Women sweep top 3 positions in UPSC exam
Women have aced Civil Services Examination (CSE) 2021 by cornering the top three slots, with history graduate from Delhi’s St Stephen’s College Shruti Sharma No 1 in the merit list. This is the fifth time in the past 10 years that a woman has secured the top rank. In CSE 2014, the top four slots had gone to women candidates. As per CSE 2021 results declared by the UPSC on Monday, there are 177 women (25. 8%) among the 685 successful candidates recommended to various services. Also, 10 of the top 25 top rankers are women. The No 2 and No 3 slots were bagged by Ankita Agarwal, also a St Stephen’s College graduate and Gamini Singla, a B Tech graduate.
ED arrests Delhi minister
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain for allegedly “misleading investigations and transferring proceeds of crime” - a serious offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He had been called to the ED headquarters in connection with money laundering investigations he has been facing since 2017 when the enforcement agency booked him under the PMLA on an FIR registered by the CBI. On April 5 this year, the ED had attached properties worth £500,000 linked to him and his family members.
ED files new chargesheet against Farooq
The Enforcement Directorate has summoned former J&K CM Farooq Abdullah in money laundering case before filing a supplementary chargesheet. Farooq has been questioned several times in connection with laundering charges against him and his close associates for irregularities in the J&K Cricket Association when Abdullah was its president. The ED has attached properties worth £1.4 million of Farooq and another £725,000 worth of assets of Ahsan Ahmad Mirza, a close associate of Farooq. Between 2002 and 2011, the JKCA received £11.2 million from the BCCI. Farooq, then as its president, “appointed” Mirza as “treasurer” in 2003 though he was not elected. Through Mirza, the NC chief allegedly laundered the money of the JKCA, according to the agency.
J&K cops shoot down Pak drone
A drone flying in from the Pakistan side with a payload of seven magnetic bombs and as many UBGL grenades was spotted and shot down by J&K police at Rajbagh in Kathua district. “Drone activity observed in the area of Talli Hariya Chak under Rajbagh police station in district Kathua by an early morning search party that was being regularly sent to the general area,” additional DGP (Jammu zone) Mukesh Singh said. “The search party saw the drone coming from across the border and shot it down. ”Several instances of drones dropping arms, most of them allegedly originating in Pakistan, have been reported across the International border in Jammu in recent years. On June 20, 2020, BSF troops shot down a Pakistani drone along the International border in Rathua village of Hiranagar taluka in Kathua district.
