THURSDAY www.thestatesman.com 28 JULY 2022 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR P3 WEATHER GENERALLY CLOUDY SKY. LIGHT TO MODERATE RAIN/THUNDERSHOWERS. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 32 AND 26 DEGREES CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. XI, BIDEN TO SPEAK AS POSSIBLE PELOSI TAIWAN VISIT LOOMS BIDEN FLOUNDERS PUNJAB ROW OVER ‘Z-PLUS SECURITY’ FOR KEJRIWAL P6 P9 SC upholds ED’s power to arrest under PMLA Money laundering no less heinous than terrorism, observes Supreme Court RAINFALL: 0.0 MM RELATIVE HUMIDITY AGENCIES Max.87% T TEMPERATURE Max: 34.6°C (+0) SUN RISES 05:41 hrs MOON RISES 05:53 hrs NEW DELHI, 27 JULY Min. 65% Min: 26.7 °C (-1) SUN SETS 19:15 hrs MOON SETS 19:21 hrs THUMBNAILS INS Tarkash departed from Port Valencia, Spain after a three-day visit. On departure from port, the ship undertook a maritime partnership exercise with Spanish Naval Ship Infanta Cristina. ANI No. of Twitter URLs blocked by MeitY rising: The number of Twitter URLs blocked by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shown a rise during the last few years, the Parliament was told on Wednesday. A total of 1,122 Twitter URLs were blocked till June 2022, 2,851 in 2021 as against 2,731 in 2020 and 1,041 in 2019~up from 225 in 2018, 588 in 2017, 194 in 2016, 15 in 2015, and 8 in 2014, minister of state for electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar told the LS in a written reply. Vigil along Indo-Nepal border intensified after N 13 held with 2 kg uranium: Security along the Indo-Nepal border has been tightened after 11 Afghanistan and two Nepalese nationals were arrested last week while attempting to smuggle in two kg uranium.The Nepalese authorities arrested the accused from Viratnagar on 23 July. Six of the arrested Afghan nationals were found in possession of fake Aadhaar cards. During interrogation, the accused confessed that they were trying to smuggle in the uranium consignment in India through Bihar. SEE PAGE 5 he Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the validity of stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) related to power exercised by the Enforcement Directorate on arrest, search and seizure of illgotten wealth, posing a threat to economic stability, as it observed that money laundering is no less heinous than terrorism. A bench, headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C.T. Ravikumar, said: "The international bodies have been discussing the menace of money laundering on regular basis for quite some time; and strongly recommended enactment of stringent legislation for prevention of moneylaundering and combating with the menace thereof including to prosecute the offenders and for attachment and confiscation of the proceeds of crime having direct impact on the financial systems and sovereignty and integrity of the countries." It added that money laundering is one of the heinous crimes, which not only affects the social and economic fabric of the nation, but also tends to promote other heinous offences, such as terrorism, offences related to NDPS Act, etc. The top court affirmed the validity of Sections 5 (attachment of property), 8(4) (taking possession of attached property),3  A bench, headed by justice AM Khanwilkar, rejected a slew of challenges to the spectrum of issues pertaining to the rigorous provisions enunciated under PMLA Protests erupt in Karnataka after BJP youth leader hacked to death SNS & AGENCIES BENGALURU, 27 JULY Massive protests have erupted in several parts of Karnataka after a BJP youth wing worker, Praveen Nettaru was hacked to death in Dakshin Kannada district on Tuesday night. Section 144 has been imposed in Puttur and heavy security has been deployed in the area. The mortal remains of Nettaru have been kept in a government hospital in Puttur and heavy police have been deployed outside the hospi- tal. Members of the BJP's youth wing in many parts of Karnataka have started mass resignations from the outfit, saying that the BJP-led state government had failed to protect the lives of party workers. Visuals of protesters surrounding state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel's car and heckling him have gone viral. According to police, the motorcycle-borne killers attacked Nettaru, a member of the BJP's youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, while he was returning home on his bike after shutting his poultry shop. Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that the culprits behind the killing of BJP Yuva Morcha worker will be arrested soon and punished as per law. The chief minister also expressed condolences to the family of the deceased and  The SC also upheld the stringent "twin conditions" for bail in money laundering cases.  The court said supplying ECIR to accused is not mandatory.  The top court judgment came on over 200 writ petitions including former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti among others (definition of money laundering), 17 (search and seizure), 18 (search of persons), 19 (powers of arrest), 24 (reverse burden of proof), 45 (offences being cognisable and non-bailable and twin conditions for grant of bail by court), 50 (statements made to ED officials), and 44 (offences triable by special court). However, the top court left the question whether some of the amendments to the PMLA, 2002 could not have been enacted by the Parliament by way of a Finance Act, to be considered by a larger bench. The bench said the offence under Section 3 of the 2002 Act is dependent on illegal gain of property, as a result of criminal activity relating to a scheduled offence and it is concerning the process or activity connected with such property, which constitutes the offence of money laundering. "The authorities under the 2002 Act cannot pros- assured them that they will get justice. “People are outraged when an innocent person is killed, I appeal to everyone to be peaceful and patient. Instruction has been given to arrest the murderers as soon as possible,” he said. Bommai also infor- med that he has spoken with state home minister Araga Jnanendra and police officials in connection with the incident.Jnanendra said that there was a high chance that the accused may have escaped to neighbouring Kerala. ICC ODI RANKINGS: SHIKHAR RISES TO13TH SPOT ecute any person on notional basis or on the assumption that a scheduled offence has been committed, unless it is so registered with the jurisdictional police and/or pending enquiry/trial including by way of criminal complaint before the competent forum," it added. It further added that if the person is finally discharged/acquitted of the scheduled offence against him is quashed by the court, there can be no offence of money laundering against him or any one claiming such property being the property linked to stated scheduled offence through him. The top court said: "Section 3 of the 2002 Act has a wider reach and captures every process and activity, direct or indirect, in dealing with the proceeds of crime and is not limited to the happening of the final act of integration of tainted property in the formal economy. The explanation insert- ed to Section 3 by way of amendment does not expand the purport of Section 3 but is only clarificatory in nature." The bench also declared that supply of a copy of ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report) in every case to the accused is not mandatory, if the ED, at the time of arrest, discloses the grounds of such an action. The top court upheld the twin conditions for bail as mentioned in Section 45 of the Act. "It was argued that the twin conditions of bail contained in Section 45 of the 2002 Act would act grossly disproportionate and illogical qua a person who is not directly connected with the scheduled offence but merely an accessory after the fact. Even this argument needs to be stated to be rejected for the same reason." The bench said the Parliament was competent to amend the provision in 2018 even after the Nikesh Tarachand Shah case judgment passed by the apex court, held those conditions as unconstitutional. The top court judgment came on over 200 writ petitions including former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram and former J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti among others. A battery of senior advocates~ Kapil Sibal, Siddharth Luthra, A.M. Singhvi, Mukul Rohatgi, Amit Desai - represented various parties in the matter. The Central government was represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. P12 ‘ED terror’ in nation, says Cong as Sonia quizzed for third day AGENCIES NEW DELHI , 27 JULY As Sonia Gandhi appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning again, Congress levelled allegations against the Centre for creating “ED terror” in the country and “weaponising” the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). “The ED is creating drama in the country. First, they summoned Rahul Gandhi. He was interrogated for several hours in five days.Sonia Gandhi has been summoned for the third time today. We have no idea how long it would last. The ED has created terror. There should be a timely SC decision on the terror of ED in the country,” Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said. Addressing a joint press conference along with Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh and Anand Sharma, Gehlot further said that ED has become more powerful than CBI despite having a less than 5 per cent The government is misusing the agency to dislodge elected governments, as we saw in Maharashtra recently ASHOK GEHLOT RAJASTHAN CHIEF MINISTER success rate. It is pertinent to mention that Gehlot addressed the press conference with G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma. Gehlot said that the government is misusing the agency to dislodge elected governments, as we saw in Maharashtra recently. Responding to the Congress allegation of the ED harassing party president Sonia Gandhi, Union minister Anurag Thakur slammed CMs of Congress for protesting in the national capital and looking after the issues of their own States. “Chori bhi aur seenajori bhi,ye Congress se sikha jaye, bhrashtachar bhi aur bawal bhi,” said Thakur. More cash stashed away:`15 cr & counting..... STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA , 27 JULY The Enforcement Directorate on the alleged money trail in the SSC scam today unearthed another cash haul from the Belgharia flat of minister Partha Chatterjee’s close aide Arpita Mukherjee, now in ED custody. Till the time of going to the press, the ED officials quoted Rs 15 cr in cash recovered from the flat. AS per sources, the cash was still being counted and is supposed to go up as the counting machines finish counting the Rs 2000 and Rs 500 bank notes. Around 3 kg gold was also recovered from the flat apart from NEW DELHI, 27 JULY In a major decision, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today approved the revival package of BSNL amounting to Rs 1.64 lakh crores to make the government-owned telecommunications service provider viable. Revival measures approved by the Cabinet focus on infusing fresh capital for upgrading BSNL services, allocating spectrum,de-stressing its balance sheet, and augme- nting its fiber network by merging Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with BSNL. According to an official press note, telecom is a strategic sector. The presence of BSNL in the telecom market acts as a market balancer. The BSNL plays a crucial role in the expansion of telecom services in rural areas, the development of indigenous Cabinet approves Rs 26,000 cr project for saturation of 4G mobile services in uncovered villages: The Union Cabinet today approved a project for saturation of 4G mobile services in uncovered villages across the country at a total cost of Rs. 26,316 crores. The project will provide 4G mobile services in 24,680 uncovered villages in remote and difficult areas. The project has a provision to include 20per cent additional villages on account of rehabilitation, new settlements, withdrawal of services by existing operators, etc. In addition, 6,279 villages having SNS only 2G/3G connectivity shall be upgraded to 4G. FACT FILE TOTAL CASES 4,39,38,764 STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE ACTIVE CASES NEW DELHI, 27 JULY 1,45,026 NEW CASES 18,313 NEW RECOVERIES 20,742 TOTAL DEATHS 5,26,167 UNION HEALTH MINISTRY FIGURES AS OF 8.00 A.M. WEDNESDAY 27 JULY 2022 technology, and disaster relief. The following steps are proposed to be undertaken to upgrade BSNL services: Administrative allotment of Spectrum: To improve existing services and provide 4G services, the BSNL will be allotted Spectrum in 900/1800 MHz band administratively at a cost of Rs 44,993 crores through equity infusion. With this spectrum, the BSNL will be able to compete in the market and provide highspeed data using their vast network, including in rural areas. Financial support for capex: To promote indigenous technology development, the BSNL is in process of deploying Atmanirbhar 4G technology stack. To meet the projected capital expenditure for the next four years, the government will fund capex of Rs 22,471 crores. This will be a significant boost to the development and deployment of the Atmanirbhar 4G stack. Viability gap funding for rural wireline operations: Despite the commercial nonviability, the BSNL has been providing wireline services in rural/remote areas to meet the social objectives of the government.The government will provide Rs 13,789 crores to the BSNL as viability gap funding for commercially unviable rural wire-line operations done during 2014-15 to 201920. Increase in authorised capital: The authorised capital of the BSNL will be increased from Rs 40,000 crores to Rs 1,50,000 crores in lieu of AGR dues, provision of capex, and allotment of spectrum. Debt structuring: the government will provide a sovereign guarantee to these PSUs for raising long-term loans. They will be able to raise long-term bonds for an amount of Rs 40,399 crores. This will help restructure existing debt and distress the balance sheets. Financial support for AGR dues: To further improve the balance sheet, AGR dues of BSNL amounting to Rs 33,404 crores will be settled by con- the huge cash stash. The agency officers had to break open the door. Bank Employees engaged five cash-counting machines to count the illegal cash. Today’s raid was a part of search operations conducted at a number of flats and property, reportedly owned by the actress. Today’s money trail was located at the Rothtola flat. Her ancestral house at Dewanpara was also searched, where the officers faced initial resistance from Arpita’s mother. EAM to come face-to-face with Bilawal at SCO meet FUN MOMENT Children enjoy the rain at the Taj Mahal in Agra on Wednesday. ANI Cabinet approves ` 1.64 L crore BSNL revival package DGCA curtails SpiceJet’s STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE The Union Minister further said, “If they haven’t done any corruption, then why fear? chief ministers of Congress have no work in their states. Incidents of rape, and murder are being reported from Congressruled states, but their CMs are camping in Delhi instead of maintaining law and order in their respective states.” He further said that this clearly shows the fear of the Congress that in order to hide the truth committed by the family and the party from the public and to create pressure on the probe agencies they are protesting. Congress president Sonia Gandhi's questioning by the ED on money laundering allegations linked to the National Herald case ended today. She was asked over 100 questions in 12 hours spread over three days. Her son and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s questioning took place over five days and he was asked around 150 questions. version into equity. The government will provide funds to the BSNL for settling the AGR/GST dues. Re-issue of preference shares: the BSNL will re-issue preference shares of Rs 7,500 crores to the government. Merger of BBNL and BSNL: To facilitate wider utilisation of infrastructure laid under BharatNet, the Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) will be merged with the BSNL. The infrastructure created under BharatNet will continue to be a national asset, accessible on a non-discriminatory basis to all the telecom service providers. The government believes that with these measures, the BSNL will be able to improve the quality of existing services, roll out 4G services and become financially viable. It is expected that with the implementation of this revival plan, the BSNL will earn a profit in FY 2026-27. flights to 50 % for 8 weeks STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 27 JULY The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today ordered SpiceJet to operate a maximum of 50 per cent of its flights for eight weeks after several of its planes reported technical malfunction recently. During these eight weeks, the airline will be subjected to “enhanced surveillance” by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The airline, however, said there will be no flight cancellations because of the regulator's order as it is already operating limited services “due to the current lean travel season". The DGCA order effectively means the budget carrier will operate not more than 2,096 weekly flights for the next eight weeks. SpiceJet's planes were involved in at least eight incidents of technical malfunction between June 19 and There will be no flight cancellations because of the regulator's order: Spice Jet July 5, following which the DGCA on July 6 issued a show cause notice to the airline. “In view of the findings of various spot checks, inspections and the reply to the show cause notice submitted by SpiceJet, for the continued sustenance of safe and reliable transport service, the number of departures of SpiceJet is hereby restricted to 50 per cent of the number of depa rtures approved under summer schedule 2022 for a period of eight weeks,” the DGCA said. It said that if the airline wants to increase the number of flights beyond 50 per cent during the eight weeks, it will have to demonstrate that it has “sufficient technical support and financial resources to safely undertake such enhanced capacity". External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Uzbekistan to attend the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting on 28-29 July at which he is expected to come face-to-face for the first time with his counterpart from Pakistan Bilawal Bhutto. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also be among those attending the meeting. The meeting will discuss preparations for the upcoming Meeting of the Council of Heads of State on 15-16 September in Samarkand. The foreign ministers will review ongoing cooperation in the expansion of the SCO Organisation and exchange ideas on regional and global developments of common concern, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. However, a bilateral meeting between external affairs minister Jaishankar and Bhutto is ruled out, given the state of relationship between their two countries. Sources confirmed that neither side has sought a bilateral meeting.Last month, Bhutto made a strong pitch for reengaging with India, saying that cutting ties with New Delhi would not serve Islamabad's interests.A meeting between Jaishankar and the Chinese foreign minister is, however, not ruled out. The two ministers have invariably held a bilateral meeting on the margins of every multilateral engagement despite the nature of relationship between India and China.