Tarari (Bihar), Nov 9: Maintaining that he "made a mistake twice" in the past by joining hands with RJD, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday said that now he would stay permanently with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Addressing a public meeting in favour of NDA nominee, Vishal Prashant of BJP for the Tarari assembly byelection, Kumar said, "I have said it earlier also…I am once again saying that we (BJP-JDU) were together earlier. I made a mistake twice in the past by joining hands with the RJD…., I went 'idhar udhar' twice in the past…But now, I have again come to the NDA. I will remain permanently with the NDA".

He said, "We have been working for the development of Bihar since 2005. Several infrastructural and development works have been done in Bihar after 2005…..and it will continue further under the NDA rule".

Kumar accused RJD of trying to "polarise" votes on "communal lines" in the upcoming bypolls in the state.

"They (RJD) always try to create a divide on communal lines. When RJD was in power in Bihar, the state witnessed several communal clashes. But, now the situation is totally different when the NDA is in power. I am sure that people will give a befitting reply to the INDIA bloc in the coming bypolls in the state", he said.

By-polls on four Bihar assembly seats will be held on November 13 for which results will be out on November 23.

All four assembly seats had fallen vacant after MLAs representing them were elected to the Lok Sabha. The four seats where by-polls will be held are Ramgarh, Tarari, Belaganj, and Imamganj.

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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.