`Mr Flood Scam Goswami' declared an absconder; Khalistanis making bases in village shrines, says police; Pakistan had readied its N-missiles in Kargil: Clinton's aide; Sensex zooms past 7,000 mark, Ambani accord hailed; Sania enter Wimbledon second round; Maria Sharapova has a stalker at Wimbledon; Sharapova's Wimbledon shoes are studded with gold; India's most wanted paedophile does'nt interest UK cops; Leonardo DiCaprio survives beer bottle assault; Denzel Washington, Samuel L Jackson voted best black actors ever; Angelina Jolie loves being a loner; JLo throws diva tantrums in Bodertown; Dicaprio rules out role in Aviator sequel; Jane Seymour goes topless at 54; Aniston beats Jolie in the battle of the Tee's; Batman stands for Christian Bale; Beckham is Usher's style guru; India Travel Times, Indian News, Tourism, Hotels, Airlines, Tour, Travel, Ayurveda, Yoga, Festival, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Kathakali, Dance,

Home Contact Us Dateline New Delhi, Monday, June 20, 2005

`Mr Flood Scam Goswami' declared absconder

Patna (Bihar): A special vigilance cell in Patna on Monday pasted notices declaring former bureaucrat Gautam Goswami and other accused as absconders in the multi-million flood relief scam. The notice has been pasted at the residences of Goswami and at a busy market place to enable people to provide information about their whereabouts. Gautam Goswami, former district magistrate of Patna, has been accused of siphoning off more than Rs.17 crore ($3.9 million) meant for flood relief during last year's catastrophe. He has denied any wrongdoing. Ashish Ranjan Sinha, the director-general of police, described it as a normal legal procedure. Goswami's bail plea had been rejected earlier this month along with that of Santosh Jha the alleged kingpin of the scam. Jha had later surrendered is now lodged in judicial custody. Investigators believe that Goswami and Jha had set up a phantom company and transferred government money to it in lieu of relief material.

Ironically, Goswami had featured in Time magazine's top-20 Asian Heroes list in October for his outstanding work in supervising flood relief work in north Bihar."Mr.Flood Scam" On June 17, the Government of Bihar reportedly initiated proceedings to dismiss Goswami from service for his alleged involvement in the scam. State Governor Buta Singh told reporters: "The Government has started the process for Goswami's dismissal and it is only a matter of time that he is arrested." Goswami had resigned from the Indian Administrative Service and joined the Lucknow-based Sahara Group earlier this year as its vice-president. He has since been sacked by the company following a threat by the vigilance bureau investigating the scam to sue them for not not cooperating in ensuring Goswami's arrest. The vigilance bureau has announced a reward of Rs one lakh to anyone providing information leading to Goswami's arrest. Investigations by the Indian Express earlier this year revealed that Rs 17 crore worth of funds, meant for flood relief in Bihar during July-August 2004, had disappeared without a trace. Goswami was then Patna District Magistrate and was lionised for his exemplary work in getting help to Bihar s flood victims He was later alleged to be involved in the misappropriation of funds.

According to official records, Goswami received Rs 13 crore as relief for flood-ravaged Bihar in 2004, and an additional Rs 5 crore from the railway fund. Rs 17.18 crore was paid to the Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC), the sole organisation in charge of supplying the relief material. Now the BSSIC claims that it supplied material worth only Rs 22 lakh and that it has so far been paid only Rs 13 lakh. Documents show that the rest of the money went to an employee of the BSSIC, B K Singh, who appears in the records as the man who raised the bills and received payments from Goswami. But the BSSIC insists that no one by that name works for it. "We received only around Rs 13 lakh. We do not have an employee by the name of B K Singh," confirms M Prasad, managing director, BSSIC. Further investigations reveal that the rest of the money was indeed paid to the BSSI. But this particular BSSI was Baba Satya Sai Industries, a firm that does not figure in the official list of relief suppliers. According to bank records, Baba Satya Sai Industries received around Rs 17.45 crore from the district magistrate s account. A person called Sanjeev Kumar Singh operated the bank account in Patna. Sources say both B K Singh and Sanjeev Kumar were suppliers, to whom the Bihar Small Scale Industries Corporation (BSSIC) outsourced its initial orders worth Rs 22 lakh. The probe also reveals that while over 800 people drowned in the Bihar flooding, and five fell to police bullets in a fight for relief material, the official records show that Rs 37 lakh and Rs 11 lakh were spent on housing and feeding the relief crew. A probe was ordered by former Bihar Chief Secretary K A H Subramanian and an inquiry report was submitted last month.

Khalistanis making bases in village shrines, says police (Go To Top)

Chandigarh: A dreaded rebel group in Punjab, believed to have died out more than a decade back, is trying to regroup and revive itself with a new modus operandi and war plan, said Punjab Director General of Police, SS Virk, on Monday. The statements by DGP Virk, comes after a spate of arrests and weapons hauls from the rebel hideouts from the state and its satellite towns. Police say they have nabbed 24 terrorists of the Babbar Khalsa International outfits in the past month, recovered 35 kilograms of explosives and found key links to their masterminds. Virk said the rebels are building bases in small shrines and monasteries and also for the first time luring impoverished and unemployed Hindu youth desperate for money to what has been essentially a Sikh cause. In a major breakthrough police had earlier this month caught a top rebel of the Babbar Khalsa International believed to be behind the blasts that rocked the national capital new Delhi in May. Jagtar Singh Hawara is the main accused in the bombing of two cinemas in New Delhi last month that killed one person and wounded dozens. Hawara was the mastermind behind the killing of Beant Singh, the then chief minister of Punjab, the Sikh heartland, in 1995 by a bomb planted in his chauffeur-driven car. Hawara was arrested that year but he and three other men tunnelled their way out of a high-security prison in Punjab last year.

Pakistan had readied its N-missiles in Kargil: Clinton's aide (Go To Top)

Washington: During the Kargil war, the Pakistan military had prepared their nuclear-tipped missile to fight back a possible Indian attack, and former US president Bill Clinton had informed the then Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif about the military's move, Bruce Riedel, a close aide of Clinton, has been quoted as saying this in a forthcoming book "Pakistan Between Mosque And Military" written by a Pakistani writer Husain Haqqani. On learning about the military's plans, Sharif was taken aback and said that India was probably doing the same, writes Haqqani, a former Pakistani diplomat, journalist and senior adviser to Pakistan's government. Presently, he is a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. According to the Dawn, Riedel further says: "Clinton asked Sharif if he knew how advanced the threat of nuclear war really was? Did Sharif know his military was preparing their nuclear-tipped missiles? Was that what Sharif wanted, Clinton asked? Did Sharif order Pakistani nuclear missile force to prepare for action? Did he realize how crazy that was? You have put me in the middle today, set the US to fail and I won't let it happen. Pakistan is messing with nuclear war." Riedel, a special assistant to Clinton and a senior director of Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council in the Clinton era, says that he was present in the July 4, 1999, meeting between Clinton and Nawaz.

During the meeting, Clinton also raised the issue of Pakistan's reluctance to help the US catch Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders. "The president was getting angry. He told Sharif that he had asked repeatedly for Pakistani help to bring Osama bin Laden to justice from Afghanistan. Sharif had promised often to do so but had done nothing. Instead the ISI worked with bin Laden and the Taliban to foment terrorism," Riedel adds. The former US official recalls that Clinton's draft statement on the Kargil crisis also mentioned Pakistan's role in supporting terrorists in Afghanistan and India. Apparently hinting that Sharif had withdrawn troops under US' pressure, Riedel says that at the end of that meeting, Sharif agreed to announce a Pakistani withdrawal from Kargil and restoration of the sanctity of the Line of Control in return for Clinton taking a personal interest in resumption of the India- Pakistan dialogue.

Sensex zooms past 7,000 mark, Ambani accord hailed (Go To Top)

Mumbai/New Delhi: The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange zoomed past the 7000 mark on Monday, as captains of Indian industry unanimously welcomed the settlement of the ownership battle between Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil. They described the amicable resolution of the dispute as a good harbinger for boosting capital markets and uplifting investor morale. "The reconciliation between the Ambani brothers would provide strength and stability to the Reliance empire," Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said. The 30-share benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange index climbed over 1.3 percent, beating its previous record of 6,954.86 on March 9. Speculation about an imminent settlement to the seven-month family feud had already set the markets on a bullish trend on Friday before it closed for the weekend. The settlement was announced by Kokilaben Ambani, widow of Reliance Group founder Dhirbhai Ambani on Saturday early morning. Shares in Reliance Industries, India's largest petrochemical maker and the second-biggest index constituent, jumped 5.2 percent to a record 632.05 rupees (14.5 dollars), while Indian Petrochemicals raced 11.6 percent to 180 rupees (3.75 dollars). Utility Reliance Energy Ltd., which will be run by Anil, rose as much as 8.2 percent to 640 rupees (14.75 dollars) . Other firms that he will control such as Reliance Capital Ltd. leapt 19 percent to an all-time high of 280 rupees (5.5 dollars) and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd. firmed 9.8 percent to 152.20 rupees (3.2 dollars) The brothers' split comes less than three years after the death of their father, Dhirubhai Ambani, who founded Reliance as a commodity trader about 50 years ago. The dispute has gripped the country over the seven months since it became public. There are more than three million Reliance shareholders and the group's 23 billion dollars in annual revenues represents more than three percent of India's GDP.

Sania enter Wimbledon second round (Go To Top)

London: Indian teen wonder Sania Mirza defeated Akiko Morigami of Japan 6-3,3-6,8-6 in her opening match to reach the second round in Wimbledon. Sania, ranked 75th in the latest ranking list, defeated her rival who is ranked four places above her on Court 17.

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