Corruption charges slapped on Justice Dinakaran

NEW DELHI: Sixteen charges of corruption and irregularities have been slapped by a Rajya Sabha constituted panel against Chief Justice of the Sikkim high ourt Justice P D Dinkaran, who is facing impeachment proceedings in Parliament.

The committee comprising Supreme Court Justice Aftab Alam, Karnataka high court Justice K S Khehar and eminent jurist P P Roy issued the chargesheet to Dinakaran on March 16 and has sought his response by April 9.

The charges against him included possession of wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income, illegal encroachment on public property and land belonging to Dalits and other weaker sections, five Tamil Nadu Housing Board plots in favour of wife and two daughters, benami transactions, acquiring and possessing agricultural holdings beyond the ceiling fixed by the TN Land Reforms Act 1961, destruction of evidence, undervaluation of sale agreements, evasion of stamp duty and illegal constructions.

This apart, Justice Dinakaran has been accused of resorting to irregular and dishonest administrative actions by fixing rosters of judges to facilitate dishonest judicial decisions while he was the Chief Justice of Karnataka high court. He is also accused of adopting illegal transfers of judges and appointments of staff, sources said.

Dinakaran has been granted the liberty to engage a lawyer of his choice to defend himself.

Justice Dinakaran was recommended for appointment as a Supreme Court judge in August 2009 but the move was stalled following the allegations against him.

The motion for Dinakaran's removal was admitted in the Rajya Sabha on December 17, 2009 following which Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari constituted the panel to probe the allegations.

Initially, another Supreme Court Judge V S Sirpurkar was appointed to head the panel but he was forced to recuse after the Madras Bar Association and various lawyers forum sought his recusal on the ground that he had worked with Justice Dinakaran in the Madras high ourt.

While slapping charges against Dinakaran, the panel took into consideration various material furnished by the Income Tax department and Tamil Nadu government to justify the allegations against him.

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25 yrs in the making, Army inducts Akash

NEW DELHI: Indian armed forces are going in for a huge induction of the indigenous Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems to counter the threat posed by enemy fighters, drones and helicopters on both western and eastern fronts as well as protect "vital areas and installations".

Developed by DRDO after 25 years of technical glitches, the 25-km range Akash air defence weapon system finally seems to have found favour with the armed forces, who are desperate to plug existing operational gaps in air defence.

The IAF had earlier ordered eight Akash squadrons — six of them will be based in North East to counter China — for Rs 6,200 crore. Now, the Cabinet Committee on Security on Thursday cleared two Akash regiments, with six firing batteries and hundreds of missiles each, for the Army. The total order for the Army stands at Rs 14,180 crore at present.

The low-reaction-time Akash is designed to neutralise multiple aerial targets attacking from several directions simultaneously, with a digitally-coded command guidance system, in all weather conditions. "The fully-automated Akash has an 88% kill probability within a specified kill zone... It has even intercepted a target with a 0.02 sq metre of radar cross-section (a fighter has a 2 sqm RCS)," said an official.

DRDO, in fact, says the sleek 5.6-metre-long Akash, powered to carry a payload of 60 kg, can even take on sub-sonic cruise missiles. Akash, which DRDO claims is "96% indigenous", is not the only SAM system that the forces are going to induct to replace their obsolete Russian-origin Pechora, OSA-AK and Igla missiles.

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