HYDERABAD SUNDAY MARCH 24, 2024 `12.00 PAGES 24 LATE CITY EDITION CBI RAIDS MULTIPLE PREMISES OF MOITRA IN CASH-FOR-QUERY SCAM The CBI conducted searches at various premises linked to Mahua Moitra, including her parents’ home in Kolkata, in the cash-for-query case TRINAMOOL CALLS THE RAID VENDETTA POLITICS CBI TO FILE REPORT WITHIN SIX MONTHS The CBI sleuths reached the Trinamool Congress leader’s home in Kolkata and other cities early in the morning and went to her party office in Krishnanagar in the evening. The TMC repeated her for the Lok Sabha poll from Krishnanagar. The party dubbed the raids as vendetta politics and a desperate attempt by the BJP to misuse central agencies ahead of the polls ■ ■ A FIR was filed this week against Moitra on the directions of Lokpal, which has asked the CBI to file its report within six months Moitra has challenged her expulsion from Lok Sabha in the SC. She was expelled in December 2023 following the recommendation of Ethics Committee for sharing her login, password of NIC portal 1st TIME MAHUA MOITRA BECAME A LOK SABHA MP IN 2019 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 143 killed and counting in Moscow terror attack by IS group’s Afghanistan branch Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwat Maan at an AAP protest condemning the arrest of his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI HC rejects urgent hearing. Holi-day for Kejri with ED Comment by German foreign office on full legal access to the Delhi CM angers MEA the liquor policy scam. Of the proceed of crimes, `45 crore was used in the Goa polls. DELHI Chief Minister Arvind In a related development, the Kejriwal on Saturday suffered Ministry of External Affairs a fresh setback after the Delhi (MEA) bristled at a comment High Court rejected his appeal on Kejriwal by a spokesperson for urgent listing and hearing of Germany’s foreign office. “Kejriwal is entitled to fair against his remand in the liqand impartial trial. uor scam case. He was This includes that he remanded in the Enmakes use of all availforcement Directoable legal avenues rate’s custody till without restriction. Thursday by a local The presumption of court on Friday . innocence is a central The legal team of element of the rule of Aam Aadmi Party ‘WILL COME law and must apply to (AAP) national conOUT SOON’ him,” the spokespervenor Kejriwal menson said. tioned the matter be- “I will soon come The MEA reacted fore J u s t i c e out... Whether rather shar ply by Manmohan, Acting inside or outside, summoning German Chief Justice. The every moment of envoy Georg Enzweiljudge heard it though my life is er and voicing its disit was the court’s off dedicated to approval. “The Gerday but refused to list serving the , it for urgent hearing. country,” Kejriwal man Deputy Chief of Mission in New Delhi Since the Delhi High was quoted as Court will be closed saying by his wife was summoned and we conveyed India’s for two days on Mon- Sunita in a video strong protest on their day and Tuesday due to the Holi festival, the earliest foreign office spokesperson’s Kejriwal’s plea can be listing comments on our internal affairs. We see it as undermining for hearing is Wednesday . The ED had alleged on Fri- the independence of our judiciday that Kejriwal generated ary,’’ said MEA spokesperson over `100 crore in kickbacks in Randhir Jaiswal. S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y A N D Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi WITH THIS ISSUE PACKING A PUNCH PLUS 12 PAGES AT least 143 people were killed in a terrorist attack on a packed concert hall in western Moscow, Russian authorities said on Saturday. The Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch later claimed responsibility for the attack. Gunmen burst into Crocus City Hall in Moscow’s suburb of Krasnogorsk on Friday and randomly opened fire on people who had arrived to watch a concert by Russian band Picnic that was about to start. The attackers also set off a blaze that took firefighters hours to bring under control. Authorities said the toll could rise as investigators were combing through the charred wreck- Putin rejected warnings about attack, says US Rescuers clear charred wreckage inside Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on Saturday | AP The US Embassy in Moscow said it had warned Russia on March 7 that extremists were planning to target large gatherings in the city. But Russian President Vladimir Putin had called it a “provocative” statement and “outright blackmail... to intimidate and destabilise our society by scaring Russian citizens” age of the hall for more victims. Over 100 people have been injured and the condition of 44 of them is said to be serious. The Russian interior ministry said all four suspected gunmen were foreign nationals. Sources with links to the security services said they were from Tajikistan. One of the detained suspects reportedly told Russian investi- Court extends Kavitha’s custody, ED probes relative’s role in liquor scam AGENCY RAIDS HOUSE OF KIN IN HYDERABAD EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THE Rouse Avenue Court here on Saturday extended the Enforcement Directorate custody of BRS MLC K Kavitha, an accused in the Delhi excise policy money laundering case, till March 26. The probe agency alleged that the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was a key member of the ‘South Group’ that has been accused of paying the AAP kickbacks of `100 crore in return for a big share in liquor licences in the national capital. In its plea seeking an extension of her custodial remand by five days, the agency said Kavitha was interrogated, confronted with statements of four people and questioned based on the findings during investigation. She was also confronted with a forensic report showing formatting of her mobile phone data during the probe. Her cell phone data was being analysed, it said. “During the search conducted at the premises of Kavitha on March 15, a mobile device belonging to Meka Sharan [a relative] was seized. He was Hyderabad: ED officials on Saturday searched the residence of a relative of BRS MLC K Kavitha in Hyderabad, in connection with the alleged Delhi liquor scam. The search began around 7 am at the residence of Mesineni Akhila, the sister of Kavitha’s husband DR Anil | P4 called two times to appear before the investigating agency. However, he has failed to do so,” the plea said. It said the investigation in the last week revealed that Sharan was involved in the transfer or utilisation of the proceeds of crime. “Since he is in possession of information relevant for investigation in the case and he is not cooperating with the investigation, search is being conducted at his premises (in Hyderabad on Saturday),” the plea said. It said Sharan is a “close relative” of Kavitha and that he was present in her house when ED had conducted a raid. “Some of the family business details, financials of the family business, etc., were sought and she [Kavitha] said that she would inform her counsel/family member and the same infor- EXPRESS READ BRS names 3 more candidates for LS Cong to hold public meet in city soon Hyderabad: BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday named MLA T Padma Rao as Secunderabad Lok Sabha candidate. He also announced the candidature of Kyama Mallesh for Bhongir and Kancharla Krishna Reddy for Nalgonda constituencies | P4 Hyderabad: The Congress will launch its election campaign in Telangana in the first week of April with the TPCC deciding to hold a massive public meeting in Tukkuguda near Hyderabad. AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi are expected to attend the meeting | P4 NUMBER CRUNCHING Chennai link to data analysis in IPL S WA R O O P S WA M I N AT H A N @ Chennai WHEN Gujarat Titans won the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the first time of asking in 2022, one person came in for special praise. Sandeep Raju, somebody who had played zero games for the franchise. REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE But the role he played Sunday helped Hardik Pandya & Special data analysts to give Co. win the league. “I bathem that extra one per sically help the team with cent. What, though, links with performance analytics,” he had said in an in-house Raju with most of the other anvideo the franchise uploaded. alysts currently employed by “I help them look at data and various IPL teams is the city come up with performance and they call home? Chennai (or a strategies and I also help with place in Tamil Nadu). Mumbai Indians have in their ranks Varrecruiting talent.” Of course, none of this is un Narasimhan. Rajasthan Roynew. All sports teams — fran- als have Krishnan Seshadrichise, clubs, countries across a nathan. Sunrisers Hyderabad wide variety of sport — employ have Gaurav Sundararaman. mation will be shared by them through mail,” the plea said. But not a single detail was furnished to the ED, it said. “An application is also moved before this court for further interrogation of Sameer Mahendru, for getting the details of the said transfer/utilisation of proceeds of crime (POC) by Meka Sharan, and to ascertain the role of the arrestee,” the remand application said. It said Kavitha has to be interrogated on the recent findings. During proceedings, Kavitha’s advocate Nitish Rana filed a bail plea following which the ED counsel said the Investigating Officer (IO) is “neck deep” in the case and the order on bail could be passed on the next date of hearing. “Five days is enough for filing a reply to the bail. I am not pressing it,” the advocate said. Lakshmi Narayanan has been associated with Chennai Super Kings. Shrinivas Chandrasekaran (Lucknow Super Giants) and Sankar Rajagopal (former Punjab Kings, now with Jio) are other names. Why is this the case? There are multiple reasons but the most common answer is that the ‘companies that provide data analysts are headquartered in Chennai’, both within a 10km radius (SportsMechanics and Kadamba). In a way, this is what’s happening to the IPL teams. Because some teams still do not have separate data wings, what they essentially do is hire employees of these two companies for a fixed period every season. This year alone, there are at least seven Tamilspeaking analysts in IPL. BIG TEAM PLAYERS Even the Indian men’s cricket team have on their roster somebody who is associated with Chennaibased company Sports Mechanics (Hari Mohan, who hails from Coimbatore). Seshadrinathan was at StatDNA, Arsenal’s analytics company when Arsene Wenger was the manager. gators he was recruited through Telegram and offered 5,00,000 rubles (`4.5 lakh) for his role. In his statement on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said 11 people have been detained. He also sought to link the attack to Ukraine, saying they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a ‘window’ prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border. But Ukraine denied any role in the carnage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined others in condemning the attack. “We strongly condemned the heinous terrorist attack.... India stands in solidarity with the government and the people of the Russian Federation in this hour of grief,” he P9 posted on X. PHONE-TAPPING CASE TWO SENIOR COPS HELD FOR COLLUDING WITH PRANEETH RAO EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad INTENSIFYING investigation into the phone-tapping case, police on Saturday arrested two senior police officers, including Thirupathanna, Additional DCP, CSW, Hyderabad City Police, and N Bhujanga Rao, Additional SP, Bhupalpally. Both the officials had earlier worked with the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB). According to a press r e l e a s e i s s u e d by t h e Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone, Hyderabad Police Commissionerate, on Saturday, the two of ficials confessed to their involvement in illegally monitoring private individuals and maintaining their profiles besides destroying evidence to conceal their role in collusion with suspended former Special Intelligence Bureau DSP D Praneeth Rao. Meanwhile, the police investigating the phone-tapping case, on Saturday, came to know that former Special Intelligence chief T Prabhakar Rao was the kingpin in the sensational case that is rocking the state. The police are also said to have learnt that phone tapping was done during the byelections for Huzurabad, Dubbaka and Mungode, general elections in 2019, and the sensational MLAs’ poaching case in October 2022. The arrest of Bhujanga Rao and Thirupathanna is understood to have been done based on information provided by Praneeth Rao during interrogation by the police. He also reportedly revealed the name of former Task Force DSP Radha Kishan Rao as being involved in the eavesdropping case. The police suspect that the apprehended officers joined hands with Praneeth Rao in phone-tapping and were listening in to numerous calls under illegal surveillance. P r a n e e t h R a o, wh o s e seven-day police custody ended on Saturday, is learnt to have said that T Prabhakar Rao was the key player in the phone-tapping case. He is understood to have confessed that his team worked on tapping phone calls of businessmen and blackmailed them into paying crores of rupees. Sources said that those involved in the case had tapped 38 businessmen’s phones. The victims included politicians too. As part of the investigation, the police teams raided the offices of a new channel managing director’s residence in Hyderabad on Friday and Saturday for evidence of his suspected involvement in the case. He is said to have allotted a special room for carrying out the illegal activity . CONTINUED ON P5 BJP MP Ramesh A1 in `450 cr forgery case EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @Hyderabad BJP MP and industrialist from Andhra Pradesh, CM Ramesh, has been named accused No 1 in a forgery case involving a reported loss of `450 crore to actor Venu’s PCL Joint Venture company . The case came to light after Kavuri Bhaskar Rao, son of former Union minister Samba Siva Rao, appeared before the Central Crime Station here on Saturday to record his statement in the case. According to Venu’s complaint, which was originally registered at the Jubilee Hills police station in 2023, the PCL Intertech Lenhydro Consortium Joint Venture had appointed Bhaskar Rao as its representative vide General Power of Attorney (GPA) in January 2002. Thereafter, the volved. The test reports allegcompany entered into a con- edly showed that the signatract with Tehri Hydro Devel- tures on the document in opment Corporation Limited question were indeed forged. (THDC) for execution of civil Subsequently, Venu lodged works at Tehri Dam in a complaint at the Jubilee Uttarakhand. Hills police station in NovemAs the GPA holder, Bhaskar ber 2023. The case was then Rao is the authorised transfer red to the signatory for all works Central Crime Station related to the complein December 2023. tion of the project. Ramesh has also However, Venu albeen previously acleged that 10 months cused of creating shell later, in November companies and si2002, Ramesh, who is phoning off funds. CM Ramesh Recent data released the authorised signaby the ECI shows that tory of Rithwik Swathi Joint Venture (alleged Rithwik Projects Pvt Ltd doto be a bogus company), forged nated `30 crore to the Conthe signatures of Bhaskar gress. The company also seRao in what is said to be a fab- c u r e d a ` 1 , 0 9 8 - c r o r e engineering, procurement ricated agreement. Meanwhile, Bhaskar Rao and construction contract for approached a forensics lab to the Sunni hydroelectric verify if there was forgery in- project in Himachal Pradesh. Plaint filed by actor Venu Hyderabad: A complaint was lodged by Tollywood actor Venu alleging that the MP defrauded him of `450 crore by forging the signature of the representative of his company. Meanwhile, Ramesh is likely to be fielded from Anakapalli Lok Sabha seat by the BJP though it’s not officially confirmed by the party yet.
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