Daily Bulletin: SC to hear Chidambaram's petition; Delhi HC to hear plea against Shah Faesal's 'illegal detention'; day's top stories

Special court extends P Chidambaram’s CBI custody till Tuesday; SC to hear plea today against agency’s remand order A special trial court on Monday extended senior Congress leader P Chidambaram’s CBI custody by a day till Tuesday in the INX Media corruption case. Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar will hear on 3 September the interim bail plea of Chidambaram. The former finance minister was produced before the court at the end of his CBI custody, which was extended on 30 August. The Supreme Court on Tuesday will also hear a petition filed by Chidambaram challenging the trial court’s order to remand him to the CBI custody. Chidambaram is facing probe in cases registered by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) pertaining to alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance given to INX Media to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when he was the Union Finance Minister. The ED is also seeking his custodial interrogation related to money laundering allegations in the case. The Supreme Court, however, has granted him interim protection from the arrest by the ED till 5 September. Doctors in Assam call for strike for 24 hours today in protest against assault of senior medic; emergency wards to stay open Doctors in Assam called for a 24-hour 'withdrawal of medical services excluding emergency’ across the state on 3 September in protest against the killing of an elderly doctor by associates of a patient who died at a tea garden hospital in Jorhat. Doctors will withdraw their services from 6 am but the emergency in all hospitals will remain open, President of the Assam State Branch of the Indian Medical Association, Dr Satyajit Borah said. The Teok Tea Estate doctor, 73-year-old Dr Deben Dutta was assaulted on Saturday by garden workers following the death of a person in the estate hospital. Dutta later died at the Jorhat Medical College Hospital. Borah said the assault on Dutta is the third major incident of physical attack on doctors serving in tea gardens and the number of such incidents is increasing. “As a mark of protest against these incidents and failure of the government to provide security to the doctors and convict the culprits, doctors have decided to withdraw services for 24 hours,” he said. The IMA demanded that the government ensures exemplary punishment of the culprits and beef up security measures such as the installation of surveillance cameras in all health establishments including those in tea gardens. “We hope that the doctor fraternity is not compelled to take more severe steps,” Borah said. Delhi High Court to hear plea against Shah Faesal’s ‘illegal detention’ at Delhi Airport today The Delhi High Court i s expected to hear on Tuesday, former IAS officer Shah Faesal’s plea alleging he was illegally detained at Delhi airport on 14 August and taken back to Srinagar where he has been kept under house arrest. [caption id=“attachment_6840051” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Shah Faesal. News18[/caption] A bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal asked both sides to file their submissions and listed the matter for hearing on 3 September. The court declined to give an earlier date, saying the matter will take time and “it is not going to happen overnight”. “A week or 10 days will not matter,” the bench said and also made it clear that it was not going to examine the issue of Faesal’s travel to the US for his studies as it was not a prayer sought in the habeas corpus plea moved on his behalf. The bench listed the matter on 3 September as Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta was not available during the first half of the day as he was arguing in the Supreme Court. Faesal’s lawyers, during the brief hearing, sought that his son and parents be allowed to meet him. The bench said Faesal’s wife, son and parents can meet him, but not all of them together. The central government said it will ensure that the family can meet Faesal. Category 4 Hurricane Dorian triggers massive flooding in Bahamas; at least five dead Hurricane Dorian unleashed massive flooding across the Bahamas on Monday, pummeling the islands with so much wind and water that authorities urged people to find floatation devices and grab hammers to break out of their attics if necessary. At least five deaths were blamed on the storm. “We are in the midst of a historic tragedy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said in announcing the fatalities. He called the devastation “unprecedented and extensive.” The fearsome Category 4 storm slowed almost to a standstill as it shredded roofs, hurled cars and forced even rescue crews to take shelter until the onslaught passed. Officials said they received a “tremendous” number of calls from people in flooded homes. A radio station received more than 2,000 distress messages, including reports of a five-month-old baby stranded on a roof and a grandmother with six grandchildren who cut a hole in a roof to escape rising floodwaters. Other reports involved a group of eight children and five adults stranded on a highway and two storm shelters that flooded. The deaths in the Bahamas came after a previous storm-related fatality in Puerto Rico. At least 21 people were hurt in the Bahamas and evacuated by helicopters, the prime minster said. Police Chief Samuel Butler urged people to remain calm and share their GPS coordinates, but he said rescue crews had to wait until weather conditions improved. “We simply cannot get to you,” he told Bahamas radio station ZNS. Forecasters warned that Dorian could generate a storm surge as high as 23 feet. India register series sweep over Windies as Virat Kohli becomes most successful Test captain India bowled West Indies out for 210 in Kingston, Jamaica, to win the second Test by 257 runs and complete a sweep of the two-match series. West Indies lost key batsman Darren Bravo to concussion shortly after the start of play but under the new protocols, the home team called Jermaine Blackwood into their lineup. He went on to make 38. Shamarh Brooks top-scored with 50. Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja and quick bowler Mohammed Shami both took three wickets for India. With the victory, Virat Kohli became India’s most successful Test captain, going past the record of 27 wins set by MS Dhoni. The series victory was also the eight consecutive for India. PNB board to meet on 5 September to consider Rs 18,000 cr capital infusion Punjab National Bank (PNB) on Monday said the board will consider capital infusion of up to Rs 18,000 crore in its meeting later this week. It comes against the backdrop of the government’s announcement on 30 August about merging 10 public sector banks into four entities, as part of which PNB will merge Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India (UBI) with itself. “The board shall consider capital infusion up to Rs 18,000 crore in its meeting scheduled on 5 September , 2019,” PNB said in a regulatory filing. On 31 August, PNB said it received a communication from the finance ministry that the government, after having consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, had decided that PNB, OBC and UBI may consider the amalgamation of OBC and UBI into PNB. Facebook is thinking about hiding like counts Social media giant Facebook could soon bring an option which would allow the user to remove the like count on their status. As per App researcher Jane Manchun Wong, a code was revealed in the Facebook Android app which hides the amount of likes that a post has from everyone but the original poster. Facebook-owned Instagram had also been testing such a feature earlier this year.