I-T raids on close aides of two more Congress MLA candidates

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 9: Malls, restaurants and places of worship opened in Kerala on Tuesday morning after over two-and half months of Coronavirus induced lockdown. There were very few visitors in the malls and restaurants in the early hours and people preferred takeaways in eateries.

Various temples, including the famous Lord Krishna temple at Guruvayoor, a few churches and mosques opened in the state for the devotees. The Guruvayur shrine opened at 9.30 am and around 150 people, who had booked through virtual queue system, offered prayers.

Devotees wearing masks were seen standing adhering to the social distance norm. A faithful at the guruvayur temple said he had booked for darshan on Sunday and was happy to be offering worship after a long gap. "This is a realisation of a dream", he said.

In the state capital while the famed Lord Padmanabha swamy, Pazhavanangadi Ganapathy and Attukal Bhagavathy temples remained shut, the SreekanteshwaraShiva shrine and Lord Hanuman temple near the state assembly were among those which opened for darshan. The names, age and other details of the worshippers are also being collected by the temple authorities before letting people in. Another devotee said it was very painful not to go to the temple and expressed happiness over reopening of the shrines.

The virtual queue booking for devotees to offer worship at the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala would commence from Wednesday. Devotees from other states have to produce a Covid-19 negative certificate while booking,sources in the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), administers the temple, said.

The Ayyappa shrine would open from June 14 to 28 for the five day monthly pooja and temple festival and only 10 people would be allowed inside the shrine at a time, sources said.

Most of the over 1,200 temples under the TDB, have opened while those under the Nair Service Society (NSS), an organisation of the Nair community and few other shrines were shut. The state government, which had come under attack from the BJP and Hindu Aikya vedi for opening the temples in a "hasty manner" has maintained that the decision was taken in line with the Centre's Unlock-1 guidelines and said those opposing the move had earlier wanted devotees to be allowed into the shrines.

As per the centre's Standard Operating Procedures, social distancing should be followed in all the places of worship and devotees should wear face mask are among other precautions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those above 65 and children below 10 years would not be allowed in places of worship, distribution of food, refreshments and offertory blessings (prasadams), sandalwood paste or ashes should be avoided. Thermal scanners to check body temperatures, sanitiisers, arrangements for washing hands, were all provided in the temples and other places of worship which opened this morning, In churches in the state capital, Kochi and Kozhikode, allowedthe faithful inside after disinfecting the place.

The orthodox church synod is being held on Tuesday which will take a decision on whether or not to open their places of worship. Few mosques were also open in some places.

New Delhi, May 9: Three promoters of Ram Dev International, recently booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating a consortium of six banks to the tune of Rs 411 crore, have already fled the country before the State Bank of India reached the agency with the complaint, officials said on Saturday.

The CBI had recently booked the company engaged in export of Basmati rice to the West Asian and European countries and its directors Naresh Kumar, Suresh Kumar and Sangita on the basis of complaint from the State Bank of India (SBI), which suffered the loss of more than Rs 173 crore, they said.

The company had three rice milling plants, besides eight sorting and grading units in Karnal district with offices in Saudi Arabia and Dubai for trading purposes, the SBI complaint said.

Besides SBI, other members of consortium are Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI, Central Bank of India and Corporation Bank, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not carry out any searches in the matter because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the officials said.

The agency will start the process of summoning the accused, incase they do not join the investigation, appropriate legal action will be initiated, they said.

According to the complaint filed by SBI, the account had become non-performing asset (NPA) on January 27, 2016.

The banks conducted a joint inspection of properties in August and October, nearly 7-9 months later only to find Haryana Police security guards deployed there, they said.

"On inquiry, it has been come to notice that borrowers are absconding and have left the country," the complaint filed on February 25, 2020, after over a year of account becoming NPA, the officials said.

The complaint alleged that borrowers had removed entire machinery from old plant and fudged the balance sheets in order to unlawfully gain at the cost of banks'' funds, it said.