CBI Director dragged into another controversy in SC on 2G scam

September 2, 2014

New Delhi, Sep 2: CBI Director Ranjit Sinha was today at the centre of a controversy with an NGO telling the Supreme Court that entry register of his residence portrays a "very disturbing" and "explosive material" coming in the way of administration of justice in 2G spectrum allocation scam.ranjit-sinha

The issue was raised by the NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), one of the PIL petitioners on whose plea 122 licences for 2G spectrum were cancelled by the apex court.

The apex court stopped the NGO's counsel from reading out his note on the issue after CBI counsel raised objections to making the content of the register public in open court and agreed to hear it on Thursday.

"If you can give the copy of the material to us, CBI and Director's counsel, we can take up the matter day after tomorrow," a bench comprising Justices H L Dattu, S A Bobde and A M Sapre said.

CPIL's counsel Prashant Bhushan started the submission by stating that after disturbing development of keeping the DIG Santosh Rastogi out of the invvestigation of 2G spectrum which was rectified on apex court's intervention and during the pendency of an application seeking recusal of Sinha from the spectrum matter, another "very disturbing" thing has happened.

"Last night I came across very disturbing and explosive material. The entry register of Director's residence," Bhushan said and referred to a news report which claimed that top executives of a company indicted in 2G scam met CBI Director at his residence in the last 15 months.

While CPIL counsel was reading his note, senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the CBI intervened and asked the bench to pass an order that all materials be placed before the court in a sealed envelope.

Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, who was appearing in a 2G related matter for DMK MP Kanimozhi, one of the accused in the scam, came to the defence of CBI Director by saying that "he is performing his duty well but all kinds of allegations are being levelled."

Sinha deputed senior advocate Vikas Singh, who said allegations are being made and it appears that attempts are being made to destroy CBI as an institution.

Jethmalani said everytime Bhushan comes out with notes the CPIL should be asked to make its submission through affidavit.

The bench asked CPIL to make its submission by way of affidavit and posted the hearing on Thursday when it will also hear the NGO's application seeking recusal of Sinha from all 2G matters allegedly for trying to protect some influential accused in the scam.

The NGO alleged that the "Director has made serious attempts to derail the investigation and prosecution being carried out by the CBI".

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News Network
June 11,2020

New Delhi, Jun 11: The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 8,102 and the number of cases climbed to 2,86,579 in the country after it registered the highest single-day spike of 357 fatalities and 9,996 cases till Thursday 8 AM, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The number of recoveries remained more than the active novel coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day.

The number of active cases stands at 1,37,448 while 1,41,028 people have recovered and one patient has migrated to another country, as per the data.   

"Thus, around 49.21 per cent patients have recovered so far," an official said.

The total number of confirmed cases include foreigners.

Of the 357 new deaths reported till Thursday morning, 149 were in Maharashtra, 79 in Delhi, 34 in Gujarat, 20 in Uttar Pradesh, 19 in Tamil Nadu, 17 in West Bengal, eight in Telangana, seven each in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, four in Rajasthan, three each in Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka, two each in Kerala and Uttarakhand, one each in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh.

Out of the total 8,102 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,438 deaths followed by Gujarat with 1,347 deaths, Delhi with 984, Madhya Pradesh with 427, West Bengal with 432, Tamil Nadu with 326, Uttar Pradesh with 321, Rajasthan with 259 and Telangana with 156 deaths.

The death toll reached 78 in Andhra Pradesh, 69 in Karnataka and 55 in Punjab. Jammu and Kashmir has reported 51 fatalities due to the coronavirus disease, while 52 deaths have been reported from Haryana, 33 from Bihar, 18 from Kerala, 15 from Uttarakhand, nine from Odisha and eight from Jharkhand.

Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have registered six COVID-19 fatalities each, Chandigarh has five while Assam has recorded four deaths so far. Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each, according to the ministry's data.

More than 70 per cent of the deaths are due to comorbidities, the ministry's website stated.

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News Network
March 5,2020

Mumbai, Mar 5: Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal and few others have been booked by the ED in a money laundering case even as the agency is conducting searches at his premises, officials said on Thursday.

They said a criminal case against the former chairman of the airlines has been filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after taking cognisance of a recent Mumbai Police FIR filed against him.

The Enforcement Directorate carried out raids at Goyal's premises in Mumbai on Wednesday and also questioned him after filing the case, they said.

The action is continuing, they added.

The Mumbai Police FIR pertains to charges of alleged fraud by Goyal and others against a Mumbai-based travel company.

Goyal has earlier been grilled by the central probe agency in a case filed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in September last year.

The agency had carried out similar raids, under the FEMA, in August last year against Goyal, his family and others.

ED has alleged in the past that the businessman's empire had 19 privately-held companies, five of which were registered abroad.

The agency is probing charges that these firms allegedly carried out “doubtful” transactions under the guise of selling, distribution and operating expenses.

The ED suspects that expenses at these companies were allegedly booked at fake and high costs and as a result, they “projected” huge losses.

Alleged shady aircraft lease transactions with non-existent offshore entities are also under the ED scanner and it is suspected that Jet Airways made payments for lease rental to “ghost firms”, which purportedly routed the ill-gotten money in Goyal's companies.

A full-service carrier, Jet Airways shut its operations in April last year after running out of cash.

A month earlier, Goyal had stepped down as the chairman of Jet Airways.

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News Network
April 17,2020

New Delhi, Apr 17: With 1,076 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours and 32 deaths, India's total count of coronavirus cases has surged to 13,835, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

The total cases are inclusive of 1,766 cured and discharged patients, one migrated and 452 deaths. At present, there are 11,616 active COVID-19 cases in the country.

Before the lockdown, the doubling rate of COVID-19 cases was about three days, but according to the data of the past 7 days, the doubling rate of cases now stands at 6.2 days, said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare.

"Before the lockdown, doubling rate of COVID-19 cases was about three days but according to the data of past 7 days, the doubling rate of cases now stands at 6.2 days," Aggarwal said during the daily briefing on COVID-19.

Aggarwal said that as many as 5 lakh rapid antibody testing kits are being distributed to States and Districts where a high case burden has been observed.

"A total of 1,919 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 1.73 lakh isolation beds, 21,800 ICU beds readied in India," he added. 

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