New Delhi, March 17 
Virtually expressing shock over a Mumbai trial court granting bail to Pune-based businessman, Hasan Ali Khan, the Supreme Court today ordered his re-arrest and custodial interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate for four days on the charge of illegally holding a whopping $8 billion in Switzerland and other secret bank accounts in overseas tax havens.

“The way the proceedings were conducted, we are deeply disturbed. We cannot say anything more than this,” a Bench comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and SS Nijjar remarked. The Bench made the observation after being informed by Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium that Special Judge ML Tahilyani granted Hasan Ali bail on March 12, despite the fact that he had not even moved any application seeking bail.

Effectively rejecting the ruling of the Special Judge that the Enforcement Directorate had conducted a shoddy probe and failed to collect evidence against Hasan Ali, the Bench said, “We are satisfied that the material prima facie discloses the commission of offence” by Hasan Ali which was punishable under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Observing that the trial court order would frustrate the entire investigation, the Bench ruled that “having regard to the extraordinary situation, the complexities involved and the magnitude of the case, we consider it appropriate” that Hasan Ali should be subjected to custodial interrogation.

“He is accordingly remanded to the custody of the Enforcement Directorate” authorities for four days, the Bench said in its order.Challenging the PMLA court’s order, the Solicitor General presented a long list of complaints against the Judge. Ignoring the Enforcement Directorate’s specific pleadings, the Judge went on to record in the order the alleged bank account numbers of Hasan Ali and the names of witnesses and others thereby posing a threat to them.

The Judge also went into the merits of the case at the early stage when the Enforcement Directorate was merely pleading for his custodial interrogation. Further, bail could be granted under the PMLA only on stringent conditions whereas the Judge let Hasan Ali walk free with no strings attached. 

At this, the SC Bench acknowledged that the trial Judge had effectively “quashed the FIR.” It also agreed with the Enforcement Directorate’s contention that the Judge was required to only consider whether there was any prima facie material.” The SC also remarked it was at a loss to understand as to why the Judge went on to pass such a lengthy order running into 35 pages. 

“Why so many pages were written? Your request was only for remand.” The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Hasan Ali on March 7, after the SC Bench had taken exception to the government’s inaction for four years. “What the hell is going on in this country?,” it had remarked, prompting the Enforcement Directorate to swing into action. The Bench is hearing PILs seeking a directive to the government to take steps to bring back all the black money, estimated at $1.6 trillion, stashed in overseas tax havens.

New Delhi, March 17 
The Supreme Court today reserved its verdict on a plea for cancellation of 122 2G licences for various reasons, including the alleged scam in the allocation to telecom operators in 2008. A Bench comprising Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly also agreed to hear a plea for a CBI probe into the mysterious death of former telecom minister A Raja’s close aide Sadiq Batcha in Chennai yesterday.

The PIL petitioners have contended that even the telecom regulator, TRAI, had recommended cancellation of 69 of the 122 licences for their failure to roll out service before the deadline. The telecom companies, however, maintained that there were no irregularities in the spectrum allocation.

Today, counsel Prashant Bhushan brought the death of Batcha to the notice of the court. He said he would pray for a CBI probe if the Tamil Nadu government did not hand over the investigations to a central agency, instead of to the state police.

The court advised him to wait for some time before making the plea for a CBI probe. Batcha was the MD of Greenhouse Promoters, under the investigation of both the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. 

New Delhi, March 17
The Centre and the Punjab Government today contended in the Supreme Court that no additional share of electricity could be given to Himachal Pradesh from the Bhakra and Beas hydro-power projects even as the SC felt that under the federal structure larger states should not ignore the pleadings of smaller states.

“In a federal structure, when a dispute is raised by a smaller state, the persuasive power of the larger state to influence the Union government should not persuade anybody to ignore the rights of the smaller state as this will destroy democracy and the federal structure,” a Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik remarked. The Bench also felt the original suit filed by HP in 1996, claiming 7.19 per cent share on the basis of transferred population and 12 per cent free power due to the location of the BBMB projects in Himachal, could not be treated as a dispute over a contract or a property.

Appearing for the Centre, Additional Solicitor General Mohan Jain reiterated that at a meeting convened by the Union Irrigation and Power Secretary on April 17, 1967, Himachal Pradesh and other states agreed to share the power on a certain ratio. Under this, Punjab would get 54.5 per cent, Haryana 39.5 per cent, Chandigarh 3.5 per cent and Himachal 2.5 per cent. On the demand for 12 per cent free power, he said this was applicable only to central projects set up after 1990, while the BBMB projects pre-dated this cut-off. Further, BBMB projects have been set up by Punjab and Haryana, not by the Centre.

Arguing for Punjab, senior counsel Shyam Divan said it was Punjab and Haryana which were sharing the financial burden, including the loan liabilities, arising from BBMB projects, not Himachal and Chandigarh. The 2.5 per cent share in the Bhakra project was decided on the basis of the consumption of Himachal that time. Further, it was decided to provide 15 MW from Beas One on the basis of the requirement estimated by Himachal itself, he contended. He, however, clarified that Punjab “is not saying that Himachal’s claims are illegitimate”. 

Guwahati, March 17
Even as the Congress and Trinamool Congress are trying hard to work out a seat sharing formula for West Bengal election, the latter has defied the request of the Congress and decided to field its own candidates in all the Assembly constituencies in Assam where two-phase election will be held in April 4 and 11 next.

Buoyed by its maiden electoral success in Manipur last month, the TMC has decided to contest all the seats in the assembly polls next month in Assam. Earlier, the ruling Congress wished that it’s ally in the Centre TC would refrain from contesting polls in Assam to prevent division of Congress votes.

However, TC has already declared names its candidates for 55 LACs in Assam for the first phase of election to 62 LACs out of the total 126 LACs in the state.

TC’s Rajya Sabha MP K D Singh and the party’s observer for the Northeast informed that a “good performance” from the party candidates was expected in the elections. He said the TC would plank its campaign in Assam on development, corruption-free and transparent administration0. “If development is possible in Bihar why not in Assam?” he commented. The TC’s confidence received a boost rafter some disgruntled and senior Congress leaders decided to join its ranks in the run up to polls. The party has given ticket to former Congress MLA from Tezpur LAC Bijit Saikia to contest from the same seat while Rajen Baruah, another former Congressman, would contest from Tinsukia in for the TC. Former district president of Congress in Golaghat, Debeswar Bora too has joined the TC and will contest from Golaghat LAC against ruling party heavy weight and a Cabinet minister Ajanta Neog.

Referring to the Trinamool Congress securing five seats in its maiden entry into Arunachal politics in 2009 elections, K D Singh said, "We are serious about Assam’s development and our legislators and ministers in the Centre will extend all possible help to facilitate growth of this land-locked state."

However, the TC’s somewhat loose base in Assam would pose threat to its ambition to rule the roost in the state where it lost face in more than one occasions in the past when its few elected MLAs later joined ranks of the ruling Congress.

After edging past the Left Democratic Front in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and the local body elections in October 2010, the Congress-led opposition in Kerala has been counting the days to return to the state secretariat.

But the eight-party United Democratic Front has been virtually sweating for the past two months to retain the anti-incumbency votes that helped them win the two polls with ease in the last 18 months and which conventionally ensured a change in the government every five years since 1977.

This is not because the ruling front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has done anything remarkable to regain the people’s confidence after the drubbing they got but they have made clever use of some old scandals to put the opposition on the mat.

The conviction of senior UDF leader R Balakrishna Pillai in the Idamalayar corruption case and fresh revelations about the involvement of another key leader P K Kunhalikutty in the Kozhikode ice cream parlour sex scandal as well as UDF’s chief ministerial candidate Oommen Chandy involvement in the palmolein import scam have come handy to the LDF to divert the focus of the campaign from government performance to corruption.

While the Idamalayar case related to corruption in the awarding of contract for the construction of a power tunnel of Idamalayar dam came alive after the Supreme Court reversed the high court acquittal of Pillai, the then Power Minister, the sex case involving sexual exploitation of young girls working at an ice cream parlour in Kozhikode in the early 1990s returned to haunt the UDF after Kunhalikutty’s co-brother K A Rauf alleged that the former industry minister had escaped from the case after allegedly bribing the judiciary and victims and witnesses in the case.

The LDF has put both Kunhalikutty, who is the leader of Indian Union Muslim League, the second largest UDF constituent, and Chandy under a cloud in the run-up to the elections by ordering fresh investigations into the scandal and the palmolein case.

Though the palmolein case emanated from the import of palmolein at an exorbitant rate during the 1991-96 term of the Karunakaran government, in which Chandy was the finance minister, the LDF thought of implicating him in the case only after the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas, who is an accused in the case.

The 2G Spectrum and Commonwealth Games corruption scams that rocked the UPA government at the Centre have added to the woes of the Congress in the state and put the UDF in a defensive mode.

The LDF is not banking on corruption alone to break the more than three-decade-old cycle of alternating governments every five years. They have reworked the caste and class arithmetic to woo Hindu votes being cultivated by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The CPM has enthused the majority community by converting the anti-minority approach they adopted after coming to power in 2006 into the soft Hindutva line by cleansing the LDF of parties representing the Muslim and Christian communities, which constitute about 45 per cent of the electorate, and placating Hindu organisations and the middle class through various sops.

Ironically, the entry of the minority parties like the pro-Christian Kerala Congress factions led by P J Joseph and P C George and the Muslims-backed Indian National League into the UDF fold has given the Congress more headache than strength.

The Congress, which hoped for a cakewalk after the local body elections, is not expecting a huge majority this time. Pre-poll surveys by media organisations give the UDF 80 to 90 seats in the 140-member Assembly.

The LDF, which won 100 seats in the last Assembly elections, have been openly courting the Kerala Congress (M) and the Janadipatya Samrakshana Samiti after they went public with their disenchantment over the seat-sharing in the UDF. Both the parties were part of the LDF in the past.

Therefore, the battle for power in Kerala may not end with the elections but linger on even after that if the Congress, which is contesting only 81 seats, does not win a sizeable number of seats on its own. The chances for such a big win to the Congress now are very dim.

However, senior Congress leaders like A K Antony and Ramesh Chennithala claim that the UDF will come to power with a massive majority. They say that the voters in the state would definitely keep the poor track record of the Achuthanandan government in mind while exercising their franchise. 

New Delhi, March 17
Three years after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won the trust vote in the Lok Sabha over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Shiromani Akali Dal members admitted today that attempts were made to bribe their ranks in exchange for votes.

The party’s Ropar MP Sukhdev Singh Libra, now a Congress MP, had eventually broken away to abstain from voting on the PM’s confidence motion on July 22, 2008.

He was among the 10 absentees who made the job of the UPA easy. For not voting, Libra was expelled from the Akali Dal on July 23 that year and subsequently joined the Congress.

It now turns out that two other SAD MPs -- Paramjit Gulshan and the late Jora Singh Mann -- were also allegedly approached for the favour of a positive vote or abstention on the given day. Gulshan, the SAD’s Faridkot MP, today admitted to The Tribune, “I was approached for a favourable vote. Someone first phoned me on the eve of the trust vote to say he was from my constituency and wanted to raise an urgent matter. I asked him to visit my residence in Meena Bagh. I couldn’t deny audience to someone from my constituency. He, however, took me by surprise by offering any amount of money if I abstained or voted for the UPA.”

Asked why she didn’t admit this earlier in Lok Sabha or before the committee set up later to probe the cash for vote scam, Gulshan said she had brought the matter to the notice of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal. She could not recall the name of the visitor but added, “He considered me an easy target as I represent an SC seat. I told him I was not for sale.”

Gulshan added that the late Jora Singh Mann, too, was approached and he shared this fact with her. “He lived close to me in Meena Bagh and was approached,” she said.

The then SAD leader in the Lok Sabha, Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, corroborated the alleged moves to buy over Akali MPs. “I remember the night before the trust vote when I along with my colleagues Jora Singh Mann and Rattan Singh Ajnala were having dinner at a local farmhouse. Mann got a call and I could hear someone on the other end say that this was Mann’s last chance to earn some Rs 50 crore, were he to oblige the UPA.”

When questioned on the Akali Dal’s silence for three years, Dhindsa -- now a Rajya Sabha member -- said the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha on the day of the vote but got lost in the din. Ajnala too claimed that efforts to bribe the Akalis were made.

The 10 abstentions that helped the UPA (which got 275 votes against 256 that the Opposition got) that day included BJP’s Chandrabhan Singh (Madhya Pradesh), Manorama Madhavaraj (Karnataka), Kishan Lal Diler (Uttar Pradesh) and Bahubhai Katara (Gujarat), MNF’s Vanlalzawla, SAD’s SS Libra, Trinamool’s Mamata Bannerjee, JD-U’s PP Koya, Shiv Sena’s Tukaram Ganpatram Renge Patil and TDP’s DK Audikesavulu.

Sadiq Batcha

SC agrees to hear plea for CBI probe

New Delhi: The mysterious death of former telecom minister A Raja's close aide Sadiq Batcha was on Thursday brought to the notice of the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the plea for a CBI probe in the matter. Appearing for NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation, on whose plea a CBI probe was directed into the 2G scam, advocate Prashant Bhushan pleaded before the court that the death is related with the scam and should also be probed by the investigating agency.

In view of the Bhushan's submission that state government favoured CBI probe, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly, said, that it would hear the application if it is filed and suggested the lawyer to wait for some time "as some development might take place during the day." Bhushan said that he would file the application and bring the matter before the bench if the state government did not decide on the CBI probe in the case. 

New Delhi, March 17
Bangladesh is all set to honour the Indian leadership (both political and military) for its role in the formation of the country in 1971.India’s eastern neighbour is warming up to New Delhi after some years of mistrust. It had recently agreed to allow India road access to the North-East and is also helping in nabbing the insurgents.

Government sources confirmed that Dhaka has sent a detailed proposal with some names of the persons, who would be honoured, to the Defence Ministry. A top source revealed that one of the names being discussed is of the serving Chief of the Indian Army, Gen VK Singh, who as a young lieutenant, was posted in the war zone in 1971.

Minister for Press in the Bangladesh High Commission at New Delhi, Enamul Hoque Chowdhury, said the honour-list was being prepared. It will have the names of Indian soldiers and officers who laid down their lives for the creation of Bangladesh.. He said the final list would be announced in Dhaka. “In case, a person on the list is dead, his kin would be invited for the felicitation programme,” Chowdhury said.

Bangladesh had planned to release the honour list on March 26 - the day when Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman made the famous declaration of Independence in 1971 through a broadcast from a clandestine radio station located in Kalurghat in Chittagong. But there has been some delay. But the plan has been cleared by the Bangladesh Cabinet, officials confirmed.

Meanwhile, independent sources confirmed that the list will also have the name of Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.

Former Army chief, Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw, the then Eastern Army commander, Lt Gen JS Aurora and his Chief of Staff, Lt Gen JFR Jacob are most likely to be feted.