The Delhi High Court had issued an order barring the ED from taking coercive action against the company….reports Asian Lite News
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday conducted raids at the offices of India Bulls Finance Centre in Mumbai and Delhi in connection with a Prevention of Money Laundering case lodged against the company and its promoter Sameer Gehlaut in April 2021.
The ED had earlier recorded the statement of a Pune based businessman who deals in real estate, in this connection.
The ED officials held a meeting on Sunday to plan Monday’s raid. Separate teams were formed to recover a few incriminating documents.
Earlier, a case was lodged against the company and its promoter at Palghar, Maharashtra. It had been alleged in the FIR that the real estate company first took loan from India Bulls and invested in India Bulls housing shares. The company had increased the share value and the money were later siphoned off to other entities.
The Delhi High Court had issued an order barring the ED from taking coercive action against the company.
The verdict was pronounced under section 302 (A) of IPC and Section 16 (1)(B) of the UAPA…reports Asian Lite News
A special court designated for the speedy trial of the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts case on Friday sentenced 38 of the 49 convicts to death under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, while 11 others were given life imprisonment.
Of the 77 persons arrested in connection to the case, 28 were acquitted and 49 were pronounced guilty.
Considering the case as the rarest of the rare, the special court gave the historic judgement and sentenced 38 convicts to be hanged till death.
For the families of the victims, the court awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each, Rs 50,000 for the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 for the minor injured.
The court has also fined the convicts with a total of Rs 2.85 lakhs.
The verdict was pronounced under section 302 (A) of IPC and Section 16 (1)(B) of the UAPA.
As many as 20 bombs went off in different parts of the city on July 26, 2008, killing 56 persons besides leaving 246 others injured.
On February 8, the court convicted 49 persons in connection with the case. They were found guilty of committing offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Explosive Substances Act and Damage to Public Property Act.
Iqbal Kaskar, younger brother of underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim
Salim Qureshi, the aide of Chhota Shakeel is currently being interrogated by a team of elite officials of the probe agency….reports Asian Lite News
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has moved an application before the concerned court seeking permission to question Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar in money laundering case.
Iqbal Kaskar has been made an accused in the case. Sources have claimed that ED is planning to arrest him. The court will decide their plea in coming days.
Salim Qureshi, the aide of Chhota Shakeel is currently being interrogated by a team of elite officials of the probe agency.
Iqbal Kaskar was placed under arrest in 2017 by Thane Police in connection with an extortion case. An FIR under section 384 (extortion), and other relevant sections of the IPC was lodged by Thane Police against Anees Ibrahim, Iqbal Kaskar and others. The ED has taken all the documents from Thane Police pertaining to the case.
The National Investigation Agency too had lodged a case of terror activities on the basis of the FIR of Thane Police and other relevant documents. The ED lodged an ECIR of Money Laundering on the basis of the case lodged by the NIA.
Sources have said that it was learnt that Qureshi went to Pakistsn several times using forged passport. He also allegedly works at the behest of Dawood and Shakeel.
The ED has collected the information regarding his bank accounts, properties and other income sources.
Sources have claimed that they used to collect extortion money, and also earned through settlement (solving disputes after creating it themselves), and through drugs. Later this money was allegedly used to spread terror activities across India.
On Wednesday, Qureshi was asked to join the investigation by 11 a.m. The ED had asked him to come with a set of documents pertaining to financial matter.
Hospital staff said that the victim was a mother to three daughters and her husband had threatened to leave her if she gave birth to a fourth girl…reports Asian Lite News
In a horrific incident in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a woman was admitted to hospital in Peshawar with a nail hammered into her head, on the directions of a fake ‘peer’ (faith healer), in order to give birth to a baby boy.
According to Dawn newspaper, Peshawar police on Tuesday took notice after pictures of the woman went viral on social media.
“Woman’s image goes viral on social media On the notice of CCPO Abbas Ahsan, SP City Kafouri initiative, the victim reached Lady Reading Hospital for questioning of hospital entry data, met the hospital management. The process of identifying the victim from the CCTV footage including computer entry is underway,” Capital City Police Peshawar tweeted.
Hospital staff said that the victim was a mother to three daughters and her husband had threatened to leave her if she gave birth to a fourth girl, according to Dawn.
“She is three months pregnant and because of her husband’s fear she went to the faith healer who gave her taweez (amulet), things to recite and the nail. The victim then returned home and hammered the nail in her head. She was discovered by family members after she screamed in pain and was shifted to the hospital,” Dawn quoting a staff reported.
Staff also quoted the victim as saying that she would get an ultrasound done after some time to learn the gender of her child, the media outlet reported further.
Earlier, the report also touched upon increasing incidents of violence against women and girls in Pakistan. (ANI)
The drug maker argued at trial that it complied with federal and state regulations and denied engaging in deceptive marketing….reports Asian Lite News
A New York jury has found that drug maker Teva Pharmaceuticals and its affiliates helped fuel an opioid epidemic in the US state, the BBC reported.
A lawsuit filed by the state’s attorney general in 2019 accused Teva and other firms of aggressively marketing painkillers across the state, while doing nothing to minimise addiction.
Damages the company will have to pay will be determined later. Teva said on Thursday it will appeal the verdict, the report said.
The drug maker argued at trial that it complied with federal and state regulations and denied engaging in deceptive marketing.
pharma industry
In a statement, New York State Attorney General Laetitia James said that the jury found the firm and its affiliates liable for “death and destruction” across the US.
“Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and others misled the American people about the true dangers of opioids,” she said, the report added.
The 2019 lawsuit targeted six drug makers, members of the Sackler family – which founded Purdue Pharma – and opioid distributors. Many reached settlements with the state.
Supporters of the lawsuit hope that the damages that Teva will have to pay will be used to improve treatment and support services for those affected by opioid addiction.
As of December 31, 2021, gun violence had resulted in 44,750 deaths, including 20,660 homicides and 24,090 suicides, among them 1,533 were children and teens under 17….reports Asian Lite News
The US saw a record high of 691 mass shootings, with at least four victims in one incident, in 2021 as gun violence surged within the year.
According to the latest updates by Gun Violence Archive, an online archive tracking gun violence incidents in the US since 2013, nearly all indexes of gun violence in 2021 set records in the organization’s tracking history, reports Xinhua news agency.
As of December 31, 2021, gun violence had resulted in 44,750 deaths, including 20,660 homicides and 24,090 suicides, among them 1,533 were children and teens under 17.
The number of injured was also a record high of 40,359, including 4,107 under the age of 17.
A recent CNN report based on an analysis of over 40 major cities said more than two-thirds of the country’s most populous cities saw more homicides in 2021 than in 2020.
At least nine major cities broke their previous annual homicide records.
Statistics from the Philadelphia police department showed that the city had recorded 557 homicides in 2021 through December 29, the highest total by far since 1960.
While in Chicago, a populous city notorious for gun violence, more than 800 deaths were gun related in 2021, the most violent year in a quarter century.
Los Angeles hit a 15-year record with near 400 gun-related deaths in 2021.
Gun violence in the US has been a chronic social problem that seems to have no solution.
Estimates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that 17 million guns were sold in January through November of 2021, the second-highest number since 2000.
A national firearms survey found that about one-third – roughly 81.4 million – of US adults own a gun, the most heavily armed citizenry in the world.
Multan was conspiring to bring in more explosives from Pakistan in India through the international boundary and was also planning to carry out similar blasts in other parts of the country…reports Asian Lite News.
Jaswinder Singh Multan, a top member of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), has been arrested in Germany for allegedly being the main conspirator of the December 23 blast in the Ludhiana district court complex which killed one person and injured five others, sources said.
He was arrested after India shared evidence to counter-terror agencies in Berlin.
“We shared all the evidence that we gathered from the blast spot and also how the conspiracy by Multan was hatched,” said one of the sources.
Multan was conspiring to bring in more explosives from Pakistan in India through the international boundary and was also planning to carry out similar blasts in other parts of the country.
It is also alleged that Multan was also behind pushing arms in the Khemkaran area of Punjab’s Tarn Taran district in October this year.
The Punjab Police and the Border Security Force (BSF) had recovered a huge cache of weapons near the India-Pakistan border in the Khemkaran area on October 20. They had recovered 22 pistols, 44 magazines and 100 rounds of ammunition and also a kg of heroin.
The source said that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were in touch with Multan.
On December 23, the explosion took place in a washroom on the second floor of the District and Sessions court complex in Ludhiana at around 12.22 p.m.
The counter-terrorism agencies probing the incident had claimed that it was the former Head Constable of Punjab Police, Gagandeep Singh, who planted the bomb at the court complex and died as it suddenly went off killing him on the spot.
Gagandeep Singh, a former police head constable who was dismissed from the service for having links with durg dealer. He was booked under NDPS act and lodged in jail for two years in this connection in 2019.
The probe agencies have also found that Pakistani’s ISI were behind the blast and were in touch with Gagandeep Singh. During the probe, cops found the role of SFJ members Harvinder Singh and Jaswinder Singh Multan, who were based in Germany. They were in touch with SFJ president Avtar Singh Pannu and Harmeet Singh.
The Gujarat ATS had also seized a heroin drug consignment worth about Rs 600 crore from Morbi district…reports Asian Lite News.
In a joint operation, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Gujarat-Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) have seized 77 kg of heroin worth around Rs 400 crore from a Pakistani fishing boat off the Gujarat coast, officials said on Monday.
Gujarat’s defence PRO said in a tweet the Coast Guard along with the state ATS apprehended the Pakistani fishing boat ‘Al Huseini’ with six crew members on board in the Indian waters.
“The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in a joint Ops with ATS #Gujarat has apprehended one Pak Fishing Boat “Al Huseini” with 06 crew in Indian waters carrying 77 kgs #heroin worth approx 400 crs.
Boat brought to Jakhau for further investigation.”
In a similar joint operation in April, a boat was apprehended with eight Pakistani nationals carrying 30 kg of heroin worth about Rs 150 crore, from the Indian waters near the Jakhau coast in Kutch.
The Gujarat ATS had also seized a heroin drug consignment worth about Rs 600 crore from Morbi district.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized around 3,000 kg of the drug, believed to be from Afghanistan and likely worth Rs 21,000 crore in the global market, from two containers at the Mundra port in Kutch earlier.
Saharsa police seized an automatic rifle, three pistols, three country made Kattas, 47 live bullets and several dead cartridges from their possession…reports Asian Lite News.
Pappu Dev, the dreaded gangster of Bihar’s Kosi region, has died of a heart attack at a hospital in Saharsa district.
The dreaded criminal was arrested after an encounter in Saharsa on Friday night, when he along with his gang members went to Sarahi village to illegally acquire a piece of land.
Pappu and his aides opened fire at a police party, which triggered the encounter. Besides Pappu Dev, three more gang members were also arrested, while some others managed to escape, officials said.
“We conducted a raid in Sarahi village. Our police surrounded the area and asked them to surrender. Some of his aides managed to escape from the spot, while Pappu Dev and three of his men were trapped inside the premises where they went to acquire the land,” an officer of the Sadar police station said.
“We asked them to surrender before the police but they refused and tried to flee the spot by jumping a wall. However, Pappu Dev fell from the wall and was injured. As he was injured and was also complaining of chest pain, we admitted him to the Sadar hospital at 2.05 a.m. on Saturday. About an hour later when the doctors referred him to Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), he died on the way,” the officer added.
Saharsa police seized an automatic rifle, three pistols, three country made Kattas, 47 live bullets and several dead cartridges from their possession.
Pappu Dev emerged as a notorious gangster of the Kosi region in the 1990s.
Later, the InterPol issued a notice for him and the Maharashtra Police was closely monitoring his movements in different countries…reports Asian Lite News.
Two months after he was nabbed by the Philippines Police, dreaded absconder gangster Suresh Pujari has been deported to India and will face charges for nearly two dozen serious crimes in Mumbai, officials said here on Wednesday.
In mid-October, he was nabbed by the Paranaque Police’s Fugitive Search Unit in southern Manila metropolitan region and the extradition process was initiated, culminating in his deportation late on Tuesday to New Delhi.
Pujari was handed over to a team of Intelligence Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigations after he landed at New Delhi airport, returning to the country after absconding for 15 years.
After the CBI interrogation, he was handed over to a waiting team of Mumbai Police Crime Branch.
The Mumbai and Thane Police had already issued red-corner notices against him in 2017-2018, as he was wanted for several major crimes registered here against him.
Suresh Pujari is a relative of another notorious gangster, Ravi Pujari, who was deported from Senegal in Africa to India in February 2020, and is currently in custody being probed by central agencies and police of Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Soon after he sneaked out of the country in 2007, the Mumbai Police had shared a detailed dossier on Suresh Pujari with the Centre over a decade ago, said officials.
Since the two Pujaris fell out due to territorial disputes, Suresh Pujari, along with a few other ruffians, launched independent mafia operations in the early 2000s, with activities in parts of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane regions.
Living in Asalpha area of Ghatkopar suburb in north-east Mumbai, he managed to hoodwink the law-enforcers and slipped out of India 15 years ago.
Later, the InterPol issued a notice for him and the Maharashtra Police was closely monitoring his movements in different countries.
Suresh Pujari faces at least 10 major cases of extortion, threats to murder, killings, etc., in Mumbai and more offences elsewhere the MMR region, other cities and the Mumbai Police CID, the CBI and the FBI were on the lookout for him in the past nearly 15 years.
Going by aliases like Suresh Pai, he and his associates had allegedly made extortion-cum-threat calls to several top builders, contractors, and glamour world celebs in the early 2000s, organised or ordered gangland killings, etc.
Sources working with intelligence agencies said, “The businessmen, liquor shop owners of Mumbai and South India were on his radar. He used to make extortion calls. He had also threatened a few politicians,” said an official wishing anonymity.
“Most of the time Suresh would open fire at the house of his target, though he wouldn’t hurt anybody. Later, he used to drop threat letter demanding money. He did this in Ulhasnagar, Kalyan, Dombivali and Thane areas of Mumbai. His victims were too frightened to approach the police, but a few had reported the matter to the police,” said the sources.
Two politicians, Omi Kalani from Ulhasnagar and Jitendra Awhad from Thane, had lodged complaints against him.
