Mohali : The Mohali police have arrested three Forest Hill Resort employees in the case. Sandhu’s name has also been included in the FIR though no charges have been pressed against him.

Victim Abhishek Guleria, 28, had gone missing after visiting a relative’s house in Nayagaon on March 14. His body was recovered from along the Pinjore-Baddi road on March 25.

During questioning in the area, the Mohali police zeroed in on the Forest Hill Resort employees — liasoning officer Gurdeep Bains, his assistant Tarsem Singh and security in-charge Balwinder Singh.

The three alleged they had found Guleria’s body in the tank of resort’s sewage treatment plant, following which they informed Sandhu, who asked them to dispose of the body to avoid controversy.

The trio allegedly wrapped the body and drove to the Pinjore-Baddi road in a Tata Pickup to dump it on the night of March 22.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
How did the victim enter a gated resort; CCTV footage is inconclusive
Was he murdered or did he commit suicide; postmortem report is awaited
Did someone else dump the body at resort, as claimed by Forest Hill Resort representative
Why didn’t Lt Col Sandhu, staff inform the police
Fails to join probe

A case under Sections 302 (murder), 201(destruction of evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at the Nayagaon police station.

“We have arrested three employees of Forest Hill Resort. The victim’s body has been sent to Patiala for postmortem. The report will come on Wednesday. We have raided Sandhu’s house in Sector 68, but it was locked,” said Mohali senior superintendent of police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal.

Police even summoned Sandhu for questioning on Tuesday, but he didn’t turn up. Meanwhile, court sent the three employees to two-day police remand for further questioning.

Sources privy to the investigation said closed-circuit television footage (CCTV) shows Guleria passing the front gate of the resort. How he reached inside the resort is being probed, they said. The Tata Pickup used to dispose of the body and a Mahindra Scorpio have also been seized.

Victim went missing on March 14

Abhishek Guleria, a Burail resident who was from Himachal Pradesh, had been working at the CTU workshop for the past six years.

Police said he had gone to a relative’s house in Nayagaon on March 13, where he was drinking till past midnight. He left from there early morning but didn’t reach home. His brother Rahul approached the police on March 15.

On March 25, Haryana Police informed the Mohail SSP about a body recovered along the Pinjore-Baddi road.

The SSP asked all police stations about reports on missing persons. Meanwhile, the Nayagaon police registered a kidnapping case and took Guleria’s family for identification of the body on March 26. After identification, police took the body in their custody. During probe in the area, police rounded up the Forest Hill Resort employees.

While Sandhu was not available for comment, Forest Hill Resort brand and corporate head Digvijay Jamwal alleged: “After committing the crime, someone deliberately dumped the body in the resort. The security in-charge came to know about it because of the foul smell and decided to dump the body at a faraway place.” Lt Col Sandhu’s son Devinder Sandhu is also lodged in the Amritsar jail in the suicide case of Khalsa Diwan chief’s son Inderpreet Chadha. His bail plea was to come up for hearing this week.

Mumbai :
IDBI Bank Ltd said fraudulent loans worth Rs 772 crore were issued from five of its branches in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Tuesday night, sending its shares spiraling down on Wednesday.

Some of the loans, which were issued during fiscal years 2009-2013 for fish farming businesses, were obtained against fake lease documents of non-existent fish ponds and by inflating the value of collateral, the company said.

The bank found major lapses in processing and disbursing the loans by two of its officials. The lender dismissed one of the officials, while the other official had already retired, it said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has registered cases for two of the five complaints, relating to branches at Basheerbagh and Guntur, the company said.

The bank said earlier on Tuesday it initiated a quality assurance audit, expected to be completed by April.

IDBI shares fell as much as 3.5% to Rs 73.6 rupees by 10.45 am, while Nifty PSU Bank index dropped as much as 1.8%.

New Delhi : The court ruling on AAP MLAs is a scathing indictment of the EC’s functioning

The Delhi High Court verdict setting aside the disqualification of 20 Aam Aadmi Party MLAs in Delhi is a searing indictment of the manner in which the Election Commission handled the complaint that they held offices of profit while serving as parliamentary secretaries. For a body vested with the crucial power to determine whether lawmakers have incurred disqualification in certain circumstances and advise the President or the Governor suitably, this is an embarrassing moment. The court has not reviewed its decision on merits. Rather, it has ruled that the EC violated the principles of natural justice while adjudicating a lawyer’s complaint against the legislators. It failed to offer an oral hearing on the merits of the complaint and chose to hide under the specious argument that notices had been issued to the MLAs to respond to documents that the EC had summoned from the Delhi government. After saying in its order of June 2017 that it would fix a date for the next hearing, the commission issued two notices seeking replies but fixed no date; instead, it proceeded to give its decision on January 19, 2018. Further, Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat, who had recused himself at an earlier point, rejoined the process without intimation to the legislators. And another vitiating factor was that Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, who had not heard the matter and assumed office only in September 2017, had signed the order. It is a basic feature of judicial or quasi-judicial processes that someone who does not hear a matter does not decide on it.

The high court order scrupulously adheres to the core principles of judicial review of decisions made by a duly empowered adjudicatory body. Courts do not normally plunge into the merits of such a decision, but examine whether there has been any violation of natural justice, whether sufficient opportunity has been given to the parties and whether the proceedings were vitiated by bias, arbitrariness or any extraneous consideration. That a pre-eminent constitutional body should be found wanting in ensuring natural justice while answering a reference from the President is a sad comment on its functioning. It ought to have treated the matter with abundant caution, given the ease with which political parties tend to question the EC’s impartiality. The EC has an opportunity to redeem its name by more carefully considering the same question that has now been remanded to it for fresh adjudication. It could appeal to the Supreme Court, but a better course would be to hold a fresh and fair hearing. The high court has acknowledged the EC’s “latitude and liberty” in matters of procedure, but cautioned that any procedure should be sound, fair and just. In proceedings that may result in unseating elected representatives, fairness of procedure is no less important than finding an answer to the question whether they have incurred disqualification.

LUCKNOW : In a setback to Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati sprang a surprise on Monday by announcing that she would not activate her party cadres for any of the upcoming byelections in UP.
After its twin wins with BSP’s support in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls + , SP was eyeing the byelections for Kairana parliamentary and Noorpur assembly seats in the coming months. The BSP leader’s announcement means that SP will have to be on its own in the bypolls till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In a press statement issued after a meeting Mayawati held with BSP’s district and zonal coordinators, + the party said: “BSP will not activate its cadres in any bypoll in future, the way it did it in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.”
The announcement comes three days after BSP lost the Rajya Sabha election to BJP despite getting support from SP.
Speaking after the defeat, while expressing satisfaction at SP’s effort to back her party, Mayawati had emphasized on Saturday that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had displayed political immaturity in depending on independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh for BSP candidate’s victory. She also said that had she been in Akhilesh’s place, “I would have given first priority to the BSP candidate”.

Intriguingly, the press note on Monday was issued soon after the meeting with district and zonal coordinators, where Mayawati reportedly said that BSP, SP and all opposition parties must work together to ensure that BJP is not allowed to come back to power in 2019.
“We have taken the decision to extend ties between BSP and SP for the good of the country and its people. BJP may try as hard as it likes to instigate people against BSP and SP, but it will fail. We, and all other opposition parties, will have to work together to ensure that BJP does not come back to power,” she is believed to have told the coordinators.
The press note comes in the wake of Mayawati’s reiteration on multiple occasions since Saturday that the Rajya Sabha result would not have an impact on the “nazdeeki” (closeness) between SP and BSP.

Sources in BSP said Mayawati’s decision not to activate party’s cadres for the bypolls could be tactically aimed at the Kairana bypoll.
“RLD is likely to field former MP and party vice-president Jayant Chaudhary in the Kairana bypoll. If she were to support SP, it may alienate the Jat voters. On the other hand, were she to extend support to RLD, which is now unlikely after the Rajya Sabha polls, it could have had an adverse impact on Muslim voters. Since BSP itself does not contest bypolls, it would make sense for it to stay away right now,” said a party insider.

HYDERABAD : V Jagannatha Rao, a retired employee of Karnataka state undertaking MSIL, is a very hot and bothered man these days. The reason: for the past few weeks he has been facing problems getting his hands on some of his own cash as the ATM he frequents close to his home has been sporting the ‘no cash’ sign.
“For the past few weeks we have been facing a problem getting cash from the Neredmet branch ATM for least two to three days a week. The bank officials express their inability to do anything about it as they are not receiving adequate cash,” said the Safilguda resident, who was spotted at the Bank of India’s Neredmet branch ATM on Monday.

Getting an ATM machine to cough up some cash has proved to be an uphill task for Mehboob Basha, who resides at Vinayak Nagar in Neredmet. “Since morning I have visited seven to eight ATMs but could not find any cash. The fear of the Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill 2017 (FRDI Bill) bail-in clause has led to the public withdrawing their deposits from the bank,” said Basha.

Downed shutters and ‘no cash’ and ‘out of service’ signs plastered across several ATMs in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and rural AP and Telangana have thrown life out of gear for many in the two Telugu states.
While the cash crunch is less acute in core Hyderabad, other parts of the city and its fringes as well as rural Telangana and AP have been reeling under a severe shortage of currency, with ATMs being filled with cash only once a month in some places.
When this correspondent visited ATMs in places such as Tarnaka, Moula Ali, Kushaiguda, Sainikpuri, Neredmet, ECIL, AS Rao Nagar, Nagarjuna Nagar, Kamala Nagar, Dammaiguda, around 70% of the ATMs were running dry.

In fact, even on Rama Navami day many were forced to spend most of their time running from one ATM to the other in their quest for some cash to meet their festive requirements instead of spending some time in prayer and celebrating the festival.
In fact, ATMs of Andhra Bank and Axis Bank at Neredmet branches were found flashing the message that they were unable to process transactions. A Suresh, an administrative staff member of Slate School at Abids, told TOI, “I checked the two ATMs but found no cash in either of them. On a festival day like Rama Navami finding no cash in the ATM is a big pain.”

On the other hand, while Syndicate Bank’s Moula Ali branch ATM said it had no cash, its deposit machine was accepting money.

Y Ramesh, who runs a provision store in Kushaiguda, and was found outside the branch ATM, said, “I came here to deposit cash as I have to make payments to suppliers online. Only the deposit machine is working. The teller machine is not working. On most days only Rs 500 denomination notes are available.”
Upset at his plans to go shopping being thwarted Y Sai Kumar, a resident of ECIL and aBTech student, said petulantly: “I planned to go shopping at a nearby mall, but could not get any money from the ATM.”

In Vizag city, ATM machines at busy junctions like Dwaraka Nagar, MVP Colony, Maddilapalem, Akkayyapalem and NAD Junction have remained shut for days, hurting those queuing up to draw money for medical purposes and other emergencies the most. Balireddy Ramudu, a financier from Anakapalli in Visakhapatnam, said people in the rural areas are the worst affected as these areas have limited bank branches and ATMs. “More often than not, these ATMs display ‘out of cash’ boards,” Ramudu said.

The situation is no better in the rural areas of Krishna and West Godavari of AP either, where aqua farmers of Kolleru region, who usually conduct big ticket bank transactions every month, are giving banks a miss due to reduced availability of cash in ATMs and bank branches and prefer to park their cash at home and deal only in cash.

“None of the ATMs in our region have been restored post demonetisation and we have been forced to waiting in long queues outside banks branches to withdraw our own money. Cash officers in banks have been permitting withdrawal only of smaller amounts, below Rs 4,000 each, citing a cash crunch and have been asking us to opt for NEFT and RTGS transactions,” said Movva Srinivasa Naidu, an aqua farmer from Kalidhindi of Krishna district in AP.

N Paideswara Rao, a farmer from Srungavruksham village, near Bhimavaram, is upset at the cash crunch in the harvest season. “We are to pay big sums in labour charges during the harvest season, but bank officials did not even permit us to withdraw the money we got through crop loans saying they have no cash. Bank officials say proposed FRDI Bill has affected cash reserves as everyone is preferring withdrawing cash,” he said.

Long queues to close FDs, withdraw one’s savings
With the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017, sparking off a major scare, banks in Telangana and AP are witnessing long queues for the closure of fixed deposits as well as withdrawals from saving bank accounts.
This has led to banks imposing unauthorised rationing on cash disbursals, ranging from Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 per day per person in their home branches. Many bank customers said they have lost faith in the banking system in the wake of the proposed FRDI Bill and frauds like the PNB scam.

“When the government slaps a surcharge on more than four ATM withdrawals a month, people are forced to withdraw additional amounts to avoid paying surcharge on the fifth. Now, everybody keeps extra cash at home for emergencies,” said AM Dayal of Habiguda in Adilabad district.

The situation in Vijayawada and Guntur is a bit different with people facing a cash crunch over weekends. “I checked 40 ATMs and each of them had a ‘No Cash’ board. Bank holidays have become a nightmare for the common man, who has to spend the day searching for the nearest cash recycler machine (depositwithdrawal machines),” said Metla Ajay Ram, a private sector employee from Vijayawada.

Ganta Ramana Rao, a businessman from One Town of Vizag, said several bank branches are unable to disburse cash to those wanting to withdraw over Rs 1lakh from accounts.
A senior public sector bank official in Vizag said cash availability in currency chests is not too good. “People seem to have developed some phobia about parking their cash in banks in light of proposed FRDI Bill and banking scams.”