330c. 240c. Sunrise: 06:57 am Sunset: 06:45 pm SENSEX SINKS 870 POINTS COVID CASTS PALL ON DEADLY FAILURE IN BASTAR: AS COVID SPIKE SPOOKS SPARE US SHOWY RETALIATION B’TOWN; THREATENS MARKET Pg 07 STARS Pg 20 Pg 15 Compassion is seeing other people without losing your Inner Calmness. Master Choa Kok Sui Vol. 64 No. 288 | TUESDAY | APRIL 6, 2021 | 14 Pages | ` 4 | EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, E-Paper DESHMUKH QUITS, GOVT SURVIVES SANJAY JOG Mumbai Hours after the Bombay High Court ordered a preliminary probe by the CBI into corruption charges against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Monday he submitted his , resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Desh. mukh met NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who also advised him to step down in the wake of the court order. Late on Monday Governor , BS Koshyari on accepted Deshmukh’s resignation. “I do not have the moral right to continue in office after the court order. I have decided to quit. Kindly relieve me from my post,” his resignation letter said. NCP chief spokesman Nawab Malik said Anil Deshmukh met CM Thackeray and tendered his resignation. “ After the high court order, Deshmukh met Sharad Pawar and other party leaders and said he did not want to continue in the post. The party has requested the CM to accept his resignation, although there is nothing factually correct in the allegations,” said Malik. After former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh levelled corruption charges against Deshmukh through a letter to CONTD. ON P13 Home gets a new face Sharad Pawar’s close confidant Dilip Walse-Patil is new HM SANJAY JOG Mumbai Veteran NCP leader and party president Sharad Pawar’s close confidant Dilip WalsePatil was appointed as Maharashtra home minister, after the resignation of the incumbent Anil Deshmukh, who stepped down following the Bombay high court ordering a preliminary probe by CBI into the corruption charges against him. WalsePatil was in charge of the labour and excise departments after being inducted by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in his council of ministers in January 2020. After Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and state NCP unit chief Jayant Patil refused to accept the charge, Walse-Patil was Pawar’s obvious choice. Thackeray has given additional charge of the excise department to Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, who also looks after the planning and finance departments. Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif will now be in charge of the labour department. Walse-Patil would have become the home minister had he not refused the party’s offer on physical grounds. CONTD. ON P13 HC WON’T BE JUST MUTE SPECTATOR No FIR yet but preliminary probe into allegations against Anil Deshmukh — all within a fortnight NARSI BENWAL Mumbai In what could spell serious trouble for Maharashtra home minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh, the Bombay High Court on Monday ordered the CBI chief to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the corruption allegations levelled against him by former Mum- bai Police Commissioner Parambir Singh. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni, while describing the case as "extraordinary and unprecedented," asked the CBI director to complete its enquiry within 15 days. "It is indeed unheard of and unprecedented that a Minister is openly accused of wrongdoings and corrupt practices by none other than a senior police officer, attracting wide attention from all and sundry CJ Datta ob," served. The judges clarified that the CBI must not register an FIR immediately since the Maharashtra government has already set up a "high level committee" to deal with the matter. CONTD. ON P13 EDIT State & Anil ready to file pleas in SC SANJAY JOG Mumbai Both the Maharashtra Government and former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh plan to approach the Supreme Court by filing separate petitions challenging the Bombay High Court order on a preliminary probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the corruption charges against the latter. The state home department is currently in the midst of discussing with legal experts on what grounds the petition can be filed while Deshmukh, who after submitting his resignation to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray landed in Delhi , and met senior advocate Manu Singhvi to discuss his brief. The state government may rope in Singhvi or another senior advocate, Kapil Sibal, but it has yet to take a final call in the matter. But Deshmukh has made up his mind to file his petition soon. Deshmukh held an hourlong meeting with Singhvi and made his argument against the corruption charges made by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. “Deshmukh is expected to challenge the high court order on the grounds that a preliminary investigation can be ordered when there is no FIR. What is the urgency for such a probe when the state government has already ordered an inquiry by a retired judge,” said a person close to Deshmukh. Further, Deshmukh is expected to argue that a CBI probe could be ordered on Singh’s charges based on WhatsApp chats. Besides, why did Singh did not file an FIR after he had learnt of the demand for money through the purported WhatsApp chats, the source said. Deshmukh has already denied Singh’s charges. Defending himself, he had said, “After realising you will be removed from the post of Commissioner of Police tomorrow, March 17, Param Bir Singh on March 16, called ACP Shri Patil and asked some questions on a WhatsApp chat and got the answers he expected. It was part of a larger plot by Param Bir Singh.’’ RAFALE REPLICA BOOMERANGS 1.1 million Euros paid as commission; doubts raised by French auditors OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI The Rafale jet fighter deal continues to backfire. The latest in the saga is the accusation that the 2016 deal between India and France also involved the payment of 1.1 million Euros by aviation major Dassault to an Indian middleman. Any such payment would be a violation of the mandatory Defence Procurement Procedure laid down by the Union Ministry of Defence. The French publication "Mediapart" has sourced its claim in an investigation undertaken by the country's anti-corruption agency the , On paper, the money was paid for the manufacture of 50 large replica models of Rafale jets; actually it was a bogus purchase designed to hide the commission AFA, which made the initial findings during an audit of Dassault. What raised eyebrows during the audit was a payment of 1.1 million Euros which the company said was used to pay for the manufacture of 50 large replica models of Rafale jets. What is befuddling is that there is no proof that these models were made, Mediapart claims. Also, there is a mystifying question: Why had Dassault ordered an Indian company to make models of its own aircraft at 20,000 Euros a plane? Why was this expenditure entered in the accounts as 'a gift to client'? And were these models, each one of which was supposed to be the size of a small car, really ever made?" According to Mediapart, "Dassault was unable to provide the AFA with a single document showing that these models existed and were delivered, and not even a photograph. The inspectors thus suspected that this was a bogus purchase designed to hide hidden financial transactions". Incidentally the 50 replicas , were ordered from a Defence Company whose owner CONTD. ON P13 BED-RELATED QUERY EVERY 15 MINUTES AVDHESH MALLICK / Raipur The 35-year-old CoBRA battalion jawan, who went missing after the Bastar ambush, is in the custody of Naxalites, it is claimed. Two Bijapur-based journalists received a call from an unknown number with the caller claiming that the jawan, Rakeshwar Singh Manhas, was in their custody and that they will release him in two to three days. The call could not be authenticated. The Maoists have so far not made any demands for the return of Manhas; nor have any negotiations been initiated. The lack of information about his whereabouts has reinforced the notion that this might be an evolving hostage situation. Meanwhile, a video has surfaced of the jawan's daughter. The little girl is heard saying in the video, 'Mere Papa ko Chod do (release my father).' Wife Meenu has also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Per litre DIESEL ` 87.96 Per litre www.freepressjournal.in twitter.com/fpjindia Reg. No. Mcs/048/2018-20; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai-400001 A deserted Shivaji Park on Monday. (Photo by BL SONI) SWAPNIL MISHRA Mumbai The city’s 24 ward war rooms have been fielding more than 2,000 calls on a 24x7 basis, from anxious relatives of patients enquiring about the availability of Covid beds in the city People . have also been calling up to enquire about the vaccination process and other queries related to Covid. Officials say all the ward war rooms are working on a war footing to tackle the increased workload since the surge in cases in the city . Every ward-ward room gets 80-90 calls daily with most , callers seeking information on hospital admissions for moderately and severely symptomatic patients. Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said all the war rooms had been directed to be on their toes and provide the necessary details related to Covid19 -- beds, home isolation procedures, vaccination and any other pandemic-related queries. The number of Covid staff in the war rooms too has been increased. “We have all our facilities in readiness for the worst-case scenario and have strictly directed staff in the Covid ward war rooms to be wellprepared with Covid bed details. On a daily basis, every ward gets around 100 calls, of which 20 per cent pertain to ambulances,” he said. CONTD. ON P13 Slight drop in nos. after record high SWAPNIL MISHRA / Mumbai A day after the state and the city reported the highest number of cases in a single day there was a slight drop , in the number of new cases on Monday There were . 47,288 new infections and 155 deaths reported in Maharashtra in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall tally to 30,57,885, with 56,033 deaths till now. “Of the 155 deaths reported today (Monday), 90 occurred in the last 48 hours, while 39 were reported in the last week. The remaining 26 deaths are from the period before last week. Of these 26 deaths, 12 occurred in Jalna, four in Nashik, two each in Nanded, Thane, Akola and one each in Hingoli, Jalgaon, Solapur and Nagpur,” said a senior health official. CONTD. ON P13 ‘BREAK THE CHAIN’ ORDER AMENDED l Students taking offline exams may travel l Commuters with valid tickets can travel from 8pm to 7am for departure and after arrival l Petrol pumps and petroleum related products, all cargo services, data centres/ Cloud Service Providers/ IT services supporting critical infrastructure and services included in essential services l Only personnel engaged in the service of the place of workshop shall continue to perform their duties l Local disaster management authority to decide allowing domestic help/ drivers/ cooks to work past 8pm and/ or on weekends SANJAY JOG / Mumbai A day after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government issued restrictions under its ‘BreakTheChain’ order, it made some additions and clarifications to the same. This comes after there was confusion among students, industrial workers and citizens, especially on the definition of essential services. Any student required to physically attend an exam will be allowed to travel to and from the examination centre after 8pm or on weekends, subject to their carrying a valid hall ticket. The government said persons arriving/ departing by train/ bus/ flight between 8pm and 7am or on weekends could travel to the airport/ bus station/ train sta- tion or back home from the same on the basis of a valid ticket. Industrial workers travelling by private buses/ private vehicles may be allowed to travel on the basis of identity cards, from 8pm to 7am and during weekends, to attend his/ her shift. Places of worship are currently closed to the public entirely . However, only personnel engaged in the service of the place of workshop shall continue to perform their duties. As per Monday’s amended order, petrol pumps and petroleum related products, all cargo services, data centers/ Cloud Service Providers/ IT services supporting critical infrastructure and services, government and private CONTD. ON P13 CM urges PM Modi to allow jabs for 25+ SANJAY JOG Mumbai Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday , urging him to allow Covid vaccination for all those above 25 years of age. He said that vaccinating a large number of young people, especially those going out to work, would help reduce the number of patients. Regarding the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra, Thackeray said that the state had always been transparent in providing information and has also increased the speed of testing. “We are taking measures with the determination that every Covid-19 patient must be cured. We have put in place some strict restrictions through our ‘Break the Chain’ campaign, to prevent the virus from becoming more harmful than it was last year,” he said. He added that the state had been assiduously participating in the Covid vaccination drive. “Till April 4, 76.86 lakh people have been vaccinated. On April 3, we vaccinated 4.62 lakh people in the state," he said. Thackeray further requested 1.5 crore additional doses from the Centre. CONTD. ON P13 A huge crowd makes a beeline for vaccination at Nesco ground Goregaon. (Photo by BL SONI) Essential service travel pass for curfew hours SACHIN GAAD Mumbai A day after the Maharashtra government announced new restrictions including a night curfew, the Mumbai police on Monday issued prohibitory orders imposing night curfew on weekdays and a ‘strict lockdown’ for weekends from 8pm on Fridays to 7am on Monday They . have also reintroduced the ‘essential services travel pass’ for essential service workers during curfew hours. On Monday the Deputy , Commissioner of Police (operations) S Chaitanya issued prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC, which will remain in force till April 30 unless withdrawn earlier, as stated in the order. The fresh order prohibits gathering of more than five people at public places in the city from 7am to 8pm, from Monday to Friday While a ‘strict . lockdown’ will be enforced during weekends, no one can move around in public places without a valid reason from 8pm on Friday to 7am on Monday . Following Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing at public places has been Home Minister Amit Shah to ensure the safe return of her husband. "As you brought Abhinandan (Varthaman) back from Pakistan, please bring back my husband too," she urged the prime minister. Manhas happens to be a resident of Jammu Kashmir. The abducted jawan is believed to be a captive of Madvi Hidma, the commander of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) battalion number 1, the outfit behind the latest massacre. CONTD. ON P13 MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Monday cleared the decks for IPL in COVID-ravaged Mumbai, allowing teams to practice after 8pm and travel to their respective hotels during the night curfew that has been imposed to contain the pandemic. However, there has to be "strict adherence to biobubble". Considering the match timings, teams practicing at the CCI and MCA are scheduled to practice in 2 sessions -- from 4pm to CONTD. ON P13 Tariq Ahmed Sofi/Kauri : The construction of the arch of the world's highest railway bridge that soars 359 metres above the bed of the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir was completed on Monday, with the Northern Railways terming the achievement as a milestone. The 1.3-kilometre-long bridge will boost connectivity to the Kashmir Valley and is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,486 crore as part of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Railway Link project. The bridge, which is 35-metre higher than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, is expected to be completed within a year, officials said. The bridge is designed to withstand high wind speed of up to 266 kmph. Captive jawan: Hostage situation at hand LAST WORD PETROL ` 96.98 Curfew pass for IPL teams mandatory police said. The , Mumbai police also reintroduced its ‘essential services travel pass’ system for essential services workers travelling during restricted hours. “The pass is mandatory for essential services workers for travelling during curfew hours. Those with old passes can still use them while other essential services workers can apply for new CONTD. ON P13 TAILPIECE