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.

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News Network
June 3,2020

New Delhi, Jun 3: Over 1 lakh scanned copies of Indians' national IDs, including Aadhaar, PAN card and passport, have been put on dark web for sale, cyber intelligence firm Cyble said on Wednesday.

The leaked data seems to have originated from a third party and not from the government system, according to a report by Cyble.

"We came across a non-reputed actor who is currently selling over 1 lakh Indian National IDs on the dark net. With such a low reputation, ideally, we would have skipped this; however, the samples shared by the actor intrigued our interest -- and also the volume. The actor is alleged to have access to over 1 lakh IDs from different places in India," Cyble said.

The personal data leaked by cyber criminals leads to various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage. Many criminals use the personal details in the IDs to win trust of the people over a phone call for fraudulent activities.

Cyber criminals leak personal data of 2.9 cr job-seeking Indians on dark web for free

The Cyble researchers acquired around 1,000 IDs from the seller and confirmed that the scanned IDs belong to Indians.

"Preliminary analysis suggests that the data originated from a third party, and no indication or artefact is indicating that it came from a government system. At this point, Cyble researchers are still investigating this further -- we are hoping to share an update soon," Cyble said.

The scanned ID documents indicate that the data may have been leaked from a company's data base in the segment where they have to comply with 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) norms.

"Cyble researchers have also learned about a surge in KYC and banking scams -- leaks such as this are often used by scammers to target individuals, especially elderlies," Cyble said.

The cyber intelligence firm has recommended people to refrain from sharing personal information especially financial information over phone, e-mail or SMS.

"Regularly monitor your financial transaction, if you notice any suspicious transaction, contact your bank immediately," the company said.

In May, Cyble showed two instances where personal data of 7.65 crore Indians have been put on sale in the dark web. In one instance, the seller claimed to have sourced data of 4.75 crore Indians from online directory Truecaller and in other, the seller claimed to have sourced from job websites.

Truecaller, however, had denied the claim of breach in its database.

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News Network
June 25,2020

New Delhi, Jun 25: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday hit out at Congress for "unceremoniously sacking" its spokesperson and said that leaders in the opposition party are "feeling suffocated".

To substantiate his point, Shah referred to the recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet in which senior members and younger members raised a few issues, however, they were "shut down".

Taking to Twitter, Shah posted two English dailies' articles titled -- "Not scared of PM Modi, but many in the party dodge him: Rahul at Congress Working Committee meet" and "Congress removes Sanjay Jha as party spokesperson after critical article".

Last week, Jha was dropped as AICC spokesperson and Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti appointed as National Media Panelist of Congress party.

"During the recent CWC meet, senior members and younger members raised a few issues. But, they were shouted down. A party spokesperson was unceremoniously sacked. The sad truth is - leaders are feeling suffocated in Congress," the Union Minister tweeted.

Meanwhile, Shah also targetted Congress on the completion of 45 years of emergency, which was imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975 and asked the party to self introspect.

"As one of India's opposition parties, Congress needs to ask itself: Why does the Emergency mindset remain? Why are leaders who do not belong to 1 dynasty unable to speak up? Why are leaders getting frustrated in Congress? Else, their disconnect with people will keep widening," he wrote.

Comments

Fairman
 - 
Thursday, 25 Jun 2020

Jha the spokesperson, tried to be under the payroll of BJP, so disciplinary action was imminent.

 

Discipline has no compromise.

Mohammed
 - 
Thursday, 25 Jun 2020

If i am not wrong you have already purchased suffocated leaders from congress.

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News Network
May 27,2020

Muzaffarpur, May 27: A toddler's vain attempt to wake up his dead mother from eternal sleep on a railway platform in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Wednesday presented the most poignant picture of the massive migrant tragedy unfolding across several states.

A video tweeted by Sanjay Yadav, an aide to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, shows the child walking unsteadily up to his mother's body, tugging at the blanket placed over her, and when failing to wake her up, covering his own head with it.

As the mother still lay still, he wobbles away from her, announcements continuing in the background about the arrival and departure of trains that would bring in tens of thousands of people in a rush to get away from hunger and hardship they face in large cities that could sustain them no more.

"This small child doesn't know that the bedsheet with which he is playing is the shroud of his mother who has gone into eternal sleep. This mother died of hunger and thirst after being on a train for four days. Who is responsible for these deaths on trains? Shouldn't the opposition ask uncomfortable questions?" tweeted Yadav.

However, police had a different story to tell.

Ramakant Upadhyay, the Dy SP of the Government Railway Police in Muzaffarpur, said the incident occurred on May 25 when the migrant woman was on way to Muzaffarpur from Ahmedabad by a Shramik Special train.

He told reporters the woman, who was accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, had died on the Madhubani bound train.

"My sister-in-law died suddenly on the train. We did not face any problem getting food or water," the officer said, quoting the deceased's brother-in-law who he did not name.

He said on getting information, poice brought down the body and sent it for postmortem.

Citing the brother-in-law of the deceased, Upadhyay said she was aged 35 years and was undergoing treatment for "some disease" for the last one year in Ahmedabad. "She was also mentally unstable," he said.

When persistently queried about the cause of death, he said,"Only doctors can tell".

A massive exodus of migrant workers is on in several parts of the country, unprecedented in magnitude since Partition.

The humanitarian crisis still unfolding on highways and railway platforms has shone light on disturbing tales of entire families walking hundreds of kilometres with little children on foot in a seemingly endless march to escape hunger.

People have been found travelling on trucks and in the hollow of concrete mixing plants, and in many cases, dying from hunger and exhaustion before reaching their destinations.

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