Archives for 2017

New Delhi: After nine years in jail, Lt Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case will at last see the morning sun.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted Lt Colonel Purohit bail in the 2008 Malegaon blast case.

While granting bail, the apex court said, “we set aside order of Bombay High court.”

The apex court said the bail has been granted subject to certain conditions.

A bench of Justices R K Agrawal and A M Sapre said they are setting aside the Bombay High Court order by which the bail was denied.

Earlier on August 17, the apex court reserved its order on the bail plea of Lt Colonel Purohit.

Lt Colonel Purohit’s bail plea was earlier rejected by the Bombay High Court saying the charges against him were of a grave nature, after which he moved the top court.

Lt Colonel Purohit, a former military intelligence officer, is one of the accused in the 2008 Malegaon blasts along with Sadhvi Pragya and others.

Sadhvi Pragya has been granted relief in the case by the Bombay High Court.

The 2008 Malegaon serial blasts claimed 4 lives and left nearly 79 injured.

(Agencies)

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami today announced a Commission of Inquiry to go into the death of J Jayalalithaa, eight months after her demise.

Palaniswami also announced that Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence here will be turned into a memorial that will be run by the government.

The announcements have virtually sealed the deal for merger with rebel leader and former chief minister O Panneerselvam’s AIADMK faction since these are his two key demands.

The 68-year-old former chief minister and AIADMK supremo died following a cardiac arrest on December 5 after being in hospital for 75 days.

Besides the formal expulsion of AIADMK interim chief V K Sasikala and her nephew deputy general secretary T T V Dhinakaran has also been sought by Panneerselvam.

Flanked by senior cabinet colleagues, Finance Minister D Jayakumar, Forest Minister Dindigul C Srinivasan and Power Minister P Thangamani, Palaniswami told reporters that the Commission of Inquiry will be set up and headed by a retired judge of the Madras High Court.

He said the name of the judge will be announced later.

Hailing Jayalalithaa’s contribution to Tamil Nadu, he said following representations from a cross-section of people, her residence at Poes Garden will be turned into a government memorial and opened for public viewing.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The Bihar flood toll climbed to 153 today while those marooned in 17 districts of the state crossed the 1 crore mark, even as the Army was called in for relief and rescue operations in deluge-hit eastern Uttar Pradesh districts adjoining Nepal.

The situation, however, eased in Assam and West Bengal, where no heavy rains were reported.

Araria district of Bihar accounted for 30 deaths, West Champaran 23, Sitamarhi 13, Madhubani 8 and Katihar 7. 11 each have died in Kisanganj, East Champaran and Supual and 9 each in Purnea and Madhepura.

Four deaths each were reported in Darbhanga, Gopalganj and Saharsa, 3 each in Khagaria and Sheohar, 2 in Saran and 1 in Muzaffarpur, Special Secretary in the Disaster Management Department Anirudh Kumar said.

Around 1.08 crore people have been hit by floods in 17 districts and 1,688 panchayats of the eastern state, he said.

The MeT office said Patna, Gaya, Bhagalpur and Purnea are likely to witness rain or thundershower tomorrow.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reviewed the flood situation and gave necessary instruction to officials. He gave orders for intensive airdropping of food packets in Kursakanta, Palasi, Sikti and Jokihaat in Araria and the Sugauli area in East Champaran, an official statement said.

A total of 28 National Disaster Response Force teams comprising 1,152 personnel are rendering services in the marooned areas with the help of 118 boats.

Seven Army teams with 2,228 personnel are assisting relief and rescue operation with the help of 280 boats, a state Disaster Management Department release said.

The Special Secretary in the Disaster Management Department said 1,765 community kitchens are catering to 3.44 lakh people in several flood-hit areas of the state.

Meanwhile, after being pounded by a record-breaking downpour early this week, Bengaluru was on the road to recovery.

The city’s famous Bellandur lake continued to spew ‘toxic froth’ but it is reducing because of receding rains.

In the national capital, the minimum temperature was recorded at 29 degrees, while the maximum stood at 37.8 degrees Celsius. No rainfall was reported in Delhi.

Continuous rains and discharge of water in rivers worsened the deluge situation in eastern Uttar Pradesh, where Army had to be called in.

The movement of traffic on the Gorakhpur-Sonauli road towards Nepal came to a standstill with the waters of Rohin river inundating Maniram township and the national highway, sources in the administration said.

As many as 105 villages of the district have been hit by the floods, of which 35 are totally submerged and the villagers have been shifted to safer places, they said.

According to a report from Siddhartnagar, army helicopters assisted in extending relief material to the affected.

Several districts in the eastern region of the state including Balrampur, Basti, Siddhartnagar, Barabanki, Ayodhya, Lakhimpur, Mahrajganj, Gonda are facing floods.

The flood situation in north Bengal improved with water levels of all major rivers receding, though the toll rose to 52.

West Bengal Panchyat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said roads and pipelines for supplying drinking water have been badly damaged in the calamity.

Nearly 15 lakh people have been affected by the floods in Coochbehar, Dakshin Dinajpur, Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Malda districts in north Bengal since July 21.

Train services to different destinations in north Bengal and Assam from Howrah and Sealdah stations remained suspended on the sixth consecutive day, a railway spokesman said.

Bus services between the southern and northern parts of the state also remain suspended for the last five days owing to inundation of national highway 34 and 31 and state highways at different places in north Bengal.

In the northeastern state of Assam, 11 more persons died in flood-related incidents.

However, officials said the situation has improved in the state as no fresh spell of rainfall was reported.

According to a report by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), three persons died in Dhubri, while two people lost their lives in Morigaon in flood related incidents.

In Baksa, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, South Salmara, Kamrup and Kokrajhar districts, one person each died due to floods, it said.

The third wave of flood has so far claimed the lives of 60 persons across the state. With these, the total number of persons losing their lives in this year’s flood-related incidents in Assam went up to 144, including eight in Guwahati.

The ASDMA said 25.93 lakh people have been affected in the state.

As per the report issued today, Morigaon was the worst affected followed by Dhubri in the state. A total of 2,210 villages were under water and 1.23 lakh hectares of crop were inundated and damaged, they said.

The authority added that Brahmaputra river was flowing above the danger mark at Nimatighat in Jorhat, Goalpara and Dhubri towns.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the eastern state of Odisha was likely to experience heavy rainfall in next 24 hours due to a low pressure area created over northwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining coastal region of the state.

In Himachal Pradesh, a landslide near Dochi village in Kharapathar blocked vehicular traffic on Rohru Theog road in Shimla district besides partially damaging a house.

Scattered rains occurred at some places including Dharamshala, Palampur and Jogindernagar, while the weather remained dry in the rest of the state.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The country’s second largest software services firm Infosys today said its board has approved a share buyback offer of up to Rs 13,000 crore.

The buyback price of Rs 1,150 per share is nearly 25 per cent higher than Friday’s closing of Rs 923.10 apiece.

The company has also set up seven-member committee comprising key members like Co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan, Executive Vice-chairman Vishal Sikka, interim CEO and MD UB Pravin Rao, among others to oversee the process of the buyback offer.

The buyback offer approved by the board will comprise up to 11.3 crore equity shares or 4.92 per cent paid-up equity share capital, Infosys said in a regulatory filing.

The development comes a day after Vishal Sikka quit as Infosys’ CEO amid founders alleging corporate governance lapses. The board had blamed a “misguided” campaign by co- founder NR Narayana Murthy for Sikka’s resignation.

The process timeline and other details will be announced in due course, Infosys said, adding that the buyback is subject to approval of the shareholders by way of a special resolution.

The company said given the significant shareholding of the US residents by way of ADS’ and equity shares, it was necessary to obtain exemptive relief from the American market regulator US SEC on certain aspects of the tender offer procedures.

This is due to conflicting regulatory requirements between Indian and US laws for tender offer buybacks and the same has been obtained, Infosys explained.

The Bengaluru-based company in April had announced that it will pay up to Rs 13,000 crore to shareholders during the current financial year through dividend and/or share buyback.

Share buybacks typically improve earnings per share and return surplus cash to shareholders, while also supporting share price during period of sluggish market condition.

Infosys had cash and cash equivalents worth over USD 3.5 billion on its books as of June 30, 2017.

The buyback offer size is 20.51 per cent of the total paid-up equity capital and free reserves of the company as on June 30, 2017, Infosys said.

The buyback Committee also includes CFO MD Ranganath, Jayesh Sanghrajka (Deputy CFO), Inderpreet Sawhney (General Counsel) and A G S Manikantha (Company Secretary).

A number of tech companies have announced share buyback programmes this year to offer rich returns to shareholders.

While Infosys larger rival TCS offered Rs 16,000-crore mega buyback offer to shareholders, rivals like Cognizant, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Mindtree have also made similar announcements.

(Agencies)