Choksi will be brought back to India: Rajnath
Greater Noida, Jan 21: Home Minister Rajnath Singh Monday asserted that absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi will not be spared and will be brought back to India to face the law.
Singh, who laid the foundation stone for a Kendriya Vidyalaya at a CISF camp here, said this in response to a question about Choksi surrendering his Indian passport to the High Commission in Guyana.
The diamond jeweller had taken citizenship of Antigua and Barbuda after his name cropped up in the USD 2 billion fraud at a Mumbai-based branch of the PNB along with his nephew and businessman Nirav Modi.
"We have brought the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act and there is a process under that law (to check fraud cases). He (Choksi) will be brought to India for sure. No one will be spared. Action will be taken against everyone," the minister said on the sidelines of the event.
As per the law, Indian citizens are expected to surrender their passports when they acquire foreign nationality.
Government sources said India continues to pursue Choksi's return with the government of Antigua through diplomatic and legal channels.
In August last year, India gave Antigua a request for Choksi's extradition. A team from India was also sent to Antigua to pursue the request.
Both Choksi and Nirav Modi are being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. The agencies have arrested several people and filed charge sheets in the case.
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Women BJP MLAs protest against opposition in UP assembly premises
Lucknow (PTI): Women BJP MLAs held a protest in the Vidhan Bhawan complex before the one-day special session of Uttar Pradesh assembly, slamming the opposition for defeating the passage of a bill, which would have led to implementation of the Women's Reservation Law, in the Lok Sabha.
This followed another demonstration by Samajwadi Party MLAs, who alleged that the BJP was misleading public in the name of women's reservation.
The women BJP legislators assembled in front of Chaudhary Charan Singh's statue in the assembly premises, holding banners inscribed with the slogan "Insult to Matrushakti (women's power), India will not tolerate it". The protesting members entered the main hall of Vidhan Bhawan carrying the banners.
Participating in the protest, the state Minister for Women Welfare and Child Development, Baby Rani Maurya, told reporters that all opposition parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the Congress, had opposed the women's reservation, a stance for which they would have to pay a heavy political price.
"On this issue, all of us women stand united. We will ensure that we secure our reservation," she said.
BJP MLA Ketki Singh remarked that their protest represents the collective outrage of millions of women across the state.
Singh asserted that the opposition has betrayed women by creating hurdles in the path of women's reservation. The current demonstration is merely the beginning, and very soon, women from every street, intersection and household will join the protest movement, she said.
Minister Vijaylakshmi Gautam said, "We strongly condemn the despicable act committed by the Samajwadi Party and the Congress in an attempt to hold back 'half the population' (women). Their action was directed against the very bill that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had introduced to empower and strengthen Nari Shakti (women's power), and which he strived to pass expeditiously."
Uttar Pradesh assembly is holding a one-day special session on Thursday. During the session, the government is set to move a censure motion against the opposition parties over their failure to pass the Constitution Amendment Bill, which would have led to implementation of the Women's Reservation Act, in the Lok Sabha.
