Gujarat: Minor girl gang-raped, four arrested

April 01, 2012

Ahmedabad: Four persons have been arrested for allegedly gangraping a 14-year-old girl in Viramgam town of the district, police said on Sunday.

The incident came to light yesterday, when the girl's parents filed an FIR and based on the information given by the girl, three persons were immediately arrested, they said.

According to police, the fourth accused was arrested today and was taken to the city civil hospital for medical testing. Police have not divulged the name of the accused.

According to police, the victim, who is studying in class 9 had gone to borrow a notebook from her friend on Friday afternoon, when four youths came in an autorickshaw and abducted her.

They took her to a secluded place and raped the girl. Following this, they threatened the girl of dire consequences if she revealed the incident to anyone, and then let her off near her house, police said.

The girl, who was traumatised due to the incident, did not tell about it to anybody. However, when she started suffering from health problems, she broke down before her mother and narrated the incident to her.

Following this, the girl's parents lodged an FIR yesterday and three accused were immediately arrested.

Police said that tension gripped the small town with people gathering at the police station, as the girl belonged to a majority community, while the accused were from the minority community.

However, the situation has been brought under control.

Companies which owe more than Rs1 crore in VAT

Feb 28, 2012

Close to 350 firms, including some of the leading corporates, owe in excess of Rs12,500 crore as outstanding Value Added Tax (VAT) dues to the state government, figures provided in the state assembly show.

The amount includes the pending sales tax dues of Rs8,277 crore which Essar Oil Limited owes to the state government. Essar Oil has approached Supreme Court in the matter.

In a written reply to a question by Porbandar MLA Arjun Modhwadia, finance minister Vaju Vala said there were 344 firms each of which owed more than Rs1 crore in VAT dues to the state government. “The total amount for these 344 firms works out to the tune of Rs12,520 crore,” Vala said. Modhwadia had sought details of firms and units that owe VAT dues of Rs1 crore or more.

Besides Essar Oil, the companies which owe more than Rs1 crore in VAT dues include Reliance Industries, Adani Enterprises, ONGC, ABB Limited, Biotor, Essar Steel, Welspun India, Dishman Pharma, Pepsico India (Holdings), Saurashtra Cement and Asian Paints. Vala informed that steps had been initiated under Gujarat Sales Tax Act, Gujarat VAT Act and Land Revenue Act to recover the outstanding dues.

Ahmedabad is home to 103 of these firms, followed by Valsad with 47, Kutch with 30, Vadodara 28, Surat 22, Bhavnagar 20 and Rajkot 15. Vala also said that the recovery was not being made on account of various reasons due to stay orders, proceedings before Debt Recovery Tribunal, BIFR, or companies going into liquidation, among others.

World of Kites

AHMEDABAD: Sturm Rolf, a kite flyer from Germany, was busy making a new kite to suit the wind direction and speed - a kite that would fly high at the festival. While fixing his designer airplane-shaped kite, Rolf said, "I visit Rajkot, Bhuj, Vadodara, Jamnagar while I am here for the festival but flying kite at the riverfront is altogether novel experience. It is different due to the suddenly-changing wind direction. This is the fifth time I've come back to participate at this festival in Ahmedabad as I simply love flying kites at this venue."

The changing wind direction, relaxed flying zone times, enthusiastic crowds and tasty food, were the major attractions for many international kite flyers at the festival. With huge crowds of enthusiastic onlookers constantly cheering the kitist, there was a festive ambience at the venue. About 87 kite flyers from 24 countries, 70 from nine Indian states and about 200 domestic kite flyers from Gujarat participated by flying kites of different shapes, sizes and colours at the festival in Ahmedabad on Wednesday.

Kite flyers were from 24 countries including US, UK, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Holland, France, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Turkey, Cambodia, Japan and more. Many of the kite flyers who came, have attended Kite Festivals in many other countries including England, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Mexico and France. "The experience at the Indian Kite Flying Festival beats them all," said Gadis Robin, flyer from Singapore who is attending the event for the tenth time. A group of eight flyers from Austria chose to fly 'smile' kites. "I give nine points out of ten to this festival," said Loki Tes, a flyer from Austria, who flew a hand painted 'ankhedaar' kite. "My granny hand painted this Indian design kite especially for this festival," he said.