Politics
Chinese Visa scam: CBI is playing test cricket with me, mocks Karti Chidambaram
Congress MP Karti P. Chidambaram on Saturday appeared before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for the third straight day to record his statements in connection with Chinese Visa Scam.
While interacting with the media, Karti Chidambaram said that he had written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against the CBI for seizing his confidential parliamentary papers and is awaiting his reply.
He also took a dig at the investigation agency by likening his interrogation to a test cricket game and termed it a “tactic” of harassment and political vendetta.
On Thursday, the CBI grilled Karti – son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram – for about six hours. The following day again, the questioning went on for about six hours.
S. Bhaskararaman his Chartered Accountant, is currently in custodial remand of the CBI. Karti will be confronted with him. The CBI had told the court that it wants to confront both the accused.
The CBI has also recovered 65,000 emails in the matter which will be used as evidence.
According to sources, a sales deed recovered during the raids is very important. This sales deed is of a property bought in Jor Bagh and the power of attorney is in the name of Bhaskararaman whereas the property was bought by Karti and his mother.
Karti Chidambaram will be questioned in this connection.
According to an FIR filed recently, a Mansa (Punjab) based private firm, Talwandi Sabo Power Limited, took help of a middleman and allegedly paid Rs 50 lakh to get the Visa issued for Chinese nationals to help completion of the project before the deadline.
“The Mansa (Punjab) based private firm was in the process of establishing a 1,980 MW thermal power plant and establishing of plant was outsourced to a Chinese company. The project was running behind its schedule. In order to avoid penal actions for the delay, the said private company was trying to bring more and more Chinese persons, professionals for their site at district Mansa (Punjab) and needed Project VISAs over and above the ceiling imposed by Ministry of Home Affairs,” said the CBI official.
The official said that for the purpose, the representative of the said private company approached a person based at Chennai through his close associate and thereafter they devised a back-door way to defeat the purpose of ceiling (maximum of Project VISAs permissible to the company’s plant) by granting permission to re-use 263 Project VISAs allotted to the said Chinese company’s officials.
In pursuance of the same, the said representative of Mansa based private company submitted a letter to Ministry of Home Affairs seeking approval to re-use the Project VISAs allotted to this company, which was approved within a month and permission was issued to the company.
“A bribe of Rs 50 lakh was allegedly demanded by said private person based at Chennai through his close associate which was paid by the said Mansa based private company. The payment of said bribe was routed from Mansa based private company to said private person of Chennai and his close associate through a Mumbai based company as payment of false invoice raised for Consultancy and out of pocket expenses for Chinese visas related works whereas the private company based at Mumbai was never in any kind of work relating to VISAs rather it was in an entirely different business of industrial knives,” said the CBI official.
It has been alleged that Karti’s father P. Chidambaram allegedly helped the Chinese getting visas by flouting rules.
The CBI officials said that they were looking into the matter.
National News
Tiger Shroff firing case: Juvenile among 3 detained in Rajasthan Kota

Three alleged shooters involved in the assassination attempt on Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff have been caught at Rajasthan’s Kota railway station while travelling by train, sources said.
All three were detained during a joint operation by the Rajasthan Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) and the Kota City Police and are currently being interrogated.
According to the sources, a juvenile is among those detained.
One of the accused has been identified as Hritik Kumar alias Roshan (22), a resident of Piprai village in Bihar’s Begusarai district, currently residing near the Urdu School in Mumbai’s Andheri West and working as a bike rider.
The third accused is identified as Rehan (18), a resident of Haryana’s Sonipat.
Earlier, Mumbai’s Juhu Police have registered a case against three unidentified persons in connection with the firing incident involving the actor, in which his caretaker and driver, Firdos Ibrahim Baloch, sustained injuries.
The FIR has been registered under Sections 109(1) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with relevant provisions of the Arms Act. Police are investigating the incident to identify and apprehend the assailants and establish the roles of the other suspected individuals involved in the attack.
According to the complaint, the incident took place on the evening of October 18, 2026, at around 7 p.m., when Tiger Shroff was returning by car after playing football.
Two unidentified assailants allegedly opened fire at the vehicle using pistols, injuring Baloch. Another person present in the area was also hit by a bullet during the shooting, police said.
The complaint states that the attack took place while they were returning after the game. As their car exited the school grounds and turned left, two unidentified men allegedly approached and opened fire at the vehicle from the front and its left side.
After the shooting, the assailants fled from the spot.
Meanwhile, interrogation of the detained individuals is underway at Kota City Police Station and further details are underway.
International News
US intelligence blackout hurt Ukraine: Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United States temporarily suspended crucial intelligence sharing with Ukraine for three days, leaving its forces without American warnings of Russian ballistic missile attacks during that period.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Zelensky also said restrictions on satellite communications used by Ukrainian forces had not been fully lifted, raising fresh questions about Washington’s military and intelligence support for Kyiv.
The Ukrainian leader said the intelligence interruption affected information that only the United States could provide, particularly advance warnings of ballistic missile strikes.
“We didn’t see attacks of Russia using ballistic missiles,” Zelensky said.
He said Ukraine continued receiving intelligence from European governments and other international partners, but their capabilities could not fully replace American systems.
“We have dozens of countries who help. But only United States has this unique intelligence to say, to tell us, to tell our side when Russia uses ballistic missiles,” he said.
“And we didn’t get it during ballistic attacks during three days.”
Zelensky said the intelligence-sharing arrangement had since been restored.
“It was blocked for some period of time. And then it was deblocked by American side. We are very thankful for this. Now it works,” he said.
The disclosure came amid growing tensions between Washington and Kyiv over President Donald Trump’s handling of the war with Russia.
Zelensky also raised concerns about restrictions affecting Starlink, the satellite internet network operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and its military-related services.
Asked whether the interruption had been deliberate, Zelensky said Ukrainian military officials believed the restrictions originated with the American government.
“Of course the message came from government. I don’t know from whom, what cabinet, and etc,” he said.
He added that Ukrainian officials believed SpaceX had technically implemented the restrictions following instructions from Washington.
Zelensky acknowledged that he did not know which American official might have authorised the move.
Asked whether satellite services had been fully restored, he replied: “No, not of course. We have limitation.”
The Ukrainian President’s account was challenged by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who appeared separately on the same programme.
Bessent said Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had denied that anyone in the administration ordered restrictions on Starlink.
“President Trump and Secretary Rubio have categorically said that no one in the Trump administration did that,” Bessent said.
He called Zelensky’s allegation reckless and said he had no information about the reported intelligence interruption.
“Again, I don’t know anything about that, but we’ve been very clear,” Bessent said.
The conflicting accounts left unresolved who was responsible for the communications disruption and why American intelligence sharing had been temporarily interrupted.
Zelensky said Ukraine remained dependent on American military assistance despite its growing network of European partners.
“If it’s without United States’ support, it’s very difficult,” he said.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, American intelligence, weapons and satellite communications have played an important role in Ukraine’s defence against Russian military operations, including missile and drone attacks.
Crime
Pune: 70-year-old man duped of Rs 4.81 lakh in pension card fraud

A 70-year-old man was cheated of Rs 4.81 lakh by cyber fraudsters on the pretext of pension card registration in the Baner area in Pune, Maharashtra.
The victim, Dilip Eknath Waikar, a resident of Pashan, received a WhatsApp message regarding pension card registration between September 8 and 9. He was asked to open the message and enter his bank account details. Subsequently, he discovered that Rs 4.81 lakh had been fraudulently withdrawn from his account.
Following the incident, a case was registered at Baner police station under Sections 318(4) and 318(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66(D) of the Information Technology Act. The identity of the accused remains unknown, and no arrests have been made so far.
In a similar incident reported in September, a 72-year-old retired bank employee was cheated of Rs 5 lakh after clicking on a Facebook advertisement offering a pension card. The victim, a resident of Makarba, approached the Sarkhej police after noticing an unauthorised transaction in his bank account.
According to his complaint, the retired banker came across an advertisement on Facebook on September 6 offering a pension card purportedly issued by a bank. Believing the advertisement to be genuine, he applied for the card through the link provided.
The following day, he received a call from an unknown mobile number. The caller allegedly informed him that his pension card had been approved and asked him to provide his name, address and other personal details to complete the registration process.
The victim told police that he shared the requested information, including his bank account details, with the caller.
He subsequently received an email alert regarding an online transaction worth Rs 5 lakh from his account. Realising that he had not authorised the transaction, he suspected fraud and immediately contacted the cybercrime helpline at 1930.
Upon checking his bank account, he discovered that the money had been transferred online to an account maintained with Punjab National Bank.
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