Timeline Refresh
Highlights...
Tatas: Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman was fully empowered to lead.
-- Mistry lost board's confidence due to several factors.
-- The Tata Way is not to run away from problems or constantly complain.
-- Matter of regret that communication marked confidential to Tata board made public in an unseemly, undignified manner.
-- Allegations made by Mr Mistry unwarranted not based on facts. Tata Sons board gives its Chairman complete autonomy to manage opportunities and challenges.
-- However, the tenure of the former Chairman was marked by repeated departures from the culture and ethos of the group.
-- It is unforgivable that Mr Mistry has attempted to besmirch the image of the Group in the eyes of the employees. There is a multitude of records to show that the allegations made by Cyrus Mistry are unwarranted.
-- Mistry was fully empowered to lead and it's only after removal that allegations of being lame-duck chairman have been made.
Also read:Cyrus Mistry's letter to Tata group
"I may not be with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, but I will always be with Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh. If this issue can be resolved at my expense, then they can go ahead," Amar Singh told ANI.
On the power tussle within the party, Amar Singh said, "I will always be with Mulayam.
When Akhilesh Yadav replaced Shivpal Yadav as the UP SP President, even then I was blamed for it.
"I never talked to Ashu Malik, news report (where UP CM is referred to as Aurangzeb and SP Chief as Shahjahan) has nothing to do with me."
Mulayam's friendship with Amar Singh goes back to the days when Veer Bahadur Singh was chief minister of the Congress government in UP, in 1985-88. He joined the SP formally in 1996 and went to Rajya Sabha courtesy Mulayam.
He called it the mothership of terrorism to which terrorist modules all over the world are linked. Terrorism, he said, has come to define the fundamental character and nature of the neighbouring country. He exhorted BRICS and Bimstec countries to stand up and act decisively against the State sponsors of terror. Read more
It reads like this:
"We sincerely appreciate your payment of Income Tax and filing of the Income Tax return for Assessment year 2016-17.
"In recognition of your contribution towards the building of our great nation, please find attached a BRONZE Certificate.
With regards,
Chairperson,
Central Board of Direct Taxes
Ministry of Finance
Government of India.
A police official said the Government Primary School at Taaper in Pattan area of Baramulla district was set on fire by unknown persons late last night, a police official said.
"We are waiting for any input from any quarter," Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey said, adding "we have not received anything so far". Mistry raised "ethical concerns" in Tata group's aviation joint venture with AirAsia and alleged that forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent entities in India and Singapore.
"If anything new is brought to the ministry attention, appropriate authorities will look into it," another civil ministry official said on Mistry's allegations against AirAsia India. Mistry was removed abruptly as chairman of the Tata Group on Monday and replaced by his predecessor Ratan Tata, who will lead India's biggest conglomerate for the next four months till a permanent replacement is identified by a specially- created committee.
Mistry's family firm, Shapoorji Pallonji, is a construction major and one of the largest stakeholders in the Tata Group. In a letter written to the Board members of Tata Sons yesterday, Mistry alleged that due to the interim Chairman Ratan Tata's passion for aviation, Tata Sons board increased capital infusion in the aviation sector at multiple levels of the initial commitment.
"Board members and trustees are also aware that in the case of AirAsia, ethical concerns have been raised with respect to certain transactions as well as overall prevailing culture within the organisation.
"A recent forensic investigation revealed fraudulent transactions of Rs 22 crore involving non-existent parties in India and Singapore," Mistry said in the letter. He went on to allege that "executive trustee Mr Venkataraman, who is on the board of Air Asia and also a shareholder in the company, considered these transactions as non-material and did not encourage further study".
It was only at the insistence of the independent directors, one of whom immediately submitted his resignation, that the board decided to belatedly file a first information reports, the letter noted.
He claimed it was Tata who completed negotiations with Air Asia but early in his tenure as the Chairman of Tata Sons he was asked to table a proposal for the JV with AirAsia at a Tata Sons board meeting. Claiming that in the case of JV with AirAsia, he was able to extract a "promise of no debt to be raised at the level of JV, as well as limiting Tata Sons investment to 30 per cent of the USD 30 million equity", Mistry said.
Senior officials confide that they are keen that the CBI conduct an inquiry into the allegations made by sacked Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry against the company.
Market regulator SEBI has maintained that if Mistry's allegations suggesting financial misdemeneaours are indeed true, a detailed inquiry will be conducted.
North Block is keen to get an analysis from SEBI and a report is likely to be submitted by early November.
An official who is familiar with SEBI says this is the way the door will be opened up for the CBI to enter the probe.
Sebi has begun looking into the high profile Tata-Mistry case for any possible breach of corporate governance norms and listing regulations at various listed companies of the over $100 billion conglomerate. Besides, stock exchanges, late this evening, sought clarification from many of the group's listed companies on the purported disclosure by ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry about Rs 1.18 lakh crore possible writedown at the group firms.
India declared the Pakistan high commission staffer as persona non grata for espionage activities after he was caught red handed by the Delhi Police with documents relating to defence deployment.
This was conveyed by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar who summoned Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit to his office following brief detention of the staffer who was later released.
"FS summons Pak high commissioner to convey that Pak high commission staffer has been declared persona non grata for espionage activities," said Vikas Swarup, spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs.
Continuous ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control and heavy shelling in residential areas along the International Border was also discussed with the Pakistan envoy.Image: Mehmood Akhtar, the Pakistani high commission staffer, expelled from India for spying.
Samajwadi Party observers were taken aback with this new development.
The Mulayam Singh Yadav group, especially Amar Singh, immediately contacted his source in the Election Commission to ascertain the reasons for Ram Gopal Yadav's visit.
Ram Gopal Yadav was accompanied by a senior advocate of the Supreme Court to help him understand the legal aspects of registration of political parties.
The party is divided over whether Akhilesh Yadav is behind this quiet move, or whether Ram Gopal Yadav is testing waters for forming a new party.
In UP's first family, it is Ram Gopal Yadav who has been opposed to the political interferance and influence of Mulayam Singh Yadav's second wife Sadhana Gupta.
Delhi political circles say that Akhilesh Yadav's political party will be launched soon.
On Sunday, Mulayam expelled Ram Gopal, who had had thrown his weight behind Akhilesh, from the party for six years.
Yadav wrote an open letter to the party chief in which he said that the latter was "surrounded by demonic forces". In the letter, Ramgopal wrote: "Not sad that I have been expelled from the party but I am hurt because of the allegations that have been levelled against me. It is not a crime to meet leaders from any other political party in a democracy. Whether I am in SP or not I will continue to extend my support to Akhilesh Yadav till he becomes CM. Mulayam Singh Yadav is not just my elder brother but also my 'guru' in politics, currently is surrounded by evil powers."
On intelligence inputs, Delhi Police Crime Branch took the staffer identified as Mehmood Akhtar in custody. He was released after questioning as he enjoys diplomatic immunity, they said. Details of what happened at the meeting are awaited.
The Crime Branch also arrested two persons, residents of Rajasthan, for allegedly passing on sensitive information to the staffer.
The spies are residents of Rajasthan working for Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence. The spies were in touch with the staff at the Pakistan high commission and were providing sensitive information, said a senior police officer.
Those arrested have been identified as Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir.
Pakistan Rangers used 82 mm mortar shells to target civil and Border Security Force facilities in R.S.Pura. The BSF retaliated effectively using same calibre weapons, police sources said.
Shelling and firing exchanges took place in Korotana Kurd, Bidipur, Jattan, Abdullian, Chandu Chak, Shamka and Hansu Chak areas. Loud explosions could still be heard in these areas.
On Wednesday too, the Indian Army gave a befitting response to Pakistan firing at Jammu and Kashmir's RS Pura and Rajouri sectors. The firing is going on since Tuesday afternoon and led to the death of two Pakistani soldiers after India retaliated to Pakistan shelling.There have been more than 40 ceasefire violations from the Pakistani side since the Indian side carried out surgical strikes inside Pakistan occupied Kashmir targeting terror launching pads, post the attack on an army camp in Uri on September 18.
The Delhi visit of the Samajwadi Party's UP chief comes a day after he invited "all followers of Lohia, Chaudhary Charan Singh and Gandhi to come together and fight communal forces," and he is expected to pursue putting together for the UP elections, a "Grand Alliance" on the lines of the one that fought and won the Bihar elections under Nitish Kumar's stewardship last year. Read more
Akhtar was arrested with defence documents and has been remanded at Chanakyapuri police station. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has summoned Pakistans High Commissioner Abdul Basit at 11.30 am on Thursday, say reports.
Staffers at the Pak embassy came under scrutiny after a spy ring with links to Pakistan intelligence was busted in November, 2015, according to an NDTV report.
Four arrests were made in Jammu and Kashmir and one of the accused was supposed to meet a high commission staffer who would have helped him with papers to reach Pakistan.
The identity of the accuseds source at the High Commission could not be ascertained then. Further details are awaited.
Image: Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit
"You can tell your military expert that I'll sit down and teach him a couple of things," Trump told ABC News in an interview yesterday.
He was responding to a question on a military expert who had criticised his analysis of the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS. Trump also hit out at the Obama administration for its strategy against ISIS, particularly in Mosul.
"I've been hearing about Mosul now for three months. 'We're going to attack, we're going to attack.' Why do they have to say three months before the attack, 'We're going in?' Don't talk about it. (It's the) element of surprise," Trump said. "One of the reasons they wanted Mosul, they wanted to get ISIS leaders who they thought were in Mosul. Those people have all left. As soon as they heard they're going to be attacked, they left," he said.
Tata scrips of Tata Group's subsidiaries have been closing in the red for the last two days since Cyrus P Mistry was removed as the Chairman of Tata Sons.
Tata Sons is the holding company of the Tata Group. Shares of various subsidiaries of the industrial conglomerate initially fell in a range of about one to four per cent during the day's trade on Tuesday.
Yesterday, NSE and BSE wrote to some of the listed Tata Group companies to clarify about Cyrus Mistry's claim that the group faces a $18-billion writedown. Markets regulator Sebi, on the other hand, is watching the developments at the Tata Group but has not taken any proactive step as of now.