Archives for 2022

New Delhi: Subhash Shankar Parab, a key accused in the Rs 7,000 crore diamantaire Nirav Modi bank fraud case, was deported from Cairo on Tuesday after a long diplomatic and legal process, officials said here.

A CBI team had gone to Egypt’s capital to bring back 50-year-old Parab, who was allegedly kept in illegal confinement in a Cairo suburb by Modi, the fugitive diamantaire, they said.

The CBI had been chasing Parab, Deputy General Manager (Finance) in Modi’s Firestar Diamond and understood to be a key witness to the Letters of Undertaking (LoU) submitted to the Punjab National Bank (PNB) to siphon off over Rs 7,000 crore, they said.

Soon after the scam broke in 2018, Parab was one of the executives who went missing along with Modi’s family members and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

The latter found refuge in Antigua and Barbuda, a Carribbean island country, they said.

India had issued an Interpol Red Notice against Parab to track him and bring him back, they said.

India received information that Parab, a crucial link related to LoUs, was kept in illegal confinement by Modi’s men. He was taken from Dubai to Egypt, and India had expressed concerns for his safety, they said.

After a long diplomatic and legal process, the CBI managed to secure administrative extradition or deportation of Parab, who could spill the beans on the country’s biggest banking scam allegedly perpetrated by Modi and Choksi with a combined loss of Rs 13,000 crore, they said.

The duo is wanted for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run PNB, using the Letters of Undertaking.

While Modi is in a London prison after repeated denial of bail and is contesting extradition to India, Choksi had taken the citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda in 2017 using the Citizenship by Investment programme even before fleeing India in the first week of January 2018. The scam came to light subsequently.

The CBI has charged a PNB official Gokulnath Shetty, along with others, with allegedly helping Modi and Choksi to perpetrate the scam by issuing LOUs to their firms, based on which they took loans from banks abroad.

The investigations revealed that messages for fraudulent LoUs were sent to overseas banks by misusing Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international messaging system for banking, and without making their subsequent entries in PNB’s internal software Finacle’, thus bypassing any scrutiny of such funds in the bank, they said.

An LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to the credit-giving bank along with accruing interest.

The companies of Modi and Choksi took loans from banks abroad on the basis of these LoUs but did not repay them, thus transferring the liability on PNB.

It is alleged that senior officials of the PNB, including the then CEO and MD, did not implement the circulars and caution notices issued by the Reserve Bank of India regarding safeguarding of the SWIFT operation and misrepresented the factual position to the apex bank.

Reconciliation of the Core Banking Solutions (CBS) and SWIFT messages was not done despite repeated RBI circulars, caution notices and questionnaires, the CBI has alleged.

Bengaluru: Federation of Karnataka State Lorry Owners and Agents Association on Monday threatened to launch a transport strike from May 1 onwards if the state government does not roll back the “unscientific” price hike imposed on the transport sector before 30 April.

Addressing a press conference, the association Secretary C Nandish Reddy said, “Since 1 April, older vehicles are subjected to 16 times more fees which has taken a toll on the lives of poor people. Moreover, the validity of fitness certificates have been reduced, throwing the transport sector off balance.”

He alleged that the central government earlier imposed a fine of Rs 100 to Rs 500 over violation of traffic rules for heavy vehicles, which has now soared to Rs 5000 to Rs 25,000 and added that the motor vehicle officials are taking advantage of it.

Association members Chenna Reddy, Sairam, Pandian and Chandrashekhar were present in the press meet.

File Photo of Qutab Minar

New Delhi: Former additional director general of the ASI B R Mani on Monday dubbed as “mere imagination” the VHP’s claim that the Qutab Minar was originally a ‘Vishnu Stambh’, and cautioned that any tampering with structures on the complex would result in the revocation of the Unesco world heritage status accorded to it in 1993.

Mani, however, said that it was a fact that 27 Hindu temples were demolished at the site and their remains were used in building Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and the Qutab Minar as well but the demand for rebuilding these temples was “meaningless” as there was no trace of the location of these temples at the site.

Mani, who had been with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for over three decades, is currently the vice chairman of Indian Archaeological Society which promotes and spreads knowledge about archaeology in its all aspects.

The Vishva Hindu Parisad (VHP) on Saturday demanded that the government rebuild all the 27 Hindu temples at the Qutab Minar complex and allow Hindu rituals to resume at the site.

The outfit’s national spokesperson Vinod Bansal also claimed that the 73-meter-high Qutab Minar was originally a ‘Vishnu Stambh’ on a temple of Lord Vishnu constructed during the times of a Hindu ruler.

Asked about the VHP claim, Mani told PTI, “I also believe that there were 27 temples. There are evidence to support it. Nobody has any doubt about it. But nobody knows where were those 27 temples located, what was their form, (structure) plan.”

He said it’s written on Qutbu’d-Din Aibak’s inscription that Quwwat ul Islam mosque was built using the debris of the 27 temples demolished at the site.

“Remains of the temples are spread all over the site, but no elevation, plinth, or any other thing was found there that could have helped trace the location of those temples. Something should have been be found like Adhisthana (base platform),” he said.

“They (Muslim rulers) destroyed everything when they invaded and built the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque and erected the Minar on it, using the debris of the Hindu temples that they destroyed,” he said.

Hence there is “no meaning” of reconstructing them, he said.

“And, if we do any tempering with the structures at Qutab Complex, Unesco world heritage site tag given to it will be withdrawn, and the site will be placed in the endangered list,” he said, “Be it the VHP or any other party, no one would want this to happen.”

Mani had directed 20 archaeological excavations in India, including at the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri mosque site in Ayodhya, during his 31-year-long service at the ASI.

Rejecting the VHP’s claim that the Qutab Minar was originally a ‘Vishnu Stambh’ built on a Vishnu Temple, Mani said that a 20-25-foot-deep excavation had been carried out at the spot to strengthen the monument’s foundation in 1967 but no trace of any temple was found.

“It’s mere imagination. There was nothing there, no temple was found there,” he said.

The ‘Vishnu Stambh’ is already there standing at the site in the form of an iron pillar, he said.

“The Minar cannot be a stambh like Ashokan pillars, which are monolithic, made of stone or iron. Minar is completely different structure,” he said.

Several such kinds of minaret of the same period are there in Central Asia for any body to see, he said.

Pune: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Sadhvi Saraswati has urged Hindu youth to carry swords to avoid situations like the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley due to atrocities committed by Pakistan-backed terrorists, depicted in ‘The Kashmir Files’.

Addressing a rally in north Maharashtra’s Dhule city, some 340 km from Pune, on Sunday on the occasion of Ram Navami, she said that possessing weapons was the “aan, baan, aur shaan (pride and honour)” of Hindus.

Speaking about the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits, Sadhvi Saraswati said, “Are we waiting for the day when we will also be ousted from our houses…That time questions will be asked, why Hindus, Brahmins why did not you pick up the sword, why didn’t you fight the war, why didn’t you fight for your rights.”

“I urge you to pick up swords. If you can buy mobile phones and laptops worth Rs 1 lakh, also buy and carry a sword worth Rs 1,000. Possessing weapons is aan, baan aur shaan of Hindus,” she added.

Khargone (MP): The district administration on Monday started demolition of at least 50 “illegal” structures of people accused of pelting stones at a Ram Navami procession in Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone city, while the state government said damage caused to public and private properties during the violence will be recovered from rioters.

A curfew was clamped in Khargone city on Sunday and more than 80 people have been arrested after stones hurled at a Ram Navami procession triggered large-scale arson, officials said and added that the situation here was under control.

The government has a zero tolerance policy for rioting. So far, 84 persons have been arrested and 50 illegal constructions of these accused have been identified. The demolition of these illegal constructions has already started, Indore Divisional Commissioner Pawan Sharma told reporters in Khargone.

The illegal structures which are being demolished include homes and shops.

Action has also been taken against four state government employees for spreading rumours over the communal violence in the city, he said.

Of the four, three were daily wage employees, whose services were terminated, while the fourth staffer was suspended, the IAS officer said.

Sharma said damage caused to public and private properties during the violence will be recovered from rioters. Inspector General (IG) Rakesh Gupta, who is camping in Khargone along with Sharma, said the law and order situation in the city was under control and action against anti-social elements was continuing.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said damage caused to public and private properties will be recovered from rioters as he vowed strict action against the miscreants.

“The rioters have been identified and they will not be spared. Strict action will be taken against them. There is no place for rioters in Madhya Pradesh,” the CM said.

“We have passed the Damage to Public and Private Property Recovery Act. We are constituting a claims tribunal under the Act and after assessing the loss, its recovery will be done from rioters,” Chouhan said in a statement.

Speaking about the violence earlier in the day, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said houses from where stones were hurled at the procession will be turned into rubble.

Some people who are hurt by the outcome of the recently-held Assembly elections in five states are now instigating violence, the minister claimed.

They want to disturb peace in the state and the country. Even from these (Assembly poll) results, such people have not understood what the country wants, Mishra said.

Sultanpur (UP): A BJP MLA has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, demanding that Sultanpur be renamed as Kushbhawanpur after Lord Ram’s son.

In the previous term of the Adityanath government, Sultanpur’s Lambhua MLA Devmani Dwivedi had made a similar demand.

Sultanpur is the Lok Sabha constituency of BJP leader Maneka Gandhi.

Sultanpur MLA Vinod Singh in his letter to the CM on April 7 wrote that the area falls between Ayodhya and Prayagraj, and has many religious places like Dhopap, Makarikund, Sitakund Ghat and Vijethua Mahabiran.

These places stress the belief that Kush, a son of Lord Ram, developed it as his capital by the name of Kushabhavanpur, he said.

“Later Khilji Badshah named it as Sultanpur for promoting his culture. Many a time people have agitated for renaming it as Kushbhawanpur and have also given memorandums,” he said.

Vinod Singh said the issue was raised in a public meeting during the Assembly elections and people’s response to it was positive.

The Adityanath government in its previous term had renamed Allahabad as Prayagraj, Faizabad as Ayodhya and Mughalsarai junction station as Pandit Deendayal Upadhaya.