According to the ACB, Jain allegedly accepted a bribe of Rs 7 crore to waive the liquidated damages penalty of Rs 16 crore imposed on Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)
A group of farmer leaders were detained by the Punjab police when they were on their way to join the ongoing farmers’ protest at the Shambhu and Khanauri borders. Those detained included Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal.
The farmers were detained from Mohali after a clash with the security forces. They were heading for the Shambhu border protest site after a meeting with a central delegation led by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The police also removed farmers from the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu and Khanauri Borders and dismantled the temporary structures they erected. A number of farmers were detained from these areas as well.
Punjab Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the action was taken as they want to open Shambhu and Khanauri borders.
We want to open Shambhu and Khanauri borders. The demands of the farmers are against the central government and they should stage a protest in Delhi or somewhere else but should not block the roads of Punjab,” Harpal Cheema said.
Farmers have been camping out at the border after they were stopped from going to Delhi with their demands.
Congress MP Charanjit Singh Channi dubbed today’s detention an “attack” on the farm sector.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema also strongly condemned it, calling it a “highly undemocratic and illogical action that amounts to betrayal of the farm leaders”.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann must explain what happened after the meeting and who gave orders to arrest the leaders on way back, he said.
“It has exposed that Union government and the Bhagwant Mann government are hand-in-glove with each other. The SAD demanded immediate release of all farm leaders without delay,” Mr Cheema said.
The Central delegation’s meet with the farmers had remained inconclusive. Mr Chouhan said it took place in a “very positive environment”.
The woman and her boyfriend accused of stabbing her Merchant Navy officer husband and chopping up his body found themselves at the receiving end of the ire of over 100 lawyers when they were produced in a court in Meerut on Wednesday. The lawyers tried to assault the alleged killers, who were shielded by a team of police personnel, after they walked out of the courtroom and continued their efforts even after they were seated in a police vehicle.
One of the angry lawyers also climbed atop a car to try and attack the woman and her lover.
Muskaan Rastogi and her boyfriend Sahil Shukla were produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court on Wednesday after being arrested for the murder of Muskaan’s husband, Saurabh Rajput. Muskaan and Sahil had allegedly drugged Saurabh before stabbing him to death, chopping up his body into 15 pieces and stuffing it in a drum which they sealed with cement.
Officials said there were no issues when Muskaan and Sahil were being produced in the courtroom but they started receiving information that a crowd of angry lawyers had begun gathering in the court complex. More police personnel were called in but they found themselves facing at least a hundred-strong crowd intent on thrashing Muskaan and Sahil.
Videos show the two alleged killers being protected by police personnel as they are taken down the steps of the court towards the waiting lawyers. Shouts of “taiyyar raho” (stay ready) and “maaro” (attack) can be heard as the lawyers try to assault Muskaan and Sahil. The lawyers are pushed away by the police, but a couple of them land blows before another climbs atop an SUV and tries to hit the alleged killers from above.
The personnel keep pushing the lawyers as they try and take Muskaan and Sahil towards a waiting police car. A lawyer manages to elbow one of the alleged killers as they are being seated in the car and another can be seen hitting them from the front passenger window of the vehicle. The car finally manages to get moving, leaving the crowd behind.
Earlier on Wednesday, Superintendent of Police (Meerut City) Ayush Vikram Singh said Saurabh’s murder was plotted entirely by Muskaan, who conceived the plan in November last year.
Mr Singh said Muskaan had convinced her boyfriend, who regularly consumed narcotics, that his dead mother was speaking to him through a Snapchat account that she had created. This ploy was also used by her to ensure Sahil got involved in the murder plot.
(With inputs by Shyam Parmar)