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The Enforcement Directorate has arrested Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the redevelopment of a Mumbai ‘chawl’.
Mr. Raut, 60, was arrested after over six hours of questioning at the ED’s zonal office in south Mumbai’s Ballard Estate.
He has been taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as he was not cooperating in the probe, the officials claimed.
Mr. Raut will be produced before a special PMLA court in Mumbai later in the day, where the Enforcement Directorate will seek his custody.
The ED detained Mr. Raut, a close confidant of Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, amid high drama after conducting raids on the MP’s Mumbai residence early in the morning.
Mr. Raut was taken in custody after a marathon nine hours of quizzing by the ED authorities at his bungalow ‘Maitri’ in Mumbai’s Bhandup area.
The MP is being investigated by the ED in connection with a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities involving the re-development of Mumbai ‘Patra chawl.’
Mr. Raut’s lawyer, however, said the ED had not found any document related to the alleged Patra chawl scam and that the MP was going to the ED’s office in response to the agency’s “summons”.
Soon after the agency authorities knocked his doors at 7 a.m. on Sunday, Mr. Raut, in a series of tweets, denied any wrongdoing while stressing he was being targeted in an instance of political vendetta.
Arora is new Delhi Police Commissioner (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Superintendent of Police of the Special Task Force, which successfully cracked down on the notorious Veerappan gang and received the CM's gallantry Medal for Bravery and Heroic Action, Sanjay Arora has been appointed as the new Commissioner of the Delhi Police.
Formerly Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), 1988-batch IPS officer of the Tamil Nadu Cadre, Mr. Arora also had a pivotal role in forming the Special Security Group (SSG) which provided security to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu during the time when LTTE was active. Mr. Arora succeeds outgoing Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana, who has completed a year of his tenure.
A graduate with a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Malviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur, Mr. Arora has served the ITBP on deputation as a Commandant from 1997 to 2002.
He has also commanded a border guarding ITBP Battalion in Matli, Uttarakhand for three years from 1997 to 2000.
As an Instructor, Mr. Arora has also made remarkable contributions in the field of training, serving as Commandant (Combat Wing) at the ITBP Academy, Mussoorie from 2000 to 2002.
Mr. Arora has also served as the Commissioner of Police of Coimbatore city from 2002 to 2004 and has also served as the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Villupuram Range and Deputy Director of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption
Apart from the CM's gallantry award, he has also been awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2004, President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2014, Police Special Duty Medal, Antrik Suraksha Padak and UN Peacekeeping Medal.
City
Landlord-tenant disputes tend to turn into ‘tedious legal battles’ (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The struggle for a landlord to get their tenant, who refuses to move out even after the expiry of their lease agreement, tends to be a tedious and expensive legal battle.
Last week a senior citizen couple in Greater Noida had to squat outside their flat for a week before they could move in, as their tenant refused to vacate their house even after the expiry of their lease agreement.
Several legal experts told that in cases where tenants refuse to vacate their rented accommodation, the case is usually taken up in a civil court, following which the police or a court officer are directed to execute an order of eviction.
However, such cases also tend to get delayed, said a lawyer who has handled such civil matters. “Courts tend to favour tenants over landlords and let them occupy the flat for a specific period till they find alternative accommodation,” said the lawyer who did not wish to be identified.
Advocate A.K. Pathak, who also has handled such cases, said that with civil courts being burdened with thousands of pending cases, tenant-landlord disputes tend to take an average of two years to be adjudicated.
It is a long-drawn process. Till the judgment is pronounced, it is the landlord who has to pay out of his pocket to live somewhere else.
One of the factors that the court takes into account is whether the family staying on rent has enough resources to find an alternative house. This further delays the process.
The whole proceeding is a series of court dates and summonses, which have a huge financial impact on both the parties due to which they tend to opt for out-of-court settlements.
Cases of breach of rent agreement are usually adjudicated through the Transfer of Property Act. To prevent such cases, police suggest that landlords get police verification of their tenants done before renting out their property.
There are various notorious elements who have a history of illegally occupying flats. Hence, houseowners are encouraged to carry out police verification of their tenants.
Risking all for the love of Aravalis (Page no. 2)
(GS Paper 1, Geography)
“We walked 8-10 km inside the Aravalis to reach different illegal mining sites in Gurugram, Faridabad and Nuh, took pictures and shot videos over a few months last year.
We had close encounters with those engaged in illegal mining. It could have been dangerous. It still gives us goosebumps when we think about it. But we did it for our love for the Aravalis.
The citizens group, which has been for long running a campaign to save the Aravalis, had last year collected evidence against illegal mining at 16 locations in the south Haryana mountain range.
But its year-long efforts to stir the authorities into action drew a blank until the National Green Tribunal, hearing its petition, ordered the setting up of a committee in May this year.
What has, however, turned the spotlight on the issue again is the crushing to death of a Deputy Superintendent of Police by the illegal mining mafia in Nuh earlier this month.
It is the government’s responsibility not to allow these illegal activities to happen... We are ordinary citizens who put our lives at risk to highlight the threat to the Aravalis.
Our group sent emails to the authorities, filed RTIs, paid lawyers to file a case, and even tweeted pictures and videos. The government has resources to check it, but what is needed is political will.
The group, which is running an online campaign against attempts by the government to legalise mining in south Haryana, was tipped off about the illegal mining activities in the Aravalis by hikers in March last year. It then decided to check and document the illegal activity.
Initially, we had information about four such locations in Gurugram and Faridabad. We took pictures of the locations and with the evidence collected wrote to various government departments in April last year. There was no response for two months, despite three reminders.
States
Allahabad Museum to showcase gallery on Azad (Page no. 3)
(GS Paper 1, Modern India)
In the 75th year of Independence, the Allahabad Museum is all set to showcase the Azad Gallery to its patrons.
The one of its kind ₹8crore project has been completed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) and was handed over to the Director incharge of the Allahabad Museum on the birth anniversary of Chandra Shekhar Azad earlier this week.
The museum is located inside Alfred Park in Prayagraj where Azad laid down his life while fighting the British Police on February 27, 1931.
The museum authorities are expecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to open it to the public before the Independence Day.
The gallery will display Azad’s Colt pistol, which he fondly called bamtul bukhara (weapon that spits fire, the gallery incharge and curator at the museum.
Azad was a man of action. He would say instead of him, his bamtul bukhara would do the talking. Mr. Mishra said the gallery also has the photograph that the British government released after the encounter. The highlight, he said, were 37 multimedia panels and write-ups that capture the milestones of the freedom movement from 1857-1947 such as the Kakori train robbery and the shooting of John S. Saunders in Lahore.
Editorial
PMLA verdict, an erosion of constitutional buffers (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
India’s criminal justice system, we are led to believe, is built on a set of received axioms that are inherent to the basic precepts of justice and fairness.
These include the idea that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty; the idea that a person detained on suspicion of having committed an offence would be entitled to bail pending trial; the idea that a criminal law ought not to be retroactive; the idea that a person accused of an offence must be informed of the charges made against him; and the idea that a suspect has a privilege against incriminating herself.
Today, each of these principles is so consumed by a welter of exceptions that their bases have lost all vigour. Regrettably, this erosion in our values has time and again received the Supreme Court of India’s imprimatur.
The latest example is the judgment of a three-judge bench in Vijay Madanlal Choudhary vs Union of India, delivered on July 27.
In it, the Court has upheld vast parts of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, despite the law’s inversion of seemingly time-honoured maxims of criminal jurisprudence.
Briefly put, “money laundering” refers to the process through which the proceeds from criminal activity are masked with a view to concealing their illegitimate source.
From the mid-1980s onwards, countries around the world began to see a need to introduce special legislation to curb and punish this process. The PMLA came out of these initiatives.
It defines the crime itself in vague terms. Section 3 of the Act says, “Whosoever directly or indirectly attempts to indulge or knowingly assists or knowingly is a party or is actually involved in any process or activity connected with the proceeds of crime including its concealment, possession, acquisition or use and projecting or claiming it as untainted property shall be guilty of offence of money-laundering.”
An alarming fall (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The refrain that standards of parliamentary functioning have taken a beating in recent years is not without merit. In terms of the time spent on deliberating legislation, the conduct of fruitful debates both in tone and tenor, and in the quality of discussion, the reliance and participation of expert opinion through the agency of standing and parliamentary committees besides other factors, parliamentary sessions have been found to be wanting.
Much of this deterioration is a consequence of representatives of political parties utilising Parliament more to showcase political spectacle than to use it as a forum for serious legislative functioning.
This practice was given primacy by the Bharatiya Janata Party during the United Progressive Alliance’s tenure in government, and has now been copied by the Congress and other parties, who are utilising the Houses more and more as arenas of protest.
Disruption has become the norm, with the Opposition seeking to use the debates as a ploy to gain publicity — just as the BJP did earlier — but nonetheless even more damaging to legislative business, with the ruling party choosing to pass Bills without adequate discussion.
Other unseemly scenes in Parliament last week — the furore over a stray usage of a term by Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (he has apologised), and then the heckling of Congress president Sonia Gandhi — have also exemplified the drastic fall in standards.
The officials in charge of maintaining decorum and order meanwhile have chosen to take punitive actions in suspending 27 MPs, many for the entire monsoon session just for displaying placards, giving an impression that they would brook no protest from the Opposition, and in turn furthering its hostility towards the ruling party.
This has been exacerbated by the ruling party’s stance on Opposition requests for a debate on key issues such as price rise.
Core constraints (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Indian Economy)
The eight core sectors of the Indian economy not only account for over four-tenth of its measured industrial output but also serve as an indicator of the momentum in investment activity through demand for items such as cement and steel. Electricity generation is a good proxy for overall demand in the economy while fertilizer production numbers help gauge agricultural activity.
So, it is heartening that the official index to measure these sectors’ output has registered two successive months of double-digit growth. Factoring in the 9.3% uptick for these sectors in April — it was 19.3% and 12.7% in May and June — the first quarter of 2022-23 has seen output growth of 13.7%, despite the high base of 26% growth in Q1 last year.
Total industrial output grew 6.7% in April and 19.6% in May. Based on June’s core sectors’ data, economists reckon industrial production to rise anywhere between 9% and 13% in June.
These high numbers are a tad misleading because the first quarter of 2020-21 was marred by national lockdowns, and though output did not suffer as much during the second COVID-wave in Q1 of 2021-22, economic conditions were not ideal either.
In any case, these base effects will start fading from July. For better context to assess where the economic recovery stands, industrial output in May was 1.7% over pre-pandemic levels and core sectors’ output in June is 8% over 2019.
What should cause concern is that the recovery is still fragmented and dissonant. Moreover, the rebound momentum seems to be flagging as core output declined 4.08% in June over May 2022.
Just four infra sectors drove most of the growth in June, led by coal output jumping 31.1% and cement rising 19.4% from 2021 levels.
Crude oil output tanked again in June after a positive blip in May, while natural gas grew a mere 1.2% and steel 3.3%. Refinery products grew 15.1%, driven by higher global oil prices making exports attractive, and electricity rose 15.5%, signalling domestic demand.
India’s ‘wheat waiver’ WTO demand is risk-fraught (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
One of the cardinal demands of India in the World Trade Organization (WTO) — and rightly so — has been to find a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding (PSH) of food to protect India’s food security (PSH policy).
India’s PSH policy is based on procuring food from farmers at an administered price (minimum support price or MSP), which is generally higher than the market price.
The PSH policy serves the twin objectives of offering remunerative prices to farmers and providing subsidised food to the underprivileged.
However, under WTO law, such price support-based procurement from farmers is counted as a trade-distorting subsidy, and if given beyond the permissible limit, breaches WTO law.
Currently, India has temporary relief due to a ‘peace clause’ which bars countries from bringing legal challenges against price support-based procurement for food security purposes. However, a permanent solution to this issue is still not in the offing.
The WTO ministerial meeting in June at Geneva did precious little to address this issue. Paragraph 10 of the declaration on food security adopted at the Geneva ministerial states:
We recognize that adequate food stocks can contribute to the realization of Members’ domestic food security objectives and encourage Members with available surplus stocks to release them on international markets consistently with WTO rules.
As I have argued, prima facie this might show that India’s concerns about the PSH issue have been taken on board. However, for India, the real issue is not about maintaining adequate food stocks, which WTO rules do not prohibit, provided food is stocked by employing non-trade distorting instruments such as providing income support to farmers (cash transfers independent of crop production).
India’s concern is that it should have the policy space to hold public food stocks using the MSP, which is a price support instrument. However, there is no mention of price support in the Geneva declaration.
OPED
Representation, all the way up (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The swearing-in of Droupadi Murmu as the 15th President of India is a truly momentous event. She is the first person belonging to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community and the second woman to occupy the highest constitutional post of the country.
She is also the youngest person to be elected as the President and the first to be born in independent India. She defeated Yashwant Sinha in the presidential polls, winning almost two-third of the votes of the electoral college.
The ascent of an Adivasi woman from a humble background to the highest constitutional post is an unprecedented triumph, at least symbolically if not substantially.
Ms. Murmu was born in a village in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha and belongs to the Santhal tribe, one of the largest ST communities in India. She was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Odisha, representing Rairangpur for two terms between 2000 and 2009, and went on to serve as the Governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021.
This remarkable journey from Rairangpur to Raisina Hill may not have been possible without the constitutional reforms that institutionalised representative local governments. Ms.
Murmu began her political career as a councillor in the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat, where she was elected from a ward reserved for women from ST communities.
The “silent revolution” of democratic decentralisation initiated 30 years ago has played a key role in diversifying representation in politics.
In December 1992, the Parliament passed the 73rd and 74th Amendments that mandated the creation of democratically elected Panchayats and Municipalities, respectively.
The amendments sought to devolve rural and urban local governments with functions, funds, and functionaries to enable them to function as “institutions of self-government” and meet the stated ends of economic development and social justice.
Bringing Eurasia closer (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Last week, RailFreight.Com reported that two 40-ft containers of wood laminate sheets crossed the Caspian Sea from Russia’s Astrakhan port, entered Iran’s Anzali port, continued their southward journey towards the Arabian Sea, entered the waters at Bandar Abbas and eventually reach Nhava Shiva port in Mumbai.
The journey signalled the launch of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a 7,200-km multi-modal transport corridor that combines road, rail and maritime routes connecting Russia and India via central Asia and Iran. The corridor is expected to consolidate the emerging Eurasian Free Trade Area.
The INSTC’s launch provides missing pieces of the puzzle about India’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
India’s decision had then been explained in terms of its military reliance on Russia, its aim to keep open alternative supplies of precious oil and gas, and a legacy of its non-alignment.
What was neglected is India’s brewing investment in transcontinental infrastructure, signalled by its involvement in the INSTC alongside Russia and Iran, both of which are subject to sanctions by Western governments.
The legal framework for the INSTC is provided by a trilateral agreement signed by India, Iran and Russia at the Euro-Asian Conference on Transport in 2000.
Since then Kazakhstan, Belarus, Oman, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Syria have signed instruments of accession to become members of the INSTC.
Once fully operational, the INSTC is expected to reduce freight costs by 30% and journey time by 40% in comparison with the conventional deep sea route via the Suez Canal.
Indeed, the need for an alternative route was deeply felt last year, when the Ever Given container ship was stuck in the Suez, halting maritime traffic between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
Representation among lower Judiciary (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
The swearing in of Droupadi Murmu as the 15th President of India is a truly momentous event. She is the first person belonging to the Scheduled Tribes (ST) community and the second woman to occupy the highest constitutional post of the country.
She is also the youngest person to be elected as the President and the first to be born in independent India. She defeated Yashwant Sinha in the presidential polls, winning almost two-third of the votes of the electoral college.
The ascent of an Adivasi woman from a humble background to the highest constitutional post is an unprecedented triumph, at least symbolically if not substantially.
Ms. Murmu was born in a village in Mayurbhanj district in Odisha and belongs to the Santhal tribe, one of the largest ST communities in India.
She was a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of Odisha, representing Rairangpur for two terms between 2000 and 2009, and went on to serve as the Governor of Jharkhand between 2015 and 2021.
This remarkable journey from Rairangpur to Raisina Hill may not have been possible without the constitutional reforms that institutionalized representative local governments.
Ms. Murmu began her political career as a councillor in the Rairangpur Nagar Panchayat, where she was elected from a ward reserved for women from ST communities.
The “silent revolution” of democratic decentralisation initiated 30 years ago has played a key role in diversifying representation in politics.
In December 1992, the Parliament passed the 73rd and 74th Amendments that mandated the creation of democratically
elected Panchayats and Municipalities, respectively.
The amendments sought to devolve rural and urban local governments with functions, funds, and functionaries to enable
them to function as “institutions of self-government” and meet the stated ends of economic development and social justice.
Explainer
The need for a distinction between blasphemy and hate speech (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Indian Polity)
While Mohammad Zubair of Alt News was arrested for tweeting a still picture from a movie that had some religious context attached to it, Nupur Sharma, a member of the BJP, has been absconding with no coercive action taken against her for her inflammatory remarks on a prime-time TV show.
As far as laws in India go, there isn’t formal legislation against blasphemy. The closest equivalent to a blasphemy law is Section 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which punishes any speech, writings, or signs that “with premeditated and malicious intent” insult citizens’ religion or religious beliefs with a fine and imprisonment for up to three years.
The history of Section 295(A) of the IPC can be traced back to 95 years. In 1927, a satire was published which had obscene parallels to the Prophet's personal life.
It was indeed very offensive to the Muslim community but the erstwhile High Court of Lahore observed that the author of this cannot be prosecuted as the writing did not cause animosity or hostility between any communities.
Thus, the offense did not fall under Section 153(A), which dealt with maintaining public tranquility/order. However, this incident gave rise to a demand that there be a law to protect the sanctity of religions, and thus, Section 295(A) was introduced.
The legality of Section 295(A), which had been challenged in the Ramji Lal Modi case (1957), was affirmed by a five-judge Bench of the Supreme Court.
The apex court reasoned that while Article 19(2) allows reasonable limits on freedom of speech and expression for the sake of public order, the punishment under Section 295(A) deals with aggravated form of blasphemy which is committed with the malicious aim of offending the religious sensibilities of any class.
Down the line, the apex court redefined the test it laid down in the Ramji Lal Modi case. It decided that the connection between speech and disorder must be like a "spark in a powder keg".
In the case of Superintendent, Central Prison, Fatehgarh vs Ram Manohar Lohia the Supreme Court stated that the link between the speech spoken and any public disorder caused as a result of it should have a close relationship for retrieving Section 295(A) of IPC.
By 2011, it concluded that only speech that amounts to "incitement to impending unlawful action" can be punished. That is, the state must meet a very high bar before using public disturbance as a justification for suppressing expression.
Text and Context
The technology powering hybrid electric vehicles (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
In recent months, automakers Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Honda have launched hybrid electric vehicles in India, offering car buyers more choices in the nascent electric vehicle market.
These new hybrid electric vehicles from different automakers, are relying on hybrid technology and its advantages over conventional internal combustion engine (ICE)-powered vehicles to change car buyers’ minds.
A hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) uses an ICE (a petrol/diesel engine) and one or more electric motors to run. It is powered by the electric motor alone, which uses energy stored in batteries, by the ICE, or both.
The powertrain of the HEV is more complex than a regular ICE-powered car as it has EV components and a conventional ICE.
That means a typical HEV will have a low-voltage auxiliary battery, a traction battery pack to store electricity for the electric motor, an electric generator, an AC/DC converter, a power electronics controller, a thermal system to maintain working temperature, an ICE, a fuel tank, a fuel filler, a transmission and an exhaust system.
HEV powertrains are designed to power cars in a series, parallel or series-parallel (power split) methods. A series HEV uses only the electric motor to drive the wheels, while the ICE powers the generator, which in turn recharges the battery.
A parallel HEV, based on the driving condition, uses the best power source to power the vehicle. It will alternate between the electric motor and the ICE to keep the car moving.
A series-parallel HEV offers a combination of both models and allows to split power, wherein power is routed from the ICE alone or from the battery to the electric motor to drive the vehicle. Moreover, in all three designs, the battery is charged through regenerative braking technology.
A regenerative braking system (RBS) used in automotive applications has several advantages like better braking efficiency in stop-and-go traffic which enhances fuel economy and also helps in reducing carbon emissions. Besides, RBS also helps in energy optimisation resulting in minimum energy wastage.
Based on the type of RBS, the energy recovery happens in multiple ways. A kinetic system can recover the energy lost during braking and then use this energy to recharge the high-voltage battery of the vehicle.
An electric system generates electricity through a motor during sudden braking. Lastly, a hydraulic system uses pressurised tanks to store the vehicle’s kinetic energy and can offer a high energy recovery rate which is ideal for heavy vehicles.
News
India, Oman to hold military exercise (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
India and Oman will carry out a nearly two-week military exercise beginning August 1, with a focus on counter-terror cooperation.
The exercise, ‘AL NAJAH-IV’, will take place in the Mahajan field firing ranges in Rajasthan from August 1 to 13.
A 60-member team from the Royal Army of Oman has arrived at the site of the exercise. The Defence Ministry said the joint military exercise aims to enhance the level of bilateral defence cooperation.
The Indian Army will be represented at the exercise by troops from the 18 Mechanised Infantry Battalion. The previous edition of the exercise was organised in Muscat in March 2019.
The fourth edition of India-Oman joint military exercise ‘AL NAJAH-IV’ between contingents of Indian Army and the Royal Army of Oman is scheduled to take place at the Foreign Training Node of Mahajan Field Firing Ranges from August 1 to 13.
It said the scope of the exercise includes “professional interaction, mutual understanding of drills and procedures, the establishment of joint command and control structures and elimination of terrorist threats.
The joint exercise would focus on counter-terrorism operations, regional security operations and peacekeeping operations under United Nations charter apart from organising joint physical training schedules, tactical drills, techniques and procedures.
CoWin to gird universal immunisation (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Union government is planning to repurpose the Co-WIN platform for India's Universal Immunisation Programme and other national health programmes while continuing with its current function of recording Covid vaccination and issuing certificates.
The vaccination record under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) is now maintained manually. Once Co-WIN is repurposed to include the UIP, the entire vaccination system will become digitised, thus easing tracking beneficiaries and facilitating real-time monitoring.
It will do away with the hassle of keeping a physical record. Once the immunisation programme is digitised, beneficiaries will get certificates on the spot. They can also download it. These certificates will be stored in Digi-lockers.
Efficient record-keeping helps create an evidence base that helps in planning effective interventions. The Universal Immunisation Programme is one of the largest vaccination projects in the world aimed at protecting children and pregnant mothers from preventable diseases.
Under it, the government provides shots for 12 vaccine-preventable diseases, such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, and hepatitis B, for free.
Stressing the importance of an integrated immunisation information system, an official said it helps in the effective management of vaccination programmes at national, State and district levels.
The data available at the individual level can be collated at the population level for making them available for those involved in framing public health policies.