The Evening Wrap: Delhi L-G recommends NIA probe against Arvind Kejriwal

Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has recommended an NIA probe against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’, Raj Niwas sources said on May 6. In a letter to the Union Home secretary, the Lt. Governor’s secretariat said Saxena had received a complaint that the Kejriwal-led AAP allegedly received $16 million funding from extremist Khalistani groups for facilitating the release of Devendra Pal Bhullar. “The electronic evidences adduced by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination,” Saxena has said. The complaint is made against a chief minister and relates to political funding received from a banned terrorist organisation, the letter stated. The move comes a day ahead of the Supreme Court considering granting Kejrwal interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The AAP chief is in Tihar jail. Lt Governor V K Saxena’s recommendation of an NIA probe against Arvind Kejriwal is yet another conspiracy against the Delhi Chief Minister at the behest of the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged. The Lt. Governor has recommended the probe against Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’, Raj Niwas sources said. “This is yet another conspiracy against Kejriwal at the behest of BJP. They are losing on all seven seats in Delhi and are rattled by the fear of defeat in Lok Sabha polls,” said AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj. Illegal sand mining case: Supreme Court seeks report as Tamil Nadu, ED quarrel over whether District Collectors gave agency requisite documents The Supreme Court on May 6 sought a report from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) even as the State of Tamil Nadu maintained that District Collectors have appeared before the Central agency and supplied it with records about illegal sand mining sought from them by the anti-money laundering body in its summons. Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice Bela Trivedi, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Amit Anand Tiwari, for Tamil Nadu, complained that the senior officials were made to remain at the ED office from 11 a.m. to 8.30 pm. “They are District Collectors. They cannot do this to these senior officials,” Sibal submitted. Meanwhile, the ED said “no documents or details” were given by the District Collectors to the Central agency. “Whatever requisite documents asked from the Collectors have been submitted,” Sibal countered. The Bench directed the ED to file a compliance report, detailing the documents sought from the Collectors in the summons and what among these records were allegedly not produced by them. The court also took exception to the long hours the ED made the officials remain in its office. “You (ED) cannot do that. Do not keep them waiting, they have to tend to their districts... Do not harass them unnecessarily,” Justice Trivedi told the ED. The ED counsel said it would convey the court’s displeasure to the agency. The court posted the case for further hearing after summer vacations in July. In the previous hearing on April 2, the court had ordered the four Collectors of Vellore, Ariyalur, Karur and Trichy to be present in person before the ED on April 25 while listing the case for hearing on May 6. The April 2 hearing had seen the court castigate the four Tamil Nadu District Collectors for failing to appear in person in response to a summons issued to them by the anti-money laundering body. The court had insisted on the Collectors’ personal presence at the ED office despite submissions made by both the Tamil Nadu government and the officials that they had written to the agency expressing their inability to appear in person owing to the fact that the general elections in Tamil Nadu was due on April 19 and they needed more time to collect the information sought by the Central agency about sand mining sites in their respective districts. The Collectors had explained that the information sought was not in their offices, but had to be collected from other branches of the district administration, verified and collated to be presented before the ED. However, the court had refused to accept the Collectors’ explanation. Justice Trivedi had said their conduct showed scant respect for the apex court’s order on February 27 to appear in person before the ED on whatever date it summoned them. “Pakistan is not wearing bangles and has atom bombs”: Farooq Abdullah on Rajnath Singh’s remark on PoK Responding to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remark, “PoK will be merged with India,” Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah said on May 5 that Pakistan is not wearing bangles and also has atom bombs that will fall on India. “If the defence minister is saying it, then go ahead. Who are we to stop? But remember, they [Pakistan] are also not wearing bangles. It has atom bombs, and unfortunately, that atom bomb will fall on us [India],” he said. Earlier in April, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asserted that considering the development taking place in India, the people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) will themselves demand to be with India. “Don’t worry. PoK was, is and will remain ours,” Singh said, addressing a rally at West Bengal’s Darjeeling, where the BJP had nominated sitting MP Raju Bista. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on May 5 said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is part of India and added that there is a resolution of the Indian Parliament which states that PoK is part of the country. He noted that people were made to forget about PoK, however, it is now back in the consciousness of the people of India. Supreme Court to urgently hear Uttarakhand forest fire petitions on May 8 The Supreme Court on May 6 agreed to urgently hear petitions on Uttarakhand forest fires on May 8 even as petitioners said 90% of the blazes were “man-made”. A Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai instructed the petitioners, including senior advocate Rajiv Dutta, to inform the amicus curiae, advocate K. Parameshwar. Uttarakhand government, represented by its Deputy Advocate General, said he would be present in person for the hearing and sought permission to file a status report by the next hearing. Dutta said the situation was “shocking”. “There is carbon flying all over the place,” he submitted. He said the Uttarakhand government had actually filed a report in the National Green Tribunal which claimed the number of incidents of fires were “going down”. Justice Gavai said the amicus could also have the Central Empowered Committee in on the next hearing. News reports quotes officials say that there had been over 900 incidents of fires in the past six months, damaging at least 1100 hectares of forest land in Uttarakhand. Reports inform that 351 cases related to “man-made” forest fires were registered, implicating 59 named individuals and 290 unidentified suspects. Since November 1, 2023, a total of 575 forest fire incidents across nearly 690 hectares were cited in the State. The petitions highlight the extent of forest fires in Uttarakhand have been pending in the Supreme Court for years. In January 2021, the court had agreed to examine a plea to direct the Uttarakhand government to take measures to prevent the occurrences of forest fires causing large-scale destruction of flora and fauna in the hill State. One of these petitions, filed by Uttarakhand resident Rituparn Uniyal, had wanted the entire wildlife in the region to be declared a living entity. “It is the need of the hour that the concept of legal/juristic personality needs a wide interpretation so as to include in it the whole ecosystem with both biotic and abiotic components of environment... Animals breathe like us and have emotions, intelligence, culture, language, memory and co-operation,” the plea had said. Uniyal had alleged that despite a consistent history of forest fires, “the ignorance, inactiveness, negligence and unreadiness of the respondents have rendered a great loss to forests, wildlife and birds in Uttarakhand and thus, caused ecological imbalance”. He had asked the top court to frame a policy to prevent forest fires in the State and make pre-fire arrangements. Poll roundup: Under fire over his ‘poll stunt’ remark, Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi on May 5 said he was proud of the country’s soldiers but targeted the Centre over the 2019 Pulwama terror strike, saying the government could not ascertain who carried out the attack. The former Punjab chief minister on Sunday called the Poonch terror attack in which an IAF soldier was killed a ‘stunt’ meant to make the BJP win the Lok Sabha elections. The remark by the Congress candidate from Jalandhar seat triggered a row with Union minister Anurag Thakur asking the Congress leadership to seek an apology from Channi for insulting soldiers with this deplorable statement. In a video message on Monday, Channi said, “We are proud of our soldiers who protect our country.” Referring to his statement made on Sunday, Channi said ahead of the last parliamentary polls, 40 jawans were killed but the government could not yet ascertain who carried out the terror attack. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in Madhya Pradesh on May 5 that his party, if elected to power in the ongoing Lok Sabha election, will increase the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to ₹400 per day. “The press says that MGNREGA ruins the people’s habits. You do the labour and get paid for it but the media says your habits are getting ruined. But when the loans of billionaires get waved, they call that development. We have made up our mind that today you get ₹250 under MGNREGA but after the elections you will get ₹400,” Gandhi said, addressing an election rally in Alirajpur under the Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency. AICC spokesperson Radhika Khera on May 5 resigned from the party claiming that criticism over her visit to Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya led to the denial of justice to her in the incident that happened at the Chhattisgarh Congress office. Khera also claimed she didn’t get justice even after repeatedly informing all the top leaders of the party. Stating that those who support religion have always faced opposition, Khera cited examples of mythological demons Hiranyakashyap, Ravan and Kansa to claim that some people oppose those who take the name of Lord Shri Ram in the same way. In brief:Hemant Soren seeks urgent hearing in Supreme Court of his appeal against arrest before polling on May 13 Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren made an oral mentioning before the Supreme Court on Monday to urgently hear his appeal against his arrest on money laundering charges. Appearing before a Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for Soren, said polling in Jharkhand for the Lok Sabha election was due on May 13, and that he should be allowed to campaign for his party. “The High Court kept the judgment pending for long. The judgment in my case against my arrest was reserved by the High Court in February. Finally, we had to appeal to the Supreme Court with a petition for interim bail, saying the High Court was not pronouncing its verdict,” Sibal explained. Sibal said the rights of Soren were being trampled upon. Chief Justice Chandrachud informed Sibal that the plea for interim bail was already coming up for hearing on May 7. Israel begins evacuating part of Rafah ahead of threatened assault Israel called on civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah on May 6 in what appeared to be preparation for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts in the southern Gaza Strip city where more than a million war-displaced Palestinians have been sheltering. Instructed by Arabic text messages, telephone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20 km away, some Palestinian families lumbered out under chilly spring rain, witnesses said. The Evening wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 06 May 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [View in browser]( [More newsletters]( Delhi Lieutenant Governor Saxena recommends NIA probe against Arvind Kejriwal [Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has recommended an NIA probe against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’, Raj Niwas sources said on May 6.]( In a letter to the Union Home secretary, the Lt. Governor’s secretariat said Saxena had received a complaint that the Kejriwal-led AAP allegedly received $16 million funding from extremist Khalistani groups for facilitating the release of Devendra Pal Bhullar. “The electronic evidences adduced by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination,” Saxena has said. The complaint is made against a chief minister and relates to political funding received from a banned terrorist organisation, the letter stated. The move comes a day ahead of the Supreme Court considering granting Kejrwal interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The AAP chief is in Tihar jail. Lt Governor V K Saxena’s recommendation of an NIA probe against Arvind Kejriwal is yet another conspiracy against the Delhi Chief Minister at the behest of the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party alleged. The Lt. Governor has recommended the probe against Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation ‘Sikhs for Justice’, Raj Niwas sources said. “This is yet another conspiracy against Kejriwal at the behest of BJP. They are losing on all seven seats in Delhi and are rattled by the fear of defeat in Lok Sabha polls,” said AAP leader and Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj. Illegal sand mining case: Supreme Court seeks report as Tamil Nadu, ED quarrel over whether District Collectors gave agency requisite documents [The Supreme Court on May 6 sought a report from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) even as the State of Tamil Nadu maintained that District Collectors have appeared before the Central agency and supplied it with records about illegal sand mining sought from them by the anti-money laundering body in its summons.]( Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice Bela Trivedi, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Amit Anand Tiwari, for Tamil Nadu, complained that the senior officials were made to remain at the ED office from 11 a.m. to 8.30 pm. “They are District Collectors. They cannot do this to these senior officials,” Sibal submitted. Meanwhile, the ED said “no documents or details” were given by the District Collectors to the Central agency. “Whatever requisite documents asked from the Collectors have been submitted,” Sibal countered. The Bench directed the ED to file a compliance report, detailing the documents sought from the Collectors in the summons and what among these records were allegedly not produced by them. The court also took exception to the long hours the ED made the officials remain in its office. “You (ED) cannot do that. Do not keep them waiting, they have to tend to their districts... Do not harass them unnecessarily,” Justice Trivedi told the ED. The ED counsel said it would convey the court’s displeasure to the agency. The court posted the case for further hearing after summer vacations in July. In the previous hearing on April 2, the court had ordered the four Collectors of Vellore, Ariyalur, Karur and Trichy to be present in person before the ED on April 25 while listing the case for hearing on May 6. The April 2 hearing had seen the court castigate the four Tamil Nadu District Collectors for failing to appear in person in response to a summons issued to them by the anti-money laundering body. The court had insisted on the Collectors’ personal presence at the ED office despite submissions made by both the Tamil Nadu government and the officials that they had written to the agency expressing their inability to appear in person owing to the fact that the general elections in Tamil Nadu was due on April 19 and they needed more time to collect the information sought by the Central agency about sand mining sites in their respective districts. The Collectors had explained that the information sought was not in their offices, but had to be collected from other branches of the district administration, verified and collated to be presented before the ED. However, the court had refused to accept the Collectors’ explanation. Justice Trivedi had said their conduct showed scant respect for the apex court’s order on February 27 to appear in person before the ED on whatever date it summoned them. “Pakistan is not wearing bangles and has atom bombs”: Farooq Abdullah on Rajnath Singh’s remark on PoK [Responding to Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s remark, “PoK will be merged with India,” Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah said on May 5 that Pakistan is not wearing bangles and also has atom bombs that will fall on India.]( “If the defence minister is saying it, then go ahead. Who are we to stop? But remember, they [Pakistan] are also not wearing bangles. It has atom bombs, and unfortunately, that atom bomb will fall on us [India],” he said. Earlier in April, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asserted that considering the development taking place in India, the people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) will themselves demand to be with India. “Don’t worry. PoK was, is and will remain ours,” Singh said, addressing a rally at West Bengal’s Darjeeling, where the BJP had nominated sitting MP Raju Bista. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on May 5 said that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is part of India and added that there is a resolution of the Indian Parliament which states that PoK is part of the country. He noted that people were made to forget about PoK, however, it is now back in the consciousness of the people of India. Supreme Court to urgently hear Uttarakhand forest fire petitions on May 8 [The Supreme Court on May 6 agreed to urgently hear petitions on Uttarakhand forest fires on May 8 even as petitioners said 90% of the blazes were “man-made”.]( A Bench headed by Justice B.R. Gavai instructed the petitioners, including senior advocate Rajiv Dutta, to inform the amicus curiae, advocate K. Parameshwar. Uttarakhand government, represented by its Deputy Advocate General, said he would be present in person for the hearing and sought permission to file a status report by the next hearing. Dutta said the situation was “shocking”. “There is carbon flying all over the place,” he submitted. He said the Uttarakhand government had actually filed a report in the National Green Tribunal which claimed the number of incidents of fires were “going down”. Justice Gavai said the amicus could also have the Central Empowered Committee in on the next hearing. News reports quotes officials say that there had been over 900 incidents of fires in the past six months, damaging at least 1100 hectares of forest land in Uttarakhand. Reports inform that 351 cases related to “man-made” forest fires were registered, implicating 59 named individuals and 290 unidentified suspects. Since November 1, 2023, a total of 575 forest fire incidents across nearly 690 hectares were cited in the State. The petitions highlight the extent of forest fires in Uttarakhand have been pending in the Supreme Court for years. In January 2021, the court had agreed to examine a plea to direct the Uttarakhand government to take measures to prevent the occurrences of forest fires causing large-scale destruction of flora and fauna in the hill State. One of these petitions, filed by Uttarakhand resident Rituparn Uniyal, had wanted the entire wildlife in the region to be declared a living entity. “It is the need of the hour that the concept of legal/juristic personality needs a wide interpretation so as to include in it the whole ecosystem with both biotic and abiotic components of environment... Animals breathe like us and have emotions, intelligence, culture, language, memory and co-operation,” the plea had said. Uniyal had alleged that despite a consistent history of forest fires, “the ignorance, inactiveness, negligence and unreadiness of the respondents have rendered a great loss to forests, wildlife and birds in Uttarakhand and thus, caused ecological imbalance”. He had asked the top court to frame a policy to prevent forest fires in the State and make pre-fire arrangements. Poll roundup: - Under fire over his ‘poll stunt’ remark, [Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi on May 5 said he was proud of the country’s soldiers but targeted the Centre over the 2019 Pulwama terror strike]( saying the government could not ascertain who carried out the attack. The former Punjab chief minister on Sunday called the Poonch terror attack in which an IAF soldier was killed a ‘stunt’ meant to make the BJP win the Lok Sabha elections. The remark by the Congress candidate from Jalandhar seat triggered a row with Union minister Anurag Thakur asking the Congress leadership to seek an apology from Channi for insulting soldiers with this deplorable statement. In a video message on Monday, Channi said, “We are proud of our soldiers who protect our country.” Referring to his statement made on Sunday, Channi said ahead of the last parliamentary polls, 40 jawans were killed but the government could not yet ascertain who carried out the terror attack. - Congress leader [Rahul Gandhi said in Madhya Pradesh on May 5 that his party, if elected to power in the ongoing Lok Sabha election, will increase the wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to ₹400 per day](. “The press says that MGNREGA ruins the people’s habits. You do the labour and get paid for it but the media says your habits are getting ruined. But when the loans of billionaires get waved, they call that development. We have made up our mind that today you get ₹250 under MGNREGA but after the elections you will get ₹400,” Gandhi said, addressing an election rally in Alirajpur under the Ratlam Lok Sabha constituency. - [AICC spokesperson Radhika Khera on May 5 resigned from the party claiming that criticism over her visit to Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya led to the denial of justice]( to her in the incident that happened at the Chhattisgarh Congress office. Khera also claimed she didn’t get justice even after repeatedly informing all the top leaders of the party. Stating that those who support religion have always faced opposition, Khera cited examples of mythological demons Hiranyakashyap, Ravan and Kansa to claim that some people oppose those who take the name of Lord Shri Ram in the same way. In brief: Hemant Soren seeks urgent hearing in Supreme Court of his appeal against arrest before polling on May 13 Former Jharkhand Chief Minister [Hemant Soren made an oral mentioning before the Supreme Court on Monday to urgently hear his appeal against his arrest on money laundering charges](. Appearing before a Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for Soren, said polling in Jharkhand for the Lok Sabha election was due on May 13, and that he should be allowed to campaign for his party. “The High Court kept the judgment pending for long. The judgment in my case against my arrest was reserved by the High Court in February. Finally, we had to appeal to the Supreme Court with a petition for interim bail, saying the High Court was not pronouncing its verdict,” Sibal explained. Sibal said the rights of Soren were being trampled upon. Chief Justice Chandrachud informed Sibal that the plea for interim bail was already coming up for hearing on May 7. Israel begins evacuating part of Rafah ahead of threatened assault [Israel called on civilians to evacuate parts of Rafah on May 6 in what appeared to be preparation for a long-threatened assault on Hamas holdouts]( in the southern Gaza Strip city where more than a million war-displaced Palestinians have been sheltering. Instructed by Arabic text messages, telephone calls, and flyers to move to what the Israeli military called an “expanded humanitarian zone” 20 km away, some Palestinian families lumbered out under chilly spring rain, witnesses said. 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