Kolkata, Apr 11 ,2016 : The Calcutta High Court has directed Narada News editor Mathew Samuel to hand over the sting tapes allegedly showing Trinamool Congress leaders taking money and the device used to record these to a three-member committee, set up by it today, in Delhi.
The bench had earlier directed Samuel to submit the tapes and device before the court here along with details of the company running Narada News, a web portal which allegedly conducted sting operations a few years back on several TMC leaders, including ministers and MPs.
Samuel, however, pleaded in his affidavit that he would hand over the tapes to any authority or person as directed by the court as he apprehended threat to his life and property in the city.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A Banerjee today annouced that the committee would be set up comprising the Registrar General (Original Side) of Calcutta High Court, CBI DIG at Kolkata and an IG-rank officer of West Bengal Police which will secure the tapes and device and submit these before the court .
“The matter, which has serious ramifications on the entire system if the information is true, … we feel the video tapes and device be kept in safe custody for meeting the ends of justice,” the bench today observed while passing the order.
Taking note of Samuel’s affidavit apprehending threat to his life and property, which in this case are the tapes and the device, the court directed that Samuel would hand over the original video tapes and the device to the committee members in Delhi.
The bench directed that the committee would fix the venue and time where the tapes would be handed over. The committee members would secure the tapes and device and submit these before the court.
The court directed that the DGP of West Bengal Police would depute an IG-rank officer and his name would have to be given to the court by tomorrow.
The tapes were released recently by Narada News.
Three PILs were filed seeking action against Trinamool Congress leaders who were purportedly shown accepting money in exchange for promise of favours in the sting video.
@ Agency report.
New Delhi, April 7,2016 : The CBI today filed a charge sheet against Pearls Group CMD Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and five others, including two firms, in a case of alleged swindling of over Rs 45,000 crore from over five crore investors in the name of various investment schemes. The charge sheet was filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Charu Aggarwal who took cognisance of it and fixed the matter for scrutiny of documents on April 21. The charge sheet was filed against Bhangoo, his firms Pearl Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF), and its promoters and directors under various sections of the IPC and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. “I have gone through the charge sheet. I take cognisance. Documents supplied to all four accused. Put up for scrutiny of documents on April 21,” the magistrate said. The CBI has charged the accused of offences, including criminal conspiracy, dishonestly receiving stolen property, cheating and forgery under the IPC, and under Sections 4 and 5 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978. In its FIR, the CBI has claimed PACL and PGF were running the schemes illegally and both companies were allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities, including forgery in their day-to-day operations.
@ Agency report.
Brussels, Mar 31 : India and the EU have failed to arrive at any understanding on the four-year dispute involving two Italian marines accused of murdering two Indian fishermen, with the Indian side stressing the need for rendering due justice for the families of the deceased.
The joint statement, issued after the 13th India-EU Summit here late last night which was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and EU leaders, said the EU shares Italy’s concerns to find an expeditious solution for the prolonged restriction of liberty of the two Marines.
Both the sides stuck to their respective position and expressed their confidence in the arbitration procedure on the Italian Marines case currently underway in the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which India and Italy are strongly committed.
“Both sides will contribute to settling the case on this basis, enabling the cause of justice to be served for all those affected. The EU shares Italy’s concerns to find an expeditious solution for the prolonged restriction of liberty of the two Marines. India stressed the need for rendering due justice for the families of the Indian fishermen who were killed,” the statement said.
The statement came on a day when Italy asked the judges at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague to order India to release its detained marine Salvatore Girone, saying otherwise he risks four more years in India without any charges being made which would amount to “grave violation of his human rights”.
The PCA is hearing oral arguments by the two sides.
The arbitration “could last at least three or four years” which means that Girone risks “being held in (New) Delhi, without any charges being made, for a total of seven-eight years”, Italy’s representative had told the court.
Girone is one of two Italian marines accused by India of killing two of its fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012. He has not been able to leave India, aside from a few brief permits, since the incident. The other marine, Massimiliano Latorre, is back in Italy after a stroke in 2014.
The Italian government has taken the marines case to international arbitration after repeated delays in the trial in India.
The India-EU joint statement also said that “the EU hoped for a swift solution, through the due process of law in India in the case of MV Seaman Guard Ohio, which concerns fourteen Estonian and six UK citizens sentenced to prison by an Indian court.
@Agency report.
The extraordinary legal fight pitting the Obama administration against technology giant Apple ended unexpectedly after the FBI said it used a mysterious method without Apple’s help to hack into a California mass shooter’s iPhone.
Left unanswered, however, were questions about how the sudden development would affect privacy in the future, and what happens the next time the government is frustrated by digital security lockout features.
Government prosecutors asked a federal judge on Monday to vacate a disputed order forcing Apple to help the FBI break into the iPhone, saying it was no longer necessary.
The FBI used the unspecified technique to access data on an iPhone used by gunman Syed Farook, who died with his wife in a gun battle with police after they killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in December. The Justice Department said agents are now reviewing the information on the phone.
But the government’s brief court filing, in US District Court for the Central District of California, provided no details about how the FBI got into the phone. Nor did it identify the non-government “outside party” that showed agents how to get past the phone’s security defenses. Authorities had previously said only Apple had the ability to help them unlock the phone.
Apple responded by saying it will continue to increase the security of its products.
“We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along,” the company added in a statement, while reiterating its argument that the government’s demand for Apple’s help was wrong.
“This case should never have been brought,” the company said.
FBI assistant director David Bowdich said Monday that examining the iPhone was part of the authorities’ effort to learn if the San Bernardino shooters had worked with others or had targeted any other victims. “I am satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before,” he said in a statement.
The dispute had ignited a fierce internet-era national debate that pitted digital privacy rights against national security concerns and reinvigorated discussion over the impact of encryption on law enforcement’s ability to serve the public.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, said in a statement that while it was “preferable” that the government gained access to the iPhone without Apple’s help, the fundamental question of the extent to which the government should be able to access personal information remains unanswered.
Issa, a critic of the administration’s domestic surveillance practices, said the government’s legal action against Apple raised constitutional and privacy questions and that “those worried about our privacy should stay wary” because this doesn’t mean “their quest for a secret key into our devices is over.”
The surprise development punctured the temporary perception that Apple’s security might have been good enough to keep consumers’ personal information safe even from the US government.
And while the Obama administration created a policy for disclosing such security vulnerabilities to companies, the policy allows for a vulnerability to be kept secret if there is a law enforcement or national security rationale for doing so.
The withdrawal of the court process also takes away Apple’s ability to legally request details on the method the FBI used in this case. Apple attorneys said last week that they hoped the government would share that information with them if it proved successful.
The Justice Department wouldn’t comment on any future disclosure of the method to Apple or the public.
Denelle Dixon-Thayer, chief legal and business officer at Mozilla, which makes the Firefox web browser, said in a statement that “fixing vulnerabilities makes for better products and better security for everyone” and the “government needs to take that into account” and disclose the vulnerability to Apple.
Jay Kaplan, a former NSA computer expert who’s now CEO of cybersecurity firm Synack, said it is likely Apple will pursue avenues to further lock down their operating systems and hardware, especially as a result of the public announcement of some new technique to crack their phones.
US magistrate Sheri Pym of California last month ordered Apple to provide the FBI with software to help it hack into Farook’s work-issued iPhone. The Justice Department relied on a 1789 law to argue it had the authority to compel Apple to bypass its security protocols on its phone for government investigators. While Magistrate Judge James Orenstein in New York ruled last month in a separate case that the US was seeking broad powers under that legal argument, the decision wasn’t binding in the California case and the Justice Department is appealing.
Technology and civil liberties organizations say they’re concerned the case is far from settled, with some worrying that smaller companies might not have the resources to fight off similar demands.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had argued that helping the FBI hack the iPhone would set a dangerous precedent, making all iPhone users vulnerable, if Apple complied with the court order. He as well as FBI director James Comey has said that Congress needs to take up the issue.
Apple was headed for a courtroom showdown with the government last week, until federal prosecutors abruptly asked for a postponement so they could test a potential solution brought to them by a party outside of the US government last Sunday.
The encrypted phone was protected by a passcode that included security protocols: a time delay and auto-erase featured that destroyed the phone’s data after 10 tries. The two features made it impossible for the government to repeatedly and continuously test passcodes in what’s known as a brute-force attack. But with those features removed, the FBI said it would take 26 minutes to crack the phone.
A law enforcement official said the FBI would continue to aid its local and state partners with gaining evidence in cases — implying that the method would be shared with them. The official spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly comment.
@Agency report.