Kolkata, Feb 14 (PTI): Setting aside objections of the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court on Friday granted conditional permission to RSS to hold a rally in Purba Bardhaman district on February 16.
Organisers of the rally, which RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is scheduled to address, had moved court after the state authorities denied permission on grounds that the use of loudspeakers during the ongoing Madhyamik Pariksha (secondary exams) would cause disturbance to examinees.
The bench of Justice Amrita Sinha granted permission for the rally, planned on Sunday when no exams are scheduled, provided the organisers kept a check on the strength of the attending crowd as well as on the volume of the sound boxes and ensure that examinees appearing for the ongoing secondary exams and the upcoming higher secondary exams are not inconvenienced.
The event, where the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Sarsanghchalak is supposed to address volunteers and their family members for an hour and fifteen minutes, from 11 am to 12.15 pm, would be held inside the Sports Authority of India (SAI) complex in the Talit area of the district, the petitioner submitted.
Appearing on behalf of the RSS, Centre's deputy solicitor general Diraj Trivedi argued that the organisation has already secured permission from SAI authorities to host the event which would be held over a plot of 5,000 square feet, a mere fraction of the 7.2 lakh square feet area of the said complex.
The petitioner's counsel further submitted that the organisers, faced with objection from district authorities, have decided to replace loudspeakers with sound boxes and held that sound would remain limited to within the event surroundings.
"The only two schools, which are close to the venue are about one and two kilometres away, respectively. The venue is uninhabited and we do not come under the purview of the state order that prohibits the use of loudspeakers during examination times," Trivedi argued.
Referring to the February 2022 state environment department notification that prohibits the use of loudspeakers and public address systems three days prior to the commencement of secondary and HS exams in areas where educational institutions are located, Advocate General Kishor Dutta submitted that the organisers have informed usage of 45 sound boxes to address a gathering of about 10,000 people.
"The said notice was issued in compliance with an order passed by this very court in August 1998. The petitioner should have been aware of the imposition of such restrictions during exam periods and ought to have scheduled their event outside the period of the prohibitory order," Dutta submitted.
The court observed that the date of the event does fall during the period of the ongoing secondary examinations conducted by the state board.
"However, as the event has been scheduled on a Sunday for only one hour and fifteen minutes, and according to the instruction of the state respondent, the nearest school is nearly 500 metres away from the complex, accordingly the court permits the petitioner to conduct the event in such a manner that it does not cause any convenience to any of the examinees who may be busy with their examination preparation," the court stated in its order.
"The petitioner should try to behave in a responsible manner and ensure that the sound is kept to the minimum level so as not to cause any difficulty to any person," the order added.
This is the second time that the RSS moved the high court to secure permission for its event in the state.
Earlier, in January 2017, the Calcutta High Court quashed the city police's denial of permission to the organisation to hold a two-day 'Hindu Sammelan' at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata where Bhagwat was the key speaker.
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Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI): Enforcement Directorate searches against the companies of Reliance Group chairman Anil Ambani in Mumbai continued for the third day on Saturday with the agency recovering a number of documents and computer peripherals from multiple locations, official sources said.
The raids were launched on July 24 by the federal probe agency as part of an alleged Rs 3,000 crore worth bank loan fraud-linked money laundering case apart from multiple other allegations of financial irregularities with crores of rupees by certain companies.
The searches, being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), are continuing at some locations out of the more than 35 premises that were covered in Mumbai since Thursday, the sources said.
These premises belong to 50 companies and 25 people including a number of executives of the Anil Ambani Group companies.
ED sources had said the investigation primarily pertains to allegations of illegal loan diversion of around Rs 3,000 crore, given by the Yes Bank to the group companies of Ambani between 2017-2019.
Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, two companies of the group, had on Thursday informed the stock exchanges saying while they acknowledge the action, the raids had "absolutely no impact" on their business operations, financial performance, shareholders, employees, or any other stakeholders.
"The media reports appear to pertain to allegations concerning transactions of Reliance Communications Limited (RCOM) or Reliance Home Finance Limited (RHFL) which are over 10 years old," the companies had said.
The ED, the sources had said, has found that just before the loan was granted, Yes Bank promoters "received" money in their concerns.
The agency is investigating this nexus of "bribe" and the loan.
The sources said the ED is also probing allegations of "gross violations" in Yes Bank loan approvals to these companies including charges like back-dated credit approval memorandums, investments proposed without any due diligence/credit analysis in violation of banks credit policy.
The loans are alleged to have been "diverted" to many group companies and "shell" (bogus) companies by the entities involved.
The agency is also looking at some instances of loans given to entities with weak financials, lack of proper documentation of loans and due diligence, borrowers having common addresses and common directors in their companies etc., the sources said.
The money laundering case stems from at least two CBI FIRs and reports shared by the National Housing Bank, SEBI, National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) and Bank of Baroda with the ED, they said.
These reports indicate, the sources said, that there was a "well-planned and thought after scheme" to divert or siphon off public money by cheating banks, shareholders, investors and other public institutions.
The Union government had informed the Parliament recently that the State Bank of India has classified RCOM along with Ambani as 'fraud' and was also in the process of lodging a complaint with the CBI.
A bank loan "fraud" of more than Rs 1,050 crore between RCOM and Canara Bank is also under the scanner of the ED apart from some "undisclosed" foreign bank accounts and assets, the sources said.
Reliance Mutual fund is also stated to have invested Rs 2,850 crore in AT-1 bonds and a "quid pro quo" is suspected here by the agency.
Additional Tier 1 (AT-1) are perpetual bonds issued by banks to increase their capital base and they are riskier than traditional bonds having higher interest rates. An alleged loan fund diversion of about Rs 10,000 crore involving Reliance Infrastructure too is under the scanner of the agency.
A Sebi report on RHFL is also part of the ED probe.
The companies also said in their filings before the stock exchanges that Anil Ambani was not on the Board of either Reliance Power or Reliance Infrastructure and that they had no "business or financial linkage" to RCOM or RHFL.
Any action taken against RCOM or RHFL, the companies said, has no bearing or impact on the governance, management, or operations of either Reliance Power or Reliance Infrastructure.