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Political notes

	July 30, 2007

Andhra Pradesh: Six die in police firing in Left-sponsored bandh



A statewide bandh called by the Left parties as part of their three-month old land struggle turned violent on Saturday, July 28, resulting in the death of six persons in police firing at Mudigonda village in Andhra Pradesh.



The police opened 70 rounds of fire at Mudigonda in Khammam district, a stronghold of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India, after fighting a pitched battle with the demonstrators, who earlier ransacked the office of the Revenue Divisional Officer.



The provocation for the firing was a mob attack on the jeep of the Additional Superintendent of Police M. Ramesh Babu, who rushed to the village with reinforcements.



Seven others were injured, three of them seriously, in the firing, apart from several persons who were hurt in a lathi charge. In the adjoining Nalgonda district, Communist cadres stoned and damaged 15 buses of the state-owned A.P. State Road Transport Corporation.



In all, 54 buses were damaged across the State and hundreds of Left activists rounded up during the bandh, which disrupted normal life in several parts of Andhra Pradesh.



Expressing anguish at the deaths, Chief Minister Y.S. RajaŽsekhara Reddy announced a judicial inquiry into the Mudigonda police firing and ordered the transfer of Superintendent of Police R.K. Meena and suspension of Ramesh Babu. He said at a press conference that the police had not heeded his advice to observe restraint during the bandh. The scale of violence took the Government by surprise since it occurred in the midst of its talks with the Left parties that went on till Friday night.



But the Government forcibly removed CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghuvulu and CPI State secretary K. Narayana from their hunger strike camp at 1 a.m. on Saturday. These leaders had been on hunger strike for six days demanding the constitution of an independent commission with quasi-judicial powers to deal with land reforms. The Government did not concede the demand saying the commission would become a parallel body in revenue adminisŽtration.



Instead, it agreed to appoint a Special Commissioner to deal with land-related issues. As there was no consensus after three rounds of talks, the Left parties went ahead with the bandh that was supported by the Telugu Desam Party.



The CPI(M) politburo, in a statement, said that the Congress government in Andhra Pradesh resorted to brutal attacks against the people instead of settling the issues involved. Party generŽal secretary Prakash Karat termed the killing of party cadres in police firing as highly unfortunate and highly regrettable. He said the CPI(M) will launch countrywide protests against the killing of party activists who were protesting against the faiŽlure of the Rajashekhara Reddy government to keep its poll promŽise of granting land to the landless.











Left against Govt. move for investing PSU funds in Mutual Funds



The CPI(M) and the CPI have opposed the Government move to allow Navratna and Mini Ratna public sector enterprises to invest upto 30 per cent of their surplus funds in equity based mutual funds. the CPI(M) politburo in a statement in New Delhi on July 28 described the move as a retrograde step. The party said it amounts to wasting public resources in socially unproductive investments.



CPI national secretary Gurudas Dasgupta described the CenŽtre’s decision as an anti-national step and said that the funds should be utilised in the social sector and for building inŽfrastructure.





1993 Mumbai blasts : Yakub Memon gets death sentence



The special TADA court, pronouncing sentences in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, has awarded death sentence to Yakub Memon, brother of Tiger Memon, prime conspirator in the case. Judge P.D. Kode also sentenced his two brothers and sister in law to life imprisonment on Friday, July 27.



Yakub Memon was held guilty u/s 120 B of the Indian Penal Code for aiding and abetting a terrorist act and illegal possesŽsion of arms and ammunition under TADA. Before sentencing Yakub Memon, the Judge sentenced Rabina Memon, wife of Suleiman Memon, to life imprisonment for entering into a criminal conspiracy and aiding a terrorist act by allowing her vehicle to be used for executing the conspiracy. The court found Essa Memon and Yusuf Memon guilty of criminal conspiracy and sentenced them to life imprisonment.



Of the six Memon brothers, Tiger and Ayub are absconding along with their wives.



On Tuesday, July 24, the Special TADA court sentenced to death three convicts, Zakir Hussein Shaikh, Feroze Amani Malik and Abdul Akhtar Khan for throwing grenades at the Fishermen’s Colony in Mahim on March 12, 1993 which resulted in the death of three persons and injuries to six others. An accomplice, Moin Qureshi, who was 17 at the time, was spared the death sentence because of his tender age.



On Wednesday, July 25, the court sentenced Farooq Pawale to death on charges of conspiracy and murder and planting a bomb at the Air India building basement and at a petrol pump near Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar.



The Court is likely to pronounce the sentence against actor Sanjay Dutt tomorrow, July 31. He has been convicted under the Arms Act for possessing an AK 56.









Six convicted for killing former Punjab CM Beant Singh



The CBI has sought the death sentence for five out of six persons convicted by a Chandigarh court for assassinating the then Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh in 1995. Seventeen other persons were also killed in the suicide attack. The special court presided over by Additional Sessions Judge R.K. Sondhi, which was to announce the sentences on Saturday, July 28, is now expected to do so today, July 30. This followed the defence lawyers expressing their inability to argue the case after they were allegedly manhandled by the police and the jail authoriŽties. The special court has been holding the trial proceedings in high security Burail jail where the convicts have been lodged.



CBI counsel S.K. Saxena said that barring Nasib Singh, the prosecution sought capital punishment for all the other convicts. The council said that like in the Parliament attack case, they had carried out a pre-planned and cold-blooded attack.



On Friday, July 27, the court had convicted six of the nine accused in the case, 12 years after former Chief Minister Beant Singh was assassinated in a human bomb attack. Apart from Nasib Singh, the other convicted are Jagtar Singh Havara, Shamsher Singh, Lakhvinder Singh, Balwant Singh and Gurmit Singh. While Nasib Singh has been held guilty only u/s 5 of the Explosives Act, the other five have been held guilty on the charges of murder, abetment to suicide and murder, criminal conspiracy and u/s 4,5 and 6 of the Explosives Act.



The only accused who has been acquitted of all charges is Navjot Singh. Proceedings against Paramjit Singh Bheora are still pending. The ninth accused Jagtar Singh Tara is still abscondŽing.



Dilawar Singh, a special police officer with the Punjab Police had acted as the human bomb when the then Chief Minister Beant Singh had stepped into his cart at the Secretariat building in Chandigarh.