Amar
Singh moves Supreme Court on CDs
New
Delhi: "Who has the CDs out?" seems to be the obvious
question hovering in the mind of Samajwadi Party leader
Amar Singh after two news channels today claimed possession
of a purported CD allegedly containing the phone tapped
conversation of Singh with a host of people, including Uttar
Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, businessman
Anil Ambani and several Bollywood actresses. Amar Singh
now has moved to the Supreme Court seeking a judicial inquiry
into the incident of circulation of purported CDs. Singh's
counsel Pradeep Kumar said: "We have filed an application
in the pending petition relating to the circulation of the
CD."
Earlier in the day, a private news channel CNN-IBN said
that they had received a CD titled Amar Singh Ki Amar Kahani
in a yellow envelope addressed to CNN-IBN New Delhi Office
containing a copy of India Today newsweekly inside which
the CD was kept. The sender name was printed as R. G. Yadav,
Mumbai. However, Singh in an interview to NDTV accused Congress
and a Mumbai based industrialist in circulating the CDs
to the media. To which the Congress MP Rajeev Shukla on
behalf of the party refuted the accusations saying: "Congress
has nothing to do with the phone tapping case". Though the
Delhi Police investigating in the matter has pointed to
the entire phone tapping episode to be a sting operation
carried out by some group of people in greed of quick money
with motive of blackmailing does not seem to impress upon
Amar Singh. He has been constantly refuting the 'Sting theory'
and has alleged it as "a apolitical agenda carried under
the aegis of 10 Janpath". Today was no different as Singh
in the interview said: "If somebody has done the sting,
let them take responsibility. Why don't they come forward?
I will not object to it being aired then".
Meanwhile,
Delhi Police have distanced itself from today's development
citing ignorance. "We do not know anything about it," was
the only thing that the Joint Commissioner of Police Karnal
Singh told reporters. Amar Singh in the same interview has
also said that he does not know whether the latest CDs doing
the rounds are doctored or morphed since he has not listened
to it but on asked about the allegations made in the CD
about his alleged talk with some bureaucrats regarding a
special economic zone in Noida, he said that he was not
able to recall what he exactly spoke. Singh had also issued
a legal notice to NDTV to stop it from airing the contents
of the purported CD. As all the politicians across the political
spectrum avoided to comment on today's dramatic turn of
events it was the solitary MP Raj Babbar who has been expelled
from the Samajwadi Party who chose to say: Mulayam Singh
must expel Amar Singh from the Samajwadi party".
Amar Singh's alleged CD awaits authentication:
Major
television news channels today announced receiving a CD
allegedly containing Samajwadi Party's General Secretary
Amar Singh's phone-tapped conversation. The CD named 'Amar
Singh Ki Amar Kahani' purportedly contains the alleged conversation
between Singh and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi
Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav in which it is alleged
that both leaders talk about approaching judges in the Allahabad
High Court to get a favourable judgement in some cases.
The CD is also reported to contain Singh's alleged conversation
with Anil Ambani and a number of film actresses along with
Jaya Prada, former actress and now a Samajwadi MP from Rampur.
Though the two leading English Channels NDTV and CNN-IBN
did not telecast the alleged taped conversation citing that
the matter is sub-judice and said that they were seeking
legal opinions and trying to verify them, CNN-IBN said that
the CD contains three types of conversations.
In the first part, there is a private conversation between
Amar Singh and Bollywood actresses, including Jayaprada.
The second set of conversation is between Amar and UP Chief
Minister Mulayam Singh, regarding the transfer of two bureaucrats
and a judge of the Allahabad High Court. And in the third
set UP Chief Minister and Amar Singh are alleged to be talking
about sugar and land deals in UP. However, Singh has denied
the allegations and accused the Congress and a Mumbai-based
industrialist of distributing the tapes to the media. Singh
in an exclusive interview to NDTV said: I do not know whether
the tapes are doctored or morphed, I don't know as I have
not heard them". To the allegations of influencing the judiciary
purportedly leveled by the alleged CD, Singh said that merely
talking about conduct of judges do not amount to influencing
the judiciary and if the CD is to be believed then how can
a Chief Minister can remove a judge of the High Court. Singh
who had earlier sent a legal notice asking NDTV not to telecast
the content of the CD said: ""Let the Supreme Court be given
the tapes to hear the tapes and then decide". Dismissing,
that he is not afraid of the leakage, Singh said that it
involves larger matters of privacy of an individual, more
importantly the privacy of the other person who talked with
him. Meanwhile, CNN-IBN has said that they are sending the
CD to the Registrar General of Supreme Court and the Home
Ministry.
The
alleged phone-tapping controversy started in December when
Mulayam Singh Yadav in a press conference revealed that
Samajwadi leader Amar Singh's phone number was being tapped
and accused Congress in general and Sonia Gandhi in particular..
The Delhi Police later arrested Bhupendra Kumar, aprivate
detective who had been tapping Singh's phone. According
to the Delhi Police, the matter was far from politics and
involved a group of person involved in blackmailing. On
January 25, the Government Examiner for Questioned Documents
(GECD) is understood to have confirmed that Samajwadi Party
General Secretary Amar Singh's cell phone was tapped and
that the voice samples recorded on the compact discs was
from a phone belonging to him. The GECD, which has examined
the computer discs and CDs seized by the Delhi Police in
the Amar Singh phone-tapping case, submitted its interim
report to the Delhi police. Meanwhile, Delhi High Court
has deferred the hearing till march 10 on a petition filed
by Delhi police challenging the parallel investigations
being carried out by UP police.
Sadhus
protest against pollution of Ganga (Go
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New
Delhi: Scores of sadhus (hermits) staged a demonstration
in Delhi on Thursday against rising pollution levels in
Ganga river. They also protested against the construction
of dams, which they said was disrupting the flow of Ganges
waters. The protesting sadhus took out a procession from
the Ram Lila Maidan to the President's house to press their
demand for pure and uninterrupted flow of the river. Jagatguru
Shankaracharya Swami Maheshashramji Maharaj said, "We are
going to urge the President that the Ganga and Bhagirathi
rivers originating from the Gomukh, whose water is the elixir
of life for us should be set free without further delay.
We are not against any organisation nor against any institution.
All we want is our right and protection of our cultural
heritage. Many of our religio-social activities revolve
around these rivers, such as rituals of prayers for salvation
of ancestors, our daily prayers and even our ashes after
cremation are supposed to be immersed in the holy Ganges.
All have come to a standstill now. The perennially clean
Ganga has now been infected with worms."
Sadhus also opposed the construction of Tehri dam also and
said that the flow of the river was disrupted due to the
dam. "We expect the government to release water in the Ganga
river that has been stopped at Tehri. We will check the
pollution part by approaching the problem at the city levels.
We will go on fasts and protests and compel the District
Magistrates and local authorities to take firm action. First
and foremost , we want the water released. When the water
is released then only there would be any scope for cleaning
up pollution. When there is no flow, what are we supposed
to clean up?," added Swami Maheshashramji Maharaj. Earlier,
Sadhus have protested against the pollution of Ganga during
Magh Mela by denouncing the holy dip at the confluence in
Allahabad. Ganga which is called 'Bhagirathi' in the Himalyan
region flows over 2,500 kilometers through the northern
plains before merging into the Bay of Bengal.
Fire
on board INS Magar kills 3 (Go
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Vishakapatanam:
Three navy personnel were killed and twenty others injured
in a major fire on board INS Magar of the Eastern Naval
Command (ENC), 60 km off the coast, last night. The blast
occurred on the missile boat when some ammunition caught
fire, ENC sources said. Out of twenty, six of them were
seriously injured. The injured were taken to the Naval Hospital
in INS Kalyani at the ENC Base in Visakhapatnam, ENC sources
said. Further details related to the accident are still
yet to come. This month, the INS Magar had also participated
in the President's Fleet Review.
Selectors axe Sourav Ganguly
(Go
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Vadodra:
Former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly's days in international
cricket appear to be numbered after the five-man national
selection committee opted to drop him from the squad announced
for the first Test to be played at Nagpur against England
from March 1. The selection committee of the Board of Control
for Cricket in India (BCCI) and coach Greg Chappell met
here on the sidelines of a three-day match between the Board
President's XI and the England team and announced a 15-member
squad that includes two new faces in the guise of Punjab
pacer V R V Singh and upcoming Uttar Pradesh leg spinner
Piyush Chawla. The team announced is as follows: Rahul Dravid
(C), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Wasim
Jaffar, Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina, Irfan Pathan, M S Dhoni,
S Sreesunth, R P Singh, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, VRV
Singh and Piyush Chawla. "We are going to stick to youngsters.
We told Rahul Dravid about this and he was very happy,"
Kiran More said after the team was announced. "We are not
going to look back. We want to make a comprehensive team
for Tests and ODI," More added.
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