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Police arrest a total of 28 people for defrauding Times of India of Rs 15 crore

OpIndia Staff
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Police arrest a total of 28 people for defrauding Times of India of Rs 15 crore

The Mumbai police on Friday arrested four more people in connection with defrauding Times of India of Rs 15 crores, taking the total arrest tally to 28, as reported by Indian Express.

As reported by us on 10 May, the Crime Branch has arrested 18 people after a complaint of cheating and forgery was filed by the senior editor of The Times of India, Derick D’sa, who has accused his personal assistant Amit Mayekar of making fraudulent payments to the tune of Rs. 15 crore over five years.

As alleged by the senior editor, the main accused Mayekar was tasked with issuing payment to freelance journalists but started creating bogus invoices under the name of individuals who never wrote for the newspaper. Mayekar then got the senior editor to sign these invoices which numbered in the thousands.

This scam supposedly went on for 5 years and involved 78 fake individuals, after which it was finally spotted by the auditors. Following this, the senior editor filed a complaint of cheating and forgery against his assistant.

As per a DNA report, Mayekar had been a Times of India employee for about the decade but started his syphoning much later. These fake freelancers are believed to have been paid about Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh each.

Under the latest action by the Mumbai police, the four arrested are the relatives of Mayekar and his brother-in-law Ameya Sawant. Following this, the four arrested along with Mayekar and Sawant were produced before a magistrate and sent to police custody till 22 May.

The report also quoted a senior police officer who claimed that Mayekar’s wife and father were also involved in this scam, for allowing their bank accounts to be used to route the freelance funds.

The magistrate is expected to rule on the bail application of other 20 accused in the matter on Saturday.

Gujarat government officer claims to be Lord Vishnu’s 10th avatar, says can’t come for work

Jhankar Mohta
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Gujarat government officer claims to be Lord Vishnu’s 10th avatar, says can’t come for work

A Gujarat government official has claimed that he is Kalki, the tenth incarnation of Vishnu, and can’t come to the office because he is conducting a “penance” to “change the global conscience”.


As a reply to the show cause notice served to him, which read, “Such unauthorized absence does not suit a gazetted officer. Work of the agency is getting hampered because of your absence.” Rameshchandra Fefar the superintending engineer with the Sardar Sarovar Punarvasvat Agency (SSPA) came up with this bizarre reply that the country is getting rain only due to his severe penance.

He claimed that he is the 10th avatar of Lord Vishnu, he said “Even if you don’t believe, I am indeed the tenth incarnation of Lord Vishnu and I will prove it in coming days.” “I realized that I am Kalki Avatar when I was in my office in March 2010. Since then, I am having divine powers,”

The SSPA should decide “whether it’s more important for the agency to make me sit in the office and do time pass or do some concrete work to save the country from drought,” he said, adding “Just because I am Kalki Avatar, India got good rains.”

This ludicrous comment by the government officer went viral on social media attracting many reactions.


This is not the first time any government official has made this bizarre excuse for not going to work. In 2005, The Hindu had reported of an IPS officer Inspector General Devendra Kumar Panda, who had since 1991 donned the role of Radha, beloved of Lord Krishna.

Three CPM workers arrested in connection with BJP activist’s murder in Kerala

OpIndia Staff
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Three CPM workers arrested in connection with BJP activist’s murder in Kerala

The Kerala police on late Friday evening arrested three CPM workers in connection with the murder of a BJP activist in Kerala, PTI has reported.

The BJP activist named Shamej was murdered on 7 May owing to formation of a “retaliatory attack” following the death of CPM leader K Babu. It has been claimed that Shamej an auto-rickshaw, was pulled out of his vehicle and then hacked to death by six assailants, in New Mahe near Kannur.

As per a local report by Kaumudi the trio has been identified as, M Shaji, R Shibin and Vijin Chandran. They were apprehended from a lodge in the town of Vadakara. All three are being suspected of having a direct involvement in the murder.

As claimed by a Manorama report, the police had earlier arrested three other individuals named Nijesh P K, Jerin Suresh and Sarath P K with regards to the crime, out of which at least two are CPM workers if a Matrubhumi report is to be believed. This latest arrest comes after the BJP’s allegation that the ruling CPM was trying to delay the investigation into the murder.

These dual killings had resulted in a reboot of political violence in the Kannur region, which had seen a lull for about four months.

Kannur, the hometown of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been witnessing violent bloodbaths with political murders since a while now. Violent attacks and killings of RSS and BJP workers have increased ever since the Left Front government took charge in Kerala in May 2016, and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving.

Back in 2016, following the news of a young BJP worker named Vishnu being hacked to death, another BJP worker named Ramith was killed in Kerala. Prior to that, it had seen the murder of 27-year-old RSS worker Sujith, who was earlier a member of the communist party.

Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam slammed for using vile and derogatory language against Karnataka governor

OpIndia Staff
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Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam slammed for using vile and derogatory language against Karnataka governor

Saturday evening began on a sombre note for the BJP in Karnataka, after its Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa resigned after taking oath barely two days ago. This was brought on owing to the BJP falling short of the required numbers to prove a majority.

For the Congress and its minority alliance partner JD(S) it marked an occasion of great victory which seems to have spurred Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, to display crass public behaviour. Nirupam while speaking to the media following Yeddyurappa’s resignation, decided to launch a vile and derogatory attack against the Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala:


As reported by ANI, Nirupam is quoted as sarcastically praising Vala for setting a new precedent with regards to loyalty. Following this he proceeded to claim that all Indians would now name their dog after Vala, as no one can set such an example of loyalty.

Such a comment against the constitutionally appointed Governor didn’t sit well with twitter users who slammed him for his comment:


Such a statement by Nirupam might not come as a surprise for some, considering his habitual offences along similar lines.

We had recently reported how he Nirupam had posted a sexist and misogynist tweet against erstwhile I&B Minister Smriti Irani after her circular against fake news was withdrawn. In his controversial tweet Nirupam called Irani a “Bahurani” (daughter in law), which was termed as sexist by social media users.

Karnataka : No full stops in politics, ever

Abhishek Banerjee
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Karnataka : No full stops in politics, ever

This afternoon B S Yeddyurappa spoke on the floor of Karnataka’s Vidhana Soudha with tears in his eyes. As those who had been defeated in the people’s court looked on, hungrily waiting to devour the mandate. They couldn’t beat him one on one. He shook their foundations, reducing the erstwhile ruling party to a whimpering support dog.

The Congress doesn’t mind eating last, eating the scraps and leftovers, as long it has something to eat.

There is a reason the BJP wanted the proceedings of the floor test telecast live. Perhaps, both by design and by accident, the grand old man of the Karnataka BJP is delivering the all too familiar Vajpayee moment for BJP in the state.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLsMskk_4Nk?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent]

“Hum sankhyabal ke saamne sir jhukate hain aur aapko vishwas dilate hain ki jo karya humne apne haath mein liya hai, wo jab tak rashtra ke uddyeshya mein poora nahin kar lenge, tab tak vishram se nahin baithenge…”

Which BJP supporter can forget these words?

Who can forget the delight of the Congress when these words were uttered? But the Congress would do well to remind themselves of all the water that has flowed down the Ganga since that day and ask: who has really grown in strength since that day?

Just a reminder in the immediate context of Karnataka. At that time, the BJP was by far the third force in Karnataka, with just 17% of the vote in the state. Today, Congress is hoping to play second fiddle to JDS to keep BJP out of power in the same Assembly.

When Atalji handed in that resignation, would you believe that the Congress had its own majority and its own Chief Minister in Odisha? Seems surreal….even unreal today, does it not? There was a day when Congress could actually have a Chief Minister in Odisha; today it would be lucky to save deposits.

In those days, the Congress used to be the main opposition in West Bengal. Today the Congress teams up with the CPI(M) not for power in Bengal but hoping that their combined strength can prevent BJP from becoming the main opposition. From trying to form the government to forming a coalition to have a chance of forming the opposition…

Believe it or not, the Congress used to win seats even in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in those days. In fact, it would even aim for a majority. Others who fell short of a majority would woo the Congress MLAs and get them to defect. Today, the Congress trails the Apna Dal in Uttar Pradesh.

The BJP meanwhile has grown from strength to strength. It has broken down nearly every demographic barrier that political pundits imagined would stop its relentless march. They tried to get a Brahmin-Baniya tag to stick to the BJP. The BJP kept its Brahmin-Baniya votes and went out and got itself OBC and Dalit votes.

And for good measure, the BJP now dominates the two tribal states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

They said BJP was a North Indian party, today the BJP has secured the North East and is the largest party in Karnataka and Maharashtra. In the East, Mamata Banerjee is running scared of the BJP’s rising tide. So is Naveen Patnaik in Odisha.

The day Atalji handed in that resignation in 1996, the Congress Party which had forever won power on its own, also gave up all hope of ever winning its own majority again. That day Atalji couldn’t find enough allies. Today Modi does not need allies to control the Lok Sabha. Today it is the Congress that scrounges for allies, while the BJP hunts on its own.

With today’s floor test, the Congress has consigned itself to second fiddle in one more state. It is now a footmat for a regional party.  It will never win a majority in Karnataka again.

In the months and years to come, this is a scene that you may see repeated. Perhaps you will see the BJP fall 10 seats short in Bengal, or 5 seats short in Odisha or Kerala. Some BJP leader in Bengal or Odisha will be standing where Yeddyurappa is standing today.

You will see all manner of alliances … a CPIM+Cong+TMC Mahagathbandhan in Bengal, a CPIM+Cong Mahagathbandhan in Kerala and a BJD+Cong Mahagathbandhan in Odisha.

The show will go on, with no full stops anywhere. But the forward march of the BJP shall continue. No force in the world can stop an idea whose moment has come.

To all my BJP supporter friends who might be disappointed today, I say do not worry. Cheer up because they have clearly surrendered the future to us. Rahul Gandhi is already the least successful of all the Congress dynasts. His grandmother used to dismiss nine state governments at a time. Her grandson goes around with his MLAs, offering to be footmat of some regional party. Over the next several years, we shall witness the complete and utter humiliation of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. The dream is not far now.

‘Historian’ Ram Guha gets slammed for falsely sullying Attorney General’s reputation

OpIndia Staff
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‘Historian’ Ram Guha gets slammed for falsely sullying Attorney General’s reputation

Pop Historian and one-time cricket administrator Ramachandra Guha who also specialises in propaganda decided to take on India’s Attorney General KK Venugopal, in one of his tweets on Friday:


As seen above, Guha in his tweets raised objections over the Attorney General (AG) supposedly speaking for the BJP Karnataka during the state’s electoral drama and questioned the morality of the same.

This “outburst” of Guha seems to pertain to the Congress party objecting to Governor Vajubhai Vala’s decision to invite BS Yeddyurappa to form the government in Karnataka and his subsequent swearing-in ceremony, which they wanted stopped.

As reported, the Attorney General while appearing before the Supreme Court bench (which was hearing the matter), contended that the Congress should not have filed the petition, and instead should have waited for the floor test’s outcome.

He also vehemently opposed the plea which wanted the swearing-in stayed by arguing that the apex court could not call into question the Governor’s discretion to call a party for forming the government.

As evident, Guha, raised objection over this role of the Attorney General, and indirectly attempted to bring into question his operating procedure. His attack though was soon busted by social media users, who explained to him why the Attorney General was getting involved in the case.

Following Guha’s tweet, lawyer Kartikeya Tanna produced the petition which was filed by Congress leader G Parmeshwara and others against the “Union of India”. The said petitioners in their affidavit had impleaded three respondents, out of which “union of India” was the respondent number one.

Hence as contended by Tanna, owing to the “Union of India” being made a respondent by the petitioners, the Attorney General’s association was necessitated owing to him representing the Indian Union:


The above point thereby also exposed Guha’s claim of, “the Attorney General speaking for the provincial unit of a political party” – as a lie.

Besides Tanna, other social media users to enlightened Guha in this matter:


Despite all this, Guha continued to frivolously attack the Attorney General:


This too was called out as ignorant behaviour on Guha’s part and it remains to be seen whether the same dawns on pop historian in the near future.

Congress’ spectacular U-turn after SC dismisses their plea challenging protem speaker appointment

Sanghamitra
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Congress’ spectacular U-turn after SC dismisses their plea challenging protem speaker appointment

Congress leaders are masters of U-turns. After rushing to Supreme Court trying to stall BS Yeddyurappa’s oath-taking ceremony, they had rushed to the Supreme Court again with a petition against KG Bopaiah’s appointment as protem speaker.


According to reports, during the entire hearing, Congress-JDS advocate Kapil Sibal argued against the appointment of KG Bopaiah, citing issues from his lack of seniority to previous antecedents, the whole focus of the argument from Congress-JDS was against the appointment of KG Bopaiah as protem speaker.
The SC bench, however, refused to stall his appointment.


But after the Supreme Court bench refused to stop the appointment of KG Bopaiah and ordered that the floor test is telecast live, which was just an extension of the previous arrangement that all local channels will be covering it live, the Congress took a complete u-turn.

Speaking to media, Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi claimed as if a live telecast was the very thing the Congress has been fighting for.


They even did not hesitate to do some virtue signalling while deliberately ignoring the fact that they had moved against the appointment of KG Bopaiah and not for the live telecast of the floor test.

Setback for Congress as SC bench refuses to stall the appointment of KG Bopaiah as protem speaker

Sanghamitra
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Setback for Congress as SC bench refuses to stall the appointment of KG Bopaiah as protem speaker

The 3 judge bench of the Supreme Court hearing the matter of the appointment of KG Bopiah had ordered that the floor test should be a live broadcast on all news channels.


As per latest reports, protem speaker KG Bopaiah has begun administering oaths to the elected MLAs in the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.


The Congress-JDS alliance had yesterday moved to the Supreme Court against the appointment of KG Bopaiah as the protem speaker in the Karnataka assembly to conduct the floor test. In the hearings today, Kapil Sibal, senior Congress leader and advocate represented the Congress-JDS alliance.

As per reports, the SC bench comprising Justices AK Sikri, SA Bobde and Ashok Bhushan has stated that it cannot pass an order without hearing KG Bopaiah on the matter.

Arguing on the matter, Kapil Sibal had reportedly cited the Nabal Rebia case and stated that the SC constitution bench judgement made it clear that the Governor’s discretion under Article 163 is limited and restricted. While Justice SA Bobde pointed out that there have been numerous instances in the past where the senior most member of the assembly had not been made speaker.


Kapil Sibal reportedly cited the instance where an SC bench had dismissed the decision of Bopiah as unconstitutional where he had disqualified certain members in 2010. On which Justice Bobde replied that if the Congress-JDS alliance wants to examine his suitability, the SC will have to issue a notice to him and that will mean the floor test would be postponed further.

Hearing further arguments, the bench finally ordered that the floor test should be telecast live on all channels.

Karnataka Assembly floor test : BS Yeddyurappa resigns as CM of Karnataka, Congress and JD(S) stake claim to form government

OpIndia Staff
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Karnataka Assembly floor test : BS Yeddyurappa resigns as CM of Karnataka, Congress and JD(S) stake claim to form government

The Karnataka drama seems to have come to an end with BS Yeddyurappa resigning and Congress+JD(S) alliance staking claim to form the government. But with the power factions within the alliance, it is yet to be seen how this political alliance pans out.

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Why Modi government deserves huge applause for the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code

Shashank Goyal
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Why Modi government deserves huge applause for the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code

While it was a known fact that Bank NPAs had been growing consistently under UPA 2, the true extent of the issue was uncovered only under the current NDA government.

“Deep Surgery” of India’s Banking system started in second half of 2015, with RBI conducting Asset Quality Review (AQR), a one-time special review of most of the large borrower accounts across the Banking system. AQR revealed a much higher asset quality deterioration than was earlier known. Many banks were found to be hiding bad assets under the practice of forbearance(a temporary repayment relief). AQR overrode such practices and helped determine the accurate level of bad loans that were earlier unreported by Banks. Not surprisingly, the true NPA level shot up and are now projected to be INR 9.5 lakh crore in March 2018, from INR 2.78 lakh crore in March 2015.

To emphasize the enormity of this crisis, INR 10 lakh crores (US $150 billion) is larger than the GDP of 130 countries. Due to legacy issues from previous governments, this amount is stuck with corporate borrowers, not returning to the banks, thus choking the credit growth, blocking the capital availability for other growing businesses and impeding India’s economic growth.

From IMF’s 2016 data, India’s bad loans (8.6%), were much higher than other prominent economies like China, Japan, USA or UK where this is below 2%

India’s Bad Loans compared to other economies (source: here)

In order to address the issue of mounting NPAs, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC)was passed in May 2016, which created a one-stop solution for resolving the insolvencies. The greatest strength of IBC is that it set a strict time limit for cases and the process could not go beyond 270 days (9 months).  Shortly thereafter in June 2016, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)was constituted as a quasi-judicial body with the responsibility of overseeing the insolvency process under IBC.

In June 2017, RBI identified 12 accounts (“The Dirty Dozen”), each having more than INR 5,000 crore (US $745 million) of outstanding defaults. These 12 accounts comprise 25%of total NPAs of banks.

Top 12 accounts with largest default amounts

IBC started showing results in May 2018, when NCLT approved Tata Steel’s resolution plan for Bhushan Steel. Yesterday, Tata Steel formally took control of Bhushan Steel settling about Rs 35,200 crore, or nearly two-thirds, of the loans owed to lenders. Banks, which though have taken a more than 37% haircut on their outstanding loans of Rs 56,079 crore, can now classify the assets as standard, reducing their bad loan burden. They are expected to reverse the provisions they had made against the account, significantly boosting their first-quarter results

Further, the RBI has also created a second list of 28 accounts for resolution under IBC. These accounts together amount to 40% of bad loans and are expected to be resolved by 2019. To address willful defaults in future, the government has also rolled out “Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance” in April 2018. This bill allows Government of India to henceforth confiscate all assets within and outside the country, of loan defaulters and fraudsters who have left the country to avoid facing criminal prosecution.

In a nutshell, between 2018 and 2019, 65% of total bad loans amount will be addressed by NCLT from the two lists of 40 account submitted by RBI. Many other smaller accounts are being addressed separately. NCLT benches (currently 11) may also be increased to support a speedier resolution. The NDA government deserves credit for –

  • Rolling out the much-needed Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) as a framework which provides 6 months (extensible by 3 months), time-bound insolvency resolution process
  • Arresting the leakages and bringing a part of the capital back into the system, which was completely lost in defaults
  • Further strengthening the banking system with INR 2.11 lakh crore (US $30 billion) recapitalization plan for state-run banks
  • Preventing loss to country’s wealth in future by “Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance” which enables Government of India to confiscate assets of economic offenders who leave the country

It’s still early days and one needs to wait for more results, but it’s a promising indicator if Stanley Pignal (Banking Editor at The Economist), who is quite vocal and generally critical of Indian Government’s economic policies also gives a thumbs-up to IBC and says this–

“It used to be Indian tycoons could borrow as much as they wanted & default with no fear of losing “their” companies. No more. The impact is potentially far reaching”

“A tough bankruptcy code, chastened banks and probity in Delhi have dealt a blow to cronyism”

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