ED summoned Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi over National Herald case

HT Daily News Wrap

The Enforcement Directorate summoned Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over the National Herald case, Days after Sidhu Moose Wala was killed - the Neeraj Bawan gang has apparently vowed revenge on those who gunned down the Punjabi singer, The Kolkata Police registered an unnatural death case of singer Krishnakumar Kunnath on Tuesday night, and other top news in this bulletin.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday summoned Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over the National Herald case, which the Congress claims was closed by the investigating agency in 2015. “The BJP is using puppet agencies to intimidate political opponents. National Heral has a history that goes back to independence days,” Congress leader and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said adding that all opposition leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Farooq Abdullah are under the attacks from central agencies. “All companies do improve balance sheet by turning loans into equities, Singhvi added. “In 2015, the ED closed the National Herald case. But the govt didn’t like it and it removed the ED officials concerned, brought in new officials and reopened the case. This is to divert attention from inflation and other raging problems,” Singhvi added. The Kolkata Police on Wednesday registered an unnatural death case related to the sudden demise of singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, 53, who was popularly known as KK, here on Tuesday night, people aware of the matter said and added his body will be flown to Mumbai after a post-mortem. Minister Aroop Biswas said KK’s body was taken from a private to a state-run hospital for the post-mortem, which is mandatory when a person is declared dead on arrival at a hospital. “After the post-mortem, the body will be flown to Mumbai.” He said K K’s widow and their son and daughter have arrived in Kolkata. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was in Bankura, said she was rushing back to Kolkata to pay her last respects to the singer. “The state wants to pay its respects through a gun salute. Let us see if it can be organised,” Banerjee said. “I talked to KK’s wife over the phone.” KK fell ill on Tuesday night after complaining of excessive heat inside the auditorium where he was performing. He returned to his hotel after taking a break in the middle of the performance. Days after Sidhu Moose Wala was killed in Punjab – in a brutal murder that police say was the result of gang rivalry – the Neeraj Bawan gang has apparently vowed revenge on those who gunned down the Punjabi singer-rapper-politician. On Wednesday a Facebook page associated with Bawana – currently in jail in Delhi – expressed grief over Moose Wala’s death and warned (ominously), “… will give a result in two days”; the post did not elaborate on the nature of the ‘result’. “Sidhu Moose Wala was heart, brother. Will give a result in two days,” the post read. Bawana is counted among Delhi’s top gangsters and is widely believed to run his vast criminal netowrk, comprising extortion and contract killings, from behind bars. The Facebook post also mentioned the names of Tillu Takpuria, and the Koushal Gurgaon and Davinder Bhambia gangs – all reportedly aides of Neeraj Bawana. A Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) office-bearer and a witness to the mowing down of farmers protesting against the now-repealed farm laws in October 2021 in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri escaped an attempt on his life late on Tuesday. Police said two unidentified armed men on a bike intercepted the SUV Dilbag Singh, the Lakhimpur Kheri district president of BKU which spearheaded the agitation against the farm laws, was travelling in and fired on it. Singh said his police guard was on leave at the time of the attack as his son was sick. He added the attackers fired at his SUV, which left one of its tyres punctured. Singh said three bullets hit the SUV and that the assailants also attempted to open the car window. “After firing multiple shots on the vehicle, the assailants fled.” Singh said he has lodged a police complaint and investigators also visited the scene besides talking to him. He added he also informed BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, who was attacked with a microphone before ink was thrown at him at a press meet in Bengaluru on Monday, about the attack. After stating in his first address to the nation that durable peace was not possible till the Kashmir issue was resolved, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has indicated that he is a votary of the resumption of bilateral trade with India. In an interview with a Turkish news agency, Sharif said: “We are cognizant of the economic dividends that can be accrued from healthy trade activity with India” and called it a part of Islamabad’s shift from geo-strategy to geo-economics. At the same time, Sharif has spoken on Kashmir and demanded restoring Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, more than five times since he took over in April. After granting the most favoured nation (MFN) status to Pakistan in 1996, India withdrew it a day after Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group targeted a CRPF vehicle in Pulwama in a suicide attack, killing 40 troopers on February 14, 2019. The total bilateral trade between India and Pakistan was USD 329 million in 2020-2021. This has gone up to USD 514 million in 2021-2022, as per the ministry of commerce, with Indian exports outnumbering imports from Pakistan. Pakistan has never granted MFN status to India despite being a member of the WTO regime.