Archives for 2024

Mandya: A round of inspection by the police and health officials of Mandya brought to light a sex determination and female foeticide racket that is active in the Health Department quarters in Pandavapura taluk of the district, much to the shock of citizens.

Three people accused to be involved in the racket were taken into custody by the police officers. Pandavapura Taluk Hospital ambulance driver Anand, outsourced D-Group staff member Ashwini and another woman, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, were detained.

Driver Anand’s government residence was found to be the ‘office’ for the racket.

Mandya District Health Officer Dr. Mohan, Taluk Health Officer Dr. Aravind and police officers, who conducted the raid in Pandavapura, rescued a pregnant woman from Mysuru who had visited the Health Department quarters for an abortion and confiscated the equipment being used for abortions.

New Delhi Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has recommended an NIA probe against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’, Raj Niwas sources said on Monday.

AAP alleged that the recommendation is “yet another conspiracy” against Kejriwal at the behest of the BJP.

In a letter to the Union Home secretary, the lt governor’s secretariat said Saxena had received a complaint that the Kejriwal-led AAP allegedly received USD 16 million funding from extremist Khalistani groups for facilitating the release of Devendra Pal Bhullar.

Bhullar, who is in Amritsar Central Jail, was convicted in connection with the killing of nine people in a bomb blast in 1993 in Delhi. He was sentenced to death by a designated TADA court on August 25, 2001 and is undergoing life imprisonment after the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence.

“The electronic evidences adduced by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination,” Saxena has said in the letter according to sources.

The complaint is made against a chief minister and relates to political funding received from a banned terrorist organisation, the letter stated.

The move comes a day ahead of the Supreme Court considering granting Kejrwal interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The AAP chief, who is in Tihar jail, was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an excise policy linked money laundering case.

The complaint refers to a video released by Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, where he alleged that the Kejriwal-led AAP received USD 16 million from Khalistani groups between 2014 and 2022, sources said.

In the complaint to the LG, it has also been alleged that Kejriwal held closed-door meetings with Khalistani leaders at Gurudwara Richmond Hills, New York, during his visit in 2014. Kejriwal allegedly promised to facilitate the release of Bhullar in return for substantial financial backing from Khalistani factions to AAP.

In a series of posts on social media, a former AAP worker, Munish Kumar Raizada, also shared purported pictures of Kejriwal’s meeting with Khalistani leaders, the complaint said, according to sources.

Reacting to the development, AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj called it “yet another conspiracy against Kejriwal at the behest of BJP”.

“They are losing all seven seats in Delhi and are rattled by the fear of defeat in Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

Bhullar was shifted to Amritsar Central Jail from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on health grounds in June 2015.

Mathurapur (WB): Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to contest against him from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency and if the BJP leader wins, he would retire from active politics.

Banerjee, who is considered the number two in the TMC, also said that Shah has two other options to make him retire from politics.

“If you want Abhishek Banerjee to leave active politics, then I would like you to fulfil any of the three options I am providing you today. You release the state’s due of Rs 1,64,000 crore and I will retire within 24 hours. The second option is to release the funds of the PM Awas Yojana,” Banerjee said at an election rally for TMC’s Mathurapur candidate Bapi Halder.

“The nomination for the Diamond Harbour constituency is yet to start. The third option: you (Shah) contest from here and defeat me. I will leave politics forever,” the party’s national general secretary said.

Responding to the BJP leader’s statement in Memari earlier in the day that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee wants him to be the next chief minister of West Bengal, Abhishek Banerjee said everyone is not like him (Shah).

“You wish to make your son the BCCI president. Not all are like you. You have never been part of any agitation. You are a person who was jailed. We do not need to learn any moral values and ideology from you,” Banerjee said.

The Union home minister’s son Jay Shah is the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“You are in politics for your benefit. We do not do that. We are in politics to address the cause of the people,” he said.

Congress leader Devender Yadav with newly joined party leader and former Punjab police ADGP Gurinder Singh at AICC office, in New Delhi

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday appointed former MLA Devender Yadav as interim president of its Delhi unit, days after Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post while criticising the alliance with AAP and statements of Congress candidates in the national capital.

Yadav, who won from the Badli assembly constituency in Delhi in 2008 and 2013 and lost to Ajesh Yadav of AAP in 2015, is currently the All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) Punjab in-charge.

“My heartfelt thanks to Sh Kharge ji, Smt Sonia Gandhi ji, Rahul Gandhi ji, KC Venugopal ji and Smt Priyanka Gandhi ji and all senior leaders of the Congress, for the faith they have bestowed in me yet again!” Yadav said in a post on X.

“Will try my best to tread the coveted and ideological vision party has laid for me and give my 100 per cent!” he said.

According to a statement issued by the party, “Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has appointed Yadav as the interim president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) with immediate effect.”

Yadav will continue in his role as AICC in-charge for Punjab, the statement added.

Speaking to PTI, Yadav said, “The strategy is clear. We will consider everyone’s suggestions. First, we will listen to them and will come up with a good strategy.”

He stated that many senior colleagues are working in the Delhi Congress and contributing to the party.

“We face problems several times and the only solution is dialogue. I am glad to hold conversations with several fellow workers who had some issues. I am looking forward to meeting more fellow workers to have such discussions and I will reach out to them to find a solution,” Yadav said.

Yadav said that he has the blessings of his seniors in the party and will work on the path shown by them.

The development comes as the Congress and AAP prepare for the May 25 election to the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi.

In his resignation letter sent to the Congress president on Saturday, Lovely had said that he found himself “handicapped” as all unanimous decisions taken by senior Delhi unit leaders were “unilaterally vetoed” by the AICC’s Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria.

The Delhi Congress unit was against the alliance with AAP but the party high command went ahead with it, Lovely had said as his resignation brought to the fore the party’s factional feud.

He had also criticised Congress candidates — Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi and Udit Raj from North West Delhi — for their statements and said tickets were given to two people who were total strangers to the Delhi Congress and party policies.

With a section of leaders demanding the removal of Babaria, the AICC Delhi in-charge had said it was “unfortunate” that Lovely’s resignation came at a time when the general elections were underway but asserted that it wouldn’t affect the Congress while AAP termed it an internal matter of its ally.

The BJP said it was an “unnatural alliance” forged by the leadership of AAP and Congress to “shield their corruption” but their party workers had not accepted it.

Lovely resigned from the post of Delhi Congress president in 2015 as well. He joined the BJP in 2017 but returned to the Congress about nine months later.

Former deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday dismissed the bail pleas of former deputy chief minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia in the corruption and money laundering cases lodged by the CBI and the ED in relation to the alleged excise scam.

Special judge for CBI and ED, Kaveri Baweja, denied the relief, saying the stage was not right to grant the bail.

The court had reserved the order after hearing arguments from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) as well as the counsel appearing for Sisodia.

The CBI as well as the ED had alleged that irregularities were committed while modifying the Delhi Excise Policy, undue favours were extended to the licence holders, licence fee was waived or reduced and licences were extended without the competent authority’s approval.

The beneficiaries allegedly diverted “illegal” gains to the accused officials and made false entries in their books of account to evade detection, the probe agencies have alleged.

Sisodia was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on February 26, 2023 for his alleged role in the “scam”. The ED arrested the former deputy chief minister in a money-laundering case stemming from the CBI FIR on March 9, 2023.

Sisodia resigned from the Delhi cabinet on February 28, 2023.

New Delhi/Varanasi: A political row erupted on Tuesday over the issue of “side effects” of Covishield vaccine, with the Samajwadi Party alleging that the BJP took “commission” from the manufacturer of the Covid jab and the RJD accusing the Centre of administering “wrong” vaccine to people of the country.

Who would be responsible for people dying of heart attacks, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress also attacked Modi over the issue and alleged that the PM has played with the lives of people. “Is this Modi’s guarantee?” UP Congress chief Ajay Rai asked.

UK-headquartered pharma giant AstraZeneca has admitted that in “very rare cases”, its COVID-19 vaccine, which is known as Vaxzevria in Europe and Covishield in India, can cause a blood clot-related side effect but the causal link is unknown, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media.

In India, the AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

Attacking the ruling BJP over the issue, SP national general secretary Shivpal Yadav said, “It has been exposed now that they have taken commission in vaccines too. Low quality vaccines and medicines were given to the people.” Shivpal Yadav was talking to reporters in UP’s Etah.

Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, said people were “forcibly” administered Covid vaccines in the country.

“A donation of Rs 200-300 crore was taken (by the BJP) and they (company) were given permission to sell the vaccine. People were forcibly administered vaccines. The corruption in manufacturing the vaccine has come to the fore due to which people are dying now,” said Dimple Yadav, who is the SP candidate from Mainpuri Lok sabha seat.

“Akhilesh ji had said that we would not get the vaccine administered because till then the vaccine was not tested. Now, the number of heart attacks has increased in the country and people are suffering from serious diseases due to this haste,” she told reporters in Etah.

The Daily Telegraph reported that in a legal document submitted to the High Court in London in February for a group action brought by 51 claimants, AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine developed with the University of Oxford to protect against COVID-19 may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in “very rare cases”.

Speaking to reporters in Varanasi, UP Congress chief Rai said that Prime Minister Modi not only promoted Covishield during the pandemic, but he and his party leaders also asked for votes in the name of the Covid vaccine in the elections.

“Will Modi ji and the BJP take responsibility of the deaths caused due to the side effects of the vaccine in the country?” Rai said.

The RJD alleged that the ruling BJP pushed the vaccine to get donations through electoral bonds. 

“Mr. Prime Minister, who will be responsible for the millions of heart attack deaths that happened, and may happen in future due to the side effects of the Covishield vaccine?” the RJD said in a post in Hindi on X. 

“In order to collect donations through Electoral Bonds, BJP gave the wrong vaccine to crores of countrymen? Experts should shed light on this,” the Lalu Yadav-led party said.