Slipper thrown at Kalmadi in court premises

New Delhi, Apr 26 (ANI): A slipper was thrown at former Delhi Commonwealth Games chief Suresh Kalmadi while he was being taken to the Patiala House court in Delhi today.

Kalmadi was surrounded by a group of policemen when a man tried to hit him with his slipper.

The man who threw the slipper is Suresh Thakur from Madhya Pradesh, according to the police.

He was immediately detained and was taken away for questioning.

Kalmadi did not lose his smile through the incident. He is being produced in court today after being arrested yesterday by the CBI for alleged corruption.

He has been accused of criminal conspiracy while handing an inflated contract to a Swiss company that provided for timing scorekeeping equipment for the Games.

The Congress has suspended Kalmadi, who is also a Lok Sabha MP of the party.

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Cong not worried as DMK calls meet on 2G charge sheet

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) The Congress today appeared confident that ally DMK will not take any drastic action at its crucial meeting to be held tomorrow in the wake of the CBI naming Tamil NaduChief Minister M Karunanidhi''s daughter Kanimozhi in the 2G scam charge sheet.

"We are not worried", a senior Congress leader, who did not wish to be identified, said, noting that the development was the result of the investigation by the CBI which has already arrested former Telecom Minister A Raja in the case.

Party spokesperson Manish Tewari also dismissed as "illusion" the suggestions about strain in Congress'' ties with the DMK following the developments in the 2G case and said the UPA government was "fully stable".

"The UPA government is fully stable. If anybody is living in the illusion or flying the kites of imagination, it will be correct for him to clear his misgivings," Tewari said in Delhi.

The DMK top brass would discuss ways to handle the new situation arising out of the CBI naming Kanimozhi as co-conspirator in the scam, taking it to the doors of DMK''s first family for the first time.

Since Kanimozhi''s name appeared in the charge sheet yesterday, Congress has been dismissing any threat to the UPA Government in view of the CBI action.

The new development has put additional strain on the DMK-Congress ties in a span of just two months. Earlier, the Dravidian party had threatened to pull out its ministers over seat-sharing talks for Tamil Nadu Assembly polls.

The DMK is the third largest constituent of the UPA after Congress and Trinamool Congress and has 18 members in the Lok Sabha.

The DMK is apparently miffed at the "publicity exercise of gargantuan proportions" given to CBI questioning Kanimozhi, Karunanidhi''s wife Dayaluammal and Sharad Kumar, all stakeholders in Kalaignar TV, which is in an eye of storm for receiving loans from DB Realty in a "circuitous route."

According to DMK sources, the Dravidian party is unlikely to do anything that would precipitate matters with Congress particularly at a time when results of the Assembly polls will be out on May 13.

A senior Congress leader said that as a political party the DMK will understand that these issues need to be fought politically and legally and "mere submission of a charge sheet does not prove one guilty".

Indian names in Swiss bank data list : Assange

New Delhi, April 26 (PTI) In comments that could fuel a fresh controversy over the black money issue, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange today said there are Indian names in the Swiss bank data list that are going to be made public.

"Yes, there are Indian names in the data that we have already published or are going to publish. I can''t remember specifically whether there are Indian names in the coming publication. But I have read Indian names," Assange told Times Now.

Indicating that there are bigwigs among the Indians having their accounts in Swiss banks, he said, "Similarly, in these private Swiss banking concerns, where you need at least a million dollar, which is a significant amount of money...not an average Indian..."

Asked whether the names will come at any point, he said on "that, you should absolutely not loose hope".

He, however, declined to reveal anything more on the issue at this stage.

Noting that he has come to know through a report that there are more Indian deposits in the Swiss banks than any other nationality, Assange said, "there is no reason why India should not be aggressive."

Praising German government for its aggressive approach to unearth black money stashed offshore, he said that India "should be more aggressive because India seems like it is loosing per capita much more tax than Germany."

Assange alleged that Indian government''s response to the WikiLeaks cables was "one of the worst in the world" and a "clear attempt to mislead the nation on what the cables were".

He said that response by the Indian government left a lot to be desired.

Assange also dismissed contention of the Indian government that accords on double taxation were coming in the way of tracking the trail of black money.

"Double taxation does not have anything to do with asset hiding. It doesn''t simply cover asset hiding," he said.

Assange said that issue of stashing blackmoney in foreign banks was much worse than just local corruption as when money is pushed offshore, ".....then everytime they are selling rupees and the result is that the currency of the nation is debased...everything for all Indians become more expensive as a result of that transfer."

Assange had earlier claimed that he was handed over documents of bank accounts by a former banker Rudolf Elmer and the whistleblower also claimed that the names in the documents came from "US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia -- from all over," and include "business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates -- from both sides of the Atlantic".

Why Gill and Sports ministry officials not questioned:Kalmadi

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) Suresh Kalmadi''s lawyer today wondered why CBI was not questioning the former Sports Minister M S Gill and other officials in the CWG scam as the ultimate decision on TSR contract in the Commonwealth Games were taken by them.

Advocate Hitesh Jain, who appeared for Kalmadi along with Amit Desai, told reporters

after the days proceedings, "all the decisions were taken by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and the then minister M S Gill. No summons have been issued to them to join the investigation."

"No officials of the ministry has been called by the CBI to record their statement," Jain said.

Rising prices might push millions of Indians into poverty: ADB

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) Rising food prices in India might push millions of people into extreme poverty, multilateral lending agency the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has warned in a report released today.

According to the report titled ''Global Food Price Inflation and Developing Asia'', a 10 per cent increase in food prices will push as many as 23 million Indians living in the rural area and 6.68 million in the urban zone below poverty line at USD 1.25 (around Rs 55.65) earnings a day.

It added that a 20 per cent rise in food prices will push 45.64 million in rural areas and 13.36 million living in cities into extreme poverty.

In case of a 30 per cent surge in food prices, a whopping 68.45 million rural people and 20.04 million urban people would be affected.

These findings come amid last week''s Planning Commission''s preliminary data that India''s poverty is estimated to have declined to 32 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per cent five years ago.

Food inflation in India remained in double digits for greater part of last fiscal. Though it has shown signs of moderation since March, it is still hovering above the government''s comfort level of 5-6 per cent growth.

India''s headline inflation has remained above 8 per cent since February 2010. Overall inflation in March stood at 8.98 per cent, above the government''s projection of 8 per cent.

Some countries (such as China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Thailand) are fighting inflation through tighter monetary policy.

"To the extent that inflationary pressures are supply driven, as in 2007�2008, higher interest rates may be less effective in controlling it," the report said.

RBI has increased its lending rates eight times since March 2010 to check inflation. The central bank is also expected to raise the short-term lending (repo) rate by 25 basis points in the annual credit policy on May 3.

The report, however, commended India''s increasing investment in agriculture to bolster productivity and keep food prices in check.

In recent months, food price inflation has reached double digits in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam, the report said.

Resurgent food prices are also likely to dampen growth prospects for the Asian economies.

"In India, Indonesia, and Malaysia, in particular, the adverse effects of the increase in global food prices in 2011 tend to take a larger toll on GDP growth in 2012 rather than in 2011," the report said.

As per the report, if the global food and oil price hikes seen in early 2011 persist for the remainder of the year, economic growth in the region could be reduced by up to 1.5 percentage points.

CWG scam: Kalmadi sent to eight-day police custody

New Delhi, Apr 26 (ANI): Sacked Commonwealth Games (CWG) Organizing Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi was on Tuesday sent to police custody for eight days.

Kalmadi was on Monday arrested by CBI on charges of cheating, conspiracy and corruption for his alleged role in the AM Films and Swiss Time scams.

The arrest order was carried out after the CBI had questioned Kalmadi extensively on the two incidents, particularly on the documents relating to the two deals.

The CBI had earlier asked Kalmadi to appear before it on Monday to clarify some new issues, which surfaced during the visit of the agency's officials to London in connection with Queen's Baton Relay scam.

Kalmadi had earlier expressed his inability to appear before the CBI citing his foreign visit, saying he would return home only after April 19. But even after returning from his visit abroad, he did not turn up before the sleuths, saying he was still not in Delhi, sources said.

Kalmadi has been accused of sanctioning payments to AM Films and AM Car at rates that were hugely inflated.

The AM Car and Van Hire Company in London was engaged during Queen's Baton Relay in 2009 to provide services like taxis for the guests and OC members. The AM films was hired to provide display monitors during the event.

Kalmadi's aides had earlier justified hiring AM Films and AM Car by saying other bids were not competitive, but now the CBI has found that the names of other bidders given by Kalmadi, were all forged and fake. (ANI)