Le Journal

A special court in Mumbai on Monday summoned businessperson Raj Kundra in connection with the Rs 2,000 crore GainBitcoin cryptocurrency scam case, in which he has been named as an accused by the Enforcement Directorate, The Indian Express reported.The summons were also issued to Dubai-based businessperson Rajesh Satija. Both have been directed to appear before the court on January 19, PTI reported.Special judge RB Rote took cognisance of a supplementary chargesheet filed by the Enforcement Directorate and directed that Kundra and Satija be summoned for offences under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.Kundra and Satija were named in the case in September in the supplementary chargesheet filed by the probe agency in the case.Amit Bhardwaj, the promoter and founder of GainBitcoin, has been accused of cheating investors by promising high returns through cryptocurrency mining, The Indian Express reported.According to the Delhi Police, Bhardwaj had allegedly set up a multi-level marketing scam by luring investors to give him bitcoins with the promise of higher returns. He never gave the returns and instead fled the country, the police said.He was eventually traced to Bangkok and arrested in April 2018.According to the Enforcement Directorate, Kundra received 285 bitcoins from Bhardwaj, which the agency has described as proceeds of crime, The Indian Express reported.The agency alleged that the bitcoins...Read more

Writing is an unceasing journey – it has no end, no destination. Continuously moving forward is a compulsion, or perhaps that is just its fate. Each work is like a pause; there’s happiness and satisfaction at having reached this point, but more than that, there’s an enthusiasm to move ahead. But sometimes, this sequence gets turned on its head. A writer can be so happy with the work and so satisfied with the ensuing fame that the enthusiasm, instead of spurring them to move ahead, keeps returning to that work and circles around it, captivated. Is that the reason why I haven’t even written ten lines in the last ten years? No, I’ve probed every corner of my mind with great honesty; forget being captivated by my past work, I’ve never even been content with it. I’ve not written anything that has given me complete satisfaction, either in terms of its quality or in terms of how much I’ve written. So then? Did my concerns, my priorities change? Writing was never my first priority nor my main concern in my order of preferences. I had to find the time and convenience to write while I looked after my daughter and...Read more

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Monday claimed that he has never deviated from the party line, notwithstanding criticism from within the outfit about some of his recent remarks, PTI reported.Tharoor was speaking to reporters after attending the Lakshya 2026 Leadership Camp organised by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee ahead of the Assembly elections in the state, expected to be held in April.“My question is who said that I left the party line,” PTI quoted Tharoor as saying. “Even when I expressed my opinions on various subjects, on most matters, the party and I have stood on the same line.”Speculation about differences with the party leadership had emerged after Tharoor praised senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader LK Advani on his birthday on November 8.Advani was among the Hindutva leaders who led the agitation for the Ram temple through his “Ram Rath Yatra” in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The Babri Masjid, located in Ayodhya, was demolished by Hindutva extremists on December 6, 1992, because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born. The incident had triggered communal riots across the country.After his praise for Advani had triggered a debate in November, Tharoor had defended his remarks saying that reducing the BJP leader’s long years of...Read more

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to grant bail to anti-Citizenship Amendment Act activists Umar Khalid and Sharjeel Imam in the conspiracy case linked to the 2020 Delhi riots even as it allowed it for five others, Gulfisha Fatima, Meera Haider, Shifa Ur Rehman, Mohammd Saleem Khan and Shadab Ahmed.They have been in prison for more than five years now.The court made an exception for Khalid and Imam, arguing that both were “masterminds” and the material on record made out a “prima facie case” against them under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.It noted that it had refrained from adopting a “collective approach” and had instead “independently examined the specific role” attributed to each accused person. “Treating all accused identically irrespective of their roles would risk transforming pre-trial detention into a punitive mechanism divorced from individual circumstances,” the court explained.Khalid and others had approached the Supreme Court to seek relief after the Delhi High Court rejected their bail pleas in September. After hearing detailed submissions from both the prosecution and the accused, the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict in December.The seven had been arrested at various points between January and September 2020 in connection with communal violence that took place in North East Delhi in 2020. The clashes took place between supporters...Read more

The Enforcement Directorate on Monday provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 38.21 crore belonging to former Indian Administrative Service officer Niranjan Das and 30 other excise department officials in connection with the alleged Chhattisgarh liquor scam.The attachment was made under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, as part of the investigation into the alleged scam, the Enforcement Directorate said in a social media post.The attached assets include 78 immovable properties, such as bungalows, flats in premium complexes, commercial shops and agricultural land.The agency has also attached 197 movable assets such as fixed deposits, balances in multiple bank accounts, life insurance policies, and investments in equity shares and mutual funds.The ED has alleged that between 2019 and 2022, a syndicate of senior bureaucrats, politicians and excise department officials operated a parallel excise system in Chhattisgarh, selling illegal liquor, resulting in an alleged loss of Rs 2,883 crore to the state exchequer.It added that Das alone allegedly earned more than Rs 18 crore in illegal commissions, while the 31 excise officials together acquired proceeds of crime worth Rs 89.56 crore.Separately, the Enforcement Directorate’s Raipur office filed a supplementary chargesheet on December 26, naming 81 persons as accused in a final prosecution complaint submitted before the special PMLA court in Raipur.Those named are former Indian Administrative Service...Read more