Hindustan Times News | 23rd March 2022 | 6 PM

HT Daily News Wrap

Air Vice Marshal from headquarters is carrying out an investigation into the accidental firing, IT Department carried out search and seizure operations at Hero Motocorp, Ministry of home affairs revoked the provisions for Covid-19 and other top news in today's bulletin.
An Air Vice Marshal from the Air Force headquarters is carrying out a detailed investigation into the accidental firing of the tactical BrahMos supersonic cruise missile which landed in Pakistan on March 9. Government sources told ANI that the detailed probe by the Air Force officer (equivalent to Major General in the Army) is still going on but prima facie, a Group Captain-rank officer is being seen as blameworthy. The officer was in-charge of the mobile command post of the missile system when the accidental firing happened during a Command Air Staff Inspection (CASI) at its home base. However, the sources said the probe would be finalised in a time-bound manner and final details would be known only after that. The Income Tax Department carried out search and seizure operations at several premises of automobile company Hero Motocorp on Wednesday, sources said. Offices and residences of the top official of the group are covered in the search, Income tax sources told ANI. According to sources, searches started on Wednesday morning and covered more than 40 premises in Delhi and NCR. According to the preliminary investigation reports, a large number of incriminating evidence including hard copy documents and digital data have been found and seized during the search. The key employees and business heads of the group are covered in this search. Source told ANI that a team of officials of the department is looking at financial documents and other business transactions of the company and the promoters. After the income tax raids news broke share of the Hero Motocorp has witnessed a decline of 2.5 per cent on NSE. The ministry of home affairs revoked the provisions of the Disaster Management Act for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) containment measures in view of “overall improvement in the situation and preparedness of the government” to deal with the pandemic. The health ministry advisories on Covid containment measures, however, will continue, including the use of face masks. Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, in an order, advised all states and union territories “to consider appropriately discontinuing” issue of orders and guidelines under the DMA Act, 2005 for Covid containment measures. “The States/UTs may continue to follow the SoPs/advisories that have been or are being issued by the MoHFW from time to time for Covid containment measures, vaccination and other related aspects, including COVID Appropriate Behaviour,” the order reads. India has been witnessing a sustained decline in daily Covid cases, with the positivity rate staying below 0.5% even as Europe and China see another surge. On Wednesday, India reported 1,778 new Covid cases and 62 deaths as the active caseload stood around 23,000. At least 11 migrant workers were charred to death after a fire broke out at an iron and plastic scrap warehouse at Bhoiguda in Hyderabad on Wednesday, police said. The bodies recovered so far are believed to be of migrant labourers from Bihar. A police officer said the fire broke out around 4 am when around 13 workers were asleep on the upper floor of the warehouse in the densely populated residential colony near the Secunderabad railway station. “Preliminary investigation suggested the fire might have erupted due to a short circuit. Further investigation is on,” he said. As many as eight fire tenders were pressed into service and the fire was brought under control around 7 am. “We have recovered 11 bodies so far and all of them are totally burnt and in unidentifiable condition. One more worker managed to escape with burn injuries and he has been rushed to the Gandhi Hospital, where his condition is critical,” the police officer said. Six Sri Lankan nationals who allegedly tried to enter the country illegally – they stranded before being rescued by the Coast Guard on Tuesday – are being interrogated, officials have told news agency PTI. Three of the six are children, officials added. The Sri Lankans attempted to land at Dhanushkodi in Tamil Nadu but the man who brought them here illegally forced them to disembark and left them stranded on a sand dune, officials said. One of the Sri Lankans claimed they were trying to enter India because of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. Increasing prices of essential goods was making it difficult to manage the situation back home, PTI quoted her as saying.