Four men allegedly loitering outside the CBI director Alok Verma’s residence were held by his personal security officers (PSOs) on Thursday morning, a police officer said.

The men, Prashant Kumar, Vinit Kumar Gupta, Ajay Kumar and Dhiraj Kumar Singh, identified themselves as officers of the Intelligence Bureau, to the security team, according to the police. They have submitted their identity proofs and government health scheme and Aadhaar cards.

“Identify proofs being carried by the suspects have so far suggested that they are IB officers. We are verifying the authenticity of the documents,” said an officer on condition of anonymity.

The men, in plain clothes, were allegedly caught from the front and back gates of Verma’s high-secure residence at Janpath Road. They had come in two private cars.

“They had been spotted loitering around for a long time since the early hours. They were finally detained after their behaviour aroused suspicion,” said an officer.

A municipal corporation chairman in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonebhadra district was shot dead on Thursday, said police, who arrested one suspect.

Chopan Municipal Corporation chairman Imtiaz Ahmad, 40, was playing volleyball at the Grewal Park when unidentified gunmen riddled him with bullets fired from a pistol and carbine.

Rushed to a district hospital, Khan was pronounced dead.

One suspect was arrested and his interrogation was underway, a police official told IANS. Two other suspects were on the run.

Khan was elected the town corporation chief for the second time.

Superintendent of Police Kireet Rathore was trying to ease the tension that erupted in the area following the murder.

A Chartered Accountant (CA) and two of his associates on Monday night were arrested for allegedly evading Rs 50 crore of Goods and Services Tax (GST). The three were arrested from their office in Noida Sector 63 and were produced before a special chief judicial magistrate court in Meerut. They were remanded to judicial custody after having been booked under 2017’s GST Act’s Section 132 (1) A.

Director General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) detectives from the Ghaziabad regional unit apprehended the accused and took them to the Meerut headquarters. As per Special Public Prosecutor Lakshay Kumar Singh, the accused were identified as Akhilesh Sharma, Advocate Rahul Jain and CA Madhusudan Pandey. Sharma was reportedly appointed as a director in several bogus companies.

The accused along with a dozen others were involved in the fake billing of more than 20 firms reportedly. As per officials, Pandey confessed to having committed the crime and said that he and Jain used to provide clients to Sharma for fake invoices, in exchange of commission.

An officer, at the condition of anonymity, explained their modus operandi to TOI and said that via bogus companies registered with GST, the accused issued tax invoices for even those companies that did not supply or deal with any goods or services. These invoices were then sold to clients in need, leading to wrongful utilisation of input tax credit.

TOI

By : Pramesh S Jain

Former Don Muthappa Rai in Dock! might be arrested by CCB police on Monday after taking permission from the court

Offering ‘Ayudha Puja’ to guns and other lethal weapons seem to have put Jaya Karnataka chief Muthappa Rai in trouble as the Central Crime Branch (CCB) has issued a summons to Rai demanding an explanation over a video in which he is seen offering puja to weapons.

Soon after the video went viral on social media platforms,the CCB took note of it and slapped a notice on him.The viral video,believed to be shot on Thursday, shows Rai and his family offering puja to guns and other lethal weapons,like guns,dragger and machetes.The footage was shared on Facebook and Whatsapp.

Former Don N.Muthappa.Rai Gangster-turned-activist was summoned by the Central Crime Branch officials to explain the possession of weapons on Saturday.Officials from Organised Crime Wing issued a notice to the former don on Friday after a video showing his family worshipping a cache of weapons during Ayudha Pooja went viral.

Muthappa Rai appeared before DCP Crime-2,Girish S and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Organised Crime Wing) V Mariyappa at CCB office in Chamarajpet and submitted the documents of the weapons in question.

Responding to notice Muthappa Rai,appeared to CCB office at around 3:55pm on Saturday and was questioned for about 7 hours by the officers of organised crime wing.

Defending himself Rai told media persons,i have explained to investigating officers that the weapons belonged to his security personnel whom he had hired for his personal protection he added.

A senior police official told media persons that Muthappa Rai and his gunman in a statement to the department said they don’t own weapons and had leased them from a company.They’re yet to furnish documents for the arrangement and requested for some to do so.Following the revelation police are now examining the gun license rules as his security personnel were issued gun license for self defence purpose and not for Rai’s protection and after taking legal opinion from the legal experts and after verifying the licence documents a revocation of the gun license would be taken in the event that a violation of the gun license rules was found they also added while Rai had an explanation for the guns but he could not provide an adequate explanation for the weapons that were on display on the viral video concern that such a display would induce fear among people and we have let him by issuing notice to appear before us on Monday for further clarification with the documents he added.

As the CCB cops drilled Jaya Karnataka Chief and President Muthappa Rai for about more than 7 hours his followers and associates started creating tense situation by calling other members of the organisation from other neighbouring areas to gather near CCB office as soon as the information was passed by CCB cops who were placed outside for the security they informed their senior officers they immediately swung and alerted the local police station Cottonpet inspector Kumaraswamy and his staff took all precautionary and adequate measure for no untoward incident to take place,ACP Mahanth Reddy was to rushed to spot and based on instructions by senior officer neighbouring police Station inspectors as Chamarajpet inspector Tanveer and his staff were deployed with Kalasipalya Police inspector Shivakumar and his staff were deployed near CCB office to maintain the crowd as many as around 150 members of Jaya Karnataka pro Kannada organisation including women were seen so to maintain law and order cops have taken all the measures for no untoward incident take place. Extra force as 1 KSRP platoon too was deployed.As their members gathered on the road when the Jaya Karnataka chief president Muthappa Rai came out finishing investigation his fans and supporters gathered in huge numbers near Chamarajpet CCB office they raised slogans and in which two ambulance were struck in traffic jam the cops had very tough time to make way for ambulances with the help of traffic cops and other citizens the cops made way for ambulance as two ambulances were struck for about 10 minutes as Muthappa Rai came out and his followers and members gathered and blocked the road.

Muthappa Rai’s gunman with Black Cats Security Agency owner,Vasanth Kumar including administrative officer was taken to cottonpet police station subject to verifying their security agencies license and to collect more information and the Cottonpet police has found some violations on preliminary investigation they have filed a case under NCR against 7 persons which includes security agency owner,administration and 5 gunmens hired by Muthappa Rai and were left in the mid night around 1:30am after issuing them notice to appear before them on Sunday afternoon with all documents for further clarification and after taking legal opinion we will take further course of action officer said.

Muthappa,Rai the founder of pro-Kannada social welfare organisation Jaya Karnataka, was seen worshipping a choice of weapons ranging from pistols, shotguns dragger,machetes.

The former gangster recently became the president of Karnataka Athletics Association and is one of the leading horse owners at Bangalore Turf Club.

As the cops who are Invesitigating the case has intensified their probe and are gathering all the information about the Muthappa Rai and his associates activities and it is alleged that many properties are in the name of his close aide,K.G.Raju and CCB sources said they will approach to court and seek permission to prosecute Muthappa Rai and his 42 associates as we are keeping a vigil watch on their activities.As a local channel started telecasting a programme on former Don that the CCB sleuths can arrest him on charges of Arms Act in many parts of city and rural areas cable connection was disconnected as it is alleged that his associates has threatened the cable operators to stop telecasting the news in the name of Muthappa Rai and in many places like Banashankari,Jayanagar,Rajajinagar,Jalahalli Cross,peenya,kolar,Koppal,and other surrounding areas cable connection as local TV News channel Connection were disconnected.

A 100-year-old woman was brutally raped allegedly by a 20-year-old youth in the middle of the night in West Bengal’s Nadia district, the police said on Wednesday.

“The incident took place on Monday night. Argha Biswas alias Abhijit was caught by the family members of the old woman. A complaint was filed on Tuesday,” an officer of the Chakdah police station said.

The culprit from the Gangaprasadpur area has been arrested and presented before the court.

The proceedings are going on and the centenarian has been released from the hospital after the required medical tests.

IANS

Only four days after the Amritsar train tragedy, two people were killed and a dozen others, including two children, were injured in a stampede at a railway foot-overbridge at Santragachhi station in Howrah on Tuesday, police said.

At least 59 people were killed when a train crushed them as they were watching Dusshera celebrations in Punjab’s Amritsar on Friday.

“Two people were killed and 12 others injured in the incident. Two persons are critical, and one of them is in in the ICU, and we are shifting the other one to the SSKM hospital,” said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who rushed to the spot as also the Howrah General Hospital where the injured were being treated.

She said the other injured people were stable.

The railways claimed that the tragedy happened around 6 pm due to overcrowding on the foot-overbridge as four trains had just left the station and four others were about to leave.

“Presence of passengers of eight trains at a time resulted in heavy rush at the foot overbridge,” a South Eastern Railway release said.

Earlier, a railway spokesperson told IANS the commuters hurriedly tried to cross the foot-overbridge between two platforms following an announcement of two trains coming simultaneously on two adjacent tracks.

Banerjee claimed arrival of an express train was also announced.

The railways have decided to hold a detailed inquiry to find out whether there was some lapse on its part and to prevent a recurrence, a senior official said.

The railways would provide Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 50 thousand for those with minor injuries.

Banerjee also announced there would be an administrative probe, and said her government would give a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the nearest kin of the deceased, and Rs 1 lakh to each of the seriously injured.

She alleged the announcement regarding change of platforms for arriving trains was announced at the last minutes.

“The incident happened in the premises of Indian Railways. They will be able to say why they made public announcements of so many trains simultaneously.”

Banerjee alleged there was lack of coordination on the part of railway, compromising the security of innocent people.

“Security of people should not be compromised, and railway should take proper care of the people. Railway is the lifeline of the country, it should not be derailed,” she said.

One of the survivors, who had jumped from the overbridge to the platform and escaped with a leg injury, said after the overbridge got overcrowded, police and civic volunteers prevented people from getting down to platform number two. “This caused the incident”.

Sharing her ordeal, an injured victim said: “I couldn’t move and hurt my feet. Police tried to control the crowd but it was unmanageable.”

“It is very difficult for the daily passengers. Whenever a train comes, the footbridge becomes overcrowded and today there was a stampede,” a passenger said.

IANS

A Class 4 student died in a fight with a Class 10 student at a hostel in Telangana’s Khammam district, police said on Wednesday.

Nine-year-old D. Joseph was found dead with bleeding injuries on Tuesday evening at the government-run tribal welfare residential school in Khammam town, about 200 km from here.

Preliminary investigations by the police revealed that the boy died during a fight with the senior student, aged 15.

The accused allegedly hit Joseph with a trunk box on his head and other body parts, resulting in his spot death.

Since the residential school runs classes up to fourth, the accused was studying in a private school but was staying at the same premises.

Both the students said to have went around the town on a bicycle since morning.

On their return to the hostel, they had a fight over some issue. The elder one thrashed the younger severely causing him to bleed to death.

The hostel warden or any staff member was said to have not been around when the incident happened. Alerted about the body of a student lying in the hostel, the warden called the police.

The incident triggered tension in the area as the relatives of the deceased and leaders of students’ groups ransacked the premises. They demanded action against the hostel warden for his negligence and justice for the deceased’s family.

Police shifted Joseph’s body for autopsy and launched an investigation.

IANS

A theft of Rs 140 crore worth of gold and jewels has been reported to a Kanpur police station by a Uttar Pradesh jeweller, police said on Wednesday.

The complaint was registered by a jeweller who has a shop on Birhana Road. The shop was closed down five years back following a dispute between business partners.

Superintendent of Police (East) Raj Kumar Agarwal said a probe is on.

The police said they were checking CCTV footage of the shops and business establishments around the jewellery store.

The shop where the alleged theft was reported was an equal partner shop that was closed on May 30, 2013 after the dispute, an official said.

A court here had sometime back ordered the shop to be opened by the police in presence of both partners.

However, the alleged theft took place just before it could be reopened.

In the police complaint, it has been alleged that 10,000 carats of diamonds, 500 kg of silver, 100 kg gold, and jewels worth 5,000 carat and some important business related documents.

The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday filed chargesheet under the anti-money laundering law against Sandesara brothers and their Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech Limited (SBL) in the fraudulent Rs 8,100-crore loan from domestic as well as offshore branches of Indian banks during 2004-2012.

The ED named 191 accused and 184 companies of the SBL group in the chargesheet filed in a special court. The SBL group include Sterling Biotech Limited, PMT Machines Limited, Sterling SEZ and Infra Limited, Sterling Port Limited, Sterling Oil Resources Limited and 179 shell companies.

Some individuals named in the chargesheet include main promoters of SBL group — Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara and Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara — Dipti Sandesara, Rajbhushan Dixit, Hitesh Patel, their chartered accountant Hemant Hathi and middlemen Gagan Dhawan.

The agency said the investigation in this case is still on as Sandesara brothers are learnt to be in abroad.

Action under Fugitive Economic Offenders Law shall be initiated soon against the Sandesara brothers and Red Corner Notice with respect to promoters shall also be issued, said the ED which registered a money laundering case against the SBL group, Sandesara brothers and others in August 2017, days after a case of alleged bank fraud of Rs 5,700 crore was filed against them by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Investigation in ED revealed that Sandesaras brothers and others hatched a criminal conspiracy for cheating banks by manipulating figures in the balance sheets of their flagship companies and induced banks to sanction higher loans.

“After obtaining loans, the accused diverted the loan funds to non-mandated purposes through a web of shell companies. Thus, the loan funds were diverted, layered and laundered by the promoters for their personal purposes. Total amount of loan fraud as on date is Rs 8,100 crore. The loan fraud pertains to domestic as well as offshore branches of Indian banks,” said an ED statement.

Loans to the tune of Rs 5,700 crore was disbursed by various banks during the years 2004-2012 and Look Out Circulars were opened against the accused in August, 2017, said the statement.

“To fulfil their criminal motive of defrauding banks, the promoters devised a multi layered strategy of cheating. They not only cheated banks but also revenue department as well as the share-holders. Their strategy included incorporation of shell companies, conducting circular transactions to artificially inflate turnover of flagship companies, claiming higher depreciations on non-existing machinery, artificial share trading with the use shell companies, layering and laundering of proceeds of crime within India and abroad through the web of shell companies.”

The promoters used their employees’ names and got incorporated 249 shell companies, said the ED, adding the ill gotten money were knowingly rotated, layered and finally integrated into the financial system and projected as untainted.

“The amount was further invested in the form of immovable properties. The loan funds were diverted for non-mandated purposes to shell companies and were withdrawn as cash. An amount of Rs 140 crore was withdrawn from shell companies and were used for the personal purposes of the promoters which also includes bribing of public officials,” said the statement.

The ED said the promoters created a web of corporate and accounting structure abroad and they incorporated more than 100 entities in various countries including United Arab Emirates, the US, the UK, British Virgin Island, Mauritius, Barbados and Nigeria.

“Their main entities outside India includes Richmond Overseas, Sunshine Trust Corporation, SEEPCO BVI, SEEPCO Nigeria and Atlantic Blue Water Services Pvt Ltd. It is revealed during investigation that the funds were rotated through various structures and ultimately carried to Nigeria to finance their oil business,” said the ED.

The banks have also found that the sanctioned loans were not used for the laid down purposes but were diverted for non-mandated purposes.

The ED said the banks have also declared the loans to the tune of Rs 8,100 crores as fraud (domestic loans Rs 3,675 crore and foreign loans
Rs 4,425 crore) as on date.

The ED said it has so far arrested four persons in the case including a Delhi-based business man-cum-middleman Gagan Dhawan, Ex-Director of Andhra Bank Anup Garg, Director of SBL R.B. Dixit and Ranjeet Malik, a front man of Dhawan.

Besides, the ED has so far attached assets to the tune of Rs 4,710 crore in the case.

IANS

The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on 22 October said it would mediate and hold a reconciliation meeting between Kannada actress Sruthi Hariharan and actor Arjun Sarja, who she had accused of sexually harassment.

“The members of KFCC has met over the sexual harassment allegations. We will soon hold a meeting between Arjun and Sruthi to resolve the issue,” KFCC president SA Chinne Gowda told reporters after the film body’s meeting. The film association will address all the sexual harassment complaints that are brought to its notice, Gowda said.

The 29-year-old actress shared in a Facebook post that the 54-year-old multi-lingual south Indian actor had sexually harassed her on the sets of a film in 2016. “During a (film) rehearsal, we delivered our lines and Mr Arjun hugs me. With no forewarning or permission, he runs his hands intimately up and down my back. He pulls me closer with my body taut against his and asks the director if we could use this idea of foreplay in the scene,” the actress had stated in her post.

Former KFCC president Sa Ra Govindu, however, asked why it took the actress two years to raise the issue. “Sruthi should have brought the incident to our attention long ago,” Govindu said. Earlier in the day, Arjun’s father-in-law and senior Kannada actor Rajesh had lodged a complaint against the actress with the KFCC for defaming the actor (Arjun). A few women also staged a protest in front of the film chamber’s office in the city centre during the day, demanding a “ban” on Sruthi in the Kannada film industry.

Arjun, popularly known as ‘Action King’ and acted in over 150 movies across Tamil, Telugu and Kannada languages, had, however, dismissed the allegations as “false”. The actor had said he would soon file a defamation suit against Sruthi.

Bengaluru-based Sruthi, who has acted in several Kannada and Malayalam films since 2012, had said the incident left her “aghast” and that she could not raise the issue when it happened as there was no internal complaints committee in the film industry. The ongoing #MeToo movement has given her courage to speak up, the actress said addressing media.

Several Kannada actors and directors have also expressed their support to the actress.

PTI