Ahmedabad Blast Case: Maulana Arshad Madani will fight a legal battle against the death penalty

India: In the case, 38 convicts have been sentenced to death and 11 to life imprisonment by the special court.

Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind President Maulana Arshad Madani has given his reaction after a special court sentenced 38 convicts to death and 11 to life imprisonment in the Ahmedabad bomb blasts case . He said that this decision of the Special Court is unbelievable, we will go to the High Court against the punishment and will continue the legal battle in this matter. He further said that the eminent lawyers of the country will fight the legal battle vigorously to save the culprits from hanging.

We are sure that these people will get full justice from the High Court, in many cases, the convicts convicted by the lower courts have been acquitted by the High Court or the Supreme Court.

Maulana Arshad Madani, President, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind

He further said that a great example of this is the case of Akshardham temple attack, in which the trial court had sentenced 3 including Mufti Abdul Qayyum to death and 4 were given life imprisonment. After that the Gujarat High Court also upheld the decision of the lower court, but when the case reached the Supreme Court and we kept our point there, the Supreme Court not only acquitted all the people, but the court falsely accused innocent people of bomb blasts. The Gujarat Police was also strongly reprimanded for conspiring to implicate him.

Maulana Arshad Madani says that in most serious cases like bomb blasts, lower courts give tough decisions, but the accused always get relief from High Court and Supreme Court. We hope that in this case also the accused will get relief. If need be, we will go to Supreme Court in this matter also.

Maulana Arshad Madani, President, Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind

Referring to the earlier cases, Maulana Madani said that after the 11 accused who were earlier sentenced to death by the lower courts and high courts, Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind fought the case in the Supreme Court and found one accused. The hanging was not given.

He said that earlier in the case of attack on the US consulate, seven people were sentenced to death and one accused was sentenced to death by the Mumbai sessions court. But due to the efforts of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, seven accused were acquitted with respect, while the sentence of two persons was reduced to seven years.

He said that we hope that we will also be able to save the accused in this case from hanging and life imprisonment from the Supreme Court and get them acquitted.

ABG Shipyard Scam: The Nirav Modi case also fell short in front of the country's biggest bank scam

India: In ABG Shipyard Scam, 28 banks were accused of defrauding about 29 thousand crores

India's largest private shipbuilding company ABG Shipyard is in discussion these days. It is being discussed not for any of his projects but for carrying out the alleged biggest banking scam in the history of the country. 22,842 crore loan default is being probed against this Gujarat-based firm and its directors. CBI has registered a case and started investigation. This is a bigger scam than the scam done by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi in 2017 in which Punjab National Bank was duped of Rs 13,400 crore.

According to the CBI, Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, Chairman and MD of ABG Shipyard Limited along with some others defrauded 28 banks to the tune of Rs 22,842 crore. These include SBI, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, Central Bank of India and others. On 15 February, the CBI issued a look-out circular against the accused to prevent them from leaving the country, in order that the situation like Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi's escape from the country should not arise again.

This fraud first came to light in January 2019 when it was exposed in an independent investigation conducted by SBI. According to that investigation, the fraud was committed between 2012-2017, but the CBI was informed about it in November 2019, and now the CBI has registered a formal complaint on 7 February 2022. Now many questions are arising regarding the matter. Why could the fraud go undetected for so long? How exactly did the scam happen and most pertinently, why was there a delay in registering the FIR? Here we are giving you the answers to these questions arising in the mind of a common reader.

How big a player is ABG Shipyard?

Started on 15 March 1985, this company is one of the leading companies in the shipbuilding and repair business in India. Their shipyards are located at Dahej and Surat in Gujarat. ABG Group became a big name in the shipbuilding industry during the time of its promoter Rishi Agarwal.

According to an India Today report, the company is known for manufacturing newsprint carriers, self-discharging, cement haulers, floating cranes, interceptor boats, pusher tugs and flotillas for many companies in India and abroad.

According to the Times of India, this company has built about 165 water ships in the last 16 years, out of which 46 were exported. The company also got class approvals from Lloyds, Bureau Veritas, American Bureau of Shipping etc.

that's how the mess started

This alleged scam of ABG Shipyard started after the worldwide recession of 2007-08. The main business of the company was making ships at that time. When the company suffered a loss of orders, it had piles of inventory. During this crisis, the working capital of the company decreased and the operation cycle started increasing. This increased its liquidity and financial problems.

By 2012, its treasury was almost exhausted. Further, the company did not get any new defense order, which added to its trouble. Banks tried to help the company by restructuring its debts by restructuring corporate loans. But financial fraud was allegedly resorted to by the company. It is alleged that at that time the rules were flouted a lot and by manipulating the loan from the bank, it was used for other purposes instead of the purpose for which the loan was taken.

It transferred cash from banks to its overseas subsidiaries and even transferred money to several offshore parties. According to an investigation conducted by E&Y in January 2019, this alleged fraud took place between April 2012 and July 2017.

who owes how much

The FIR lodged by SBI in November 2019 is available on the CBI website, according to which the company owes banks a total of Rs 22,842 crore. Out of this amount, ICICI owes Rs 7,089 crore, SBI Rs 2,925 crore, IDBI Bank Rs 3,639 crore, Bank of Baroda Rs 1,614 crore, Punjab National Bank Rs 1,244 crore and Exim Bank Rs 1,327 crore.

Overseas Bank owes Rs 1,244 crore and Bank of India Rs 719 crore. The FIR mentions cases of fraud by ABG Shipyard for illegal acquisition of bank funds, diversion of funds, misappropriation, criminal breach of trust.

delay in detecting fraud

The first complaint was filed in November 2019 by a consortium of banks led by SBI, eight months after the fraud was uncovered in the Ernest & Young E&Y investigation. ICICI Bank was the lead lender in the consortium of banks that extended loans to ABGSL, but SBI was the first to complain about ABG Shipyard as it is the largest PSB lender.

However, according to a Times of India report, the first complaint made in November 2019 was returned by the CBI and demanded an internal inquiry by the bank. The investigation ended after a year and SBI filed a second complaint on December 2020.

According to the report of the newspaper, SBI is conducting its investigation since December 2020 and formally on February 7, 2022, finally the CBI acted on the complaint. The agency has issued a lookout circular on February 15 against Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, former chairman and managing director of shipping firms, along with then executive director Santhanam Muthuswamy, directors Ashwini Kumar, Sushil Kumar Agarwal and Ravi Vimal Nevetia.

CBI investigation so far

CBI investigation has revealed that 98 new companies were created by ABG Shipyard to divert funds, which were later used to create personal assets. The CBI has conducted searches at 13 places in the premises of the accused including private directors of the company in Surat, Bharuch, Mumbai and Pune. Many incriminating documents, account books of the borrower company, purchase/sale details, details of board meetings, share registers, various contract files etc. were recovered from there, which are being investigated.

Along with this, the details of the bank account of the accused have also been obtained. The CBI has booked ABG Shipyard Ltd Chairman and MD Rishi Kamlesh Agarwal, former executive director Santhanam Muthuswami, former director Ashwini Kumar Agarwal, Ravi Vimal Nevetia among others on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, criminal breach of trust and abuse of official position under various sections of the IPC. And a case has been registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

What the Center said about the 'scam'

As soon as the news of the FIR and the lookout notice surfaced, the Congress party and the opposition attacked the BJP-led central government. At a press conference, Congress national spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asked, "Why did it take five years to register an FIR for fraud of Rs 22,842 crore with 28 banks?"

In response, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that there has been no delay in determining the fraud and it usually takes 52-56 months. The Finance Minister attacked the Congress-led UPA regime of 2014, saying that the Congress was in power when the loans were given.

CAA: Crores of rupees of recovery will have to be returned to the UP government, the reason for this decision of SC?

India: The Quint had reported two years ago that it is illegal for the UP government to recover.

The UP government will have to return the recovery made from the people protesting against the CAA. The Supreme Court took this decision after a petition filed by advocate Pervez Arif Titu. However, the court has given freedom of action under the new law of the UP government (Uttar Pradesh Compensation for Damage to Public and Private Property Act, 2020). The Quint had told 2 years ago in December 2019 itself that it is illegal for the Yogi government to recover from people protesting against CAA.

UP government had sent 274 notices

In December 2019, the Yogi Adityanath government had sent 274 notices to protesters against the Centre's controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), demanding compensation for damage caused to public property in the state during the protests.

Whereas the UP government claimed at that time that these recovery notices were in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment in 2009 (as well as subsequent orders of the Allahabad High Court). The Supreme Court said during the hearing that it was not so.

During the earlier hearing in the case, Justice Chandrachud had observed that the Supreme Court in its 2009 judgment had permitted setting up of Claims Tribunals to order compensation for damage to public property, but headed by a Judicial Officer, retired or The sitting was to be done through judges.

However, the UP government had appointed additional district magistrates i.e. administrative service officers to head claims tribunals assessing damages in 274 notices sent in December 2019. Court said,

You cannot ignore our orders. How can you appoint an ADM, when we said it should be done through judicial officers? Whatever action was taken in December 2019 was contrary to the law laid down by this Court.

Justice DY Chandrachud, February 11.

Recovery seemed illegal from the start

On 25 December 2019, The Quint had pointed out how the notices were not in accordance with the 2009 judgment of the Supreme Court.

Apart from the state's use of non-judicial officer in claims tribunal, the UP government's notices ignored the fact that any order of compensation has to be confirmed by a relevant high court after receiving a report from the claims tribunal.

The UP government also sought to use the 2011 Allahabad High Court order to support its claim, but as reported in The Quint at the time, the order referred to politically incited violence.

Justice Chandrachud had said during the hearing that the High Court order was meant to be a supplementary to the 2009 judgment of the Supreme Court, and therefore could not be used to justify the actions of the State.

In 2009 itself, the Supreme Court had held that liability can happen only when a link is established between the person's action and the loss of property. The executive officer sending notices of compensation and then deciding the validity of the claims meant that the government had become the complainant, the prosecutor and the adjudicator.

Many of the people to whom these notices were sent for lakhs of rupees were poor rickshaw pullers, hawkers and daily wage labourers. Some were over 90 years old. A notice was sent to a person who had died 6 years ago.

Inflation for the lower income group rose to 19.40%

Inflation rose 0.22% in the current week, with prices of 28 items rising and 11 items recorded in one week. Report of the Federal Bureau of Statistics

ISLAMABAD: Inflation for the low-income segments of the country has risen to 19.40 per cent. According to the details, the Federal Bureau of Statistics has released its report on the weekly inflation data, according to which the overall rate of inflation has risen from 0.22% in one week to 18.09%, as well as the lowest income segments. Inflation rose to 19.40 percent.

The report said that prices of 28 items increased, prices of 11 items decreased and 12 items remained stable in one week. Among the 28 items that have gone up in recent weeks are petrol and diesel, garlic at Rs 37.76 per kg, tomatoes at Rs 5.54 per kg, live chicken at Rs 6.21 per kg and box of matches at Rs 8 per kg. Has gone

In the recent week, ghee has become more expensive by Rs 3.83, mutton, beef, lentils, lentils, milk and curd.

Similarly, prices of 11 items decreased in the recent week, including onion 51 paise, potato 33 paise per kg, 20 kg bag of flour 3 rupees 12 paise, sugar 47 paise per kg, dal mung, dal mash, LPG and gar Has also become cheaper. On the other hand , according to Dunya News, after the increase in petroleum products in Peshawar , the prices of sugar, ghee and pulses have been increased . White lentils have gone up from Rs 180 to Rs 200 per kg, rice from Rs 180 to Rs 200 and beans from Rs 180 to Rs 200 per kg. Similarly, the price of 16 kg can of local ghee has gone up to Rs 5,760 and high quality ghee has gone up to Rs 400 to 430 per kg.