Rs 97 cr in banned currency seized; builder among 16 arrested

Agencies

January 17, 2018

Kanpur, Jan 17: As many as 16 people, including a noted builder, were arrested by police and demonetised currency worth ₹97 crore seized from his ancestral house at Swaroop Nagar in Kanpur.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Akhilesh Kumar Meena said on Wednesday that ₹95 crore belonged to builder Anand Khatri and the remaining amount to over a dozen others.

This is the biggest seizure of banned currency since notes in the denominations of ₹500 and ₹1,000 were demonetised in November, 2016.

Mr. Akhilesh Kumar Meena said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had gathered inputs about some companies and individuals involved in converting illegal currency into legal money and shared the information with Inspector General (IG) of Police, Kanpur, Alok Singh.

The IG collected more information about those running the racket and briefed the SSP, directing him to carry out raids discreetly. Following a tip-off, the SSP formed teams headed by SP (East) Anurag Arya and SP (West) Gaurav Grover. They nabbed four men from the Swaroop Nagar area.

Stored in gunny bags

Initially they tried to mislead the police but later, during intensive interrogation, broke down and confessed their crime, the SSP said. They divulged information about the builder. It was revealed that huge amount of demonetised currency was stored in gunny bags in the builder’s ancestral house near Gole Chauraha in Swaroop Nagar. Police later nabbed the builder, who led the team to the site where the currency was stashed, Mr. Arya told PTI.

Police also raided three hotels from where 11 people, including professor Santosh Yadav, were arrested, he said. Preliminary probe indicated that the cash was hidden with the intention of converting them into legal currency, the SP said, but discounted the possibility of any terror angle.

The arrested were identified Khatri, Santosh Yadav, key liasioner Mohit Dhingra, Sanjay Agarwal, Manish Agarwal - all residents of Kanpur, Koteshwar Rao from Andhra Pardesh, Sanjay Kumar from Varanasi, Anil Yadav from Saharanpur. Santosh Pathak and Sanjay Rai — both from Mirzapur, Ram Asrey, Dhirendra, Sanjeev Agarwal, Omkar Yadav, Ali Husain, and a woman from Andhar Pardesh whose identity was not immediately known.

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International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant for war crimes

News Network

November 21,2024

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant over war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The court’s Pre-Trial Chamber I issued warrants of arrest for Netanyahu and Gallant "for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024, the day the Prosecution filed the applications for warrants of arrest”, it confirmed in a statement Thursday.

It is the first instance in the court's 22-year history it has issued arrest warrants for Western-allied senior officials.

In its statement, the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber I, a panel of three judges, said it has rejected appeals by Israel challenging its jurisdiction.

The chamber said it has decided to release the arrest warrants because "conduct similar to that addressed in the warrant of arrest appears to be ongoing", referring to Israel's ongoing onslaught on Gaza.

Netanyahu and Gallant, it said, “each bear criminal responsibility” for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts,” as well as “intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population.”

All 124 states that signed the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court, are now under an obligation to arrest the wanted individuals and hand them over to the ICC in the Hague.

The court relies on the cooperation of member states to arrest and surrender suspects. The Netherlands' foreign minister quickly said his country was prepared to enforce the warrants while 93 nations earlier reiterated their support for the ICC.

Triestino Mariniello, a lawyer representing Palestinian victims at the ICC, called the warrants "a historic decision".

He noted that the court had endured "pressure and threats of sanctions" from the US government, but acted nonetheless.

As expected, the Tel Aviv regime rejected the rulings, with its security minister Itamar Ben Gvir calling the warrants “anti-Semitic through and through.”

The ICC said Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction was not required.

Israel and its major ally, the United States, are not members of the court.

Israel unleashed its bloody Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023. So far, it has killed at least 43,985 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 104,092 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

Israel faces an ongoing South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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