Ramdev’s aide Balkrishna gets bail, to appear before
CBI on August 4
NEW DELHI/DEHRADUN: Acharya Balkrishna, a key aide of yoga guru Baba Ramdev, got anticipatory bail Friday even as the CBI asked him to appear before it by August 4 in connection with a fake passport case, a CBI official said. Fearing arrest by the agency, Balkrishna move the Uttarakhand high court to seek anticipatory bail. “The court granted bail till August 29,” Balkrishna told reporters in Dehradun. Balkrishna was to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday, but this deadline has been pushed back. In Delhi, a CBI official said: “Balkrishna, who was to appear today (Friday), asked for 10 days time, but we gave him a deadline of Aug 4 to appear before the CBI in Dehradun,” an official said. The CBI July 26 issued summons to Balkrishna, who has been accused of using fake documents to obtain an Indian passport, asking him to appear at its Dehradun office Thursday. The agency said police officers, who had been sent to serve the summons, found Balkrishna missing from his residence. Balkrishna, through a letter on Thursday requested the CBI to give 20 days time to appear before it as his passport is with an embassy in Delhi. Rejecting the request, the CBI asked him to appear on Friday at Dehradun. The probe agency issued a lookout notice for Balkrishna, who was booked for allegedly ho lding a fake passport July 25. (IANS)
Case against ex-Air India GM
Mumbai: The CBI has registered a case against a former general manager of Air India and employees of Eros International Media for allegedly cheating the national carrier to the tune of Rs one crore. “A case has been registered against Anil Kumar Sharma, the then general manager of the in-flight service department, Air India and a few employees of Eros International Media for fraudulently charging Air India for providing short video programmes,” a senior CBI official said. Air India had appointed Eros Multimedia to supply short video programmed for screening in its flights. However, Eros charged Air India for durations much more than the actual duration of the programmes supplied. “Sharma in connivance with executives of Eros approved the bills raised by the company without verifying them. Apart from charging for extra duration, Eros had also charged Air India for programmes which were already billed and paid,” the official said. (PTI)
Three sentenced to death
Suri (WB): A Birbhum court on Friday sentenced three men to death and a woman to life imprisonment for the murder of a beauty parlour owner in 2008. District and Sessions judge Malay Marut Banerjee sentenced Kiriti Pal to death on whose motorcycle the beauty parlour owner Anjali Goswami was last seen riding pillion on November 11, 2008. Her body was found the next day in a forest near here. Pal’s accomplices, Mustak Mia and Siddiki Mia, were also awarded the death sentence. Durga Sutradhar, who worked in the parlour as an assistant was sentenced to life imprisonment. According to the prosecution, Pal had an affair with Goswami who was also a folk singer and had brought out a number of cassettes and CDs and possessed a great deal of jewellery. She was a widow and lived alone as her only daughter had committed suicide. (PTI)
