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SBI seeks Vijay Mallya’s arrest, seizure of passport: Report

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Vijay Mallya. Photo: Reuters

Vijay Mallya. Photo: Reuters

Mumbai: Top state-run lender State Bank of India (SBI) has sought arrest of Vijay Mallya, and also impounding of his passport, as the bank approached Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) seeking action against the UB Group promoter for defaulting on loans.

State Bank of India, which heads the consortium of 17 lenders to the grounded Kingfisher Airlines, moved the Debt Recovery Tribunal in Bengaluru against the airline’s chairman Mallya in its bid to recover over Rs. 7,000-crore dud loans from him.

According to sources, SBI has moved four applications at the DRT in Bangalore, seeking impounding Mallya’s passport, getting him arrested, securing the lenders’ first right on the payout from Diageo and getting full disclosure of his assets in the country and abroad.

The immediate objective of the lenders moving the DRT is to secure a first right on the $75 million severance package that Mallya will be getting for quitting Diageo-owned United Spirits (USL) as its chairman last week.

An SBI official confirmed to Press Trust of India that they have moved the DRT seeking right on $75 million severance package, as the borrower Mallya who has already been declared by the bank a wilful defaulter, has decided to leave the country and settle down in London.

Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines owed Rs. 7,800 crore to a consortium of 17 lenders led by State Bank which had an exposure of over Rs. 1,600 crore to the now defunct airline.

Since January 2012, the loan was not serviced. Other lenders include Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Federal Bank, Uco Bank and Dena Bank among others. Last year, SBI declared Mallya as wilful defaulter. Last month, Punjab National Bank had also declared him, his group holding company United Breweries Holdings and the long-defunct Kingfisher Airlines as wilful defaulters.

As part of a deal, Diageo said it would pay $40 million immediately to Mallya with the balance being payable in equal installments over the next five years. It will also absolve Mallya of all liabilities over alleged financial lapses at the company founded by his family.

Last year Diageo auditors had found that Mallya had diverted Rs. 7,200 crore of United Spirits Limited (USL) funds to the airline, which was again diverted elsewhere.

The England-based Diageo is the majority shareholder of USL with a 54.78 per cent holding, excluding the 2.38 per cent owned by the USL Benefit Trust.

Mallya personally held a small stake of 0.01 per cent in USL at the end of December 2015, while his group firms owned further 3.99 per cent stake. However, more than half of these shares are pledged with banks.

The 17-member lenders consortium led by SBI has also decided to auction Kingfisher House in Mumbai on March 17 this year in a bid to recover a part of Rs. 6,963 crore debt due from Kingfisher, as lenders since January 2012 has recovered around Rs. 1,200 crore by selling pledged shares of group companies and other physical assets.

Banks are charging 15.5 per cent compounded interest on this principal amount, which has not been serviced since January, 2012.

(PTI)

No direct link of Kanhaiya with anti-India slogans: DM’s report

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Kanhaiya-Kumar

New Delhi: “No direct link” has been found between Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and anti-India sloganeering at the campus on February 9, said a Delhi government report.

“I have submitted the report to the Delhi government late last (Wednesday) night,” District Magistrate, New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, who conducted the inquiry, told IANS.

The report also stated that the role of Umar Khalid, another JNU student accused of raising anti-India slogans, needs to be further investigated.

“Umar Khalid was visible in many videos. His support for the role of Kashmir and Afzal Guru is known and he was the organiser of the event. His role needs to be further investigated,” the report states.

Sanjay Kumar refused to divulge the details but an official privy to the report, who did not want to be named, said: “The DM report says they could not find any link between what Kanhaiya Kumar said and the anti-India slogans raised at the gathering.

“No witness or video available to me could support allegation against him,” Sanjay Kumar stated in the report.

But the official said that “anti-India slogans were indeed raised in the campus. There is no doubt about it”.

“Anti-national slogans were indeed raised on the campus of the JNU. The university administration has identified few faces who were clearly heard raising anti-India slogans. Whereabouts of them should be found out and their role must be investigated further,” the report stated.

The official said that seven videos were sent to Truth Labs, Hyderabad, of which three were found to be doctored. “In those doctored versions, video has been edited and voices added,” the official said.

The state government had ordered a magisterial probe into the matter on February 13.

On February 9, a cultural event was organised at JNU to commemorate the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

During the event, anti-India slogans were allegedly raised, following which JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested by Delhi Police on February 12.

Kanhaiya Kumar was granted interim bail for six months by Delhi High Court on Wednesday.

(IANS)

W Bengal: 800 fall ill after eating ‘prasad’ served in a ceremony

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Prasad

Barasat: About 800 people have fallen ill after consuming ‘prasad’ distributed in a religious function at Mitpukuria in North-24 parganas district, a health official said today.

The affected people include those from neigbouring villages of Kalikapur, Sardarhati and Mallikpara.

They all complained of stomach pain, loose motion and vomiting after eating ‘prasad’ at the ceremony on Tuesday night, the district’s Chief Medical Officer (Health) Proloy Acharya said.

All 800 of them were admitted to several hospitals and Primary Health Centres on the following day, he added.

About 300 people continued to be under treatment in different health facilities including the Barasat hospital, Acharya said adding, that even today many people are coming for treatment with similar ailments.

The Health department has collected samples of the ‘prasad’ served on Tuesday, he said.

(PTI)

PM attacks Congress, then reaches out to Oppn for support

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modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today reached out to the opposition, saying he needs their support for ‘improvement’ in his government, even as he attacked the Congress over disruptions in Parliament while skipping the raging issues like JNU and Dalit student’s suicide.

Modi, speaking in the Lok Sabha, used wit and barbs as he responded to the attack by Congress over various initiatives of his government, including ‘Make in India’ and MNREGA.

Slamming the Congress for disrupting Parliament and stalling bills, he said the main opposition party was doing so because of “inferiority complex” of its top leaders. He also invoked the statements made by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and first President Rajendra Prasad by reading out their statements against stalling of legislative business.

He deploredthe ‘tu tu, mai mai’ (blame game) attitude by political parties for “scoring points”, saying the officialdom rejoices over this and nation suffers.

“This government also needs improvement which cannot happen without your help. I am new, you are experienced. I need the benefit of your experience. Governments will come and go. Let us work shoulder to shoulder,” Modi said while replying to a debate on Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address which was approved later.

He said a democratic country like India cannot be left at the mercy of the bureaucracy as he sought to underline the importance of the Legislature, saying even a single MP of any party should be treated like “Prime Minister”.

In his 75-minute speech, Modi, however, did not respond to the specific issues raised by Rahul Gandhi and other opposition leaders, like his visit to Pakistan, blackmoney, JNU and Dalit student Rohith Vemula’s suicide.

(PTI)

 

CM Siddaramaiah hands over the controversial watch to Assembly Speaker

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Siddaramaiah-watch

Bengaluru: Mired in a controversy over a luxury watch gifted to him, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday handed it over to the Speaker amid uproar in the state Assembly, declaring it a state asset.

As the Assembly was rocked by the controversy for the second consecutive day, an angry Siddaramaiah gave the watch and a letter to Speaker Kagodu Thimappa as BJP and JDS members continued to stage a dharna in the well of the House.

Siddaramaiah’s dramatic gesture came when the House reassembled after two adjournments with BJP and JDS persisting with their demand for a discussion on the issue. The Chief Minister said in the letter to the Speaker, who read it out, that he had paid “advance tax” for the watch.

He said the pre-owned “HUBLOT BIG BANG-301-M” wrist watch was presented to him by his Dubai-based NRI friend Dr Girish Chandra Varma in July last at Bengaluru as a personal gift. Siddaramiah also said Varma has no official dealings with Government of Karnataka or its organisations.

Opposition BJP leader Jagadish Shettar dismissed Siddaramaiah’s action as “high drama” and said he was doing so thinking that the controversy would end. A high-level probe by a central agency should be conducted, he said.

The Chief Minister is in the eye of a storm over the diamond-studded watch.

As controversy erupted, he declared last week that the watch, claimed to be worth Rs 70 lakh, would be declared as state asset and handed over to the government. As the Assembly met for the day, BJP members entered the well of the House and demanded that a discussion on the issue be allowed and Speaker should reconsider his decision on not allowing an adjournment motion on the issue.

However, Thimmappa, who rejected BJP’s appeal on Tuesday to allow adjournment motion, stuck to his decision. Following this, BJP continued its protest, stating that affidavit, documents and receipt relating to the watch had to be made public by Verma, who is said to have gifted it.

As both opposition and treasury benches were involved in war of words, the House was adjourned by the Speaker who called the floor leaders for a meeting. When the House reassembled, opposition members again entered the well and demanded a discussion.

Amidst sloganeering and protest by opposition, the Speaker even allowed introduction and passage of Karnataka Legislature Salaries, Pension and Allowances (Second Amendment) Bill, 2015, aimed at making provision to provide family pension to family members of the member deceased before December 26, 1978 operative from February 22, 2014.

As the protest continued, the Speaker once gain adjourned the House till afternoon.

(PTI)

UN warns of hunger crisis in Central African Republic

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WFP says it only has about half of the funds needed to help 2.5 million people who are facing acute food shortages.

Families have been forced to sell their possessions, pull their children out of school and even resort to begging [AP]

Families have been forced to sell their possessions, pull their children out of school and even resort to begging [AP]

by Al Jazeera

At least half of the population or 2.5 million people in the Central African Republic are facing a hunger crisis, in a situation that has become dire, the World Food Programme said.

Bienvenu Djossa, WFP country director in CAR, said on Tuesday that the number of people battling hunger had doubled from 2015 and serious interventions had to be implemented to ensure the crisis did not deteriorate.

“It is serious. The situation is worse than last year,” Djossa said a statement.

“It is crucial that we continue helping the most vulnerable, who need emergency food assistance to survive. This is the time when people need the maximum help possible as it is also the lean season, when people struggle to have enough food to eat before the next harvest.”

Three years of bloodshed and the displacement of nearly one million people from their homes have disrupted harvests and sent food prices soaring in the volatile country.

The WFP’s call for CAR not to be forgotten comes as the UN revealed that overall crop production in 2015 remained 54 percent below the pre-crisis average.

“Some 75 percent of people in CAR depend on agriculture, and with the planting season starting in less than two months, boosting agriculture now is crucial to revitalising the economy and to stability in the country,” FAO Country Representative Jean-Alexandre Scaglia said in a press release on Monday.

The WFP said that families are so short of food that children receiving school meals under the WFP’s emergency programme put part of their serving in a plastic bag to take home.

Families have been forced to sell their possessions, pull their children out of school and even resort to begging.

The country suffered the worst crisis in its history in early 2013 when mainly Muslim Seleka fighters toppled then leader Francois Bozize. Christian militias responded by attacking the Muslim minority.

Killing and looting had almost halved the number of cattle and reduced the number of sheep and goats by almost 60 percent, the UN said. Damage to infrastructure and insecurity had also hit fishing.

An escalation of violence in September helped exacerbate a massive increase in food prices, the agencies said, with the price of beef almost double pre-crisis levels.

WFP said it had only secured about half the $89m it needs until the end of July to respond to the needs of 1.4 million people in CAR and neighbouring countries hosting CAR refugees.

Bishops covered up sex abuse of Pennsylvania children

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Cases of sexual abuse over four-decade period by Roman Catholic priests were covered up by US bishops, jury says.

The report contains explicit details of abuse cases, naming perpetrators, many of whom have since died [File: Max Rossi/Reuters]

The report contains explicit details of abuse cases, naming perpetrators, many of whom have since died [File: Max Rossi/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Hundreds of children in the US state of Pennsylvania have been sexually abused by about 50 Roman Catholic priests over four decades while bishops covered up their actions, a grand jury report said.

Released on Tuesday, the report found that former Altoona-Johnstown Diocese Bishop James Hogan, who died in 2005, and his successor, Joseph Adamec, who retired in 2011, worked to cover paedophile priests’ tracks.

Some local law enforcement agencies also avoided investigating abuse allegations, said state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.

“The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable,” Kane told reporters in unveiling the report, based on a two-year investigation.

“These predators desecrated a sacred trust and preyed upon their victims in the very places where they should have felt most safe.”

Revelations that some priests had habitually sexually abused children and that bishops had systematically covered up those crimes burst onto the world stage in 2002 when the Boston Globe reported widespread abuse in the Boston Archdiocese.

That report, which won a Pulitzer Prize and was the subject of last year’s Academy Award-winning film “Spotlight,” set off a global wave of investigations that found similar patterns at dioceses around the world. They led to hefty lawsuits and seriously undermined the church’s moral authority.

No charges filed

No criminal charges will be filed because the alleged incidents are too old to be prosecuted, Kane said.

Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey, reporting from New York City, said: “Some of the victims… are just too traumatised to testify.”

Advocates for victims of sex assault have long urged lawmakers to give prosecutors more time to bring charges of sex assaults of minors, noting that particularly in the case of assaults by members of the clergy, victims can take years to come forward.

The report contains explicit details of scores of attacks, naming perpetrators, many of whom have since died.

Many of the surviving priests were still serving parishes at the time the investigation began, Kane said, but all have since been removed by the current bishop.

“This is a painful and difficult time,” current Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak said in a statement. “I deeply regret any harm that has come to children.”

“We’re saddened but not the least bit surprised,” said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“It proves what we’ve long maintained: that even now, under the guise of ‘reform,’ bishops continue to deceive parishioners and the public about their ongoing efforts to hide abuse.”

India beat Sri Lanka to enter Asia Cup final

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Virat-srilanka

Mirpur: India rode on fine knocks by Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh to defeat Sri Lanka by five wickets in their Asia Cup Twenty20 cricket match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Tuesday and enter the finals.

Coming in after the early fall of opener Shikhar Dhawan, Kohli anchored the innings with an unbeaten half-century as India overhauled the 139-run target with four balls to spare.

The Delhi lad remained not out on 56, with seven well-timed boundaries studding his 85-ball knock.

Yuvraj produced a power-packed innings, hitting 35 runs off 18 balls with three boundaries and an equal number of sixes.

India, who have won all the three matches they have played so far, thus assured themselves a spot in the final.

The men in blue are at the top of the five-team table with six points and even an unlikely defeat in the final group game against minniows United Arab Emirates will see them through to the summit clash.

Nuwan Kulasekara was the most successful among the Sri Lankan bowlers with figures of 2/21.

The Indian run chase was off to a rocky start with openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma departing early.

But Kohli and Suresh Raina came together to bring the innings back on track. While Kohli was the more aggresive of the two, Raina gave him good support from the other end.

The duo batted patiently, finding the gaps for the occasional boundary to add 54 runs between them.

Raina, who scored 25 runs off 26 balls with two hits to the ropes, was dismissed by Dasun Shanaka when he miscued an attempted big hit. The left-hander was surprised by the extra bounce and offered an easy high catch for Kulasekara at mid-off.

Yuvraj strode in and proceeded to plunder the Lankan bowling with some powerful hits. The veteran left-hander carried India within sniffing distance of the target before a bouncer from Perera carried the top edge to Kulasekara at fine leg.

Hardik Pandya followed Yuvraj back to the pavilion in the next over, but by then India were well on the way to victory.

Fittingly, Kohli hit the winning runs with a boundary off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Earlier, Sri Lanka produced a competitive total of 138/9 in their 20 overs.

For India, promising all-rounder Pandya (2/26), off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (2/26) and young pacer Jasprit Bumrah (2/27) took two wickets each.

Veteran pacer Ashish Nehra (1/22), who bowled an excellent opening spell, also got a wicket.

Chamara Kapugedera (30) was the highest scorer among the Sri Lankan batsmen.

Asked to bat first on a greenish pitch, the Sri Lankan batsmen never really managed to settle down and lost wickets at regular intervals.

Sri Lanka suffered an early setback when opener Dinesh Chandimal was caught behind off Nehra’s bowling while attempting a big hit.

Bumrah piled on the pressure in the next over with a superb delivery which Shehan Jayasuriya edged to Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps.

Dhoni’s decision to bring Pandya into the attack in place of Nehra brought immediate results as the all-rounder got rid of the dangerous Tillakaratne Dilshan with his very first ball.

Angelo Mathews seemed to be in good touch, hitting Pandya for a couple of boundaries. But the right-hander was undone by poor timimg when he got a thick inside edge onto the stumps.

Kapugedera and Milinda Siriwardana (22) tried to steady the innings with a 43-run partnership.

The duo handled the Indian bowling quite well, producing the occassional boundary as the Sri Lankans tried to come back into the game.

But the partnership came to an end when Siriwardana holed out Raina at long-on while trying to hit Ashwin out of the ground.

The Sri Lankans plunged into further trouble when Dasun Shanaka was run out off the last ball of the same over.

Thisara Perera (17) and Kulasekara (13 not out) then came up with a few bit hits in the closing stages of the innings to take their team to a competitive total.

(IANS)

Two JNU videos ‘manipulated’: forensic report

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kanhaiya-kumar-jnu

New Delhi: A Delhi government-ordered forensic probe of a set of video clippings of the controversial JNU event has found that two videos were “manipulated” where voices of persons not present in the clips were added.

Out of seven videos sent by the Delhi government to the Hyderabad-based Truth Labs, two have been found to be tampered with while the rest were authentic, sources said.

“In the manipulated clips, videos have been edited and voices have been added. The main report with a supplementary have been submitted to the Delhi government,” they said.

When asked whether the voices that were added were of persons not seen in the manipulated clips, they said “naturally”.

The Arvind Kejriwal led-government had on February 13 ordered a magisterial inquiry into the alleged raising of anti-national slogans on the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s campus on February 9.

Earlier, a video showing raising of anti-India slogans allegedly by outsiders at the event had given a fresh twist to the case.

In the video, the youths, whose faces were covered, could be seen raising slogans against India.

Several videos of the event have surfaced since the row broke out leading to the arrest of JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition, triggering widespread protests.

A Delhi court on Tuesday sent JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, also arrested in connection with the same case, to 14 days judicial custody.

(Agencies)

‘Fair and Lovely’ scheme launched to convert black money into white: Rahul Gandhi

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Rahul-Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress vice president on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government, saying it launched a “‘Fair and Lovely Yojana’ to convert black money into white money”.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Gandhi said: “Nobody who has black money will be jailed under Modi’s ‘Fair and Lovely’ scheme. All those who have black money can make it white under this scheme.”

Gandhi was participating on the discussion on the motion of thanks to the President on his address to the joint sitting of parliament’s two houses, marking the beginning of the budget session.

He hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi: “Modi ji had promised that he will put people with black money behind bars, now they have come up with way to save those people.”

“I was shocked to see Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launching such scheme.”

He said the prime minister failed to fulfil his poll promise of bringing the black money from foreign countries.

Gandhi also raked up the issue of suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula and said the prime minister neither called up his mother nor did he speak on the issue.

Gandhi slammed the prime minister for his silence over the violence done with students and media persons at a Delhi court.

“Why were you silent, Modi ji, when journalists, teachers and students were beaten,” he said.

On the ongoing Jawaharlal Nehru University row, Gandhi said: “I had heard (JNUSU president) Kanhaiya’s whole speech, not a word in his speech was anti-national.”

He said the government could not “crush the JNU” or the “poor people of the country”.

(Agencies)

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