BJP MLA Nitesh Rane

Mumbai: BJP MLA Nitesh Rane on Wednesday surrendered before a court in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra in an alleged attempt to murder case and was remanded in police custody till February 4, his lawyers said.

Nitesh, son of Union minister Narayan Rane, had withdrawn his bail plea from the Bombay High Court earlier in the day. He subsequently surrendered before the Sindhudurg court, said special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat. The prosecution then sought his police remand.

District and additional sessions judge (Sindhudurg) R B Rote had on Tuesday rejected Rane’s bail application, saying it was “premature and not maintainable”.

The court had also held that custodial interrogation of Nitesh Rane was necessary as probe into the attempt to murder case was “incomplete.” The case pertains to an alleged attack on Shiv Sena activist Santosh Parab during the campaigning for the Sindhudurg District Co-operative Bank elections.

The BJP MLA had claimed that he was being targeted by the ruling Shiv Sena (which heads the MVA coalition government in Maharashtra) as it felt slighted by an incident of mocking outside the state legislature complex here last December.

It was political vendetta, he had alleged.

A Shiv Sena MLA had alleged that Nitesh Rane made ‘meow meow’ sound to mock minister and Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray on December 23 during the winter session.

Nitesh’s father Narayan Rane, a former Shiv Sena leader, is a bitter critic of his former party and its leader, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray. Earlier on Wednesday, the BJP MLA’s lawyer Satish Maneshinde told Justice C V Bhadang of the high court that he would like to withdraw the application seeking bail.

“The applicant intends to surrender and wants to join the investigation. This is despite the fact that the applicant still has five more days of protection from arrest granted to him by the Supreme Court on January 27, Maneshinde said. Justice Bhadang then allowed the withdrawal.

Nitesh Rane’s pre-arrest bail pleas had been rejected by both the lower court and the HC earlier.

The MLA then approached the supreme court, which on January 27 asked Maharashtra Police not to arrest him for ten days, and directed him to appear before the court in Sindhudurg and seek regular bail.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said he has postponed his scheduled trip to New Delhi for February 7, on the request of Members of Parliament from the state.

The Chief Minister had earlier planned to leave for Delhi tomorrow morning.

“I had planned to go to Delhi tomorrow, for a meeting with Members of Parliament from the state there, but on the request of all our MPs I will go to Delhi on Monday,” Bommai told reporters here.

Earlier in the day, he had said that he is likely to travel to Delhi tomorrow morning for a meeting with MPs from the state during the ongoing Parliament’s budget session, and for a meeting with lawyers representing Karnataka regarding inter state water disputes.

Responding to a question on possible discussion with the BJP high command regarding expansion or reshuffle of his cabinet, during the Delhi visit, he said, “I don’t want to have any open discussion on this matter.”

There is pressure mounting on the CM to expand or rejig his cabinet soon, amid talks in party circles that the exercise is likely, only after the Assembly elections in five states.

Citing assembly polls in the state in 2023, several legislators including Basanagouda Patil Yatnal and M P Renukacharya have openly said that if cabinet exercise is delayed and carried out after election in five states, it will be too late for new ministers to make any mark, even in their own constituencies.

Recently some legislators have even been advocating Gujarat-like overhaul of the Karnataka Cabinet soon, to make way for new faces.

In September, the BJP completely overhauled the Gujarat’s Council of Ministers by selecting new faces for the Bhupendra Patel government, with no Minister from the previous Vijay Rupani-led Ministry being inducted.

Bommai had repeatedly stated that he is waiting for the BJP leadership’s consent on going ahead with the cabinet exercise.

There are currently 30 Ministers in the State Cabinet, including the Chief Minister, against the sanctioned strength of 34.

Noting that the union budget presented on Tuesday has separate documents that will have department and state wise allocation details, among others, the CM, in response to a query, said a detailed study will give a clear picture on allocations for old and new schemes, and about grant in aid for the state from the Centre and regarding loans.

“Based on all this we will decide on our (state) budget….after February 7, I will have pre budget consultative meetings with various departments. After gathering their opinion I will take budget related decisions,” he said.

Bommai, who also holds the finance portfolio, is likely to present the state budget, his first, in the first week of March.

Kundapur: Marking their protests against Muslim students wearing Hijab to the college, several students at Government Junior College Kundapur, turned up wearing saffron scarfs around on Wednesday, triggering controversy.

Taking note of the incident, Kundapur MLA Haladi Srinivas Shetty arrived at the college and held a meeting with the parents of Muslim students.

The parents reportedly told the MLA that it is their right to wear Hijab and it was not right to interfere in their religious matters. “Our students are not wearing Burkha but are only wearing Hijab. It is not good to bring religion among the students in the educational institution,” they said.

“If you don’t want our students to wear Hijab in the college, let the Principal give written instructions for the same, and then we will decide whether to send our students to the college or not,” they added.

The MLA stated that they will initiate action against those wearing Hijab and Saffron scarfs to the college, but the meeting ended without any conclusive decision being taken.

Mohammed Anas

Mangaluru: Miscreants on late Tuesday night assaulted a 29-year-old man in Katipalla. Injuring him critically. The victim was later shifted to a hospital in the city in critical condition.

The victim has been identified as Mohammed Anas (29).

According to the reports, the dispute between the victim and the assaulters was about the eviction of a rented house. Anas was reportedly with his friends, outside his house when the assaulters came with weapons and attacked Anas, critically injuring him.

A case in this regard has been registered against the assaulters identified as Ravoof, Mustafa at Surathkal Police Station.

Dubai: New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell is the recipient of the ICC ‘Spirit of Cricket’ award for 2021 due to his sportsmanlike gesture in the T20 World Cup semi-final against England in Abu Dhabi.

Mitchell won the award for refusing to take what was an easy single after coming in the way of bowler Adil Rashid in the high-pressure World Cup semi-final against England in Abu Dhabi on November 10 last year.

Mitchell is the fourth New Zealand player to win the award, following the footsteps of Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson.

“It’s an honour to receive the ICC Spirit of Cricket Award,” Mitchell said.

“To be part of that T20 World Cup in UAE was an amazing experience, and to receive an award like this is pretty cool.

“It’s something that we pride ourselves on as New Zealanders, the way we go about playing our cricket, and yes, the Spirit of Cricket side.

“Personally, I felt I got in the way and we wanted to win on our own terms, and didn’t want to be controversial in such a big game. It paid off in the long run that we won the game. Looking back, it all happened pretty quickly.”

The incident occurred on the first ball of the 18th over bowled by Adil Rashid, with the score at 133/4 and James Neesham on strike.

Neesham smashed the ball down the ground and it would have been an easy single. But Mitchell, at the non-striker’s end, refused to take the run, conceding that he had impeded Rashid in a high-pressure chase, with a place in the World Cup final at stake.

Nasser Hussain, who was live on commentary during the contest, was full of praise for Mitchell saying, “That is very good. That is so New Zealand, it really is. So easy to take a run there. But the non-strike said, ‘No, I’ve got in the way of Adil.’ Anything sums up New Zealand cricket it was that.”

Mitchell, explaining why he refused to take the single, added: “It was a pretty tight game against England in that semi-final, with only a few overs to go. Neesh (Jimmy Neesham) hit a single down to long-off I think it was, and I felt like I’d obstructed Rashid from getting to the ball.

“The game that we play, we play it because we love it. Yes, we want to win as much as we can, but we don’t want that to come about from doing things that go against the values of cricket. Spirit of Cricket is vitally important. It sets a platform for kids in the future, who will go about playing the game in the right way.

“At the end of the day, it is a game, it’s something that we love. So obviously we’re so lucky to do that.”

Mitchell who opened the batting proved to be the match-winner, playing a memorable knock of 72 not out in only 47 deliveries, while also hitting the winning runs.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the digital rupee, proposed in the union budget, could be exchanged for cash and will open new opportunities in the fintech sector.

Addressing the ‘Atmanirbha Arthavyavastha’ (self-reliant economy) symposium organised by the BJP, he said the central bank digital currency or the digital rupee will make online payments more secure and risk free and boost digital economy in the years to come.

“The digital rupee will be the digital form of our physical rupee and will regulated by the RBI. This will be such a system that will enable exchange of physical currency with digital currency,” Modi said at the virtual symposium that was attended by chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and party workers across the country.

“Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will strengthen the digital economy… If anyone makes a payment in digital currency, you will be able to change it to cash,” he said.

Modi said the launch of CBDC will make digital payments and online transfer of funds more secure and risk free.

“This will also lead to ease in development of global digital payment systems,” he said.

He said the digital rupee will revolutionise the fintech sector by creating new opportunities and lessen the burden in handling, printing, logistics management of cash.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that India will launch a ‘digital rupee’ in 2022-23 using blockchain and other technologies.

Sameer Wankhede

Thane: The Thane district collector has cancelled the licence granted to a Navi Mumbai-based hotel and bar owned by former NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede, officials said on Wednesday.

The licence was obtained by misrepresentation and fraud, Collector Rajesh Narvekar said in an order on Tuesday.

A senior Excise official told PTI that his department will now seal the bar and seize the stock.

Maharashtra cabinet minister Nawab Malik had in November last year claimed that Wankhede owned a permit room and bar at Vashi in Navi Mumbai, the licence for which was obtained in 1997 when he was a minor, and that this was illegal.

Malik had also said that despite being in a government job, Wankhede held a licence to operate the permit room which was against service rules. Wankhede had then denied the minister’s claims.

The state Excise department had subsequently issued a notice to Wankhede in connection with the bar licence obtained by him.

Following his response and examination of the matter, the district collector concluded that Wankhede had obtained the licence on October 27,1997, when he was less than 18 years old, as against the permissible age of 21, an official said.

Section 54 of the Prohibition Act has been invoked for the cancellation of the licence, as per the order.

Malik had levelled a series of allegations against Wankhede, after the latter led a raid on a cruise ship in October last year and claimed to have seized drugs onboard. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and some others were accused in the drugs-on-cruise case.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional bahi-khata style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present the Union Budget 2022-23 in a paperless format just like the last year.

She posed for the traditional ‘briefcase’ picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.

“#AatmanirbharBharatKaBudget | From ‘Bahi Khata’ to Made in India’ Tablet Finance Minister @nsitharaman carrying the Budget in the #paperless format in a tablet kept inside a red cover with National Emblem embossed on it instead of the briefcase or ‘Bahi Khata’,” Digital India tweeted.

With tablet carefully kept inside a red coloured cover with a golden coloured national emblem embossed on it instead of the briefcase, she went straight to Parliament after meeting the President at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Sitharaman, India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget Briefcase for the traditional Bahi-Khata to carry Union Budget Papers. She used the same in the following year, and in a pandemic-hit 2021, she swapped traditional papers with a digital tablet for carrying her speech as well as other Budget documents.

Her Budget for the fiscal year beginning April 2022 (FY2022-23) is the Modi government’s 10th straight Budget since 2014 (including one interim Budget presented ahead of general elections in 2019).

She was appointed as the Finance Minister when Narendra Modi swept to power again in the 2019 election and presented her maiden Budget on July 5, 2019. She used a red-cloth folder enclosed with a string and emblazoned with the national emblem to carry the Budget documents.

Earlier, finance ministers in different governments, including her predecessors in the Modi government – Arun Jaitley and Piyush Goyal, used the standard Budget briefcase.

Before Sitharaman, a long-standing colonial tradition in connection with the Budget presentation was broken during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government when the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented the Budget at 11 am rather than at the traditional time of 5 pm.

Since then, all the governments have been presenting the Budget at 11 am.

The tradition of carrying the Budget briefcase was a British legacy. The word ‘Budget’ originated from the French word ‘bougette’, which means leather briefcase.

The “budget case” tradition started in the 18th century when the Chancellor of the Exchequer or Britain’s budget chief was asked to ‘open the budget’ while presenting his annual statement.

In 1860, the then British budget chief William E Gladstone carried his papers in a red suitcase with the Queen’s monogram in gold. Budget briefcase came into being because Gladstone’s speeches were extraordinarily long, and he needed a briefcase to carry his speech papers.

However, in India, different finance ministers carried different briefcases with colours of red, black, tan or brown.

India’s first finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio to present the first Budget in 1947. TT Krishnamachari in the 1950s carried something that looked like a file bag. Jawaharlal Nehru carried a black briefcase.

As the finance minister, Manmohan Singh, who delivered the iconic 1991 economic liberalisation proposals, carried a black bag. Pranab Mukherjee, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s finance minister, used a red briefcase similar to the Gladstone case of Britain.

Piyush Goyal, who presented the interim Budget in February 2019, was the last finance minister to have carried a briefcase. He carried a red one to Parliament.

On Budget day, the Finance Minister of India poses with the Budget bag outside Parliament. In Britain, the Chancellor of the Exchequer poses with his suitcase in front of 11 Downing Street before the Budget speech.

Soon after presenting her maiden Budget in 2019, Sitharaman had said that Bahi-Khata was a break from the colonial legacy.

“Why did I not use a leather bag to carry budget documents? I thought it is high time we move on from the British hangover, to do something on our own. And well, easier for me to carry too,” she had said.

One of her predecessors, P Chidambaram of the Congress, had however scoffed at her choice in that year. “A Congress finance minister in future will bring an iPad,” the former Finance Minister had said when asked to comment on the Bahi Khata.

And Sitharaman did just that in 2021 and again this year.

New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate officer Rajeshwar Singh has been granted voluntary retirement from service (VRS) by the Union government. He is expected to join the BJP and contest the upcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

Singh, who was serving as the joint director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Lucknow so far, tweeted to announce that he was ‘hanging up his boots’.

Today my request for voluntary retirement (VRS) from the service of Government of India has been approved. The caravan of 24 years of tireless and conscientious hard work, carried out in a relentless manner, has reached a point of transition today, he stated in a letter attached with the Twitter post on Monday night.

The officer began his civil service career with the Uttar Pradesh Police, where he served for about 10 years while the rest were in the ED, a federal probe agency that investigates money laundering and foreign exchange violation crimes.

As my professional journey of 24 years turns to a transition today, on this occasion, I express my deep seated gratitude to the Hon PM Shri @narendramodi ji, Hon HM Shri @AmitShah ji and FM Smt @nsitharaman ji, CM Shri @myogiadityanath ji, Shri S K Mishra, Director ED and Uttar Pradesh Police. I have learned a lot while working with these organizations for so many years.

I join the PM’s mission to make India a Vishwa Guru, as a participant, to contribute with conviction and integrity in this process of nation-building, he said.

The officer had applied for VRS late last year.

Sources said he may contest the Uttar Pradesh polls on a BJP ticket. A B.Tech and PhD in police, human rights and social justice, Singh joined the ED in 2007 on deputation.

He was permanently absorbed into the ED cadre in 2014 and has headed some high-profile investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation case, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the money laundering cases against former Union finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, the Aircel Maxis and VVIP choppers case.

Assets worth about Rs 4,000 crore were attached in his probes.

I am deeply satisfied that despite various threats and pressure tactics from unscrupulously corrupt leaders, my courage to do my job without bowing down has been appreciated time and again by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, he stated.

The officer has had a share of controversies, including an instance in June 2018, when the Finance Ministry submitted a secret report to the Supreme Court, apparently carrying details of a phone call received by the officer from Dubai.

The report is said to have been prepared by country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing and handed over to the Department of Revenue in the Finance Ministry, under which the ED functions.

The then ED director Karnal Singh had issued a press statement saying the overseas call received by Rajeshwar Singh pertained to an ongoing investigation and that he was a responsible officer with outstanding career records.

The government had also launched an investigation against Rajeshwar Singh for his letter in which he had made a scathing attack on the then revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia questioning him if the latter had developed animosity against him by siding with scamsters and their affiliates ?

Rajeshwar Singh was subsequently issued a notice seeking an explanation for alleged insubordination in the context of this letter by the revenue department, to which he has replied with a regret and had explained his side of the story.

That letter, sources had said, was sent through official channels to the agency’s chief Karnal Singh but it was never forwarded to Adhia.

Accusations of certain other alleged irregularities made against Singh were probed by the ED, the CBI and the Central Vigilance Commission, and a report was sent to the court and the government stating that there was no merit in the allegations and hence the inquiry was closed.

Singh, who carried out numerous encounters during his stint in the uniform, is married to IPS officer Laxmi Singh, who is currently serving as the Inspector General of Lucknow police range.