tirupati l saturday l may 18, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Relief for Spicejet over refund to Sun group’s Kalanithi Maran Delhi HC on Friday set aside a single bench order that upheld an arbitral award asking SpiceJet to refund `270 cr to its ex-promoter Dispute dates back to January 2015 Tribunal had set 18% interest to be paid The dispute between Maran and SpiceJet dates back to January 2015 when Ajay Singh, who used to own SpiceJet before Maran, bought it back from him. Maran reportedly transferred his 58.46% stake to Singh in return for redeemable warrants, which were allegedly not issued to him. Maran then approached Delhi HC for payout, which referred the matter to arbitration ■ The arbitral tribunal gave its order in July 2018 and ordered SpiceJet to refund `270 crore to Maran. The tribunal also asked the airline to pay interest of 12% per annum on the amounts paid towards warrants and 18% per annum on the sums awarded to Maran if the money is not paid on time ■ SpiceJet then moved the Delhi HC to challenge the arbitral order 5.46% Spicejet stock closed at `63 a share on bse on Friday, up from Thursday’s `59.74 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Sonia hands Rae Bareli fight to son P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greets his mother Sonia Gandhi during a public meeting in Rae Bareli on Friday, as his sister Priyanka looks on | PTI Supplementary ED chargesheet names Kejri, AAP Eighth chargesheet in the money laundering case linked to the excise policy scam so far UJWAL JALALI @ New Delhi Court, the ED had said it was contemplating to make AAP an The Enforcement Directorate accused and invoke Section 70 on Friday filed a supplementary of the PMLA to probe the aschargesheet in the money laun- pect of “vicarious liability”. dering case linked to the Delhi Last month, the Delhi High excise policy scam in which it Court had suggested while named Delhi Chief Minister hearing the case that a political Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam party could be brought within Aadmi Party as accused. the purview of the PMLA. It The chargesheet said a political party was filed before a spemeans “an associacial court here under tion” or “a body of invarious provisions of dividuals”, which falls the Prevention of within the ambit of Money Laundering Section 70 of the Act (PMLA). Special PMLA. Subsequently, Judge Kaveri Baweja the ED had likened the is likely to take it up AAP to a company and for cognisance in the Accused in 2 Kejriwal its director. capacities coming days. The federal agency This is the eighth had arrested Kejriwal, Arvind Kejriwal chargesheet filed by 55, also the AAP’s nahas been made the probe agency in the an accused in the tional convenor, from case in which it has arhis official residence case in his rested 18 people so far. personal capacity here on March 21. He Last week, a similar is currently out of jail as well as the complaint was filed by on interim bail. national the ED against BRS The ED had labeled convenor of his leader and former Tel- Aam Aadmi Party Kejriwal as the “kingangana chief minister pin and key conspiraunder various Chandrashekar Rao’s tor” of the Delhi exsections of daughter K Kavitha cise scam. It alleged the PMLA and four others. that he acted in colluOn Tuesday, the ED sion with his ministehad informed the Delhi High rial colleagues, party leaders Court that it will name the AAP and other persons. as an accused in the case. ED’s The case pertains to alleged lawyer had said there were con- corruption and money laundercerted efforts by the accused to ing in formulating and executdelay the process of framing of ing the Delhi government’s excharges in the case. cise policy for 2021-22, which Even before the Supreme was later scrapped. Striking an emotional chord with the voters in Rae Bareli, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said on Friday that she is handing over her son to the people of Rae Bareli with the promise that her son won’t disappoint them. Addressing a joint election rally at the meeting at ITI ground in Rae Bareli, the former Congress chief asked the people to consider her son as their own. “Rahul will not disappoint you,” said Sonia, flanked by her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka on the stage. “Everything I have is given by you. So, brothers and 13-member panel DGP constitutes SIT to probe poll violence sisters, I am giving you my son. Consider him yours,” she said. Sonia said she has taugh her children the values that her mother-in-law and former PM late Indira Gandhi and the Rae Bareli had taught her: To respect all, protect the weak, fight against injustice for the rights of people. “Don’t be afraid, because your roots of struggle and traditions are very deep,” she added. Sonia said the Gandhi family roots are deeply connected to Rae Bareli. “This relationship as sacred as Mother Ganga is with the farmers of Awadh and Rae Bareli. It started with a movement and continues till today she said. ,” Sonia said Indira Gandhi, who was an MP from Rae Bareli, had a special place for the constituency in her heart. “I saw her closely while working. She had immense affection for you,” she said. Sonia was first elected as an MP from Rae Bareli in 2004 and represented the seat till she vacated it early this after getting elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha. Amethi pitch Rahul Gandhi said if he wins, he would treat Amethi and Rae Bareli equally on development. “If `10 is spent in Rae Bareli it would be the same for Amethi too,” he said Central intel agencies ask State govt to step up vigil for a fortnight from June 4 P h a n i n d r a Pa pa s a n i @ Vijayawada E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada On the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI), Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta on Friday issued orders to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which will be headed by Inspector General of Police (IG) Vineet Brijlal. The 13-member SIT will investigate cases pertaining to the incidents of poll-related violence reported in parts of the State, affecting the law and order situation particularly in Palnadu, Anantapur, and Tirupati districts. Officers who will be a part of the SIT are: ACB SP Rama Devi, ACB additional SP Sowmyalatha, Srikakulam ACB DSP Ramana Murthy, CID DSP P Srinivasulu, Ongole ACB DSP Valluri Srinivasa Rao, Tirupati ACB DSP Ravi Manohara Chary, inspectors V Bhushanam, K Venkat Rao, Rama Krishna, Srinivas, Moin, N Prabhakar and Siva Prasad. The order stated that the SIT chief can co-opt any officer or legal adviser as per the situation. It further mentioned that the SIT will supervise the investigation being conducted by jurisdictional investigation officers concerned in the cases and will recommend additional appropriate sections of law in each case to be updated wherever needed. It will also make recommendations to get fresh FIRs registered. Vineet Brijlal was asked to submit the compliance report to the Election Commission in two days. In the wake of the post-poll violence that rocked parts of the State, the Central intelligence department has reportedly asked the State government to be on high alert as it apprehends disruption of law and order in the State on the day of counting (June 4). The intelligence agencies reportedly asked the government to remain alert at least for two weeks after the counting and step up security in all problematic locations in the State. Following the post-poll violence reported at various places in the State, the Central intelligence wing reportedly collected crucial information pertaining to the law and order situation in the State and apprised the government. According to sources, personnel of the Central intelligence agency have been stationed at various places in the State for the past two months to monitor the law and order Macherla MLA flouts house arrest Macherla MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy and his brother Venkatarami Reddy, who were under house arrest, disappeared from their residence, their security personnel alerted the higher officials on Friday. Later in the day, the MLA told media that he left for Hyderabad on some work. So far, 20 people have been nabbed in connection with post-poll violence in Karempudi West Godavari Collector Sumit Kumar inspecting strong rooms on Friday | Express situation. In a report, the officials mentioned the clashes in Palnadu district, Jammalamadugu and Anantapur district. The officials further reported that more than 20 Assembly constituencies and two Parliament segments are most prone to violence on the day of counting and the following few days, sources said. They added the intelligence agency has asked MUMBAI North Central Lok Sabha constituency, home to several celebrities and spread across many posh areas including Bandra and Vile Parle, is witnessing a close contest between renowned lawyer Ujjwal Nikam of the BJP and Mumbai Congress president Varsha Gaikwad. Interestingly, neither Nikam nor Gaikwad was the first choice of their respective parties. The BJP denied ticket to sitting MP Poonam Mahajan and wanted to field its Mumbai city president Ashish Shelar, who declined to contest saying he is not ready to enter national politics. Then Nikam was picked at the last moment. As for the Congress, it was considering former Maharashtra minister Naseem Khan, who was very keen to contest from the constituency. That Mumbai North Central has around 4 lakh Muslim voters was also a factor favouring his candidacy. However, alliance partner Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) proposed the name of Varsha Gaikwad as the joint candidate saying Muslim votes alone won’t be enough to win the election. “If Marathi candidate Varsha Gaikawad is fielded, then Shiv Sena (UBT) will easily transfer its votes to Gaikwad in the fiercely contested battle. The calculation is that there are over 4 lakh Muslims, 1 lakh Christians, 1 lakh Dalits, and a considerable number of Marathi and non-Marathi voters. The BJP won the last two elections because of Forces and by making additional deployments. The officials were instructed to identify other problematic locations immediately and keep a tab on suspected trouble-mongers to prevent untoward incidents. Jawahar Reddy warned of stringent action against errant officials if they fail to comply with the ECI and Central intelligence guidelines. Video of police vandalising Tadipatri MLA’s house creates fresh controversy E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Anantapur A screen grab of the video in which police can be seen destroying CCTV cameras at Kethireddy’s house | Express Amid the election-related violence that broke out in parts of the State, the video of police personnel destroying CCTV cameras and furniture at the residence of Tadipatri MLA Ketireddy Pedda Reddy surfaced on Friday, creating a fresh stir. Clash of surprise picks in Mumbai North Central S UDHIR S URYAWAN S HI @ Mumbai the State official machinery to observe the trends that emerge after counting starts and act accordingly . After the alert was issued, Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy and DGP Harish Kumar Gupta convened a meeting and directed all district collectors and SPs to step up vigil in their respective regions with the help of Central Armed Police support from the Shiv Sena. But the BJP does not have it this time; so, it will face an uphill task even though it has a high-profile lawyer as its candidate,” said a senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, who did not wish to be named. According to reports, Gaikwad herself was not expecting to fight from Mumbai North Central: her first preference was Mumbai South Central, the constituency of her late father Eknath Gaikwad. However, Uddhav successfully pushed his party’s candidate Anil Desai for the Mumbai South Central seat. Nikam is Ujjwal Nikam and Varsha Gaikwad Illustration: Mandar Pardikar a well known lawyer, having appeared for several high-profile cases including the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist case, 1993 Bombay bomb blast case, Gulshan Kumar case, and the sensational Pramod Mahajan murder case. The BJP hopes his popularity will help, on top of the Modi factor. “To win, the BJP needs to get Marathi votes in significant numbers. Otherwise, history will repeat like in 2009, when Congress candidate Priya Dutt trounced senior lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani of the BJP in the Mumbai North Central seat by nearly 1,75,00 votes,” said a political observer. Towards this strategy, the BJP is trying to breach the Sena’s traditional Marathi vote bank by arranging rallies by MNS chief Raj Thackeray . Also, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, who is spearheading the campaign for Nikam at the ground level, has held several meetings with prominent leaders of the Christian community to secure minority votes. As soon as the video emerged, the YSRC demanded the police department to take responsibility for the violence that erupted in faction-ridden Tadipatri. The video is dated May 15, which is two days after polling in the State. According to police, a YSRC activist, identified as Sanjeev, sustained injuries during a minor altercation at a polling booth in Tadipatri on May 13 and was subsequently shifted to a hospital for treatment. Kethireddy visited Sanjeev at the hospital. Later, on learning that a TDP leader, identified as Suryamuni, was responsible for the attack on the YSRC activist, the MLA and his followers reached the former’s house P4 and assaulted him. Apex court seeks EC’s response on booth-wise turnout data what is the difficulty, SC asks ECI A three-judge bench led by CJI D Y Chandrachud asked ECI counsel Amit Sharma what was the difficulty in putting up the voter turnout details on the website. Sharma replied that it was time consuming. “But every polling officer submits data on the app by evening? So RO has data of full constituency by end of day,” the bench asked Sharma. He replied, “Not immediately.” S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday sought the Election Commission of India’s response on a plea seeking directions to the poll body to upload polling station-wise voter turnout data on its website within 48 hours of polling for each phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. It gave the poll body a week to file its affidavit. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the petitioner, had sought the uploading of scanned copies of Form 17-C (record of the number of votes polled in a booth). A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra asked ECI counsel Amit Sharma what was the difficulty in putting up the voter turnout details on the website. Sharma replied that it was time consuming. “But every polling officer submits data on the app by evening? So returning officer has data of full constituency by the end of the day,” the bench asked Sharma. He replied, “No, not immediately .” The ADR moved the application as part of its plea to tally Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with votes cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
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