Escalating the face-off with the Centre at a time when Chief Minister Hemant Soren has skipped seven summons by the Enforcement Directorate, the Jharkhand government has issued instructions to all departments to not answer any queries by central agencies or hand over any documents to them directly. The departments have been asked to report all queries to the Cabinet Secretariat or the Vigilance Department for processing.

While the Jharkhand government has said that it is streamlining the process to ensure incomplete information is not handed over, experts are seeing the move as a form of non-cooperation with central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and the Income Tax department. 

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, which runs a coalition government in the state with the Congress as the other major partner, is a member of the INDIA alliance at the Centre. Several members of the bloc, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee – in whose state an Enforcement Directorate team was attacked on January 5 – have been lashing out at the BJP government at the Centre for allegedly misusing central agencies in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election.

‘Causes Confusion’

In a confidential letter written to all departments on Tuesday, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Vandana Dadel said that officials should not respond directly to notices and requests for documents related to any investigation by central agencies, and inform the Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance Department instead. 

The letter notes that the central investigating agencies have been sending notices to the officials and calling them for questioning without writing to the competent authority of the state government. In many cases, it said, officials used to get involved in the investigation and hand over government documents to the central agencies without bringing the matter to the notice of senior officers, adding that this was the wrong procedure. 

Ms Dadel said the information provided is likely to be incomplete or inaccurate, leading to confusion and adversely affecting the state government as well as central investigating agencies.

New SOP

Ms Dadel, who is in charge of the Department of Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance, said the state government has its own Anti-Corruption Bureau which reports to the department. 

Therefore, the letter states, the Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance Department is being made the nodal department for sharing information with the central agencies to avoid confusion and ensure proper cooperation with them. 

The new procedure states that If officials get any notice from agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, CBI or the IT Department, they should inform their immediate head. The head of the department will pass on the information to the nodal agency. 

The Department of Cabinet Secretariat and Vigilance will then take legal advice and then share the information with the agencies accordingly. 

Despite the letter referring to cooperation and streamlining the process, experts see the move as a way of making it more difficult for central agencies to get information from the state. 

Summons

The Enforcement Directorate has issued seven summons to Mr Soren in a money laundering case linked to allegations of corruption and illegal change of land ownership by the mafia. 

According to a report by news agency PTI, the ED has also summoned Mr Soren’s press adviser Abhishek Prasad and Sahibganj Deputy Commissioner Ram Niwas Yadav for questioning in a money laundering case linked to alleged illegal mining in the state. Mr Prasad has been summoned on January 16 and Mr Yadav and another person, Binod Singh, have been asked to appear on Thursday and January 15, respectively.

They will be questioned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 

The investigating agency had earlier raided their premises and those of Sahibganj Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajendra Dubey on January 3. The action was related to a case of “illegal stone mining prevalent in Sahibganj, having proceeds of crime of more than Rs 1,000 crore”, PTI quoted the agency as saying. 

The Goa police have found empty bottles of a cough syrup in a room where the CEO of a start-up allegedly killed her four-year-old son, indicating she might have given a heavy dose of the medicine to him and that it was pre-planned murder, an official said today.

The postmortem has revealed the child was smothered to death either with a cloth or a pillow, as per officials.

The accused woman, Suchana Seth, allegedly killed her son in the apartment at Candolim in Goa and stuffed the body in a bag before taking it to neighbouring Karnataka in a taxi, police said.

She was arrested from Chitradurga in Karnataka on Monday night and brought to Goa on Tuesday.

A senior police officer told Press Trust of India that during the inspection of the service apartment room where the woman stayed, they found two empty bottles (one big and another small) of a cough syrup.

“The post-mortem conducted on the body has indicated the possibility that the child might have been smothered to death and there were no signs of struggle,” he said.

“We are examining the possibility if the woman gave a heavy dose of cough syrup to the child before putting him to death,” the official said.

Enquiries with the service apartment staff revealed the woman had asked them to buy a small bottle of a cough syrup claiming she was having cough, he said, adding the bigger bottle might have been carried by her.

“It looks like a pre-planned murder,” the official said.

According to police sources, the accused has denied her involvement in the crime during the interrogation and claimed the child was already dead when she got up from sleep.

“We don’t buy her theory. Further investigation will reveal the motive behind killing the child. As of now, we know that she and her husband were estranged because of which she might have done this,” a senior police official said.

Suchana Seth checked in the service apartment on January 6 and stayed there till January 8 before leaving for Bengaluru in a taxi.

Following her arrest, a court in Mapusa town of Goa on Tuesday remanded her in police custody for six days.

The child’s father, Venkat Raman, who was in Jakarta (Indonesia), reached Hiriyur in Chitradurga on Tuesday night and took possession of his son’s body after postmortem.

“He was strangled to death or what we call smothering. Either a cloth or a pillow was used. The child died due to strangulation. It doesn’t look like the child was strangulated using hands. It looks like a pillow or some other material was used. The rigor mortis (postmortem muscle stiffness) had resolved in the child,” Hiriyur Taluk Hospital’s administrative officer Dr Kumar Naik told reporters.

Suchana Seth is the CEO of ‘The Mindful AI Lab’, and according to her LinkedIn profile, she is an AI ethics expert and data scientist with over 12 years of experience in mentoring data science teams, and scaling machine learning solutions at startups and industry research labs.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Amid the ongoing row between India and the Maldives, opposition leader and the Chairperson of the Maldivian Democratic Party, Fayyaz Ismail, has called for a “tougher stand” by the government, saying that the racist comments against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were just isolated individual opinions of these people who were unfortunately given positions in the government.

He underlined how the entire matter has reached a lot of Indians as well as Maldivians, due to easy accessibility of social media.

“I personally believe the government should take a tougher stand on that because this goes beyond government to government. Now, because of the easy accessibility of social media, this has reached to a lot of Indians and to a lot of Maldivians. And as arguments take over from both sides, there has been lot of insults coming back and forth. So the government needs to show that there was no intention on the part of the government. These were just isolated individual opinions of these people who, unfortunately, were given positions in the government. So that needs to be clearly shown to the Indians, to the Maldivians, and to the entire world at large,” he said.

On being asked if the ongoing spat between the two countries is going to have an impact on the India-Maldives ties, as well the revenue that Indian tourists have generated for the island nation over the years, the Maldivian leader, who was also the former Minister of Economic Development of Maldives, asserted that it is much more than economics or revenue.

“This relationship between India and Maldives has been nurtured and fostered over a long period of time by very mature leaders, past leaders of our country and yours as well. So just one or two tweets derailing this entire relationship is very sad,” the minister said.

“So, for me, the main problem is that this has gone beyond governments. Governments will always have spats; obviously, with the change of political parties, whether it’s in India or Maldives, there will be differences of opinion,” he added.

He further went on to say that he is more concerned about how to make the required repairs as the ongoing spat between India and the Maldives has now reached the people.

“But now this has reached the people, and that is something I am more concerned about–how to repair that. So to repair that from our side, our government have to come up with a stronger statement or action on that. And I would hope that from the Indian colleagues, that there will be more restraint as well to try to diffuse this,” he told ANI.

In terms of aid and assistance provided by India to Maldives, he said, “Yes, India has been a very strong development partner of Maldives, not only in terms of economics but social development as well. And at the same time, Maldives has been a strong, staunch ally of India across the international spectrum. So this is a relationship which is mutual.”

“And the security and stability of the Indian Ocean region depends on the part played by each of the countries, whether large or small, in this region,” he added and urged that it is important here that spat is taken as a spat, and forgotten as soon as possible for the interest of both countries.

He said, “Yes, some people, nationalistic people from both countries, may say that Maldives may say, we can do without India, and Indians may say that you are a very small country. But no, that’s not the correct approach. We will be here. India will be there. So we need to work together in tandem, which includes our governments and our people as well.”

Meanwhile, on Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu’s recent visit to China, where he slated to meet Xi Jinping and sign key agreements, the Maldivian opposition leader said that with the change in the political spectrum in Maldives, and in political parties, there will be always shifts in the intensity of engagement.

“Well, first of all, there is no doubt that the current government has more favourable or more stronger relation with China. The Maldives has always maintained friendly relations with all countries, except for Israel. So with the change in the political spectrum in Maldives, with the change in political parties, there will be always shifts in the intensity of engagement with different partners, obviously. And in this case, you’re seeing more robust engagement with China rather than India,” he said.

“Until now, we have always, all parties in the Maldives maintained an India-first policy, and that is also very crucial for our security and stability as well. But this government may have got different approaches to its foreign policy, and maintaining good relations with China is not an issue that any party in the Maldives would also want,” he noted.

Furthermore, the Maldivian minister added by saying that he has visited India a lot of times and has always wanted to visit Lakshadweep.

“And now that this has really come up, my interest is much more piqued and I would really take more steps for me to go and visit that beautiful nation. And I think there is a historical link between Maldives and Lakshadeep as well. There are Maldives-speaking people in. on one of those islands as well. So we have deep historical and religious roots as well. And I have always wanted to visit and see Maldivian people in another country. So, yes, I would definitely like to visit Lakshadeep,” the minister said.

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu, during his ongoing five-day state visit to China, urged China to “intensify” efforts to send more tourists to the Maldives.

The appeal comes in the wake of a diplomatic spat leading to the cancellation of reservations by Indian tourists for Maldives as derogatory remarks were made by Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Maldivian media reported that during President Muizzu’s visit, the two countries signed a USD 50 million project aimed at developing an integrated tourism zone in the Indian Ocean island.

The appeal for more Chinese tourists follows a diplomatic row initiated by derogatory remarks from some Maldivian ministers against Prime Minister Modi, prompting the suspension of three deputy ministers and condemnation from the Maldives Association of Tourism Industry (MATI).

The data released by the Maldives Tourism Ministry earlier, stated that India has remained the largest tourist market for the country in 2023.

Media reports cited data released by the Maldives Tourism Ministry earlier stating highest number of visitors to the Maldives were from India, with 2,09,198 arrivals, followed by Russia in second place with 2,09,146 arrivals, and China in third place with 1,87,118 arrivals.

Even in 2022, India remained the top Maldives tourism market, with as many as 2,40,000 arrivals. Russia followed closely in second place with 198,000 tourists, and Britain ranked third with over 1,77,000 arrivals.

On January 2, PM Modi visited the Union Territory of Lakshadweep and shared several pictures, including an ‘exhilarating experience’ of him trying his hand at snorkelling.

In a series of posts on X, PM Modi shared pictures of the white beaches, the pristine blue skies and the ocean and tagged them with a message that read, “For those who wish to embrace the adventurer in them, Lakshadweep has to be on your list.”

In a post that has now been deleted, the Maldivian Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment, Mariyam Shiuna, made a mocking and disrespectful reference to PM Modi.

Indians, including cricketers and film celebrities, have since come out in open support in promoting local beach destinations and other tourist spots. They also voiced support for PM Modi’s call for promoting beach tourism in Lakshadweep.

The Maldives government has, however, distanced itself from the remarks made by its ministers. Maldivian Minister of Foreign Affairs Moosa Zameer said that these remarks against foreign leaders are “unacceptable” and do not reflect the official position of the Maldives government.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)