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 To Top)

     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 To Top)

     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 To Top)

     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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