CMYK TUESDAY www.thestatesman.com 20 FEBRUARY 2018 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 16 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR P9 SENSEX 33,774.66 -236.10 WEATHER Partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperature to be 31 and 21 degrees Celsius respectively RAINFALL: Nil RELATIVE HUMIDITY P9 GOLD 29,660.00 -50.00 CBI, ED probe `3700 crore Rotomac scam NEW DELHI, 19 FEBRUARY Min. 33% Max: 31.6°C (+2) SUN SETS TODAY 17:36 hrs MOON RISES 08.57 hrs Min: 19.7°C (+1) SUN RISES TOMORROW 06:04 hrs MOON SETS 21:37 hrs TEMPERATURE Moon first quarter on 23 February THUMBNAILS Joint gold medallists Francesco Friedrich and Thorsten Margis of Germany during the 2-man bobsleigh competition at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games on Monday. AFP Juvenile convicted: A Juvenile Justice Board convicted a man, who was minor when he had gangraped a MBA student in 2009, and sent him to a reformation home for three years, saying there was “unquestionably a ring of truth” in the prosecution version. A trial court had in February last year acquitted nine adult accused in the case saying that the identity of the real culprits could not be proved. Just a few days after the alleged Rs11,400 crore staterun Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam involving fugitive diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi came to light, another alleged Rs 3,700 crore bank fraud has been uncovered involving Rotomac pen promoter Vikram Kothari and his family and firm. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have registered separate cases against the Kanpur-based industrialist Vikram Kothari and others for allegedly defrauding a consortium of seven public sector banks of about Rs 3,700 crore. The CBI registered an FIR on Sunday against Rotomac Global Pvt Limited, its directors including Kothari, his wife Sadhana and son Rahul, and unidentified bank officials on a complaint dated 18 February from Bank of Baroda, officials said. The CBI has registered the case under various sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act on allegations that they in "criminal conspiracy with themselves and other unknown bank officials", cheated Bank of Baroda to the tune of Rs 616.69 crore including interest. "The total outstanding amount of the members of consortium of seven banks i.e. Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Indian Overseas Bank, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Oriental Bank of Commerce has come to Rs 3695 crore, including interest, by siphoning of bank loans disburbsed to the said company," the CBI said. This bank loan fraud was earlier estimated to the tune of about Rs 800 crore, but after the CBI started looking into the accused company and promoter's accounts they were found to have allegedly cheated the banks by siphoning of their bank loans amounting to about Rs 2,919 crore. The total outstanding amount along with interest and liabilities for Rotomac were thus estimated by the CBI to be Rs 3,695 crore. The CBI has conducted searches and raids at various premises of Kothari and his firm in Kanpur from early Monday. The agency also questioned Kothari and his family members in this regard. It has also sealed a residential apartment and office premises of the accused in Delhi. Simultaneously, the ED registered a case of money laundering under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Kothari and his family members. The ED would investigate if the swindled funds were laundered and whether the proceeds of the crime were subsequently used by the accused to create illegal assets and black money. CBI officials indicated that Rotomac promoters allegedly siphoned of loans secured from consortium of banks from 2008 onwards. The credit sanctioned to the firm by a bank for a particular export order was diverted to a different offshore company and later the money was remitted back into the Kanpur-based firm without executing an export order. Similarly, money disbursed by the banks for procurement of goods for export was not utilised and no export order was executed ever. SILVER 38,900.00 -200.00 STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 19 FEBRUARY he CBI on Monday night arrested three more officials of the state-run Punjab National Bank's Brady House branch in Mumbai in connection with the Rs11,400 crore scam involving diamond jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. The CBI had earlier arrested two PNB officials ~ a retired deputy manager of the bank Gokulnath Shetty and a single-window operator Manoj Kharat ~ besides an executive of Nirav Modi's company. The CBI has registered two FIRs against Nirav, Choksi, their firms and PNB officials over the last few weeks for defrauding PNB of about Rs 11,400 crore. Tonight the agency arrested Bechhu Tiwari, chief manager in charge of forex department. "He is responsible for supervising the work of Gokulnath Shetty and his manager to ensure entry of authorised Swift messages only from the system. He had full knowledge of Shetty’s activities," a CBI official said. Yashwant Joshi, Scale II manager, forex depart- T Official illegally shared SWIFT password NEW DELHI, 19 FEBRUARY The arrested deputy manager of Punjab National Bank (PNB) has told investigators that he had unauthorisedly obtained Level5 password to the SWIFT system to authorise issuance of money through Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) and Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs). Shetty made the revelations when sleuths of the CBI questioned him about the modus operan- di of providing guarantee to other banks under the LoUs and issuance of enhanced FLCs. Shetty also disclosed that he shared the password with other individuals, essentially employees, as well as directors of Nirav Modi's company. The Level-5 password was the key allowing him to reach out to several banks to release the money to the Nirav Modi and Gitanjali groups through the SWIFT system. SWIFT, with head offices in Belgium, provides a network to enable financial institutions to send and receive information about financial transactions in a secure and standardised manner. IANS ment, who was responsible for supervising Shetty and ensure daily reports of Swift and CBS entries was also arrested. The CBI also arrested Praful Sawant, Scale I officer, export, who is “responsible for checking the Swift messages daily and report”. The CBI raided their homes located at Navi Mumbai, Andheri, and Dombivili, besides searching offices of Nirav Modi group at Peninsula Business Park, Lower Parel, in Mumbai. The agency said it concluded its searches at PNB Brady House branch on Monday night. The Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) K V Chowdary met the PNB's Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mehta and its Chief Vigilance Officer along with RBI and finance ministry officials to discuss the scam. He has asked them to submit a detailed report on the scam within 10 days. The Enforcement Directorate, meanwhile, raided Nirav Modi’s Samudra Mahal bungalow at Worli in South Mumbai, besides conducting searches at 34 other locations in various cities, including Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Thane, Kolkata, Delhi, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Surat. The ED says that it has seized gold, diamonds, jewellery and other precious stones worth Rs 5,694 crore so far. The CBI Monday also grilled Vipul Ambani, president (finance) of Nirav Modi’s Fire Star Diamond company, its Chief Financial Officer Ravi Gupta, and executives Saurabh Sharma and Subhash Parab in connection with the scam. ‘Love jihad’ killer makes video in jail, claims threat PRESS TRUST OF INDIA JODHPUR, 19 FEBRUARY Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, daughter Ella-Grace and sons Xavier and Hadrien as they try out a ceremonial spinning wheel during their visit to Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad on Monday. AFP PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI, 20 FEBRUARY on the same day, a criminal complaint was also filed by the secretary of Raza Academy, Mumbai, with the Commissioner of Police to take appropriate action against the petitioners, taking down the video and prevent it from being broadcast. “The present petition has been filed as a result of multiple criminal proceedings which have been instituted against the petitioners in the States of Telangana and Maharashtra. “The complaint filed is against the song titled 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi' which was released on Youtube as a song of the film. In Telangana, an FIR has already been registered against the Petitioner no.2. (director of the movie). “The criminal complaints have been instituted by various fringe groups based on a distorted and incorrect interpretation of the song in the states of Telangana, Maharashtra and similar complaints are likely from other nonMalayalam speaking states as well,” she said in her plea filed through advocate Pallavi Pratap. She said the controversy has resulted in the filing of several criminal complaints, while the FIR arises from the lyrics of the song, which is a Mappila song or a traditional Muslim number from the Malabar region of Kerala. “The song describes and praises the love between Prophet Mohamed and his first wife Khadeeja. It should be important to note that the song is originally from an old folk song from Kerala which was written in 1978 by PMA Jabbar and first sung by Thalassery Rafeeq, in the praise of the Prophet and his wife Beevi BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 65.29 +0.45 `11,400 crore scam: Central Vigilance Commissioner steps in LIFE LESSONS BJP wins 47 of 75 in Gujarat civic polls Priya Varrier moves SC against case over 40-year-old folk song Actress Priya Prakash Varrier, who recently became an internet sensation for her wink in a song of a Malayalam movie, today moved the Supreme Court seeking quashing of an FIR lodged against her in Telangana. The 18-year-old actress also sought the top court's direction to prohibit states from initiating any criminal proceedings against her. In her plea, Varrier, a B.Com student, sought protection from an FIR lodged on complaints alleging that the lyrics of the song 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi' from the movie Oru Addar Lovewas “offensive” or has “violated the religious sentiment of a particular community”. In her plea, she said that an FIR has been lodged against her on 14 February at Falaknama police station at Hyderabad on a complaint that alleges that the song hurt the religious sentiment of a particular community. She said that P12 Probe agencies turn up heat on Nirav Modi NIA probe: The NIA, which has been asked to probe the escape of LeT terrorist Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from a busy hospital in Srinagar, will investigate conspiracy angles, including how he got “favourable orders” from doctors and jail authorities, officials said. Senior home ministry officials said that on the Centre's advice, the state has already shifted 25 terrorists to various jails outside the Valley. Pak BAT attack foiled: The Army has foiled an attack by a heavily armed Pakistan Border Action Team (BAT) and killed a terrorist and injured two others who were trying to infiltrate in the Gulpur sector of Poonch under the cover of firing by Pakistan troops. The infiltration attempt was made on Sunday evening but the body of the terrorist was recovered by Indian troops from the LoC on Monday. BATTLE-READY KNIGHT RIDERS FIND A LEADER P10 NIFTY 10,378.40 -73.10 STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE Max.93% US SHOOTING SURVIVORS TAKE ON TRUMP EMERGENCY IN MALDIVES EXTENDED IMRAN DOES A HAT-TRICK, MARRIES AGAIN AHMEDABAD, 20 FEBRUARY Khadija,” she said. The plea said the claims that it hurt religious sentiments of the Muslim community are “without any basis and what is hard to fathom is that a song which has been in existence for the past 40 years, which was written, sung and cherished by the Muslim community in Kerala is now being treated as an insult to the Prophet and his wife.” “It is submitted that a song, which .... has been cherished by more than one crore Muslim population of Kerala, cannot suddenly offend the religious sentiment of the Muslim community,” the plea said. It stated that criminal complaints and registration of FIRs in multiple states on the basis of complaints by “fringe elements who have misunderstood the lyrics of the song which they claim allegedly offended their religious sentiments and that of their community has adversely affected the petitioners right to life, liberty and freedom of expression under theConstitution.” In tune with the 2017 assembly elections results, the ruling BJP maintained its winning spree in Gujarat, but on a reduced scale. Of the 75 municipalities where polls were held on Saturday, the BJP won in 47, down from the 59 the party had won in 2013. The Congress, whose position in the assembly elections improved to 77 from 61 last time, has improved its tally in the municipal polls to 16, a modest rise from 13 in 2013. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) bagged one municipality each while independents captured four. No one got majority in as many as six municipalities. Prominent among the town municipalities won by the BJP is Vadnagar, the home town of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the saffron party won 27 of the SNS total 28 seats. CMYK Two videos purportedly shot from inside a jail here by Shambhu Lal Raigar, who hacked to death a labourer from Bengal, have gone viral, wherein he claims a threat to his life from a fellow inmate. Raigar, who is lodged in the Central Jail here after he hacked and burnt to death Mohammad Afrazul from Bengal in December last year, named the inmate as Vasudev, an accused in a NDPS Act case. Vasudev hails from West Bengal, claimed Raigar. In one of the videos, Raigar claims that the issue of “love jihad” has become “serious” and accuses the Bengal government of not doing enough about it. Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria said they were investigating how Raigar got access to a mobile phone inside the jail. “It would be looked into how Raigar got access to a mobile phone and how he made the videos. The police have registered an FIR and are investigating the matter,” he said. The minister said that action against those guilty in the matter would be taken after the investigation. Vasudev has been shifted to another cell for Raigar's safety, he said. “A separate FIR has been lodged and the search is on,” Kataria told reporters in the Assembly. Raigar had killed Afrazul while, in a video, ranting against “love jihad”, a term used by sections of Hindu activists to describe marriages between Hindu women and Muslim men. In the latest video, Raigar said he was “infuriated” over a ”jihadist comment”, targeting Hindu women, and that was why he had killed Afrazul. The Jodhpur Central Jail administration said it had launched an “intense search operation” to find out how Raigar was able to make the videos using a cell phone. According to a preliminary investigation, Raigar could have used the cell phone of another inmate, but the jail authorities have failed to recover a mobile from the said inmate.