New Delhi, Sep 13 : The Centre on Thursday said it did not deny permission to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to visit Chicago on 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekanandas historic speech.

"We did not receive any request for clearance regarding the visit of Ms Mamata Banerjee to Chicago for any event. Reports about the denial of permission are, therefore, not true," External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in response to media queries.

Banerjee had on Tuesday alleged that "evil forces" threatened the Ramakrishna Mission, forcing it to cancel her trip to Chicago.

"I think some evil forces had hatched a conspiracy. They did not want Ramakrishna Mission to organise the programme there. They also didn't want us, people of Bengal, to attend it. It pained me and saddened me a lot," Banerjee said while speaking at the Ramakrishna Mission's global headquarters Belur Math in Howrah district.

The Ramakrishna Mission had invited Banerjee to be the chief guest at the event which was to be held on August 26 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Banerjee had to call off her scheduled trip after the organisers wrote to her that the event had been cancelled due to "unforeseen difficulties" and "demise of a monk".

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Srinagar (PTI): Property worth Rs 1 crore belonging to a notorious drug peddler was on Saturday attached in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, police said.

A double-storey house on eight marlas of land situated at Wantpora Eidgah, belonging to Basit Bilal Dar, a notorious drug peddler, valued at approximately Rs 1 crore, a police spokesperson said.

He said Dar is involved in two cases registered under various sections of the NDPS Act.

During investigation, it was established that the accused had acquired the said property through illicit proceeds generated from drug trafficking activities, the spokesperson said.

Consequently, the property was attached under the provisions of the NDPS Act. The attachment proceedings were conducted in the presence of the two independent witnesses, strictly in accordance with the prescribed legal procedures, he said.

As per the attachment order, the owner has been restrained from selling, leasing, transferring, altering, or creating any third-party interest in the property till further orders, the spokesperson added.