HC quashes molestation FIR filed by DU lecturer

HC quashes molestation FIR filed by DU lecturer
Sumit Saxena, Hindustan Times
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New Delhi, October 02, 2010First Published: 00:42 IST(2/10/2010)
Last Updated: 00:44 IST(2/10/2010)Share more...0 Comments Email print

Sumit Saxena, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, October 02, 2010

The Delhi High court has quashed an FIR registered by a Delhi University lecturer who had accused a professor of sexual harassment at workplace. Stating a "matter of mere scolding was escalated to a case of molestation", Justice Shiv Narain Dhingra said, "The sequence of events shows that the scolding took place because the employees weren't present during work hours." The complaint was filed in 2007 at Maurice Nagar Police Station.

Prof Bidyut Chakraborty, head of Political Science Department of Delhi University, was working as the director on deputation basis at Gandhi Bhawan in 2007 and complainant Sheila (name changed) was reporting to him.

In his petition, Chakraborty told the court that he had only scolded Sheila along with others.

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Father blames convent head for nun’s suicide

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A nun who committed suicide in a Kerala convent was tortured by her superior “mentally and physically”, her father alleged here yesterday.
“She had to do all the chores in the convent like cleaning toilets and washing dishes before leaving for the school (where she teaches) and after coming back. And at night the senior sister would forcibly sleep with her,” Pappachan, a cook who works at the Bishop’s house in Kollam, said.

His daughter Anupa Mary, 22, who joined the St Mary’s Convent at Pallithottam two months back, committed suicide on Monday leaving a note alleging she was unable to bear the harassment by the nunnery’s head.

“She had confided this to her mother and sister and threatened to commit suicide. But I came to know about it only after her death,” Pappachan told reporters at the Medical College hospital here where he arrived with his daughter’s body for autopsy.
Mary, the second of six children of Pappachan and Bijiamma was found hanging in the bedroom of the convent. A member of the Vimala Hrudaya Franciscan congregation, she had been serving at another convent until recently.

According to the police, the suicide note expresses her difficulty to adjust with the new environment. She had also recorded her “disagreement” with the Mother Superior of the convent.

M R Ajithkumar, superintendent of police, Kollam said that investigations have commenced and all aspects would be probed.

“This allegation I have heard only today and on television. Yesterday when we took the statement from Pappachan, he did not level this allegation. Anyway now that he has publicly aired this, we will take his statement again. I have asked the investigation officers to look into all aspects. Now we are waiting for the post-mortem report.”

Kerala Women’s Commission chairperson D Sreedevi has demanded a probe.
“It’s an eye-opener for everyone. Our observation that nuns are being maltreated in convents appears to be correct,” said the former Kerala High Court judge.
“Now we would closely monitor the investigation and ensure that the case is conducted properly.”

Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Meenakshi Thampan, a member of the panel which took statements of both the parents, said the allegations appeared genuine. “What the parents told me was shocking. It is high time that we took serious note of the plight of young girls being forced to take the vow,” she said.

The KWC had recently observed that nuns in Kerala were facing hardship and were not entitled to their parental property. It wanted the state government to enact a law to prevent exploitation.

Critics say there have been cases where male members of the family forcibly send girls to the nunnery as they do not want to part with their properties.
Nuns have no right to property as they adopt nun’s life after taking the poverty pledge. Many nuns however are forced into convents by parents too poor to marry them off.

The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) is yet to solve the murder mystery of Sister Abhaya even after 16 years.

Yesterday, the high court asked a CBI officer who conducted the probe into the 1992 death to explain why the investigation has not made progress.

Abhaya, a resident of Pious X Hostel in Kottayam, was found dead in the well of the convent on March 27, 1992. In November 1996, the CBI concluded that that the death was homicide but it could not trace the murderer because “the evidence has been destroyed during the previous investigations’ by the local police.”

Trial room peeping Tom arrested

Bhavika Jain, Hindustan TimesMumbai, June 14, 2008 The police have arrested the attendant accused of taking photographs of a woman in the changing room of sports apparel store on Linking Road. Hindustan Times had first reported the incident on Thursday.
Additional Commissioner of Police Archana Tyagi said the accused she refused to give his name was arrested and “the mobile phone on which the photographs were taken has been confiscated by the police”. “It’s shocking that such incidents occur,” she added.
The traumatised victim had approached an HT correspondent, just after she had caught the attendant. The store management had said that the attendant was a trainee and that he would be dismissed.
The victim had refused to lodge a police complaint, fearing legal hassles.
After HT’s report, the Maharashtra State Women’s Commission said it would direct the police to take action on its own and submit a report. Mayor Shubha Raul had said she would write to the state government to amend the Shops and Establishments Rule to allow stringent action against such offenders. The rule was formulated in 1948 and has no stipulations about norms for changing rooms.
“Had the victim lodged a complaint, the case would have been much stronger,” Tyagi said. She also said that the commission had not approached the police, but they would cooperate if it did.

Woman sets goons on driver she loved

Times Of India
New Delhi,
15 May 2008,
TNN

NEW DELHI: A 35-year-old woman became so attached to her driver that she allegedly hired goons to throw acid on him after he had left the job to ply his own cab. The woman, Jaya, has been arrested for plotting the acid attack along with a BAMS doctor she befriended. On April 22, driver Deepak Kumar, 27, was admitted to hospital with burns. He told police that an unidentified man had thrown acid on him near Mahavir Enclave after calling him there for hiring his cab.
Police said Kumar had earlier been beaten up by unidentified assailants soon after he got engaged. The goons had then warned him of dire consequences if he went ahead with his marriage. Jaya’s husband is an NRI engineer working in the US while she lives in Gurgaon.

AICC panel starts inquiry into allegations against MLA

Sahara Samay

Patna, May 5: A two-member panel sent by the AICC today began its probe into the allegations of sexual harassment levelled by a former bodyguard against Congress MLA Sunita Devi, who had resigned as the state Mahila Congress chief on "moral grounds" in the wake of the controversy.

AICC (Women cell) General Secretaries Mahjamin Khan and Sheikha Kapoor, soon after their arrival from New Delhi, called Sunita Devi at the state party headquarters here.

Sunita Devi explained her position and rubbished the charges against her, a senior party leader said pleading anonymity. Sunita Devi alleged that the policeman was playing into the hands of her political opponents and had tried to "blackmail" her.

Emerging from the party headquarters, Khan and Kapoor told reporters that they examined Sunita "and would submit a report to the AICC on return to New Delhi tomorrow".

Bal Yogeshwar Sharma, a constable and a former bodyguard of Sunita Devi, who had levelled the sexual harassment charges against her and was placed under suspension on Saturday, was likely to be contacted by the probe panel for his version, party sources said.

Taking a serious view of the allegations, state Congress president Sadanand Singh had also constituted a three-member committee to hold an impartial inquiry.

Sharma has accused Sunita Devi, a Congress legislator from Korha in Katihar district, of having exploited him sexually when he was posted as her bodyguard after the 2005 assembly election.

India proposes only women judges for rape trials

Reuters

New Delhi, August 4:

India has proposed that only women judges try rape cases to help sexual assault victims get justice faster and make trials sensitive to their trauma, a Law Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

The proposal, a Bill which has to be passed by Parliament, was approved at a Cabinet meeting late on Thursday, S M Kumar said.
Women's groups and rights activists have for long campaigned for reforming the judicial process that deals with sexual assault in a country where a woman is raped every 29 minutes.
The national capital, New Delhi, is the most unsafe Indian city for women, accounting for 30 per cent of rapes, according to government data.
"This is a very positive step and will help get justice for the rape victim," said Girija Vyas, chairwoman of the National Womens' Commission.
"Until now, male lawyers were able to threaten the victim and scare her. A woman judge will help build a sensitive atmosphere," she said.
The amendment would also allow the rape victim to have her lawyer with her during cross-examination. Earlier, this was in-camera, making it uncomfortable for the victim, Kumar said.
"A rape victim will also be given a female lawyer because only a woman can understand a woman," he added.
The Cabinet also proposed to allow victims of crime to appoint their own lawyers instead of being forced to use government prosecutors and end the practice of witnesses making confessions to police.

Tell-tale entries found in Preeti Jain's diaries

12 Sep 2005 08:27:01

MUMBAI: The Agripada police have recovered three personal diaries from aspiring actress Preeti Jain which, they say, contains "vital" information about the monetary transaction between her and Gawli aide Naresh Pardeshi. The police have accused Preeti paying supari to Pardeshi to kill film-maker Madhur Bhandarkar.

On Sunday, Preeti, 30, and Pardeshi, 25, were produced before additional chief metropolitan magistrate D K Sonawane, who remanded them to police custody till September 16.

Police told the court that the diaries, recovered from Preeti's residence in Ganga Jamuna building at Versova, revealed Pardeshi's mobile number and codes which indicated that Rs 30,000 was paid to him in two instalments. Pardeshi used the money to lease a flat in central Mumbai, the police said.

Code words used in the diary 'N5' and 'N25' can be interpreted as money paid to Pardeshi for carrying out the crime, the police said.

Deposing before the magistrate, assistant commissioner (Agripada division) Manasi Mohite said the investigators wanted to conduct lie-detector and brain mapping tests on Preeti in this connection. The police also plans to carry out similar tests on Pardeshi.

The police told the court that they had records to prove that Preeti had spoken to Pardeshi 22 times over the phone. The actress denied this, stating that she had telephoned Pardeshi only on three occasions. During a search of her flat, the police also recovered 14 CDs, two floppy disks and a burkha.

The remand application mentioned that Preeti met Pardeshi on June 6, 2005, and again on June 11, after which Pardeshi rented an apartment. The police also recovered Bhandarkar's photograph, telephone numbers and vehicle number from Pardeshi's papers. The vehicle number was also listed in Preeti's diary.

Pardeshi's advocate Osman Chishty argued that his client was never a shaka pramukh of the Akhil Bharatiya Sena as alleged by the police.

The remand application stated: "Pardeshi was the pramukh of the Worli shakha of ABS till September 3. Subsequently, he sat at the reception counter of Dagdi chawl in Byculla." The police are now investigating whether other Gawli aides are involved in the conspiracy.

Source: The Times of India

Portia De Rossi Nixed Nude Lesbian Scene with Angelina Jolie

Sunday, September 25th, 2005

Arrested Development star Portia De Rossi has reportedly revealed that she nixed a nude lesbian scene in a movie with puffy lipped superstar Angelina Jolie. The movie was the 1998 (T.V.) film Gia, and the film was based on the life of fashion model Gia Marie

Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 20.09.2005

Portia's gay fear

Portia De Rossi refused to do a gay sex scene with Angelina Jolie in Gia because she feared she'd have to 'come out' as a lesbian. the star, who reportedly hated being part of Ally McBeal when the show went gay, was intent on hiding her lesbian tendencies. "I wouldn't even drive down Santa Monica Boulevard (gay capital of Los Angeles) in fear that someone would look and think I was gay," Contact music quoted her as telling gay magazine The Advocate.

ANI, Washington

Invasive army

THE TELEGRAPH

Calcutta

| Sunday, October 03, 2004 |

NILANJANA S. ROY

At the best of times, a gynaecological exam is an ordeal. It requires the patient to be naked in front of a stranger who?s going to employ instruments straight out of a torture chamber in order to examine intimate bits and bobs.

For some women, the procedure is on par with most other medical procedures ?nasty and brutish, but mercifully short. Women who see a gynaecological exam as no more invasive and painful than a visit to the dentist?s office are likely to choose their doctor on the basis of proficiency rather than on the basis of the medical practitioner?s gender.

But for many women, the gynaecological exam is also about modesty. Salman Rushdie?s Midnight?s Children describes the courtship of a woman by a doctor who is only allowed to see the specific bits of her that need medical attention through a perforated sheet, thus preserving his patient?s modesty. This is extreme, perhaps ? but for most Indian women, the idea of stripping naked in front of a male stranger is traumatic. A woman doctor may not make a gynae exam more pleasant, but she can make it less of a violation.

Some of us believe that medical pros are all equal, that there is no difference between a male gynaecologist and a male surgeon, for instance. If we?re comfortable with the idea of being examined by a man, we are free to exercise that choice.

And if we do feel a strong sense of discomfort, even distress, we can turn to a female gynaecologist. For many women, the gynaecological exam is terrifying enough as it is. And the fact is that a woman who is relaxed is going to have a much easier time on the examination table. In a gynaecological exam, quite apart from mental trauma, you?re likely to experience significantly more pain if you are too tense to trust your doctor.

In civilian life, most women who have gynaecological exams have a choice when it comes to the gender of their doctors. In the army, as several women recruits including Surya Moudgil have discovered, choice is a joke. Moudgil protested that she was unable to complete her entrance exams because she refused to be examined by a male doctor. An army spokesperson said that a female attendant was present at the examinations, indicating that this was enough and that it isn?t necessary to arrange for a woman gynaecologist for candidates who would prefer that option.

Moudgil, please note, has no bias against male doctors: she didn?t ask for her eye test to be conducted by a female. She merely has a problem with this specific procedure, intimate by its very nature, being carried out by a man.

Perhaps the army might argue that it doesn?t have enough lady doctors to perform so many tests. In which case, we?re all entitled to ask why the army shouldn?t work to induct more women onto its medical board.

Moudgil isn?t asking for special treatment ? she?s only asking for her rights not to be violated. And if the men in the army have a problem understanding this, perhaps they should contemplate how comfortable they?d be if they were told that they had no choice but to have their prostate and hernia exams carried out only by women.

(Scource: The Telegraph)

MY HEART IS ON FIRE

Translated from an unknown Hindi paper of unknown date

Mumbai: The Firemen stationed at the Jawahar fire station become all jittery if they hear a woman's voice on the phone. This policestation gets calls from anonymous women at an average of 70 calls per day. These calls filled with sexual enuendoes started a few months ago. The callers ask strange questions of the firemen. Sample this: "What all kinds of fire do you extinguish?" or "My heart is on fire" The station officer A.R. Purab says that many women even give their addresses, but when we reach the place we get scolded. The officials at the fire station have lodged a complaint with the police but with no result. Now they plan to go to the court to get rid of this menace.

Fired for Complimenting Client's Good Looks

My, how nice you look!

by Nancy Ahern

Reuters

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A female receptionist in an office in south Sweden was sacked for sexual harassment when her employer heard she had complimented a male client of the company on his good looks, a Swedish newspaper reported Monday.

"I joked with a client about how handsome he was," the receptionist told the daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet. The man said he had not been offended by the woman's remark.

It is not uncommon in Sweden for women to accuse men of sexual harassment, but the opposite is rare.

The woman's employer declined comment, said the newspaper, which did not identify the company or the people involved.