Tell nation what CBI has found against Manish Sisodia so far: AAP leaders protest against BJP
New Delhi, Aug 27: The Aam Aadmi Party held a protest on Saturday over CBI action against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and asked the BJP-led Centre to tell the nation what the probe agency found since it raided his residence and other locations last week.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led party leaders and workers staged a protest near the AAP headquarters and chanted slogans against the BJP holding placards which read, "What has CBI found in its investigation?"
Addressing the protestors, AAP's Rajinder Nagar MLA Durgesh Pathak slammed the BJP and alleged that the Narendra Modi government has put CBI after Sisodia to implicate the deputy chief minister in a "fake" case and "defame" the Kejriwal-led party.
"The BJP is unnerved since the Aam Aadmi Party decided to contest Gujarat Assembly polls. They know that their 27-year-long regime in Gujarat is crumbling that's why they are making all out efforts to defame the AAP," Pathak charged.
People of Gujarat are fed up with the BJP and want change this time as the saffron party has done nothing but only "looted" the state during its 27-year-long regime, he alleged.
He said it's been more than a week since the CBI raided Sisodia's residence in Delhi and his paternal home in his village where the agency sleuths even dug the floor and checked the walls of the house.
"But the prime minister has not been able to say a word so far on what his CBI has found against Sisodia during its investigation," he charged, adding "People of this country want to know what the CBI has found against Sisodia after ten days of its investigation."
Pathak called the AAP the "most honest party in the world" and its leaders the "most truthful" as he lashed out at the Centre over CBI action against Sisodia, whom he described as "the best education minister of India."
AAP MLAs Sanjeev Jha and Kuldeep Kumar, who recently claimed that they had been approached by the BJP with a Rs 20 crore offer for switching sides, also accused the saffron party's top leadership of "conspiring" to topple the Kejriwal government in Delhi.
"Since you (BJP) are going to suffer a miserable defeat in Gujarat elections, you want to intimidate AAP ministers, MLAs and leaders through CBI-ED raids," Jha said.
"But you must remember that we have come out of a movement and we are not going to be intimidated by such tricks. This time you have to face an honest party and we will put you down on the mat," the Burari MLA said.
The AAP had plans to protest outside the BJP headquarters but they could not do so as the Delhi police stopped them and put up barricades near their party office.
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.
2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
ALSO READ: West Bengal board declares class 10 exam results, 86.83 pc students pass
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
