The Indian Coast Guard and Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad apprehended a Pakistani boat with nine crew members on board in the Arabian Sea near the state coast and seized 56kg heroin worth £28 million from the vessel, a defence spokesperson said. A top police officer said that the Coast Guard had to fire shots at the boat as it tried to flee after being challenged by the interceptor ship. Two to three crew members received minor injuries. The Coast Guard ship intercepted and apprehended the Pakistani boat ‘Al Haj’ early Monday morning from the Indian waters, the defence spokesperson said in a statement.
Jignesh Mevani gets bail, held in Assam again
Arrested Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was freed on bail in Assam's Kokrajhar on Monday, only for Barpeta police to take him into custody again on charges of assaulting a woman cop the day he was brought to the state to face a probe into allegedly provocative tweets on PM Narendra Modi. "BJP and RSS are doing this to tarnish my image, and they are doing this systematically. They did it to Rohit Vemula, they did it to Chandrasekhar Azad. Now they are targeting me," the Independent MLA from Vadgam said. A Kokrajhar court had remanded Mevani in police custody for three days on April 21, a day after an Assam police team arrested him from Gujarat’s Palanpur and flew him out overnight. The police’s request for extended custody was denied by the first-class judicial magistrate on Sunday.
Chargesheet against two in NSE scam
CBI filed a chargesheet against Chitra Ramkrishna, former CEO-MD of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and ex-group operating officer Anand Subramanian in the “co-location” scam in a special court, endorsing the widely held suspicion that the so-called Himalayan yogi whom the stock exchange chief would take instructions from was none other than the latter. The agency has accused Chitra of abusing her position in facilitating exploitation of the exchange’s server architecture. The probe has revealed that unfair and preferential access to NSE’s servers allegedly were provided to certain entities under the co-location set-up, sources said. Both accused are in jail since their arrest on March 6 and February 25 respectively. The investigation has also revealed that both Chitra and Anand derived personal benefits out of the “co-location” scam.
Ceasefire with Naga groups extended
The central government has extended the ceasefire agreement signed with three Naga insurgent groups for one more year. In a statement, the Union Home Ministry said the agreements are with the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-NK (NSCNNK), National Socialist Council of Nagaland Reformation (NSCN-R) and National Socialist Council of Nagaland K-Khango (NSCN K-Khango). These agreements were signed last week.
CRPF man gets back his job after 38 years
The Supreme Court has restored the job of a CRPF jawan after 38 years with all consequential benefits from 1984 onwards, including pension, but no back wages after the Centre failed to place records of the case to prove that due process of law was followed in terminating his job. He was dismissed from service for allegedly being absent from duty and quarreling with civilians under the influence of alcohol. The SC bench passed the order in favour Balwant Singh, after the aggrieved jawan alleged that he was not been supplied with a copy of the probe report against him and not given an opportunity to defend himself before the authority concerned. He alleged that the dismissal order was passed in violation of natural justice.
Non-bailable warrant against Sahara boss
A police team from Madhya Pradesh reached Lucknow to serve a non-bailable warrant on Sahara group chairman Subrata Roy and members of the board of directors in connection with an FIR related to alleged financial irregularities lodged in 2020. The team left after serving a notice seeking their personal appearance before the investigating officer (IO) of the case on May 5. The case pertains to a cluster of 14 complaints lodged with the police claiming that the company was not returning the amount invested by the complainants’ following assurances of handsome returns. In turn, the Sahara Group issued a statement saying that the company had deposited over £2.5 billion in SEBI-Sahara account related to all the investors who deposited money in the group’s schemes. It was now for the SEBI to pay the investors.
