Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is generally seen attacking the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra, but on Sunday he said that the Shiv Sena was “never” an “enemy”. Asked by reporters whether the two former allies can come together, Fadnavis said that an “appropriate decision” will be taken in view of the situation.

“We (Sena and the BJP) were never enemies. They were our friends and people whom they fought against, they formed a government together with them and they left us,” Fadnavis told reporters when he was asked about his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the possibility of an alliance with the Shiv Sena. “There are no ifs and buts in politics. Decisions are taken as per prevailing situations,” he added.

The declaration of friendship comes amid action taken by central agencies against leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Both the Shiv Sena and the NCP say that central agencies are being misused against opposition parties to destabilise the three-party alliance in Maharashtra. The reports of strain within the ruling alliance were also fed by belligerent remarks from leaders of ally Congress. The Congress later clarified they are with the Uddhav Thackeray-led alliance for the next five years. Earlier this week, NCP Chief Sharad Pawar met CM Thackeray.

Last month, the Maharashtra CM had a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Shiv Sena called it a personal meeting.

Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s Advocate Inderpal B. Singh on Sunday said that his client has filed a plea in the Supreme Court praying that no coercive action should be taken against him. 

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Deshmukh for questioning on 5 July, in connection with alleged money laundering case. 

On 3 July, ED had issued summons to the former Maharashtra Home Minister, asking him to appear before the agency on 5 July in connection with a money laundering case. 

Earlier, Deshmukh wrote to the ED expressing his inability to appear in person before the probe agency in connection with the case, citing the Covid-19 pandemic. The NCP leader asked the ED to record his statement through an “audio/visual” mode of their choice. 

The request, however, has been dismissed by the ED as the agency feels that an accused cannot dictate terms to the investigating officer in a case. 

The ED, which arrested Deshmukh’s private secretary Sanjeev Palande and private assistant Kundan Shinde, in its remand application said that more than Rs 4 crore, collected from bar owners between December 2020 and February 2021 was routed to Deshmukh’s charitable trust in Nagpur through four shell companies in Delhi. 

The agency’s probe into Deshmukh’s financial transactions is in line with the CBI probe into former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh’s allegations of corruption against the NCP leader. Deshmukh has denied the allegations.

Despite being retained on the Grey List of FATF, Pakistan continues to fund the terror organisations and the country’s state actors are still backing terror outfits. Terror organisations such as Hafiz Saeed’s LeT and Masood Azhar’s JeM are still getting financial help under different names from Pakistan.

According to sources, India has collected fresh evidence exposing Pakistan’s continued funding to the terror outfits under different names. Sources told The Daily Guardian that Indian diplomats have recently shared the fresh ‘set of evidence’ with both the United Nations (UN) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) headquarters. What is worth mentioning is that in order to fool the global community Hafiz Saeed had founded what he called a social organisation Jamat-un-Dawah, which is actually the smokescreen behind which terror activities were carried out. Sources say that this outfit still gets funding from Pakistani government.      

After bombing by drones at the Jammu air force base on June 27, India has further intensified its diplomatic effort to expose Pakistan’s hobnobbing with terror actors. “Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and the country’s army continue to support terrorist training camps operation on Pakistan’s soil,” UN and FATF were told.

Top diplomatic sources said that a set of solid and fresh evidence to this effect was provided to the top global forums. India is keen to highlight the fact that despite recent admonishment by FATF, Pakistan continues to show reluctance to take action against terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.  

The global terror financing and money laundering watchdog FATF had instructed Pakistan to take credible action against these terrorists. Hafiz Saeed was the mastermind of Mumbai attacks, while Masood’s Jaish-e-Mohammad was behind the Pulwama blast. Both top the list of most wanted terrorists given to Pakistan by India. But no action has been taken against them by Pakistan.

On the contrary, Hafiz Saeed’s residence has been given police protection which came to light after a blast happened there. Heavy Pakistani police deployment was already there to protect his house. Moreover, Hafiz Saeed was allowed to visit his home even while he was in jail. The jail sentence is also nothing more than a way to fool the global community and institutions like FATF. Sources say that Jamat-ud-Dawa founder Saeed enjoys a homely comfort in jail. All these issues have been raised by India through diplomatic channels. “Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar are in jail after years of walking free just to fool the world,” say officials.  

India recently told the UN General Assembly that it is high time the international community called on Pakistan to take “effective and irreversible” actions against terror outfits operating on its soil. India also said that Islamabad should not take the “high road of morality which is only laden with mines of falsehood.”

India has reminded the United Nations of what Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan said in June last year. He had publicly acknowledged the presence of up to 40,000 terrorists in Pakistan and that terrorists from there have attacked the neighbouring countries.

A day after demanding a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe over the alleged charges of corruption in the 2016 Rafale deal, the Congress on Sunday came out all guns blazing at the Central government’s silence over the French investigation into the Rs 59,000-crore deal for the sale of 36 Dassault-built fighter jets.

The Congress said that according to documents available now, huge amounts of money were paid to middlemen in the deal, indicating that it was a vindication of its corruption allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

Rahul Gandhi asked in Hindi why Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wasn’t ready for a JPC probe. The options he provided as answer were: “guilt conscience”, “friends, too, need to be protected”, “JPC doesn’t need a Rajya Sabha seat”, and “all the options are right”. This was preceded by another Hindi tweet on Saturday, in which he posted part of a proverb referring to a guilty thief.

Rahul Gandhi, in the runup to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, had made the Rafale deal a big issue but his party failed to dislodge the BJP from the government. This issue resurfaced on Saturday when reports came about the appointment of a French judge to lead a “highly sensitive” judicial probe into suspected “corruption” and “favouritism” in the jet deal with India.

On Saturday, the Congress demanded a JPC over the issue which was counter attacked by the BJP. “The way Rahul Gandhi is behaving, it will not be an exaggeration to say that he is being used as a pawn by competing companies. He has been lying right from the beginning on the issue. Probably, he is acting as an agent or some member of Gandhi family has been for a competing company,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra had said.

On Sunday Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera addressed a press conference and questioned the Central government’s silence over the probe in France.

“It is downright insulting to the people of India that this government and its ministers have stayed tight-lipped about this entire scandal. Why is the Minister of Defence silent?” Khera asked. “Now it is getting clearer that in the Rafale deal we have bought an item that costs Rs 570 crore at Rs 1,670 crore,” he said.

Saying that the deal was now heading towards being an “open and shut” case, the Congress spokesperson alleged that anti-corruption clauses from the deal were removed. He also accused middlemen of being involved in the proceedings. “In April, it was revealed that according to documents seized from a middleman arrested in another case by the Enforcement Directorate, crores and crores of rupees were gifted to this middle man in the Rafale deal. We don’t know what the ED did with those documents, but France is now probing them,” Khera said.

Rejecting the BJP’s argument that the people had voted for the party overwhelmingly in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite the Congress making the Rafale deal a poll issue, Khera said: “It is a matter of shame that this government cannot think of anything beyond elections… We are talking about what should happen now. The deal should be investigated and a JPC should be set up.”

Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, lodged in Tihar Jail in connection with the murder of wrestler Sagar Rana, has urged prison authorities to provide him a television to remain updated about wrestling matches, officials said on Sunday. Sushil is in judicial custody till 9 July.

Kumar was arrested along with co-accused Ajay Kumar on 23 May from Delhi’s Mundka area. He and his associates allegedly assaulted wrestler Sagar Dhankar and two of his friends Sonu and Amit Kumar on the intervening night of 4-5 May over a property dispute. Dhankar, 23, succumbed to injuries later.

“Sushil Kumar has made a request through his advocate and submitted his application on Friday. He has sought a TV set to keep in touch with the current things happening outside the jail and to get updates about wrestling,” DG (Tihar) Sandeep Goel said.

Earlier, while in Mandoli Jail, Sushil had demanded special diet and supplements to be made available. In the petition, Sushil had said that he wanted supplements like Whey Protein, Omega-3 capsules, joint capsules, pre-workout C4, multivitamins, etc, as he wanted to continue his career in wrestling.

However, the jail authorities, in their reply in the court, had said that Sushil Kumar’s medical condition does not require additional protein in the form of food supplements or dietary supplements. 

Sushil was later shifted to Tihar Jail no 2 and is currently staying in a separate cell due to security threat. Special security arrangements have been made and police personnel have been deployed round the clock near his barrack.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, be conferred upon doctors and healthcare workers who lost their lives fighting Covid-19.

“This year ‘Indian Doctor’ should get Bharat Ratna. ‘Indian Doctor’ means all doctors, nurses and paramedics. This will be a true tribute to the martyred doctors. It will be an honour for those who serve without worrying about their lives and their families. The whole country will be happy with this,” Kejriwal wrote.

In the letter, Kejriwal stated: “The way healthcare workers have served the country at the time of the pandemic cannot be forgotten, so the entire healthcare community should be honoured… There can be no better way to honour them.”

The Delhi CM, in his letter to the Prime Minister, suggested that rules be tweaked so that all healthcare workers can be honoured together as a group. “If there is any problem in giving Bharat Ratna to doctors, then it should be removed. If needed, the rules can also be changed. The whole country is grateful to the doctors at this time. If they were given Bharat Ratna, then the whole country is grateful,” he said.

The Indian Medical Association has said that 798 doctors, including 128 in Delhi, have died during the virulent second wave of infections. Apart from this, many other healthcare workers have also lost their lives due to the pandemic.

The Kejriwal government of Delhi is also giving a compensation of Rs 1 crore to all the frontline workers who die from Covid-19.