BJP mounts attack on Siddaramaiah, rakes up Hublot watch issue again

Agencies
May 7, 2018

Bengaluru, May 7: Stepping up the attack against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the BJP has accused him of 'aiding, abetting, protecting and promoting' the cheating of private investors in an alleged Ponzi scheme run by a company.

The BJP intends to file a complaint with the governor to sanction the prosecution of Siddaramaiah for dealing with company, "which is declared as a threat to national security by the Serious Frauds Investigation Office (SFIO)," party spokesperson Sambit Patra told reporters in Bengaluru on Sunday.

The BJP also sought to know whether Siddaramaiah received the costly Hublot watch for 'facilitating' the company, QI Group of Companies, headed by Vijay Eswaran, to operate in the state. Embroiled in a controversy over the diamond-studded Hublot watch in March 2016, Siddaramaiah had handed it over to the Assembly speaker, asking him to make it a state asset.

The chief ninister had also said he would furnish relevant documents of the watch to the Lokayukta and Income Tax.

He had said that the watch was gifted to him by his NRI friend Dr Girish Chandra Varma in July 2015.

"I know him since 1983 and whenever he visits India, he meets me," he had said. Siddaramiah also said Varma has no official dealings with the Government of Karnataka or its organisations.

Patra said the SFIO has mentioned the names of Gold Quest and Quest Net, and read out its findings. In 2009, the CB-CID Chennai had declared Vijay Eswaran an absconder and in 2010, SFIO said such companies were a national threat, he said.

Between 2013 and 2016, the Mumbai and Delhi Economic Offence Wing placed voluminous chargesheets saying that these were fraudulent companies, he added.

Releasing pictures of Siddaramaiah with Vijay Eswaran, Patra said he had met him in September 2013.

The issue of MS Gold Quest International Pvt Ltd and Gold Quest Enterprises India Pvt Ltd was discussed in March and April in 2013, when the UPA government told the Parliament that they were fraudulent companies, he alleged.

In September 2013, Siddaramaiah met the absconder Eswaran in China, which was published in the website of the Information and Public Relations department of the Karntaka government in September 11, 2013, Patra claimed.

The state government report said the chief minister met Eswaran, welcomed him to invest in Karnataka and asked him to participate in the Global Investors Meet in the state. The company expressed interest in investment in e-Retail and IT Education sector, it said.

The company's business lines include lifestyles, leisure, luxury and luxury collectable and luxury watches.

Patra further said, "They deal in luxury watches, costly watches, exquisite watches. These are one of the items they deal with."

After a promise by Siddaramaiah, certain companies and QNet started operating in Karnataka and thousands and lakhs of people were duped by them, he claimed.

Ironically, Patra said, no FIR was lodged against these companies. "Even if the complaint was lodged, there was no FIR. The company’s names were not mentioned. When these people saw that the state government was not ready to work for them, the victims approached SEBI."

Patra also said SEBI shot off a letter to the government of Karnataka on December 23, 2016 to act against them.

However, the FIR was registered only recently when the Siddaramaiah government was reduced to a caretaker government due to the Assembly polls, the BJP spokesperson said.

In a statement, QNET said it operates in India through Vihaan Direct Selling (India) Private Limited, its sub-franchisee, which is into direct selling on an e-commerce platform.

The company neither solicits investments nor seeks any deposits or registration fees for joining the business, it said.

"We are of the belief that the matter represented to the BJP spokesperson is incomplete and does not reflect the current status," a company spokesperson said.

It also said Karnataka state investigated the company and filed a detailed chargesheet, which was quashed by the high court while holding that the company was not a Ponzi scheme.

The Government of India has issued guidelines (to be adopted by states) and the company is fully compliant with the same, it added.

Comments

A Kannadiga
 - 
Monday, 7 May 2018

The BJP members has become absolutely mad, hence levelling baseless allegations against Mr.  Siddaramiah, with an intention to defame him, but they will not succeed.  On election date 15/05/2018, Mr. Yeddi will collapse.

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 9,2020

New Delhi, May 9: The Trinamool Congress on Saturday responded to Union home minister Amit Shah’s charge that the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government is not facilitating the movement of stranded migrant workers.

Amit Shah has written to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, saying her government is doing “injustice” to migrant workers by not allowing the special Shramik trains to reach the state.

“Union home minister Amit Shah speaks after weeks of silence only to mislead people with lies,” the TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“The Centre is lying… West Bengal is running 711 camps for migrants in the state. We are taking good care of them,” Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the chief minister’s nephew, said.

Amit Shah had pointed out in his letter that the Centre was not receiving the “expected support” from the state government in helping stranded migrant workers from West Bengal.

“West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrants reaching the state. This is injustice with WB migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them,” Amit Shah had said in his letter to Mamata Banerjee.

The issue of migrant workers is the latest flashpoint between the Centre and the West Bengal government amid a row over the state’s efforts to control the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

The Centre and the state have exchanged allegations over the criteria for reporting deaths from the infection, and while While Bengal says the Centre is trying to politicise a public health crisis, the Union government maintains that state officials are ignoring repeated warnings to step up the fight against the disease.

Federal officials have said that the region has not conducted adequate tests and that there has been mismanagement over identifying hotspots and containing them.

Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla also slammed the state government for a very low rate of testing and high rate of mortality, 13.2%, by far the highest for any state.

The Centre has also accused the state government of not allowing cross-border movement of goods trucks to Bangladesh.

There are 1,678 Covid-19 cases and 160 deaths in West Bengal until Saturday morning.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 7,2020

Mar 7: Two Malayalam news channels, Asianet News and Media One, which were banned by the information and broadcasting ministry for their coverage of the recent violence in Delhi on Friday evening, were allowed to resume telecasting on Saturday morning.

While Asianet News appeared to have begun operations around 7am on Saturday, Media One was screening content by 9.30am.

The ministry of information and broadcasting had imposed a 48-hour ban on Asianet News and Media One for their coverage of the Delhi violence for 48 hours from 7.30pm on Friday. Both Asianet News and Media One were barred under Rule 6(1 c) and Rule 6(1e) of the Cable Television Networks Act, 1994.

The ministry of information and broadcasting alleged Asianet News and Media One were "biased" and critical of the RSS and Delhi Police.

The ban on Asianet News and Media One triggered a torrent of criticism of the move. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor asked how "Malayalam channels inflame communal passions in Delhi?" and alleged some English news channels were continuing "their brazen distortions" with impunity.

In a statement issued on Friday after the ban, Media One termed the move "unfortunate and condemnable" and called it a "blatant attack against free and fair reporting". Media One called it "an order to stop free and fair journalism".

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Agencies
May 13,2020

New Delhi, May 13: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loan for businesses, including MSMEs.

This will benefit 45 lakh small businesses, she said detailing parts of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package.

The loan will have 4-year tenure and will have a 12-month moratorium, she said.

Also, Rs 20,000 crore subordinated debt will be provided for stressed MSMEs, she said adding this would benefit 2 lakh such businesses.

The Finance Minister said a fund of funds for MSME is being created, which will infuse Rs 50,000 crore equity in MSMEs with growth potentials.

Also, MSME definition has been changed to allow units with investment up to Rs 1 crore to be called micro-units in place of Rs 25 lakh now.

Also units with turnover up to Rs 5 crore to be called micro-units, she said, adding a turnover based criteria is being introduced to define small businesses.

The investment and turnover limits for small and medium businesses have likewise been raised to allow them to retain fiscal and other benefits, she said.

Global tenders will be banned for government procurement up to Rs 200 crore, she said, adding this would help MSMEs to compete and supply in government tenders.

Comments

JM
 - 
Thursday, 14 May 2020

Fully automatic loan..... not reachable to poor needy......

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.