Home Blog Page 6806

In yet another goof-up Congress IT cell wishes birth anniversary to former PM Narasimha Rao on his death anniversary

OpIndia Staff
-
0
In yet another goof-up Congress IT cell wishes birth anniversary to former PM Narasimha Rao on his death anniversary

The Congress party often known for its major goof-ups has come out with another embarrassing episode after they remembered former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao by celebrating his birth anniversary insensitively on the day of his demise.

The Congress party tweeted, “P.V. Narasimha Rao, the 9th PM of India, dismantled the License Raj and oversaw the biggest economic reform the country has seen till date. His contributions to the nation shall always be remembered as we honour him today on his birth anniversary.”

Congress tweeting birthday wishes to PV Narsimha Rao on his death anniversary

PV Narasimha Rao, India’s ninth Prime Minister is one of the tallest statesmen of the country. During his term as Prime Minister from 1991-96, he ushered the much-touted economic reforms also known as Liberalisation of Indian economy. He was the first holder of this office from a non-Hindi-speaking region, belonging to southern India. Rao was personally responsible for the dismantling of the Licence Raj and is often referred to as the “Father of Indian Economic Reforms”.

PV Narasimha Rao who passed away on December 23, 2004, after suffering from a heart attack. Rao’s family wanted the body to be cremated in Delhi as it was his “karmabhoomi”. It is often alleged that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi did not want PV Narasimha Rao’s body to be cremated in Delhi and ensured that the body was moved to Hyderabad.

Sonia Gandhi also ensured that the body of the former Prime Minister and former Congress President Rao’s body was not allowed inside to enter the AICC (All India Congress Committee) compound. His body stayed parked in a carriage outside the gate and the party made sure that there was no state funeral for him.

The Congress party might have realised their goof-up and deleted the tweet after it received flak in the social media for the lack of knowledge about its own great leaders.

This is not the first time Congress IT cell has tweeted such insensitive tweets. The Congress IT cell is often known for spreading fake news, hate and lies and has been caught several times for propagating such half-truths. Recently, it also had a similar moment, when it had paid tributes to reformist Raja Ram Mohan Roy on his death anniversary but they had wished him on his birth anniversary.

Stupendous hypocrisy of Rahul Gandhi: ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ before elections, opposes GST rate cut after winning 3 states

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Stupendous hypocrisy of Rahul Gandhi: ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ before elections, opposes GST rate cut after winning 3 states

Among the several issues that Rahul Gandhi, Congress Party President has lied about repeatedly, one of them was always the Goods and Service Tax (GST). The GST was perhaps one of the most large-scale tax reforms that a country, the size of India, had ever undertaken. GST unified taxes levied on goods and services.

The Modi government managed to get the consent of all parties, including Congress, before notifying the GST and has since been tweaking the products under various slabs to ensure consumers can extract maximum benefit.

However, Rahul Gandhi has been constantly referring to the GST as “Gabbar Singh Tax”. He has asserted in the past that the tax slabs are too high and that the government is almost indulging in extortionist tactics.

He had made the asinine demand of every product being taxed at 18%. This would essentially mean that essential goods and luxury cars would be taxed at the same rate.

The Modi government today did the more prudent thing by shifting several items from the higher tax slab of 28% to the 18% GST slab or lower. Now, only 28 luxury items, also called sin goods, remain in the 28% category.

This was another promise delivered by the Modi government. Just 4 days ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asserted that soon, 99% of Goods and Services would be brought under the 18% GST slab or lower.

However, while the country celebrated this move which would prove to be a massive relief for the consumers and especially the middle class, Rahul Gandhi’s Congress was reportedly singing a different tune.

According to a media report, during the GST council meet today, Congress opposed Modi government’s move to reduce the GST rates on several items.

A portal called BTVI News reported that officials from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, states that have just been wrested from BJP by the Congress, opposed the GST rate cut because they viewed it as a political move.

This reminds one of another analogy. Rahul Gandhi has been temple-hopping for some time now in a bid to wash away his anti-Hindu image. While he has been indulging in his pseudo-Hindutva, senior Congress leaders had gone to the Supreme Court and asserted that the Ram Mandir verdict should be delayed and delivered only after 2019 because a verdict now could influence 2019 elections. Basically, they feared that if a Ram Temple was built in Ayodhya, Hindus would rally behind Narendra Modi in 2019.

Just like Rahul Gandhi was ready to sacrifice the building of Ram Mandir due to political considerations, after screaming about how the Modi government should reduce GST rates, his governments from 3 states have today shamelessly opposed the GST rate cut which would benefit the middle class.

Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore too took to Twitter and reacted to Rahul Gandhi’s hypocrisy.


Others commented on how his stands change before and after elections.


Rahul Gandhi has displayed his hypocrisy on several issues that matter. This seems to be just another case.

BJP corners Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after Court orders eviction from National Herald building

OpIndia Staff
-
0
BJP corners Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after Court orders eviction from National Herald building

The Union Minister and Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad today launched a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi after the Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) to vacate the property of the National Herald. Prasad accused Gandhi family of squatting the government property and clandestinely transferring it in their name through trusts like Young India.


Citing the court judgment, Prasad claimed that the Associate Journal Limited declared closure of all press operations when the Income Tax department approached them. AJL asserted that they had ceased their operations in April 2008 and had given out voluntary retirement to their employees then. However, when the centre issued an order to vacate the government land, they claimed that their operations are continuing there. The inspecting agencies found that no press unit was working on the premises for 10 years and its lease agreement was being used only for commercial purposes.

Prasad also alleged that since the main activity of printing newspaper had stopped, the AJL cannot be allowed to retain the property only to receive rent worth Rs70-80 lakh from it. Prasad also claimed that the National Herald’s assets worth more than Rs 5000 crore were surreptitiously transferred to the Young India Trust for a meagre amount of Rs 50 lakh.

Taking a jibe at Rahul Gandhi, Prasad said, ” The double standard is apparent. Rahul Gandhi is today asking many questions on Rafale deal despite the Supreme Court’s verdict. Will he and his mother explain how they transferred property worth crores on their name through Young India for just 50 lakhs? How can an organisation like Young India get 99% of the AJL’s leased out government property transferred to them?”

The AJL had filed an appeal against the centre’s order to vacate the premises. Justice Sunil Gaur rejected the appeal challenging the October 30 order of the centre to end the 56-year-old lease and ruled that the agency will vacate the ITO located in two weeks. After that, the process of evicting unauthorized occupiers will start. In its defence, the AJL had said that they are still operating the newspaper and its web version was launched in 2016. The Supreme Court had earlier allowed re-assessment of Income-tax files of the National Herald.

Modi delivers: Only 28 luxury items remain in 28% GST slabs, rates slashed for several goods

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Modi delivers: Only 28 luxury items remain in 28% GST slabs, rates slashed for several goods

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the government’s aim to bring 99 percent of all items below the 18 percent GST slab, today 31st GST council meeting was chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with finance ministers from states in the National Capital. Its aim was to rationalize and announce tax cuts for goods of everyday consumption and bring them under 18% slab.

Financial Minster after the meeting announced that only 28 items of luxury remain under the slab of 28%, and all other products of common needs have been moved under the 18% slab. Products like monitors, tyres, power banks, lithium-ion batteries have been brought to 18% slab and accessories related to specially-abled people to 5%.

Products like components of automobiles, cement, air conditioners, and dishwashers will continue under the existing slab of 28%. Although GST reduction of cement was highly anticipated, the Finance Minister said that the reduction in tax on cement and the automobile parts will have fiscal implications as the total revenues from these products is around Rs 33,000 crores.

GST on real estate will be discussed in next council meeting along with taxation on lottery. Arun Jaitley said that  Law Fitment Committee will take a view on real estate in the next meeting.


The Council has also advised for the reduction of GST on Solar power generating plants. The tax rate on movie tickets above Rs 100 was brought under 18% slab. GST on third-party insurance premiums has also been slashed to 12% from 18%.

Vegetables (cooked or uncooked), and frozen vegetables have been shifted to zero percent slab from previous 5%. Bank’s services to Jan Dhan bank account holders will also not invite any tax rate slab.


”Today’s GST rate reduction will have an overall impact on revenue of Rs 5.500 crore” FM Jaitley has asserted.

These announcements are the biggest changes ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Sparing a few luxury items, a majority of the products have been transferred under a slab of 18%. These tax cuts will come into effect from January 1, 2019.

AgustaWestland: Court rejects Christian Michel’s bail plea, sends him to 7-day ED custody

OpIndia Staff
-
0
AgustaWestland: Court rejects Christian Michel’s bail plea, sends him to 7-day ED custody

The Patiala House court today rejected Christian Michel’s bail appeal, handing his custody to the Enforcement Directorate for 7 days. The court had yesterday allowed ED’s petition seeking Michel’s production in court over a money-laundering case.


The Enforcement Directorate had asked for Michel’s custody for 15 days. The special judge  Arvind Kumar allowed the ED permission to interrogate Christian Michel in the court for 15 minutes and later granted them his custody for 7 days. The court had earlier reserved its order on Michel’s bail plea on December 19 and had sent him to judicial custody till December 28. Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI. The other two are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. The ED, in its charge sheet filed in June 2016 had alleged that Michel received EUR 30 million (about Rs 225 crore) from AgustaWestland.

Christian Michel is accused of money laundering, bribery, and fraud in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore worth AgustaWestland scam. It is believed that not only did he pay kickbacks to politicians, officers, and agents but also involved certain celebrity journalists to swing the deal.

Christian Michel was extradited from Dubai to India on 4th December 2018. He was produced in the court on the next day, which granted his 5-day custodial interrogation to the CBI. The CBI got his custody extended by 5 days and later by another 4 days.

Indira Gandhi killed democracy, Rahul Gandhi killed decency

Nirwa Mehta
-
0
Indira Gandhi killed democracy, Rahul Gandhi killed decency

Congress President Rahul Gandhi published a tweet today which was open to various interpretations and insinuations, listing out high profile politicised deaths claiming ‘no one killed them’.


The names mentioned by Rahul Gandhi are certainly interesting.

Former Gujarat Minister Haren Pandya was assassinated by Islamist radicals on 26th March 2003. Sohrabuddin Shaikh, a notorious gangster was accused of having killed the former minister. Sheikh was an underworld criminal with links to the Sharifkhan Pathan alias Chhota Dawood and Abdul Latif gangs, and with Rasool Parti and Brajesh Singh, both known to be close to India’s underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim. Tulsiram Prajapati was Sohrabuddin Sheikh’s close aide. It is believed that Prajapati was an eyewitness in Sohrabuddin encounter case.

Shaikh was killed in an encounter on November 26, 2005, near Ahmedabad along with his wife Kauser Bi. A year later, on December 27, 2006, Prajapati was also shot dead by Gujarat and Rajasthan police in an encounter near Chapri on Gujarat-Rajasthan border. A special CBI court yesterday acquitted all accused in the case.

Special CBI judge, Judge Loya, who was hearing the Sohrabuddin encounter case, died of cardiac arrest on 1st December 2014 in Nagpur. A report published by Caravan last year raised quite a few eyebrows on his death, but the propaganda that Judge Loya was murdered was duly busted.

Congress had alleged that retired district Prakash Thombre and advocate Shrikant Khandalkar ‘died under mysterious circumstances’. However, despite the allegations, the Supreme Court called the petitions ‘scandalous’ and ordered no probe in Judge Loya’s death. In fact, the judicial ‘whistleblowers’ used by Congress in the Judge Loya case have extremely questionable past.

However, by politicising these unfortunate deaths, Congress has killed decency. Rahul Gandhi’s tweet casting aspersions on these deaths, despite the law having taken its course on them is a very low form of humanity the Congress President has displayed today.

It shows how in politics, no one really ‘dies’. They are all kept alive so that whenever the need arises, they are brought alive to perpetuate the propaganda.

To further the agenda, Congress sides with criminals, calling their encounters extra-judicial killing, finds a conspiracy when there are none, puts up allegations and accusation which the Supreme Court also throws out. And when that happens, Congress goes on rhetoric, building a narrative that all independent agencies, including the judiciary, are ‘compromised’. They are not ‘compromised’ when judgements are in their favour like EVMs were not hacked when Congress won in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

We saw the exact same narrative with the Rafale case as well. Rahul Gandhi screamed “chowkidaar chor hai” from the rooftops. His allegations were baseless and were debunked several times. Yet, his rhetoric continued. Unfortunately, Rahul’s lies did not stop even after the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice of India himself delivered a verdict saying that the Rafale deal was clean and a matter of national security.

It is often said that Congress is more dangerous out of power than in power. While in power, they will devise bills like the Communal Violence Bill which proclaimed that only Muslims could be victims in communal cases and shamelessly further the concocted “Hindu terror narrative”. While out of power, they will dance for the electorate. Make promises they can’t keep. Create fantastical lies even if it means compromising national security like in the case of Rafale and Doklam and proudly tout their sympathy for terrorists, thieves, gangsters etc smartly packaging it with frills called social justice.

This is exactly what Rahul Gandhi and his lackeys have been doing for the past 4 years and their delusions seem to have no end. Today as well, Rahul Gandhi, despite court verdicts, insinuated conspiracy and sympathised with gangsters and terrorists. In the race to occupy the seats of political power again, the Congress clearly is willing to disregard every fibre of decency, morality and responsibility. Whether that gets them political dividends, we will know only in 2019.

Lord Hanuman: The latest God that politicians wish to exploit, all the while, making a fool of themselves

Sanghamitra
-
0
Lord Hanuman: The latest God that politicians wish to exploit, all the while, making a fool of themselves

A lot is being said about Hanuman ji in recent days. First, there was a manufactured controversy where UP CM Yogi Adityanath was misquoted by media. Media reports claimed that Yogi Adityanath has said Hanuman ji was a Dalit, which was soon found to be gross misquotation and misrepresentation of facts.

Indian political scenario nowadays competes and sometimes defeats Bollywood in absurdity and drama content. More often than not, we find ourselves checking whether a news portal is real or a parody one, because, such is our predicament that parodies sound real while real sounds increasingly like parody these days.

Another glimpse of it was witnessed yesterday when BJP legislator Bukkal Nawab claimed that Hanuman ji was a Muslim. Though he did not claim copyrights over Bajrangbali, he said that he thinks Hanuman ji was a Muslim. His reasoning, all Muslim names like Rehman, Suleiman, Farman are inspired from Hanuman.


Twitter users had some more ideas to further the reasoning of deep secrets behind rhyming vocabulary.

Via Twitter
Via Twitter

We Hindus believe that Hanuman ji is immortal and he has been present all along since Treta Yug to modern days. Now another BJP leader has claimed that Hanuman ji is probably Jaat, considering his ‘nature’. Recently, there was also a claim of Hanuman ji being a Jain.

It is not even the first time that Hanuman ji is being discussed in a political context. Not long ago, images of Hanuman ji, created by artist Karan Acharya went immensely popular all over the country. Soon, secular, liberal intellectuals started complaining how the ‘Angry Hanuman’ represents a ‘militant-Hindu’ stereotype and is fanning communalism in India.

Now that Hanuman ji’s caste, nature and probably political affiliations are being discussed, let us elaborate the issue a bit.

Hanuman ji is the son of a King, Kesari and his wife, Anjana. Now, regarding his birthplace, many believe that he was born in Gokarna in Karnataka, some say he was born on the Anjeneya hill near Hampi, also in Karnataka. Before the Karnataka government stakes a claim over Hanuman ji’s home state status, let it be known that Maharashtra too claims that Hanuman ji was born at a place called Anjaneri mountain in Nasik district.

What if Hanuman ji is a Kannadiga first, well the rioting people in Bengaluru who torched a hundred buses in 2016 during the Kaveri agitation did imitate some of his activities on a minuscule scale. But Hanuman ji is vegetarian, so we don’t think he will be motivated to burn anything for a plate of biriyani.

While people in the Hindi-belt can argue over Hanuman ji being Jaat, Muslim or Gujjar, the newly formed government in Sri Lanka might sue him and claim compensation for burning their capital city to ashes. considering they had to lease an entire port to China recently, the financial prospects might motivate our neighbours in the south to sue our beloved god.

Since Maharashtra also seems to claim his birthplace, an all-out inter-state war between Karnataka and Maharashtra for claiming Hanuman ji as their own cannot be ruled out either. Imagine a situation where Mrs Fadnavis goes on a selfie-clicking spree with Bajrangbali while HD Kumaraswamy visits 10 Janpath to seek Sonia ji’s advice on what to do next.

Any Hindu who has read Ramayan and believes in Hanuman ji knows that he is beyond the narrow definitions of caste, creed, region, and language. Born as a Rudra Avatar, Hanuman ji, who, as per Hindu scriptures, could threaten the very existence of the sun in his childhood, represents the greatness that lies beyond these narrow identities.

Like Yogi Adityanath actually said, Hanuman ji represents every Indian from north to south, rich to poor, regardless of what caste or religion they conform to. He was a war strategist, a bureaucrat, a skilled diplomat, a loyal soldier, and a fierce warrior.

If we Indians want to relate ourselves to any ‘activity’ of Hanuman ji, it should be the shedding of self-doubt and believing in our inner strength that we are capable of greater things. Like Hanuman ji was once cursed to forget his strength to cross the ocean in a single leap, we seem to have forgotten our true identities in narrow lanes of casteism and regionalism. Jai Hanuman.

Despite Congress promises, Rajasthan farmers unlikely to get waiver certificate till after 2019 elections: Report

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Despite Congress promises, Rajasthan farmers unlikely to get waiver certificate till after 2019 elections: Report

The farmers of Rajasthan may have to wait many more months to realise their dream of loans being waived-off as a report by the DNA claims that the Rajasthan government may take a longer time to implement the scheme of the loan-waiver in the state.

The report suggests that there is no clear timeline yet on how to proceed regarding the loan-waiver scheme and it will take a lot more time than expected to distribute loan waiver certificates to the farmers. Officials have added that there are practical issues and even during the previous government, the first set of certificates could only be issued in June this year after the loan waiver had been announced in February.

The loan waiver scheme announced two days back by the Congress government will have an additional burden of Rs 18,000 crore on the state exchequer. Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has claimed that the previous BJP government’s farm waiver announcement, which hadn’t been executed fully, will also add to the burden to the government.

“Our government also has to bear a major part of the fiscal burden of the scheme announced by the previous BJP government, amounting to Rs 6,000 crore, taking the total loan burden to Rs 24,000 crore,” Ashok Gehlot said.

Reportedly, some loans, around Rs 10.5-crore borrowings of 27 lakh farmers have been taken from cooperative banks, while nearly 24 lakh farmers have defaulted on repayment of their loans to the nationalised banks.

The state government officials who had worked to implement such waiver announced by the previous Vasundhara Raje government said that the policy implementation will take time.

“When the last government declared a waiver of Rs 8,000 crore for small and marginal farmers in February, it took about a quarter of this fiscal to conceive and start issuing the first batch of waiver certificates,” an official said.

The officials said that the loan amount to waive-off is about three times the amount promised earlier and hence the distribution of loan waiver certificates to farmers will be delayed unless the government convinces the banks to avail funds in the coming months to ensure the implementation before the general elections due in May.

As the model code of conduct for the election is expected to enforced in March, it is very difficult to clear the dues of 50 lakh farmers by then, the official added.

The state finance department is reportedly looking for options to proceed over the waiving of farm loans in the state. The report says that the Rajasthan government has two options, the first is to lean on the government guarantee to the banks and the other being the inclusion of loan waiver into the state budget, which will take a toll the fiscal health of the state and increase the state’s fiscal deficit.

“Last time the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) had agreed to give a loan of Rs 5,000 crore after the state government gave a guarantee to Rajasthan State Cooperative Bank for writing off farmer debts during Raje government,” an official was quoted saying in the DNA report.

A senior official said that if the government includes this loan waiver in its budget, it shall have to delay some projects and divert money from them into the implementation of the loan waiver scheme. The loan waiver amount of Rs 24,000 crore is estimated to be 11 percent of the total revenue outlay of Rs 2,12,325 crore. The loan waiver will increase the state’s fiscal deficit, which has already reached at Rs 28,011 crore in 2018-19, said an official.

The Rajasthan government seems to be following the footsteps of Madhya Pradesh government of inserting new clauses against farm loan waive-off contrary to unconditional waive-off boasted by Congress party president Rahul Gandhi. A farmer has already lost his life in Madhya Pradesh due to the politics of loan-waivers after he found that he was not eligible for a waiver.

Similarly, two farmers have ended their lives in the past week after the Congress-JDS led Karnataka government failed to waive-off the farm loans and several others have now received repayment notices against the claims of Rahul Gandhi who had said that they have completely written off loans in the state of Karnataka.

Chandrababu Naidu disagrees with MK Stalin’s endorsement of Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Chandrababu Naidu disagrees with MK Stalin’s endorsement of Rahul Gandhi as PM candidate

While speaking at the India Today Conclave South 2018, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu stated that he does not support DMK Chief M K Stalin’s stand of projecting Congress President Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Mahagathbandhan.

He said, “I made it very clear, we should not announce a candidate today. My stand is, post-elections we will decide”, he added calling Stalin’s remark “his party’s stand” and not that of the opposition.

Naidu said that the BJP does not respect the democratic institutions. He accused PM Modi of misusing the government agencies like CBI and ED against his MPs, MLAs and other functionaries. When told by the journalist that according to Centre his MPs are allegedly involved in corruption, therefore, they are being raided, Naidu taunted, “Their MPs (BJP MPs) have not come from heaven. How many cases are there against Amit Shah”, he questioned.

Naidu said that all the like-minded people and the citizens of the country need to come together to form an anti-BJP front, as he calls it, to save the fundamental right to freedom for which so many people had sacrificed their lives. He urged people to fight against PM Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and the BJP.

He talked about how there are ideological compulsions, political compulsions, and democratic compulsions. He gave the example of CPM fighting elections against Congress party in States and yet supporting it in the Centre due to ideological compulsion. He called his party’s decision of supporting BJP and opposing Congress as a political compulsion. Similarly, according to him, the coming together of the opposition parties is a “democratic compulsion”.

Naidu has become a vocal critic of BJP after he pulled his party out of the NDA earlier this year. For the Telangana assembly elections, TDP had allied with Congress. However, the alliance did not do either party much good as K Chandrasekhara Rao’s won Telangana with a decisive mandate. Many senior Congress and TDP leaders were reportedly critical of the alliance.

It is notable here that MK Stalin’s remarks were criticised by TMC too. Mamata Banerjee’s party had stated that Stalin’s announcement was wrong and the PM Candidate should be announced only after elections.

Earlier, other key political leaders like Sharad Pawar, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav too, either directly or through their party’s stand, have hinted they might not accept Rahul Gandhi as a PM candidate.

AgustaWestland case: Delhi court rejects plea of Christian Michel seeking a separate cell in Tihar jail

OpIndia Staff
-
0
AgustaWestland case: Delhi court rejects plea of Christian Michel seeking a separate cell in Tihar jail

Christian Michel, the AgustaWestland middleman, who has been kept in Tihar jail, after the Patiala House court sent him on 10-days judicial custody till December 28, was produced before the court on Saturday. The court disposed of an application whereby Michel had sought a separate cell in the Tihar jail.

The Delhi court on Friday had asked the jail authorities to respond to the application filed by Michel through his advocate, Aljo K Joseph and Vishnu Shankar, seeking a direction to the “Superintendent of Tihar Jail to allocate a separate cell to accused Christian James Michel”.

In his plea, Michel argued that some of his inmates would be released soon and any incorrect statement made by them outside might go against his interest and also may interfere in the free and fair investigation of the case.

The Delhi court, today, quashed the appeal as his counsel stated that he was already provided with a private cell in Tihar. The court instead directed Tihar authorities to ensure Michel’s safety.

Christian Michel, one of the three alleged middlemen (the other two accused are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa), being probed in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI, is a British businessman, accused of money laundering, bribery, and fraud in connection with the Rs 3,600 crore worth AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. He is being accused of paying bribes to several politicians, bureaucrats and officials in exchange to get this deal.

Michel was arrested in the UAE and extradited to India on December 4, 2018. Earlier, the Delhi court had sent Christian Michel to 5-day CBI custody for interrogation and later extended it for another four days. On December 19, the court had extended his judicial custody till December 28, and reserved for December 22 its order on the bail plea of Christian Michel.

1...6,8056,8066,807...7,673Page 6,806 of 7,673