Jagan defends land allotments done by YSR Govt

 Maintaining that Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's regime made land allotments for employment generation purposes, Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy has asked why the CBI did not look into the allotment of lands made during the previous TDP rule.

Reacting to the CBI chargesheet filed in the illegal assets case involving him, Jagan, while speaking at his 'Odarpu Yatra' here last night, defended the land allotments during his late father's regime.

"The lands were allotted to private companies in backward Mahaboobnagar and Medak districts to generate large scale employment," he said.

"Why the CBI cannot see the land allocation in the heart of Hyderabad made by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu at throw away prices and also during the present Congress government," he asked.

Meanwhile, unfazed by the developments in the case involving him, Jagan is going ahead with campaign in Assembly segments where bypolls will be held.

He is scheduled to tour Narsapuram and Polavaram constituencies in West Godavari district from today. These two assembly seats are among the 17 constituencies where the by-elections are due.

The bypolls in 16 of the 17 seats are necessitated by the disqualification of Congress MLAs who switched loyalty to Jagan and voted against the Congress government in a floor test held in December last year, while another MLA quit in support of Kadapa MP.

Tatra trucks deal: CBI is set to grill Vectra chief today

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is set to grill Vectra Group chief Ravi Rishi once again on Monday in connection with the alleged bribery allegations made by Army Chief General VK Singh.

The central probe agency has questioned Vectra chief earlier in connection with the case.

The CBI has also issued a lookout notice against the British citizen to bar him from leaving the country. The probe agency has also confiscated his passport and alerted all airports and exit points to ensure that he does not leave the country.

The CBI in its First Information Report (FIR), registered earlier this week, had named Rishi, a London-based businessman who along with the Vectra Group also has majority stake in Tatra trucks, a Czech manufacturer.

The defence deal related to the sale of 7000 trucks to the Army came under scanner after Army chief General VK Singh had alleged that he was offered a Rs 14 crore bribe to clear a file related to purchase of trucks.

The CBI had on Friday raided Tatra offices in Bangalore and Delhi in search of evidence.

Public sector unit BEML buys Tatra parts from Vectra and assembles trucks in Bangalore that were then sold to the Army.

General VK Singh on Saturday named retired Lt General Tejinder Singh in his complaint to the CBI. He had earlier claimed that a lobbyist, who had "just" retired, offered him a bribe for clearing "sub-standard" vehicles and he had informed the Defence Minister about it. The Ministry had then recommended a CBI probe into the allegation made by the Army chief.

In view of the claims made by the Army Chief, the CBI may also question retired Lt General Tejinder Singh in connection with the case.

However, retired Lt General Tejinder Singh has refuted the allegations and filed a defamation suit against the Army Chief and four other officers.

Antony: Army Chief VK Singh refused to pursue bribe case

A day after Army Chief General VK Singh’s explosive remarks that he was offered Rs 14 crore bribe to clear a defence purchase, Union Defence Minister AK Antony on Today said strictest action would be taken against the guilty.

Making a statement in Parliament, Antony told Rajya Sabha that the Army Chief had informed him about the incident more than a year back and that he had asked Gen Singh to take action.

However, “the Army Chief told me at that time that he didn’t want to pursue it”, Antony informed the House.

The minister further said he was shocked to hear the incident, adding a comprehensive CBI probe would be held into the matter.

Mayawati assets doubled to Rs 112 crore as chief minister

Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati's assets doubled during her chief ministership of UP, from Rs 52 crore in 2007 to Rs 111.64 crore when she filed her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday.

In 2010, when Mayawati contested the legislative council elections again (in 2007 she had fought a byelection; hence the need to seek a re-election), she had declared total assets of Rs 88 crore. A close look reveals that she ruled for 58 months and the increase (including appreciation) in her wealth in this period was of Rs 59 crore, which amounts to a growth of Rs 1 crore per month.

On Tuesday, her affidavit showed immovable assets worth Rs 96.38 crore and movable over Rs 15.26 crore. Besides Rs 10.20 lakh cash in hand, the dalit leader has around Rs 14 crore in five bank accounts, murals worth Rs 15 lakh, a revolver valued at Rs 5,390 and gold and diamond jewellery valued around Rs 96.53 lakh.

Mayawati filed an income tax return of Rs 6.51 crore in 2010-11 financial year. Her immovable assets worth Rs 96.38 crore include residential and commercial buildings in Delhi and Lucknow. In Delhi, she has two commercial buildings in Connaught place. The market value of the two properties is Rs 18.84 crore.

She has shown two residential buildings, one each in Delhi and Lucknow. The market value of the two assets is Rs 77.54 crore. While the commercial buildings were purchased in 2004 and 2005, the residential accommodation in upscale SP Marg, New Delhi, was bought in 2009 for Rs 54.80 crore.

In fact, two residential plots have been clubbed together to form a single asset in which she has invested Rs 7.78 crore on development and construction. The residential property in Lucknow's Mall Avenue is a new addition bought in November 2010 at Rs 15.68 crore.

Besides, she had also declared a residence in Lucknow worth Rs 97.42 lakh and one in Delhi worth Rs 18.02 crore apart from commercial property in Connaught Place and Okhla worth Rs 19 crore. She had no car of her own even then. In May 2010, Maya contested legislative council election again. This time her declared assets were Rs 88 crore, a gain of at least Rs 35 crore over her 2007 declaration.

She had then declared cash in hand Rs 12.95 lakh, jewellery of gold and diamonds worth Rs 86.8 lakh and other valuables worth around Rs 15 lakh. The residential and commercial properties in Delhi and Lucknow were valued at Rs 73 crore. She had then as well claimed that the money came from gifts and donations from supporters. On March 15, 2010, she was felicitated by party leaders at a function by a garland made of currency notes amounting Rs 21 lakh.

Going by her Tuesday's declaration, she has apparently disposed of the commercial property in Okhla and as chief minister she added two residential properties, one each in Delhi and Lucknow. In fact, in Lucknow, she has sold the residential property at Nehru Road and got a new one at Mall Avenue.

There is no change in the valuables and jewellery but the collection shows her love for living it up. Although she faces charges of amassing wealth with a disproportionate assets case being probed by the CBI, the growth of her assets shows that she has got good return of investment in property. Mayawati also has liabilities of Rs 87.68 lakh in form of loans from financial institutions.

However, she has not taken any life insurance policy and does not own a vehicle. She has also given details of her school and university education in the affidavit. She graduated from Kalindi College, Delhi University in 1975. She completed B.Ed from Meerut University in 1976. In 1983, she did LL.B from Delhi University. Maya has also claimed that no cognizance has been taken against her in any criminal case.

Election results: CBI’s sword hangs over Mulayam, family

The Samajwadi Party pedalled to a podium finish in the UP polls, but a five-year-old Supreme Court order asking the CBI to inquire into an alleged disproportionate assets case of Mulayam Singh and kin could queer their victory pitch.

Going by the popular perception that the CBI heeds to the Centre's command in political cases, the Yadavs could ill-afford not to take note of the spoiler that the Congress-led UPA may prove for them. And the danger is neither far off nor improbable to be brushed aside. For, on October 26, 2007, the CBI had filed an application in the SC seeking permission to proceed ahead with the case on the ground that during the preliminary probe it had stumbled upon prima facie evidence on the alleged DA case of the SP chieftain, his sons, Akhilesh and Prateek, and daughter-in-law Dimple.

The CBI's plea that as an independent agency it did not take instructions from the government was filed in the court that was in the midst of hearing a petition filed by Akhilesh seeking review of the SC's March 2007 order passed on a PIL. The SC had ordered the CBI to submit the preliminary probe report to the Centre for further action.

When the matter was crucially poised before the court, there was a change in political equations with SP's 39 MPs rescuing the UPA during the 2008 trust vote on the Indo-US nuclear deal. Indebted by the SP's help, the UPA decided to pay back.

The CBI filed another application on December 6, 2008, seeking permission to withdraw its October 26, 2007 plea. The logic behind the flip-flop - a grave error in the calculation of assets had led the agency to believe that the SP chief and his family members had amassed wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. A bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph reserved orders on the plea. After three years, the order is yet to come and Justice Joseph has retired. This would warrant a fresh hearing in the case and possible fresh trouble.

What if the CBI does a somersault again? The fallout could be grave: prosecution of all the four important members of the SP first family.

Bhopal architect got Shehla Masood killed, CBI arrested

In a major breakthrough, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a Bhopal-based architect Zahida Pervez in connection with the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood in August last year.

Pervez is presently in the CBI custody and is believed to have informed the investigators that she had some personal rivalry with the RTI activist.

Pervez had also confessed before the CBI officials that she had hired a contract killer to get Masood eliminated. However, the person who allegedly shot at the RTI activist was later killed in Kanpur.

The investigations into the murder of the RTI activist was finally transferred to the Delhi branch of the CBI. Prior to that, the murder was being looked into by the Bhopal unit of the central probe agency.

The decision to hand over the case to CBI Delhi office was taken in view of the fact that not much headway was made into the investigations in the case.

The Bhopal Unit of the CBI had begun investigations into the killing on September six.

The Bhopal unit had even announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone giving information leading to the arrest of the assailant(s).

The 32-year-old activist was shot dead in broad daylight in front of her house on August 16 last year, while she was leaving for a campaign of India Against Corruption (IAC). She had, earlier, alleged that she was getting threatening calls.

Shehla was working on several issues including good governance, police reforms, environment, tiger protection, transparency and RTI Act.

The case was given to the CBI three weeks after she was murdered.

CBI: Indians have stashed over $500 bn in banks abroad

Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion US dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens, the CBI Director said.

India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands etc.

"It is estimated that around 500 billion dollars of illegal money belonging to Indians is deposited in tax havens abroad. Largest depositors in Swiss Banks are also reported to be Indians," CBI Director A P Singh said speaking at the inauguration of first interpol global programme on anti-corruption and asset recovery.

He said getting information about such illegal transactions is a time taking process as investigators have to peel each layer by sending judicial requests to the country where such deposits have been made.

"53 percent of the countries said to be least corrupt by the Transparency International Index are offshore tax havens, where most of the corrupt money goes. The tax havens include New Zealand which is ranked as the least corrupt country, Singapore ranked number five and Switzerland number seven," Singh said.

He said there is a lack of political will in the leading tax haven states to part with the information because they are aware of the extent to which their economies have become "geared to this flow of illegal capitals from the poorer countries."
The CBI Director said tracing, freezing, confiscation and repatriation of stolen assets is a legal challenge, a complex process which requires expertise and political will.

"Managing the asset recovery investigation is complex, time consuming, costly and most importantly requires expertise and political will. There are many obstacles to asset recovery. Not only is it a specialised legal process filled with delays and uncertainty, but there are also language barriers and a lack of trust when working with other countries," Singh said.

He said global financial markets allow money to travel faster and further making tracking the money trail in such cases even more difficult which necessitates the organisation of such global training programs as they enhance the knowledge of investigators in tracking assets created out of corrupt and criminal acts.

Singh said criminals are using the territorial issues of investigating agencies to their advantage by spreading their crimes to at least two countries and investing in a third.

He said the World Bank estimates the cross border flow of money from criminal activities and tax evasion is around 1 trillion US dollars of which 40 billion US dollars is bribe paid to government servants in developing countries.

Singh quoted the report to say that only five billion US dollars of this money has been repatriated during 15 years.

NRHM scam accused official shoots himself dead today

A key official who was under scanner for his role in the National Rural health Mission (NRHM) scam shot himself dead on Monday.

Sunil Verma was project manager of Jal Nigam, which had also received funds as part of NRHM. After a scam was reported in the project, Verma’s role was questioned as he was the official responsible for proper implementation of the scheme.

Verma shot himself dead at his Vikas Nagar residence here today morning at around 8.30 am. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but was declared brought dead.

DIG OF Police, DK Thakur confirmed the sequence of events to a news channel. He said, “Sunil Verma has shot himself dead today morning. His son told us that CBI had interrogated his father on January 4 and he was under stress. His family feels that he committed suicide because of that.”

The CBI had included Verma’s name in the first FIR alongwith Babu Singh Kushwaha and also raided his residence.

Verma’s is the fourth person involved in the NRHM scam to have died under mysterious circumstances.

2G case trial to resume today

After a week's break, the trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case, involving former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and corporate honchos as accused, will resume on today in a Delhi court.

The day-to-day trial in the special court had to be adjourned for a week due to winter break and would continue from tomorrow with Raja questioning his former aide Aseervatham Achary, a key witness in the case.

Achary, who is testifying as seventh prosecution witness, has so far stood by his earlier statements made to the CBI indicting Raja and others.

During his cross-examination, Achary, a former Additional Private Secretary of Raja, had created a flutter in the court on December 22 by saying that he was facing threat to his life.

He had told Special Judge O P Saini that a man present in the courtroom was threatening him. The person, identified as Jai Prakash who was working as a peon with Reliance Power in Noida, was detained by the police but released later on after a day-long interrogation.

Raja, however, had told the court that it was a "drama" by Achary and it was "planned" in "collusion" with the CBI to "adversely impact" co-accused R K Chandolia's bail plea, which is slated for hearing in the Supreme Court this month.

Lokpal Bill in Lok Sabha today

The much-awaited Lokpal Bill will be introduced in the Lok Sabha on Today and the anti-graft legislation will be discussed during Parliament's extended session on December 27.

Although, the bill has solid backing of UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, threat of a fast by noted social worker Anna Hazare also looms large on it.

The session, originally scheduled to end on December 22, will now reconvene on December 27-29 to discuss the bill.

However, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, two parties supporting the ruling UPA from outside, have struck a discordant note, saying the bill would make the local police very powerful.

Meanwhile, Anna, who has already threatened to go on a three-day fast, has rejected the bill as a betrayal of the people and said the legislation would not provide for a strong anti-graft institution.

"People will teach a lesson to this government one day," Anna said yesterday in his Ralegan-Siddhi village in Maharashtra.

He wondered how the proposed bill could be described as strong when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was being kept outside the ombudsman's ambit.

Taking on Anna, United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi also said that there was a "deliberate and malicious misinformation" campaign that the Congress was not tackling corruption.

She listed bills on protection of whistleblowers, enhancing judicial accountability, the citizens right to grievance redressal, and the Lokpal bill which will be taken up for discussion from December 27-29.

Stating "she was ready to fight for the anti-graft Lokpal and women's reservation bills in the Lok Sabha" Gandhi dismissed as "rumours" that there were differences between the government and the ruling party.

She urged Congress MPs to be prepared for the battle in the house.

Describing the Lokpal bill as a "pathbreaking" legislation, the UPA chairperson urged the opposition parties and anti-corruption activist Hazare to accept it.

"They must accept it. I am always ready for a fight," said Gandhi.

The government draft bill brings the Prime Minister under Lokpal but leaves out two other key demands of the activist for inclusion of the CBI and the lower bureaucracy.

Interestingly, while MoS Narayanasamy said the "only opposition to the bill was from Anna" both Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal opposed the legislation.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad joined SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in saying there should be "consensus" before the bill is brought to Parliament and a decision on such a major issue could not be taken without giving it a thought. The SP has 22 MPs while the RJD has four MPs.

However, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it will not comment on the bill until the final draft is circulated among MPs.

The remark came a day after several BJP leaders said they will protest the bill and called it "cheating the people."

"Even a full stop or a comma changes the meaning of a sentence... we will see the bill and only then give any comment," BJP leader SS Ahluwalia said.

The BJP said it wants the dissent note on the bill, given by its members who were on the Parliamentary Standing Committee, included.

Earlier in the day, senior BJP leader LK Advani along with Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the bill.