Nasheman News :  Businessman Robert Vadra deposed before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here for the second consecutive day on Wednesday in connection with a money laundering case involving Bikaner land deal cases.

He appeared at the ED office around 10.40 a.m and was interrogated until around 8.30 pm, after which he left for Delhi.

A total of four ED officials grilled Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law, said an agency official. 

However, his mother Maureen, who was interrogated on Tuesday, was not questioned on Wednesday. She was interrogated for nearly two hours and had to face around 10 questions.

They were questioned for over eight hours on Tuesday under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 

According to an ED source, on Tuesday, Vadra was given a set of questions about how he knew Mahesh Nagar, an authorised representative of Skylight Hospitality LLP, owned by Robert Vadra and his 75-year-old mother. 

Nagar is the person who links Vadra’s company with Ashok Kumar, who was named in the chargesheet filed by the Rajasthan Police in the case.

In December 2017, the ED had arrested Ashok Kumar, a close associate of Nagar, and another person, Jaiprakash Bagarwa. The ED had searched the premises of both Kumar and Nagar in April 2017.

According to ED officials, Nagar was the authorised representative in four cases of land purchase in Bikaner.

Kumar, the agency alleged, had purchased land in the same area, using the “power of attorney” of others.

The source disclosed that Vadra was also asked about the business and transactions of his company. He was also questioned about how much lands he bought, and whether he took loans to buy the land in Bikaner. 

The ED officials also asked Vadra if he knew about the involvement of Kumar in the case and when Nagar informed him about the forgery of documents to buy those lands. 

The ED has been probing the alleged irregularities in the purchase of land in Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner in Rajasthan, which was meant for those displaced due to Army’s field firing range.

According to the ED officials, Skylight Hospitality had purchased 69.55 hectares of land for Rs 72 lakh and then sold it to Allegeny Finlease for Rs 5.15 crore, thus making a profit of Rs 4.43 crore.

The agency registered a criminal case under the Money Laundering Act in 2015, taking cognizance of the case filed by the Rajasthan Police after forgery allegations.

The agency had earlier issued notices to Skylight Hospitality but had not mentioned Robert Vadra’s name or any company linked to him in its FIR.

According to the ED, during investigation it had surfaced that Allegeny Finlease as a company was “not involved” in any “real business activities” and many of its shareholders were found to be dummy or non-existent.

The government had cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land after allotments were found to have been allegedly made in the names of “illegal private persons”.

Revenue officials had said in the complaint that government land in 34 villages of Bikaner, which was meant to be used for expanding the Army’s firing range, was “grabbed” by the land mafia by preparing “forged and fabricated documents” in connivance with government officials.

The ED suspects that a huge amount of money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheaper rates through forged documents.

Nasheman News :  DMK President M.K. Stalin on Thursday said the Modi government was converting Governors as BJP General Secretaries and extended his support to Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy who is protesting outside Lt Governor Kiran Bedi’s residence.

In a tweet, Stalin said: “Lt Governor being the reason for the abnormal political situation in Puducherry is unconstitutional.

“This is an example of the BJP government converting Governors as their party General Secretaries. Once again, the question about the need for the Governor post arises.”

The protest by Narayanasamy and his five ministers outside Bedi’s official residence entered a second day on Thursday.

Narayanasamy began his protest on Wednesday, wearing a black shirt and black dhoti. He was protesting against Bedi for not permitting implementation of his government’s welfare schemes.

He was joined by his ministerial colleagues and DMK MLAs.

Narayanasamy accused Bedi, a former police officer, of interfering in the day-to-day activities of the Puducherry government.

Nasheman News : Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar adjourned the House till 3 p.m. on Thursday amid protests by BJP legislators against the attack on its MLA’s residence in Hassan.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators walked towards the Speaker’s podium and raised slogans against the attack on Preetham Gowda’s residence by Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) workers in Hassan, about 180km from here.

JD-S workers had attacked Gowda’s house by pelting stones on Wednesday after he allegedly bad-mouthed its supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, who represents the district in Lok Sabha.

Hassan is Gowda clan’s home constituency.

BJP’s state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa urged the Speaker for a thorough probe into the incident.

“We have submitted a letter to Governor Vajubhai Vala on the stone pelting issue. Our legislator (Preetham Gowda) and his family were threatened by the JD-S workers,” Yeddyurappa told the media earlier in the day.

Anti-government protests by the BJP have marred the state Budget Session, which began on February 6

Nasheman News : Three women, all sisters, were burnt alive in a fire in their house in the walled city area here on Wednesday evening, police said.

Police is investigating the cause of the mysterious fire that charred the three sisters to death in Gali Mochian area near Hakima gate of the congested old city.

The victims were identified as Indu, 45, and her younger sisters Vandna and Preeti.

While Indu was married and living in Amritsar, her sisters were unmarried and had shifted with her recently from Delhi.

Amritsar’s Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police J.S. Walia told media that the incident was being investigated for all three angles – accident, suicide or murder.

Forensic experts were called to collect samples from the spot.

Foul play has also not been ruled out. The house was found locked from inside.

Local residents said that that the fire brigade and police took time to reach the spot and the fire had spread by that time.

Four ‘rebel’ Congress legislators, who defied the party whip to absent themselves from the budget session since February 6, came to the assembly on Wednesday and were seen sitting on the treasury benches.

“All our four legislators — Ramesh Jarkiholi, Umesh Jadhav, B Nagendra and Mahesh Kumatalli – returned to Bengaluru on Tuesday night and attended the session today (Wednesday), sitting along with our party members,” a Congress leader told media.

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah had on Monday petitioned Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar to disqualify the four under the anti-defection law for skipping the session for five days since February 6 in defiance of the whip and two notices served on January 18 and February 8.

“The legislators’ return is timely, as the assembly is set to debate the budget (presented on February 8) and vote for passing it,” said the Congress leader.

Denying that they were in touch with BJP to join the party, the legislators said they would not resign from the assembly or the party.

“As I had written to Siddaramaiah in response to his February 8 notice. I could not attend the session since February 6 as I was indisposed and in hospital,” said Kumatalli.

Chincholi legislator Jadav told reporters outside the assembly building that he could not come to Bengaluru for the session till Tuesday as he was pre-occupied with constituency work.

Though the rebels responded to the notice Siddaramaiah served on them for skipping the session till Tuesday, the latter earlier said the unanimous opinion of the CLP was for legal action against them under the anti-detection law, as sufficient opportunity was given to them to fall in line.

In the 225-member Assembly, including one nominated from the Anglo-India community, the Congress has 80, including the Speaker, the Janata Dal-Secular 37, the BJP 104 and remaining are an Independent and one each from the Bahujan Samaj Party and regional outfit KPJP.

Nasheman News : Priyanka Gandhi, Congress General Secretary, who is close to achieve two lakh followers on Twitter in two days, has been targeted through body shaming on the Facebook by proclaimed BJP supporters. She logged in to Twitter on Monday.

K. S. Bedi, ex-President of advertising agency Rediffusion DY&R, just one of them, has posted in the past 24 hours several pictures of Priyanka Gandhi with captions that highlight her body weight.

Sample this: Three cheers! One for each chin. Prosperity shrieks.

Many users liked the post and made remarks on similar lines.

“Will someone please tell Indira Gandhi (read Priyanka Gandhi) that not all the unaccounted money needs to be spent on food and drink,” reads another of his posts. 

One user called her “P. (Pee) Gandhi Vadera”.

Bedi even justified his fat-shamming posts when some users objected to his way of fighting the Congress, ahead of the general election.

“Have yet to encounter anyone who has either not poked fun at the obesity of Amit Shah and Irani (Smriti Irani) or liked a post doing that,” reads another post.

“What happens to genteel India when someone makes similar comments on the three chins of the current Indira Gandhi! Han han wohi who pays 31K as rent for a government bunglow worth a rental of 5 lacs. Yes, yes, the one whose husband is one of India’s richest landlords,” it added.