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8:20 pm: Two more Indian athletes fail dope tests
The doping scandal in Indian athletics grew in proportion today with two more athletes, including the country's new golden girl Akkunji, testing positive for anabolic steroids hours before the departure for Japan for the Asian Championships.
Apart from Akkunji, quartermiler Priyanka Panwar also returned positive for anabolic steroids in the dope tests conducted on June 27 by NADA at NIS Patiala, taking the tally of dope offenders to eight in the last few days.
The development is all the more shocking as Akkunji, who had won gold in Commonwealth and Asian Games last year, and Panwar were to leave for Japan for July 7-11 Asian Championships by an 11:30 pm flight from here along with 35 other athletes.
Athletics Federation of India has provisionally suspended both the athletes pending a hearing by a NADA disciplinary panel. Read on
8:00 pm: Black money: Government to study court order
The government said it would study the Supreme Court order to set up a special team to probe black money stashed by Indian citizens in foreign tax havens.
'I do not think one should give off-the-cuff reaction on a Supreme Court order. If the Supreme Court has given an order, it is final because it is the final court. Let us first read the order,' Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters here.
He said the government would respond to the Supreme Court order 'if necessary' only after going through the details of the ruling.
A committee headed by former Supreme Court judge B.P. Jeevan Reddy was ordered to be set up by an apex court bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar. It also directed the central government to disclose the names of people holding accounts in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein - a principality in Europe bordering Switzerland and Austria - as disclosed to it by German authorities.
7:30 pm: Congress plays down resignations of party lawmakers
The Congress played down the resignations of its legislators and MPs from Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh over the demand for creating a separate state, saying that 'an appropriate decision will be taken at an appropriate time' on the statehood issue.
'It is a sensitive and emotional issue... An appropriate decision will be taken at an appropriate time. I do not want to say anything more at this stage,' Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed told reporters here at the party's official briefing.
Answering a volley of questions over the resignation of party MLAs and MPs hailing from Telangana, Ahmed said the central leadership was aware of the actual position and the party-in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, was in touch with the state party leaders.
Nine party MPs from the Lok Sabha and one from Rajya Sabha submitted their resignations to the presiding officers Monday to build pressure on the party-led government to concede demand for a separate state.
7:05 pm: Crime Branch starts probe into boy's killing
Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department team started its probe into the killing of a 13-year-old boy by an unidentified person inside the army quarters here a day ago.
K. Dilshan was plucking almonds from a tree inside the army quarters Sunday when some unidentified person - alleged to be an armed guard - fatally shot him in the head.
The boy's body was handed over to his parents Sunday night after post-mortem, which said that death was due to bullet wounds.
6:50 pm: Ex-telcom Secy to depose before JPC on July 12
With a Joint Parliamentary Committee probing 2G spectrum allocation scam allowing former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura to depose before it, a Delhi court today asked Tihar jail authorities to produce him before the lawmakers' panel on July 12.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini asked the jail superintendent to produce Behura before the JPC after the court received a communication from the prison authorities apprising it of the JPC's permission to the ex-bureaucrat to depose before it in connection with spectrum allocation scam.
The JPC had permitted Behura to testify before it following his plea to give him an opportunity to apprise the panel of his version of the case.
"A letter dated June 25, 2011, has been received from Tihar Jail, regarding appearance of accused Siddhartha Behura before JPC on July 12 at 11 am for giving oral evidence.
"The letter is accompanied by photocopy of a letter dated June 17, 2011, received from the Lok Sabha Secretariat, Parliament House, New Delhi, on the subject cited above as well as photocopy of a letter dated June 24, 2011, written by Behura, seeking permission to appear before JPC," the court said.
6:30 pm: Still probing sedition case against Geelani, Roy: Delhi Police
The Delhi police told a local court that it was yet to complete its probe into the sedition case lodged against hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, author-activist Arundhati Roy and four others for allegedly making anti-India speeches in a seminar here last year and sought more time to file a status report.
"The investigation is still going on in the matter and the police needs more time to file its report," Station House Officer (SHO) of Tilak Marg police station, Inspector Mukesh Walia, told Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari Bagha. Read on
6:10 pm: Yeddyurappa, Kumaraswamy now fight over fast venue
Karnataka Chief Minister Yeddyurappa said his predecessor H.D. Kumaraswamy will not be allowed to undertake his 'fast-unto-death' protest in front of Vidhana Soudha (state assembly).
'No one, however high, is allowed to stage protests in front of Vidhana Soudha. Kumaraswamy can go on his protest at Freedom Park (about 4 km from Vidhana Soudha),' Yeddyurappa said.
Kumaraswamy, who is the chief of Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) Karnataka unit, is to go on a 'fast-unto-death' from July 9 if Yeddyurappa does not order a probe or tender apology for alleging that his (Kumaraswamy's) family has illegally amassed assets worth Rs.1,500 crore.
'If permission is not given to sit on fast in front of Vidhana Soudha, then I will undertake it at Basaveshwara Circle (about half a km away),' Kumaraswamy said, reacting to Yeddyurappa's statement. More on this story
5:45 pm: Will follow parliamentary procedures on Lokpal bill: Chidambaram
The government said it was committed to bringing the anti-corruption Lokpal bill in the monsoon session of parliament beginning Aug 1 but could not specify when it would be passed because it would have to be referred to a standing committee for broader consensus.
'The government will table the bill in parliament in accordance with the established procedure,'' Home Minister P. Chidambaram said.
'It took place in a very cordial atmosphere. And we are confident that we can take the process forward, bring the bill in the monsoon session and try to get it passed as soon as possible,' the home minister said. Read on
5:20 pm: Cast Maria and face our wrath: Sena, MNS
The cine-wings of Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have expressed opposition to Maria Susairaj, a convict in the 2008 Neeraj Grover murder case, to be cast in any film or a television show.
On Varma's offer, Shiv Sena-promoted Bharatiya Chitrapat Sena's president Abhijit Panse said, "Varma is a big director. But since his films are not doing well at the box-office he is doing such publicity stunts."
Maharashtra Navnirman Cine Workers' Association also opposed casting of Maria in Bigg Boss. President of MNCWA Amey Khopkar said, "Maria has a criminal background and therefore we don''t want to see her in films or television shows. Any filmmaker or production house that intents to offer her a role or show, should be prepared to face our wrath.". Read on
5:00 pm: Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple holds $22B treasures
A vast treasure trove of gold coins, jewels and precious stones unearthed at a lightly guarded Hindu temple in India was expected to grow further in value Monday as the last two secret vaults sealed for nearly 150 years are opened.
The government has increased security since the treasure's discovery in recent days, which has instantly turned the 16th-century Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple into one of the wealthiest religious institutions in the country.
Four vaults recently opened at the temple in Trivandrum, the capital of the southern state of Kerala, held a vast bounty that unofficial estimates peg at $22 billion.
The treasures unearthed so far include statues of gods and goddesses made of solid gold and studded with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones, crowns and necklaces, all given as gifts to the temple over the centuries.
The volume of gold and silver coins was so enormous that the investigators weighed the coins by the sackful, rather than counting them, officials said. Read on
4:47 pm: Jaya demands probe by army, police into teen's killing
Even as the army promised its full cooperation to the police and said that it will take stern action against anyone who is found guilty of shooting 13-year-old Dilshan near the army barracks in Chennai on Sunday, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has promised to take appropriate action in connection with the incident. Read on
4:30 pm: Supreme Court rejects Noorani's plea for cancellation of Dutt's bail
The Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by film producer Shakeel Noorani seeking cancellation of bail granted to Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case.
An apex court bench of Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice B.S. Chauhan rejected the plea which said that Dutt was misusing his liberty and issuing threats to Noorani to withdraw a case against him claiming damages.
Noorani had moved the Bombay High Court seeking damages from Sanjay Dutt for jeopardising his film project by not giving dates for the shooting of the film.
Sanjay Dutt was granted bail by the apex court after it stayed his conviction and sentencing in Mumbai serial bomb blast case. Read on
4:15 pm: Black money issue: SC appoints SIT headed by Justice Reddy
The Supreme Court appointed a high-level Special Investigation Team headed by former apex court judge B P Jeevan Reddy to monitor the investigation and the steps being taken to bring back black money stashed away in foreign banks.
Besides Justice Reddy, who will be the chairman of the SIT, the apex court also appointed its former judge, Justice M B Shah as the vice-chairman of the panel.
A bench comprising justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar directed that the High-Level Committee constituted by the government to look into the issue of black money would "forthwith" be a part of the SIT. Read on
4:00 pm: Centre has not take final view on Telangana issue: PC
As Congress lawmakers from Telangana stepped up pressure by tendering their resignation, the Centre today said it has not taken a final decision on the "extremely sensitive and complex" issue of separate statehood.
Home Minister P Chidambaram appealed to the MLAs, a Rajya Sabha MP and Andhra Pradesh Ministers from the Telangana region to be patient and allow the consultation process on the statehood demand to continue.
"The central government's view will be made known after the consultation process is over. We have to bring everyone on board. There is a strong view of large number of people. We are yet to take a final decision," he said. Read on
3:30 pm: Lokpal will have to work within framework of Constitution: PM
Affirming government's commitment to enact Lokpal Act that will provide for a strong and effective way to tackle corruption in high places, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said such an institution will have to work within the framework of Constitution.
He told the all-party meeting on Lokpal Bill that strong laws to tackle corruption were a necessary but these would not suffice as there was a need to focus on "simplifying procedures, reducing discretion, eliminating arbitrariness and increasing transparency in the way government functions."
Singh noted that there was a feeling that institutional arrangements in place are not strong enough to ensure that the guilty, especially those occupying high positions, are brought to book swiftly and given deterrent punishment.
"I must make it clear at the outset that we, in government, are committed to the enactment of a Lokpal Act, which provides for a strong, effective and quick institutional arrangement for tackling corruption in high places," he said in his opening remarks at the meeting.
"We are also committed to bringing the bill before Parliament in the coming Monsoon Session," he said.
3:00 pm: Telangana campaign takes new turn, 37 Cong MLAs resign
The pro-Telangana campaign today assumed new dimensions with 37 ruling Congress MLAs, including four ministers, and 28 TDP MLAs from the region resigning their membership of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
In Delhi, seven Congress MPs, who had planned to resign from the Lok Sabha, did not keep their scheduled meeting with Speaker Meira Kumar who waited for some time before leaving her chamber.
Four Andhra Pradesh ministers K Jana Reddy, J Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy submitted resignations from the membership of state Assembly today demanding immediate creation of Telangana state.
They submitted their resignations to Assembly Deputy Speaker at 12 noon.
The Congress has 50 MLAs from the region in the 294-member assembly.
As many as 28 Telugu Desam Party MLAs from Telangana submitted resignation from their posts demanding creation of a separate state.
2:30 pm: 17 mercy petitions pending before president
Mercy petitions of 17 people on death row are pending before President Pratibha Patil, reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed. Most of the pleas are from those convicted of murder or rape.
In reply to information sought under the RTI Act by Subhash Chandra Agarwal, the President's Secretariat said the oldest petition was from 2005, while six mercy petitions were submitted to her office in 2011 alone.
The petition of Sushil Murmu from Jharkhand, who was convicted of killing a nine-year-old child for a religious ritual, has been pending since 2005. Another case is of Jafar Ali, who is facing the death penalty for murdering his wife and daughters. He applied for the president's mercy Aug 21, 2006.
Gurmeet Singh submitted his mercy petition Dec 11, 2009, after he was held guilty of murdering 13 of his family members.
Meanwhile, the reply also said that the president had commuted 10 to life imprisonment following mercy petitions. In 2009 alone, death sentences of seven convicts had been commuted to life imprisonment.
1:30 pm: Ex IAF officer, wife murdered
A retired Indian Air Force officer and his wife were found murdered in their ransacked Ghaziabad house Monday morning, police said.
Police said unidentified robbers barged into the couple's house in Vasundhara residential locality Sunday night.
The husband and wife were found with their hands tied and mouths stuffed with cloth pieces while all the valuables were missing from the house. Police suspect the couple died due to suffocation.
The retired officer was identified as Rana Pratap, who was lately with the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
12:30 pm: 3 Congress legislators resign over Telangana
Three legislators of Andhra Pradesh's ruling Congress party from Telangana region on Monday submitted their resignations, hours before Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) legislators are to quit enmasse for a separate state.
Vishnuvardhan Reddy, one of the legislators from Hyderabad, submitted his resignation to Deputy Speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka as Speaker N Manohar is in the US. He became the first Congress legislator to quit.
Four rebel legislators of TDP had sent their resignations to the speaker's office Sunday from their hunger strike camp.
Rebel Congress legislator Konda Surekha has also submitted her resignation while another Congress legislator, G. Venkat Ram Reddy, faxed his resignation from the US.
Ministers from Telangana have sought an appointment with Governor ESL Narasimhan to submit their resignations. They along with the legislators met at the residence of Panchayat Raj Minister Jana Reddy before leaving for the assembly to resign.
12:05 pm: Amarnath yatra resumes
Amarnath yatra today resumed from both Baltal and Pahalgam routes after remaining suspended for a day due to landslides and inclement weather, officials said.
"Both Baltal and Pahalgam routes have been re-opened for the pilgrims following improvement in weather conditions and clearance of the track," an official of the yatra control room said.
A massive landslide had blocked the track between Railpathri and Baltal on the shorter 13-km route, preferred by large number of pilgrims compared to the traditional 46-km Pahalgam route.
So far, 91,504 pilgrims have visited the 3,880 metre high cave shrine to pay obeisance to the naturally formed ice lingam, considered to be the edifice of lord Shiva.
11:15 am: Lokpal Bill: No consensus at all-party meeting
It was expected to be fiery, and it didn't disappoint. The all-party meeting on the Lokpal Bill on Sunday saw a combative and largely united Opposition slamming the government for its handling of the Bill, which is meant to rout corruption among politicians and bureaucrats. (Read: The draft Lokpal Bill)
There was also some tense sparring with the BJP's Sushma Swaraj asking the PM to intervene after Farooq Abdullah used language that she found inappropriate.
The meeting was meant to gather feedback from different parties on the Bill. Most, like the BJP, said they would not do this till the government presents them with an actual draft of the Bill. The BJP's Sushma Swaraj said, "We did not discuss specific provisions of the bill in today's meeting. We clearly said we want a strong Lokpal. The government should bring a bill and send it to the standing committee so that all the parties can give their points of view. (Watch)
10:30 am: Telangana campaign takes new turn
The pro-Telangana campaign today reached new proportions with four Congress ministers in Andhra Pradesh and 28 TDP MLAs from the region resigning their membership of the state assembly.
In Delhi, seven Congress MPs, who had planned to resign from the Lok Sabha, did not keep their scheduled meeting with Speaker Meira Kumar who waited for some time before leaving her chamber.
Four Andhra Pradesh ministers K Jana Reddy, J Geeta Reddy, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy submitted resignations from the membership of state Assembly today demanding immediate creation of Telangana state.
They submitted their resignations to Assembly Deputy Speaker at 12 noon.
9:20 am: No consensus on Lokpal, Anna may rethink fast
There is no consensus yet again on the Lokpal bill. Anna Hazare may rethink his August 16 fast as political parties push back civil society saying Parliament will decide shape of the Lokpal bill.
There is no clarity on who will eventually create the final draft of the Lokpal bill. A crucial all-party meeting called by the Prime Minister to end the deadlock proved inconclusive. Parties now say its not civil society but Parliament that would determine the shape of the Anti-corruption law.
There was no consensus at the end of a three-hour long all-party meeting on Sunday. It simply became a platform for the Opposition parties to attack the government for not taking them on board the Lokpal deliberations earlier and for the government to delay a final decision. A one line resolution calling for a strong Lokpal is all that was achieved, almost as if it was a perfect script. More on IBNLive
9:00 am: Rs 90,000 cr and counting... Kerala temple pips Tirupati
The unearthing of a tresure trove including gold jewellery, crowns, jewels, diamonds and other precious articles worth billions of dollars from the secret cellars of the famed Sri Padmanabha Swami temple in Thiruvananthapuram has raised serious questions about the treasure’s ownership rights and its future security.
As per estimates based on the material value alone of the articles found from four of the six secret cellars in the historic temple that dates back to early 18th Century, the treasure might be worth more than Rs 90,000 crore, almost three times the annual budget size of the State. Experts are yet to find out the antique value of the rare articles found from the secret cellars.
With the finding of the amazing treasures during the preparation of inventory by a Supreme Court-appointed expert panel, the Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple has become the richest Hindu temple in the country. With treasures reportedly worth Rs 42,000 crore, the Sri Balaji temple at Tirupati was until now known as the richest Hindu temple.
Among the priceless articles found in the cellars of the Thiruvananthapuram temple were a gold sheaf weighing 500 kilos, an 18-foot gold chain weighing 10.5 kilos, a 36-kilo golden veil, quintals of gold granules and nuggets, crowns, numerous jewels and diamonds including those from Antwerp and rare coins from many countries including France. Full story
8:45 am: JD(U) leader's son tied up and beaten by police for eve-teasing
Ajay Yadav, the son of a Janata Dal (United) leader in Patna, was dragged and beaten by the Bihar police on Sunday for eve-teasing.
He was arrested from the Maurya area of Patna.
The cops found him in an inebriated condition
After the police caught him, they tied him with a rope and beat him at the Kotwali thana in Patna. NDTV
8:15 am: Supreme Court order on black money today
On its opening day after the summer vacation, the Supreme Court will pass interim orders on the black money issue on Monday.
The Supreme Court will pass order on revealing names of 26 Indians who kept black money in LGT bank. The Centre had opposed revealing the names of 26 account holders saying it would violate bi-lateral agreement.
The black money issue is haunting the government for the last couple of months since the Supreme Court is closely following what the government is doing to track black money stashed abroad. More on NDTV
8:00 am: Telangana Congress leaders to resign today
It is a catch-22 situation for the Congress leadership with Telangana Congress leaders adamant on en masse resignation on Monday. The UPA government knows any announcement to placate this group will provoke a backlash from those supporting a united Andhra Pradesh.
"It is a sensitive issue. We have to consider the sentiments of all 8 crore people of Andhra Pradesh. The Congress leadership will try to satisfy everyone. The Telangana leaders must not act in a hurry," said Botsa Satyanarayana, Andhra Pradesh Congress chief.
But efforts by the state Congress chief and others to make them change their mind proved futile.
"Botsa is doing his job, we are doing ours... for the people of Telangana," said Keshav Rao, Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana. More
India, in real time: 1st July 2011
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