A mob in Maharashtra’s Dhule district lynched five people on Sunday over suspicion that they were part of child lifters gang.
The incident took place at Rainpada, in Dhule district, when one of the five people tried to speak to a girl child after they got down from a state transport bus in Rainpada.
The villagers, who were there for the weekly Sunday market, attacked them in which all five of them died, while two policemen got injured, a police official said.
Police took fifteen people into custody in connection with the incident, the bodies have been shifted to the rural hospital in Pimpalner.
According to police, rumours that a gang of child lifters was active in the area were doing the rounds for a few days.
Eleven members of a family, including seven women and four men were found dead under mysterious circumstances in north Delhi’s Burari on Sunday morning.
According to Police, ten bodies were found hanging from the ceiling and blindfolded, while a 75-year-old woman’s body was found on the floor. Two of the deceased are minors, they said.
The Police said that the family was into plywood business and were staying in the locality for the last 20 years. All angles are being probed and possibility of foul play is not ruled out, police added.
Meanwhile Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi BJP Chief Manoj Tiwari visited the spot and expressed their condolences.
Latest reports by police reveals that the family members were served dinner with strong sedatives and one of the family member tied hands and covered the faces of others after they fell unconscious and then hanged them. Pratibha, one of the older women member of the family was found dead with slit throat, as per the reports.
At least 47 people were killed and 11 others got injured after a private bus they were travelling in fell into a deep gorge in Uttarakhand’s Pauri district on Sunday.
The incident occurred when the private bus, carrying 58 passengers was on its way to Ramnagar, fell into a deep gorge.
According to senior superintendent of police of Pauri, Jagat Ram Joshi, “47 people were killed and 11 others got injured, who have been taken to hospitals in Ramnagar and Haldwani for treatment. The seriously injured are being air lifted to Dehradun.”
Rescue operations were carried out by police and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) personnel, all the bodies have been recovered and the injured rescued from the deep gorge.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident and ordered a magisterial probe into the incident, he also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of those killed and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court in Mumbai on June 30 summoned Vijay Mallya to appear before the court on August 27 under the recently promulgated Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018.
Enforcement Directorate’s has filed a plea seeking action against Mallya under the fugitive economic offenders ordinance in the over Rs 9,000 crore bank fraud scam and also immediate confiscation of his assets worth around Rs 12,500 crore.
Special judge M S Azmi issued the notice to Mallya after taking cognizance of the second ED chargesheet filed against him.
“It is incorrect that my settlement offer before the Karnataka HC was motivated by the latest charge-sheet under the media reported Fugitive Ordinance. I always had honest intentions to settle and there is ample proof,” Mallya tweeted.
He added, “I am asked for comment on being labelled a fugitive economic offender. When I have placed assets on the table before the Karnataka High Court in excess of the bank claims, how can I be an economic offender? The fugitive part falls away.”
On June 22 he Mallya filed an application before the Karnataka High Court setting out available assets of approximately Rs 13,900 crores.
On reply to his application for settlement of dues M J Akbar, minister of state for external affairs, said, “if Mallya wanted to repay to the banks, he had many years in which he could have done so.”
If Mallya does not appear before the PMLA court within the given time, he will be declared as a fugitive economic offender, in addition to properties owned by him being confiscated.
Owing to incessant rains in Kashmir Valley authorities on June 30 has issued a flood alert in central Kashmir especially for low lying areas, including Srinagar. “The people living in low-lying areas and embankments of river Jhelum in Srinagar were requested to be alert and prepared for evacuation,” said Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Syed Abid Rasheed Shah.
Schools and colleges across the valley stayed closed on June 30 due to the severe weather conditions.
“The gauge at Ram Munshi Bagh crossed the flood declaration of 18 feet and was flowing at 20.87 feet at 10 am,” an official at the irrigation and flood control department said.
He also said that the staff deputed on flood duty in central Kashmir is directed to report to their sectors and beats.
Omar Abdullah while lashing out at Mehbooba Mufti’s government on preparedness regarding flood alert tweeted, “What was the PDP-BJP government doing after the devastating floods of 2014? What happened to the dredging of the Jehlum? Why was the carrying capacity of the flood channel not increased? Where did the money go?”
Due to heavy rainfall and extreme weather condition the ongoing Amarnath Yatra from Jammu was suspended for today and no batch of pilgrims is being allowed to trek towards the Himalayan cave shrine.
India on Friday welcomed the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decision to grey-list Pakistan for failing to counter terror-financing.
MEA Official Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “India welcomes the decision of the FATF to place Pakistan in its Compliance Document (grey list) for ICRG monitoring. Pakistan has given a high level political commitment to address the global concerns regarding its implementation of the FATF standards for countering terror-financing and anti-money laundering, especially in respect of UN designated and internationally proscribed terror entities and individuals.”
The FATF plenary on Friday unanimously agreed to grey-list Pakistan for failing to counter terror-financing. Pakistan will now have to show compliance of the FATF blueprint moving ahead else it can be moved to a black list next year.
“The freedom and impunity with which the designated terrorists like Hafiz Saed and entities like Jamaat-ud-Dawaa, Lashkar-e-Tayabba, Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate in Pakistan is not in keeping with such commitments. We hope that the FATF Action plan shall be complied with in a time-bound manner and credible measures would be taken by Pakistan to address global concerns related to terrorism emanating from any territory under its control,” said Raveesh Kumar.
Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday warned Indians having illegal deposits in Swiss banks, that they would be subjected to the harsh penal provisions of the black money law in India, after flow of information from Switzerland regarding bank deposits by Indians will start from January, 2019.
According to a latest report, money parked by Indian nationals in Swiss banks rose over 50 percent to CHF (Swiss franc) 1.01 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) in 2017, in comparison to 2016 which witnessed a big plunge by 45 % CHF 676 million (about Rs 4,500 crore).
Arun Jaitley in a blog said,” A news item has appeared today indicating an increase of money by ‘Indians’ in the Swiss banking system. This has led to misinformed reaction in certain circles raising a query whether the Government’s anti-black money steps have yielded results.”
“Switzerland has amended its domestic laws involving all disclosures and entered into a treaty even with India and real time flow of information with regard to Indians will be made. The flow of information is starting in January, 2019.”
“Any illegal depositor knows that it is a matter of months before his name becomes public and he will be subjected to the harsh penal provisions of the black money law in India,” he added.
“Switzerland is on the verge of making disclosures in real time and, therefore, is no longer an ideal destination for tax evaders. Those who participate in a public discourse must understand these basic facts before expressing an opinion which may be ill-informed. To assume that all the deposits are per se tax evaded money or that Switzerland in the matter of illegal deposits is what it was decades ago, is to start on a shaky presumption,” jaitley further added.
Q: Tell me about the reason behind Delhi Chipko Andolan? What is the next move?
A: Basically, the government has ordered to cut down 16,500 trees in the Central Delhi for the purpose of redevelopment. We condemn this and so rigorously protesting against this move. This is our movement, citizens’ own movement to protect and conserve the greenery, so that the present, as well as future generation, can get to breathe some healthy air. This is a moral responsibility of every citizen to protect the trees, environment, if not us then who will?
We protested for the first time unitedly on 17 June (Sunday) at DMS booth,Sarojini Nagar police station, where an unexpected number of people turned up in solidarity to protest and registered with us to support throughout the movement. They are still associated with us. The protest turned out to be the biggest support movement for a cause of environment. The next biggest protest would be tomorrow on June 30at the same place and will continue until government orders to roll back the decision.
Q: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has said that no trees would be cut in the process of redevelopment of the colonies and the Delhi High Court too ordered a stay on tree-cutting till July 4. But still, it has not deterred the contractors?
A: This is just a way by the government to distract and divide the protestors and people so that we go back homes, thinking that no tree would be cut now and we rejoice over it. Even, despite the High Court stay order trees are being cut on daily basis.
Until and unless, the government passes an order saying that “we rollback our decision,” victory cannot be achieved.
Q: The citizens’ movement is now taking a political colour, what do you have to say?
A: Some of the political members from different parties are indeed using this movement as an opportunity to gain mileage, sympathising with us. We don’t want them simply to come and stand with us, give media some bytes and leave, we need a concrete solution to stop felling of trees. This is serious! Some parties are organising a similar protest on this cause but ours’ is completely driven by citizens.
Q: How did you manage to make it a citizens’ movement and bring so many social organisations under one platform for one cause?
A: I don’t want to take credit for this. I was really affected when I heard that so many trees would be cut. There were already a lot of other organisations and individuals protesting for this cause. So, I created a WhatsApp group and added everyone concerned to the environment. My idea was to bring everyone together and fight unitedly.
Q: Why did you choose this issue only to raise your voice?
A: BecauseI believe everyone needs air to breathe. You can live without anything but not air. Air is the basic necessity of a politician, a bureaucrat or even a labour. The uniformity in the fights for the environment has always been an issue in India. Many people consider environmental degradation as not so serious issue as others. I am a nature person, I love the environment and in India, it is getting worse, not just in Delhi but across India. So, we want to make this movement – a nationwide movement.
Q: So, you want to take this movement to nationwide?
A: Yes, we don’t want to restrict this movement to Delhi only but want to take it to the whole of the country. Basically, our next target would be Uttarakhand because the government wants to cut down lakhs of trees as there in order to build a highway that connects the Char Dhams. We want to achieve victory in Delhi and set an example that a citizens’ movement won Delhi and that we can win in other parts also.
Q: So, you are not an environmentalist? And, how does your company Ecoplore contribute to environment?
A: Like I said, saving Delhi trees is a citizen’s movement, so I am a citizen first, thensomebody else and it’s a collective responsibility of citizens to safeguard the environment irrespective of their post and position.
So, Ecoplore is the fruit of my dream project which focuses on the environment like promoting strict eco-friendly accommodations and holidays, encouraging travellers of every age group to detach from concrete hotels which are rapidly killing our environment- deforestation, pollution, soil infertility, displacement of habitats and animals. etc, I don’t know whether you can call me an environmentalist or not but I will continue to fight and voice as long as the environment is concerned.
The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) on June 28 in Lucknow conducted a written test where nearly 70 party members seeking appointment to the post of the spokespersons were made to answer 14 questions. It turned as a shock for Congress party when its members appearing for the test felt allegedly cheated.
Some of the interesting questions in the test paper included, write failures of Yogi Adityanath government, list failures of Modi government and list achievements of Manmohan Singh government, how many division, districts and blocks are there in UP, what are the three main headlines today on which Congress spokespersons can issue statements, why do you want to become a spokesperson etc.’
In total 70 party leaders, including 35 who had been already working as spokesmen, panelists or in other capacities in the UPCC’s media department took part in the exam.
“We had about 30 minutes to answer nearly 14 questions. Examinees were allowed to use internet and do Google search for correct answers,” said a party functionary.
“Congress President Rahul Gandhi wants that only the leaders well versed about the party’s policies and who knows the state well and can boldly speak on the issues should be allowed to function as a spokesperson. A beginning in this direction has been already made in other states and more will follow this system in coming days,” said a Congress party leader.
Sources revealed that the test was conducted to simply introduce professionalism and bring about a change in the party’s working culture.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on June 28 said that bank fraud fugitive Nirav Modi did not hold more than one valid passport.
While clarifying the widely spread reports that Modi held multiple passports, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “At no time, he had more than one valid passport in his possession. You are all aware that in February, based on the advice of our agencies, his passport was initially suspended and then revoked.”
To end the speculations on Modi having six passports Kumar said, “Every time a fresh passport was issued to Modi, his previous passport was “physically” cancelled.”
Moreover, in a procedure to trace Modi “The MEA has written to several European countries seeking their help and also sent messages to all its missions abroad to get in touch with local governments to deny entry to Modi and inform India if he was residing there,” Kumar said.
Official Briefing:
1. All Indian missions were informed about the revocation of Modi’s passport in February.
2. A fresh communication has now been sent to a group of countries, seeking local government help to deny him (Modi) entry into their country.
3. The Foreign Ministry has so far not received any extradition request for Modi from the agencies involved in probing Punjab National Bank financial scam case against Modi.
