Vol. 67 No. 154 | FRIDAY | MARCH 29, 2024 | 26 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in MEMBER: AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION DILJIT DOSANJH’S CHAMKILA THE FP BULLETIN NO LEGAL BAR ON KEJRIWAL T he Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected a PIL seeking to remove Arvind Kejriwal from the post of Delhi Chief Minister following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said that it is for the executive and the President to examine the issue and the court cannot interfere with the same. The court also said that there is no legal bar on Kejriwal continuing as the CM. "You will have to show us some bar or prohibition that prohibits him from being a CM. If there is any constitutional failure the President or Governor will act on it. It may take some time but I am sure they will decide. The situation today is something that was not imagined," bench the remarked. The court also made it clear that it will not get into politics and the people will eventually decide these issues. Hence, it proceeded to dismiss the case. KAMAL NATH SON ASSETS RS 700 CR N akul Nath, the lone Congress MP from Madhya Pradesh who has been renominated from Chhindwara by his party, has declared assets worth nearly 700 Rs crore, according to his election affidavit. Nath's wealth has gone up by 40 crore in the Rs past five years. The sitting Chhindwara MP son of former , chief minister and influential Congress leader Kamal Nath, had topped the list of 475 Lok Sabha crorepati members in 2019, according to the nonprofit Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Notably, Nakul Nath frequently uses an aircraft but does not have a car, according to his affidavit. DERA CHIEF SHOT IN GURDWARA T he dera ‘kar seva’ chief of the Nanakmatta Sahib Gurdwara in Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district was shot dead on Thursday on the shrine's premises by two men on a motorcycle. Baba Tarsem Singh was rushed to a hospital where he died during treatment. The Nanakmatta Sahib Gurdwara, 50 km from Rudrapur, is a revered Sikh shrine. In the CCTV camera footage, the assailants are seen entering the gurdwara on a motorcycle around 6:15 am and shooting at Singh with a rifle.” "Two rounds were fired at Singh who was sitting on a chair. The first shot was fired from the front and the other from the back. Singh immediately fell on the ground," the SSP said. Eight police teams have been mobilised to apprehend the attackers, he said. INDIA, CHINA IN IN-DEPTH TALKS I ndia and China, in a fresh round of talks, exchanged “in depth views” on how to achieve “complete disengagement” and resolve the remaining issues along the Line of Actual Control. Though there was no indication of a breakthrough, the wordings of the statements released by both sides indicated that there had been movement enough to think of the next steps forward. EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper EDIT I have never thought that I would do a film with Imtiaz sir KEY INFRA SECTORS' GROWTH AT 6.7% IN FEBRUARY GOVT CAN’T BE RUN FROM JAIL MAHAYUTI IN MAHA PICKLE A Chi Chi’s breakdance after 14 yrs KALPESH MHAMUNKAR / MUMBAI Seat-sharing talks no walk in the park, even for Mahayuti FPJ POLITICAL BUREAU / MUMBAI The Mahayuti of the BJP the , Shiv Sena and the NCP is in a , maha pickle, struggling to reach seat-sharing arrangements for 48 Lok Sabha seats, even as the first phase of nomination for five seats concluded on Wednesday and in the sec, ond round, talks for eight seats had begun. Although unanimous about its Mission 45-plus in Maharashtra, to contribute to the NDA 400-plus target, the ’s current state of the ruling alliance is best summed up as ‘tujhya vachun zamena, tujhya vachun karmena (Can’t live with you, can’t live without you)’. Curiously the BJP has yet , to take a formal decision on accommodating the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena into the Mahayuti, despite party chief Raj Thackeray’s meeting with Home Minister Amit Shah. Further, even though the BJP has succeeded in wooing Rashtriya Samaj Paksha founder Mahadev Jankar, offering him one seat, the three partners have yet to decide on that constituency . Notwithstanding the ongoing negotiations, the Shinde faction unilaterally released its first list of eight candidates despite Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s announcement two days ago that he, along LAWYERS IN CONTEMPT OF LAWYERS with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the other deputy CM, Devendra Fadnavis, would address a joint press conference on Thursday to release the seat-sharing deal and the names of candidates for all 48 seats. The Shinde faction’s declaration of its first list came days after the BJP released its two lists, comprising 23 candidates in the state. Interestingly the Shinde side has yet to , announce the nominee for Kalyan, currently represented by CM Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde, and also in the CM’s home city of Thane. CONTD. ON NATION fter declaring 14 years ago that he would have nothing to do with politics, actor and ex-MP Govind Arun Ahuja, mononymously called Govinda, 60, ‘breakdanced’ his way back into public life on Thursday He joined the Shiv Sena led by . Chief Minister Eknath Shinde (incidentally on Shiv Jayanti) ‘‘because it is a clean party’’. Also, he is highly impressed by the development of Maharashtra under the leadership of Shinde and the progress made by the nation under PM Modi. Soon after his induction, there were indications that the Raja Babu would contest on its ticket in the Mumbai northwest Lok Sabha constituency , against Amol Kritikar of the Shiv Sena (UBT). A piquant situation is prevailing in the constitutency because the sitting MP Gajanan Kirtikar belongs to the Shiv Sena (Shinde), while his son Amol is the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate. Sanjay Nirupam of the Congress is extremely keen on contesting from this seat. But, since the Shiv Sena (UBT) is unwilling to withdraw the nomination of Amol Kirtikar, Nirupam in all probability will quit the Congress and join the BJP after a week. He is already in touch with ex-CM Ashok Chavan, who recently defected to the BJP from the Congress. The million-rupee question being asked in political circles is whether Govinda, who had, in the past, trounced political heavyweights like Ram Naik of the BJP will be able , to defeat Amol. His earlier track record as MP is not much to write home about. CONTD. ON NATION PM INSTANTLY BACKS THEM comment "is the height of hypocrisy ." He said: The PM's brazenness in orchestrating and coordinating an attack on the judiciary in the name of , defending the judiciary is the height , of hypocrisy! "The Supreme Court has delivered body blows to him in recent weeks. The Electoral Bonds Scheme is but one example. The Supreme Court declared them to be unconstitutional and it is now proved beyond doubt that they were a blatant instrument of fear, blackmail, and intimidation to force companies to donate to the BJP Jairam said. ," In their joint signed letter to CJI Chandrachud, the group of lawyers has said a vested group is trying to pressure on the judiciary influence , the judicial process and defame courts on the basis of frivolous logic and stale political agenda. CONTD. ON NATION Fallen crypto mogul Samuel Bankman-Fried will head to prison for 25 years for scamming investors and duping them of $8billion -- despite his apologies and pleas for a lighter sentence, western media reports said. The prosecution wanted the disgraced crypto executive to spend 40 to 50 years behind bars. The judge was quick to bash Bankman-Fried during the hearing and noted the fraudster committed perjury multi- the gallery . The massive fraud unravelled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY / MUMBA Asia’s two richest men – Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani – are joining hands, with Ambani picking up stake in an Adani-run thermal plant in Madhya Pradesh and signing a 20-year deal to buy 500 mw of electricity Though this is being . billed as a first of its kind coming together of two super-tycoons, the fact is this is not really the first time the Ambanis and Adanis have done business together. Some seven years back, Mukesh’s cash-strapped younger brother Anil had sold his Mumbai electricity distribution business to Gautam Adani in an all cash deal, one of the biggest in Indian corporate history In effect . Adani had been a white knight for Anil Ambani at that time. While some analysts have called Thursday’s business contract between the two sides as an unusual “smoking of the peace pipe” after years of rivalry there is reason to , suspect that both sides have long skirted each other’s areas of interest in a bid to grow and not waste their energies in unnecessary spats. Since the beginning of the century Reliance has re-moulded it- A Delhi court on Thursday extended the remand of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is in the custody of Enforcement Directorate, till April 1. He was produced before the court since his remand period was expiring and since the central agency wanted an extension of the same. Kejriwal personally argued self from a plastics and textiles giant into a oil, gas, petrochemicals, retail and telecommunications to now a budding alternate energy empire. While Adanis, who started out as mineral traders, now have a stranglehold over ports and airports, to coal-fired power plants. Rarely have they crossed swords. On of the few areas where they did was in telecom. However, even there it was not a face-to-face battle as the Adani strategy was to buy 5G spectrum to integrate current and future businesses including linking its data centres through a network of submarine and terrestrial cables to build industrial cloud operations and Artificial Intelligence centres. On the other hand, Ambani’s Jio is a retail and industrial customer-based operations expanding into the world of infotainment. India’s richest have long had a policy of “colluding” to pick the best from India’s economic pie. Since the beginning of this century that collaboration has accentuated instead of breaking down into the kind of fierce competition that one sees in the more mature western economies. CONTD. ON NATION his case in Hindi before Delhi's Rouse Avenue court and told Special Judge Kaveri Baweja that the ED's sole mission in the case was to somehow implicate him, even though there was no evidence against him. "ED ka mission kewal aur kewal mujhe fasana tha,’’ Kejriwal submitted. Pertinently according to , the legal portal Bar and Bench, the CM did not oppose ED's request for further cus- tody "Hum ED ki remand op. pose nahi kar rahe. Jitne din chaahe wo mujhe custody main rakh le,’’ he said. However, he alleged that the real scam was ED running an extortion racket in the name of investigation. "ED ke do maqsad the. Ek to AAP ko khatam karna…Ek smokescreen create karna aur uske peechhe extortion racket chalana,’’ the Delhi CM alleged. CONTD. ON P15 Sacked IPS officer Bhatt Mukhtar Ansari dies gets 20-year sentence in jail of heart attack MELVYN THOMAS / AHMEDABAD A special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court has handed down a verdict of 20 years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs. 2 lakh on sacked controversial IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in a case involving planting of drugs. Bhatt, once a prominent figure in Gujarat's police force, faced charges under NDPS sections 21(c) and 27A, pertaining to financing of illicit traffic and harbouring of offenders. The case dates back to 1996 when Bhatt, then serving as the district police chief of Banaskantha, allegedly orchestrated the planting of drugs in the hotel room of Rajasthan-based ad- vocate Sumer Singh Rajpurohit. After a prolonged legal battle, CID Crime arrested Bhatt along with Police Inspector Vyas in 2018, marking a significant development in the case. According to a complaint, Bhatt allegedly fabricated evidence by planting 1.5 kg of opium in the lawyer’s room, allegedly in an attempt to coerce the lawyer out of a commercial property in Pali town, Rajasthan. A probe by the Rajasthan police later revealed that the lawyer was falsely implicated and allegedly abducted by Banaskantha Police from his residence in Pali. The court's verdict mandates an additional one-year jail term for Bhatt if he fails to pay the imposed fine. CONTD. ON NATION Bubble bursts for fallen crypto mogul ple times during a trial that saw him convicted on all counts by a jury He also called . Bankman-Fried a 'thief' who 'is not entitled' to a lighter sentence. The judge also ripped Bankman-Fried's claims that investors could get their money back despite the fraud. One of the 200 victims scammed testified about the 'nightmare' they have endured. Bankman-Fried paid little attention to the victims as they testified -- despite his later apology to victims and FTX employees -- and also ignored his parents who sat in Join hands for MP power project ONLINE REPORT / NEW DELHI OUR BUREAU / NEW DELHI The war between the ruling BJP and the Congress on Thursday spilled into the legal domain with some 600odd lawyers, including former solicitor general Harish Salve, Manan Kumar Mishra, Adaish Agarwala and Pinki Anand, writing to the chief justice of India, expressing serious concern about the actions of a specific interest group wanting to undermine the judiciary's integrity . The thrust of the letter is that CJI Chandrachud's leadership is crucial in these "tough times" and the apex court should stand strong; it is not the time to maintain dignified silence. Though the lawyers behind the letter have mentioned no specific cases, the development comes at a time when courts are dealing with several high-profile criminal cases of corruption involving opposition leaders. PM Modi instantly backed them with a swipe at the Congress, saying "no wonder 140 crore Indians are rejecting them." "To browbeat and bully others is vintage Congress culture. Five decades ago, they itself had called for a 'committed judiciary' - they shamelessly want commitment from others for their selfish interests, but desist from any commitment towards the nation," PM Modi said in a post on the microblogging website X. Reacting to his post, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the PM’s SUPER TYCOON DOUBLE-ENGINE Kejriwal lashes out at ED smokescreen for extortion Section of lawyers ask CJI not to be influenced by a group trying to undermine the judiciary LAST WORD AP / NEW YORK The output jumped to a 3-month high of 6.7% in Feb from 4.1% in January popular platforms for exchanging digital currency . For the crypto king, it was a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady basketball star Stephen , Curry and comedian Larry David. While sentencing him, the judge reflected "that there is a risk that this man will be in position to do something very bad in the future. And it's not a trivial risk at all". He added that the jail terms was "for the purpose of disabling him to the extent that can appropriately be done for a significant period of time." BISWAJEET BANERJEE / LUCKNOW Gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari has died of a heart attack while he was incarcerated in Banda jail. According to a senior police official, Ansari collapsed in his barrack within the jail premises. He was promptly rushed to a hospital, where medical professionals attempted to resuscitate him. Despite efforts, Ansari succumbed to cardiac arrest, as indicated by a medical bulletin issued by Rani Durgawati Medical College. An alert has been since sounded in Lucknow, Mau, Ghazipur and Varanasi, with security being stepped up across Uttar Pradesh. Section 144 has been imposed statewide in response to the evolving situation. This tragic incident comes on the heels of Ansari's deteriorating health, with Thursday marking the second occasion within two days when his condition worsened. Earlier in the week, the 63year-old was hospitalized for approximately 14 hours in Banda following complaints of abdominal pain. Despite being discharged subsequently con, cerns remained regarding his well-being, particularly amidst claims made by his brother and Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari. CONTD. ON NATION TAILPIECE BJP UP BOOKS 19 AIRCRAFT TO GIVE WINGS TO CAMPAIGN BISWAJEET BANERJEE / LUCKNOW T he BJP has booked 19 chartered planes for its star campaigners as it fans out across Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. "The BJP is leaving no stone unturned in its quest to secure victory in Uttar Pradesh," remarked a senior party official, highlighting the significance of the state in the upcoming elections. The decision to book 19 chartered planes underscores the party's commitment to ensuring the presence of its star campaigners in key constituencies. "Our aim is to reach every corner of Uttar Pradesh and connect with voters at every level," emphasized the official, reflecting on the party's comprehensive campaign strategy . CONTD. ON NATION