The Catch Up: 5 February

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
It’s the 5th of February and here are the headlines.

Recording of statements to seizure of assets; summons to searches of premises; getting details from Income Tax and RBI – and detection of money laundering violations. These are the key aspects of the Enforcement Directorate’s ongoing action in the Pandora Papers investigation that shows probes have been “initiated” for almost all Indian owners of offshore firms named in the 2021 investigation by The Indian Express. They include Anil Ambani to Sachin Tendulkar, Unitech promoters and Niira Radia; Gautam Singhania to Lalit Goyal and Malvinder Singh, according to the current status of the probes. The Pandora Papers refers to a trove of 11.9 million secret documents from 14 offshore service providers that give details of ownership of 29,000 offshore entities used by the super-rich to manage their global money flows.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during the Question Hour in Lok Sabha today, rejected claims of ‘discrimination in allocating funds to non-BJP states’ and said, quote, “There is no way political interests would come in the way of the states getting the funds. It’s a charge that vested interests would like to go around. I don’t have the discretion, it’s the Finance Commission that takes the decision.” Unquote.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren won the trust vote in the state assembly today. While 47 MLAs voted in favour of the trust motion, 29 legislators opposed it in the 81-member assembly. Meanwhile, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren alleged that the Raj Bhawan was involved in his arrest carried out by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case.
Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission today asked political parties not to use children in campaigning “in any form whatsoever”, including for distribution of posters and pamphlets or sloganeering. In an advisory sent to parties, the poll panel conveyed its “zero tolerance” towards use of children in any manner during the electoral process by parties and candidates. The poll watchdog said political leaders and candidates should not use children for campaign activities in any manner including holding a child in their arms, carrying a child in a vehicle or in rallies.

Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu today said the first group of Indian military personnel will be sent back from the island nation before 10th of March, while the remaining Indian troops manning two aviation platforms will be withdrawn by 10th of May. In his maiden address to Parliament, Muizzu said he believes a large majority of Maldivians support his administration with the expectation that they will remove foreign military presence from the country, and recover the lost oceanic territory.

This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.