Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj to become political party on October 2
Patna (PTI): Former election strategist Prashant Kishor on Sunday said his Jan Suraaj campaign will become a political party on October 2, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti, and contest the Bihar assembly polls next year.
Kishor was addressing a "state-level workshop" of Jan Suraaj here, which was attended by several persons, including two former legislators and a granddaughter of late socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, joining the campaign.
"As stated earlier, Jan Suraaj will become a political party on October 2 and contest next year's assembly polls. Other details, such as who would lead the party, will be decided in due course," said Kishor, who had launched the campaign two years ago.
He welcomed the entry of Jagriti Thakur, whose father Virendra Nath Thakur is the younger son of Karpoori Thakur, a former chief minister of Bihar and a Bharat Ratna awardee.
Notably, late Thakur is seen as a mentor to many top leaders of the state, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad.
Thakur's elder son Ram Nath Thakur is a JD(U) MP and a Union Minister of state.
Other notables who joined Jan Suraaj include Monazir Hasan, a former Bihar minister who had been associated with RJD as well as JD(U) and has served multiple terms in Parliament as well as the state legislature.
Other prominent inductees were former RJD MLC Rambali Singh Chandravanshi, who was recently disqualified from the legislative council on grounds of indiscipline, and Anand Mishra, a former IPS officer who resigned from service hoping for a BJP ticket but contested the Lok Sabha polls from Buxar as an Independent after being denied the ticket.
Another entrant was Priyanka, a daughter of JD(U) leader Mangani Lal Mandal, a former MP and an ex-MLA.
Founder of IPAC, a political consultancy firm, Kishor first shot to fame in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls campaign of Prime Minister Narendra, which was a spectacular success.
He also worked for Nitish Kumar in the 2015 assembly polls. Kumar was impressed with his acumen and inducted him into JD(U) in 2018. Kishor was elevated to the post of national vice-president soon, only to be expelled from the party less than two years later.
Kishor, who is in his 40s, gave up political consultancy after 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, which saw his client Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress president, retaining power with a thumping majority.
In 2020, Kishor had launched a campaign in his home state called 'Baat Bihar Ki", which got embroiled in a copyrights case and was ultimately shelved.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
ED arrests Sandeepa Virk, 'cosmetologist' for alleged money laundering
New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday it has arrested a woman, who claims to be an actor and a cosmetologist, under the anti-money laundering law in a case of alleged fraud and misrepresentation.
The agency said the purported links of the woman, Sandeepa Virk, with a Reliance Group executive, Angarai Natarajan Sethuraman (President, Corporate Affairs), are also under its scanner. Sethuraman, in a statement, denied any connection with Virk or any transactions related to her.
Virk was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday after searches were conducted against her and her associates in Delhi and Mumbai over the last two days.
A special court sent her to the ED's custody till August 14, the agency said. The woman claims to be the owner of a skin care products selling website named hyboocare.com, which the ED claimed was a "front" for money laundering.
She and her associates are being probed for allegedly exerting undue influence through "misrepresentation" and "defrauding" individuals by soliciting money under false pretences.
According to an Instagram ID of Virk, she is an actor and entrepreneur and the founder of the said website.
The federal agency said in a statement that the woman was also "in touch with" Sethuraman, former director of erstwhile Reliance Capital Limited.
She was communicating with him regarding "illegal liaisoning", the ED claimed, adding that the searches at Sethuraman's residence "confirmed" these allegations.
"Besides, diversion of funds for personal benefit has also been unearthed during the course of the search action," it said.
The ED alleged that public money worth about Rs 18 crore belonging to Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) was disbursed to Sethuraman in 2018 by "flouting" prudent lending norms.
The funds were lent under terms that allowed a deferment of the principal amount as well as the interest, with multiple waivers granted and no due diligence conducted, it said.
The ED claimed that besides this, a home loan of Rs 22 crore was provided by Reliance Capital Limited by "violating" the prudential norms. "A large part of these loans are seen to have been eventually siphoned off and remained unpaid," it alleged.
Sethuraman, in a statement, dismissed the allegations as "baseless". He denied any connection with Virk or any transactions related to her.
Detailing about Virk's web portal, the agency said it purportedly sold FDA-approved beauty products. However, the ED said the products listed on the website have been found to be non-existent and the portal lacks a user registration option and is plagued by persistent payment gateway issues.
A scrutiny of the website uncovered minimal social-media engagement, an inactive WhatsApp contact number and an absence of transparent organisational details, all of which reinforce the finding of "non-genuine" commercial activity, the ED claimed.
"These factors, including limited product range, inflated pricing, false claims of FDA approval and technical inconsistencies, indicate that the website serves as a front for laundering funds," it said.
Another social media-hosted bio data of the woman said she is a certified cosmetologist.
The ED said several "incriminating" documents were seized during the searches and the statement of a man named Farrukh Ali, stated to be an associate of Virk, was recorded.
The money-laundering case stems from an FIR lodged by the Punjab Police.
Sethuraman said that the home loan he received from Reliance Capital was granted following due process and was secured by the property offered as collateral.
