by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave no relief to five activists named in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence case and set aside a Bombay High Court order allowing another 90 days to the Maharashtra Police to file charge sheet.
The five accused activists — Surendra Gadling, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Rout, Roma Wilson and Soma Sen — will not be able to have the benefit of default as the apex court said they now must apply for regular bail.
A trial court had under the Unlawful Prevention Activities Act granted the Maharashtra Police additional 90 days time to file a charge sheet that was beyond a 90-day deadline under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The activists were arrested from various locations in August 2018 for their alleged role in instigating caste violence in Maharashtra’s Bhima Koregaon village on January 1, 2018.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Shillong : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to move the Supreme Court seeking permission to quiz Saradha Group Chairman Sudipta Sen and his close aide Debjani Mukherjee in connection with the chit fund case.
The premier probe agency, which is questioning Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong, will further examine Kumar for another three to four days more.
Tuesday was the fourth consecutive day that Kumar was questioned by the CBI.
“We are likely to seek the Supreme Court permission to question Sen and Mukherjee in Shillong,” a CBI official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
“If granted permission, we will make Sen and Mukherjee confront Kumar on the chit fund scams,” the official added.
Former Trinamool Congress MP Kunal Ghosh, who arrived in Kolkata on Tuesday after being questioned by the CBI in Shillong, said that he has lodged an “official complaint” against the top cop for allegedly influencing the ongoing probe.
“I have lodged a written complaint with the CBI against Kumar today (Tuesday) morning. During our face to face interrogation on February 10, certain Kolkata Police officers were named. But Kumar called up some of those officers after leaving the CBI office that night,” Ghosh said.
“When I had sought justice in 2013, Kumar had not cared for me. I felt bad to see that an IPS officer like him has to face hours of questioning like this. Had he played an active role at that time, he would not have to face the CBI interrogation in Shillong now,” Ghosh said.
Ghosh had earlier implicated former Union Minister Mukul Roy, who has quit the Trinamool Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and 12 others in the Saradha chit fund case.
Kumar arrived in Shillong on Friday evening from Kolkata via Guwahati after the Supreme Court directed him to join the CBI probe at a “neutral place” in Shillong.
He was accompanied by three senior state police officers — Additional Police Commissioner Javed Shamim, Special Task Force chief Murlidhar Sharma and CID chief Praveen Kumar Tripathi.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions, Politics
By Ujjwal K Chowdhury,
The contest is apparently evenly poised as on today, Tuesday, February 5. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has projected the Supreme Court order directing Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar to make himself available before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as a blow to the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal and a moral victory for the investigating agency. The court, however, also said that no coercive steps should be taken against Kumar and noted that the questioning should be done at a neutral place (which is being finalized as Shillong now).
However, the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal also hailed the court’s order as a vindication of its stand. Mamata Banerjee said that her government had never said it would not cooperate with the CBI, but her opposition was to the manner in which CBI swooped down on senior IPS officer Kumar’s residence. She said that the court ordering that no coercive action could be taken against Kumar was a vindication of her stance.
And both are right in some measures.
It goes without saying that every IPS officer is expected to cooperate with government investigation against any crime if asked to. The office records show Rajeev Kumar was attending office, was on personal leave for a day, and was not absconding. However, he ignored a couple of summonses of the CBI earlier on this issue. It must also be noted that Rajeev Kumar, who headed the Special Investigative Team to probe the Sarada and Rose Valley ponzi scams before the cases were taken over by CBI, had already got several Trinamool Congress leaders, including ministers, arrested.
The CBI claims that he is protecting some others in the cases and is a “potential accused himself”. It goes without mention too that the Kolkata Police Commissioner reports to the West Bengal government, being in state cadre and the Chief Minister had restrained the CBI from unilateral action in the state without keeping the state government and the state police informed as per CBI Act. Further, there was no explicit Supreme Court order for Rajeev Kumar’s arrest and there was no FIR against him. These arguments placed before the Supreme Court led to the directives by it.
That the CBI’s intentions in the case remain doubtful are due to the fact that two among the prime accused in the Sarada ponzi scam case, as per the CBI’s own investigations earlier — Mukul Roy, formerly of the Trinamool Congress, and Himanta Biswa Sarma, formerly of the Congress — have been let off with no further investigation following initial interrogations after they both joined the BJP. They are BJP President Amit Shah’s key political pointsmen in West Bengal and the North-East.
Himanta Biswa Sarma was not named in the charge sheet but his home and office were raided and he was named by the founder of Sarada chit fund. Roy was interrogated many times and his home raided and arrested in the case like TMC MP and media baron Kunal Ghosh. Without any progress in the probe against these two top political leaders of the BJP in the region, going after others will always remain suspect, and will be politically used by the Trinamool Congress and others in the polls ahead.
The current case comes up for further hearing in the Supreme Court on February 20 and the story is far from being over. There could be more arrests in the ponzi scams, and there could be more political leaders involved too. Beyond legalities, politics is also about optics. The West bengal Chief Minister has seized the opportunity and turned this into a David versus Goliath fight, coming out onto the streets, asserting her federal rights as Chief Minister with powers over the state police, and attempting to turn it into a Modi versus opposition-governed states impasse. And to a good extent she has succeeded.
So, we have the entire opposition standing with her through tweets and inside Parliament (both Houses being adjourned due to this). Apart from the opposition parties supporting her, including Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), except for an explicit support from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, even neutral Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Naveen Patnaik and BJP ally Shiv Sena have expressed their dismay at the harsh CBI action in Kolkata of gheraoing Kumar’s house, not taking the state government into confidence, and creating a “war-like situation on the streets of Kolkata”, as a spokesman for an opposition party noted.
Optically, Mamata Banerjee on the streets a la her struggling days against the Left Front government is a strong political imagery. It becomes a strong image for the anti-Modi political spectrum. However, whether it is good enough to propel her to the leadership of anti-Modi politics of India is yet to be seen. But coming soon after her mega rally of all opposition parties against the Centre in Kolkata recently, this episode has further enhanced perceived bias of the CBI (named as a caged parrot even by a Supreme Court judge), emboldened the allegation that the Modi government is rabidly antagonistic towards non-BJP state governments, and has further positioned the Chief Minister as the strongest voice against Modi with just 10 weeks remaining for the next general elections.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on his own is still unable to bring the entire opposition at one table under his leadership and has been snubbed in Uttar Pradesh by the regional parties there. DMK chief Stalin and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejasvi Yadav apart, no other regional party leader has come out openly on Gandhi as the face of opposition unity.
The entire opposition, except for Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, is wary of Mayawati, the BSP supremo, for her inaccessibility, past association with BJP and sharing of power in Uttar Pradesh, and the fact that her leadership of the opposition camp may deprive other parties from their current Dalit support in various states. Mayawati as the main anti-Modi face will prompt a large section of the Dalit electorate from various states to move towards her from the BJP and more so from other opposition parties. That is a long-term loss.
So, Mamata is, by default, a possible choice. Her influence is limited to West Bengal and some pockets in the North-East, and hence, does not very much conflict with votebanks of any opposition party as such beyond this limited geography. In any case, she expects to be the third largest party in the next Lok Sabha, much in tune with the current Lok Sabha, and hence, as in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi may spring a surprise by lending support to the leader of the third party, Trinamool Congress, to form the government should Modi and the NDA fail to do so. She is making her road to power stronger now.
The issue is of a consensus leader of the opposition ahead of the election, and the chances of finding one looks bleak as of now. But through the developments of the last one month, from the Brigade Parade ground rally of January 19 to the impasse now over CBI’s actions in her state, Mamata Banerjee has surely bolstered her chances. And Modi has contributed to her scores that much and a shot up in the semblance of unity within the opposition camp.
(The writer is a known media academic)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Kolkata/New Delhi : Following the face-off between CBI and Kolkata policemen outside city Police Commissioner’s official residence, the central agency said it would move the Supreme Court, alleging the investigation in ponzi scam cases were being hindered and investigation officers were harassed.
“We are in touch with legal advisors on this. It’s a Supreme Court ordered probe and every authority is supposed to follow the directions of the honourable court. We can move the Supreme Court on Monday,” said a senior agency official, requesting anonymity.
There was a high drama in front of Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar’s official residence on Loudon Street on Sunday as a group CBI officers approached the house, but they
were stopped by city police personnel, who also forcibly took the federal probe agency officers to a police station.
A senior Kolkata Police officer told reporters, “They told us that they were CBI officers and when asked to produce documents, they failed to submit these. They could not give us any satisfactory response,” he said.
Refuting the claim, a CBI official said the agency had all the requisite documents.
“No one is in detention. We were not given any cooperation and have all the documents. Our officers came for the operations and we were taken to a police station forcibly. We sought police protection which was denied. They did not accept any request. We are intending to submit an application but they were not ready to accept it,” said a CBI officer.
“They went there after completing all the legal requirements and they (city police) should have cooperated. Over last two years, we have been giving notices to police officers who were investigating in these (ponzi scheme) cases before the Supreme Court handed over the cases to us,” CBI Joint Director Pankaj Srivastava said.
He alleged that several primary evidences were missing, and either they were “destructed” or “contrived”.
“Several very primary evidences were missing and either they were destructed or contrived. So we wanted to question these people about where evidence has gone…for the last two years, the investigation in these were being interfered into and our officers were called to police stations for different cases and they were questioned and harassed. A lot of intimidation has been going on.”
He said the federal agency had moved Supreme Court in 2017 and in July 2018, the court said that the agency should cooperate with the CBI.
“Despite that, no cooperation came forward. So our officers went there (CP’s residence) to question him and they were stopped from entering the residences.
“On the order of the Supreme Court to investigate larger conspiracy involving in these cases, the agency has been investigating the case.
“We will move the Supreme Court,” he said.
Srivastava also said the agency offices in the city and his residence here was surrounded by state police forces and following which, Central Police Force was called on for the safety of documents.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, News
New Delhi : Bankruptcy appeals court NCLAT on Friday suggested appointing a retired Supreme Court judge to oversee asset sales of debt-stricken Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS).
The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) stayed all arbitration proceedings against the cash-strapped company and ordered IL&FS to submit details of all the arbitral proceedings going on against it and its 348 subsidiaries.
However, arbitration proceedings where IL&FS is getting money will continue, the two-member bench headed by NCLAT Chairperson Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya said.
The appellate tribunal suggested that all further proceedings of transfer of assets of IL&FS should take place under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge.
The group, which had a debt of more than Rs 91,000 crore at the end of March 2018, is trying to sell its companies and their assets as part of its asset monetisation efforts to pay off the dues. Next hearing on the matter will be held on January 28.
On October 1, the Central government superseded the management of IL&FS by appointing a six-member board led by banker Uday Kotak to restore its financial solvency after it defaulted on payment dues triggering liquidity concerns in the NBFC sector.
By November, the firm initiated the asset monetisation process and received over a dozen Expressions of Interest (EoIs) towards acquiring its stake in IL&FS Securities Services Ltd (ISSL) and ISSL Settlement and Transaction Services Ltd (ISTSL).
Later, it initiated the process to sell its renewable energy business, the group’s interests in education (IL&FS Education & Technology Services Ltd) and the ‘Alternative Investment Management’ businesses, along with other subsidiary businesses.
On Wednesday, IL&FS said it received more than 30 EoIs for domestic roads vertical IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd. It includes its domestic EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) and O&M (operations and maintenance) businesses.
IL&FS Ltd is a core investment company and serves as the holding company of the IL&FS Group, with most business operations domiciled in separate companies which form an ecosystem of expertise across infrastructure, finance and social and environmental services.
—IANS
