New Delhi, Dec 12: A Delhi court on Friday remanded three doctors and a preacher who were arrested in connection with the November 10 Red Fort blast case to 12 days of judicial custody.

Another accused Dr Bilal Naseer Malla was also produced before Principal and Sessions Judge Anju Bajaj Chandna to authenticate his voice sample.

The four accused — Dr Muzammil Ganai, Dr Adeel Rather, Dr Shaheena Saeed and Maulvi Irfan Ahmed Wagay — were produced before the expiry of their four-day NIA custody granted on December 8.

Mediapersons were barred from covering the court proceedings, which were held under tight security in and around the Patiala House district court premises.

Till now, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has made eight arrests in the case, which is linked to a ‘white collar’ terror module busted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Dr Bilal Naseer Malla, a resident of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir, is the eighth accused arrested so far. The NIA team arrested the doctor from Delhi on December 9, calling him a key accused in the conspiracy.

“As per NIA investigations, Bilal had knowingly harboured the dead accused Umar Un Nabi by providing him logistical support. He is also accused of destruction of evidence related to the terrorist attack,” the agency stated earlier on December 9.

“The agency continues to pursue various leads in connection with the suicide bombing, and has been conducting searches across states in coordination with the respective police forces to identify and track the others involved in the gruesome attack,” the agency said in a statement earlier.

Dr Umar Un Nabi was driving the explosive-laden i20 car that detonated outside the Red Fort on November 10, killing 15 people and injuring several others.

PTI had earlier reported that the sophisticated terror module spearheaded by a group of doctors had been actively scouting for a suicide bomber since last year, with Umar being the alleged key planner.

New Delhi, Dec 12: Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said the government has approved Rs 11,718 crore for the conduct of the Census of India 2027.

The Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal to conduct the Census which will be the first digital exercise of its kind, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters here.

The Census will be conducted in two phases — house-listing and housing census from April to September, 2026; and population enumeration (PE) in February 2027.

For Ladakh and snow-bound non-synchronous areas of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the PE exercise shall be conducted in September, 2026, he said.

The Census 2027 will also capture caste data electronically in the PE phase, Vaishnaw said.

About 30 lakh field functionaries will complete this gigantic exercise of national importance.

Use of a mobile app for data collection and the central portal for monitoring purposes will ensure better quality data, Vaishnaw said.

Data dissemination will be much better and in a user-friendly way so that all queries on required parameters for policy-making will be available with a click of a button, he said.

Census-as-a-Service (CaaS) will deliver data to ministries in a clean, machine-readable and actionable format, he said.

New Delhi, Dec 12: Low-cost airline IndiGo, under intense government scrutiny after days of disruption that disrupted domestic air travel, has received a tax penalty notice of Rs 58.75 crore for the 2020-21 financial year by the additional commissioner of CGST, Delhi South Commissionerate, the airline said on Friday.

In an exchange filing, Interglobe Aviation Ltd, the parent firm of IndiGo, said it received the tax penalty order on Thursday (December 11), which comprises GST demand along with a penalty.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has dismissed four flight inspectors who were responsible for monitoring the safety and operational standards of IndiGo.

The action coincides with the airline’s worsening problem, which has resulted in hundreds of flight cancellations this month as a result of inadequate planning and a failure to adhere to more stringent safety regulations.

Tens of thousands of travellers nationwide are now stuck due to the cancellations.

Sources claim that the DGCA took action against the inspectors after discovering carelessness in their monitoring and inspection responsibilities.

In order to closely monitor the airline’s activities, the regulator has now stationed two special oversight teams at IndiGo’s Gurugram office.

The DGCA will receive a daily report from these teams by 6 p.m. One team is keeping an eye on IndiGo’s fleet size, pilot availability, crew utilisation hours, training schedules, split-duty patterns, unscheduled leave, standby personnel, and the quantity of flights impacted by a crew shortage.

In order to fully comprehend the extent of the operational disturbance, it is also examining the airline’s typical stage length and network.

The second team is concentrating on how the crisis affects travellers. This entails verifying the status of reimbursements from the airline and travel agencies, reimbursement provided in accordance with Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), punctuality, luggage return, and the general cancellation status.