Mumbai:

When a Twitterati asked Kunder: “Is Sonakshi’s role cooler than ‘Dabangg’, please reply,” he wrote back: “YES and she is there through the film.”

Sonakshi, daughter of veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha, was cast opposite Salman Khan in “Dabangg”. She played his love interest in the movie.

In “Joker”, a 3D project, Sonakshi will be seen opposite Akshay Kumar.

Mumbai:

The SBI scrip closed the day at Rs.2,257.80 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), down 7.91 percent from Tuesday’s close of Rs.2,451.75. It had fallen over 8.55 percent in intra-day trade to a low of Rs.2,242.

Media reports had claimed that a consortium of banks led by the SBI has agreed to provide Rs.1,650 crore as interim relief for the Vijay Mallya-promoted airline.

According to these reports, the SBI’s contribution towards this funding package will be around Rs.1,200 crore. The SBI management, however, declined to comment on the issue, citing client confidentiality.

SBI had, in fact, classified loans given to Kingfisher Airlines as non-performing asset (NPA) in the third quarter of the current fiscal.

“Out of the total fresh slippages (Rs.8,161 crore), as much as one-fourth or one-fifth has come from a single company. So, if you look at the total slippages (net increase) of Rs.6,152 crore, one company alone accounted for around Rs.1,500 crore,” SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri had then said without naming the airline.

The news about a possible SBI-backed bailout started after SBI Caps, the investment banking arm of the lender which is appointed by Kingfisher to prepare restructuring plans for its debt of around Rs.7,000 crore, presented a proposal to a consortium of banks including IDBI bank, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank.

The cash-strapped airline is facing difficulties in sustaining its operations due to seizure of its bank accounts by the Income Tax department, exodus of pilots, cabin crew and lack of operating funds to carry on the operations.

It has cancelled around 180-200 flight operations since Feb 18.

The scrip of the airline closed in the day’s trade 6.53 percent down at Rs.25.05 from Tuesday’s close of Rs.26.80.

The airline has reported a loss of Rs.444 crore in the third quarter of the current fiscal.

Shimla:

Dhumal told reporters in his home constituency Hamirpur that Ram will be sworn in Thursday in Shimla.

Party insiders said Dhumal, who has not appointed a forest minister after J.P. Nadda’s elevation as party’s national general secretary in 2010, might allocate forest portfolio to Ram, a close confidant of Dhumal.

There will also be a possibility of reshuffling of portfolios of some ministers, they said.

Currently, Dhumal holds more than 10 portfolios, including finance, home, forest, general administration, tourism and excise and taxation.

The party leaders said Dhumal had already held consultations with the party’s central leadership including former chief minister Shanta Kumar and party chief Nitin Gadkari about the cabinet expansion.

The party two days ago appointed Satpal Singh Satti, a second-time legislator from Una, new state president replacing Ram.

Ram is a two-time legislator from Banjar in Kullu district.

Assembly polls will be held in the hill state towards the end of this year.

Mumbai:

Police detained Saif and his friends Bilal Amrohi and actress Amrita Arora’s husband Shakeel Ladak at the Marine Drive police station, and later brought them to the Colaba police station. The interrogation of the trio – about the incident early Wednesday at the Taj Mahal Hotel in which Saif is accused of assaulting South African NRI businessman Iqbal Sharma – lasted one hour.

They were formally arrested and then given bail on personal bonds of Rs.3,000 each.

According to sources, Shakeel Ladak is said to have hit Sharma’s father-in-law in the scuffle.

Shakeel and Bilal’s lawyer Mahesh Vaswani told IANS: “Iqbal and his group of people were passing comments on the girls (who were part of Saif’s group), and that started the incident.”

On his part, Saif said he had only “defended” himself after being “assaulted”.

“There was an ugly incident last night (Tuesday) where my friends and the ladies with us were abused and I was assaulted. I was hit and I defended myself,” Saif said in a statement.

“I have been to the police station to answer the requirements of law as I am a law abiding citizen. I have also filed a complaint about what happened last night and I am confident justice will be done,” he added.

A battery of top police officers were waiting for the actor at the Colaba police station, besides the media and scores of fans.

In the afternoon, police sent a team to Saif’s house and after failing to locate him there, had ordered him to appear before them as early as possible.

Saif was virtually declared ‘wanted’ when he went incommunicado after assaulting Sharma, who is also the director general and CEO of the Trade, Industry & Investments of South Africa.

The actor has been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly assaulting Sharma in the Taj Mahal Hotel around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning. Police said a case of assault had been registered at the Colaba police station.

Police are also questioning staff at the hotel and examining the CCTV footage.

Legal experts that the offences for which Saif has been booked are bailable.

Sharma told TimesNow television that Saif called him an “idiot” for complaining about the actor’s loud conduct at a restaurant in the Taj Mahal Hotel.

He said he and his family had requested the restaurant manager to ask Saif and his friends, which included Kareena, Amrita Arora and Malaika Arora Khan, to keep their voices down.

Sharma said he and his family decided to move to another part of the restaurant downstairs.

“As we were going down the stairs, Saif was coming up, probably from the toilet. As he passed me, he called me an idiot and asked ‘Do you know who I am?’”

Sharma said the actor first pushed him and then assaulted his father-in-law who fell on the stairs and bruised his jaw.

“It was an uncivilized way to behave in a public space,” Sharma said, adding that he intended to pursue the matter legally.

A police officer confirmed that Sharma and his guests had objected to the noise created by Saif and his friends.

The incident occurred shortly after midnight Tuesday.

Saif has been involved in public spats earlier too, including some photojournalists in Patiala in September 2008.

The actor has won the Padma Shri award, which did not go down well with the Bishnoi community in Rajasthan as he is accused of killing a blackbuck — an animal the Bishnois hold sacred. Saif was charged with poaching as the blackbuck is on the endangered list.

Panaji:

Police said that the the shell had been recovered by a dredger vessel used by port authorities to dredge the channel of the Mormugao Port Trust (MPT).

“The dredger had sucked in the shell along with the silt and dirt on the river bed and had emptied the dredged material in a container. The workers saw the copper shell of the unused shell in the debris and tried to salvage the copper, thinking they would sell it as scrap,” a police official said, adding that the explosion occurred when the yard workers tried to cut it open.

“Naval officials also visited the blast site and have requested that the exploded shell should be sent to them for further examination,” a shipyard official said.

Karnal (Haryana):

The LKG student, Pankaj, died at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) in Rohtak Sunday night where he was admitted last month.

In its complaint to Karnal police, the family of the victim alleged that Pankaj was traumatised by the punishment given to him by his teacher at the Rajkul government school near Gharounda town.

The teacher had allegedly punished the small boy by locking him inside a dark room of the school Dec 27 for not doing his homework. After the school got over, the teacher left the campus and the boy was found unconscious by his elder brother who came looking for him inside the locked room.

Suffering from trauma, the boy stopped eating properly and soon fell ill. He was taken to hospital and later brought to PGIMS Rohtak where he died Sunday, family members said.

“We are seeking action against the teacher and school authorities. How can a small boy be treated like this simply for not doing his homework,” asked Dilbagh Singh, a relative.

A police official in Karnal said a complaint had been received from the family and investigations were on.

New Delhi:

Ruling out any punitive action against the airline at this point of time, the Director General of Civil Aviation said it does not want the customers to be affected and, therefore, has asked the airline to come up with a revised schedule not later by tomorrow (Wednesday).

At the Bombay Stock Exchange, the shares of the airline were 7.33 percent lower to trade at Rs.24.65 around 1.40 p.m.

Kingfisher has virtually shut down its flights from Kolkata and brought down frequencies on several of its sectors, rendering many passengers stranded or opting for other carriers in spite of the last minute tickets costing a lot more.

On being asked about the airline’s inability to pay its staff, DGCA E.K. Bharat Bhushan said: “I have been assured by the management that the December salaries will be paid by the end of February and by March 20 they will be able to clear the salary and arrears of January.”

Kingfisher, on its part, said it hoped to increase the number of flights in the next few days.

“Most of the flights cancelled in the last few days will be in action in next four to five days,” said Sanjay Aggarwal, chief executive of the Vijay Mallya-promoted carrier.

Chandigarh:

Chandigarh police, which have a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the immigration fraud being played on youth by immigration firms in and around this city, have conducted raids on the sprawling headquarters of the WWICS in Mohali near here and other offices of the firm in recent days.

Police claim to have found that WWICS had been running its business ‘illegally’ since it had no licence from the Protector of Emigrants (POE) since 2008.

But a WWICS spokesman said: “The services provided by WWICS are not under the ambit and not amenable to the provisions of The Emigration Act, 1983. We are working in a transparent manner since 1993 and have built the trust and confidence of the people.”

The first raid on WWICS was at its office here in Sector 22 on Feb 2 along with 19 other immigration firms in the city. The offices of all firms were sealed by police and documents and records taken away for investigations.

“WWICS is a big name in this field. We did our complete homework before raiding their premises. Serious anomalies in their business were found during investigations. They have been fooling people for a long time. Investigations are still being made from their records and the people they have sent abroad without having the licence to do so,” SIT head Anil Joshi said here.

As per the WWICS website, “established in 1993, the WorldWide Immigration Consultancy Services is the world leader in providing Global Resettlement Solutions, which is vouched by more than 80,000 people who have happily settled in their dream destinations like Canada, USA, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand”.

WWICS is a family-run company, owned by B.S. Sandhu, a retired army officer who had himself migrated to Canada before coming back to India to start the immigration business here. His two sons, Devinder Sandhu and Parvinder Sandhu, are directors in the company.

WWICS and its promoters have been in controversies earlier over immigration cases and land dealings. A golf resort set up by the company in a forested area near Chandigarh was declared illegal by the Supreme Court a few years ago. The company is now into education and real estate as well.

WWICS chairman and managing director B.S. Sandhu said earlier in a statement: “WWICS India does not deal in work permits for any country at all and thus does not fall under the purview of labour licence requirement under the Act. The same details have been submitted to the senior superintendent of police, Chandigarh.”

Hundreds of people, especially youth, from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh seek immigration to other countries, especially the US, Canada, Britain, Australia and others, every year.

Scores of immigration firms and agents operate across Punjab and Chandigarh to cater to the immigration demand, both legal and illegal, from the region.

Joshi claimed that the SIT had found “incriminating” evidence against the activities of WWICS in sending youth abroad. “They do not possess any licence and it is in direct contravention of the provisions of the Emigration Act 1983,” Joshi claimed.

WWICS had initially ‘objected’ to the police raids on their offices, saying their activities and business were “legal”. The firm, which has scores of staffers, had failed to provide any licence to the police.

The Chandigarh-based POE, which is under the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, has pointed out that immigration companies prefer to have their offices in Chandigarh.

“The agents are very clever. Using fancy names they open their offices in Chandigarh to lure immigration seekers. Many people think that an immigration company having its office in Chandigarh should be genuine,” POE Paresh Malakar said.

New Delhi:

“I have never said Mayawati is stone-hearted or Sonia Gandhi has no heart. A report attributing these words to me is false,” Sushma Swaraj wrote on social networking site Twitter adding that all her speeches were recorded and that she could never use such words.

According to media reports, addressing an election meeting in Uttar Pradesh’s Jalaun recently, the BJP leader had said that Mayawati’s expenditure of people’s money on memorials and parks proved that she was a stone-hearted woman.

Srinagar:

“The seniormost commander of LeT in the Valley, Abu Ukasha Badar, was killed in the gunfight with the security forces today (Tuesday),” Sopore’s Superintendent of Police Syed Imtiyaz Hussain told IANS.

A soldier was also injured in the gunfight, he added.

Hussain also said that Badar, a Pakistani national, earlier acted as the deputy of the LeT chief commander, Abdullah Uni, who was killed last year in a gunfight with the security forces in Sopore town.

Security forces had earlier Tuesday surrounded a house in the bypass road area of the town following information about the presence of guerrillas inside.

“As the surrounding security forces challenged the holed-up militant to surrender, he opened fire at the troops resulting in injury to a soldier,” the superintendent of police said.

The killing of the LeT commander is seen as a major success by the security forces in their operations against the guerrillas in the Valley.

The house in which the guerrilla was hiding was destroyed in the exchange of gunfire between the security forces and the guerrilla.

Sopore has been the hotbed of separatist violence during the last 22 years. It was to fight the guerrilla presence in the area that Sopore was declared a separate police district four years ago.