FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms QUALITY AT VALUE FREE PRESS VOL. 13 NO. 288 | BHOPAL | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2024 | PAGES 18 r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; `4 r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in - WORLD 'RCB LOOK LIKE AN UNBALANCED TEAM' SPORTS HOSTAGE SITUATION IN DUTCH NIGHTCLUB ENDS, MAN HELD WEATHER EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE 37.40c. 22.80c Sunrise : 06.20 Sunset : 06.41 STAGING PRIORITIES CINEMA BHOPAL DRENCHED IN THE COLOURS OF RANG PANCHAMI Four Cong, two BJP contestants face criminal cases Dinesh Yadav EXCISE SCAM: AAP minister grilled for over 5 hrs by ED NEWS BRIEF 3 drown in Ganga in UP's Pratapgarh PRATAPGARH: Two people drowned and another is feared dead while bathing at the Karenti Ganga Ghat here, police said on Saturday. According to police, Shubham Pal (21), Aditya Jaiswal (20) and Abhishek Patel (20), residents of the Kaushambi district, went into the deep waters of the river on Friday and drowned. TMC leaders again skip NIA summons KOLKATA: Eight TMC leaders on Saturday again skipped summonses by the NIA for questioning in connection with a blast at Bhupatinagar in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district in 2022, an official said. The central probe agency may issue summons to the eight leaders again on another date. Chargesheet filed in NewsClick case NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police filed a chargesheet on Saturday in connection with a case lodged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against news portal NewsClick, which is accused of receiving a huge amount of money to peddle pro-China propaganda through its stories, sources said on Saturday. Tamil actor Daniel Balaji dead CHENNAI: Popular Tamil film actor 'Daniel' Balaji, known for his stellar performance, died due to heart attack, a hospital source said here on Saturday. He was 48. The actor, who was living in Thiruvanmiyur, complained of chest pain and was immediately rushed to a private hospital in Kottivakkam here. He, however, succumbed. NEW DELHI The Enforcement Directorate questioned Delhi minister Kailash Gahlot for about five hours on Saturday and recorded his statement in connection with a money-laundering investigation linked to the AAP government's now-scrapped excise policy officials said. , Gahlot (49), an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Najafgarh, is the minister for transport, home and law in the Delhi government led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been arrested in the case by the federal agency . The minister, who entered the ED office in central Delhi around 11:30 am and left after 4:30 pm, said he answered all the questions from the agency and will continue to cooperate in the probe. Sources said Gahlot was questioned with regard to the formulation of the excise policy for 2021-22 as he was part of the Group of Ministers (GoM), along with former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and former urban development minister Satyendar Jain. Gahlot said he was called by the ED for questioning in the case as "probably I was part of the GoM... It (ques- tioning) was about all aspects of the policy and I answered to the best of my knowledge and memory ." He said this was the second summons sent to him as he could not depose for the first time about a month back as the Budget session of the Delhi assembly was on. The agency has mentioned Gahlot's name in its charge sheet and in the context of Vijay Nair, the AAP communications incharge arrested earlier in the case, saying Nair lived in the government bungalow allotted to Gahlot.CON‑ President confers Bharat Ratna on 2 ex-PMs, others Charan Singh Narasimha Rao NEW DELHI President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday conferred Bharat Ratna, the country's highest civilian honour, on former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and Chaudhary Charan Singh, agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan and two-time former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur, posthumously at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The awards to Rao, Singh, Thakur and Swaminathan were received by their kin. P V Prabhakar Rao, the son of former prime minister Rao, received the award conferred on his father from the president. Jayant Chaudhary Singh's grandson and , chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), accepted the honour from Murmu. Swaminathan's daughter Nitya Rao and Thakur's son Ram Nath Thakur received the award from the president. VP Jagdeep Dhankhar, PM Narendra Modi and other dignitaries were present. This year, the government announced five Bharat Ratna awards, including one to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart and former deputy PM L K Advani. P V Narasimha Rao, who was prime minister from 1991 to 1996 and often referred to as the Chanakya of Indian politics, is known for initiating far-reaching economic reforms and for his skilful political manoeuvring. CONTD. ON P8 ED files first charge sheet in DJB case NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed its first chargesheet in connection with a moneylaundering probe linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), official sources said on Saturday. The about-8,000-page-long prosecution complaint, that includes 140 operational pages apart from annexures, was filed by the federal agency before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Delhi on March 28, the sources told PTI. The court has listed the matter for April 1 for taking cognisance of the chargesheet, they said. Four individuals and a company have been named as the accused in the chargesheet -- former DJB chief engineer Jagdish Kumar Arora, contractor Anil Kumar Agarwal, former NBCC general manager D K Mittal, one Tejinder Singh and NKG Infrastructure Limited. Ex-Union home minister Shivraj Patil's daughter-in-law joins BJP MUMBAI: Archana Patil, the daughterin-law of senior Congress leader and former Union home minister Shivraj Patil joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. She joined the BJP in the presence of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the BJP's state unit president Chandrashekhar Bawankule in Mumbai. Shivraj Patil, who hails from Latur in Marathwada region of Maharashtra, was Union home minister during the UPA-I government, but stepped down in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Prior to that, he had also served as the Lok Sabha Speaker. Speaking on the occasion, Fadnavis said Archana Patil has been associated with social work and her joining the BJP will help the party in Latur and the Marathwada region. CONTD. ON P8 Calling spouse bhoot, pishach not cruelty: Patna HC PATNA The Patna High Court has observed that the use of "filthy language" by an estranged couple, who call each other names like "bhoot" (ghost) and "pishach" (vampire), does not tantamount to "cruelty". The remarks came from a single-judge bench of Justice Bibek Chaudhuri, who was hearing a petition filed by Sahdeo Gupta and his son Naresh Kumar Gupta, both residents of Bokaro in adjoining Jharkhand. The father-son duo had challenged an order passed by courts in Bihar's Nalanda district, on a com- plaint filed by Naresh Gupta's divorced wife in Nawada, her native place. The complainant had filed a case against her husband and father-in-law, way back in 1994, accusing them of physical and material torture to press for the demand for a car in dowry. The case was later transferred to Nalanda from Nawada upon a prayer by the father-son duo, who Samrat Saraswat Vivek Bunty Sahu They are fighting in first phase of polls on April 19 Colours sprayed on huge crowd of revellers through water cannon, tankers on Rang Panchami at Bhawani-Somwara Chowk on Saturday. AMARAVATI: The TDP has named Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, the father of Raghava Magunta, who is an accused-turned approver in the Delhi excise policy scam case, as a candidate for the Ongole Lok Sabha seat. Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy was elected from the Ongole LS constituency on a YSRCP ticket in 2019. He deserted the ruling party recently.The TDP on Friday announced the candidature of Reddy from the Ongole constituency. Reacting to the allotment of the seat, political analyst Telakapalli Ravi told PTI, "That is the paradox of politics today. While talking about high morals and attacking and criticising others, we forget all the morals in our case." Phunde Lal Singh Rajesh Mishra TDP ticket for approver’s dad Kamleshwar Patel ended up being slapped with rigorous imprisonment for a year, by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, in 2008 and their appeal before the Additional Sessions Court was rejected 10 years later. In the meantime, the couple was granted divorce by the Jharkhand High Court. CONTD. ON P8 SP's Manoj Yadav to take on BJP chief in Khajuraho BHOPAL: The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced the name of Manoj Yadav to take on BJP's state unit president VD Sharma in Khajuraho. As SP is part of the INDIA alliance, the Khajuraho seat has been given to it. The Congress will not field its candidate from this constituency. Yadav fought the Sabha election on the SP ticket from Vidisha in 2014. CONTD. ON P8 OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in There are cases - not of any serious nature - against six BJP and the Congress candidates who are in the fray for the first phase of Lok Sabha election on April 19. Four of them belong to the Congress, and two to the BJP, according to the affidavits filed by the candidates. Among the contenders, Dinesh Yadav, the Congress candidate from Jabalpur, has been embroiled in legal issues, having been found guilty in one case under Section 332 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for impeding government work and having been sentenced to 6 months of imprisonment. He, however, applied for relaxation of the punishment and was acquitted by the court. Meanwhile, both the BJP and Congress candidates from Sidhi constituency, Rajesh Mishra and Kamleshwar Patel, respectively, have criminal cases registered against them. BJP candidate Mishra was charged with violating Section 144. While Congress candidate Patel faces three cases, including violations of lockdown norms, blocking roads, and IPC sections 465 and 441,. Similarly, BJP contender Vivek Bunty Sahu from Chhindwara has a case lodged against him for his participation in protests against the government, with charges under sections 147, 341, 188, and 186 of the IPC. CONTD. ON P8 Two new I-T notices given, claims Cong Dept rebuts ‘tax terrorism’ charge NEW DELHI The Congress' claims of "tax terrorism" based on fresh notices from the Income Tax department have been strongly countered by sources in the government agency, who have pointed out that incriminating material had been seized and the assessment proceedings are taking place now because they would have been time-barred on March 31 this year. The sources said the Congress knew about the proceedings and had been given enough time to reply includ, Security personnel stand guard as Congress workers protest against the Income Tax Department over the notices of around Rs 1,823 crore, in New Delhi on Saturday ing during the hearings in the Delhi High Court, which had denied the party relief. The Congress, had said on Friday that it had received a new tax notice from the department to the tune of Rs 1,800 crore. CONTD. ON P8 3 Hindus dig Mukhtar Ansari’s grave Rajnath to head manifesto panel of BJP LUCKNOW Biswajeet Banerjee In a poignant display of unity transcending religious divides, three Hindu laborers - Nagina, Sanjay and Gird, hari - came together with the Ansari family to prepare the final resting place for mafia don Mukhtar Ansari in the ancestral graveyard. The burial plot, meticulously dug to dimensions of 7.6 feet in length and five feet in depth and width, was situated near the graves of Ansari's father, Subhanalla Ansari, in the graveyard located approximately 400 meters away from his residence. Nagina, one of the laborers, expressed his deepseated connection with the Ansari family highlighting , the familial bond shared over decades of association. "I have not taken money for digging this grave. Bhiya ji (Mukhtar Ansari) has helped me many times, and we enjoy a family bond with the Ansari family Nagina ," said, reflecting on the mutual respect and support nurtured over the years. Sanjay who inherited the , profession from his forefathers, echoed Nagina's sentiments, underscoring the camaraderie and assistance extended by the Ansari family throughout their association. Like Nagina, Sanjay declined payment for his efforts, emphasizing the respect and dignity that characterized their relationship. Similarly Girdhari, anoth, er laborer involved in the burial preparations, expressed gratitude for the support extended by Mukhtar Ansari's family He . affirmed his commitment to perform his duties without any expectation of financial remuneration, highlighting the symbiotic relationship between the laborers and the Ansari family CONTD. ON P8 . NEW DELHI: The BJP on Saturday announced a 27member committee, which included several Union ministers and chief ministers, headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to prepare its manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be its convener and Union minister Piyush Goyal coconvener. Several other Union ministers, the chief ministers of states such as Gujarat, Assam and Madhya Pradesh, and seasoned hands like Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vasundhara Raje are among the members of the committee. Rajnath Singh, a former party president, was the head of the BJP's manifesto committee for the 2019 polls as well. Many members have been repeated in the current panel as well. CONTD. ON P8