Singla never spoke to me about Kumar’s appointment: Bansal
New Delhi: Former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday told a special court that his nephew Vijay Singla, facing trial in the Rs 10 crore cash-for-post railway bribery case, “never spoke” to him on appointment of accused Mahesh Kumar, then a Railway Board member, to any post. Deposing as a prosecution witness in the case, Bansal said that Singla, chargesheeted by CBI for allegedly demanding Rs 10 crore from Kumar for his appointment as Member (Electrical), had visited him thrice during his tenure as the Railway Minister but never talked about Kumar’s appointment. “Accused Vijay Singla never spoke to me about the appointment of accused Mahesh Kumar for any post,” Bansal told Special CBI Judge Swarana Kanta Sharma. Bansal appeared before the court in pursuance to fresh summons issued on September 16. He was initially summoned as a witness for September 16 but on that day, he was granted exemption from personal appearance on health grounds. During his deposition, which remained inconclusive today, Bansal said that Kumar was the seniormost eligible person for appointment as Member (Staff) in the Railway Board and he was promoted to that post during his tenure as minister which ended on May 10, 2013. (PTI)
Odisha ex-AG held in chit fund scam
Bhubaneswar: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Monday arrested Odisha’s former advocate general Ashok Mohanty in connection with a multi-crore-rupee chit fund scam, a lawyer said. Mohanty was arrested from his home in Cuttack town, 26 km from here. He was arrested for his alleged link with the Artha Tatwa group, the lawyer said. Mohanty was later brought to the CBI office here. Mohanty said he had a clear conscience and was not involved in any wrongdoing. “Truth will prevail,” he told reporters after his arrest. The CBI is investigating the chit fund scam on the direction of the Supreme Court. The scam came to light after a large number of investors last year complained that many firms collected huge amounts of money from them promising high returns, but later refused to pay them back as promised. The CBI is probing at least 44 companies in Odisha, including Kolkata-based Saradha Group and Odisha-based Seashore and Artha Tatwa groups. The loss from the scam is claimed to be running into thousands of crores of rupees. Mohanty was earlier interrogated by the CBI Sep 13, a day after he resigned from the advocate general’s post. (Agencies)
JU authorities ask students to resume classes
Kolkata: The Jadavpur University authorities on Monday appealed to the students to maintain normalcy and resume classes, but the students remained adamant on boycott of classes reiterating their demand for resignation of the Vice-Chancellor Abhijit Chakraborty. “We have given a notice to all departments of the university, annexing the High Court order. We appeal to all to maintain normalcy,” JU registrar Pradip Ghosh said. “We have appealed that classes, which are not being held for some days, be resumed,” Ghosh said. The registrar said that he would request police authorities to see that students, who were arrested, were not affected. “We want that their careers are not affected.” Police had arrested 36 students from the university campus on the night of September 16 during its action to free Vice-Chancellor on a written request from him. Asked about medical treatment of students injured in the police action, Ghosh said, “The university will sympathetically examine the possibility if there is an appeal.” “We have decided this after consulting the Vice-Chancellor,” he said. Asked when the Vice-Chancellor would rejoin office, he said, “He has taken leave as he is unwell. It is up to him to decide when he will come back.”He also said that the Vice-Chancellor would send a report to Governor K N Tripathi, who is the Chancellor of the university, as has been sought by him. (PTI)
Widows to participate in Durga Puja festival in Kolkata
Mathura (UP): It would be a homecoming experience for fifty widows from Vrindavan as they will celebrate Durga Puja festival during their week-long visit to Kolkata, commencing from Thursday. Sulabh International, an NGO, working for the empowerment of the widows, is organising the visit. “The widows, who belong to West Bengal, would not only watch famous Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata but would get an opportunity to visit the area, where they were born and brought up and married,” an official from the organisation told reporters today. “It would be virtually like homecoming after decades,” she said. Around fifty widows of Vrindavan had already visited Kolkata during Durga Puja celebrations last year, she said. “Though we came to Vrindavan to pay our obeisance to the Lord Krishna for salvation, however, there can be no substitute to home and there can be no better experience than visiting the area one is born and brought up,” an 85-year-old Maanu Ghosh said. “When we came to Vrindavan from Kolkata about two decades ago, we never had dreamt of visiting our motherland again,” 80-year-old Aarati Mistry said. 95-year-old Kanak Lata Devi, who has passed her over four decades in lotus feet of Radha Rani in Vrindavan, is eager to meet the Governor and Chief Minister of West Bengal. “We have sought an appointment from these two dignitaries for them,” the NGO official said. Metro and Tram ride would be another thrilling experience for them, she said. (PTI)
HC initiates suo motu proceedings in child trafficking case
Kochi: Kerala High Court on Monday initiated suo motu proceedings over alleged trafficking of over 500 children from Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar to orphanages in the state in May this year. A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice A M Shaffique directed the government to file a comprehensive report within three weeks regarding the details of inmates in the orphanages in the state. The proceedings were initiated on the basis of a report in an English daily and the report of Kerala Child Rights Protection committee. Two PILs seeking to handover investigation of the case to CBI are pending before the high court. The CBI has expressed its willingness to investigate the matter. At least 580 children from the three eastern states were being taken to two orphanages in Kerala when they were detained by police at Palakkad railway station on May 24 on finding that many of them did not have proper documents. The children were to be sent to two orphanages. The issue had snowballed into a major row in the state with IUML, the key partner in UDF,taking objection to treating the incident as a case of child trafficking. (PTI)