QBullet: MJ Akbar Files Defamation Suit Against Journo, And More
Read your morning news wrap for the day here.
1. Priya Ramani on Defamation Suit by MJ Akbar: Ready to Fight, Truth My Only Defence
Responding to the criminal defamation charges levelled against her by Union minister MJ Akbar, journalist Priya Ramani has said that she is ready to fight the lawsuit with “truth as her only defence”.
Akbar on Monday, 15 October, filed a criminal defamation case in Delhi’s Patiala House court against Ramani, accusing her of “willfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously” defaming him. Ramani, along with over 10 other women, had accused Akbar of sexual harassment.
In a detailed statement on her Twitter handle, Ramani wrote that she is deeply disappointed that a union minister dismissed the allegations of several women as a political conspiracy.
(Source: The Indian Express)
2. Sabarimala Temple Body May Seek Time From Supreme Court to Implement Order
With two days left for the Sabarimala temple to open its doors after the Supreme Court verdict, a functionary of the Travancore Devaswom Board that manages the hill-shrine shrine hinted that the temple body could ask the Supreme Court for time to implement its verdict allowing women to enter the hill-shrine.
The top court had last month ended a centuries-old ban on the entry of women of menstruating age into the temple, ruling that exclusion on the basis of biological and physiological features was unconstitutional and discriminatory.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Nun Rape: Kerala HC Grants Bail to Bishop Franco Mulakkal
The Kerala High Court on Monday, 15 October, granted conditional bail to Roman Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal, arrested over allegations of repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting a nun.
He was arrested by the Kerala police on 21 September after several rounds of questioning.
Sources said the 54-year-old bishop continued to claim innocence, as he had done when a Kerala police team questioned him for nine hours at Jalandhar, Punjab, on 13 August.
Granting the bail, Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan directed the Bishop to surrender his passport and not to enter Kerala state except for appearing before the probe officer once in two weeks on Saturdays.
(Source: The Telegraph)
4. PM Modi, Chinese President Xi to Meet for the 4th Time This Year at G20 Summit in November
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping will meet for the fourth time this year on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Argentina next month, the Chinese envoy said on Monday, 15 October, as the two countries launched their first joint development programme for Afghanistan.
India and China have worked assiduously to put their relationship on an even keel after the military standoff at Doklam last year, with an informal summit between Modi and Xi at Wuhan in April providing direction to future ties, including cooperation in war-torn Afghanistan.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Winter Session Set to Be Postponed Due to State Polls
The winter session of Parliament could be scheduled for December, after the end of five state elections, people familiar with the matter said on Monday, 15 October. This will be the second year in a row when the winter session starts in December. Last year, the session, which usually starts in November every year, began in December on account of elections in Gujarat.
The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) is expected to meet next week to take a call on the issue, said one of the people, a Parliament functionary who asked not to be named, adding that there is a precedence to defer the session to avoid an overlap with the elections. The office of the minister of parliament affairs declined to comment on the issue.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Mehul Choksi Should Return If He Wants Details of Cases: ED to Interpol
Fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, who is facing investigations by the CBI and the ED in the Rs 13,500-crore PNB scam case, will have to come to India and present himself in a special Mumbai court if he wants to get details of the cases against him, the ED has told Interpol.
Choksi had recently written to the Interpol, asking to be officially provided a copy of the cases and allegations against him in India. The CBI and the ED have been pursuing the Interpol to issue a Red Notice (RN) against Choksi.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. PM Modi Seeks Payment Mechanism to Soften Blow of Oil Imports
PM Narendra Modi on Monday, 15 October, sounded the alarm bell over high oil prices stalling global growth and ultimately hurting producing countries, even as he pitched for a rupee payment mechanism to partly cushion India’s oil import bill from the impact of the falling local currency.
Addressing his annual roundtable with captains of domestic and global oil industry, Modi used the analogy of the goose and the golden egg to drive home his point and seek a balance wherein prices reflect the concerns of both buyers and sellers.
Sources said Modi’s message to the gathering, which included Khalid A Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister and head of Saudi Aramco, was simple: Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. In First Such Instance, CBI Manages to Bring Back Economic Offender Who Had Fled India
In a major victory for Indian government against fugitive economic offenders, a CBI team recently flew to Bahrain and brought a fraudster back to India nine years after he fled from New Delhi.
Top sources in government and CBI claimed that the fugitive, Mohammad Yahya, 47, was traced and arrested by Bahrain authorities few months back on the basis of an Interpol red notice issued against him on India’s request. Following the arrest, the government engaged at the highest levels with Bahrain convincing it to deport Yahya to India.
This is the first ever instance of India managing to bring an economic offender back since government stepped up its efforts to nail such fraudsters and passing of new law in August under which legal action can be taken in foreign countries as well.
(Source: The Times of India)
9. IIT-Bombay Tops First QS Ranking for Indian Universities, IISc Second
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Mumbai and Madras and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru have emerged as top three in the first standalone QS ranking of India’s higher education institutes.
Incidentally, while the IISc was India’s best institution in the QS World University Rankings released earlier this year, the domestic league has pegged IIT-Bombay at number one. The IISc ranks second and IIT-Madras third. The table reflects the top 75 institutions of the country.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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