No casualties in Hyderabad hospital blaze
Hyderabad, Dec 23: There were no casualties in the fire that broke out at a hospital building in Hyderabad on Saturday evening. Fire fighting personnel doused the fire which started from a hoarding on the top of the multi-storey building. The incident, which occurred at Ankura Hospital for Women and Children in the Gudimalkapur area, sent panic among the patients and their attendants. The staff with the help of police and other rescue workers shifted the patients to other hospitals. The police said that no one was injured and all the patients have been safely evacuated. Fire tenders and Disaster Response Force (DRF) teams rushed to the scene after receiving the news of the fire. The fire is suspected to have been caused by a short-circuit on the hoarding on top of the building located off the busy road under PVNR Expressway. The hospital was being operated from only on two floors of the building. However, a portion of the sixth floor where nurses were residing was damaged in the fire. Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha has ordered a probe. (IANS)
Karti appears before ED
New Delhi, Dec 23: Congress MP Karti Chidambaram on Saturday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate for his questioning in a money laundering case linked to the issuance of visa to some Chinese nationals in 2011, official sources said. The ED case stems from a CBI complaint. The agency recorded the statement of the 52-year-old MP from Sivaganga Lok Sabha seat in Tamil Nadu, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Karti had earlier said the ED probe was a “fishing and roving” enquiry and that he has earlier submitted documents to the agency. He sought more time to collect documents as he skipped appearance on December 12 and December 16. The CBI, last year, raided the premises of the Chidamabram family and arrested S Bhaskararaman, a close associate of Chidambaram. The ED case pertains to the allegations of Rs 50 lakh being paid as kickbacks to Karti and Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL), which was setting up a power plant in Punjab, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR. (PTI)