Migration from India brought genes, tools and dingoes to Australia 4,200 years ago

January 15, 2013

It is generally assumed that the expansion of AMH from Africa (or Africarabia) reached S-E Asia around 70,000 years ago and Australia some 40,000 – 50,000 years ago. The Australian population then remained virtually isolated until quite recently. But a new genome-wide study suggests that there was migration from India to Australia some 4,200 years ago during the Holocene and that they brought stone-tools and the ancestor of the dingo with them. The study suggests that after the first migrants originally arrived in Sahul, the Australian, New Guinea and Mamanwa populations split from each other some 36,000 years ago. But by – an as yet unknown route – migrants from India arrived in Australia between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.

Though this coincides with the height of the Indus Valley civilization in 2600 BC, I think it is more likely that any ocean-based, island-hopping migration at this time would have started – at least geographically – from S-E India rather than from the Indus Valley civilization in N-W India. But coastal navigation around the Indian coastline of that time would have been well within the capabilities of the Indus valley inhabitants. This is also the period when proto-Dravidian was the language across most of India (including in the Indus valley civilization) and it would be interesting if there are any traces in language which match this genetic data.

Genome-wide data substantiate Holocene gene flow from India to Australia, by Irina Pugach, Frederick Delfin, Ellen Gunnarsdóttir, Manfred Kayser, and Mark Stoneking, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/01/09/1211927110

Abstract:The Australian continent holds some of the earliest archaeological evidence for the expansion of modern humans out of Africa, with initial occupation at least 40,000 y ago. It is commonly assumed that Australia remained largely isolated following initial colonization, but the genetic history of Australians has not been explored in detail to address this issue. Here, we analyze large-scale genotyping data from aboriginal Australians, New Guineans, island Southeast Asians and Indians. We find an ancient association between Australia, New Guinea, and the Mamanwa (a Negrito group from the Philippines), with divergence times for these groups estimated at 36,000 y ago, and supporting the view that these populations represent the descendants of an early “southern route” migration out of Africa, whereas other populations in the region arrived later by a separate dispersal. We also detect a signal indicative of substantial gene flow between the Indian populations and Australia well before European contact, contrary to the prevailing view that there was no contact between Australia and the rest of the world. We estimate this gene flow to have occurred during the Holocene, 4,230 y ago. This is also approximately when changes in tool technology, food processing, and the dingo appear in the Australian archaeological record, suggesting that these may be related to the migration from India.

BBC reports:

“For a long time, it has been commonly assumed that following the initial colonization, Australia was largely isolated as there wasn’t much evidence of further contact with the outside world,” explained Prof Mark Stoneking, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

“It is one of the first dispersals of modern humans – and it did seem a bit of a conundrum that people who got there this early would have been so isolated.”

To study the early origins of Australia’s population, the team compared genetic material from Aboriginal Australians with DNA from people in New Guinea, South East Asia and India.

By looking at specific locations, called genetic markers, within the DNA sequences, the researchers were able to track the genes to see who was most closely related to whom.

They found an ancient genetic association between New Guineans and Australians, which dates to about 35,000 to 45,000 years ago. At that time, Australia and New Guinea were a single land mass, called Sahul, and this tallies with the period when the first humans arrived.

But the researchers also found a substantial amount of gene flow between India and Australia.

Prof Stoneking said: “We have a pretty clear signal from looking at a large number of genetic markers from all across the genome that there was contact between India and Australia somewhere around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.”

He said the genetic data could not establish the route the Indians would have taken to reach the continent, but it was evidence that Australia was not as cut off as had been assumed.

“Our results show that there were indeed people that made a genetic contribution to Australians from India,” Prof Stoneking explained.

The researchers also looked at fossils and other archaeological discoveries that date to this period.

They said changes in tool technology and new animals could possibly be attributed to the new migrants.

Prof Stoneking said: “We don’t have direct evidence of any connection, but it strongly suggestive that microliths, dingo and the movement of people were all connected.”

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European Court of Auditors finds misuse of €5 billion subsidies for energy efficiency

January 14, 2013

Hot on the heels of  the criticism in the UK by the Public Accounts Committee of the over-generous licencing of wind-farms comes this criticism by the European Court of Auditors of the €5 billion wasted in the EU ostensibly on energy efficiency projects. (pdf report here).

Subsidies encourage cheating and corruption and green subsidies rarely achieve their objectives and are proving to be an utter waste.

European Court of Auditors:

“The Member States were essentially using this money to refurbish public buildings while energy efficiency was, at best, a secondary concern,” said ECA Member Harald Wögerbauer (AT). Since 2000, the European Union, through its Cohesion Policy funds, spent almost €5 billion for co-financing energy efficiency measures in the Member States. The Court found that the projects selected by Member State authorities for financing did not have rational objectives in terms of cost-effectiveness, i.e. cost per unit of energy saved. The planned payback period for the investments was 50 years on average, and up to 150 years in certain cases.

BBC:  The projects examined by the Court of Auditors were in the Czech Republic, Italy and Lithuania. Those countries received the most EU funding for such projects in 2007-2013.

National authorities used the funds to refurbish buildings, but the spending would not be recouped for 50 years on average, the report said. ….  The auditors looked at a sample of 24 energy efficiency projects co-financed by the Cohesion Fund and European Regional Development Fund. Under co-financing, the national governments contribute a percentage of the investment themselves.

The auditors say the European Commission, which allocates EU budget funds, should ensure that such projects undergo a thorough needs assessment first, and that proper monitoring for cost-effectiveness is done.

The report complained of a lack of necessary data, because energy audits are not mandatory in Italy and Lithuania. In the Czech Republic, where they are required, the recommended investment options were far too costly.

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UK PAC – Wind farm licences are “too generous for the limited risks”

January 14, 2013

The UK PAC calls the over-generous wind farm licences as being shocking. The consumer will just have to pay higher prices.

The problem with subsidies is that it nearly always leads to the subsidies being milked for the benefit of the few and the cost is borne by the many.  The purpose of the subsidy is never usually achieved (unless the benefit is taken to be the windfall that a few enjoy).  Now the UK Public Accounts Committee points out the many blunders in wind farm licencing which will cost the consumer some £17 billion — but the money goes to those investors who got in early!!

There is nothing wrong with wind power per se and it surely has a limited contribution to make. But it is just not commercial or practical for base-load power generation and no amount of subsidy will make it so. I can’t help thinking that the few investors who benefit – directly or indirectly – have close friends among the powers that be that establish the generous subsidy rules. The subsidies are justified on the basis of “reducing carbon footprint” which is meaningless.

The PAC has published its 20th report of this session on offshore electricity transmission (full report pdf here).  The Committee had taken evidence from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority, and industry representatives on the new licensing regime for offshore electricity transmission.

“Not only is it unlikely that this new licensing system for bringing electricity from offshore wind farms onto the national grid will deliver any savings for consumers, it could well lead to higher prices”. ……

….. Margaret Hodge was speaking as the Committee published its 20th Report of this Session. The Department and the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (the Authority) have introduced an elaborate regime that licences operators of offshore electricity transmission assets following competitions. The terms of the transmission licences awarded so far appear heavily skewed towards attracting investors rather than securing a good deal for consumers.

The transmission operators receive their income from the National Grid which recovers its costs from electricity suppliers and generators. Although all concerned state that no public funds are directly involved, the future payments to licensees, which will amount to around £17 billion, will in fact be passed onto consumers through electricity bills.

The investors’ estimated returns of 10-11% on the initial licences look extremely generous given the limited risks the investors bear. Licensees are guaranteed a fully retail price index-linked income for 20 years regardless of the extent to which assets are used. Yet penalties are limited to 10% of expected income in any one year if the operators fail to provide the transmission facilities when required.

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Posted in Alarmism, Energy, Renewable Energy, UK, Wind power | 2 Comments »

100 million expected at Maha Kumbh Mela starting today

January 14, 2013

It is a festival which has been going on for at least 1500 years and probably much longer. The earliest record of the Kumbh Mela is from the writings of Xuanzang who visited in 629 CE. But similar festivals are known to have been going on hundreds of years earlier.

It could be the largest ever gathering of humanity in one place as the Maha Kumbh Mela begins today at Sangam in Allahabad. The festival will continue for 55 days and is expected to attract over 70 million and perhaps upto 100 million people this year. It is a little mind-numbing to consider that almost 8% of the entire population of India will be in this one location over the next two months.

The 2001 Maha Kumbh – which was was a once in 144 year event – saw around 60 – 70 million attending with an estimated one million visitors from abroad. On Sunday night it was estimated that around 1.5 million people were already in place in various tent cities around Allahabad. Mark Twain was a visitor in 1895 and wrote:

It is wonderful, the power of a faith like that, that can make multitudes upon multitudes of the old and weak and the young and frail enter without hesitation or complaint upon such incredible journeys and endure the resultant miseries without repining. It is done in love, or it is done in fear; I do not know which it is.

The Mela tales place at Sangam at the confluence of the three holy rivers; the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati. It was here that the Gods spilt a drop of Amrita, the nectar of life and it is by bathing here that one can be washed free of sin (and gain a portion of immortality – though this is not the purpose of the pilgrimage and the rituals). The story goes that the Amrita was contained in a pitcher (Kumbh) over which the gods fought the demons. During the battle which raged across the heavens, the God Vishnu flew away with the Kumbh and in his flight spilt some Amrita in 4 places –  Allahabad, Haridwar, Nasik and Ujjain. The battle between the gods and the demons lasted 12 “divine” days which translates to 12 human years. The location of the Mela is governed by astronomy and astrology. The location depends upon the astrological positions of the Sun and Jupiter and the timing is set by the lunar calendar.

The festivities start today with the ritual procession and bathing of the 13 akharas (sects of Sadhus and ascetics whose existence dates back to 2500 BC). The Naga Sadhus will lead the way. The order in which the 13 akharas participate was fixed during the British Raj (to prevent queue jumping and fighting among the various groups) and continues today. Twenty million people are anticipated on Basant Panchami which falls on February 15th. This year the other particularly auspicious bathing days are January 14th, January 27th, February 10th, February 25th and March 10th.

Times of India: The akharas have been allotted fixed time, ranging from 30 minutes to about an hour depending upon the size of their respective procession, for bathing with routes for going to and returning from Sangam so separated as to ward off possibility of members of rival akharas coming in contact with each other.

The mela administration said it has made elaborate arrangements for devotees who would be flocking to the city over the next 55 days. In fact, around 10-15 lakh pilgrims are already living in Sangam city’s sprawling quarters, day and night. Most of them are in tents, make-shift shelters or with sectoral groups called akharas that are administered by sadhus and mahants.

There are people from virtually every state, with those from rural areas of UP, MP, Gujarat and Maharashtra accounting for the largest numbers. The administration has received applications from more than 100 organizations seeking land to pitch more tents, and their numbers are growing.

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Posted in Behaviour, History, India | 1 Comment »

JLR is rapidly becoming the jewel in the Tata empire and adds 800 jobs

January 13, 2013

While all around them car-makers are cutting jobs, Jaguar Land-Rover is bucking the trend. Since JLR was acquired by Tata in 2008 it has thrived and come through not only the the financial crisis but also shareholder criticism and employee apprehensions. JLR is rapidly becoming the jewel in the Tata empire:

Tata JLR

BBC: Jaguar Land Rover is on the verge of announcing the creation of 800 production jobs at its plant in Solihull, it is understood. It comes on top of a successful retail performance by the carmaker, owned by India’s Tata, in 2012.

The West Midlands plant already employs 6,000 people producing the Range Rover Discovery and Defender models.

Last week Japanese carmaker Honda said it would cut 800 jobs at its Swindon production plant.

Jaguar Land Rover said earlier this month that its outlook for 2013 was positive after UK vehicle sales rose by one fifth last year. The new jobs would be created to deal with increased demand from China and the Far East, Russia and the US.

The Chinese market – where sales of Jaguar Land Rover’s vehicles have risen 80% in the past year – has been rising in importance to the company. Jaguar Land Rover sealed a joint venture to make cars with Chinese company Chery Automobile in November.

In December the firm also said it was considering building cars in Saudi Arabia.

If it went ahead, it would be the Indian-owned company’s second overseas manufacturing plant, after agreeing to build a plant in Shanghai.

More than 200 of the 800 new UK jobs to be created are supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund. They will be taken on one-year contracts to start with and will be converted to full time workers should market conditions remain strong.

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Cosmological Principle may not hold

January 13, 2013

A new paper describes the discovery of the largest known Large Quasar Group – with a longest dimension of some 1200 Megaparsecs and a typical dimension of about 500 Mpc. (One parsec is about 3.3 light years). This LQG is thus some 1600 times longer than the distance between the Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy. The research team – led by Dr Roger Clowes from UCLan’s Jeremiah Horrocks Institute – has identified the LQG which is so significant in size that it also challenges the Cosmological Principle. As Dr. Clowes remarks:

“While it is difficult to fathom the scale of this LQG, we can say quite definitely it is the largest structure ever seen in the entire universe. This is hugely exciting – not least because it runs counter to our current understanding of the scale of the universe.

“Even travelling at the speed of light, it would take 4 billion years to cross. This is significant not just because of its size but also because it challenges the Cosmological Principle, which has been widely accepted since Einstein. Our team has been looking at similar cases which add further weight to this challenge and we will be continuing to investigate these fascinating phenomena.”

And if the Cosmological Principle does not hold it means that the fundamental constants of the known Universe may no longer be so fundamental or so constant.  The list of such constants is long but the most fundamental of these on which we build our understanding of the Universe – which we take as being  immutable – are the speed of light in a vacuum, the gravitational constant and the Planck constant. This opens up the possibility that the physical constants may take different values in different parts of the Universe. They may be a function of space and time. They may change over cosmological time – and of course this could mean that the passage of time itself is not uniform. So perhaps the “arrow of time” is really a “boomerang of time”? Or it could be that what starts out as an arrow may be morphing into a boomerang or something else as time progresses (or not). The concept of time – and not only the passage of time – may vary. What if the trajectory of time could loop on itself? or proceed in the form of a double spiral? Even if the Universe is still a non-static Universe – that itself makes a static Universe – Stasis – possible. The possibilities are legion – and not only for science fiction.

Stardate would no longer be uniform – but this could explain the variation between the different series of Star Trek!

Quasar - atists impression NASA-AFP

Quasar – artists impression NASA-AFP

A structure in the early universe at z ~ 1.3 that exceeds the homogeneity scale of the R-W concordance cosmology by, Roger G. Clowes, Kathryn A. Harris, Srinivasan Raghunathan, Luis E. Campusano, Ilona K. Soechting, Matthew J. Graham, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, http://arxiv.org/abs/1211.6256

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Noted in Passing 12th January 2013

January 12, 2013

My hope is to make “Noted in Passing” a regular, weekly post but I am not sure if I will have the discipline to maintain it. I shall try to confine myself to 3 topic areas: “Science and Behaviour”, “Engineering and Technology” and “Bad Science”. I’m trying to avoid politics as a topic in its own right but politics may well creep in under “Behaviour”.

Science and Behaviour

Polar bear numbers world-wide are up and here’s  a marvellous image of a polar bear in winter.

polar bear aurora_borealis_3-t2 free

Polar bear and the aurora borealis (from polar bear science)

Some people apparently believe that  too much genetic information could be a bad thing. Virginia Hughes disagrees strongly and I am inclined to agree with her. Genetic sequencing is here to stay and even if interpretation may lead to new challenges and new dilemmas, this genie cannot be stuffed back into the bottle.

Why did our fingers eveolve wrinkles? Was it perhaps to better be able to grip smooth objects?

John Hawks begins his descent through Darwin’s Descent of Man and has posted his “introduction” which is fascinating and – especially for a layman like me – eminently readable. “Experts” in my opinion are those who explain and not those who try to mystify (usually to inflate their own egos).

David McNeil believes that a gesture-speech unity lies at the origins of language but I am not convinced. When speech began – and that is a story in itself – gestures may well have added to man’s vocabulary but I am skeptical as to the role of gesture in the development of language and the grammar associated with language. But what seems obvious to me is that for the origins of speech as well as the origins of language we have to look to the increasing need for communication as the driving force.

In the meantime miR-941 is now being slated as a specific gene that contributed to how early humans developed tool use and language (in contrast to the FoxP2 gene which is thought to be a more general enabler). A study by psychologists claims that language learning begins before birth but I think they jump far too quickly from sound recognition to language learning and the study does not convince.

Recent excavations at an Australian site provides evidence of inhabitation ” certainly” at 41,230 years ago with the dating of charcoal found at the site. However the earliest inhabitation was much older since stone tools were found in deeper layers than the charcoal, but these have yet to be dated. This seems more consistent with the main human expansion Out of Africarabia first happening before Toba.

Even bloggers on the right are questioning the US love affair with semi-automatic weapons but I don’t expect any significant change to the gun laws in the US anytime soon.

Good grief! Greg Laden believes that summer in the Southern Hemisphere must be a sign of global warming. It’s -6°C outside my window right now and its been snowing in Jerusalem and the Lebanon, so I suppose the Northern Hemisphere must be entering a Little Ice Age.

The luminosity of our Sun varies just 0.1% over the course of its 11-year solar cycle. There is, however, a dawning realization among researchers that even these apparently tiny variations can have a significant effect on terrestrial climate. Tony Phillips from NASA comments on  “The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth’s Climate”  issued by the National Research Council.

Engineering and Technology

The technology for drones that today are used to kill could have more peaceful purposes. A Dronenet for a human free package delivery service  is attractive and does not sound so absurd.

Livefist reports that Airbus has beaten out the Russians to win the Indian Air Force’s new generation of  mid-refuelling tankers while Boeing is still going through teething troubles with the 787 Dreamliner.

The pressures on the supply of neodymium, dysprosium, and other rare-earth metals for the manufacture of strong magnets is leading to a surge in the use of nanotechnology to find alternatives.

Bad Science:

  1. Another idiot study about how our fists evolved in response to fighting!  An excellent takedown by  T. Ryan Gregory. “The most impressive thing about this study is that it managed to gain so much attention with so little substance”. 
  2. ChemBark has this update on serial data fabricator Bengu Sezen who has been hired by the Gebze Institute of Technology.
  3. Simon Kuper has some sympathy for Diederik Stapel who now finds himself in an unforgiving Dutch society. His take on the Stapel affaire is in the FT.
  4. The American Psychiatric Association would seem to be in thrall to the pharmaceutical industry as DSM -5 is adjusted to sell more drugs.
  5. John Hawks has a scathing post about Mark Lynas as “someone who had never read a scientific study on the subject, purporting to be an advocate in the popular press, and having his ignorant statements printed widely by multimillion-dollar media organizations” and the shoe fits whether Lynas is pontificating about GMO or global warming.
  6. Further retractions of social psychology papers: “Fraud committed by any social psychologist diminishes all social psychologists” and reinforces the view that social psychology is mainly for headlines and is still a long way from being a science.
  7. Most junior scientists accept academic theft by their advisors as a way of life and only a very few decide to make any noise about it.

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Climate change costs are not that critical compared to economic development of poor countries – Prof. Per Krussel

January 11, 2013

Swedish Radio is one of the more rabid and unthinking supporters of global warming orthodoxy (as are all the main stream media in Sweden). So I was rather surprised to see them giving prominence today to Per Krussel, Professor of Economics at Stockholm University. Normally Swedish Radio is so biased and bigoted on this subject that they would have made no mention of this if Krussel had not been a Swedish Professor. Of course – for balance – they then also interviewed a Professor on Environmental Economy who just happens to be a member of the IPCC and clearly backed the alarmist line — what else? He was less than impressive. For representing the IPCC they might just as well have interviewed someone from Greenpeace!

Krussel skewers the Stern Report on fundamental methodology but this itself is nothing new. The Stern Report from 2006 is another one where the content has been massaged to come to a pre-determined conclusion and is almost embarrassingly bad. In my view any document today which cites the Stern Report as support is itself discredited.

Swedish Radio: (free translation from the Swedish)

Many researchers believe that the threat from climate change is the critical issue of our time. But Per Krusell, professor of economics at Stockholm University, and leading a major international effort to calculate the economic costs of climate change, believes that the threat is not that critical in financial terms

“Climate change is a threat, it’s pretty big, but it’s not that huge when translated  into dollars and cents”  says Per Krusell.

Per Krusell leads an international research project to develop an economic model, which the world’s countries can use to figure out their future costs of climate change. The model should be finished in about a year and will be the world’s most advanced tools in this context, according to Per Krusell. So far, they have concluded that GDP in the worst case will only drop by a few percent in most countries, such as Sweden. This differs from the widely publicized Stern Report in 2006 pointing to significantly higher costs.

……..  above all, Krusell is critical of Stern for putting  together all anticipated costs, without discounting these costs  properly in the way economists usually do for future costs. … 

(The Stern report used a discounting factor of 0.1% – but it is normal to use a discount rate of 1%, which therefore lowers the cost of future generations substantially.) …. Economist Per Krusell agrees that climate change is a big problem, but thinks it’s more important to focus on the economic development of the poor countries rather than combating climate change.

“When we consider the effects of climate change, we expect also that there will be a cost especially in poor countries, but it sums up to no great critical issue for the world. It is more important to get the poor countries to develop. I’m a little worried that “environmental thinking” leads to more important issues being ignored.”

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Sheldon Cooper would approve – “A rock is a clock”

January 11, 2013

This is right up Sheldon Cooper’s street (not that I understand his physics which is best explained here). A new paper suggests that the wave properties of matter (as contrasted to particle physics) could be used to measure time. If every rock is a potential clock Sheldon will have to change the rules of the “scissors, paper, rock” game. In any case, I look forward to a suitably acrimonius debate between Sheldon and Leslie Winkle on the nature of time and change.

A Clock Directly Linking Time to a Particle’s Mass, by Shau-Yu Lan, Pei-Chen Kuan, Brian Estey, Damon English, Justin M. Brown, Michael A. Hohensee and Holger Müller, Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1230767

Science Daily reports:

Taking advantage of the fact that, in nature, matter can be both a particle and a wave, he (Holger Müller, assistant professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley) has discovered a way to tell time by counting the oscillations of a matter wave. A matter wave’s frequency is 10 billion times higher than that of visible light.

“A rock is a clock, so to speak,” Müller said.

In a paper appearing in the Jan. 11 issue of Science, Müller and his UC Berkeley colleagues describe how to tell time using only the matter wave of a cesium atom. He refers to his method as a Compton clock because it is based on the so-called Compton frequency of a matter wave. ……

…… While Müller’s Compton clock is still 100 million times less precise than today’s best atomic clocks, which employ aluminum ions, improvements in the technique could boost its precision to that of atomic clocks, including the cesium clocks now used to define the second, he said.

“This is a beautiful experiment and cleverly designed, but it is going to be controversial and hotly debated,” said John Close, a quantum physicist at The Australian National University in Canberra. “The question is, ‘Is the Compton frequency of atoms a clock or not a clock?’ Holger’s point is now made. It is a clock. I’ve made one, it works.”

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Publicity-hungry lawyers now flocking to defend the Delhi rapists

January 10, 2013

Just a few days ago no lawyer wanted to defend the Delhi six.

But it has not taken long for the worst aspects of human behaviour to again come to the fore. Now some among the lawyers have seen how much free publicity this can bring and that they will not have many such opportunities. They are flocking like vultures to the defence of the Delhi rapists. One of them – a certain ML Sharma –  has also seen the benefit of being as provocative and outrageous as possible and has today claimed that

  1. the victim brought the rape on herself (“I have never seen a respected lady who brought rape on to herself)“!!!
  2. the prisoners are being tortured to confess

AP Singh and VK Anand are the other two lawyers who have presented themselves for the defendants. I am not sure that these lawyers will bring much competence to bear, but they will surely make the most outrageous claims and demands – and that too extremely loudly – so that they at least remain in the public eye. They have no doubt been encouraged when observing how politicians and religious leaders gain a huge amount of publicity by attacking the victim. The defendants cannot be served by more bad publicity (not that it can get much worse) but their lawyers have nothing to lose and everything to gain:

First Post: It seems to be raining lawyers for the Delhi gang-rape accused. Three lawyers have told reporters on Thursday that they will be representing four of the five accused in the case. ML Sharma, a Supreme Court lawyer, told media persons that he will be representing Mukesh, brother of main accused, Ram Singh. Explaining how he became involved in the case, he said, “I have been interested in this case from the very first day. About eight days ago, I got a call from an unknown person and he said ‘Baccho ko bachao’ (save the boys). However, I remained undecided. And it was on January 7 (on the day accused where to be produced before the court), I decided to take up their case.” …. 

…..  Sharma, a member of the Maharashtra Bar Council, says he has been practicing in the Supreme Court since 1990. Asked about some of the cases he has fought, Sharma mentions the PIL enquiring into the assets of former Chief Justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan and another PIL in the Vodafone tax case that claimed that the then sitting CJI SH Kapadia had a conflict of interest in the case. Not only did the apex court dismiss Sharma’s petition in the Vodafone PIL but also fined him Rs 50,000 for it.

Another Supreme Court lawyer, AP Singh told reporters that he was representing two of the accused — Akshay Thakur and Vinay Sharma. Recounting how he came to be involved in the case, Singh said: “The family members of both the accused — Akshay Kumar and Vinay Sharma – met us. This was on 5-6 January. But at the time of the first meeting, I refused to take their case because it was a highlighted case and a number of public persons were protesting against it. The family member of accused contacted my mother again on 6-7 January. And it is not possible for me refuse the order of my mother.”

….. The loudest of the three lawyers is VK Anand, who had created a ruckus in the courtroom on Monday after getting into a heated argument with another lawyer. Anand told reporters that he was representing the main accused Ram Singh.

The advocates told reporters that the next hearing in the case will be on 14 January.

One India: ML Sharma told Bloomberg that the 23-year-old paramedical student’s friend was “wholly responsible” for the savage attack on her. “Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady. Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect,” Sharma said. While making the above statement, the lawyer surprisingly did not even pause to think that he was casting aspersions on the victim. In his professional capacity, he might be entitled to claim that his clients are innocent. However, Sharma cannot be unaware that it is unethical to defame the deceased.

The lawyer was more in his elements when he alleged that the accused had been subjected to brutality. AFP quoted Sharma as saying that “All the accused have been badly beaten by the police and they have used the third degree to extract the statement that suits the evidence they have collected.” He even claimed: “My clients have been forced to confess to crimes that they did not commit.” He was referring to the five men who have been charged with not only raping the paramedical student in a moving bus but also brutally attacking her with a rod on that fateful night. The victim succumbed to her injuries at a Singapore hospital on Dec 29, 2012. 

The Journal:  Speaking to AFP on Thursday, Sharma said he would prove that his clients were not responsible for the attack on December 16 and he denied having tried to blame the victim. …

“I did speak to Bloomberg but did not say anything about the victim. I only told them that women are respected in India, they are mothers, sisters, friends but tell me which country respects a prostitute.”

Asked if that meant that he regarded the victim as a prostitute, Sharma replied: “No, not at all but I have to protect my clients and prove that they did not commit this heinous crime.”

I can’t help thinking that in this case court-appointed lawyers for the defense is called for. These almost self-appointed, publicity seeking lawyers are likely to only bring the court procedures into disrepute.

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Posted in Behaviour, India | Comments Off on Publicity-hungry lawyers now flocking to defend the Delhi rapists

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