p.m. the company had still not issued an explanation of what exactly took place. Shares in the social media company tumbled almost 5% in trading after the market close before paring their losses.

Earlier, some of the platform's biggest users appeared to be struggling to re-establish control of their Twitter accounts. In the case of billionaire Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, for example, one tweet soliciting cryptocurrency was removed and, sometime later, another one appeared, and then a third.

Among the others affected: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, investor Warren Buffett, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and the corporate accounts for Uber and Apple. Several accounts of cryptocurrency-focused organizations were also hijacked. Altogether, the affected accounts had tens of millions of users.

Biden's campaign was “in touch” with Twitter, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person said the company had locked down the Democrat's account “immediately following the breach and removed the related tweet.” Tesla and other affected companies were not immediately available for comment.

Publicly available blockchain records show that the apparent scammers have already received more than $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency. Several experts said the incident has raised questions about Twitter's cybersecurity.

Alperovitch, who now chairs the Silverado Policy Accelerator, said that, in a way, the public had dodged a bullet so far. “We are lucky that given the power of sending out tweets from the accounts of many famous people, the only thing that the hackers have done is scammed about $110,000 in bitcoins from about 300 people,” he said.

New York: Police officers clash with protesters on Brooklyn Bridge

New York, US: Pro-police and anti-police protesters clashed on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on Wednesday, with at least four police officers injured and 37 protesters arrested, according to the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Video showed a woman being forcefully arrested after anti-police protesters sat down on the roadway in an attempt to counter a pro-police group.

"We were sitting on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge in order to stand up for abolition, to counter the Blue Lives Matter white supremacist protest contingent," said a witness who provided video and declined to be named. "The police started snatching and attacking us from the ground." Police said that Terence Monahan - a top cop in charge of uniformed officers in the NYPD - was among the injured.

Marches and demonstrations have continued throughout the U.S. over police violence against Black people prompted by the May killing of George Floyd. Protesters have called for public funding for the police to be reduced, and for police officers involved in deadly incidents to be dismissed and charged.