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sisodia: Court extends Manish Sisodia’s ED custody by 5 days

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A local court on Friday extended the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody of former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia till March 22 in a money laundering probe related to the Delhi government’s now-scrapped excise policy. The agency had sought seven days of further custodial interrogation of Sisodia.

The counsel for ED on Friday told the court that the federal agency has found fresh findings against Sisodia. The counsel alleged that Sisodia changed his mobile phone the very same day the Lieutenant Governor Delhi forwarded the complaint against him to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “Extending Sisodia’s custody, the court said that extension of his remand is justified ‘in light of fresh evidence found against him’.

It was further argued that the agency’s probe revealed that Sisodia was using a mobile phone for nearly eight months but he changed the same on July 22 last year, the day when LG forwarded the complaint to CBI. The ED counsel said that Sisodia has claimed that the phone was damaged. “The timing was very important”, the ED counsel submitted.

The court was further told that Sisodia has so far been confronted with four individuals connected to the case. However, he needs to be confronted with two more individuals. The agency further argued that it is awaiting a mail dump from CBI and that Sisodia needs to be confronted with those emails (running into over one lakh in number). The counsel for the ED further contended that the members of the South cartel were staying in a Delhi Hotel in 2021 while the Excise policy was being framed.

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Denying the allegations, the defence counsel for Sisodia argued that the ED is rehashing the grounds for custody previously taken by the CBI. The defence argued that there is no whisper about the alleged proceeds of crime which is “fundamental to allegations of money laundering”.

The ED arrested Sisodia on March 9 after he was questioned in Tihar jail, where he has been lodged after the CBI ended its round of interrogation. The CBI had arrested Sisodia on February 26.

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Biswa Bandhu Sen: BJP MLA Biswa Bandhu Sen elected Tripura Speaker

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March 24, 2023

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Ruling BJP MLA Biswa Bandhu Sen was elected the Speaker of the Tripura assembly defeating opposition CPI-M-Congress joint candidate Gopal Chandra Roy.

Sen secured 32 votes, while Roy bagged 14 votes.

Tipra Motha Party (TMP)which earlier pledged to support opposition nominees abstained from voting.

Sen is Congress turned BJP leader. Sen, a four-time MLA from Dharmanagar in North Tripura district since 2008, was the Deputy Speaker in the previous assembly.

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TMP, which has 13 members in the assembly, walked out from the house just before the starting of the Speaker’s election expressing their displeasure over the sitting arrangements in the house.

TMP chief Pradyot Bikram Manikya Deb Barman earlier promised to support the CPI-M-Congress joint candidate. TMP legislature party leader and leader of opposition Animesh Debbarma, was one of the proposers in Roy’s nomination paper.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday informed Deb Barman that the Centre would appoint an interlocutor by March 27 to study the “constitutional solutions” to TMP’s demands for more autonomy and socio-economic development of the tribals.Deb Barman has tweeted, “In a follow up to yesterday’s conversation with the home minister regarding the appointment of an interlocutor I met Himanta Biswa Sarma last evening and he will be issuing a statement in the same regard. We are interested in a honourable constitutional solution to the problem of our indigenous people of Tripura and hope that this process starts as promised within the next few days.”

In the February 16 elections to the 60-member Tripura assembly, the BJP secured 32 seats while its ally Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) got one seat while the opposition CPI-M managed 11 seats and the Congress bagged three seats.

Union Minister of State Pratima Bhowmik, who was elected from the Dhanpur assembly constituency, resigned from the assembly.

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Oops, They Did It Again! Does Cong Plan to Pitch Rahul Gandhi As the ‘Asli Challenger’ in 2024?

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March 24, 2023

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Reported By: Pallavi Ghosh

Last Updated: March 24, 2023, 20:31 IST

The party now has taken a cue from Rahul Gandhi, when he tweeted to say he was ready to give up anything for the sake of truth. (PTI)

The party now has taken a cue from Rahul Gandhi, when he tweeted to say he was ready to give up anything for the sake of truth. (PTI)

When the Opposition parties met on Friday morning, the issue was not so much the conviction but Adani and Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe

The past 48 hours showed how the Congress has botched up what could have been its moment.

They allowed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get a headstart, making the entire issue of a casteist remark by the Congress.

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The BJP unleashed top ministers who accused Rahul Gandhi of abusing the Other Backward Class (OBC) community. The Congress had only its president, a Dalit himself, to trash this narrative.

But let’s begin with the moments after the verdict came from Surat court on Thursday.

A senior lawyer Congress MP told News18: “The party should have been alerted the day the high court had vacated the stay on this issue. They should have moved the sessions court immediately, but no such attention was paid and the team was back in Delhi. The Congress was again left confused on whether to make the conviction the main issue to attack the BJP. Which it did. But soon the wisdom dawned that this would be seen as taking on courts at a time when they would approach the higher courts for relief.”

Also came the realisation that not all opposition parties, even those who have been with the Congress so far on the Adani issue, would want to support this court issue.

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Hence when the Opposition parties met on Friday morning, the issue was not so much the conviction but Adani and Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe. But the Congress could not let go of Gandhi and so it mixed it with misuse of institutions and made a veiled reference to the Surat court issue.

THE MORNING MEETING

But the real botching seemed to come at the morning meeting at Sonia Gandhi’s office, in which Gandhi was present. At the meeting, few leaders suggested that the Congress must pre-empt disqualification and write to the president. But two senior MPs, one who was legally inclined, said that the disqualification would take time as he has 30 days to appeal. It was a bolt from the blue when the speaker’s office issued notification for disqualification.

ALSO READ | Rahul Gandhi Disqualified as MP: What are His Legal Team’s Arguments and the 2024 Question

It was at the hurriedly called press conference that the party tried to do damage control.

It’s a long legal battle. Protests are planned without attacking the judiciary.

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The party now has taken a cue from Gandhi, when he tweeted to say he was ready to give up anything for the sake of truth.

The real fighter and asli challenger is the pitch of the Congress for 2024 with Gandhi being the epicentre. But will he alone be the hand which pulls the Congress to victory in 2024?

Read all the Latest Politics News here

Pallavi Ghosh
Pallavi Ghosh has covered politics and Parliament for 15 years, and has reported extensively on Congress, UPA-I and UPA-II, and has now included the F…Read More

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Congress top brass meets after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification

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2 hours ago

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March 24, 2023

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The Congress‘ top brass, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, met on Friday to deliberate on the party’s strategy going forward after Rahul Gandhi‘s disqualification from Lok Sabha. A meeting was already scheduled for Friday evening but after Rahul Gandhi’s conviction, top leaders assembled at 6 pm at the party headquarters with his disqualification being top of the agenda.

Besides Kharge and Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Rajiv Shukla and Tariq Anwar, senior leaders P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid and Pawan Kumar Bansal, among others, were also present at the meeting.

Sources said Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification and party’s strategy and plans for agitations were top of the agenda at the meeting.

Rahul Gandhi was on Friday disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case, an action the party termed an attempt to “silence” his voice as it vowed to fight the battle legally and politically.

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