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PM Modi takes a dig at infighting within Punjab Congress, says the party can not give a stable government

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PM Modi takes a dig at infighting within Punjab Congress, says the party can not give a stable government

On Monday (February 14), Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Congress party during his election campaign in Jalandhar in the poll-bound state of Punjab, saying that the Congress party is plagued with infighting, and cannot give a stable government in Punjab.

“Look at the state of the Congress. Their own party is falling apart. Their own leaders are exposing them. A party with so much infighting – can it give a stable government to Punjab?” PM Modi asked talking about the infighting in the Congress party in Punjab.

PM Modi remarked, “The history of the Congress party is a testimony to the fact that it can’t work for the people of Punjab. And if anyone tries to work for the welfare of the State, the party deliberately creates hurdles in its way.”

“It is evident from the speeches of Congress leaders as to why they sidelined Captain Amarinder Singh. Congress leaders in Delhi had accepted that the government of Captain Amarinder Singh was being run by remote control of one family and not by State government on constitutional principles,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi further added, “Captain Amarinder Singh has joined hands with the Central government, under the principle of federalism…Congress leaders are claiming that Captain Amarinder Singh never listened to them but only to the Indian government. So they began creating hurdles for him before sidelining him completely.”

“When a family runs a government through remote control and ignores constitutional principles, chaos in the country is inevitable…Congress is paying the price for this. Today, their party leaders are exposing each other in public. Can those who are fighting amongst themselves provide a stable government to Punjab,” PM Modi asked the crowd.

“Have you ever heard ‘vocal-for-local’ from Congress? Congress’ policies destroyed Punjab’s industries and employment. The double-engine BJP government in Punjab will construct roads and advance infrastructure with double speed. BJP will ensure that the traders of Punjab are able to do business without any hassle,” PM further said.

Vidhan Sabha polls in Punjab to be conducted on February 20

On January 17, the Election Commission of India (ECI) informed that the Vidhan Sabha elections for the State of Punjab have been re-scheduled from February 14 to February 20 this year.

The nodal Election body stated that it had received representation from the Punjab government and several political parties about the movement of devotees in Punjab to Varanasi for Sri Guru Ravidas Ji Jayanti celebrations (February 16, 2022).

Elections in the State will now coincide with the 3rd phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh. The decision by the ECI was taken in consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer (ECI) and the Punjab government. Counting of votes in the poll-bound State will be conducted on March 10, 2022.

‘Grow potato chips and tomato ketchup in food park’ – Rahul Gandhi says funnily, but here is what is not funny at all

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‘Grow potato chips and tomato ketchup in food park’ – Rahul Gandhi says funnily, but here is what is not funny at all

On Monday, February 14, at an election rally in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi said that if his party is re-elected in the state, farmers will be able to sale their produce directly to food processing units from their farms. He said that his govt will set up food parks near farms, which will host food processing units.

However, during the speech, Rahul Gandhi said that farmers will be able ‘grow’ potato chips and tomato ketchup in food parks, “Hoshiarpur is a centre of agriculture and farm tools. Our government will work to create a cluster of food parks and machine tools in Hoshiarpur. Whatever farmers ‘grow’ in the food park, be it potato chips or tomato ketchup, will be made here. You cultivate crop in your field, and from there, take it directly to the food processing unit,” Gandhi is heard saying at around 0.30 seconds in the 1.19-minute video shared by ANI.

Netizens used this to mock him, suggesting that he has promised that farmers will be able to grow finished products like potato chips and tomato ketchup in the food parks. However, this time Rahul Gandhi didn’t goof up on the matters of food processing industry,

Because, in the next sentence itself, Rahul Gandhi says that farmers will be able to bring the crop from their farms directly to the food parks, where the same will be processed and final food products will be produced. “You will grow crops in your farm, from there you will take it directly to the food processing unit. Potato, tomato, chili, whatever the farmers grow they can take it directly to the food processing unit, and they will get the payment directly”.

In general, this is a completely valid promise, a promise the Modi government had already made earlier. It is not something that Rahul Gandhi said, as alleged by some netizens, and his ‘grow chips and ketchup in food park’ can be a minor slip of the tongue.

But what is problematic is Rahul Gandhi’s promise to farmers that they will be able to sell their produce to the food parks, because, for more than a year, the Congress party was opposing the very farm laws that ensured exactly the same. The now-repealed farm laws had provisions allowing the farmers to bypass middlemen and sell directly to the end-users including food processing units. But the same provision was vehemently opposed by the farmer unions and the Congress party.

They had alleged that allowing food processing units to directly buy from farmers will allow them to control the market and exploit the farmers. They had alleged the farm laws were brought by PM Modi to benefit his ‘industrialist friends’ who are in the food processing business. They had listed several benefits of middlemen in the trade of farm produce and opposed any provision that allowed the farmers to bypass such middlemen, including the mandis. Due to the aggressive protests by farmer unions aided by the Congress government in Punjab, the central govt had withdrawn the farm laws, which were already suspended by the Supreme Court.

And now, Congress leader Raul Gandhi is promising exactly the same he and his party was opposing for one and a half years. Now he says farmers can avoid goin=g to a mandi or a middleman and can directly sell to a food processing unit. This is a very high level of hypocrisy that the Kerala MP has shown.

Burqa row hearing: Petitioners wanted restriction on media and social media discussion, said ‘it may affect elections’

OpIndia Staff
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Burqa row hearing: Petitioners wanted restriction on media and social media discussion, said ‘it may affect elections’

The Karnataka High Court was hearing the case on the burqa row today. One of the petitioners had expressed that the case hearing might adversely affect the ongoing elections in several states and had requested the court to restrict media and social media comments on the issue due to the ongoing elections.

However, the HC stated that they would consider if the Election Commission of India makes such a request. Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi stated that the court can only make appeals to the media but cannot restrict the media. However, they can suspend the live streaming of the hearing.

The three-member bench comprising of Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna Dixit & Justice JM Khazi was hearing the arguments put forward by Senior Advocate Devdatt Kamat on behalf of the petitioners (Girl students). Kamat was seen arguing over the absoluteness and relativity of Article 25 which talks about freedom to practice, propagate religion. He went ahead to quote verses from the Quran justifying the use of headscarves in Islam.

While arguing for the right of girl students to wear Hijab (as supposedly mandated by Islam), Kamat said, “I am asking for a positive mandate for allowing me to wear a headscarf of the same colour of the uniform.” With 15-20 minutes left for Devdatt Kamat to finish, Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi asked before the court about who else wanted to argue on behalf of the petitioners.

Pointing out the religious nature of ongoing proceedings of the High Court, an advocate asked before the bench to hear the matter after the ongoing elections today and also restrict the media covering the proceedings. CJ Awasthi responded to this stating, “If the Election Commission or any other body which holds the elections asks us to do so, then we will consider,”

Responding to the request Justice Krishna Dixit argued that such cases are handled by the election commission under article 324. Pointing out that the concerned individuals hearing the case are not voters in the elections, he affirmed that no elections are being affected by the court proceedings. Over growing concerns about the naivety of social media users hearing the case, the Chief Justice announced, “If you people agree, we can put off this live streaming. However, we cannot put any restrictions as far as the media is concerned,”

Before adjourning the court, the Chief Justice listed out the names of advocates who will be appearing for the petitioner (girls) in the continued proceedings tomorrow. The Karnataka High Court functions on an online mode owing to the Covid-19 restrictions. The live streaming of the hearings was being watched by around 20,000 viewers on Youtube. The hearing is adjourned till 2:30 PM tomorrow.

Sonam Kapoor’s tweet location set to Lahore in Pakistan creates furore, husband’s clothing brand had recently shot ad there

OpIndia Staff
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Sonam Kapoor’s tweet location set to Lahore in Pakistan creates furore, husband’s clothing brand had recently shot ad there

Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor took to Twitter to write a post wishing her husband Anand Ahuja this valentine’s day. However, it drew irk of netizens when it came to notice of everyone that the location for the tweet was set to Lahore in Pakistan. Social media users were seen asking how could she post something from Pakistan on a day which witnessed one of the deadliest attacks on Indian armed forces by terrorists sponsored by Pakistan.

Sonam Kapoor tweeted “Happy ? day. Nothing more important then ? @ Love” and tagged a post of Instagram. The tweet was made from Lahore, Pakistan at 04:37 AM on February 14th.

The tweet made by Sonam Kapoor.

People began pointing out the Lahore reference in her post and criticizing her as the tweet spread.

A Twitter user named Vineet Kumar Chaurasiya (@kumarvineet074) quoted her tweet and wrote “Why is @sonamakapoor tweeting from Lahore.?”

Another user with handle @Right_Wing_Guyy wrote, “Tweeting from Lahore, Pakistan on the third anniversary of #PulwamaAttack Have some shame @sonamakapoor”

Ananya Mishra (@Vintage__Vibes-) wrote, “Is it ok to go to Lahore without hijab?”

It is worth mentioning that her husband participated actively in cross-border fashion cooperation through his apparel business Bhaane. His apparel brand Bhane was filming at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Town in October 2021. According to an Instagram post, the brand is now exploring Pakistan.

OpIndia recently reported that her husband, Anand Ahuja, was recently accused of creating fraudulent invoices in order to avoid paying shipping charges. MyUS, an international shipping firm, exposed him for falsifying invoices in order to avoid paying taxes and customs duties. The shipping company stated that the bills attached included up to 90% less value than what he had paid for the products.

Controversies around Sonam Kapoor

Sonam Kapoor is no stranger to stirring up controversy. She had come out in favour of a contentious NCERT document that advocated gender identity politics and supported ideas like puberty blockers and ‘gender-neutral toilets’ for children in November 2021. She had attracted attention recently for defending Muslim women’s “right” to wear hijab. In 2013, Sonam Kapoor questioned the concept of limiting item numbers in movies, claiming that women should not be put inside burqas.

‘TMC leader says they want to divide Hindu votes in Goa’: PM Modi questions opposition’s pseudo-secularism, cautions voters in UP

OpIndia Staff
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‘TMC leader says they want to divide Hindu votes in Goa’: PM Modi questions opposition’s pseudo-secularism, cautions voters in UP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday slammed Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party for saying that it is fighting elections in Goa to ‘divide’ Hindu votes. PM Modi added that the Election Commission, voters in Goa as well as Uttar Pradesh, should pay attention to how the opposition is trying to mess with India’s democracy by playing communal politics.

PM Modi, in a reference to TMC MP Mahua Moitra, said that a leader of the Trinamool Congress party had admitted in an interview that the Trinamool’s electoral strategy has been to divide the Hindu votes. “Is the secularism”, asked Modi, deriding TMC for undermining the democracy by playing divisive politics in the name of secularism.

If “Parivaarwadi” is voted to power they would develop “mafia ganj” in each of the state’s districts: PM Modi

PM Modi went on to take a dig at Samajwadi Party’s ‘Parivaarvadi’ politics. He said they had distributed areas among family members for “loot” during their rule in the state. 

He went after the Samajwadi Party saying, “The people of Uttar Pradesh will once again defeat the ‘Parivaarwadi.’ “Holi, the festival of colours, will come days 10 days early on March 10th in Uttar Pradesh with BJP’s victory,” added the PM.

PM Modi asked the people whether they wanted to vote for a party that would develop “mafia ganj” in each of the state’s districts.

“If they had their way, they would have made Kanpur and other such areas in UP, a ‘mafia ganj’ mohalla. Now their ‘mafiagiri’ is counting its last breath. These ‘parivaarvadi’ want to give power to these mafias again. UP public will have to stay alert,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that before 2017, Uttar Pradesh had ration scams every other day. “They made lakhs of fake ration cards. The double engine government ended this fake ration card scheme. Today, crores of the public are receiving ration free of cost. Stoves of my poor sisters and mothers will never be turned off.”

“How would they serve the people of Uttar Pradesh if they keep changing their allies?” he asked, referring to Akhilesh’s partnership with the RLD.

“Those who bring new alliance partners and kick them out in every election, would you trust such parties? Would you support such parties? Can you trust those who do not support their own alliance partners? Will such people who don’t trust their alliance partners ever trust or support the common public? Can people who only seek to bring money into their own families’ wallets possibly work for the welfare of ordinary citizens? PM asked Kanpur Dehat voters.

Law against triple talaq has saved thousands of Muslim women in Uttar Pradesh: PM

Further, PM Modi reached out to the Muslim women saying that the law against triple talaq brought by the BJP government has saved thousands of Muslim women in Uttar Pradesh. “The Muslim girls feel safe under the BJP rule in Uttar Pradesh. Many more Muslim girls are going to schools and colleges in the state now,” Modi said, adding that BJP does not differentiate between women of different faiths and that its schemes have benefitted all.

“The trends of the second phase and the voting in the first phase in Uttar Pradesh has made it clear that the BJP government led by Yogi Adityanath is returning to power in the state that too with a thumping majority,” said PM Modi.

Polling has begun for phase 2 of the high-stakes, seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections. In all 17,000 polling booths across the state, security has been increased. This phase will determine the fate of 586 candidates. In 2017, the BJP won 38 of the 55 seats up for election in the second phase. The SP and Congress, who ran together, won 15 and two seats, respectively. The results will be declared on March 10. 

Lavanya suicide case: DMK MLA felicitates hostel warden who is accused of harassing and torturing the school girl

OpIndia Staff
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Lavanya suicide case: DMK MLA felicitates hostel warden who is accused of harassing and torturing the school girl

A month after a 17-year-old Lavanya committed suicide following allegations of coercion to convert to Christianity by her school in Tamil Nadu, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) MLA Inigo Irudayaraj felicitated the hostel warden accused of torturing Lavanya, reported The Commune.

As per a report in Samayam, the Trichy East MLA felicitated the accused hostel warden Sagaya Mary with a shawl outside the Trichy Central jail, after she was released on bail by the Thanjavur District Court.

It must be mentioned that the 17-year-old Lavanya had revealed in her dying declaration that the hostel caretaker Sagaya Mary harassed her for not converting to Christianity. The deceased Hindu girl had informed how she was forced to cook, keep books and clean toilets.

Hindupost reported that the DMK MLA Inigo is also the convenor and founder of the Christian Goodwill Movement. He had also organised an event where a Christian priest openly delivered a hate speech against the Hindu community.

“The majority (Hindus) are nothing but mosquitoes and can be easily swatted away,” the priest had remarked. Ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the DMK MLA was also seen vying for consolidation of Christian and Muslim vote bank to defeat the BJP in the Southern State of Tamil Nadu.

Lavanya suicide case

Lavanya was a 12 standard student at Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School in Michaelpatti near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. She had committed suicide on January 19 this year by consuming pesticides after being forced by the school to convert to Christianity.

The Tamil Nadu government, media and police had tried to suppress the conversion angle in the case and had ignored the dying declaration, prompting her family to approach the HC seeking a CBI inquiry.

On January 31, 2022, The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court had ordered the transfer of the Lavanya suicide case to the CBI, a decision upheld even by the Supreme Court of India. This came after the victim’s father had filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a CBI probe into the matter, alleging that the investigation by state police was not going in the right direction.

The government, which has been denying the conversion angle right from the start had filed an SLP with the apex court through the DGP challenging validity of the HC decision. The DGP had also challenged the remarks of the Madras High Court against the State Police for their inaction and lack of concerted effort in investigating the angle of conversion

Amidst hijab row Tehreek-e-Taliban India emerges, Indian law enforcement agencies approach Twitter to ban account

OpIndia Staff
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Amidst hijab row Tehreek-e-Taliban India emerges, Indian law enforcement agencies approach Twitter to ban account

Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) has established its Indian chapter Tehreek-e-Taliban India (TTI). The newly formed chapter’s parent organization is a designated terror organization by Pakistan, US and other countries. It is responsible for widespread riots in Pakistan. The Twitter account, which was created in January 2021, published its first post on February 9.

Screenshot of TTI’s Twitter bio. Source: Twitter

The next day, it said the Emir or the head of the organization would be announced soon. The same day, it said, “The Tehreek-e-Taliban India (#TTI) announced its official activities today, Thursday, following a meeting of its leaders in India.” Later they named Maulana Al Qureshi as their first Emir.

TTI published tweet in favour of Hijab-clad girls. Source: Twitter

There was a photograph of a poster in the Tweet that was in support of the hijab. The poster read, “Hijab is haya & Haya is Emaan. We can die, but we can’t surrender. We stand with girls in hijab.” The poster also had the logo of Al-Haya-Min-Allah, which, according to its Twitter bio, is a month-long “Haya campaign” allegedly to “spread awareness”. The group has come out in support of hijab-wearing girls. Interestingly, the group being Al-Haya-Min-Allah has distanced itself from TTI and called it an account made by “Sanghis”.

Al-Haya-Min-Allah distanced itself from TTI. Source: Twitter

In its tweets, TTI claims that Taliban is a common name and it has nothing to do with Taliban in Afghanistan or Pakistan. It said, “The Indian Taliban is made up of Muslim scholars. And created for peace in India and Kashmir. And so far, thousands of Indian and Kashmiri Muslims have joined it.” It used a distorted map of India with the tweet.

TTI published distorted map of India. Source: Twitter

The government of India approached Twitter for an account ban

The Indian Law Enforcement agencies approached Twitter to ban the Twitter account of Tehreek-e-Taliban India. As a rule, Twitter shared the information with the said account that published a screenshot of the communication. TTI said, “The Indian government has no choice. Without war or peace with Tehreek-e-Taliban India.”

On February 12, TTI alleged if Biden gave Afghanistan’s money to someone else, the Americans living in India would face a strong response from the organization. TTI’s response came after US President Biden announced that America would equally divide $7 Billion of Afghanistan’s aid money to 9/11 victims and humanitarian organizations working in Afghanistan.

TTI threatens Americans living in India. Source: Twitter

On February 13, TTI claimed to have killed a police officer in Bijapur on Saturday. The location marked on the map was Karnataka. Contrary to the claims, the incident did not take place in Bijapur, Karnataka, but in Bijapur, Chattisgarh, where a CRPF soldier lost his life during an exchange of fire with Naxals.

TTI’s misleading tweet about death of CRPF officer. Source: Twitter

In the latest tweet, TTI called the Indian government fascist and said, “The fascist government of India can block TTI pages on social media. But no one can stop our war of liberation.”

TTI called Indian govt. “fascist”. source: Twitter

The location of the account is set to Delhi, written in Pashto, a language common to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Historian Vikram Sampath moves Delhi HC against Audrey Truschke, Rohit Chopra and others including Twitter Inc. over defamatory remarks

OpIndia Staff
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Historian Vikram Sampath moves Delhi HC against Audrey Truschke, Rohit Chopra and others including Twitter Inc. over defamatory remarks

Historian Vikram Sampath has decided to approach the Delhi High Court against controversial author Audrey Truschke and others including social media platform Twitter over defamatory comments and false allegations brought against him on the platform. This came a day after a letter surfaced on Twitter on Sunday, alleging the renowned historian of ‘Plagiarism’ over his speech on Indian revolutionary Veer Savarkar from 2017.

The letter attempting to accuse Sampath of plagiarism was written by three professors from universities in the US including Ananya Chakravarti, Rohit Chopra and Audrey Truschke. The letter was directed to the Royal Historical Society, UK of which Sampath is a member, in a tone requesting the body to initiate action against him. The case for plagiarism and misattribution has already fallen flat when it was found that Vikram Sampath had already given due citations and credits in all the academic works which he had produced.

This was not the first time when the author and historian was attacked over false allegations over his two-volume work on Swatantryaveer Savarkar. Be it for the continued ranting against him by historians on the left or the trolling faced by the author over his biography of Savarkar, Twitter has not necessitated any action against the trolls and has also refused to take cognizance of the ghastly online attacks.

While it can also be noted that Audrey Truschke and Rohit Chopra are already known for peddling fake news and rabid Hinduphobia on Twitter. Rohit Chopra had to face the brunt of his hate-mongering on Twitter after Delhi-based Think Tank Observer Research Foundation decided to pull down his essays from their website in 2020.

The controversies of Audrey Truschke are well known starting with her glorification of Aurangazeb, the genocidal Mughal tyrant. With her well-known links to Hinduphobic groups, she was one of the primary participants of the ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva‘ conference organised in 2021. Apart from her dubious ‘academic’ works, she was also found targeting Hindu students from Rutgers’ University who had flagged her Hindu hatred on the campus.

Supreme Court refuses to interfere in Madras HC order transferring Lavanya Suicide Case to CBI, quashes TN govt’s plea

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court refuses to interfere in Madras HC order transferring Lavanya Suicide Case to CBI, quashes TN govt’s plea

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere in the Madras High Court order directing a CBI probe into the death of a 17-year-old student Lavanya in Thanjavur. While declining the plea of the Tamil Nadu Government challenging the previous Madras HC order, the Supreme Court has requested the government not to make the case a ‘prestige issue’ and hand over all papers to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appeared for the girl’s father.

On Monday, The Supreme Court was hearing a plea by the Tamil Nadu Government defended by Advocates Mukul Rohatgi and P. Wilson. The SC Bench asked Rohatgi over which aspect of the HC ruling his party was concerned. The Bench asserted, “On the first aspect of the observations made against state police in Madras HC judgment, we will issue notice but not on the aspect of CBI probe in light of Lavanya’s death.”

Countering this, Rohatgi argued that there is a ‘so-called conversion’ issue that was projected in the case. Advocate P. Wilson on behalf of the state police said that no consent of the state has been kept in mind for the transfer of investigation to the CBI. The Bench arguing that a lot has happened in the case, asked the lawyers not to make it a ‘prestige issue’. Arguing that the government should be happy with the decision on CBI transfer, the Bench replied to Wilson’s request saying, “We are not interfering in the CBI transfer aspect. We have made ourselves satisfied of it”

The case so far

On January 31, 2022, The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court had ordered the transfer of the Lavanya suicide case to the CBI amidst allegations of forced conversion. This came after the victim’s father had filed a petition in the Madras High Court seeking a CBI probe into the matter, alleging that the investigation by state police was not going in the right direction.

The Tamil Nadu government which has been denying the conversion angle right from the start had filed an SLP with the apex court through the DGP challenging validity of the HC decision. The DGP had also challenged the remarks of the Madras High Court against the State Police for their inaction and lack of concerted effort in investigating the angle of conversion that allegedly led to Lavanya’s death by suicide.

On the then ongoing probe by the state police, the Madras HC had observed, “What led the child to suicide has to be investigated. Before the investigation officer, the dying declaration of the child is available. Their authenticity is undoubted. Without doing so, the District Superintendent of Police wanted to completely suppress the conversion angle. The foregoing circumstances cumulatively taken will definitely create an impression that the investigation is not proceeding on the right lines. Since a high-ranking Hon’ble Minister himself has taken a stand, investigation cannot continue with the State Police.”

Lavanya, a 12 standard student, had committed suicide on January 19. In her dying declaration, the young girl had stated that her missionary school had pressurised her to convert to Christianity and she had been subject to harassment for refusing to convert. The state government, media and police had tried to suppress the conversion angle in the case, and had ignored the dying declaration, prompting her family to approach the HC seeking a CBI inquiry.

Hyderabad: Darul-Uloom teacher Shoeb Akhtar rapes a 10-year-old boy inside madarsa, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Hyderabad: Darul-Uloom teacher Shoeb Akhtar rapes a 10-year-old boy inside madarsa, arrested

A 25-year-old Arabic Teacher from Bihar, Shoeb Akhtar was raping a 10-year-old student in the Darul-Uloom madarsa in Shastripuram, Hyderabad. After the incident came to light, the Mailardevapally Police have arrested the accused on February 7, 2021.

It is learnt that the accused Shoeb Akhtar from Bihar has been sodomizing a 10-year-old boy for ten days in the Darul Uloom Madrasa. On February 06, Sunday, after the victim complained to his father of constant back pain, the parents noticed swelling and bleeding injuries on their son’s private parts. Appaled by the circumstances, the victim’s parents along with other locals gathered around the madarsa in protest.

According to the police, The victim’s family had enrolled him in the madarsa after returning from South Africa two months back. The parents have now filed a complaint against Shoeb and the madarsa organisers at the Mailardevapally Police Station. After sending the victim for a medical examination, the Police has arrested Shoeb Akhtar, the Arabic teacher in the school.

Talking about the shocking incident, Inspector K. Narsimha said, “We have arrested Shoeb on a complaint lodged by the victim’s mother. A case of sodomy under section 377 of IPC has been registered against the accused,”

After registering the case, the police is now investigating whether the accused had committed similar crimes against other students. The instances of sodomy, molestation and rape in madrasas have been on an increase over time. Recently on January 27, news came from the Mainpuri district of Uttar Pradesh of the rape of an 8-year-old madarsa student by a 52-year-old cleric making her swear by the Quran not to disclose the incident to anyone. In August last year, a madarsa teacher from Tumakuru, Karnataka was sent to 11 years of imprisonment for sodomising a minor boy in 2015.

The rampant sexual abuse of children inside madarsas is not restricted to the country but goes unchecked in many Islamic countries like Pakistan. Our report exposing the dark side of Islamic religious institutions in Pakistan can be read here.

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