SOG officers said with this arrest, the number of persons in custody has now reached five.

SOG Inspector H M Alsika said Surendra Navneetlal Parekh was arrested from Dandia Bazar along with three certificates on the basis of information gleaned from the four previously arrested.

He said: “The accused we arrested last night used to do odd jobs at the district courts. But he also supplied fake documents to the people. We have taken him in two-day remand.”

Police officers said the arrest could prove to be a breakthrough for later investigation into the scam.

The scam came to light with the arrest of two persons with a stolen motorcycle and fake registration papers during a routine vehicle check in the Walled City area in the end of June.

Accused Kalpesh Sharma and Jignesh Patel revealed that one Praveen Shah, a resident of Panigate, was the kingpin of the racket. Shah, they said, produced fake registration, fake medicine labels for expired medicines, fake marksheets among a host of things, which were later seized from his shop. One Mukund Shah was also named co-accused in the case.

Reports claim that his presidential campaign received 150,000 euros in cash from the country’s richest woman. The allegations hit Sarkozy at a crucial time as he struggles with plunging popularity ratings and difficult economic reforms.

If these allegations are confirmed, the party payments would be illegal, surpassing the limit. Sarkozy’s office has however denied the allegations.

Denying the charges, Sarkozy said: “I would so much like that our country fascinates itself for the great problems such as health, health organisation, pensions, how to create growth, rather than to get carried away with the first horror, slander, which has only goal to damage without any reality whatsoever.”

The police claim that the case has gone to the court and unless an order is obtained, no further action can be taken.

Sixty-eight-year-old retired chief engineer S V Ramamurthy is one such investor.

“As many as 400 of us have been cheated in a similar manner,” he laments. He had invested Rs 18 lakh with Orange Properties.

The land scam

In 2008, advertisement hoardings that were erected all around Bangalore, detailed that European Township, a residential block of flats developed by Granity properties in K R Puram near Hoskote Bidarahalli, would be the next big thing in realty.

Willing investors were led to the site that was launched by Orange properties.

When more than 400 people fell for the advertisements and invested in the property, the office was abruptly shut down. It came to light that investors were not shown any documents.

Following this, some of the investors lodged a complaint with the city police, who forwarded the case to the CCB.

Many cheating cases under the IPC were registered in Ramamurthy Nagar and Ashok Nagar Police Stations.

The CCB police arrested both Granity Properties’ owner Ashfaq Ahmed and Vijay Tataa Ravipati of Orange Properties. The High Court ruled that the amounts collected by both the companies should be returned to the applicants in four equal installments on 1st September 2009, 15th September 2009, 30th September 2009 and 15th October 2009.

On November 9 last year, Ashfaq moved a petition in the HC, stating that he is bankrupt, but will provide the investors their properties through another company.

“We were told that we will be provided with sites under New Millenium Shelters Private Ltd within four months,” said one of the investors, who went on to add that no action has taken place despite four months after the deadline.

Millennium Shelters operates out of a small room near Cash Pharmacy on Presidency Road with just two employees and is not registered anywhere in Karnataka.

Police speak

City Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said, “The developers had deposited about Rs 2 crore with the Supreme Court, which was distributed among the investors.” Siddaramappa, DCP (Crime), said Ashfaq Ahmed was arrested immediately once a case was registered against him.

The DCP added that further investigation could not be carried out unless the stay was lifted. Vijay Tataa of Orange Properties, who has 25 per cent stake in the property, has moved the Supreme Court and has deposited the required amount in the court.

Investors, on the other hand, feel they have not received encouraging signs.

One investor said Orange Properties claims to have released the DDs to the CCB.

The CCB has stoutly denied the claim.

Source: expressbuzz

The women, including two ‘ayahs’ working in the hospital, are said to have identified buyers among patients who came to the clinic for treatment. While Nancy and Asha looked after the stolen babies, Kavitha, 33, and Andal, 47, identified a potential buyer for one of the babies.

The development adds another dimension to the child trafficking network, the second big one in recent times to be unearthed by the state police. In 2005, police had cracked an adoption racket involving an agency that sourced kidnapped babies and gave them away in adoption to couples abroad. CBI is still investigating the case. Police suspect that the latest case, involving a gang operating across TN, may have links to networks in other states as well.

Police confirmed that Saturday’s arrests were part of the child abduction racket that came to light when Krishnagiri police arrested seven members of a gang, most of them operating in Chennai and its suburbs. Deputy commissioner of police (Madhavaram), Annie Vijaya, told TOI, “The arrests are a continuation of the child trafficking racked busted in Krishnagiri (in May). We have been exchanging information with the Krishnagiri police and following up leads.”

It was in May that police first arrested several members of a gang and rescued nine babies from them. During interrogation of an accused, Dhanalakshmi, police found that several woman, posing as social workers, and a church priest, father Alphonse, believed to be the kingpin in the racket, were involved in an inter-state racket of stealing and selling babies to childless couples for price ranging from Rs 50,000 to a couple of lakhs of rupees. Those arrested included a woman, M Lalitha, a self-proclaimed social worker, running an orphanage in Puducherry. The woman used the unlicensed orphanage she ran to source babies and sell them to childless couples.

The alleged brain behind the four women arrested on Saturday, Jayaprasad, was picked up in Krishnagiri. Police also rescued two babies from the gang — an eight-month-old girl and a one-year-old baby boy. The children have been handed over to authorities of a government home.

The document showed the energy giant’s own worst-case scenario of the amount of leaking oil at possibly 20 times more than its early public estimates.

The latest round of recriminations came after a week of White House arm-twisting prodded BP to agree to a 20-billion-dollar fund to pay claims and a stepped up oil recovery effort in the Gulf.

Media reports of CEO Tony Hayward attending a yacht race off the Isle of Wight, the day after he stepped down from managing the oil leak on a daily basis, set off one of the sharpest expressions yet of administration anger with BP.

“Well, to quote Tony Hayward, he’s got his life back, as he would say,” White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said, referencing the BP boss’s now-notorious slip.

“And I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR (public relations) consulting,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

“This has just been part of a long line of PR gaffes and mistakes.”

Emanuel then assailed BP for its response to the worst oil spill in US history, saying it had to be forced to do more, faster at every step since the April 20 explosion that ripped through the Deepwater Horizon rig it had leased, killing 11 workers.

Over the past week, the British energy giant has called in more ships and equipment to the area, announced it was ahead of schedule in drilling the relief wells — seen as the best chance at killing the well — and said it would significantly boost the amount of oil captured from its busted well.

But a key US congressman Ed Markey, a vocal critic of BP and its handling of the disaster, lit out at the firm after releasing an internal BP document that showed the energy giant’s own worst-case, saying the firm was “either lying or grossly incompetent.”

“First they said it was only 1,000 barrels, then they said it was 5,000 barrels, now we’re up to 100,000 barrels,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

US government estimates now put the leak at 30,000 to 65,000 barrels a day.

BP rejected Markey’s charge, noting that the conditions it had stated for the worst-case scenario to develop were not in place then, and are not in place now.

“It’s completely misrepresenting what we’re saying,” BP spokesman Robert Wine told AFP. “We were saying that if two conditions were met simultaneously — one that we got the modeling restrictions wrong and if the blowout preventer were removed — then we could have 100,000 barrels of oil.”

He said the estimate “has nothing with the amount of oil that’s actually escaping at the moment.”

BP also raced to defend Hayward’s vacation outing with his son in Britain, which a spokesman called his “first non-working day since this started.”

“Still, no matter where he is, he is always in touch with what is happening within BP,” another company spokesman John Curry said.

Asked about Hayward’s yacht outing, Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “all of these guys could use a better PR advisor, but the point is we need to get the oil leak stopped and keep as much as the oil off the shore as we can.”

“Clearly, not enough is being done. All the local officials on the Gulf are frustrated as they can be,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”

Republican Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, one of the four Gulf Coast states sullied by brownish tides of oily mixture thick as cake batter, called Hayward’s appearance at the yacht race “the height of arrogance.”

The controversy capped a nightmare week for BP, whose public image is in tatters after its shares slumped on the stock market, its credit worthiness was slashed and its top executives were hauled to the White House.

BP said it captured about 21,040 barrels of oil on Friday, slightly lower than in previous day after its main oil-collecting vessel had to be temporarily shut down to clean a flame arrester and wait out a lighting storm. Its current collection system can collect or burn up to about 25,000 barrels a day.

The spill has impacted 59 miles (95 kilometers) of Gulf Coast shoreline, mainly in Louisiana but also in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. More than one-third of federal waters in the Gulf are closed to fishing because of the spill.

Gupta was sent to 14 days judicial custody by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja. The police were told to present Gupta before the court on May 15.

According to a police official, Gupta, 53, said she was not a senior officer and could not have passed on sensitive information to her contacts in Pakistan where she was posted in the Indian High Commission.

But she said she had revealed the identities of Indian undercover agents in Pakistan.

Her counsel Jagmohan Dahiya said police wanted to extend her custody for two more days, which the court rejected. Earlier she was in police custody for five days.

According to court sources, the police wanted to extend her remand as they claimed she was changing her statements time and again in order to mislead them.

She has been booked under the Official Secrets Act.

Gupta, a second secretary at the Indian mission in Islamabad, was arrested here on charges of passing on information to the Pakistanis.

According to officials, she came under suspicion months ago and was called to Delhi on the pretext of helping to prepare for the SAARC summit that ended in Bhutan this week.

of Islam 6 years before, as per the media reports. The reports too claimed Gupta, who was deputed at the post of Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was may be a Shia Muslim.

Reports claim “She was really inspired by the teachings of Islam but was scared to announce her new faith.” As per source “Her kin has very close relations with a well-known Muslim family of Ashiq Hussain Jafri in Lucknow. Ms Gupta spent her early life in Lucknow with Jafri’s family where she enthused (sic) Islamic values.” [smartads]

Madhuri Gupta was suspected in the month of Ramzan by a domestic reporter wearing a bangle & rings which frequently members of the Shia sect wear. She explained to the reporter “I am fasting and I have great respect for Islam.”

Gupta was sent to 14 days judicial custody by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja. The police were told to present Gupta before the court on May 15.

According to a police official, Gupta, 53, said she was not a senior officer and could not have passed on sensitive information to her contacts in Pakistan where she was posted in the Indian High Commission.

But she said she had revealed the identities of Indian undercover agents in Pakistan.

Her counsel Jagmohan Dahiya said police wanted to extend her custody for two more days, which the court rejected. Earlier she was in police custody for five days.

According to court sources, the police wanted to extend her remand as they claimed she was changing her statements time and again in order to mislead them.

She has been booked under the Official Secrets Act.

Gupta, a second secretary at the Indian mission in Islamabad, was arrested here on charges of passing on information to the Pakistanis.

According to officials, she came under suspicion months ago and was called to Delhi on the pretext of helping to prepare for the SAARC summit that ended in Bhutan this week.

The BCCI brass may find itself answering some tough questions as may IPL officials past and present as tax authorities have shared specific details with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to carry out an offshore probe into these transactions.

Sources said deposits in Swiss bank accounts are part of private wealth management of the bank concerned, protected under rigid privacy laws. To get details from bank authorities on transactions may not be so easy as in the recent past, Swiss banks have refused to cooperate with Indian investigators despite letters rogatory in some money laundering cases running into thousands of crores.

Intricate transactions have surfaced in financial deals of some of the franchises. Money transfers have taken place through dozens of entities set up in Nigeria, Mauritius, Hong Kong and in some of the British overseas territories and Crown dependencies such as British Virgin Islands, Isle of Man and Jersey.

BCCI can be asked about money transfers made directly to accounts of the sports body in at least one case. The responsibility of carrying out due diligence on the source of money, to ensure it came from legitimate sources, was that of the apex cricket organization.

Sources said linkages of money having come from some African countries into Swiss accounts cannot be ruled out, raising further doubts on the transaction. Government had imposed tough FEMA regulation on remittances received from abroad after instances of drug money or other crime proceeds having infiltrated the economy came to light a few years ago.

Sources in the ED said in some payments made to BCCI for bagging IPL franchises, the remittances were in contravention of FEMA rules. In some other cases, it is suspected that some IPL team partners may have indulged in round-tripping investments through entities set up in tax havens.

The corporate affairs ministry - which is looking into the shareholding pattern of IPL franchises — has found discrepancies in ownership status in some cases. In one instance, the list of shareholders shared with the ministry does not show the name of the person who had registered the company with the registrar of companies despite being one of the major shareholders.

The corporate affairs ministry has through its regional directors collected copies of original bid documents of franchises to verify shareholding patterns, investments and their list of directors. The Mumbai Registrar of Companies sent out showcause notices after inconsistencies were found in to at least three companies owning these franchises in filing of balance sheets and annual reports.

She worked here in 2006-2007 as assistant director, an official at the ICWA, better known as Sapru House, that is attached to the Ministry of External Affairs, told IANS.
Sources said she was fluent in Urdu and was ‘desperate’ to go to Pakistan, suggesting she may have had cross-border links for some time.
Gupta, who served as second secretary at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was arrested from her home here four days ago on the charges of spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Madhuri Gupta, the junior Indian diplomatic official who was arrested here on charges of spying for Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, worked with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a foreign policy think tank, before she was posted at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.

Gupta, 53, had been to Sunderbani, close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Rajouri district, for two days on March 28 and 29 this year, intelligence sources said. Officials said they do not have exact information on the kind of relationship the diplomat had with the doctor couple.

“At some stage, it might be investigated,” an intelligence official said.

Gupta, a second secretary with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, has been remanded to police custody. The Indian government Tuesday said it was questioning Gupta for passing sensitive information to Pakistan.

She was arrested four days ago after being summoned to Delhi on the pretext of consultations.

“I have done nothing improper, unethical and much less illegal …. I have requested the Prime Minister to investigate thoroughly the charges against me,” he said.

“It is important to me that my name is cleared, which has been besmirched,” Tharoor said, as he had lived a life of probity throughout his career abroad.

“I have no desire to be an embarrassment to the government,” he added. Tharoor said his resignation would strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues to go deeper into the relevant issues

Tharoor also said he was deeply wounded by the malicious and fanciful charges. “I am new to Indian politics, but I have a long record in public service and have an unblemished record,” he added.

Tharoor also played the Kerala card while presenting his defense in Parliament, “I have returned to India after a long international career. I am proud to represent Kerala,” said the former minister.

The ousted minister, however, did not directly rebut the charges leveled against him by IPL commissioner Lalit Modi.

The former minister of state said it was a privilege to have served the government and the Congress party under the leadership of Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

A minister can give a statement within seven days of his resignation after advance notice to the House. Tharoor met finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is the leader of the House in Lok Sabha, on Monday to express his wish to speak.

Tharoor quit on Sunday night after the Congress leadership concluded that his involvement in IPL Kochi controversy made his continuation untenable.

According to sources, the leadership vetted Tharoor’s statement. The government is focussed on the finance bill and is keen that Parliament is not disrupted in the coming week when the guillotine on the demand for grants comes up and is to be followed by the discussion on finance bill.

Congress leaders wanted to be careful that the minister should not say anything in his bid to claim innocence which may ruffle feathers in the Opposition camp or reignite the blockade which, in fact, played a role in fasttracking the decision on Tharoor. The BJP and others had blocked the House on Friday and threatened to block proceedings again to press for his resignation which made the government anxious.

Amid the IPL controversy where Tharoor was charged with helping close friend Sunanda Pushkar to secure “sweat equity” with the Kochi franchise, he was allowed to make a statement in Lok Sabha on Friday. An agitated Opposition did not let him speak and he had to table his statement. He had claimed complete innocence, saying he had nothing to do with Pushkar’s “sweat equity”.

No casualty was reported in the firing. BSF officials at Gurdaspur said that the unprovoked firing from Pakistan side started at about 11pm last night at Simbal post in Bamial sector and BSF Jawans retaliated. The firing lasted for 30 minutes.

The authorities said BSF authorities would take up the issue of unprovoked firing with Pakistan Rangers today. Following the incident, BSF authorities have declared an alert along the whole border stretch in Punjab and Rajasthan, they said.

There have been incidents of unprovoked firing from Pakistan side in Poonch and Amritsar sectors in the recent past and BSF authorities had lodged protests with Pakistani authorities.

The incident came to light when some of the locals found the foetuses lying in the garbage bin near the stadium this morning.

“There were 14 foetuses in the garbage bin. All the foetuses have been sent to civil hospital for postmortem,” Bapunagar police inspector R D Lashkari told PTI.

Lashkari said the sex of the foetuses would be determined after the postmortem and a case has been registered in this regard.

One of the locals, who informed the police about the incident, said these foetuses could have been dumped by private nursing homes in the area which indulge in sex determination tests.

The stand against Modi has hardened over the last few days as the rapidly-developing events surrounding Kochi franchise’s stakeholding pattern has opened a pandora’s box about financial irregularities in the IPL.

Modi himself is under fire for allegedly helping his family and friends buy stakes in various IPL teams.

His tweets about Kochi’s shareholding created a political storm as it emerged that minister of state for external affair Shashi Tharoor’s close friend Sunanda Pushkar had a sweat equity worth Rs 70 crore. Tharoor had to resign, while Pushkar also gave up her stake in Kochi franchise.

“Modi’s exit is a foregone conclusion. The BCCI members are extremely unhappy in the manner in which he brought about this controversy,” a top BCCI source said.

“Never in the history of BCCI has the Income Tax sleuths raided the offices. It has not only tarnished the image of the Board but has also sullied the IPL brand,” the source said.

Support for the beleaguered Modi, who is in Dubai to attend an ICC Executive Board meeting, appears to be dwindling within the BCCI.

Though heavyweight Sharad Pawar is said to be backing Modi, none of the other bigwigs seem to be in the mood to defend him this time around.

Tharoor’s resignation from the government has also led to intense speculation that the centre would target Modi now and the BCCI does not want to be caught in the cross-fire.

BCCI spokesman Rajiv Shukla, however, maintains that the issue will be discussed and reports of Modi being downsized are a mere media speculation.

“All the allegations (against Modi) and other issues would be discussed in the Governing Council meeting.

“BCCI Working Committee meeting has been postponed to May 2 because all things have to be discussed in the Governing Council meeting first. There is no point in having a Working Committee meeting before that,” added the BCCI Media and Finance Committee chairman.

The Governing Council meeting is expected to be held on April 26, a day after the final of the IPL. No date has yet been officially announced.

Modi detractors have already prepared the groundwork to ease him out of the commissioner’s post. There has also been talk of passing a resolution in the council meeting to remove him but no confirmation could be obtained.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja adjourned the matter after Additional Solicitor General PP Malhotra submitted that the original records, which were sent to the Supreme Court, have yet not been returned.
Advocate Ajay Agrawal, who had moved the court against CBI’s action to withdraw the case on October three last year, filed some additional records in furtherance of his objection.

He had earlier argued that the appeal filed by him in October 2005 in the matter was still pending before the apex court.

He had claimed that CBI had not filed the appeal against the Delhi High Court judgment discharging some accused in the case.

Quattrocchi, 70, the sole surviving accused in the case after the Delhi High Court quashed the charges on May 31, 2005 against other accused, has never appeared before any court in the country.

CBI had failed on two occasions in its attempt to get Quattrocchi extradited — first from Malaysia in 2003 and then from Argentina in 2007.  In November last year, the agency had asked the Interpol to take Quattrocchi’s name off the Red Corner notice list.

Talking exclusively to Zee News, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr Farooq Abdullah, who is also a member of IPL governing council, said that IGC would meet on April 23. However, conflicting reports claim that the IPL governing council is scheduled to meet on April 25.

Abdullah said Lalit Modi had to come clean on the stakes held by his relatives.

Asked whether he would want Modi to be removed from the post in the light of his public spat with Union Minister Shashi Tharoor, Dr Abdullah said: “No, I would not be in favour of it. But I would want the BCCI president also to exert a dominant power.”

Abdullah’s confirmation came after BCCI vice president Rajiv Shukla informed on Saturday that the governing council, which met informally on Friday in Dharamshala, would meet after the IPL gets over.
It seems that the anti-Modi lobby of BCCI led by Dr Abdullah got the date of IPL governing council meeting advanced by two days.
The source indicated that Modi’s powers as commissioner would be most probably curbed when the IPL governing council meets either on April 23 or on April 25.

Modi’s detractors in the BCCI are pressing for his head as they feel he has brought the IPL under media glare for all the wrong reasons but as of now, it appears that he would continue in the post till his term ends in 2012.

“As of now it seems he will remain in the post but definitely his powers would be curbed and he will not be allowed to take decisions unilaterally,” the source said.

Besides Lalit Modi and IS Bindra, the 14-member governing council has former cricketers Ravi Shastri, Sunil Gavaskar, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi as well as politicians and BCCI office bearers such as Arun Jaitley, Rajiv Shukla, Farooq Abdullah, Shashank Manohar, Niranjan Shah, MP Pandove, Chirayu Amin, Sanjay Jagdale and Niranjan Shah.

The two countries signed an agreement for establishing a hotline between New Delhi and Beijing to enhance the quality of communication and evolve better relationship, Nirupama Rao, foreign secretary, told reporters this evening. This is an important confidence building measure, she said.

Krishna, who met Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and foreign minister Yang Jiechi, raised a wide range of issues including the problem of stapled visas given by China to certain Indian citizens including Kashmiris. Rao seemed to suggest there was no clear assurance from the Chinese side when she told reporters that the matter was “a subject of ongoing discussions”.

Rao said Chinese leaders have reiterated their known position on the issue of supporting India’s case for a seat in the United Nations Security Council while promising to listen closely to India’s concerns. China has bee saying it keen on supporting a “bigger role” for India in the United Nations without specifying it it was ready to vote in its favor.

“We have been hearing frequently these kind of news and I do not know the purpose to stir up issues,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said, replying to questions about reports of hacking of sensitive Indian sites in the media on Tuesday.

“Some people spread some information regarding the so- called China hacking activities. On this issue our policy is very clear and we are firmly opposed to all kinds of hacking activities through internet,” she said, adding, “Hacking is an international crime and all nations should join hands to deal with hacking crimes”.

A new report called ‘Shadow in the Clouds’ by Canadian and American researchers based at the University of Toronto has said that a spy operation called ‘Shadow Network’ based out of China has tapped into top secret files of the Indian government.

Major Indian missile and armament systems may have been compromised as Chinese hackers have reportedly broken into top secret files of the Indian Defence Ministry and embassies around the world.

Among the systems leaked out could be Shakti, the just introduced advanced artillery combat and control system of the Indian Army and the country’s new mobile missile defence system called the Iron Dome.

Jiang said China has already joined series of international and regional cooperation mechanisms including APEC- “we initiated relevant initiatives within ASEAN and SCO also”. “We have noted the relevant cooperation to counter hacking activities”.

The foreign ministry official said the issues have already been noted by the competent authorities, but the people “who are spreading such rumours have not given any formal representation with the competent authorities of China”.

“I do not know the purpose of such media reports,” Jiang said.

In the investigations conducted over eight months, the report by Canadian and American researchers claimed that systematic cyber espionage was carried out from servers located in China that “compromised” government, business, academic and other computer network systems in India.

Andhra Cricket Association’s former secretary V Chamundeswaranath, a close friend of Sania’s family, said late Monday that “while no decision was taken to postpone the marriage, the family was keeping all options open”.

Chamundeswaranath has been regularly visiting the Mirza family ever since Shoaib arrived on Friday for his wedding scheduled for April 15.

With Ayesha Siddiqui, who claims to be Shoaib’s first wife, launching a legal fight to prove her claim and the police not ruling out the Pakistani cricketer’s arrest, the two families are seriously considering delaying the marriage, it is learnt.

Police on Monday grilled Shoaib at Sania’s house after booking a criminal case of cheating, harassment and criminal intimidation against him following a complaint by Ayesha, who is also a resident of this city.

Though both Shoaib and Sania, during their interaction with the media on Monday, asserted that the marriage would take place April 15, the family is visibly worried over the impact the controversy may have on the celebrations.

Sania was tense and irritated while answering media queries on Monday. “Of course I am upset but we are happy that we are together and we are happy that we are getting married, Inshallah. We want to remember this as a happy occasion in our life and not as bad thing or negative thing,” she said.

Police officers, who took away Shoaib’s passport, said he may be questioned again and may also be arrested on the basis of evidence they may come across during the course of investigations.

The Air Force says Mhada manipulated property records to take over nearly 49,000 sq m of defence land at the Rifle Range in Golibar area of suburban Santacruz.

Six buildings have also come up on the land under the slum rehabilitation scheme, it said.

The land (survey No 13/CTS 387) is located close to an IAF installation.
The Cotton Green-based 411 Air Force station has claimed that the land was part of 2.49 lakh sq m of military land, which had been in its possession since May 8, 1964.

An official at the 411 Air Force station, alleged Mhada allowed a private developer to illegally set up multi-storied apartments on the land without procuring a no-objection certificate from the Air Force. 

When contacted a Mhada official declined to comment on the IAF’s allegations.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has set up a watchdog headed by a chief commissioner in Mumbai to keep a close eye on IPL transactions.

The Rs 110 crore in the first 15 days of IPL-3 is from tax deducted at source on payments made by the organizer and its franchisees.

A senior CBDT official said by the end of the IPL-3 season, the department expects to mop up close to Rs 200 crore in direct taxes from games related revenue. From service tax, the Central Board of Excise and Customs has estimated an income of more than Rs 100 crore — that could take net revenue collection from IPL-3 close to Rs 300 crore.

Three meetings of the I-T committee on IPL have been held in Mumbai where all receipts and payments by both BCCI and its franchisees were discussed.

Till date, BCCI has paid Rs 167 crore during the fiscal year 2009-10, ending March 31. Its payment during IPL-3 alone has been to the tune of Rs 66 crore. The four franchisees that are assessed in Mumbai have made a payment of Rs 25 crore during the IPL.

The department is yet to get a detailed account on the payments made by four other franchisees that are assessed in Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bangalore. CBDT has asked chief commissioners of these jurisdictions to report payments made by these franchisees.

In IPL-1, the government had earned Rs 90 crore through TDS while BCCI had refused to pay tax on its income as it claimed to be a charitable organization. However, the I-T department disputed the sports body’s claims and said any commercial activity such as the IPL needs to pay tax on income.

Currently, BCCI’s plea seeking exemption on its income is pending before a tax tribunal. Though IPL-3 is likely to generate close to Rs 4,500 crore as estimated by its commissioner Lalit Modi, the I-T department hopes revenues from related activities as advertisements on television and earnings by sports companies may be at least half as big as the direct revenue of the IPL tournament. The games broadcaster, Sony, is likely to generate income upwards of Rs 800 crore.

Petrol price in Delhi will go up by 50 paise per litre to Rs 47.93 a litre and diesel by Rs 26 paise to Rs 38.10 a litre on account of supply of cleaner Euro-IV fuel, the official said but did not wish to be identified.

Thirteen big cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kanpur, Agra, Surat, Ahmedabad, Pune and Sholapur will move from Euro-III grade fuel to Euro-IV from Thursday. Rates will vary from city to city depending upon local taxes.

The rest of the country will switch from Euro-II specification fuel to Euro-III in phases, beginning with Goa from Thursday. Sale of Euro-III grade will be phased over the next 5-6 months.

Euro-III petrol will cost Rs 0.26 a litre more and same grade diesel Rs 0.21 per litre, the official said, adding the rates will differ from city to city.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was approached by the Petroleum Ministry for clearance, had Tuesday approved of the price hike.

Oil companies had invested Rs 40,000 crore in putting up facilities to produce cleaner fuel and the prices have been increased to make up for the cost.

This will be the third hike in diesel rates for Delhi in less than a month and the second for petrol. Petrol price was raised by Rs 2.71 and diesel by Rs 2.55 a litre from February 27 as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hiked excise and customs duty on the two fuel. Diesel rates went up by Rs 2.37 on March 23 when the Delhi government raised VAT on the fuel.

Euro-IV grade auto fuel prescribes to European emission standards that define acceptable limits for vehicle exhaust emissions for member states of the European Union. It is less polluting since it restricts the presence of sulphur in the fuel: sulphur is present in 50 parts per million (ppm), as opposed to sulphur in 550-350 ppm as sold in earlier.

The Euro IV standard specifies a maximum of 50 parts per million of sulphur in petrol and diesel. Euro-III fuel specifications call for a maximum of 350 parts per million of sulphur will be sold in the rest of the country.

The arguments by prosecution and defence are expected to conclude today following which Judge M L Tahaliyani may announce the date for the verdict, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said.

The prosecution examined as many as 653 witnesses to prove their case that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) carried out the dastardly attacks in Mumbai by sending 10 jehadi terrorists from Karachi.

The court also examined four witnesses, including two National Security Guard (NSG) commandos, who led the teams in operations to fight the terrorists.

Police filed the chargesheet on February 26 last year and the case was committed from magistrate’s court to a sessions court on March 9, 2009. A separate court was established in high security central prison here to hear the case.

On April 17, before the trial began, Kasab had pleaded that he was a juvenile, but the court rejected his claim after examining prosecution witnesses and experts and ruled that he was above 20 years.

On May 8, the first witness stepped into the box, saying he had seen Kasab gunning down sub-inspector Tukaram Ombale at Girgaum Chowpatty.

After examining 653 witnesses, including 30 eye witnesses, Nikam opened arguments this month, saying there was evidence to suggest that the security apparatus of Pakistan was involved in the attacks on India’s financial nerve centre.

Some days later, American terror accused David Headley, in a plea bargain before a Chicago court, disclosed that Pakistani Army men were behind the conspiracy to strike terror in Mumbai in November 2008.

Nikam argued for 13 days before the trial court and filed a 675-page written submissions. Kasab’s counsel K P Pawar argued for three days while R B Mokashi, lawyer defending Faheem Ansari, argued today. Ejaz Naqvi, the lawyer of co-accused Sabauddin Ahmed, would argue tomorrow.

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SIT Chief R K Raghavan was not present at the SIT office when Modi appeared. Another SIT member A K Malhotra is believed to be questioning the chief minister. Elaborate security arrangements were made at the SIT office for the deposition of the chief minister where a large crew of media persons had assembled since morning. Clad in a crisp white kurta and pyjama, Modi greeted the waiting media persons with folded hands after alighting from his car before proceeding to the SIT building.

The SIT had summoned Modi to depose in connection with a complaint of Zakia Jaffery, widow of former Congress MP Eshan Jaffery, who was killed in Gulbarg society riots case of 2002 along with 69 others. The complaint also alleged that he had instructed officers not to take action. Social activist and a Modi baiter Teesta Setalvald said,” Today is an important day for democracy and rule of law when a sitting chief minister has been forced to appear before an inquiry team after various attempts to block justice.”

Gujarat Government Spokesman Jai Narayan Vyas dismissed suggestions of a setback to Modi following his appearance before SIT.

“We have always said that he will abide by rule of law but much hype is being made. There is no setback as far as BJP government or Modi is concerned. Mr Modi is cooperating,” he said. Modi’s appearance before SIT assumes significance as he is a serving chief minister who is being questioned before any authority in connection with the 2002 riots.

Dubey, a project engineer of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) who had exposed several cases of large-scale flouting of rules and corrupt practices in the construction project, was gunned down in the early hours of November 27, 2003 in front of the Circuit House in Gaya when he was going to his residence after alighting from train from Varanasi. Mantu was convicted under sections for murder(Section 302 IPC), voluntary causing hurt in committing robbery (Section 394 IPC) and the Arms Act for possessing unlicensed weapon.

The other two accused were convicted of murder committed in furtherance of common intention (Section 302/34 IPC) and also for voluntary causing hurt in committing robbery. After the three were convicted on Saturday, Dhananjay Dubey, brother of the victim, said he was “really disappointed” as those convicted were “purely innocent” and claimed that the real culprits were still on the loose. Dubey had even written directly to the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee detailing the financial and contractual irregularities in the construction project.

The murder had sparked protests across the country amidst calls for a legislation to protect whistleblowers who expose corruption. The CBI, which had taken over the investigation of the case from Bihar police on December 14, 2003, had filed a chargesheet in the case on September 3, 2004. During the investigation, CBI arrested four persons, namely Mantu, Udai, Pinku and Sharvan Kumar, all residents of Katari village in Gaya, Bihar, the investigating agency said.

“They had all assembled near Circuit House, Gaya on the fateful intervening night of November 26/27, 2003. Around 3.30 AM on November 27 when Dubey was passing in front of Circuit House, Gaya in a cycle-rickshaw, the accused persons robbed him of his belongings and during the ensuing scuffle, Mantu shot him dead with a .315 country-made weapon,” it said in a statement in New Delhi. The CBI said a briefcase containing documents belonging to Dubey including his Identity Card were recovered from an abandoned well and also the country-made pistol were recovered during investigation.

At the same time, Karzai, who was here on a two-day visit, made it clear that India and Afghanistan have “very close friendly relations.”

Noting that he had provided details of the cooperation between the two countries to Gilani, Karzai said: “India has gone out of its way to help Afghanistan with reconstruction and to offer Afghan youth education in India.”

“Afghanistan will not allow its territory to be used against any one of our neighbours, in particular against Pakistan. And we hope the same will reflect towards Afghanistan that Pakistani territory will not be used against Afghanistan,” Karzai said.

Pakistan’s top leadership, including Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, have often spoken of concerns related to India’s presence in Afghanistan.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has alleged that Indian elements were directing terror attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan.

However, Karzai said Afghanistan would act “if there is any information of any country, not only India, using Afghan territory against a neighbour.”

He also said Pakistan should be aware that there cannot be peace and stability within its territory “without a stable and peaceful Afghanistan.”

“The bottom line is that Afghanistan does not want any proxy wars on its territory. It does not want a proxy war between India and Pakistan (or) between Iran and the US.

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Two jawans and a policeman were also injured in the encounter that started yesterday in Mir Mohalla Dadasir, 40 kms from here.

The gunbattle broke out when militants hiding in a house fired on a joint search party of police and troops of 42 Rashtriya Rifles in Mir Mohalla Dadasir.

The captain is the second Army officer to be killed in an encounter in Kashmir in less than a fortnight. On February 24, Captain Devinder Singh Jass was killed in a gunbattle with militants in Sopore.

Sub divisional magistrate said at least 65 people have been killed in the tragedy in Mangarh area of Kunda town, about 180 km from here.

Sixty bodies had been recovered and more could have been killed in the tragedy, said Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal, according to IANS.

Some of the injured were reported to be in critical condition.

The stampede occurred after the main gate of the temple collapsed. More than 30 people are reported to be trapped in the debris.

Most of the trapped people are women and children. There was a huge crowd gathered at the temple to attend a ‘bhandara’ (luncheon) of Swami Kripaluji Maharaj.

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And the Samvidhan Gaurav Yatra (Parade of Pride for the Constitution) which he was leading through the streets of Surendranagar, over 100km from Ahmedabad, was taking place two days before the 60th anniversary of India’s adoption of the Constitution.

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Portions of the message, however, seemed a little mixed up.

Modi urged Gujaratis to learn more about the Constitution and take pride in Ambedkar.

“Ambedkar’s soul will surely bless us for this unique yatra,” he declared as his pageant resonated with Hindu religious chants and patriotic songs.

Ambedkar, however, had rejected Hinduism. Also, the religion he had embraced, Buddhism, does not believe in an abiding soul.

Modi, accused of presiding over the massacre of Muslims eight years ago, saluted the Constitution as the “greatest unifying force in a land of diversities and different faiths”.

Many listeners may have wondered some more if they remembered how K.S. Sudarshan, former chief of the RSS to which Modi owes his rise, had scoffed that the Constitution was an “enlarged and revised edition of the Government of India Act 1935”.

A Modi aide explained the yatra’s objective. He said Surendranagar had witnessed the highest number of atrocities on Dalits who, unlike elsewhere in Gujarat, were gearing to fight back politically.

The BSP’s labour arm has been working among them for some time but no political party has seriously tried to draft the community’s support. Modi, the aide said, wanted to be the first.

“He has read the signals correctly. The Dalits of Saurashtra are getting increasingly politicised and if we don’t watch out, the Congress may get their votes or else the BSP may acquire a foothold,” a government source said.

In 1996 he was offered to lead the federal government as PM in a left-of-centre coalition, but his party chose to support it from the outside.Mr Basu described his party’s decision decision not to join the coalition as a “historic blunder.”

Our correspondent says Jyoti Basu leaves behind a controversial and mixed legacy. Though he undertook crucial land reforms in West Bengal state and empowered the peasantry, the state slid into industrial stagnation and was wracked by radical trade unionism under his rule.Businesses fled West Bengal, unemployment rose, and industrial unrest was rife, our correspondent says.Jyoty Basu was often described as a Fabian socialist rather than an orthodox communist.

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A decision on possible further action would depend on the replies to the show cause notices, top army officials said.Army chief Gen Deepak Kapoor issued the directions in this regard to Adjutant General Lt Gen Mukesh Sabharwal this evening, top Army officials said here.Lt Gen Prakash, who retires on January 31, will get 30 days to reply to the show cause notice.

However, under Army law, Lt Gen Prakash will be liable to any punishment, disciplinary action or administrative action up to three years after his retirement. “Only after the replies are received by the Army headquarters would a decision on whether administrative or disciplinary action should be taken in the case be arrived at,” the officials said.

Lt Gen Prakash, along with Lt Gen P K Rath, Lt Gen Ramesh Halgali and Maj Gen P Sen were found “culpable” by an Army probe in the sale of a 70-acre land to a private realtor on the basis of a No Objection Certificate issued by the Sukna military station.

The massive blast Saturday in Hegang city in frigid Heilongjiang province erupted at night when some 500 miners were working below ground. Most escaped, but 104 were confirmed dead and an additional four were missing and feared dead, the official Xinhua news agency reported Monday.

The explosion at the Xinxing coal mine, which belongs to the state-owned Heilongjiang Longmei Mining Holding Group, was the deadliest in China’s mining industry in two years, and has highlighted how heavy demand for power-generating coal comes at a high human cost.

At the gates of the mining company’s offices, family members and friends confronted mining officials with questions until some of them were escorted into an office by police, security guards and other officials.

“Why don’t you tell us anything?” one shouted. “Not even a phone call!”

Inside the room, Liu Shujiu, whose 38-year-old husband Zhang Shulai was among the victims, broke down in tears as she sat in a chair

“Why haven’t they told us anything?” she wailed. “We had to hear from others at the mine.”

A mine official, who — like many Chinese officials — refused to give his name for fear of government reprisals, held up a list of miners’ names and tried to calm the crowd: “There are certainly dead. You don’t take it well, we know. But there’s a process. I feel as bad as you,” he said, pausing before admitting that the delay in informing family members was a mistake.

“In this, we were wrong,” he said.

Three of the Americans died in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, the statement said. Two of them were killed by a bomb attack and the third in a separate firefight.

The military said the fourth U.S. service member died in the east Monday in a bomb explosion.

The deaths bring the number of Americans killed in Afghanistan in November to 15. October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in the eight-year war, with 58 dead.

Meanwhile, Afghan officials said three Afghan army soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Helmand province.

The Interior Ministry said the bombing occurred on Sunday in Musa Qala district. It did not give further details and it was not clear if there was any connection between the Afghan deaths and the American deaths.

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While there is no definite proclamation of how the end of the world 2012 will happen, those who have studied this calendar claim that the long calendar was created in order to correspond with a long term astronomical prediction by the Mayan people. This has led some to believe that this end of the world scenario will play out in a manner that has something to do with something from beyond this world. While this correlation to something that is going on in outer space is not a definite thing, for some it comes from a basic understanding of Mayan culture and their unique understanding of astronomical phenomena and planetary alignments.

The Long Count set its “zero date” at a point in the past marking the end of the previous world and the beginning of the current one, which corresponds to either 11 or 13 August 3114 BC in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar, depending on the formula used.[12] Unlike the 52-year calendar round still used today among the Maya, the Long Count was linear, rather than cyclical, and kept time roughly in units of 20, so 20 days made a uinal, 18 uinals, or 360 days, made a tun, 20 tuns made a k’atun, and 20 k’atuns, or 144,000 days, made up a b’ak’tun. So, for example, the Mayan date of 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 b’ak’tuns, 3 k’atuns, 2 tuns, 10 uinals and 15 days since creation. Many Mayan inscriptions have the count shifting to a higher order after 13 b’ak’tuns. Today, the most widely accepted correlations of the end of the thirteenth b’ak’tun, or Mayan date 13.0.0.0.0, with the Western calendar are either December 21 or December 23, 2012.