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Saradha scam: Suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh attempts suicide in prison cell

November 14, 2014

Saradha scamKolkata, Nov 14: Suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh, jailed in the Saradha chit fund case, was admitted to a Kolkata hospital in the wee hours of Friday after attempting suicide inside his high-security prison cell.

Ghosh, a member of Rajya Sabha, was rushed to the SSKM Hospital in the city after reportedly consuming more than 50 sleeping pills. Doctors carried out a gastric suction on him. His condition was said to be critical but stable. He is on oxygen support.

"He was brought here at 3am in a drowsy condition. He is better now," said Pradip Mitra, the director of Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research in the hospital.

The guard deployed outside his cell at night noticed the MP was unconscious, and informed the jail officers. The local police station was informed, and Ghosh rushed to the hospital.

Doctors told HT he probably consumed tablets of the alprazolam group, a popular sedative, but it is still not known how he managed to get them inside the Presidency central jail. His prison cell is guarded by two securitymen.

A source told HT that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths will grill the jail authorities on how Ghosh accessed the sedatives.

Ghosh, in front of a judge, had threatened suicide on Monday unless the influential people named in the scam were not arrested within 72 hours.

"He was extremely depressed even during the last hearing (on Monday). We informed the court too. It is surprising how sedatives found their way inside the jail," said Soumyajit Raha, Kunal Ghosh's lawyer.

Ghosh, who was the chief executive officer of the media arm run by the Saradha Group, had earlier said he was made a scapegoat, and the 'biggest beneficiary' of the scam was Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

He had also accused other top Trinamool Congress leaders of being involved in the scam.

Alongside Saradha Group chief Sudipta Sen and his close associate Debjani Mukherjee, Ghosh has been named in a CBI chargesheet in connection with the case.

The ruling Trinamool Congress indefinitely suspended Ghosh in September last year after he embarrassed the party by alleging that its top leadership was trying to frame him.

The shadow of the Saradha chit fund scam has been hounding Banerjee and her government since it exploded in early 2013. The issue had triggered a storm during the Lok Sabha election campaign, with opposition parties training guns on Banerjee over the scam.

Last year, the Centre had ordered a multi-agency probe into the activities of the Kolkata-based group in the scandal estimated to be worth around Rs. 20,000 crore.

The company's promoters and top executives were accused by angry investors of creating a web of companies across several states in eastern India to dupe small depositors.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Chennai, Jul 30: Tamil Nadu government on Thursday extended the Covid-19 lockdown till August 31, giving only a few relaxations like allowing delivery of non-essential goods by e-commerce sites. The ban on public transport has been extended till August 31, while availing of e-pass for inter-district and inter-state travel will continue to be in force.

In a detailed statement, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced a “complete lockdown” during which only essential services would continue to be in force on all Sundays during the month of August across the state.  

In Chennai, restaurants will be allowed to open dine-in facilities at 50 percent of its total capacity from 6 am to 7 pm from August 1, while vegetable shops, grocery outlets and standalone commercial establishments will also be allowed to remain open from 6 am to 7 pm.

E-commerce sites have been allowed to begin delivery of non-essential goods from August 1, while the ban on public transport, temples in urban areas and towns, cinema halls, shopping malls, and gyms would continue till August 31.

It also said companies or factories in Chennai that have been allowed to function with 50 percent of staff can increase their strength to 75 percent from August 1.

COVID-19 Pandemic Tracker: 15 countries with the highest number of coronavirus cases, deaths

The government also asked companies to encourage its employees to work from home and advised commercial establishments to follow the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as advised by it. Inter-state or inter-district travel will be allowed only with e-pass, while ban on metro and suburban trains continues.

The decision to extend the lockdown till August 31 comes as Tamil Nadu continues to grapple with an increasing number of coronavirus cases. The prevalence of the virus is no more limited to one city or region of the state with almost all districts reporting fresh cases, some of them over 200 new patients, every day.

On Thursday morning, Tamil Nadu’s Covid-19 tally was 2,34,114 including 1,72,883 discharges and 3,741 deaths. The active cases stood at 57,490.

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News Network
January 21,2020

Jan 21: Indian policymakers may make it easier for companies to tap foreign funding, as a prolonged cash squeeze makes it tough for firms to borrow at home.

Investors are speculating about potential steps Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could unveil when she presents the nation’s budget on Feb. 1. These measures may include freeing up firms to borrow at higher rates and offering tax breaks to global funds.

“The government will need to relax local rules to make it easier for Indian companies to raise debt overseas and tide over the funding crunch in the onshore market,” said Raj Kothari, London-based head of trading at Jay Capital Ltd. “At the same time, they need to ensure that the borrowers tapping offshore markets abide with stricter corporate governance so as to avoid further defaults.”

A prolonged crisis in India’s shadow bank sector and a pile of bad loans at traditional lenders is making it expensive for Indian companies, other than the best-rated firms, to access funding. The government has tried a series of measures to spur domestic credit, including providing so-called credit enhancement and allowing tiny firms to restructure debt.

Here are some steps Sitharaman may consider to spur foreign borrowing:

• She could raise the cap of 450 basis points above Libor, which limits overall foreign debt costs for Indian companies

• This could help lower-rated firms sell bonds abroad. Indian companies rated BBB currently borrow at more than 10%, about 3.8 percentage points more than their top-rated peers;

• Sitharaman could waive the withholding tax foreign investors need to pay on holdings of rupee-denominated debt sold by Indian companies abroad

• The waiver was offered between September 2018 to March 2019, but wasn’t extended as the highest global interest rates since the financial crisis deterred Indian borrowers. Since then, the three-month Libor has dropped by about 1 percentage point

• She could permit Indian property developers and housing finance lenders to sell overseas bonds for reasons beyond affordable housing projects

• New funding lines to the real estate sector, arguably ground zero of India’s economic slowdown, could help kickstart consumption and investment as the industry is the nation’s biggest job-creator.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Lucknow, Jul 2: After a video showing health workers allegedly tossing bodies of coronavirus victims in a large pit in Karnataka, BSP President Mayawati on Wednesday stated that the incident is the "height of cruelty and insult to humanity".
The former UP Chief Minister demanded that the guilty must be punished.

"The tragedy that the bodies of COVID-19 victims being thrown into trenches in Ballari, Karnataka is the height of cruelty and an insult to humanity. Though incidents related to inhuman cruelty with corona patients are rampant but guilty of Ballari must be punished by the state government," Mayawati said in a tweet.

Also, in another tweet, she asked the Central government to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana till the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

"In order to check ignominy of starvation on account of long unprecedented hardship & unemployment due to coronavirus and the subsequent nationwide lockdown, the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna must continue not till November but till the end of the pandemic, this is the demand of BSP," she tweeted. 

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