TRS MLAs 'poaching' case: BJP leader B L Santhosh, 3 more named as accused
Hyderabad (PTI): Senior BJP leader B L Santhosh and three others were named as accused by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the case of alleged conspiracy to poach four TRS MLAs, officials said on Thursday.
Following directions from the Telangana High Court, the SIT, probing the case, also issued a second notice to BJP National General Secretary (Organisation) Santhosh, who is yet to appear before it.
In the fresh notice, he has been asked to appear before SIT for questioning on November 26 or November 28, official sources told PTI.
Based on the investigations so far, the SIT filed a memo in a special Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court here adding the names of Santhosh and two persons from Kerala--Jaggu Swami and Tushar Vellapally, besides B Srinivas, as accused in the case, they said.
Three persons -- Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy, were already named as accused in the case after a complaint was lodged by TRS MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy, among four legislators, against them on October 26.
As per the FIR copy, Rohith Reddy alleged that the accused offered him Rs 100 crore and in return the legislator had to leave the TRS and contest as a BJP candidate in the next Assembly election.
The Telangana High Court on Wednesday had directed the SIT to again serve notice on Santhosh under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to Santhosh.
Earlier, the Telangana SIT had issued notices to Santhosh and the two persons from Kerala to appear before it for questioning on November 21. However, they did not turn up before the probe panel. Srinivas, who was also summoned by the SIT, had appeared before it.
The Telangana government on November 9 ordered the setting up of a seven-member SIT to probe into the alleged poaching of the MLAs.
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Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
