Month: August 2022

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday hit out at the Congress, saying the party chose August 5 for protest and its leaders wore black clothes because they “want to give a subtle message to further promote their appeasement politics” on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya two years back.

The Home Minister referred to Enforcement Directorate’s probe in the National Herald case and said the agency “neither summoned nor inquired nor conducted a raid” on Friday and the Congress had held a protest.
“I can’t understand why they protested today. Every day when they protest, they used to wear their usual normal dress but today they wore black clothes. Congress chose this day for protest and wore black clothes because they want to give a subtle message to further promote their appeasement politics because on this day itself PM Modi laid the foundation of Ram Janambhoomi,” Amit Shah told ANI.

He said that the foundation stone of the grand Ram temple at Ayodhya was laid by Prime Minister Modi after a peaceful solution was found to the issue that had been pending for 550 years.

“There was no riot in the country, no violence, the Prime Minister fulfilled the aspiration and faith of crores of people. Congress held a protest today and especially in black clothes at it wanted to give a subtle message that they oppose the foundation stone of Ram Janambhoomi and want to carry forward their policy of appeasement. This policy of appeasement is neither good for the country nor for Congress. It is due to policy of appeasement that Congress is in the state in which it is today,” he said.

On the ED probe in the National Herald case in which Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have been questioned over alleged financial irregularities and searches have been conducted in Herald House, Amit Shah said that “everyone should cooperate with the law and order system in the country”.

“Congress should be responsible and must co-operate as per the law. The matter is going on the basis of complaints that have been filed. As far as ED is concerned, everybody should respect the law and order situation in the country,” he said.

Congress MPs led by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi held a protest in the Parliament House complex on Friday wearing black clothes as part of the party’s stir against the government on price rise and unemployment.

The Congress leaders were stopped and detained by the Delhi Police while they were on their way to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Sonia Gandhi did not take part in the party’s march. Congress also held protests in different parts of the country. (ANI)

A total of 60 Congress MPs were detained on Friday by the Delhi Police during the party’s protest against the central government over the issues of inflation, price rise, GST and unemployment, said police.

However, they were released after about six hours, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said.
Rahul Gandhi, Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury were among those detained by the Police.

“Congress MPs have just been released after being detained for almost 6 hours for protesting peacefully and democratically against price rise, unemployment and GST,” said Jairam Ramesh in a tweet.

The protests were held at various sites of Delhi, including Akbar Road, Vijay Chowk and Jantar Mantar.

In a statement, the Delhi Police said a total of 335 protesters, including 65 MPs, had been detained under the Delhi Police Act in order to maintain law and order in the area.

“Congress supporters organized a protest in Delhi today. Orders under Section 144 CrPC are also in force in Delhi. The protestors tried to obstruct the police officers from performing their duties, manhandled and injured them. Appropriate legal action is being taken,” said Police.

The Police said that the intimation about the detention of MPs and MLAs is being sent to the respective competent authorities.

The protestors were appropriately warned about the prohibitory orders in force in the area and repeatedly requested to disperse from the area, the police said.

However, they continued the protest, thereby violating prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC.

“When the police personnel moved in to contain the situation, the protestors tried to obstruct the police officers from performing their duties, manhandled and injured them. Appropriate legal action is being taken into the matter,” police said.

Congress MPs led by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi held a protest in the Parliament House complex on Friday wearing black clothes as part of the party’s stir against the government on price rise and unemployment.

The Congress leaders were stopped by the Delhi Police on way to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Sonia Gandhi did not take part in the party’s march. The Congress also held protests in different parts of the country.

Earlier in the day, lashing out at the Centre on issues like price rise and inflation, former Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi said that India is witnessing the death of democracy.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that the Centre has put “its people” in the government machinery.

“How do you feel about the death of democracy? What this country built in 70 years was destroyed in 8 years. There is no democracy in India today!,” senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said.

The party has decided to stage a pan-India protest on Friday and hold a demonstration outside the residences of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu, however, it was denied by the Delhi Police.

Despite no permission from the Delhi Police, the party leaders said that they will go ahead with their proposed protest march.

Visuals showed Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra jumping over a police barricade placed near the AICC office here during a party protest against price rise and unemployment in Delhi. She was later detained by police during the Congress protest. (ANI)

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Friday, has asked for funds for various central welfare schemes being implemented in her state.

In a letter to PM Modi, Banerjee said, “I request for urgent release of funds due to state for implementation of schemes including MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojna and PM Gramin Sadak Yojna. Dues from the central government on these schemes amount to about Rs 17,996 crore.”
“Substantial amount on account of many developments and welfare schemes, estimated to be around Rs 1,00,968.44 crore is also due. With such a large amount remaining outstanding, the state is facing extreme difficulty to run affairs and take care of people of the state,” she added.

Chief Minister Banerjee, who is on a four-day visit to the national capital, met Prime Minister Modi at his residence on Friday. During the meeting, various issues were discussed including GST dues of the state. Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi on Thursday also met President Droupadi Murmu today.

The West Bengal CM is also likely to attend a Niti Aayog governing council meeting on August 7 that will be chaired by the Prime Minister. She did not attend the meeting last year.

Banerjee, who is the Trinamool Congress supremo, on Thursday met her party’s MPs and discussed the party’s strategy during the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament and the road to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“Our Chairperson Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with all MPs in Delhi. The current Parliament session, the road to 2024 and various issues were discussed, with several activities and initiatives outlined for the coming days. We are always committed to serving the people,” All India Trinamool Congress said in a tweet.

Mamata Banerjee’s meetings assume significance ahead of the vice-presidential election on August 6. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has announced Jagdeep Dhankhar as its vice-presidential candidate while Margaret Alva is the candidate of the opposition parties. (ANI)

The Special Court for Exclusive Trial under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention Act) here on Friday sentenced 27 people to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of three Dalits in the Kachanatham village in Tamil Nadu’s Sivagangai district in 2018.

The special court convicted all the 27 accused on August 1 and the quantum of punishments was pronounced on Friday. Accordingly, Judge G Muthukumaran has sentenced all the accused to life term imprisonment.
Three men belonging to the scheduled caste community- Arumugam (65), Shanmuganathan (31) and Chandrasekar (34) from Kachanantham village near Tiruppachetty in the Sivagangai district were murdered brutally on the night of May 28, 2018.

They were hacked to death by members of a dominant community in a feud related to paying respects at a temple festival. Five more Dalit people sustained injuries in the attack. Among the injured, Thanasekaran (32) died one and half years after the incident.

In connection with this case, Police had filed the chargesheet against 33 people including Suman, Arunkumar, Chandrakumar, Agniraj and Rajesh from Avarangadu village. Four accused were minors while two of them died during the trial and one absconded.

In view of the court order today, heavy Police deployment was made outside the court premises as a precautionary measure to prevent any untoward incident. (ANI)

The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) said on Friday it had conducted searches on the premises of one of the directors of Zanmai Lab Pvt Ltd, which owns the popular Crypto-currency exchange WazirX, and has issued an order to freeze their bank balances to the tune of Rs 64.67 crore.

Because of the non-cooperative stand of the director of WazirX exchange, a search operation was conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on 3rd August 2022 and it was found that Sameer Mhatre, Director WazirX, has complete remote access to the database of WazirX, but despite that he is not providing the details of the transactions relating to the crypto assets, purchased from the proceeds of crime of Instant Loan App fraud, the ED said in a statement.
The lax KYC norms, loose regulatory control of transactions between WazirX & Binance, non-recording of transactions on Blockchains to save costs and non-recording of the KYC of the opposite wallets has ensured that WazirX is not able to give any account for the missing crypto assets, the agency said in the statement.

It has made no efforts to trace these crypto assets. By encouraging obscurity and having lax AML norms, it has actively assisted around 16 accused fintech companies in laundering the proceeds of crime using the crypto route. Therefore, equivalent movable assets to the extent of Rs 64.67 crore lying with WazirX were frozen under PMLA, 2002, the enforcement agency said.

The Enforcement Directorate has been conducting Money Laundering investigation against a number of Indian non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and their fintech partners for predatory lending practices in violation of the RBI guidelines and by using tele-callers who misuse personal data and use abusive language to extort high interest rates from the loan takers.

Various fintech companies backed by Chinese funds could not get NBFC license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for carrying lending business. So they devised the MoU route with defunct NBFCs to piggyback on their license.

After the criminal investigation began, many of these fintech Apps have shut shop and diverted away the huge profits earned using the above modus operandi, the ED said.

While doing fund trail investigation, ED found that a large amount of funds were diverted by the fintech companies to purchase Crypto assets and then launder them abroad. These companies and the virtual assets are untraceable at the moment.

“Summons were issued to the Crypto-exchanges. It is seen that maximum amount of funds were diverted to WazirX exchange and the crypto-assets so purchased have been diverted to unknown foreign wallets,” the ED said.

The ED said during the investigation it is observed that Zanmai Labs Pvt Ltd – the company owning WazirX Crypto Exchange – has created a web of agreements with Crowdfire Inc USA, Binance (Cayman Islands), Zettai Pte Ltd Singapore — to obscure the ownership of the crypto exchange.

Earlier, their Managing Director Nischal Shetty had claimed that WazirX is an Indian Exchange which controls all the crypto-crypto & inr-crypto transactions and only has an IP & preferential agreement with Binance. But now, Zanmai claims that they are involved in only inr-crypto transactions, and all the other transactions are done by Binance on WazirX.

“They are giving contradictory & ambiguous answers to evade oversight by Indian regulatory agencies,” the ED said.

WazirX works from a Cloud-based software (@AWS Mumbai), all employees work from home, the registered office is a 2 Chair co-working Wework space, and all crypto-crypto transactions are controlled by Binance (which is again without any known office, any known employee and rarely responds to queries).

Despite giving repeated opportunities, WazirX failed to give the crypto transactions of the suspect fintech APP companies and reveal the KYC of the wallets. Most of the transactions are not recorded on the blockchain also, the enforcement directorate said.

WazirX informed that prior to July 2020, they did not even record the details of the Bank Account from which funds were coming into the exchange to purchase crypto assets. No physical address verification is done. There is no check on the source of funds of their clients. No EDD is done. No STRs were raised, the ED added. (ANI)

In an incident that raises many questions, the husband of a newly elected woman sarpanch allegedly took the oath of office instead of his wife in a gram panchayat in Madhya Pradesh’s Damoh district following which the district authorities have sought a detailed report in the matter.

The matter pertains to the Gaisabad Panchayat of Damoh district, where after the three-tier panchayat election, a woman sarpanch of the scheduled class was elected and some other women panches also emerged victorious.
However, the swearing-in ceremony became a subject of controversy after there were allegations that instead of the women, their husbands had presented themselves at the time of the oath-taking. The elected sarpanch and other women were to be administered the oath of office and secrecy, for which a program was organized in the village Panchayat.

However, there were allegations that the concerned official allowed the husbands to be present in place of the elected women representatives, who according to some claims, were altogether missing from the event.

After the allegations gained strength, the district administration decided to ascertain the truth and take suitable action.

Speaking to media persons, Ajay Srivastava, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Damoh Panchayat said this incident appears against the rules and strict action will be taken against the guilty after the matter is looked into.

“We had received information that some men had taken oath instead of their elected wives…We have ordered a detailed report on the matter, once the report will come out the Panchayat secretary will be punished (if guilty),” he said. (ANI)

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday clarified in the House that “MPs do not enjoy any immunity from being arrested in a criminal case during the Session or otherwise”.

In criminal matters, Naidu said, Members of Parliament (MPs) are “not on a different footing than a common citizen”.
“It means that a Member of Parliament does not enjoy any immunity from being arrested in a criminal case during the Session or otherwise,” Naidu observed.

Naidu’s observation came a day after Congress leader of house Mallikarjun Kharge raised the issue in the House that he was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate when the session is on.

Going by what has happened in the last few days, Naidu said, “I want to clarify one thing that “there is a wrong notion among the members that they have a privilege from action by agencies while the session is on”.

“I have given it a serious thought. I examined all the precedents and I remember my own ruling given earlier.

“Under Article 105 of the Constitution, Members of Parliament enjoy certain privileges so that they can perform their parliamentary duties without let or hindrance. One of the privileges is that a member of Parliament cannot be arrested in a civil case, 40 days before the commencement of the Session or Committee meeting and 40 days thereafter,” said the Chairman.

This privilege is already incorporated under section 135A of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, said Naidu

Noting that there have been a number of rulings by presiding officers, the Chairman drew the attention of the House to one ruling given in 1966 by Dr Zakir Hussain that mentions that “Members of Parliament do enjoy certain privileges so that they can perform their duties”.

“One such privilege is freedom from arrest when the Parliament is in Session. This privilege of freedom from arrest is limited only to civil cases and has not been allowed to interfere in the administration of criminal proceedings.”

Naidu further said members may also recall that I made an observation earlier, and, in the observation, I said, “No Member should avoid appearing before any investigating agency when she or he is called upon to do so by citing the reason of House duty. As lawmakers, it is our bounden duty to respect the law and legal procedures. It applies to all, in all cases, because you can only inform that the House is in Session, seeking further date but you cannot avoid the enforcement agencies or the law enforcing agencies’ summons or notices. This has to be taken note by all.”

In a landmark case, the Chairman said, K Anandan Nambiar and another, the Supreme Court of India held that the true Constitutional position is that so far as a valid order of detention is concerned, a Member of Parliament can claim no special status higher than that of an ordinary citizen and is as much liable to be arrested, detained or questioned even during the Session.

The Supreme Court in a recent case, State of Kerala Vs K. Ajith and Others, Naid said, observed that “privileges and immunities are not gateways to claim exemptions from the general law of the land, particularly as in this case, the criminal law which governs the action of every citizen.”

“There are so many rulings like that. So, let there be clarity in the minds of members. That is why I reiterated this.” (ANI)

Jammu and Kashmir Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Vijay Kumar on Friday asserted that there have been no civilian casualties due to firing by security forces in the union territory in the past three years.

“In the past three years, there have been no civilian casualties due to police, security force firing. There are no more incidents of stone-pelting at the site of an encounter. Now, we are quick to identify and nab terrorists,” Vijay Kumar, ADGP (Law and Order), Kashmir told mediapersons.
The ADGP’s comments came hours after an encounter broke out at the Redwani area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam.

The Army officials informed that an army jawan and a civilian had received injuries in the encounter.

“#KulgamEncounterUpdate: One Army Jawan and one civilian got injured in the #encounter. Search in the area is still going on. Further details shall follow,” Kashmir Zone Police tweeted.

As per the police’s information, the enounter broke out around 11.59 am today.

Earlier on July 31, one Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, identified as Irshad Ahmed Bhat of Pattan, was killed in the Binner area of J-K’s Baramulla district. According to the police, he was active since May 2022.

In the July 30 joint operation of The Police, Army (29RR) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) (2nd Bn), that broke in the Wanigam Bala village of Baramulla, the J-K police eliminated one terrorist.

In the operation, one Indian Army assault dog also lost its life, while three personnel of the security forces sustained minor injuries.

The police acted on a specific input and launched a joint cordon-and-search operation, after which they recovered incriminating materials, arms and ammunition including one AK-47 Rifle, three AK magazines, seven AK-rounds, one pouch and one bag from the site of the encounter.

The J-K police had also apprehended two hybrid terrorists of the proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba during an encounter in Baramulla. (ANI)