DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 WITH SOME of its high-profile money laundering proceedings falling in court, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has decided not to rely solely on “criminal conspiracy” as the “predicate offence” based on which it registers such cases — it should also include the offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) related to that conspiracy, The Indian Express has learnt. According to sources, instructions regarding this decision have been “passed on” by ED Director Rahul Navin to the agency's officers. The PMLA schedule covers close to 150 primaryoffences,rangingfromcorruption to tax evasion and even violations of the Wild Life Act. The latest move follows recent “setbacks” in such cases, includingtwothatweredismissed by the Supreme Court: one against Congress leader and KarnatakaDeputyChief Minister D K Shivakumar, and another against a retired IAS officer who had served under Congress leader and Chhattisgarh ex-CM Bhupesh Baghel. A “predicate offence” here refers to the criminal activity mentionedinaprimaryFIRregistered by another agency on whichtheEDcaseisbased.Under PMLA, the ED can register a case onlyonthebasisof anFIRfiledby an investigative agency, such the CBI,statepoliceor,insomecases, even the IT department. “There is no point in facing setbacks in court after working PM VISIT: BOTH SIDES CONDEMN CROSS-BORDER TERROR India,Kuwaitboostties:Strategic partnership,keypactondefence Modi gets Kuwait's highest honour, ‘The Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer’ CASES DISMISSED DIVYA A NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 ■ Karnataka Dy CM and Congress leader D K Shivakumar booked in 2018 in money laundering case for alleged tax evasion, arrested in 2019. SC dismissed case, said “question of whether 120B IPC can constitute a predicate standalone offence to enable ED to invoke PMLA has already been decided...” ■ Chhattisgarh liquor scam case against IAS officer Anil Tuteja was quashed by SC “as there is no scheduled offence”. “If there are no proceeds of crime, obviously offence under section 3 of PMLA is not made out,” the SC ruled. The ED later registered a fresh case. hard on cases. The Supreme Court has made it clear that IPC section 120B cannot be construed as a standalone predicate offence under the PMLA. What the apex court says is the law. So, instructions to that effect have been passed on,” a senior ED official said. In the past few years, the ED has proceeded with some highprofilecaseswheretherewasno predicate offence barring 120B. But the courts, including the Supreme Court, have subsequently ruled that section 120B CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi being awarded ‘The Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer’ by Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Sunday. PTI 81 109 133 80 FORMER INDIA HOCKEY CAPTAIN PAGE 11 FORGED SALE deeds with Portuguese-eracalligraphy,dead men and women shown as sellers, and a village that woke up to discover that half the homes there had changed hands. This is how a land-grabbing racket unfolded in Goa, all under the nose of — and possibly in connivance with — government officials. These are among the findings of a Commission of Inquiry, which the Goa government formed twoyearsagotolookintodozens of such cases, The Indian Express LAND GRAB: THE MODUS OPERANDI ■ Vacant, dilapidated properties or those occupied by owners with common Goan names were identified ■ Ownership, title info from government offices, other sources were obtained ■ Fake, forged sale deeds written in Portuguese- era style calligraphy were prepared ■ Forged sale deeds were inserted in official records, allegedly in connivance with staff of Directorate of Archives & Archaeology ■ Certified copies of fake sale deeds were obtained from Directorate of Archives and Archaeology Ahead of Delhi polls, AAP to start doorstep MOHALI BUILDING COLLAPSE enrolment for women, Among two dead was techie who elderly schemes today returned to gym to get his phone EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 AAP VOLUNTEERS and leaders will move from home to home across Delhi from Monday to registerpeoplefortwostategovernmentschemes—theMukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana and Sanjeevani Yojana — which the party believes can be the gamechanger in the upcoming Assembly elections. Announcing the launch of the registration campaign Sunday, AAP leader and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal unveiled prototypes of two cards — one yellow and the other blue. The Mukhya Mantri Mahila Samman Yojana, under which non-taxpayingwomenuptothe age of 60 will be given Rs 1,000 per month, was announced as part of the Delhi government’s Budget in March this year but is yet to be implemented. Earlier this month, Kejriwal announced that if AAP is voted back to power in the elections, expected CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E WITH A “strategic partnership”, India and Kuwait have given new momentum to bilateral ties. Kuwait is among India’s top trading partners, with bilateral trade valued at US$ 10.47 billion in 2023-24. The Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in Kuwait. Thetwosidesinstitutionalised defence cooperation through an overarching agreement that includes training, exchange of personnelandexperts,jointexercises, supplyofdefenceequipment,and collaboration in research and development, among others. Besides defence, three other MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding)wereinkedtofacilitatecooperationintheareasof sports, culture and solar energy. Modi invited a delegation comprising the Kuwaiti Investment Authority and other CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Not possible without connivance of Archives dept staff, says inquiry panel PANAJI, DECEMBER 22 ‘A goalpost never talks back, it just listens... I’ve been guarding it for 24 years, it’s a great bond’ P R SREEJESH AS PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah held their first bilateral meeting on Sunday, the two countrieselevatedtheirrelationship to a “strategic partnership” and signalled that trade and defence cooperation would form the key pillars of their ties. This came on the day that Kuwait conferred its highest honour — ‘The Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer’—onModiforhisrole in strengthening the relations between the two countries. Modi arrived in Kuwait on Saturday for a two-day visit — the first by an Indian PM in 43 years. The last Indian PM to visit Kuwait was Indira Gandhi in 1981.Modiwasaccompaniedby External Affairs Minister S JaishankarandNationalSecurity Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval. Besides the Amir, Modi also met Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-KhaledAl-HamadAl-Mubarak Al-Sabah, who hosted a banquet in his honour, and held delegation-level talks with Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. The next ● level A Goa scam unravels: Portuguese-era land papers forged, properties ‘sold’ by dead PAVNEET SINGH CHADHA 23/12/2024 `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 EXPLAINED As key cases fall in courts, ED to staff: No PMLA on basis of conspiracy alone REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES SC DISMISSED TWO HIGH-PROFILE CASES ● JAGDEEP SINGH DEEP MOHALI, DECEMBER 22 ABHISHEK DHANWAL, a 30year-old IT professional, was workingoutinthegymSaturday eveningwhenhistrainernoticed cracks rapidly developing on the walls and alerted him. He and others rushed out of the building. Within moments, Abhishek realised that he had left behind his cellphone and ran back to fetchit,hisfriendstoldhisfather. OnSundaymorning,Inderpal CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 has learnt. Significantly,theCommission suggestedthatsuchanoperation was “not possible without the connivance of the Archives (department) staff”, but observed thataSpecialInvestigationTeam (SIT) probing the cases is yet to investigate this aspect. After a series of complaints came to light, the Goa government formed an SIT on June 15, 2022,toinvestigatecasesofillegal land transfer and land grabbing using forged documents. The SIT probed 44 FIRs involving more than 100 properties — nearly 1.5 lakhsqmetreofland—andmade CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 P13 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ‘IF IT IS BUSINESS AS USUAL, VIKSIT BHARAT BY 2047 WILL NOT HAPPEN’ RAGHURAM RAJAN FORMER RBI GOVERNOR EXPLAINED LOOKING AT 2025: POLITICS At the site of the incident in Sohana, Sunday. Kamleshwar Singh LANDSCAPEOFRIFTS ANDCHALLENGES P7 Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge with Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah at an event in Kalaburagi, Sunday. X/@kharge Change in poll rules part of conspiracy to destroy integrity of EC, says Cong EC not consulting all, undermining multi-party democracy: Opp parties ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 22 CUTTING ACROSS party lines, the Opposition on Sunday criticised the Centre for amending the Conduct of Election Rules to limit public inspection of election papers to only those documents specified in the provisions. While the Congress called it part of a “systematic conspiracy to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commissionof India”,otherslike the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Left parties accused the EC of “undermining multi-party democracy” by taking “unilateral” decisions without consulting all political parties. Earlier, Rule 93 (2) (a) of the 1961 Conduct of Election Rules stated that “all other papers re- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY lating to the election shall be open to public inspection”. The amended version of the rule now states: “all other papers as specified in these rules relating to the election shall be open to public inspection.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AN EXPRESS SERIES - PART I Cyber crimes go up by 350% in Mumbai; Rs 1,200 crore lost in 11 months this year VIJAY KUMAR YADAV MUMBAI, DECEMBER 22 AN UNPRECEDENTED rise in cybercrimeshasgrippedMumbai, with citizens losing a staggering Rs1,181 crore in just 11 months this year — marking an alarming 350 per cent increase in such cases compared to that in 2023. More alarming is the trend of the frauds withasharprisein incidents of investment fraud, task job frauds and digital arrest in the first six months of 2024. According to RTI data (till June 2024), while investment fraud or share trading fraud amount jumped nearly 25 times from Rs 7.76 crore in 2023 to Rs 191 crore till June this year in the city, the task job fraud amount stood at Rs 36.89 crore till June, asagainstRs40.77crorein2023. On December 10, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar informed the Lok Sabha that the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, launched in 2021 alongside the 1930 helplineforcitizenstoreportonline cyber crimes, had received over 9.9 lakh complaints nationwide since its inception. According to data from the Mumbai Police, 77,331 of thesecomplaints— nearly eight per cent of the national total — were from Mumbai, a city that represents just one per cent of India’s population. The 1930 helpline also has seenasignificantincreaseincalls from the city. As of November 2024,over5lakhcallsweremade to the helpline, compared to just 91,000callsin2023.Whilenotall of these calls were made by victims of fraud — many were from peoplewhohadbeenapproached CYBER CLAWS CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 As road ends for Kolkata’s iconic yellow cabs, drivers face uncertain future PAGE 1 ANCHOR ATRI MITRA & SWEETY KUMARI KOLKATA, DECEMBER 22 FOR THE past 15 years, Bijoy Shaw, a 50-year-old taxi driver from Kolkata’s Park Circus area, has been following a routine. At 6.30 each morning, he drives his yellow Ambassador taxi to the Sealdah Railway Station, hoping to find customers. But with Kolkata phasing out 80 per cent of its iconic yellow taxis by March, Shaw and driv- ers like him are staring at an uncertain future. Shaw’s 15-yearold taxi is nearing the end of its service, and he must say goodbye to his companion of many years with a heavy heart. “I never thought of an alternative,” says Shaw, a father of three and the sole breadwinner of the family. “And now that my taxi is nearing the end of service, I don’t know what else to do.” Since their introduction in the 1960s, the yellow Ambassador taxis have come to be synonymous with Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, and were featured in movies spanning decades — from Satyajit Ray’s Calcutta Trilogy in the 1970s to Aparna Sen’s 1981 film 36 Chowringhee Lane and more recently, the 2012 Vidya Balanstarrer Kahaani. But a 2009 order by the Supreme Court, combined with the fact that Ambassadors have longceasedtobeproduced,have meant that by March 2025, the majority of the city’s yellow fleet — over 7,000 cars — will go off the road. Hindustan Motors began producing the iconic Ambassador in 1958 at their factory in Hindmotor, around 20 km from Kolkata. Four years later, the Calcutta Taxi Association introduced Ambassadors as the standard A protest in Kolkata against the discontinuation of the yellow Ambassador taxis. Partha Paul taximodelsintwocolours—yellow-and-blackforcitycommute and the yellow taxis for intercity travel. In1994,thethenLeftgovernment headed by Jyoti Basu announced “All Bengal permit” for all taxis in the state. The governmentalsogaveKolkatacabstheir universalandthenowiconicyellow colour. In 2009, however, the first blow was dealt. In July that year, the green bench of the Supreme Court ordered that all commercial vehicles that are over 15 yearsoldbescrapped.Following this order, over 10,000 taxi drivers upgraded their vehicles to the newer Ambassador model, accordingtodatafromthestate’s transport department. In 2013, the Trinamool Congress government under Mamata Banerjee changed the model of commercial taxi cabs to Maruti Swift Dzire. That wasn’t the only change she affected — the taxi colour too changed from yellow to blue-and-white. Two years later, Hindustan Motors announced that it had stopped the production of the Ambassador in its Uttarpara plant. All these events taken together sounded the death knell for the iconic yellow Ambassador taxis. According to aseniorofficialof thestatetrans- portdepartment,over5,000yellow Ambassadors had already gone off the road as of August this year, and 2,500 more would soon follow suit. “Now that production has stopped, the vehicles replacing these will not be Ambassadors and won’t be yellow,” the official says. “By 2027, we’re expecting that the Ambassador taxi would have all but vanished from the city streets.” But there are other factors as wellthatcontributedtotheslow declineof thecabs.Foronething, the car was considered a fuel guzzler, and the rising fuel costs combined with stagnant taxi CONTINUED ON PAGE 2