Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, a key suspect in the murder of RSS Pracharak Sunil Joshi, will be taken to Indore soon for PET scan as part of her treatment for cancer.

Pragya, who was diagnosed with cancer last year and had been undergoing treatment at the Pandit Khushilal Ayurveda Hospital, was briefly shifted to Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital (JNCH) on Tuesday after her condition deteriorated.

“She was brought back to the Pandit Khushilal Ayurveda Hospital last evening”, her relative Bhagwan Jha said.

He said timing of the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan–which is done to find out the stage of cancer and its spread–will be finalised after securing permission from police since Pragya is in their custody.

Pragya was arrested by the Maharashtra police in connection with the Malegaon blasts of 2008. Later, the Madhya Pradesh police had arrested her in February 2011 for her alleged role in Sunil Joshi’s murder.

Joshi was named as an accused in the Malegaon and Samjhauta Express blasts cases, and was found murdered at Dewas in MP on December 29, 2007.

A special MCOCA court today remanded Indian Mujahideen (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and his aide Asadullah Akhtar in ATS custody till February 18 in connection with the 2011 Mumbai terror attack case.

The duo was arrested on Wednesday by the Mumbai Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) after a Delhi court allowed its plea seeking their custody, saying their custodial interrogation was required to complete the probe.

Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told judge Y D Shinde that Bhatkal was the key conspirator of the three powerful blasts which ripped through crowded areas in Mumbai on July 13, 2011, killing at least 21 people and injuring 141.
Bhatkal played a very important role in procuring explosives and making Improvised Explosive Device (IED), he said. Nikam also told the court that they want to find out how the money was routed through hawala to execute the blasts.

“The court has allowed us to hand cuff the accused while being transported,” he said. However, defence lawyers told the court that since the ATS was conducting supplementary investigation, the accused should be remanded in judicial custody.

They also told the court that Bhatkal and Akhtar don’t want to make any confessions to ATS about the crime. Meanwhile, before the hearing, the court appointed lawyer V D More from legal aid panel to represent Bhatkal, who wore a smile on his face during the court proceedings while Akhtar had a grim look.

Akhtar’s lawyer Sherif Sheikh and More also moved an application in the court that the accused were detained illegally for a day. Earlier, five accused – Naquee Ahmed, Nadeem Shaikh, Kanwar Pathrija, Haroon Naik and Mohammed Qafeel Ansari were held in the case and are facing trial under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Indian Penal Code and other laws.

Those wanted in the case are Riyaz Bhatkal, who is also a top operative of the alleged home grown terror outfit, Waqas Ibrahim Sad, Dubai-based Muzaffar Kolah and Tehseen Akhtar Shaikh, the police said. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested Yasin Bhatkal (30), who is wanted in over 40 terror cases and carries a reward of Rs. 35 lakh, as well as Akhtar, from the Indo-Nepal border on the night of August 28 last year.

Bhatkal, who hails from Bhatkal village of Udupi district in North Karnataka, is wanted in a string of terror attacks in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad, the agency had said. Bhatkal, who was earlier associated with banned outfit SIMI, is suspected to have allegedly conspired along with others to “wage war against India.”

The Bombay High Court directed the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) to hear the Rs. 3,700-crore transfer pricing tax demand dispute involving Vodafone India Services on a daily basis from February 21.

The division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice M S Sanklecha advanced the hearing date from March 21 to February 21, and directed the tribunal to hear and decide the matter expeditiously.

The court also asked both Vodafone and the Income Tax department not to seek any adjournments during the hearings.

The order was passed on a petition filed by the IT department challenging an interim order of the tribunal staying the Rs. 3,700 crore tax demand against Vodafone India.

The tribunal, in December last year, also directed the telecom giant to deposit Rs. 200 crore and provide corporate guarantees for the balance tax amount of Rs. 3,500 crore.

The IT department in its petition urged that the amount of Rs. 200 crore to be deposited by Vodafone was too low.

The department slapped a demand of Rs. 3,700 crore on Vodafone for FY08, which was a fall out of an earlier transfer-pricing order seeking to add Rs. 8,500 crore to the taxable income of the company from the deal that involved it selling its BPO unit to an offshore entity. The company challenged the demand before the Appellate Tribunal.

The IT department had in January slapped another Rs. 3,000 crore demand on the company in another transfer pricing case, which was stayed by the court on January 30.

Transfer pricing refers to the actual price at which a transaction takes place between two related parties, usually belonging to the same group.

GVK Infra which operates the Mumbai International Airport or MIAL says that it will go all guns blazing to bid for the Navi Mumbai international airport. The state government of Maharashtra recently called for a request for qualification or RFQ for the construction of the much-delayed second airport in Mumbai.

“We will certainly bid for the project. We already have a right for first refusal or RoFR for the project, so we have a prize presence,” Issac George, the chief financial officer of GVK Infra said, in a analyst conference call.

The project had been delayed for many years the state government could not acquire the land required for the project. GVK, which already runs the domestic and international airports, was given an RoFR as they would lose some of their existing traffic. GVK will be asked to match the bid of the highest bidder for the project, and it shall pass on to others only if they refuse to do so.

George also said that they might have to wait a little longer for the project as the final bids for the project, are expected only in June. Spread over 1,160 hectares, the project would be one of the biggest airport projects to seek bids since the airport modernisation projects of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad were awarded in 2005.

The Navi Mumbai airport project which is expected to be completed in four phases will cost as much as Rs. 14,574 crore. It will have two parallel runways of 3,700 meters of length.

GVK has also recently launched its new terminal at Mumbai international airport T2. It also plans to now commercialise as much as eight acres of land that belongs to the airport, in four parcels. This land which can translate into 1.8 million square feet of space is not as a part of the encroached land that is currently under dispute.

“We have some bids come in, which we have evaluated. We are in negotiations with the individual parties. We should be able to finalise in a week or so,” said George. The land is located in the lucrative Western suburbs of Mumbai. GVK got the right to monetise the land as it won the bid to develop the Mumbai airport.

The infrastructure company which has presence across sectors like power and transportation too, has a consolidated debt of Rs. 20,970 crore. It is also looking to reduce its debt by selling stake in the airports holding company. It owns and operates airports in Mumbai and Bangalore.

“We already got two binding term sheets from two investors,” said George, without revealing the names due to a confidential agreements that they have with them. The amount of investment and the extent of equity dilution too is under discussions, he said.

Police had a meeting with Kandivali residents at Vrindavan society, Kandivali. The meeting was organized by New Saibaba Nagar Welfare Association and was presided by Prof. DP Mehta.

D.C.P B. K Rajput (Zone XI) presided over the meeting. A.C.P. Kandivali Division, A.C.P. Borivali division, officer from Crime branch unit XI, Sr. P.I. Borivali, P.I. (L & O), Kandivali, Sr. P.I. traffic attended the meeting .

Residents have put forward several questions before the police officials as they replied them. Crimes like chain snatching, theft, house breaking, eve-teasing were discussed at length.

D.C.P. Rajput had asked people to remain vigilant and urged them to install CCTV cameras at housing societies. He assured to strengthen patrolling in remote and sensitive locations where risk of chain snatching is more.

He stated that “Police is for the Public” and any complaint filed by citizen will be addressed promptly. Large number of residents attended the meeting and there was a healthy interaction between police and citizens.