Dr M's lawyers seek to quiz Najib on affidavit

Lawyers for Dr Mahathir Mohamad filed an application today for leave to question Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on alleged conflicting facts in Najib's affidavit.

At the same time, the lawyers sought a stay of Najib's application to strike out the RM2.64 billion suit filed by Mahathir, along with former Langkawi Umno member Anina Saadudin and former Batu Kawan Umno division vice-chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan, which is related to the 1MDB issue.

The application was filed at noon with the High Court registrar in Kuala Lumpur.

The grounds for today's application come as a result of Najib on April 19 filing an application to strike out the suit.

Among others, the lawyers alleged that Najib's affidavit contained conflicting and inconsistent statements.

The statements in dispute included:

• In the seventh and eighth paragraphs of the affidavit, Najib said he is filing the application to strike out in his capacity as prime minister, finance minister, chairperson of BN and Umno president and not as a civil servant or government officer.

However, the lawyers pointed out that in paragraph 25, Najib admitted he is a civil servant and pleaded that the tort of misfeasance in public office and breach of fiduciary duty was just an effort to remove him from public office.

In paragraph 24 of Najib's affidavit, he denied the allegations in the statement of claim that he had a role in dismissing Muhyiddin Yassin and Shafie Apdal from being membera of the cabinet and the fact that four of the Public Accounts Committee members have been appointed as minister and deputy minister in the cabinet reshuffle last July.

In the interest of justice and due process of the law, the three plaintiffs sought leave for Najib to be called to directly answer and be cross-examined over the unclear, non-precise and conflicting statements based on contemporary facts.

'Acted in bad faith'

Mahathir, Khairuddin and Anina had filed the RM2.64 billion suit in March claiming that Najib had allegedly breached his fiduciary duty and committed malfeasance in public office to derail ongoing investigations against the sitting prime minister.

All three of them are part of the Citizens' Declaration movement to remove Najib as prime minister.

In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs said that due to Najib's position as the “numero uno” of Malaysia, he controls, commands and instructs or insists on omissions within the powers of each and every government machinery.

This includes, among others, ministries, ministers, parliamentary office (including the Public Accounts Committee) and legal enforcement agencies such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

They further claimed that Najib had acted in bad faith to undermine, or cause to compromise various respective institutions involved in the probe of 1MDB scandals related to the remittance of RM2.6 billion and RM42 million or any other amount into the prime minister's personal bank accounts.

The three of them also filed a mareva injunction application to stop Najib from moving his assets and an application of discovery of the sitting prime minister's assets.

A new judge has been slated to hear the case and May 26 is fixed for the hearing of Najib's application for a stay of all proceedings, including hjis application not to file the defence and defence's striking-out application.

Controversial author Irshad Manji weds partner

Controversial Canadian author Irshad Manji has announced her marriage to her partner, Laura Albano.

In a Facebook posting yesterday, Irshad shared their photograph from the wedding ceremony held in Hawaii.

“Just married! Photo album coming. But for now... Thank you for all your congrats, mabrouks and good wishes. Laura and I have read every post. We're deeply grateful,” says the caption.

While many of the comments were wishing the couple a happy life ahead, there were also others who pointed out that same-sex marriage is forbidden in Islam.

In one of her official online newsletters last year, Irshad had shared that her then fiancee was a medical tattoo artist based at the UCLA Medical Centre nearby where they stayed.

At the time, Irshad also said that she had refrained from opening up about her relationship because she wanted to seek her mother’s blessing.

“Although my faithfully Muslim mother still cringes at the thought of what ‘other people’ will say about her daughter being formally married to a woman, Mumtaz is first and last a mom.

“Which means she wants only happiness for her children. And that’s precisely what I have with Laura – utter bliss,” she said.

Irshad’s visit to Malaysia in May 2012 to launch the translated copy of her book 'Allah, Liberty and Love' was met with an outcry by Muslim groups who condemned her perceived “liberal” stance on various issues, including same-sex marriage.

The Malay version of her book – 'Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta' – was slapped with a ban from the Home Ministry later the same month.

In September 2013, the High Court, however lifted the ban order and allow ZI Publications as its publisher to challenge the Home Ministry’s decision.

Is this the world's oldest new mother? Indian pensioner gives birth to her first baby at the age of SEVENTY (and the father is 79)

• Daljinder Kaur gave birth to a boy following two years of IVF treatment
• Hit out at critics who said she was too old, saying she now felt 'complete'
• Armaan was born weighing 4lb 4oz at National Fertility Centre in India
• World's oldest mother was Rajo Devi Lohan, 70, who was also from India

An Indian woman has given birth to her first child at the age of 70, it was revealed today.

Daljinder Kaur gave birth last month to a boy following two years of IVF treatment at a fertility clinic in the northern state of Haryana with her 79-year-old husband.

It is thought she is the oldest woman in the world to give birth - taking the mantle from Rajo Devi Lohan - who was also 70 when she gave birth to daughter Naveen following treatment at the same clinic.

Hitting out at critics, Mrs Kaur said she was not too old to become a first-time mother, adding her life was now complete with the arrival of their son, called Armaan.

Her husband, Mohinder Singh Gill, added they were not worried about the future as 'God will take care of everything'.
The baby was conceived using the couple's own egg and sperm, the news agency AFP reports.

He is now 'healthy and hearty' after weighing just 4.4lb (2kg) when he was born on April 19, said a statement released by the clinic, the National Fertility and Test Tube centre.

Mrs Kaur said the couple, who have been married for 46 years, had almost lost hope of ever having a child.

She claims they had even faced ridicule in a country where infertility is sometimes seen as a curse from God.

According to AFP, she said: 'God heard our prayers. My life feels complete now. I am looking after the baby all by myself, I feel so full of energy.

'My husband is also very caring and helps me as much as he can,' she told the news agency from the northern city of Amritsar, where the couple normally live.

'When we saw the (IVF) advert, we thought we should also give it a try as I badly wanted to have a baby of my own,' she said.

The couple first travelled to the clinic in 2013.

Doctors said she Mrs Kaur been infertile until now because her fallopian tubes were blocked, the Hindustan Times reports.

This problem had not been detected while she was menstruating.

After two failed cycles of IVF, she finally conceived in July last year.

She estimates she is 70-years-old - a common scenario in India where many people do not have birth certificates.

However in a statement, the clinic said she is 72.

Her husband, who owns a farm outside Amritsar, said he was unfazed about their age, saying God would watch over their child.

'People say what will happen to the child once we die.

'But I have full faith in God. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, he will take care of everything,' he told AFP.

Dr Anurag Bishnoi, who runs the fertility clinic, said he was initially sceptical about going ahead with in vitro fertilisation (IVF), but tests showed Mrs Kaur was able to carry the unborn baby.

'I first tried to avoid the case because she looked very frail. Then we made her undergo all the tests and once all the results were okay we went ahead,' the doctor told AFP.

This is the second case at the centre where a woman in her seventies has delivered successfully following IVF.
In 2006, 70-year-old Rajo Devi gave birth to a baby girl from the same centre, making her the world's oldest mother at the time.

The fertility clinic also helped 66-year-old Bhateri Devi give birth to triplets - two daughters and a son - in 2010. One daughter died after a few weeks later

She nearly died from complications with the delivery but later claimed her daughter Naveen made her stronger and helped her live longer.

At the time of Naveen's birth, many questioned whether it was morally right for a pensioner to have children, while also suggesting it was detrimental to her own health.

Their doubts appeared to be justified when Rajo fell gravely ill, almost dying from post-birth complications related to her IVF treatment.

But after battling back, she has even outlived her doctor who guided her through the process, and puts it all down to having something to live for.

The centre also helped 66-year-old Bhateri Devi give birth to triplets in 2010.

She had two daughters and a son, but one of her girls died a few weeks later.

An Indian teen was raped by her father. Village elders had her whipped.

In a scene captured on a cellphone video, one of the men wags his finger angrily at her. He rages: This girl must be punished.

A villager ties her waist with rope, holding the other end, and lifts a tree branch into the air. She bows her head. The first lash comes, then another, then another. Ten in all. She lets out a wail.

Eventually the crowd starts murmuring, "Enough, enough," although nobody moves to stop the beating. Finally, the man throws down his stick. It's over.

She is 13 years old. Or maybe 15. Her family doesn't know for sure. She has never set foot in a school and has spent most of her life doing chores at home, occasionally begging for food and performing in her father's acrobatic show, for which she is given 20 rupees, about 30 cents.


Her crime? Being too scared to tell anyone her father raped her.

Misogyny tough to shake

India is a country of 1.2 billion people, with a growing economy, a young population and an energetic prime minister eager to sell the country on the world stage. A generation of women are taking stronger roles in the workforce, in colleges and online who aren't afraid to push against outdated misogyny - be it acid attacks, rape and sexual harassment, or the portrayal of women in movies and advertisements.

Yet patriarchal prejudices ingrained for centuries have been tough to shake loose despite a growing clamor for change - and continue to affect life from the village water pump to the judicial system and beyond.

Male-dominated village councils have existed in India for centuries to resolve disputes between neighbors and serve as enforcers of social mores in the country's stratified caste system. Although elected village bodies were established by the Indian government in 1992, unelected clan councils continue to operate with impunity throughout rural India, issuing their own edicts in the name of preserving harmony.

Five years after the Supreme Court said such councils should be illegal, the central government and some states are only beginning to pass or contemplate laws that would limit their behavior.

These councils often prevent or break up marriages and love affairs between couples from different castes, and they have instigated honor killings. Women typically receive the harshest punishments.

They also intervene in cases of sexual assault - mediating resolutions between two families, attempting to smooth over devastating wounds with a few hundred rupees and even in some cases forcing a victim to marry her rapist. Amid international outrage about the 2012 fatal gang rape of a Delhi student, laws were passed to make it easier for rape victims to file charges. But the road to the police station is still a long one.

"In rape cases, their role is underground and not officially or publicly acknowledged," said Jagmati Sangwan of the All India Democratic Women's Association, a longtime critic. "They will ask the family of the victim to go for a compromise, go for mediation, and that suppresses the interests of the victim."

Sube Singh Samain, a leader for an association of clan councils in the northern state of Haryana, said they serve a vital role in a county with an overburdened justice system and where legal cases can be costly. He said that village elders have banned the sale of meat, restricted mobile phone use by youth and even prohibited loud music at weddings. ("The music is so bad the cows and bulls fall over and run away," he said.) They also step in to smooth things between families, sometimes urging people to withdraw police complaints.

"We say, 'Let's not go to the courts; let's resolve it,' " he said. "We encourage them to go back to the police if a [complaint] has already been filed and say, 'I was not in a right state of mind; I want to take back my statement.' "

Some of the most brutal decrees have garnered international headlines.

In 2014, for example, a clan council in the state of West Bengal ordered the gang rape of a woman as punishment for having a relationship with a man outside her tribal community - with a leader allegedly urging the council to "go enjoy the girl and have fun," according to a police complaint.

In Maharashtra, representatives from an advocacy group called the Committee for Eradication of Blind Faith work with about 100 people a year who have been victimized by caste councils - called panchayats - most of them female.

Women are forced to retrieve a coin from a vat of boiling oil to prove their purity. One woman was forced to walk, scantily clad, through the forest while the panchayat members threw balls of dough straight off a fire at her back.

"You can't have a parallel judiciary that's completely unaccountable and gives arbitrary punishments - many of them barbaric," said Hamid Dabholkar, the head of the advocacy group. "That is what happened in this case where the girl was beaten when she herself was a victim."

Hard life takes darker turn

Before she died, Anusuya Chavan's existence had been as precarious as the tightrope she walked in her husband's acrobatic shows. For the most part, she was able to shelter her two younger daughters from their father's rages, but eventually her own drinking and battle with tuberculosis caught up with her. She died last year.

At the time, her teenaged daughter begged to go live with one of her older siblings, but the father, Shivram Yeshwant Chavan, told her no. He needed someone to cook, keep house and earn money for him.

Up until then, the girl's life had not been easy, but there were small comforts. She had no friends, but she liked turning handstands in the dirt with her sister, Laila, 7. Or buying a snack of spicy puffed rice or kulfi, a frozen dessert, with pocket change her father slipped her.

Then one night in January, her father came home from his job playing a steel drum in a wedding band, drunk on local hooch. She was sound asleep on the ground in their home, her sister curled up tight next to her. He got down on the ground, too, and put his hand over her mouth.

Victimized twice

In early March, a farmer and local labor activist named Sachin Tukaram Bhise was headed to a nearby village to find day laborers for his wheat and sugar cane farm when he heard a village council was to be called by members of the local Gopal community, near Mauje Jawalwadi. Shivram Chavan's sons did not know the whole story but feared the worst and had ostracized their father; he was ready to confess.

The Gopals are a largely illiterate, impoverished group who were once nomads making their living as cow herders and itinerant street performers. Many have since settled down to menial jobs in the fertile farming region in the shadow of the basalt crags of the Sahyadri mountain range.

As Bhise watched, villagers from around the area gathered in the main square of the village amid tin-roofed sheds. The teenager and her father were brought to kneel before the member council.

Chavan bowed his head and admitted what he had done, Bhise recalled, and said he was ready for whatever punishment the council would give him. Then the elders turned to the teenager and began to berate her.

"They said it was the girl's fault. That the father was drunk and he was not in his senses," Bhise said. "I got angered at the whole thing. How could a girl invite such an act? The 'panch' said, 'You're useless,' 'You're the culprit.' She was crying."

Bhise took out his cellphone camera and surreptitiously began to film as the council issued its verdict - a fine of about $67 and a whipping of 15 "sticks" for the father, five "sticks" for the girl. They would be whipped until each of the thin tree branches broke.

Bhise took his evidence to the police, who later arrested all seven members of the council, charging them with conspiracy, extortion and assault. The father was held on child abuse charges.

'They beat me very lightly'

"It did not hurt me because they beat me very lightly," the teenager said quietly about a month later.

She was curled up on a tarpaulin outside the place where she now lives with her brother and his family - a hut of pieces of fabric stretched over bamboo poles, secured by rocks. It sits on a ridge overlooking a sweeping mountain vista.

As she spoke, the girl began to cry, tears slipping easily from her eyes. She touched the feet of a Marathi-speaking visitor, a gesture of respect, and says she has only herself to blame.

"I asked them to beat me because I was at fault," she said. "The fault was I did not tell anyone about this at home. I told them my father just held my hand. That was my mistake."

Her sister-in-law, Jaya, who was sitting with her on the tarpaulin, agreed that she had been wrong.

"If she had told them, the brothers would have beaten the father. There would have been no panchayat and the matter would have been resolved at home," she said. "If the brothers hadn't beaten him, then the sisters-in-law would have."

Now, the woman said, the young girl just wants to close the case and put it behind her. Since the attack, she has been interviewed by a female police officer, given a medical examination and a small amount of money from the state's victims' fund.

Last month, the state government of Maharashtra approved a measure that prohibits the gathering of village councils to impose a "social boycott," one of the most common - and devastating - punishments. It effectively banishes an individual or family, cutting them off from communal water pumps, stores or the local temple.

Some in the Indian government have called for other states to follow suit, and the government has tightened its laws to prohibit social boycott in some cases.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that he had pushed through the bill because of a rising number of disturbing cases of caste panchayats acting improperly.

"We cannot allow atrocities against any individual or groups," he said. "We will not allow parallel institutions of justice by non-state actors, and we cannot compromise on the dignity and rights of individuals."

And in April, the Gopal community decided to disband the panchayat system and take criminal matters directly to the police from now on, community leader Dilip Dinkar Jadhav said.

Marry the rapist?

For a while it seemed that the members of the panchayat, or at least the man who administered the beating, did not want to be found. A trip to his village - a few families living on a narrow dirt lane near a small yellow Hindu temple - turned up nothing.

"We don't know him," one of the neighbors said.

But after a flurry of telephone calls, Arun Jadhav agreed to meet. He appeared with Dilip Jadhav at a roadside restaurant on the area's busy National Highway 4, studded with expensive auto dealerships that cater to the area's prosperous farmers and white-collar workers. Arun Jadhav, 45, an illiterate trumpet player, was reserved, a Nike ball cap pulled low over his eyes. Dilip Jadhav, 45, a wedding-band manager with a gold-tone watch and a neat checked shirt, had an air of a man used to sorting problems.

Arun Jadhav, who is not directly related to Dilip Jadhav, said he had been called to the village that day to attend a memorial service for the teenager's mother that evolved into the panchayat meeting.

"Somebody asked me to take responsibility for hitting these people and that's what I did. I had tea and then I left," he said.

Both men agreed that the teenager deserved the beating because she hid the truth about the assault.

Dilip Jadhav said it has fallen upon him to secure a future for the young girl, which will be difficult.

"If something like that happened to my daughter, then we would get her married off to the rapist," he said. "We don't go to the police station. If they take the kids to the police station everybody knows about her and she is a bigger liability. It's better if she gets married to him."

He thinks he has found a match for the teenager, though - a young widower of 20, maybe 21, also a musician, whose wife recently died. Within six months she'll be married.