Indian man faces jail, caning over bid to extort bank
Singapore, Oct 3 : A 35-year-old Indian national faces a jail term of 2-5 years and caning over his bid to extort half a million dollars from Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore, the media reported on Wednesday.
According to court papers, Nagarajan Balajee had allegedly threatened to publish a libel concerning Aalishaan Zaidi, 47, the global head of digital banking at Standard Chartered Bank, unless he paid 500,000 Singapore dollars, the Straits Times reported.
Zaidi was one of a few bank employees who received the threatening e-mails sent anonymously. He earlier made a police report on the bank's behalf.
The Indian man was arrested on Sunday and several laptops as well as mobile phones were seized from him in connection with the case, the report said.
According to the daily, the bank had made a police report last Thursday about how it had been threatened with a leakage of confidential information. Balajee was believed to have used multiple fictitious e-mail accounts to deliver the threats anonymously.
Preliminary investigations by the police also found that the suspect might have used overseas-registered mobile lines and virtual private network services to mask his identity to evade detection. A VPN allows unauthorised content from overseas to be accessed by users.
Balajee is out on bail and due to appear in court on October 30.
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Informing Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor was a crime: Rahul Gandhi on Jaishankar's 'admission'
New Delhi, May 17 (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the government for "informing" Pakistan about targeting terror infrastructure as part of Operation Sindoor, saying it was a crime and asking who had authorised it.
In a post on X, Gandhi questioned External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar for publicly admitting that the government of India (GOI) had informed Pakistan of the action and asked how many aircraft the Indian Air Force lost as a result.
"Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime. EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it. Who authorised it? How many aircraft did our air force lose as a result?" said Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.
He also shared an undated video of Jaishankar saying India had informed Pakistan of the action against terror infrastructure on its soil.
Jaishankar can be heard saying in the video, "At the start of the operation, we had sent a message to Pakistan, saying, 'We are striking at terrorist infrastructure and we are not striking at the military.'"
"So the military has the option of standing out and not interfering in this process. They chose not to take that good advice," the minister can be heard saying in the clip.
The Press Information Bureau (PIB), however, has debunked claims that Jaishankar had said India informed Pakistan ahead of Operation Sindoor. In a post on X, the PIB's Fact Check Unit said the minister had not made any such statement and that he was being misquoted.
Operation Sindoor was the Indian offensive against terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam.
Informing Pakistan at the start of our attack was a crime.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 17, 2025
EAM has publicly admitted that GOI did it.
1. Who authorised it?
2. How many aircraft did our airforce lose as a result? pic.twitter.com/KmawLLf4yW
