New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday transferred the investigation into the disappearance of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Najeeb Ahmad to the CBI from police. He has been missing since October 15, 2016.

A bench of Justices G.S. Sistani and Rekha Palli transferred the matter to the CBI with immediate effect on a plea by the student’s mother after the Delhi Police said it had no problem with such a direction.

The court said the probe by the CBI would be supervised by an officer not less than the rank of a DIG.

While transferring the matter, the court noted that the Delhi Police had implemented all directions and suggestions given by the court.

The matter will be taken up next on July 17.

(Agencies)

The Hague: The International Court of Justice on Thursday asked Pakistan to suspend the death sentence of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav.

The order was announced by ICJ president Ronny Abraham in a public sitting, 10 days after India approached the UN’s top court for “provisional measure” of protection — an interim relief — in the Jadhav case.

The circumstances of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s arrest remains disputed, said the ICJ judge.

He added that India should have been granted consular access as per Vienna convention.

In a public hearing on Monday, India accused Pakistan of violating the Vienna Convention by denying consular access to Jadhav and pronouncing him guilty of espionage in a “farcical trial”.

The Indian legal team represented by Deepak Mittal, who heads the Pakistan division of External Affairs Ministry, demanded immediate annulment of Jadhav’s death sentence amid fears that he may be executed even before the world court pronounced its decision.

Pakistan had, however, rejected the Indian argument on the ground that New Delhi had no right to invoke the jurisdiction of the ICJ and that the Vienna Convention does not provide for matters relating to spies, terrorists and those who indulge in espionage.

Jadhav was awarded the death sentence by a Pakistan military court in April, a year after he was arrested on espionage charges.

Islamabad has rejected 16 Indian requests for consular access to the former Indian Navy officer, held at an unknown prison in Pakistan.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The Income Tax department Tuesday conducted raids and surveys on at least 22 locations in Delhi and adjoining areas on charges of alleged benami deals worth Rs 1,000 crore linked to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and others.

Officials said the department began raiding the premises of some prominent businessmen and real estate agents in Delhi, Gurgaon, Rewari and few others since early morning.

The searches are also being conducted at the premises of the son of RJD MP P C Gupta and few other businessmen.

While raids are being conducted at a dozen locations, ten other official premises are being surveyed by the I-T department, they said.

“People and businessmen connected to the land deal involving Lalu Prasad and his family are being searched.

There are allegations of benami deals worth about Rs 1,000 crore and subsequent tax evasion,” a senior official said.

A team of about 100 tax department officials and police personnel are conducting the raids, they said.

The BJP had last week accused Prasad, his MP-daughter Misa Bharti and his two sons, both Bihar government ministers, of being involved in corrupt land deals worth over Rs 1,000 crore, and asked the central government to probe one such transaction in Delhi.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had alleged that these transactions were a case of quid pro quo as they date back to the period when Lalu Prasad was the railway minister, and dared Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take action against him.

Lalu s RJD is a constituent of Bihar s ruling coalition led by Kumar.His sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav are ministers in the government.

Lalu s official residence was the address of the owners of the firms allegedly floated by his family members, Ravi Shankar Prasad had said.

Several suspect land deals took place in Bihar, he said, wondering if Kumar would invoke a special law enacted by his government in which assets acquired through illicit money are confiscated in this instance.

“The politics of Lalu Prasad has become politics of loot.

Land worth crores of rupees was grabbed for a pittance, he had said.

One such land deal involving Lalu Prasad and his family members is in Bijwasan in Delhi, he said.

“We expect the central government to take appropriate action, Ravi Shankar Prasad had said.

All the companies owned by Lalu Prasad s family members for the purpose of these land transactions had no employees, no business activities and no turnover, Ravi Shankar Prasad had claimed.

Bihar’s biggest shopping mall spread over 7.5 lakh square feet is coming up in Patna as part of such dubious transactions, he had alleged at a news conference held here.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today asked the BJP-led government at the Centre what it was celebrating after three years in power, as all it had to show for this time were “broken promises” and “non- performance”.

Pointing to farmer suicides and unemployment in the country, he said the last three years were a “betrayal” of the mandate the government had received.

“Youth are struggling to find jobs, farmers are committing suicide & soldiers are dying at the border. What exactly is the Govt celebrating?” Gandhi tweeted.

“3 years of broken promises, non performance & betrayal of a mandate,” he said in another tweet.

The BJP is organising a ‘Modi Fest’ across the country to mark three years of its rule at the Centre.

Modi, however, does not refer to the Prime Minister’s name but stands for Making of Developing India.

The festival will be kicked off by the prime minister with a series of events and a public meeting in Guwahati on May 26, and will conclude on June 15.

The celebrations are planned to be held across the country and there will be at least one event in each district.

Gandhi had earlier also attacked the government over job creation and had said it failed to deliver on its poll promise of creating 1 crore jobs a year.

He had said the youth had been let down by the government’s lack of vision.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Petrol price was today cut by Rs2.16 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.10 a litre, reversing the four week trend of rising rates.

The reduction, which will be effective from midnight 15th May, comes on back of a marginal 2 paise a litre increase in petrol and 52 paise per litre hike in diesel rates effected from May 1.

Prior to that, petrol price was hiked by Rs 1.39 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.04 a litre from April 16. Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the nation’s largest fuel retailer, said the price of petrol is being reduced by Rs 2.16 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 2.10 – both excluding state levies.

Actual reduction in price will be more after taking into account local VAT. Petrol in Delhi will cost Rs 65.32 a litre from tomorrow as against Rs 68.09 currently. Similarly, a litre of diesel will be priced at Rs 54.90 as compared to Rs 57.35 at present.

“The current level of international product prices of petrol and diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant decrease in selling price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consumers with this price revision,” IOC said in a statement.

The movement of prices in the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate will continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes, it said.

(PTI)

New Delhi: Amid the unrest in Kashmir, the RSS will hold its annual review meeting for the first time in Jammu in July, looking to send out a message to separatists that the valley is an integral part of the country.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat, BJP president Amit Shah and leaders from VHP will attend the three-day meeting which is scheduled from July 18-20, sources in the Sangh said.

“The time and place of meeting was decided to send out a clear message to separatists in the Kashmir valley that the region is integral part of India and the Sangh is committed to its unity,” they added.

The sources also indicated that incidents of stone- pelting and the attack on CRPF jawans could come up for discussion during the meeting.

When contacted, RSS’s Akhil Bhartiya Prachar Pramukh of RSS, Manmohan Vaidya confirmed the meeting.

“This is an annual review meeting of the prant parcharks (state publicity officers) to take stock of events and activities of the year gone by, and at the same time, draft out a plan of action for the coming days,” Vaidya said.

He said the meeting will review the summer training camps which RSS organises every year.

Vaidya said it was decided to hold the meeting in Jammu after the regional office there came forward to organise the event.

“Earlier we had a small office in Jammu but in the last few years it has been expanded. Now they have volunteered to organise this meeting. This will be the first major meeting of the Sangh in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.

Vaidya said there would be no major decisions in the meeting but various issues facing the country may be taken up for discussion.

(Agencies)