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The Income-Tax Department has attached a ‘benami’ plot worth Rs 400 crore in Noida belonging to BSP supremo Mayawati’s brother and his wife, an official order said.

The provisional order for the attachment of the seven-acre plot, “beneficially owned” by Anand Kumar and his wife Vichiter Lata, was issued on July 16 by the Delhi-based Benami Prohibition Unit (BPU) of the department.

Mayawati recently appointed Kumar as national vice president of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The order, accessed by PTI, has been issued under section 24(3) of the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988.

The attached asset, considered a ‘benami’ property of Kumar and his wife by the department, measures 28,328.07 square meters or about seven acres, the order said.

The book value of the property is Rs 400 crore, it said. The law stipulates that a violator of the Benami Act can face rigorous imprisonment up to seven years besides being liable to pay fine up to 25 per cent of fair market value of the ‘benami’ property.

The department started initiating action under the new Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 from November 1, 2016 after the Modi government enforced the dormant-lying law from that year.

The I-T Department is the nodal department to enforce the Benami Act in the country.

Jadhav, an Indian naval officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court in April 2017 for alleged espionage. India had approached the ICJ to stay the execution.

The Prime Minister’s remarks came soon after the ICJ put on hold the death sentence of Jadhav. The world court also directed Pakistan to grant consular access to Jadhav, while holding that it had “breached” the Vienna Convention in this regard by denying him this right. In November 2008, India and Pakistan inked a bilateral agreement on consular access to their prisoners in each others’ countries.

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Wednesday welcomed the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) verdict to put on hold the death sentence of KulbhushanJadhav in an alleged espionage case, saying “truth and justice” have prevailed.

“We welcome today’s verdict in the ICJ. Truth and justice have prevailed. Congratulations to the ICJ for a verdict based on extensive study of facts. I am sure KulbhushanJadhav will get justice. Our government will always work for the safety and welfare of every Indian,” Modi tweeted.

The Tata Sky self-care application is very popular and is used by almost every Tata Sky subscriber to tweak channel packs, change settings of their subscription or profile or even to watch Live TV. One of the best features that the Tata Sky self-care application offers is that it allows the subscribers to watch Live TV on the app itself. So in case the subscribers only have their phone, and they can’t access a show on TV, then they have the option of watching it on their phone itself. However, a lot of subscribers of Tata Sky also wish to access these shows and the features of the Tata Sky app on their laptop or PC as well. For them, Tata Sky has a solution in the form of its Web Version. To know more about the Tata Sky Web Version, read ahead.

Tata Sky Web Version: How to Access and Login

The Tata Sky Web Version is a convenient solution for any Tata Sky subscriber who would like to access the Live TV service by Tata Sky on their laptop or PC. While the Live TV channels being offered by Tata Sky are easily accessible on a smartphone owing to the Tata Sky Mobile app, the users who would like to watch the shows on a slightly bigger screen in case they don’t have access to a TV could use the Tata Sky Web Version. In order to do that, the subscribers will first have to open the Tata Sky Web Version.

Over here, the users will find that the website is divided into a handful of subsections which include Home, Live TV, On Demand, Watchlist and My Box. Now in order to make the full use of the website, the subscribers of Tata Sky will have to log in to the Web Version. On tapping the Login button, the users will be able to log in via the registered mobile number in combination with an OTP or the Tata Sky login password.

More Features of Tata Sky Web Version

In the home section, the subscribers will get recommendations regarding shows which would include Live Sports, Live News, Kids TV Shows, Live TV Shows, Pick of the Week and more. Subscribers will also be able to access Tata Sky services in this section as well. The second section which the users will find to their liking is the Live TV section where they will be able to watch channels in real-time to access their favourite shows and movies. This section can also be navigated through genres, so users will find it convenient to look up what they want to watch. In addition to this, the service will grant the users access to On-demand content and features like Watchlist as well.

One of the best features of the Web Version will be that it will allow the subscribers the access to the MyBox section where the subscribers will be able to see the entire schedule of the channels, which show is running on a particular channel and the upcoming shows as well.

Rescuers are still digging through the rubble of a decades-old four-storey building in south Mumbai’s crowded Dongri area that collapsed on Tuesday morning. Fourteen people have been killed and many more are feared trapped. Nine people – including two children – have been rescued.

Three teams of the National Disaster Response Force, joined by residents of the south Mumbai neighbourhood where several old buildings stand cheek by jowl, worked through the night to remove blocks of broken concrete and bricks using portable power tools.

Heavy machines could not reach the collapsed building on Tuesday as the lanes – with overhead wires dangling – were too narrow for them to navigate. The area was also flooded in heavy rain in the past weeks.

Residents formed a human chain to pass down with their bare hands small debris like wooden blocks and bricks towards the outer area of the neighbourhood.

“We have given permission to redevelop that area… We will know after investigation if the redevelopment initiative was delayed. Right now we are focusing on rescuing trapped people,” Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told reporters on Tuesday.

He said Rs. 50 lakh will be given to each of the families of those who died, and Rs. 50,000 will be given to the injured and the government would take care of their medical expenses, news agency ANI reported today.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague will pronounce its judgment in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case at 3 p.m. (6.30 p.m. IST) on Wednesday in the Peace Palace in the Netherlands. According to an ICJ statement, the President of the UN judicial organ Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf will deliver the judgment. Fifteen other judges on the panel — including the representative from Pakistan — will either concur fully with the final verdict or read out supporting or dissenting opinions.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday took a swipe at the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) combine in Karnataka for questioning its power to give directions to the Speaker after welcoming the court’s intervention last year. “When our order is in your favour, you do not complain… Remember, there is no rule on the extent of powers of this court,” Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi told senior advocates A.M. Singhvi and Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. The court reserved for judgment pleas filed by rebel MLAs against the Speaker’s “delay” in accepting their resignation. It announced that it would pronounce its order at 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Democratic Congresswomen targeted in a xenophobic tirade by President Donald Trump hit back on Monday, saying he was trying to distract attention away from his policies with his “blatantly racist attack.” The President first attacked the four lawmakers — all but one of whom were born in America — with a series of tweets on Sunday, saying they should “go back” to their countries of origin.

Ursula Von der Leyen is the first female European Commission president

Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen secured European parliamentary approval on Tuesday to become the first female European Commission president after she won over socialists and liberals with her vision of a greener, fairer and rule-based Europe.

Centre, Assam move SC for sample re-verification of NRC

The Centre and the State of Assam on Tuesday made an urgent mention before the Chief Justice of India for an extension of the deadline for the final publication of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) from July 31, 2019, to a “future date”. In identical but separate applications, they urged the Supreme Court for more time to conduct a “sample re-verification process” of the names included in the draft NRC published on July 30, 2018.

10 die in Mumbai’s Dongri building collapse

Ten persons were killed and nine others injured when a portion of a decrepit, four-storey building collapsed in south Mumbai’s congested Dongri locality on Tuesday morning, once again exposing the creaking infrastructure of the country’s financial capital. Police suspect that at least three more people are trapped under the rubble as rescue operations continued late into the evening.

On M.P. transfers, Congress and BJP won’t let sleeping dogs lie

If you have a dog in the fight, never let it go. So it seems seeing the ruling Congress and the BJP hurl charges at each other over the transfer of 46 police dogs and their handlers in Madhya Pradesh. Hitting back at the Opposition party for saying that the State government has not spared even police dogs and their handlers from transfers, the Congress on Tuesday came up with a list of canines transferred by the previous BJP regime.

Balakot demonstrated our precision strike capability: B.S. Dhanoa

“In 1999, precision bombing capabilities were operationalised only on the Mirage-2000 aircraft. Now all aircraft, Mirage, Su-30, Jaguar, MiG-29 and MiG-27 Upg, have the capability for precision bombing. Not only that, in case we have correct coordinates we can do all-weather bombing through clouds very accurately, Air Chief Marshal (ACM) B.S. Dhanoa said at an IAF seminar on ‘20 years of Op Safed Sagar.’ “We have just seen in the attack that we carried out on February 26 that we are capable of precision strike from stand-off distances and very accurately,” he added.

Comment | The wheels to a low-carbon transport system

Studies show that India’s road transport emissions are small in global comparison but increasing exponentially. In fact, the Global Carbon Project reports that India’s carbon emissions are rising more than two times as fast as the global rise in 2018. Globally, the transport sector accounts for a quarter of total emissions, out of which three quarters are from road transport. Reducing CO2 emissions of road transport leverages multiple co-benefits, for example, improving air quality and increasing physical activity, which are critical for well-being, particularly in urban areas.

The Centre will identify illegal immigrants staying in any part of the country and deport them as per international law, Union home minister Amit Shah said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The minister was replying to a supplementary query by Samajwadi Party member Javed Ali Khan on whether the National Register of Citizens will be implemented in other states as well.

Currently, the NRC is being updated under the strict monitoring of the Supreme Court in Assam and July 31 has been set as a deadline for final publication of the registered data.
“It is a very good question. The NRC is part of the Assam Accord and was also in (BJP’s) election manifesto based on which the government has came to power. The government will identify illegal immigrants living on every inch of the country’s soil and will deport them as per the international law,” Shah said in the Upper House.
Noting that the Centre has received many representations for extending the NRC deadline in Assam, minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai said a petition signed by about 25 lakh applicants submitted to the Centre and the President demanded extension to correct anomalies.
Since many genuine names have been left out and many bogus names are registered, the minister said, “So the government has requested the (Supreme) Court to extend the time for this purpose”.
“There will be some delay but the NRC will be implemented properly without any faults,” he said, asserting that the government’s intention is to ensure no genuine citizen is left out of the NRC.
To a query on number of Rohingya Muslims in India, Rai said, “We don’t have an accurate data. They are spread across the country. Some of them have gone back to Bangladesh. We will get the data soon.”
The government’s intention is to ensure no illegal immigrant is registered under the NRC. Foreigner tribunals have also been set up to curb illegal stay of foreigners in India, he added.

Rebel Congress MLA Roshan Baig, who was detained on Monday evening by the Special Investigation Team probing the multi-crore IMA ponzi scheme, moved the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday challenging the SIT’s move. 

Baig had courted detention as he was set to board a chartered flight to an unconfirmed location on Monday evening where many of the rebel MLAs of the ruling coalition are staying.

The news of his detention on Monday evening was tweeted by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy himself. “BJP MLA Yogeshwar was present at the time (of Baig’s detainment). It’s a shame that BJP is helping a former minister escape, who is facing a probe in the IMA case. This clearly shows BJP’s direct involvement in destabilizing the govt through horse-trading,” the CM tweeted.

The timing of the detention has been questioned by Baig as he was asked to appear before the SIT by July 19.

The SIT in a statement said, “Baig was detained for questioning at the Kempegowda International Airport when he was about to take off in a private aircraft to an unconfirmed destination from Bengaluru.”  

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is set to resume hearing the case concerning the political crisis in Karnataka and a floor test is to be held on Thursday.

Baig is among the 15 MLAs who have moved the Supreme Court to direct the Speaker to accept their resignations and effectively dislodge the current government.

Members of the SIT declined to comment on the timing of his detention.  

However, SIT sources told TNM that Roshan Baig had sent a letter to the investigators stating that he would not be able to appear for questioning until July 25 and sought more time. SIT officials suspected that Baig would abscond if given the opportunity, and hence detained him.

Soon after the news of the scam broke out, Revenue Minister RV Deshpande stated that Roshan Baig had requested officials from the Revenue Department to grant Mansoor Khan a no-objection certificate for a Rs 600 crore bailout. 

Meanwhile the BJP had attacked Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy for using “state machinery” to save his government.

iaomi’s Android One phone series has gained wide popularity among consumers across the globe. The first phone that Xiaomi launched under the Android One series is the Mi A1 that was then followed by Mi A2. Xiaomi launched the Mi A2 in India last year. The Mi A2 received great response from the consumers especially because of its software (because no MIUI and no Ads), hardware and camera. Xiaomi claims that the Mi A2 successor will be much better and improved. The company has announced that the Mi A3 is coming on July 17. Yes, it is the same date when the Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro are launching in India.

Previously it was rumoured that the Xiaomi Mi A3 will launch on July 25 in Poland. Now, the company has confirmed that the Mi A3 will launch tomorrow, on July 17, and the event will take place in Spain. Xiaomi has been teasing the Mi A3 for quite some time now. The company has revealed some details about the Mi A3. The company has confirmed that the Mi A3 will be a much-upgraded version of the Mi A2 in almost all aspects including hardware, software, camera, design and among others.

The Supreme Court will pronounce its order Wednesday morning on the pleas of 15 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs seeking direction for Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignations from the Assembly.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi concluded the hearings of the rebel MLAs, the Speaker and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.

Summing up the arguments, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the 15 MLAs, asked the bench to continue with its interim order directing the Speaker to maintain status quo on the issue of resignations and disqualification of the MLAs.

The counsel for the rebel MLAs also asked the bench that if the House assembles for business the 15 rebel MLAs be exempted from appearing on the basis of the whip of the ruling coalition which, he said, has been reduced to minority government.

Kumaraswamy told the top court that it had no jurisdiction to pass the two interim orders asking the Speaker to decide and, later, to maintain the status quo on the resignations and disqualification of the rebel MLAs.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Kumaraswamy, told the bench that the Speaker cannot be compelled to decide this issue in a time bound manner.

“When resignation process is not in order, court cannot direct Speaker to decide by 6PM,” Dhavan told the bench, also comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.

Kumaraswamy also told the court that the rebel MLAs were hunting in a pack to destabilise his government and that the court should not have entertained their petitions.

Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the Speaker, told the bench that no direction was issued to the Karnataka Speaker by the court in the midnight hearing when floor test was ordered and BS Yedurappa was invited to form the government last year.

He told the bench that the Speaker was yet to decide on the resignations and disqualification of rebel MLAs and the court had ample power to punish.

Speaker urged the apex court to modify its earlier order directing him to maintain status quo in the ongoing political crisis in the state even as the rebel MLAs accused him of acting in a partisan manner by not deciding on their resignations.

Singhvi said the Speaker would decide on both disqualifications and resignation of the rebel MLAs by Wednesday but the court should modify its earlier order asking him to maintain status quo.

Rohtagi argued that the Speaker cannot keep the resignation of these MLAs pending and by doing so he is acting in a partisan manner.