Kolkata: The West Bengal government has acquired two television channels - Tara Muzik and Tara News - which were previously owned by the Saradha Group. The two channels had to be shut down following the Saradha chit-fund crisis.
Announcing the decision, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told reporters at Writers' Buildings that the decision was taken following appeal by employees of Tara News and Tara Muzic channels for government intervention. The state government would provide Rs 26 lakh from the Chief Minister's relief fund to run the channels.
The shutdown of the channel left 177 employees jobless. The employees claim they were not paid salaries for three months before they lost their jobs.
The government would, however, not take the liability of the channels which amounted to Rs 6 crore, said the Chief Minister. Noting that the legislation was required for the purpose, she said the state government would decide whether it should convene a special session of the Assembly or promulgate an ordinance since the Assembly was not in session now. ...
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05:11 PM, May 23, 2013
Kolkata: It has been a month since Sharada chit fund scam accused Sudipta Sen was arrested. The scam has driven at least eight people to suicide, lakhs of investors lost their life savings and hundreds of agents have fled their homes. An SIT to probe the case was announced and a Rs 500-crore package was announced. But one month on, questions are being raised about the pace of investigation and...
11:29 AM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala will be released from jail on Thursday after the Delhi High Court granted him an interim bail for six weeks to undergo a heart surgery. Chautala, 78, is serving prison time for his involvement in the 2000 teachers' recruitment scam. The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief was asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh along with two...
07:34 AM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: Amidst allegations of corruption in allocation of telecom spectrum and coal mines, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday promised to punish wrongdoers and said future allotment of scarce natural resources will happen only through auction. UPA II government has faced plethora of corruption charges in allocation of 2G spectrum when A Raja was the Telecom Minister and in allocation of coal blocks when Singh himself held the charge...
01:23 AM, May 23, 2013
Kolkata: Debjani Mukherjee, one of the main accused in the West Bengal chit fund scam, was on Wednesday once again admitted to the state-run SSKM hospital in Kolkata. Debjani, a close associate of Saradha Group chairman Sudipta Sen, was earlier on Tuesday admitted to SSKM hospital in Kolkata. Doctors say she is stable but is being kept under observation and will likely be released later on Wednesday. Earlier, she was...
02:36 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Wednesday extended by five more days the CBI custody of SP Vivek Dutt, a key member of the coal allocation scam probe, and three others arrested for their alleged roles in a graft case. Special CBI judge GP Singh allowed the central probe agency's plea seeking extension of their custody by five days, saying that the case has "wide ramifications". "The case has wide...
12:58 PM, May 22, 2013
New Delhi: Vinod Rai's tenure as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India ends on Wednesday. Rai's five years in office are seen as controversial given the CAG reports on the coal scam and the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma will take charge as the new CAG, but his appointment is already being questioned. Vinod Rai is the man who caused a big embarrassment to the...
11:00 AM, May 22, 2013
Bangalore: A passport scam has now surfaced in Karnataka. The state Lokayukta has indicted six senior government officers of taking bribes in return for issuing verification on passports. Over 1,000 such verifications were issued over a period of five months. The state anti-corruption unit in its report alleges that the senior officers, including a DGP-rank police officer and a retired IAS officer took bribes up to Rs 16,000 to verify...
10:01 AM, May 22, 2013
New York: Lawyers for former Goldman Sachs Group Inc board member Rajat Gupta sought to reverse his insider-trading conviction on Tuesday, arguing that wiretap evidence used by the prosecution should not have been introduced at trial. Defense lawyer Seth Waxman told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that wiretaps played for the jury were inadmissible because they amounted to hearsay evidence. Gupta himself was not heard...
07:04 AM, May 22, 2013
Kolkata: Debjani Mukherjee, one of the main accused in the Saradha Ponzi scam, was on Tuesday admitted to the state-run SSKM hospital in Kolkata. "She has been admitted with certain complaints like weakness, reeling and scanty urination. She is under observation of the doctors and there is nothing serious regarding her health condition," a hospital source said. Earlier, she was admitted to a private hospital last week as she was...
10:49 PM, May 21, 2013
New York: India-born former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta will seek overturning of his insider-trading conviction in a US court today by arguing that the case rested exclusively on circumstantial evidence that relied on wiretap statements that did not involve him. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York will hear arguments from Gupta, who was convicted last year of sharing corporate secrets and is on...
10:27 PM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday granted CBI one more day's custody of its arrested SP Vivek Dutt, who was a key member of the Coalgate scam probe, and three others in connection with a corruption case lodged against them. The court extended the CBI custody by a day and pulled up the Investigating Officer (IO) for not producing the accused before it within time. Special CBI Judge GP...
07:28 PM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala was on Tuesday granted interim bail for six weeks by the Delhi High Court for undergoing pacemaker implant surgery at a hospital. "In view of the facts and circumstances of the case and considering the medical report of the appellant/applicant, the applicant's sentence shall be suspended for a period of six weeks," Justice Siddharth Mridul said while granting the interim bail....
04:59 PM, May 21, 2013
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that the state government will do everything possible under the law in the Dalit Memorial scam case in which close aides of BSP chief Mayawati have been indicted. While Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta NK Mehrotra had said that there is no evidence against Mayawati in the Dalit Memorial scam, he had recommended that the money should be recovered from former ministers Nasimuddin...
03:40 PM, May 21, 2013
What will Manmohan Singh really go down in history for? CNN-IBN's National Affairs Editor Bhupendra Chaubey talks about UPA II completing four years and the legacy of Manmohan Singh. ...
02:21 PM, May 21, 2013
New Delhi: Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, who demits office on Wednesday, will be remembered for turning the statutory body into a pugnacious watchdog of good governance and administrative integrity at a time when India is experiencing the need for greater transparency and a rebalancing of power that has tilted over the years towards the executive. Rai's five-year tenure (2008-2013) has been a tad controversial because of the unprecedented...
12:45 PM, May 21, 2013
SEBI Chairman UK Sinha said, "If you look at SEBI act section 11 AA, it has several exemptions - chit funds, cooperatives, Nidhi are exempted. ...
10:09 AM, May 21, 2013
Lucknow: In an embarrassment to the Akhilesh government in Uttar Pradesh, a major fake smart health card scam, which comes under the National Health Insurance Scheme, has come under scrutiny. This could turn out to be one of the major scams in Uttar Pradesh after the Akhilesh government came to power. Sources say if probed properly, the scam could run into several crores. Around 50 lakh smart cards have reportedly...
09:57 AM, May 21, 2013
Lucknow: The ruling Samajwadi Party on Monday said that all those indicted by Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta, for syphoning off public money in construction of memorials during the BSP regime, would be punished according to the law. In a statement issued here, SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said that Lokayukta, vigilance and CBI were probing scams of the previous Mayawati regime and the results were appalling. "All records of misuse of the...
01:55 AM, May 21, 2013
Indore: Lokayukta Police on Monday submitted a charge sheet against BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola and 16 others in a 2004 land scam case. The charge sheet was submitted in the court of special judge DN Mishra under Sec 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court, meanwhile, granted bail to Mendola and 14 others on a bond of Rs 1 lakh...
12:45 AM, May 21, 2013
