518 kg drugs worth Rs 5000 crore recovered in Gujarat, 5 arrested
New Delhi (PTI): In a joint operation of Delhi and Gujarat Police, at least 518 kilograms of cocaine worth around Rs 5000 crore were recovered from Gujarat's Ankleshwar on Sunday and five people were arrested, officials said.
The officials said the new seizure was connected to the recovery of 700 kilograms of cocaine in Delhi. With this, 1,289 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana, worth more than Rs 13,000 crore, have been recovered so far. The number of arrests in this connection has risen to 12.
Sources said this is believed to the biggest-ever seizure by any agency in the country.
According to a Delhi Police officer, during investigations into the previous seizure of 700 kg of cocaine, the Special Cell found the drugs were brought from Avkar Drugs Limited Company in Ankleshwar.
On Sunday, a team of the Special Cell was sent to Gujarat and the cocaine was recovered from the company's godown, the officer said, adding five people were also arrested from the spot.
Police said the accused are being further interrogated regarding the alleged international syndicate running from Dubai and UK.
On October 2, the Special Cell seized more than 560 kg of cocaine and 40 kg of hydroponic marijuana estimated to be worth Rs 5,620 crore from a godown in south Delhi's Mahipalpur and arrested four people. Two others were subsequently apprehended from Amritsar and Chennai.
Then in the second big drugs haul in a week, the Special Cell seized 208 kg of cocaine worth Rs 2,080 crore from a rented shop in west Delhi on Thursday.
On Thursday, police arrested one more person from Uttar Pradesh's Hapur. He was the seventh person to be arrested in the case.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
