Neerav Modi is having only one passport : MEA

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

  • MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar sought to put the speculation to rest by stating that every time a fresh passport was issued to Modi, his previous passport was “physically” cancelled
  • Official sources here said that there’s not much the ministry can do until the agencies are able to establish Modi’s precise location

 

 

NEW DELHI: The external affairs ministry broke its silence on Thursday over the issue of Nirav Modi saying that at no stage did the fugitive scamster hold more than one valid passport.

While it has been widely reported that Modi held 6 passports, MEA spokesperson Ravees Kumar sought to put the speculation to rest by stating that every time a fresh passport was issued to Modi, his previous passport was “physically” cancelled.

TOI had first reported on Wednesday that MEA had written to select European countries asking them to help India trace Modi and that the diamond trader held only one valid passport at a time.

Apart from the point about the passport, Kumar made the following 3 points in an official briefing. First, all Indian missions were informed about the revocation of Modi’s passport in February and that the Indian envoys conveyed the same to the respective countries they were serving in.

Second, a fresh communication has now been sent to a select group of countries, asking them to help locate Modi and deny him entry into their territory. “We have asked them to inform us if they find him living in their country,” said Kumar.

Third, the foreign ministry has so far not received any extradition request for Modi from the agencies involved in investigating the financial fraud case against Modi.

While a Mumbai court this week was reported to have allowed ED to initiate extradition proceedings, the investigating agency has not yet approached MEA for the same. The fact that MEA has written to several countries including Belgium, France and UK suggests that the government is not yet sure about Modi’s exact location.

The ministry was compelled to go public with its position after reports emerged, mostly attributed to anonymous sources in investigating agencies, suggesting that MEA had not taken enough follow-up action to strengthen CBI’s attempts to track Modi down.

Official sources here said that there’s not much the ministry can do until the agencies are able to establish Modi’s precise location. The Interpol is yet to issue a Red Corner Notice (RCN) for Modi as it apparently believes that all legal formalities for the same have not yet been completed.

The “diffusion” notice from Interpol, according to senior government sources, is not enough to get western European countries like Belgium, France or UK to detain him.

A “diffusion” is less formal than an RCN and clearly not taken as seriously as the latter. While Interpol “publishes” RCN and also alerts cops all over the world about it, Diffusion is circulated directly by the Interpol nodal agency in a member country to any other member country of its choice or to “the entire Interpol membership” . For Interpol to issue RCN, it’s important that all legal requirements are met.

Mitra pronounces enemity more comfortably

/0 Comments/in /by

State finance minister Amit Mitra on Thursday called BJP national president Amit Shah as the “frontal face” of a “military outfit and terrorist” party who had no business to comment on Bengal and chief minister Mamata Banerjee who has a long history of relentless struggle and a national political stature.

Mr Shah lashed out at Miss Banerjee and alleged that there was utter lawlessness and misrule in Bengal during his two-day trip to the state.

“The person who is accusing our government of violence belongs to the party whose leader issues life threat. That particular BJP leader had said that he would send people to crematorium. What kind of language is this?” Mr Mitra questioned at a Press conference in Nabanna.

Mr Mitra said he was shocked by Mr Shah’ audacity in attacking Miss Banerjee by her name. “Being a newcomer in Parliament how could he (read Shah) comment on Miss Banerjee who has served as seven-term MP. People of Bengal have full faith on her and would not spare anyone for speaking against Miss Banerjee. BJP is a rioteer’s party with no political history or credibility,” he said.

On Mr Shah’s call to oust Trinamul Congress from Bengal, Mr Mitra said that the BJP leaders will have to go back to Gujarat as their days in Delhi was numbered. Mr Mitra said that the party does not understand the culture of Bengal and will not only be rejected by the people of this state but by the people of the entire country and it will finally be forced to return to Gujarat only to face similar rejection there.

Mr Mitra said that the fact that has pained him most was that Mr Shah told people that West Bengal had gone down to be known as bomb making factory where people get to hear the sound of bombs and not Rabindra Sangeet. Mr Shah was insulting Bengal and its people who take pride in its culture and Tagore, Mr Mitra added.

He said that the lawlessness at Mr Shah’s rallies speak out about the indiscipline and infighting in BJP. Earlier during the day, Mr Shah had said that Miss Banerjee was depriving people of the state by not accepting the health insurance scheme of the Modi government.

Mr Shah had claimed that the state had received higher allocation in the 14th Finance Commission than that in 13th Finance Commission (during Congress). He had also attacked the Trinamul Congress government’s campaign on development by saying development had only benefitted the Trinamul Congress henchmen and not the common people.

In response, Mr Mitra called Mr Shah a “liar” and questioned him as to why the Modi government had stalled 38 social welfare schemes and cut down its share of grant in 28 others. “Had there been no growth then how come the Centre handed over six awards to Bengal for governance?”

Mr Mitra asked adding that the state had also received 31 Skotch awards recently. Mr Mitra said that unlike its predecessors, Trinamul Congress-led government spends 40 per cent of its total borrowings on undertaking development work. There has been a 8.5 times growth in capital expenditure and bureaucrats from others states visit Bengal to learn about e-governance and growth in infrastructure, he added.

Bhagwan Jagannath give darshan to general public out in the open

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Lakhs of devotees thronged the holy town here to witness the annual ritualistic ceremonial bath of the Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Goddess Subhadra at the Snan Mandap on Thursday.

The deities were bathed with 108 pitchers of aromatic water by servitors and• this was followed by the splendid “Hati Besha” or “Gajanana Besa” of the deities as frenzied devotees danced with joy to traditional devotional songs.

Early morning, the servitors escorted the deities to the Snana Mandap inside the premises of Srimandir facing the Grand Road where devotees gathered in large numbers to witness the ritual.

After the• ritualistic bath, Hati Besha and public darshan, the dieties are to be taken to Anasara Ghara. Legend is that the deities catch cold and fall sick. They are treated by traditional methods with herbs for a fortnight and during this entire period they are out of bounds for devotees.

The rejuvenated dieties come out of Anasara a day before the famous Rath Yatra which is scheduled on 14 July this year. A total of 42 platoons of police force has been deployed for the smooth conduct of the Snana Purnima rituals on Thursday.

Snana Yatra is the first festival at the 12th-century shrine in the Hindu calendar every year when the Lords give darshan to general public out in the open. The occasion marks a prelude to the annual Rath Yatra celebrations.

‘Disrespect’ shown to President, wife Puri temple chief seeks to set record straight

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A section of the servitors lodged a complaint against Puri collector and firmer SJTA chief alleging that the administration is intentionally trying to defame the servitors.

The Chief Administrator of Jagannath Temple, Puri Mr P K Mahapatra, IAS, on Thursday sought to put a lid on the hugely embarrassing controversy over alleged ‘disrespect’ to the President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife during their visit to the Temple in March, by claiming the office of the President had not expressed its displeasure nor written any letter to the temple administration in this regard.

The attempt to set the record straight by Mahapatra however did not wash away the fact that some servitors had breached the protocol and brushed past the President and his wife in the temple, as confirmed by the SP of Puri Sarthak Sarangi.

Further, the temple managing committee meeting held in the last week of March had discussed the issue with the district collector Arvind Agarwal reportedly raising it. The only aspect of the media report contradicted by Mahapatra on Thursday is as to whether the President’s office had written a letter expressing its displeasure or not.

The rest of it- with regard to breach of protocol and attempts to get close to the President or talk to him has been confirmed by the SP and the minutes of the committee meeting.

There were strict instructions that nobody should breach the inner ring formed by the security of the President and hence when this was done by servitors in the presence of the collector and SP, they took note of it and reported to the managing committee.

Apparently, the entire incident was ignored for over two months and no action was taken.

It is in this context that there are suspicions on why such a matter which was ignored when it happened and which was not objected to by the President is being raked up now.

Two months after, a section of the media picked it up a few days ago and kicked up a controversy.

Who did it and why is the million dollar question. Certainly, some people are out with a design to somehow churn up controversies involving the sentiments associated with the Puri Jagannath Temple, said the ruling BJD spokesperson and MP P K Deb.

He was implicitly referring to a political party without naming it. In a related development, a section of the servitors has on Thursday lodged a police complaint against Puri collector Arvind Agarwal and former SJTA chief Pradeep Jena alleging that the administration is intentionally trying to defame the servitors.

“They were trying to offend us before the nation and preparing grounds to take action,” said a servitor

LeT behind Bukhari’s Murder : J&K Police

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

 

Four pictures of the accused were released.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) hatched the conspiracy to kill the Valley-based senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, and it was executed by four militants, including a foreigner, the Jammu and Kashmir police said on Thursday.

“Tangible evidence suggests that the LeT hatched the conspiracy in Pakistan,” Inspector-General of Police, Kashmir, S.P. Pani said in Srinagar.

He refused to name the LeT handlers at this juncture. The police released the pictures of four militants “directly involved” in the killing. They were identified as Muzaffar Ahmad alias Talha from south Kashmir’s Qazigund area; Azad Ahmad Malik alias Dada alias Zaid from Bijbehara; Naveed Jatt alias Hanzulla from Pakistan; and Sheikh Sajjad Gul from Srinagar. Describing them as “important LeT operatives,” the police said Talha was active as a militant since January 2018 and Malik since December 2016. Jatt, a resident of Multan’s Borivali in Pakistan, escaped from Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital on February 6 when he was being shifted from Central Jail, Srinagar.

The police said Bukhari’s killing was preceded by an online smear and hate campaign with intimidating content.

“Gul ran ‘Kashmirfight’ blog, ‘Kadwasach Kashmir’ page on Facebook and ‘Ahmad Khalid’ Twitter handle from Pakistan. The service- providers have enough evidence of this. A resident of Srinagar, Gul went to Pakistan in March 2017 on a fraudulently obtained passport,” said Mr. Pani.

The police said it will issue an Interpol notice to Pakistan, under a treaty between the two countries, “to hand over Gul,” who was first arrested in Delhi in 2002 in a Hawala case and again in 2016 in a terror case.

On the motives behind the assassination, Mr. Pani said the identity of the executioners had now been established. “The investigating team will now focus on the chargesheet that will contain the motive too.”

The police said a fifth suspect, who was seen picking up a service pistol from an injured policeman at the encounter site, is “still being questioned about his role.”

Bukhari, 50, editor of the local daily Rising Kashmir, was killed along with two guards on June 14 in Lal Chowk’s Press Enclave by three motorbike-borne men carrying automatic weapons. The image of the gunmen was captured by many CCTV cameras in the area.

Independent probe

Both the LeT and militant conglomerate United Jehad Council (UJC) denied their involvement in the killing.

“If the Indian forces are truly convinced that this heinous crime was committed by militants, then they should have no objection to an independent investigation by a neutral country like China or Russia,” said LeT chief Mehmood Shah on Wednesday.

“We will fully cooperate in the probe and will accept the findings of the investigating agency,” he said.

Release of NRC draft delayed by floods

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The final draft of Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) will not be released on June 30 as scheduled, owing to the heavy floods in the Barak Valley, NRC State coordinator Prateek Hajela said here on Thursday.

He added that a petition was filed in the Supreme Court last week, seeking more time to prepare the draft. The apex court has fixed the date of hearing on July 2. The NRC is being updated under the Supreme Court supervision to weed out illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, security across the State has been stepped up ahead of the publication of the draft to prevent any untoward incident. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the names of all “genuine Indians” would be incorporated in the list.

The first NRC draft was released on January 1, in which the names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were included.

Assam, which faced an influx of people from Bangladesh since the early 20th century, is the only State with an NRC, which was first prepared in 1951.

Shooting at Capital Gazette Newsroom in Annapolis Leaves 5 Dead

/0 Comments/in , /by

 

The scene outside 888 Bestgate, where an active shooter was in offices of the Capital Gazette Newspaper, with heavy police, fire, and rescue presence on Thursday, June 28, 2018 in Annapolis, Maryland

 

A gunman opened fire on a newspaper office in Maryland’s capital on Thursday, killing five people and wounding others before being taken into custody in what appeared to be one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in U.S. history.

Police said the suspect was a white man in his late 30s whose rampage at The Capital Gazette followed social media threats directed at the newspaper. Authorities said the man entered the building and “looked for his victims.” He threw smoke grenades and fired a shotgun at his victims, according to Anne Arundel County Acting Police Chief William Krampf.

“This person was prepared today to come in, this person was prepared to shoot people. His intent was to cause harm,” said Mr. Krampf, who declined to identify the suspect.

A K-9 police unit works the scene after multiple people were shot at the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland on June 28, 2018.

Phil Davis, a reporter who covers courts and crime for the paper, tweeted that the gunman shot out the glass door to the office and fired into the newsroom, sending people scrambling for cover under desks.

“A single shooter shot multiple people at my office, some of whom are dead,” he wrote.

Mr. Davis added: “There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you’re under your desk and then hear the gunman reload.”

The attacker had mutilated his fingers in an apparent attempt to make it harder to identify him, according to a law enforcement official.

Maryland police officers patrol the area after multiple people were shot at the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland on June 28, 2018.

The shooting which came amid months of verbal and online attacks on the “fake news media” from politicians including U.S. President Donald Trump prompted New York City police to immediately tighten security at news organizations in the nation’s media capital.

At the White House, spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said- “There is no room for violence, and we stick by that. Violence is never tolerated in any form, no matter whom it is against.”

Mr. Krampf confirmed five deaths and said two people had superficial wounds.

Police spokesman Lt. Ryan Frashure said officers raced to the scene, arriving in 60 seconds, and took the gunman into custody without an exchange of gunfire.

About 170 people in all were evacuated from the building as a multitude of police cars and other emergency vehicles converged on the scene. People could be seen leaving the building with their hands up.

The newspaper is part of Capital Gazette Communications, which also publishes the Maryland Gazette and CapitalGazette.com.

Aerial photos show first responders outside of the Capital Gazette building in Annapolis, Maryland on June 28, 2018.

In an interview with The Capital Gazette’s online site, Mr. Davis said it “was like a war zone” inside the newspaper’s offices a situation that would be “hard to describe for a while.”

“I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death all the time,” he said. “But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan speaks during a press conference following a shooting in Annapolis

Mr. Davis said he and others were still hiding under their desks when the gunman stopped firing.

Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said the community is grieving the attack on the community paper.

“These are the guys that come to city council meetings, have to listen to boring politicians and sit there,” Mr. Buckley said. “They don’t make a lot of money It’s just immoral that their lives should be in danger.”

New York police sent counter-terrorism teams to news organizations around the city in a move authorities said was a precaution, not prompted by any specific threat. Police could be seen outside The New York Times, ABC News and Fox News early in the evening.