New Delhi, January 19
Appeasing UPA partner Trinamool Congress (TMC), Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today pulled up West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee for the Netai killings.

After an open war of words and angry defiance last couple of weeks, Buddhadeb arrived here on summons from the Home Minister and met him and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also giving them a memorandum on the “open and public association with the Maoists”.

During a meeting at the North Block, Chidambaram asked the chief minister to rein in and disarm his party cadres.

While promising to do that, he too made similar demands on Chidambaram on behalf of the TMC saying, "They must end their open and direct support" to the Maoists.

A statement by the Home Ministry stated that Chidambaram told the Chief Minister: “Maintenance of law and order is the responsibility of the security forces and armed cadres of any political party cannot be allowed to play any part in the discharge of this responsibility."

The Home Minister also shared with the Chief Minister information and intelligence on Maoist movements available with the Central government, but brought up the Netai incident in which seven persons were allegedly killed by CPM cadres on January 7.

Later at a press conference Bhattacharjee said: “I agreed with the Home Minister that the recent incident in Netai village was very unfortunate. We will ensure that such incidents do not recur".

Simultaneously he also said, "I told the Home Minister that he should tell them (TMC) in no uncertain terms that they must dissociate from the Maoists”.

He mentioned that the covert understanding between the TMC and the Maoists has now come out in the open. “They are openly associating with the Maoists to foment trouble there. We have confirmed it from different sources, including those (Maoists leaders) who have been arrested," he alleged.

He said TMC leaders were holding joint public meetings with the Maoists, including two in the recent past, and some Trinamool leaders were also “caught recently escorting Maoists”, injured in encounters with joint forces.

Meanwhile, TMC MPs, MLAs and others staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar to counter Bhattacharjee’s allegations of TMC excesses.

Dehradun, January 19
Javed Qureshi, divisional commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen, and his associate Tanvir Ahmed, who were arrested in Dehradun two days before the passing-out parade of the Indian Military Academy, were remanded in 14-day judicial custody by the Upper Chief Judicial Magistrate (Ist) here today. The duo would now be produced in the court on February 1.

They were brought to Dehradun on Tuesday by the Jammu and Kashmir Police. When Judge Naseem Ahmed asked Qureshi from where they were coming, he replied “from J&K”. He admitted that he had been staying at different places with different names. These names were given to him by his boss Tanzim, he said. The judge later remanded him in 14-day judicial custody.

The J&K Police is likely to take them back to Doda district as most of the cases against them were registered in that state. Inspector Arvinder Singh Rukwal, who had come with the 15-member special operation group (SOG) from J&K, however, refused to interact with the media.

The dreaded commander and his aide Tanvir Ahmed were arrested during a verification drive in Doon. A pistol and some live cartridges were also seized from his possession.

Bangalore, January 19
Rift between Karnataka Governor HR Bhardwaj and the first BJP government in the state touched a new low with the government today asking Bhardwaj to drop the proceedings initiated on a petition seeking sanction to prosecute Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and Home Minister R Ashoka for their alleged involvement in land scams.

An emergency Cabinet meeting chaired by Yeddyurappa here passed a unanimous resolution to this effect. Last month two lawyers petitioned the Governor seeking permission to prosecute Yeddyurappa and Ashoka for nepotism and irregularities in de-notification of lands by the government. Bhardwaj yesterday said he was considering the petition.

“Your Excellency’s action of consideration of the request for sanction will not inspire confidence that the decision would be judicious, fair and bonafide,” the Cabinet resolution said.

“Neither any investigating agency nor any Commission of Inquiry has indicted the Chief Minister or the Home Minister. Hence your intended exercise of the power to process the request for sanction is wholly without jurisdiction,” the resolution, sent to the Raj Bhawan as is the practice with Cabinet decisions, added.

Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, the second since yesterday, Law Minister Suresh Kumar said it would be nothing short of a ‘farce and a colourable’ exercise on Governor Bhardwaj’s part to even consider any sanction for prosecution.

Suresh Kumar said when Yeddyurappa called on the Governor on December 31, Bhardwaj had indicated that he would accord sanction to prosecute him immediately after Republic Day.

Delegations led by certain opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) leaders who met Bhardwaj were also told about this intention of him, Kumar claimed.

The Governor’s office wrote to Chief Secretary SV Ranganath on January 3 asking for 93 files related to land de-notifications and allotments. Bhardwaj set January 20 as the deadline for the government to submit him the files.

The Cabinet resolution pointed out to the Governor that the subject was ‘subjudice’ as the charges were already being investigated by anti-corruption watchdog, Lokayukta as well as the Commission of Inquiry headed by retired HC judge B Padmaraj.

“If the Governor grants sanction to prosecute the Chief Minister and the Home Minister, it would be the third probe into the same matter,” Kumar said.

Kumar pointed out that the power to grant sanction either under Section 197 of the CrPC or under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act could be invoked only after the conclusion of investigation into a complaint alleging the commission of offences and the investigating agency was satisfied that sufficient evidence was available to prosecute a person.

“In the instant case, neither any investigating agency nor any commission of inquiry has indicted the chief minister or the home minister,” the resolution asserted, challenging the process initiated by the Governor.

New Delhi, January 19
The government’s failure to act on the NN Vohra committee recommendations for checking criminalisation of politics has led to the huge problem of black money, most of which is stashed away in Switzerland and other tax havens across the world, it was argued in the Supreme Court today.

The committee, headed by the then Home Secretary, had submitted its report long ago in 1993 after going into the nexus between criminals, politicians and bureaucrats in India.

The report had been cited in several Supreme Court verdicts and discussed in Parliament, but successive governments did little to implement the committee’s recommendations, former Law Minister Ram Jethmalani, ex-Punjab DGP JF Ribeiro and others contended in the apex court today.

Jethmalani and others have filed a PIL in the SC seeking a directive to the government to bring back about $1.4 trillion allegedly held in secret bank accounts overseas by several powerful people.

Senior counsel Anil Divan, arguing for the PIL petitioners, contended that Vohra had clearly stated that the country would find itself in a dismal state unless the government came down heavily on such unscrupulous elements.

In view of the sensitive nature of the issue, Vohra himself had taken the trouble of drafting and finalising the report and had gone on record stating that even the committee members were apprehensive about expressing their views.

Among other things, the committee had suggested putting in place legal provisions for attaching the property of mafia elements. But the government had done nothing to attach the property of one Hassan Ali Khan, a Pune-based businessman, found to be holding as much as $8 billion in a foreign bank though he had declared an annual income of just Rs15 lakh to the income tax authorities. Investigations had shown that he had received funds from international arms smuggler Adnan Khashoggi, Divan said.

Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium said the Centre had set up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack only on the recommendations of the committee.

New Delhi, January 19
Citing former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah’s “enormous muscle and money power,” the CBI today sought the transfer of the trial in the case relating to the killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh allegedly in a fake encounter.

Shah and top state police officials are the accused in the case. Maintaining that a free and fair trial was not possible within Gujarat, the CBI has sought its transfer to Mumbai or some other place outside the state.

A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and RM Lodha today issued notice to the state and 19 others, including Shah and other accused, seeking their response to the plea made by senior counsel KTS Tulsi.

The Bench posted the next hearing for January 27. Now that Shah was on bail, “there is a greater threat the evidence will be tampered with and further annihilations are imminent,” the CBI petition said.

The investigating agency also pointed out that Shah was an “active politician and a native of Ahmedabad city.”

BRIEFLY

Jaya: No tie-up with Cong
Chennai: AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday rubbished reports that her party would have an alliance with the Congress for the coming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu. — PTI

Pak man staying illegally dies
Lucknow: A Pakistani national, arrested on the charge of staying illegally in the country, died on Wednesday in Pilibhit district of UP. Mukhtar Ahmad, 83, was arrested in Pilibhit on Tuesday for residing here without valid documents. — PTI