Entertainment
Mumbai special court orders NCB to defreeze Rhea Chakraborty’s bank accounts, return gadgets
After over 14 months, a Mumbai special court has ordered the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) to defreeze the bank accounts of Rhea Chakraborty and return her electronic gadgets, the lawyer of the Bollywood actress said here on Wednesday.
Rhea had filed a plea seeking release of her gadgets like an Apple laptop and an iPhone, and access to her bank accounts, according to her lawyer Nikhil Maneshinde.
The gadgets were seized while the bank accounts were frozen by the NCB after her arrest last year in connection with the probe into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Special NDPS court judge D.B. Mane ordered the conditional release of the electronic gadgets on furnishing a bond of Rs 100,000, directing her not to sell or dispose of them till the case is pending and produce them whenever needed for investigation.
Similarly, Mane directed the NCB to defreeze her bank accounts and fixed deposits with the HDFC Bank, which were frozen vide a NCB notice to the bank dated September 16, 2020.
Rhea had stated in her plea that she needed access to her bank accounts to support herself, her family, pay the salaries of her staff and aides, pay taxes, etc.
The special judge noted that since there was “no strong objection” from the NCB investigating officer, Chakraborty was entitled to defreezing these accounts, and passed a conditional order to this effect.
Chakraborty was arrested by the NCB on September 9 last year for allegedly procuring drugs for Rajput, who was found hanging at his Mumbai home on June 14, 2020.
Later, even her brother Showik was nabbed along with several other glam-world personalities as multiple agencies like the Mumbai Police, Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and NCB probed the case.
Subsequently, Chakraborty spent 28 days in custody before she was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on October 7, 2020.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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