A week after a devastating blaze in a city pub killed 14 people, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Thursday sought a detailed report on the incident from the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

In a letter to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta, the SHRC sought a report by January 29. This follows a complaint lodged by activist Vivekanand D. Gupta.

Early on December 29, a massive fire broke out in The Mojo’s Bistro and 1Above pubs in the Kamala Trade Towers located within the sprawling 35-acres Kamala Mills Compound in Lower Parel.

The blaze claimed the lives of 14, including 11 women who were trapped in the inferno and resulted a furore in social-political circles.

The incident prompted the BMC to launch a single biggest demolition drive of all illegal constructions and structures in hotels, restaurants, eateries across the city for four consecutive days — in around 700 locations.

Now, the drive has been halted but all such outlets have been given two weeks time to demolish all the structures on their own, failing which the BMC would dispatch its bulldozers.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday attached Rs 11.28 crore assets of Hyderabad-based AKR Construction Ltd against whom a money laundering case in 2010 Commonwealth Games (CWG) related corruption case is underway.

The agency provisionally attached the immovable property of AKR Construction at Banjara Hills in Hyderabad worth Rs 59,875,000 and its amounts in bank accounts worth Rs 52,961,412 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, an ED official said.

The ED had registered a money laundering case against Swiss Timing Ltd and others under the PMLA based on FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in which it has mentioned charges of criminal breach of trust, cheating under Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act, which entails life imprisonment as maximum punishment.

“For the installation of Timing, Scoring and Resulting (TSR) System, the officials of Organising Committee of Commonwealth Games 2010 conspired with private persons and abuse their official positions for awarding the tender to Swiss Timing by manipulating the tender process causing loss of Rs 956,064,729 to the exchequer,” an ED statement said.

The agency’s investigation also revealed that Swiss Timing entered into a fraudulent contract with Faridabad-based Gem International which in turn awarded subcontract to the AKR Construction Ltd and paid about Rs 11.28 crore.

The AKR Construction, under the control of A. K. Reddy, raised fake bills against labour contract, supply of cables and more and siphoned the amount of the proceeds of crime thus involved in money laundering, said an ED investigator.

Sacked CWG Organising Committee (OC) Chairman Suresh Kalmadi and nine others are facing trial in a corruption case relating to the mega sporting event.

The committee’s former Secretary General Lalit Bhanot, former Director General V.K. Verma, former Director General (Procurement) Surjit Lal, former Joint Director General (Sports) A.S.V. Prasad and former Treasurer M. Jayachandran are the other accused.

They are no longer associated with the sporting body.

It is also alleged that Kalmadi and other accused rejected Spanish firm MSL’s much lower bid of Rs 62 crore to award the contract to Swiss Timing.

As tablet shipments continue to slump in India, Samsung India on Thursday said the company will launch affordable products this year, predicting the tablet industry is set to make a strong comeback.

“2017 was a de-growth year for the tablet industry as a whole but we, as a brand, performed well over 2016 by registering near double-digit growth by market value,” Vishal Kaul, Director, Mobile Business, Samsung India, told IANS here.

Bullish on its performance in 2017, the South Korean tech giant on Thursday forayed into the budget tablet market with the launch of Galaxy Tab A 7.0 at Rs. 9,500 that sports rounded edges and a “non-slip” pattern.

The 4G tablet comes with HD display and a hefty 4000mAh battery that claims to provide up to nine hours of video playback.

“Galaxy Tab A 7.0 caters to consumers’ on-the-go and thereby acts as a perfect companion for their active lifestyle,” Kaul added.

The device has 1.5GB RAM and 8GB onboard storage that can be expanded via a microSD card to up to 200GB. The tab also comes with “Kids Mode” that provides educational and beneficial content designed especially for children. It also has parental control that offers features such as setting usage time limits and restricting access to specific applications.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7.0 is powered by 1.5 GHz quad-core processor. There is a 5MP auto-focus (AF) primary camera and a 2 MP front camera. The shipment of tabs witnessed a decline of 11 per cent over the previous quarter in India — with just 0.68 million shipments in the second quarter of 2017.

According to market intelligence firm CMR India, Indian market recorded 29 per cent year-on-year decline for the second quarter of this year.

However, in this falling tablet market, Samsung and Lenovo – with 14 per cent market share each – ranked third, with Canadian manufacturer Datawind being the leader.

“We are also positive about doing better in 2018 than last year in tab category,” Kaul told IANS.

Special CBI judge Shivapal Singh on Thursday put off the sentencing of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who claimed he had done no wrong and that he found it “very cold” in prison.

According to a lawyer who was present in the courtroom, Lalu Yadav told the judge: “Sir, jail me thanda bahut lagta hai. (It is very cold in the prison.)”

The RJD leader added there were other problems too. “I am not allowed to meet people.”

The judge responded: “That’s why you are called to the court so that you can meet people. If you feel cold, then play harmonia or tabla to beat the cold.”

When Lalu Prasad claimed innocence in the scandal he is accused of, the judge remarked: “You were Chief Minister and in charge of the Finance department. You did not act on time. Please go. Today is not your (day) of sentencing.”

The banter went on. Lalu Prasad said: “Sir, I am also a lawyer.” The Judge: “Then take a degree in jail.”

Lalu Prasad: “Sir, everything gets ok if one has a cool mind.” The judge: “I do not listen to anyone. Your well wishers’ calls are coming from far off places.”

The judge offered that video-conferencing can take place if the RJD leader had a problem coming to the court. Lalu Prasad: ” No Sir, I have no problem, I will come to court.”

Lalu Prasad’s sentencing is expected on Friday.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on December 23 convicted the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and 15 others in a case relating to the multi-million-rupee fodder scam.

According to lawyers, Lalu Prasad can be awarded three to seven years’ punishment. If he gets three years’ term, he would get bail soon after sentencing.

Lalu Prasad is now lodged at the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi.

There is no proposal to review the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ (MFN) status to Pakistan, the government said on Thursday.

In a written reply to a question, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said India has accorded MFN status to all WTO members, including Pakistan, in accordance with the provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

“It is unfortunate that Pakistan has not fulfilled its international obligations in this regard, so far,” the minister told the Rajya Sabha in his reply.

He also said that presently, no proposal to review the MFN status to Pakistan was under consideration.

Replying to separate question, Akbar said SAARC has been unable to achieve its potential as key initiatives, including in the important area of connectivity, were held back due to “lack of response and/or obstructionist” approach of Pakistan.

Several SAARC member states expressed their inability to participate in the 19th SAARC Summit that was scheduled to be held in November 2016 in Pakistan due to concerns arising from increasing cross-border terrorist attacks in the region and growing interference in the internal affairs of member states by that country, the minister said.

He also said that India remains steadfast in its commitment to regional cooperation, connectivity and contacts but believes that these can only go forward in an atmosphere free from terror.

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday expressed concern over the Bhima-Koregaon incident and the ensuing violence across Maharashtra and appealed for the restoration of peace.

The discussion on the anti-Dalit violence was taken up as soon as the House met for the day and one leader of each party was given around one minute to express their thoughts.

On Wednesday, the opposition had demanded a discussion on the violence under Rule 267, that entails suspending all the listed business of the day, but was denied permission by Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu. The opposition then had disrupted proceedings in the upper House.

On Thursday, before allowing the discussion, Naidu told the MPs to be not provocative in their statements.

“Our approach should be to see that tempers are brought down and the situation is not escalated there (in Maharashtra). After all it is a social conflict,” he said.

While the members from opposition parties including the Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Trinamool Congress, DMK, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Nationalist Congress Party blamed communal forces and “Hindutva outfits” for the violence and demanded impartial probe and strict action against the culprits, the BJP and its ally Shiv Sena gave a clean chit to the state BJP-Sena government.

BSP member Veer Singh demanded a judicial probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge in the Bhima-Koregaon incident.

While giving a clean chit to “Hindutva elements” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut blamed for the violence an “invisible hand” that “replicated the divide and rule policy of the British” in Koregaon.

NCP chief and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sharad Pawar, while criticising the communal forces, appealed for maintaining peace in the state.

“What has happened, has happened. Now peace should be restored and efforts should be made to restore peace,” he said.

In the riots in Bhima-Koregaon in Pune during the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Anglo-Maratha War of 1818 on January 1, more than 30 vehicles were torched or damaged and a young man was killed.

Hundreds of thousands of Dalits had assembled at the Vijay Stambh (victory pillar) erected by the British in Sanaswadi village when stone-pelting began, allegedly by some right-wing groups carrying saffron flags.

Over the next few days, the violence spread out to Mumbai and some other parts of the state.

Former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will once again be seen in his favourite yellow jersey in the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) 2018 season as the Chennai Super Kings retained the Ranchi stumper along with Suresh Raina and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.

Dhoni has been retained for Rs 15 crore while Raina and Jadeja were kept for Rs 11 crore and Rs 7 crore, respectively.

The CSK franchise, back into the IPL fold after serving a two-year ban, has two Right-to-Match options left, which they can use during the IPL auction on January 27 and 28.

Rajasthan Royals, the other franchise to return after a two-year ban, has retained Australia skipper Steve Smith (Rs 12 crore) and surprisingly pushed the likes of star batsman Ajinkya Rahane back into the auction pool.

The other surprise came in the form of Gautam Gambhir, who was sent into the auction pool despite guiding the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to lifting the silverware twice (2012 and 2014).

The Shah Rukh Khan-co-owned franchise retained the West Indian duo of Sunil Narine (Rs 8.5 crore) and Andre Russell (Rs 7 crore).

Similarly, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) released West Indian power-hitter Chris Gayle while retaining India skipper Virat Kohli (Rs 17 crore), South African AB de Villiers (Rs 11 crore) and young Sarfraz Khan (Rs 1.75 crore).

Delhi Daredevils expectedly retained the young Indian duo of Rishabh Pant (Rs 8 crore) and Shreyas Iyer (Rs 7 crore) along with South African all-rounder Chris Morris (Rs 7.1 crore).

Mumbai Indians also went along expected lines retaining their three-time IPL winning skipper Rohit Sharma (Rs 15 crore) along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya (Rs 11 crore) and death-overs bowling specialist Jasprit Bumrah (Rs 7 crore).

Rohit guided the Mumbai franchise to IPL titles in 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Sunrisers Hyderabad also sprang a surprise by releasing India opener Shikhar Dhawan and Afghanistan spin sensation Rashid Khan but retained Australian David Warner (Rs 12 crore) along with pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Rs 8 crore).

After another dismal 2017 season, Kings XI Punjab retained just left-arm spinner Axar Patel (Rs 6.75 crore) for the next season.

The government has sanctioned around 5,500 km of national highways and state roads for improvement of road connectivity in Maoist-hit areas in eight states, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

The government had in 2009 approved a Road Requirement Plan (RRP) for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas of 34 districts in eight states – Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh.

“Original RRP envisages development of 5,565 km length of national highways and state roads to two lane at a cost of Rs 7,300 crore,” Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Mansukh L. Mandaviya told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

“As per proposals received from state PWDs based on site requirement, a length of 5,422 km was sanctioned for Rs 8,585 crore,” he said.

Actresses and sisters Gauahar and Nigaar Khan have revealed each other’s secrets and habits online.

Nigaar appeared on Gauahar’s new YouTube channel on its second episode on Wednesday.

“Everyone wanted the Khan sisters back for a very long time and since we were not doing the show, I have started my YouTube channel. I just thought it will be a great way to give a dose of our craziness to our fans.

“That is when I thought of getting my best friend, my sister and my better crazy half on the show. It was the craziest episode we shot for the channel. It felt like we relived the moments of ‘Khan Sisters’,” Gauahar said.

TV show Khan Sisters, which put the spotlight on the two sisters, went off air five years ago.

As a crucial public meeting of the anti-power grid agitators was held in West Bengal’s Bhangar on Thursday, nearly 100 political activists, students and supporters of the movement were arrested or detained here on their way, the leaders of the agitation alleged.

The leaders, at the meeting, criticised the arrest of their activists en route to Bhangar as the state government’s ploy to foil their movement and said there would be interventions on behalf of the committee in the upcoming panchayat elections.

The meeting organised by ‘Jomi, Jibika, Bastutantra o Poribesh Raksha Committee (committee to protect land, livelihood, ecology and environment)’ that is leading the movement in the region, witnessed massive gathering by the locals and was attended by CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty, CPI-ML leader Alik Chakraborty and other Left wing leaders in Bhangar’s Natunhat.

Condemning the arrest of 12 political activists, associated with anti-power grid movement in Assam, the agitation leaders demanded their immediate and unconditional release.

“CPI-ML Red Star leader Raju Singh and 11 activists from anti-power grid movement in Assam, who had come to attend today’s meeting in Bhangar, have been arrested by the special task force of Kolkata police in Belgharia today. We condemn the arrest,” CPI-ML Liberation said in a press release.

“Police have detained the full team of democratic activists going to Bhangar today. A group of nearly 100 students and activists were held from Kolkata’s Chinar park area in the morning and were taken to Baguiati police station where they were kept for more than two hours before being released,” Sarmistha Chowdhury, leader of CPI-ML Red Star that has been backing the movement, said.

Police said 70 people were detained for questioning as they gathered without any prior information but claimed the detention has nothing to do with the meeting in Bhangar.

“So many people gathered on the roads without any proper information. We wanted to know the reason of gathering but they refused to reply. So we had to detain them for interrogation. However, they were released later,” a senior officer from Baguiati police station said.

India on Thursday hit back at Pakistan after it released another propaganda video of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav in which he is heard saying that an Indian diplomat yelled at his mother when she and his wife visited Islamabad to meet him on 25 December.

Reacting to the new video put, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said,”this does not come as a surprise to us. Pakistan is simply continuing its practice of putting out coerced statements on video.”

The spokesperson said it was time for Pakistani to realise that such propagandistic exercises simply did not carry credibility. ”The absurdity of a captive under duress certifying his own welfare while mouthing allegations of his captors clearly merits no comment.”

He said Pakistan would be best advised to fulfil its international obligations, whether pertaining to consular relations or UNSC resolutions 1267 and 1473 on terrorism and to desist from continuing violations of human rights of an Indian national.

Pakistan had allowed Jadhav’s mother and wife to meet him on the Christman day and tweeted photos of the 45-minute meeting as part of fresh propaganda ahead of the hearing of India’s appeal against Jadhav’s death sentence at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

In the new video, reportedly played out by Pakistan’s foreign office at a press briefing, Jadhav is heard saying, “I saw fear in the eyes of my mother and wife. Why should there be fear? Whatever has happened has happened. They felt threatened. The Indian diplomat who had come along with my mother was shouting the moment she stepped out. I saw him shouting, yelling at her. This [meeting] was a positive gesture, so that she (my mother) could be happy and I could be happy”.

The Indian prisoner, who is on death row in the neighbouring country on charges of espionage, also claimed that he has not been tortured in custody.

During their meeting with Jadhav at the foreign office in Islamabad, his mother and wife communicated with him via an intercom and across a glass screen, while Pakistani officials and Indian Deputy High Commissioner J P Singh monitored the meeting through another glass screen looking into the room.

Indian officials in New Delhi are also raising question on how Jadhav could see anything that happened once his mother and wife had stepped had out of the room where the meeting took place.
The officials said the video clearly suggested that Pakistan was under pressure since it could not answer India’s charges over the manner in which the meeting was conducted.

”Pakistan wants to change the narrative through the latest video,” they added.

Pakistani might also be seeking to shift the focus from the intense heat it was facing from the US for its duplicity in dealing with terrorism.

Vigil has been stepped up in Uttar Pradesh in wake of the Dalit agitation and subsequent violence in Maharashtra over the past few days, officials said on Thursday.

Officials in the Home Department said that all district police chiefs have been asked to be vigilant and to sensitize the local intelligence units to keep an eye out for any trouble.

District authorities have also been asked to ensure that there is no protests in their respective jurisdictions that could flare up caste passions. Police have also been asked to closely observe the social media for any inflammatory post or picture and videos that could disturb law and order.

Security has also been stepped up due to some intelligence inputs of anti-social elements trying to foment trouble in the run-up to the Republic Day this year.

Five young men, including a student, were found dead inside a vehicle in a village in Assam’s Nalbari district on Thursday, police said.

Police said a group of 24 people had gone for a picnic from Bordighala village on Wednesday morning and returned at night.

“The five youths spent the night inside the vehicle they had hired for the picnic. However, on Thursday morning, we saw all of them were unconscious,” a police officer quoted locals as saying.

They were rushed to a hospital where they were declared dead.

Police said that there were no visible injury marks on the bodies and believe they may have been suffocated inside the vehicle.

Veteran actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha says he had an opportunity to meet actor Sanjay Dutt’s “beautiful” daughter Trishala, who claims to be a huge fan of Sonakshi Sinha.

“In Dubai, I had the opportunity to meet beautiful Trishala, grand daughter of friend, late and great Sunil Dutt and daughter of popular actor Sanjay Dutt. She generously claims to be a huge fan and follower of my darling daughter Sonakshi, who must take care of this fact. God bless!” Shatrughan tweeted on Thursday.

In Dubai, I had the opportunity to meet beautiful Trishala, grand daughter of friend, late & great Sunil Dutt & daughter of popular actor Sanjay Dutt. She generously claims to be a huge fan & follower of my darling daughter Sonakshi -who must take care of this fact. God bless! pic.x.com/QXxlWXzHGt

— Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) January 4, 2018

Trishala is the daughter of Sanjay and late actress Richa Sharma. The two got married in 1987. Richa died of a brain tumour in 1996.

The security situation facing Japan is the “severest since the Second World War”, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday, calling the prospect of a nuclear-capable North Korea “absolutely unacceptable”.

Tensions in the region have remained high in recent months. In September, the North Korean regime carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. Its most recent missile test — during the early hours of November 29 — landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Speaking at a news conference in Mie prefecture, Abe underlined the graveness of the situation by comparing it to the Second World War, a conflict which was finally ended with the dropping of two atom bombs — the precursor to today’s nuclear weapons — on Japanese cities.

“It is not an exaggeration to say the security environment surrounding Japan is at its severest since the war,” he said.

The Japanese Prime Minister urged the international community to apply concerted pressure to the rogue nation in an attempt to coerce its regime into giving up its nuclear ambitions, CNN reported.

“A nuclear-armed North Korea is absolutely unacceptable. Without giving in to any provocative action, we must change the North Korea’s policy by maximizing the pressure in complete solidarity with the international community,” he said.

In total, North Korea has fired 23 missiles in 16 tests since February 2017, further perfecting its technology with each launch.

Earlier this year, in the face of an increasingly hostile North Korea, Abe set a deadline of 2020 to revise Japan’s Constitution, that bans the country from maintaining armed forces.

It is a controversial proposal that strikes at the heart of the country’s post-war identity but central to Abe’s political ambitions.

It came one step closer to being realized in October when the conservative leader won a parliamentary supermajority in a general election.

“My immediate task is to deal with North Korea,” Abe told reporters at the time. “It will take tough diplomacy. With the mandate given by the people, I would like to exercise my command in diplomacy.”

Noting that it was a public investment that had enabled the country to consistently achieve over 7 per cent growth at a time of dismal private investment, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday the government is bringing all possible resources to bear in order to resolve the issue of banks’ bad loans.

Participating in a short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the state of the economy, Jaitley said that it was reckless lending by banks during the boom years in the previous UPA government that had led to the accumulation of such huge non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, in the Indian banking system.

“As regards the banking system, we are trying to put all our resources into it (NPAs issue),” he said.

“Industry doesn’t pay back the banks… so this bailout that we’re doing with the taxpayers’ money is not an ideal situation.”

Referring to the Rs 2.12 lakh crore recapitalisation plan for state-run banks approved by the government in October, the Finance Minister said the objective is to ensure that the lenders’ ability to support growth is not impacted by their combined NPAs which have crossed the staggering level of Rs 7.5 lakh crore.

“Reckless lending without proper risk management has affected the banks capacity to support growth,” he said, referring to the high-growth period after 2008 when the massive lending by banks is now being reflected in their accumulated bad loans and through heavily leveraged corporate balance sheets.

“This is another reason which has contributed to the reduced private investment,” he added.

Last week, Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that banks and creditors would need to take a “haircut” on their bad loans, even as defaulting promoters could make their businesses operational again by paying the outstanding interest on the loan.

A haircut signifies lenders accepting a lower than market value for the asset in question for a resolution of the NPA.

In this connection, Jaitley said the government had brought in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code in 2016 to institute a time-bound insolvency resolution process.

According to the American rating agency S&P-owned Crisil, Indian banks will need to take a haircut of up to 60 per cent on their bad loans to resolve the issue of NPAS, which is holding up higher economic growth.

The government has embarked on a two-pronged strategy in this regard. On the one hand, it has brought in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code which provides for a time-bound insolvency resolution process. On the other hand, it has approved a major recapitalisation plan for state-run banks.

Actor Govinda reached Rishikesh on Thursday and offered prayers at the Neelkanth Mahadev Temple of Lord Shiva.

He also did ‘jalabhishek’ on the deity and prayed for peace and prosperity for his family and everyone, sources present at the temple informed.

He interacted with the main priest Subhash Puri and took information on the temple and its history. The actor was mobbed by other devotees there and his personal security had a tough time getting him to his vehicle.

The 54-year-old, however, obliged his fans by posing for pictures with them and allowing them selfies.

The actor is in the hill state for the past few days and drove to Rishikesh and Haridwar on Thursday after spending a few days in the state capital.

Sources said he would be spending a few more days in Uttarakhand.