New Delhi, April 23
Promptly jumping to the defence of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s daughter Poorna Patel, national carrier Air India on Friday said it operated a charter flight to carry IPL players from Chandigarh to Chennai as per rules and procedures, maintaining that she was not involved in the operation.

Air India said the April 20 flight was organised “on a request from M/s India Cements Limited, the owners of Chennai Super Kings franchise”, and “Poorna Patel was not involved in this charter operation, nor did she travel on this flight.” But the issue was quick to find place in the Lok Sabha with Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj highlighting the issue of misutilisation of the AI aircraft. With NCP getting entangled in the IPL mess deeper by the day, NCP leaders were quick to suggest that Congress was planting news in the media everyday to weaken its clout in the government. It is a charge the Congress vehemently denied with a senior party leader saying that if during investigations certain names crop up, the government cannot turn a blind eye to them.

Reports suggest that Poorna Patel, who works for IPL, had the Delhi-Coimbatore Air India flight aborted less than 12 hours before departure to allow the aircraft to be deployed to ferry her and some IPL players from Chandigarh to Chennai.

Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav, however, said: “It was absolutely a commercial decision. Chartered flights make a lot of money for the airline. We keep combining flights according to our operational demand. The IPL anyway has been our customer ever since it began.” AI said normal charter rates were charged for the operation.

Describing the charter as a “planned operation”, the airline said it was undertaken after taking into account all factors and standard operating procedures, including clearance from defence authorities, regarding operational viability, without inconvenience to passengers. The passengers were informed in advance of the revised operation, it said, adding that its regional offices were expected to generate additional revenue by full utilisation of resources and they were operationally and commercially empowered to do so, keeping network considerations.

Incidentally, while Air India asserts that it had violated no rules in mounting the flight, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rules say airlines could provide chartered service only if a particular aircraft was not being used for a scheduled service. “Diverting a scheduled passenger flight for charter operation is not permitted,” an official said, adding if no written request was made it may be difficult to prove the allegation.

Her involvement in the IPL mess figured during a debate in Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Prakash Javedkar of the BJP made critical references by name to the Civil Aviation Minister and his daughter.

Jaipur, April 23
The Rajasthan Government has finally admitted that heritage havelis purchased by IPL chief Lalit Modi in the capital’s protected Amer Palace zone were government property.

Rajasthan Tourism Minister Bina Kak told mediapersons that she had read the probe report submitted by Divisional Commissioner Kiran Soni Gupta and it confirmed that these havelis were government property, making the transaction illegal. “The report says these havelis were government property as per the land records of 1945-46 and city survey,” she added. Of the three havelis put up for sale, two were purchased by Amer Heritage City Construction Private Limited, which has Lalit Modi and his wife Meenal as its directors. Though initially the company showed some other people as its directors, Modi and his wife later took over.

The minister said the inquiry report would now be sent to the Law Department for further examination and the government would decided on the future course of action once it receives the department’s opinion.

Kak said it was yet to be ascertained as to how the people who were occupying these havelis sold them despite knowing that they had no ownership right over them. Modi had reportedly paid Rs 21 lakh for the properties that at that time were valued at over Rs 1.5 crore.

Meanwhile, breaking his silence on Modi, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has accused the IPL commissioner of pulling off a series of land scams with the support of former CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia during the previous BJP government. Accusing Raje of being hand-in-glove with Modi, Gehlot asked her to come clean on her stand in the IPL mess and the subsequent controversy surrounding Modi. He also exhorted Raje to respond to the speculations that the money siphoned off from Rajasthan has found its way into the IPL.

Blaming Raje for Modi’s meteoric rise, Gehlot said: “He could not have acquired such a high stature without the former CM’s support. Five years of her regime witnessed several land scams in the state and all of it happened with her connivance,” he charged. 

Mumbai: Embattled IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi today urged the BCCI to give him just five days to prepare answers for all the questions in lieu of his five-year-long services and he is unlikely to move court against IPL's governing council meet on April 26.

“I have worked for you for five years... Give me just five days to prepare answers to all the questions,” Modi communicated to BCCI, sources close to him said. At the same time, they said that Modi is not going to Courts to challenge the governing council meeting on April 26 and he is just requesting for more time.

New Delhi, April 23
Even while the Government was grappling with the alleged involvement of its ministers in the IPL imbroglio, it was hit by more dirt with revelations that it has been eavesdropping on Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s conversations with IPL chairman Lalit Modi.

In its latest issue the Outlook magazine disclosed that the phones of Sharad Pawar, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh have been tapped. Outlook revealed that National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), an intelligence agency created soon after Kargil war for technical intelligence gathering, has been sneaking upon politicians instead.

The Opposition has naturally grabbed this opportunity to put an already beleaguered Government on the mat indicated different leaders today. BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia said, “We will raise this in Parliament on Monday. This is in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution which assures protection of life and liberty to every citizen,” the BJP leader said. CPI leader D Raja said, “India is a democracy and not a military-state where personal freedom is barred. Government should explain why it was doing this;” he said, adding he would raise the issue in Rajya Sabha tomorrow.

The magazine claimed that the phones of the AICC general secretary and Bihar chief minister were tapped way back in 2007 and that of Karat in 2008 when the Left was preparing to withdraw support to the UPA Government in the run-up to the Indo-US nuclear deal which led to the no-confidence motion against the government.

As for Pawar, his phone was tapped and taped last fortnight in the wake of the scandal in the IPL. “Discussions between the minister and IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi were tapped and taped last fortnight in the wake of the scandal in the cricket league. The recorded conversations allegedly threw up inside details of the deals that were stuck in the bidding process for the various teams,” the magazine said. Objecting to this tapping, Ahluwalia said, “If the Government is tapping the phones of terrorists, or tax evaders or secessionists, then it is understandable as national interest and national security are involved. But tapping phones of politicians and ministers is condemnable.”

New Delhi, April 23
A special CBI court today sent Medical Council of India president Ketan Desai, who was arrested last night for demanding and accepting Rs 2 cr as bribe, and three other accused to five-day CBI remand. Desai was arrested along with JP Singh, a Delhi-based middleman, vice-chairman of a Patiala-based Medical College Kanwaljeet Singh and another official.

The CBI said they had received reliable information that Desai had hatched a plan with a Delhi-based middle man and vice-chairman of Gyan Sagar Medical College & Hospital for granting the college permission to start admitting students for the academic year 2010-2011 to different courses despite the college having done nothing to deal with objections pointed out by an inspection committee earlier. “The arrangement was sealed in lieu of heavy monetary considerations,” the CBI said.

Subsequent to the registration of the case, the CBI arrested the middleman with Rs 2 crore given to him by Kanwaljeet Singh to hand over to Desai, said a CBI spokesperson.

According to information, the Gyan Sagar Medical College & Hospital had applied for permission for admission of students for the academic session of 2010-2011. However, the executive committee meeting of the MCI held on February 5, 2010, under Desai’s chairmanship had found that college was lacking in requisite infrastructure. Due to these deficiencies noticed in the inspection report, the college was not granted approval and its request was declined.

The CBI today conducted searches at various places in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh and Gujarat, the home state of Desai, and recovered several incriminating documents, cash and other valuable items from the residential as well as official premises of the accused persons.

New Delhi, April 23
The Supreme Court today issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh Government on a petition by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy seeking removal of the “oppressive restrictions” that have forced devotees visiting Ayodhya to walk 2km and denied them of the facility to conduct puja.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan also allowed Swamy to implead in the main case relating to Ayodhya and posted the matter for next hearing on August 31. The state government and the receiver of the disputed structure have been given four weeks time to file their response to Swamy’s plea.

The restrictions had taken away the devotees’ right to have a parking place, footwear stand and buy fruits and flowers for puja in the vicinity, besides depriving them of ‘darshan’ from a reasonable distance from where the deity would be visible.