Mumbai Nov 25 PTI The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the life sentence awarded to a man in the case of the gangrape of a 19-year-old telephone operator inside the abandoned Shakti Mills compound here in 2013The high court earlier in the day commuted to life sentence the death penalty awarded to three convicts in the case of gangrape of a photojournalist in the Shakti Mills compound which had taken place only a month laterAs to the rape of the 19-year-old telephone operator the court held that delay in filing of FIR would not matter considering the attitudes in our societyA division bench of Justices Sadhana Jadhav and Prithiviraj Chavan dismissed the appeal filed by Mohammed Ashfaq Dawood Shaikh against the trial courts order of March 2014 sentencing him to life imprisonmentAs per the prosecution on July 31 2013 the appellant and six others gangraped the victim a telephone operator after forcibly taking her and her boyfriend inside the premises of the defunct textile mill in central MumbaiThe case came to light after a 22-year-old photojournalist was gangraped by five persons inside the mills compound a month laterDuring the probe police realized that a similar crime had taken place in the compound earlierA total of seven persons including a minor were arrested in the two casesThree accused were common in both the cases While the trio was awarded death penalty by the trial court Shaikh and another accused were awarded life imprisonmentShaikhs lawyer Anjali Patil had argued that it was a false case that was lodged after a month of the alleged incidentThe high court refused to accept thisIn view of our tradition-bound non-permissive society where the reputation and honour of the family of a victim of a sexual assault is at stake it is not expected that an immediate report would be lodgedThere is no doubt the victim was subjected to the most humiliating horrendous and embarrassing form of sexual assault by the five accused that too in the presence of her boyfriend with whom she was to marry the HC saidEvidence given by the victim and her boyfriend was reliable truthful and inspired full confidence and there was clinching evidence pointing to the guilt of the appellant Shaikh the court saidThe HC also passed strictures against the state-run J J Hospital for using the degrading and unscientific archaic two finger test during the victims medical examinationWe hope that the State of Maharashtra would take necessary steps to shun all such unscientific and heavily criticized two finger test It appears that the Maharashtra government has formulated some guidelines We expect and hope that the State will strictly adhere to the same the bench said PTI SP KRK KRK KRK

New Delhi Aug 30 PTI Indian Institute of Technology IIT Madras is developing an innovative model to tackle electronic wastes e-waste by linking stakeholders in the formal and informal economy according to officialsCalled e-Source the exchange platform that will serve as an online marketplace for Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment WEEE and facilitate a formal supply chain between various stakeholders buyers and sellers The initiative is being spearheaded by Indo-German Centre for Sustainability IGCSAccording to officials the initiative aims to make Waste Electrical Electronic Equipment WEEE a key resource in the evolution of a circular economy by establishing traceability and recovery of post-consumer e-waste in the market A novel open-source solution is needed that is data enriched leveraging the potential of transparency in formalised e-waste handling and management E-wastes are typically either completely stripped down for precious metals and other high-value materials or dumped in landfills without exploring potential re-use and repurposing options Unscientific recycling methods are harmful for waste handlers and the environment said Sudhir Chella Rajan Faculty Member Indo-German Centre for Sustainability IGCS IIT MadrasE-Source is a unique open-source platform that will evolve towards using machine learning for better traceability of e-waste in compliance with guidelines and help increase the opportunities for repair and re-use of e-waste he said This will potentially improve livelihoods for youth and women in periurban settings by upgrading their skills and improving occupational health and safety reduce the flow of toxic materials in waste streams and broaden the market for affordable second-hand e-devices he addedThe team claimed that it has already completed initial market research and mapping of the various stakeholders through direct on-the-ground and telephonic conversations and consultations combined with secondary research Rajan said the beta version of the online platform is ready and the team is now looking at more collaborators from the ecosystem especially informal e-waste aggregators to kick-start the pilot run The IGCS team has also begun talks with a few partnersA unique aspect of the e-Source initiative is that the team would be deploying a detection system that uses a combination of image processing and natural language processing techniques to extract product information and upload it to the database he said PTI GJS GJS TIR TIR