The Delhi High Court on Tuesday granted bail to two accused -- Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain -- in a case of alleged money laundering involving senior AAP leader Satyendar Jain. Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri granted regular bail to the duo nearly 10 days after the former Delhi minister was granted relief. A court had granted bail to Satyendar Jain, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in May 2022, citing "delay in trial" and his "long incarceration". The case pertains to allegations against Satyendar Jain of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has claimed that Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain were business associates of the former Delhi minister and abetted the commission of the offence. Vaibhav Jain was represented by senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal and lawyer Malak Bhatt. Ankush Jain was represented by senior advocate Rebecca John. On September 30, the high court refused to grant default bail to them o
Delhi is grappling with severe water shortage due to alarmingly high ammonia contamination in the Yamuna river, primarily attributed to industrial waste from Haryana, AAP alleged on Sunday. With the water treatment plants (WTPs) at Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi struggling to cope with the ammonia content in the Yamuna's raw water, supply in the national capital is being disrupted, it said. The Delhi Jal Board on Sunday announced water shortage till November 1 in several parts of the national capital due to the Yamuna's high ammonia content. "The raw water source of Delhi's 110 MGD (million gallons per day) Bhagirathi WTP and 140 MGD Sonia Vihar WTP is the Upper Ganga Canal, Muradnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Due to scheduled annual maintenance across the Upper Ganga Canal by the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department from October 12 to 31, the canal was closed from Haridwar on October 12 midnight," it said. The WTPs are now dependent on the Yamuna as an alternative source of raw water till Octob
The industrial waste that flows into the Yamuna doesn't originate in Delhi, as there are no water-polluting industries in Delhi itself, he said
Addressing the press conference, Bharadwaj said that the specially-abled person with over 60 per cent disability will be eligible for financial assistance
The BJP said on Tuesday that everyone in politics has a right to criticise but those levelling defamatory allegations will have to suffer consequences, as the Supreme Court cleared the way for AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to face trial in a defamation case for remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's educational qualifications. BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that Kejriwal's conduct towards PM Modi has been utterly irresponsible, saying it need not be told the kind of "abuses" he has heaped on Modi. Prasad said Kejriwal offered to tender an apology during the hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday but it was declined. He has become an expert in tendering apologies, the BJP leader said, adding he has apologised 10 times to different leaders, including Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Kapil Sibal, for his defamatory remarks. In a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, Prasad described him as a companion of Kejriwal and noted that the Congress leader has also been facing defamati
The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) in an order on Monday, discontinued the services of all its contractual staff with immediate effect. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) blamed the role of the BJP behind the move saying that it was disappointing that the party "cruelly" chose Diwali, to render hundreds of DCW staff jobless and effectively 'terminating' their families' celebrations. The DCW cited an order of Women and Child Development (WCD) order dated April 29 granting it approval of the Lt Governor for the termination of the staff. The services of all the contractual staff appointed at any point in time are discontinued with immediate effect, said the DCW order. Official sources claimed that the contractual staff were recruited against the rules and there were complaints of illegality in the hiring process. A total of 223 contractual posts were created in DCW but 52 staff were engaged with the commission when the WCD had discontinued their service in April this year, they ...
The BJP on Sunday, citing an unverified inventory, alleged that crores of rupees were spent on state-of-the-art household goods including a "missing" hi-tech toilet seat in the 6, Flagstaff Road bungalow which was occupied for over nine years by the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal as Delhi chief minister. Kejriwal after stepping down as the Delhi chief minister vacated the Flagstaff Road bungalow earlier this month. No immediate reaction was available from the Public Works Department (PWD) of the Delhi government which owns and allots the bungalow, on the inventory of items shared by the BJP. The bungalow was allotted to Kejriwal's successor Atishi who has yet to take its possession. Atishi in a press conference replying to the charges of the saffron party said "BJP can keep the house and allot it to any of its leaders. We don't care about the house, bungalow or car. We will work for the people of Delhi, even if we have to work from the street." BJP national IT department head Amit ..
Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on Sunday hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party's government in Delhi saying it has a tendency to lie and shift blame on others for its own shortcomings. He criticised the AAP dispensation for consistently pointing fingers at others "while failing to acknowledge its own failures." Saini's response came after Delhi Chief Minister Atishi, earlier in the day, said the "dirty politics" of the BJP is responsible for growing air and water pollution in the national capital. According to a Haryana government statement released on late Sunday evening, Saini said that the BOD (Biochemical oxygen demand) of the water supplied to Delhi from Haryana is about 2-3 mg per litre. "Apart from this, the BOD of the water supplied to Delhi through the CLC canal is equal to zero. But the Delhi government should tell who is responsible for the pollution in the 28 drains that carry water from the Delhi border to Okhla," Saini said. He said that the AAP government has a .
Delhi Chief Minister Atishi on Sunday said one of the biggest contributors to pollution in the Anand Vihar area is the influx of buses from other states, adding the Delhi government will engage with the Uttar Pradesh government to implement anti-pollution measures at their bus depot near the national capital. She made these remarks while inspecting pollution control measures at the Anand Vihar bus depot along with Environment Minister Gopal Rai. Highlighting the issue, Atishi said, "Anand Vihar, which lies on the Delhi-UP border, remains a hotspot where AQI levels are the highest. This area sees a large influx of buses from outside Delhi, and there is also the Kaushambi bus depot nearby. While Delhi runs CNG and electric buses, the Kaushambi bus depot receives diesel buses. We plan to engage with the UP government to implement pollution control measures there as well. Constructions by the NCRTC and RRTS has also contributed to pollution levels in the area, she said, adding the Delhi
According to the Delhi police, no conclusive statement has been made yet on what caused the blast near the school
The BJP wants to come to power in Delhi not to work for the people but to stop the AAP government's schemes like free electricity, education and healthcare, party supremo Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday. Addressing a party workers' meeting in Pitampura, Kejriwal warned them against infighting saying it could lead to AAP's defeat in the Delhi Assembly polls in February. "Do not care for who is there (in the elections) because Kejriwal will be fighting on all these 70 seats. I will get your work done no matter who is elected as an MLA," he said. Kejriwal said if the BJP comes to power, it will stop all the free schemes including those for electricity, water, bus ride for women, healthcare and education. "My worry is not that AAP may not come to power. I am worried what will happen to the government schools if AAP does not win -- the rates of electricity and water will go up..." Kejriwal claimed. He said works like road repair, old age pension, free medicines at hospitals, Farishtey
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said it may consider fighting the next month's Maharashtra assembly elections on a couple of seats. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is part of the opposition's INDIA bloc. In Maharashtra, three constituents of the INDIA bloc - Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) - are fighting the elections under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) against the ruling Mahayuti alliance. Addressing a press conference at Kudal in Maharashtra's coastal Sindhudurg district on Friday, AAP's Goa unit president Amit Palekar said his party is working on strengthening its base in the Konkan belt, particularly in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts, and also in Kolhapur in western Maharashtra. The party has grown substantially in the Konkan belt, as the local population is looking at alternatives to BJP's Union minister Narayan Rane and his "politics of vendetta", he said. "The AAP stands strongly with the INDIA bloc allies for the November 20 Maharashtra elections but if politic
Senior AAP leader Satyendar Jain, who came out of jail on Friday evening, said in his first reactions that he was arrested to stall the AAP government's projects such as Mohalla Clinics and Yamuna river cleaning. The former Delhi government minister also alleged that he and AAP leaders like Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh were arrested to dissuade common people from joining politics in the country. Jain later on met AAP supremo Kejriwal at his Firozshah Road residence. Jain charged that his arrest was part of an attempt to defame Kejriwal, who is working hard to ensure the government works for the common man and not for a few chosen ones. "We will continue our fight against injustice and work for the common man," Jain told a crowd of AAP leaders and workers outside the Tihar jail after his release. "I was arrested to stop Arvind Kejriwal's work like building mohalla clinics, constructing the highest number of hospital beds in the world in Delhi, working on cleanin
The Delhi government is working on schemes to provide lifelong financial assistance to acid attack survivors for medical procedures, and subsidised transport facilities to school students with benchmark disabilities, officials said on Thursday. The government has also prepared a cabinet note on an assistance scheme for persons with benchmark disabilities who have high support needs, to engage care givers, they said. A person is said to have a benchmark disability if the disability level is 40 per cent or higher. In a recent meeting chaired by Social Welfare Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, officers of the department informed him that a draft scheme of transport subsidy for Delhi school students with benchmark disabilities is under final stages of development, the officials said. It will be soon placed before the minister for his approval, they said. During the meeting, Bharadwaj pointed out that under the current welfare scheme, acid attack survivors are eligible for monthly disability
Our focus is Delhi and we don't want to create further confusion in minds of voters in Maharashtra which could lead to splitting anti-BJP votes, AAP sources said
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday alleged that central government data reveals that stubble burning in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are "major contributors" to air pollution in Delhi. The AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab are the only ones that are reducing pollution and providing relief to the people, party leader Jasmine Shah said in a statement on Wednesday. In the period between October 1-14, Shah claimed that in comparison to last year, there was a 27 per cent reduction in incidents of stubble burning in Punjab this year, while such incidents increased in BJP-ruled UP and Haryana. "From October 1 to 14, (according to) the data from the central government agency Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), 1,105 stubble burning incidents were reported in Punjab. This year, the number has reduced to 811, a 27 per cent decrease in stubble burning incidents in the state," he said. In Haryana, during the same period, there were 341 incidents last year, that increase
He further argued that BJP targeted him and other AAP leader because of their efforts to serve the people of Delhi, specifically citing their work in education and healthcare
The Delhi government on Monday imposed an immediate ban on the production, storage, sale, and use of all kinds of firecrackers across the city, effective until January 1. Reacting to the ban, the Delhi BJP questioned the rationale behind the annual restriction on firecrackers during Diwali and accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of implementing it without presenting any scientific evidence, according to a party statement. Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai made the announcement and urged residents to support the government's efforts to curb air pollution. Rai in a post on X said, "In view of the increasing pollution in winter, a ban has been imposed on the production, storage, sale, and use of firecrackers from today till January 1." "The Delhi government has issued instructions regarding the ban, and we request the cooperation of all Delhiites," he added. The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has issued detailed instructions to ensure the effective implementation of th
This statement came amidst a heated political exchange between Congress President Kharge and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday congratulated National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah for winning the assembly elections and said that he should consult him in case he faces any problem in running a 'half-state' like Jammu and Kashmir. "Omar Abdullah is going to take over as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir in the next few days. I congratulate him for being the chief minister of the INDIA alliance. We will fully support him in running a successful government and hope Jammu and Kashmir treads the path of development under his leadership," Kejriwal. "Delhi is called a half-state because the chief minister had limited powers. Now they (BJP) have also turned J&K into a half state which means an elected government has minimum powers whereas the lieutenant governor has more powers. I want to tell Omar that if he faces any hardship in his work, consult me because I have run the government in Delhi for 10 years," added the former Delhi chief ...