Graft cases filed against Maneka

New Delhi: The CBI has filed two cases against Maneka Gandhi on charges of forgery, cheating and corruption.

Maneka, her sister and four others are accused of diverting funds from the Maulana Azad Educational Foundation when she was social justice and empowerment minister in the NDA government.

Both cases were filed after a preliminary inquiry registered on November 14 last year, a CBI spokesman said.

In one case, the manager of the Alp Sankhyak Mridul Girls’ Inter-College Shiksha Samiti at Pilibhit had applied to the Maulana Azad foundation for a grant of Rs 42 lakh on April 12, 1999. The application enclosed details of teachers and students in the school running for three years. All the documents submitted were “false and forged”, the spokesman said. No school was running at the time.

The samiti was sanctioned Rs 15 lakh on October 22, 1999, at a meeting of the governing body presided by Maneka , the spokesman said.

In the second case, the CBI found that the Gandhi Rural Welfare Trust was registered on March 8, 2000, with Ambika as chairperson and one of her friends as managing trustee. The friend wrote to Maneka claiming falsely that the trust was involved for a long time in social work and requesting five acres for a nursing college. She forwarded the letter to the Pilibhit district magistrate on March 21 and a plot was selected.

An application was made on January 2, 2001, to the Maulana Azad foundation for Rs 218 lakh to set up the nursing college. At a meeting in 2001 presided over by Maneka, Rs 50 lakh was sanctioned.

AIIMS case

New Delhi: Delhi High Court has extended the stay on the termination of services of AIIMS director P. Venugopal till November 7.

The Centre had accused Venugopal of among other things, actively patronising anti-reservation protests by resident doctors on the AIIMS premises.

Monica trial

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has directed that the trial of gangster Abu Salem’s girlfriend Monica Bedi, accused in a forged passport case, be completed within two months. Bedi is being tried at a Hyderabad court.

Mid-sea mishap

Chennai: Five Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were killed at mid-sea on Thursday while crossing over to the Indian side of the territorial waters off Rameswaram coast. The five included two women, two girls and a man. They were swept away by tall waves.

India has a record 31,650 petrol pumps and 9,270 LPG distribution agencies. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 3,861 petrol stations, followed by Maharashtra which has 3,024 pumps.