Germany: Pakistanis, Syrian attacked in Cologne amid tension

A group of Pakistanis and a Syrian were attacked in Cologne amid tensions over New Year’s Eve assaults in the city that have been blamed largely on foreigners, police said on Monday.

Six Pakistani nationals were attacked on Sunday by around 20 people and two of them were briefly admitted to a hospital, police said. Also on Sunday evening, a Syrian man was attacked by five people. He was injured but didn’t need treatment.

Police said they received tips on Sunday afternoon about groups of people who would “seek provocation,” but were still investigating whether the subsequent attacks were racially motivated and whether there was any link to the New Year’s assaults.

Those assaults have stoked tensions over Germany’s open-door policy to refugees and prompted politicians to call for tougher laws against migrants who commit crimes.

“As abominable as the crimes in Cologne and other cities were, one thing remains clear- there is no justification for blanket agitation against foreigners,” Justice Minister Heiko Maas said, adding that some people “appear just to have been waiting for the events of Cologne.”

Authorities and witnesses said the New Year’s Eve attackers were among a group of about a thousand people, described as predominantly Arab and North African men, who gathered at Cologne’s central train station. Some broke off into small groups and groped and robbed women, police said.

Cologne police say 516 criminal complaints have now been filed with them in connection to the New Year’s attacks. About 40 per cent involve allegations of sexual offenses.

Cologne’s police drew criticism both for their response and for their slowness to release information on what had happened. Police chief Wolfgang Albers was dismissed on Friday by North Rhine—Westphalia state’s Interior Minister, Ralf Jaeger.

At a session on Monday of the state legislature’s home affairs committee, Mr. Jaeger said Cologne police hadn’t called in reinforcements who were offered, news agency dpa reported.

Mr. Jaeger said that witness and police reports “indicate that it was almost exclusively people with an immigrant background who committed these crimes.”

In a separate incident, police said on Sunday two migrants a Syrian and an Afghan were arrested in northern Germany on suspicion of attacking and robbing a French man who was wearing a Jewish skullcap at the Puttgarden ferry port. The incident happened on Saturday, and the two men had been denied entry to Denmark the previous day.

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SC dismisses plea against release of juvenile in Nirbhaya case

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the DCW's plea challenging the release of the juvenile who was convicted for raping a paramedic student in New Delhi in 2012.

"We share your concern, but we cannot curtail his liberty without sanction of law," Justice A.K. Goel said.

"Sorry. We cannot go beyond the law. Everything has to be in accordance with law. We have to follow the law," he said.

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Swati Maliwal on Saturday night moved the petition to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of India, later referred the matter to a Vacation Bench.

In their order pronounced at 2 AM, a vacation bench comprising Justices A K Goel and U U Lalit declined to give an urgent hearing to the Delhi Commission for Women on its petition seeking a stay on his release and posted the matter for hearing on Monday.

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Political witch-hunt, says Congress

It was the political passion play of the year, with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi appearing before a magistrate’s court in Delhi in the National Herald case. Their appearance in court lasted barely five minutes but the play-out during the whole day has important portends for the country’s politics in the next year.

The Congress, which managed to mobilise its workers and leaders, looked united and emphatically made the point that while the legal aspects of the National Herald case would be fought in the courts, there would be a parallel political battle on the question of political vendetta. “I appeared before the court with a clear heart and as a law abiding citizen,” said Ms.Gandhi. “I want to say, however, that the present government is targeting the Opposition and making full use of state agencies to do so”. A statement echoed by Rahul Gandhi, who blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the case rather than the petitioner, Subramanian Swamy.

The aim clearly was to make common cause with other Opposition parties against the BJP, and it found some purchase among other parties.

“We fully support whatever Ms. Gandhi said today, this government has a vindictive attitude and the bitterness of the campaign in Bihar is a prime example,” said Janata Dal (U) MP, K.C.Tyagi. The Trinamool Congress too has been supportive of the Congress in stalling Parliament last week on the issue of Arunachal Pradesh. The next date of the hearing is February 20, 2016, and that the Gandhis have not been exempted from appearing in court on that day does not bode well for the Budget Session of Parliament either.

The BJP, therefore, worked hard to keep the focus on corruption and the National Herald case and maintain some modicum of distance between the government and the case. “They made it sound like they were not accused in a case but are freedom fighters,” said Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

Calling the National Herald case a scam, Mr.Naqvi said, “The National Herald scam has reached the top of your leadership, what does the BJP or the government have to do with it?” He said the summonses (in response to which the Gandhis appeared in court) were issued by the court and the government had nothing to do with it.

“We appeal to the country. People should judge whether an accused should appear in court or protest on the street,” he said.

Bungalow row

Reacting to allegations that the BJP-led government had rewarded the complainant in the case, Dr.Swamy, with a government house, Mr.Naqvi countered, “Who gave Robert Vadra a government bungalow? Is Robert Vadra an MP? Congress should realise that dozens of people get government accommodation because of security reasons. This included Priyanka Gandhi, who was member of neither House of Parliament”.

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Gandhis get bail in National Herald case

A Delhi court on Saturday granted unconditional bail to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party’s vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case of cheating and misappropriation. Metropolitan Magistrate Lovleen granted bail to the Gandhis on furnishing a personal bond of Rs. 50,000 with one surety by each of the Congress leaders.

Former Union Minister A.K. Antony stood surety for Ms. Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for her brother Rahul.

The court also granted bail to other accused in the case — Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes, party’s treasurer Motilal Vora and the Gandhi family loyalist Suman Dubey — on the same terms and conditions.

Sam Pitroda, another accused in the case, did not appear, and the court granted him exemption from personal appearance for the day on medical grounds. He will have to appear and seek bail on the next date of hearing.
When the court granted bail to the Gandhis, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, on whose complaint the court had summoned them, urged the court to impose condition on them that they would not leave the country without the permission of the court, arguing that there were possibilities that they would flee as they are influential persons, but the court rejected his plea.

"The accused are reputed persons and the office-bearers of the country’s oldest party. There is no apprehension that they will flee," Mr. Lovleen said rejecting Dr. Swamy’s plea.

Earlier, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, counsel for the two leaders respectively, filed bail applications for them in the court.

The Gandhis and the other accused had on December 8 agreed to appear before the court, and the Magistrate had asked them to appear on December 19.

Dr. Swamy in his complaint has alleged that the accused persons have fraudulently acquired Associated Journal Ltd. (AJL), publisher of the now defunct daily, National Herald, and transferred its assets worth crores of rupees to another company, Young Indian.

“Young Indian was in fact created as a special purpose vehicle for acquiring control over Rs 2,000 crore worth of assets of the AJL and since all the accused have allegedly acted in consortium with each other to achieve the said nefarious purpose/design, there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against all of them, the lower court had observed while summoning them last year.

Dismissing the petitions against the lower court summoning order filed by the Gandhis, the High Court had later said: "After having considered the entire case in its proper perspective, this Court finds no hesitation to put it on record that the modus operandi adopted by the petitioners in taking control of AJL via Special Purpose Vehicle i.e. Young India, particularly, when the main persons in Congress Party, AJL and Y.I. are the same, evidences a criminal intent."

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Indrani, Peter laundered Rs. 275 crore: CBDT report

The Sheena Bora murder case, in which her mother Indrani Mukerjea and stepfather Peter Mukerjea are accused, has taken a new twist following a report on money laundering of up to Rs. 275.5 crore by their company, INX Media.

The report, sent by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (a copy of which is with The Hindu), says the Mukerjeas laundered foreign funds into INX Media via dubious investment firms based in Port Louis, Mauritius. The infusion of huge share capital at a substantial premium was funnelled into eight subsidiary companies between 2007 and 2008, according to income tax documents and files in possession of The Hindu. Of the eight firms, six received unsecured loans and two received share capital at a substantial premium. One of them received suspect foreign funding, while the remaining seven received suspect domestic funding, documents show.

The new report is not part of various investigations into the Sheena Bora murder case, but constitutes a tax history of the group as documented by the CBDT, New Delhi, since the company was set up in 2007.

The report, submitted by a Government of India Deputy Secretary in the investigation wing of the CBDT to the Director-General of Income Tax (DG, I&T) on May 5, 2014, reveals a complex web and layers of ‘conduit’ companies infusing domestic and foreign capital into the INX Group.

In 2008-09, INX Media declared a loss of Rs. 270 crore. The same year tax sleuths were forced to do a scrutiny and make an addition of Rs. 275.5 crore to the group’s income “on account of unexplained sources of huge funds received by the company from domestic as well as offshore sources.”

The report shows three conduit companies: New Vernon Private Equity Limited, New Silk Route (NSR) PE Mauritius, and Dunearn Investment (Mauritius) making “doubtful” transactions of Rs. 28.37 crore, Rs. 89.85 crore and Rs. 89.40 crore into INX Media Private Limited from Assessment Year 2007-2008.

Mukerjeas funnelled crores from dubious companies

Taxmen found that conduit companies “did not even have any income of their own and lent money borrowed from others, which raised doubts.” A background check on New Vernon showed it to be a principal investment firm ‘specialising’ in investments in India. The firm was formerly known as New Vernon Capital LLC, founded in 2004. Various financial portals have no record of its key executives or data on its board. Dunearn claims to be a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings but has no publicly available records.

According to a statement by NSR, “New Silk Route’s fund invested in INX Media in 2007 and 2008, as a minority investor, along with a consortium of other well-known institutional investors. NSR's limited partners (investors) are primarily global institutions, and all are overseas.”

Assessment order

An assessment order, accessed by The Hindu, was passed against INX Media under Section 68 of the IT Act, 1961, asking it to “identify the source, prove credit worthiness and genuineness of the transactions.” The matter then went into arbitration as the group contested the order passed by the Assessment Officer (AO). “The AO clearly treated the source of the transactions as ‘dubious’ and ‘unexplained’ since the company failed to provide any documents whatsoever on the credible sourcing of these funds,” said a reliable source. “It clearly established several dubious entities, both domestic and foreign, infused substantial funds in the form of multi-layered investment.”

Domestically, the documents show INX News Limited, another subsidiary of the group, received premium of Rs. 81.84 crore and Rs. 29.15 crore (Rs. 111 crore) from IM Media and INX Media.

Three other transactions from IM Media, Indrani Incon and India Growth Fund pumped capital of Rs. 112.3 crore, Rs. 44.92 crore and Rs. 11.23 crore respectively at high premium. The same year, the report says, INX received an unsecured loan from former INX Media board member Manjula Rao to the tune of Rs. 41.4 crore and Rs. 156.01 crore, which were suspicious. “Manjula Rao invested over Rs. 250 crore in INX. The sources of these funds have not been investigated,” the report reads.

“I have nothing to do with INX, now or in the past. I am a professional, and in no way concerned with this company. These are manipulated records and files. The reports are doctored,” Ms. Rao told The Hindu.

Three months after the CBI took over the murder probe, it has made references to the Mukerjeas siphoning off nearly Rs. 900 crore out of INX Media.

The agency suspected that the couple illegally parked the money in an account in Singapore. Additional Solicitor-General Anil Singh has already claimed in court that the CBI is seeking details of financial transactions of the Mukerjeas from Interpol.

Meanwhile Peter’s Mukerjea’s counsel Mihir Gheewala and Kushal Mor countered the financial motive and said the CBI was turning the case around in this direction (financial dealings) to twist the case. “These facts are not part of the original remand. We are yet to look into it,” Mr. Gheewala told The Hindu.

A Timeline of events:

November 19, 2015: CBI arrests Peter Mukherjea along with filing charge sheets against Indrani, ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and Shyamvar Rai the driver.

October 7, 2015: Indrani discharged from hospital,doctors confirmed drug overdose.

October 2, 2015: Indrani Mukherjea admitted in JJ Hospital after she allegedly overdosed on anti-epileptic pills.

September 19, 2015: Maharashtra announces the handover of the case to CBI.

September 9, 2015: Peter Mukherjea reveals to Khar police that Indrani often abused him.

September 7, 2015: Body of Sheena Bora found in Raigad forest.

September 5, 2015: The police custody extended again till September 7.

September 3, 2015: Indrani Mukherjea confessed her role in the murder.

September 1, 2015: Siddharth Das confessed that he is the biological father of Sheena and Mikhail Bora.

August 31, 2015: Fresh charges filed against Indrani attempting to kill her son. Police custody of the three accussed extended till September 5, 2015.

August 30, 2015: The three arrested were taken to the crime scene in Raigad. The call records were also checked by the police.

August 29, 2015: Maharashtra Police has ordered a probe into why the Raigad Police did not register an Accidental Death Report (ADR) after they found a burnt corpse, suspected to be of Sheena Bora, in 2012.

August 28, 2015: Sanjeev Khanna confessed to his "complicity in the crime." He had earlier said that, Sheena’s body was lying next to him in a car in which they were travelling together in Mumbai on April 24, 2012.

August 27, 2015: Sheena Shyam Rai, Indrani's driver, confessed that he murdered Sheena and disposed of her body, on the direction of his employer Indrani Mukherjea.

August 27, 2015: Sanjeev Khanna, a Kolkata based businessman and ex-husband of Indrani Mukherjea was arrested from Kolkata.

August 26, 2015: Indrani opened up that Sheena was her daughter from a previous marriage and not sister as maintained.

August 21, 2015: Shyamvar Pinturam Rai is arrested following the seizure of a 7.63-bore pistol from him.

May 23, 2012: Police find a decomposed body after villagers at Gagode in Pen tehsil, Maharashtra, complain of foul odour.

April 24, 2012: Sheena Bora takes a leave of absence from work at Mumbai Metro. On the same day she sends a resignation letter to her employer. She is not heard from again. No missing complaint is ever lodged by any family member.

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Threat from radical jihadism now more complex, challenging: Clinton

Asserting that the threat from radical jihadism has metastasized and become more complex and challenging, leading Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said the results of radicalism have now reached American shores.

In her remarks before the top American think tank, Ms. Clinton stressed the importance of cracking down on the ability of ISIS and other terrorist groups to communicate and spread propaganda online.

“The need for action (against terrorists) is urgent. ...

The threat from radical jihadism has metastasized and become more complex and challenging. We’re seeing the results of radicalism not just in far-off lands but right here at home, fuelled by the Internet,” Ms. Clinton said in her address to the Brookings Institution’s Saban Forum 2015.

“It’s the nexus of terrorism and technology and we have a lot of work to do to end it. As hard as this is, Americans now has to move from fear to resolve. America has beaten bigger threats before, and we will defeat this one as well,” she said.

Resolve, she said, means depriving jihadists of virtual territory just as the U.S. works to deprive them of actual territory. They are using websites, social media, chat rooms, and other platforms to celebrate beheadings, recruit future terrorists, and call for attacks.

“We should work with host companies to shut them down.

It’s time for an urgent dialogue between the government and not just our government, but government and the high-tech community to confront this problem together,” Ms. Clinton said.

The former Secretary of State said the goal should be to defeat ISIS and not contain them.

“Muslim-Americans are our neighbours, co-workers, loved ones, friends. Many are working every day all over our country to prevent radicalisation. We should be supporting them, not scapegoating them,” she said.

“But at the same time, none of us can close our eyes to the fact that we do face enemies who use Islam to justify slaughtering innocent people. We have to stop them and we will. Radical jihadists, like so many adversaries in our history, underestimate the strength of our national character,” she asserted.

“Americans will not cower or cave. And we will not turn on each other or turn on our principles. We will defeat those who threaten us,” she said.

Ms. Clinton said on Sunday, three trends in the region and the world are converging and making its alliance with Israel more indispensable than ever.

“The first is a rising tide of extremism across a wide arc of instability from North Africa to South Asia. The second is Iran’s continued aggression. And the third is the growing effort to de-legitimise Israel on the world stage. America and Israel need to address these threats together. And we must take an already strong relationship to the next level,” she said.

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