Swamy's charges against Chidambaram baseless, says government

April 29, 2012

Swamy

New Delhi, April 29: The government has rejected the allegations levelled by Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy against Home Minister P. Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis equity issue referring to them as “totally baseless”.

Last week, Dr. Swamy had charged Mr. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister, of delaying permission for the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006 to benefit his son Karti Chidambaram.

In a statement issued here the government released records of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on the issue and said, “It will be abundantly clear that there was no delay whatsoever. It is unfortunate that baseless allegations should be made without verifying the facts.”

Dr. Swamy had alleged that the proposal of M/s Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd, Mauritius (a wholly owned subsidiary of M/s Maxis Communications Berhad) to acquire 73.99 per cent equity in M/s Aircel Ltd was delayed by the then Finance Minister in order to benefit certain persons.

The release said, on January 1, 2006, that Global Communication Services Holdings Ltd acquired 26 per cent equity in Aircel Ltd through the automatic route and on January 30, 2006 the applicant applied for enhancing its equity in M/s Aircel Ltd from 26 per cent to 73.99 per cent.

“The application was processed in the normal course and the Ministries and Departments concerned took the normal time of four to six weeks to offer their comments. The proposal was included in the agenda notes circulated on February 17, 2006.

“On March 7, 2006, the matter was placed before the meeting of the FIPB. DoT conveyed its support to the proposal at the meeting. FIPB recommended the proposal for approval on March 7, 2006 and the file was moved by Deputy Secretary on March 10, 2006.

“The minutes of the FIPB meeting were placed before the then Finance Minister on March 13, 2006 and he approved the same. The formal letter of approval was issued by the Ministry of Finance on March 20, 2006.” The release stated that from the sequence of events it is abundantly clear that there was no delay whatsoever. “It is unfortunate that baseless allegations should be made without verifying the facts.”

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News Network
July 6,2020

New Delhi, Jul 6: India's COVID-19 tally neared the 7 lakh mark with 6,97,413 cases after 24,248 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

As per the Health Ministry, there are 2,53,287 active cases in the country while 4,24,432 patients have been cured or discharged. While one patient has migrated.

425 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours in the country due to COVID-19, taking the number of patients succumbing to the deadly virus to 19,693.

As per the Health Ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the most impacted state from the infection with 2,06,619 cases and 8,822 fatalities due to the virus. Tamil Nadu in second place has a total of 1,11,151 cases and 1,510 fatalities.

The national capital's COVID-19 cases are also nearing the 1-lakh mark with 99,444 coronavirus cases and 3,067 deaths.

The total number of samples tested up to July 5 is 99,69,662 of which 1,80,596 samples were tested yesterday, informed the Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday. 

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Agencies
February 23,2020

New Delhi, Feb 23: Dreaded underworld don Ravi Pujari, operating from overseas, has been reportedly arrested in South Africa and efforts are on for his deportation to India.

Pujari, who parted ways with underworld don Chhota Rajan, had jumped bail from Senegal, last year and had escaped to South Africa, where he was involved in big-time drug trafficking and extortion racket.

Sources in Indian Intelligence said that Ravi Pujari, who was hiding with a false identity of Anthony Fernandes, a Burkina Faso passport holder, was located in a remote village in South Africa.

On a tip-off from Indian external intelligence agency, the Senegal police air dashed South Africa last week. Pujari, 52, wanted in over 200 cases of heinous crimes, including murder and extortion, was detained with the help of South African agencies.

Sources in Mumbai Police said that Pujari's arrest has not yet been confirmed officially but Ministry of External Affairs is in touch with its mission in South Africa. An official in MEA refused to speak on the issue. Embassy of Senegal in Vasant Vihar, New Delhi, also did not respond to IANS' queries in connection with Pujari's arrest.

The mafioso first came into news in early 2000 when he started extorting huge amounts from famous Bollywood personalties and builders. He was involved in an attempt to murder case, aimed at killing a prominent lawyer of Mumbai.tip-off

Pujari's wife Padma and three children also fled India and some of them hold Burkina Faso passport. His son who was recently married in Australia reportedly holds an Australian passport.

Earlier last year Ravi Pujari, living under the identity of Anthony had jumped bailed from a Senegal court through fraudulent means. IANS had accessed the don's new passport. Pujari now goes under the name of Anthony Fernandes and is a citizen of Burkina Faso, a West African country, his date of birth is shown as 25.1.1961.

Pujari, a movie junkie influenced by Amitabh Bachchan's portrayal as Anthony Gonsalves in 'Amar Akbar Anthony' was using the name, Anthony Fernandes. This passport was issued on 10.7.2013 and is valid till 8.7.2023. The passport showed his profession as Agent Commercial which means that he is designated as a businessman running a chain of restaurants Namaste India in Senegal, Burkina Faso and neighbouring countries.

Pujari's lawyers in Senegal had argued in the court citing that he is Anthony Fernandes, a businessman from Burkina Faso as mentioned in his passport and not a fugitive as claimed by the Indian Government.

Clearly indicating a collision between top government functionaries of Burkina Faso and Pujari in which an influential Indian businessman, who is his partner in a restaurant chain, may have played the role of a conduit.

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News Network
June 26,2020

Jun 26: The Supreme Court on Friday permitted the Centre and the CBSE to cancel the remaining board examinations due to the COVID-19 pandemic and gave the go-ahead for the scheme to award marks to students for the cancelled papers scheduled to be held in July.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna permitted the CBSE to issue a notification for the cancellation of the examinations.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the CBSE, said that the assessment scheme would consider marks scored by students in the last three papers of the board exams.

Both CBSE and ICSE told the top court that the results of the class X and XII board exams can be declared by the middle of July.

The top court was hearing pleas seeking relief, including scrapping of remaining exams of Class 12 scheduled from July 1 to 15, in view of increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Similar relief was sought by the ICSE Board also.

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