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Maulana who calls men bh*dwas for not putting women in Burqa has a Mamata Banerjee connection

OpIndia Staff
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Maulana who calls men bh*dwas for not putting women in Burqa has a Mamata Banerjee connection

Social Media websites are awash with a video of an angry rant by Maulana, who is seen screaming on the top of his voice and abusing the relatives of women who wear fitting clothes and avoid wearing burqas. In the video, the Islamist Maulana Jarjis Ansari Hafizullah, during the course of his speech could be heard calling the relatives of women who refrain from wearing purdah(Burqa) ‘bh*dwa’, a Hindi slang which means a ‘pimp’.

“How many times should it be reminded that those whose sisters, mothers, daughters and wives roam around without purdah are bh*dwa…A brother whose sister is roaming without a purdah is a bh*dwa, a father whose daughter is roaming around without a purdah is a bh*dwa, a husband whose wife is roaming around without a purdah is a bh*dwa,” Maulana shrieked.

Furthermore, a seemingly livid Maulana then goes on to explain that a bh*dwa is referred to as a ‘tayoos’ in Arabic and dares UP CM Yogi Adityanath and PM Modi that he will speak what he wishes to and nobody can stop him from explaining what a ‘bh*dwa’ means.

As it turns out, this is not the first occasion when Maulana Jarjis is seen flying in rage in a public address. On several occasions in the past, the Maulana could be seen spewing venom against PM Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath while throwing his weight behind the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

Maulana Jarjis has been voicing support for Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. Reports say that he has been campaigning for TMC in Bengal. A Zee Hindustan report had highlighted that Jarjis has been instigating Muslims in Bengal against BJP and PM Modi, indirectly pushing them to vote for TMC by spreading fear and hatred. Jarjis’ campaign has been highlighted in media multiple times for instigating hate, and violence.

Video from YouTube

Maulana Jarjis incites Muslims to take up arms against the government of India

. In his earlier video, Jarjis was seen inciting Muslims to take up arms against the government of India. In December 2019, a video of the Maulana was uploaded in which he was seen making vulgar and derogatory remarks against PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as he rejected the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) bill and falsely claimed them of being anti-Muslim.

The Maulana in his hate speech audaciously said that if Modi or Shah try to throw them (referring to the Muslim community) out of the country he would take ‘jihad’ to the last corner of India. He said, “inke baap ke baap ke baap ki bhi takat nahi hain ki humme bahar nikaal de (their forefathers also do not have the gall to throw us out of the nation), humme nikaal ke toh dikha Modi, hum bhi jihad karne se peeche nahi hatengein (try throwing us out Modi, we will also not hesitate in waging jihad).”

Rajasthan: Muslim mob assaults Hindu man-Muslim woman couple, video goes viral

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: Muslim mob assaults Hindu man-Muslim woman couple, video goes viral

A video has gone viral on the internet that purportedly shows a Muslim mob harassing and thrashing a Hindu man-Muslim woman couple at a resort in Bigod, Rajasthan. The video shows the group assault the woman as well. Vulgar language was used as well.

The Rajasthan Police on social media has directed Bhilwara Police to take cognizance of the matter and take appropriate action.

The video was shared on Facebook in a public group titled ‘Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi Mission Rajasthan 2023’ by one Aslam Kurishi. In the caption, Kurishi admits that the Muslim crowd assaulted the couple and made the video viral so that others could see.

It is unclear whether Kurishi is a leader of the AIMIM in Rajashtan or merely a member of the group. It is unclear whether the group is officially linked to Owaisi’s party. It remains to be seen whether the Rajasthan Police takes any action in the matter.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admits suppressing explosive Hunter Biden story of NY Post was a mistake, downplays it as “process error”

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admits suppressing explosive Hunter Biden story of NY Post was a mistake, downplays it as “process error”

While speaking at a congressional hearing on misinformation and social media, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday acknowledged that his platform made a “total mistake” by barring users from sharing The NY Post’s bombshell October report about Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s emails.

Twitter had also locked The Post out of its account for over two weeks over unsubstantiated allegations that the exposé used hacked information.

Dorsey downplayed the mistake by his social media platform by chalking it up to “process error”, assuring that Twitter does not have a “censoring department” that blocked The Post from tweeting last fall. Even though Jack accepted his company’s mistake, he did not reveal who was behind the decision, in remarks at a House hearing on Thursday.

When asked if any employee was “held accountable” for blocking the NY Post’s account, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey dodged the question, saying “we don’t have a censoring department”.

“It was literally just a process error. This was not against them in any particular way,” Dorsey told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

On being asked why Twitter had blocked The Post’s account for more than two weeks, Dorsey refuted saying that the company did not block them for two weeks. “We required them to delete the tweet and then they could tweet it again,” he elaborated. “They didn’t take that action, so we corrected it for them.”

Twitter had initially removed The Post story that was based on emails between Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, and an executive at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, claiming it to be sourced from “hacked materials”. In its defence, Twitter had claimed that it has a policy in place that forbade uploading content “obtained through hacking that contains private information, may put people in physical harm or danger or contains trade secrets”.

Two weeks after The Post broke its story, on October 30, Twitter backpedalled and unlocked its account. Dorsey had earlier stated that the decision to block the story was “wrong“.

Twitter’s left-leaning bias and political interefnece

It is notable to mention that the story about Hunter Biden’s email conversation with a Ukrainian executive broke at the time when the United States was preparing for the Presidential elections between the incumbent Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden, who is also the father of Hunter Biden.

The left-leaning liberals in the United States had thrown their weight behind Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden. With Twitter having admitted of its left-leaning bias, many analysts claim that the decision to suppress the Hunter Biden story by the social media behemoth might have been taken to prevent it from influencing the opinions against Joe Biden.

Besides, former US President Donald Trump has long accused Twitter of being prejudiced against him and his Republican Party. As American entered its presidential election year, Twitter’s efforts to undermine President Trump were on the rise. In May 2020, Trump accused Twitter of interfering in the US Presidential elections after it flagged the American President’s tweet with a “misleading content” label. The former president had also accused that Twitter has not extended the same kind of scrutiny to the left-leaning Democrat leaders.

Back in India as well, Twitter has been caught for its jaundiced propaganda against the Modi government. In December 2020, Twitter labelled a tweet posted by BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya as “misleading content”. Malviya in his tweet had exposed Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders for deceitfully using a misleading image to allege that the BJP government at the centre was brutally assaulting the farmers. However, instead of flagging the spurious image and tweets posted by the Congress leaders, Twitter moved to label Malviya’s tweet instead.

Twitter, however, did not show the same alacrity in branding misleading content posted by Congress leaders. Just recently, Congress IT Cell head Rohan Gupta had shared a cropped video of PM Modi to wrongfully allege that he is endorsing befooling poor, exploiting them for votes. The video was a manipulated clip of PM Modi wherein he was seen elaborating the Congress modus operandi of duping the poor, making false promises to them to remain in power. However, Twitter had then not extended any labels of “misleading content” on his tweet.

Yogi Adityanath reminds Mamata Banerjee about the sacrifice of Kothari brothers for Ram Mandir movement, Suvendu Adhikari calls her ‘Begum’

OpIndia Staff
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Yogi Adityanath reminds Mamata Banerjee about the sacrifice of Kothari brothers for Ram Mandir movement, Suvendu Adhikari calls her ‘Begum’

Launching a blistering attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during an election rally in her Assembly constituency Nandigram on Thursday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath invoked the Kothari brothers to remind Banejree about the state’s contribution to the Ram Mandir movement. Kothari brothers were Kar Sevaks who had sacrificed their lives for the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Slamming Banerjee for opposing the slogan of Jai Shri Ram in the state, CM Yogi reminded her that people from West Bengal had participated in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. “Kothari brothers were born in West Bengal only”, said CM Yogi. “Kothari brothers sacrificed their lives for Ram temple movement of Ayodhya. A memorial of their sacrifice is there in Ayodhya. Their dream of Ram temple is being fulfilled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, he added. CM Yogi thanked the people of West Bengal for making huge donations for Ram temple construction.

CM Yogi accused Mamata Banerjee of being concerned only about infiltrators in the state. He said that she did not even ban cow slaughter in the state fearing that her vote bank would be lost.

Suvendu Adhikari called Mamata Banerjee ‘Begum’

Former TMC stalwart Suvendu Adhikari, who will be giving a fight to Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram, accused her of insulting Hinduism for vote bank.

Adhikari, who referred to Banerjee as ‘Begum’ recalled how the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had used a Bangladeshi celebrity for election campaign during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Taking a veiled dig at the statement made by TMC leader Sheikh Alam about creating four Pakistans in the country, Adhikari said that TMC was an anti-national party. Speaking at an election rally Sheikh Alam had said that if all the 30% Muslims came together, they could form four Pakistans.

Eighth phase elections for 294 seats of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly start tomorrow. The elections will be conducted between March 27 to April 29. The results for the elections will be declared in May 2.

US House Rep remembers the Bengali Hindu Genocide of 1971, Indian ‘liberal’ rushes in to prove why the mass slaughter has been forgotten

K Bhattacharjee
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US House Rep remembers the Bengali Hindu Genocide of 1971, Indian ‘liberal’ rushes in to prove why the mass slaughter has been forgotten

Progressive member of the US House of Representatives, Ro Khanna, remembered the 50th anniversary of the Bengali Hindu Genocide on Friday. He said that he stands with the Bengali Hindu diaspora to ensure that the world never forgets “one of the most forgotten genocides of our time”.

After Ro Khanna made the tweet, Indian intellectuals proceeded to demonstrated precisely why the Bengali Hindu genocide of 1971 is “one of the most forgotten genocides of our time”. ‘Eminent intellectual’ Salil Tripathi jumped in to claim, without evidence, that the majority of those killed by the Pakistani Army were Muslims. Furthermore, he emphasised that they were targeted for being Bengali.

Tripathi mentioned one book, Blood Telegram authored by Gary Bass, which certainly does not peddle the narrative he believes it does. In reality, Bass’s book reveals the twisted mentality of the then Indian government, one shared by Salil Tripathi himself, that led the Indian State to downplay the Bengali Hindu genocide.

Bass wrote in his book, “From Moscow, D P Dhar, India’s ambassador there, decried the Pakistan army’s preplanned policy of selecting Hindus for butchery, but, fearing inflammatory politicking from rightist reactionary Hindu chauvinist parties like Jana Sangh, he wrote, ’We were doing our best not to allow this aspect of the matter to be publicised in India’.”

Imagine the perversity of it for a moment. The Indian Government at the time covered up the genocide of Bengali Hindus in 1971 because it believed ‘secularism’ will come under threat in India. Swapan Singh, the then External Affairs Minister of India, is said to have told a meeting of India diplomats in London, “In India we have tried to cover that up but we have no hesitation in stating the figure to foreigners.”

“Singh instructed his staff to distort for their country: We should avoid making this into an Indo-Pakistan or Hindu-Muslim conflict. We should point out that there are Buddhists and Christians besides the Muslims among the refugees, who had felt the brunt of repression.” Genocide denial became the unstated policy of the Indian Government.

The book also noted that “senior officers like the COAS [chief of army staff and CGS [chief of general staff] were often noticed jokingly asking as to how many Hindus have been killed.” “One lieutenant colonel testified that Lieutenant General A K Niazi,who became the chief martial law administrator in East Pakistan and head of the army’s Eastern Command,asked as to how many Hindus we had killed. In May,there was an order in writing to kill Hindus from a brigadier.”

“There was a general feeling of hatred against Bengalis amongst the soldiers and the officers including generals. There were verbal instructions to eliminate Hindus”, the book states.

A user on social media pointed it out to Salil Tripathi that the book does not say what he believes it says. The user shared a photograph of a page in the book which explicitly describes how Hindus in East Pakistan were made a target.

The page in question notes that the staffers of Archer Blood, the US Consul General in Dhaka, noted that “evidence of selective singling out of Hindu professors for elimination, burning of Hindu settlements including 24 square block areas of Old Dacca and village built around temple… Also attack night of March 26 on Hindu dormitory at Dacca University resulting in at least 25 deaths.” It was also noted that “Hindus seem [to] bear brunt of general reign of terror.”

Scholar Shrinandan Vyas, in his research paper at IIT Kanpur, stated that of the 3 million killed in 1971, 2.5 million were Hindus. Senator Edward Kennedy and Pulitzer winner journalist Sydney Schanberg noted that Hindu houses were marked with a bright yellow ‘H’.

Vyas notes, “Nearly 2.5 million Hindus were killed during the 9 months of Pakistani Army repression of East Pakistan in 1971. Thus it was a Hindu slaughter in 1971.”. “Indian Government controlled ‘secular’ media deliberately hid the sinister truth of Hindu Genocide in East Pakistan,” he added.

The barrage of propaganda unleashed by the Indian Government all those years continues to have repercussions today. People who remember the genocide of Bengali Hindus are branded communal. It is another sordid reminder of the fact that Secularism in India is built over the corpses of Hindus and the misery of our people.

Where is ‘Bengal model’: A non-intellectual response to the intellectuals of Bengal

Abhishek Banerjee
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Where is ‘Bengal model’: A non-intellectual response to the intellectuals of Bengal

Intellectuals occupy a unique position in Bengali society, or so they believe. These people live the life of the mind, or so they say. They read endless books, though all on the same subject. They watch countless movies from around the world, with or without subtitles, though all have the same basic plot. And ultimately, they express themselves, through writing or art or film, in really predictable ways. Even though they never actually take part in the life of ordinary people, they tell us what to think. As polling in Bengal draws near, a number of these artists and performers have taken to Youtube to tell us that they are not neutral.

Good; they don’t have to be. And while they show a rapid succession of headlines attacking the Central government and Chief Ministers of BJP ruled states, they do not name any political party. Very well, I can play along.

They warn us of some big pandemic-like threat coming towards Bengal. This threat will sweep away everything that Bengal is supposed to stand for. Which reminds me: what does Bengal stand for?

Let me ask a fundamental question. Why so much negativity, such anger, in how these intellectuals express themselves? Bengal has been a bastion of liberal, secular and progressive politics for 70 years. As the election unfolds, why not show off all the wonderful things that this liberal, secular and progressive politics has done for the state? Why not show off the “Bengal model” to the world?

Surprised? But why? Why does nobody ever speak of the Bengal model? Let us see: the state allegedly had the best economic planners, the most independent thinkers, the most vibrant space for dissent and the most social harmony. You say that all this is coming under threat now. Very well then, show us all that you have achieved in all these years. Show us the skyscrapers, the rivers of milk and honey and the long lines of people from other states flocking to Bengal for work.

You speak of a dangerous ideology coming into the state from outside. You talk of how this ideology has spread everywhere, like a pandemic. But, how come their ideology has spread and yours did not? You say you believe in education while the outsiders are murkho (illiterates). Then how come you get outwitted by the illiterates at every turn? Is it possible that your ideas do not produce tangible results?

Indeed, why the fear of the ideology of Gujarat spreading into Bengal? Why not go to Gujarat and fly the glory flag of Bengal? Make a Gujarati language video and promise to teach Gujarat how to become prosperous like Bengal. Who is stopping you?

This is what is called a sanity check. It is not found in your philosophy books nor in clouds of intellectual cigarette smoke. As a general rule, if you are paranoid about outside ideas and outside people, you must not be very successful yourself. Do you know how many Bengalis are forced to work in low wage, low skilled jobs in Bangalore? And yet, when a young leader from Bangalore visited Kolkata to take on your Chief Minister, he was met with paranoid name-calling and the tag of bohiragoto (outsider). This is an admission of your failure to deliver for the people of Bengal. And the fact that you take pride in this makes you a loser.

You have forgotten who is the incumbent in this election in Bengal. Or you would rather not discuss it, because you cannot bring yourself to admit the truth. But, whether you like it or not, this election in Bengal is about asking you questions. Once upon a time, Bengal used to lead India. What have you done with India’s industrial and intellectual powerhouse? You will have to answer these questions rather than pointing fingers at outsiders and calling them names.

And what has become even of Bengal’s famed cultural sphere? One hundred years after Tagore, are you not stuck rehashing his plots and characters? The most ‘original’ thing you have done since is replace his lyrics with vulgar street abuses and go around on Basanta Utsav showing them off on your body. Yes, the photos from students at Rabindra Bharati University went viral. It’s a free country. Do whatever. But don’t be surprised if people stop taking you seriously. And then you have to hide behind made-up regional pride.

Once upon a time, Bengal was a land without fear. The British used to fear the rise of Bengal, which is why they had to partition it. Swami Vivekananda took his ideas all the way to Chicago and shared them. Today you intellectuals are teaching Bengal to fear the Bihari Hindu next door because apparently Durga is ours and Ram is theirs. Imagine what you have become.

Do you want to see the cultural influence of Bengal? Every year, tourists flock to Kanyakumari to see the spot upon which Swami Vivekananda mediated. Everyone in India wants to claim the legacy of Swami Vivekananda, including the RSS students organization, the ABVP. India’s national anthem was written in Bengali. The popular Vande Mataram? Also Bengali. If Bengal could do all this when India was not even an independent country, imagine what it could have done since independence. Who is to blame here? The outsiders?

In 2012, when Narendra Modi set out to win his third election in Gujarat, he began a month-long Vivekananda Yuva yatra across the state. In 2021, Mamata Banerjee wants to win her third election in Bengal for which the official handle of the TMC tweeted out: “Bengal rejects Gujarati manifesto.” Feeling small yet? Tell me again how you are educated and everyone else is murkho (illiterate).

Since 2012, Modi has taken his Gujarat model all around the country. What have you done since? Hidden in your own mohalla grumbling about outsiders? And now that the Gujarat model has come to your neighbourhood, all you can do is call them names and look for ‘traitors’ on the inside. The other day, a Bengali theater actor announced that he is joining BJP. His liberal director fired him on the spot. Big win for your ideology, I must say.

If your liberal, secular and progressive values had done any good, you would have something to show for it. You would have the Bengal model to show the world. You don’t have any. Instead, you just have your small-minded paranoia and name-calling. But paranoia is not the new strength. Poverty is not new wealth. Being predictable is not the new creativity. These are old traits of every loser in history.

Three boats from Sri Lanka with drugs worth Rs 3000 crore and arms seized, brought to coast guard station Vizhinjam

OpIndia Staff
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Three boats from Sri Lanka with drugs worth Rs 3000 crore and arms seized, brought to coast guard station Vizhinjam

The Indian Coast Gaurd (ICG) busted a huge trans-border drug and illegal arms racket after it seized three boats from Sri Lanka. The boats filled with a huge cache of Narcotics and arms were intercepted at Minicoy Island. The boats that were seized on March 18 have now reached the Vizhinjam, Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday. The boats were carrying 300 kgs Heroin worth Rs 3000 crore, 5 AK-47 rifles with 1000 live rounds, informed the Ministry of Defense Public Relations Unit (PRO) in Trivandrum.

Nineteen crew members of the three boats were detained and brought to Vizhinjam for further investigation.

This operation is being considered as one of the biggest intelligence successes in the country.

According to reports, on March 18, offshore patrol vessels and air assets, including from Goa, intercepted 3 Sri Lankan fishing boats and on rummaging recovered this huge cache of drugs and arms from the boats.

The ICG said in a statement that they received an intelligence input on March 15 regarding a suspicious foreign boat likely to be engaged in drug trafficking in the high seas near the Lakshadweep Islands. Following this and after verification, the ICG launched a coordinated air-sea operation to track these suspicious vessels in the Arabian Sea.

Finally, after intensive maritime and aerial searches of the regions, on March 18, the patrol units finally espied three suspicious boats off the Minicoy Isles and intercepted them.

Upon boarding the vessels and interrogating the crew, the ICG sleuths found their statements to be inconsistent, following which they searched the three vessels thoroughly and recovered 300 kgs Heroin worth Rs 3000 crore, 5 AK-47 rifles with 1000 live rounds.

In a similar operation, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has busted a huge trans-border drug racket and arrested the two Sri Lankan Tamil operatives identified as MMM Nawas and Mohamed Afnas, in January 2021.

The operatives were nabbed from Chennai, where they were living by concealing their real identities. The NCB officials have seized 100 kg contraband valued at Rs 1,000 crore. The agency said that the syndicate was based out of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, however, the mastermind’s appendage was spread across Afghanistan, Iran, the Maldives and Australia.

BJP leader Jay Panda seen flying his own helicopter for campaigning in Assam ahead of polls: Details

OpIndia Staff
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BJP leader Jay Panda seen flying his own helicopter for campaigning in Assam ahead of polls: Details

Ahead of the upcoming State Legislative elections, BJP spokesperson and National Vice President Baijayant Panda Jay Panda was spotted driving a helicopter during his campaign trail.

TV9 Bharatvarsh Editor Amod Rai tweeted that Jay Panda has been going to election rallies and party meetings in his own helicopter. “He has a calm, soft-spoken and spontaneous personality He is working as a silent worker of the BJP,” Rai added.

It must be mentioned that Jay Panda is a trained pilot with over 1833 hours of flight experience. He studied at the Michigan Technological University in the United States and has a dual degree in Engineering and Management in Communications.

“Interestingly, what makes him stand out of the crowd is that he is a pilot as well. He has flown over 1833 hours till now. And now in the election season, helicopters are indeed an attraction for the public. Copters flying high up in the air, landing at election rallies are a common sight. In poll-bound Assam, Panda has been seen to be flying a copter, which has further garnered public attention. Besides being an active politician, this is a feather to his cap as a pilot,” reported The Truth Today.

Odisha government seized a helicopter of Jay Panda in 2018

After deserting his erstwhile party Biju Janata Dal, a helicopter flown by Jay Panda was seized by the police in Odisha in September 2018. The Odisha government had accused him of flying his chopper at a supposedly ‘low altitude’ over ‘eco-sensitive zone’ in Chilika Lake. It claimed that the flight caused panic among the tourists.

“A local cop from Puri has come to Bhubaneswar airport & “seized” the hangar & the helicopter I fly. Clearly, facts have no bearing, & cops privately admit “orders from 3rd floor’. Brazen attempt to handicap my movement around Odisha, but they cant stop me,” jay Panda had tweeted.

Haryana court judge transferred hours before pronouncing the quantum of sentence for convicts in Nikita Tomar murder case

OpIndia Staff
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Haryana court judge transferred hours before pronouncing the quantum of sentence for convicts in Nikita Tomar murder case

In a new twist in the Nikita Tomar murder case, the Faridabad’s district sessions court judge, who had convicted prime accused Tauseef and his friend Rehan in the sensational case has been transferred. The court is supposed to announce the quantum of sentence for the convicts today. Tauseef and Rehan have been brought to Faridabad court for the proceedings.

The Judge has, however, been transferred from Faridabad to Rewari, reports News 18 Hindi. However, it is not clear when the judge has been asked to join in his new place. It can be assumed that few days will be given for the shift and hence the same judge may deliver the verdict announcing the sentence.

While convicting prime accused Tauseef and his friend Rehan in the Nikita Tomar murder case, the Faridabad court judge had fixed March 26 for pronouncing the quantum of sentence for the convicts.

On March 24, in a hearing that lasted for not more than 12 minutes, the Faridabad fast track court had convicted Tauseef and Rehan for the brutal killing the 21-year-old student Nikita Tomar in October last year. The third accused, Azruddin, who had supplied a weapon to the accused, has been acquitted.

Nikita Tomar, a 20-year-old girl was shot dead in broad daylight on October 26, 2020, by her school mate outside the Aggarwal college in Ballabgarh, Faridabad district of Haryana. The crime was caught on camera. The trial for this murder case began on December 1, 2020.

Tomar had filed a molestation complaint against Tauseef a few months prior to her murder. However, the family later dropped the case. Her family had alleged that Tauseef started hounding her again and pressuring her to embrace Islam. 

Reportedly, Tauseef is the grandson of Kabir Ahmed, a Congress leader. Moreover, Tauseef’s late uncle Khurshid Ahmad was a Congress MP of Haryana and was an ex-Cabinet minister of Haryana. Khurshid Ahmed’s son and Taufeeq’s cousin brother Aftab Ahmed was elected as MLA from Nuh, Mewat on the ticket of Congress Party and has been a Minister as well.

Supreme Court refuses to stay the sale of electoral bonds, says enough safeguards are already present

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court refuses to stay the sale of electoral bonds, says enough safeguards are already present

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an application that had sought a stay on the sale of Electoral Bonds ahead of the upcoming State Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. A Supreme Court bench comprising of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanian refused to stay the release of the fresh set of electoral bonds ahead of the assembly elections in five states.

Hearing a petition filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking an interim direction to bar the sale of Electoral Bonds, CJI Bobde said, “Since the bonds were allowed to be released in 2018 and 2019 without interruption, and sufficient safeguards are there, there is no justification to stay the electoral bonds at present”.

Activist-advocate Prashant Bhushan, representing the controversial NGO, had claimed that there was a serious apprehension that any further sale of electoral bonds before the upcoming state elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, would further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies.

The petition had sought that the apex court should not further open the window for the sale of EBs during the pendency of the instant writ petition.

However, the Election Commission of India had opposed the stay on the sale of the bonds. The ECI had submitted that they were not opposed to electoral bonds but want more transparency. Electoral Bonds is one step ahead unaccounted cash system, ECI said. The issue of transparency can be considered at the final argument stage, and there should be no interim stay, the ECI had argued.

The Attorney General had asserted that the bonds ensured that political funding was completely routed through the banking channel, thereby eliminating black money.

Electoral Bonds:

Electoral Bonds have been proposed as a way of reforming election funding in the Union Budget 2017. Introduced with the Finance Bill 2017, the Electoral bonds are instruments or securities that can be used to donate funds to political parties.

The Electoral Bonds, which were notified in the year 2018, ensures that the funds being collected by the political parties are accounted for clean money.

Any individual who wishes to donate to a political party can buy these bonds by making payments digitally or through a cheque at the State Bank of India. Then they can gift the bond to any registered political party. The political party can convert these bonds back into money via their bank accounts.

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