The corruption allegations made by former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh pertain to a period when the latter was hospitalised and hence the question of his resignation does not arise, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said today. We got information that Deshmukh was hospitalised at that time in Nagpur. The allegation (of Singh) pertains to exactly the same period when he was in hospital. There is a hospital certificate," Pawar told reporters in Delhi.
Former Mumbai Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh moved the Supreme Court today seeking direction for immediate "unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair" CBI probe into alleged corrupt malpractices of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh. Singh also sought quashing of the order transferring him from the post of Mumbai CP alleging it to be "arbitrary" and "illegal". As an interim relief, Singh sought stay of the operation of his transfer order and direction to the state government, the Centre and the CBI to immediately take in its custody the CCTV footage from the residence of Deshmukh.
The Delhi High Court today stayed a single judge's order restraining Future Retail Ltd (FRL) from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail to sell its business, which was objected to by US-based e-commerce giant Amazon. A division bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh also issued notice to Amazon on Future Group's appeal challenging the single judge's March 18 judgment on the deal by which all the objections raised by them were rejected. It also stayed the single judge order to attach assets of Future Group's Kishore Biyani and others directing them to appear in the court on April 28.
Four Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants were killed in an encounter with security forces today in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said. Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Manihal area of the district around midnight, following information about the presence of militants there, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vijay Kumar said. He said the militants refused repeated offers of surrender and opened fire at the forces. "We appealed to them to surrender and brought their families, including wife and a four-year-old child of a militant, to appeal to them to surrender. But they refused," he said.
Equity benchmark Sensex declined 87 points today, tracking losses in index majors HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries amid a weak trend in global markets. The 30-share BSE index ended 86.95 points or 0.17 per cent lower at 49,771.29. The broader NSE Nifty dipped 7.60 points or 0.05 per cent to 14,736.40. IndusInd Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 4 per cent, followed by PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Sun Pharma, Infosys and HCL Tech were among the gainers.
(With input from agencies)
