Uttam Khobragade, the retired Indian Administrative Service officer and father of senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade who returned to India last week after being indicted for visa fraud in the United States, on Wednesday said he would contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The Central Bureau of Investigation is likely to file chargesheet against diplomat Devyani Khobragade and her father Uttam Khobragade in the Adarsh Housing scam for allegedly acquiring a flat on the basis of false affidavit.
Senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who returned to India last week after being indicted for visa fraud in the United States, arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday.
PM Modi had in the past rejected requests from some ministers for appointment of secretaries who were considered close to them.
The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed diplomat Devyani Khobragade's father Uttam Khobragade, a former Indian Administrative Service officer, for calling Marathi media casteist after being confronted with a query about her flat in the controversial Adarsh housing society.
Uttam Khobragade, former IAS officer and father of Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, on Satyurday alleged her daughter's former maid Sangeeta Richards could be a "CIA agent".
'While the Khobragade affair has "upset and diverted attention, it does not mean there is a fundamental flaw in the US-India relationship",' former American envoy Frank Wisner tells Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa.
Even as efforts are underway for resolution of the row involving Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, her father on Tuesday led a protest march outside the American consulate in Mumbai, terming the United States administration's action against her as "illegal".
This is not the first time IFS officer Devyani Khobragade has found herself under the scanner, says Neeta Kolhatkar.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's father Uttam Khobragade today said here that re-indictment of his daughter clearly showed that the prosecutor had "no respect" for their own law.
Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat who is at the centre of a diplomatic row with the United States, is one of the 25 allottees who have been found ineligible to own a flat in the controversial Adarsh Housing society by a judicial panel which probed the scam.
The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking demanded on Thursday that the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission revoke the licence of Reliance Energy (REL) and give BEST the right to supply power to Mumbai suburbs. At present, REL caters to the suburban areas and BEST a major part of the city. In fact, MERC had asked both BEST and REL to sign power purchase agreements with TPC.
A gunman, hailing from Bihar, who had come to the city to pass on a message to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray, was gunned down by police in an exchange of fire after he kept a conductor of Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) bus hostage near Bailbazaar area in the eastern suburb of Kurla.
The worms were detected in Elferri capsules, manufactured by a Goan company. The FDA has initiated a probe.
The presence of ants was detected at Alibag in Maharashtra and subsequently a complaint was lodged with the Food and Drug Administration authorities.
The father of the Indian woman diplomat, arrested on visa fraud charges in New York, on Tuesday met Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and was assured of the government's support.
The Khobragade family is relieved that their daughter will be back in India on Friday and believes that the US grand jury verdict that indicts her on charges of visa fraud and submission of false documents is meaningless because it is based on false charges.
The parties which lost their registration also include Revolutionary Party of India-Khobragade faction, led by Uttam Khobragade and Uttar Pradesh-based Peace Party.
'How can Devyani sitting in New York and I in Mumbai arm-twist the maid's family?' Uttam Khobragade challenges Preet Bharara's version of events in this interview to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
In a strong retaliation, India on Tuesday initiated a slew of steps to strip US diplomats and their families of privileges including withdrawing all airport passes and stopping import clearances for the US embassy, terming as "barbaric" the arrest and strip searching of India's Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade.
'The CIA would not need to engage a maid who has no access to any information. They can buy a politician in India for much lesser cost and have more access to information. Trust me, that happens,' Amar Bhushan, former head of R&AW's counter-espionage section, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
'A senior US diplomat last week asked me when things will go back to normal. I had to tell her that if normalcy meant getting back these perks, it is not going to happen for a very long time, if ever at all,' says Mohan Guruswamy. 'For the Indian public now is outraged that US diplomats have enjoyed all these winking at the rulebook.'
Omkeshwar Singh, Head, Rank MF, a mutual fund investment platform, answers your queries.
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