Parrikar slams Congress for 'doubting' surgical strikes
Panaji, July 16 : Slamming the opposition for spreading scepticism and negativity, former Defence Minister and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday asked if the Congress would have believed in the surgical strikes if the Army had taken its President Rahul Gandhi along on the mission.
"I am not speaking about the surgical strikes in a political manner. What do the opposition parties claim? That they (strikes) were not carried out. Look at the negativity. Should I have taken you (opposition) along? I should have told the army to take Rahul Gandhi along and carry out the surgical strikes?" Parrikar told a meeting of party workers here as part of the preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
"The most important thing about surgical strikes is the secrecy. Only four of us knew. The Prime Minister, me, Army chief and the Director General of Military Operations. Four of us in Delhi and core commander and army commander in Srinagar and those who executed it.
"We had to prepare for it early on, because these things can't be done on the spot," the former Defence Minister said, urging the party workers to reach out to the people and create a positive atmosphere.
The Chief Minister also said that his mother's wisdom of preparing extensively for any eventuality was one of the factors which inspired him and his Defence Ministry to be fully prepared ahead of the actual strikes.
"My mother used to say, the press should not interpret it wrongly... When you go hunting for rabbits, you should be prepared for a tiger. So, when we were preparing for a surgical strike, we were in all readiness. But there was scepticism about that too," Parrikar said.
Parrikar was the Defence Minister when the two surgical strikes were conducted by the Indian armed forces on the country's eastern and western fronts.
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BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
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.
