RLD takes unassailable lead in Kairana
Lucknow, May 31: The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) is all set to wrest the Uttar Pradesh's Kairana parliamentary seat from the BJP with its candidate Tabassum Hasan having taken an unassailable lead of over 43,000 votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Mriganka Singh, daughter of late sitting MP Hukum Singh, is her nearest rival while other 10 candidates in the fray are set to lose their deposits.
Talking to reporters after leading in all assembly segments, Hasan said the leads have proven beyond doubt that the people of Kairana had voted out negative and divisive politics.
Hasan told IANS that her victory will not only be a defining defeat for the BJP-led negative and communal politics but also expressed hope that it would lead to the coming together and further cementing of Opposition ranks.
She also thanked everybody for putting in their best and pointed out how not only her party, Ajit Singh's RLD, but workers of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress and even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worked hard to consolidate voters in her favour.
"In the holy month of Ramadan, all the people worked hard in this scorching heat for a goal, with full confidence and positivity and the results are gladdening," an elated Hasan said.
She also demanded that all future elections be held on ballot paper system and not by electronic voting machines (EVMs), which we said were faulty and open to manipulation.
If the trends continue and the BJP loses the seat, it will be the third parliamentary bypoll loss in the state it had stormed to power in last year with a thumping majority.
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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.
