New Delhi: Adani Group said in a statement issued on Saturday night that in the Sebi application filed before the Supreme Court, there are no conclusions of any alleged wrong-doing.
A spokesperson for Adani Group said Sebi is conducting an investigation into the allegations levelled by a foreign short-seller on January 25, 2023 and also into market activities before and after that date.
“We understand that Sebi has approached the Supreme Court seeking more time to conclude its investigation. We have welcomed the investigation, which represents a fair opportunity for everyone to be heard and for all issues to be addressed. We are fully compliant with all laws, rules and regulations and are confident that truth will prevail,” Adani Group said in the statement.
“We are fully cooperating with Sebi and will continue to provide all our support and cooperation. It is pertinent to note that in the Sebi application filed before the Supreme Court, there are no conclusions of any alleged wrong-doing. The Sebi application only cites the allegations levelled in the short-seller’s report, which are still under investigation,” the statement said.
“While we continue to remain focused on our business and growth, we would request the media to avoid needless speculation at this time and wait for SEBI and the Expert Committee appointed by the Supreme Court to complete their work and submit their findings,” the statement added.
Kolkata: The judge of a special CBI court here on Saturday set a 21-day deadline for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to show the progress it made in its probe into the alleged multi-crore recruitment scam in West Bengal.
The judge was especially critical of the CBI for not arresting the government employees named as beneficiaries in the alleged recruitment scam yet.
“Barring two cases, the progress of the probe in the other related cases is extremely demoralising. Is this a civil matter? How long will you be able to keep the accused behind bars in the name of investigation process? Take some concrete steps,” the judge told the CBI counsel.
When the CBI counsel said that there is evidence of involvement of government officials in the alleged scan, the judge asked why the central agency is yet to question them after taking them into custody.
“You are yet to reveal who received money from the accused persons such as Kuntal Ghosh and Tapas Mondal. A scam of such a nature could not have been possible without the involvement of government officials. Please complete the circle. Show your progress in the investigation in the next 21 days,” the judge told the CBI counsel.
Mohammed ben Sulayem, the president of Formula One’s governing body the FIA, is facing fresh criticism following a claim of alleged sexism within his organisation. The Guardian understands the allegations were not taken seriously in what is the latest in a series of incidents considered poorly handled by Ben Sulayem which have led to widespread unhappiness with his leadership in the F1 paddock.
The Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday that Shaila-Ann Rao, the FIA’s former interim secretary general for motorsport who left the organisation suddenly last December, had sent a letter to Ben Sulayem and to the president of the FIA senate, Carmelo Sanz de Barros, detailing instances of sexist behaviour at the FIA and also complained that the complaint was not investigated properly.
A senior source within the sport confirmed the existence of the complaint. The FIA, however, issued a rebuttal stating it took the allegations seriously and that it had followed procedures.
“With regards to the specific allegations surrounding Shaila-Ann Rao, due process was followed, with an amicable negotiation conducted by the president of the senate and, as such, no referrals were made to the ethics committee. As previously stated, both parties agreed she would leave her position in November 2022 and mutual privacy terms were agreed as is common business practice,” the statement read.
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F1 makes key changes to sprint race format
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Formula One has agreed to implement a new format for its sprint race weekends, beginning at this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. With unanimous support from the teams the decision was confirmed at a meeting of the F1 commission on Tuesday.
The sport hopes the new structure will address the shortcomings of the previous format to encourage drivers to race harder in what will now be a standalone race on a Saturday.
The sprint weekend will now consist of a single practice session on Friday after which the cars will enter “parc fermé conditions”. Qualifying for the grand prix will follow using the current three-session format across an hour and deciding the grid for Sunday’s race and where pole position will be awarded.
Saturday morning will now host another qualifying session, which will be known as the sprint shootout. It will be run in the same three-session format but over a shorter time, across 12, 10 and eight-minute runs, with the intent on putting greater pressure on drivers to deliver their best lap. It will decide the grid for the sprint which will be a standalone race over 100km on Saturday afternoon and from which points will be awarded for the top eight, from eight points to one. Giles Richards
“With regards to the other allegations, there have been no complaints received against the president. Should the FIA ethics committee or compliance officer receive any complaint from a member of staff it will be dealt with in a comprehensive manner by our panel of independent elected ethics committee members which has been in place since 2012.”
The row is the latest in a series of controversies for Ben Sulayem that have caused confidence in the 61-year-old from the UAE to plummet. In relation to this latest altercation one insider told the Guardian: “He is, sadly, an open and running joke in the paddock.”
Ben Sulayem had already become embroiled in accusations of sexism when quotes he had made on his old personal website more than 20 years ago became public in which he stated he did “not like women who think they are smarter than men … for they are not, in truth”.
The FIA reacted to that by stating that the comment did not reflect the president’s current beliefs but Ben Sulayem made no formal statement or apology.
Ben Sulayem has become increasingly at odds with F1’s owners, not least after he made public comments questioning the sport’s commercial value, to which F1 reacted strongly with a legal letter, warning he had interfered with their rights in an “unacceptable” fashion. His initial objection to the increase in sprint races, supported by all the teams and F1, was contentious as was the FIA’s insistence on policing the letter of the law in relation to Lewis Hamilton wearing jewellery while racing. Both were agendas understood to have been pushed personally by Ben Sulayem.
The FIA’s investigation into the controversial decision at the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP which decided the championship that season was also dismissed as ineffectual, while its decision to clamp down on drivers expressing their opinions on social and political issues has been met with condemnation from within and without the sport.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Carroll said his client has told him that as many as 54 women at the CIA over the past decade have said they were been victims of sexual assault or misconduct by colleagues, and that their cases were improperly handled. POLITICO could not independently verify that assertion.
“This is the CIA’s Me Too moment,” said Carroll, who is a partner at the firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and is representing the victim pro bono.
The investigation started when one female CIA employee approached the committee in January and said that the agency had not punished a male colleague who had allegedly physically assaulted her and tried to forcibly kiss her repeatedly, according to Carroll and a copy of the complaint the woman made to local law enforcement.
She said that she quickly reported the attack to numerous offices at the CIA, but nothing was done.
She also said she was told by officials in the CIA’s security office that if she reported the incident to law enforcement, they would not protect her anymore from the alleged assailant. She said she was warned that moving forward with the allegation could end her career at the agency, according to Carroll and the complaint.
He said the CIA also threatened the women who were going to Congress with adverse consequences if they spoke out.
The CIA denied that the agency had tried to prevent the women from speaking to Congress. “This idea that there’s some threatening [of] officers who want to talk to HPSCI, that’s not true,” said the senior CIA official, referring to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “We haven’t threatened or blocked anybody.”
Carroll said that the committee’s staff have been busy talking to the women, comparing it to “client intake.”
Local county law enforcement is pursuing the first woman’s case as a misdemeanor, according to a document viewed by POLITICO, which is not sharing more details about the case in deference to her security concerns.
“We greatly appreciate the assistance of local law enforcement,” Carroll said. “If federal law enforcement had taken a similar interest, the charge would be felony sex assault.”
In a joint statement to POLITICO, Turner and Himes said: “Sexual assault is a heinous crime. Our committee is committed to addressing this matter and protecting those who are serving their country. We have been in contact with Director Burns, and he is fully committed to working with us on this issue.”
When asked for comment, CIA spokesperson Tammy Kupperman Thorp said in a statement that there “can be no tolerance for sexual assault or harassment at CIA.”
“The Director and senior CIA leaders have personally met with officers to understand their concerns and to take swift action,” she said. “We have established an office to work closely with survivors of sexual assault, and we are committed to treating every concern raised by members of the workforce with the utmost seriousness.”
She added that Burns and the agency’s senior leadership team is fully engaged on the issue and tracking it closely. “We are committed to supporting the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation and are keeping the Committee updated on our progress,” she said.
The senior CIA official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the agency’s inner workings, disputed that the CIA impedes alleged victims who want to approach law enforcement. The official said the agency is required by law to refer allegations of criminal sexual misconduct to law enforcement, and they do so. But the official added that in some cases, law enforcement declines to prosecute and so the CIA “takes appropriate action.”
At the same time, the person said that even before the letter from Congress, “we obviously recognize that we have to make some changes and improvements.” The official said that the “reporting process is difficult for some people to navigate” and that the agency is in the process of hiring an expert from the outside with decades of experience on combating sexual assault in the workforce to lead its new “Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.” The official said there are only a “handful of officers” who currently work in the office but that they expect to increase staffing.
Despite the congressional investigation, the official said the issue did not seem to affect many employees. “While one incident is too many, this may not be a pervasive problem throughout the agency. We take every single one of these allegations seriously, but it does not appear to be really widespread.” The official declined to comment on any specific cases or share the numbers of how many sexual misconduct allegations have been made.
Kevin Byrnes, a partner with the law firm FH+H, who is the Equal Employment Opportunity lawyer for the first woman who complained to the committee, said he represents several other female CIA employees who are alleging they were sexually assaulted or harassed in the workplace.
He said the agency’s security division and EEO office discourages people from filing complaints by claiming it’s not in the best interests of the women or would trigger disclosure of classified information. The CIA also requires victims to file a complaint within 45 days.
CIA employees go through the EEO process to vindicate their rights, according to Byrnes, as well as to secure changes in their working conditions and obtain payment for attorneys’ fees and compensation for pain and suffering.
But the office “has been a mechanism for deflection and interference with … complaints,” he said.
The senior CIA official said that the agency is working to fix how the EEO process works and is receiving recommendations for improvements. The person conceded that there have not yet been any tangible improvements made to that process.
A second woman who has spoken to committee staff in recent months alleged she was raped by a colleague at the CIA, according to Carroll. He said that the agency did not properly punish the alleged perpetrator. A third woman said that the same thing happened when she was sexually assaulted by a colleague at work, he added.
Allegations of sexual assault by CIA officers have surfaced publicly at times in the last 15 years. In 2009, two women said they were drugged and raped by Andrew Warren, the CIA’s former station chief in Algeria. A search of his residence found a dozen videotapes of him engaging in sexual acts with women, including some in a semi-conscious state. He pled guilty to the assault and served five years in prison.
Two years ago, former CIA officer Brian Jeffrey Raymond pled guilty to a number of federal charges, including sexual abuse. He was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting dozens of women he had met on dating apps over a 14-year period.
Raymond was arrested in Mexico City after local authorities responded to a naked woman screaming from his balcony. He was working for the U.S. embassy in Mexico City at the time.
BuzzFeed also reported in late 2021 that the agency had accumulated evidence that at least 10 employees and contractors had committed sex crimes that involved children, but despite many of the cases being referred to law enforcement, only one person was charged with a crime.
Erin Banco contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
SRINAGAR: In a distressing event, the Jammu and Kashmir police have apprehended a Sarpanch from the Baramulla district in North Kashmir on charges of sexual assault against a woman.
According to sources, a young woman whose identity has been withheld was allegedly victimized by the Sarpanch, who operates under the jurisdiction of the Dangiwacha Rafiabad police station.
The report further states that the accused Sarpanch was taken into custody after the victim’s relatives submitted a written application to the Sopore police.
A police official has confirmed the occurrence to the news agency and stated that a case has been registered under FIR no 26/ 2023, citing sections 376, 506, and 109 of the Indian Penal Code, at a local police station.
“We still don’t know who this guy was talking to outside of the Discord server and if he had any other intention for leaking the documents beyond wanting to impress friends,” said a fourth person — a former U.S. intelligence official.
It’s standard practice for investigators to examine a suspect’s potential ties to foreign governments and entities, especially in leak cases, said Mick Mulroy, a former top Pentagon official and retired CIA officer. Defense Department and CIA employees are required to disclose any “close and continuous” contact with foreigners, he noted.
If they find any foreign links it would mean the leak is likely even more damaging than believed. It could signify that it was orchestrated by a foreign government, or that materials were available to foreign officials well before they became public knowledge.
A foreign connection could also open Teixeira up to more charges.
So far, Teixeira has been charged with “unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information” and “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material.” Each charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
According to court documents, Teixeira violated two sections of the Espionage Act. If the government were to establish probable cause, it could add another charge for Teixeira under a separate section of the act that deals with gathering or delivering defense information to aid a foreign government.
The former U.S. intelligence official said that is unlikely to happen at this stage.
The Justice Department is leading the investigation into Teixeira. The Pentagon and the intelligence agencies are also looking into the breach.
The Defense Department closely monitors any employee’s activity on the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System, the secure intranet system that houses top secret and sensitive information, including what information is accessed, downloaded and printed.
The Pentagon is also reviewing Teixeira’s records, including his security clearance as part of the investigation, according to one of the people familiar with the probe. DoD hopes that the review will help it decide if changes to procedures regarding access to classified documents need to be made, the person said.
Teixeira is an IT specialist assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing, giving him access to the computers of analysts tasked with packaging intelligence for senior military commanders, said a fifth person, a Defense Department official.
The FBI and Justice Department declined to comment. The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment.
Some press reporting in recent days has suggested that people from other countries were members of the original server where Teixeira allegedly posted the documents. Others, however, have rejected that assertion. In an interview with The Washington Post, one of Teixeira’s friends said any suggestion that the server’s members were Russian or Ukrainian was “pure fabrication.”
According to another report by The Washington Post, users who interacted with Teixeira on Discord, the social media platform where the documents appeared, thought he posted the materials partly to educate them on how the U.S. government operates in the world and partly to show off his access.
Understanding Teixeira’s motivation is also important for the government in determining how to prevent such leaks in the future.
The leak allegedly carried out by Teixeira is different from past breaches of intelligence, including those perpetrated by Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks. Teixeira is accused of disseminating the documents on social media, instead of packaging and filtering them through the press, and did not appear to publish the intelligence as a result of a specific ideology.
Teixeira allegedly posted the documents to a Discord server last year. In recent weeks, a member of that server posted them to a second Discord group before they began to circulate more widely on other social media sites, including Telegram and Twitter.
The leaked documents include extraordinary detail on troop and battlefield movements by both Kyiv and Moscow in Ukraine as well as other global issues such as Iran’s development of its nuclear program, protests in Israel and China’s relationship with Russia. They also expose the extent to which the U.S. spies on its adversaries and allies.
While POLITICO and many other media outlets have obtained and reviewed more than 50 of the classified documents, there appear to be perhaps dozens of other documents that have not been posted publicly on social media. The Washington Post and The New York Times have exposed several of those documents in recent days.
At least one of the documents posted on Telegram appears to have been altered to include higher Ukrainian and lower Russian death tolls, according to a document reviewed by POLITICO. It’s unclear who altered the documents.
A woman who recently ended her enlisted service in the U.S. Navy told The Wall Street Journal that she oversaw the Telegram channel where the altered documents were posted. That woman, 37-year-old Sarah Bils, has previously posted pro-Russian content on social media but denied having altered the classified document. She also told the Journal she deleted the documents from the channel as soon as she noticed they had been posted.
In an email to POLITICO, Bils said: “I didn’t leak the documents and had no part in that. You’re asking the wrong entity. [The documents] were never in my possession at all.”
While Bils’ link to the spread of the classified documents on other social media sites raises questions about her potential involvement in their alteration, there is no apparent connection between the former sailor and Teixeira.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Traffic Police on Sunday have suspended two of their officials after they were allegedly seen to be indulging in an unprofessional conduct in a video.
According to a statement issued by Senior Superintendent of Police Traffic Rural Kashmir, Ravinder Paul Singh, “Today on 15.04.2023 a video has been received from reliable sources in which a traffic police personnel posted in Traffic Rural Kashmir is allegedly seen to be indulging in an unprofessional conduct.”
” In response, a preliminary enquiry was ordered by SSP Traffic Rural Kashmir and prima facie the enquiry reveals gross misconduct on the part of involved traffic personnel and his supervisory official”, he said.
Both the officials have been placed under suspension and attached with Traffic Police Lines Rural Kashmir where a proper departmental enquiry shall be conduct against both of them.”
J&K Traffic Police is committed to highest standards of professionalism and probity in its functioning, it said.
Teixeira was arrested by heavily armed tactical agents on Thursday following a weeklong criminal investigation into the disclosure of the government records, a breach that exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments on the war in Ukraine, the capabilities and geopolitical interests of other nations and other national security issues.
He appeared in court Friday in tan jail clothes for a brief proceeding at which U.S. Magistrate Judge David Hennessy ordered him held pending a hearing next Wednesday.
Investigators believe Teixeira was the leader of a small group on the social media platform Discord where he wrote about classified information that was paraphrased from documents.
He posted photographs of printouts of sensitive documents that were folded and then smoothed out. These documents were marked “Top Secret,” about the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical topics such as China, Iran and the Russian paramilitary group, Wagner.
The Biden administration began looking into the leak last week. The Justice Department is leading the investigation.
President Joe Biden on Friday commended “the rapid action taken by law enforcement to investigate and respond to the recent dissemination of classified U.S. government documents.”
“While we are still determining the validity of those documents, I have directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further secure and limit distribution of sensitive information, and our national security team is closely coordinating with our partners and allies,” Biden said in a statement.
At an unrelated press conference Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the leak of the classified documents is “not just about taking home documents” but rather about “both the unlawful retention and the transmission of the documents.”
“People who sign agreements to be able to receive classified documents acknowledge the importance to the national security of not disclosing those documents,” Garland said, “and we intend to send that message, how important it is to our national security.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
New Delhi: Alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar has made public his alleged WhatsApp chats with jailed AAP leader Satyendar Jain and K. Kavitha, BRS leader and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Presently lodged at the Mandoli Jail in the national capital, Chandrashekhar is accused of extorting Rs 200 crore from a businessman’s wife.
In the purported conversations released on Wednesday, Chandrashekhar alleges that there is a connection between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and the BRS leader with regard to the Delhi excise policy scam.
In a letter directed to Delhi Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena, Chandrashekhar has accused AAP and Kejriwal of having multiple contracts and business deals with him.
He wrote, “This very application and attached chats expose the link between the Aam Aadmi party, Arvind Kejriwal and BRS leader K. Kavitha, who are involved in the Delhi liquor scam.”
The allegations levelled by Chandrashekhar have raised concerns about the role of political leaders in the liquor policy scam. Further inquiries will likely provide additional insights into the mater.
Chandrashekhar in his letter stated that the very application and chats attached show the nexus between the Aam Aadmi party, Arvind Kejriwal and Kavitha, who are allegedly involved in the Delhi liquor policy scam.
According to Chandrashekhar, the chats submitted to the L-G will aid the ongoing investigation into the liquor scam.
“The said chats are with regard to Rs 15 crore given by me to Arvind kejriwal and Satyendar Jain which was asked to be delivered to K. Kavitha of the BRS in Hyderabad,” said the letter released through his legal counsel Anant Malik.
According to the screenshots of the alleged chats, it is evident that Chandrashekhar had a coded conversation with a person whose number was saved as ‘Kavita Akka TRS’.
In one of the messages, the sender wrote, “AK bro package has to be given. It’s ready with me.”
Chandrashekhar alleged that this package refers to an amount of Rs 15 crore.
In another chat with a mobile number not saved on his phone, and claimed to be of Satyendar Jain, one of the messages read, “Bro Ghee tin ready. Yes bro 15 Kg.”
Chandrashekhar claimed that in their code words, ‘ghee’ refers to money and 15 kg meant Rs 15 crore.
He also wrote “inform big bro” in the same chat, to which the receiver replied, “AK Bhai knows”.
SRINAGAR: A teenage duo escaped an alleged molestation bid at the hands of a private vehicle driver and another onboard person by jumping out of a moving car in Handwara area in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
“Today in April 10, 2023, information was received by PS Kralgund that two teenage girls had sought lift from a private vehicle at Rasripora to go towards Watergam”, reads a police statement.
“However, on boarding the vehicle, the driver and another person attempted to molest the girls, upon which they jumped off the vehicle at Rasripora”, reads the statement adding an FIR no 33/2023 under relevant sections of law has been registered at PS Kralgund and investigation initiated.
“In public interest, parents and guardians are urged to counsel their children and wards to avoid taking or accepting lifts from strangers”, reads the statement further.
As per reports a driver and his accomplice allegedly attempted molestation of two girls, believed to be in her teenage years, after the latter asked for a lift. The girls have received some bruises and are being treated at a nearby health facility.
