Narco trade via Darknet, Bitcoin reported in India for 1st time

[email protected] (CD Network)
July 17, 2016

New Delhi, Jul 17: Drug trafficking in India is on a new 'high' with anti-narcotics agencies having detected the crime being perpetrated through the cryptic 'darknet' and the clandestine and unregulated currency Bitcoin.

NarcoThe Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), chief law enforcement and intelligence agency responsible for fighting drug trafficking and abuse of illegal substances, has interdicted two such syndicates operating in the country.

"For the first time, we have detected drug traffickers using the darknet and Bitcoin for running the illegal drug racket in India. I can tell you that our investigations have shown that some of these operatives are based in the country. We are probing them," NCB Director General R R Bhatnagar said.

While 'darknet' is a clandestine internet network which can only be accessed with specific software, configurations and authorisation and is difficult to track by the usual communications protocols and ports, Bitcoin is referred to as a cryptocurrency that allows consumers to make electronic transactions by skipping the legal banking channels.

The NCB boss said the two syndicates interdicted by them were prima facie seen indulging in trafficking of party drugs.

The usage of such ultra-secret measures over the internet in drug crimes is worrying but we are enhancing our capabilities to effectively and timely detect these instances, he said.

Bhatnagar, while talking about the drug trafficking scenario in the country, said the cross-border availability of heroin has decreased.

"Our estimate is that due to effective clampdown by the agencies tasked to check the drugs menace, there has been a 30 per cent decline in trafficking in Punjab," the DG said.

At a review meeting of the agency recently, Bhatnagar had informed the Union Home Ministry that drug addicts in Punjab were gradually getting attracted to medicine-based concoctions following the clampdown on peddling of traditional narcotic drugs.

The official data for 2015 show that Punjab accounted for the maximum seizures of opium and heroin nationwide.

The latest trends suggest that synthetic drugs are now replacing the natural and semi-synthetic products that have been abused for several decades.

A report prepared by NCB said, "Despite strict controls and monitoring put in place for certain pharmaceutical products, there is evidence indicating their diversion for abuse."

He said it was worrying the law enforcement agencies which were taking steps to check such drug abuse.

Bhatnagar said the NCB, in coordination with state police and border guarding forces like BSF and SSB, has seized over 2 lakh bottles of codeine-based (a sleep-inducing and analgesic drug derived from morphine) syrup, like the popular brand Phensedyl, from the eastern parts of the country in the first six months of this year.

The NCB report said in 2015, 1,687 kg of opium, 1,416 kg of heroin, 94,403 kg of ganja, 3,349 kg of hashish, 113 kg of cocaine, 827 kg of ephedrine or pseudoephedrine among others were seized by various agencies across the country.

"Illicit opium poppy cultivation spread over 5,000 acres was destroyed all over the country. This is about 60 per cent more than the comparative figures of the last few years," the DG said.

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Agencies
July 4,2020

The Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission has captured the image of Phobos, the closest and biggest moon of Mars.

The image was taken on July 1 when MOM was about 7,200 km from Mars and 4,200 km from Phobos.

"Spatial resolution of the image is 210 m.

This is a composite image generated from 6 MCC frames and has been color corrected," ISRO said in an update along with the image.

Phobos is largely believed to be made up of carbonaceous chondrites.

According to ISRO, "the violent phase that Phobos has encountered is seen in the large section gouged out from a past collision (Stickney crater) and bouncing ejecta."

"Stickney, the largest crater on Phobos along with the other craters (Shklovsky, Roche & Grildrig) are also seen in this image," it said.

The mission also known as Mangalyaan was initially meant to last six months, but subsequently ISRO had said it had enough fuel for it to last "many years."

The country had on September 24, 2014 successfully placed the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft in orbit around the red planet, in its very first attempt, thus breaking into an elite club.

ISRO had launched the spacecraft on its nine-month- long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013.

It had escaped the earth's gravitational field on December 1, 2013.

The Rs 450-crore MOM mission aims at studying the Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scan its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).

The Mars Orbiter has five scientific instruments - Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA), Mars Colour Camera (MCC) and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer

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Agencies
June 27,2020

Mumbai, Jun 27: The Bombay High Court observed that COVID-19 patients from poor and indigent sections cannot be expected to produce documentary proof to avail subsidised or free treatment while getting admitted to hospitals.

The court on Friday was hearing a plea filed by seven residents of a slum rehabilitation building in Bandra, who had been charged ₹ 12.5 lakh by K J Somaiya Hospital for COVID-19 treatment between April 11 and April 28.

The bench of Justices Ramesh Dhanuka and Madhav Jamdar directed the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh in the court.

The petitioners had borrowed money and managed to pay ₹10 lakh out of ₹12.5 lakh that the hospital had demanded, after threatening to halt their discharge if they failed to clear the bill, counsel Vivek Shukla informed the court.

According to the plea, the petitioners were also overcharged for PPE kits and unused services.

On June 13, the court had directed the state charity commissioner to probe if the hospital had reserved 20% beds for poor and indigent patients and provided free or subsidised treatment to them.

Last week, the joint charity commissioner had informed the court that although the hospital had reserved such beds, it had treated only three poor or indigent persons since the lockdown.

It was unfathomable that the hospital that claimed to have reserved 90 beds for poor and indigent patients had treated only three such persons during the pandemic, advocate Shukla said.

He further argued that COVID-19 patients, who are in distress, cannot be expected to produce income certificate and such documents as proof.

However, senior advocate Janak Dwarkadas, who represented the hospital, said the petitioners did not belong to economically weak or indigent categories and had not produced documents to prove the same.

A person who is suffering from a disease like COVID-19 cannot be expected to produce certificates from a tehsildar or social welfare officer before seeking admission in the hospital, the bench noted and asked the hospital to deposit ₹10 lakh in court within two weeks.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

New Delhi, Jul 13: The Income Tax Department has facilitated a new functionality for banks and post offices to ascertain TDS applicability rates on cash withdrawal of above Rs 20 lakh in case of a non-filer of the income-tax return and that of above Rs 1 crore in case of a filer of the income-tax return.

In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that now banks and post offices have to only enter the PAN of the person who is withdrawing cash for ascertaining the applicable rate of TDS.

So far, more than 53,000 verification requests have been executed successfully on this facility, a statement by the CBDT said.

"CBDT today said that this functionality available as 'Verification of applicability u/s 194N' on www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in since 1st July 2020, is also made available to the Banks through web-services so that the entire process can be automated and be linked to the Bank's internal core banking solution," it said.

On entering PAN by the bank or the post office, a message will be instantly displayed on the departmental utility: "TDS is deductible at the rate of 2 per cent if cash withdrawal exceeds Rs 1 crore", in case the person withdrawing cash is a filer of the income-tax return.

In case the person withdrawing cash is a non-filer of income tax return, the message shown would be: "TDS is deductible at the rate of 2 per cent if cash withdrawal exceeds Rs 20 lakh and at the rate of 5 per cent if it exceeds Rs 1 crore."

The CBDT said that the data on cash withdrawal indicated that huge amount of cash is withdrawn by the persons who have never filed income-tax returns.

To ensure filing of return by these persons and to keep track on cash withdrawals by the non-filers, and to curb black money, the Finance Act, 2020 with effect from July 1, 2020 further amended IT Act to lower threshold of cash withdrawal to Rs 20 lakh for the applicability of this TDS for the non-filers and also mandated TDS at the higher rate of 5 per cent on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore by the non-filers.

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