Friday 27 August 2010

HACKING FOR DIVORCE - INDIAN I.T STYLE

Pune techies turn hackers for divorce, alimony
Mid-Day.com, Updated: August 26, 2010 12:56 IST

Pune: IT professionals in troubled marriages are hacking into their spouse's email account for proof of extramarital affair or salary, say lawyers and cyber
experts.
Cyber experts say a growing number of cases have come to light where couples are hacking into each other's email accounts to collect evidence for
divorce. And some are going a step further by fabricating electronic evidence for early separation.
In one case, an IT professional sent a fabricated email to an unknown person from his wife's account to prove that she was in an extramarital relationship.
The forgery came to light during cross-examination.
In another case, a woman got irritated by her husband's attitude of ignoring her emails demanding alimony and found a way of monitoring his account. The
smart techie wife registered with a website which provided her the exact time when her husband opened her email. This made it impossible for him to deny
that he had not read her mails.
In yet another case, a man managed to get a fake salary slip to show a lower income so that he would not have to pay high alimony, but the wife hacked
into his account to get the printout of his original salary slip.
Niranjan Reddy, founder and CTO of NetConclave Systems, has handled a couple of such cases.
"In most cases spouses just forget to change the password when the process of separation starts, and in many cases even if they change it, the other partner
manages to hack the password," said Reddy.
Lawyers also claim that couples on the verge of separation are increasingly resorting to hacking techniques to score on each other.
"No good lawyer would advise the litigants to hack into each other's accounts, but we are coming across many litigants who come to us already in
possession of sheets of conversation wherein it becomes clear that the other person is having a relationship outside of marriage that goes beyond mere
friendship," said Advocate Ajit Kulkarni.
According to lawyers in the city, 30 per cent of all divorces that happen in the city every year are among couples working in the IT sector.

"Gen Next relies on the Internet for almost everything it does, right from online banking to shopping, so when it is time to gather electronic evidence there
are growing cases where in couples are also relying on Internet," said Advocate Abhay Apte.
Advocate Pratibha Ghorpade said, "In many cases people meet on social networking sites and choose to marry without checking each other's background,
and when it is time for separation they once again resort to the Internet and submit sheets of conversations between their spouse and the man or the
woman who has allegedly jeopardised the marriage."

Thursday 19 August 2010

EAT MORE FOR HEALTH

Health ministry spent Rs 94 lakh on snacks in 2 years

PTI, Jul 25, 2010, 01.31pm IST

NEW DELHI: The Union health ministry has spent over Rs 94 lakh on snacks and bottled water during last two years, nearly eight times more than the expenses of Prime Minister's Office under the same heads.

The PMO has spent about Rs 11.77 lakh on refreshment during the 2008-09 and 2009-10, reveals an RTI reply.

Exercising his Right to Information, Hissar-based RTI activist Ramesh Verma had sought to know from different ministries the expenditure incurred on snacks and bottled water during 2008-09 and 2009-10.

The health ministry, in its reply, said it had spent Rs 49.45 lakh and Rs 44.62 lakh respectively in the "last two years on refreshment/mineral water", which adds to Rs 94.07 lakh.

The rural development ministry spent nearly Rs 41.42 lakh during the period on snacks served during meetings, the reply from the ministry said.

The water resources ministry has said that nearly Rs 20.73 lakh were spent on these heads during the period, while ministry of petroleum incurred expenses of Rs 19.5 lakh.

Ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution spent nearly Rs 35,000 on packaged drinking water during the period, while nearly Rs 14 lakh were spent on refreshments during the last two years.

Read more: Health ministry spent Rs 94 lakh on snacks in 2 years - India - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6214062.cms?prtpage=1#ixzz0wzEmP9ID

Kids born out of live-in ARE legitimate in India

Kids born out of live-in tie not illegitimate: Supreme Court


DNA / Rakesh Bhatnagar / Tuesday, August 17, 2010 9:53 IST

Adding a new dimension to the vibrant debate on legality of a ‘live in’ relationship and legitimacy of children born out of such tie, the Supreme Court has ruled that such kids are not illegitimate. The Apex Court has also held that these children have a right to inherit the properties left behind by any of the partners in such relationship.

“If a man and a woman are living under the same roof and cohabiting for a number of years, there will be a presumption under Section 114 of the Evidence Act that they live as husband and wife and the children born to them will not be illegitimate,” said a bench of Justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan on Friday. The bench said the law presumes in favour of marriage and against concubine.

Earlier, Delhi high court had said that the alliance is like “walk- in and walk-out without strings attached to it.’’ But the Supreme Court has held that the relationship is presumed to be marriage in the eye of law if the partners keep the bonding alive for a long time.

The judgment that may have a strong bearing on several petitions raising the dispute on legitimacy of children born out of the live-in association among others was delivered in an appeal filed by one Madan Mohan Singh, challenging the judgments of Allahabad High Court and the two land consolidation tribunals which had allowed the right on the estate left behind by one Chandra Deo Singh, to the two sons and four daughters of Chandra Deo.

Madan Mohan said he solely inherits the property left behind by Chandra Deo, but Rajni Kant, his brother Anjani Kumar and four sisters contested the claim by saying since they were born out of the decade-long live-in relationship between Chandra Deo and their mother Shakuntala, they were the inheritors of the landed property.
URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_kids-born-out-of-live-in-tie-not-illegitimate-supreme-court_1424495-all
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Long live-in relationships as good as marriage, says Supreme Court


DNA / Rakesh Bhatnagar / Tuesday, August 17, 2010 0:26 IST


A live-in relationship that has existed for a long time will be considered a marriage, the Supreme Court has said.

If a man and a woman have been living under the same roof for a number of years, there will be a presumption under section 114 of the Evidence Act that they have lived as husband and wife and the children born to them would not be illegitimate, a bench of justices P Sathasivam and BS Chauhan have said. The judgment might have a strong bearing on petitions that dispute the legitimacy of children born to live-in partners.

“The law presumes in favour of marriage and against concubine,’’ judges said. However, the presumption can be disproved by “unimpeachable evidence”.

The bench passed the judgment on an appeal by one Madan Mohan Singh. He had challenged verdicts by Allahabad high court and two land consolidation tribunals favouring the two sons and four daughters of one Chandra Deo Singh. The court and tribunals said they have a right to his estate.

Madan Mohan Singh said he is the sole inheritor of Deo’s property, however, brothers Rajni Kant and Anjani Kumar and their four sisters contested Singh’s claim, saying they too should inherit the property because they were born during Deo’s long-standing live-in with their mother Shakuntala.

Deo’s wife Sonbara died in 1945 when he was in prison for taking part in the freedom struggle. Some time before that, he started an affair with Shakuntala, but kept it a secret.

Appellant Singh’s lawyer Mahabir Singh said there was nothing on record to show that Deo married Shakuntala “in accordance with law” and that at most the woman could be considered his concubine. Therefore, her children were “illegitimate’’ and had no right to his property.

Refuting the allegations, the respondents’ lawyer Abhay Kumar said three courts had held that Deo and Shakuntala have been living together for a long time, therefore, their relationship as husband and wife had been accepted by society and their families. In many official documents too, Deo is named as the father of Shakuntala’s children.

Initially Deo did not disclose his relationship with Shakuntala “because society may not accept their relationship even after the death of his wife’’, lawyer Abhay Kumar said.

The court dismissed Madan Mohan Singh’s appeal and scoffed at the evidence submitted by him. Singh had said that the respondents were born before 1960, much before Deo Singh started living with Shakuntala, who was born around 1941.

The court said that if this evidence is taken to be true, it would appear that Shakuntala gave birth to her daughters when she was just 5-6 years old. On the other hand, if Rajni Kant’s school certificate is taken to be true, it would be clear that his mother Shakuntala had given birth to him in 1940; prior to her ‘supposed’ birth in 1941.

“If all documents are accepted, they would simply lead to improbabilities, impossibilities and absurdities,” the court said.

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_long-live-in-relationships-as-good-as-marriage-says-supreme-court_1424434-all

TALIBAN COURTS IN KERALA

Taliban-style courts in God's Own Country

Ananthakrishnan G, TNN, Jul 18, 2010, 07.26am IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 'Hotbed of terrorism' is not the usual label for Kerala. But intelligence gathered by disparate agencies over the last few years suggests the description may not be far off the mark. Confirmation of this came with the horrifying incident of July 4, when a college lecturer's right hand was chopped off in Moovattupuzha, a town in Eranakulam district.

The attack on T J Joseph was apparently in retaliation for setting a question paper that allegedly hurt Muslim sentiments. Police raids on offices of the Popular Front of India (PFI), whose activists are believed to be behind the attack, have exposed a well-oiled, pan-Islamist network fed by a heady mix of Wahhabism and hawala. Kerala's deep-rooted Gulf links also come in handy for the PFI.

The revelations of the last two weeks are startling. It includes al-Qaida training tapes, Taliban-style courts that dispense justice according to Shariat law, literature on conversion, explosives enough to kill dozens, and documents indicating unusual interest in the Indian Navy.

Sources say it was one of the PFI's Taliban-style 'courts' in Erattupettah in Kottayam district that decided Joseph's fate. There are 13 more across Kerala, discreetly exhorting members of the community to stay away from regular courts which are deemed "un-Islamic". The state police is now taking a fresh look at three murders in Kannur, including that of a police constable. There is some suspicion the killings were ordered by Taliban-style courts.

The policemen who seized the CDs from PFI offices later reported disgust and disbelief at videos showing brutal punishment – such as the severing of limbs – inflicted on "enemies of faith". Some shots had activists slaughtering animals, apparently to harden them. Kerala's descent to terror is not recent nor is it without political backing. For decades, both Congress and the Left have been soft on the more radical sections of the Muslim community leaving the moderates at the mercy of the extremists.

Radicalisation of the northern districts began in the 1990s. Fingerprints of the banned al-Umma, which was behind the Coimbatore bombings, were found to be all over the murder of three Hindu youth – in Malappuram, Palakkad and Thrissur – reportedly for having relations with Muslim women.

In July 1993, reformist Islamic scholar Moulavi Abdul Hassan Chekannur was abducted from his home and slaughtered allegedly by hardliners. That conspiracy is yet to be unravelled.

But perhaps the jihadi network first became really visible in Marad, a sleepy fishing hamlet in Kozhikode district. On May 2, 2003, eight Hindu fishermen were executed on the beach by a crack team, which appeared out of nowhere. It was said to be a revenge attack and the execution betrayed a chillingly high level of training. Fingers were pointed at the National Development Front (NDF), headed among others by P Koya, who was a founding member of SIMI, the banned Students Islamic Movement of India. But the trail went cold when it inexorably led to politicians.

Kerala's then A K Antony-led government as well as the Left turned down calls for a CBI investigation. A later inquiry by a judicial commission made reference to the alleged role of some leaders of the Indian Union Muslim League, a Congress ally.

The Left, which was in power when the report was tabled in the state assembly, saw political opportunity and swiftly agreed to a CBI probe. But the "independent" central probe agency expressed its unwillingness to take up the case, claiming that the passage of time – three years – meant the destruction of crucial evidence.

Police believe the NDF was never more than a front to accommodate members of the Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS) – founded by radical cleric-turned-politician Abdul Nasser Madani – after it was proscribed. Even so, it managed to groom a dedicated cadre with jihadi leanings. In November 2006, the NDF merged with like-minded organizations – Manitha Neethi Pasarai of Tamil Nadu and the Karnataka Forum for Dignity – to form the PFI.

Barely two years later, Kerala's links with the global jihad became clear when four young Malayali men were killed in an encounter with security forces in Kashmir. They were en route to PoK for training. The incident brought some disquieting facts to light, not least the extensive recruitment of Kerala's young men for jihadi operations. Official estimates say as many as 300 young Malayalis were recruited from different parts of the state.

The state government sought to play it down, but then constituted a special inquiry by an anti-terrorism unit. Once again, the trail led to politicians of various hues and the investigation languished. It was finally handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Bomb attacks across the country in the last decade have had a Malayali imprint. That includes the May 2008 Jaipur blasts, the serial bombings in Bangalore in July 2008 and then in Delhi in September. Yet, there has been little action on the ground.

Police officers accused of links with the organization remain free. Just recently, the Centre ordered an NIA probe into allegations that a senior IPS officer, Tomin J Thachankary, met suspected terrorists during a visit to Qatar in January this year.

The state home department has not initiated action against a former SP accused of sabotaging the arrest of SIMI activists from a camp in Alwaye near Kochi in August 2006. Though 18 hardcore activists took part in the camp, the police – allegedly under instructions from the SP – only arrested five and let off the rest. They would later mastermind the Jaipur and Bangalore blasts.

Read more: Taliban-style courts in God's Own Country - Special Report - Sunday TOI - Home - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6182633.cms?prtpage=1#ixzz0wz5LtCV1

Wednesday 18 August 2010

ABOLISH THE IAS

Abolish IAS, says Infosys’ Murthy
Daily News & Analysis http://www.dnaindia.com/
Sreejiraj Eluvangal / Wednesday, August 11, 2010 2:17 IST

For a country accustomed to gloating about GDP growth figures and taking these as a measure of achievement, here is sobering advice from NR Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys Technologies, India’s second-largest infotech firm. Stop focussing exclusively on 8 or 8.5% growth, look at the sorry state of affairs on the governance front, he said at a function here.

Drawing a contrast between the success of the private sector and the decay and corruption in the government sector, he said: “In areas where public governance is involved, we have hardly made any progress.”

Murthy said the politicians and bureaucrats are trapped in a colonial mindset. “They feel they are the masters and there is no need to show fairness and transparency,” he said.

Murthy, seen as an idealist by many, owns less than 5% of the total shares of Infosys. He will step down as chairman of the company in 10 days.

While admitting to some exceptions, he noted many of the leaders and bureaucrats were completely out of touch with the dynamics of the current world. “Once I was with a senior bureaucrat discussing how badly our high school students had performed in an international competition and he said, ‘we must stop participating in such competitions’,” he said.

The outdated mentality of the political class, he said, is accentuated by an equally apathetic population, which has almost accepted corruption and inefficiency. “For over 1,000 years, the government belonged to someone sitting either 2,000 miles or 4,000 miles away. There is no sense of societal ownership,” he said. “The penalty (for corruption) is minimal. As a result, there is no fear of repercussions and there is no accountability.”

Murthy’s cure, besides tougher punishment, is to abolish the system of generalised administrators under the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and replace it with specialists under a new ‘Indian Management Service’.

The new breed of government servants would have specialised knowledge to manage projects. Their salaries must also be increased to ‘near private sector’ levels, while making 60% of their remuneration variable according to how well they are able to implement projects. “If we had kept track of the activities using a project management software, we would not be where we are,” he said, about the delays in setting up the Commonwealth Games infrastructure.

He, however, refused to encourage speculation that he would join public life. “I am too old. Besides there is already someone from Infosys,” he said, referring to former CEO Nandan Nilekani, currently heading the UID project.

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_abolish-ias-says-infosys-murthy_1421753-all