Tag: probe

Mother of minor girl used as drug carrier approaches Kerala HC for CBI probe

[ad_1]
Kochi: The mother of a 12-year-old girl has filed a petition before the Kerala High Court alleging that her daughter was used as a “drug carrier” by drug mafia and sought a CBI probe into the matter.
In her plea, she said her daughter’s involvement with drug trade came to light when she was called to her school after her daughter was found in school washroom in an inebriated state with fully wet uniform and she was told that her daughter informed that someone made her smell a white powder and that she vomited four times.
Her plea also points out that the authorities informed the matter either to the police or to Child line, the agency which monitors children.
According to her daughter, she was first introduced to drugs by a fellow student during Kabbadi practice in October last year.
Later she fell into the hands of few men and she was taught to make blade-cut injuries on the wrist to put MDMA for intoxication.
The plea further submitted that at the police station, the child explained the entire incident to the police and lodged a complaint.
Adhinan, an influential man who was allegedly behind this, was subsequently summoned to the police station and even though he was questioned, police colluded with him and recorded a false statement limited to the allegation that he touched the girl’s hand, the mother said.
She further contended that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan allegedly made statements exonerating the accused during a debate in the Assembly, terming the media reports of the drug mafia case as fake.

(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
[ad_2]
#Mother #minor #girl #drug #carrier #approaches #Kerala #CBI #probe
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 29, 2023
Div Com Appointed To Probe Gujarat Conman’s Kashmir Visit

[ad_1]
SRINAGAR: The government on Wednesday appointed Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Vijay Kumar Bidhuri as the inquiry officer to probe various aspects related to the visits of Gujarat conman to Kashmir.
According to an order, the inquiry officer has been asked to identify the lapses on part of officers concerned.
The officer has been asked to submit the inquiry report within a week.
“Sanction is hereby accorded to the appointment of Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, IAS, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, as Inquiry Officer to inquire into the various aspects related to the visits of Kiran Patel to Kashmir during the past months and security arrangements made thereof. The Inquiry Officer shall identify the lapses on the part of the Officers/ Officials concerned and submit a detailed report within one week,” reads the order. (KNO)

[ad_2]
#Div #Appointed #Probe #Gujarat #Conmans #Kashmir #Visit
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 29, 2023
SC Directs JK High Court To Probe Alleged Unauthorized Staff Recruitment

[ad_1]
SRINAGAR: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday directed the Chief Justice (CJ) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) High Court to investigate complaints related to the alleged recruitment of administrative staff through unauthorized means at the J&K High Court, Subordinate Courts, State Judicial Academy, Legal Services Authority, and the e-Court Mission Mode Project.
During a hearing on a petition filed by J&K Peoples Forum, a bench consisting of CJI D Y Chandrachud, Justice P S Narasimha, and Justice J B Pardiwala was informed that the petition alleged that the appointment of administrative staff at the J&K High Court, Subordinate Courts, State Judicial Academy, Legal Services Authority, and the e-Court Mission Mode Project were not carried out in accordance with due selection procedures. The petition specifically claimed that the relatives of existing staff members, as well as present and former judges of the High Court, were appointed through unofficial channels.
The bench said: “We will ask the Chief Justice of the High Court to look into the grievance of the petition. Time for filing counter affidavit has been extended. Counter shall be filed by the Registrar of J&K High Court after specifically taking instructions and directions from the CJ of J&K High Court.”
The petition filed challenges appointments made from 2007 onwards that were either temporary or made through advertisements, citing them as “suspicious.” Additionally, the petition presents a list that indicates the current staff members and High Court judges who allegedly provided preferential treatment to their relatives and acquaintances during the recruitment process.
It states: “There are instances where amendments have been made in the existing rules just to facilitate backdoor appointments and or or facilitating the appointment of kin of functionaries against higher cadres who otherwise were eligible only for lower cadres and that that too if selected after a regular legal recruitment process.”
According to the petition, the appointments were made without a transparent selection process. It claims that there was no public notice or advertisement issued, and the selection of appointees was arbitrary. The petition emphasizes that there were several highly qualified candidates who could have been selected if a fair and just selection process was followed.
The petition contended that a large number of daily wagers employed in various courts for over a decade had not been regularised, with only those who had close connections with High Court officers being considered for regularisation.
Furthermore, the petition demanded that the Supreme Court quash these backdoor appointments and direct the respondents to refrain from making any more such appointments. Additionally, the petition implored the apex court to direct a credible agency to conduct an inquiry into the allegations of backdoor appointments of administrative staff in the High Court against both the officials involved in the process of making such appointments and those who have benefited from them.

The petition has been filed through AoR, Raj Kishore Choudhary. (Live Law)

[ad_2]
#Directs #High #Court #Probe #Alleged #Unauthorized #Staff #Recruitment
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 28, 2023
House Democrat leads rally backing Manhattan DA’s Trump probe

[ad_1]
Rep. Adriano Espaillat speaks at a news conference to discuss the targeting of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg amid the criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump on Monday in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By Wesley Parnell
03/27/2023 03:09 PM EDT
NEW YORK — A House Democrat stepped into the fray around Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation of Donald Trump, holding a rally in support of the progressive prosecutor Monday after his Republican counterparts demanded information about the probe.
“We are here to say let the process continue and no one is above the law, not even a president of the United States,” said Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who represents Upper Manhattan, at a Harlem rally attended by a dozen other local Democratic leaders.
On Saturday Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), James Comer (R-Ky.) and Bryan Steil (R-Wis.) — the chairs of the Judiciary, Oversight and Administration Committees, respectively — sent a letter to Bragg setting a March 31 deadline for documents from his office about possible federal funding or involvement in his work. They also want Bragg to testify in private. The asks are voluntary since the Republican leaders have not issued a subpoena.
[ad_2]
#House #Democrat #leads #rally #backing #Manhattan #DAs #Trump #probe
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 28, 2023
Trump screams into void as Manhattan DA probe goes quiet

[ad_1]

But four legal experts who worked in the DA’s office prior to Bragg’s tenure said such pauses didn’t necessarily signal a troubling turn for the investigation. They’re more likely the result of prosecutors weighing whether to present a rebuttal witness to counter claims the grand jury heard earlier in the week from a Trump ally or an effort to minimize the time between an indictment and the former president’s surrender.
The inaction, though, combined with Bragg’s silence — legally mandated due to grand jury secrecy laws — have allowed Trump to fill the void, attacking the probe as politically motivated, spurring his supporters to protest and prophesying “potential death and destruction” if he were to be indicted.
“What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former president of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting president in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a crime,” Trump wrote on his social media site early Friday, “when it is known by all that NO crime has been committed, & also that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our country?”
Trump’s reliance on fiery rhetoric, designed to whip up his supporters, is one reason Bragg might want to delay an indictment in order to minimize the time period between the grand jury vote and when Trump could turn himself in, said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who was the chief assistant district attorney under Bragg’s predecessor, Cy Vance.
“If I were the D.A., I wouldn’t want too much time between surrender and indictment for security reasons,” she said in an interview. “I would say, let’s wait to ask the grand jury to indict until we know we have a surrender date.”
Agnifilo added that prosecutors were also likely deciding whether to call a witness to rebut information provided earlier this week by defense witness Robert Costello, who testified Monday. Costello, who was once a legal adviser to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s central witness in its investigation, sought to discredit Cohen.
“If they want to go after Donald Trump and they have solid evidence, so be it. But Michael Cohen is far from solid evidence,” Costello said at a press conference after testifying before the panel. He also accused the DA’s office of cherry-picking evidence by asking him about only six out of 321 emails between his firm and Cohen. For his part, Cohen disputed Costello’s claims.
Former Manhattan assistant district attorney Jeremy Saland, who worked under Bragg’s two predecessors, said prosecutors could be contemplating additional evidence, perhaps from Costello, or simply putting together the indictment itself. Saland said he would “absolutely not” read anything into the fact that the grand jury adjourned Wednesday and heard evidence about an unrelated case Thursday. The grand jury typically meets Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays.

Additional legal experts familiar with the office’s operations said prosecutors could be processing other material, such as a February 2018 letter published by the Daily Mail this week from a former Cohen attorney to the Federal Election Commission saying that Cohen used his personal funds to pay the porn star, Stormy Daniels, and wasn’t reimbursed for the payment. Those claims contrast with what Cohen subsequently pleaded guilty to in federal court.
While that type of evidence wouldn’t necessarily torpedo Bragg’s case, legal experts said, it could be something prosecutors need to evaluate.
Meanwhile, the frenzy surrounding the case left law enforcement, court officials, media and lawyers in a holding pattern, watching for any clues from Bragg’s office about the probe’s direction and leaving some frustrated with the amount of time and resources being put into a years-long investigation that still appeared incomplete.
Still, Joan Vollero, who handled communications for the Manhattan D.A. under Vance, said the lengthy nature of the investigation, combined with this week’s pause in the grand jury hearing evidence in the case, could help insulate the prosecutors’ office from accusations that it is rushing to judgment.
“No one can accuse D.A. Bragg of being hasty in this matter,” she said.
On the other hand, Vollero added, “Delay always benefits the defendant because evidence weakens with the passage of time and witnesses’ memories fade, and that’s what benefits Donald Trump.”
[ad_2]
#Trump #screams #void #Manhattan #probe #quiet
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 25, 2023
Jairam Ramesh seeks CBI probe into Amit Shah’s ‘Sangma govt most corrupt’ remark

[ad_1]
New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to summon Home Minister Amit Shah over his remark describing Meghalaya government headed by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, in its previous term, as “most corrupt” and to investigate the claim.
Attaching his letter to CBI Director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, he tweeted: “I have written to the Director of CBI asking CBI to question the Home Minister further on his categorical assertion that Conrad Sangma’s Govt in Meghalaya was the most corrupt in the country
“That of course did not prevent BJP from supporting the same Conrad Sangma again”.
Ramesh, in his letter to Jaiswal, said that Shah had said in his public speech on February 17 that the then Meghlaya government headed by Sangma was the most corrupt government in the country.
“Amit Shah is also the Home Minister of India. In his capacity as the Home Minister, he would surely have had access to information and facts that led him to the above conclusion. For some inexplicable reasons, the Home Minister, who is also the former national President of Bharatiya Janata Party, has failed to act upon the information regarding the corrupt practices and instances of the then Meghalaya government,” he said.
Ramesh requested the CBI Director to summon Shah and ask him to submit all the information and facts that led him to state assessment and investigate the matter.
“We also urge you to investigate if the Home Minister of India was under any undue duress from his party or other forces, to suppress the information related to the corruption of Meghalaya, in order to enable his party Bharatiya Janata Party to support the same Chief Minister after the recent Meghalaya elections,” the letter said.
The Congress letter also attached media reports on Shah’s remarks during the campaigning for Meghalaya Assembly polls, held on February 27.

The Congress leaders in Meghalaya have been criticising the BJP for supporting a government led by National People’s Party chief Sangma even after terming the previous government led by the same party as the “most corrupt”.
The Congress also termed the NPP led coalition formed for the second consecutive term as a “marriage of convenience”.
The BJP with two MLAs is a part of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government dominated by the NPP, which secured 26 seats in the 60-member Assembly. Various other local parties are supporting the MDA government.
[ad_2]
#Jairam #Ramesh #seeks #CBI #probe #Amit #Shahs #Sangma #govt #corrupt #remark
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 23, 2023
X-rated clip at Patna station: GRP team reaches Kolkata to probe the incident

[ad_1]
Patna: Three days after passengers at the Patna railway station were surprised when the TV screens installed on the platforms reportedly played X-rated clip for almost three minutes instead of the usual advertisements, a team of General Railway Police (GRP) went to Kolkata from Patna on Wednesday to investigate the incident.
The team will quiz the officials of Dutta Communications, the company assigned to play advertisements and information on the television screens of the Patna railway station. The office and studio of Dutta Communications are located in Kolkata.
After the incident on Sunday, the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Danapur division terminated the contract of Dutta Communication and placed it on the black list.
The railway authorities have registered two FIRs against the company officials under the IT Act in Patna.
The X-rated clip was telecast on dozens of LED screens on Platform No. 10 on March 19 for almost three minutes, leading to passengers waiting for trains facing an awkward and embarrassing situation.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Subscribe us on

[ad_2]
#Xrated #clip #Patna #station #GRP #team #reaches #Kolkata #probe #incident
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 23, 2023
Crushed under police boot’, newborn dies in Jharkhand; CM orders probe

[ad_1]
Ranchi: A newborn baby died allegedly after being crushed under police boots during a raid in Jharkhand’s Giridih district in the small hours of Wednesday, prompting Chief Minister Hemant Soren to order an investigation.
The alleged incident, which occurred at Koshodinghi village under Deori police station when police personnel went to a house to arrest two persons in connection with a case, led the opposition BJP to demand suspension of senior officials.
“It has been alleged that a four-day-old boy died when the police went there to execute two non-bailable warrants issued by the court. Prima facie, external injuries have not been found on the baby’s body. It has been sent for postmortem examination,” Giridih Superintendent of Police Amit Renu told PTI.
Once the postmortem report comes, the police will be in a position to say what actually happened, the SP said.
He said the autopsy will be conducted by a team of doctors under the supervision of a magistrate with proper videography.
“Right now we don’t have any information that any policeman had crushed the infant. If the allegation is found to be true, the erring personnel will not be spared,” Renu said.
The SP said four to five police personnel had gone to execute non-bailable warrants against Bhushan Pandey, grandfather of the deceased infant, and another person.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren ordered a probe into the incident after a video went viral in which a person, apparently Bhushan Pandey, is seen alleging that police personnel raided their home at 3.20 am and they opened the door using force when it was not opened.

“I fled and the women also rushed out. The policemen started searching the house when the four-day-old child was sleeping there. The baby was crushed and killed,” the person in the video claimed.
Senior BJP leader and former chief minister Babulal Marandi termed the alleged crime ‘heinous’ and demanded immediate filing of FIR in the case besides suspension of senior officials who did not take immediate action.
“Chief Minister Hemant Soren ji, have some shame. Send a team of senior officials from Ranchi. First of all, get the FIR done and send the policemen who killed the newborn to jail… Otherwise, you will also not be saved from the sin of ‘sarkari hatya’ of a four-day infant,” Maranti tweeted.
CPI-ML MLA Vinod Kumar Singh raised the issue in the Jharkhand Assembly demanding a thorough probe into the incident and stringent action against the police if the incident is found to be true.
“This is horrendous. If found true, the guilty should not be spared. The police raid teams should be sensitive towards women and children and exercise caution,” Singh told PTI.
Ruling JMM legislator from Giridih, Sudivya Kumar, said, “We are waiting for the postmortem report. If it is confirmed that the infant died under police boots, stringent action will be taken against the guilty.”
Congress legislator Irfan Ansari said action will follow if the incident is found to be true.
None of the police officials so far could provide details regarding the exact case against the accused for which the raids were conducted.
[ad_2]
#Crushed #police #boot #newborn #dies #Jharkhand #orders #probe
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 22, 2023
Trump denounces ‘crime-fraud’ ruling forcing attorney to testify in documents probe

[ad_1]

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Howell’s order temporarily on Tuesday night, ordering an extraordinarily rapid series of filings in a matter of hours — including one from Trump’s team by midnight Tuesday.
The appeals court’s order — from Judges Cornelia Pillard, J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan, all Democratic appointees — doesn’t identify Corcoran or the case at issue but makes clear that the government was on the winning side of the case in Howell’s court.
The three-judge panel is asking Trump’s attorneys to specify the precise set of documents at issue by midnight and for Smith’s team to respond by 6 a.m. Wednesday to the Trump team’s demand for a longer stay of Howell’s ruling.
A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment Tuesday on the closed-door fight.
The appeals court order followed the filing by Trump-linked attorneys of a pair of appeals and stay requests tied to Howell’s decision, which came on the final day of her seven-year tenure as chief judge of the federal District Court in Washington.
The parallel submissions asked the appeals court to block Howell’s decision while the appeals go forward, docket entries show. The appeals were first reported by CNN. The short-term “administrative” stay granted Tuesday night does not appear to signal whether the appeals court will decide to keep Howell’s order on ice as full legal briefing proceeds in the dispute.
The Trump campaign statement issued Tuesday evening also dismissed Howell, a former Democratic Senate aide appointed by former President Barack Obama, as a “Never Trump” judge.
Howell’s secret order on Friday required Corcoran to testify about matters he and Trump had claimed were subject to attorney-client privilege. Her order relied on the “crime-fraud exception,” which permits investigators to pursue evidence that would ordinarily be privileged but contains evidence of likely criminal conduct.

As chief judge, Howell supervised all disputes arising from grand jury proceedings happening in Washington. That responsibility passed Friday to U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who succeeded Howell as chief, but only after Howell issued the potentially momentous privilege ruling in the Trump-related legal fight.
The Trump camp’s public attack on Howell appears to be its first aimed at the veteran jurist, with Trump notably avoiding attacks against her while she single-handedly presided over the numerous grand jury disputes arising from investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and into the classified documents.
Even after handing off the chief’s position, however, Howell continues to hold significant sway over matters connected to Trump’s inner circle. On Tuesday, she held a hearing in a lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers against Rudy Giuliani, chiding the longtime Trump ally and his lawyer for what she described as an inadequate approach to required exchanges of evidence in the matter.
Proceedings related to the classified-documents grand jury, including efforts by prosecutors to compel Corcoran’s testimony, are occurring under seal — typical for nearly all grand jury proceedings.
However, the appeals court’s docket shows that the rulings being appealed were issued on Friday and correspond to a dispute that was filed with the District Court on Feb. 7. That’s just days before media reports emerged of an effort by Smith to force Corcoran to appear before a grand jury investigating the handling of classified records by Trump and his aides.
Just before noon Tuesday, the appeals court consolidated the two appeals without further public explanation. Of the three judges assigned to the dispute, Pillard is an Obama appointee, while Childs and Pan are appointees of President Joe Biden.
The grand jury probe of Trump, helmed by Smith, is an outgrowth of a monthslong battle between the National Archives and Trump to obtain hundreds of government records stashed at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office. Trump’s aides returned 15 boxes of records in January 2022, including some that bore classification markings. As a result, the Archives brought in the Justice Department to pursue whether Trump had retained additional classified material.
In May 2022, the Justice Department subpoenaed Trump’s office, demanding the production of any other classified materials he might possess at Mar-a-Lago. Justice Department officials traveled in early June to Mar-a-Lago, where they briefly interacted with Trump and picked up a folder of records deemed classified. Trump’s team then certified that they had thoroughly searched the premises and turned over remaining classified documents.
But the department developed evidence suggesting that this wasn’t the case, leading to an Aug. 8, 2022, search of the property, where dozens of additional documents with classification markings were discovered.
Corcoran, who was Trump’s primary point of contact with the Archives and the Justice Department, has faced scrutiny for his involvement in efforts to certify that Trump had returned all potentially classified materials.
The legal maneuvering comes as Trump’s lawyers are also awaiting a potential indictment of their client in an unrelated case in New York, an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg into details of a hush money payment made in 2016 to the porn actress Stormy Daniels.
[ad_2]
#Trump #denounces #crimefraud #ruling #forcing #attorney #testify #documents #probe
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 22, 2023
Salman Khan gets fresh death threats, Mumbai Police launch probe

[ad_1]
Mumbai: Bollywood megastar Salman Khan has received a fresh death threat in an e-mail following which the police in Mumbai have lodged a case and started an investigation, sources in the know of things said on Sunday.
The e-mail threat, sent to a close associate of the actor, referred to the mafia don Lawrence Bishnoi’s recent interview with a chilling claim, that “his life’s aim was to kill Salman Khan”.
The Bandra Police swung into action, geared up security outside Salman’s home in Bandra West and began a probe into the latest developments, booking Bishnoi and his associate Goldy Brar.
The e-mail in Hindi, came from one Rohit Garg, who also wanted to talk with the actor and the police have booked him also following a complaint from ‘Team Salman’.
The e-mail advises that if Salman had not seen the Bishnoi interview, then he should watch it, and if he wanted to close the matter, he must speak with Garg and Brar, face to face, and he would arrange it.
There has been no word from Salman on the latest ultimatum to eliminate him so far and it was not known if he was in Mumbai or not.
Subscribe us on

[ad_2]
#Salman #Khan #fresh #death #threats #Mumbai #Police #launch #probe
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 19, 2023