Mithi case: BMC engineer denied pre-arrest bail
Ramugade, deputy chief engineer of Mithi river development project, requested the court to grant the relief as he wanted to file an appeal in HC.
Last week, in a detailed order rejecting the anticipatory bail plea of deputy chief engineer of the stormwater drains department (operations and maintenance), Prashant Tayshete, the sessions court had said that prima facie evidence indicates he, along with other BMC officers, played a role in manipulating the tender terms and conditions to ensure the use of two specific machines for the desilting work. tnn
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Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
ED action on Reliance official, influencer part of ramped-up probe into Rs 20,000-crore loan scam
The searches on Angarai Sethuraman, a key official of the Anil Ambani group, and the arrest of Chandigarh-based influencer Sandeepa Virk come at a time when the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is switching to the second phase of its probe into what they now describe as a Rs 20,000 crore loan scam, The Indian Express has learnt. The agency has alleged that Sethuraman and Virk were together trying to 'influence' their probe into the Anil Ambani group in relation to the alleged scam. The ED had, in a statement Wednesday, alleged that Sethuraman had 'siphoned off' Rs 18 crore in loan he took from Reliance Commercial Finance Ltd (RCFL) and that he had been in contact with Virk for 'illegal liaising work'. Sethuraman, Group President (Corporate Affairs), Reliance Group, told The Indian Express that his residence was searched for over 30 hours the past two days and that the allegations were 'baseless'. He emphasised: 'I did meet Sandeepa Virk twice this month but that was for different reasons and at public places. It had nothing to do with the ED's probe. As far as the Rs 18 crore loan from RCFL is concerned, it was for building the house in Delhi where I now live. It is a fully secured loan and has been part paid back by me. It has not been siphoned off.' Sethuraman is also director of six companies, including Thales Reliance Defence Systems Ltd. Days after questioning Anil Ambani at the ED headquarters in New Delhi on August 5, top officials said the 'very complex' nature of transactions involved would take months to analyse. Following scrutiny of the alleged loan scam documents, the officials said, they will turn their attention to the defence companies and offshore entities set up by the Group Chairman. The sleuths pointed out that they have found the 'loan exposure'' of two Reliance companies — RCFL and Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) — to be allegedly too high. A key official said, 'Prima facie, it appears that the loan amounts taken from the 39 lenders (banks and financial institutions) were routed to Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Power, and that is how these companies were made debt free. But this was done via a complex money trail and through layers and layers of transactions.' Also under investigation is the reason why none of the 39 lenders, except for Yes Bank, filed police complaints against the Anil Ambani company. During his questioning, Anil Ambani is understood to have allegedly clarified that important decisions on loans given by RCFL and RFHL were taken by his employees and members of the credit committees of the two companies. It is learnt that he was then allegedly confronted with internal company decisions that may have been taken by senior officials but were signed off by him as chairman. The agency was now planning to call members of the credit committees for questioning and put Anil Ambani through another round of questioning. The Indian Express sent a set of questions on the allegations of a Rs 20,000 crore loan scam to the Anil Ambani group's corporate office but received only Sethuraman's statement released to the media Wednesday. In that statement, Sethuraman had denied any connection or involvement with Virk or any transactions related to her, and that the home loan he took was granted following due process. Virk, meanwhile, was arrested on August 12 under the provisions of PMLA, 2002 and produced before a court which granted custody to ED till August 14 for further investigation. According to the agency, Virk and her associates are alleged to have 'exerted undue influence through misrepresentation and defrauded individuals by soliciting money under false pretences'. 'Probe conducted by the ED has revealed that Virk has acquired immovable property in her name by making false promises and cheating,' the ED spokesperson alleged in a statement. The agency also said that Virk claimed to 'the owner of a website purportedly selling FDA-approved beauty products'. However, the ED claimed, the 'products listed on the site have been found to be non-existent' and that 'the website serves as a front for laundering funds'. It claimed that Virk was 'in regular touch with' Sethuraman 'with whom she had been communicating regarding illegal liaising work'. In Punjab, Virk has been linked to an FIR filed at the Phase-8 police station in Mohali in November 2016 against a man identified as Amit Gupta, alias Nageshwar Gupta, accusing him of fraud amounting to Rs 6 crore committed under the pretext of investment in a film production company. Following the FIR, based on a complaint from Chandigarh resident Jasneet Kaur, Gupta was arrested in 2017 and a charge sheet was filed against him. During trial, he was declared a Proclaimed Offender under Section 299 CrPC on October 21, 2024. According to police records, Virk's name was mentioned in the initial complaint as an associate of Gupta but she was not listed as an accused in the case. The Mohali police is now ascertaining the status of court proceedings in the original FIR following the ED's action against Virk. – With ENS, New Delhi
Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Ahmedabad: Attacked after family's purchase of house in ‘Disturbed Area', teen ends life; seller, her son among six booked
'Saniya wanted to join the police force and help people like us who had nowhere to go. Now what do I do with this general knowledge book she brought from school?' Rifatjahan Khusru, 27, wells up as she remembers Saniya Ansari, her youngest sibling, who died by suicide on Saturday – two days after she and her other two siblings along with their mother were allegedly assaulted in a brutal manner outside their rented home by a group of people led by a neighbour whose ancestral house the Ansari family had purchased in October 2024. Saniya left behind a note naming people she held responsible for her death. Following intervention by Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police GS Malik, an FIR on charges of abetment to suicide was filed early on Thursday, four days after Saniya's death. Rifatjahan said the family had been living in Gomtipur for the last 16 years. Last year, they purchased the house of a neighbour for Rs 15.50 lakh. However, right before the house was to be handed over to their family, the husband of the seller died on December 22, 2024. She then requested that the handover be delayed for the 40-day mourning period. The harassment, claimed Rifatjahan, began in January this year after the seller handed over the keys of the house to her mother Shahjahan and went away to live with her eldest son. However, the first floor of this house was occupied by another son of hers who refused to leave the house, stating that there was a property dispute between him and his mother, said Rifatjahan. 'On August 7 night, around 10 people started hitting my mother, sister and brother while they were in the ground floor of the new house. They dragged my sister by her hair and kept beating her, kicking her so badly that she was covered in bruises,' she added. An FIR was filed against four of the accused, said Gomtipur Inspector DV Rana although the Ansari family claimed they were yet to receive a copy of this FIR. Saniya was buried at Chartoda Kabrastan on Sunday. Saniya's family claimed they were threatened with legal consequences under the Disturbed Areas Act by the accused for trying to purchase the house of a member of another community. In her suicide note, Saniya had named four people, stating that they had taken her family's money but didn't give possession of the house, which caused 10 months of misery. It further stated that nobody had taken action against the perpetrators. Gomtipur Police filed an Accidental Death report and sent the body for post mortem. The family alleged that in spite of them approaching the police with CCTV footage of Saniya's assault and suicide note, no FIR was filed. On Monday, the family met Commissioner Malik who intervened in the matter. The FIR was filed at 12.15 am on Thursday. Six people, including the seller and her son in question, was booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 107 (abetment of suicide of a child) and 54 (liability of an abettor). On the delay in filing the FIR, Inspector Rana told The Indian Express, 'The suicide note was given to the police on the next day (of the suicide). We thought it may be fake because it had Hindi words written in English. So, we decided to send it to the FSL (forensic science laboratory) and await the results…' When asked about the assault on Saniya and her siblings, Inspector Rana said, 'We filed a separate FIR in that case… We booked four persons and arrested them as well.' On why the family did not approach the police earlier, Rifatjahan said one of the accused had threatened them with action under the Disturbed Areas Act. Rana said, 'Currently, there appears to be no violation of the Disturbed Areas Act because that would come in at the time of transferring ownership of the property. Further, there are clashing claims as to how much payment has been made towards the sale of the house. So we have to check the property documents.' When asked about liability under the Act, PI Rana said, 'The property cannot be sold without opinion from the administration. The request would come to me and then go right up to the Special Branch and from there, back to the Collectorate before any such legal sale can take place. However, none of this has happened so far. It appears that half the payment was made but the sale was stuck because the owner's son was not vacating the premises.' The Indian Express could not reach the seller's son as the part of the house where he resides was locked on Thursday. The Disturbed Areas Act in Gujarat empowers the administration to declare parts of the territorial jurisdiction as 'disturbed' in the context of communal clashes and prohibits the direct sale of property between people of different faiths unless it's cleared by the collector's office, who has to certify that the transaction involves free consent.
Time of India
42 minutes ago
- Time of India
3 persons lose Rs 4.32 lakh in cases of cyber fraud
1 2 L ucknow: In a series of alarming incidents, cyber fraudsters duped three persons of Rs 4.32 lakh in all in Kakori, Aliganj and Madiaon police station areas of Lucknow on Thursday. In Kakori, healthcare professional Sandhya received on Jul 20 a message on Facebook from a man claiming to be Dr Sameer from England. He explained he needed her expertise to help a friend lose weight. Their conversation moved to WhatsApp, on which the man gained her trust and informed her that he had sent her a gift. Shortly later, Sandhya received call from unknown number, claiming a parcel in her name had arrived. The caller demanded Rs 25,000 for its release, followed by additional demands of Rs 65,000 and Rs 1.20 lakh for various "processes. " When the caller asked for Rs 2.3 lakh, Sandhya realised she had been scammed and reported the incident to the police. In Aliganj, Kamlesh Kumar Srivastava was swindled of Rs 1.48 lakh. On Jul 26, he received a call from someone posing as a courier company employee, claiming a parcel from Varanasi was awaiting delivery. The caller provided a tracking number and instructed Kamlesh to download an app from Play Store, requiring a Rs 5 payment. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This year's most comfortable shoes are a hit with the over-40 crowd Ultra-Comfortable Shoes Undo The transaction led to Rs 1.48 lakh being deducted from his account over several transactions. Kamlesh reported the fraud to the cyber police. Meanwhile, in Madiaon, Suraj Kumar Tiwari, resident of Engineering College crossing area, was searching for financial institutions to secure loan. He was contacted by a someone who introduced himself as a company representative and promised to arrange a loan. Instead, the fraudster tricked Suraj into transferring Rs 73,300 from his parents' account. When the scammer demanded more money, Suraj grew suspicious and requested a refund. The fraudster then switched off his phone, prompting Suraj to report the incident to the cyber helpline. Police registered cases for all three incidents and are actively investigating the matter. Stay updated with the latest local news from your city on Times of India (TOI). Check upcoming bank holidays , public holidays , and current gold rates and silver prices in your area. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Happy Independence Day wishes , messages , and quotes !
