CBI files fresh FIR in coal scam, books Naveen Jindal, ex-MoS coal for cheating, graft

The agency team carried out coordinated searches at the 6-Prithviraj Road residence of Jindal and offices of his firms in Bikaji Cama place.

In a major embarrassment to the Congress, its MP Naveen Jindal and former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao have been accused of alleged cheating and graft by CBI in its fresh FIR in the coal scam.

After registering the 12th FIR in coal block allocation scam probe, CBI sources said the agency today carried out searches at 15 locations including residence and offices of Jindal in the national capital and Rao in Hyderabad.

The agency team carried out coordinated searches at the 6-Prithviraj Road residence of Jindal and offices of his firms in Bikaji Cama place.

Besides Jindal and Rao, CBI has also booked companies Jindal Steel and Power Limited and Gagan Sponge which were allotted Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Birbhum, Jharkhand in the year 2008.

The agency also booked Jindal’s companies–Jindal Realty and ND Exim and Rao’s company Saubhagya Media.

The agency has accused Jindal, Rao and the companies of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Rao, a former Congress Rajya Sabha MP, held position of Minister of state for Coal between 2004-06 and between 2006 and 2008. He has already been quizzed by the agency in connection with the probe in coal block allocation scam.

Reacting to the development, Head of External Affairs, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Manu Kapoor said, “JSPL, as a law abiding company, is governed by a strong ethical code of conduct. This is an ongoing CBI investigation into coal block allocation. At this stage of investigation, JSPL is committed to fully cooperate with CBI.”

BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javdekar termed the action of agency too little too later and demanded that action should not be limited to searches alone. 

PTI

From Sanjay Dutt to Robert Vadra and Gurunathan Meiyappan: People who got their family into trouble

Here’s a look at five celebrities whose deeds have affected their family’s image more than theirs.

1) Sanjay Dutt

This Bollywood celebrity, veteran actor Sunil Dutt‘s son, is serving his sentence in prison for his involvement in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

Mumbai Police tracked Dutt’s involvement in the case soon after the destruction. He was found possessing illegal AK-56s which had been acquired from Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Anees Ibrahim. After the blasts, he had one of them destroyed.

This revelation left his family in a state of deep shock. Dutt’s sister Priya Dutt and father Sunil Dutt could not believe that Sanjay Dutt was a part of the blasts that took so many lives.

Sunil Dutt, who was actively involved in politics, had to face defamation as he struggled to free his son from jail.

All the respect that the Dutt family had earned in so many years was lost in one go. Sunil Dutt died of a heart attack in 2005 and his daughter Priya Dutt contested the elections from his seat.

Sanjay Dutt has been recently shifted to Yerawada jail in Pune and will be in custody for 42 months.

2) Robert Vadra
Son-in law of Sonia Gandhi, Robert Vadra married her daughter Priyanka Gandhi in 1997. Uninvolved in politics, Vadra expressed his desire to enter politics only if he could ‘bring about a change’ in the existing system.

Vadra is a businessman and owns Artex, a company that specializes in jewellery and handicraft exports.

In October 2012, anti-graft activist Arvind Kejriwal accused Robert Vadra of purchasing 31 properties in New Delhi worth more than Rs.300 crore. The money for this had allegedly come from interest-free loans from DLF Limited in exchange of political favors. Soon after this allegation, the opposition party, BJP, demanded a probe into the matter.

Kejriwal called for a public debate and invited Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to participate.

Vadra also allegedly purchased more than 75 acres of land in Hasanpur, a village of Palwal district in Haryana. The land was allotted to Scheduled Caste persons in 1981 by the Haryana Government.

Vadra made a comment on Facebook that said, ‘Mango people in banana republic’. This raised many eyebrows and  soon after, his Facebook account was deleted.

These acts of his have added on to the troubles of the Gandhi family.

Both Vadra and DLF Ltd. have continuously denied the allegations.

3) M.Kanimozhi

Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi‘s daughter M.Kanimozhi is remembered for her involvement in the 2G scam. She is a member of the Parliament and represents Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha.

As per the Chief Bureau of Investigation, Kanimozhi, who owns 20% stake in the family-owned Tamil television channel Kalainagar TV, was in constant touch with former telecom  minister A Raja to get the promoter of Dynamix Balwas Realty, Shahid Balwa to route Rs. 2 billion to this TV channel. Kanimozhi was also depending on A Raja for the launch of this channel.

For these charges of corruption, this politician and ‘literary heir’ of Karunanidhi has been booked for criminal conspiracy under 120-B, cheating under section 420 & forgery under sections 468 and 471.

Kanimozhi spent 188 days in prison and was given bail on 28th November 2012.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee claimed that it could easily convict Karunanidhi’s wife and daughter, considering the evidence that they had gathered.

These revelations left Karunanidhi reportedly upset and he allegedly encouraged his political channels to ensure support from the existing government.

4) Abhijeet Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee‘s son Abhijeet Mukherjee is a member of Parliament and in the 2011 elections, Mukherjee won the legislative seat of Nalhati, West Bengal.

In December 2012, when the entire nation was fighting for the Delhi gang-rape victim, Abhijeet Mukherjee made a public statement, in an interview with ABP news, calling the protestors as women who were “highly dented and painted”. He said that these were the same women who went to discotheques. According to Mukherjee, they are ‘disconnected with reality’.

This comment enraged the public and even the Mukherjee family expressed displeasure with Abhijeet’s remarks. Sharmishtha Mukherjee, Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter affirmed that the family did not share these views.
Abhijeet Mukherjee later apologized for his sexist comments.

5)Gurunath Meiyappan
The recent IPL spot-fixing scandal that has seen the arrest of three cricketers and other involved in the sport has caused havoc in the country. The followers of the sport received the biggest jolt when the name of the managing director of Chennai Superkings, Gurunathan Meiyappan, popped up in the controversy.

Meiyappan, along with being the managing director of Chennai Superkings is N. Srinivasan’s son-in law is accused of being involved in the spot-fixing scandal.

N Srinivasan, who is the chief of BCCI is being criticized for not stepping down despite his son-in law being a major accuse in the crime.

The news of Meiyappan’s involvement broke after the arrest of Vindoo Dara Singh who had made calls to a Chennai number. Singh also admitted that he was in touch with a relative of the CSK franchise owner.

Meiyappan is married to Srinivasan’s daughter Rupa and has three children with her.

Noopur Patel

Forbes’ Ten Most Powerful Women

Angela Merkel #1

Chancellor of Germany since 2005, Angela Merkel is the most powerful woman in the world. (Photo by Getty Images)

Dilma Rousseff #2

Brazil president Dilma Rousseff is ranked second in the Forbes list. Rousseff, ranked the third most powerful woman in 2012. (Photo by Getty Images)

Melinda Gates #3

Co chair of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Melinda Gates is ranked third most powerful woman globally by Forbes this year. (Photo by Getty Images)

Michelle Obama #4

The First Lady of the United States of America, Michelle Obama is ranked fourth most powerful woman globally by the Forbes. (Photo by Getty Images)

Hillary Clinton #5

Described by Forbes as one of the most watched and listened-to women on the planet, Hillary Clinton is ranked fifth most powerful woman globally by the magazine. She was second in the Forbes list while also making it to the top 20 of the most powerful people in the world last year. (REUTERS)

Sheryl Sandberg #6

Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of one of the most powerful social networking sites, Facebook is the sixth most powerful woman in the Forbes list this year. Ranked tenth last year, Sandberg is credited for the increase in company’s U.S. mobile revenue in 2012. (REUTERS)

Christine Lagarde #7

Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the seventh most powerful woman in the world. Lagarde became the first woman to run the IMF as she assumed office. (REUTERS)

Janet Napolitano #8

Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, United States is the eighth most powerful woman in the Forbes list this year. (REUTERS)

Sonia Gandhi #9

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi is ranked ninth in the Forbes list of 100 most powerful women globally. (AFP)

Indra Nooyi #10

PepsiCo chief Indra Nooyi is the second Indian name to feature in this year’s Forbes list of 100 most powerful women globally. (Photo by Getty Images)

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India to downgrade ties with Italy, won’t send ambassador

The orders of the Supreme Court will be complied with by all government agencies

Against the backdrop of airports across India being put on alert to prevent Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini from leaving the country, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Friday said the orders of the Supreme Court will be complied with by all government agencies.

Besides downgrading its diplomatic ties with Italy, the government has also asked its ambassador-designate to that country Basant Kumar Gupta, who was scheduled to leave for Rome on Friday, not to proceed. The government, which is reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral ties, has decided to withhold the posting of Gupta, who was expected to take charge by end of next week. The downgrading of ties could affect bilateral economic and social relations between the two nations.

‘The Supreme Court order will be complied with by all government agencies,’ Khurshid told reporters outside Parliament House on Friday in response to questions on the issue. He said the matter will come up before the apex court again on Monday and ‘we will know then exactly what is the next step that should be taken.

Meanwhile, the decision to alert the airports was taken by the Union Home Ministry a day after the apex court restrained the Italian Ambassador from leaving India without its permission.

The court had taken exception to Italian government’s refusal to send back two marines charged with the killing of two Indian fishermen. The two marines were allowed by the court to go to Italy to cast their votes in the elections there after the Italian Ambassador had given an assurance to send them back.

Petrol price cut by Rs 2 per litre, excluding VAT

The cut in petrol price follows two rounds of hike in rates since February

Petrol price was on Friday cut by Rs 2 per litre with effect from midnight tonight, the steepest reduction in rates in nine months. While petrol price has been cut by Rs 2 per litre, excluding local sales tax or VAT, there will be no change in diesel rates.

After including VAT, the reduction in price of petrol in Delhi comes to Rs 2.40 per litre and the fuel will from midnight tonight cost Rs 68.34 per litre as against Rs 70.74 currently. It was expected that oil firms will also effect the monthly hike of 40-50 paise per litre in diesel rates but they deferred the decision apparently to save the government from trouble in Parliament.

When oil firms had last hiked petrol price on 2 March, opposition parties had disrupted one full day’s proceedings. The cut in petrol price follows two rounds of hike in rates since February. Petrol price was hiked by Rs 1.50 a litre on 16 Feb and then by Rs 1.40 per litre from 2 March. Both were excluding VAT.

The reduction in rates was possible as international oil prices have eased. While the slide in international prices of crude oil from $112.73 per barrel to $107.41 enabled reduction in petrol prices, it also helped lower losses on diesel sales. Losses on diesel have come down to Rs 8.64 per litre from Rs 11.26 at the beginning of the month, according to Indian Oil Corp (IOC) which announced the price revision. Oil firms calculate the desired retail price on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported oil price on the previous fortnight. Petrol price had last been cut by over Rs 2 per litre in June 2012 when prices were reduced from Rs 70.24 to Rs 67.78 per litre. IOC said rupee had depreciated marginally. ‘Following this trend, it has been decided to pass on the benefit to customers,’ the company said.

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Big Blow to BJP in Karnataka Local Polls

The Congress dealt a massive blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka urban local body elections by winning four major city corporations. The Congress not only made huge gains by winning the highest number of wards across the state, but the party also routed BS Yeddyurappa‘s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) and ended the rule of Reddy brothers in Bellary by decimating their BSR Congress across central Karnataka.

Former chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s KJP failed to make a big splash while the ruling BJP could only secure third place by winning just 876 wards while the Congress was way ahead with 1881 seats. The Janata Dal Secular (JDS) managed to hold on to its strength in the Old Mysore region and managed to win 890 wards to take the second place in the state.

The Karnataka local polls, which have been billed as semi-finals before the state elects a new Assembly in a couple of months, show that the BJP is finding the going tough and has not been fully able to counter the Yeddyurappa effect.

There are a total number of 4976 seats for which counting took place. The Congress won Bellary, Mangalore and Davanagere city corporations. The party is leading in four out of seven city corporations and is also doing very well in Dakshin Kannada.

The BJP is ahead in Hubli-Dharwad while there is close fight between Congress and JDS in Mysore. Yeddyurappa’s party has put up a dismal performance in Shimoga while the BJP has suffered a huge defeat in its stronghold of coastal Karnataka where the Independents have come third. The trends and results show that urban voters have rejected BJP and its offshoots KJP and BSR Congress.

The Bellary brothers, who had launched the BSR Congress, have been routed in their stronghold. The Congress is also leading in areas dominated by the JDS.

The results are crucial since they could be an indicator of what will happen in the state elections coming up in two months. Over 200 municipalities including seven city corporations went to the polls on March 7.

In the last urban local bodies polls in 2007, of the total 5007 wards, the Congress had come first winning 1606, followed by JDS 1502 and BJP 1180.

[Exclusive] AgustaWestland scam: Setback for SP Tyagi, CBI to file FIR against the former Air Chief and kin

In a development which could spell bad news for the Former Air Chief Marshall (retd) SP Tyagi, CBI has decided to file an FIR against him and his cousins in the AgustaWestland chopper scam. According to sources in the CBI, SP Tyagi, his cousins Julie and Docsa, Gautam Khaitan and Parveen Bakshi will be booked under charges of bribery and cheating.

Sources say that CBI’s investigation is pointing towards the fact that SP Tyagi has accepted a bribe from his cousins to help AugustaWestland in the now infamous VVIP Chopper scam. The kickbacks in excess of 350 crores were allegedly routed through fake engineering contracts and paid to Tyagi brothers.

In another development, Satish Bagordia was also questioned by the CBI in the VVIP chopper scam. Satish Bagrodia is the younger brother of former MOS Coal, Santosh Bagrodia, and is a director in Chandigarh based IDS Infotech Ltd, which Italian investigators are alleging, was used to route bribe money in India.

The scam in the 4,000 crore helicopter deal would have gone unnoticed if Italian investigators had not arrested Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica, parent company of AgustaWestland, to be guilty of having paid kickbacks to seal the helicopter deal in India. The Italian report had named cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief S P Tyagi – Julie and Docsa alias Rajiv Tyagi – as having received cash through middlemen and companies in London,Tunisia, Switzerland and Mauritius. The said helicopters (three out of 12 have already been delivered) were meant for VIPs like the Prime Minister.

As TEHELKA had reported earlier, a 64-page prosecution report filed by the Italian authorities, had detailed how Italian nationals Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa and UK-based consultant Christian Michel connived to push the deal through nefarious means. Bribes amounting to 51 million euros were paid and fictitious orders were raised through IT companies in Chandigarh. Junk helicopters were bought in order to mask the money trail. The bombshell in the report was the part where it said that middleman Haschke admitted that he had met former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi six-seven times and that Tyagi’s three cousins were instrumental in swinging the deal.

In a factsheet put up on the PIB website, the defence ministry admitted that in “November 2012, a letter was received in MoD from the director, income tax investigations, regarding allegations against Indians possibly involved in the deal as middlemen and seeking information about them”. After sitting on this information for two months, the MoD wrote to the Income Tax (IT) department that “it had no such details and if the IT has any such credible information, it should share with them”.

BRIJESH PANDEY – TEHELKA

Budget 2013: 4 Factors Which Will Affect Small Businesses

A country’s economy do not only depends on the larger enterprises alone. The small scale enterprises including the medium and the micro enterprises (MSME) also play an important role in the nation’s development.

India has a larger number of these kinds of enterprises. However, all these enterprises are not lucky enough to taste success. Most of these enterprises have to undergo a heavy amount of loss due to various reasons and finally they get shut down.

Here is the list of four factors that the Indian government will adopt in the future to encourage the growth and progress of the MSMEs as reported by ‘yahoo’.

1. Encouraging the growth of the MSMEs

Most of the micro, small and the medium enterprises fail to grow due to the fear of bearing losses in the market. Their main obstacle is the ‘investment’. They are not strong enough to invest a huge amount of money for a longer period of time, expecting profit.

To overcome this, the government has proposed the non-tax benefits for the MSMEs in this year’s budget. Once an MSME qualifies to the next higher category, it can take advantage of this non-tax benefit for three years.  

2. Extended alimony to the MSMEs

The capability of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has been raised to 10,000 crore from 5,000 crore. From this amount, 100 crore will be vested on the India Microfinance Equity Fund.

This year’s budget will allot 500 crore to the Small Industries Development Bank of India as Credit Guarantee Fund for distributing.

3. Including the MSMEs on the SME Exchange

All the MSMEs will be included in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Exchange. The MSMEs would not have to make any offers in the public. Like the large scale enterprises, they will also get an extended number of investors. However, the inclusion of the MSMEs in the SME exchange will be kept limited to certain categories of investors.

4. New Investment

From the new investment grant for new high value investments, the Finance Ministry has estimated “enormous spill-over benefits to small and medium enterprises”. The Budget recommends that any company investing Rs 100 crore or more in plant and machinery from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2015 will be allowed to subtract an investment allowance of 15 percent of the investment. This will be subjected to the existing rates of depreciation.

 

I’m not interested in becoming PM: Rahul Gandhi

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he was not interested in becoming the prime minister and wants to focus on his party instead.

“The party is my priority. I believe in long-term politics,” Gandhi was quoted by TV channels as saying in Delhi.

“I am not interested in becoming the prime minister,” he was quoted as saying.

Gandhi, who is the second-in-command in the Congress, told reporters there was a need to end the “high command culture” in the party.

The Congress party has not announced a prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, but Gandhi is a clear favourite.

Gandhi has been working on improving the party’s grasroots and has convened a meeting of all general secretaries and central leaders in charge of states on March 6.

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Sethusamudram project is illegal, arbitrary and unacceptable: Subramanian Swamy

Lashing out at the UPA Government over its decision to go ahead with Sethusamudram Project despite the R. K. Pachauri Committee report suggesting it is unviable, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Monday said the mega project is illegal, arbitrary and unacceptable.

“The important thing is that the project is not acceptable. It is illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and extremely expensive,” said Swamy, while talking to reporters here.

“They (government) also clamed in their affidavit that Rs.860 crore have already been spent and therefore we want to go ahead with the project. Well if you have spent Rs.860 crore for a project which was illegal, arbitrary and unreasonable, malafide and extraordinarily expensive then according to the Supreme Court judgments, those who cleared the project they are responsible and this amount must be taken out of their wealth,” he added.

Swamy further stated that cutting of the Ram Setu (Adam’s Bridge) for this project would be a violation of section 295 (malicious of the religious sentiments of the citizen irrespective of any class) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Sethusamudram project was started in 2005 but was suspended following the Supreme Court order and R. K. Pachauri Committee was constituted to look in to the matter.

The committee has submitted its report on Friday last week, suggesting the entire Sethusamudram project unviable on two fronts – economically as ecologically.

However, the government has rejected the Pachauri Committee report and submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court with and intention to pursue the project cutting through the Adam’s Bridge, popularly known as Ram Setu.

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