Archives for 2021

Param Bir Singh is facing investigation in a number of matters, including some extortion cases registered by the Maharashtra Police.

Recently, two non-bailable warrants were issued against him in different extortion cases in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane.

Singh was shunted out from the post of Mumbai police commissioner in March this year in the aftermath of the recovery of an SUV with explosives near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in south Mumbai and the arrest of dismissed police officer Sachin Waze in the case.

Singh later accused the then state home minister Anil Deshmukh of corruption.

The Maharashtra government recently told the Bombay High Court that it did not know of Singh’s whereabouts.

On Tuesday, Raut said, “When a person serving on a post equivalent to the director general of police moves out of the country, he cannot do so without the support of the Union government. He has not absconded, but made to move out of the country. “

:Based on his (Param Bir Singh’s) allegations, the central agencies have arrested former home minister Anil Deshmukh. It is very unfortunate as his arrest is unethical,” he said.

Raut said on the basis of allegations, an investigation can be carried out, but Deshmukh was arrested on the first day of inquiry by officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

“I think it is a pre-planned strategy to harass, defame and indulge in mud-slinging of key leaders of the MVA government (in Maharashtra),” the Rajya Sabha member said.

Deshmukh was arrested by the ED late Monday night after over 12 hours of questioning in the money laundering case linked to an alleged extortion racket in the state police establishment.

Notably, former Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar on Tuesday claimed that the MVA government may have helped Param Bir Singh to flee and could be “preparing ground for him to seek political asylum” in a western country

COLOMBO: Public transport services in Sri Lanka resumed services on Monday, after a six-month long inter-province ban imposed due to the raging third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, but health officials urged the public to remain vigilant against possible virus surge.

“We have put into operation around 5,000 buses which will operate from today” Sri Lanka Central Transport Board (SLCTB) Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka told reporters.

Sri Lanka’s Public Transport Minister Dilum Amunugama said that all buses will be permitted to operate according to their seating capacity.

“Any bus driver who violates this condition will be arrested,” Amunugama said.

“They may only transport passengers according to seating capacity. If this is disregarded, there is a high chance the health sector will again impose restrictions on transportation services,” the minister cautioned.

Sri Lanka Railways has also resumed services, with 152 daily trips being operational from Monday.

The relaxation of these travel restrictions come amid health officials issuing a word of caution to citizens.

“Please use it only for essential work as the danger of the pandemic is very much alive,” Public Health Inspectors Union Chairman Upul Rohana told reporters.

“If we do not follow the health guidelines strictly, we will again face a disastrous situation in the near future. Already there are some signs of an increase in patients in several areas,” Rohana added.

Meanwhile, on Monday, authorities have begun administering Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots to frontline health-care workers, police personnel, airport and port workers as well as people employed in the tourism sector, the Director General of Health Services Dr Asela Gunawardena said.

The booster jabs will be later given to those above 60 years of age, followed by citizens with medical comorbidities between the ages of 30 and 60, after which it will be rolled out to everyone above the age of 20.

On October 1, Sri Lanka lifted the six-week lockdown and since then, theatres and restaurants have also reopened.

Till Sunday, the island nation reported 542 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of cases in the island nation to 5,41,073.

After 15 rounds, Guha secured 1,51,163 votes, whereas Mandal bagged just 19,562 votes.

After 15 rounds of counting, the TMC was ahead of its rival BJP in the Gosaba assembly segment in South 24 Parganas by an impressive margin of 1,33,318 votes.

TMC’s Subrata Mondal secured 1,51,452 votes, whereas BJP’s Palash Rana, the nearest rival garnered a mere 18,134 votes.

In Santipur assembly constituency, famous for its handloom industry, TMC’s Braja Kishore Goswami was leading over his nearest rival – BJP’s Niranjan Biswas – by a margin of 24,330.

Goswami bagged 52,776 votes, whereas Biswas bagged 28,446 votes after the eighth round.

In the Khardah assembly segment, state minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay was way ahead of CPI(M) ‘s Debajyoti Das, who stands at number two in the counting so far, by a margin of 46,728 votes.

After the ninth round, Chattopadhyay secured 58,706 votes, whereas Das bagged 11, 978votes.

The polls are being held amidst tight security.

Besides imposing section 144 on a 100-metre radius of counting venues, there is a tight three-tier security layer around them, officials said.

The bypolls were necessitated as the BJP MLAs for Dinhata and Santipur resigned to retain their MP seats while the TMC legislators of Kharadah and Gosaba die

MUMBAI: Congress candidate Jitesh Raosaheb Antapurkar was leading over BJP’s Subhash Pirajirao Sabne by 1624 votes after the first round of counting of votes in Maharashtra’s Deglur (SC) Assembly bypoll, an official said on Tuesday.

The constituency is in Nanded district, from where state public works department minister Ashok Chavan hails.

The BJP fielded Sabne, a former Shiv Sena MLA.

The bypoll witnessed 63.9 per cent polling, compared to 60.9 per cent recorded in 2019.

Shiv Sena candidate Kalaben Delkar, the wife of former MP Mohan Delkar who had allegedly committed suicide, took a lead of over 4,000 votes in the first one hour of counting of votes for by-election to the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat.

The counting of votes commenced here at 8.30 am on Tuesday.

After the completion of three rounds, Kalaben Delkar was leading by over 4,800 votes. She has so far received 12,268 votes, her close rival, BJP candidate Mahesh Gavit, garnered 7,418 votes, while Congress’ Mahesh Dhodi received 447 votes, an Election Commission official said.

Voting for the seat, which is part of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, took place on October 30.

The by-election was necessitated due to the death of sitting MP Mohan Delkar, an independent.

Mohan Delkar, who had won the 2019 election by defeating the then sitting BJP MP Natubhai Patel by a thin margin of 9,001 votes, allegedly hanged himself at a Mumbai hotel on February 22, 2021.

He had been a member of both the Congress and the BJP at different times of his political career.

He was elected seven times to the Lok Sabha from Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In 2019, he won the seat as an independent.

MUMBAI: Income Tax Department has attached properties allegedly belonging to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar worth Rs 1,000 crore, sources said on Tuesday.

According to sources, one of these five properties includes Nirmal Tower situated at Nariman Point, Mumbai.

Earlier in October, the department had also searched offices and residences of the promoters of Dynamix and DB Realty. Raids were also conducted at sugar mills funded by Dynamix and DB Realty and Pawar’s sisters’ houses and companies.

Following these raids, the minister had called these raids “politically motivated”.

KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder has said his party will aim at winning at least 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2024 general election.

Majumder, after attending a BJP meeting, told reporters on Sunday that the saffron party has coined the slogan ‘Ebar 25 paar’ (we will cross 25 this time) keeping in mind the Parliamentary election.

“Twenty five is our minimum target in the next Lok Sabha polls from West Bengal. From 18 seats at present, we will gift at least 25 seats to (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi in 2024, he asserted.

The BJP clinched 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in 2019, 16 more than it had managed in the 2014 elections.

Reacting to Majumder’s assertion, veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy said the BJP leader’s claims show that he is inexperienced and has no idea of the ground reality.

“The BJP got 77 seats in the assembly polls, but with many of its MLAs having joined the TMC, the tally is effectively 70 now. By any arithmetic, the saffron party will not secure more than 10-11 seats in the Lok Sabha polls,” Roy said.

Meanwhile, the saffron party’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh warned that the “agents who are still damaging the prospects of the BJP from within” will be thrown out.

Ghosh had earlier in the day said the BJP made a mistake by inducting a person like Rajib Bandyopadhyay in its fold.

In an explosive Facebook post the former BJP state president said, “Many agents had entered into our party before the assembly polls. Many of them have already left while others still remain and sabotaging the party.”

“They don’t want the BJP to become stronger. We will throw each of them out,” Ghosh further said.

While he did not name anyone, Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy wondered if “Dilip Ghosh is at all taken seriously by his party considering he had been stripped off his post as state unit president and given a non-functioning post by the central leadership.”

TMC state spokesman Kunal Ghosh said, “We don’t know if Dilip Ghosh is referring to Suvendu Adhikari as an agent. But the Facebook post reveals the growing feud within the BJP which is falling like a pack of cards.”

Bandyopadhyay returned to Trinamool from the BJP at a public meeting of Abhishek Banerjee in Agartala on Sunday and said he was repentant for crossing over to the BJP nine months back.

JAMSHEDPUR: Raising concern over “rising” rape and murder cases in Jharkhand, the BJP on Sunday, October 31, 2021, BJP leader Raghubar Das accused the Hemant Soren government of being insensitive towards women security.

Addressing a meeting of the BJP Mahila Morcha Jamshedpur Mahanagar Committee, Raghubar Das, the party’s national vice president, said at least 2,725 women were raped and 2,961 people murdered during the 19-month rule of the grand alliance government in the state.

“The government has not been serious about the women security in the state. Incidents of oppression and rape of Adivasi girls have gone up, which is a sign of deteriorating law and order situation,” Das, the former chief minister of Jharkhand, said.

He also alleged that the JMM and Congress failed to fulfil their poll promises after forming the government.

“They (JMM-Congress) made several promises to women during the elections but forgot everything soon after they came to power,” Das said.

He appreciated the party’s women workers for their services during the Covid-induced lockdown.

Menaka Sardar, former BJP MLA from Potka, said that “no concrete action” was initiated by the chief minister to curb the “increasing atrocities on women in the state”.