14042018-TTC-01.qxd 14-04-2018 01:48 Page 1 13 established in 1881 saturday,april 14, 2018 chandigarh | gurugram | jalandhar | bathinda | jammu | srinagar | www.tribuneindia.com | vol. 2 no. 102 | 34 pages | ~5.00 | regd. no. chd/0006/2018-2020 /thetribunechd Couldn’t have taken a different stand in Sidhu case: Amarinder Says will appoint MLAs as legislative assistants Kuljit Bains and Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, April 13 Defending the Punjab Government’s stand in the Navjot Singh Sidhu case, Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday said it could not take a stand different from what it did in the three-decade-old case and ruled out any political motive. “I do not play politics. The case was registered 30 years ago. From the trial court, it went to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The government stand in both courts has been consistent. The case has now gone to the Supreme Court. There is no new evidence. The case is being heard solely on the point of law. How can the Punjab Government take a stand different from what it has been in the past 30 years? Had we changed the stand now, we would have stood public scrutiny and would have been questioned if we were lying then or now,” the CM told The Tribune in an exclusive interview. The CM’s comment came amid a political storm kicked in the state with the Opposition insisting the minister step down while party members stood by him, even as Sidhu promised to fight the legal battle on his own strength. continued on page 7 Shooting gold for15-year-old Kathua:2 BJP ministers quit Party to take a call today; move follows pressure by ally PDP Dinesh Manhotra & Vikram Sharma Tribune News Service Jammu, April 13 Two Jammu and Kashmir BJP ministers, who had attended a rally in support of the Kathua rape accused, on Friday resigned from the Mehbooba Mufti government. Forest Minister Lal Singh Chaudhary and Industries Minister Chander Prakash Ganga had also backed the demand by the Hindu Ekta Manch (HEM) for a CBI probe into the rape and murder of an eight-yearold girl, whose body was found in the forest area of Rasana village in Kathua on January 17, seven days after she went PM: Daughters will get justice AnishBhanwala’s immediate next target:Class X exams Rohit Mahajan Tribune News Service Gold Coast (Australia), Apr 13 “Hey, I’m 15, not 16,” says Anish Bhanwala, the new Commonwealth Games 25m Rapidfire Pistol champion. Manu Bhaker, 16, confirms this: “That’s right, he’s only 15 years and a few months old. I’m 16.” The announcer in the Belmont Shooting Range here had been referring to Anish as a “16-year-old”; Anish wanted to put the record straight. “So now I’ve got the Sharif can’t contest for life, rules Pak SC Islamabad: Pakistan’s deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif became ineligible to hold public office for life after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the disqualification of two lawmakers — Sharif and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Jahangir Tareen --- was permanent. The historic ruling ended the three-time PM’s hopes to stage a comeback in the general elections slated after June. Sharif, 68, was disqualified by the SC over an undeclared source of income in 2017. PAGE 21 US set to review duty-free benefit to Indian items Washington: The US has decided to review India’s eligibility to enjoy duty-free access for certain products in the American market under a tax benefit scheme. As many as 3,500 Indian products from sectors such as chemicals and engineering currently enjoy dutyfree access under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), introduced in 1976. The Office of the US Trade Representative said it was reviewing the eligibility of India, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan on concerns about their compliance. PTI Today’s issue consists of 34 pages, including four-page The Tribune Trends and six-page additional pullout. record,” Anish says, a wide smile on his face. That’s right, Anish, 15 years old, is the youngest-ever Indian to win the Commonwealth Games gold. The previous record was Manu’s, when she won the 10m Air Rifle title here. It lasted five days. “I wanted the record because I’ll never get the chance to do it again,” grins Anish. The Haryana lad — he was born in Gohana’s Kasandi, Sonepat district — now needs to get down to passing his Class X Board exams. He’d been given special exemption by CBSE to delay his exams, enabling him to participate in his World Cup, in Mexico last month. “I still have to take my Hindi, Social Science and Math exams,” he says. He gets top marks in English, but “Math is a bit of a problem”. He says both Math and shooting are tough, but “shooting is less tough because I train for it, I like it”. Anish’s effort of 30 shots out of 40 in the final created a new CWG record; under continued on page 23 /thetribunechd New Delhi, April 13 In his first comments on the gruesome incidents of rape in Unnao and Kathua, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that no criminal will be spared and daughters will get justice. He said such incidents shake our sensibilities. “I want to assure the nation that no criminal will be spared. Justice will be done. Our daughters will get justice,” he said at an event to inaugurate the BR Ambedkar memorial here. — PTI Won’t allow SC/ST Act to be diluted: Modi New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that his government will not let the law to prevent atrocities on SCs and STs to be diluted after the Supreme Court laid down new guidelines to prevent its misuse. He also accused the Congress of spreading “lies” to create fissures. PAGE 9 Lal Singh Chaudhary Chander Prakash Ganga missing from her home. Lal Singh is MLA from Basholi and Ganga from Vijaypur in Samba district. Both handed their resignations to BJP state president Sat Sharma. “The BJP core group will meet on Saturday for a decision on their resig- nations,” Sharma told The Tribune. “Everything will be clear after the meeting.” Sources said the ministers had resigned following pressure from ally PDP and the Opposition National Conference. Earlier in the day, the PDP asked the BJP to sack the ministers in order to “salvage the coalition”. The party has called a meeting of its legislators and senior leaders on Saturday to chalk out its future course. Stepping up pressure, NC leader Omar Abdullah warned of civil disobedience if the two ministers were not sacked. “Our party is being blamed for supporting the rapists, which is totally wrong... If our visit to Rassana is the cause for tarnishing the image of our party, we would prefer to resign. We submit our resignation to our party state president because we believe the continued on page 7 more reports page 7 edit: violations in kathua, unnao SC notice to BCI, J&K Bar bodies Asks lawyers not to obstruct judicial proceedings in Kathua case Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, April 13 The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Bar Council of India, Jammu and Kashmir State Bar Council, the state’s High Court Bar Association at Jammu and the Kathua District Bar Association after a group of lawyers told it that some lawyers were allegedly obstructing court proceedings in the Kathua rape case. Taking cognisance of alleged unruly behaviour of some lawyers, a Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra asked Bar members in Jammu and Kathua not to obstruct judicial proceedings in the case. It asked all the respondents to file their replies by April 19, the next date of hearing. “We hope and trust that when we are issuing notice, the members of the Bar Associations shall conduct themselves and would not obstruct the smooth functioning of the justice delivery system, which includes the presence of the persons aggrieved or accused in court or for that matter the presence of investigating agency and the witnesses,” the Bench said. “If a lawyer is obstructed from appearing or if his client is deprived of being represented... that would amount to obstruction of access to justice,” the SC said. Lawyers in Kathua and Jammu were on strike against filing of a chargesheet in the case. Some had allegedly prevented a lady lawyer from representing the victim’s family. MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar Unnao rape: CBI arrests BJP legislator Lucknow/New Delhi, April 13 After more than 18 hours of questioning, the CBI late on Friday arrested Kuldeep Singh Sengar, BJP MLA from Bangarmau in Unnao, UP in , connection with the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl. After registering three cases, a CBI team picked the MLA from his house early in the morning and took him to its Lucknow office for questioning. The Allahabad High Court, meanwhile, has directed the CBI to carry out further investigation or re-open the investigation of the original gangrape case registered on June 20, 2017, along with three other cases filed subsequently. It directed the CBI to consider cancelling the bail of all the accused for fair investigation. A CBI team inspected the crime site at Makhi village in Unnao, questioned the rape survivor’s family members, witnesses as well as hospital officials where the girl was admitted after the crime. continued on page 7