Archives for June 2019

The trilateral meeting, Friday, saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss global hot spots.

NEW DELHI: India secured significant victories at its trilateral meeting with China and Russia and the five BRICS nations, when in separate communiqués, the countries joined to emphatically reiterate India’s concerns over global terrorism while agreeing to work together to eliminate terror in all forms and manifestations and for closer policy coordination to eradicate its breeding grounds worldwide.

The trilateral meeting, Friday, saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss global hot spots.

Modi said, “As the world’s leading economies, the exchange of views between us on the economic, political and global security situation is important and the tri-lateral meeting was a useful medium of discussion and coordination on major global issues.”

The above declaration in a joint communiqué of the 16th Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the three countries on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan and later bolstered by the BRICS call to prevent terrorist actions from their territories and prevent financing of such networks, came as a significant gain for India in its push to isolate Pakistan, post Pulwama attacks.

The BRICS countries  — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — in its joint statement said, “We strongly condemn terrorist attacks, including against BRICS countries, in all forms and manifestations, wherever and by whomsoever committed”.

Without naming any other country, all five leaders also reiterated their commitment to fight the exploitation of internet for terrorist purposes.

Ghulam Jeelani Qadri was arrested by the police outside his home at Balgarden area in uptown Srinagar on late Monday night in a case registered against him and seven others in 1990.

SRINAGAR: The editor-cum-owner of a local Urdu daily was arrested in a midnight raid in connection with a nearly three-decade-old case in Srinagar Ghulam Jeelani Qadri, the editor and owner of local Urdu daily Afaaq, was later released on bail.

The 62-year-old was arrested by the police outside his home at Balgarden area in uptown Srinagar on late Monday night in a case registered against him and seven others in 1990 under the stringent Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) (TADA) Act. 

The police had registered an FIR against Jeelani and seven others journalists, three of whom are no more, for circulation of a militant statement by a news agency which had appeared in some newspapers.

On Tuesday, Jeelani’s family approached the court of chief judicial magistrate to secure a bail for his release.

The court ordered his release and asked him to deposit a bond of Rs 20,000.

Various media organisations including Kashmir Editors Guild, Kashmir Working Journalists Association, Kashmir Journalists Association,  Kashmir Union of Working Journalists and Kashmir National TV Journalists Association condemned the arrest of the senior journalist.

In fact, the video in which Khan offers to return to Bengaluru and reveal everything to the police, should make extradition easier, a retired IPS officer, who did not want to be named, said.

BENGALURU: While the Special Investigation Team (SIT), looking into the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) fraud, says its chances of bringing back founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan to India may not be that easy, experts say it is not impossible and might even be simpler due to Khan’s last video.

In fact, the video in which Khan offers to return to Bengaluru and reveal everything to the police should make extradition easier, a retired IPS officer, who did not want to be named, said.

The SIT on Monday said they knew Khan’s location and sources said that it was not possible to seek his extradition without charge-sheeting him. However, there are other options, experts say.

“Chargesheet is required for seeking extradition of an accused from a foreign country but there are some legal provisions under which the request for extradition can be made even before charge sheet has been filed,” he said.

“Since they know the location of the accused, the police can seek his extradition from the host country if they can adopt the ‘dual criminality’ approach, under which a fugitive can be extradited for an offence, only if it is a crime in both the countries. Mansoor has been charged with cheating (Section 420) and breach of trust (Section 406) of the IPC. There are over 30,000 complaints in this case.

The officer also said that the SIT could itself seek assistance from the host country. “The SIT can seek assistance under Section 166 A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The section is a letter of request issued from the designated criminal court in India to a competent authority for investigation in a country or place outside India, where the fugitive is located,” the officer added.

Seven directors of the Ponzi company IMA – Dada Peer, Nasir Hussain, Naveed Ahmed Nattamkar, Nizammudin Azeemuddin, Afshan Tabassum, Afsar Pasha and Arshad Khan –deposed before the Enforcement Directorate in Bengaluru on Monday.

Sources on condition of anonymity told TNIE that the timing and content of Mansoor’s video need to be examined.

“In the video Mansoor has alleged that there was 120 kg of jewellery and 600 kg bullion gold in the vault, when he left Bengaluru and he had received information that most of it have been moved from the vault by board directors Nizammuddin Azeemuddin, Mohammad Wasim (Mansoor’s cousin), Khalid Ahmad and his son Fahad Ahmad, along with staff. Mansoor is aware of the ED notice. Is he trying to dilute his criminality by offloading it on others? It is a matter to investigate,” the officer said.

As on Tuesday,  just around 12 tmc feet of water was available in all four reservoirs including KRS and Kabini.

BENGALURU/MYSURU: The Cauvery Water Management Authority’s direction to the state government to release water to Tamil Nadu if there is an increase in inflow into reservoirs in Cauvery basin in the state, comes as a relief for Karnataka. “Given the current situation in the state, the CWMA order is a big relief for the state,” said a senior officer from the Water Resources Department.

As on Tuesday,  just around 12 tmc feet of water was available in all four reservoirs including KRS and Kabini. Inflow at KRS was just around 253 cusecs, while it was 1,708 cusecs at Kabini, on Tuesday.
State Sugar Cane Growers Association president Kurbur Shantha Kumar welcomed the authority’s decision. He said the authority should have ordered for release of water to irrigation canals to save standing crops. KRRS leader Darshan Puttannaiah too welcomed the authority’s directions.

While some farmers felt there is no clarity on release of water to irrigation canals in the state, some were unhappy as the state failed to convince the authority to get water for standing crops in the state. “When they could release enough water during the Lok Sabha polls, why are they not giving water now?” ask farmers.  BJP Raitha Morcha leader Nanjunde Gowda said the state government failed to apprise the authority of the situation.

Hafeez Mohd Sahrukh Haldar, who received minor injuries in the incident, said he was beaten up by the mob which was chanting slogans and asked him to follow suit.

A madrasa teacher in West Bengal has claimed that he was thrashed and pushed off a moving train by a group for not chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ when he was travelling from Canning in South 24 Parganas district to Hooghly.

Hafeez Mohd Sahrukh Haldar, who received minor injuries in the incident, said he was beaten up by the mob which was chanting slogans and asked him to follow suit. The 26-year-old said nobody came to his rescue on the train and it was only after he was pushed off at the Park Circus Station that some locals helped him. The Indian Express reported.

Talking about the incident, a railway police official said Haldar was probably assaulted due to boarding and de-boarding issues and a probe into the incident was on. He added that no one had been arrested yet.

Kolkata Police said they were verifying the incident and strict action would be taken against miscreants.

The incident comes amid outrage over the death of a youth in Jharkhand, who was assaulted on suspicion of theft and later succumbed to his injuries. The incident came to light after several videos of the assault went viral on social media. In one of the clips, Ansari is seen being thrashed with a wooden stick. At the end of another video, he is shown being forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Jai Hanuman’.