ED again questions P Chidambaram in Aircel-Maxis PMLA case

Agencies
August 24, 2018

New Delhi, Aug 24: The ED on Friday again questioned former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case, officials said.

Official sources said Chidambaram's statement will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

It is understood that the agency wants to put across a fresh set of questions to him regarding the deal.The agency had earlier recorded statements of FIPB officials when this deal took place and it is expected that Chidambaram may be confronted with these too.

Some specific queries on the circumstances and procedures adopted by the now-defunct Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) while giving approval to the Aircel-Maxis deal during his tenure were put to him earlier. Chidambaram's son Karti has been questioned by the ED in this case twice.

Chidambaram, after a similar questioning by the ED in this case in June, had said that what he told the agency was already recorded in government documents.He also said that there is no FIR, yet a probe had been initiated.

"More than half the time taken up by typing the answers without errors, reading the statement and signing it!," he had said in his tweet.

The Aircel-Maxis cases pertains to grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd in 2006 for investment in Aircel.

The Supreme Court had on March 12 directed investigating agencies -- the CBI and the ED -- to complete their probe into the 2G spectrum allocation cases, including the Aircel Maxis alleged money laundering case, in six months.

The agency had said that the FIPB approval in the Aircel-Maxis FDI case was granted in March 2006 by Chidambaram even though he was competent to accord approval on project proposals only up to Rs 600 crore and beyond that it required the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).

The ED is investigating "the circumstances of the FIPB approval granted (in 2006) by the then finance minister".

"In the instant case, the approval for FDI of USD 800 million (over Rs 3,500 crore) was sought. Hence, the CCEA was competent to grant the approval.

"However, the approval was not obtained from the CCEA," the ED had alleged.

The agency said its probe revealed that the case of the said FDI was "wrongly projected as an investment of Rs 180 crore so that it need not be sent to the CCEA to avoid a detailed scrutiny".

The ED is probing the Aircel-Maxis deal under the PMLA after taking cognisance of a 2011 CBI FIR in the case.

The senior Chidambaram had earlier described the ED action in this case as a "crazy mixture of falsehoods and conjectures" and said that the charge sheet filed by probe agencies was rejected by the court.

However, the agencies maintained that the FIR in the case had not been quashed.

In September last year, the ED had attached assets worth Rs 1.16 crore of Karti and a firm allegedly linked to him in connection with this case.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday paid tribute to the senior doctor of city government-run LNJP Hospital who died battling COVID-19, saying the society has "lost a very valuable fighter".

The 52-year-old doctor served in the front line of the war against the pandemic at the government facility, and died of novel coronavirus infection in an ICU of a private hospital on Sunday.

"Dr Aseem Gupta, a senior doctor of LNJP Hospital succumbed to Covid yday. He was known for going out of his way to serve his patients. We have lost a very valuable fighter. Delhi salutes his spirit and sacrifice...," Kejriwal tweeted.

The chief minister also said in his tweet that he has spoken to Dr Gupta''s wife and "offered my condolences and support".

LNJP Hospital is a dedicated COVID-19 facility under the Delhi government. It recently completed 100 days of being declared a coronavirus facility.

"LNJP Hospital has displayed great fortitude in the face of acute challenges. It''s recovery rate is going up, death rate is reducing, ICU capacity is being ramped up - the hospital is saving so many lives," the chief minister said.

A condolence meeting to pay respect to Dr Gupta has been scheduled at 1 pm in the office of the Medical Director of the hospital, a senior official said.

The doctor, a consultant anaesthesiologist died at the Max hospital, Saket in south Delhi, a private dedicated COVID-19 facility.

"He was a front line anaesthesia specialist who contracted COVID-19 infection while on duty. He tested positive on June 6, when he had mild symptoms and was shifted to a quarantine facility. His symptoms aggravated on June 7 and he was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit of the LNJP Hospital," the LNJP Hospital said in a statement on Sunday.

He was shifted to Max Hospital, Saket on June 8 on his request, it said.

The doctor was battling the disease for the last two weeks at Max Hospital, where he succumbed to the illness on Sunday, the statement said.

He was Specialist, Grade I, in the Department of Anaesthesia at the LNJP Hospital, the statement said.

Several hundreds of healthcare workers have been infected with COVID-19 till date in Delhi.

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News Network
July 25,2020

Bhopal, Jul 25: Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Saturday he has tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Chouhan made the announcement in a series of tweets.

“My dear countrymen, I had symptoms of COVID-19 and after the test, my report has come back positive. I appeal to all my colleagues that whoever came in contact with me, must get their corona test done. And my close contacts should quarantine themselves,” Chouhan said in a tweet in Hindi.

“If COVID19 is treated on time, a person is completely cured. I have been reviewing the status of corona infection every evening since March 25. I will try to review corona situation through video conferencing as much as possible now,” he added.

The chief minister said the review meeting will now be held by home minister Narottam Mishra, urban development and administration minister Bhuppendra Singh, health education minister Vishvas Sarang and health minister Dr Prabhuram Choudhary in his absence.

“I will also continue to do everything possible to help control COVID19 in the state during treatment,” he said.

One of Chouhan’s ministerial colleagues tested positive for Covid-19 late on July 22.

The chief minister along with the minister, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state unit president VD Sharma and state unit general secretary (organisation) Suhas Bhagat had visited Lucknow in a government plane on July 21 to attend the funeral of MP governor Lalji Tandon who died away in the Uttar Pradesh capital, his hometown. during hospitalisation.

The minister is admitted to a private medical college’s teaching hospital in Bhopal.

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Kannadiga
 - 
Saturday, 25 Jul 2020

Why so priority for him. There are so many  better person here in our State and District Talk and Right about them.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case on January 14.

A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

If it is rejected, they are legally bound to move a mercy petition. It is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.

The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

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