News Analysis India

Tag: CBI

  • Follow lockdown norms, will fight battle legally: TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee to protesting workers

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Monday urged party supporters to follow the law and refrain from violating the lockdown norms as they demonstrated in various parts of West Bengal against the arrest of two state ministers and an MLA.

    Abhishek, a Lok Sabha MP who is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said his party will fight the battle legally as it has utmost faith in the judiciary. “I urge everyone to abide by the law and refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people. We have utmost faith in the judiciary and the battle will be fought legally,” he tweeted.

    I urge everyone to abide by the law & refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people.We have utmost faith in the judiciary & the battle will be fought legally.
    — Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) May 17, 2021

    Hundreds of TMC supporters gathered outside the CBI office at Nizam Palace in Kolkata and protested against the arrest of senior ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, and TMC MLA Madan Mitra in connection with the Narada sting operation case.

    The CBI also arrested former Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee. At one point, the protest also turned violent with TMC supporters pelting stones and trying to breach the police barricade at the Nizam Palace complex’s main entrance.

    Protests were also held in other places in the city, including outside Raj Bhavan, and the districts with TMC workers blocking roads by burning tyres. West Bengal is at present under complete lockdown that began on Sunday in the wake of the rising COVID-19 cases.

  • Narada sting case: Two Bengal ministers, TMC MLA taken to CBI office in Kolkata

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday arrested three newly elected Trinamool Congress MLAs, including two ministers, and former TMC minister and mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) in connection with the Narada sting operation case which was performed in 2014 and released a month before the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal. The central agency will submit the chargesheet in Narada sting operation case on Monday.

    Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee, a veteran in Bengal’s politics, urban development and transport minister Firhad Hakim, who is also an administrator of the KMC, TMC MLA from Kamarhati, North 24 Parganas, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, former TMC minister who joined the BJP and later resigned, have been arrested on non-bailable charges.

    WB CM Mamata Banerjee arrived CBI’s Nizam Palace where two TMC ministers and one MLA arrested in Narada sting operation case. @NewIndianXpress @gsvasu_TNIE @khogensingh1
    — Pranab Mondal (@PranabM29940593) May 17, 2021

    While being taken away from his residence, Hakim said he was being arrested in connection with the Narada case and he would fight against the CBI in the court of law.

    The TMC alleged the arrests is a fallout of BJP’s debacle in the recently concluded Assembly elections. ‘’The central agency’s act clearly reflects BJP’s politics of revenge. They failed to combat politically with the TMC in the elections and are now using the central agency,’’ said TMC MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy.

    The ruling party alleged the CBI did not take the permission of the Speaker of the Assembly before arresting the three MLAs. ‘’The CBI did not communicate with me and seek my permission to arrest the MLAs. I received no letter from the central agency,’’ said Speaker Biman Banerjee.

    Sources in the CBI said there was a provision in the law that an MLA can be arrested after getting an approval from the governor.

    The CBI, however, is yet to take step against Suvendu Adhikari, BJP’s Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, and the saffron camp’s national vice president Mukul Roy. Both the defectors have been named in the FIR.

  • Narada sting tapes: Bengal Governor sanctions CBI prosecution of top ministers

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, on a request by the CBI, sanctioned the prosecution of Firhad Hakim, Subrata Mukherjee, Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee, all of them ministers during the time of the alleged commission of a crime that came to light in the purported Narada sting tapes, a Raj Bhavan official said on Sunday.

    “Honourable governor is the competent authority to accord sanction in terms of law as he happens to be the appointing authority for such ministers in terms of Article 164 of the Constitution,” a statement issued by the officer on special duty (communication), Raj Bhavan, said.

    All four were ministers in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet when the tapes were allegedly made in 2014.

    Hakim, Mukherjee and Mitra have been re-elected as TMC MLAs in the just-concluded assembly elections, while Chatterjee, who left the TMC to join the BJP, has severed links with both the camps.

    The statement said that the sanction for prosecution of the four leaders was accorded by Dhankhar “after the CBI had made a request and made available entire documentation relevant to the case to the honourable governor and he invoked his powers under Article 163 and 164 of the Constitution, being the competent authority to accord such sanction”.

    The Narada sting tapes, made public before the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, were claimed to have been shot in 2014, wherein people resembling TMC ministers, MPs and MLAs were allegedly seen receiving money from representatives of a fictitious company in lieu of promised favours.

    The sting operation was allegedly conducted by Mathew Samuel of Narada News portal.

    The Calcutta High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the sting operation in March, 2017.

  • Anil Deshmukh’s plea against FIR: Bombay HC adjourns hearing; refuses to pass interim order

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Thursday refused to pass any order on former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh’s request for interim protection from coercive action in connection with an FIR lodged against him by the CBI on corruption charges.

    A division bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file its affidavit within a period of four weeks in response to the petition filed by Deshmukh seeking to quash the FIR.

    Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Deshmukh, sought for an interim order granting protection from any coercive action to the NCP leader. “The CBI can file its affidavit to the petition, but till then the petitioner should be protected,” Desai said.

    However, CBI counsel Anil Singh opposed it and said the agency was given a copy of the petition only on Wednesday and hence, it requires time to file its affidavit. The court then said the respondent (CBI) should be given an opportunity to respond to the petition.

    “We cannot pass any orders without hearing the parties concerned. If there is extreme urgency, then you (Deshmukh) can move the vacation bench of the HC. You (Deshmukh) have that liberty,” the court said. The bench said if Deshmukh moved the vacation bench, then he shall give 48-hour notice to the CBI.

    Deshmukh filed the petition in the HC on May 3, challenging the FIR lodged by the CBI on April 21 under section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, dealing with illegal gratification obtained by a public servant, and section 120(b)(criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

    In the petition, Deshmukh claimed the FIR could not have been registered without the state government’s consent. The plea said the FIR was filed with a “biased, dubious and ulterior motive at the behest of those having political or other vendetta” against him.

    It further said the FIR makes vague allegations and there is no case made out for illegal gratification.

    The CBI had initiated a preliminary enquiry (PE) against Deshmukh on the HC’s order on April 5, based on petitions filed by advocate Jayshri Patil and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh, who levelled allegations of corruption and malpractices against the NCP leader.

    Singh wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in March, alleging that Deshmukh had asked API Sachin Waze to collect Rs 100 crore as bribe from bars and restaurants in Mumbai every month.

    Waze, currently under suspension, was arrested in March in connection with the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) probe into the case of recovery of an explosives-laden SUV near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s house in Mumbai and the subsequent murder of Thane businessman Mansukh Hiran.

    Param Bir Singh wrote the letter to the CM after he was shifted from the post of Mumbai police commissioner and appointed as the director general, home guards.

    The CBI had questioned Deshmukh and conducted searches at his premises. The probe agency had also questioned Singh and others. Deshmukh, who has rejected the allegations levelled against him, resigned as state home minister on April 5 after the HC ordered the preliminary enquiry against him.

  • Uddhav government files plea in HC objecting to portions of FIR against Deshmukh

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has filed a petition before the Bombay High Court alleging that some portions of the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh were intended to “destabilise” the Shiv Sena-led ruling coalition in the State.

    The state has sought that the CBI be directed to remove the said portions from its FIR.

    In its plea filed in the HC on April 30, the government claimed that the CBI, in the FIR, had included the issue of last year’s reinstatement of now suspended Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze, and transfers of some other police officers.

    These issues were not part of the complaint registered against Deshmukh and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh by lawyer Jaishri Patil, the state government said.

    On April 5, the high court, while hearing a bunch of pleas, including one filed by Patil, had directed the CBI to initiate a preliminary inquiry into the allegations of misconduct and corruption made against Deshmukh by Singh.

    Patil had registered a complaint following the allegations and sought that the alleged roles of both Deshmukh and Singh be probed.

    Patil had earlier told the HC that she had lodged the complaint against both Deshmukh and Singh at the Malabar hill police station on March 21, but the police had failed to conduct a preliminary inquiry and register an FIR.

    Patil had said in her complaint that both Deshmukh and Singh had acted in “breach of their professional duties during the entire episode”.

    The HC had at the time said that the CBI must base its preliminary probe on Patil’s complaint and register an FIR if it felt that an offence was committed.

    In its plea in the HC, the state government has said that Patil’s complaint and petition did not deal with Waze or any police transfers.

    The central agency, thus, could not have included those in its FIR, it said.

    The plea said that the CBI’s FIR had travelled beyond the limits permitted by the High Court.

    It said that the CBI had “demonstrated its intention to carry out fishing and a roving inquiry into the administration of the state government.”

    The CBI has done so “in order to try and find out some material enabling political groups that are presently not in power in the Petitioner State, to try and destabilise the present government,” the plea submitted.

    The government said that it did not intend to interfere with CBI’s investigation but only wanted such portions deleted that did not confirm with the HC’s order.

    Transfer of officials and reinstatement of Waze fell within the administrative domain of the state, the petition said.

    “Issues pertaining to transfer and posting of officials” cannot form a part of the investigation in the FIR,” it contended.

    “None of the impugned paragraphs objected to by us disclose any cognizable offence contemplated by Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of the Prevention of Corruption Act),” the petition reads.

    The state has sought that in the interim, the HC restrain the CBI from acting in furtherance of the two paragraphs in the FIR that it has objected to.

    The HC is yet to assign a date for hearing the plea.

    Deshmukh had resigned after the HC ordered a CBI probe against him into allegations of corruption and misconduct levelled by Singh.

    Deshmukh’s party, the NCP, is a key ally in the Shiv Sena-led government in which the Congress is also a partner.

  • BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia moves SC against violence in West Bengal; seeks CBI probe

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia Tuesday moved the Supreme Court seeking CBI investigation into “rampant violence” including murder and rapes allegedly by Trinamool Congress party workers across West Bengal “before, during and after the assembly elections”.

    Bhatia, a senior advocate, in his intervention application filed in his pending 2018 PIL has sought a direction to the state government to file a detailed status report about the FIRs registered, arrests made and steps taken against perpetrators of violence.

    “The instant application is being preferred. to bring to the notice of this court, the brutal murders and commission of serious crimes like rape and molestation, blatant violence and the complete breakdown of law and order machinery in West Bengal before, during and after the recently concluded assembly elections in the state,” Bhatia said in his plea.

    Trinamool Congress Party has swept West Bengal assembly polls by winning over 200 seats in a 294 seats house.

  • COVID-19: PIL filed in Delhi HC for CBI probe into politicians procuring Remdesivir

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: A PIL demanding an FIR and CBI probe into claims of politicians being able to procure and distribute Remdesivir, used for treating COVID-19 patients, even as others run pillar to post to get the medicine, was mentioned before the Delhi High Court on Saturday.

    The plea was mentioned before a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli by advocate Virag Gupta who was asked by the court to bring the petition on record during the day. The plea questions how politicians are able to procure large stocks of the medicine without having the requisite permission under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, when the general public was not getting it.

    ALSO READ| Three nabbed in Hyderabad for selling Remdesivir in black market

    Petitioner Deepak Singh, the chairperson of Hruduya Foundation and a national-level shooter, has contended that “denying access to medicines for one’s own political gain is a crime of very serious nature, and affects coronavirus patients all over India”.

    Singh has alleged in his plea, filed through advocate Gaurav Pathak, that politicians have been involved in large-scale hoarding, transfer and distribution of crucial medicines like Remdesivir. “Political parties, most of which are invariably headquartered in Delhi, are taking advantage of their political powers and giving patronage to the medical mafia,” the plea claimed.

    Besides lodging of FIR and CBI invetsigation, the plea also seeks “detention of persons indulging in black-marketing of COVID-19 medicines as per the National Security Act, 1980” and “disqualification of MPs and MLAs found to be hoarding and illegally distributing COVID-19 medicines”.

  • Lalu set free after completion of bail formalities; but will stay in AIIMS Delhi for treatment

    By PTI
    RANCHI: RJD president Lalu Prasad was released from jail Thursday evening after completion of bail formalities in the special CBI court in Ranchi.

    After the Bar Council of India allowed lawyers to attend necessary court works, Prasad’s lawyers submitted bail bond and two sureties of Rs 1 lakh each in the Ranchi CBI court during the day.

    Accordingly, judge M K Mishra issued release order of the RJD supremo.

    Inspector General of Prison department Virendra Bhusan told PTI that after fulfilment of the bail conditions in the Ranchi CBI court the order reached Birsa Munda jail which sent a mail to the competent authorities in AIIMS New Delhi, where the RJD boss is undergoing treatment in judicial custody, and he was set free this evening.

    Prasad will,however, stay in AIIMS for some more time for treatrment of his ailments as desired by his family.

    The Jharkhand High Court had granted bail to Prasad in the last pending case related to Dumka treasury on April 17.

    Initially, Prasad’s lawyers had planned to move the Special CBI court in Ranchi for fulfiling the bail conditions at the earliest on April 19, but they could not do so as lawyers had stopped attending courts following Jharkhand bar council’s directives in the wake of surging coronavirus cases which had infected many judicial staff too.

    The restrictions were meant for one week but subsequently it was extended by another week till May 2 on the same ground.

    But, the Bar Council of India’s permission came as a relief to Prasad whose lawyers completed the process in the Ranchi court.

    If things would have materialised on time, Prasad could have been freed after 39 months and 25 days of incarceration.

    But, the matter got delayed for some more time.

    While allowing bail prayer of Prasad, Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh had directed him to submit his passport and not leave the country without permission.

    The court had also instructed him not to change his address and mobile number during the bail period.

    The single bench had further directed him to deposit Rs 5 lakh penalty amount each in two cases-one under IPC sections and another Corruption Act- and two sureties of Rs one lakh each.

    While sentencing Prasad in the Dumka case on March 24, 2018 to 14 years in jail, a special CBI court of Ranchi had also imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakh, Rs 30 lakh each under IPC sections and corruption Act.

    The instant case is related to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 3.

    13 crore from the Dumka treasury in the early 1990s.

    Prasad had acquired bail in three other cases of the fodder scam-Deogarh, Chaibasa and Ranchi’s Doranda trasury- and was waiting for judgement in the Dumka case.

    The 73-year-old RJD supremo was airlifted to AIIMS New Delhi on January 24 last in view of his bad health.

    The Rs 950 cror fodder scam took place in the Animal Husbandry department in Bihar when Prasad was the chief minister.

    Lalu is in Ranchi jail after his sentence in Rs 89 lakh Deogarh trerasury case on December 23, 2017.

    The RJD chief’s son and leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav had earlier said that notwithstanding bail and even after completion of release procedure,seeing his medical condition Prasad would continue in Delhi AIIMS for some more time and would come to Patna residence only after recuperating fully and on advise of the attending doctors.

  • CBI summons TMC’s Anubrata Mandal in cattle smuggling case

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The anti-corruption branch of the CBI on Monday summoned TMC leader Anubrata Mandal for questioning in connection with its probe into cross-border cattle smuggling.

    Sources said Mandal, the Birbhum district president of the TMC, has been asked to appear before officials of the central agency on Tuesday at its Nizam Palace office here.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which has been probing cases of illegal cattle trade for quite some time, has said that animals are sourced from different places and smuggled out via the India-Bangladesh border.

    The CBI, in its first chargesheet, has named at least seven accused, including BSF commandant Satish Kumar and businessman Enamul Haq.

    Both Haq and Kumar have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the case.

    The agency has also raided properties of TMC leader Vinay Mishra, who is considered o be a close aide of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee.

  • CBI registers FIR against Anil Deshmukh, searches properties as NCP cries foul

    By Express News Service
    MUMBAI:  The CBI on Saturday registered an FIR against former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in an alleged corruption case and also carried out searches at multiple locations linked to him and his close associates.

    Anil Deshmukh has been charged under Section 7 of the amended Prevention of Corruption Act dealing with illegal gratification obtained by a public servant and IPC Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy). Deshmukh has said he will cooperate with the probe agency.

    The FIR was registered on April 21 after the CBI satisfied itself that there was enough evidence to proceed with a regular case against Deshmukh. The searches could not be launched immediately as the team had to first get an RT-PCR test done for COVID-19. The probe agency seized electronic gadgets and incriminating documents from four locations across Maharashtra in a case related to Deshmukh and others.

    Deshmukh belongs to the NCP, a party of the three-party ruling alliance in the state. State party chief Jayant Patil on Saturday termed the FIR against his party colleague as political vendetta for settling political scores. He said the CBI was overstepping its mandate. “The Bombay High Court had asked it to conduct a primary inquiry and submit the report. What happened with the report? Has the report been submitted? No one knows the details of the report.”