-PTI The Centre has issued a new set of guidelines to seize properties or money of corrupt government officials even after their retirement.  The norms, made in consultation with the ministry of law and justice, says a competent authority in the department concerned can give sanction to the Centre for such attachment. The guidelines assume significance as most departments and investigating agencies like the CBI have in the past expressed difficulty in...

The mask is off. Team Anna and his lieutenants are batting for the BJP On 30 October last year, when Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was actually supported by the RSS, the remark conveyed palpable nervousness and attracted criticism from Team Anna. Three months later, as Team Anna launches its voters’ awareness campaign in UP, there is not even an attempt to keep its secular mask intact. The mask,...

-The Indian Express CBI director Amar Pratap Singh declared today that “if the king is immoral, so will be his subjects”, and sought “ethics in governance” while addressing an Interpol anti-corruption programme. In a hint at scams involving ministers, Singh said: “I am prompted to recall a famous verse from ancient Indian scriptures, which says ‘Yatha raja tatha praja’.” Singh said $ 500 billion (nearly Rs 24 lakh crore) had been stashed away...

-The Hindu The Madhya Pradesh Vishesh Nyayalaya Adhiniyam (Madhya Pradesh Special Courts Bill) 2011 has received the presidential assent and will come into force on February 15, 2012. The anti-corruption act equips the government with wide-ranging powers to weed out corruption, including the power to confiscate illegally earned properties of corrupt officials and use them as public assets. A similar law is already in force in Bihar. Under the Act, special courts dealing...

-PTI Indians are the largest depositors in banks abroad with an estimated 500 billion US dollars (nearly Rs 24.5 lakh crore) of illegal money stashed by them in tax havens, the CBI director said on Monday.  India, in particular, has suffered from the flow of illegal funds to tax havens such as Mauritius, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, British Virgin islands etc.  "It is estimated that around 500 billion dollars of illegal money belonging to Indians...