At an event during the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) strongly denunciated the ghastly attack in Pulwama that claimed 40 lives of CRPF personnel. They urged Pakistani establishment to dismantle all terror groups operating in PoK and Pakistan.
Geneva: Activists from PoK condemn #PulwamaTerrorAttack at a side event during 40th session of UNHRC. S Ali Kashmiri, Chairman,United Kashmir People’s National Party says,”Pak Army officials are openly asking Kashmiris to go for suicide attacks. It’s an alarming situation.”(11/3) pic.twitter.com/fxwG6aX21k
Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Chairman of United Kashmir People’s National Party(UKPNP) blamed Pakistan for nurturing terrorists and using them to wage a proxy war against India. He said, “Pakistan’s Army Generals are now overtly asking Kashmiris to stop using weapons and instead go for suicide attacks. Retired Army Generals are doing it. It is an alarming situation as the state runs the risk of being divided into 1000 pieces because of Pakistan sponsored sectarianism and terrorism.”
M Hassan, human rights activist from PoK: It is time to dismantle all terror operating groups, be it in PoK or Pakistan. Pakistan government needs to take responsibility & get rid of these non-state actors. They are not only destroying local but also international peace. (11/3) pic.twitter.com/h26FPnNi2m
Another activist M Hassan said, “We have been witnessing these attacks and counter-attacks from last 71 years. One Pulwama attack brought the two nuclear-powered countries on a brink of a full-scale war. The eventuality of the war might be catastrophic for the entire world.” Hassan also added that Pakistan needs to dismantle the terror networks and get rid of the non-state actors that are posing a grave threat not only to the local peace but also to international peace.
The Security Guards’ Association of Maharashtra, hurt by Rahul Gandhi’s “Chowkidaar Chor Hai” jibe, has requested the Mumbai Police to register a case against the Congress President.
The Maharashtra Rajya Suraksha Rakshak Union submitted an application at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) police station in Mumbai on Monday, saying that the remark was an insult to security guards, a police official was quoted as saying.
Union president Sandeep Ghuge said police should register an offence against the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to stop “such kind of slogans insulting the security guards.” The Union said that Rahul Gandhi had made the remark during a rally at the MMRDA grounds in the city earlier this month.
The Congress President has been making the remark regularly on social media and at his rallies as he continues to lie about the Rafale Deal. Last year in December, some overzealous Congress workers, inspired by their party President, had breached security at the Taj Mahal to raise slogans of “Chowkidar Chor Hai”.
The Congress President isn’t the only one who has been making insensitive remarks involving Chowkidars. On Tuesday, AAP leader Alka Lamba had drawn flak after making racist remarks against Nepali citizens. She had said, “Dear Indians, this time, please elect a Prime Minister. You can get a watchman from Nepal too. Watchmen from Nepal are not thieves.”
Almost two weeks post the gallant retaliation by IAF in the form of the Balakot airstrike, in the aftermath of the cowardly Pulwama attack, top defence and government officials have said on condition of anonymity that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is still on full operational alert with an entire squadron of F-16 fighters deployed along its eastern front, reports Hindustan Times.
The independent American satellite imagery with the Indian Air Force (IAF) has confirmed direct hits on the Balakot camp. Shaken up by the retaliation, Pakistan’s air space restrictions continue along the country’s borders with India. Rawalpindi headquartered 10 Corps along with a Special Forces brigade from Sialkot of the Pakistan Army have been deployed all along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir.
the report has quoted one of the officials saying, “We have confirmed reports that PAF’s F-16 acquired from both US and Jordan are on high alert all along India-Pak border—from Hyderabad in Sindh to Skardu in Northern Areas. The Pak Army deployment including radars and air defense system along the LoC was strengthened immediately after the February 14 Pulwama attack as they expected Indian retaliation similar to that of the surgical strike.”
The officials say Pakistan’s immediate reaction to the February 26 airstrike was to increase shelling on that day itself. The Pakistan Army has been targeting Sunderbani, Naushera, Poonch, Bhimber Gali, and Krishnaghati sectors repeatedly through heavy mortars and 120 mm artillery guns immediately after India’s air strikes.
Data procured by Hindustan Times revealed that there were 19 ceasefire violations on February 26 itself, 16 the next day, when PAF retaliated to the previous day’s Balakot air strike and 26 on February 28, 2019. Shockingly, there have been a total of 467 ceasefire violations in the past two months with February accounting for as many as 251. The year 2017 has witnessed as many as 971 violations, with the number rapidly increasing to 2140 in 2018.
Ironically, while on one hand, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan exhorts India to have peace ‘talks’, on the other, his Army is resorting to continuous unprovoked firing on the LoC.
Though the officials are not ready to give away details of the Indian deployment along the LoC but said that the Indian military is not taking any chances and is ready to respond to any extremity.
In the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, in which Pakistan supported JeM had killed 40 CRPF soldiers, the Indian air force had given a befitting reply by penetrating deep into Pakistan’s air space and bombing the Jaish terror camp on February 26, wiping it out completely.
The situation between the two nations escalated after Pakistan sought to attack the Indian Military bases in retaliation to India’s air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan.
Pakistan is totally flustered as Indian as well as global pressure is mounting on them to act against the terror groups harboured on its soil. Under this pressurisation, Pakistan is trying to indulge in psychological warfare, by sending a message to the world that it is ready to placate the situation while continuing its aggression on the ground along the border.
In a major setback to the Congress party, the leader of opposition in Maharashtra assembly, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s son Sujay Vikhe Patil has joined the BJP just a month before the assembly elections. According to the sources, the move comes after Sujay’s request to contest the polls from Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat was rejected by the Congress’ alliance partner in Maharashtra NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Congress Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil had reportedly met Pawar many times over the last few days regarding the request to field his son from Ahmednagar seat. “The Ahmednagar seat has always been our seat. We even defeated late Balasaheb Vikhe from there and I had to face a legal case following that. There was no point in taking that seat away from us. He(Sujay) could have joined our party but no option of relinquishing that seat,” Pawar has reportedly said.
Yesterday, Pawar had declared that he will not be contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and had instead decided to launch his grand nephew Parth from Maval constituency.
With relatives of senior Congress leaders abandoning the party and joining the opposition, panic has set among Congress loyalists and questions are being asked of Congress on their preparedness to take on the mighty BJP.
Congress/ Opposition leader in assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil’s son joins BJP. This is the status of Congress in Maharashtra. If you can’t convince your son how will you convince voters? #LokSabhaEections2019
However, speculations are rife that BJP was trying for both the Patil father-son duo to cross over and join them. It has been a difficult time for Congress to keep its flock together as many of its leaders are deserting it ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. In Gujarat, Congress MLA Vallabh Dharaviya had yesterday quit Congress and joined BJP. Prior to him, Congress MLAs from Manvadar, Unjha and Halvad Dhrangadhra had resigned and joined the BJP. In Telangana, 4 Congress MLAs have defected to join TRS.
Huffington Post recently carried an article by Rachna Khaira where the infamous journalist tried to malign the Digital India program by dragging it in the middle of a controversy. It is no surprise that a couple of months ago, through a similar shabby analysis, there was an attempt to malign the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) program. The same journalist was also caught for sharing fake news regarding the sale of supposedly “stolen” Aadhaar data.
The first line of the article by HuffPost itself displays the deep inherent bias that the author has against the current government so we must take it with a pinch of salt. In fact, the article is based on an incoherent understanding of the Digital India program and it reflects the utter lack of knowledge and ignorance of the author. The claim in the article is that the government is fudging the data to show the success of Digital India, but the entire article fails to substantiate the much “explosive” and controversial claim.
First things first, the decision to refer to e-Taal (Electronic Transaction Aggregation & Analysis Layer) for e-transactions is a policy choice of the government. e-Taal is the government’s dashboard that measures e-transactions on a real-time basis, and it is used for the purpose of evaluation of the penetration and adoption of digital services across the country. Therefore, the benchmark has been set by the government for the purpose of evaluation of its performance. To question the benchmark and then say that the policy has failed is by far the most absurd logic that we’ve come across till date. It is worth mentioning that the author does not contest the facts or figures in the platform but simply distorts them and argues that we should have a different definition of e-transactions. Her distorted idea of e-transactions is then used to argue that the government has fudged the data but she provides no evidence to substantiate such a charge. The reason why she makes a charge of fudging of data is to undermine the success of the Digital India program and claim it as a failure but of course, the program has been one of the most successful programs of the current government.
As far as her distorted idea is concerned, that in itself is inconsistent with the understanding of what constitutes as e-transactions and what the objective of the government is with its Digital India program. One of the major goals of the Digital India program is to ensure that government services are provided over the digital spectrum. Thus, once the benchmark has been set to measure the success of the program, we must evaluate it using the stated objective of the policy along with the benchmark for evaluation. In the present context, the government has considered e-transactions as transfer of data and is using the eTaal platform to monitor them but Rachna has a problem with it only because it does not suit her preconceived notions about the current government.
There are several points that have been raised to express concern regarding the quality of data by her. For instance, she argues the inclusion of BHIM and UPI transactions in the figures of e-transactions post 2016 will inflate the number of e-transactions. It must be mentioned that UPI came into existence in 2016 so how could the data be included for something that didn’t exist before 2016? Digital payments are legitimate transactions over the internet so now that we have UPI, it makes logical sense to include it in the data. Based on the data for February, over 2 crore daily UPI transactions took place so that is a solid number to illustrate the rise in e-transactions. With cashbacks and other incentives, it is only logical that there has been significant and widespread adoption of digital payments. However, just because of the legitimate inclusion of UPI in eTaal goes against her hypothesis, she wants it to be removed from the eTaal platform. We must welcome the fact that in this dynamic nature of digital world, the government is using a dynamic platform like eTaal as a benchmark. But even when the government is doing something right, they’ve got to question it because how can Modi get it right?
The journalist who claims to understand IT also feels that card payments should not be considered as e-transactions. It’s absurd that someone who understands or rather claims to understand IT would make such an assertion but then again, when the objective is to slander and malign then where is the space for logic? For even those who are not that sound with IT, it’s obvious why card payments should be included in the e-transaction figures. A card payment by a person is essentially a request to transfer money from one account to another and this request would be processed by clearing houses which are connected to banks. The entire process is done over the digital spectrum so why should they not be included in the definition of e-transactions?
Her take on Aadhar and e-KYC were downright hysterical, we all know what happened after that fake story in tribune regarding Aadhar data. In fact, the world knows how she’s been on a mission to malign the Aadhar ever since the government started using it to plug leakages. But consider this, Aadhaar and e-KYC are critical towards the Digital India program of the Government. It goes without saying that whenever someone completes KYC over the internet using e-KYC, it is a digitally verified KYC so it should be an e-transaction. The fact that it is now possible to complete a KYC over the internet digitally without any “paperwork” or any hassle must be considered as the government offering a key service over the internet. By definition, it is an e-transaction so it is a part of e-Taal but then again, because it doesn’t suit her agenda so she doesn’t want it to be included irrespective of logic or rationality.
Similarly, railway bookings and cancellation are also an e-transaction since the existing Apps and website of IRCTC are used for online for bookings and cancellations. Booking such tickets online effectively implies that an online service is being offered by the government and thus these transactions must be included and recorded as e-transactions. Moreover, in August 2014, there was a revamp of IRCTC and since then its capacity and scale has been significantly amplified. The decision of removal of 2% surcharge has further encouraged more citizens to rely on the online service for booking of rail tickets and incentivize greater adoption of e-transactions. But who cares about logic, for her even this is not an e-service!! (double exclamation marks deliberate)
She has questioned the extension of SMS to farmers as being equated to be an e-transaction. We must appreciate the government, and rightly so, for considering Digital India to be a program that focusses upon bridging the digital divide that was prevalent in India before 2014. Even with the launch of UPI, the government ensured that a simple candy-bar phone could also be used too make a digital transfer of money over the 2G network using SMS. Thus, the government has consistently considered SMS as a part of an electronic transfer of information and there is no departure from this convention when the government considers SMS to farmers as a part of e-transactions. Additionally, these SMSs are provided with the intention of spreading awareness and sharing vital information about weather, prices in different markets and other information that is critical for the welfare of the farmers. This information is shared with only those farmers who have registered with the government’s Kisan platform so only those farmers who have registered get these messages. Additionally, as the penetration of mobile phones has gone up and more farmers have opted for this service by registering for the platform, it is evident that the number of SMSs would go up. Providing vital information for the wellbeing of citizens is also an integral service of the government so we see no reason why someone should question why the government is sending such vital information over SMS to farmers who have opted for these messages.
It was amusing to see the journalist asking for services to be reduced from the definition of e-transactions so that they can claim that Digital India has not really created much impact, but the fact and data remain contrary to her faulty hypothesis.
The fact that the entire data published by the government shows different components along with what is included and excluded for different years demonstrates the transparent nature of the statistics released by the government. Therefore, the allegations of fudging of data are hysterical at best and driven by a clear desire to mislead the people using convoluted logic, incoherent arguments, inconsistent facts and false equivalence.
In a major embarrassment to Congress, Jamnagar Rural MLA, Vallabh Dharaviya resigned from the party yesterday to join the BJP. Dharaviya’s resignation, which came a day ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting which is being held in Ahmedabad, marks 4th resignation in a short span from a sitting Congress MLA who quit the party to join the BJP.
Prior to him, Congress MLAs from Manvadar, Unjha and Halvad Dhrangadhra had resigned and joined the BJP. Jasdan MLA Kunvarji Bavaliya had resigned last year to join the BJP. Meanwhile, Patidar agitation leader, Hardik Patel, who was sentenced to two years in prison for rioting, today formally joined the Congress and is even participating in the Congress Working Committee meeting.
With Hardik joining Congress formally, it would be interesting to see the dynamics between Patidar quota leader and Alpesh Thakor, another Congress MLA and an OBC leader from Gujarat. He has been fighting for the reservation SC, ST and the OBC are entitled to and proper implementation of the prohibition law. Of course, his father, Khodabhai Patel was a Congress leader and Alpesh had earlier opposed Hardik Patel’s Patidar agitation and cracks were seen between two ‘friends’. During the run-up to the Gujarat assembly elections, in his attempt to support farmer loan waiver, Thakor had emptied milk cans on the roads as a mark of protest.
Hardik, on the other hand, during the BMC polls in Mumbai in 2017, Hardik Patel had joined hands with Shiv Sena and campaigned against the BJP. As of now, Patel is now reduced to a troll on Twitter, with little relevance on the field. In September 2018, Patel had gone on an indefinite fast, where despite not having food, it was reported that he had actually gained weight.
Hardik Patel, who was once the face of Patidar agitation in Gujarat, is now convicted for causing riots in Mehasana. Hardik Patel has been found guilty of charges related to arson and creating a ruckus at the office of BJP MLA Rushikesh Patel. He is also accused of large-scale violence in the state of Gujarat during the 2015 Patidar Andolan seeking reservations for Patidar community. A sedition case is also going on against him in an Ahmedabad court.
In January this year, it was found that UPA-era’s AugustaWestland scam middleman Christian Michel with another middleman Guido Haschke had worked on a plan to lobby for Eurofighter against Rafale in order to win the deal for 126 fighter planes in its favour.
Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale were two fighter aircraft which had qualified for the final round of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition. Rafale was finally chosen over Eurofighter after it emerged as the lowest bidder in terms of life-cycle cost of the jet.
Now as per a Times of India report, agencies have been able to unearth even more evidence stating that in one of Michel’s communications there is a reference to “three bosses” in India, who could be worked with to sway the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft in favour of Germany based Eurofighter.
The dispatches dated April-May 2010 talk about finding bureaucratic-political “navigators” in the Indian government who can help Eurofighter grab the deal. In communication with Finmeccanica heads, Michel reportedly tells that out of three bosses in India, only one is available. Eurofighter is designed by a consortium of multinational defence companies from UK, Germany, Italy and Spain. Italian firm Finmeccanica which makes AgustaWestland choppers owns 21 per cent shares in the Eurofighter consortium.
During the investigation, some startling revelations came to fore, when it was found in one of the dispatches with Finmeccanica, Michel was in possession of some official documents on Rafale including technical evaluation reports. In other communications with Finmeccanica, Michel guided them to adjust its proposal in such a way that pricing structure of the deal becomes more complex and pricing becomes tough to verify.
Agencies are also probing Michel’s role in delaying the 126 Rafale Jet deal during UPA, and his role in government putting the deal on freeze.
Christian Michel was extradited from UAE last year. He is accused of money laundering, bribery, and fraud in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. It is believed that not only did he pay kickbacks to politicians, officers and agents but also involved certain celebrity journalists to swing the deal. He is currently lodged in Tihar jail.
Evidence found by investigative agencies suggesting Michel’s efforts along with several politicians and bureaucrats raises suspicion regarding the involvement of various other parties including the opposition in the matter of India’s national security.
Recent investigations on several UPA era defence scams have hinted at the involvement of top leadership of Congress party in the deals. It has also been revealed that Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party General Secretary Priyanka Vadra had done questionable land deals with H L Pahwa, who is linked with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
In a sustained crackdown on Islamic terrorists and their patrons, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached 25 assets and properties worth Rs 1.03 crore in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country of Zahoor Ahmad Watali, the banker and financier of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Jama’at-ul-Da’wah founder Hafiz Saeed.
According to reports, the Enforcement Directorate has initiated the process of attaching these properties which include bungalows, palatial houses, and farmhouses across the country. The ED has issued a provisional order for attaching Watali’s assets under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The case is based on a charge-sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency as part of its probe against Hafiz Saeed.
Watali, Hafiz Saeed, Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin, and nine others are named by NIA in their case for “Conspiring to wage war against India and fomenting trouble in the Kashmir valley”. NIA also claims that Watali has received money from ISI in Pakistan, the Pakistani High Commission and a source in Dubai.
Reportedly, the ED believes that the large amount of money that was used to procure these properties came from the chief of Pakistan based terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hafiz Saeed. One of the immovable properties seized by the probe agency is located in Gurgaon and is worth Rs 1.03 crore, said an ED official.
The Enforcement Directorate had registered a fresh case against Hafiz Saeed on January 19 on the basis of a first information report (FIR) filed by the NIA in June 2017. The LeT had carried out the terror attacks on Parliament in 2001 and Mumbai in 2008.
Earlier, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had decided to seize nearly 14 properties belonging to Pakistan-sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist outfit chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in Jammu and Kashmir in an attempt to clamp down on terror funding.
Recently, in a big setback to both terrorist Hafiz Saeed and its supporter Pakistan, the United Nations had rejected the appeal of Hafiz Saeed, the chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jamat-ul-Dawa, requesting the removal of his name from the list of banned terrorists.
Hafiz Saeed, who is the mastermind of 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai, was banned by the UN in December 2008 after the Mumbai attacks which had claimed the lives of around 166 people. Unsurprisingly, Pakistan did not oppose the appeal of Hafiz Saeed despite tall claims of Pakistan taking action against terrorist organisations.
Aam Aadmi Party MLA Alka Lamba, who has earlier taken to Twitter to express her displeasure at being unfollowed by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal followed by removal from WhatsApp group, today took to the social media platform to be casually racist against Nepalis.
In a bid to take a dig on Prime Minister Modi and toeing the Congress President line of referring to PM Modi as ‘chowkidar’ (watchman), Lamba said, “Dear Indians, this time, please elect a Prime Minister. You can get a watchman to Nepal also. Watchmen from Nepal are not theives.” She then added a winking emoji as if she has said the wittiest thing ever.
Her casually racist tweet, however, has not gone down well with people. She was criticised for her condescending remarks insulting an entire community.
Are you seriously that racist and unhinged?! Or that tone deaf and condescending and ignorant?!
You can make the exact same point without dragging another people, another country into this..
— Lavanya ಲಾವಣ್ಯ লাৱণ্যা (@TheSignOfFive) March 12, 2019
Some thought of returning in kind.
सही कहां दिल्ली वाले सीएम चुनिए गधा तो पाकिस्तान से भी मंगवा लेंगे
People from Nepal, too, didn’t take it lightly and were upset, rightly so.
Thanks for your appreciation but “Chaukidar” not found only in Nepal. Its racist comment. Dont link your politics for our country. https://t.co/QUCBLVEpEx
Didn’t see? the military from Nepal to protect India by sacrificing theirs every life as well many field involving ! FYI several Indian also working many kind job in Nepal every day. https://t.co/TQWbTm9CUL
Her casual racism and blatant stereotyping has not gone down well and has received severe backlash even on other platforms.
Darjeeling Chronicle Facebook post
This is not the first time Lamba has displayed her insensitivity. In November last year, she made a crass comment on Goa Chief Minister Parrikar’s health to spread canards about Rafale deal. Once, when a fire broke out in Chandni Chowk, the constituency she represents in the state assembly, she climbed the ladder of the fire brigade, delaying the rescue operations. Furthering her insensitivity, she later laughed on Twitter while sharing the news.
For a long time now, Rahul Gandhi has been asking questions on the Rafale deal. He has been asking why Modi has given Anil Ambani a ton of money. The figures range from Rs 1,30,000 crore to Rs1,00,000 crore to Rs30,000 crore, depending on his mood. These figures are obviously false as Reliance share in offset business in Rafale deal is only around Rs800 crore. He asks repeatedly why Reliance with no experience in aviation has got the Rafale deal. This assertion is also wrong because Reliance is not making the jet or any of its parts. All the questions the Congress president is asking the government are based on pure fiction, with no basis in truth. But now the time has come to reverse the table, and for Rahul Gandhi to answer some questions himself.
In the parliament, Arun Jaitley had hinted that while the bidding process for the MMRCA was going on during the Congress regime, a parallel backroom deal was going on with Eurofighter for probable bribes. Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon had entered the final round of bidding, among the initial 6 contenders, but eventually, Rafale was selected in 2012 on technical parameters.
Not only had rumours surfaced that Rahul Gandhi had met Eurofighter officials in Germany, but once the Sanjay Bhandari link surfaced, the unanswered questions only took on mammoth proportions. Sanjay Bhandari is a close friend of Robert Vadra and an arms dealer. From 2012 to 2015, Sanjay Bhandari was lobbying to become the offset partner in the Rafale deal and Dassault had refused to indulge him. In fact, a file related to the purchase of 126 Rafale jets had gone missing from the defence ministry and it was later found on the road. It is alleged that Bhandari had stolen the file. It is alleged that Bhandari used to photocopy crucial files and passed on to defence contractors that he had links with.
So far, the link had only been established between Robert Vadra and Sanjay Bhandari. However, now, OpIndia has accessed information that links Rahul Gandhi to Sanjay Bhandari, through some dubious land deals, thickening the cloud of questions.
These papers relate to the ED search conducted on one H L Pahwa on 3rd May 2017 and 4th May 2017. The land dealings are between Rahul Gandhi and H L Pahwa who was funded by one C C Thampi, who has close financial links to Sanjay Bhandari.
Rahul Gandhi’s land deal with HL Pahwa
According to the files seized by the Enforcement Directorate from HL Pahwa, Rahul Gandhi had purchased 6.5 acres of land located at Hassanpur, Palwal vide registration deed 4780 dated 3rd March 2008 from HL Pahwa for a measly Rs. 26,47,000. The land was purchased by making a cheque payment of Rs. 24,00,000 dated 12th January 2008 and Rs. 2,47,000 dated 17th March 2008.
Page 1 of Sale DeedSale deed with signatures of Rahul Gandhi and HL Pahwa
But, File C page 57 of the seized ED files reveals that the stamp duty on this transaction was paid in cash and was not withdrawn by Pahwa. It thus becomes obvious that it was the buyer, in this case, Rahul Gandhi who paid the stamp duty.
Another revelation in the file (Page 60 of File C) is that Pahwa wanted to sell the land at Rs. 33,22,003 but agreed to sell only at Rs. 26,47,000 to Rahul Gandhi.
Other dubious dealings with HL Pahwa
In 2009 Haryana elections, Congress fielded a first-time candidate, realtor Lalit Nagar, in Faridabad’s newly-created constituency of Tigaon. A Times of India report from 2012 reads:
“Lalit Nagar’s brother, Mahesh Nagar, purchased land on behalf of Robert Vadra, not just in Haryana but also in Rajasthan.
A sale deed dated 3 March 2008, shows nine acres of land in Hasanpur village in Haryana’s Palwal district was sold by Gurgaon resident H L Pahwa to Robert Vadra for Rs 36.9 lakh. At the bottom of the deed, Pahwa has signed as the seller. But the buyer’s signature is not Vadra’s, it is Mahesh Nagar’s. The buyer is named as ‘Robert Vadra through Mahesh Nagar’, which shows Vadra has vested authority/power of attorney in Mahesh Nagar.
Robert Vadra sale deed page 1Robert Vadra sale deed
Similarly, a sale deed from Rajasthan’s Bikaner district shows 4.63 acres of land in Basti village in Ganganagar tehsil was sold for Rs 8.5 lakh in April 2009, by 42-year-old Sarita Devi Bothra to Real Earth Estate Private Limited, a company based in New Delhi. The company’s director is Robert Vadra. The purchase is done on his behalf by Mahesh Nagar”.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too had purchased land from HL Pahwa. We had earlier reported how Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had purchased land and sold it back for an inflated price, 4 years later to the same person. That person was also HL Pahwa. On 28th April 2006, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had purchased land by paying Rs. 15,00,000 in 2 cheques from HL Pahwa, and then, on 17th February 2010, sold it back to HL Pahwa for Rs. 84,15,006 via several cheques.
What is to be noted here is that HL Pahwa paid Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in five instalments between 22nd May 2009 and 11th September 2009 “due to non-availability of funds”. One wonders why a businessman who sells a land, then purchases the same land at almost 5 times the price right when he doesn’t have the funds to spare.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra sale deed
It is pertinent to note that HL Pahwa had often purchased these lands in cash and instances have also been noticed where he purchased the land even with negative cash balance.
One wonders then, how did HL Pahwa purchase these lands when he had a negative cash balance? The ED files reveal that HL Pahwa had received Rs. 54,00,00,000 (Rs 54 crores) from CC Thampi.
Who is CC Thampi?
Recently, Robert Vadra was grilled for over 5 hours for his alleged links to CC Thampi. The Enforcement Directorate suspects kickbacks for a petroleum deal in 2009 were routed through the Sharjah-based company, allegedly controlled by a UAE-based NRI businessman, CC Thampi. Vadra was also questioned about owning benami property in London along with CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari. Thampi has a company in UAE called Sky Light and in India, Skylight Hospitality Private Limited is allegedly linked to Vadra and is under the ED scanner for suspect land deals in Bikaner, Rajasthan.
CC Thampi is being probed by Indian authorities over violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act worth several hundreds of crores of rupees. ED had served him a show-cause notice last year for violation of laws in the acquisition of agricultural and other lands in and around Delhi-NCR in deals amounting to over Rs 288 crore. CC Thampi, Robert Vadra and Sanjay Bhandari are ‘close friends’.
Link Between CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari
1. The company, Syntac, where Sanjay Bhandari has majority shareholding is under the scanner for one Petroleum Contract and one Defence deal. While the Petroleum contract was granted by the UPA-I government in 2009, the Defence deal was sanctioned in the year 2005.
2. There are 4 properties which are also under the scanner, purchased in London with ill-gotten wealth emanating from the ‘kickbacks’ received by the UK company from the two deals.
3. The amount of kickback is said to be $49,99,969 and an amount of GBP 19,22,262.44 was transferred to the UK on 10/12/2009, right after the petroleum deal was okayed, to the bank account of Syntac. This was the money that was used to purchase the house in London through shares of Vertex.
4. In fact, investigation agencies have found that soon after the house was purchased, Vadra started corresponding with a relative of Bhandari for the renovation of the house and Bhandari financed the renovation, amounting to GBP 60,000.
5. After the renovation, Sanjay Bhandari sold the property which was held by him through Vertex to SkyLight FZE owned by CC Thampi. The sale consideration received by Vertex was transferred back to Syntac on 30/06/2010 and allegedly, the same was syphoned off by making payment to Future Key Trading Company, Choice Point Trading and Jain Trading.
6. Skylight Investment does not have any business activity and its bank account was opened on 31/3/2009. However, the company had disclosed Villa E-74 and Flat 12 Ellerton House, London, as an investment in December 2010.
7. Even though Skylight Investment had no business activity, huge deposits were made in its account before the purchase of Villa E 74 in Dubai and that of Ellerton House, London.
Conclusion
The facts that emerge are these:
1. Rahul Gandhi purchased land from HL Pahwa at allegedly, a reduced price.
2. The land was also purchased from HL Pahwa by Robert Vadra and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. In several cases, the land was bought back by HL Pahwa at an inflated price even though his cash balance was negative.
3. To make good on the purchase, HL Pahwa took money from CC Thampi
4. CC Thampi and Sanjay Bhandari are close friends. As demonstrated, they had several financial transactions amongst themselves.
5. Sanjay Bhandari is an arms dealer and close friend of Robert Vadra. He had received kickbacks in Defence deal and in Petroleum deal.
6. It is through this kickback that Sanjay Bhandari purchased benami properties from Robert Vadra, even paid for the renovation.
7. The property was them sold to CC Thampi, and the proceeds syphoned off.
8. The ED is currently probing proximity of Robert Vadra with Thampi.
9. All of these deals happened during the Congress government.
10. Sanjay Bhandari is an armed dealer. From 2012 to 2015, Sanjay Bhandari was lobbying to become the offset partner in the Rafale deal and Dassault had refused to indulge him
11. File related to the purchase of 126 Rafale jets had gone missing from the defence ministry and it was later found on the road. It is alleged that Bhandari had stolen the file. It is alleged that Bhandari used to photocopy crucial files and passed on to defence contractors that he had links with.
12. Arun Jaitley had alleged that while Rafale was being finalised during the Congress government, there were backroom talks about the Eurofighter.
13. There are rumours that Rahul Gandhi had met Eurofighter representatives in Germany.
Link between Rahul Gandhi and arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari
From these points, it is safe to draw the conclusion that Rahul Gandhi, just like Robert Vadra, is inextricably linked to Sanjay Bhandari, an arms dealer who is not only close to the Gandhi family but was also rebuked by Dassault in the Rafale deal. Sanjay Bhandari is also said to have received kickbacks in defence and petroleum deals during the Congress regime.
Allegations that Rahul Gandhi is attacking the Rafale deal today because there were backroom discussions with Eurofighter gather even more steam when a direct link between arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari and Rahul Gandhi coming to the fore. Recently, it was also revealed that Christian Michel, the middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper scam was lobbying for Eurofighter and against Rafale. With the links deepening and the questions regarding why Rahul Gandhi is attacking the Rafale deal growing louder, it would only behove the Congress party to explain Rahul Gandhi’s association with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.
