On Sunday, January 8, reports emerged that a group of women assaulted a man and his family in Kerala on Thursday evening. The women alleged that the man, named Plathottathil Veettil Shaji, had circulated morphed photos of a woman in the community through social media. On Friday, the Aloor Police in the Thrissur district arrested 11 women on the complaint of Shaji, a native of Muriyad in Thrissur district. All the accused were produced before the court and sent to Judicial custody.
The video of the attack, shot by a passerby, went viral after it was shared with local media. In the video, a group of women, followers of the Emperor Emmanuel Church, also known as Zion Church, were seen attacking Plathottathil Shaji and his family in their car.
The victim, speaking about what transpired on Thursday evening, alleged a conspiracy behind the attack and sought action against Emperor Emmanuel Church authorities. In his complaint, Plathottathil Veettil Shaji, who defected from the church, said that the women had attacked his family in retaliation for cutting ties with the Zion retreat centre under the Emperor Emmanuel Church.
Notably, the complainant Shaji, his wife Ashlyn, son Sajan, and their relatives were on their way back home on Thursday evening when the incident happened. As their car passed the church building, a group of more than 50 women blocked their vehicle, pulled out Shaji, and attacked him with a wooden log. The others present in the car were also attacked. All of them were injured, and Shaji suffered deep wounds to his back and face.
According to rural SP Aiswarya Dongre, “A case was registered against the group and 11 women have been arrested. Even though reports on sharing of nude photos had emerged, we don’t have any information on the same. We have asked the women to file a complaint and it will be probed in detail.”
Former members of Emperor Emmanuel Church in Kerala targetted for leaving the church
Notably, this is not the first time the Emperor Emmanuel Church in Kerala, which is a gated community with over 200 families, has been in the news for such disputes between its faithful and the dissenting members. In fact, the residents living near the sect’s gated community reported frequent incidents of violence in front of the church gate. A social media campaign recently claimed that the church was looting people in the name of faith.
According to reports, the church was once under the intelligence wing’s scrutiny because of concerns of mass suicide due to doomsday prophecies in 2012.
In 2021, Olympian Mayookha Johny alleged her friend was raped by a member of the same Church. The accused and his friends had claimed that the rape charges were false. They said the allegations were being fabricated as a sequel to a dispute in the Emperor Emmanuel Church. They revealed that there were more than 50 complaints that had been filed in six different police stations at the instance of the church followers against the dissenting members of the church and the rape case was among them.
This is a country of Tapasvi, not Pujaris – is the latest gem from Rahul Gandhi, who is being relaunched for the umpteenth time by his party and a friendly ecosystem. In his latest avatar, Rahul Gandhi has come up as a 52-year-old young man who does not feel cold in the unforgiving Delhi winters, but who is also old enough to sport a graying long beard, dropping pearls of wisdom.
While one can laugh off this latest gem of Rahul Gandhi – Tapasvi vs Pujari – as being another sentence whose true meaning only Rahul Gandhi or God knows, it is not something the Congress scion has said without consideration. In fact, he hardly says anything without thinking things through. That might come across as a shock to most people who mock him, but that’s the truth. He thinks, albeit his thinking process is screwed, but he thinks. He thinks because his advisers feed him with things to think about.
And his advisers are a motley bunch of people – folks passed out of JNU who were card-carrying communists, people like Sudheendra Kulkarni (the Pakistan-loving guy who was with Atal Bihari Vajpayee once and who originally called Rahul Gandhi a ‘tapasvi’) people like Yogendra Yadav (the farmer, the psephologist, the economist, the sociologist, the ichhadhaari expert), and obviously Congress loyalists who will do anything for the family, say someone like Digvijaya Singh.
There is one thing common among all such folks – they all believe that to be seen as a hero, RSS has to be shown as a villain. Now it doesn’t matter to them at all what RSS actually thinks or believes in, but they have painted a villainous image of RSS that they must maintain and proclaim to fight that image. The RSS of their dream is ‘Brahminical’, which, again, as per their own definition, means anti-lower caste, anti-woman, anti-<insert any woke buzzword>.
Essentially, the grand evil is Brahminism, which they further go on to claim, inaccurately as always, is the basis of “Hindutva”. That’s why for a long time now, Rahul Gandhi has been spouting these “Gandhi vs Godse” and “Hinduism vs Hindutva” buzzwords in his own imperfect philosophical style. That is what he thinks, because his advisers have been asking him to think about all this, but can’t express, for reasons worth not commenting upon.
Now there is enough literature that was written under the patronship of the British, and then recently too aligning it with the Critical Race Theory of the West, which defines Brahminism as the worst possible evil, and the same is then used to attack Hinduism. The latter is by design. That was always the original purpose – to finish off Hinduism without using swords – a potent tool the British designed, in contrast with the tricks employed by Islamic invaders. This tool is so potent that even the RSS and BJP leaders end up using some of them to look socially advanced and liberal.
The use of that tool was also witnessed during the so-called “Dismantling Global Hindutva” conference recently. The organizers kept lying that the event was not against Hinduism or Hindus and dismissed all criticism of them being anti-Hindu. But when the event did take place, almost all of them talked about why Hinduism is a problem indeed. In their hearts, the proponents of this theory know that their real target is Hinduism, but they use code words like “Hindutva” and “Brahminism” to fool the gullible Hindus.
While coming up with such word salads to hide their hate for Hinduism, one hate they can’t hide is the hate for Brahmins. While some too-clever-by-half folks try to come up with the sham that “we are not against Brahmins but Brahminism”, others proudly use the anti-Brahmin hate as garnishing. Hate against Brahmins is blatant and mainstream, even ‘intellectualized’. One of the ugliest manifestations of the same is seen in Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu, but some variant of it is visible in almost every part of India.
In places or situations where you can’t explicitly express your hate against Brahmins – or the ‘priestly class as the history books would say – the least that is expected from you by this “anti-RSS” “anti-caste” “anti-Brahminical” lobby is that you shouldn’t do or say anything that looks like giving respect or authority to the Brahmins. You are surely going to be “cancelled” for doing that. Rahul Gandhi was faltering on this aspect by prostrating at temples, attending pujas solemnized by Brahmins, accepting blessings from them et al.
And that’s why Rahul Gandhi has now said India is not a country of “pujaris” – the priests, the Brahmins – as a soft-signalling to his ecosystem. It is to save himself from being cancelled. “Dude, see, while I might move around in rudraksha mala around my neck and tripund on my forehead, I’m with you, I’m with your anti-Brahminism project. Don’t doubt me” – that is what Rahul Gandhi is saying.
Recently in an interview with YouTuber Ajit Anjum, JNU-student-turned-revolutionary-turned-Congress-leader Kanhaiya Kumar tried to argue the same. “Rahul Gandhi goes to temples because people go to temples,” he explained when asked why Rahul Gandhi was doing something that is associated with “Hindu politics” and by extension “communal politics” in the secular-liberal lexicon.
Kanhaiya Kumar tried his best to signal to the secular-liberal ecosystem that Rahul Gandhi has not junked their anti-Brahminical agenda even if he is seen doing “Hindu things”. That in his heart, he doesn’t really believe in all these things. Rahul Gandhi has done the same himself now by coming up with his Tapasvi vs Pujari statement. The statement is smart because the average Hindu is still fooled by the “Hindutva vs Hinduism” smokescreen because it will be presented in the same breath by party folks.
It will be easy for the backroom movers and shakers in Congress to convince this secular-liberal ecosystem not to be spooked by Rahul Gandhi doing temple runs and quoting Bhagwad Gita. Also, there is a precedence in Indira Gandhi. Indira was very Hindu in her appearance, sporting rudraksha mala, and undertaking events like her famous puja at Sringeri Math. She was in fact abused as ‘Baaman’ (Brahmin) lady by Bhindranwale during the Punjab crisis. While all that was happening, all educational and cultural institutions were stuffed with leftists under her premiership.
“Those were the best days of my life,” a leftist would coon thinking about summer of 69, when Indira Gandhi broke away her own party and entered into a Faustian bargain with the communists. “I can bring you back those achche din” Rahul Gandhi is promising that ecosystem now.
Congress managed to grab one of its rare victories these days in December when it won the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections winning 40 out of the 68 seats in the house. The state has a reputation for changing governments every 5 years so a Congress win was always on the cards, but they also benefitted from rebellions within the incumbent BJP and the key Congress promise of bringing the Old Pension Scheme back.
The Old Pension Scheme (OPS) means that the state has to bear the entire burden of the pensions, it emerged as a key issue ahead of the assembly elections. With a large percentage of the voting population reliant on government jobs in states, OPS may become a standard promise in manifestos presented before every assembly election in the future.
Notably, opposition-ruled states like Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Punjab, and Chhattisgarh have already reverted to the Old Pension Scheme, and now Himachal is set to join them under their new government. New Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has already reiterated that reverting to the old pension scheme is a priority for his government.
The OPS was discontinued on April 1, 2004, and replaced with the National Pension Scheme (NPS). In the OPS, the pension was 50 percent of the last drawn salary of the government employee. On the other hand, the NPS is a contributory pension scheme.
New Pension Scheme was introduced not only to ease the financial burden on the central government and the states but also to encourage people to invest in equity markets and fast-growing businesses. However, a guaranteed income under OPS is a powerful tool to gather votes so parties with short-term vision are desperate to use that to get an advantage over their opponents.
Everyone in government service will obviously like the OPS to be back as they get guaranteed money every month for the rest of their lives. In addition, the government pays Dearness Allowance (DA) which is not paid under the NPS.
Even though reverting to OPS may grab the votes of government employees, for now, it is a risky proposition for the states as they run the risk of going bankrupt while funding this scheme.
Veteran economist and former deputy chairman of the planning commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia has repeatedly stressed that going back to the old pension scheme can be disastrous.
#WATCH | Delhi: On the push for Old Pension Scheme by some state governments, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission says, "I certainly share the view that this move is absurd and a recipe for financial bankruptcy…" pic.twitter.com/0sl2Vp3G9B
It is going to be particularly stressful for a state like Himachal Pradesh which is already having severe financial woes. The Debt to GSDP ratio of Himachal Pradesh was estimated to be at 43% in the previous financial year. It is already close to a state like Punjab which is at 53% and has also reverted to the old pension scheme.
Himachal Pradesh is already running a fiscal deficit of around 5%, way higher than the prudential level of 3%, on top of that, now the state will be burdened with the expense under the old pension scheme. The state’s committed expense under salaries, pensions, and interests is already one of the highest among states when compared to revenue, adding an additional burden on top of that is simply not sustainable.
On the issue, 15th Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh said, “It will be a fiscal disaster for the states to go back from the new pension scheme and adopt the old pension scheme.”
While financial experts and even common sense tell us that reverting to the old pension scheme is going to be disastrous for the state’s finances, political parties are unlikely to pay heed. In their bid to get votes in the short term, this promise of reverting to the old pension scheme is likely to bankrupt every state in the long term.
On Sunday, January 8 (Brazil time), supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed several government buildings in Brazil, including the Supreme Court, and surrounded the presidential palace. After hours of clashes in the capital Brasilia, the police regained control of the buildings and arrested over 300 people.
Many world leaders have taken to Twitter to condemn the violence that gripped Brazil on Sunday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed concern about the riots in Brazil and extended support to government authorities, underlining that “everyone must respect democratic traditions”.
“Deeply concerned about the news of rioting and vandalism against the State institutions in Brasilia. Democratic traditions must be respected by everyone. We extend our full support to the Brazilian authorities,” he tweeted, tagging Brazil’s president Lula.
Deeply concerned about the news of rioting and vandalism against the State institutions in Brasilia. Democratic traditions must be respected by everyone. We extend our full support to the Brazilian authorities. @LulaOficial
Among other global leaders, US President Joe Biden and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the “assault”. In a tweet, Biden stressed that the democratic institutions of Brazil have the full support of the United States. “I condemn the assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil. Brazil’s democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined. I look forward to continuing to work with @LulaOficial.”
I condemn the assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil. Brazil’s democratic institutions have our full support and the will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined. I look forward to continuing to work with @LulaOficial.
The responses came hours after hundreds of supporters of Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro broke through police barricades, climbed on roofs, smashed windows, and stormed into Congress, the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court on Sunday.
The protestors called for a military intervention to either restore Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro to power or oust Brazil’s newly elected president Lula from the post.
The visuals of thousands of yellow-and-green-clad demonstrators running riot in the capital, following months of tensions after the October 30 election, were extensively shared on numerous social media sites.
Brazil… this is absolutely epic, this is a revolution
Though there were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries as a result of the riots, the Bolsonaro supporters did leave a trail of destruction, throwing furniture through smashed windows in the presidential palace, flooding parts of Congress with a sprinkler system, and ransacking ceremonial rooms in the Supreme Court.
Rioterslook out from a shattered window from the Planalto Palace (Source: Mirror)
The Brazilian Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to repel protesters who ransacked the state buildings and blocked the main access road to Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport.
Brazilian Police fire water cannons at the protesters (source: Mirror)
According to reports, after almost three hours, the police regained control of the damaged public buildings in the capital.
Brasilia, #Brazil: Law enforcement are dropping tear gas from a helicopter to try to disperse large crowds of anti-President Lula demonstrators and rioters. Some of them broke inside the congress and presidential palace buildings. pic.twitter.com/8O0loHdaCN
According to Justice Minister Flavio Dino, 200 demonstrators were arrested, whereas Governor Rocha put the figure at 400.
Dino stated that investigators will look into the funding of the hundreds of buses that carried Bolsonaro supporters to Brasilia, as well as Rocha’s failure to plan security.
Supreme Court in Brazil suspends Governor, orders social media platforms to block coup-mongering propaganda
Notably, following the Sunday violence, Brazil’s Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok to block coup-mongering propaganda. The Supreme Court also removed the governor of Brasilia from office for 90 days due to flaws in security in the capital.
Brazil’s incumbent President condemns the ‘barbarism’, accuses Bolsonaro of ‘inciting’ the crowd
Meanwhile, Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office on January 1, 2023, has ordered that its capital be “shut down” after thousands of “fanatic fascist” protestors stormed the National Congress building and demanded that the government be ousted.
Describing the protest as ‘barbarism’ the incumbent Brazilian President Lula said, “You must have followed the barbarism in Brasilia today. Those people we call fascists, the most abominable thing in politics, invaded the palace and Congress. We think there was a lack of security.”
“Whoever did this will be found and punished. Democracy guarantees the right to free expression, but it also requires people to respect institutions. There is no precedent in the history of the country what they did today. For that, they must be punished. They took advantage of the silence on Sunday, when we are still setting up the government, to do what they did”, Lula added.
Lula blamed Bolsonaro for inciting his supporters with a campaign of bogus allegations of electoral fraud following the end of his presidency. “And you know that there are several speeches by the former president encouraging this and this is also his responsibility and the parties that supported him,” Lula told reporters.
Brazil President Lula accuses Brasilia Governor of supporting the coup
Lula also claimed the local military police unit reports to Brasilia Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a former Bolsonaro friend, who did little to halt the violence.
According to reports, the occupation of government buildings had been planned for at least two weeks by Bolsonaro supporters on social media messaging platforms such as Telegram and Twitter, but security forces did nothing to prevent the attack.
Camping in front of the army command’s headquarters, where groups of Bolsonaro supporters had camped out since Lula narrowly won the election in October, was part of the plot.
When demonstrators began to arrive on Brasilia’s esplanade in the early afternoon of Sunday, they were guided by Military Police cars with flashing lights, rather than being contained. Riot police only arrived on the scene two hours after the invasions began.
Jair Bolsonaro refutes ‘baseless’ accusations of ‘inciting’ the crowd
Responding to the attack on the key govt establishments by his supporters, former president Jair Bolsonaro condemned pillaging and invasions of public buildings. Bolsonaro also denied what he called President Lula’s “baseless” accusations that he incited an invasion of the Brazilian capital.
The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has paid Rs 25.25 crores to lawyers appearing for the alleged Delhi Liquor Policy Scam (Delhi Excise Policy Scam) case in the court. In the last 18 months, the Delhi government has spent a total of Rs 28.10 crore, as per a report in The New Indian Express.
Out of the 2.25. crore spent on the Liquor Scam case, senior advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the AAP leaders, has received Rs 18.97 crores. Rahul Mehra, who appeared for Satyendra Jain’s cases, received Rs 5.30 crores during the same period.
In 2021-22, Singhvi received Rs 14.85 crore and another Rs 4.1 crore later. In 2020-21, Mehra received Rs 2.4 lakhs only, but in 2021-22 he received Rs 3.9 crores. In 2021-22 the lawyers contesting the Liquor Scam case received Rs 16.09 crores. In the eight months of 2022-23, they received Rs 5.24 crores.
Furthermore, the sources at the Raj Bhawan told TNIE that the total expenditure of the AAP government since the scam came to light was only Rs 6.70 crores. Most of the amount was spent on General Administration Department (GAD) and the health department.
The Delhi liquor policy scam
According to the chief secretary’s report, cartelisation and monopolies were taking place in the liquor trade under the new liquor policy. It was also alleged that liquor licences were illegally distributed to companies that had violated the terms and conditions of the New Excise Policy 2021-22.
According to reports, Manish Sisodia made changes to the excise policy without the mandatory approval of the LG. He had waived off ₹144.36 crores on licence fees to be paid by the private liquor vendors for licences in the name of the Covid-19 pandemic. He had removed the import pass fee of ₹50 per case of beer and had given undue benefits to liquor sellers by revising the prices of foreign liquor.
According to the CBI FIR, L-1 licences were issued illegally in exchange for bribes, and one of the traders had paid ₹1 crore to a company managed by a person who is an associate of Manish Sisodia. It was found that L-1 licence holders were issuing credit notes to retail vendors with the intention of diverting the funds to public servants, showing that it was a method of paying bribes in exchange for the licences. The licence holders also made false entries in their books of accounts to keep the records of such bribes straight.
In a significant revelation in the Kanjhawala case, in which a woman died after being dragged for several kilometres by a car, Delhi Police sources said that the accused were aware of Anjali being trapped under their car within minutes after her scooty was hit by them.
“The accused in the car did not take Anjali out because the accused were afraid that if they got down from the car and took Anjali out, they might get into legal trouble if someone saw them,” said the Delhi Police sources. The accused told about their dilemma during their interrogation with the Delhi Police, however, the police say that there is a contradiction in their statements, so every angle is being investigated closely.
The six accused will be produced in court on Monday after the Rohini Court on Saturday granted bail to the seventh accused, Ankush, in the hit and drag case in outer Delhi’s Sultanpuri area.
Ankush is the seventh accused arrested in the case. Delhi Police have alleged that he is the person who conspired with the other accused after the incident he helped the other accused flee by arranging an auto.
Delhi Police on Friday arrested Ashutosh, the sixth suspect in connection with the January 1 incident.
In CCTV visuals, Ashutosh is seen talking to the accused two hours after the incident took place.
According to Delhi Police, CCTV visuals show that at 4:07 am one of the accused arrived to meet Ashutosh and later Ashutosh is seen going in and out of his house several times.
The police believe that the accused who arrived is none other than Ankush, who is the seventh accused.
On Thursday, the Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Delhi Police Sagar Preet Hooda had said that Ashutosh and Ankush Khanna – were friends of the five arrested earlier and had tried to protect the accused. The duo has also been accused of tampering with evidence and misleading the police.
Delhi Police officials said: “In the new CCTV visuals, Ankush is also talking to someone on the phone.”
“Ankush was talking to the accused on the phone. Ashutosh is last seen on CCTV walking towards his home at 4:52 am.
According to the police, at 4.42 am Ashutosh left the house wearing a jacket and returned at around 4:52 am,” police said.
The Delhi Police are interrogating Ashutosh to find out where the accused went during those 10 minutes and the conversation between them.
The Delhi Police said on Friday that Ashutosh had been arrested. “In the Sultanpuri case, the sixth accused Ashutosh has been arrested who had given false information to the police. Further investigation is on,” the Special Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Delhi Police Sagar Preet Hooda said today.
Five accused in the case- Deepak Khanna, Amit Khanna, Krishan, Mithun and Manoj Mittal were first arrested in the case. The five were driving the car that they borrowed from Ashutosh.
A total of 18 teams of Delhi Police are investigating the case. During the interrogation, it was found that the car was driven by Amit Khanna and not by Deepak. “We are trying to file the charge sheet as early as possible. During the post-mortem, no evidence of sexual assault was found,” the Special CP said.
According to the police, the statement of eyewitness Nidhi has been recorded and no link has been found between the eyewitness and the accused.
“We can only give a statement if she was drunk or not only after the post-mortem report, it does not have relevance to this case, as it is a case under section 304 of the IPC,” informed Special CP Hooda.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
On January 8, during a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (BJY) press conference at Samana, Haryana, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that he had killed ‘Rahul Gandhi’ and the person we see is not ‘Rahul Gandhi’. During the QA session at the press conference, TV journalist Pradeep asked him if he believed that BJY helped in changing his image. In reply to his query, Gandhi said he had “killed” Rahul Gandhi.
Gandhi said, “Rahul Gandhi is in your head. I have killed him. He does not exist anymore. He is not in my mind. He is gone. Gone. The person you are seeing is not Rahul Gandhi. You are seeing him. You did not understand. Read Hindu Dharma a little. Read about Shiv Ji. You will understand. Do not get confused. Do not get confused. Rahul Gandhi is in your head. He does not exist in my head. Rahul Gandhi is in BJP’s head. He does not exist in my head. Why are you so confused? I do not care about the image. I do not have an interest in the image. You can keep the image you like. It concerns you, not me. I do not care. I want to do my work. Why are you so confused?”
Netizens reacted to his statement
Viral Patel said, “He is asking [the journalist] why he is confused. This person is a case study, just like the character ‘subject’ in the film Munnabhai. ‘Subject’ could hear but could not understand. This person is the opposite. He speaks and leaves the public in stress to understand [what he means]. What was the benefit of eating those ‘Kaju Badam’.” Notably, Gandhi was seen enjoying dry fruit during a break in BJY.
बोलता हे हेरान क्यों लग रहे हो आप। ये भाईसाब एक केस स्टडी हे जेसे मुन्नाभाई मूवी में वो जो कैरिक्टर था की “सब्जेक्ट सुन सकता हे पर समज नहीं सकता” इसका उल्टा हे ये बोल देता हे और समज ने का टेन्शन पब्लिक पे छोड़ देता हे। वो काजू, बीज बादाम खानेका क्या फ़ायदा हुआ इसको
On January 8, a Sub Inspector identified as Dinesh Kumar Dohre, posted at Madawara Police Station in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh was suspended after a call recording went viral in which he was abusing Thakurs, Brahmins and Baniyas.
During the call, the SI claimed he was from an influential family and no one could touch him. Soon after the audio went viral on social media, the high officials took cognizance and issued his suspension orders.
ब्राह्मण, ठाकुर, बनिया बहुत मादर…. हैं, खासकर ब्राह्मण. ललितपुर जनपद के मडावरा तहसील में तैनाती SI का ऑडियो वायरल. सोचिए कैसी-कैसी मानसिकता के लोग हैं, इनसे क्या न्याय मिलता होगा लोगों? pic.twitter.com/SU4q3hzfNs
In the audio shared by journalist Shubham Shukla, the SI could be heard abusing Brahmins, Thakurs and Baniyas As per reports, an unidentified man called the SI. During the call, he started abusing people from the Brahmin, Baniya and Thakur communities. He said, “I am myself, Chamar, and you are Khatik. We are not different. We are one. And these Brahmins, Thakur and Baniya… these are moth****ers. Brahmins are the biggest among them. No one can touch me.”
CO is investigating the matter
ADG Kanpur took cognisance of the matter and instructed Lalitpur Police to take action in the matter. Soon after, the Superintendent of Police suspended the accused SI.
@lalitpurpolice कृपया संज्ञान में लेकर आवश्यक कार्यवाही करें।
Amidst several incidents of drunk flyers coming to the fore recently, two drunk passengers caused havoc on a Patna-bound IndiGo flight from Delhi.
Both passengers have been arrested at the airport police station for being in an inebriated state. Patna Airport SHO Robert Peter said that the police took action after the manager of Indigo filed a written complaint against the accused.
He further said that the accused would be produced before the court.
The brawl took place on IndiGo flight number 6E-6383.
According to the sources, before landing, Indigo informed Air traffic controllers (ATC) that two passengers were carrying liquor.
The passengers were stopped by the crew members for consuming alcohol and they apologised in writing for the incident, the sources told ANI.
On January 7, police said they have arrested one person identified as Shankar Mishra from Bengaluru for urinating on a senior citizen woman co-passenger in business class on the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26.
The arrest was made on the basis of the complaint of the woman.
There was a similar incident where Air India said that there was an incident of a drunk passenger allegedly urinating on the blanket of a female passenger on the airline’s Paris-New Delhi flight last month.
Airline regulator DGCA has sought a report from Air India on an incident.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
On January 8, Mumbai Police arrested 22-year-old Dawood Ibrahim Mohammad Yakub Ansari for allegedly vandalising crosses at Mahim’s St Michael’s Church cemetery. The incident took place in the early morning of January 7.
At least 18 tombstones, crosses and other structures at the 400-year-old Church were vandalised. Ansari was tracked using CCTV footage of the cemetery. Reportedly, after desecrating the crosses, the culprit sat down and prayed. The police are trying to verify the motive of his actions. Ansari was produced in front of a local court and remanded in police custody.
Finally @mumbaipolice has arrested Dawood Ibrahim Ansari, the accused in the #MahimChurch cemetery vandalism. They are investigating the matter further to ascertain why this act was committed by the accused. pic.twitter.com/AdKCVcyU0t
Ansari is a resident of Kalamboli and works at a shop for his uncle in Navi Mumbai. He came to Mahim using the local train and reached the station at around 6 AM. Reportedly, the watchman spotted him and thought he was there to steal the marble. He clicked his photograph and shooed him away. Later, when he checked the graveyard, the watchman noticed several tombstones, crosses and other structures were damaged.
Deputy Commissioner (Zone V) Manoj Patil said in a statement that it is unclear why he vandalised the crosses so far. He said, “We arrested Ansari from Kalamboli, involved in vandalising crosses at the cemetery. He works with his uncle, who has a mattress shop in Navi Mumbai. So far, there is no clarity on the reason behind his acts.” Indian Express quoted sources saying that Ansari might be “mentally unstable” and no prior record was found in his name.
Hindustan Times quoted an unnamed police officer saying that a week ago, Ansari allegedly went to a mosque and started jumping around. Calling it “unusual” behaviour, the officer added that the people threw him out of the mosque.
DCP Patil added, “This is a serious matter involving a religious angle, therefore, the motive behind the incident will be investigated thoroughly, after which it will be revealed to the media.” He said the case had been registered against Ansari under several sections, including 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The Police are also looking if Ansari acted alone or if more people were involved.
The incident at St Michael’s Church
As per Father Lancy Pinto, parish priest of St Michael’s Church, the incident took place at around 5 AM. Later the watchman noticed it. “There was Mass in the morning, so I came to know of the incident around 8.30 AM. Soon the police were informed.” The Church was established around 400 years ago, with the cemetery behind it. Father Pinto said Ansari was seen kneeling in the Church and praying after vandalising the crosses in the cemetery.
Hindus were blamed for the vandalism
While the police initiated the investigation and looked for the culprit, the liberal section of the social media platforms started blaming Hindus and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the vandalism.
Mr Gandhi, a Twitter user, said, “The BJP has begun their “Game” in Maharashtra. Crosses, Graves Vandalised at St Michael’s Church in Mumbai’s Mahim.”
Source: Twitter
Anti-Hindu propaganda Twitter handles Hindutva Watch said, “An unknown miscreant vandalised 18 crosses put atop the graves at a cemetery attached to St. Michael’s Church.” The Twitter handle specifically spread misinformation against Hindus and did not publish any update about the name of the culprit by the time this report was published.
Source: Twitter
Twitter user Chumba Wumba without directly blaming Hindus for the vandalism, said, “This is state-sanctioned terrorism. If this country is to be saved from becoming a failed state, all citizens, including right-minded Hindus, must join hands and uproot this regime of cowards from power once and for all.”
Source: Twitter
Congress’s Netta D’Souza blamed BJP and RSS for the increasing “hate” in the country. She published the photograph of the culprit as well. However, she cunningly avoided naming the culprit.
Source: Twitter
The “Mentally Unstable” miscreants who went on a rampage in the past
This is not the first time a “mentally unstable” person has vandalised a place of worship. On October 3, 2022, Jammu and Kashmir DGP (Prisons) Hemant Kumar Lohia was found dead under mysterious circumstances with a throat slit and burned marks on his body. Terror group People’s Anti-Fascist Force (PAFF), an offshoot of Pakistan-headquartered terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba, has claimed responsibility for the murder. Prima facie, it had appeared to be a case of murder, and his domestic help Yasir Lohar was believed to be the primary suspect. Multiple media houses reported about the arrest but did not fail to mention how Yasir, who brutally killed the police officer, was ‘mentally unstable.’ The reports extensively spoke about a so-called personal diary of the accused and claimed he had mental health issues.
A week before, two Muslim women were detained for reportedly vandalising the idol of goddess Durga at a Navratri pandal in Hyderabad. The women barged into a pandal in the city’s Khairatabad locality and smashed a portion of the Durga statue, according to Hyderabad Police. When a local tried to stop them, one of the ladies attacked him with a metallic tool. Prior to this, the women had also vandalised a statue of Mother Mary outside a nearby church. Many news outlets covered the incident, although some, understandably, focused on how the two women were “mentally disturbed”. Media houses like Deccan Chronicle and TOI focused on how the accused’s brother Asimduddin claimed that his mother and sister were schizophrenic.
On the night of September 27, a man identified as Rameez Ahmed broke into the Bhagwan Hanuman temple in the Hindpuri Police Station area of Ranchi, Jharkhand, and vandalised the idol there. The police subsequently arrested Ahmed. Notably, the police had claimed that Ahmed was mentally unstable. The locals are reportedly not satisfied with the reasoning provided by the police.
Ahmed Murtaza Abbasi, on April 3 2022, screamed Allahu Akbar and tried to enter the Gorakhnath Temple. Wielding a knife that he intended to use, Abbasi injured two cops in the tussle that followed. Several revelations came to the fore after he was apprehended, and an investigation was launched. The most important revelation was that Abbasi had taken an oath of allegiance to ISIS. The mainstream media again did its best to allege that Abbasi was actually not a terrorist but merely mentally unstable. His father asserted the same rather vehemently. Later, a doctor confirmed that Abbasi was mentally fit, and there was no sign that he was unstable.
In 2018, a case of idol vandalism in a Hindu temple was reported from the Shahganj region of Agra in Uttar Pradesh. It was reported that the accused had vandalised a Hanuman and Durga idol to instigate communal tensions. The devotees then caught hold of the individual reportedly trying to flee the temple premises, who, when questioned, identified himself as Sonu Khan. As per a tweet by ANI, the accused was assaulted by the locals after being tied to a tree, following which he was handed over to the police. The news agency claimed that the accused was “mentally challenged”.
