The Evening Wrap: Punjab govt to set up judicial commission to probe Sidhu Moosewala’s killing

A day after Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, known as Sidhu Moosewala, was shot dead at Jahawarke village in Mansa district of Punjab, the State government on Monday announced that a judicial commission under the chairmanship of a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court would be set up to probe the murder case. Acceding to a request by Balkar Singh Sidhu, the father of the slain singer, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the government would request the Chief Justice of the High Court to get the case probed by a sitting judge. The government would ensure full cooperation to this inquiry commission, including roping in Central agencies such as the National Investigation Agency. A day after his security cover among several others was trimmed by the police, Moosewala was shot dead on Sunday. The police said the incident apparently looked to be a result of an inter-gang rivalry. Director General of Police V. K. Bhawra said, “The incident occurred around 5.30 p.m. on Sunday. Moosewala was driving his vehicle and two private persons were accompanying him. Two vehicles from the front and one at the back blocked his vehicle and started firing in which he sustained bullet injuries. He was declared brought dead at the local hospital. We have recovered around 30 empty cases, which show at least three different weapons were used for firing.” “The Lawrence Bishnoi gang has claimed the responsibility for the killing through a Canada-based operative,” the DGP added. Last week, the police had withdrawn or reduced the security of 424 people, including current and former legislators, religious sect heads, and police officers, inviting sharp criticism from the Opposition parties. These parties launched a major offensive against the Aam Aadmi Party government, blaming it for the alleged complete breakdown of law and order in the State. Rescuers spot one more body near Nepal plane crash site, says Official Rescuers who pulled out 20 bodies from the wreckage of the crashed Nepalese plane have spotted one more body but due to rain and difficult terrain it has not been retrieved yet while another is still missing, an official said on May 30, 2022. The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Tara Air went missing on Sunday morning in the mountainous region of Nepal minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara. The Canadian-built plane, flying from the city of Pokhara to the popular tourist town Jomsom in central Nepal, was carrying four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew. Rescuers have pulled out 20 bodies from the crash site, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said. One more body has been spotted but due to rain and difficult terrain it’s not been retrieved yet, the spokesman said, adding that one person was still missing. The spokesperson said that 10 bodies were brought to Kathmandu, while 10 bodies were taken to Pokhara from where they would be brought to Kathmandu. In a statement, the CAAN earlier said that the plane had crashed at Thasang-2 in Mustang district at the height of 14,500 feet. The airline’s passengers list identified four Indians as Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy) and their children Dhanush and Ritika. The family was based in Thane city near Mumbai. Their family members from India are waiting in Kathmandu for identification of bodies. Pieces of the wreckage of the aircraft were found after nearly 20 hours since the plane went missing, the Nepal Army said on Monday. The plane took off at 9:55 am from Pokhara and lost contact with air control about 12 minutes later at 10:07am, according to the Civil Aviation Authority. Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents. In 2016, all 23 people aboard were killed when a plane of the same airline flying the same route crashed after takeoff. Preliminary investigation revealed that the aircraft had crashed into the mountains after it swerved to the right, instead of turning to the left due to inclement weather, CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said during a meeting of the International Committee of the Parliament on Monday. The wreckage of the airplane was found on Monday morning at the Sanusare cliff at Thasang rural municipality-2 of Mustang district. The crash site is situated at a distance of eight nautical miles from the Jomsom Airport. Rescuers have so far pulled out 20 bodies from the wreckage of the crashed plane. Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait attacked in Bengaluru Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, who was in the city to address a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Monday, was attacked by a group of three men out of the blue during the event. As he was seated on the dias and another farmer leader was addressing the media, a man rushed to the stage and attacked Tikait with a television mic. Before Tikait recovered from it, another man threw black ink on him. One of the attackers shouted slogans saying, “Modi, Modi”. Other farmers in the hall soon rushed to catch the culprits. As they tried to flee, some threw chairs at them and they were soon caught and handed over to the police. Tikait was in the city to address allegations allegedly made by another farmer leader - Kodihalli Chandrashekhar - in a sting operation recently aired by a Kannada news channel. Chandrashekhar had allegedly claimed Tikait had been trying to broker an end to the 13-month-long farmers’ movement in New Delhi by taking money and colluding with the union government. The police have detained three persons and taken them to High Grounds police station for inquiry. “It is a conspiracy by the BJP and failure on part of the government to provide security cover despite requests being made a day before the programme,” one of the organisers alleged. Tikait, speaking to media persons, condemned the physical attack on him at the press conference earlier in the day. "I never expected a physical assault in Karnataka. A media channel that had done the sting operation was asking provocative questions with an aim to increase their TRP. Then suddenly a person walked up to the stage and hit me with a mic. Luckily I used my hand to block the blows, failing which I would have suffered a head injury. My hands are swollen,” he said, adding the incident was a failure of the State government. “There were intelligence people in the room. How did this happen? This was a pre-planned attack. I demand the police conduct a fair probe into the incident and bring to book all those behind the incident,” he said. Another farmer leader Yuddhaveer Singh, who was also present at the press conference, said given that the attackers carried a poster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted “Modi Modi”, it was up to the ruling dispensation to conduct a fair probe. State farmer leader Chukki Nanjundaswamy has announced a black flag protest across the state on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Tikait denied all allegations made against him by Chandrashekhar. “The allegations are baseless and without any evidence. Farmers’ movement is a historic movement that forced the Union Government to roll back the three farm laws. Yes, we were negotiating with the government, but not to broker end to protest,” he said. When quizzed whether he suspected the involvement of Chandrashekhar, he said the police must probe everyone, Chandrashekhar, the news channel or any others. Fuel retailers in 22 States to halt buying on Tuesday Fuel pump dealers from 22 States will not buy any diesel or petrol from oil marketing companies on May 31, demanding reimbursement of the losses they incurred on the overnight excise duty reductions announced by the Centre earlier this month and a mechanism to insulate them from frequent excise duty tweaks. “Since June 2017, when the dynamic pricing mechanism was put in place for fuels, excise duty has been revised 8 times, with five instances of excise duty cuts leading to lower retail selling price and causing losses to dealers,” the Delhi Petrol Dealers’ Association said in a statement with counterparts from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, and 15 other States. On the three occasions excise duty on petrol products was increased since 2017, the retail price was not changed and the benefit was passed on to the oil marketing companies (OMCs), they said. Apart from reimbursements from the OMCs, the dealers want future price changes to happen in line with the deregulated and dynamic pricing mechanism for fuel products. Though India has officially moved to a deregulated pricing regime for fuel products, retail prices are often put on hold by public sector oil majors who dominate the market, despite sharp changes in global oil prices. In recent months, while global crude prices shot up, fuel prices were unchanged for a long period between November 2021 and March this year, and have been frozen again since April 6. “We demand that our losses on account of excise reduction should be reimbursed by the OMCs and future price changes should happen in line with the dynamic pricing mechanism,” the statement said. “Dealers cannot make profit due to increase in excise duty, and they should not be burdened with loss due to reduction.” Last Friday, the Telangana Petroleum Dealers’ Association announced a plan to skip purchase of fuels from the OMCs on May 31. It said 15 other States’ dealers would do the same. By Monday, more States had joined the cause, seeking higher commissions and safeguards from the losses incurred due to tax cuts, including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Uttarakhand and the northeastern States. Dealers’ commissions have not been revised since 2017 though there was a pact with the oil marketing firms to revise them every six months, the petrol pump operators pointed out, even though their working capital requirements have doubled as fuel prices have almost doubled since then. “Our constant demand to revise dealer commission has been overlooked by the OMCs, and by doing so, they are making their own network financially unviable,” they stressed. In Brief The aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a fine of ₹10 lakh on SpiceJet for training its Boeing 737 Max aircraft’s pilots on a faulty simulator as it could have adversely impacted flight safety, sources said on Monday. The DGCA had last month barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. After barring the pilots, the regulator had issued a show-cause notice to the airline, sources told PTI. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 30 MAY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Punjab govt to set up judicial commission to probe Sidhu Moosewala’s killing [A day after Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, known as Sidhu Moosewala]( was shot dead at Jahawarke village in Mansa district of Punjab, the State government on Monday announced that a judicial commission under the chairmanship of a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court would be set up to probe the murder case. Acceding to a request by Balkar Singh Sidhu, the father of the slain singer, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the government would request the Chief Justice of the High Court to get the case probed by a sitting judge. The government would ensure full cooperation to this inquiry commission, including roping in Central agencies such as the National Investigation Agency. A day after his security cover among several others was trimmed by the police, Moosewala was shot dead on Sunday. The police said the incident apparently looked to be a result of an inter-gang rivalry. Director General of Police V. K. Bhawra said, “The incident occurred around 5.30 p.m. on Sunday. Moosewala was driving his vehicle and two private persons were accompanying him. Two vehicles from the front and one at the back blocked his vehicle and started firing in which he sustained bullet injuries. He was declared brought dead at the local hospital. We have recovered around 30 empty cases, which show at least three different weapons were used for firing.” “The Lawrence Bishnoi gang has claimed the responsibility for the killing through a Canada-based operative,” the DGP added. Last week, the police had withdrawn or reduced the security of 424 people, including current and former legislators, religious sect heads, and police officers, inviting sharp criticism from the Opposition parties. These parties launched a major offensive against the Aam Aadmi Party government, blaming it for the alleged complete breakdown of law and order in the State. Rescuers spot one more body near Nepal plane crash site, says Official [Rescuers who pulled out 20 bodies from the wreckage of the crashed Nepalese plane]( have spotted one more body but due to rain and difficult terrain it has not been retrieved yet while another is still missing, an official said on May 30, 2022. The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Tara Air went missing on Sunday morning in the mountainous region of Nepal minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara. [This handout photograph taken on May 30, 2022 and released by the Nepal Police shows members of a rescue team carrying out a operation at the crash site of a Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air, on a mountainside in Mustang, a day after it crashed. ] The Canadian-built plane, flying from the city of Pokhara to the popular tourist town Jomsom in central Nepal, was carrying four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew. Rescuers have pulled out 20 bodies from the crash site, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said. One more body has been spotted but due to rain and difficult terrain it’s not been retrieved yet, the spokesman said, adding that one person was still missing. The spokesperson said that 10 bodies were brought to Kathmandu, while 10 bodies were taken to Pokhara from where they would be brought to Kathmandu. In a statement, the CAAN earlier said that the plane had crashed at Thasang-2 in Mustang district at the height of 14,500 feet. The airline’s passengers list identified four Indians as Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy) and their children Dhanush and Ritika. The family was based in Thane city near Mumbai. Their family members from India are waiting in Kathmandu for identification of bodies. Pieces of the wreckage of the aircraft were found after nearly 20 hours since the plane went missing, the Nepal Army said on Monday. The plane took off at 9:55 am from Pokhara and lost contact with air control about 12 minutes later at 10:07am, according to the Civil Aviation Authority. Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents. In 2016, all 23 people aboard were killed when a plane of the same airline flying the same route crashed after takeoff. Preliminary investigation revealed that the aircraft had crashed into the mountains after it swerved to the right, instead of turning to the left due to inclement weather, CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said during a meeting of the International Committee of the Parliament on Monday. The wreckage of the airplane was found on Monday morning at the Sanusare cliff at Thasang rural municipality-2 of Mustang district. The crash site is situated at a distance of eight nautical miles from the Jomsom Airport. Rescuers have so far pulled out 20 bodies from the wreckage of the crashed plane. Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait attacked in Bengaluru [Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, who was in the city to address a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan]( Monday, was attacked by a group of three men out of the blue during the event. As he was seated on the dias and another farmer leader was addressing the media, a man rushed to the stage and attacked Tikait with a television mic. Before Tikait recovered from it, another man threw black ink on him. One of the attackers shouted slogans saying, “Modi, Modi”. Other farmers in the hall soon rushed to catch the culprits. As they tried to flee, some threw chairs at them and they were soon caught and handed over to the police. Tikait was in the city to address allegations allegedly made by another farmer leader - Kodihalli Chandrashekhar - in a sting operation recently aired by a Kannada news channel. Chandrashekhar had allegedly claimed Tikait had been trying to broker an end to the 13-month-long farmers’ movement in New Delhi by taking money and colluding with the union government. The police have detained three persons and taken them to High Grounds police station for inquiry. “It is a conspiracy by the BJP and failure on part of the government to provide security cover despite requests being made a day before the programme,” one of the organisers alleged. Tikait, speaking to media persons, condemned the physical attack on him at the press conference earlier in the day. "I never expected a physical assault in Karnataka. A media channel that had done the sting operation was asking provocative questions with an aim to increase their TRP. Then suddenly a person walked up to the stage and hit me with a mic. Luckily I used my hand to block the blows, failing which I would have suffered a head injury. My hands are swollen,” he said, adding the incident was a failure of the State government. “There were intelligence people in the room. How did this happen? This was a pre-planned attack. I demand the police conduct a fair probe into the incident and bring to book all those behind the incident,” he said. Another farmer leader Yuddhaveer Singh, who was also present at the press conference, said given that the attackers carried a poster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shouted “Modi Modi”, it was up to the ruling dispensation to conduct a fair probe. State farmer leader Chukki Nanjundaswamy has announced a black flag protest across the state on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Tikait denied all allegations made against him by Chandrashekhar. “The allegations are baseless and without any evidence. Farmers’ movement is a historic movement that forced the Union Government to roll back the three farm laws. Yes, we were negotiating with the government, but not to broker end to protest,” he said. When quizzed whether he suspected the involvement of Chandrashekhar, he said the police must probe everyone, Chandrashekhar, the news channel or any others. Fuel retailers in 22 States to halt buying on Tuesday [Fuel pump dealers from 22 States will not buy any diesel or petrol from oil marketing companies on May 31]( demanding reimbursement of the losses they incurred on the overnight excise duty reductions announced by the Centre earlier this month and a mechanism to insulate them from frequent excise duty tweaks. “Since June 2017, when the dynamic pricing mechanism was put in place for fuels, excise duty has been revised 8 times, with five instances of excise duty cuts leading to lower retail selling price and causing losses to dealers,” the Delhi Petrol Dealers’ Association said in a statement with counterparts from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, and 15 other States. [A view of a petrol bunk in Hyderabad. ] On the three occasions excise duty on petrol products was increased since 2017, the retail price was not changed and the benefit was passed on to the oil marketing companies (OMCs), they said. Apart from reimbursements from the OMCs, the dealers want future price changes to happen in line with the deregulated and dynamic pricing mechanism for fuel products. Though India has officially moved to a deregulated pricing regime for fuel products, retail prices are often put on hold by public sector oil majors who dominate the market, despite sharp changes in global oil prices. In recent months, while global crude prices shot up, fuel prices were unchanged for a long period between November 2021 and March this year, and have been frozen again since April 6. “We demand that our losses on account of excise reduction should be reimbursed by the OMCs and future price changes should happen in line with the dynamic pricing mechanism,” the statement said. “Dealers cannot make profit due to increase in excise duty, and they should not be burdened with loss due to reduction.” Last Friday, the Telangana Petroleum Dealers’ Association announced a plan to skip purchase of fuels from the OMCs on May 31. It said 15 other States’ dealers would do the same. By Monday, more States had joined the cause, seeking higher commissions and safeguards from the losses incurred due to tax cuts, including Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Punjab, Uttarakhand and the northeastern States. Dealers’ commissions have not been revised since 2017 though there was a pact with the oil marketing firms to revise them every six months, the petrol pump operators pointed out, even though their working capital requirements have doubled as fuel prices have almost doubled since then. “Our constant demand to revise dealer commission has been overlooked by the OMCs, and by doing so, they are making their own network financially unviable,” they stressed. In Brief The aviation regulator[Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has imposed a fine of ₹10 lakh on SpiceJet]( for training its Boeing 737 Max aircraft’s pilots on a faulty simulator as it could have adversely impacted flight safety, sources said on Monday. The DGCA had last month barred 90 SpiceJet pilots from operating the Max aircraft after finding them not properly trained. After barring the pilots, the regulator had issued a show-cause notice to the airline, sources told PTI. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow  Today’s Top Picks [[Talking Politics with Nistula Hebbar | How has PM Modi changed Indian politics?] Talking Politics with Nistula Hebbar | How has PM Modi changed Indian politics?]( [[Explained | What are the new rules for VPN providers and how do they impact your privacy?] Explained | What are the new rules for VPN providers and how do they impact your privacy?]( [[Watch | Where is Sir Creek and why is it disputed?] Watch | Where is Sir Creek and why is it disputed?]( [[Explained | What is the U.N. Peacekeeping mission?] Explained | What is the U.N. Peacekeeping mission?]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](