Page 16 - Corruption

Delhi court orders framing of corruption charges against Swati Maliwal

A court here on Thursday ordered framing of corruption and criminal conspiracy charges against DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal and others for "prima facie" abusing their official positions to appoint AAP workers to different posts in the women's rights body. The court also ordered that former Delhi Commission for Women members Promila Gupta, Sarika Chaudhary and Farheen Malick be put on trial. Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh said the perusal of minutes of the meetings held on various dates by the DCW, of which all four accused were signatories, were "enough to prima facie point to a strong suspicion that the appointments in question were made by the accused persons in agreement with each other". "After all, none of the three accused besides AI (Maliwal) ever objected to or gave a dissenting note to the illegal appointments. Rather the decisions were claimed to have been arrived at unanimously in those meetings," the judge said. He said in the case, "the circumstances prima facie strong

Congress only believes in stalling, delaying and misleading, alleges Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday alleged that the Congress only believed in 'atkana, latkana aur bhatkana' (stalling, delaying and misleading), and said those who looted poor people in the country were now abusing him for putting an end to corruption. He also alleged that the previous Congress governments never showed any interest in bringing the Narmada river water to the parched regions of Gujarat as the party was only interested in doing those works where there was scope to indulge in corruption. Modi was addressing a rally in Kankrej village of Banaskantha district, where voting for the second phase of Gujarat Assembly polls will be held on December 5. "Congress only believed in 'atkana', 'latkana' and 'bhatkana'. Elderly people from this region would tell you how Congress governments used to talk about bringing Narmada water in this parched region, but nothing was done on that front during their rule," he said. The prime minister accused the Congress of trying to stall t

NSE phone tapping: Court to hear pleas of Ramakrishna, Pandey on Dec 7

A Delhi court will hear on December 7 the bail applications of former NSE chief Chitra Ramakrishna and ex-Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Pandey in a corruption case related to alleged illegal phone tapping and snooping on stock exchange employees. Special Judge Sunena Sharma adjourned the matter after the counsel appearing for the two accused prayed for adjournment on the ground that their petition challenging the rejection of their bail application in a connected money laundering case, being probed by the ED, is pending before the Delhi High Court which has reserved its orders. In view of request, let the bail applications of the accused be listed for arguments on December 7, the judge said in an order passed on November 30. Both the accused are currently in the judicial custody. The judge also directed the Tihar jail superintendent to produce Pandey before the court physically on the next date of hearing, as the accused himself will argue his bail application. According to th

Iraqi PM says nearly $2.5 bn embezzled from tax authority recovered

Iraq's government said on Sunday it will recover part of nearly USD 2.5 billion in funds embezzled from the country's tax authority in a massive scheme involving a network of businesses and officials. Approximately 182 billion Iraqi dinars, or USD 125 million, of the stolen sum will be recovered through the seizure of properties and assets belonging to a well-connected businessman complicit in the corruption scheme, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani's office said in a statement. The amount retrieved was disbursed to Noor Zuhair Jassim, a businessman who was arrested in connection to the scheme along with officials from the government tax authority for withdrawing funds from a tax deposit account between September 2021 to August 2022. Al-Sudani stressed the ongoing investigation would not spare anyone involved in the scheme, and the government is working to recover the full amount stolen. Jassim confessed to holding the embezzled sum, the statement added. Al-Sudani also said th

PTI to resign from all Pakistan Assemblies, announces Imran Khan

Khan was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership

BJP govt in Gujarat legitimised corruption, alleges Manish Tewari

Congress leader Manish Tewari on Wednesday accused the BJP government of legitimising corruption in Gujarat and dubbed it a "dangerous sign" for democracy.With the Gujarat assembly elections round the corner, Congress has started agressively attacking the BJP who has been in power in the state for the last 27 years and the recent Morbi incident has provided an opportunity to the grand old party to accuse the Bhupendra Patel-led government in Gujarat for "legitimising corruption".Citing the recent Morbi incident that took place in the state which claimed the lives of over 130 people, the Congress leader said that the BJP has become "arrogant" as they(BJP) think they cannot be removed from power."You (BJP) legitimised corruption, and then you say that you want to implement this model in the entire country. The legitimisation of corruption is a dangerous sign for democracy," he said while urging people of the state to "break this arrogance" in the upcoming Assembly elections by ...

Twitter's big headache: Brand impostors thanks to the $8 verification

Users started creating accounts pretending to be major brands and politicians, fooling users and potentially jeopardizing Twitter's now-shaky reputation with top advertisers

Corrupt people destroying country, they get away with help of money: SC

Corrupt people are destroying the country and they get away with corruption taking the help of money, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday. The top court's oral remark came while it was hearing a plea filed by activist Gautam Navlakha that he be placed under house arrest instead of judicial custody in the Elgar Parishad case. Opposing his plea, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), told the top court that people such as Navlakha want to destroy the country. "Their ideology is of that type. It is not that they are innocent people. They are persons involved in actual warfare," Raju said. A bench of justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy then remarked, "Do you want to know who is destroying this country? People who are corrupt. Every office you go into, what happens? Who takes action against the corrupt? We should be accused of being biased." "We saw a video of people where people talk of crores of rupees to buy our so-called ele

Effective use of RTI will help building a corruption free country: Om Birla

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday said the effective use of the Right to Information Act (RTI) will help in building a developed and corruption free country as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Inaugurating the 15th Annual Convention of Central Information Commission (CIC), the Speaker said the main aim of the RTI Act is empowering citizens, bringing transparency, getting system rid of corruption and taking democracy to the people of the country in the true sense. Addressing the two-day convention titled "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Citizen centric Governance through RTI", Minister of state for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Jitendra Singh said the non-domiciles and non-State subjects of Jammu and Kashmir will also now be entitled to file RTI related on issues related to Union Territory (UT) or agencies. Lauding the Commission for hearing petitions from newly carved out Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh during the peak of Covid lockdown, th

Rs 100cr worth unaccounted transactions post raids on J'khand MLAs: IT dept

The Income-tax department has detected "unaccounted" transactions and investments worth more than Rs 100 crore after it raided two Jharkhand Congress MLAs, their alleged associates and linked coal and iron ore businesses across the state last week. The CBDT said in a statement on Tuesday that 50 premises in Ranchi, Godda, Bermo, Dumka, Jamshedpur and Chaibasa in Jharkhand, Patna (Bihar), Gurugram (Haryana), and Kolkata (West Bengal) were covered during the searches launched on November 4. The two MLAs, on the day the searches were initiated, were identified by the officials as Kumar Jaimangal alias Anup Singh and Pradip Yadav. Jaimangal, a legislator from Bermo seat, also spoke to reporters outside his Ranchi residence that day confirming the action, saying he was extending all cooperation to the raiding teams. Yadav, who joined the Congress after splitting from the JVM-P, represents Poriyahat assembly seat. The Congress is a partner of the JMM-led ruling alliance in the state led

Imran Khan addresses nation, says he knew about the assassination plot

I already knew about their plan to attack me but I will continue to call out the corrupt who are stealing people's money, said Khan in his address to the nation a day after he was shot in the leg

Institutions acting against the corrupt need not be defensive: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said agencies and officials acting against the corrupt and corruption need not fear or be defensive while doing their work. Addressing an event at the Vigyan Bhawan here to mark the ongoing vigilance awareness week, Modi said the corrupt should not escape "at any cost" and they should not get political or social protection. "Corruption is an evil we must stay away from...we have been trying to change the system made by 'abhaav' (lack) and 'dabaav' (pressure) in the last 8 years," he said. Modi said all government agencies should work to change the system and tradition of corruption as India is celebrating 75 years of independence. He said the country needs to have "zero tolerance" for corruption in the administrative ecosystem and this would work for the idea of a developed India. The prime minister suggested that a ranking of government departments on anti-corruption efforts should be done and pending cases of corruption against officials

J-K shuns 'corrupt' label, transforms into best governed UT in 3 yrs

While moving the J&K Reorganization Bill 2019 on August 5, 2019, Union Home Minister Amit Shah in his historical speech in Rajya Sabha had linked widespread corruption in Jammu and Kashmir with terrorism.

Thane peon dismissed for demanding Rs 500 bribe to issue birth certificate

A peon with a ward office of the Thane Municipal Corporation has been dismissed for taking a bribe of Rs 500 to issue a birth certificate, an official said on Friday. The complainant in the case had applied to the Majiwada-Manpada ward office of the TMC for a birth certificate after his wife gave birth to a daughter. The peon demanded a bribe of Rs 500. The man paid him but later tweeted about his experience. Taking a serious note of the issue, commissioner Abhijit Banger dismissed the peon, the civic official said.

Jharkhand CM allows graft charges probe against govt staffers, contractors

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has approved a proposal to register a case against 29 people, including government employees, in connection with alleged irregularities in the drinking water and sanitation department, an official said on Wednesday. The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) will register an FIR against the accused state government employees and contractors, he said. "The chief minister has permitted Anti Corruption Bureau, Ranchi to conduct a probe by registering an FIR against 29 public servants and others involved in the corruption," the official said. The alleged irregularities were related to installation of tube wells in the 2010-11 and 2013-14 financial years in panchayats of Govindpur and Nirsa blocks under the Dhanbad district besides other schemes of the drinking water and sanitation department", he said. Several engineers, an officer of accounts, and many contractors were accused of being involved in the corruption. An FIR has already been registered by the .

Imran Khan found guilty of corrupt practices by Pak EC; disqualified

The four-member bench headed by Pak CEC Sikander Sultan Raja unanimously disqualified Khan for five years as the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a member of the national assembly

Eradicating corruption is Haryana govt's utmost priority: CM Khattar

Eradicating corruption is the Haryana government's utmost priority and concrete steps have been taken in that direction, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Saturday. He was speaking at a function organised in his honour at Nayagaon village here. He said that eight years ago, when he took over, no one in the state could have thought corruption can be eradicated. "But today, 'Bhrashtachar ka Kaal, Manohar Lal (Manohar Lal is a slayer of corruption)' has become the slogan of the public," he said. "Removing corruption from roots is the utmost priority of the government. Concrete steps have been taken in this direction." Khattar said he has made power a means to serve people and dedicated efforts are being made to raise the living standard of the poor through government schemes. "Efforts are also being made to resolve all pending grievances (of people)," he said. Mahamandaleshwar Swami Dharamdev of Pataudi Hari Mandir Ashram and Sohna MLA Sanjay Singh also attended the ...

Focus was on saving lives: Shailaja refutes Covid corruption allegations

Ex-Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja rubbished the corruption allegations levelled against her in buying of Covid PPE kits, saying the need of the hour then, was to act quickly and save lives

No action against senior bureaucrats involved in corruption, alleges Mufti

Low rank officers are fired without any investigation, while no action has been taken against senior bureaucrats involved in corruption in Jammu and Kashmir, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti charged on Friday. Her remarks came after the J-K government ordered premature retirement of 36 police personnel for their alleged involvement in corruption, lack of performance and anti-social activities. "Odd that LG admin hasn't taken action against senior bureaucrats involved in cash for govt jobs scams-FAA, JKSI,etc. Post 2019 a new ecosystem of officers have emerged who are amassing millions without any accountability while low rank officers are fired without any investigation," the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister wrote on Twitter.

Economy doing well despite external headwinds, Oppn criticism wrong: BJP

Party spokesperson accuses Rahul Gandhi of 'crony socialist attitude', says Kejriwal govt corrupt