New Delhi, May 20: After election drubbing in the Karnataka Assembly election, the Congress has come out as a phoenix in its post-election strategies to win over the BJP. It has a clarity on its strategies right from extending support to JDS if the Congress got less than 100 seats in the election, changing of hotels of Congress MLAs, downloading the call record application to record the calls of BJP leaders who will lure the Congress MLAs, to arranging a special flight to bring Abhishek Manu Singhvi from Chandigarh and it has got fruits for its strategies.

Party sources said that the party leadership has planned strategies after going through all developments well-in advance. AICC president Rahul Gandhi  had met party leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot and KC Venugopal on May 14 morning and planned the strategy. The decision to extend its unconditional support to JDS if it got less than half of the total seats was also taken there only.

Interestingly, this message was given to JDS. All five AICC general secretaries Manicka Tagore, PC Vishnunath, Madhu Yashki Goud, Sheik Sailajanath and Yashomati Tagore were directed to be in the designated counting centres and Azad, Gehlot and Venugopal have camped in Bengaluru. As soon as they knew that the BJP would not get the majority, they were asked to contact all the MLAs and bring them to Bengaluru. On the next day of the result, political high drama was started in Delhi and Bengaluru.

Congress-JDS combine has prevailed upon the Governor on May 15 to invite them to form the government. Soon after they confirmed that Yeddyurappa would place his claim for forming the government, the Congress leadership held a meeting in New Delhi and decided to take up legal fight. For this reason, Abhishek Manu Singhvi was brought from Chandigarh in a special flight. Both Ahmed Patel and Randeep Surjewala have spoken to Singhvi over phone and finalized the draft. Even, they have spoken to Congress leader MB Patil over the present situation.

As Singhvi missed the flight, the Congress has made special flight for him thinking that train journey would be delayed. So, the combined efforts of all Congress leaders have turned the defeat as victory.

 

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New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.

Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.

The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.

In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.

"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."

The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.

The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.

"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.

Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.

After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.

In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.

In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.

Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.

Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.