FREE PRESS RNI No. 38281/83 Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023 INDORE BHOPAL UJJAIN PUNE MUMBAI - VOL. XXXVII NO. 255 | INDORE | TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23, 2021 | PAGES 12 WHEN CROWDS GATHER, GOVTS GET CHANGED, SAYS TIKAIT Pg-7 EDIT CORONAVIRUS: SCIENCE IS STILL STRUGGLING TO COPE Pg- 6 CBI questions Abhishek's sister-in-law KOLKATA: A team of the CBI recorded statement of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee's sisterin-law Menka Gambhir in connection with its probe into the illegal coal smuggling case.The CBI led by Investigation officer Umesh Kumar along with two women officers arrived at the residence of Gambhir and recorded her statement for over two and half hours. MP Delkar found dead in hotel MUMBAI: Mohan Delkar, 7term Lok Sabha member from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead in a Mumbai hotel on Monday. Body of Delkar (58), Independent MP from Dadra and Nagar Haveli UT, was found in the hotel in south Mumbai's Marine Drive area. The official said a suicide note in Gujarati was also found along with the body. The cause of death will be known after autopsy, he added. Sources confirmed that the case will also be referred to the ED as foreign currency worth Rs 44 lakh was found from the premises of Dagas. Moreover, incriminating documents indicating hawala transactions were also found by the IT officials therefore intervention of ED is must, feel I-T officials. Labourer, 4 others find 2 diamonds PANNA: A labourer and his partners have found a 7.94 carat diamond and another 1.93 carat one in a village in Panna on Monday, an official said. Collector identified the labourer as Bhagwandas Kushwaha and said the two stones, which were extracted from a mine near Kitaha village, will be auctioned in March. SEPARATE FIR LIKELY AGAINST DAGAS Nilay Daga I-T sleuths said that a separate FIR will be filed against Dagas. One of Daga’s men had tried to flee with cash amounting in crores from the spot where search operations were on. However, he was caught along with cash. CONGRESS MUM OVER I-T RAIDS ON ITS MLA Surprisingly, Congress has maintained complete silence over income tax raids on its MLA Nilay Daga. The I-T raids concluded after four days of search operations but there has been no statement from the Congress so far. It needs to be mentioned that father of Nilay Daga, Vinod Daga was also a Congress MLA and known to be a close confidante of former CM Kamal Nath. duced undisclosed income of Rs 90 crore in its books of accounts by way of sale of paper investments in shell companies to another set of shell companies of Kolkata. None of the companies was found to be operational at their shown address and the group could not confirm the identity of such paper companies or any of its directors. Many of these paper companies were found to be struck off by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Bogus loss of Rs 52 crore was claimed by the group to suppress their profits, by indulging in intra- People arriving from Maha to undergo thermal screening OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL situation in the state at a meeting of collectors at . Mantralaya on Monday Chouhan directed the collectors to call a crisis management committee meeting on February 23 regarding the upcoming Shivratri Mela as a large number of Toolkit case: Court sends Disha to one-day police custody AGENCIES NEW DELHI A Delhi court on Monday sent 21-year-old climate activist Disha Ravi, arrested in connection with allegedly being involved in sharing a "toolkit" on social media related to the farmers' protest, . to one day police custody Metropolitan Chief Magistrate Pankaj Sharma allowed custodial interrogation of Ravi after police said she was required to be confronted with co-accused. Ravi was produced before group out-of exchange contract settlement. Various companies were formed in the name of employees to carry out these transactions, while there was no actual business carried out between them. Directors of these companies were not aware about any such transactions. The group has also claimed incorrect Long Term Capital Gains exemption of over Rs 27 crore on sale of shares. Investigations revealed that the purchase of these shares was not genuine as purdirectors group chased shares of this entity at nominal value from COVID-19 CASES ON THE RISE With neighbouring Maharashtra witnessing a surge in daily Coronavirus cases, the Madhya Pradesh government on Monday directed for intensifying surveillance in districts bordering Maharashtra. People arriving from the neighbouring state will be subjected to thermal screening. Madhya Pradesh, too, is witnessing a steady rise in coronavirus cases in the last few days. Singh Shivraj CM Chouhan issued directives in this regard while reviewing the coronavirus NIKITA, SHANTANU BEING QUESTIONED Lawyer Nikita Jacob and engineer Shantanu Muluk joined the probe in connection with the toolkit case and are being questioned at the Delhi Police's Cyber cell office in Dwarka, a senior police officer said. The Delhi Police, probing the "toolkit Google doc" backing the farmers' agitation shared by climate activist Greta Thunberg, had arrested Disha Ravi while Jacob and Muluk were granted pre-arrest bail by a court. the court on expiry of her . three-day judicial custody The court on Friday had sent her to judicial custody after police had said her custodial interrogation was not required for the time being. The agency had said that it would seek her further custodial interrogation once coaccused -- Nikita Jacob and Shantanu Muluk -- join the interrogation on February 22. Ravi was arrested by Delhi police on Feb 13 from Bengaluru. people from Maharashtra are expected to attend these fairs. The local administration will take a decision on Shivratri mela specially in 12 districts bordering Maharashtra, said Chouhan. CONTD. ON P8 136 more test +ve in city INDORE: As many as 136 patients tested positive out of 1,943 sample reports received . on Monday Rate of positive patients was recorded at 7% and total number of positive patients reached 58,996. No death was reported in 24 hours. According to the bulletin, reports of total samples received till Monday was 8,24,129. As many as 1,793 samples were tested negative . on Monday Department took 2012 more samples for testing including 1585 for RTPCR. As many as 699 patients are . getting treatment in the city Total 57366 patients have been discharged so far. Vax hesitancy: Barwani nurse chary of 2nd dose Was in a trauma after first dose OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL Namrata Chaure, 40, staff nurse, Barwani, is afraid to get the second dose of Covid vaccine as she faced a trauma after first dose of Covishield. She was admitted to the ICU of a hospital after getting the first dose. She is mother of two-year-old twins and is the sole bread- earner of the family . Chaure said, “My family suggested that I shouldn’t get a second dose of vaccine as I was admitted to the ICU after being administered the first dose. I have twoyear-old twins. The entire family depends on my income. I’m the sole breadwinner of my family Staff . nurse is a contractual job. So, the govt won’t support my family if something goes wrong with me due to vaccination.” Madras High Court, just couple of days Sunrise : 06.53 Sunset : 06.27 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Truth is dynamic. It is not static. Master Choa Kok Sui Cong Govt falls State govt dealing in Puducherry, firmly with mafia, Prez rule likely says Anandiben ED TO LOOK INTO FOREIGN CURRENCY, HAWALA TRANSACTIONS OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL News Brief 31.20c. 13.80c YAMI GAUTAM JUGGLING TWO FILMS AT A TIME Pg-12 Undisclosed income of over Rs 450 crore unearthed Various Cos formed in name of employees Foreign currency worth Rs 44L seized WEATHER www.freepressjournal.in I-T RAIDS ON DAGAS The income tax department has detected undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 450 crore during raids on business establishments of Congress MLA and businessman Nilay Daga and his brothers. The income tax department’s official statement said that during the course of the search operation, unexplained cash of over Rs 8 crore and unexplained foreign currency countries various of amounting to more than Rs 44 lakh have been seized. Nine bank lockers have also been found during the search. The group has introduced unaccounted income to the tune of Rs 259 crore by way of introduction of share capital at from premium huge Kolkata-based shell companies. The group has also intro- `3 Quality at Value ago, issued notices to the Union health ministry and the DCGI over a plea seeking directions that would declare Covishield 'unsafe'. Covishield is one of the two vaccines that have been granted emergency use in India and is being used in the nationwide vaccination drive. The vaccine was developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and is being manufactured by Serum Institute of India. The HC was hearing a petition filed by one Asif Riaz who had participated in the clinical trials of Covishield as a volunteer. However, Dr RK Sharma, 55, medical officer of Gwalior and Dr RK Dwivedi, 70, pathologist of Singrauli, said that, despite developing minor problems after the first dose of vaccine, they had got the second dose today They said . the second dose was much better as they did not develop any problems. Dr Dwivedi says he has minor hypertension. Both the doctors have COPD. Kolkata non-existent based shell companies. Various types of evidence including chats among key persons of the group reflect unexplained cash payment and hawala transactions of over Rs 15 crore. Incriminating evidence in the form of laptops, hard drives, pen drives etc have been found and seized. The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations on February 18 at 22 premises in Betul and Satna in MP, Mumbai and Solapur and Maharashtra in Kolkata. Raids concluded on February 21. N CHITHRA CHENNAI The Narayanasamy-led Conin government gress Puducherry lost the trust , vote in the House on Monday just two months ahead of the Assembly elections. With the opposition disinclined to stake claim to form an alternative Government, the UT is likely headed for a President’s rule. Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who had called upon the Congress , Govt to prove its majority is learnt to have passed on resignaNarayanasamy’s tion to the Home Ministry along with her report. Resignations of five Congress MLAs, including two ministers and a DMK legislator, during the past month and disqualification of Congress MLA had reduced the . ruling party to a minority Narayanasamy CM walked out of the House with his MLAs even before Confidence of Motion moved by him was put to vote. CONTD. ON P8 GUV'S ADDRESS PM Modi's name taken 10 times OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL Governor Anandiben Patel has mentioned the name of PM Modi at least 10 times in her Address to the House. The Budget session of the House, which began on , Monday will continue till March 26. Patel also appreciated the projects of the Central government and the works of Modi. She said that, when the state government was formed, there was an environment of doubt, fear and mistrust in the state. Discussions over the motion of thanks to her Address will be held on Feb 23 and 24. The Governor said corona patients had been given free treatment and more than 700 fever clinics were being run in the state. The govt has launched a drive against the mafia. She said the state had struck a severe blow to the liquor mafia, land mafia, drug mafia, cyber mafia and sand mafia. Patel said action had been taken against 1,500 land mafia and 3,300 acres worth Rs 8,800 crore had been , freed.Similarly chit fund companies had been forced to give Rs 700 cr to the investors, she said. The Religious Freedom Notification, 2020, had been implemented, she said. CONTD. ON P8 Girish Gautam elected VS Speaker BJP MLA Girish Gautam was unanimously elected Speaker on , Monday. Besides the BJP the Opposition also supported Gautam. He became an MLA for the first time from Mangawan in 2003 by defeating former Speaker Sriniwas Tiwari. Gautam has said he will remain neutral as long as he is in the Chair.