Indian Convicts Redefine ‘Business’ Behind Bars

The Holy Bible says, “Hear, O man; what does the Lord require of you but to love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with your God?” Criminals are often judged as the unwanted part of the society. May be they have committed crimes for which they were convicted once, but government takes many corrective measures to inspire them to go out and live a respectful life after their conviction. Here we sum up few business initiatives taken by those who were punished and sent to jail once, but now are turning themselves to successful entrepreneurs.

1. Inmates Turned Fashion Designers- Tihar jail

A collection of clothes designed by women inmates of the Tihar Jail were displayed at a fashion show as part of Women’s Day celebrations. The Tihar Jail has for the past five to six months been running a fashion designing course with about 550 women inmates currently enrolled in the course. “The message that we want to give through this event is that we can manufacture quality products in the jail which can compete with any branded items in the market,” said Sunil Kumar, Chief PRO, Tihar Jail. The jail has a factory which has 1100 people employees and the turnover was 15 crore last year and this year it has been around 30 crore.

2. Bakers Behind the Bar- Kerala Jails

After netting a handsome revenue of 6.75 crore in nine months through food-making venture, prisons in Kerala are planning to diversify into more products like cakes, pepped and footwear with an aim of fruitfully engaging prisoners and selling these items to the common man at affordable prices. According to a top Prison Department official, the prison food business posted an impressive turnover of 6.75 crore in the first nine months of this year and is expected to touch about 10 crore by the end of March, 2013.

When Kerala Prison Department ventured into the food business, the sole model before it was the food-making unit of Tihar Jail in Delhi, which sold about of 1.5 crore chapatis and 20 lakh packets of chicken curry last year. While hotels charge 75-90 for a plate of chicken curry and 7-8 for one chapati, the jail chicken-chapati combine costs just 30. The prisoners also benefit from the initiative with cooks and helpers earning 117 as their daily wages so that they can send an average of 3500 to their families a month.

3. Convicts Take a Shine to Leather – Indore Jail

The Indore jail prisoners have a new passion. And the passion also involves fashion. With 40-50 kg of leather made accessible to them every month, the inmates are busy whipping out leather goods to be sold locally. The jail has also been planning to market the handbags and wallets Bhopal, and a national squash later. The training is imparted by the Tata International Ltd, ), engaged in the business of leather goods.

“At present, the leather products (bag, handbags and wallets) are sold locally by small retailers. This is because the quality is not up to the level of a TIL product. To help them achieve the required quality, a technical person will be sent to the jail to train one of the inmates, who will be the master trainer. He, in turn, will teach the others,” said a company spokesperson, stated Business Line.

Cakes costing below 100 and low-price rubber sandals are the next in line and the food business initiative would be extended to two more prisons soon.

4. Handicrafts in Cuff – Jagdalpur Jail

The prisoners at Jagdalpur Jail have set a very inspiring example for many who have been convicted. Inmates at Jagdalpur Central Jail make a wide range of eminent mats and bed sheets, which are in high demand in global markets. There are also around 351 convicts who make art work, handicraft and other designer materials worth 1 crore every year.  “Now, they are always busy in different kinds of activities. These prisoners were being trained in handicrafts and other works so that they could start their own business after being released from the jail”, an official said, stated dailypioneer.com.

The jail has also arranged short term courses that help the prisoners to utilize their free time as well as use their labor in a positive way. The also make other products apart from bed sheets and mats like, beds, sofas, dining-tables, chairs, office tables, steel furniture, cupboards, terracotta items, swings, foot mats, table mats, pen holders and items with cloth, like towels.

5. Penitentiary “Dabbas”  – Tihar Jail

The women prisoners in Tihar Jail are ready to launch their own Tiffin services, and Tihar will be the first prison to start such a business. The idea was that the inmates would prepare the meal and supply lunch to corporate houses and government offices athwart the city.

 Director General (Prisons) Vimla Mehra told Newline, “We are planning to start with the women’s jail first and expand the project to the other jails according to the demand. The number of tiffins, inmates to be engaged in the project, the cuisine and menu depends on the demand. Tihar will try its best to satisfy the customers and give them excellent quality and tasty food” Once instigated the service will be an add on to Tihar’s bakery and snacks business that sells ISO-certified biscuits, nut crackers, salty mixtures and other snack items.

#Boston Marathon blasts leave ‘so many people without legs’

President Barack Obama said perpetrators would pay

Two bomb blasts which brought carnage to the Boston marathon with three dead and more than 100 injured was being treated Tuesday as a “potential terrorist” attack.

The two explosions 13 seconds apart threw victims into the air as the famed race came to an end, tearing the limbs off some. An eight-year-old boy was reportedly among the dead.

As cities from New York to Los Angeles went on high alert, Americans with ever-vivid

Security was stepped up in major cities across the United States amid fears of a repeat of the September 11, 2001 attacks. President Barack Obama said those who planted the bombs will “feel the full weight of justice.”

 Runners continue to run towards the finish line of the Boston Marathon as an explosion erupts near the finish line of the race in this photo exclusively licensed to Reuters by photographer Dan Lampariello after he took the photo in Boston, Massachusetts, April 15, 2013. Two simultaneous explosions ripped through the crowd at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring dozens on a day when tens of thousands of people pack the streets to watch the world famous race.  REUTERS/Dan Lampariello

Obama went on national television to warn against “jumping to conclusions”, but a senior White House official said such an attack was “clearly an act of terror.”

Special agent Rick DesLauriers, who heads the FBI’s Boston bureau, told reporters: “It is a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation.”

More than 100 people were injured, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick said, without giving an exact figure. The Boston Globe said more than 140 were hurt and that one of those killed at the scene was an eight-year-old boy.

Surgeons worked into the night on the wounded from the two powerful blasts, which were about 100 yards (metres) from each other.

Police and doctors quoted by US media said ball bearings had been packed into the bombs causing horrific injuries.

Some people had arms and legs torn off at the scene. Several victims had “traumatic amputations” at the race medical tent or in hospitals, said Alasdair Conn, head of emergency medicine at the city’s Massachusetts General Hospital.

Five other hospitals were also used for the victims.

More than 27,000 runners were in the 26.2 mile (42 kilometer) race that is one of the world’s most prestigious marathons. Tens of thousands of people were packed around the finish. Many of the runners had completed the race when the bombs erupted.

The blast and clouds of smoke tore through crowds on Boston’s Boylston Street and blew out nearby shop windows. Streets around the bomb sites were kept closed as forensic experts moved in.

Video footage on American TV showed the detonation behind a row of national flags. One 78-year-old runner was blown to the ground and many bloodied spectators were pushed by the force of the blast through barriers onto the street.

Bill Iffrig, the runner who fell, said “the shockwave must have hit me. My legs felt like noodles.” But he got up and walked away again and told his story to many US media.

But other witnesses near the bombs told how bodies had been piled up on top of each other.

“We saw people with their legs blown off,” Mark Hagopian, owner of the Charlesmark Hotel, told AFP from the basement of a restaurant where he had sought shelter.

“A person next to me had his legs blown off at the knee — he was still alive.”

“It was very loud. You could feel the ground shake,” added Dan Lamparello, another witness.

NBC News, citing officials, reported that police had found “multiple explosive devices” in Boston, raising the possibility of a coordinated attack.

Boston authorities urged people not to congregate in large crowds and the area around the attacks was sealed off.

Police warned there would be heightened security around the city on Tuesday with random checks of backpacks and bags on buses and commuter trains. Many streets would also remain closed.

Governor Patrick said late Monday “the city of Boston is open and will be open tomorrow, but it will not be business as usual.”

The twin explosions come more than a decade after nearly 3,000 people were killed in airplane strikes on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

Security was stepped up in New York and Washington — both sites of 9/11 attacks — as well as in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

New York police boosted security at hotels and other city landmarks. The Boston blasts rattled US markets, sending the Dow and the S&P 500 down at the close.

The national flag over the white dome of the US Capitol in Washington was lowered to half-mast in honor of the blast victims.

 

New York City police officers patrol outside the Barclays Center prior to a Brooklyn Nets basketball game on April 15, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Police say they have stepped up security following explosions at the Boston Marathon that resulted in two deaths and more than 100 injuries.  (Getty Images/AFP)

Delhi is not safe, I am going back to Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee

A day after she along with her state finance minister Amit Mitra were heckled by Left student activists outside the Planning Commission office in New Delhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the national capital “is not safe.”

Banerjee, who will be flying back to Kolkata this afternoon, said Delhi is unsafe and that she “was manhandled like anything.

Alleging that the police did not co-operate with her, Banerjee said: “I think this is the first time such a thing has happened in New Delhi. I was also manhandled like anything. I requested the police to open the doors but they said that they don’t have the keys.

She further said she was advised by doctors to get hospitalised but she did not want to be hospitalised.

“I was given oxygen whole night on Tuesday, the doctor advised me to get hospitalised, but I don’t like to get hospitalised,” she added.

She also lashed out at the CPM for the attack on her and her Finance Minister.

“Our cadre are peaceful, all ruckus was created by the CPM. It’s a double standard game of CPM, they are hypocrites,” she said

She also apologised to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for cancelling her meeting with him

Meanwhile, the TMC held a protest at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against the heckling of Banerjee and Mitra.

The TMC workers are also staging rallies, holding protests in Kolkata and other parts of the state in condemnation of the incident

Banerjee and Mitra were heckled outside the Planning Commission office in the national capital by the SFI activists protesting a young comrade’s death in Kolkata allegedly in police custody.

Dozens of protestors from the SFI waited for the TMC leaders outside the Planning Commission office and raised slogans against Banerjee when she came with Mitra and other ministers to meet the commission’s Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Sudipto, an MA student at Rabindra Bharati University, was among the hundreds of members of the SFI who were protesting against the government for postponing college union elections. They were arrested and put on a bus that was meant to take them to jail. According to the students, the SFI leader succumbed to injuries in baton charge by the police.

The police, however, claims that students were leaning out of the bus, shouting slogans, and that in the chaos, Gupta hit his head on an electricity pole as he was getting out of the bus.

Saudi Arabia asked to lift driving ban on women

A human rights group in Saudi Arabia has pressed the Shura (Consultative) Council to launch a debate on the right of women to drive.

The move by the Saudi Committee for Human Rights is based on a study supported by 3,000 Saudi men and women from various parts of the country.

They have called for an open debate to allow women to drive ‘in accordance with religious and social norms’, Gulf News reports.

Under the by-laws, the Shura Council has to respond to all questions, queries and petition.

According to Saudi news site Sabq, Sulaiman Al Zayadi, the former head of the rights and petition committee that submitted the petition and requested a date to debate on the issue, said debating the issue of allowing women to drive gives the Council greater credibility.

He added that if women were given the right to drive it will promote trust among the people who will view the Council as their representatives who are ready to engage in the debates they suggest.

The petition was handed before the end of the last session to the committee that approved it and suggested its debate by the Shura Council members.

The study argued that local social and economic developments in Saudi Arabia and the international covenants endorsed by the Saudi kingdom require that Riyadh allow women to drive cars.

According to the report, the study said that an advisory and executive committee should be set up by Saudi Arabia to draw the religious, social and security regulations to allow women to drive as a prelude for social changes that will make the society more recipient to the idea of women driving.

Related articles

• Saudi women to have a say on whether they can get behind wheel (thetimes.co.uk)

Anti-terror squad DCP Sanjay Banerjee shoots himself over lunch as wife, kids watch

A deputy commissioner of police attached to the state’s Anti-Terrorism Squad shot himself fatally in a restaurant in Thane on Saturday afternoon while he was seated around a table with his wife and two young sons, aged 14 and 7. There were reportedly no other diners in the restaurant at the time.

DCP Sanjay Banerjee, a resident of Gajanand Park complex in Hiranandani Estate, Ghodbhunder Road, Thane West, reportedly had an argument with his wife earlier in the day, though investigators said his reason were still unclear. Banerjee reportedly used his personal licensed 9mm pistol to shoot himself in the right temple at 4.10pm.

A cleaner employed at the restaurant, Goa Portuguesa near R Mall on Ghodbunder Road, who rushed out from the kitchen on hearing the firearm go off, was questioned by the police. The Banerjees were the last family eating lunch at the restaurant, said the eatery’s representatives.
Policemen at the Kapurbawdi police station said the 40-year-old DCP’s elder son told them the family had planned to eat out since his father was home. “His wife Aishwarya said he was under some work stress. We also came to know that the couple had an argument with each other earlier, but are still investigating.”

ATS sources said Banerjee was one ofat least two DCPs who had not received their salary for the past several months as the Home Department is yet to sanction their posts in the ATS.

Sources said the DCP was also under stress over a Thane builder allegedly trying to implicate him in a crime.

The family’s uncleared plates and the remnants of their meal remained on the table until police investigations ended. Apart from a large pool of blood and a blood-splattered wall behind the dead DCP’s chair, there was a blood-soaked paper napkin on the floor, a blood-splattered spoon on the table and grains of rice on the floor.

Balasaheb Patil, DCP- ZONE V, said, “We have taken the statement of family members but we are trying to find out the real reason for the suicide. Hopefully we will find out the reason by tomorrow.”
Banerjee’s body was first taken to Thane Civil Hospital, and later to JJ Hospital in Mumbai for a bullet injury post mortem.

By Faisal Tandel

Related articles

• Mumbai cop shoots himself in the head in restaurant in Thane (ndtv.com)
• Mumbai: ATS official shoots himself dead in restaurant (ibnlive.in.com)

India to downgrade ties with Italy, won’t send ambassador

The orders of the Supreme Court will be complied with by all government agencies

Against the backdrop of airports across India being put on alert to prevent Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini from leaving the country, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday said the orders of the Supreme Court will be complied with by all government agencies.

Besides downgrading its diplomatic ties with Italy, the government has also asked its ambassador-designate to that country Basant Kumar Gupta, who was scheduled to leave for Rome on Friday, not to proceed. The government, which is reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral ties, has decided to withhold the posting of Gupta, who was expected to take charge by end of next week. The downgrading of ties could affect bilateral economic and social relations between the two nations.

‘The Supreme Court order will be complied with by all government agencies,’ Khurshid told reporters outside Parliament House on Friday in response to questions on the issue. He said the matter will come up before the apex court again on Monday and ‘we will know then exactly what is the next step that should be taken.

Meanwhile, the decision to alert the airports was taken by the Union Home Ministry a day after the apex court restrained the Italian Ambassador from leaving India without its permission.

The court had taken exception to Italian government’s refusal to send back two marines charged with the killing of two Indian fishermen. The two marines were allowed by the court to go to Italy to cast their votes in the elections there after the Italian Ambassador had given an assurance to send them back.

Karunanidhi warns of pulling out of UPA over Sri Lanka

DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Friday warned his party will pull out of the UPA government if India does not press for an independent international probe against those responsible for the genocide in Sri Lanka in the US-sponsored resolution in the UNHRC against the island nation.

In a statement issued here late night, Karunanidhi, referring to the US sponsored resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), said: “India should take steps to amend the American resolution to include thatt those war criminals responsible for the genocide in Sri Lanka be identified, hold a free international enquiry against them and take time bound appropriate action.”

“If this request is not heeded, it will be meaningless for the DMK to continue in the central government,” he added.

DMK, with 18 members in the Lok Sabha, is a key constituent in the central United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

IANS

Related articles

• “Take forward resolution against Sri Lanka” (thehindu.com)
• DMK puts UPA on notice on Sri Lanka resolution (thehindu.com)

Kerala confirms Bitti Mohanty’s arrest

The Kerala Police has confirmed the arrest of Bitti Mohanty, son of a former top police officer, convicted for raping a German national in 2006 in Rajasthan and then jumping parole.

N. Shankar Reddy, additional director general of police told IANS that it would be the Rajasthan Police will have to confirm through finger printing that the arrested person is Mohanty.

“As far as Kerala Police is concerned we have arrested him for impersonation because his real identity was concealed. We expect the arrival of the Rajasthan Police any time,” said Reddy.

According to Rahul R. Nair, the Kannur district superintendent of police, Mohanty was picked up by the police and was questioned based on a complaint from the head office of State Bank of Travancore (SBT), who requested the police to confirm his identity.

He baffled the police by showing his passport and an electoral identity card with the name Raghava Rajan.

Mohanty, for the past seven months, has been working as a probationary officer with the SBT and early this week, the SBT officials, based on an anonymous letter, approached the police to ascertain the real identity of Raghava Rajan.

The police have done the customary medical check up on Mohanty and will produce him before a court here for his remanded. Mohanty is the son of a former top police officer from Odisha. He was convicted, along with a friend, of raping a German tourist in Rajasthan.

The trial was completed quickly and Mohanty was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment on rape charges. In November 2006, he secured parole to meet his ailing mother. Since then, his whereabouts are unknown.

His father, B.B. Mohanty, served as director general home guards and fire services, Odisha, at the Bitti Mohanty committed the crime, and was accused of aiding his son’s escape.

B.B. Mohanty was suspended from work for coming to his son’s aid, but later reinstated. He retired from service in 2012.

Sri Lanka opposes UN screening of critical film

Sri Lankan diplomats are working to block a British-made documentary about the Asian country’s civil war from being shown on the sidelines of a United Nations human rights meeting this week, arguing that it is part of a concerted campaign by the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels to destabilize the peace.

In a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press the island nation’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said the film contained a narrative that was “discredited, uncorroborated and unsubstantiated.”

The letter sent Sunday by Sri Lankan ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha to the head of the U.N. Human Rights Council, warns that the global body could be violating its own rules if the film is screened March 1 in Geneva at a meeting hosted by rights groups.

The 90-minute documentary, titled “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,” alleges government troops and Tamil Tiber rebels engaged in war crimes during the final stages of the conflict in 2009.

The film shows interviews with eyewitnesses and original footage of alleged atrocities against civilians including summary execution, sexual violence and torture. Its backers include the non-profit Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and Britain’s Channel 4 television, which aired two previous documentaries on the Sri Lanka’s civil war.

“The timing and the venue of this screening clearly demonstrates that it is aimed at influencing the debate in the council on Sri Lanka,” Aryasinha said in the letter, citing the two previous films that were also shown during meetings of the Geneva-based rights body.

He said the film contained “morphed and diabolical” material aimed at undermining the process of reconciliation between Tamils and the nation’s ethnic Sinhalese majority.

The film’s director Callum Macrae acknowledged that the documentary’s release had been timed to coincide with one of the council’s three regular annual meetings, but denied that it distorted the facts.

“We believe that our film contains very important evidence about the terrible events in the last few months of this war and we believe we have a duty to make that evidence available to the diplomats and country missions at the U.N. Human Rights Council who must make important decisions about how to ensure accountability and justice in Sri Lanka,” Macrae said.

Earlier this month the U.N.’s top human rights official faulted Sri Lanka for failing to properly investigate reports of atrocities during the war and said government opponents continue to be killed and abducted.

The United States has said it will introduce a resolution at the meeting urging a full accounting of what happened at the end of the war. A U.N. report says tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final five months of the fighting.

By FRANK JORDANS
Associated Press

The Rape Report: Cases From Across the Country

Thane, Maharashtra

A 40-year-old man from powerloom town of Bhiwandi here was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a local court today for abducting and raping a 12-year-old girl in 2010.

Thane Additional Sessions Judge U B Shukla awarded the sentence to Arif Ahmed Memon. He was also slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000.

The girl, a fifth grade student, and the accused were residents of the same locality.

Chikmagalur, Karnataka

Five police personnel, including two women attached to Aldur police station in this district, were today placed under suspension following allegations by a woman that three policemen raped her while she was in their custody, police said.

Western Range IGP Pratap Reddy told reporters here that sub-inspector K R Shivakumar, constables Gururaj, K B Mahesh, woman constable Krithika and woman assistant sub-inspector Nandita Shetty have been suspended pending probe on the complaint filed by the victim.

The victim alleged that the three policemen sexually assaulted her on February 18 in Bangalore when they took her into custody in connection with a gold chain theft case.

The two women police personnel were present when the victim was taken into custody.

The woman and the policemen have been subjected to medical examination and the report is awaited, Reddy said.

Faridabad, Haryana

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped twice by her neighbour’s son at SGM Nagar area here.

“Rohit, son of Rita Sachdeva, raped twice the girl during the last eight-month period as the victim was staying with Sachdeva’s family with her mother’s consent,” police said today.

Earlier, Sachdeva had requested the victims’ mother to give the girl in her care.

The victim’s mother has a dispute with her husband and a case of divorce is pending in court, police said, adding, her mother had given consent to Sachdeva to take care of the girl.

About eight-month ago, the victim’s mother had gone to her village and returned three days back to meet her daughter when the girl narrated the incident.

The victim was sent for medical test and rape has been confirmed, police said.

Police have arrested Rohit after registering a case of rape.

Jhargram, West Bengal

A tribal girl was allegedly raped by a youth at Jhargram town, police said today.

Superintendent of Police of Jhargram Bharati Ghosh said the girl, a class X student was returning home from private tuition at around 9 pm last night when a youth forcibly took her to a field at Bachur doba area and allegedly raped her.

The girl narrated the incident to her family.

The girl’s mother lodged a rape complaint at the Jhargram police station, the SP said.

A medical test of the girl was conducted, the SP said adding investigations were on.

Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh

A 23-year-old girl who was subjected to eve teasing by a neighbour committed suicide by hanging herself at her home, police said today.

The incident took place at Chopda Mohalla yesterday when the victim was alone at her home, they said.

Her neighbour, one Manoj Kushwaha, allegedly used to tease her and upset with it, she hung herself from the ceiling fan in the room yesterday when she was alone, they said quoting girl’s mother Hemlata Sharma.

Hemlata was living with her only daughter as her husband and son had died earlier, police said.

A case has been registered against Manoj, who is absconding, they said, adding that efforts were on to nab him.