Archives for 2024

PALAKKAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday held a roadshow here as part of the BJP-led NDA’s attempt to boost support for its candidates from Kerala in the Lok Sabha polls set to be held in the state on April 26.

The PM’s cavalcade with Modi standing on an open roof vehicle heavily decorated with flowers commenced the roadshow at around 10.45 am from Kottamaidan Anchuvilakku and proceeded towards the Head Post Office in the town.

The PM arrived here in a helicopter from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.

Thousands of people, including BJP supporters with flowers, garlands, party flags, placards of Modi and wearing party hats, lined both sides of the around one kilometer roadshow route.

As the roadshow proceeded along the route, shouts of ‘Modi’, ‘Bharat mata ki jai’, ‘Modiji swagatam’ and ‘Modi ki jai’ were heard from the people gathered on both sides of the road.

They also showered flowers on Modi, who was wearing a Nehru cap in the saffron colour of his party.

Braving the rising temperatures, crowds, of all ages, had gathered hours ahead of the Prime Minister’s arrival and created a festive atmosphere along the route of the roadshow.

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Several persons, many of whom arrived here with their families, told TV channels that they will not leave without seeing Modi.

Modi’s Palakkad roadshow follows his recent participation at a public meeting in Pathanamthitta town on March 15, where he rallied support for NDA candidates contesting in the southern Kerala constituencies.

Addressing the gathering in Pathanamthitta, the Prime Minister had said that “The Lotus is going to bloom in Kerala” in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and attacked the ruling Left and the opposition Congress-led UDF, alleging that the people of the state have endured hardship under governments plagued by corruption and incompetence.

The BJP has seen an increase in its vote share from the Palakkad constituency in the Lok Sabha polls with its candidate Krishnakumar C securing 21.24 per cent of the total votes polled from here in the 2019 general elections.

This is Modi’s fifth visit to the state within three months.

He has already visited the state twice in January, once in February and then on March 15.

New Delhi: Kerala has filed a fresh plea in the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024, contending it was discriminatory, arbitrary and contravened the principles of secularism.

The Centre had on March 11 paved the way for the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, with the notification of the relevant rules, four years after the contentious law was passed by Parliament to fast-track Indian citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.

Terming the CAA Rules as ‘unconstitutional’, the state government said classifications based on religion and country are discriminatory, arbitrary, unreasonable, and contravened the principles of secularism.

“The fact that the defendant (Union) itself has no urgency in the implementation of the 2019 Act is a sufficient cause for staying the 2024 rules,” the plea said.

The Kerala government, which had earlier filed an original suit against the validity of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), said the Amendment Act and Rules and Orders are bereft of any standard principle or norm in discriminating migrants from other countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bhutan, which are sharing international borders with India and to which and from which there has been trans-border migration.

Contending that the CAA was “arbitrary”, Kerala said the Rules was a “class legislation” that fast-tracked procedure for granting Indian citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian community members who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan.

“Classifications based on religion and country are manifestly discriminatory. It is trite and settled law that a legislation discriminating on the basis of an intrinsic and core trait of an individual cannot form a reasonable classification based on an intelligible differentia,” the plea said.

The apex court had on Friday agreed to hear on March 19 the pleas seeking a direction to the Centre to stay the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Rules, 2024 till the disposal of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

With the unveiling of the rules on March 11, days ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, the Modi government kicked off the process of granting Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The rules came into force with immediate effect, according to a gazette notification.

The CAA had sparked protests in various parts of the country in late 2019 and early 2020 over alleged discriminatory provisions.

While refusing to stay the operation of the law, the apex court had on December 18, 2019 issued notices to the Centre on the pleas.

New Delhi: India on Sunday said that the Gujarat government is taking strict action against the perpetrators of violence at a university in Ahmedabad in which two foreign students sustained injuries.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said one of the two foreign students injured in the violence has been discharged from hospital.

“An incidence of violence took place at Gujarat University in Ahmedabad yesterday. State government is taking strict action against the perpetrators,” he said on ‘X’.

“Two foreign students were injured in the clash. One of them has been discharged from hospital after receiving medical attention,” he said.

According to Ahmedabad Police Commissioner GS Malik, the incident occurred on Saturday night when some 20-25 people entered a hostel premises of Gujarat University in Ahmedabad “and objected to the international students offering namaz there, asking them to do so in a mosque. They argued over the issue, assaulted them and hurled stones”.

Two students — one from Sri Lanka and another from Tajikistan — were hospitalised, the police said.

An FIR was registered against 20-25 people and nine teams were formed to conduct a probe into the incident, Malik said.

There are around 300 international students enrolled at the university including from Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka and countries in Africa, he said.

Nearly 75 of the international students stay in the A-block hostel of the university where the incident occurred, the official said.

All those involved in the incident will be arrested, the official said, adding the case will be monitored by the joint commissioner of police (crime).

Mumbai: A consumer disputes redressal commission here found Flipkart guilty of adopting unfair trade practices and ordered it to pay a customer Rs 10,000 for the mental harassment he suffered after it cancelled his iPhone order.

The cancellation was intentional to make extra profit, which amounts to a deficiency in service and unfair and restrictive trade practice adopted by the online platform, said the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Central Mumbai, in the order passed last month.

The detailed order was available on Sunday.

The commission noted that though the customer had received a refund, he needed to be compensated for the mental harassment and agony he suffered because of the unilateral cancellation of his order.

As per the complainant, a Dadar resident, he ordered an iPhone from Flipkart on July, 10 2022 and paid Rs 39,628 using his credit card.

The phone was supposed to be delivered on July 12, but six days later he received an SMS from the e-commerce company that his order was cancelled.

When contacted, the company told him that their Ekart delivery boy had made several attempts to deliver the product but the complainant was unavailable and hence, the order was cancelled.

The cancellation has not only caused loss, and mental harassment but also subjected him to online fraud, the complainant said.

Flipkart’s delivery partner, Ekart Logistics, was also a party to the complaint but the commission held that it is a delivery partner and there is no consumer and service provider relationship between the complainant and the logistics firm.

Flipkart, in its written response, said the complainant had mistakenly taken it as the seller of the product.

The company said it merely operates as an online platform as an intermediary, and all the products on the platform are sold and supplied by independent third-party sellers.

The seller in this case was International Value Retail Private Limited, and Flipkart had no role to play in the entire transaction entered between the complainant and the seller, it said.

The company claimed that it informed the seller of the complainant’s grievance, the latter said the delivery person had made several attempts to deliver the product to the address but the complainant was unavailable and hence, the order was cancelled by the seller.

The money has been refunded and the dispute exists only between the complainant and the seller, and there is no cause of action against Flipkart, it said.

However, the commission, noted that the order was “unilaterally cancelled” by the e-commerce company that too when the complainant was constantly in touch with it and was assured that his concern was being looked into.

It further said Flipkart had not produced any proof about multiple attempts of service by it or by the seller as claimed.

The commission noted that Flipkart has admitted that the order was cancelled and the complainant was asked to place a fresh order.

This adds weight to the complainant’s case that the cost of the said product had increased by around Rs 7,000 and hence the order was cancelled and he was asked to place a fresh order, it said.

The commission pointed out that Flipkart had done this intentionally to make extra profit, which amounts to a deficiency in service and unfair and restrictive trade practices adopted by it.

“Though the complainant has received the refund, he needs to be compensated for the mental harassment and agony suffered by him due to the unilateral cancellation of his order by Flipkart,” it said.

The commission ordered Flipkart to pay Rs 10,000 towards compensation for the mental harassment and agony suffered by the complainant and Rs 3,000 towards the cost.

Raipur: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Chhattisgarh has registered a case against former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and others in the alleged Mahadev online betting scam based on a probe report submitted by the ED, officials said on Sunday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has been investigating the Mahadev app-linked money laundering case for more than a year, alleged in the past that its probe has shown involvement of various high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats from Chhattisgarh, where the two main promoters of the app hail from.

The projected proceeds of crime in this case are about Rs 6,000 crore, according to the ED.

“The ED has been investigating the case and based on its report submitted to the state’s Economic Offences Wing/Anti-Corruption Bureau, the FIR was registered against Baghel and others at the EOW police station here on March 4,” a senior EOW official said.

Baghel, the senior Congress leader, along with the app promoters Ravi Uppal, Saurabh Chandrakar, Shubham Soni and Anil Kumar Agrawal and 14 others have been named as accused in the FIR, he said.

Some bureaucrats, police officials, officers on special duty (OSDs) and other unidentified private persons have also been made accused (without being named) in the case, he said.

The case has been registered under various Indian Penal Code Sections, including 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document), and provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, the official said.

The FIR, citing the ED’s report, stated that Mahadev Book App promoters Uppal, Chandrakar, Soni and Agrawal created the platform for live online betting and indulged in betting through Whatsapp, Facebook and Telegram and other social media platforms.

The promoters created different platforms and conducted illegal acts of online betting through panel operators/ branch operators. They kept 70 to 80 per cent of the illegal earnings with them and distributed the rest of the money to panel operators/ branch operators, it alleged.

The promoters and panel operators fetched around Rs 450 crore per month through the online betting app after the lockdown was imposed in 2020 (following the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic), the FIR claimed.

For transaction of the illegally obtained money, bank accounts were opened on the basis of fake documents by the promoters and panel operators of the Mahadev Book App and hundreds of bank accounts were operated on the basis of commission with the money obtained from betting. The panel operators transferred illegal money to the promoters in the UAE through various bank accounts, it said.

A huge amount of money was spent by the app promoters for advertising betting websites. For this, annual star-studded events were also organised, in which celebrities were involved by paying them illegal money obtained from betting, the FIR said.

The illegal money obtained from online betting by the app promoters has been invested in many companies, shell companies, stock market and crypto currency, it said.

A similar betting platform called Sky Exchange was being run by Hari Shankar Tibrewal, who was associated with the Mahadev Online Book and the ED has attached his assets worth around Rs 580 crore, the FIR said.

To prevent legal action against the illegal act of online betting, the promoters of Mahadev Book App had given huge protection money to various police and administrative officers and influential political persons, it claimed.

Hawala operators were used for the arrangement and distribution of the protection money and police officers/employees were also used as couriers for the purpose, the FIR claimed.

Various police, administrative officers and influential political persons have misused their positions and acquired illegal assets in the form of protection money. Provisional attachment of many immovable properties has been done by the ED, it said.

Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, targeted Baghel over the Mahadev app case during the Chhattisgarh assembly polls last year.

Baghel had termed the ED’s action in the Mahadev betting app case as a “political conspiracy” and accused the federal agency of acting at the behest of its “political masters”.

So far, the ED has arrested nine persons in this case.

The ED has filed two chargesheets in the case till now in Raipur court, including against Chandrakar and Uppal. It had earlier conducted multiple raids in connection the case.

“Operations of Mahadev Online Book are being run from Dubai and it operates by franchising panel/branches to their known associates on 70-30 per cent profit ratio,” the ED said.

“The main promoters of MOB are also partners/promoters in multiple such online betting books like Reddy Anna, Fairplay, etc and large-scale hawala operations are done to siphon off the proceeds of betting proceeds to off-shore accounts,” it claimed.

Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad

Jammu: Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP) chairman Ghulam Nabi Azad requested the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday to hold the much-awaited Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir a month after the completion of the Lok Sabha election.

The Lok Sabha polls in the Union Territory will be held in the first five phases on April 19 (Udhampur), April 26 (Jammu), May 7 (Anantnag-Rajouri), May 13 (Srinagar) and May 20 (Baramulla). The counting of votes will be taken up on June 4.

“The EC has stated that it is not holding the Assembly polls with the Lok Sabha election because of security considerations.

“It is true that if 10 candidates fight from each parliamentary seat, we have five seats and the number of candidates will be 50. Similarly, if we have 15 candidates from each of the 90 Assembly segments, the number of candidates will be around 1,500. It is difficult to provide security to 50 candidates,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.

However, he requested the EC and the Centre to hold the Assembly polls a month after the completion of the parliamentary election.

“The Assembly election should be held after a month’s rest post the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

Azad, who was a member of a high-level committee chaired by former president Ram Nath Kovind to look into the feasibility of the “one nation, one election” concept, said the report has been submitted to the president and it is now for the government and the EC to take a call on the recommendations.

Asked about the opposition’s criticism over holding the Lok Sabha polls in seven phases, the former Union minister said even during the Congress rule, elections used to take place in seven or eight phases.

He said the DPAP has announced one candidate from the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat and the decision with regard to other seats will be taken in due course of time.

“We have announced one candidate and will see where else we are going to field candidates,” he said.

Earlier, addressing a public meeting at the heart of the city here, Azad said a legislation is needed to protect Jammu up to Samba.

“Our land and jobs were protected by Article 35A (of the Constitution) but after its abrogation with Article 370 (in August 2019), Jammu has become vulnerable as anyone coming from outside will prefer the city rather than going to the hilly districts of Jammu or the Kashmir valley. People from the 22 districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are living in Jammu and we have to protect the city up to Samba (district),” he said.

Azad sought the people’s support in forming the next government in Jammu and Kashmir and said he will give top priority to mitigating the problems being faced by them due to a lack of electricity and water, besides ensuring development.

He also asked people to wisely vote in the parliamentary polls so that the elected candidates become their voice and highlight their issues.

Betul: A married woman was gang-raped by two persons following which she consumed pesticide in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district, police said on Sunday.

The incident occurred in Bordehi police station limits on Saturday and one of the two accused has been arrested, said Sub Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Shalini Paraste.

“The victim (38) was coming home on Saturday evening from a farm plot when two persons, one of them known to her, offered to give her a lift on their scooter. The accused, however, took her to a deserted place and raped her,” she said.

“Following the incident, she consumed pesticide and is admitted in Betul’s district hospital. The police and tehsildar recorded the statements of the victim in the hospital and registered a zero FIR,” the SDOP informed.

The case will be forwarded to Bordehi police station for further action, she added.

Mumbai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday described the electoral bonds as “white collar corruption” of the ruling BJP and said the opposition bloc INDIA will form a secular, federal and inclusive government at the Centre.

Stalin was the first speaker at the INDIA grouping’s rally at Mumbai’s Shivaji Park.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done only two things in the past ten years foreign trips and fake propaganda. We have to stop this,” he said.

The DMK chief said since the opposition named its bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance), the BJP has stopped using the word India’.

“This is fear. PM Modi has started defaming us as corrupt, but electoral bonds proved that BJP is corrupt. It’s white collar corruption of the BJP,” said Stalin.

Stalin said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra was an attempt to see through the heart of India, which he claimed has been destroyed by the BJP.

There is no bigger threat to India than BJP, he alleged.

“We have to defeat BJP. The journey which started in Kanyakumari should end by wresting power in Delhi,” he said, adding that the INDIA bloc will form a secular, federal and inclusive government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah said INDIA block partners have united to save the country.

AAP leader and Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “We are all here together because we don’t fear going to jail. To win, we have to fight,” he said.

Bharadwaj said that electoral bonds have exposed the BJP and people should be made aware of it.