Judicial custody of journalist Vinod Verma extended till Dec
RAIPUR: A court in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur district on Tuesday extended till December 11 the judicial custody of senior journalist Vinod Verma, arrested in connection with a case of alleged blackmailing and extortion.
The court of Judicial Magistrate First Class Bhavesh Kumar Watti extended the judicial remand of Verma till December 11. This is for the second time that his judicial remand has been extended, the journalist’s lawyer Faisal Rizvi told reporters.
Verma was produced in the court after his judicial remand ended on Monday , he said.
Following the journalist’s arrest on October 27 from his Ghaziabad residence by the Chhattisgarh Police, he was sent to judicial custody on October 31 for 14 days. Later, his judicial remand was extended up to November 27.
After his arrest, Verma had said that he had a sex tape of a
Government of West Bengal North Bengal Development Department Branch Secretariat Uttarkanya, Fulbari, Jalpaiguri Chhattisgarh minister.
According to the Raipur police, a case of blackmail and extortion was registered at the Pandri police station based on a complaint by a BJP leader Prakash Bajaj who said he “was being harassed over the phone by an unidentified caller who told him that he had a CD of his ‘aka’ (master)”.
After investigation, a search team was sent to Delhi and Verma was held from Ghaziabad in this connection, the police had said and also claimed to have recovered 500 “porn” CDS, a pen drive and a laptop from him.
The Chhattisgarh government had recommended a CBI probe. DEHRADUN: Around the Hindu pilgrim centre in Kedarnath, nearly 200 labourers have been working relentlessly in biting sub-zero temperatures to ensure timely redevelopment of the place ruined by flash floods and landslides in 2013.
Rudraprayag District Magistrate Mangesh Ghildiyal said the Uttarakhand government was leaving no stone unturned to ensure the first phase of the township rebuilding projects around the revered Himalayan shrine is completed on time.
The shrine is located nearly 12,000 feet above sea level.
According to official estimates, around 5,000 pilgrims a day trek to the Kedarnath Temple, one of the four sacred sites on the Char Dham pilgrimage, between May and October.
The area around the shrine was devastated in massive flash floods and landslides triggered by monsoon rains four years ago. A large number of concrete structures around the shrine were razed to the ground and more than 5,000 people died in the disaster.
The redevelopment of the shrine is high on the agenda of BJP governments in the state and at the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers at the shrine on October 20, a day before its closure for the winter season.
During the visit, he laid the foundation stone of five projects - worth nearly Rs 700 crore - under the Kedarpuri redevelopment plan. The plan is to be implemented in several phases.
Modi also reviewed the work being carried out at the temple recently, indicating he was monitoring the progress of the projects. “The high-altitude shrine has become the centre of a flurry of construction activities. Around 200 labourers with heavy-building equipment are working till late in the night to meet deadlines set for different projects in the first phase of the redevelopment plan,” District Magistrate Ghildiyal said. HYDERABAD: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday thanked Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) working president MK Stalin for appreciating the Telangana government’s decision to increase reservations for certain backward sections of society.
Rao spoke to Stalin this morning over phone, a release from the Chief Minister’s office said.
“Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao thanked DMK Working President and (Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly) TNLA Opposition Leader MK Stalin who welcomed the efforts to uphold social justice by Telangana CM and for fighting for more powers to states,” the release stated.
Stalin had on Sunday praised CM Rao for the latter’s decision to increase the reservation for oppressed sections of society.