Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) raided the offices of a well-known legal firm as part of the ongoing probe into the Rs 11,300 crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud here on Monday.

 The CBI sleuths last week swooped on the offices of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, a leading firm which was reportedly hired by Nirav Modi around a month before the scam broke in mid-February, at their offices in Lower Parel here.

 The CBI examined the documents provided by the firm pertaining to the Nirav Modi-related mandate, which the company later reportedly terminated after the scam erupted on February 14.

 CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma on Monday directed the officials in charge of the investigation to "complete (it) within the stipulated time" and has also asked them "not to spare anyone found involved".

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.