Budget inputs among secret files stolen from ministries

February 21, 2015

New Delhi, Feb 21: Draft papers for the Union Budget to be presented on February 28, government documents on ONGC Videsh and, petroleum and natural gas opportunities in Sri Lanka are among the highly classified files stolen from the offices of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry in central Delhi’s Shastri Bhawan.

Stolen ministries

On Friday, police arrested seven more people in the case related to corporate espionage. Former journalist Santanu Saikia, energy consultant Prayas Jain, Shailesh Saxena of Reliance Industries, Vinay Kumar of Essar, K K Naik of Cairn India, Subhash Chandra of Jubilant Energy and Rishi Anand of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group were also arrested.

Saikia is associated with an energy portal Indianpetro. com, while Jain is associated with an oil and gas firm based in New Delhi and Melbourne. Others have been accused of buying the leaked documents, analysing them and selling them off to corporate houses. The arrests in the case made by police have reached 12.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal of the Patiala House Court in central Delhi remanded Shantanu, Prayas, Lalta and Rakesh in the custody of the crime branch until February 23. The remaining accused have been sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The crime branch on Friday took some of the accused to Shastri Bhawan as part of its investigation. Police told the court that Santanu and Prayas gave Rs 70,000 to Lalta and Rakesh every month for procuring the documents. “Lalta and Prayas were on their pay role,” police told court.

The documents were shared with corporate houses and had details of policies related to oil pricing as well as imports. The FIR filed by crime branch police on Wednesday said the documents were recovered from Lalta Prasad and his brother Rakesh Kumar. “Seven documents were recovered from a black bag carried by Lalta, while nine documents were recovered from a brown envelope carried by Rakesh on February 17,” said Joint Commissioner of Delhi Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Others have been accused of buying the leaked documents, analysing them and selling them off to corporate houses. The arrests in the case made by police have reached 12.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal of the Patiala House Court in central Delhi remanded Shantanu, Prayas, Lalta and Rakesh in the custody of the crime branch until February 23. The remaining accused have been sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The crime branch on Friday took some of the accused to Shastri Bhawan as part of its investigation. Police told the court that Santanu and Prayas gave Rs 70,000 to Lalta and Rakesh every month for procuring the documents. “Lalta and Prayas were on their pay role,” police told court.

The documents were shared with corporate houses and had details of policies related to oil pricing as well as imports.

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News Network
July 14,2020

New Delhi, Jul 14: India's COVID-19 tally breached the 9 lakh mark as 28,498 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

As per the Health Ministry, there are a total of 9,06,752 coronavirus cases in the country of which 3,11,565 patients are active cases.

5,71,459 patients have been cured/discharged while one patient has been migrated, the Ministry informed further.

553 more deaths due to COVID-19 were reported in the last 24 hours in the country, taking the number of patients succumbing to the virus to 23,727.

The Centre further informed that India's recovery rate from COVID-19 stands at 63.02 per cent while the recoveries and deaths ratio stood at 96.01 per cent and 3.99 per cent respectively.

As per the Ministry, Maharashtra -- the worst-affected state from the infection -- has a total of 2,60,924 COVID-19 cases and 10,482 fatalities. While Tamil Nadu has a tally of 1,42,798 cases and 2,032 deaths due to COVID-19.

Delhi has reported a total of 1,13,740 cases and 3,411 deaths due to COVID-19.

As per the information provided by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) 1,20,92,503 samples have been tested for COVID-19 till July 13, of these 2,86,247 samples were tested on Monday.

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News Network
January 1,2020

Jammu, Jan 1: As many as 160 terrorists were killed in Jammu and Kashmir this year, while 250 terrorists, including 102 of Pakistani origin, were active in the Valley, Director General of Police (DGP) Dilbag Singh said on Tuesday, noting that terror incidents and the number of local youths turning towards terrorism have decreased.

"250 terrorists have been active in Jammu and Kashmir. There is a decrease in number of active terrorists as compared to last year," Mr Singh said at the annual press conference at police headquarters in Jammu.

The DGP said that there is 30 per cent fall in terrorist incidents, less civilian killings and 36 per cent decrease in law and order incidents as compared to 2018.

"218 such (local) youths joined militant outfits in 2018 but only 139 joined in 2019," he said. Out of these new recruits only 89 have survived.

"The rest have been eliminated as their shelf life is between 24 hours to 2-3 months after joining militancy. There are hardly few old terrorists surviving, which include Jehangir Saroori and Riyaz Nayikoo", he said.

There have been only 481 law and order incidents this year as compared to 625 last year, he said.

There were 80 per cent successful anti-terror operations in which 160 terrorists, including foreigners, have been killed during the year.

Mr Singh said 102 terrorists have been arrested and 10 terrorists surrendered during the year.

He said that 102 Pakistan origin terrorists are still operating in Kashmir.

"Eleven valiant police personnel from Jammu and Kashmir besides 72 from other other security forces have been martyred," he said.

There was no collateral damage during anti-terror operation as people fully cooperated. "There was zero law and order problem this year (during anti terror operations)," he added.

The DGP said that "there has been a high degree of incidents of infiltration attempts from across the border this year and also ceasefire violations. But security forces have successfully foiled these attempted as 130 infiltrators have entered in 2019 as compared to 143 last year".

He said Jammu and Kashmir Police has set an example by handling the law and order situation in the most "exemplary" way following the abrogation of Article 370 provisions.

It was the biggest challenge faced by the force in 2019, but "we handled the most critical phase in the best way" and there was no civilian casualty during the period, he said.

Dismissing claims of minors being arrested by police in Kashmir, he said that it is being used as propaganda by some people and asserted that the J-K police has acted within the limits of law.

"We are open to scrutiny. The issue reached the Supreme Court which referred it to Jammu and Kashmir high court. The matter was inquired by the HC committee. The SC said that there is no misuse of law by law enforcement agency. J-K police has acted within the limits of law," he said.

Replying to queries on restoration of internet, the DGP said it is under consideration. "I think J-K is moving towards such a situation (on law and order front). Very soon you will hear positive announcement," Mr Singh said.

He said that though some people will try to misuse internet, "in the past, we took care of them and we will take care of such people in the future too".

Internet services in all government-run hospitals and SMS to all mobile phones will be restored from December 31 midnight in the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Kashmir official spokesman Rohit Kansal said on Tuesday.

On December 10, some short message service (SMS) were enabled on mobile phones in order to facilitate students, scholarship applicants, traders and others. It has now been decided to fully restore the service throughout Kashmir from midnight of December 31, Kansal said.

Mobile Internet services were restored in Kargil district of Ladakh on Friday after remaining suspended for 145 days in the wake of the Centre abrogating provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution, officials said.

Internet services were suspended on August 4, a day before the Centre announced abrogation of Article 370 and division of the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

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News Network
April 18,2020

New Delhi, Apr 18: With 957 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and 36 deaths, India's total count of coronavirus cases has surged to 14,792, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

The total cases are inclusive of 2,014 cured and discharged patients, one migrated and 488 deaths. At present, there are 12,289 active COVID-19 cases in the country.

Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that mortality rate due to COVID-19 in our country is around 3.3 per cent.

"An age-wise analysis will tell you that 14.4 per cent of deaths have been reported in the age group of 0-45 years. Between 45-60 years it is 10.3 percent, between 60-75 years it is 33.1 percent and for 75 years, and above it is 42.2 percent," Aggarwal said at a press conference here.

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