HYDERABAD SATURDAY MARCH 30, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 18 LATE CITY EDITION INDIA, UKRAINE AGREE TO RESTORE PRE-CONFLICT COOPERATION LEVEL Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had comprehensive talks with India about the situation in ‘our regions’, global security PEACE FORMULA FOR UKRAINE DISCUSSED BOTH NATIONS TO MEET AGAIN THIS YEAR Kuleba, who is in India on a two-day official visit, wrote on X, “We paid specific attention to the Peace Formula and next steps on the path of its implementation.” The peace formula, first mooted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2022, is a set of principles aimed at ensuring a just and lasting peace for his country ■ ■ Both the countries agreed to work towards holding the 7th InterGovernmental Commission meeting on trade, economic, scientific, technical, industrial and cultural cooperation later this year India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar wrote on X, “Our immediate goal is to get trade back to earlier levels” | P9 99 DRONES, MISSILES WERE LAUNCHED IN UKRAINE ON FRIDAY BY RUSSIA 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 Tax terror, says Congress as it gets notice for over L1,800 cr Govt weaponised income tax dept to harass the principal opposition party, claims Kharge PA R V E Z S U LTA N @ New Delhi BRS Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao meets CM A Revanth Reddy while Telangana Congress in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi looks on in Hyderabad on Friday BRS gets another jolt as Kadiyam, daughter set to join Congress EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad BRS MLA and former deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari and his daughter Kadiyam Kavya are likely to join the Congress on Saturday in the presence of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and AICC incharge for Telangana Deepa Dasmunshi. Deepa Dasmunshi, along with Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha candidate Mallu Ravi, AICC secretaries Vishnudas, SA Sampath Kumar and Khairatabad Congress president C Rohin Reddy visited the residence of , father-daughter duo and invited them to join the Congress. The Congress delegation meeting with Srihari and Kavya was in continuation of the developments after Kavya dashed off a letter to BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao that she was withdrawing from the contest in Warangal since the party was fast becoming unpopular with reports of its involvement in various scams. Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP K Keshava Rao met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at his residence in Jubilee Hills. The MP who decided to return to the Congress discussed with the chief minister his intention to rejoin the grand old party . Later, the MP noted that he served in the Congress for almost 55 years in several positions. Speaking to media persons after meeting the Congress delegation, Srihari said that there were several reasons why he was leaving the BRS, including the pink party losing credibility in the face of exodus of leaders one after the other every day. He said he would discuss the proposal of joining the Congress with his supporters before taking a final call. According to sources, Kavya will contest for the Warangal SC Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket. After Srihari and Kavya decided to join the Congress, former deputy CM Dr T Rajaiah, who left the BRS in February, is now trying to get the pink party ticket for Warangal. He was unhappy with the BRS leadership for dropping him, though he was sitting MLA, for the 2023 Assembly election from Station Ghanpur in preference to his rival Srihari. Though Rajaiah was made the chairman of the Rythu Bandhu Samiti, it did little to comfort him. In another interesting development, the party is also considering former minister Babu Mohan’s name for Warangal. Source said that BRS president KCR reportedly called Babu Mohan and invited him to join the party with the offer of the Warangal Lok Sabha seat. Babu Mohan had left the BRS in 2019 and joined the BJP after KCR denied him ticket for Andole Assembly seat in 2018. THE Congress on Friday said it got a fresh income tax notice asking it to pay `1,823 crore, triggering angry reactions from party leaders who described it as ‘tax terrorism’ aimed at financially crippling the main opposition party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. They said the party will hold massive protests across states on Saturday against the “egregious attack on democracy and imposition of tax terrorism”. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi said such assault on democracy is unpardonable and ‘exemplary action’ will be taken against those responsible when the government changes. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the BJP-led government is misusing all federal agencies to subvert democracy and belittle the Constitution. The government has weaponised the I-T department to harass the principal opposition party he charged. , Accusing the Narendra Modi government of selectively targeting opposition parties, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said if the I-T department applies the same principle to all parties, then it should demand `4,600 crore from the BJP because it is a bigger violator. “We have analysed all the submissions of the BJP to the Election Commission. The party has faltered every year,” Maken claimed. “I-T department has so far forcibly taken `135 crore from our bank accounts against an alleged violation of `14 lakh. This amount was recovered by freezing over `270 crore in our bank accounts… If the same principles are applied on violations by the BJP, the I-T department should raise a demand of `4,600 for the party and act swiftly like it had done in the case of Congress,” he added. AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the BJP’s attempts to weaken the Opposition won’t work as the party’s morale is high. “We will continue contesting elections passionately he said at a press conference. Rebutting the ,” charges, the BJP said the Congress is not above the laws of the land. “A certain family of the Congress believes that they should be exempted from rules and that special laws should apply to them. It is not feasible in modern India,” BJP national spokesperson Zafar Islam said. @ Hyderabad EXPRESS READ CHIEF Minister A Revanth Reddy has warned BRS working president KT Rama Rao that he would have to taste the food at Charlapally prison after the latter’s comments that certain officials might have tapped the phones of some thieves. Addressing a meeting of Valmiki Boyas and workers of Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha constituency he said: “If KTR con, tinues to talk so recklessly he is , sure to find himself in jail.” He recalled warning the police officials that they would be in serious trouble if they indulged in phone tapping. “Now, they are in prison and the BRS leaders are not bothered about them any longer,” he maintained. He said that when the BRS was in power, people were afraid of speaking on phones. “In those days, even phone conversations between a wife and her husband used to be tapped. Only after the formation of the Congress government did the people really feel what freedom means. They can now talk freely to anyone without the fear of someone listening in,” he asserted. The chief minister said that the police were probing the phone-tapping scandal thoroughly and were gathering evidence to send the guilty to jail. “Some BRS workers are shooting their mouths off, daring the gover nment to nail them in phonetapping case. This tendency should stop,” he warned. The chief minister asserted that the people were satisfied with the 100-day rule FINMIN DEFENDS IT, SAYS BASED ON 2019 SEIZURES M O N I K A YA D A V @ New Delhi When the govt changes, action will be taken against those who have disrobed democracy. Such exemplary action will be taken that no one will dare to do all this again Rahul Gandhi `4,600 Cr penalty overlooked for BJP’s `42 Cr unaccounted deposit, while `135 Cr penalty is demanded for `14 lakh cash deposit by Cong MLAs & MPs! Mallikarjun Kharge JUSTIFYING the income tax notices issued to the Congress, finance ministry sources said the tax department had reopened assessments of the party for seven years (from AY 201415 to AY 2020-21) on the basis of incriminating material seized during search operations conducted in April 2019. Two Delhi High Court orders, dated 22 March and 28 March 2024, allowed the reassessment. “Notices under Section 153C of Income Tax Act were issued in March 2023. The assessment proceedings for these seven years were getting timebarred on 31 March 2024 as per law,” said a senior official. T h e C o n g re s s h a d ap proached the HC for quashing of reassessment under Section 153C for all the seven years but it dismissed the writs. The HC in its order observed that there was an evasion of `520 crore income. “In its order, the HC held that the tax department has substantial and concrete evidence warranting further scrutiny under the IT Act. The HC further observed that the satisfaction note details the unaccounted transactions with reference to various elections,” the source said. Another official told TNIE that sufficient time was given to the party to reply especially , on various observations of the HC. “After considering all the replies, the department has now completed the assessment of seven years.” In an issue pertaining to AY 2018-19, the Congress faced the withdrawal of exemption under Section 13A of the IT Act due to violations of mandatory conditions. Despite multiple communications and rejection of stay applications, the party failed to comply with the tax demand. As per sources, recovery proceedings were initiated, resulting in the recovery of around `135 crore. The I-T Appellate Tribunal and the Delhi HC upheld the decision. CPI gets tax notice for `11 crore dues THE CPI has received a notice from the income tax department demanding ` 11 cr ‘dues’ for using an old PAN card while filing tax returns during the last few years. The amount includes penalties and interest due to “discrepancies” in the use of an old PAN card. Earlier, the I-T department had withdrawn the tax exemption of the CPI(M) for 2016-17 and taxed it `15.59 crore for not declaring a bank account. Besides, TMC’s Saket Gokhale claimed he got 11 I-T notices in the last 72 hours New pics out, NIA announces `10 lakh bounty M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi THE anti-terror National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday announced a reward of `10 lakh each for sharing information leading to the arrest of two key accused in the Rameshwaram Cafe blast case in Bengaluru. Releasing the photographs of the two accused on its official ‘X’ handle, the agency requested the general public for information on Mussavir Hussain Shazib alias Shazeb and Abdul Matheen Ahmed Taahaa alias Abdul Matheen Taha wanted in the case. Both of them are already wanted in a 2020 terrorism case. The NIA said Shazib had been using the name Mohammed Juned Sayed to conceal his identity Similarly Taahaa . , was using a forged Aadhaar card with the name Vignesh. The agency assured that the identity of the informer will be kept secret. In a major breakthrough, the NIA had on Wednesday arrested Muzammil Shareef, a key conspirator in the blast case. Officials said the NIA in its investigations has found that Muzammil Shareef had extended logistic support to the two wanted accused in the blast case. On March 1, an IED explosion at the cafe located at ITPL Road in Brookefield, Bengaluru, had left several people injured there. Buzz on wife Sunita’s elevation as Delhi CM in place of Kejriwal A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi HAVING held three press conferences in a week following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), his proactive wife Sunita is being seen as a possible candidate KTR will taste jail food soon: CM EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE REACTIONS Abdul Taahaa, Mussavir Hussain Shazib of the Congress in Telangana. The schemes being implemented in the state have come in for appreciation, he said and added that he was surprised to know that leaders in other states were discussing the welfare programmes in Telangana. Revanth Reddy alleged that the BRS and the BJP were conspiring to ensure the defeat of the Congress candidate in Mahbubnagar district as he hailed from there. He wanted to know why the people of Mahbubnagar should vote for the BJP as the saffron party had done nothing though Narendra Modi has been the prime minister of the country for 10 years. He said that the government was committed to the welfare of the Valmiki Boyas. Some BRS workers are shooting their mouths off, daring the government to nail them in the phone-tapping case. If KTR continues to talk so recklessly, he will find himself in jail – A Revanth Reddy, CM Kavitha says she is being denied home food in Tihar New Delhi: A court in New Delhi has sought a response from the Tihar prison authorities on a plea by BRS leader K Kavitha alleging that despite court orders, she was not provided access to certain items, including home-cooked food and mattress, in jail. Earlier on Tuesday, Kavitha had moved a plea seeking access to some items because of her medical condition | P4 for elevation as the CM. Though the AAP insists that Kejriwal will run the government from jail, its dismissal based on Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena’s recommendation cannot be ruled out. Saxena has already said he would not allow the state gov- ernment to be run from jail. It was read as an advice to Kejriwal to install a new person at the helm; else the Centre could invoke Article 239AB of the Constitution to impose President’s Rule. Article 239AB allows the L-G to recommend Central rule by PHONE-TAPPING CASE Now, accused cops face charges under Telegraph Act E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad AFTER over a fortnight of investigation in the phone-tapping case, the police have reportedly included the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 in the case. So far, the official charges against Praneeth Rao and the other accused were only related to criminal breach of trust, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and various sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. With the addition of the Telegraph Act, the high-profile case has now been officially recognised as a sensitive issue with the possible involvement of national agencies in the case. The concerns regarding right to privacy and government surveillance will be addressed with the inclusion of the Act. The legal penalties associated with the case will also be widened. Meanwhile, in an official press release, West Zone DCP S M Vijay Kumar said that former Task Force OSD Radha Kishan Rao confessed to his role in developing profiles of private persons, exploiting official resources meant for lawful duties, surveillance on persons un-authorisedly, exploiting official resources to transport money illegally when model code of conduct was in force and destroying evidence of their illegal activities by damaging public propCONTINUED ON P6 erties. suspending the House. Sunita on Friday initiated a ‘Kejriwal ko Aashirwad’ campaign, sharing two WhatsApp numbers for his supporters to send their messages irrespective of gender, age, financial status and par ty affiliation. United Nations weighs in A spokesperson for UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres said the global body hoped people’s “political and civil rights” are protected and everyone is able to vote in a free and fair atmosphere, in the wake of Kejriwal’s arrest
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