India-born millionaire's arrest shakes up UK politics

February 16, 2014

Roll_RoyceLondon, Feb 16: The arrest of an India-born businessman and his son as part of a probe by the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into allegations of bribery at aerospace and defence major Rolls-Royce has shaken the corridors of power in Britain.

Multi-millionaire Sudhir Choudhrie and his son Bhanu, well-known as major political donors to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrat party, were arrested and questioned for several hours on Wednesday before being bailed without conditions.

A spokesperson for the duo said they "deny all wrongdoing and are cooperating fully with the investigation". Britain's coalition partners Liberal Democrats are now under the spotlight over their close links with Mr Choudhrie, known to friends as Bunny. He has given the party over 500,000 pounds since 2010 and over one million pounds since 2004.

The entrepreneur, who moved to the UK in 2002 and is now based at a 5-million pound apartment in London's posh Chelsea neighbourhood, had been on a list of nominations from Mr Clegg's office to be a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords, but his name mysteriously did not go forward in 2013.

His son Bhanu manages the family business, C&C Alpha Group, as its chief executive. The group runs hospitals and care homes across the UK among a string of other ventures, including real estate.

Personal links with the Choudhrie family are set to further embarrass the Liberal Democrats as it emerged that Mr Clegg and his wife Miriam, hosted their family charity Path to Success at Lancaster House, a UK government building, in 2011.

The Choudhries have regularly attended other events alongside Mr Clegg and other senior Liberal Democrats, including Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat Justice Minister, who received a 60,000-pound donation from Mr Choudhrie last year.

A Liberal Democrat spokesperson said the party was aware of the allegations but could not comment while the investigation is ongoing. The SFO is probing whether Mr Sudhir Choudhrie was an intermediary used by Rolls-Royce, two people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times newspaper.

According to some media reports, Indian authorities are believed to have recently dropped a separate investigation into Mr Choudhrie as part of a probe into deals done by Italian consortium Finmeccanica. No charges were brought against him and he strongly denied all wrongdoing.

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News Network
May 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, May 25: About 100 people, including a Magistrate and some police personnel, have been asked to go into quarantine after an accused, who was produced before a lower court here following his arrest, later testedpositive, officials said on Monday. The accused, who was arrested along with two others in connection with a case relating to illicit liquor transportation two days ago, had been shifted to thePoojapura central jail after he was remanded to judicial custody.

With his sample testing positive on Sunday, theman has been sent to a designated COVID-19 hospital. The Nedumangad court magistrate, before whom he was produced, 34 police personnel, including a circle inspector, who were on duty at the Venjaramoodu police station when the accused was broughtafter his arrest, some employees of a government hospital where his swab sample was taken and 12 officials of thePoojapura central jail have gone into quarantine, police sources said.

. Meanwhile, Malayalam film actor Suraj Venjaramoodu and Vamanapuram MLA D K Murali (CPI) are under self-imposed quarantineas they had attended a function in which the circle inspector had taken part.

Two days ago, a car in which illicit liqour was being transported had hit a policeman and sped away, but people managed to stop the vehicle and the three accused, who were in an inebriated state, were arrested, sources said.

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June 17,2020

Jaipur, Jun 17: Police have registered an FIR against a television news anchor for allegedly making an objectionable comment on Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti.

The FIR was lodged after a complaint against News 18 India anchor Amish Devgan by a "khadim" at the saint's dargah in Ajmer on Tuesday night.

"He is running a communal agenda against the Muslim community. The dargah of Sufi saint is visited not only by Muslims but by people of all religions and his comments have hurt the sentiments of all," Syed Sarwar Chishti said.

The anchor later apologised on Twitter. "In 1 of my debates, I inadvertently referred to 'Khilji' as Chishti. I sincerely apologise for this grave error and the anguish it may hv caused to followers of the Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti, whom I revere. I have in the past sought blessings at his dargah. I regret this error," Devgan tweeted.

Dargah SHO Hem Raj said a case was registered under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act for outraging religious feelings.

Another complaint was lodged by activist Muzaffar Bharti at the office of Ajmer's Superintendent of Police.

He accused Devgan and his team of trying to incite riots through "misleading and objectionable debates on communal issues".

He said Devgan made highly objectionable remarks on the revered saint, which shall not be tolerated.

"The dargah of Moinuddin Chishti is the symbol of brotherhood and harmony and crores of people of different religions all over the world have deep love and faith in the saint," he said.

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April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi has been booked for culpable homicide after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to coronavirus, police said on Wednesday.

Kandhalvi had organised the religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz last month against the social distancing protocol imposed by the Centre to curb the spread of the deadly disease.

An FIR was registered against the cleric on March 31 at Crime Branch police station on a complaint of the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin.

He was earlier booked for holding the event, police said.

“After several attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat event succumbed to coronavirus, we added IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in the FIR against the leader, a police official said.

Some foreigners who attended the event have also been booked for violation of visa norms.

In an audio message, Kandhalvi had said that he was exercising self-quarantine after several hundreds who visited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamudddin Markaz tested positive for coronavirus.

The FIR registered against the Tablighi Jamaat event says that the Delhi Police contacted the authorities of Nizamuddin Markaz on March 21 and reminded them of the government order which prohibited any political or religious gathering of more than 50 people.

It says that despite repeated efforts, the event organisers failed to inform the health department or any other government agency about the huge gathering inside the Markaz and deliberately disobeyed government orders.

“The sub district magistrate of Defence Colony inspected the premises several times and found that around 1,300 people, including foreign nationals, were residing there without maintaining social distance. It was also found that there were no arrangements of hand sanitizers and face masks,” the FIR adds.

The Nizamudddin centre, attended by thousands, turned out to be a hotspot for spread of coronavirus not only in the national capital, but the entire country.

More than 25,500 Tablighi members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country after the Centre and the state governments conducted a "mega operation" to identify them.

At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin. Later, many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.

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