Tag: tells

Excise policy scam a deep-rooted conspiracy, CBI tells Delhi HC

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New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday that the excise policy scam it is probing is a “deep-rooted conspiracy” and that it is not as simple as depicted.
As Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma heard submissions in the bail plea filed by AAP leader and former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the CBI, said: “Yesterday (April 25), we filed the charge sheet in the case. Cognizance is yet to be taken.”
Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) D. P. Singh also appeared for the CBI.

Raju said: “The main players being, the accused (Manish Sisodia), Vijay Nair who was closely related to the Aam Aadmi Party and was in fact occupying a Ministers Bungalow, one Kailash Gehlot’s, side by side to the CM (Arvind Kejriwal). Nair was the communication in charge of AAP, and had access to party meetings.
“Our case is that at the behest of the ‘South Group’, the 5 percent interest was increased to 12 per cent, right after a meeting that happened with the members of the South group.”
While the “South group” was residing in the Oberoi Hotel in the national capital from March 14 to 17, 2021, they had prepared a note and taken the printout from Sisodia’s computer, according to the ASG.
He added that Sisodia is capable of pressurising persons and the day the CBI arrested him, he destroyed his phone.
After hearing the matter at length, Justice Sharma said: “At the stage of bail, we cannot go into much details. Please show me evidence on which you (CBI) are relying in the present case.”

Accordingly, the court adjourned the matter and scheduled it for next hearing on April 27.
During the last hearing, Sisodia had told the High Court that the CBI has no evidence to show his involvement in the alleged Delhi excise policy case, and that he is being singled out so that he could be kept in jail.
On April 5, Sisodia had moved the high court challenging the March 31 order of CBI Judge M.K. Nagpal (Rouse Avenue Court) dismissing his bail plea.
Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for the AAP leader, had submitted before the bench of Justice Sharma that all the other accused in the CBI case have been released on bail except Sisodia.
He had also said that the probe agency has no proof to show that the AAP leader has tampered with evidence.
“They say that I do not cooperate. This can never be the ground to deny me bail. I am not required to cooperate, confess, or answer questions in the way they want. I am required to answer in the way I want, that is the Constitutional guarantee,” Krishnan had argued.
Another counsel for Sisodia, senior advocate Mohit Mathur, had said that CBI’s figures are just on paper and no money trail has been found.
“They have made me the chief architect of this alleged conspiracy through Vijay Nair. But Vijay Nair was arrested in September 2022 and was released in November, even before the charge sheet was filed. I was only called for questioning for the second time in February 2023. So, all these allegations about me being capable of influencing the witnesses is totally wrong,” Mathur contended on behalf of Sisodia.
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#Excise #policy #scam #deeprooted #conspiracy #CBI #tells #Delhi
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 26, 2023
Withdrawing summons issued to Arvind Kejriwal, Goa police tells HC

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Panaji: The Goa police on Wednesday told the Bombay High Court that they are withdrawing the summons issued to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in which he was asked to appear before them on April 27 in a case related to the illegal sticking of posters on public properties during the 2022 Assembly elections campaign.
The police had issued the notice suo motu to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener on April 13 under section 41 (A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). But Kejriwal challenged the summons issued to him by the Pernem police, asking him to appear before the investigating officer on April 27 in connection with the case.
The case was heard by a division bench comprising Justices Mahesh Sonak and Valmiki Menezes of the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, during which the police submitted that they are going to withdraw the summons issued to Kejriwal.

Talking to PTI, advocate Subodh Kantak, who represented Kejriwal, said the petition was disposed of by the bench after the police submitted that they are going to withdraw the summons.
The police notice to Kejriwal read, “During the investigation of a case about defacement of property, it is revealed that there are reasonable grounds to question you to ascertain facts and circumstances from you in relation to the present investigation.”
The Kejriwal-led AAP won two seats in the 2022 polls in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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#Withdrawing #summons #issued #Arvind #Kejriwal #Goa #police #tells
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 26, 2023
Proud Boys leader a scapegoat for Trump, attorney tells January 6 trial

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A defense attorney argued on Tuesday at the close of a landmark trial over the January 6 insurrection that the US justice department is making the Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio a scapegoat for Donald Trump, whose supporters stormed the US Capitol.
Tarrio and four lieutenants are charged with seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors say was a plot to stop the transfer of presidential power from Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
In his closing argument, the defense lawyer Nayib Hassan noted Tarrio was not in Washington on 6 January 2021, having been banned from the capital after being arrested for defacing a Black Lives Matter banner. Trump, Hassan argued, was the one to blame for extorting supporters to “fight like hell” in his cause.
“It was Donald Trump’s words,” Hassan told jurors in Washington federal court. “It was his motivation. It was his anger that caused what occurred on January 6 in your beautiful and amazing city. It was not Enrique Tarrio. They want to use Enrique Tarrio as a scapegoat for Donald J Trump and those in power.”
Seditious conspiracy, a rarely used charge, carries a prison term of up to 20 years.
Tarrio is one of the top targets of the federal investigation of the riot, which temporarily halted certification of Biden’s win.
Tarrio’s lawyers have accused prosecutors of using him as a scapegoat because charging Trump or powerful allies would be too difficult. But his attorney’s closing arguments were the most full-throated expression of that strategy since the trial started more than three months ago.
Trump has denied inciting violence on January 6 and has argued that he was permitted by the first amendment to challenge his loss to Biden. The former president faces several civil lawsuits over the riot and a special counsel is overseeing investigations into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election.

A prosecutor told jurors on Monday the Proud Boys were ready for “all-out war” and viewed themselves as foot soldiers for Trump.
“These defendants saw themselves as Donald Trump’s army, fighting to keep their preferred leader in power no matter what the law or the courts had to say about it,” said Conor Mulroe.
Tarrio, a Miami resident, is on trial with Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, was a Proud Boys chapter president. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described organizer. Rehl was president of a chapter in Philadelphia. Pezzola was a member from Rochester, New York.
Attorneys for Nordean and Rehl gave closing arguments on Monday.
Tarrio is accused of orchestrating the attack from afar. Police arrested him two days before the riot on charges that he burned a church banner during an earlier march. A judge ordered him to leave Washington after his arrest.
Defense attorneys have argued that there is no evidence of a conspiracy or a plan for the Proud Boys to attack the Capitol. Tarrio “had no plan, no objective and no understanding of an objective”, his attorney said.
Pezzola testified he never spoke to any of his co-defendants before they sat in the same courtroom. The defense attorney Steven Metcalf said Pezzola never knew of any plan for January 6 or joined any conspiracy.
“It’s not possible. It’s fairy dust. It doesn’t exist,” Metcalf said.
Mulroe, the prosecutor, told jurors a conspiracy can be an unspoken and implicit “mutual understanding, reached with a wink and a nod”.
The foundation of the government’s case is a cache of messages Proud Boys leaders and members privately exchanged in encrypted chats and publicly posted on social media before, during and after the deadly January 6 attack.
Norm Pattis, one of Biggs’s attorneys, described the Capitol riot as an “aberration” and told jurors their verdict “means so much more than January 6 itself” because it will “speak to the future”.
“Show the world with this verdict that the rule of law is alive and well in the United States,” he said.
The justice department has secured seditious conspiracy convictions against the founder and members of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers. But this is the first major trial involving leaders of the Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group that remains a force in mainstream Republican circles.
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#Proud #Boys #leader #scapegoat #Trump #attorney #tells #January #trial
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 26, 2023
Charles undermined late queen’s plan to sue News UK, Prince Harry tells court

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Queen Elizabeth II personally threatened Rupert Murdoch’s media company with legal proceedings over phone hacking only for her efforts to be undermined by the then Prince Charles, the high court has heard.
Prince Harry said his father intervened because he wanted to ensure the Sun supported his ascension to the throne and Camilla’s role as queen consort, and had a “specific long-term strategy to keep the media on side” for “when the time came”.
The Duke of Sussex made the claims on Tuesday as part of his ongoing legal action against News Group Newspapers. The legal case lays bare Harry’s allegations of the deals between senior members of the British royal family and tabloid newspapers.
The prince said his father, the king, had personally demanded he stop his legal cases against British newspaper outlets when they were filed in late 2019.
The court filings state: “I was summoned to Buckingham Palace and specifically told to drop the legal actions because they have an ‘effect on all the family’.” He added this was “a direct request (or rather demand) from my father” and senior royal aides.
Harry blamed tabloid press intrusion for collapses in his mental health, said journalists had destroyed many of his relationships with girlfriends, and said British tabloid journalists fuelled online trolls and drove people to suicide.
He said: “How much more blood will stain their typing fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness?”
The duke also suggested that press intrusion by the Sun and other newspapers led to his mother – Diana, Princess of Wales – choosing to travel without a police escort, ultimately leading to her death in 1997.

In 2017, Harry decided to seek an apology from Murdoch’s News UK for phone hacking, receiving the backing of Queen Elizabeth II and his brother. His submission said: “William was very understanding and supportive and agreed that we needed to do it. He therefore suggested that I seek permission from ‘granny’. I spoke to her shortly afterwards and said something along the lines of: ‘Are you happy for me to push this forward, do I have your permission?’ and she said: ‘Yes.’”
Having received the support of Queen Elizabeth II, Harry said he asked the royal family’s lawyers to write to the Murdoch executives Rebekah Brooks and Robert Thomson and seek a resolution. Yet the company refused to apologise and, out of desperation, Harry discussed banning reporters from Murdoch-owned outlets from attending his wedding to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
In 2018, Sally Osman, Queen Elizabeth II’s communications secretary, wrote an email to Harry explaining that she was willing to threaten legal action in the name of the monarch.
The email read: “The queen has given her consent to send a further note, by email, to Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corporation and Rebekah Brooks, CEO of News UK.
“Her Majesty has approved the wording, which essentially says there is increasing frustration at their lack of response and engagement and, while we’ve tried to settle without involving lawyers, we will need to reconsider our stance unless we receive a viable proposal.”
However, there was no apology, which Harry ascribes to a secret deal between the royal family and senior Murdoch executives to keep proceedings out of court. As part of the legal proceedings he alleged that his brother, Prince William, had secretly been paid a “huge sum of money” by Murdoch’s company in 2020 to settle a previously undisclosed phone-hacking claim.
Harry claimed that, shortly before his wedding, he was informed Murdoch’s company would not apologise to the queen and the rest of the royal family at that stage because “they would have to admit that not only was the News of the World involved in phone hacking but also the Sun”, which they “couldn’t afford to do” as it would undermine their continued denials that illegal activity took place at the Sun.
Murdoch’s company has always denied that any illegal behaviour took place at the Sun and that all phone hacking and illicit blagging of personal material was limited to its sister newspaper, the now-defunct News of the World.
Harry insists this is untrue and claims phone hacking was widespread at the Sun when it was edited by Brooks, now a senior Murdoch executive. He has said he is willing to go to trial in an attempt to prove this. Murdoch’s company denies any wrongdoing at the Sun, or that there was any secret deal between the newspaper group and the royal household over phone hacking.
The prince also said press intrusion into the life of his mother was “one of the reasons she insisted on not having any protection after the divorce” as she suspected those around her of selling stories to outlets such as the Sun. He claims: “If she’d had police protection with her in August 1997, she’d probably still be alive today. People who abuse their power like this need to face the consequences of their actions, otherwise it says that we can all behave like this.”
Harry now believes his father and royal courtiers were prioritising positive coverage of his father and Camilla in the Sun, rather than seeking to back his legal claims. He said: “[T]hey had a specific long-term strategy to keep the media (including [Sun publisher] NGN) onside in order to smooth the way for my stepmother (and father) to be accepted by the British public as queen consort (and king respectively) when the time came … anything that might upset the applecart in this regard (including the suggestion of resolution of our phone-hacking claims) was to be avoided at all costs.”
He said all of his girlfriends would find “they are not just in a relationship with me but with the entire tabloid press as a third party”, leading to bouts of depression and paranoia. He claimed the press was pushing him in the hope of “a total and very public breakdown”.
He made clear his personal loathing of Brooks, who was found not guilty of phone hacking by a jury in June 2014. He said: “Having met her once with my father when she was hosting the Sun military awards at the Imperial War Museum in London and having seen her essentially masquerading as someone that she wasn’t by using the military community to try and cover up all the appalling things that she and her newspapers had done, I felt this surprise at her acquittal even more personally, especially as I had been duped into thinking that she was OK at our meeting.”
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#Charles #undermined #late #queens #plan #sue #News #Prince #Harry #tells #court
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
‘The GDR was safe for me’: Disney drama tells story of former East Germany’s first black police officer

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In the dying days of the German Democratic Republic, a group of peace activists gather in a church in Dresden to discuss the more bottom-up, less authoritarian country they would like to see emerge out of the crumbling socialist state.
A mixed-race man on one of the back rows speaks up. “You have no idea of the rage that’s out there”, he says. “If you lock people up in a cage for life then at some point they will find someone to blame for that. Someone who’s different. And you want to abolish this state? The last bit that keeps people from going crazy?”
The scene, from the opening episode of Sam: A Saxon, a seven-part mini-series that premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, is designed to explain what could have motivated the young man on the back row to do what he did next.
Samuel Meffire, the real-life inspiration for the character played by the German actor Malick Bauer, went on to join the police, becoming the first officer of African descent in the former East Germany, which at the time was notorious for racist violence, and the face of a poster campaign to show a different side to the former GDR. He would soon grow frustrated with his employer’s sluggish bureaucracy, switch sides and end up on Germany’s most wanted list for armed robbery.
The series – Disney’s first original series produced in Germany – does not aspire to challenge storytelling conventions, but it manages in unexpected ways to cut across the often told story of the “peaceful revolution” of 1989 – as well as contemporary debates about law enforcement’s treatment of black people.
“The GDR was not colour-blind,” Meffire, 52, said in an interview with the Guardian. “But it made public spaces colour-blind enough that I could move safely in them. No one would have dared do me harm in public because they would have known that the men with the iron brooms would have swept them up if they did.”
“Of course, that’s an incredibly fine line, to sing a hymn to law enforcement in a dictatorship,” he added. “I don’t mean to sing the praises of a dictatorship, but of the fact that it was safe for me. And I want our democratic state to make us equally safe, wherever we go.”
Now living in Bonn, in western Germany, he said he would not take his two children on a holiday to the eastern state where he grew up.

About 95,000 migrant workers from socialist “brother states” such as Mozambique, Angola, Cuba and Vietnam were registered as living in East Germany in the year that the Berlin Wall fell, though their stay was strictly limited and social mixing with the local population was discouraged by the regime.
Meffire’s father, a Cameroonian engineering student, died two hours before he was born in July 1970, in circumstances that remain unclear: one theory proposed by his mother is that he was poisoned by officials who tried to chemically castrate him.
For “Ossis [East Germans] of colour” such as Meffire, the end of the old regime nonetheless brought a dramatic loss of personal safety. In his memoir, Me, a Saxon, published in English translation by the British publisher Dialogue Books this spring and co-written by the playwright Lothar Kittstein, Meffire, a self-described “fantasy nerd”, describes the outbreak of racist violence in starker, quasi-apocalyptic terms.
“The neo-something is now part of the normal cityscape during the day, too,” he writes. “The vampires are bound to the night no longer. They have acquitted themselves from this spell. And the well-behaved, demoralised citizens applauded them.”
A string of racist attacks in the old eastern states made the east’s problem with the radical right hard for the reunified country to ignore. In September 1991, neo-Nazis rioted for five days in the Saxon town of Hoyerswerda, their attacks on an apartment block housing asylum seekers cheered on by some of the locals.
A western German PR company hired to improve Saxony’s image after these attacks seized on Meffire: a photograph of the shaven-headed police officer in a black rollneck underneath the words “A Saxon” was printed on billboards around Dresden and in newspapers across the entire country.
A scene from Sam: A Saxon, launching on Disney+ this week. Photograph: Yohana Papa Onyango
A friendship with Saxony’s reformist interior minister Heinz Eggert further boosted Meffire’s status as the poster boy for Saxony’s police force, but also made him new enemies among his colleagues. Two years after the publicity campaign, he left to set up his own private security agency but struggled to make the business pay.
In 1995, Meffire was involved in a string of armed robberies and went on the run in France and what was then Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of the Congo – where he was caught up in the first Congo war and eventually extradited to Germany. After serving seven years in prison, he now works as a social worker, security contractor and author.
Both the written and the filmic treatment of Meffire’s story explain his rapid disillusionment with the police by hinting at old political networks that held a protecting hand over the neo-Nazi scene. His verdict on his former colleagues, however, is surprisingly positive. “Hate stories and racism?” he writes. “Not towards me.” One officer who made abusive remarks about his skin colour was quickly reprimanded by his colleagues.
The Disney series, which Meffire and the film-maker Jörg Winger unsuccessfully pitched to Germany’s public broadcasters in 2006, achieves two rare feats for a German production, telling a story with a mainly afrodeutsch set of main characters, without presenting their experiences in a one-dimensional way.
In the third episode, Meffire falls in with a group of black East German men who have little time for black political activists from the west, who they dismiss as “beaten-down dogs”. That division, Meffire says, still runs through Germany’s black communities.
“When it comes to the police, there are two perspectives,” he said. “I am a victim – of state despotism, of racial profiling, or at the very least of an … ignorance towards things that shouldn’t take place.
“And then there’s the other view, which is absolutely a minority, that says if we want a diverse police force then we have to step up and shape that police force. And that doesn’t just apply to the police, but also the intelligence community, the military, the judiciary. Because speaking for myself, I don’t know a single black German public prosecutor and not a single black German judge.”
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#GDR #safe #Disney #drama #tells #story #East #Germanys #black #police #officer
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 25, 2023
Screening banned BBC documentary amounted to ‘gross indiscipline’, DU tells Delhi HC

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New Delhi: The Delhi University (DU) told the High Court on Monday that the action of students screening the banned BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi without permission, and organising protests, despite imposition of prohibitory orders, amounts to “gross indiscipline”.
A bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav was hearing a plea by the national Secretary of Congress’ student wing, NSUI, Lokesh Chugh challenging his debarment from the university on allegations that he organised a screening of the BBC documentary.
“We acted against the students who organised the screening of the documentary based on the newspaper reports which said that the two-part series has been banned in India,” the university submitted.

“Chugh was the mastermind behind the agitation and that video footage shows that he was actively involved in the screening of the documentary in the University campus,” the DU counsel added.
The intention to disrupt the academic functioning of the University has tarnished the image of the University, it was contended.
The DU apprised the court that Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was imposed by the police on that date despite which students protested.
“The Committee after watching the videos found that the mastermind of the agitation was the petitioner. It was observed by the committee that around 20 students had gathered at 4 p.m. to showcase the BBC documentary and around 50 more students were there to watch the said documentary.”
It was noted by the court that DU’s response and Chugh’s counter are not on record and accordingly listed the case for next hearing on April 26 while asking both counsel to file their written submissions by Tuesday.

The DU has prohibited Chugh, of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and a Ph.D. research scholar at the Department of Anthropology, from taking any university, college, or departmental exams.
During the last hearing, Justice Kaurav had remarked that the university’s order did not reflect application of mind.
“There has to be an independent application of mind which is not reflected in the order… The order must reflect the reasoning,” the court said.
Appearing on behalf of the DU, lawyer Mohinder Rupal had said that the university’s decision was based on some documents that he wishes to provide, while Chugh’s counsel had claimed that there is considerable urgency in the situation because the deadline for turning in his PhD thesis is April 30.
Justice Kaurav had responded that once the petitioner is before the court, his rights would be protected.
“Mr Mohinder Rupal seeks time to file counter affidavit. Let the same be done in three working days. Petitioner is also at liberty to file the rejoinder in two days thereafter. List on Monday,” the court had ordered.
The case pertains to a protest that was planned for January 27, 2023, on the DU campus during which, the BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ was also shown to the general audience.
Chugh claims in his plea that he was not even there during the protest since he was attending a media interaction.
“Pertinently, the petitioner was giving a live interview at the time when the documentary was being screened inside the Faculty of Arts (Main Campus). Thereafter, police detained a few students for screening the allegedly banned BBC documentary and subsequently charged them for disturbance of peace in the area. Notably, the petitioner was neither detained nor charged with any form of incitement or violence or disturbance of peace by the police,” he stated.
However, the DU served him with a show-cause notice on February 16 alleging that he had disrupted law and order at the university during the screening. On March 10, a memorandum debarring him was then issued.
In his plea, Chugh claims that the university’s order against him went against the principles of natural justice and that the disciplinary authorities failed to even inform him of the allegations and charges against him. Therefore, Chugh demanded that the memorandum and notice that claim he was complicit in a breach of law and order be set aside. He has asked for a stay of the memorandum in the interim.
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#Screening #banned #BBC #documentary #amounted #gross #indiscipline #tells #Delhi
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 24, 2023
Twitter now tells advertisers to pay for verification or they can’t run ads

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New Delhi: After removing all legacy Blue check marks and asking individual users to pay for being verified, Elon Musk-run Twitter on Friday asked advertisers to either pay for the verification or they will not be able to run their ads on the platform.
Social media consultant Matt Navarra shared the letter sent by Twitter to advertisers, which read that starting April 21, “your account must have a verified checkmark or subscribe to either Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads on Twitter.”
“Business accounts spending in excess of $1,000 per month already have gold checks or will soon, and they’ll continue to enjoy access to advertising without interruption at this time,” the company posted.

The company said it aligns with the broader verification strategy to elevate the quality of content on Twitter and enhance experience as a user and advertiser.
“This approach also supports our ongoing efforts to reduce fraudulent accounts and bots. Subscribing to either of these services means you have been verified by Twitter as a real person and/or business,” said the micro-blogging platform.
Navarra tweeted: “Twitter is now telling advertisers it MUST subscribe to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations to continue running ads!”
Twitter had told businesses to pay $1,000 per month for retaining gold badges and brands and organisations which do not pay the money will lose their checkmarks.
The Musk-run company, which is busy monetising its platform via various means, will also charge an extra $50 per month to add badges to each account affiliated with the brand, The Information reported recently.

Earlier, all legacy verified accounts lost their Blue badges, creating chaos on the platform all over the world. Several celebrities lost their Blue check marks.
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#Twitter #tells #advertisers #pay #verification #run #ads
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 21, 2023
Excise Policy case: Sisodia kingpin of conspiracy, CBI tells HC

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New Delhi: The CBI Thursday claimed before the Delhi High Court that former Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, arrested in connection with the excise policy scam case, is involved in commission of grave economic offences and is key to unravelling the modus operandi of the crime.
The submissions were made by the CBI in a short written reply while opposing the senior AAP leader’s bail plea, which it said was devoid of any merit and was an attempt to misuse the intricacies of law to thwart the progress of investigation in the case.
While the CBI contended that Sisodia is the “kingpin and architect of the conspiracy” and his influence and clout disentitle him to any parity with the co-accused enlarged on bail, the AAP leader urged the high court to grant him bail claiming no money trail linking him to the proceeds of alleged crime has been found.

His lawyers had sought parity for him with other accused who have got the relief and said Sisodia is not in a position to influence the witnesses in the case or tamper with evidence.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, after hearing the arguments of Sisodia’s lawyers, fixed April 26 for submissions by CBI counsel.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Sisodia for alleged corruption in formulation and implementation of the now-scrapped Delhi Excise Policy 2021-22 on February 26 following several rounds of questioning.
On March 31, the trial court here had dismissed Sisodia’s bail plea in the matter, saying he was “prima facie the architect” of the “scam” and had played the “most important and vital role” in the criminal conspiracy related to alleged payment of advance kickbacks of Rs 90-100 crore meant for him and his colleagues in the Delhi government.
Challenging the trial court’s order denying bail, senior advocate Dayan Krishnan, appearing for Sisodia, said the lower court has not considered the medical condition of the AAP leader’s wife who is suffering from multiple sclerosis. He said the condition of Sisodia’s wife was deteriorating.

He said all the offences alleged against Sisodia are punishable with imprisonment up to seven years, something which should weigh in favour of the AAP leader. The lawyer also contended the trial in the case is not going to conclude anytime soon.
Senior advocate Mohit Mathur, also representing Sisodia, said the allegation that he was a recipient of the proceeds of crime was “all in air” and no money trail leading to him has been found.
The CBI said in its reply that Sisodia was arrested on February 26 due to his non-cooperative conduct during the investigation and he has been confronted with sensitive documents and witnesses.
“There is every likelihood that in case the applicant is released on bail he shall tamper with the evidence and influence witnesses, more specifically in light of his past conduct to derail the investigation.
“Such apprehensions are fortified more specifically when the file relating to the Excise Department containing the cabinet note dated January 28, 2021 remains missing. Additionally, the applicant has also destroyed his mobile phone on the day the present matter was referred by the Lieutenant Governor to the CBI on July 22, 2022,” the agency claimed.
The CBI said the case involves a deep-rooted, multi-layered conspiracy.
“The Applicant is a key link to unearth the modus operandi. The Applicant has remained non-cooperative and evasive throughout the investigation in a bid to derail the instant investigation,” it said.
The probe agency said investigation in the case is still going on with regard to certain critical aspects, including the involvement of other public servants and private persons. Recently, the role of Amandeep Singh Dhall, Director of M/s Brindco Sales Private Limited has also come to light, it added.
The CBI said there was ample evidence on record to show that Sisodia, who was then holding important portfolios including finance and excise, is the chief architect of the conspiracy of tweaking and manipulating the formulation and implementation of the excise policy for causing pecuniary advantage and continues to yield unparalleled influence in the government.
“Under the guise of bringing revolutionary changes to the Excise Policy, the applicant misused his powers and introduced favourable provisions in the new policy.
“This was done to facilitate the monopolisation of wholesale and retail liquor trade in Delhi for the accused persons of the South Group for siphoning off 6 per cent out of 12 per cent windfall profit margin for wholesalers provided in the policy in lieu of upfront money/ kickbacks of Rs 90- 100 crores paid by the South Group,” it claimed.
The CBI alleged Sisodia misused his official position and dishonestly introduced changes to the excise policy under the influence of the South Group through his close associate Vijay Nair.
The changes introduced by the applicant not only facilitated the cartelisation of liquor trade in Delhi by the South Group but also enabled it to recover the kickbacks paid by them upfront, it claimed.
It alleged the AAP leader threatened and pressured officials including the excise commissioners when they did not accede to his directions.
The CBI claimed cabinet ministers as well as the chief minister have, during the course of investigation, confirmed the policy was formulated by Sisodia and governed solely by the excise personnel.
“Therefore, the averments of the applicant regarding receiving approvals from departments and office of the Lieutenant Governor have no force in light of overwhelming evidence of conspiracy of the petitioner with the South Group and other accused,” it said.
The high court had earlier issued notice to the CBI and asked it to respond to Sisodia’s bail plea, which claimed he was “totally innocent” and a “victim of political witch-hunt”.
In his plea filed before the court, Sisodia said there was no material to show his involvement in the offences alleged in the FIR.
“The applicant is totally innocent, who is a highly respected citizen and he has highest respect for the law. The applicant is a victim of political witch-hunt, which has led to his arrest by the respondent (CBI) on account of ulterior motive to drag the reputation of the applicant through the mud,” his petition said.
The petition said the excise policy was the “collective responsibility” of the Cabinet and it was implemented after being drafted by the excise department. It was duly approved and Sisodia cannot be held criminally liable for the collective decision of the Cabinet, the excise department, finance department, planning department, the law department and the LG, the petition added.
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#Excise #Policy #case #Sisodia #kingpin #conspiracy #CBI #tells
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 20, 2023
Anatomy of a smashed window: Pezzola tells his Jan. 6 story

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“I should’ve stopped. I should’ve turned and went home,” he continued. “For some reason I felt I didn’t have total control of my actions.“
Pezzola took the stand Wednesday to fend off charges that he and four Proud Boys leaders plotted to forcefully derail the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. The seditious conspiracy charges he and his four codefendants face are the gravest leveled by prosecutors in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.
Prosecutors are expected to cross-examine Pezzola Thursday and are sure to challenge many of the claims he made.
Pezzola is expected to be the final witness in a trial that has stretched more than four months and been marked by interminable delays, intense legal quarrels and high stakes testimony from cooperating witnesses and defendants. Alongside Pezzola, prosecutors have charged Proud Boys leaders Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl with joining the alleged seditious conspiracy.
Pezzola’s testimony, like the riot itself, was chaotic. He described feeling in mortal danger from police crowd-control measures, the resolve to face down the “enemy” that he drew from his military training, an intensifying fear that he might not live to see his wife and daughters, fury at police for lobbing flashbangs in the area of women in the crowd and an “autopilot” that he said took over just before he smashed the window.
Pezzola told jurors he had no inkling of any plan to topple the government and was irritated at his Proud Boys allies for diverting the group away from Trump’s speech that morning for a march to the Capitol. But when he arrived, he nevertheless made his way toward the front of the gathering mob — a decision he attributed to “car crash syndrome.”
“Why I moved over there was basically out of curiosity,” he said.
That’s when the rubber bullets started raining down, Pezzola said, including one that cut through the cheek of rioter Joshua Black, spraying blood all over the ground at the front of the police line. Though Pezzola said he considered the crowd to have been passive at that moment, video of the scene shows skirmishes along the police line, which officers positioned on a nearby overhang were witnessing with a birds eye view.

“It felt like being under sniper fire,” Pezzola said, adding, “In my mind, this is pretty much what I felt like combat would be like, being shot at by the enemy.”
Pezzola, who was right behind Black, said the barrage of less-lethal munitions aimed at the crowd infuriated him and he attempted to engage officers in an argument about the appropriate use of force. He also lunged to grab a shield from a nearby Capitol Police officer — which he said was meant for self-protection — but came away empty-handed. Eventually, the swell of the crowd knocked him down, he said, and in the chaos, he observed another rioter wrest a shield from the same officer, and Pezzola managed to grab the loose shield for himself.
Pezzola’s lawyer, Steve Metcalf, repeatedly asked Pezzola why he didn’t just turn around and leave amid the chaos. He said he refused to leave the Capitol grounds even after police began firing rubber bullets in his direction because his “military training” had conditioned him to “keep your eye on where the threat is coming from.”
“I’m pissed off Steve, that’s all I can really say,” Pezzola said. “The adrenaline is so high at that point. You’re on autopilot. I guess I’m just programmed to charge toward danger.”
Pezzola later added that he was particularly infuriated when he saw munitions landing in the crowd near women, and he repeatedly asked his lawyer to pause video of those moments so he could highlight women who were visible in the crowd to the jurors.
Pezzola would take the shield back to fellow members of the Proud Boys and pose for a picture before returning to the front of the mob, surging to the foot of the Capitol and destroying a window leading to the Senate wing of the building. That breach, which prosecutors have described as the first time the Capitol was breached by hostile actors since the war of 1812, came at the precise minute the Senate shut down its effort to certify the results of the election.
Pezzola said that when he got inside, he had no plan and no knowledge of the Capitol’s layout, so he basically wandered around and followed the crowd while taking pictures and videos. POLITICO recently identified footage of Pezzola encountering the evacuation of Sen. Chuck Grassley, who had been presiding over the Senate just moments before.
He would soon shoot a celebratory selfie video that prosecutors view as a key piece of evidence in the case. “Victory smoke in the Capitol, boys. This is fucking awesome,” he said in the video while smoking a cigar. “I knew we could take this motherfucker over [if we] just tried hard enough.” Pezzola told jurors he took the video because he wanted to say something “profound” on a day he believed would be “historic.”
Moments later, Pezzola joined the portion of the mob that chased Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman to the edge of the Senate chamber, where a standoff ensued. All told, Pezzola said he was inside the building for about 20 minutes, and he handed the shield back to a police officer as he exited.
Asked by Metcalf to characterize his actions, Pezzola called it, “A bad reaction to a bad situation.”
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#Anatomy #smashed #window #Pezzola #tells #Jan #story
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 20, 2023
Committed to growing, investing across the country: Cook tells PM Modi

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New Delhi: Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and stressed that the company is committed to growing and investing across the country.
Cook, who is in India to launch the company’s flagship retail stores in Mumbai and Delhi, thanked PM Modi for the warm welcome.
“Thank you Prime Minister @narendramodi for the warm welcome. We share your vision of the positive impact technology can make on India’s future – from education and developers to manufacturing and the environment”, Cook said in a tweet, posting a picture with PM Modi.

Thank you Prime Minister @narendramodi for the warm welcome. We share your vision of the positive impact technology can make on India’s future — from education and developers to manufacturing and the environment, we’re committed to growing and investing across the country. pic.twitter.com/xRSjc7u5Ip
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) April 19, 2023
“We are committed to growing and investing across the country,” Cook added.
Apple is ramping up its manufacturing in India, along with growing its retail presence.
Apple began manufacturing iPhone in India in 2017, and since then, the company has worked with suppliers to assemble new iPhone models and produce a growing number of components.
Amid the local manufacturing push and an upcoming widespread retail store strategy, Apple shipped $7.5 billion worth iPhones and iPads in India in FY22-23, according to CMR data accessed by IANS.
In FY23, Apple shipped more than 7 million iPhones and half a million iPads in the country, registering a 28 per cent growth for iPhone shipments, according to initial estimates provided by market intelligence firm CMR.

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#Committed #growing #investing #country #Cook #tells #Modi
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 19, 2023