'The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe into the 2018 Koregaon-Bhima violence today, a day after the Maharashtra government held a review meeting with senior Pune police officers to take a call on pursuing the matter. The centre's decision has given rise to yet another face-off with the Uddhav Thackeray government, which was seen to be preparing to withdraw all cases against intellectuals and social activists accused of inciting the clashes.
'The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a criminal case against Adani Enterprises Ltd for colluding with officials of the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation (NCCF) to unfairly win a contract for supplying coal to an Andhra Pradesh government-owned company. The agency named former NCCF chairman Virender Singh, its then managing director G.P. Gupta and former senior adviser S.C. Singhal in the first information report (FIR). Adani Enterprises and the NCCF officials were booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act...'
Davinder Singh is a man with a past. He is a self-confessed torturer. Most famously, he tortured Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013 for the 2001 Parliament Attack. Singh's own words during a subsequent interview suggest that he probably tortured many others - this was essentially his job in the SOG (special operations group) at the time. Apart from torture, he was also accused of being directly involved in terrorism. In 2004 Afzal Guru had, in writing, accused Davinder Singh of making arrangements for the parliament attack, specifically of tasking him with taking one of the attackers to Delhi and arranging his accommodation. Remarkably, Singh's possible involvement in such a major terrorist atrocity was not investigated following this accusation.
'The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deny or prove his alleged statement that top pharmaceutical companies bribed doctors with women escorts. The country’s largest doctors body demanded that the PM should apologise if he fails to do so. “Reports have appeared in the media regarding the purported statement by Hon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi that top pharmaceutical companies bribed doctors with women escorts. IMA takes strong exception to the statement if it has been really made by the Prime Minister,” a media release from IMA said...'
'A publisher-cum-author was evicted from his rented stall at the ongoing 43rd Chennai Book Fair by The Booksellers’ and Publishers’ Association of South India (BAPASI) for “violating rules and displaying for sale a controversial book against the government”. On Sunday, the police arrested V. Anbazhagan, who wrote a book on alleged corruption in the Chennai Corporation’s Smart City project, on charges of criminally intimidating office-bearers of BAPASI on Saturday when the eviction notice was served on him...'
'A chargesheet has been filed against actor-turned-politician BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Gopi on Tuesday for alleged evasion of luxury car tax. Suresh Gopi is accused of using fake documents to get his luxury car registered in Puducherry in order to allegedly avoid the steep tax on luxury vehicles in Kerala. The chargesheet was filed by the Crime Branch in the Thiruvananthapuram court on Tuesday, soon after the MP got anticipatory bail in the case. If convicted, the BJP MP could face imprisonment up to seven years...'
'Lavasa had dissented against the EC's clean chit to Narendra Modi in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections... The Income Tax (I-T) department has once again brought election commissioner Ashok Lavasa under the scanner, this time alleging stamp duty evasion during the transfer of an apartment in Gurugram from Lavasa’s wife, Novel Lavasa, to his sister, Shakuntala Lavasa.
'...The fundamental difference between the gross abuse of the constitution, especially witnessed under Indira Gandhi, and that is being seen under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah over the last five years, is that while the former was seen with anger and revulsion, the latter is adoringly termed as Chanakyaniti. It is this shift in language and discourse that is the most dangerous for Indian democracy – every act of brazen challenge to the constitution is normalised and projected as brilliant political masterstrokes. It is why Amit Shah is eulogised by the mainstream television media.
'It has been 100 days since the made-for-television arrest of former home and finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in the INX-Media matter... So after 100 days of ‘rigorous custodial interrogation’, what have the CBI and the ED been able to prove? How have their cases improved? Is custodial interrogation relevant for cases which largely rely on documentary evidence where fear of tampering is unsubstantiated? These are logical questions that must be raised and answered...'
'On October 22, days before the state of Jammu and Kashmir was officially split into two Union Territories, the state administration announced a new department of registration would be set up. It would function under the revenue department. The aim was to “provide hassle free and speedy service to the citizens for registration of documents pertaining to immovable property like sale, gift, mortgage, lease, bequest”, said a government press release on October 23. The governor had approved the creation of 464 new posts for the new department...
