New Delhi: In fresh trouble for RJD chief Lalu Prasad, the ED has registered a money laundering case against him and his family members in a railway hotels allotment corruption case dating back to the UPA tenure, officials said today.

The case has been registered under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The central probe agency has taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move.

Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

The Enforcement Directorate will investigate the alleged “proceeds of crime” generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, officials said.

Prasad’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR.

The casedates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.

The CBI FIR alleges that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a ‘benami’ company owned by Sarla Gupta.

The FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with favours allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as ‘quid pro quo’.

The ED, under the PMLA, has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets and it is expected that the agency will initiate such a move once it makes progress in the case.

(PTI)

Patna: Within 24 hours of his resignation the head of the state, Nitish Kumar on Thursday was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar at the Raj Bhawan in Patna. The oath was administered by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

This is Kumar’s sixth term as chief minister.

Kumar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday, breaking the ‘mahagathbandhan’ after he walked out of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Janata Dal (United) JD(U) alliance and joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) receiving full support from Sushil Modi and other BJP leaders.

BJP leader Sushil Modi was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

The ostensible reason for Kumar to quit was his falling out with Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down despite Kumar’s exhortations.

“In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government,” Kumar said outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

But in a series of fast paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours it became clear that Kumar was going to be the ultimate winner.

The JD(U)-BJP return to power after four years in the state. JD(U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated as head of the BJP’s campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

However, the RJD appeared in no mood to give up without a fight, with Tejaswi Yadav saying he, too, would stake claim to form government, but failed when the governor invited Nitish to form Government.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George has now filed a criminal defamation case against journalist Arnab Goswamy and Times Now channel for airing “fake news.”

Arnab Goswamy was the Editor-in-Chief of the Times Now when the controversial report in connection with IAS officer D K Ravi’s death case was aired by the channel on March 23, 2015.

The then home minister George was targeted as the main accused in the news. The video of the same was also made viral on social media.

Recently CBI submitted its chargesheet in D K Ravi’s case and in the final report it was confirmed that it was a suicide.

The case came for hearing on July 26 at the 10th ACMM Court and it has been adjourned till August 19.

According to the complaint, the “sly and blatantly false innuendoes and statements” made by Goswami on Times Now Super Prime Time “were false, malicious, and was a defamatory campaign and propaganda to insinuate KJ George having a vested interest in DK Ravi’s death.”

An FIR was filed at the Jeevan Bhima Nagar Police Station, after which the complaint was submitted to the 10th Additional District Magistrate Court under sections 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, read along with sections 34 and 35 of the IPC.

“The well-respected IAS officer, DK Ravi, died on March 16, 2015. Just a day later, Arnab Goswami, without proper investigation, declared his death to be a murder and accused K J George, who was the then Home Minister, of being involved in DK Ravi’s death, of running a mafia and destroying evidence. This amounts to interfering in the judicial process and hence the complaint was filed today,” Minister George’s lawyer, Ajesh Kumar Shankar, was quoted as saying by a news portal.

(Agencies)

Mangaluru: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will contest from all 60 wards of Mangaluru city in the next local body elections to send its representatives to Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), said Rajendra Kumar, AAP District Volunteer speaking in a press meet held in the city on Wednesday.

Speaking on AAP’s election strategy in the upcoming local elections he said, his party would form ward level committees and find suitable persons to field them as candidates in the next MCC elections.

Rajendra Kumar criticised the Congress party led state government for its failure to prevent recent communal violence in Dakshina Kannada district and its inability to implement various development projects, to run corruption free government. Speaking on MCC, Rajendra Kumar also blamed members of MCC as they failed to serve the city residents in better way.

AAP blamed both BJP and Congress Party for recent series of incidents of violence in Dakshina Kannada and assured the public that AAP would work hard to maintain peace and communal harmony in Karnataka and Dakshina Kannada district in the future. AAP Karnataka state member Jnansagar Rai, Dakshina Kannada District volunteer Kabir Kaatipalla and others were present on the occasion.

(Agencies)

Beijing: China today reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it “unconditionally” withdraws troops from the disputed Dokalam area and said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing’s position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday claimed that India “admitted” to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should “conscientiously withdraw” its troops from the area.

“The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don’t have anything to explain,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a media briefing.

Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Dokalam, saying that the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops’ withdrawal.

“I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into China’s territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries,” Lu said.

The Dokalam issue is expected to be discussed during the visit of Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing for a meeting of the NSAs of BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – on July 27-28.

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in Dokalam area in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan for over a month after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory, and has been demanding immediate pull-out of the Indian troops.

But External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The Union Government on Wednesday maintained before the Supreme Court that right to privacy cannot be elevated to as a fundamental right. It cannot be read into right to life and liberty.

“Right to privacy was omitted from being mentioned in the Constitution, though it was debated in the Constituent Assembly,” Attorney General K K Venugopal submitted before a nine-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice J S Khehar.

Opening the Centre’s arguments, he said even the right to life and liberty guaranteed as a fundamental right is not absolute and can be taken away by the state under the procedure established by law like in case of death penalty and incarceration for life. The procedure has to be “just, fair and reasonable” as enjoined under the Maneka Gandhi case, he said.

At the outset, as many as five states including Karnataka sought to intervene into the matter, supporting a group of Aadhaar challengers. They sought a declaration from the top court that the right to privacy is a fundamental right.

In his arguments, Venugopal submitted nobody can object to if the Supreme Court decided to expand the scope of Article 21 to include right to privacy but it was his duty to place relevant materials which did not support such a demand.

He submitted it can’t be anybody’s plea that he won’t give his biometrics, address, telephone number, identity details etc to the state as right to privacy is elevated as a fundamental right.

In a country with 270 million people living below poverty line, Aadhaar has come as a great tool to prevent diversion of funds, meant for the welfare of poor people.

He said a recent World Bank report stated that Aadhaar is something which every developing country should adopt.

Earlier, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherry, submitted that the right to privacy is inalineable natural right which finds its manifestation in different parts of the Constitution. He said in the present age, technology has become all-pervasive as well as all-invasive. It has to be ensured that precincts of my house is not invaded, he said.

Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh also supported Sibal.

(Agencies)