Union law and justice minister Veerappa Moily on Thursday clarified that the name of former telecom minister A. Raja did not figure in the letter written by the former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan to him in August 2009. “I wrote to the then Chief Justice of India Justice Balakrishnan to which he responded. The name of any minister did not figure in the correspondence. This is a matter of fact. There is no controversy at all,” Mr Moily clarified.

Welcoming the Supreme Court move to monitor and widen the scope of probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the government on Thursday launched a counter attack on the Opposition saying their demand for a JPC was to delay investigations into 2G policy since 2001.

Welcoming the Supreme Court’s directives to the CBI and ED to carry out investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the main Opposition BJP on Thursday however, reiterated its demand for a JPC probe into the scam. The party clarified that Supreme Court’s directives have not diluted its stand favouring a JPC and contended that while the CBI would only investigate the “criminal conduct,” a JPC would look into all aspects of the scam.

The raids carried out by the CBI in connection with the 2G spectrum scam case on Wednesday has indicated that the suspects could have tried to cover their tracks by deleting information from the hard disks before the probe agency could seize them. According to sources, the CBI, in its raids carried out in New Delhi, Tamil Nadu and

Corruption and coalitions have become relevant once again in the changing political scenario and are likely to dominate the 83rd Congress plenary session being held here on Sunday (December 19).

Blaming the media for blowing out of proportion his claim of talking to slain police officer Hemant Karkare AICC, general secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday said, his comments were not new and were in consistence with his earlier remarks. He, however, insisted that it is not secret that the police officer, who was killed during 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, was under “threat from Hindu fundamentalist”.

The Gurgaon police is planning to launch autorickshaws exclusively for women on a pilot basis to ensure that women feel safe while on the move. The proposal comes in wake of the gangrape of a BPO employee in New Delhi on November 24.

A 24-year-old labourer accidentally fell from the sixth floor of an under-construction hotel near IGI airport area on Thursday morning and died.
According to the police, the incident occurred at around 11.30 am in Mahipalpur where the building of IBIA, a five star hotel, is being erected by a leading private building construction company. The police has registered a case of negligence against the construction company.

The hearing on the Blueline bus phaseout in the Delhi high court was adjourned till December 21. On Wednesday, the high court had refused to give Blueline bus operators any relief.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit targeted the firms involved in various Commonwealth Games-related projects on Thursday saying that they compromised on quality despite being paid heavily. “Some of the ‘best’ firms involved in Commonwealth Games projects had cut corners with quality despite having taken ‘so much money’,” she said.