Amritsar, Feb 5: A US military aircraft carrying the first batch of 104 illegal Indian immigrants, with the highest number of 33 each from Haryana and Gujarat, reached Amritsar in Punjab on Wednesday.

A total of 30 deportees were residents of Punjab. The US military C-17 aircraft landed at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport amid tight security.

Three each from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra while two from Chandigarh. The deportees include 25 women and 12 minors, with the youngest passenger being just four years old.

Forty-eight people are below the age of 25. The flight, which took off from Texas on Tuesday, also carried 11 crew members and 45 US officials overseeing the deportation process.

A senior Punjab official said that most deportees from the state belong to Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Patiala, Mohali and Sangrur. Some of them had entered the US illegally, while others overstayed their visas.

They were deported on the C-17 plane that took off from San Antonio, Texas. This was the first round of deportation of illegal immigrants that coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington next week.

This will be PM Modi’s first visit after Donald Trump took over as US President for the second time. External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar had earlier said that New Delhi is open to the “legitimate return” of Indian nationals living illegally abroad, including in the US.

India has expressed readiness to accept these migrants, post-verification, EAM Jaishankar conveyed this to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month.

“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came,” President Trump told reporters last month.

Punjab NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal has expressed disappointment over the US decision to deport the Indians, saying they have contributed to the US economy and should have been granted permanent residency, instead of being deported.

Approximately 7,25,000 illegal immigrants from India live in the US, making it the third-largest population of unauthorised immigrants after Mexico and El Salvador, according to data from the Pew Research Centre.

Many people from Punjab, who are now facing deportation, had entered the US through the “donkey route” or other illegal means by spending lakhs of rupees. The US administration has launched a crackdown against illegal immigrants after Trump became the President.

Kolkata, Feb 4: The five accused in the multi-crore financial irregularities case at state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata, including the former and controversial principal of the institute Sandip Ghosh, on Tuesday, sought exemption from the case.

Besides Ghosh, four others who have sought similar exemption from the case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), are his assistant-cum- bodyguard Afsar Ali, private contractors Biplab Sinha and Suman Hazra and a junior doctor Ashish Pandey. All of them are in judicial custody now.

The hearing for framing of charge in the case is likely on Wednesday at a special court in Kolkata. It is learnt that the hearing on exemption petitions by the five accused will be conducted simultaneously with the hearing on charge-framing.

On January 28, the Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed the CBI, which is investigating the case, to complete the process of framing charges against the five accused individuals by February 6.

Recently, Ghosh also approached the bench of Justice Ghosh with a plea seeking more time before the framing of the charges could begin. However, Justice Ghosh summarily rejected the petition.

As per the chargesheet filed by CBI in the financial irregularities case, the main charges are manipulations in the tendering process, getting infrastructure-related work at R.G. Kar done by private outsourced agencies bypassing the state Public Works Department, “smuggling” bio-medical wastes from the hospital and selling the organs of the unidentified bodies coming to the hospital morgue for autopsy.

In the charge sheet, the investigating officials also gave details on the skyrocketing increase in the quantum of assets and properties of the accused persons, especially Ghosh, during his tenure as the R.G. Kar principal.

In the chargesheet, Ghosh has been identified as the mastermind of the financial irregularities in the case.

New Delhi, Feb 4: The Delhi Police on Tuesday registered two cases – first against Chief Minister Atishi for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and another against her supporters for obstructing government work and attacking police.

CM Atishi’s convoy of 10 vehicles carrying her 50-60 supporters reached Fateh Singh Marg and when police asked her to return, citing MCC enforcement, she refused to comply.

A case was booked against CM Atishi on the complaint of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

After being booked, Atishi, the AAP candidate for the Kalkaji seat, slammed the Delhi Police and ECI for “acting in a partisan manner”.

In a post on social media platform X, she alleged that her opponent Ramesh Bidhuri’s family was openly violating the MCC but no action was taken against them.

Hitting out at Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, she said: “The Election Commission is also amazing! Ramesh Bidhuri ji’s family members are openly violating the Model Code of Conduct. No action is being taken against them.

“I filed a complaint and called the police and @ECISVEEP, and they filed a case against me! Rajiv Kumar ji: How much will you ruin the electoral process,” CM Atishi’s post read.

On the other hand, the BJP candidate for the Kalkaji seat, Ramesh Bidhuri’s nephew Manish Bidhuri has been booked under the Representation of People Act.

Campaigning for the Delhi Assembly polls ended on Monday, with 699 candidates vying for 70 constituencies.

The Delhi elections are being viewed as a referendum on the ruling AAP’s governance model in the national Capital for the last ten years.

They will also decide the BJP’s future in Delhi for the next five years and also if the Congress will be able to make a comeback in the national Capital.

The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to polls on Wednesday and the results will be declared on February 8.