NEW DELHI: Italy’s recall of its envoy from New Delhi is aimed at signalling its “strong displeasure” with the Indian government’s handling of a case involving two Italian sailors charged with murder, a top Italian official said on Saturday.

The ambassador’s recall on Friday escalated an increasingly tense diplomatic spat between Italy and India. The two naval guards, members of a military security team protecting a merchant vessel, were formally charged hours earlier in connection with the shooting of two Indian fishermen in February.

The sailors, who have been held in the southern Indian state of Kerala, are due to appear in court on Saturday for a bail hearing.

Italy’s deputy foreign minister, Staffan de Mistura, on his third mission to India to push for the sailors to be released into Italian custody, said the decision to recall the ambassador followed a flurry of failed diplomatic efforts.

It came after three telephone calls by Italian prime minister Mario Monti to his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, a visit by Italy’s defence minister and his own missions to India, he told Reuters from Kerala.

It also followed the “absurd accusation of premeditated murder”, De Mistura said.

“It is a signal of profound displeasure,” he said. Italy argues that jurisdiction over the naval guards should lie with Rome because the incident occurred in international waters, but the Indian government maintains that it is a matter for the courts and that it does not have the authority to intervene.

Asked whether the case had damaged Italian-Indian ties, De Mistura said: “We are sending a strong signal to avoid damaging our relationship.”

India’s foreign ministry played down the recall, saying it did not indicate relations had soured.

The two sailors were stationed on a merchant ship off the southern Indian coast tasked with protecting it from pirate attacks. They fired warning shots at a fishing boat on Feb. 15, believing it to be a pirate vessel, they said.

The naval guards were charged with murder shortly after the incident in February. Under Indian law, initial charges are formalized by police after investigation and before a trial can begin. A hearing to select a date for the trial is scheduled for May 25, Kerala’s deputy public prosecutor said on Friday.

One of the murder charges carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but another can be punished by death, though the central government would have to approve that. India has not used the death penalty for several years.

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CHENNAI: Accusing Karnataka of not ensuring the flows in the Cauvery River as per the prescribed monthly pattern, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene a meeting of the Cauvery River Authority to sort out the issue. She warned that the Tamil Nadu farmers would soon face a distress situation because of inadequate water flows into the state.

“Karnataka is not ensuring the flows in the Cauvery as per the monthly pattern prescribed in the interim order in force or as per the final order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in the crucial months of June to September”, the chief minister said in a letter to the PM.

Jayalalithaa charged Karnataka with unjustly utilising the water for summer irrigation from February to May by depleting the storage in its four major reservoirs. The combined gross storage in the four reservoirs as on February, 1, 2012 was 58.50 tmcft. While on May 14, the combined storage was 28.176 tmcft, Karnataka has depleted 30.33 tmcft from February 1 to May 14, besides utilising the flows of about 11 tmcft”, she claimed. “Thus, the total utilisation from February 1 is 41 tmcft,” she said.

Due to depletion of storage during summer months, Karnataka impounds all the initial monsoon flows in its reservoirs and releases water only when they start to surplus, thus affecting the inflows into the Mettur Dam in Tamil Nadu, which consequently affects the crop seasons very badly and also delays the cultivation, Jayalalithaa said, justifying her call for a meeting of the Cauvery Authority, headed by the PM.

“As you are aware, the finalisation of the distress sharing formula evolved by the Central Water Commission is eluding a solution. This has ultimately deprived Tamil Nadu of adequate water which should have been released by Karnataka either as per the interim order of the Tribunal or by the formula evolved”, she said. The Cauvery Monitoring Committee in its 24th meeting had decided to refer the formula to the Cauvery River Authority for consideration when noticeable distress condition occurs in future.

“Such a distress situation may arise at any time”, she said. Moreover, the interim order by the Cauvery Water disputes Tribunal, which is in force, specifies that Karnataka shall not increase its area under irrigation beyond 11.20 lakh acres. But Karnataka was not furnishing year wise details of the area under irrigation, she said.

Jayalalithaa also reminded Singh that in an earlier letter to him in October last year, she had requested that he issue instructions to the Ministry of Water Resources to notify the Final Order of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, passed in February 2007, in the Gazette of India. “However, the Minister of Water Resources informed me it would be appropriate to consider notification of the order once the matter is disposed of by the Supreme Court.”

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NEW DELHI: The Telangana issue rocked Rajya Sabha on Friday with political parties blaming each other for delay in granting separate statehood to the region.

The commotion started with Congress MP Hanumantha Rao alleging that home minister P Chidambaram’s statement on creation of a separate Telangana state was given in 2010 after TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu pledged his support for it.

Soon Rao, participating in a debate on private member’s resolution, made the statement, the members from TDP and BJP sought a clarification from the home minister on the issue.

Congress MP said Chidambaram had made the statement about starting the process of creation of Telangana on December 9, 2010, after Naidu said on December 7 that he will support it.

Rao’s comment attracted the ire of TDP member Devendra Goud T who said that Congress was trying to blame his party for the home minister’s statement, demanding clarification from Chidambaram.

BJP member Prakash Javadekar (BJP) said Congress was seeking opinion of other parties on the Telangana issue but its own stand was not clear.

“All parties are present here and let everyone, including Congress, make its stand clear,” he said.

This led to pandemonium with members from both sides attacking each other, forcing the chair to adjourn the House.

When the House reassembled, Rao said political leaders should find a solution to the problem.

BJP member Basawaraj Patil said the government should heed the sentiments of the people agitating for Telangana statehood and wondered why the government has not so far listened to their demand.

TDP’s Y S Chowdhury said industrial growth in Telangana region has declined and students have committed suicide but the government was sitting as a mute spectator.

He said the Centre’s contention that Telangana would be created only after “unanimity” is arrived cannot be the ground for the creation of the state.

He was contested by vocal Congress MP Renuka Chaudhury who said the opposition was trying to mislead the House.

Congress MP Mohammad Ali Khan raised question about the intention of the NDA government and parties such as TDP and TRS on creation of Telangana.

BJP member Nand Kumar Sai demanded a Bill on creation of Telangana state in the remaining two days of the ongoing Parliament session.

He said both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would continue to prosper as separate regions.

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NEW DELHI: A trial court on Friday deferred the order on a criminal defamation case filed by Lt Gen (Retd) Tejinder Singh against Army chief Gen V K Singh and four others saying that it will hold an inquiry into the allegations levelled by Tejinder Singh before passing any order on summoning the Army chief.

The court also directed the defence ministry to place before it the file relating to the publication of the Army’s March 5 press release in which Tejinder Singh was accused of offering a bribe of Rs 14 crore to the Army chief.

In its 17-page-order, the court said it was “prima facie satisfied that the March 5 press release was defamatory” as “ex-facie” serious allegation of “bribery” has been made against Tejinder Singh, who had a long and distinguished career in the Army.

However, the court said before passing any order, it has to be inquired whether the Army chief and four others named in the complaint had any role in the publication of the press release.

The court said that the “only important question that now survives” before it is that whether among the five persons, mentioned in the complaint, the Army chief and two others — Lt Gen S K Singh and Lt Gen B S Thakur — had any complicity in the publication of the press release.

“I find that at this stage i.e. on the basis of evidence available, this court cannot draw any positive or negative inference and it would be appropriate for this court to postpone the issuance of process and hold an inquiry as per section 202 of the CrPC,” metropolitan magistrate Jay Thareja said.

Section 202 of the CrPC empowers the court to hold inquiry for the purpose of deciding whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding in a complaint.

Perusing the complaint and the press release, the judge said, “In my view, at this stage, testimony of the complainant supported by the testimonies of complainant witnesses… is sufficient to prima facie satisfy this court that the press release dated March 5 is defamatory i.e. false and injurious qua the character and reputation of the complainant,” it said.

The court, which was scheduled to pass an order on Friday on summoning Army chief and four others, said that the defence ministry would send the file, relating to publication of the press release before it in a sealed cover.

“In case the file is not available in the office of the secretary, MoD, it is expected that secretary, MoD would summon the file from the Army headquarters and ensure that it is sent in a sealed cover through an appropriate officer, for perusal by this court,” the court said.

It said that as per the facts in the complaint, it does not disclose the commission of offence described under section 211 (false charge of offence made with intent to injure) of IPC because till the filing of complaint, “no criminal prosecution had been instituted against the complaint”.

The court, in its order, said it appeared that the persons named in the complaint had issued the March 5 press release in violation of the Army Act and other rules.

“I find that at this stage of the proceedings, it appears that respondents (named in the complaint) have issued the press release dated March 5 in violation of Section 21 of the Army Act, 1950, Rule 21 of the Army Rules, 1954 and the Defence Technical Publicity Rules, 2004 and therefore, at this stage, the benefit of section 197 (2) cannot be granted to the respondents.

Besides the Army chief, Tejinder Singh has named Vice-Chief of Army Staff S K Singh, Lt Gen B S Thakur (DG MI), Maj Gen S L Narshiman (additional director general of public information) and Lt Col Hitten Sawhney, accusing them of misusing their official positions, power and authority to level false charges against him.

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