Actor Rajinikanth defends Govt on CAA, says it won't affect Indian Muslims

Chennai, Mar 28: Chennai City Corporation personnel stuck a home quarantine sticker at the office of actor-politician Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam office on Saturday, leading to speculation that the matinee star was quarantined for the coronavirus.

While there was speculation if Kamal Haasan was quarantined, the Greater Chennai Corporation said their staffers pasted the sticker on the premises because actress Gautami Tadimalli "returned from Dubai recently and her passport has this address (Eldams Road in upscale Alwarpet)."

The present residence of the actress was not known immediately.

The sticker read, "We are in home quarantine to safeguard ourselves and Chennai from the coronavirus." It was removed soon, an official said, declining to elaborate.

Kamal Haasan clarified in a statement that he was not quarantined.

"Based on the notice stuck outside my house, news has been spread saying that I have been quarantined. But most of you already know that I have not been living there for the past few years and the Makkal Needhi Maiam party office has been functioning from there," he said.

Further, the actor said, the news that he has been quarantined "is not true."

As a precautionary measure, he has been maintaining social distancing, he said.

New Delhi, Jan 24: The Election Commission of India on Friday told the Supreme Court that its 2018 direction asking poll candidates to declare their criminal antecedents in electronic and print media has not helped curb criminalisation of politics. The poll panel suggested that instead of asking candidates to declare criminal antecedents in the media, political parties should be asked not to give tickets to candidates with criminal background.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat asked the ECI to come up with a framework within one week which can help curb criminalisation of politics in nation's interest.

The top court asked the petitioner BJP leader and advocate Ashiwini Upadhyay and the poll panel to sit together and come up with suggestions which would help him in curbing criminalisation of politics.

In September 2018, a five-judge Constitution bench had unanimously held that all candidates will have to declare their criminal antecedents to the Election Commission before contesting polls and had called for a wider publicity, through print and electronic media about antecedents of candidates.

Bhopal, Mar 13: The Madhya Pradesh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Thursday decided to verify facts afresh in a complaint against former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and his family, in which they are accused of falsifying a property document while selling land.

The development came after Mr Scindia quit the Congress and joined the BJP on Wednesday. 22 MLAs who belong to his camp also resigned, threatening the survival of the Kamal Nath government in the state.

"Yes, an order has been given for re-verification of facts in the complaint filed by Surendra Shrivastava," an Economic Offences Wing official told PTI.

An EOW release said Mr Shrivastava on Thursday filed a new complaint against Mr Scindia and his family, alleging that by falsifying a registry document, they sold him a piece of land at Mahalgaon which was smaller by 6,000 sq feet than the original agreement in 2009.

He had lodged the complaint first on March 26, 2014. But it was investigated and closed in 2018, the EOW official said. "As he again petitioned us today, we will re-verify the facts," the officer said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia's close aide Pankaj Chaturvedi alleged that it was political vendetta.

"The case had been closed for want of evidence. Now for vengeance, it is being reopened. We have full faith in the Constitution and law. We will get justice and Kamal Nath government a befitting reply," Mr Chaturvedi said.