Pawar will continue as party chief, to focus on quelling revolt

Four days after he resigned as NCP c hie f, Shara d Pawar a ltere d his decision and decided to stay on at the helm of the party, declaring that he was responding to the sent iment of par ty work er s an d appeals made to him by several national leaders However, senior party leaders said Pawar had carried out the entire episode to quell rebellion within the party and to put a stop to rumour-mongering a bout wh ethe r Ajit Pawa r an d other NCP netas would leave and join the BJP

Pawar’s U-turn came after the committee set up by him for election of the new NCP president

Sharad Pawar

decided that it was not going to accept his resignation and appealed to him to continue as

NCP chief

Interestingly, Ajit Pawar was not present at the press briefing at which Pawar announced the reversal of his move to quit An NCP exminister said notwithstanding Sharad Pawar’s categorical statement that there was no substance to speculation that Ajit was going to quit the party, it was quite clear in political circles that a section of NCP legislators led by Ajit Pawar were in the process of raising a banner of revolt

“Rebellion has been on the cards in the NCP, and when it will

Rajnath gifts 2 military platforms to Maldives

India's defence minister

Raj nath S i ngh handed over a swift patrol ship and a landing craft to the M aldi ves wh il e u rging i ncreas ed co op eratio n b etween li ke-m inded s tates t o tac kle sh ared p roblem s i n the Indian Oc ean, an area th at w i tnessed i ncreas ing

Chinese aggressiveness

On the second day of his visit, Singh also discussed the extension of defence ties with the president of the island nation, Ibrahim

Rajnath Singh

Mohamed Solih, and gave him an assurance that India would continue to support the Maldives

After handing over the two platforms to the Maldives National

Defence Forces (MNDF) as India's "gift" at a ceremony in Male, the defence minister described the relationship between the two countries as "truly special" and said it has evolved as a model for the entire region to follow Outlining India's policy to engage with friendly nations, he said New Delhi wishes to "create symbiotic relationships where it can create a win-win situation for all and that it offers defence partnership while being accommodative of the national priorities of the countries"

"The Indian Ocean is our shared space The primary responsibility for peace, stability and prosperity in the region rests with those who live in the region Peace and security of a region are best secured with cooperation and collaboration of the regional players," Singh said

Mehsana family borrowed Rs 60,00,000 from 11 to reach US

T he Cha ud ha r ys fr om Me h sana h ad t a ken loans from nine people, a cooperative bank and a gold finance company to reach their dream destination in US However, on March 30, the family of four, which included a couple and their teenage so n a nd d a ugh te r , d r ow ned in th e St Lawrence River on the Ca nad a -US bor de r , putting an end to their deadly US dreams

An FIR against three agents filed by police in Mehsana mentioned that the agents were Rs 15,00,000 for each individual According to the FIR, Ashwin Chaudhary, the younger brother of the late Pravin Chaudhary, received Rs 700,000 from Nagrik Bank of Gozaria, Rs 600,000 from IIFL Gozaria against a gold deposit, and Rs 500,000 each from nine peopleall of them were close family members, includ-

UP’s ‘mostwanted’ gangster Dujana killed in encounter

A confrontation with the UP STF resulted in the death of notorious UP criminal Anil Dujana, aka Anil Nagar, 43, who had just been released on bail after "absconding" from prison

The mobster, a resident of Noida's Dujana hamlet, was wanted by numerous police teams and was facing 63 criminal charges against him, including 18 killings His name appeared on the most recent list of "most-dreaded criminals" published by the UP government Only Dujana was free among the seven names from Gautam Budh Nagar

ASP and commanding officer of the Meerut field unit of UP STF, Brijesh Singh, who also led the operation, told the media: “We had got a tip off that Dujana was present in the Jani area of Meerut near the upper Ganga canal Our unit surrounded him and asked him to surrender But he began firing In return fire, he was wounded and died ” ing cousins and uncles

Ashwin shelled out Rs 200,000 to complete the figure of Rs 60,00,000 The details, according to investigators, give a peek into the financing system for the illegal immigration racket rampant in some parts of central Gujarat

The money, according to the FIR, was raised in a matter of 12 days After the initial deal on March 11, the money was handed over to the two accused including Nikulsinh Vihol and Arjunsinh Chavda on March 23

The agents involved in the state were charged under IPC section 304 for causing death by negligence in the third FIR filed in Gujarat following the arrest of the suspects in an illegal immigration scheme Investigators stated that all three defendants included in the FIR are missing

KCF chief sheltered by ISI shot dead in Pakistan

Paramjit Singh Panjwar, who is a Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) chief and designated terrorist was shot dead in Pakistan’s Lahore The native of Punjab’s Tarn Taran district was said to have joined the KCF in 1986 He faced several cases in Punjab and fled to Pakistan in 1990 with the help of spy agency ISI, which had allegedly provided him a safe house in Lahore and a new identity: Malik Sardar Singh

Panjwar engaged in subversive actions such as teaching young people the use of firearms and importing drugs and weapons He was labelled as a terrorist by the Indian government in July 2020 in accordance with the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act

According to reports, Panjwar was gunned down by two unidentified bike-borne assassins while on morning walk in Lahore’s residential neighbourhood of Nawab Town While Panjwar died on the spot, his guard was wounded According to a report, Panjwar was pronounced dead by doctors when he was taken to a hospital

No group has claimed responsibility

Several rounds were fired at Panjwar and he received a fatal gunshot to the head,” a security official, Asad Abbas, said in Lahore No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack

Rupinder Singh, a nephew of KCF chief in their Panjwar village of Tarn Taran, said: “We came to know through media reports that Paramjit was shot dead We know nothing more ” Rupinder added that three of Panjwar’s brothers lived in the village In 2020, another fugitive and leader of the Khalistan Liberation Force, Harmeet Singh alias Happy, was killed in Pakistan take place is a question of time

When Pawar quit, the entire rank and file of the party rallied around him In fact, his decision to quit and withdraw the resignation in four days strengthened the organisation at all levels In our opinion, Pawar has succeeded in quelling the rebellion and ending rumours, ” the leader said Ajit Pawar himself had dismissed speculation that he was going to leave the NCP Ajit said Pawar’s decision to withdraw his resignation would energise party workers and strengthen the Maha Vikas Aghadi

Sharad Pawar said that there must be a succession plan for any post or responsibility in the organisation “In future, I will focus on making organisational changes in the party, assigning new responsibilities, creating new leadership,” he said

Another NCP leader said opposition unity at the national level in view of the 2024 general elections was on top on Pawar’s agenda and was one of the factors which influenced his decision to reverse his resignation move NCP leaders felt that if Pawar was not NCP president, his importance in the task of bringing about opposition unity would be reduced

HC clamps interim stay on Bihar caste survey

The Patna high court clamped an interim stay on the ongoing Bihar caste survey, terming the exercise virtually a census by another name and hence “ prima facie unconstitutional” as it “impinges on the legislative powers of Parliament”

The court ordered the Nitish Kumar administration, which in a former guise had persuaded the BJP to reluctantly support a caste counting, to make sure that the information gathered thus far by enumerators doesn't leak The following hearing will take place on July 3 A split bench consisting of Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice Madhuresh Prasad heard a number of petitions opposing the exercise and distinguished between a census and a survey using Black's Law Dictionary and other books Census is defined as “collection of empirical facts about individuals” and survey as “collection of opinion and perceptions of the general public”, the bench said while noting that the former was being conducted “in the garb of a survey ”

The 31-page ruling notes that the state government "has no right to conduct such a caste census in Bihar," noting that the bench did not discover any specific justification in the June 6, 2022 notification for a caste-based survey that would be "relevant for the contemporary period "

The bench held that the state government's intention to share data of a caste survey with various political parties in the state assembly raises a larger question of the infringement of the fundamental right to privacy of the people in general” “There is also the question of data integrity and security, which has to be more elaborately addressed by the state,” the judges said

Kedarnath trek route blocked after avalanche, 3rd in two days

Follo wi ng a s ig ni fi ca nt avalanche that happened after a section of the Bhairav glac ier broke off about three kilometres from Kedarnath, the hike path to the shrine was shut

The event occurs just one day after two avalanches were seen between the Kuber and Bhairav glaciers, which were labelled as "dangerous spots" on the 16 km long hike route by the district emergency operation centre (DEOC) According to information from DEOC, the trek route remained blocked till the filing of this report and efforts were on to remove the snow

Last week, avalanches were reported even as a landslide occurred near Helang, about 13 ahead of subsidence-hit Joshimath town The landslide completely blocked NH-58

“An avalanche was triggered after a massive piece of Bhairav glacier broke off around 2 25pm, completely blocking the trek route,” said Nand Singh Rajwar, disaster management officer (DMO) of Rudraprayag district

SC questions extensions given to ED director Mishra

The Supreme Court has questioned the extensions given to Enforcement Director (ED) Sanjay Kumar Mishra and asked the the Centre whether he is "indispensable" and there is no other qualified officer in the investigating agency

The court made its comments after the Centre defended its choice to grant Mishra extensions by noting that the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the actions India has taken will be examined by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international watchdog

Appearing before a bench of Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol, solicitor general Tushar Mehta contended that there was no mala fide in granting extension and told the court that the present director’s continuance in office was needed as a peer review group of FATF is about to visit the country to examine steps taken by the country to tackle the menace of money laundering and international financial terrorism

But the bench asked: “Do you want to say that there is no other person in ED who can do the task He cannot continue after November 2023 and what will happen if the group visits the country after that Is he so indispensable for ED and there is no other competent officer in the agency ”