The Evening Wrap: Hemant Soren resigns, Champai Soren named new Jharkhand CM

Hemant Soren on January 31 resigned as Jharkhand Chief Minister, while the ruling JMM-led coalition proposed the name of senior leader and State Transport Minister Champai Soren as new CM. Hemant Soren tendered his resignation to Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan at the Raj Bhavan after about seven hours of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to a land scam. Champai Soren was unanimously elected as the JMM Legislature Party leader by the ruling alliance in the State. “Hemant Soren has resigned as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has proposed the name of senior JMM leader Champai Soren as the new CM,” State Congress president Rajesh Thakur said. An ED team accompanied Hemant Soren to the Raj Bhavan. Meanwhile, JMM Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji claimed that Hemant Soren is in ED custody. Governor Radhakrishnan had refused to meet a group of JMM-led alliance MLAs, however, Hemant Soren was allowed, where he tendered his resignation, senior state Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay said. The ruling coalition left the Chief Minister’s residence in three buses for the Raj Bhavan. Mr. Hemant Soren could be seen waving at people ah he left his residence for the Raj Bhavan. Varanasi court permits Hindu side to offer prayers at basement of Gyanvapi mosque complex A Varanasi district court on January 31 granted the family of a priest the right to worship Hindu deities in the ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’ area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex. District Judge Ajay Krishna Vishwesha also asked the District Magistrate to takeover the basement and ensure that the puja starts in the next 7 days. The court allowed a priest’s kin the right to worship deities in Gyanvapi mosque cellar, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, said. “...puja will start within seven days. Everyone will have the right to perform puja... Hindu side allowed to offer prayers at ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’. The District Administration will have to make arrangements within 7 days,” Jain said. The mosque has four ‘tahkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement out of which one is still in possession of the Vyas family who used to live there. According to the petition, priest Somnath Vyas used to perform prayers there till 1993 when the cellar was closed by the authorities. After 1993, the prayers were stopped in the basement on the orders of the then State Government. Shailendra Kumar Pathak, maternal grandson of Somnath Vyas, had sought the right to worship deities there. Meanwhile, a mosque committee has said that it will approach the Allahabad High Court to challenge the judgment. Speaking to ANI, Jain said, “As soon as arrangements are made, Hindu devotees will start offering prayers. Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust does not need any order to make arrangements for prayers. We have done our legal work. It is up to Trust to start the prayers within seven days.” Referring to the February 1, 1986 order, when District Judge K.M. Pandey ordered the opening of the locks of Ram Mandir, Jain said, “I compare today’s order with that February 1, 1986 order. It is a historic order,” he added. Without naming any government, Jain said, “And one State government had misused its power to stop the Hindu devotees from offering prayers there. Today, the court rectified it with its pen. And gave the order to allow the prayers”. ”There was no written order to stop the prayers. Today, there is also no written order from any government to show how the prayers were stopped. We will soon complete the legal case. And win it.” On a query, he said, ““Next, there will be a survey on Wuzu Khana. For which there will be a hearing in the Supreme Court.” Advocate Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, another Hindu side lawyer, told ANI. “...Today the right has been given to perform puja [prayers] at ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’ and the court has given the order to the district officer for compliance of the order within a week...” Petitioners and advocates representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi case flashed a victory sign after the court order. RBI stops Paytm Payments Bank from accepting deposits after February 29 The RBI on January 31 barred Paytm Payments Bank Ltd from accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer account, prepaid instruments, wallets, and FASTags, among others after February 29, 2024. The Reserve Bank’s action against Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) follows a comprehensive system audit report and subsequent compliance validation report of the external auditors. These reports revealed persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank, warranting further supervisory action, the RBI said in a statement. “No further deposits or credit transactions or top ups shall be allowed in any customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, NCMC cards, etc. after February 29, 2024, other than any interest, cashbacks, or refunds which may be credited anytime,” it said. The central bank further said withdrawal or utilisation of balances by its customers from their accounts including savings bank accounts, current accounts, prepaid instruments, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards are to be permitted without any restrictions, up to their available balance. The RBI in March 2022 had directed PPBL to stop onboarding new customers with immediate effect. Five Parliament security breach case accused allege torture to accept association with ‘a political party’ Five of the six arrested in the Parliament security breach case moved an application in the Patiala House Court informing the court about electric shocks given to them to confess the crime and to accept their association with political parties. They also said that they were made to sign on 70 blank papers. Five of the six accused, Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde and Mahesh Kumawat, made the allegations. The sixth accused in the case, Neelam Azad, had refused to undergo the polygraph test. They were pressured to name a political party by the person conducting narco/polygraph test, they said in an application in the court of Special judge Hardeep Kaur, who extended the judicial custody of all the six accused till March 1. The Court sought a reply from police in the matter and fixed February 17 for hearing the application. Chandigarh mayoral polls: HC issues notice to Chandigarh administration, Municipal Corporation; denies interim relief The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday denied any interim relief on a plea by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader seeking fresh mayoral elections for Chandigarh Municipal Corporation but issued notices to the Chandigarh administration and the Municipal Corporation. The Court asked the respondents to file their replies in the matter in three weeks. On Tuesday, the BJP candidate, Manoj Sonkar, won the post of mayor by securing 16 votes in the 35-member municipal corporation House while Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar got 12 votes. After losing the poll, Kumar, the INDIA bloc candidate, approached the High Court, seeking to set aside the process of the election of the Mayor, alleging complete fraud and forgery in the process of elections. In his petition, he also sought fresh elections and presented a submission to hold back the elected mayor from discharging the duties of the post. Advocate Gurminder Singh, the counsel for the petitioner told reporters that the Court has issued notices to the Chandigarh administration, the MC and given them three weeks to file their replies. Senior standing counsel Anil Mehta said the Court did not give any interim relief to the petitioner. Congress and AAP members had created a ruckus in the House, alleging poll rigging by the presiding officer Anil Masih at the behest of the BJP. The BJP and the presiding officer, however, rejected the charge. Leaders of the AAP and Congress staged separate protests outside the police station in Sector 17, demanding that the Chandigarh Police register a case against Anil Masih, the presiding officer appointed for the mayor elections. Amid row with India, Maldives turns to Sri Lanka for medical evacuation support Maldives has sought Sri Lanka’s assistance in medical evacuation services — mainly to transport patients to Colombo in air ambulances — amid a persisting strain with India. Maldivian Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Mohamed Ameen met his Sri Lankan counterpart Nimal Siripala de Silva in Colombo on Tuesday, and said on social media platform ‘X’, that Sri Lanka has agreed to help the Maldives with medical evacuation. “We have specifically agreed upon creating a framework for immediate approval process between Maldives and Sri Lanka on urgent requirements, specifically on med-evac flights,” Ameen said in his post. “They [Maldives] will use their air ambulances, this is to help keep this channel open and easy for any emergency medical treatment that Maldivians might need in Sri Lanka,” de Silva told The Hindu Wednesday morning. Sri Lanka and India are among the Maldives’s closest neighbours, and Maldivians have always had close ties in Colombo, a city they frequent. The development comes amid President Mohamed Muizzu’s apparent efforts to expand and diversify the island nation’s partnerships in medical evacuation. In December, he announced setting up an air ambulance service beginning March 2024, and said it could help patients travel as far as Thailand. The need for prompt medical evacuation came into sharp focus earlier in January, when a Maldivian teenager died, reportedly owing to a delay in evacuation for emergency treatment. Muizzu’s efforts also assume significance at a time when Male and New Delhi grapple with strained ties, following controversial remarks made by Maldivian Ministers targeting India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a “Boycott Maldives” social media campaign in India. India’s two naval choppers and a Dornier aircraft stationed in the Maldives have been involved in more than 600 medical evacuations — often from the atolls to capital Male — and search and rescue operations in the last five years, according to official sources in Male. Muizzu has set a March 15 deadline for New Delhi to withdraw its nearly 80 soldiers stationed in the country. In briefED issues fifth summons to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy money laundering case The ED has issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his questioning in the Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case, official sources said January 31. This is the fifth summons to Kejriwal. He has skipped four earlier summons issued by the federal agency for January 18 and January 3 and November 2 and December 21 in 2023. He had called these notices “illegal”. It is understood that the fresh summons was for February 2. Core sectors’ growth hit 14-month low in December Output growth from India’s eight core sectors slumped to a 14-month low of 3.8% in December 2023, compared to 8.3% a year earlier and a revised growth of 7.9% in the previous month. Electricity generation, which has a 20% weightage in the Index of Core Industries (ICI), slipped to a eight-month low of 0.6%, while crude oil contracted for the second successive month by 1%, the sharpest slippage since June 2023. Yet, the ICI released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Wednesday (January 31), was 5.9% above November 2023 levels, and reflected a nine-month peak in actual output levels. Coal production grew 10.6%, marking the slowest year-on-year uptick in six months, but output levels were at their highest since April 2023. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 31 January 2024 [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]( Hemant Soren resigns, Champai Soren named new Jharkhand Chief Minister [Hemant Soren on January 31 resigned as Jharkhand Chief Minister, while the ruling JMM-led coalition proposed the name of senior leader and State Transport Minister Champai Soren as new CM.]( Hemant Soren tendered his resignation to Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan at the Raj Bhavan after about seven hours of questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to a land scam. Champai Soren was unanimously elected as the JMM Legislature Party leader by the ruling alliance in the State. “Hemant Soren has resigned as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand. The ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has proposed the name of senior JMM leader Champai Soren as the new CM,” State Congress president Rajesh Thakur said. An ED team accompanied Hemant Soren to the Raj Bhavan. Meanwhile, JMM Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji claimed that Hemant Soren is in ED custody. Governor Radhakrishnan had refused to meet a group of JMM-led alliance MLAs, however, Hemant Soren was allowed, where he tendered his resignation, senior state Congress leader Subodh Kant Sahay said. The ruling coalition left the Chief Minister’s residence in three buses for the Raj Bhavan. Mr. Hemant Soren could be seen waving at people ah he left his residence for the Raj Bhavan. Varanasi court permits Hindu side to offer prayers at basement of Gyanvapi mosque complex [A Varanasi district court on January 31 granted the family of a priest the right to worship Hindu deities in the ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’ area inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex.]( District Judge Ajay Krishna Vishwesha also asked the District Magistrate to takeover the basement and ensure that the puja starts in the next 7 days. The court allowed a priest’s kin the right to worship deities in Gyanvapi mosque cellar, Advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, said. “...puja will start within seven days. Everyone will have the right to perform puja... Hindu side allowed to offer prayers at ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’. The District Administration will have to make arrangements within 7 days,” Jain said. The mosque has four ‘tahkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement out of which one is still in possession of the Vyas family who used to live there. According to the petition, priest Somnath Vyas used to perform prayers there till 1993 when the cellar was closed by the authorities. After 1993, the prayers were stopped in the basement on the orders of the then State Government. Shailendra Kumar Pathak, maternal grandson of Somnath Vyas, had sought the right to worship deities there. Meanwhile, a mosque committee has said that it will approach the Allahabad High Court to challenge the judgment. Speaking to ANI, Jain said, “As soon as arrangements are made, Hindu devotees will start offering prayers. Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust does not need any order to make arrangements for prayers. We have done our legal work. It is up to Trust to start the prayers within seven days.” Referring to the February 1, 1986 order, when District Judge K.M. Pandey ordered the opening of the locks of Ram Mandir, Jain said, “I compare today’s order with that February 1, 1986 order. It is a historic order,” he added. Without naming any government, Jain said, “And one State government had misused its power to stop the Hindu devotees from offering prayers there. Today, the court rectified it with its pen. And gave the order to allow the prayers”. ”There was no written order to stop the prayers. Today, there is also no written order from any government to show how the prayers were stopped. We will soon complete the legal case. And win it.” On a query, he said, ““Next, there will be a survey on Wuzu Khana. For which there will be a hearing in the Supreme Court.” Advocate Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi, another Hindu side lawyer, told ANI. “...Today the right has been given to perform puja [prayers] at ‘Vyas Ka Tekhana’ and the court has given the order to the district officer for compliance of the order within a week...” Petitioners and advocates representing the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi case flashed a victory sign after the court order. RBI stops Paytm Payments Bank from accepting deposits after February 29 [The RBI on January 31 barred Paytm Payments Bank Ltd from accepting deposits or top-ups in any customer account, prepaid instruments, wallets, and FASTags, among others after February 29, 2024.]( The Reserve Bank’s action against Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) follows a comprehensive system audit report and subsequent compliance validation report of the external auditors. These reports revealed persistent non-compliances and continued material supervisory concerns in the bank, warranting further supervisory action, the RBI said in a statement. “No further deposits or credit transactions or top ups shall be allowed in any customer accounts, prepaid instruments, wallets, FASTags, NCMC cards, etc. after February 29, 2024, other than any interest, cashbacks, or refunds which may be credited anytime,” it said. The central bank further said withdrawal or utilisation of balances by its customers from their accounts including savings bank accounts, current accounts, prepaid instruments, FASTags, National Common Mobility Cards are to be permitted without any restrictions, up to their available balance. The RBI in March 2022 had directed PPBL to stop onboarding new customers with immediate effect. Five Parliament security breach case accused allege torture to accept association with ‘a political party’ [Five of the six arrested in the Parliament security breach case moved an application in the Patiala House Court informing the court about electric shocks given to them to confess the crime and to accept their association with political parties](. They also said that they were made to sign on 70 blank papers. Five of the six accused, Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde and Mahesh Kumawat, made the allegations. The sixth accused in the case, Neelam Azad, had refused to undergo the polygraph test. They were pressured to name a political party by the person conducting narco/polygraph test, they said in an application in the court of Special judge Hardeep Kaur, who extended the judicial custody of all the six accused till March 1. The Court sought a reply from police in the matter and fixed February 17 for hearing the application. Chandigarh mayoral polls: HC issues notice to Chandigarh administration, Municipal Corporation; denies interim relief [The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday denied any interim relief on a plea by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader seeking fresh mayoral elections for Chandigarh Municipal Corporation but issued notices to the Chandigarh administration and the Municipal Corporation](. The Court asked the respondents to file their replies in the matter in three weeks. On Tuesday, the BJP candidate, Manoj Sonkar, won the post of mayor by securing 16 votes in the 35-member municipal corporation House while Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar got 12 votes. After losing the poll, Kumar, the INDIA bloc candidate, approached the High Court, seeking to set aside the process of the election of the Mayor, alleging complete fraud and forgery in the process of elections. In his petition, he also sought fresh elections and presented a submission to hold back the elected mayor from discharging the duties of the post. Advocate Gurminder Singh, the counsel for the petitioner told reporters that the Court has issued notices to the Chandigarh administration, the MC and given them three weeks to file their replies. Senior standing counsel Anil Mehta said the Court did not give any interim relief to the petitioner. Congress and AAP members had created a ruckus in the House, alleging poll rigging by the presiding officer Anil Masih at the behest of the BJP. The BJP and the presiding officer, however, rejected the charge. Leaders of the AAP and Congress staged separate protests outside the police station in Sector 17, demanding that the Chandigarh Police register a case against Anil Masih, the presiding officer appointed for the mayor elections. Amid row with India, Maldives turns to Sri Lanka for medical evacuation support [Maldives has sought Sri Lanka’s assistance in medical evacuation services — mainly to transport patients to Colombo in air ambulances — amid a persisting strain with India.]( Maldivian Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation Mohamed Ameen met his Sri Lankan counterpart Nimal Siripala de Silva in Colombo on Tuesday, and said on social media platform ‘X’, that Sri Lanka has agreed to help the Maldives with medical evacuation. “We have specifically agreed upon creating a framework for immediate approval process between Maldives and Sri Lanka on urgent requirements, specifically on med-evac flights,” Ameen said in his post. “They [Maldives] will use their air ambulances, this is to help keep this channel open and easy for any emergency medical treatment that Maldivians might need in Sri Lanka,” de Silva told The Hindu Wednesday morning. Sri Lanka and India are among the Maldives’s closest neighbours, and Maldivians have always had close ties in Colombo, a city they frequent. The development comes amid President Mohamed Muizzu’s apparent efforts to expand and diversify the island nation’s partnerships in medical evacuation. In December, he announced setting up an air ambulance service beginning March 2024, and said it could help patients travel as far as Thailand. The need for prompt medical evacuation came into sharp focus earlier in January, when a Maldivian teenager died, reportedly owing to a delay in evacuation for emergency treatment. Muizzu’s efforts also assume significance at a time when Male and New Delhi grapple with strained ties, following controversial remarks made by Maldivian Ministers targeting India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a “Boycott Maldives” social media campaign in India. India’s two naval choppers and a Dornier aircraft stationed in the Maldives have been involved in more than 600 medical evacuations — often from the atolls to capital Male — and search and rescue operations in the last five years, according to official sources in Male. Muizzu has set a March 15 deadline for New Delhi to withdraw its nearly 80 soldiers stationed in the country. In brief ED issues fifth summons to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in excise policy money laundering case The [ED has issued fresh summons to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his questioning in the Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case]( official sources said January 31. This is the fifth summons to Kejriwal. He has skipped four earlier summons issued by the federal agency for January 18 and January 3 and November 2 and December 21 in 2023. He had called these notices “illegal”. It is understood that the fresh summons was for February 2. Core sectors’ growth hit 14-month low in December [Output growth from India’s eight core sectors slumped to a 14-month low of 3.8% in December 2023]( compared to 8.3% a year earlier and a revised growth of 7.9% in the previous month. Electricity generation, which has a 20% weightage in the Index of Core Industries (ICI), slipped to a eight-month low of 0.6%, while crude oil contracted for the second successive month by 1%, the sharpest slippage since June 2023. Yet, the ICI released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry on Wednesday (January 31), was 5.9% above November 2023 levels, and reflected a nine-month peak in actual output levels. Coal production grew 10.6%, marking the slowest year-on-year uptick in six months, but output levels were at their highest since April 2023. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [Sign up for free]( Today’s Top Picks [[P.C. George joins BJP, may contest from Pathanamthitta] P.C. 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