Archives for January 2023

Hingoli: A mild tremor of 3.6 magnitude was experienced in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district on Sunday morning, officials said.

There was no report of any loss of life or property, an official from the district disaster management office told PTI.

The tremor was recorded at 4.30 am at a depth of five km, National Center for Seismology said in a tweet.

Hingoli is located about 250 km from Killari in Latur district, which was the epicentre of a devastating earthquake on September 30, 1993, that claimed around 10,000 lives and injured several other people.

Latur: A woman was arrested for allegedly killing her three-day-old daughter in Latur in Maharashtra, a police official said on Saturday.

The 25-year-old woman strangled the infant on December 29 as she was upset at delivering a second girl child, a probe has found, the Gotegaon police station official added.

“The woman, a resident of Holi in Lohara tehsil in Osmanabad, gave birth in a primary health centre in Kasar Jawala village. She strangled the three-day-old girl with a handkerchief. She was placed under arrest on Friday evening after a probe into the death,” Sub Inspector Kishor Kambale said.

Chandigarh: The Vigilance Bureau has arrested the executive director of the Punjab State Industrial Export Corporation (PSIEC), who was booked for allegedly conniving with other officials of the corporation to provide undue benefit to a realtor firm.

The action against SP Singh came under fire from opposition parties which claimed that he was arrested from the cremation ground in Mohali on Saturdya when he was performing the last rites of his father and veteran journalist N S Parwana.

Several political leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar had condoled Parwana’s demise. Khattar was present at Parwana’s cremation.

A Vigilance Bureau spokesperson said Singh had been booked for allegedly conniving with other officials of the PSIEC in the case of transferring an industrial plot in violation of norms and causing huge loss to the state exchequer.

He would be produced before a court here on Sunday, the spokesperson said.

“Highly insensitive and cruel to arrest a son when he was cremating his father. The SAD condemns the AAP government for interfering in the last rites of veteran journalist N S Parwana and arresting his son from the cremation ground,” Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said in a tweet.

Punjab Vigilance Bureau had recently registered a case against former minister Sunder Sham Arora, an IAS officer and 10 other government officials for allegedly transferring an industrial plot to a realtor firm and allowing it to establish a township by cutting plots in violation of norms.

Kolkata: Former Governor of West Bengal, Bihar and two other states Keshari Nath Tripathi died at his Prayagraj home in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Tripathi, a senior BJP leader, was 88.

The veteran politician, who was a three-time speaker of the UP Legislative Assembly, was hospitalised for a fractured hand as well as old-age-related ailments and breathing issues, a party leader said.

“Tripathiji was in the ICU for a short while and his condition has improved following which he was brought home. Today at around 5 AM he breathed his last,” the official told PTI over the phone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his sorrow and described Tripathi as the key man in building the saffron party in UP.

“Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi Ji was respected for his service and intellect. He was well versed in Constitutional matters. He played a key role in building BJP in UP and worked hard for the state’s progress. Pained by his demise. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” Modi tweeted.

Born on November 10, 1934, in Allahabad, Tripathi served as the Governor of West Bengal from July 2014 to July 2019. Before that, he also had additional charges for short stints as the Governor of Bihar, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

He was a member of the UP legislative assembly six times and was the Cabinet minister of institutional finance and sales tax in the state during the Janata Party regime from 1977 to 1979.

A poet and author, Tripathi had practised as a senior advocate at Allahabad High Court and was the BJP president in UP for some time.

Gwalior (MP) : Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said speedy action will be taken in the case where a man allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger on a New York-Mumbai flight last November.

Delhi Police on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old accused, Shankar Mishra.

He allegedly urinated on the woman, a senior citizen, in an inebriated condition in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year.

“Further action will be taken speedily after the completion of the ongoing proceedings,” Scindia told reporters here on Saturday without elaborating.

The carrier’s CEO on Saturday issued an apology over handling of the incident and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the policy of serving alcohol on flights is being reviewed.

The Delhi Police arrested Mishra from Bengaluru after he was traced to that city through technical surveillance, officials earlier said.

A Delhi court on Saturday sent Mishra to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody.

The Delhi Police had registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India.

Mishra, who was working with the US multinational firm Wells Fargo in India, was sacked on Friday.

Gwalior (MP): Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said speedy action will be taken in the case where a man allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger on a New York-Mumbai flight last November.

Delhi Police on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old accused, Shankar Mishra.

He allegedly urinated on the woman, a senior citizen, in an inebriated condition in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year.

“Further action will be taken speedily after the completion of the ongoing proceedings,” Scindia told reporters here on Saturday without elaborating.

The carrier’s CEO on Saturday issued an apology over handling of the incident and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the policy of serving alcohol on flights is being reviewed.

The Delhi Police arrested Mishra from Bengaluru after he was traced to that city through technical surveillance, officials earlier said.

A Delhi court on Saturday sent Mishra to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody.

The Delhi Police had registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India.

Mishra, who was working with the US multinational firm Wells Fargo in India, was sacked on Friday.

New Delhi: A 21-year-old man was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a minor boy whom he wanted to gift to his childless uncle, police said on Saturday.

The minor had gone missing while he was playing outside his house in Gautampuri, Part-I on Sunday. His father approached police after searching the boy for two days, a senior police officer said.

During the investigation, it was found that the complaint’s neighbour named Neeraj had also left the area on the same night and did not return until next morning, the officer said, adding that later it was known that he had left the capital.

Police traced the suspect who revealed that he had kidnapped the child and shifted him to his maternal uncle Sunit Babu’s residence in Aligarh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) Esha Pandey said.

He further revealed that his uncle’s wife had given birth to four sons none of whom survived and that is why he wanted to present the minor to him, they said.

Police have rescued the child and arrested the uncle-nephew duo.

Former Assam MLA Hitesh Basumatary 

Kokrajhar: Former Assam MLA Hitesh Basumatary was arrested along with two other persons for allegedly being involved in efforts to form a terror group, police said on Saturday.

“Sophisticated weapons” along with ammunition were recovered from his house, Kokrajhar’s Additional Superintendent of Police Nabaneeta Sharma said.

Basumatary was arrested on Friday night from his residence in Baksa district, she said.

The two other persons arrested were Bodoland Jatiya Suraksha Manch working president Daorao Dekhrab Narzary and Bodoland Contractor Association president Bikram Daimary, she said.

While Narzary was arrested from Kokrajhar, Daimary was arrested from Udalguri.

“We had received information that some people were trying to form a new terrorist outfit and in this connection, we have arrested these persons,” Sharma said.

When produced at the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kokrajhar, Basumatary and Daimary were sent to five days in police custody. Narzary was sent to 14 days in judicial custody, she said.

“Further details will be known after the investigation,” the officer said.

Basumatary was elected MLA from Chapaguri in 2011 on a Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) ticket.

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to former ICICI Bank CEO and MD Chanda Kochhar and her husband Deepak Kochhar in a loan fraud case, noting their arrest was not done in conformity with provisions of law.

The couple was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on December 23, 2022 in connection with the Videocon-ICICI bank loan case. They are presently in judicial custody.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and P K Chavan directed the Kochhars to deposit a cash bail amount of Rs one lakh each with one or more sureties of the same amount.

The bench said the duo shall cooperate with the probe and attend the CBI office as and when summoned.

“We have held that the petitioners’ (Kochhars) arrest was not in accordance with provisions of law and this warrants their release,” the high court said.

The court also asked Kochhars to surrender their passports to the CBI.

The order was passed on petitions filed by Chanda Kochhar and her husband challenging their arrest by the CBI in connection with the bank loan case.

The duo in their pleas said the CBI arrest was arbitrary and illegal.

The CBI had named Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar as well as Videocon group founder Venugopal Dhoot along with Nupower Renewables (NRL) managed by Deepak Kochhar, Supreme Energy, Videocon International Electronics Ltd and Videocon Industries Ltd as accused in the FIR registered in 2019 under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The central agency has alleged private sector lender ICICI Bank sanctioned credit facilities to the tune of Rs 3,250 crore to these companies in violation of norms.

It further alleged that as a part of quid pro quo, Dhoot made an investment of Rs 64 crore in Nupower Renewables through Supreme Energy Pvt Ltd (SEPL), and transferred SEPL to Pinnacle Energy Trust managed by Deepak Kochhar through a circuitous route between 2010 and 2012.