Vol. 65 No. 331 | SATURDAY | MAY 28, 2022 | 19 Pages| RBI PITCHES FOR STRUCTURAL REFORMS FOR GROWTH After hullabaloo, Aryan clean chit EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, Konkan, E-paper EDIT COCOON OF THE RICH IN A WORLD OF INEQUITIES THERE’S NO FORMULA FOR CHOOSING FILMS: FATIMA SANA SHAIKH 340c. 270c. Sunrise: 06:01 am Sunset : 07:11 pm CORDELIA CRUISE DRUG BUST CASE URVI MAHAJANI MUMBAI Citing lack of evidence, on Friday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) gave a clean chit to Aryan Khan, the son of actor Shah Rukh Khan, in the Cordelia Cruises drug bust case. The special investigation team (SIT), comprising officers from the Delhi NCB, submitted a nearly 6,000-page charge sheet in the case before the special judge under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. In the chargesheet, the SIT has implicated 14 of the 20 accused while six accused, including Khan, were not being proceeded against, for lack of evidence. The five other accused who were also given a clean chit in the case are Avin Shahu, Gopalji Anand, Samir Saighan, Bhaskar Aroda and Manav Singha. “I am very happy that all that we argued in courts for the bail (of Aryan) have been appreciated by the authorities objectively and independently I am happy that the law has been ap. plied in the facts of the case. Unfortunately, Aryan had to undergo the trauma that he did. But the debate on the larger question in the criminal justice system of granting bail over remand needs to be looked into,” senior counsel Amit Desai, who appeared for Aryan in his bail applications, told FPJ. The NCB arrested Aryan on October 2, 2021, following a raid on a cruise ship en route to Goa from Mumbai. Khan was arrested from the cruise terminal, on charges of attempting consumption of drugs, CONTD. ON NATION PAGE POINTERS TO CLEAN CHIT No evidence Aryan was part of drugs conspiracy Was not in possession of any drugs Also, he was not taken for medical test; besides, SIT found several irregularities in conduct of raid, of which there was no video recording Again, Mumbai NCB took charge of Aryan’s phone without proper protocol. Proof beyond reasonable doubt SIT carried out its investigation in an objective manner. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of NDPS Act is being filed. The complaint against the remaining 6 persons is not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence. – NCB No comment, I am not with NCB: Sameer SOMENDRA SHARMA / MUMBAI On a day the Narcotics Control Bureau’s special investigation team (SIT) investigating the Cordelia cruise did not file a charge sheet against six persons, including Aryan Khan, for lack of sufficient evidence, Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sameer Wankhede, who had earlier been part of the Cordelia Cruises drug bust case, declined to comment on the matter. When asked whether the Centre had asked the competent authority to take appropriate action against him for his alleged CONTD. ON NATION PAGE An 8-page supplement is being released with this edition. Kindly collect it from your vendor. TAILPIECE PIL seeks a confidential ASI survey FPJ DESK / NEW DELHI A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking direction for a confidential survey by the ASI of all the ancient and prominent mosques which are over a hundred years old in India and have wells and ponds. The PIL has also sought directions for the shifting of ‘wuzu’ or ‘wudu’ (Islamic procedure followed by Muslims for cleansing parts of the body before offering prayers) from the ponds and wells in the mosques over hundred years old. A confidential survey would ensure that if any relic is discovered, unnecessary communal hatred and hurting of religious sentiments can be avoided. The petition was filed through advocate Vivek Narayan Sharma by advocates Shubham Awasthi and Sapta Rishi Mishra, who have also sought directions for the issuance of guidelines for keeping the disputed properties free from any party or their interference till the time, a detailed confidential survey is complete and the report is submitted. Also, drugs recovered from multiple accused were shown as single recovery, again an irregularity NCB should introspect on hasty arrest His honour has been vindicated. NCB should introspect as to why he was hastily arrested for no cause – Mukul Rohatgi, There was no evidence of any kind; there was no material of any nature which was in violation of any law, much less the NDPS Act – Satish Maneshinde, 7 SOLDIERS DIE FPJ DESK LEH Seven Army soldiers were killed and 19 others were injured in the Tuktuk sector of Ladakh on Friday when the vehicle in which they were travelling skidded off the road and fell into a gorge near Shyok river. The accident took place at around 9 am at a place that is around 25 km from Thoise. As many as 26 soldiers were on their way from the transit camp in Partapur to a forward location in subsector Hanif. Seven individuals have been declared dead so far. There are grievous injuries to others as well. AS VEHICLE SKIDS INTO LADAKH RIVER ‘‘Dedicated efforts are underway to ensure that the best medical care is provided to the injured," said an official. The officials said the vehicle plummeted to a depth of approximately 50 to 60 feet. All the injured were initially taken to the 403 Field Hospital at Partapur. Hours later, all 19 injured personnel Credit card fraud on filmmaker Close shave as ST STAFF REPORTER MUMBAI Filmmaker Boney Kapoor has registered a complaint with the Amboli police, after his credit card was allegedly used for fraudulent transactions amounting to nearly Rs 4 lakh in March this year. According to the Amboli police, the complaint was received from Kapoor’s assistant on Wednesday. “He has stated in his complaint that several transactions were made from his credit card without his consent or knowledge, collectively amounting to Rs 3.84 lakh,” said Senior Police Inspector Bandopant Bansode of the Amboli police station. Following the receipt of the written complaint, police have registered an FIR against unknown persons under the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act. So far, police have found that a total of five transactions of varying amounts were made, using Kapoor’s credit card. The incident came to light when he received a call from his bank regarding his pending credit card dues, after which he obtained the details and approached the police. “We are obtaining the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the devices from which the transactions were made, and other technical investigations have also been initiated. We are seeking assistance from the Cyber division,” Bansode said. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE 5-time CM, Chautala, gets 4 yrs in jail at 87 who had represented Aryan Khan in his bail plea in HC RAJESH MOUDGIL CHANDIGARH In a fresh jolt to the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), its supremo and the former five-time chief minister of Haryana, Om Prakah Chautala, 87, was sentenced on Friday to four years imprisonment by a special CBI court in Delhi in a 16- who was part of the defence team year-old disproportionate assets case. Special judge Vikas Dhull in his order also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on Chautala and ordered the seizure of four of his properties. Though Chautala’s lawyers had requested the court to hand over lenient sentence considering his medical condition and age, He had come out of Tihar Jail in July 2021, after serving 10-year term in teachers’ job scam case the CBI opposed the plea and pushed for maximum punishment for Chautala, stating that it would send a message to the society . The CBI said that Chautala was a public Water on alternate days in parched Old Panvel AMIT SRIVASTAVA NAVI MUMBAI After three years, water scarcity has come back to haunt the residents of Old Panvel. The Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) has issued a public notice saying that starting from May 28, water will only be supplied on alternate days in the Old Panvel area and residents are requested to cooperate with the civic body. The water levels in the Dehrang dam, which supplies water to the city, has dropped to unusable levels and the civic body does not have adequate water to meet the demand. The situation is likely to improve only after the arrival of the monsoon in the second week of June. Until then, residents will only receive supply on alternate days. The civic body has divided the Old Panvel city into two zones for water supply. In 2018, 2017 and 2016, the PMC was faced with a similar situation when the monsoon failed and it had to resort to supplying water on alternate days. However, despite the good rainfall last year, the problem has resurfaced. At present, the civic body needs around 30 MLD of water daily to supply a popula- tion of around 1.5 lakh in Old Panvel. Deputy Engineer Vilas Chavan of the PMC’s water supply department said the civic body meets the requirement of 30 MLD water needs from three sources. “The civic body gets water from Taloja Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), Maharashtra Jal Pradhikaran (MJP), and the Dehrang dam to meet the requirement of citizens,” said Chavan. While MIDC Taloja gets water from the Kasadi river near Panvel, the MJP draws water from the Patalganga river, which originates in the Khandala portion of the Sahaydri scarp. However, this year, water supply from both the MIDC and the MJP was interrupted and hence, CONTD. ON NATION PAGE figure and giving minimum punishment would send a wrong message. Stating that he also did not have clean antecedents, the CBI said that it was the second case in which he had been Dalit’s interfaith killing: Two held in Karnataka SHANKAR RAJ BENGALURU A 25-year-old Dalit youth was allegedly murdered in Karnataka’s Kalaburagi over his romantic relationship with a Muslim woman. The police said two people were arrested on Friday in connection with the murder. The deceased was identified as Vijay Kamble. Preliminary reports by police indicate that the woman’s family was against their relationship. Kalaburagi SP Isha Pant said Shahuddin and Nawaz were arrested for Vijay’s murder. The woman’s family is also being questioned. Vijay’s mother was quoted in the media as saying that the brother of her son’s girlfriend had threatened to sever his head if he did not break off their relationship. According to her, Vijay left the house after receiving a phone call. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE Love lands mobile thief behind bars LAST WORD GAUTAM S. MENGLE MUMBAI Some might claim that they can even go to prison for their love, but a 20-year-old mobile thief landed in prison because of his love. Having stolen a cell phone from Mulund, the thief replaced the SIM card in the handset to chat with his girlfriend, and this action led to his arrest. According to the Navghar police, the crime was committed last month when the victim, Parul Badguzar, was standing at a bus stop near the MHADA Colony in Mulund (east). Two men on a motorbike slowed down near her, snatched the cell phone in her hand and sped away Parul . immediately went to the Navghar police have been shifted to Chandimandir in the Panchkula district of Haryana. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed sadness over the accident and shared his thoughts with the bereaved families. “I hope those injured recover at the earliest. All possible assistance is being given to the affected," he tweeted. station, where an offence was registered against unidentified accused. “We scanned Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in the area and one of them had captured the entire incident. We obtained stills of the footage where the faces of the accused were visible, and started trying to identify them. At the same time, we were constantly tracking the location of the victim's phone,” senior police inspector Sunil Kamble, Navghar police station said. On May 16, the police suddenly got a hit and zeroed in on the cell phone's location in Bhiwandi. The police already had the pictures of the accused from the CCTV footage, and armed with these, a team was rushed to the location where the handset's location  had been pinpoint- ed.  The team fanned out in the area and soon spotted one of the two suspects seen in the footage. He was identified as Arbaaz Ansari (20) and the stolen handset was seized from him. Following his questioning, the police also traced and picked up the second accused, identified as Aswad Sheikh (19). Both were arrested and charged with theft under the Indian Penal Code. “When we questioned Arbaaz following his arrest, he told us that he had inserted his own SIM card in the stolen handset, so that he could chat with his girlfriend. As soon as he did so, we got a hit on the handset's IMEI number,” Kamble said. He added that this was the duo's first offence and they are currently in judicial custody . convicted. The CBI, which was probing the case, filed the chargesheet against Chautala on March 26, 2010. The agency contended that between 1993 and 2006, the seven-time MLA O P Chautala amassed assets worth over Rs 6.09 crore, far exceeding his known sources of income. CONTD. ON NATION PAGE bus falls into ravine Driver was drunk, passengers tell police STAFF REPORTER MUMBAI It was a miraculous escape for passengers aboard a State Transport bus early on Friday, after the driver lost control and the vehicle plunged into a ravine in Palghar district on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway on Friday morning. Passengers have told police that the bus driver was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident. According to the Palghar police, the incident occurred on Friday morning, when the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus, which had left from Bhusawal in Jalgaon district, was passing through the Waghoba Ghat while travelling towards Boisar in Palghar. “The bus suddenly veered towards the ravine by the side of the highway, and fell off the road into the ravine, which is around 25 feet deep. It tumbled over a couple of times and landed on its side,” said an officer with the Palghar police. Passing motorists who witnessed the accident immediately called the police control room, and personnel from the Palghar Commissionerate, as well as the Maharashtra Highway Traffic Police department were rushed to the spot, CONTD. ON NATION PAGE