Your Daily Wrap: SC grants bail to Mohammed Zubair, Sri Lanka gets new president in Ranil Wickremesinghe; and more | India News,The Indian Express
From the SC granting bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, to a Delhi court sending former Mumbai CP Sanjay Pandey to nine-day ED custody, here are the top stories of the day.
The Supreme Court today granted bail to Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, arrested last month, in six cases filed against him across Uttar Pradesh for alleged hate speech. In its order, the top court said there was no justification in keeping Zubair in continued custody. The Supreme Court also transferred the investigation in six FIRs in Uttar Pradesh to the Special Cell of the Delhi Police as all the cases pertain to the same tweets allegedly deemed offensive.
In Punjab, two men booked for the murder of singer Sidhu Moosewala were killed in an encounter with the police near Amritsar. According to the police, Mandeep Manu and Jagdeep Rupa, accused of shooting at Moosewala, were killed near village Chicha Bhanka, where they had taken shelter in an isolated house in a field. The police have recovered one AK 47, a pistol and a bag from the site. Three policemen were also wounded in the encounter, while one cameraman sustained a bullet injury.
A Delhi court today sent former Mumbai Police commissioner Sanjay Pandey to nine-day ED custody in connection with the alleged phone-tapping of NSE employees, which the central agency suspects could be linked to money laundering. The ED case is based on a CBI First Information Report registered in 2018 against the IPS officer, an audit company linked to his family, and others, including arrested NSE’s former managing director and CEO Chitra Ramkrishna.
Ranil Wickremesinghe was today elected as the new President of Sri Lanka. He will replace Gotabaya Rajapaksa who fled the country and resigned after public anger over the country’s worst economic crisis exploded on the streets 10 days ago. Ranil got 134 votes, Dullas Alahapperuma, a rebel leader of the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, got 82 votes, and Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the Leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna got three votes.
From presiding over the remains of the United National Party after a stunning election defeat in which it failed to win a single seat to becoming President of his country, Ranil’s fortunes have changed dramatically in this history-making year in Sri Lanka. As President, he has his task cut out as he takes charge at a time when the country, in his own words, is “bankrupt”.
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