Ghaziabad/New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) The Supreme Court Monday directed that the body of Ashutosh Asthana, the prime accused-cum-witness in a corruption case involving judges of the higher judiciary, should not be cremated till further orders. However, the development came a day too late as the body was cremated Sunday evening, police said.
‘The cremation took place yesterday (Sunday) at 6.30 p.m. His wife (Sushma Asthana – also an accused) came to attend the cremation,’ said Circle Officer (First) of Ghaziabad R.K. Gautam.
‘Though the post-mortem (tests) on the body had been done earlier, his wife was released (from jail) by 5 p.m., after which the cremation took place by 6.30 p.m,’ Gautam told IANS.
An apex court bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice H.L. Dattu issued the order on a plea by senior counsel Anil Diwan who approached the court for an independent probe into the mysterious death of Asthana in Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad Saturday.
Diwan told the court that there was some uncertainty about reports of Asthana’s cremation, and accordingly the court should issue direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that if his body has not been cremated till then, it should not be cremated till further orders.
Approving Diwan’s demand, the court told him to inform the CBI counsel accordingly.
The court said it will hear the case in detail Tuesday.
A clerk with the Ghaziabad district courts, Asthana was dubbed as the kingpin of a scandal involving the fraudulent withdrawal of social security fund from the district court’s treasury to the tune of Rs.2,300 million between 2000 and 2008.
He was accused of having embezzled the social security fund of the court’s lower grade employees with the collusion of judicial officers, including sitting judges.
After the initial probe by the Ghaziabad police, the investigations into the scam were handed over to the CBI by the Supreme Court following a public interest lawsuit.
In his early 40s, Asthana had told a magisterial court in his deposition that a substantial chunk of the fund was spent in sending lavish gifts to judges, including those from Allahabad High Court (AHC) and one of the apex court.
He was the only one aware of the full details of the scam and had provided the CBI with documents that established connivance of a number of judicial officers, including a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, seven of the AHC, 12 judges of the subordinate courts and six retired AHC judges.
India Is Mired In Corruption
At a closer look, it would become obvious that the primary responsibility in any Indian job function – from The President Of India to the lowly village school teacher – is the collection and distribution of bribes and patronage.
In order to be a collector and distributor of bribes, you obviously cannot be a sane, functional, human being.There is no percentage in just doing your job.
You have to be able to regularise the irregular and irregularise the regular.
You have to put yourself beyond the pale of reason. You have to be perverse.
If Dr Venkataraman, had worked in India, he would have had been routinely asked to fetch tea for the bureaucrats.
He would have been told that such humility was fundamental to great achievement.
He would be asked to alter his lab notes and findings to suit the moods of the bureaucrats.
Good chance, if he finally came up with something good, his work would be plagiarised and even if the President Of India would have been valourized by India’s sheepish editorial class as a champion of science and modernity, his pleas and protests would have been coldly ignored.
Till he somehow managed to cause an international furore. Then there would be a mild stirring.
I have called it the “patronage paradigm”. The paradigm of shoddiness,irresponsibility , cronyism and corruption that cretinises a society.
Read Walia’s biography of Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar to recollect the horror that the youthful Chandra felt when he saw the great Satyen Bose being mistreated right before his eyes by the top scientific babus of his day.
Sycophancy continues to rule in India today.
India’s insular, necrophilous oligarchy had encountered 19 year old Ishrat Jehan on idiotic dribbles.
And the Prime Minister’s Office is being quiet as a mouse about the impeccable evidence I have presented to them on the corrupt, duplicitous and psychotic conduct of the Government of India, the Government Of Andhra Pradesh, The Indian editorial class, the administrators of the Right To Information Act, The Andhra Pradesh High Court and a fellow travelling “civil society”.
Proliferators or pedophiles – the lawless subcontinent is a haven for the scum of the earth.
In India today, dysfunction rules ! Perversity prevails!
Welcome to yet another “conspiracy in corruption” :
Psychotic PMO Bareknuckles “The Economist”
“When The Going Gets Tough, The PMO’s Media Advisers Go Nuts”
“James Astill’s Dazed Denial”
“The President Of India’s Helpline Is A Waste Of Time”
Andhra Pradesh High Court’s Pernicious Rebellion Against The Law .05/29/09
RTI Act 2005 Abuse In Andhra Pradesh- State Information Commissioner Cheats! Chief Secretary Lies!05/07/09
Prejudiced Chief Information Commissioner Laps Up Prime Minister’s Office’s Lies 05/05/09
Divakar S Natarajan and Varun Gandhi Cannot Both Be Wrong ! 01/28/09
And India’s editorial class will not report the story!
sathyagraha.blogspot.com
Divakar’s Sathyagraha News and views from Divakar S Natarajan’s, “no excuses”, ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.
Now in its 18th year.
Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity’s struggle to honour the gift of life.
PS : The above comment was moderated and appeared in “The New Scientist”. It was later taken off.