Top news, Dec 19: Gisele Pelicot case, stock market crash, FIR against Rahul Gandhi and more

Top news, 19 Dec: From Gisele Pelicot case, Airtel prepaid dues, stock market crash, FIR against Rahul Gandhi here are today’s top stories.

Gisele Pelicot case

The French court sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years of jail for drugging and raping his ex-wife, Gisele Pelicot, along with 50 other men. Additionally, he has been guilty of distributing pictures of Gisele, sexual images of their daughter Caroline and the wives of his sons.

Indian stock market

The Indian benchmark indices Sensex crashed around 1,200 points and the Nifty dropped to 23,870 level in the intraday trade after the US Fed meeting on Thursday, December 19. Sensex went down by 3.5 percent and Nifty 50 declined 3. 3 percent in the last four sessions.

On Thursday, the Sensex opened at 79,029.03 from the previous close of 80,182.20 and declined 1,162 points to the day’s low of 79,020.08. While, Nifty 50 opened at 23,877.15 from the previous close of 24,198.85 and dropped 329 points to 23,870.30.

CCI’s investigation against quick commerce firms

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) will unlikely investigate the allegations of anti-competitive practices by quick commerce companies such as Zepto, Instamart, and Blinkit.

The All-India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF) had reached out to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) regarding quick commerce firms. This case was transferred to CCI. AICPDF also approached, alleging preferential treatment, listing a few sellers on these platforms, and alleged deep discounting practices.

Bharti Airtel prepaid dues

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel said on Thursday that it has prepaid ₹3,626 crore to the Department of Telecom to clear all its liabilities for the spectrum it acquired in 2016. With the payment of ₹3,626 crore, Airtel has cleared all the spectrum dues with interest costs of more than 8.65 per cent. In this calendar year, Airtel has prepaid ₹28, 320 crore of spectrum liabilities.

FIR against Rahul Gandhi

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused Rahul Gandhi of pushing senior party members during a confrontation in Parliament for allegedly insulting B R Ambedkar. Gandhi said that the BJP members were blocking the entrance as he was trying to enter the Parliament. The Congress claimed this incident to be a “farcical drama.”

Meanwhile, the BJP has filed a police complaint against Gandhi and the Congress has filed a complaint against BJP.

Bangladesh accuses Adani Power

The interim government of Bangladesh has accused Adani Power of breaching the multi-billion dollar agreement by holding tax benefits that a power plant important to the deal received from New Delhi, reported Reuters. Gautam Adani signed an agreement with Bangladesh in 2017 to provide power from its coal plant in India. The deal was awarded by the Sheikh Hasina government without a tender process, costing Bangalesh more than other coal power deals. The country wants to renegotiate the deal.