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Hathras Case: Eyewitness says victim was lying on the ground with injury marks on neck, mother and brother were standing nearby

OpIndia Staff
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Hathras Case: Eyewitness says victim was lying on the ground with injury marks on neck, mother and brother were standing nearby

The Hathras case has now taken yet another sensational turn after one of the eyewitnesses made a shocking disclosure claiming that the girl was lying on the field and screaming even as her family members stood silently next to her.

Speaking to Aaj Tak, Vikram Singh, one of the eyewitnesses in the Hathras case, said that he was working on his farm at the time of the incident. Singh added that he heard the victim scream from nearby and ran towards the spot. As he reached the spot, Singh saw that the 19-year-old girl was lying on the ground and had injury marks on her neck.

According to Singh, the girl’s brother and the mother were standing alongside the victim as he reached the field on the morning of the day of the incident on September 14.

Singh said that he soon ran away to inform other people who were present near the farm and asked others to reach the spot. The eyewitness said that as he returned to the spot, the brother of the victim was not present at the spot. The girl was still lying on the ground and her mother was standing next to her alone, said Singh.

Reportedly, the mother of the girl asked Singh to get his son back from their home. Singh said that he went back to the residence of the victim to bring back the victim’s brother to the field. However, strangely, the victim’s brother did not come to the rescue of her sister, said Singh. He added that the brother of the victim said he was waiting for 5-6 other people to join him and would be coming to the field along with them.

Vikram Singh said that he informed his family of the accused and other villagers about the incident. Later, a crowd gathered and the girl was taken away.

CBI team reaches victim’s village

A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday reached to the Hathras victim’s village to interrogate the family of accused. 

Earlier, on Wednesday, the CBI team had summoned the brothers and father of the Hathras victim for questioning in connection with the case. The CBI’s forensic expert team had also visited the village for retrieving ‘destroyed evidence’, given that the crime scene was never sealed by the police .

The CBI team has also taken over crucial documents from the police in connection to the Hathras case. 

Meanwhile, the state government has filed a compliance certificate in the court stating that three-layer security has been provided to the family of the victim. The government also said that CCTV cameras have been installed in the village to keep an eye on the activities and ensure protection to the victim’s family.

FIR filed against NDTV for spreading fake news about Tanishq store being ‘attacked by a mob’: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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FIR filed against NDTV for spreading fake news about Tanishq store being ‘attacked by a mob’: Read details

An FIR has been lodged against news channel NDTV for spreading fake news regarding a Tanishq showroom in Gandhidham being attacked by a ‘mob’ post the outrage against the brand’s ad. Sources indicate that the FIR has been filed under section 153A and 505 of the Indian Penal Code.

Reportedly, the FIR has been filed by the Kutch (East) Police.

The purpose of the Section 153 A is to punish persons who indulge in wanton vilification or attacks upon the religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc of any particular group or class or upon the founders and prophets of a religion. It also aims to punish those who commit any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, and which disturbs or is likely to disturb the public tranquillity.

The fake news by NDTV about Tanishq store in Gujarat being ‘attacked by a mob’, for which an FIR has now been filed

NDTV, on the 14th of October “broke the news” that a Tanishq showroom in Gujarat was ‘attacked’ and the manager was forced to issue an apology for the ad. 

A few minutes later, NDTV put up a video wherein one of NDTV’s employees claimed that a ‘mob attack’ took place on 12th evening, the day social media users were angered with the advertisement.

Now, when one says that a showroom was mob attacked, the message one conveys is obviously that unbridled violence was unleashed upon the showroom and its employees and after the violence, they were forced to issue an apology. 

Soon after, in fact, minutes later, the NDTV fake news was completely decimated. The manager of the store in a conversation with Dr Neel, a netizen, said that he had not been attacked by anyone. The police too confirmed that there was absolutely no “mob attack” or violence that took place at the Tanishq showroom. They said that they were asked to apologise and had received some threats, but there was absolutely no mob violence. In fact, even the store owner had come on record to say that their store was not attacked. 

First, NDTV said the store was attacked. Then, it said it was mob attacked. Then, NDTV changed their story to say that the mob pasted an apology note on the store. And finally, they said that the store had received a threat call. 

The aim of NDTV was rather simple – create a sectarian divide and flare up communal sentiments. You see, when there is news of a mob-attack, every side gets riled up and the chances of a communal flare-up go up exponentially. It is thus said that before posting news of any such “mob attack”, the news must be thoroughly verified as such fake news can be truly detrimental to law and order in that area and thus, an FIR against NDTV is the logical step in this entire saga where NDTV had paltry regard for the truth and spread dangerous fake news.

Home Minister of Gujarat had promised action against NDTV

Taking cognisance of the fake news alleging that a Tanishq showroom in Gandhidham, Kutch, was attacked following the controversial ‘love jihad’ ad, the Home Minister of Gujarat, Pradipsinh Jadeja had asked authorities to register a case and initiate strict action against the fake news purveyors.

Jadeja took to Twitter on the 14th of October to assert that the fake news about an attack on a showroom in Gandhidham was a motivated attempt to disrupt the law and order and instigate violence in Gujarat.

“The news of an attack on a showroom in Gandhidham, Kutch by @ndtv is TOTALLY FAKE. This is a motivated attempt to adversely impact the law & order & incite violence in Gujarat. I have asked to register a case & take strict action against those who spread this fake news,” Jadeja had tweeted.

‘Neutral’ journalist Ravish Kumar’s brother becomes Congress candidate in Bihar elections, was accused of sexually exploiting a Dalit woman

OpIndia Staff
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‘Neutral’ journalist Ravish Kumar’s brother becomes Congress candidate in Bihar elections, was accused of sexually exploiting a Dalit woman

Brajesh Pandey, the brother of ‘neutral’ journalist Ravish Kumar, has been named as the Congress party’s candidate in the upcoming Bihar assembly elections.

On Thursday, the Congress party released its second and final list of 49 candidates for the remaining two phases of elections, just hours before the nominations ended for the second phase of Bihar elections.

Interestingly, the Congress party has decided to field NDTV’s ‘neutral’ journalist Ravish Kumar’s brother – Brajesh Pandey from the Govindganj constituency in the East Champaran district. In 2015, Pandey had contested from Govindganj constituency but had lost to the LJP candidate by a margin of nearly 30,000 votes.

Ravish Kumar’s brother Brajesh Pandey was also the vice president of the Congress party unit in Bihar, however, he was forced to resign after he was accused of running a sex racket.

Brajesh Pandey – once an accused for running a sex racket

In 2017, Brajesh Pandey, the brother of ‘journalist’ Ravish Kumar, was accused of running a sex racket in Bihar. Brajesh Pandey, who was also the VP of the Bihar Congress then, had absconded after allegations of sexual harassment was made against him.

Reportedly, a Dalit minor girl, who was the daughter of a Congress leader and former minister, had named Pandey and several other people of sexually abusing her over a period of time.

The girl had then demanded a probe by a senior police officer after rising suspicion that the case might be scuttled or diluted due to the involvement of politically well-connected people, including Brajesh Pandey.

There were also reports that suggested that attempts were being made to suppress the case by exerting political pressure on the authorities. The reports claimed that Brajesh was being shielded as he was the brother of an influential journalist.

The Congress leader was then booked under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) on the basis of a victim’s complaint.

Another accused in the case, Nikhil Priyadarshi, is a leading businessman in the automobile sector and the son of retired IAS officer. The girl had claimed that she was lured by Priyadarshi by promising to marry her. However, the victim realised that the accused, along with others, was running a sex racket.

Later, the Bihar sex scandal case involving Pandey was buried after the complainant girl reached a compromise with the accused. The Dalit girl had stated that she would marry the person whom she had accused of running a sex racket and sexually exploiting her.

Exclusive: Read the full story behind why Prasar Bharati decided to terminate its association with PTI and save Rs 10 crores annually

OpIndia Staff
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Exclusive: Read the full story behind why Prasar Bharati decided to terminate its association with PTI and save Rs 10 crores annually

The Prasar Bharati has finally terminated its arrangement with the Press Trust of India (PTI). Earlier, it was announced that the government of India institution will be reviewing its arrangement with the PTI following its interview with the Chinese Ambassador wherein the news agency was accused of providing a platform for the Chinese to run their propaganda.

In a letter to PTI, which has been accessed by OpIndia, Prasar Bharati has said Prasar Bharati was availing of subscription of PTI on an ad-hoc, pro-rata basis since the year 2006 after the formal contract between Prasar Bharati and PTI had expired. On the 23rd of April 2019, a “fresh communication to provide viable pricing based on discussed parameters” was also sent to PTI owing to the discussion between the two organisations.

The letter further says that Prasar Bharati has decided to call for fresh proposals for a digital subscription to English text and in that, PTI may also participate. Thus, it makes it clear that since April 2019, PTI had not provided a fresh proposal for viable pricing and if they do want to continue their arrangement with Prasar Bharati, in the fresh round of proposals, PTI will have to offer competitive prices.

What led to the decision of Prasar Bharati to end its association with PTI

The Prasar Bharati board had long taken the decision to rationalize Prasar Bharati’s expenditure towards News Agencies. Prasar Bharati incurs annual expenditure of 20 Crores towards the subscription to various news agencies and a substantial amount of that was being paid to PTI. It is interesting to note that PTI used to get crores from the Prasar Bharati ever since its inception. Currently, Prasar Bharati was paying PTI approximately 9.15 crores, OpIndia has leant. 

Further, sources from Prasar Bharati have confirmed to OpIndia that since 2016-2017, Prasar Bharati is trying to rationalise the amount paid to PTI as it does not think that the service provided by PTI is worth more than Rs. 2.5 crores. 

It is since 2014 that Prasar Bharati was trying to rationalise the expenditure it incurs towards news agencies.

It is learnt by OpIndia that in November 2019 it was recommended by the committee of officers’ to terminate services of UNI and it was further recommended that this can be affected from 1st April 2020. However, this was kept on hold in view of the hardship and adverse economic circumstances arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Sources have also told us that a strong letter was written to PTI in June of 2020 indicating a review of the need to continue Prasar Bharati’s relationship with PTI on account of serious editorial lapses on the part of PTI, the diminished usefulness of PTI services to Prasar Bharati and the rigid stance taken by PTI on the pricing issue. It is to be remembered that PTI had done an interview with the Chinese Ambassador after the Galwan conflict where the agency had basically furthered Chinese propaganda and thereafter, they were sent a strong letter by Prasar Bharati.

OpIndia was informed that Prasar Bharati news units of Doordarshan and All India Radio decided to eliminate any residual dependency on PTI and UNI since they believed that both agencies were not of much utility and also owing to their refusal to resolve the pricing issue which has persisted since 2006 when the last formal contract with PTI lapsed. 

To this end, Prasar Bharati also decided to accelerate the development of their IT platform where PBNS could start the work of news dissemination and also utilise the vast network of stringers and part-time correspondents.

Prasar Bharati finally decided that since for the past 14 years, no formal contract has existed between Prasar Bharati and PTI, UNI, the existing arrangement with these news agencies would be terminated.

Interestingly, Prasar Bharati believes that termination the arrangement with PTI and UNI would save Rs 10 crores expenditure annually.

Prasar Bharati displeased with PTI interview with Chinese Ambassador

Sources within Prasar Bharati had stated that the ‘anti-national’ coverage of the PTI does not make it feasible for it to carry forward the relationship. People had pointed out that the ‘interview‘ appeared as a press release by the Chinese Communist Party in the wake of the ongoing conflict between India and China at the Line of Actual Control.

Sun Weidong placed the entire blame of the clash at Galwan valley at the feet of the Indian Government and yet, the PTI did not bother to counter the claim with actual facts from the ground in any manner. He claimed that “Indian side violated the consensus and started provocation which led to escalation of the situation.”

In the same ‘interview’, Weidong also claimed that Indian soldiers attacked the Chinese troops which led to the clash. Concurrently, he accused the Indian Government of numerous other violations. Throughout it all, the PTI allowed the Chinese ambassador to peddle his propaganda without making the slightest bit of effort to counter it.

The format of the ‘interview’ also attracted a lot of criticism. There were only three questions that was posed to the Chinese ambassador without any counter-questioning. Therefore, it did end up looking like a press release in the end. Sun Weidong was at complete liberty to oeddle the party line without any fear of being questioned on his dubious claims.

PTI received crores of funds from Prasar Bharati

The PTI has been receiving fees from the public broadcaster for decades, which run into crores. PTI is said to have received nearly Rs. 200 crores since the 1980s in public funding with no public accountability. Prasar Bharati sought greater transparency into how much the PTI charges private organisations in comparison with the public funding that is sought.

PTI confirmed it is a private entity in response to RTI inquiry

It is also pertinent to note that the PTI had submitted to the Central Information Commission, New Delhi a few years ago that it was a private entity and thus, outside the purview of the RTI Act. It was also said that no government institutions are under any obligation to subscribe or pay for the news services offered by PTI. Thus, while some have been crying victim, Prasar Bharati is fully well within its rights to terminate its contract with the news agency.

The CIC report on the matter said, “The PTI in its communication dated 05.10.2012 reiterated that they do not fall under Section 2(h)(ii) of the RTI Act since PTI is a private, nongovernmental organisation which does not receive any funds from either the Central or the State Government in the form of any subsidy or funds. The PTI has further emphasised that it is not even benefited by any direct or indirect finance or funding from any Government agency.”

It added, “As a company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act 1913, the PTI stated that it is not promoted by any agency of the Government but is a ‘not­for­profit­company’, which does not pay dividends to its shareholders who are owners/proprietors of newspapers of all scale. It is categorically specified that neither the Government nor any of its agencies hold any shares in PTI.”

Long History of Fake News by PTI

The PTI has a long history of peddling fake news. Moreover, their fake news always appears to tilt in one direction and has the potential of denting the prospects of only a single political party. Be it the Surgical Strikes or the anti-CAA protests in Uttar Pradesh, fake news peddled by the PTI always hurts the prospect of the Hindutva oriented party.

During Delhi assembly elections this year, PTI had completely misreported the share of candidates with criminal records from various parties. While AAP had 51% candidates facing serious criminal cases, PTI reported it as only 25%, misquoting a report by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR). Similarly, they had also changed the numbers for BJP and Congress.

In 2017, Press Trust of India had claimed that the UP government had drastically cut the budgetary allocation for secondary and higher education in the state. In that instant too, they had reported wrong numbers. In the same year, PTI had come out with a news feed which claimed that the former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had planned the 2016 surgical strikes in the Pakistan occupied Kashmir due to an “insulting question” of a TV news anchor, which was completely false.

These were just a few example of fake news by the news agency. They regularly published fake, misleading and slanted reports, which are widely carried by the media houses.

Centre challenges the jurisdiction of the Peace and Harmony Committee of the Delhi Legislative Assembly before the Supreme Court

OpIndia Staff
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Centre challenges the jurisdiction of the Peace and Harmony Committee of the Delhi Legislative Assembly before the Supreme Court

During the hearing of a writ petition today filed by Facebook and Facebook Vice President Ajit Mohan before the Supreme Court challenging the summons issued by Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee asking Mohan to appear before it as a witness, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the Committee lacks jurisdiction. The Centre represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted before a Bench of Justices SK Kaul and Dinesh Maheshwari that public order and domain do not fall within the domain of the Delhi Legislative Assembly and therefore the proceedings before the Committee is without jurisdiction. The Committee is investigating the northeast Delhi riots and the role of Facebook in the riots.

The petition by Facebook also contended before the court that the committee lacked the power to issue summon or hold petitioners in breach of its privilege on failing to appear before it. The petitioners challenged two notices of the Committee dated September 10 and 18 seeking Mohan’s appearance before it. The Committee had informed the court that no coercive action was taken against Mohan and that it had only issued summons.

In the hearing held via video conference yesterday, senior Advocate AM Singhvi speaking on behalf of the Delhi Legislative Assembly said that Mohan was summoned as a witness only. Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for the petitioner questioned the jurisdiction of the committee and said that the petitioner was not willing to appear before it. Salve said that Facebook provided only a platform and it did not write anything itself. He further contended that the notices issued by the committee had a coercive tone and that a counter-affidavit filed by it stated that Facebook had no right to silence.

In an affidavit filed by the Delhi Assembly before the Supreme Court, it was said that the proceedings were being conducted in the most transparent manner with live broadcast, therefore, there was no question of apprehension. The affidavit said that not notice of breach of privilege was issued to Mohan which has a separate procedure. It said that the first mention of breach of privilege was made in a communication dated September 18 when Mohan refused to appear on the validly issued summons.

Senior Advocate Singhvi said that Mohan had appeared before the Parliamentary Committee but was refusing to appear before the Delhi Assembly Committee. He said that the scope of the panel is recommendatory to make recommendations for peace and harmony of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. Justice Kaul, who had remarked in the previous hearing that the notice issued by the committee to Mohan did not convey the impression that no coercive action would follow, said to Singhvi, “From what has transpired last time, I though you would advise your client to issue a better notice”. To this Singhvi clarified that it was made clear in the notice that the petitioner was being called only as a witness.

The Court has directed the respondents to submit their affidavits by October 31 and rejoinders, if any, within two week. The court that its order issued on September 23 asking the committee not to take any coercive action against Mohan would continue. The next hearing of the matter has been scheduled on December 2.

Facebook had moved the Supreme Court last month against the summons issued by the Delhi Assembly Committee.

PTI hides the identity of 3 Muslim men who gang-raped a minor girl and blackmailed her with the video of the act for one month

OpIndia Staff
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PTI hides the identity of 3 Muslim men who gang-raped a minor girl and blackmailed her with the video of the act for one month

In a shocking incident that took place in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, a minor girl was raped by three boys whom she has reportedly met through online game PUBG which has now been banned by the government. The incident came to light on October 14 when the girl finally told her mother about the incident. Her mother went to the Ashoka Garden police station to file a complaint against the accused. The police have nabbed all the three accused using their mobile phone locations. The accused Fuzail, Farhan and Rizwan have confessed to the crime on being interrogated by the police. But these names were missing from a report on the incident by PTI, thereby hiding the identity of the accused.

According to reports, the victim became friends with the accused through online game PUBG which has now been banned by the government. The accused started chatting and speaking over the phone with the girl who is a resident of Ashok Garden area. Last month, the accused took the girl to a flat in Rambha Nagar in Gautam Nagar in the name of ‘outing’ and gang-raped her. The accused recorded a video of the incident. They blackmailed the girl using the video and gang-raped her on several occasions for about a month. The girl did not tell anyone about it fearing consequences. According to police, Fuzail works as an AC mechanic, Farhan works as a painter and Rizwan works with an architect.

The incident was reported by the Press Trust of India (PTI) which had inconspicuously omitted to mention the names of the three accused while giving all other details related to the incident. The PTI version of the incident was picked by many mainstream media portals including NDTV, Hindustan Times and Firstpost. who reported the incident without mentioning the names of the accused.

Screenshot of the PTI story reported by NDTV without mentioning the names of the accused.
Screenshot of the PTI story carried by Hindustan Times missing the names of the accused.
Screenshot of the PTI version reported by the Firstpost not having the names of the accused.

The Communal Bias of Mainstream Media Portals

It is a common practice for many mainstream media portals to reveal or conceal the identities of characters in their reports to suit their narrative. The bias of the mainstream media portals in reporting cases involving persons from certain communities was recently exposed by the manner in which certain incidents were reported by some media portals. In an incident, where a woman named Aisha, who had converted to Islam to marry a Muslim, had self-immolated alleging harassment by her in-laws, the Times of India made every effort to conceal the identity of the in-laws of the victim and the fact that it was an inter-faith marriage.

However, the paper does not shy away from mentioning the names of victims where they belong to Muslim community or Dalit communities. Similarly, while reported the same incident, the Indian Express went a step ahead and highlighted the Dalit identity of a Congress leader named Alok Prasad who was arrested by the police for allegedly provoking the woman.

Vernacular Media is no Better

In another incident in which a Hindu boy was brutally beaten to death by a Muslim mob opposing his relationship with a Muslim girl. The reporting of this particular incident by News18 Lokmat showed how even the vernacular media is not free from bias. News18 Lokmat described the death of the 18-year old boy Rahul Rajput as a result of “inter-caste” love affair. These media portals thrive on the lack of awareness of the readers and further their narrative.

Advocate Vibhor Anand arrested by Mumbai police a day after allegedly spreading fake news in Sushant Sigh Rajput and Disha Salian death cases

OpIndia Staff
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Advocate Vibhor Anand arrested by Mumbai police a day after allegedly spreading fake news in Sushant Sigh Rajput and Disha Salian death cases

Advocate Vibhor Anand, who has been fighting for justice in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, has been arrested by Mumbai Police. According to his supporters on social media reports, Vibhor Anand was arrested by Mumbai Police cyber cell today in the afternoon in Delhi, and he is being taken to Mumbai on a flight at 8 PM.

In the afternoon today, Vibhor had tweeted that Mumbai police had reached his residence to arrest him.

Under which charges he has been arrested is not clear yet. Reportedly, he will be in the custody of the cyber cell at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai.

Last month, a Mumbai civil court had restrained Vibhor Anand and some other from dragging the name of actor Arbaaz Khan in the Sushant Singh Rajput case. This was done after the actor had filed a defamation suit for dragging his name in the case. Along with that, he had also sought to restrain them from posting or publishing any comment against him in this regard.

But despite this order, Vibhor had again named Arbaaz Khan yesterday in connection to the case. In a YouTube live session, he claimed that on 7th June, Disha Salian was brought into a party organised by Ekta Kapoor at a farmhouse at Juhu. He alleged that Arbaaz Khan, Showik Chakraborty, Aaditya Thackeray and others were present at the party.

Along with this, he had made several other shocking allegations, which we are not reproducing here as they are not verifiable and there is a court order prohibiting naming Khan in connection with the case.

Therefore, it is being speculated that Vibhor Anand has been arrested by Mumbai police for violating the court order and naming Arbaaz Khan in regard to the Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case. He also named Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray, which could be another reason.

CBI refutes media reports that no foul play found in Sushant Singh Rajput death case and going to file a closure report, says it is still probing the case

OpIndia Staff
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CBI refutes media reports that no foul play found in Sushant Singh Rajput death case and going to file a closure report, says it is still probing the case

Putting to rest the unfounded speculations regarding the investigation in the case of the mysterious death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has clarified that the agency is still investigating the case. There were speculations of the CBI ending the probe in the case. The CBI has refuted the reports claiming that the central agency is likely to file a closure report, declaring them ‘speculative and erroneous’. According to Republic TV, the CBI is in its second leg of investigation and may summon more people for recording statements.

Screenshot of the CBI statement.

The fake news was originally shared by Bombay Times which claimed that the CBI had concluded its investigation and that no foul play was found by it in the death of Sushant Singh Rajput. In no time the news was picked up by several other media portals.

Screenshot of the Tweet by Bombay Times.

Several media houses including the Times of India, Zee News, Economic Times and News 18 had reported that the CBI had concluded the investigation in the case and no foul play was found by the agency during the investigation. The media portals also said that the CBI is soon likely to file a closure report in the case.

Screenshot of the report of Zee News
Screenshot of the News 18 report
Screenshot of the story run by the Times of India.
Screenshot of the report of the Economic Times.

Sushant Singh Rajput Death

Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead under mysterious circumstances at his apartment in Mumbai on June 14, 2020. The Mumbai police had declared the cause of death as suicide. Not satisfied by the manner in which the Mumbai police was investigating the case, Rajput’s family had demanded the case to be transferred to the CBI. The case was finally transferred to the CBI by the Supreme Court in August. In a strange coincidence the late actor’s manager Disha Saliyan had also died on June 8, few days before his death. The CBI investigation in the later actor’s death had opened a can of worms leading to the involvement of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) which is investigating the alleged drug connections in the case.

The Unending Media Speculations and Leaked Statement of AIIMS Forensic Panel Chief

The forensic panel of the AIIMS, Delhi which was constituted at the request of the CBI to examine the autopsy and viscera reports of the late actor had submitted its report to the CBI on September 28. The AIIMS panel did not rule out murder angle in its report which was based on the remaining 20 per cent viscera samples of the late actor. However, leaked statements allegedly made by Dr. Sudhir Gupta who is heading the AIIMS forensic panel were reported by several media portals including Times Now and India Today claiming that the murder angle had been ruled out by Dr. Gupta. Following the reports about leaked statement of the AIIMS panel, Republic TV had released the audio clips of a conversation of their journalist with Dr. Sudhir Gupta. In the conversation, Dr. Gupta had highlighted various lapses in the investigation conducted by the Mumbai police in the actor’s death including the contamination of the crime scene and the missing time of death in the post mortem report. He had also said that the evidence was not suitable to conduct further forensic examination with sanctity.

A statement was issued by the AIIMS saying that the panel had submitted its report to the CBI and that only the agency could confirm the contents of the report. The CBI had also issued a statement saying that the investigation in the late actor’s death was still going on.

Odisha: A day after OTV published a report questioning CM Naveen Patnaik’s aerial survey of flood, channel’s senior journalist allegedly detained by police

OpIndia Staff
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Odisha: A day after OTV published a report questioning CM Naveen Patnaik’s aerial survey of flood, channel’s senior journalist allegedly detained by police

Odia media house OdishaTV has alleged that their senior journalist Ramesh Rath has been detained by police for a report regarding CM Naveen Patnaik’s air survey of flood in the state. The media house reported today that Rath was allegedly picked by police from near his residence in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.

According to OTV, four to five persons, who identified themselves as police, forcibly picked up Rath and took him to an undisclosed location. Rath’s phone was immediately confiscated and he was not allowed to make a call to his family too, the report stated. It says that the exact reason why Ramesh Rath was picked by police is not known.

Reacting to the report, BJP leader Baijayant Jay Panda asked whether The Editors Guild of India will condemn this, or if the many legendary champions of Freedom of Speech in India will protest or return their awards.

The development took place a day after OTV had aired a report questioning the aerial survey of the flood-hit areas by the CM. Based on replies to an RTI query, the media house had claimed that the official records of helicopter operations does not support the claim that CM had conducted the aerial survey.

CM Naveen Patnaik had conducted an aerial survey of the flood-hit districts in the state on 31st August, and had announced financial assistant to the affected families. However, RTI replies accessed by OTV had shown that only one helicopter of OSS Air Management had taken off from the Bhubaneswar Airport at 10:12 AM on August 31 and returned at 10:31 AM. “The chopper took off and returned to the airport in 19 minutes which included a flight time of only nine and a half minutes,” the report by OTV had claimed.

The report had said that flood affected Jaipur is 45 nautical miles from Bhubaneswar, which means the return journey is 90 nautical miles. The VTOSH chopper in which Odisha CM flew has a maximum speed of 168 knots and to cover 90 nautical miles in 19 minutes, a craft needs to have a maximum speed of 270 knots

They had also mentioned that there was no VVIP movement on that particular day, as per the response to the RTI query. Based on these observations, OTV had raised question on the aerial survey done by the CM.

OTV report refuted by AAI

However, the OTV’s claims were rejected by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), saying the CM indeed conducted the aerial survey on that day. The AAI wrote a letter to Joint Secretary to Odisha Chief Minister giving detailed clarification regarding the Chief Minister’s air travel.

AAI said that contrary to the claim by OTV, 19 minutes was the actual flying time, and it didn’t include warm-up time, startup time at apron and taxi time to runway and return to apron after landing. It also said that as per SOP for the handling of VVIP flights, VVIP means the President, Vice President, Prime Minister of India and Foreign Heads of state/Govt. Chief ministers are not classified as VVIPs, and therefore Naveen Patnaik’s aerial survey was not categorised as VVIP travel, AAI said.

A report by the Newsroom said that the helicopter used by CM is a high quality, twin-engine helicopter, and such types of helicopters will take only 5 to 6 minutes of air time to reach the severely flood affected areas from Bhubaneswar. The report also stated that videos and photographs of the CM’s aerial survey were released to the media on that day itself.

‘We don’t know if it is possible but we are issuing notice’: Supreme Court accepts petition seeking regulation of OTT content

OpIndia Staff
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‘We don’t know if it is possible but we are issuing notice’: Supreme Court accepts petition seeking regulation of OTT content

The Supreme Court has agreed to accept a petition seeking regulation of content available on Over The Top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime and others. A bench comprising of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notices in the PIL filed by Shashank Shekhar Jha through Advocate Manju Jetley Sharma.

In the petition, the petitioner has suggested the formation of a regulatory body that may be called the Central Board for Regulation and Monitoring of Online Video Contents (CBRMOVC) to monitor and filter the content available on various platforms in India. The petitioner further suggested that the body can be headed by an IAS officer and may have stakeholders from various fields.

We don’t know if this is possible, says CJI

Chief Justice of India, while issuing the notice, observed that the court does not know if such a regulation is possible. However, the court has decided to issue a notice to the parties that can be involved in the case.

Regulation is the need on the hour, says the petition

In the PIL, the petitioner has suggested that the regulatory body formed specifically for the streaming platforms is the need of the hour. He further added that the cinema theatres might not open for normal functioning anytime soon. In such an unexpected situation, many filmmakers and creators are choosing OTT platforms to publish their content for consumption by the public.

Thus, the content available on these platforms must be properly regulated and monitored. Several OTT platforms publish content without any filtration or censorship, as there is no autonomous body to regulate it. “These unregulated portals are putting everything without any moderation and common people in India without are watching the same at their houses which could ultimately lead to various problems in coming future,” the petition further added.

Lack of guidelines

In October 2019, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had announced that they would publish a list of non-negotiable prohibited content. In January 2020, eight video streaming services Netflix, Hotstar, Voot, ZEE5, Arre, SonyLIV, ALT Balaji and Eros had signed a self-regulatory code to decide what content should be prohibited from the platforms. However, the MIB has issued any guidelines so far.

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