Hyderabad, wednesday, december 9, 2015

www.thehindu.in Regd. H/SD/319/15-17 RNI No. TNENG/1976/49963 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 40 No. 292 CITY EDITION 26 Pages Rs. 4.00

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Are these ill-gotten

gains, CJI asks
Dawoods family

Karnataka Lokayukta
Y. Bhaskara Rao quits
to pre-empt removal

CAG report highlights

uncanny ways of rice
transport in States

Bose did not visit

the Soviet Union,
show documents

Page 10

Page 14

Page 15

Page 14

NATIONAL HERALD CASE

Sonia, Rahul to appear in court on

Dec. 19, Cong. disrupts Parliament
With fresh
standoff, hopes
for passage of
GST Bill recede

Illegal inflow of
foreign funds into
their firm exposed
SHARAD VYAS
MUMBAI: The Sheena Bora
murder case, in which her
mother Indrani Mukerjea and
stepfather Peter Mukerjea
are accused, has taken a new
twist following a report on
money laundering of up to
Rs. 275.5 crore by their company, INX Media.
The report, sent by the
Central Board of Direct Taxes
(a copy of which is with The
Hindu), says the Mukerjeas
laundered foreign funds into
INX Media via dubious investment firms based in Port

MEHBOOB JEELANI
& NIRNIMESH KUMAR
NEW DELHI: The Congress on
Tuesday accused the BJP-led
NDA government of conducting a political vendetta
and unfairly targeting its
leaders by using proxy litigation in the National Herald
case to divert peoples attention from failures in
governance.
Even as senior Congress
leader Abhishek Singhvi, who
represented the accused, told
the Delhi HC that party president Sonia Gandhi and vicepresident Rahul Gandhi were
keen to appear before the
judiciary, the Congress disrupted parliamentary proceedings while its youth wing
took to the streets to protest
against Union Minister V.K.
Singhs remarks comparing
Dalits to dogs.
Metropolitan magistrate
Loveleen granted an exemption to the Gandhis for a day
saying they would have to appear before the court for the
next hearing set for 3.00 p.m.

Indrani, Peter laundered

Rs. 275 crore: CBDT report

EXCLUSIVE

on December 19.
With the fresh standoff between the government and
the Congress over the case,
hopes receded for the passage
of the Goods and Services
Tax Bill in Parliament.
According to the complainant, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, the accused
including Congress leaders
Motilal Vora, Oscar Fer-

nandes, former editor Suman

Dubey and tech guru Sam Pitroda fraudulently acquired Associated Journals
Ltd. (AJL), publisher of the
now-defunct daily, National
Herald, and transferred its assets worth crores of rupees to
another company, Young
Indian.
Young Indian was in fact
created as a special purpose

vehicle for acquiring control

over Rs. 2,000 crore worth of
assets of the AJL and since all
the accused have allegedly
acted in consortium with
each other to achieve the said
nefarious
purpose/design,
there are sufficient grounds
for proceeding against all of
them, the lower court had
observed while summoning
them last year.

The HC on Monday refused to quash the summons.

As both Houses were adjourned till Wednesday,
Leader of the Opposition in
the RS, Ghulam Nabi Azad,
said: Democracy is in
danger.

BJP PERSECUTING CONG.

LEADERSHIP: SIBAL | PAGE 14

Louis, Mauritius. The infusion of huge share capital at a

substantial premium was
funnelled into eight subsidiary companies between 2007
and 2008, according to income tax documents and files
in possession of The Hindu.
Of the eight firms, six received unsecured loans and
two received share capital at
a substantial premium. One
of them received suspect foreign funding, while the remaining seven received suspect
domestic
funding,
documents show.
The new report is not part
of various investigations into
the Sheena Bora murder case,

but constitutes a tax history

of the group as documented
by the CBDT, New Delhi,
since the company was set up
in 2007.
The report, submitted by a
Government of India Deputy
Secretary in the investigation
wing of the CBDT to the Director-General of Income
Tax (DG, I&T) on May 5,
2014, reveals a complex web
and layers of conduit companies infusing domestic and
foreign capital into the INX
Group.
In 2008-09, INX Media declared a loss of Rs. 270 crore.
The same year tax sleuths
were forced to do a scrutiny

and make an addition of Rs.

275.5 crore to the groups income on account of unexplained sources of huge funds
received by the company
from domestic as well as offshore sources.
The report shows three
conduit companies: New Vernon Private Equity Limited,
New Silk Route (NSR) PE
Mauritius, and Dunearn Investment (Mauritius) making
doubtful transactions of Rs.
28.37 crore, Rs. 89.85 crore
and Rs. 89.40 crore into INX
Media Private Limited from
Assessment Year 2007-2008.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

India-Pakistan ties should

move forward, says Sushma

Cuddalore still under water, thousands cut off

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI/CUDDALORE: Relief wo
rks shifted to the next phase
in Chennai with the government focussing on rehabilitation and controlling disease
outbreaks, while in Cuddalore, vast tracts remained under water.
The flow of materials to
Cuddalore was regulated, but
thousands of residents in remote areas, cut off by waters,
continued to complain that
they were being left out.
In a major respite to the
large rural population in Cuddalore, the district administration has restarted the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment
Guarantee
Scheme (MNREGS) with the
labour force set to be utilised
for unclogging waterways
and sanitary work.
However, inundation continued in many parts of the
district on Tuesday with

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Starting a

new phase in India-Pakistan
ties, External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday in Islamabad, The message that I have come with is
that
India-Pakistan
ties
should become much better
and should move forward.
Ms. Swaraj, who is visiting
Pakistan to participate in the
Heart of Asia conference on
Afghanistan, proceeded to a
dinner with her Pakistani
counterpart Sartaj Aziz,
along with her team of diplomats Foreign Secretary S.
Jaishankar, spokesperson Vikas Swarup and MEAs Pakistan desk in-charge Gopal
Baglay.
Shortly before the departure of Ms. Swaraj, P.L. Punia
of the Congress said: The
need of the hour is to address

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj arriving in

Islamabad on Tuesday. PHOTO: PTI

terrorism. Hafiz Saeed and

Dawood Ibrahim who are
hiding in Pakistan should be
discussed during the talks.
The U.S. State Department
hailed the revival of talks,
with its spokesperson saying
that the normalisation of relations is vital to both countries and the region.
Opening the conference,

Mr. Aziz said the Heart of

Asia process is contributing
to greater coherence to the
work of other regional organisations,
projects
and
processes.
(With inputs from PTI)

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
SECURING THE PACE OF

TALKS | EDITORIAL

SRUTHISAGAR YAMUNAN
& R. SIVARAMAN

People load a fishing vessel onto a lorry after a rescue operation at Tiruvottriyur in Chennai.
The northern parts of the city have complained of neglect in relief. PHOTO: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

about 30,000 persons languishing in relief camps and

1.25 lakh accessing food in 71
government centres.
The Hindu had reported on
Tuesday about the flooding of
close to an estimated 55,000
hectares of cropping land and
how the lack of MNREGS
works had made the rural

population dependent on relief materials.

Senior IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who is overseeing the relief operations in
Cuddalore, said officials were
instructed to provide work to
at least 200 persons in every
habitation. This would help
put money in their hands to

meet crucial expenses, the

IAS officer said.
Officials said levels in all
water bodies were under control. On Tuesday, parts of the
district received mild rainfall.
Army sources said that in
medical camps run on MonPARLIAMENT TO PASS
day and Tuesday, some villag- RESOLUTION ON CHENNAI
ers reported rain-related ail- FLOODS | PAGE 14

BRIEFLY

Share Krishna water without troubling

neighbouring States, AP and TS told

Trumps anti-Muslim
remark triggers rebuke

NEW DELHI: The odd-even

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

idential candidate Donald

Trumps call to bar Muslims
from entering the U.S. has
triggered sharp responses
from different quarters,
ranging from the White
House
to
Republican
leaders.
We have, in our Bill of
Rights, respect for the freedom of religion, one of
President Barack Obamas
top foreign policy aides, Ben
Rhodes, told CNN. reacting
to Mr. Trumps comment.
New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie of the Republican Party termed it ridiculous. Former Florida Governor and one of the
Republican contenders for
presidential ticket, Jeb Bush,
tweeted: Donald Trump is
unhinged. His policy proposals are not serious. Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State and Democratic
candidate for President,
said: Demagogues throughout our history have attempted to divide us based
on race, gender, sexual orientation or country of ori-

ODD-EVEN SCHEME
Trial implementation
from January 1

scheme for private vehicles in

Delhi will be implemented from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from January 1
for an initial period of 15 days.

NEWS | PAGE 14

CM
YK

HYDERABAD: In a significant development, the Central government has favoured re-distribution of Krishna water to
be confined to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana instead of
involving all the four riparian
States.
Mr. Tushar Mehta, who appeared before the Supreme
Court bench comprising Justice Deepak Mishra and Justice P.C. Pant on behalf of the
Centre, made this submission
when the case came up for
hearing on Tuesday. Mr. Mehta, in his oral submission,
wanted the court to direct the
two States to share water allocated to the erstwhile united
AP without inconveniencing
the upper riparian States of
Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The Centre had deputed its
representative after the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in
the submission of an affidavit
in response to a directive given by it. Senior counsel Vaidyanathan, appearing for Te-

TS baffled by Centres stand

HYDERABAD: Telangana has

expressed disappointment
over the Centres
submission to the Supreme
Court to restrict the issue of
re-distribution of Krishna
waters only between
Telangana and AP States.
Senior officials of
Telangana including
Irrigation Advisor R.
Vidyasagar Rao, Additional
Advocate General J.
Ramachandra Rao, senior
counsel Ravinder Rao,
Karimnagar MP B. Vinod
Kumar and others went into
a huddle immediately after
the Centres counsel made
an oral submission in the
apex court seeking time for
submitting written affidavit.
langana State, sought time to
study the Centres proposal.
The Centres representative
explained the court that the
government could not submit
its affidavit as the delibera-

Mr. Vinod Kumar stated

that they would decide the
future course of action on
the issue after reporting the
development to Chief
Minister K. Chandrasekhar
Rao. He explained that the
Centres stand had baffled
them since Union Water
Resources Minister Uma
Bharathi had assured them
in the past that the Centre
would recommend redistribution of water among
all the riparian States since
Telangana State was formed
in 2014. Mr. Vinod Kumar
said Telangana was being
discriminated in the matter
of water allocation ever
since formation of Andhra
Pradesh in 1956.
tions continued till late Monday night and wanted the
court to grant some more
time for submitting it.
Mr. Vaidyanathan had earlier argued that Telangana had

every right to seek either

fresh allocation order or set
up a new tribunal to resolve
the dispute. He maintained
that the two upper riparian
States were not only utilising
water for irrigation purposes
but also storing it in dams, denying Telangana and AP their
due. The bench had accordingly posted the case for next
hearing on December 10.
The counsel for Maharashtra told the court that the
Maharashtra government had
addressed a letter to the
Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal last year asking it to
confine the redistribution of
water among the two lower riparian States.

METROPLUS
4 Pages

ments like bacterial infection,

cough and cold.
In Cuddalore town, inundation continued in Jothi Nagar, Surya Nagar, Ragavendra
Nagar and Gnanambal Nagar.
Meanwhile in Chennai, the
distribution of relief remained an issue, with the
north of the city complaining
of neglect. The government
has opened several medical
camps, restored all health
centres affected by the floods,
and appointed counsellors to
handle post-traumatic stress
disorder.
As relief came pouring in
to the Chief Ministers Relief
Fund, actor Rajnikanth, in
solidarity with the people of
Chennai, urged fans not to
celebrate his birthday on December 12, but instead spend
the day constructively for relief activities.

WASHINGTON: Republican pres-

Pune, Rajkot are

the new IPL
franchises
VIJAY LOKAPALLY

Donald Trump has called

for barring Muslims
from entering the U.S.

gin. Now, Trump and others

want us to hate all Muslims.
Mr. Trump made his most
extreme pledge yet in a
statement released to the
media through his campaign
team. Until we are able to
determine and understand
this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of
horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad,
and have no sense of reason
or respect for human life,
the billionaire politician
said. AP & AFP

WHAT LIES BEHIND TRUMPS

OMINOUS SPEECHES? | PAGE 16

NEW DELHI: Pune and Rajkot

emerged as new Indian Premier League franchises, as replacements for the suspended
Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, for a period of
two years.
The Kolkata-based businessman Sanjiv Goenkas
company, New Rising, bought
the Pune franchise, while Rajkot went to Intex Mobiles.
Pune will contribute Rs. 10
crore each year to the Board
of Control for Cricket in Indias coffer and Intex Mobiles
Rs. 16 crore.
The Board stands to be
richer by Rs. 180 crore annually, said BCCI president
Shashank
Manohar
on
Tuesday.
The bidding process had attracted 21 candidates but only
five appeared for the final
round. The base price was Rs.
40 crore and the lowest bidder was to be awarded the
rights to field a team.

MASTERSTROKE | PAGE 19
HY-HY