ED searches premises of 3 people linked to Robert Vadra's firms

Agencies
December 8, 2018

New Delhi, Dec 8: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Friday carried out searches against three people linked to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, in connection with its probe into alleged "commissions received by some suspects in defence deals" and illegal assets stashed abroad, officials said.

This is for the first time that Vadra's associates have been linked to alleged commissions received in defence deals by the Enforcement Directorate.

The raids that began around 12 noon were carried out at multiple premises in Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, they said.

"The searches were carried out at the premises of two employees of firms linked to Vadra and another person. These people are suspected to have received commissions out of a defence deal and they subsequently invested these funds to procure illegal assets abroad," ED sources claimed.

They said they have some "fresh evidence" to take action.

They, however, did not disclose the names of the people whose premises were searched or the defence deal under their scanner stating that the "search action was ongoing".

The raids come three days after the CBI extradited Christian James Michael, the alleged middleman in Rs 3,700 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal.

The searches left Vadra's lawyer Suman Jyoti Khaitan fuming. He alleged that the ED teams entered the premises of associates of his client without showing "search warrants".

He claimed that the premises were locked from inside and questioned the government's motive behind it.

Khaitan went on to claim that probably evidence was being fabricated.

The Congress party also reacted sharply on the Enforcement Directorate's action and said an "unnerved" Modi government was unleashing "vendetta" against party chief Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law to divert the narrative.

"Sure shot defeat in 5 States unnerves Modi Govt to again use the old tools - unleash revenge and vendetta against Mr Robert Vadra to divert the narrative," Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.

"Such cowardice and intimidation will not subjugate either the Congress Party or the will of people," he said.

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News Network
March 16,2020

New Delhi, Mar 16: A total of 110 cases of coronavirus, including 17 foreign nationals have been confirmed across India, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Sunday.

The maximum positive cases have been reported from Maharashtra (32), followed by Kerala (22).

The total number of passengers screened at airports is 12,76,046, the ministry said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that Europe has become the new 'epicentre' of the coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 15 lakh people with over 6,000 deaths globally.

The virus had first emerged in China's Wuhan city in December last year.

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News Network
February 9,2020

Feb 9: The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in Delhi Assembly polls are kept under tight security, in the 'Strong Room' located at Atal Adarsh Bengali Balika Vidyalaya in Gol Market.

Voting for Delhi Assembly elections took place on Saturday with voters turnout well short of the 2015 election mark.

Counting of the votes will be on February 11.

Earlier, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain had said the Delhi elections took place peacefully and smoothly.

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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.

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