Archives for 2018

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Thursday ruled out banning any organisation such as Popular Front of India in the state.

“The question of banning any organisation (including PFI) doesn’t arise yet,” he told reporters here.

The chief minister was replying to a query whether the government intends to follow the footsteps of BJP-led Jharkhand government which banned PFI for “spreading anarchy” in the state.

The BJP state unit has been demanding a ban on the outfit, blaming it for the killings of Hindu and party activists in the state.

It has also alleged that the Congress was going soft on PFI to “appease” the minorities.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President G Parameshwara had earlier in the day countered BJP saying an organisation cannot be banned on mere demand, but the home minister can decide on it after reviewing the situation.

“Be it a demand of the Congress or BJP, government cannot ban based on a demand. The home minister reviews the situation time to time and will take a call,” he said.

(PTI)

Bengaluru: The Congress on Thursday avoided itself from the whole episode of assault by Shantinagar legislator NA Haris’ son Mohammed Nalapad Haris on a youth.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara said it was wrong to hold the party responsible for acts carried out by individual members.

Speaking to the reporters, G Parameshwar said “The Congress Party is being accused for the act done by a member. How can the party be responsible for all this? It is very embarrassing”

While the Haris episode was raging, a video showing Congress K R Puram block functionary S Narayanaswamy splashing petrol inside a BBMP office and threatening to burn down the office went viral.

Parameshwar also said that Haris’s son has been expelled and Narayanaswamy is suspended from the party. Further, any members indulging in such acts will not be tolerated, he added.

Haris is a second-time MLA from Shantinagar constituency in Bengaluru. The case involving Haris’s son and Haris getting the ticket are two different things. If Haris comes out of consultancy from the observers, he will get a ticket, Parameshwar said.

(Agencies)

Mumbai, New Delhi: The ED today said it has frozen bank deposits and shares worth about Rs 44 crore of the Nirav Modi group and seized a huge collection of imported watches from locations linked to the billionaire diamantaire.

Officials said they have put freeze orders on bank accounts containing Rs 30 crore and shares worth Rs 13.86 crore of the group under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

A huge collection of imported watches, 176 steel almirahs, 158 boxes and 60 other containers have been seized during ED searches at multiple locations linked to the billionaire diamond jewelry designer over last week, they said.

Only yesterday, the agency seized deposits, shares and luxury cars worth over Rs 100 crore of the businessman and his group.

Modi, his uncle and Gitanjali Gems promoter Mehul Choksi and others are being investigated by the ED and other probe agencies after it recently came to light, following a complaint by the PNB, that they allegedly cheated the nationalised bank to the tune of Rs 11,400 crore, with the purported involvement of a few employees of the bank.

The CBI and the ED have registered two FIRs each to probe the case. Both Modi and Choski are said to have left the country before criminal cases were lodged against them.

(PTI)

Lucknow: A young Dalit girl was burnt alive in an Uttar Pradesh village in Unnao district late last night, police said.

Eighteen-year-old Moni was cycling to a vegetable market on Thursday when some unidentified persons confronted her. They surrounded her and poured petrol over her. Before she could react, they had set her ablaze.

The girl up in flames ran for some 100 metres to save herself but finally collapsed and died on the spot.

Senior police officers, including IG (Zone) Sujit Kumar Pandey rushed to the crime scene around midnight and spoke to the victims family.

The police is trying to find out whether it was a case of stalking or family enmity. The victim’s family has ruled out any case of enmity.

Officials told IANS that the police has recovered an empty petrol can, a match box and detected tyre marks of a four-wheeler near Tedha Bazaar where the crime took
place.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Pushpanjali along with the Station House Officer (SHO) Uttam Singh Rathore have interrogated several persons in connection with the crime.

A case has been registered against unidentified persons.

(IANS)

Talking on the sidelines of the ongoing Gulfood Exhibition 2018 in UAE, Heera Group’s Founder and Chairman Dr. Nowhera Shaik said that the company will be the World’s best company in the coming years.

Dr. Nowhera Shaik said that there are people, who are spreading rumours about the company, but she said that the reality is that Heera Group is operational in multiple countries, and is only growing every year.

Heera Foodex, a healthy food products manufacturing arm of Heera Group, is participating in the annual Gulfood Exhibition.

Heera Foodex features in United Arab Emirates’ 23rd edition of the international food exhibition “Gulfood 2018,” which opened on February 18 and will last until February 22.

After holding successful campaigns in Kolar, Bagalkot, and other districts, debutant All India Mahila Empowerment Party’s (MEP) will be holding a public meeting on Feb 24th at the KHB Grounds, Chickmandya Mandya District.

The public meeting is expected to attract various leaders from across political parties to join MEP under the leadership of Dr. Nowhera Shaik, the party announced.

New Delhi: Scripting history, flying officer Avani Chaturvedi has become the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft, an IAF official said. “Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo when she flew a MiG-21 bison in her first solo flight,” the official.

She undertook the sortie from IAF’s Jamnagar base on Monday, he said. Three women pilots, Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, had undergone strenuous training programme to fly fighter jets. They were commissioned as flying officers in July 2016, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis. The IAF has already selected the next batch of three women trainee pilots for the fighter stream.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today asked if a roving inquiry could be ordered into the “issue of consent” between two adults who married at will and if the Kerala High Court order annulling the marriage of Hadiya, an alleged victim of ‘love jihad’, was justified.

The questions from a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud came during the hearing of the Kerala conversion case. “What troubles us is that whether there can be a roving inquiry into the issue of consent between two adults who have agreed to marry,” the bench said.

Whether the high court was justified in nullifying the marriage is a pure question of law, it added. “Marriage and investigation are two different things. As far as marriage is concerned, it does not warrant any investigation. Investigation has nothing to do with it. You can investigate any other thing,” the court said.

Hadiya, the 25-year-old woman who is at the centre of an alleged love jihad controversy, had on Tuesday filed an affidavit before the top court claiming that she willingly converted to Islam and wants to live with her husband Shafin Jahan. The matter had come to fore when Jahan had challenged the Kerala High Court’s order annulling his marriage with Hadiya and sending her to her parents’ custody.

On November 27 last year, the apex court had freed Hadiya from her parents’ custody and sent her to college to pursue her studies, even as she had pleaded that she should be allowed to go with her husband. Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for Hadiya’s father, said it was a case of vulnerable adults and the high court was justified in nullifying the marriage by exercising its power under Article 226 of the Constitution.

“In this case, marriage was used as a pretext to keep it out of the court’s jurisdiction,” Divan said. Hadiya had urged the court to set aside the judgement of the Kerala High Court that had annulled the marriage terming it an instance of ‘love jihad’.

The top court had earlier ordered an NIA probe into a “pattern” where some women were allegedly being converted to Islam. Later, the court decided to hear the woman and interviewed her in an open court when she made an appeal for her freedom under the Constitution.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) today asked billionaire diamond jeweller Nirav Modi to come up with a concrete and implementable plan to settle the loss caused to it by fraudulent issuance of Letter of Undertakings (LoU) through one of its branches.

PNB said this in its response to a mail written by Nirav Modi, who allegedly cheated the bank of Rs 11,400 crore in connivance with a few bank officials.
“You were getting LoUs issued illegally and in an unauthorized way through few bank officials. At no stage such facilities were extended by our bank to your three partner firms,” sources said citing mail response sent by PNB General Manager (international banking division) Ashwini Vats to Nirav Modi.
When the illegal activities of Nirav Modi surfaced, the bank brought them to the notice of the law enforcement agencies as they apparently violated FEMA and anti-money laundering law, sources said.

“Your commitment and undertaking for sparing of the total liability was not backed by providing upfront amounts and timelines. However, should you have any concrete and implementable plan, do revert back,â the mail said.

Nirav Modi in his letter to the bank had said that the over-zealousness on the part of the bank to deal with the issue destroyed his jewellery brand and also jeopardised his ability to clear the dues.

“The erroneously cited liability resulted in a media frenzy which led to immediate search and seizure of operations, and which in turn resulted in Firestar International and Firestar Diamond International effectively ceasing to be going-concerns… This thereby jeopardised our ability to discharge the dues of the group to the banks.

“In the anxiety to recover your dues immediately, despite my offer (on February 13, a day before the public announcement, and on 15, your actions have destroyed my brand and the business and have now restricted your ability to recover all the dues leaving a trail of unpaid debts,” Modi said in its letter to the bank.

The Rs 11,400 crore fraud perpetuated by Modi is being investigated by various investigative agencies including the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI.

(PTI)