India News
Chidambaram gets another day’s protection from arrest by ED; CBI custody stays till Aug 30

The Supreme Court today (Tuesday, August 27) extended the protection from arrest granted to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the INX Media money laundering case till tomorrow.
The SC bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna would hear the arguments of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Chidambaram’s two petitions, including the challenge to remand orders, on Wednesday, reported PTI.
Yesterday as well Chidambaram’s protection from arrest in case being probed by ED had been extended by a day. In the case being probed by the CBI and being heard in trial court, however, the agency got to keep him in custody for further interrogation for another five days and he will be produced in the court on Aug 30. The CBI said he was confronted with one of the co-accused with a file containing email exchanging with respect to INX Media Scam is undertaken. “So we need more time to unravel the larger conspiracy,” Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had argued.
In the Supreme Court today, as hearing in the case being probed by ED resumed today, Chidambaram’s counsel senior advocate Kapil Sibal filed a rejoinder to the ED affidavit which lists countries where he and “his co-conspirators” allegedly had bank accounts and properties.
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Sibal said the ED cannot place documents in the court randomly and “behind the back” for seeking custody of the accused.
He also sought transcripts of the interrogation conducted by the ED on three dates in the INX Media money laundering case.
Chidambaram was questioned in the INX Media case on three occasions. He has challenged the agency’s decision to arrest him, contending that he has answered to all their questions and the transcripts will prove that.
Sibal asked a bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna to order the agency to produce the transcripts of the questioning conducted on December 19 last year, January 1 and 21 this year.
The agencies, he said, “are just producing documents at random and saying this is part of the case diary… They cannot place the documents behind the back and seek custody of accused”.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, also part of Chidambaram’s legal team, said the case has been incorrect since beginning.The section on conspiracy in the PMLA Act (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) didn’t exist for the time when the alleged offences took place.
He told the Supreme Court that ED had charged the former minister for an alleged action in 2007-2008 under provisions of the money laundering law that were notified as an offence only in 2009.
“The Sections charged in the FIR were declared offences only in June 2009 through notification of amendment of the Prevention of Money laundering Act, one year after the alleged acts took place,” Singhvi said.
Constitutional law states that a person cannot be charged with a crime that was not an offence at the time of its alleged commission. Nor can he be given greater punishment than prescribed at the time of commission of the offence, Singhvi said.
A person is being “painted as a kingpin” of an alleged offence which did not exist as an offence at the time it was committed, said Singhvi, a reference to the Delhi High Court order that rejected Chidambaram’s request for pre-arrest bail. In this order that has been assailed by Chidambaram’s team, the judge had termed the former minister the kingpin of the scandal.
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Further, Singhvi said a person being questioned by the agencies is “not obliged to give the answers the agencies want to hear”, he said, adding that it was sufficient if a person gives an answer to the questions put to him.
Chidambaram said he doesn’t have a bank account abroad and that his son Karti Chidambaram has a foreign account with the permission of the Reserve Bank. The agency’s move to arrest him and keep him in custody amounts to extraction of confession, he said. The accusation has been denied by the Enforcement Directorate.
During yesterday’s hearing, Chidambaram accused the Enforcement Directorate of leaking its document on charges against him to the media and blindsiding him with the allegations.
Chidambaram has been accused of facilitating a huge infusion of foreign funds into the media company INX Media in 2007, when he was Finance Minister, at the instance of his son Karti Chidambaram, who allegedly received kickbacks for his role.
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India News
Rajasthan election results: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore says BJP will form government with vast number of seats
Rajyavardhan Rathore said the party leadership will announce who will be the chief minister after the results have been declared. He said everything comes at the right time.

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said he was confident the BJP will win with huge majority in Rajasthan ahead of counting of votes in Rajasthan. He said the fight today is between the massive governance of Prime minister Narendra Modi and the misgovernance of the Congress party.
The Congress party will try to return to power again. The BJP’s election campaign will be focused on an anti incumbency wave in the state. Rathore said the fact that people of the state had come out in large numbers to vote meant that they wanted to bring a change. According to exit polls the BJP have a slight edge over the ruling Congress party in Rajasthan. He said there won’t be a close contest and the BJP will win the elections with a vast majority.
Rajyavardhan Rathore said the party leadership will announce who will be the chief minister after the results have been declared. He said everything comes at the right time. He said once the results are out the party leadership will take the decision at the right time.
The campaign has been intense on both sides. The BJP had pulled all stops in line with an established election template as senior ministers had been deployed and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Congress had followed a grassroots campaign with frequent appearances by its central leaders.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot said he was confident that he had beaten the jinx on the fortunes of the party in power. The BJP rode high on the trend and the power of brand Modi. Eight of the nine exit polls gave the BJP a comfortable, if not a strong victory. The aggregrate indicated that the BJP may get 104 seats and Congress 86. But like the difference in the price of cooking gas they are offering- The Congress party – Rs 500 and the BJP’s Rs 450: the gap is marginal.
India News
ED raids Punjab Congress leaders Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Sangat Singh Giljian in forest scam linked money laundering case
The Enforcement Directorate asserted that during the search operations, various incriminating documents, mobile phones/digital devices have been seized

The Enforcement Directorate recently conducted raids against two former Punjab forest ministers and Congress leaders Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and Sangat Singh Giljian and others in relation to an alleged forest-scam linked money laundering investigation.
Issuing a statement on Friday, the Enforcement Directorate said that its investigation pertains to charges of bribery in the state forest department against the issuance of a permit for tree felling and for transfer and posting in the department, among some other allegations.
The ED raids were carried out on November 30 in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi at the residential premises of Dharamsot, Giljian, their associates, forest officers and some private individuals. The agency reportedly searched fourteen locations under the provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Congress leader Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, has been a five-time MLA and he was arrested earlier this year by the Punjab Vigilance bureau as part of a case linked to alleged possession of disproportionate assets. In his three-year tenure as forest minister, Dharamsot collected ₹1 crore in lieu of issuance of permits for cutting khair trees through his OSD. Sangat Singh Giljian has been an MLA from the Urmar seat in Hoshiarpur district.
The Enforcement Directorate said that the money laundering case was filed under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and stems from an FIR of the Punjab Vigilance Bureau.
The nodal agency mentioned that the first information report pertains to alleged irregularities in the forest department and allegations of taking bribes by the concerned ministers and officers of the department against the issuance of permits for felling of Khair trees, transfer/posting in the department, issuance of NOC from the department and purchase of tree guards.
In addition, the Enforcement Directorate asserted that during the search operations, various incriminating documents, mobile phones/digital devices have been seized which, prima facie, reveal suspicious transactions involving persons who are under investigation.
India News
Jharkhand government puts hospitals on alert amid respiratory infection outbreak in China
The district administration are also asked to assess the availability of oxygen and the supply chain for refilling along with other necessary equipment.

Amid a respiratory infection outbreak in China, the Jharkhand government has put its hospitals on alert, directing them for surveillance, preventive measures and testing of respiratory illness. The additional chief secretary of health Arun Kumar Singh directed the district administrations to remain prepared and keep a continuous vigil on the situation.
In a letter to the district magistrate, Arun Kumar Singh stated that in view of the recently reported surge in respiratory illness, particularly in children in Northern China, in the recent weeks, there is an urgent need to keep a constant vigil, monitor trends of cases and quickly respond to any emerging public health. He added that considering the ongoing influenza, there might be an increase in respiratory illness cases.
He mentioned that this is predominantly attributed to usual causes like Influenza strain (H1N1/H3N2/H5N1/H9N2 etc.), mycoplasma pneumonia, SARS-CoV-2, etc. He further remarked that in order to reduce the incidence of respiratory diseases along with the current scenario of unusual causes of respiratory diseases in children or any unexpected clinical manifestations, there is a need to increase the surveillance and remain vigilant and to monitor the continuously changing nature of the virus, including respiratory pathogen (H1N1, H3N2 etc) and evolution of SARS CoV-2 variants.
The additional chief secretary of health further directed the officials to strengthen the flu and respiratory clinics in the medical colleges, district hospitals, and health centres. He asserted that the departments of microbiology at RIMS-Ranchi and Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Jamshedpur have been made sentinel sites for sending the suspected samples.
Reportedly, the district administrations have also been asked to ascertain that the health facilities, including private hospitals, report all suspected cases. In addition, they were also asked to assess the availability of oxygen and the supply chain for refilling along with other necessary equipment. The district administrations were also asked to ensure mock drills for emergency circumstances, as per the officials.
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