ISLAMABAD: Pakistan PM Imran Khan said on Sunday that Pakistan would hold talks with India if Delhi restores the pre-5 August 2019 status of J&K. India abrogated the special status of J&K under Article 370 on 5 August 2019 and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

“If Pakistan revives its relations with India (without the latter restoring the status of Kashmir), it will be similar to turning our back on the Kashmiris,” he said.

Post-mortem reports of bodies of 25 people who died after consuming spurious liquor in Aligarh indicate deaths due to alcohol poisoning, Aligarh district chief medical officer said on Sunday.

“We have conducted postmortem of 51 bodies. The findings in 25 of them are more suggestive of alcohol poisoning. Viscera of 26 have been kept and samples have been sent to Agra for testing. The reports are awaited,” ANI quoted Aligarh district CMO Dr B.P.S. Kalayani as saying.

Six people have been arrested in the case so far. Three cases have been files in which charges ranging from culpable homicide to assault. The Yogi Adityanath government has announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to the families of the deceased.

On Saturday, District Magistrate Chandra Bhushan Singh said that a probe into the matter was initiated and will likely invoke the National Security Act (NSA) against those found guilty in the inquiry.

Three officials of the excise department, including District Excise Officer Dhiraj Sharma, have been suspended in connection with the deaths of people after allegedly consuming liquor sold by licensed vendors in Aligarh. Also, Aligarh ADG Rajeev Krishna on Friday said that one main accused Anil Chaudhary was arrested and a further probe in the matter was underway.

Meanwhile, Excise Minister Ram Naresh Agnihotri promised that the culprits will not go unpunished. “A reward has also been announced on the culprit. The Chief Minister has given instructions to deal with the liquor mafias in all the districts,” he said.

But Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee President Ajay Kumar Lallu blamed the Yogi government for the deaths, accusing it of providing protection to the liquor mafia in the state. In order to save big liquor mafia, action has been taken on junior excise officials, he said.

These liquor consumption-related deaths are not new to Uttar Pradesh. On 28 April, five persons died after allegedly consuming country-made liquor in Nagla Singhi village of Hathras. A month earlier, on 22 March, four persons died allegedly after consuming spurious liquor at a village in the Rajapur area of Chitrakoot in the state, the police said.

WITH ANI INPUTS

If Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne is to be believed, Indian fugitive Mehul Choksi may have taken his girlfriend on a romantic trip to Dominica, where he was arrested. Earlier, Browne had indicated that Dominica should deport Choksi directly to India and not return him to Antigua and Barbuda because he would be protected by the constitutional rights.

Emphasising that in a globalised world where cooperation among states is required to fight and defeat criminals, he said: “We live in a globalised world where cooperation among states is required to fight and defeat criminals and to deny criminals the use of the state apparatus for protection and advancement of their criminal conduct. That is precisely why we have and continue to encourage the government of Dominica, to make him persona non grata for illegally entering their country and to deport him to India where he is still a citizen.”

The Prime Minister further urged to consider the deportation of Choksi directly to India, as a form of state cooperation to apprehend a fugitive. “We respect the jurisdiction of the court over this matter. My request on behalf of the state, for Dominica to consider deporting Choksi directly to India, as a form of state cooperation to apprehend a fugitive, is perfectly acceptable,” he said.

“This request for state cooperation could never be construed by any law-abiding entity, of integrity and legitimate purpose to be an “ill considered utterance,” he said, adding “additionally the claim that the request undermines the rule of law, or Choksi’s constitutional rights is preposterous.”

If he (Mehul Choksi) is deported to Antigua, he will continue to enjoy the legal and constitutional protections of citizenship, he said further.

Hitting back at Opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) for supporting Choksi, Browne also accused it of supporting fugitive diamantaire in order to secure campaign funding. “After mischievously accusing my administration of harbouring Mehul Choksi, who has an Interpol Red Notice, they are now seeking to sanitize this fugitive to get campaign funding. My administration’s revocation of Choksi’s citizenship has been frustrated by a litigation brought against the state,” Gaston Browne said in a statement.

He further said, “We are determined to revoke Choksi’s citizenship and to concurrently pursue his extradition to India to face criminal charges there. There has been no violation of Choksi’s legal and constitutional protections, despite the decision of my administration to revoke his citizenship.”

Choksi, however, alleged through his lawyers that he was abducted on May 23 of this year. He claimed that people with ‘links to India’ abducted him in collaboration with Antiguan officials. He was then beaten up, tortured and taken to Dominica in a vessel where he was arrested, claim Mehul Choksi’s lawyers.

Days after he was found and later arrested in Dominica, the first pictures of the India-born fugitive diamantaire surfaced on Saturday showing him sustaining several injuries. The pictures, supplied by the AntiguaNewsRoom, are showing him sustaining several injuries on his hands and the left eye which appeared bruised and swollen.

“I noticed that he was severely beaten, his eyes were swollen and had several burnt marks on his body (apparently burnt by some electronic device). He reported to me that he was abducted at Jolly Harbour in Antigua and brought to Dominica by persons whom he believed to be Indian and Antiguan police on a vessel he described to be about 60-70 feet in length,” Choksi’s Dominica-based lawyer Wayne Marsh told ANI

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi are wanted in India for allegedly siphoning off Rs 13,500 crore of public money from the state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB) using letters of undertaking.

On Friday, West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay was summoned to Delhi at 10 am on Monday. In the North Block, he is supposed to join the Central government’s personnel department. Will he arrive on Monday as instructed by the Centre? Or, is there a new turn waiting in this controversial episode? The situation is not yet clear. Alapan was present in his Kolkata office on Sunday.

According to sources, the state government has not given the necessary clearance to Alapan to go to Delhi till now. Even the Central government did not withdraw its directive at the request of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. What’s next? What action will the Centre take if he does not turn up?

If Trinamool Congress (TMC) sources are to be believed, Alapan may take a political plunge. “Alapan may resign on Monday and join politics. This possibility is very much there,” said a party functionary, refusing to be quoted. According to TMC sources, the state government is pondering over many options, with him joining politics being very strong. “If Alapan joins politics, it will be a strong reply. Since he is very close to the Chief Minister, he will get a good position in the party and even in the government,” said another source.

There is also a buzz that he may contest the election from Shantipur, left vacant after BJP candidate Jagannath Sarkar decided to quit the Assembly and retain his Lok Sabha membership. Alapan will have a precedent. Earlier, Humayun Kabir, who was a Chandannagar Police Commissioner, too had joined TMC and is a minister now.

Following the transfer order on Friday evening, the Chief Minister held a press conference in Nabanna on Saturday and appealed to the Centre to withdraw the order. But just as there was no news of the withdrawal of the Central directive on Sunday, the state government did not give the Chief Secretary permission to work in Delhi. On behalf of the Central government, besides instructing Alapan to join the work in Delhi, a letter was also sent to Nabanna, which houses the temporary State Secretariat of West Bengal. But so far no release order has been issued to the Chief Secretary from Nabanna and no reply has been given to the Central government’s letter.

On Monday, Mamata Banerjee will hold a meeting in Nabanna to discuss the situation after the cyclone. The Chief Secretary may also be present at the meeting. 31 May was supposedly the last day for Alapan as the Chief Secretary. But when the state government appealed to the Centre for an extension of his term, the Modi government agreed and he got a three-month extension.

Mamata Banerjee and Alapan were scheduled to attend a meeting with PM Modi to review the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas on Friday but neither of them attended it. Before the meeting, the Chief Minister met the Prime Minister and presented the account of the damage caused by the disaster. Within a few hours, the Centre summoned Alapan to Delhi.

The state government is seeking legal advice. The Centre has kept the caveat file in the court and Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), the Chief Minister said on Saturday. A discussion is going on how to give a suitable reply to the Prime Minister. His three-month term as Chief Secretary was extended and the term can be extended for a maximum of six months. But if he goes to Delhi on 31 May, he will have to resign from his current post.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his monthly radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on the seventh anniversary of his government on Sunday, said that following the mantra of ‘Sabka-Saath, Sabka-Vikas, Sabka-Vishwas’, India has moved ahead and given a befitting reply to those who conspired against the country.

“Whatever we have accomplished in these seven years, it has been of the country, of the countrymen. Together, we have experienced many moments of national pride in these years. When we observe that now India moves ahead not with the thought and pressure of other countries but with her own conviction, then we all feel proud. When we witness that now India gives a befitting reply to those who conspire against us, then our confidence soars. When India does not compromise on the issues of national security, when the strength of our armed forces increases, we feel that yes, we are on the right path,” the Prime Minister said.

Noting the achievements of his government during the past seven years PM Modi said that the people thank him for taking electricity and other basic necessities to the villages where it has not reached in the past 70 years since Independence. “I get messages and letters from countless countrymen spanning every corner of the country. Many people are thankful for the country that electricity has reached their village for the first time in 70 years, that their sons and daughters are studying in the light, under the fan. Many people say that our village too is now connected with the city by a paved road,” he said.

The PM reminded that in the seven decades after Independence, only three and a half crore rural homes of our country had water connections. However, just in the last 21 months of his governance, four and a half crore houses have been given clean water connections, he said.

PM Modi said that under the Centre, India has worked to show the world a new direction in digital transactions, and added that India is not only launching a record number of satellites but constructing a network of roads too. He pointed out that in the past seven years many old contestations of the country have also been resolved with complete peace and harmony. “A new confidence of peace and development has arisen from the Northeast to Kashmir,” he said.

Talking about Covid-19, the PM said in the midst of this pandemic, India is moving forward with the resolve of ‘service and cooperation’. “In the first wave, we fought courageously; this time too India will be victorious in the ongoing fight against the virus. Be it social distancing, rules related to masks or vaccines, there should be no letup in our efforts. This indeed is the path to our victory,” he said.

PM Modi also appreciated the farmers across the country and pointed out that there was a record production of crops even during the pandemic. “Our country faced such a big crisis that it affected every system of the country. The agricultural sector protected itself from this attack to a great extent. Not only did it keep itself safe, but the sector also progressed, moving forward,” the Prime Minister said.

“The farmers produced record output and this time the country went on to procure a record amount of crops. This time in many places farmers have got more than the minimum support price (MSP) for mustard,” he said. “Due to the record food grain production, our country has been able to provide support to every countryman. Today, 800 million underprivileged citizens are being provided free ration in this hour of crisis. So, no such a day ever occurs in a needy home when the stove is not lit,” The PM added. PM Modi also requested people to send him suggestions regarding the topics to be discussed on the next ‘Mann Ki Baat’, which is the Prime Minister’s monthly radio address to the nation broadcast on the last Sunday of every month.

Amid calls for a fresh probe into the origins of Covid-19, an explosive new study has found that Chinese scientists created the virus in a lab in Wuhan, then tried to cover their tracks by reverse-engineering versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.

Covid-19 has no “credible natural ancestor” and was created by Chinese scientists who were working on a ‘Gain of Function’ project in a Wuhan lab, the Daily Mail reported on Sunday, citing a new research paper by British professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr Birger Sorensen. The new research claims that scientists took a natural coronavirus “backbone” found in Chinese cave bats and spliced onto it a new “spike”, turning it into the deadly and highly transmissible Covid-19.

The paper also quotes that researchers found “unique fingerprints” in Covid-19 samples that they say could only have arisen from manipulation in a laboratory. Authors Dalgleish and Sorensen wrote in their paper that they had prima facie evidence of retro-engineering in China for a year, but were ignored by academics and major journals, reported DailyMail.com.

The study alleged “deliberate destruction, concealment or contamination of data” at Chinese labs and notes the silencing and disappearance of scientists in China who spoke out about the activities.

Dalgleish is a professor of oncology at St George’s University, London, and is best known for his breakthrough creating the first working ‘HIV vaccine’, to treat diagnosed patients and allow them to go off medication for months. Sørensen, a virologist, is chair of pharmaceutical company, Immunor, which developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. Dalgleish also has share options in the firm.

Their study is expected to intensify the ongoing debate on China’s role in creating the virus that has claimed thousands of lives.

These developments come in the backdrop of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) annual assembly in Geneva demanding access for independent experts to “complete, original data and samples” relevant to the source of the virus and early stages of the outbreak in China.

There have been growing demands by various countries to investigate whether the virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan from an animal source or from a laboratory. The United States has last week asked American intelligence agencies to find out how Covid-19 emerged in China. India too on Friday supported renewed global calls for a comprehensive investigation by the WHO into the origins of the virus. “The WHO convened global study on the origin of COVID-19 is an important first step. It stressed the need for next phase studies as also for further data and studies to reach robust conclusions,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Friday.