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Royals’ Trivedi turns witness, is an ‘insider’
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Bribery case: CBI questions Railway Board chairman
Coming soon: A Bill to ensure right to water
May 31 is World No Tobacco Day
Pak delegation inspects Wular Barrage Project in Valley
Rs 34 crore in FDs of Jagan firm freezed
Sexual advances by doc breach of trust: High Court
Actress Leena under probe in another cheating case
CBI files chargesheet in Nanhe Yadav murder case
Delhi’s shame
Congress bags Periyapatna seat in K’taka
Avinash Chander is new DRDO chief
Great Nicobar 9th Indian reserve on UNESCO list
Nagas cry foul against ‘tax’ collected by rebels
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Chennai hotelier appears before police
Police teams from Mumbai and Chennai had raided his hotels, which included a Radisson Blu franchise, officials said. The police, which has arrested several bookies and Gurunath Meiyappan, former CEO of Chennai Super Kings, had been told that Vikram was a key player in the racket. Vikram, codenamed Victor, was named both by Meiyappan and actor Vindoo Dara Singh, the police added. “Vikram is a key link between the betting syndicate and several Bollywood personalities,” Joint Commissioner of Police Himanshu Roy told mediapersons. The police said Vikram was likely to be arrested later today and produced before a court on Saturday. He would then be brought face to face with Vindoo and Meiyappan so that conflicts in their respective statements, if any, could be sorted out, the police said. Analysis of a bookie’s call records has revealed that at least 100 calls were made from Vikram’s wife mobile phone. Subsequent investigations revealed that Vikram had made these calls. Vindoo, Meiyappan’s police custody extended
A local court today extended the police custody of former Chennai Super Kings CEO Gurunath Meiyappan, actor Vindoo Dara Singh and two others till June 3. Additional Metropolitan Magistrate AA Khan extended the custody of the four, including bookie Prem Taneja and hawala operator Alpesh Patel, after the Mumbai Police sought more time to question them about their links with big bookies. The police also told the court that they had found a number of leads, including a diary written by Meiyappan containing important details about his links with the betting syndicate. The court rejected the arguments by the lawyers of the accused that their clients had spent sufficient time in custody and the offences under which they had been arrested were
bailable. Key link
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Royals’ Trivedi turns witness, is an ‘insider’
“Bookies had tried to contact him (Trivedi) and gave him gifts such as clothes and perfume. There were attempts to give him money. But he didn’t perform any act (spot-fixing). We also don’t have intelligence that he performed an act that we can call cheating,” said a senior Delhi Police officer, close to the investigation in the case. The officer claimed Trivedi, a Rajasthan Royals bowler, is an “insider”. He was in touch with “shady players” and bookies. Asked if Trivedi had complained to his team management after accepting gifts from bookies, the officer said, “He didn’t complaint to anyone.” Investigators claimed that they had the options of making Trivedi an accused or a prosecution witness in the case. “We made him a witness because he has minimum involvement (in the case) and would also reveal more information. Even if we made him an accused, we will not be able to sustain the charges against him,” explained the officer. Delhi Police had called Trivedi and questioned him at their Special Cell office yesterday. He was named during the interrogation of arrested Rajasthan Royals player Ajit Chandila. Trivedi was presented before a Delhi court today, where he recorded his statement under section 164 of the CrPc. During his questioning, Trivedi allegedly named Sreesanth, who has been arrested for committing spot-fixing in this year’s IPL season. In 2012, Trivedi had recommended Chandila to Rajasthan Royals. Was in touch with bookies
Chavan out of jail New Delhi: Suspended cricketer Ankeet Chavan, who was arrested on allegations of spot-fixing, was released on Friday from Tihar Jail, a day after a court granted him bail to solemnise his marriage. His marriage is fixed for June 2 and he has been granted bail till June 6. — PTI
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Bribery case: CBI questions Railway Board chairman
New Delhi, May 31 CBI sources said Mittal was examined for around three hours last evening and was asked about Mahesh Kumar’s promotion from General Manager (West)
to the board and also about allowing him to retain additional charge of Western Railway even after his elevation. Sources said Mittal was not an accused in the case registered by the agency
on May 3. Singla and Kumar are the main accused in the case. Bansal had to resign as the Union Railway Minister earlier this month after his nephew and a few other persons were arrested by the CBI in a case involving alleged payment of bribe for fixing a top Railway Board position. The case relates to reported aspirations of Kumar for his elevation as Member (Electrical) in the Railway Board for which he allegedly contacted Goyal, a close associate of Singla. Goyal allegedly demanded Rs 10 crore for the job. Kumar was in between elevated from GM (West) to Member (Staff) in Railway Board, a post which he was apparently not very interested in. He then allegedly asked Goyal to help him retain the additional charge of GM (West) for which the middleman demanded Rs 2 crore as immediate payment. The agency alleged that a part payment of Rs 90 lakh was delivered to Singla after which it carried out searches on their premises and recovered the bribe amount. The CBI has so far arrested eight accused.
— PTI The Posers
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Coming soon: A Bill to ensure right to water
New Delhi, May 31 The proposed National Water Framework Law talks of providing citizens a minimum quantity of potable water (not less than 25 litres per capita per day) - somewhat on the lines of the National Food Security Bill that is aimed at protecting the people’s right to food - and its “fair pricing for drinking and uses like sanitation, agriculture and industrial” purposes. According to the draft law, the state’s responsibility to ensure the right to water will remain despite corporatisation or privatisation of water services. The privatisation of water — if it becomes a reality — may come as a massive relief for those whom getting access to potable drinking water is not less than a battle. The proposed Bill, under the head “Rights to water, preservation of quality and water pricing”, says that “every individual has a right to a minimum quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene and within an easy reach of the household. “The minimum quantity of potable water shall be prescribed by the appropriate government after expert examination and public consultation, provided that the minimum quantity of potable water shall not be less than 25 litres per capita per day”. The states will have to provide the minimum quantity of water for drinking and sanitation free of cost to the eligible households. However, the pricing issue is debatable, with the concept already having come under severe criticism by activists. The report of the committee for drafting the Bill, which was submitted to the National Forum of Water Resources and Irrigation Ministers yesterday by former Planning Commission member YK Alagh, also talks of setting up an independent statutory Water Regulatory Authority by every state for ensuring equitable access to water for all and its fair pricing, for drinking and other uses such as sanitation, agricultural and industrial. Among other points, it says that water charges will be determined on volumetric basis and reviewed periodically in order to meet equity, efficiency and economic principles. Potable water for all
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May 31 is World No Tobacco Day
More so, when three out of four children in the 13 and 15 age group in India as well as world over are exposed to pro-cigarette ads on billboards and pro-tobacco messages at outlets and sports and other events. A study conducted by NGO HRIDAY highlighted that in India more than 5,000 youth are initiated to tobacco use every day. These disturbing facts have been revealed by Global Youth Tobacco Surveys of 2006 and 2009 carried on school-going children based on standard protocols that are globally acceptable and till date completed in 180 nations, confirmed officials of the WHO’s South East Asia Region (SEAR)-India. While Article 13 of WHO’s FCTC calls for a complete ban on both direct and indirect promotion and advertisements on all kinds of tobacco products, Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, amended in 2009, still allows promotion with restrictions/ specifications on billboards at the point of sale. “In India 80 per cent of the adults along with children are exposed to some kind of ads or promotion of tobacco even as the government has formulated amendments through the Anti-Tobacco Law 2009 specifying the size of hoardings but the tobacco industry has not been abiding. Paradoxically, the tobacco ads have increased at the point of sale even as there is no specific data to show. The main loophole is allowing tobacco ads at the point of sale,” regional adviser, surveillance (tobacco control) of WHO SEAR (India) Dr Dhirendra Sinha. According to WHO, these advertisements have been found to encourage people to start smoking. So, in line with this year’s theme of World No Tobacco Day (May 31) ‘Ban Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship’, the apex health body has urged countries to adopt a complete ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Disturbing facts
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Pak delegation inspects Wular Barrage Project in Valley Srinagar, May 31 The project has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan. It had also featured at the Indo-Pak secretary level talks last year. The work on the project was suspended in the late 80s on the advice of the Union Ministry of Water Resources after Pakistan raised objections saying it violated the Indus Water Treaty. The delegation was led by Commissioner, IWCP, Mirza Asif Ali Beig. They were accompanied by a three-member delegation from the Indus Water Commission of India (IWCI) led by its Commissioner G Rangarajan. Three engineers of Central Water Commission, New Delhi, also accompanied the delegation. The delegation members visited the site of Wular Barrage Project also known as Tulbul Navigation Project at Aadipore and Ningli villages in Sopore, 55 km from here, on Thursday. “The delegation assessed whether there has been any violation from the Indian side under Indus Water Treaty” the sources said. “They inspected the site for almost two hours. It was a routine visit,” the sources added. The IWCP members were in the valley on a two-day visit. Deputy Commissioner, Baramulla, Ghulam Ahmad Khwaja said the team visited the area housing the project. “They inspected the project,” Khwaja said. The abandoned Wular Barrage Project had come into limelight last year after some suspected militants threatened workers at a construction site of a Wular Lake Conservation Project located near the abandoned Tulbul Navigation Project. Three to four heavily armed militants had barged into workers’ huts at Aadipore village in August last year and threatened the workers. The militants had also used a bulldozer to demolish an embankment which was being raised by the workers as part of Wular Lake Conservation Project on the edge of Asia’s largest fresh water lake. Though the Wular Lake Conservation Project has no connection with suspended Wular Barrage Project, the police sources said the militants had threatened the labourers as they suspected that in the name of Wular Lake conservation, the Government of India was violating the Indus Water Treaty. The Centrally sponsored Wular Lake Conservation Project, the officials said, is aimed at conserving Wular Lake, enhancing tourism, growing fodder for the animals and increasing production of fish and water chestnuts in the lake. The commission concluded its visit today. The commission members also visited Dal Lake and the Jhelum today. Work suspended in 1989
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Chit Fund Scam
Kolkata, May 31
They also demanded the arrests of the TMC ministers, MPs and others allegedly involved in defrauding the poor depositors by the chit fund group. In the Esplanade area, the front chairman Biman Bose, Monju Mojumdar (CPI), Kshite Goswami and Monoj Bhattacharyya (both RSP), Asim Dasgupta and Rabin Dev (CPM) and several others violated the police barricade and courted arrests. But they were granted bail unconditionally and released soon. In Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and Coochbehar in north Bengal and at Bankura, Burdwan, Purulia, Hooghly and other places in south Bengal, the Left Front leaders and workers courted arrest protesting against the “dictatorship” and “high-handedness” of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other the TMC workers. The chief minister was addressing a by-election meeting at Salkhia, Howrah, in support of the TMC candidate, when the front chairman lashed out at her, alleging that she had been the prime violator of the Constitution and the democratic functioning of the government. Bose alleged that the Saradha chit fund had the blessings and the active support of the Chief Minister and only a CBI probe could identify the culprits and bring them to book. Mamata, however, turned down the demand of the CBI inquiry into both the chit fund scam and Sudipta Gupta’s death. She asked the people to get united in the fight against the CPM, the Congress and other vested interests in the Lok Sabha by-election, the subsequent panchayat poll and the next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
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Rs 34 crore in FDs of Jagan firm freezed
New Delhi, May 31 With this fourth attachment order, the agency has attached more than Rs 300 crore worth of assets and properties belonging to Jagan and others in the disproportionate assets case being probed jointly by the ED and the CBI. The fixed deposits with a total value of Rs 34.66 crore, which have been termed in the order as “proceeds of crime”, are in the Jubilee Hill branch of Oriental Bank of Commerce in Hyderabad in the name of Jagati Publications Limited, a firm owned by the Member of Parliament (MP) from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. An ED attachment, under the criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), is an action meant to deprive the accused of properties sourced out of illegal means or through proceeds of crime. The order, slapped by the investigating officer of the case, can be challenged at the Appellate authority of PMLA within 180 days of issuance.
— PTI 4th attachment order
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Sexual advances by doc breach of trust: High Court
New Delhi, May 31 The court's observations came while dismissing a plea of a homoeopathic doctor against the award of 18-month jail term, besides a fine of Rs 20,000, for touching private parts of a girl who had gone to seek medical help for insomnia, headache and skin disease on May 23, 2007. "A physician, being in a position of trust and power, has a duty to act in the patient's best interest. To maintain trust, a physician must avoid making sexual advances. Sexual advances or inappropriate touching of a patient by a medical practitioner is a grave breach of trust and an offence under Section 354 IPC. Such a conduct from a medical practitioner is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated," Justice GP Mittal said.
— PTI
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Actress Leena under probe in another cheating case
Days after her arrest from a farmhouse in Delhi, Chennai City Police today brought her here for interrogation. "During interrogation the accused (Leena Maria) revealed that her desire for lavish life and quick money had pushed her to indulge in such criminal activities," police said, adding, she had been remanded in judicial custody. Maria is already under probe along with her "husband" in connection with cheating a bank to the tune of Rs 19.22 crore. The present case involving Maria, who had acted in 'Red Chillies' with national award winner Mohanlal and 'Husbands in Goa' besides others, concerns cheating a city-based businessman of Rs 62.47 lakh. Chakkaravathi, who runs a tailoring contract company Sky Lark Textiles and outfitters, had lodged complaint, saying he received a call in April last year where the caller introduced herself as Leena Maria, "personal assistant of Jaya Kumar IAS, Director of Project development, Karnataka." 'Jaya Kumar' who then spoke, said Chakkaravathi's firm was selected for stitching employees' uniform of Karnataka Government's Medical, Transport, Corporation department, and demanded Rs 62,47,016 as registration fee and refundable deposit in his bank account, police said. Believing that it could be genuine, the complainant had transferred the money. Later he realised he had been cheated, police said in a release here, adding a case was later registered under different sections of the IPC including cheating. Police found out that one Sukash Chandrasekar had impersonated as Jaya Kumar IAS, and conspired with his wife Leena Maria and two others to cheat Chakravarthy. Maria was arrested from a farmhouse in Delhi by a special team on May 28. Three others including Sukash Chandrasekar, were absconding. The police recovered 80 watches and nine cars. The couple was hiding in the farmhouse since May 12 to evade arrest. Their four personal security officers, including three ex-servicemen, were also arrested.
— PTI
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CBI files chargesheet in Nanhe Yadav murder case
Lucknow, May 31 The chargesheets have been filed against Ajay Pal and Vijay Pal, the sons of Kamta Pal with whom the gram pradhan had a land dispute. A contractor Rakesh Pal who had facilitated the land deal which had led to the dispute has also been charge sheeted. The other two are the minister’s driver Sanjay Pratap Singh alias Guddu Singh and his brother Rajiv Pratap Singh alias Raju Singh. While his employer Raja Bhaiyya was interrogated by the CBI for allegedly providing shelter to his driver and also providing him an alibi, no action has been taken against the minister till now. On March 2 Balipur gram pradhan Nanhe Yadav was murdered near a teashop at Balipur in Kunda in Pratapgarh. Later Kunda DSP Ziaul Haq who had reached the village to investigate the matter was killed along with the gram pradhan’s brother Suresh Yadav. The high profile case was first investigated by the local police that had arrested Guddu Singh and Rajiv Pratap Singh on March 4.
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Delhi’s shame
New Delhi, May 31 The investigating officer (IO), the last and the crucial prosecution witness in the case, began her deposition before the court of Additional Sessions Judge Yogesh Khanna by correctly identifying Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh who were arrested by her. Ram Singh, who was found hanging in his cell in Tihar jail, was the first to be arrested, she said adding he tried to run away from the bus but was overpowered by the police team. The trial against him has been abetted following his death. The fourth accused in the case Akshay Thakur was arrested from Aurangabad in Bihar. "All the accused are present in the court room except Ram Singh (since deceased) and a juvenile facing trial before the Juvenile Justice Board," she said on being asked by the prosecutor whether the accused persons were present in the court room.
— PTI
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Congress bags Periyapatna seat in K’taka
Bangalore, May 31 The constituency falls in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s home district of Mysore. Congress nominee and sitting MLA K Venkatesh defeated K Mahadev of the JD-S by over 2,000 votes.
— TNS
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Avinash Chander is new DRDO chief
New Delhi, May 31 Chander, who replaces VK Saraswat, is the chief architect of the long-range ballistic missile system ‘Agni’. The Agni-V has propelled India to join the elite club of five advanced nations. — TNS
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Great Nicobar 9th Indian reserve on UNESCO list
New Delhi, May 31 The International Coordinating Council of Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB-ICC) designated the 103,870 hectares Great Nicobar reserve as protected, in its meeting in Paris, this week, according to a statement released by the body. The reserve which encompasses a large part of the island of Great Nicobar is home to to indigenous Shompen people, semi-nomadic hunters living inland, and the Nicobarese, who are coastal dwellers dependent on fishing and horticulture. — PTI
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Nagas cry foul against ‘tax’ collected by rebels
Guwahati, May 31 To solve the issue, the administration has warned of crackdown against those indulging in collection of such ‘illegal taxes’ from the common public and business community. Dimapur is the commercial hub of Nagaland and has to bear the brunt of such illegal tax collections by the rebel groups. In response to a complaint lodged by Action Committee Against Unabated Taxation. the Dimapur DC assured of crackdown on those involved in collecting such taxes.
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IAF inducts Swiss basic trainer aircraft Pilatus New Delhi, May 31 Just a few weeks ago, the IAF had formally announced that it had validated a simultaneous two-front war, with China and Pakistan, a doctrine that will include a 'swing fleet' of fighters which can be rapidly moved from west to east. Today the IAF Chief said: "While operating the aircraft, pilots will have to fully exploit on-board systems in order to gain a decisive advantage over the adversary." Elaborating on how the IAF is sitting on the cusp of transformation journey, Air Chief Marshal Browne said while on one hand the IAF was inducting highly capable and technologically advanced aircraft including, it was continuously upgrading its existing combat assets. The "medium multi-role combat aircraft, the C-17 strategic-lift aircraft and Mi-17-V5 helicopters are being added," he said. Just two days ago the IAF has been asked to commit additional 6-7 helicopters for anti-Maoist operations. The Pilatus is being inducted following the phasing out of the HPT-32 trainer aircraft in December 2009. The trainer will provide a solid foundation to our rookie pilots as they understand the nuances of basic flying and go on to a seamless transition, into full-fledged operational flying for all streams. Pilatus PC-7 MK II
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