Amit Shah’s son’s lawyer fails to appear; Court defers defamation matter till Oct 16

Agencies
October 12, 2017

Ahmedabad, Oct 12: A metropolitan court here today adjourned the hearing of the criminal defamation case filed by BJP president Amit Shah’s son Jay against The Wire as the complainant’s advocate was not present in the court.

A lawyer for Jay Shah sought time from additional chief metropolitan magistrate S.K. Gadhvi, saying that senior advocate S.V. Raju could not be present in the court as he was busy in the high court.

The court granted the time and adjourned the hearing to October 16.

Jay Shah had filed a criminal defamation case in a metropolitan court against The Wire on Monday over a report, which claimed his firm Temple Enterprise’s turnover grew exponentially after the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014.

The magistrate had ordered a court inquiry in the matter under CrPC section 202 (to inquire into the case to decide whether or not there is sufficient ground for proceeding).

In his application, Shah prayed for “criminal action against the respondents for defaming and tarnishing the reputation of the complainant through an article, which is scandalous, frivolous, misleading, derogatory, libelous and consisting of several defamatory statements”.

The seven respondents in the case are the author of the article, Rohini Singh, founding editors of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M.K. Venu, managing editor Monobina Gupta, public editor Pamela Philipose and Foundation for Independent Journalism, a non-profit company that publishes The Wire.

The Wire‘s editors have described the defamation case as an attack on media freedom and said they intend to fight the matter vigorously.

The case seeks action against respondents under IPC Sections 500 (defamation), 109 (abetment), 39 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).

The court will issue summonses to the respondents only after the initial inquiry establishes a case.

Shah is yet to file a civil defamation suit against the respondents. He had earlier announced that he will also file a Rs 100 crore civil defamation suit.

A political storm has erupted after the article was published.

The Congress has demanded an inquiry into the matter and ouster of Amit Shah, while the BJP called the article defamatory.

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News Network
May 5,2020

New Delhi, May 5: India registered the biggest jump in numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, with 3,900 new cases and 195 deaths being reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

"3,900 COVID-19 cases and 195 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, the largest spike till now in both," according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in India reached 46,433, including 1,568 deaths, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

According to the latest update by the MoHFW, 12,727 patients in the country have been cured and discharged, or have migrated, as of today morning. At present, there are 32,138 active cases in the country.

Maharashtra with 14,541 cases is the worst-affected state by the disease, while Gujarat with 5,804 cases is second on the list.

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News Network
July 15,2020

New Delhi, Jul 15: Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Wednesday said that he is "not" joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"I am not joining BJP," said Pilot in a telephonic conversation with ANI.

The comments came a day after he was sacked as Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Pradesh Congress Committee chief by the party.

The decision to sack Pilot was taken yesterday after a CLP meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

At the meeting, as many as 102 MLAs unanimously demanded that Pilot should be removed from the party.

The Rajasthan Congress is in turmoil over the past few days. While chief minister Ashok Gehlot has blamed the BJP for attempting to destabilise the state government by poaching MLAs, Pilot has been camping in Delhi.

A controversy broke out in Rajasthan after special operation group (SOG) sent a notice to Pilot to record his statement in the case registered by SOG in the alleged poaching of Congress MLAs in the state.

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News Network
April 5,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, April 5: Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja on Sunday said that the state's preparations for containment of COVID-19 were satisfactory and added that PCR tests were going on in nine laboratories, in which upwards of eight thousand samples have been tested so far.

"Our strategy for the containment of COVID-19 is satisfactory. We are yielding good results from our strategy for tracing, isolation, testing & treatment. PCR test is going on in 9 laboratories. We have tested more than 8000 samples so far," Shailaja told ANI here.

She further said that the state government wanted to implement Rapid test in Kerala and added that they had ample PPEs and N95 masks.

"We want to implement Rapid Test in Kerala. Yesterday, we got 2000 kits; Right now, we have sufficient PPEs and N95 masks. If the number of COVID19 cases increases in the coming weeks then we will need more equipment," Shailaja said.

Keeping up with the need of the hour, the new administrative block of Kasaragod Medical College will soon be converted into a COVID-19 hospital for providing better treatment facilities to the coronavirus patients.

A team constituting 26 doctors and medical staff of the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram will join the efforts of converting the new administrative block into a COVID-19 Hospital in Kasaragod on Sunday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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