oppn parties The Soap Opera is Turning Murkier By The Day

News Snippets

  • For the first time ever, Mukesh Ambani buys a 29% stake in Gautam Adani's Mahan Energen, a subsidiary of Adani Power to source 500MW of electricity from the company's power plant in MP
  • Stocks continue to rise on Thursday - Sensex gains 639 points to 73635 and Nifty 203 points to 22326
  • Golf - Indian Open: 3 Indians at tied 14th as Joost Luiten takes the lead with a wonderful 7-under 65
  • IPL: RR beat DC by 12 runs as Riyan Parag (84 off just 45 balls) shines
  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
The Soap Opera is Turning Murkier By The Day

By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-10-25 10:23:31

The way the Aryan Khan drug-bust case is panning out, it show everyone, including the NCB, its officials, the judiciary and the politicians, in very poor light. The charge against the NCB is clear - it is targeting celebrities and even demanding special punitive action for them to set an example. Does it not recognize that the law is equal for all? Since the celebrities are not demanding any special treatment, how can the agency demand that they be punished more?

The charge against NCB officials is that they are playing to the gallery and are often not following set procedures. They are leaking selective information to their media friends and encouraging them to conduct a media trial. Now, with a whistleblower saying that he overheard people talking of a payoff of Rs 18cr, out of which Rs 8cr was allegedly to be paid to Sameer Wankhede, the officer in charge of Aryan's case, a murkier angle has been added to the case.

Similarly, the lower judiciary's steadfast refusal of bail to Aryan and two others arrested with him shows that despite all conditions - of the accused cooperating with the investigation, of his chances of absconding being non-existent and of his potential of tampering with evidence or threatening witnesses negligible - being met, it refuses to follow the Supreme Court diktat of "bail, not jail" in such cases and of treating personal liberty as supreme. This attitude of the judiciary is baffling, to say the least.

But the worst angle is how Nawab Malik, a minister in the MVA government in Maharashtra, is targeting the NCB and its officials on a daily basis. While he would have been right in criticizing the agency for the manner of its working, the way he is picking on certain officials and releasing personal documents is not done. Even if they are wrong, the agency officials are doing their job. If they have exceeded their limits, the courts will reprimand them and warn them against such excesses in future. But for a politician to do so is against convention and not right.

To set things right, Aryan Khan and others must be given bail and should be punished only if their guilt is proved in a court of law. The allegations of bribe against NCB officials must be probed independently. The Centre must also warn the NCB against playing to the gallery. And Nawab Malik should be told to cease and desist from making his daily allegations.