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Jack refuses to acknowledge that twitter shadowbans on the basis of ideology right after admitting how it banned anti-Biden report

OpIndia Staff
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Jack refuses to acknowledge that twitter shadowbans on the basis of ideology right after admitting how it banned anti-Biden report

Amidst the ongoing controversy over social media giants censuring an investigative report by New York Post on Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden, CEO of micro-blogging site Twitter, Jack Dorsey on Wednesday admitted that the company did an “unacceptable” job of explaining the reason behind why the platform blocked users from sharing the report on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.

Taking to Twitter, Jack Dorsey said that it was “unacceptable” that the micro-blogging site was blocking users from sharing the report on Hunter Biden’s emails without providing a clear message as to why it was taking such an action.

Image Source: Jack

It is important to note that Twitter had blocked users from sharing the NY Post article that had reported that Hunter Biden introduced his father Joe to a Ukrainian businessman during his tenure as Vice President to seek some favours.

The micro-blogging site had even locked the NY Post’s Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon for posting the article.

Jack Dorsey’s statement on the controversy came hours after a number of high-profile US politicians including President Trump and other Republicans had slammed the social media giant for blocking the investigative piece from being shared on the platform.

US President Donald Trump had blasted Twitter and Facebook for taking down New York Post’s story of emails related to “Sleepy” Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Jack says Twitter does not shadow ban based on one’s political belief

Ironically, hours after acknowledging that Twitter had done an unacceptable job in not only censuring contents but also failing to provide a reason for doing so, Jack Dorsey refused to accept the fact that the micro-blogging site blocked or shadow-banned accounts based on their ideology.

When he was asked by American political commentator Dave Rubin on the question of Twitter shadow banning certain users based on their political beliefs, Dorsey replied, “No.”

Interestingly, a day after Jack Dorsey expressed his unhappiness over Twitter regulating content on its platform, the micro-blogging site continued to block social media users from posting the links of the New York Post article.

Despite Jack Dorsey’s clarification on the issue, Twitter locked out Indian journalist Abhijit Majumder and suspended him from tweeting for 12 hours after he shared a series of screenshots of the New York Post article that had made allegations against Joe Biden.

On Wednesday, journalist Abhijit Majumder, in a series of tweets, had shared the images of a report published by New York Post that had allegedly exposed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s links with a Ukrainian gas company. As he shared the images of the NY Post article, the micro-blogging site decided to lock his Twitter account and barred him posting his tweets for the next 12 hours.

Twitter does not do political campaigning, says Jack Dorsey

Exactly a year ago, the micro-blogging site Twitter, which is often criticised for its left-wing bias, had announced its decisions to ban all political advertising worldwide.

In a series of tweets, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had said that Twitter is all set to ban political advertising on its platform. Dorsey had announced his decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally stating that the micro-blogging site believed that political message reach “should be earned, not bought”.

However, the ongoing NY Post controversy has now exposed the duplicity of micro-blogging site’s so called policy on staying away from political advertisements and campaigning. Several critics have now pointed out that Twitter’s action against NY Post was essentially political as there was an attempt by micro-blogging site to censure contents that exposed Democratic party Presidential candidate Joe Biden.

New York Post investigative report on Joe Biden

In its investigative report, the New York Post had alleged that they had accessed material from a damaged Macbook Pro, which revealed that Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, had introduced a businessman from Ukraine to him while he was Vice President of the United States.

The report had published several documents and mentioned a video that proved that Joe Biden met Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, where the extent of the Biden family’s involvement, and the sacking of a prosecutor, allegedly after pressure from the then VP Biden, is now under scrutiny.

Twitter and Facebook censor anti-Biden NY post report

Hours after the report was posted by New York Post on social media sites, social media giants Facebook and Twitter arbitrarily censored the investigative report of NY Post that implicated Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said in a tweet that Facebook would be reducing the distribution of the said post. In another tweet, he said that it was a standard process that they follow with every questionable story.

Even as Facebook only restricted the spread of the post, it still allowed the users to post the story. However, Twitter took another leap to disallow users to post the link on its platform at all. The micro-blogging site said it had identified the link as ‘being potentially harmful’. 

Twitter also explained the reason behind the decision to block the link and added that the images in the article contained personal information like email addresses and phone numbers that are against their policy. 

Supreme Court reserves verdict on Hathras case, victim’s family seeks CRPF protection and shifting of the case to Delhi

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court reserves verdict on Hathras case, victim’s family seeks CRPF protection and shifting of the case to Delhi

The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on several pleas filed in the Hathras case. During the hearing, the court heard submissions on several points mentioned in the pleas, including shifting the case outside Uttar Pradesh, the security of the victim’s family, administration role in probing the case, and more.

Shift the case out of Uttar Pradesh

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the court that the victim’s family said Adv Seema Kushwaha would be representing the case for them. He added that the family asked for an additional lawyer appointed by the government. Adv Khushwaha requested the court to shift the proceedings out of Uttar Pradesh, preferably in Delhi. She also informed the court that the State Government had submitted the compliance affidavit in connection to the security provided to the witnesses.

We do not expect a fair trial in UP, says Adv Indira Jaising

During the submission, Advocate Indira Jaising said that they do not expect a fair trial in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The investigation has already been botched up in the state, and the police have failed to write down a number to the FIR registered in the case. Thus, the case should be monitored by a constitutional court. Jaising asked the court to transfer the case from Allahabad to Delhi and mentioned that Adv Khushwaha has already submitted a request in the context.

She also demanded a special PP to be appointed by the court. She mentioned the Unnao case and asked for CRPF protection for the witness. To the request of CRPF protection, Advocate Harish Salve appearing for the Director-General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, said that the state is fine with the transfer of protection requests to CRPF. Still, it should not reflect on the UP Police and requested the court to clarify it in the order.

Hathras case

The Hathras Case has become a political battleground. A 19-year-old woman was strangulated, and later she succumbed to injuries on 29th September. The case has already been transferred to CBI, and the state government has ensured the court that there will be a fair trial. Based on the SIT report, the UP government ordered a family narco test to which they refused to comply. There are several inconsistencies in the case that need to be clarified for a fair trial for which CBI was roped in on the state government’s request.

Self-proclaimed ‘fact-checker’ thinks penalising communally sensitive fake news is a ‘misplaced priority’ simply because the channel that peddled it is NDTV

OpIndia Staff
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Self-proclaimed ‘fact-checker’ thinks penalising communally sensitive fake news is a ‘misplaced priority’ simply because the channel that peddled it is NDTV

The Left-ecosystem is a rather strange place. It’s the black hole that seems to consume within it every bit of morality, principles and decency that one expects from civilised human beings. A prime example of just how delusional and bereft of morality the Left is was displayed today by Pratik Sinha, a self-proclaimed fact-checker and co-founder of AltNews.

Taking to Twitter, Pratik Sinha responded to the Home Minister of Gujarat who had tweeted saying that he would be penalising NDTV for the blatant fake news they spread when they alleged that a Tanishq showroom in Gujarat had been “attacked by a mob” after netizens took strong offence to the ad that was released by the brand.

Pratik Sinha wrote, “The priorities of Home Minister of Gujarat, who is responsible for law and order, is not in sync with reality. He’s completely overlooked the act of the goons who threatened the staff of Tanishq, and is more upset about NDTV who have corrected the inaccuracies in their report”.

It is important to note here that Pratik Sinha is a self-proclaimed fact-checker who has co-founded an alleged ‘fact-checking’ website AltNews along with someone who is now accused of harassing a minor girl.

It is rather interesting that a “fact-checker” would, instead of calling out NDTV, go after the Home Minister who has instructed his police to lodge a case against NDTV, that spread extremely communally sensitive news.

Let us examine just how damaging the NDTV fake news was and how that episode progressed.

Tanishq released an advertisement on the 9th of October that showed a pregnant Hindu woman being wowed by her Muslim mother-in-law organising a god-bharai ceremony for her. The Hindu woman looked legitimately shocked that the Muslim mother-in-law was celebrating a ritual that was limited to Hindus households and not Muslim ones. The mother-in-law in-turn tells the shocked Hindu daughter-in-law that while this ceremony is not celebrated in Muslim households, every household follows the ‘rasam’ of making their daughters happy.

All well and good. The only issue with the ad? It portrayed a rather utopian image of inter-faith marriages, that too, right after a Hindu boy was murdered by the Muslim family of his girlfriend just for the crime of being in love with a Muslim girl. Recently, family members of a 20-year-old girl have alleged that one Salman entrapped their daughter, forced her to convert to Islam and marry her. In September, an aspiring model Pooja committed suicide after her husband allegedly forced her to adopt Islam.

The reality of inter-faith marriages in India is far from what Tanishq wanted to portray. Hindu girls and men are often murdered brutally and tortured to convert to Islam. Hundreds of such cases have been documented and one doesn’t even have to travel too far back in time to find such cases. Only recently, a girl was beheaded in Uttar Pradesh by her Muslim husband after she had refused to convert to Islam.

Reeling under such news and being constantly humiliated with their daughters and sons being tortured and murdered, Hindus reacted strongly to the ad by Tanishq and said that it tacitly promoted love-jihad. Essentially, it was an ad that intended to tells Hindu girls that they can find happiness in places where historically, Hindu girls have often found torture and humiliation.

Post the outrage, the ad was taken down after a half-baked statement by Tanishq.

This was, of course, widely seen as a victory for The Hindu side. After the ad was pulled down, the usual trope of how Hindus were bigots was started by the liberal establishment. But when that failed to really stick, NDTV decided to concoct damaging fake news.

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.

NDTV, however, was far more focussed on defaming Hindus and using the Tanishq saga to peddle their nefarious agenda as it was about the truth.

That NDTV “corrected itself” after several failed attempts is no credit to them. In fact, their anchor even brazened it out saying that when NDTV said the store was attacked, they meant that there was a ‘strong disagreement’ and technically, that can too be categorised as a mob attack.

With such communally sensitive fake news being peddled by NDTV, for a ‘fact-checker’ to pass it off so lightly only means that the ‘fact-checker’ himself has a strong enough bias that lets him overlook dangerous fake news being peddled by channels that are ideologically aligned to him.

As for priorities, it is important to note that the Gujarat police had already said that they were monitoring the showroom and providing adequate security in the light of alleged “threats”. It was NDTV itself that posted that the area was being patrolled by the police after they got the story more-or-less right after several attempts at spreading fake news.

story by NDTV

Thus, when the police is already doing what is needed, Pratik indeed tacitly also spread fake news by saying that the Gujarat administration was doing nothing about these alleged threats. And while they were providing security to the showroom, the Home Minister must rightly focus also on penalising a channel that wanted to spread communal disharmony by spreading fake news.

Propaganda website AltNews has been largely peddled as an authentic source of fact-checks by the entire Left cabal. Their articles are peddled by any anti-government, anti-Hindu riffraff that the ecosystem has to offer and they often claim that their method is rather elaborate and authentic. With patrons like Arundhati Roy, who regularly speaks in a language that can only be called one that resonates with Naxals and every element that wishes to tear India apart, AltNews has gained a reputation amongst right-thinking individuals as a mouthpiece of Islamists. The so-called fact-checking website regularly furthers fake news, obfuscates the truth, concocts details to shield Islamists and sometimes, even creates fake news simply to fact check it later. 

Interestingly, exactly the same can also be said about NDTV. NDTV has gained propriety for peddling fake news, and it too, like AltNews, tries its absolute best to shield Islamists and defame Hindus.

That AltNews and NDTV are ideologically aligned comes as no surprise to anyone. Afterall, Altnews did help foreign publication water down the Pulwama terror attack and even gave a clean chit to Tahir Hussain apart from being caught regularly for spreading fake news, much like NDTV. That Pratik Sinha thinks that NDTV should get a free pass after spreading communally sensitive fake news also doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What does come as a surprise is the sheer brazenness of the Left to still consider AltNews a hill that they wish to die on.

Twitter locks Indian journalist’s account for sharing screenshots of NY Post article against Joe Biden that it did not want to be shared

OpIndia Staff
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Twitter locks Indian journalist’s account for sharing screenshots of NY Post article against Joe Biden that it did not want to be shared

In an arbitrary decision, the micro-blogging site Twitter has locked out journalist Abhijit Majumder and suspended him from tweeting for 12 hours after he shared a series of screenshots of a New York Post article that highlighted Democratic party Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s meeting with a top Burisma official and other details of his son Hunter Biden’s involvement.

On Wednesday, journalist Abhijit Majumder, in a series of tweets, had shared the images of a report published by New York Post that had allegedly exposed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s links with a Ukrainian gas company. Earlier today, both Twitter and Facebook had brazenly censored the New York Post article that had highlighted the extent of Biden’s involvement.

In his tweet, Majumder had said that since Twitter and Facebook had gone to the extent of not letting one post the link of New York Post investigative piece on Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, he was posting the screenshots of the same on Twitter.

Here is the tweet posted by Abhijit Majumder that resulted in Twitter locking up his account.

Abhijit Majumder's tweet thread that was locked by Twitter
The tweet posted by Abhijit Majumder that led to his account being locked by Twitter.

As he shared the images of the NY Post article, the micro-blogging site decided to lock his Twitter account and barred him posting his tweets for the next 12 hours.

New York Post ‘expose’ on Joe Biden

In the investigative report, that was shared by Majumder on Twitter, the New York Post had alleged that they had accessed material from a damaged Macbook Pro, which revealed that Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden had introduced a businessman from Ukraine to him while he was Vice President of the United States.

The report had published several documents and mentioned a video that proved that Joe Biden met Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, where the extent of the Biden family’s involvement, and the sacking of a prosecutor, allegedly after pressure from the then VP Biden, is now under scrutiny.

A few days back, reports had suggested that there are chances that Biden had helped his son Hunter using his influence as the VP of the United States in his business in Ukraine. The Biden Camp has categorically denied all the allegations.

Twitter and Facebook censor anti-Biden NY post report

Within hours after the report was posted by New York Post on social media sites, Facebook and Twitter began to censor the investigative report of NY Post that implicated Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said in a tweet that Facebook would be reducing the distribution of the said post. In another tweet, he said that it was a standard process that they follow with every questionable story. Reportedly, Andy Stone is a long-time operative of the US Democratic Party, and has a long history of working for the Democrat senators. 

While Facebook only restricted the spread of the post and still allowed the users to post the story, Twitter moved a step further, disallowed the users to post the link on its platform at all. The micro-blogging site said it had identified the link as ‘being potentially harmful’. 

Twitter also posted a thread explaining the rationale behind the decision to block the link and added that the images in the article contained personal information like email addresses and phone numbers that are against their policy. 

It is rather shocking that Twitter, which has been receiving severe criticism across the world for censuring NY post article, has now resorted to block Indian journalists from sharing posts concerning US Presidential elections.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma gives befitting reply to an ‘Islamic Scholar’ on shutting down state-run madrassas

OpIndia Staff
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Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma gives befitting reply to an ‘Islamic Scholar’ on shutting down state-run madrassas

Assam government’s decision to shut down state-run madrassas has created a stir in certain expected sections. The state Education Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma while speaking in the Assam Assembly last month had said that the government-run madrassas will be shut from November as the state government would only promote secular and modern education. Sarma has also promised to start a fight against cased of love jihad in the state by launching a massive campaign.

Speaking on a debate on Republic TV yesterday, BJP leader and senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma gave a befitting response to ‘Islamic Scholar’ Atiq Ur Rehman who was trying to remind him how Muslims “sacrificed” separate electorates for the sake of ‘secularism’. In a snippet of the Republic TV debate shared by Columnist Ajit Datta on Twitter, Sarma can be seen countering Rehman’s rants with facts.

During the debate, Rehman said to Sarma, “Mr Sarma, the minorities of India, they sacrificed their separate electorates, you know, to strengthen secularism, and Saradar Pattle ensured after they sacrificed that minorities linguistics religious and their cultural rights that will be guaranteed in the Constitution and that was incorporated by Sardar Patel guaranteeing all the minorities. Now what you are doing, is this not unconstitutional Sir?” To this Sarma replied, “Maulana Saab, show me a single statement of Sardar Patel that state should run madrassa”. Failing to counter Sarma on this, Rehman asked Sarma to define secularism.

During the debate, Sarma informed that there are around 1000 state-run madrassas in Assam and that the state spends about Rs 260 crore annually on these madrassas. He said that the state govt evaluated the situation, and decided that the state should not teach or preach Quran using public money. He said that due to the presence of state-run Madrassas, there were demands from some organisations to teach Bhagawada Gita and Bible as well in the schools but it was not feasible to run schools as per all religious scriptures.

Despite opposition from parties like AIDUF, Sarma asserted that the decision taken by the state govt will not be changed. The notification regarding this will be issued in November. It may be noted that along with state run madrassas, Assam govt will also be shutting down state-run Sanskrit Tols also, due to mismanagement and irregularities in their functioning.

Journo with Independent shares fake, photoshopped tweet to defame columnist Shefali Vaidya, brazens it out even after being caught

OpIndia Staff
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Journo with Independent shares fake, photoshopped tweet to defame columnist Shefali Vaidya, brazens it out even after being caught

As liberals keep trying to mock the people from right wing for protesting against Tanishq for an ad film that appeared to glorify ‘love jihad’, one journalist was caught spreading a morphed image to image such a social media user. On Thursday, a journalist with The Independent, Stuti Mishra, shared an image on Twitter, alleging that it is the screenshot of a tweet by social media user Shefali Vaidya, which turned out to be fake.

The screenshot showed a tweet by Shefali Vaidya, saying that she had bought a gold neckware set from Tanishq worth Rs 112484, and she is going to sell this ‘jihadi’ brand any local store because she does not want any such Hindophobic brand in her home. The tweet also include an image of the jewellery set.

Stuti Mishra added image in her tweet, showing that the image ‘used’ by Shefali is of a alloy jewel set costing just Rs 199, not over lakh.

Using these images, Stuti Mishra tried to imply that those who are calling to boycott Tanishq actually can’t afford products of the company, therefore this boycott call is hollow. She tweeted along with the images, “what #BoycottTanishq is on Twitter and what it actually is. From one lakh twelve thousand to 200 rupees.”

But soon netizens discovered that the image shared as screenshot of Shefali’s tweet is fake and it has been used in an image editing software. One Social media user pointed out how the @ and y in the user account name are cut off at the bottom, which would not happen if the screenshot was taken from an actual tweet.

Even after several Twitter users pointed out the tell-tale signs that the image is fake, Stuti Mishra refused to budge, saying she will delete the tweet if someone can confirm it is photoshoped. She added that “Shefali Vaidya has a long history of fake and hateful tweets and it won’t be surprising to anyone if this came from her.”

After some time, she deleted the tweet, and posted another tweet saying that someone informed her on Direct Message that it is indeed fake. Thus, the journalist accepted that she had posted a fake tweet to defame Shefali Vaidya.

But even after getting caught spreading fake tweets which she herself admitted, ironically she continued to assert that Shefali Vaidya has a history of fake tweets.

It is notable that while the journalist with Independent accuses others of hate for calling for boycotting a brand, she herself is known for hateful comments. When home minister Amit Shah was infected with swing flu in January 2019, she had posted a wishful tweet, “People die of sine flu, right?”.

Election drums in Bengal: PM Modi to hold special address ‘Puja ki Baat’, BJP’s women wing to organise Puja in Kolkata

OpIndia Staff
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Election drums in Bengal: PM Modi to hold special address ‘Puja ki Baat’, BJP’s women wing to organise Puja in Kolkata

In order to set the tone for Assembly elections in West Bengal slated to take place next year, the BJP will be organising a Durga Puja in Kolkata which will be inaugurated by none other than the Prime Minister himself on October 22 via a special webcast titled ‘Puja ki Baat’, as per reports.

Reports have mentioned that PM Modi’s address will be for the general public through a webcast. It is scheduled on October 22, on the first day of the 5-day festival.

The Durga Puja which will be organised at Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre in Salt Lake is being seen as BJP’s attempt to connect with the Bengali voters. This is probably the first time that a puja will be organised under the banner of a political party.

The organiser-in-charge of the Durga Puja, Locket Chatterjee, who is the General Secretary of the BJP in the state, said that the puja will be a puja by the BJP family like many families who celebrate the puja at their homes. “Many families celebrate Durga Puja at their home. Similarly, it will be a puja of BJP family”, she said. BJP State President Dilip Ghosh told that the puja is not being organised by the party directly, it is being organised by party’s women and cultural wings.

BJP has alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) did not allow BJP leaders to participate in Pujas where they were invited by the organisers. BJP’s state Vice President Jay Prakash Mazumdar said that a narrow-minded politics was being played over Durga Puja over last few years and several BJP leaders were kept out from big-ticket puja committees. “So this year we will do our own Durga Puja. It will be concluded in accordance with Bengali tradition”, he said. The BJP leadership in the state has assured that social distancing will be followed during the Puja.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also decided for the first time to inaugurate Durga Puja in several pandals through virtual platforms.

Amit Shah postpones visit to West Bengal

Home Minister Amit Shah who was expected to visit West Bengal on October 17 has postponed his visit and he will first visit poll-bound Bihar. Shah is now expected to visit West Bengal after the Puja is over. He will be chairing organisational meetings with party functionaries in the state during his visit. BJP National President JP Nadda will be visiting West Bengal on October 19 and will chair meetings with BJP workers including booth-level workers.

NIA suspects Dawood link in the Kerala gold smuggling scam, accused had travelled to D-gang locations in Tanzania: Reports

OpIndia Staff
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NIA suspects Dawood link in the Kerala gold smuggling scam, accused had travelled to D-gang locations in Tanzania: Reports

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the Kerala gold scam, suspects the involvement of Pakistani-terrorist Dawood Ibrahim’s D-company in the case, reports Times Now.

According to the reports, the NIA suspects that a few accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case has links with the Dawood Ibrahim’s network. The NIA revealed the details of D-Company’s links in the case before a court in Ernakulam during the hearing of a bail plea of the seven accused in the case.

The NIA said that two accused Ramees KT and Sharafudheen had travelled to Tanzania and visited shops in the African country where guns are sold. In Tanzania, Ramees attempted to procure a licence for the diamond business. According to NIA, Ramees later smuggled gold to the UAE and from the UAE he bought gold back to Kerala.

“Tanzania and Dubai are the main places where the Dawood gang is active. In fact, D-company’s affairs in Tanzania are handled by an Indian named Firoz Oasis. We suspect Ramees’s links with D-company. Ramees was caught by the Customs in November 2019 for smuggling 13.22 mm bore rifles. This happened when the gold smuggling was taking place,” NIA counsel Arjun Ambalapatta submitted before the court.

Another accused is a PFI member, suspect in the hand-chopping case

The NIA counsel has also submitted that the another accused in the gold smuggling case – Mohammed Ali is a member of Popular Front of India and was charge-sheeted by the police in the Kerala hand-chopping case. However, he was later acquitted.

In its report, the NIA has alleged that Ali had formatted all the data on July 19th when his role had surfaced in the public domain. However, from the limited data that the NIA has retrieved from his mobile, it was found out that there were materials pertaining to the death of the Indian origin ISIS recruits, posters supporting the members of the banned organisation SIMI.

The NIA had also obtained images of paper slips depicting the details of huge transactions amounting in several lakhs. The NIA has now the evidence before the court stating that Mohammad Ali’s suspicious cash transactions need to be ascertained further through custodial interrogation and further forensic analysis. 

Kerala gold scam: Accused Swapna Suresh says CM Vijayan had multiple ‘private meetings’ with UAE consul

Earlier on Wednesday, in a sensational disclosure, the prime accused in the Kerala gold smuggling case – Swapna Suresh had revealed to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had held multiple meetings with the Consul General of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2017.

The prime accused Swapna Suresh, in her statement to ED, had disclosed that it was Vijayan who had also “unofficially” recommended the name of his then principal secretary M Shivasankar as the state government’s official point of contact with the UAE’s consulate.

Swapna Suresh has also admitted before the probing agency that the private meetings between Vijayan and the UAE diplomats were held at CM Vijayan’s official residence in Thiruvananthapuram. Suresh was arrested by the NIA in July after she was found misusing fraudulently obtained diplomatic immunity papers to smuggle gold from UAE.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is investigating the case, had also informed the NIA Special Court in Kochi that Swapna Suresh had “good influence” in Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office.

Anticipatory bail granted after being opposed for 2 hours, reveals Republic TV journalist Pradip Bhandari, who is being hounded by Mumbai Police

OpIndia Staff
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Anticipatory bail granted after being opposed for 2 hours, reveals Republic TV journalist Pradip Bhandari, who is being hounded by Mumbai Police

In a relief to Republic TV journalist Pradeep Bhandari, anticipatory bail has been granted to the journalist after he was summoned under non-bailable sections by the Mumbai Police.

Pradip Bhandari took to Twitter to reveal that though his anticipatory bail was opposed for two hours in court, finally, it was granted after the legal team of Arnab Goswami put up a commendable fight.

Pradeep Bhandari took to Twitter to say, “My anticipatory bail plea has been accepted by the Honorable Court. It was opposed for close to 2 hours, but fantastic legal team of #ArnabGoswami and @republic got us a big victory. My resolve to fight for truth, & justice has emboldened further. ThankU all. #JusticeForSSR“.

A day after Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh was left red-faced after he attempted to falsely implicate Republic TV and its editor-in-chief- Arnab Goswami in the “TRP scam” case, Mumbai police had upped its ante against the independent media network. In yet another brazen attempt to browbeat the news channel, the Mumbai police had summoned its consulting editor and journalist Pradeep Bhandari for questioning.

Pertinently, Pradeep Bhandari has been leading the reportage in demand for justice in Sushant Singh Rajput death case. Subsequently, Arnab Goswami had accused Param Bir Singh of targeting his channel for relentlessly pursuing the actor’s death case, the Palghar lynching case etc. He had said that the Mumbai PC is scared about facts coming out in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case

A complaint against Bhandari was registered at the Khar police station under Articles 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of IPC and 37(1), 135 of the Bombay Police Act, and he has been asked to appear for the investigation of the said crime.

Justice Chandrachud raises concern over Police Commissioners giving TV interviews, police says ‘other channels also summoned in TRP scam’: Here is what happened in SC

OpIndia Staff
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Justice Chandrachud raises concern over Police Commissioners giving TV interviews, police says ‘other channels also summoned in TRP scam’: Here is what happened in SC

While hearing a plea challenging Mumbai Police summons to the Republic TV officials for reporting on the TRP scam, the Supreme Court on 15th October asked Republic TV to go to Bombay High Court first before approaching the apex court. Justice Chandrachud pointed out that the office of Republic TV is in Worli, which is closer to Flora Fountain, where the High Court building is located.

A bench comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud, Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee heard the petition jointly filed by ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd and Arnab Goswami, and rejected the petition. Arnab Goswami and his media house had approached the Supreme Court against the summons issued by Mumbai Police to the officials of the channels, demanding to know the source of the complaint by Hansa Research which was accessed and broadcast by the channel. This complaint had exposed the lies of Mumbai Police Commissioner, as it shows that India Today was accused of manipulating TRP data, not Republic TV as alleged by the Commissioner.

After Republic TV accessed both the FIR in the TRP scam and the complaint by Hansa Research based on which the FIR was filed by Mumbai police, and exposed the lies of Commissioner Param Bir Singh, Mumbai Police have issued summons to several officials to Republic TV to interrogate them. The officials and journalists were questions for hours, asking them the source of the documents.

Concerns over TV interviews by Police officials

Justice Chandrachud showed concern on how Police Commissioners tend to give TV interviews about ongoing investigations. He said, “We are concerned of this observation that as of late, Commissioners have the tendency of giving interviews.” Since the case came to light, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh has been actively talking to the media about the case. Generally, investigation agencies restrain themselves from talking about ongoing investigations in the media.

Trust the lower courts

The apex court said that people should show trust in the lower courts before approaching the Supreme Court. Justice Chandrachud said, “We must have faith in our HCs. Without the intervention of the HC, it sends a bad message to the HC. They’ve been functioning throughout the pandemic.” Indu Malhotra advised the media network to approach the Bombay High Court under Article 226 or Section 482.

Senior counsel Harish Salve appearing for the Republic TV agreed to withdraw the plea, and approach High Court in the matter. The apex court granted permission.

Reply submitted by Mumbai Police

Before the proceedings could commence, the Mumbai Police had submitted a short advance reply in the court. They said that Article 19(1)(a) could not be used as a shield to prevent any investigation into the alleged fudging of TRPs. Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India guarantees to all its citizens the right to freedom of speech and expression.

Mumbai Police, in its reply, also alleged that Republic TV is holding debates and discussing the case at length. They said that the channel is contacting the witnesses summoned by the Mumbai Police and allegedly trying to intimidate them.

TRP Scam

A few days back, Mumbai Police Commissioner announced that they had unearthed a TRP scam done by various news channels. Based on the report by Hansa Group that manages BARC devices to determine viewership of the TV channels, Mumbai Police filed a case against three news channels. Though the Hansa Report did not mention Republic TV and had named India Today in the complaint, Mumbai Police summoned Republic TV and named them as one of the accused. 

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