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Found Rs.2.4 lakh from Kejriwal’s secretary’s house: CBI

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cbi

New Delhi: The CBI said on Tuesday that it raided 14 locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and found Rs.2.4 lakh from the house of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s secretary.

A CBI spokesman said documents related to three immovable properties along with the cash were recovered from secretary Rajendra Kumar’s residence.

Kejriwal said earlier that the CBI had raided his office and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “coward”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation also said that Kumar was not cooperating with it in opening his email accounts.

The CBI said another Rs.10.5 lakh had been recovered from G.K. Nanda, who it said was a co-accused with Kumar in a case of corruption.

Nanda is the general manager of Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL).

(Agencies)

Modi is coward and psychopath, says Kejriwal after CBI raids his office

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arvind-kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today claimed the CBI has raided his office in central Delhi and launched a no holds barred attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was resorting to “cowardice”.

The Chief Minister, who is involved in a prolonged tussle with the Centre, accused the Modi government of resorting to vendetta politics and came down heavily on the agency for the raids at Players Building.

“CBI raids my office,” Kejriwal tweeted.

CBI raids my office

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015

“When Modi cudn’t handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice. Modi is a coward and psychopath,” he said in another tweet expressing his anguish over the raids.

When Modi cudn’t handle me politically, he resorts to this cowardice

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) December 15, 2015

CBI Spokesperson said the searches were being conducted at the office of the Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and that details would be shared later.

Sources said that a team of CBI officials went to the Delhi Secretariat, which houses office of Kejriwal and other ministers in the morning and conducted the search in the third floor of the building.

They said the search may be in connection with the multi-crore CNG fitness scam.

Sources said that there were allegations that Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary was linked to the scam but the senior IAS officer as well as AAP government have been rejecting the charges.

The third floor of the secretariat also houses Kejriwal’s offce.

The AAP government has been locked in a running feud with the Centre over the control of important functions like law and order, police and land.

(Agencies)

CBI raids Vijay Mallya’s residence in Rs 900 cr loan default case

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Vijay Mallya

New Delhi: CBI today carried out searches at residential and official premises of liquor baron Vijay Mallya and his now-defunct company Kingfisher Airlines in five places in connection with alleged default of over Rs 900 crore loan from IDBI Bank.

CBI sources said searches were carried out at the offices and residence of Mallya in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and other places. They said a case was registered by the agency against Mallya, Director of defunct Kingfisher Airlines; the company; A Raghunathan, Chief Financial Officer of the Airlines; and unknown officials of IDBI Bank.

It is alleged that the loan was sanctioned in violation of norms regarding credit limits. No immediate reaction was available from the company.

The CBI sources said an FIR into the alleged violations was registered recently as part of its wide probe into criminal aspects of loans declared to be non-performing assets by public sector banks.

The sources said there was no need for the bank to take the exposure outside the consortium. Mallya would soon be called for examination in connection with the case.

“It was first exposure to the bank. There was no need for the bank to take the exposure outside the consortium when already other loans were getting stressed,” a senior CBI official, probing the matter, had earlier said.

The bank will have to explain reasons for extending the loan to the airlines, ignoring its own internal report which has warned against such a move. The debt-laden airlines stopped operations in October 2012.

The CBI sources said the agency has registered a total of 27 inquiries and cases with regards to “bad loans” given by public sector banks to various corporates in 2013.

The consortium of 17 banks had an outstanding of over Rs 7,000 crore on loans from Kingfisher with State Bank of India having the highest exposure of Rs 1,600 crore.

The then CBI Director Ranjit Sinha had said bulk of non-performing assets were connected to 30 defaulter accounts.

(PTI)

NRHM scam: CBI questions Mayawati

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mayawati

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday, questioned former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati here, in connection with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.

Sources said a team of CBI sleuths questioned Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati for over two hours at her residence in Central Delhi in connection with embezzlement of funds in implementation of the health mission. Mayawati was at the helm of affairs in Uttar Pradesh from 2007 to 2012 when the scam occurred.

“Mayawati was questioned here in connection with the NRHM scam of about Rs.10,000 crore,” said sources, adding that the agency had summoned Mayawati last month.

“Mayawati was asked to clarify the funding of some projects under NRHM in which some top officials, including the then Principal Secretary, Health, Pradeep Shukla has been charged by the agency,” sources said.

Many politicians, government officials and private people were involved in the scam. Babu Singh Kushwaha, a former Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister during the BSP rule, was arrested on March 3, 2012 and is still languishing in jail.

Kushwaha recently moved the apex court seeking bail but his plea was dismissed on February 13, with the court saying the allegations against him were very serious and it was a “good case for dismissal”.

The agency had filed 74 cases related to the scam and has filed chargesheets in 48 cases.

As many as six people had died or were allegedly murdered in an attempt to cover up the large-scale irregularities in the case.

The issue of financial irregularities in NRHM funds came to light when the murders of two chief medical officers of family welfare — V. K. Arya in 2010 and B.P. Singh in 2011 – surfaced and deputy chief medical officer Y.S. Sachan was found dead under mysterious circumstances in the district jail of Lucknow.

The NRHM funds, to the tune of about Rs.10,000 crore, were allocated to Uttar Pradesh for 2005 to 2011 by the union health ministry. The funds were spent through 72 chief medical officers in Uttar Pradesh and other nodal offices across the state under the various schemes approved by the central government involving a large number of beneficiaries.

A number of these works have been executed through several state PSUs and a large number of contractors and firms.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court in 2011 directed the CBI to probe the murder of Sachan and investigate the irregularities in implementation of the NRHM.

A Special Investigation Team comprising 26 investigating officers including five superintendents of police under the overall supervision of additional director, joint director and two DIGs are probing the scam.

The investigation team is also assisted by experts from banking, accountancy, engineering works and computer forensics and officers dealing with the NRHM scheme in the union health ministry.

(IANS)

No evidence against Manmohan Singh in coal case: CBI

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manmohan singh

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday told a special court that there is no prima facie evidence against former prime minister Manmohan Singh in coal block allocation case allegedly involving Jindal group firms.

Special Public Prosecutor R. S. Cheema told Special Judge Bharat Parashar that there is no prima facie evidence against Manmohan Singh to name him as an accused in allocation of Jharkhand’s Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block to Jindal Steel and Gagan Sponge.

Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda had filed a plea last month seeking summoning of Manmohan Singh in the case but the CBI opposed it saying that the application was filed to delay the trial.

The court set October 16 for delivering its order on Koda’s plea.

Koda, in his plea, said: “Materials placed by the CBI shows the said conspiracy, if any, cannot be complete without the involvement of the (then) coal minister (Manmohan Singh) who had the final say in the entire allotment.”

He also sought summoning of the then energy secretary Anand Swaroop and the then mines secretary Jai Shankar Tiwari, saying they were part of the three-member sub-group formed by the Jharkhand government to evaluate the pleas of firms and suggest suitable application for recommendation by the state.

Apart from Koda, Congress leader Naveen Jindal, former union minister of state for coal Dasari Narayan Rao, former coal secretary H.C. Gupta and others have been named as accused in the case.

They have been charge-sheeted for criminal conspiracy and cheating as well as under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

(IANS)

Take over all Vyapam cases, SC tells CBI

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Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court directed the CBI to inform it in three weeks about taking over the probe of most of the 185 cases related to the Vyapam scam on Friday

A Bench, led by Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu, asked the Department of Personnel and Training to inform it by the next hearing on August 7 about filling of vacancies in the CBI as the agency had complained that a shortage of manpower was hindering the probe.

The task of appointing lawyers to prosecute the cases in various special CBI courts in Madhya Pradesh should be completed within six weeks, the Bench told the CBI. “We have so much of faith in you. You take up the cases. Whether it is in Bhopal, Jabhalpur or any other place, you will have your own counsel for prosecution,” the Bench said.

(Agencies)

Bombay HC Extends Teesta Setalvad’s Interim Bail for 2 Weeks

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Teesta Setalvad

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Friday granted protection from arrest for two weeks to activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, hours after a lower court denied them anticipatory bail amid accusations that their NGO received funds from the United States-based Ford Foundation without government authorisation.

Setalvad, a long-time critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said she was being persecuted by the government for her campaign against the Gujarat riots of 2002 when the BJP leader was chief minister.

“I am shocked and aggrieved by the verdict as this is a petty offence. My sympathisers feel that this is an attempt (by the government) to intimidate and possibly eliminate us by the powers (sic),” she said after the sessions court rejected her bail application.

The couple’s lawyers approached the high court anticipating arrest for custodial interrogation sought by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The agency registered a case against Setalvad and her husband, Javed Anand, on July 8 and raided their home and offices a week later.

A bank account of the NGO, Sabrang Communications and Publishing Pvt Ltd located in Mumbai, was frozen on the instructions of the home ministry. Sources said documents recovered by the agency appeared to support its allegations.

The activist recently said she was cooperating with the CBI and her organisation’s arrangement with the Ford Foundation was permitted under law, while she panned the investigating agency for calling her a “national threat”.

Setalvad has also been accused by Gujarat police of using funds meant for victims of the Gujarat riots on purchasing wine and expensive mobile phones, apart from tampering with evidence.

(Agencies)

Court rejects Teesta Setalvad’s anticipatory bail plea

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Teesta Setalvad

Mumbai: A sessions court in Mumbai rejected on Friday an anticipatory bail application filed by social activist Teesta Setalvad in connection with a case of alleged foreign donations to her NGO in violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Setalvad, who was at the forefront of the campaign for the 2002 Gujarat riot victims, is likely to move the Bombay high court.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand on July 8 and raided their home and offices a week later. The agency is looking into whether Setalvad’s NGO Sabrang received funding from the United States-based Ford Foundation without government permission.

The Gujarat Police had recently said the social activist and her husband “misappropriated” funds meant for charity for personal expenses ranging from wine, earbuds to expensive mobile phone besides tampering with the evidence.

The CBI registered the case after the home ministry recently asked the agency to conduct a probe into the funding.

A bank account of the firm located in Mumbai was frozen on the instructions of the home ministry. Sources said certain documents were recovered by the agency, which they claimed appears to support the allegations.

Setalvad had earlier said the charges against her are baseless and she was fully cooperating with the CBI.

(Agencies)

Bangalore citizens statement against state sponsored intimidation of Teesta Setalvad and other activists

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Teesta Setalvad

by Bangalore Citizen’s Initiative

The CBI raid on the residence and office of activist Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand on 13th and 14th July 2015 is a shocking development. Socially conscious citizens perceive this as a political vendetta to insult, humiliate and intimidate the couple fighting for the rights of the victims of 2002 Gujarat riots. Needless to state, the search and raid operation has all the colour of having been directed by powerful interests against whom Teesta Setalvad had filed cases on the Gujarat genocide of 2002. It has been a relentless struggle for Teesta and Javed to fight for the victims of the Gujarat carnage. This battle for justice for the victims has become even more difficult since vested interests assumed power in the Central Government.

Teesta Setalvad and Javed are not isolated cases. The official machinery of the State has been used to silence dissent consistently over the past several decades. The State has been complicit in the misuse of its powers over investigative agencies which have been used to intimidate, terrorise and harass those working for the causes of the poor, to uphold human rights and against injustice. Recent examples of such targeting include S. R. Hiremath of the INSAF, Samaj Parivarthana Samudaya, Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Dr. Binayak Sen, and many others.

Such highhandedness of the State is witnessed in the way certain laws that exclusively govern civil society organisations are being amended to curtail basic rights of civil society organisations and people’s movements to work freely and with enjoyment of all Fundamental Rights. The current administration at the Centre is further manipulating these laws fundamental to safeguarding freedoms of individuals and organisations advancing social justice, while sparing no effort to benefit corporations and particular business houses. This when there is a relentless effort to whittle down schemes that guarantee the Right to Life and Livelihoods of ordinary people by cutting down on social safeguards and withdrawing a variety of subsidies that support the poor and also massive reduction in allocation to the social sector.

The trend clearly is one of attacking defenders of justice, instead of providing justice to the victims of violence, with fabricated cases being filed with impunity against the defenders of justice. We are wary that a culture of attacking, terrorising and even getting rid of those who defend the rights of the victims is gradually becoming an accepted practice. Reports in the media have highlighted the Vyapam case in Madhya Pradesh, where several whistleblowers and advocates of the Right to Information Act have been targeted.

At this juncture, what those who fight for justice need is all the support from people of goodwill to defeat the evil designs of certain vested and politically powerful interests. While there is a need to battle those who are determined to wipe out the memories of the Gujarat carnage and escape responsibility for their criminal deeds, it is equally necessary that we stand against the culture of State terrorism, intimidation and violence.

Endorsed

Mr. Girish Karnad – Actor, Film Director, Writer and Playwright
Mr. Govind Rao – Actor, Poet, Resource Person and in social movements
Maj. Gen. S. G. Vombatkere (Retd.), Mysore.
Dr. Ambrose Pinto SJ, Principal, St. Aloysius Degree College
Ms. Bhargavi S Rao – Environment Support Group
Mr. Leo F Saldanha – Environment Support Group
Dr. A.R.Vasavi, Social Anthropologist, Bangalore
Dr. Suvrat Raju, International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR
Mr. Prithvi Reddy, Entrepreneur and Political Activist
Dr. Sreeramappa Chinnappa – Medical Officer
Mr. L. Ashok – Komu Souharda Vedike
Mr. Ajay Marshal – Photographer
Mr. Robin Christopher – Alternative Law Forum
Mr. Manohar Rangnathan – Human Right Activist
Dr. Selvaraj Arulnathan SJ, Director, Indian Social Institute
Mr. Mark Rasquinha, Associate Professor, Jain University
Mr. Roshan Sylvester, Associate Professor, Jyothi Nivas College
Mr. Vinoo Sudhakar, Associate Professor, St. Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore
Professor Etienne Rassendran, St. Joseph’s College
Professor Chandan Gowda, Azeem Premjee University
Professor Babu Mathew, National Law School of India
Mr. Ramyani Chakrabarty M. Tech, Trainee Teacher
Mr. Jagadish Chandra – New Socialist Alternative
Mr. N. Jayaram, PUCL, Bangalore
Ms. Madhu Bhushan – Social Activist
Mr. Rakesh Narayan, PUCL
Mr. Jagadeesh Byata – Social Activist and Lawyer
Ms. Keya Acharya, journalist, Bangalore.
Dr. Akhila Vasan, Karnataka Janaaroyga Chaluvali
Mr. K.B. Obalash, Karnataka Janaaroyga Chaluvali
Mr. Vijaya Kumar.S, Karnataka Janaaroyga Chaluvali
Mr. T.N.Gopalan, Journalist
Ms. Anita Cheria , Open Space
Ms. Anasuya Byndoor, Swaraj Sangatane, Karnataka
Mr. Pradeep Esteves, Context India
Dr. Sumi Krishna, Independent Scholar
Ms. C. K. Meena, Writer
Mr. Bobby Kunhu, Advocate
Ms. Asma A N, Independent Journalist
Mr. Syed Tanveeruddin, Environmental, RTI, Human Rights and Social Activist, Mysore
Ms. Uma V Chandru, Activist, Bangalore
Mr. K. P. Sasi, Documentary Maker
Ms. Ammu Joseph, Journalist and Writer
Mr. Himanshu Trivedi, Associate, Lawyer, Barristers & Solicitors
Ms. Anita Ratnam, Executive Director, Samvada Youth Resource Centres & Baduku Community College For Alternatives
Ms. Pushpa Achanta – Journalist & Trainer
Mr. Antony Melvin D Paul, Founder and Lead, PoundHead
Mr. Mallikarjun.L.S., RTI Activist,
Dr. Arati Choksh (Science Activist)
Mr. Joseph Britto, Indo Bloom Ltd.
Dr. Lawrence Surendra – Environmental Economist
Ms. Benazir Siddiq
Ms. Rajitha Vipparthi
Ms. Shanthala Damle
Ms. Manasi Pingle
Fr. Adolf Washington
Dr. Lakshmi Nilakantan
Mr. Ralph Paul Coelho
Dr. Kshithij Urs
Ms. Meena Subramaniam, Artiste
Ms. Kirtana Kumar, Musician and Theatre Activist
Mr. M.V.K Anil Kumar
Mr. Richard D
Ms. Merlin Francis
Ms. Shaheen Shasa
Mr. B V Mahesh Kumar
Mr. Nitin Basrur
Mr. Pramod Krishnamurthy
Mr. Benjamin T
Mr. Hiroo Advani
Mr. Anil Kapur
Mr. S. Gopal, Kundalahalli
Mr. Pramod Krishnamurthy
Ms. Pushpa Surendra
Mr. Nitin Gujaran
Ms. Snigdha Samal
Mr. Akhlaque Ahmed
Mr. Karthik Ranganathan
Ms. Chetana Ajit
Mr. Murali S
Ms. Zephyrine Goveas
Mr. Prashant Paikray, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi
Ms. Sheela Gowda, Artiste
Ms. Meena Artwani
Mr. Sridhar Raman
Ms. Sudha Nagavarapu
Mani Kalliath
Sr. Leonie
Mr. Srinath Heragu
Mr. R. Ramachandran
Ms. Cavery Bopaiah
Mr. Ram Punyani
Mr. David Selvaraj
Mr. David D’ Costa

CBI raid at Teesta’s house ‘vindictive’, say opposition MPs

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Teesta Setalvad

New Delhi: Expressing their solidarity with activist Teesta Setalvad, several opposition MPs including Ghulam Nabi Azad of Congress and Sharad Yadav of JD(U) today accused the Centre of “subjecting her to the worst kind of harassment” to silence voices of dissent.

In a joint statement, the opposition leaders said the recent CBI recent raid at her residence was a “blatant misuse” of the central agency for “vindictive reasons”.

Besides Yadav and Azad, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Motilal Vora of Congress, K C Tyagi of JD(U) and D P Tripathi of NCP endorsed the statement, which also bore signatures of Hannan Mollah of CPI(M) and Manoj Jha of RJD.

“We express our solidarity with Teesta Setalvad, Javed Anand and their colleagues who are being subjected to the worst kind of harassment by the (Narendra) Modi government,” they said.

Setalvad has been severely critical of the BJP government in Gujarat over the 2002 riots and her NGO has been pursuing criminal cases against the accused. The state government has accused her of working at the behest of its political opponents and charged her with misappropriating money. Anand is also an activist and her husband.

The leaders hailed Setalvad, saying she had been working courageously to expose the criminal involvement of BJP leaders in the Gujarat riots, in which mostly Muslims were killed, and asserted that they were determined to support her.

They said it was no co-incidence that the raid occurred a day before the case involving former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi, both convicted, was to come up in the Gujarat High Court.

“The signatories are convinced that the Modi government is determined to silence voices of dissent like that of Teesta Setalvad… We appeal to it to end its vindictive actions,” they said.

CBI had on July 13 carried out searches at premises of social activist Setalvad and her organisation in connection with a case of alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act in receiving funds from abroad without taking prior permission from the Home Ministry.

(PTI)

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