ED gets D K Shivakumar's custody till Sept 13

Agencies
September 4, 2019

New Delhi, Sept 4: A Delhi court on Wednesday sent Karnataka's senior Congress leader and former Minister D K Shivakumar into the custody of Enforcement Directorate till September 13 in a money laundering case lodged against him.

Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar granted nine days of custodial interrogation of the Karnataka's strongman, though the agency sought 14 days, saying the accused has remained evasive and non-cooperative in four days of questioning at its headquarters here in Delhi.

Arrested a day before, Shivakumar was produced before the court here this afternoon, after taking him from RML Hospital where he spent his night due to medical complications, including varying blood pressure.

After two hours of lengthy arguments from the prosecution and the defence, the court rejected his plea for conditional bail. It allowed him to meet his family members for 15 minutes. However, his request to issue a message to the people of Karnataka not to create any law and order problem was not allowed by the court.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi and Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Shivakumar questioned the ED's plea for 14 days of custody remand. They said the whole case was based upon Income Tax searches which were carried out on in August, 2017, which finally resulted into an I-T complaint on June 13, 2018. This case was subsequently stayed by the High Court and the order of stay remained in operation till date.

Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, along with counsel Naveen Kumar Matta, pointed out that the Income Tax investigation and statement of various witness revealed several incriminating evidence against Shivakumar. After summons, he appeared before the ED officers, but he remained evasive and did not reveal the truth.

Singhvi cited Article 20 of the Constitution to contend that the accused cannot be made to make a self-incriminating statement against himself.

The ED's counsel contended that he was arrested for the offence of money laundering, which was an independent offence under the PMLA Act. The contention that it was only the I-T offences was not correct and the offence of criminal conspiracy was also attracted, they said.

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coastaldiget.com web desk
June 18,2020

Amidst heightened border tensions between Indian and China, senior BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's two year old tweet comparing his party with Communist Party of China started going viral. 

The tweet, dated 26 June, 2016 reads: "Communist Party of China & BJP have done numerous works in social field. This way, there is tremendous similarities between the two parties." (sic)

Twitterati dug up this tweet after over 20 Indian Army personnel, including a colonel, were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh earlier this week.

Soon after Chouhan's tweet went viral, netizens took to the micro-blogging site and slammed BJP. One user said, "Interesting comment by Hindutva ITSELF to recognise how similar they are with China. No doubt. Both believe in Dragon Throne .... and brutal absolute control." Another user said, "No wonder the BJP & China both agree that PLA never crossed into Indian territory."

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: An official of South Western Railway has been suspended for "hiding" her son, who returned from Germany and later tested positive for coronavirus.

The youth has been hiding at a railway guest house in Bengaluru, officials said on Friday.

"She (the railway official) not only failed to inform authorities about her son's return from Germany, but also endangered the lives of others by lodging him in a railway rest house near the main Bangalore railway station," railway spokesperson E Vijaya said.

The Assistant Personnel Officer (Traffic) has been suspended, Vijaya said.

The 25-year-old man, who came from Germany via Spain and was instructed to be in home quarantine after he landed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on March 13, later tested positive for Covid-19 on March 18.

"She virtually hid her son to protect her family but endangered all of us," a South Western Railway official said.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
June 27,2020

New Delhi, June 27: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government of India is not ready to stop all imports from aggressive China in spite of mount calls to boycott Chinese products in India.

The Centre is reportedly considering to stop only non-essential imports from the neighbouring country.

However, the Inward shipment in sectors such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals, certain electronics and others will continue until a domestic alternative is found.

“India will gradually move towards import substitution. It will not happen overnight. In the meantime, attention has to be paid on production and job creation. We cannot throttle our industry. There are certain absolutely essential imports. Needless to say, those will keep going,” official sources said.

Sources said that both the government and the industry are in the process of identifying products that can be domestically manufactured in the medium term. There are certain chemicals, automotive components, handicrafts, cosmetics, agriculture items and certain consumer electronics, which can be manufactured domestically in the short to medium term. The government is doing all it can to raise the capacity of domestic industries.

However, there are certain other imports in the automobile and the pharmaceutical sectors which cannot be done away within the short to medium term. Their domestic production at the moment may not be that cost-effective.

The six-crore strong traders’ body CAIT has been at the forefront of such a demand and has launched a campaign to celebrate Indian Diwali this year with a total absence of Chinese goods.

“Ease of doing business, capital availability at lower rates and globally competitive logistics and energy costs are some of the prerequisites that the government should look into to ensure the growth of the domestic auto component industry,” according to Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) Director General Vinnie Mehta.

Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava said, “People who are boycotting Chinese goods have to remember that in some cases it may lead to their being asked to pay more for the same product."

Meanwhile, domestic rating agency Acuite Ratings & Research has analysed the current import portfolio from China and found 40 sub-sectors have the potential to lower their import dependency on China. These sectors contribute to $33.6 billion worth of imports from China and about 25% of these imports can be substituted by local manufacturing without any significant additional investments.

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