Daily News Dose: M Sivasankar arraigned as 6th accused in dollar smuggling case | Sept 29, 2022

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Vishnu, and these are the major news stories of the day:

1. Ashok Gehlot announces decision not to contest in Congress presidential poll, apologises to Sonia Gandhi for what happened in Rajasthan

2. PFI hartal violence: HC orders Popular Front to deposit Rs 5.2 crore in damages

3. Both married and unmarried women are entitled to safe and legal abortion, says the Supreme Court

4. Kerala CM's former principal secretary M Sivasankar arraigned as 6th accused in dollar smuggling case

5. India suffer a big blow as Jasprit Bumrah is ruled out of the T20 World Cup

Let's get into the details....

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1. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday announced that he will not contest the Congress presidential polls and that he took moral responsibility for the political crisis in his state.

After meeting party president Sonia Gandhi at Delhi, Gehlot told reporters that he apologised to her for the developments on Sunday when MLAs supporting him defied the central observers and thwarted their move to hold a meeting of party legislators.

Instead, they held a parallel meet to pitch for Gehlot's continuation or the guarantee that Sachin Pilot does not replace him.

Gehlot, a three-time state chief minister, described himself as a disciplined soldier of the party and expressed his sadness over the turn of affairs in the state.

Asked if he will continue as chief minister, Gehlot said Sonia Gandhi will decide on the issue.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Thursday collected nomination papers for the party president election and is likely to file his nomination on Friday. The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister is the latest entrant in the fray for the party chief's election.

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2. Taking a tough stance against the violence perpetrated during the hartal called by the Popular Front of India, the Kerala High Court on Thursday ordered the now-banned outfit to deposit Rs 5.2 crore for the damage suffered by the state government and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation during the illegal flash hartal.

The PFI should deposit the amount with the Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department, within two weeks, ordered the division bench of Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Mohammed Nias C P.

Further, the court asked the state government to make PFI state secretary A Abdul Sathar an additional accused in all cases lodged in connection with the hartal violence, even as it put forward stringent bail conditions to those arrested in such cases.

A division bench, while considering the petition moved by the KSRTC seeking compensation for damages incurred, pointed out that the public is badly affected by such hartals and bandhs and that their lives cannot be put in peril.

The court directed the State Government to recover the revenue loss suffered by the corporation from the PFI and asked the administration to submit a report in this regard. The KSRTC informed the court that a total of 58 buses were damaged, and 20 of its employees were injured in the violence.

Meanwhile, The Kerala government has begun efforts to implement the Central government's ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its affiliates.

Offices of PFI and its affiliates will be sealed in the State, and their bank accounts will be frozen.

According to the police, the organisation has over 140 offices in the State. Name boards are not installed at most of these sites. Only offices directly associated with PFI will be sealed. Buildings rented out by the organisation may be left out from the proceedings.

17 offices across Kerala are expected to be shut down by the police on Thursday.

Anyone found associating with the banned organisations can be arrested for terror charges. This also includes those responsible for social media posts favouring the organisation.

The Twitter account of Popular Front of India was also deactivated.

Intelligence agencies believe that the PFI has over 50,000 members in Kerala alone. More individuals are associated with the affiliates. Exact numbers are hard to come by as they do not maintain membership registers.

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3. The Supreme Court on Thursday declared that unmarried women can seek abortion of pregnancy in the term of 20-24 weeks arising out of a consensual relationship.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, JB Pardiwala and AS Bopanna delivered the verdict on the interpretation of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, and whether unmarried or single women can be allowed like their married counterparts the benefit of abortion up to 24 weeks.

The apex court said that excluding a single, unmarried woman in a live-in relationship from the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Rules is unconstitutional. 

The bench further stated distinction between married and unmarried perpetuates the stereotype that only married women are sexually active.

Currently, the law allows abortion up to 24 weeks for special categories of women including survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women (like differently-abled women, minors) etc. 

Opinion of only one provider will be required up to 20 weeks of gestation and of two providers for termination of pregnancy of 20-24 weeks of gestation.

Name and other particulars of a woman whose pregnancy has been terminated shall not be revealed except to a person authorised in any law for the time being in force.

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4. The Customs Department has prepared a charge sheet in the dollar smuggling case by framing former principal secretary and Chief Minister's aide M Sivasankar as the sixth accused.

According to the charge sheet, the money seized from the bank locker of the gold smuggling case accused Swapna Suresh belonged to Sivasankar. The money was the commission he received from the Life Mission Project. The charge sheet also said that Sivasankar passed on intelligence secrets to Swapna. 

UAE Consulate former official Khalid Mohammed al Shoukri is the first accused in the case.

Sivasankar was the main conspirator behind the dollar smuggling bid, and the IAS officer attempted to cover up the crime, stated the charge sheet filed by the investigation agency before the Special Court for Economic Offences.

The former chief minister’s aide received Rs 1 crore towards commission while awarding the LIFE Mission contract. The amount seized from the locker of Swapna Suresh was, in fact, the commission received by Sivasankar, according to the charge sheet.

Sivasankar was aware of the dealings through the consulate. The charge sheet also mentioned the statements given by Swapna Suresh that she had smuggled foreign currency at the insistence of the Chief Minister.

Sivasankar was suspended on July 17, 2020, after a chief secretary-level inquiry committee found him to have links with the accused in the gold smuggling through diplomatic channel case, including Swapna Suresh. However, he was taken back to service in January 2022.

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5. India's pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was on Thursday ruled out of the T20 World Cup with a stress fracture, dealing a massive blow to the team's chances in the ICC event.

A senior BCCI official said Bumrah had a serious back condition and could be out for a period of six months.

Bumrah is the second senior star player to be ruled out after Ravindra Jadeja, who is recovering from a knee surgery. 

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That brings us to the end of this episode. Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.