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Kerala Opposition asks Pinarayi Vijayan to break his silence as Covid rages

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Pinarayi-Vijayan

The Congress-led Opposition in Kerala on Wednesday demanded Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to break his silence as Covid is raging in the state.

Vijayan of late has not met the media and he interacts through daily Covid statements only.

Speaking to the media here, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said that they have been observing the Covid situation which is not good and the CM has turned to be a mute spectator.

“Just look into the figures and Covid is raging. Kerala leads the country in all indicators. We demand that the present expert committee which is taking care of the Covid affairs be reconstituted as it has failed miserably. Does anyone know that the minutes of the expert committee from July this year is not being given out. Data regarding Covid is being kept under the carpet and till now about 13,000 Covid deaths have been declared as natural deaths. Everything is in a mess in Kerala,” said Satheesan.

Kerala today has more than 50 per cent of the daily cases, has the maximum number of active cases besides the number of Covid deaths today are all the highest in the country, he said.

Satheesan said they have no intention to politicise this issue and all they want is that the suffering of the people should end like it has happened in other states in the country.

“For any analysis to be done, proper data has to be given and today the situation is that no data of Covid details is available in Kerala. The present strategy in testing has to change as today antigen testing constitutes 70 per cent, while in Tamil Nadu and many other states, they do only RT-PCR test, which is more accurate. I am a person who turned Covid positive twice and on one occasion, simultaneously I did both RT-PCR and antigen test. The antigen test result came as negative while the other one was positive. This is a serious lacuna in testing and that has to change,” said Satheesan.

“Another fault of the government is they are not doing contact tracing. While the general rule is if one person turns positive 20 people who came into direct contact has to be tested and is being done in many states, in Kerala for every positive patient only 1.5 contacts are being tested. In most states the private sector is also actively involved in fighting Covid. Rs 817 crore have come into the government kitty through the vaccine challenge and it should be used to buy vaccines and ensure all get vaccinated,”.

Satheesan said Vijayan has to break his silence and efforts should be made to see that proper analysis of the Covid health data is undertaken because then only the state can formulate proper strategies as a possible third wave is expected.

“All are baffled on what’s happening as not long ago Kerala was at the top of the world and this was written by the international media. Then the general impression was only Kerala is doing testing and other states are not doing, but the truth now is while data for most states are in public domain, in Kerala it’s not there,” added Satheesan.

National News

Delhi HC reserves order on Satyendar Jain’s bail plea in PMLA casev

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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday reserved its order on bail pleas of jailed Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain and his two aides in a money laundering case.

Jain has been in custody since May 30 last year and his co-accused are Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma heard arguments by accused’s counsel, Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju representing the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

A trial court court had, on November 17, 2022, dismissed the former Delhi minister’s bail application.

The HC later issued notice on his bail plea.

According to the trial court, it has prima facie come on record that Satyendar Jain was “actually involved” in hiding the proceeds of crime by paying cash to entry operators based in Kolkata and then bringing the money into three companies against the sale of shares to demonstrate that the revenue of these three companies was clean.

In the petition before the high court, Jain argued that the Special Judge and Enforcement Directorate have gravely misread and misapplied the Prevention of Money Laundering Act “by identifying proceeds of crime solely on the basis of accommodation entries”.

The accommodation entries cannot itself lead to a punishable offence under PMLA, it was argued.

Because the charge sheet has already been filed in the case, Jain said that he is “not required to be incarcerated” during the trial.

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SC to set up bench to hear Bilkis Bano plea against release of 11 convicts

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to set up a special bench to hear a plea against the release of 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, which also involves the killing of her several family members during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Advocate Shobha Gupta, representing Bano, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud. The bench, also comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, assured Gupta that a new bench will be formed to hear the case.

The Chief Justice said, “I will have a bench constituted. We need to break two benches for it. We will look at this in the evening.”

In January this year, the top court had said the question of maintainability would not arise in a matter related to remission of 11 life terms convicts.

In the plea, Bano said release of all the convicts came as a shock to the petitioner, to her grown-up daughters, to her family, and also to the society at large, nationally, and internationally.

The petition said: “The premature release of all the convicts came as a shock not only to the petitioner, to her grown up daughters, to her family, but also to the society at large, nationally and internationally, and the society across segments had shown their anger, disappointment, distrust and protest to the clemency shown by the government by releasing criminals like the 11 convicts of the case.”

Terming the release order mechanical, the plea said the premature release of the convicts in much talked about case of Bilkis Bano, has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in several agitations across the country.

All 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15, last year.

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Breaking: India removes all external security infront of the British High commission & high commissioner’s residence

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Indian security officials on Wednesday removed the protective barricades from in front of the British High Commissioner’s residence in Delhi.

The move comes a day after the Indian High Commission in London was attacked by pro-Khalistani extremists amid the ongoing crackdown on radical preacher and Waris Punjab De founder Amritpal Singh in Punjab.

The tricolour was removed and replaced by the Khalistani flag by Sikhs protesting outside the Indian High Commission. An official later took down the Khalistani flag and replaced it with a massive tricolour displayed outside the building.

Officials from the mission said the “attempted but failed” attack had been foiled and that the tricolour was now flying “grander”.

The UK Metropolitan Police said two members of security staff sustained minor injuries during the incident and an investigation has been launched.

Attack ‘disgraceful and totally unacceptable’

Responding to the incident, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan said he condemned “the violent disorder and vandalism that took place. There is no place in our city for this kind of behaviour,” he tweeted.

The British High Commissioner to India Alex Ellis described the incident as “disgraceful” and “totally unacceptable”.

Foreign Office minister Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon said he was “appalled” and the government would take the security of the Indian High Commission “seriously”.

“This is a completely unacceptable action against the integrity of the Mission and its staff,” he tweeted.

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