London/New Delhi, March 20 (Nasheman News) Fourteen months after he fled India, fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi was on Wednesday arrested in London on charges of defrauding on a huge loan taken from the Punjab National Bank (PNB), official sources said.

Police made the arrest seven days after the London Westminster Court issued an arrest warrant against Nirav Modi who left India days before the scam came to light in January 2018. 

He will be produced before a court later in the day.

The Interpol had issued a Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi in July 2018 at the request of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

The businessman’s whereabouts were a mystery as he had been spotted in New York, Hong Kong and other cities. Along with his uncle Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Group, Nirav Modi left the country before the CBI formally started investigating the PNB scam.

The ED had on May 24 and 26 last year filed chargesheets against both men. Non-bailable warrants were also issued against them.

The development came days after the The Telegraph newspaper in Britain claimed that Modi was spotted in London.

Accused in the Rs 13,500 crore PNB fraud case, Nirav Modi was living in a three-bedroom flat, occupying half the floor of the landmark Centre Point tower block, The Telegraph reported. 

The report also claimed Nirav Modi was involved in a new diamond business, run from an office in Soho, just a few hundred yards from his apartment. The new business was incorporated in May 2018, it said.

An extradition request against him had been pending before the UK authorities since September last year.

The ED on February 26 attached Rs 147 crore worth of property of Nirav Modi and his associate companies in connection with the PNB case.

Nasheman News :  The Tamil Nadu Police on Monday lodged Thirunavukkarasu, the main accused in the Pollachi sexual abuse-cum-blackmail case, in a prison here.

The Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CBCID) got his custody on Friday and had interrogated him at an undisclosed location.

Thirunavukkarasu, Sathish, Sabarirajan, Vasanthakumar, all in their 20s, have been accused of sexually assaulting women in Pollachi town and filming the act to blackmail them for money or for physical submission over the past seven years.

Traders in Pollachi, which is in Coimbatore district, are planning a protest shutdown on Tuesday and a rally to demand a court-monitored probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Speaking to media, a trader said the shutdown and rally would see participation of different political parties and social organisations.

A 34-year-old police constable from Vijayapura, a 21-year-old BSc student and her boyfriend have been arrested by Cottonpet police after they filed complaints against each other. The constable has been accused of wrongful confinement and of not paying Rs 1 lakh after receiving sexual favours from the student.

Mahadev Lakshman Jadhav is the arrested police constable. He was caught based on a complaint filed by Roja (name changed), and she and her boyfriend Ramesh (26) have been arrested after the constable accused them of trying to extort money from him.

Police said Mahadev and Roja came in contact last year on a dating application. He had come to the city to meet her on several occasions and they both shared physical relations on the condition that Mahadev pay Rs 1 lakh to Roja. But in the first week of March, Roja’s boyfriend, who introduced himself as Sunil, called Mahadev and demanded to pay up or else they would inform his wife about his affair. 

“Mahadev came to the city on March 8 and took Roja to his constable friend’s house at Police Quarters on Mysuru Road, where they usually met. There was an argument over finances, and Roja shared her location with her boyfriend and informed him that Mahadev had locked her up. Ramesh alerted the police and went to the house. All three were brought to the station. After a preliminary probe, Mahadev was arrested for cheating and wrongful confinement, while Roja and her boyfriend were held for extortion,” the police said.

Nasheman News :  Three more persons, including Telugu film comedian Surya Prasad, were arrested on Thursday in the murder case of Florida-based NRI businessman Chigurupati Jayaram, police said.

Besides Prasad, the police also took Kishore and Anji Reddy into custody.

Deputy Commissioner of Police A.R. Srinivas told reporters that they have almost completed the investigations into the case.

He said the investigations revealed that Jayaram’s niece Shikha Chowdary had no role in the murder.

According to police, main accused Rakesh Reddy had hatched a conspiracy to extort money from Jayaram. Surya Prasad and Kishore brought Jayaram to his house in posh Jubilee Hills and it was here that the businessman was murdered. Anji Reddy reached Rakesh Reddy’s house after the murder but did not inform police.

On allegations that Rakesh Reddy spoke to couple of police officers after the murder, the DCP said they were conducting investigations.

He said while Rakesh Reddy had relations with politicians but there was no evidence of any political involvement in the crime.

The body of Jayaram, 55, who was director of Coastal Bank, was found on the back seat of his car off the national highway near Nandiagama close to Vijayawada on January 31.

Jayaram, also a Managing Director of Express TV, a now defunct Telugu channel, had come to Hyderabad from the US a few days earlier.

The crime was first investigated by the Andhra Pradesh Police, which arrested Rakesh Reddy and his security guard. The case was later transferred to Telangana after it was revealed that Jayaram was murdered at a house in Hyderabad and his body was dumped in Andhra Pradesh.

Jayaram’s wife Padmashri has also demanded a probe against Shikha, who was allegedly in a relationship with Rakesh Reddy.

She had said that after the murder, Shikha barged into their house in Jubilee Hills and that some key documents and valuables were found missing subsequently.

Nasheman News :  At least 40 people were killed when gunmen said to be whites opened indiscriminate fire at two mosques in Christchurch city on Friday in what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.

The shootings took place at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Masjid, The New Zealand Herald reported.

One gunman, believed to be Australian, filmed as he shot victims in the mosque – and wrote a manifesto declaring his intentions, saying that “it is a terrorist attack”, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said.

He said there were also multiple improvised explosive devices attached to vehicles as part of the attack.

“This goes to the seriousness of the situation,” Bush said.

The Bangladesh cricket team now touring New Zealand had a narrow escape as the entire team had gone to one of the mosques near Hagley Park for Friday prayers.

Player Tamim Iqbal tweeted that the “entire team got saved from active shooters”.

Bangladesh Cricket Board spokesman Jalal Yunus said most of the team had gone to the mosque by bus and were about to go inside when the incident took place.

Authorities immediately called off the New Zealand-Bangladesh third Test match that was set to be played in Christchurch.

Prime Minister Ardern confirmed the fatalities and described the killings as “extreme and unprecedented violence”. Police reported that four people — three men and a woman — had been arrested for the killings. 

“We are not aware of other people but we cannot assume there are not others at large,” Bush told the media here.

The government advised people not to go to mosques until further notice. All Christchurch schools were hurriedly shut down.

One man, Robert Weatherhead, told Newstalk that he took in people who escaped from the Al Noor mosque.

He described the gunman as “white, aged in his 30s or 40s and wearing a uniform”, but he could not make out what the uniform was.

Another witness, who was in the front row of devotees when the gunman came in, told The New Zealand Herald that the suspect first shot people outside, adding that he heard the gun being reloaded about three times.

“The gunman began shooting in all directions,” the witness said.

A woman told the Christchurch Star she lay in her car near the mosque as four to five men came running towards her.

KNearly a week after reports emerged of a woman who committed suicide in grief over her mother-in-law’s demise, it has now surfaced that she was pushed off the balcony by her husband- who was enraged over her rejoicing on his mother’s death.

Reportedly, the woman rejoiced when her mother-in-law passed away, which angered her husband so much that he allegedly pushed her off the balcony and passed it off as suicide later.

49-year-old Shubhangi S Lokhande was earlier believed to have taken her life after losing her 70-year-old mother-in-law in a battle to cancer.

But an investigation in the case revealed that her husband Sandeep Lokhande was livid after seeing his wife displaying abject joy over his mother’s demise. According to a news report in media, during an interrogation, he confessed to having killed her.

“After the ailing Malati (70) died Saturday morning, Shubhangi became happy. She couldn’t hide her feelings. Sandeep was enraged by this behaviour of his wife and killed her the same day,” a police official said.

Sandeep Lokhande has been arrested while his two children have been sent to his father’s custody.

Nasheman News : The case of sexual-assault-cum-blackmail of women in Pollachi will have its echo in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, not only in that (Pollachi) constituency but also in the neighbouring seats, said a former AIADMK MP on Wednesday.

“The Pollachi sexual assault case will have its impact not only in the Pollachi Lok Sabha constituency but also in neighbouring seats like Coimbatore, Erode, Nilgiris and Tiruppur,” K.C. Palanisamy told media.

According to him, the people of the area believe in self-respect and “will not go easy on this sordid episode in the polls,” he said. He demanded a court-monitored time-bound probe and trial into the case.

The people of the area may display their anger at the polls as the sordid episode has taken place when the state is headed by E. Palaniswami who belongs to that community, Palanisamy said.

Referring to the expulsion of a local party official A. Nagaraj, Palanisamy said the ruling party should investigate on whose recommendation did he get the party post.

The Crime Branch-Crime Investigation Department (CBCID) has launched a probe into the case. There will be an impartial probe and the culprit will be brought to book, said a CBCID senior official.

Speaking to reporters in Pollachi, a town in Coimbatore district and about 535 km from here, a senior CBCID official said a special probe team has been formed and has started investigations.

He said documents and other items related to the case have been collected from the police. “The number of people involved in the crime will be known only after the probe,” he said.

Tamil Nadu Director General of Police T.K. Rajendran had ordered transfer of the case to the CBCID on Tuesday.

The four accused — Thirunavukkarasu, Sabarirajan, Vasanthakumar, Satish — have been arrested in connection with the case.

The National Commission for Women has asked the Tamil Nadu police for the action taken in the sexual assault case.

In Pollachi, college students staged a protest, demanding action against the culprits involved in the sexual-assault-cum-blackmail scandal.

Similarly, college students in Thiruvannamalai, Thoothukudi and Villupuram also staged protests against the sexual assault and demanding action against the culprit.

A mob damaged the bar run by expelled Nagaraj in Pollachi.

Nagaraj was arrested and let out on bail after he and three others attacked the brother of the girl who had lodged the police complaint against sexual assault.

A 36-year-old man, who was detained near the International Border on suspicion of spying for Pakistan, has been arrested, officials said here Tuesday.

Nawab Khan, a resident of Sam area near the India-Pakistan border in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district, was detained on Sunday, an official said.

Khan was involved in espionage activities and was working as a jeep driver, Additional Director General of Intelligence Umesh Mishra said.

Khan used to share information to his handlers based in Pakistan through WhatsApp in code language in lieu of money, Mishra said.

Khan visited Pakistan last year where he came in touch with an agent of that country’s intelligence agency ISI. The ISI agent trained him and gave him tasks of collecting and sharing information related to Army movement, the officer said.

He was arrested after being interrogated by a joint team of security agencies.

Nasheman News : India’s securing of extradition of liquor baron Vijay Mallya offers “a template” for a similar outcome in the Nirav Modi case, a renowned London legal firm specialising in extradition cases said on Tuesday.

“Further to the Vijay Mallya case, India now has a template to refer to when dealing with the extradition procedure of Nirav Modi from the UK. The good news is that the UK’s Home Secretary Sajid Javid, has already set things in motion, by agreeing to the extradition request,” Sarosh Zaiwalla, Founder and Senior Partner at Zaiwalla & Co. LLP, said in a statement.

Zaiwalla, a prominent lawyer of Indian descent, however, noted that the process could be delayed if the absconding diamantaire, who along with his uncle Mehul Choksi, fled India after defrauding the state-run Punjab National Bank of Rs 13,000 crore, has applied for asylum in Britain.

In this case, the extradition proceedings are not likely to begin until the asylum application has been rejected, he said.

Zaiwalla suggested that the Indian government’s next step should be to “make a formal written representation to the relevant asylum department at Home Office setting out the grounds why Nirav Modi should not be granted asylum” as he faces allegation of fraud in India.

The next steps after Nirav Modi’s asylum application is rejected will echo the Vijay Mallya case proceedings – starting from being directed to Westminster Magistrate, taken into provisional custody, applying for bail, and then the court will hear his plea, he said. 

Once the court rules for his extradition, the Home Secretary will be expected to once again sign the order for compliance.

“At this stage, the case looks straight forward,” Zaiwalla said, but cautioned that complications can only arise if Nirav Modi has acquired any European or other international citizenship. 

“In such cases, there might be a long battle ahead, subject to various international and extraterritorial legalities involved.” 

On Nirav Modi now reportedly operating another diamond business from Soho in Central London, he said that this would imply the diamantaire had secured a National Insurance Number – a form of tax reference for operating a business/working in the UK.

Noting that this comes as there is an Interpol red notice – to locate and provisionally arrest an individual pending extradition – against him, Zaiwalla said that such notice is not an international arrest warrant, “but merely a provisional request to detain an individual” which is purely optional for the country concerned. 

Nasheman News :  After killing his son and a daughter, a man apparently burdened by poverty committed suicide here on Monday night, police said on Tuesday.

The tragedy occurred in Noor Nagar area in Ghaziabad whose resident Sundar Pal (42) ran a ‘dhaba’ at Manali in Himachal Pradesh. 

He had returned to live with his father, a retired gardner from the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation, as the roadside eatery was not giving him profits. 

On Monday night, his wife Sashi and their son Naman went to sleep in a first floor bedroom. Sundar Pal and his other two children, Tushar (15) and daughter Mahi (12), remained in the ground floor room. 

Post midnight, when his father Bhagwan Singh came out to use the toilet, he saw Sundar Pal hanging from the ceiling fan of his bedroom. The two children lay dead on the bed. 

The police found a 15-page note in which he mentioned how he had suffered loss in business and how he had tried to compensate the loss by driving cabs. 

“It seems he administered some poison in the ice cream he gave to Tushar and Mahi. And after that he committed suicide by hanging,” said Inspector Sanjay Pandey of Sihani Gate police station.