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Retired SC judge Markandey Katju to depose in favour of Nirav Modi in UK court, says he is being made a ‘scapegoat’ by BJP govt: Report

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Economic Times has reported that retired Supreme Court judge Markandey Katu will depose in a UK court in favour of fugitive Billionaire Nirav Modi. The retired judge and chairman of the Press Council of India is to speak in Nirav Modi’s favour, to support his claims against his extradition to India.

Speaking to Economic Times, Justice Katju has reportedly even confirmed that he will be deposing in favour of Nirav Modi as a witness before a UK court tomorrow, on September 11, via video conferencing.

Katju has stated that he will not be commenting on the merit of the case and will only say that Nirav Modi will not get justice in India. He added that he does not support the Indian government’s plea seeking the extradition of Nirav Modi to India.

Katju supports Nirav Modi, says he is being targeted to hide govt’s failure

Katju further stated that he has already given a written statement to the court. He has reportedly written that Nirav Modi is unlikely to get a free and fair trial in India as he has already been ‘convicted’ by the Indian media.

He further stated that Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in one of his statements, had referred to Nirav Modi as a criminal. “How can a law minister declare someone as a criminal? Only a court of law can do that”, Katju stated.

As per the ET report, Katju has told that the Indian judiciary is subservient to the Modi government. He further added that the Indian media has already made the atmosphere very hostile against Nirav Modi and he will be made a ‘scapegoat’ to hide the failures of the government to check the falling economy.

Katju will appear as Nirav Modi’s witness on Friday, September 11. He will also be questioned by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Nirav Modi is the prime accused in the 2 billion USD PNB scam

Nirav Modi is the prime accused in the USD 2 billion PNB scam. He had fled India after the PNB scam was brought to the light. He had left the country and fled just when PNB had reported a massive 11,300 crore loan fraud by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

After evading detection for over a year, he was finally arrested in London on March 20 last year. He had been living in an ultra-luxury apartment in West London. His bail petitions have been repeatedly denied and he has been in UK jail since.

The other main accused Mehul Choksi has taken up the citizenship of Antigua and has been living there. The Indian government is trying for his extradition too. Both Nirav Modi and Choksi’s properties, houses, luxury items and business premises, worth thousands of crores, have been attached by the ED in India.

In June, the ED had recovered several consignments of diamond and luxury pearl jewellery by the duo in Hong Kong and had brought back over 108 consignments of various entities, totalling over Rs 1300 crores.

Kejriwal breaks yet another promise: 17 Delhi Police cops lost their lives in coronavirus duty, no compensation received as promised

In April this year, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had announced Rs 1 crore compensation to those coronavirus warriors who lost their lives in line of duty while fighting COVID-19.

In May this year, Delhi Police constable Amit Kumar lost his life while he was infected with coronavirus while being on duty in NorthWest Delhi. His wife was pregnant with their second child. Kejriwal promised Rs 1 crore compensation to him.

But compensation is nowhere in sight yet. She also lost her job as a teacher in North MCD school but lost her job. She got to know of her second pregnancy when she was admitted to quarantine centre after her husband succumbed to the Chinese virus.

As per reports, while 17 Delhi Police personnel have lost their lives while fighting coronavirus, none of their families are compensated yet. As reported by The Hindu, Delhi Police commissioner S. N. Shrivastava confirmed that all 17 families are still awaiting compensation from Delhi government. Most of these families have already submitted documents to the Revenue Department. He added that the Delhi government had raised some queries for some proposals and that replies were sent to all.

As per The Hindu report, Delhi govt spokesperson claimed that they are yet to receive all the papers from Delhi Police. Pawan Kumar, son of Assistant Sub-Inspector Karambir Singh, told The Hindu that he has submitted all documents and was informed that his file is already processed. However, he has not received any compensation yet. Similarly, Akash Borghare, son of Sub-Inspector Ram Lal Borghare, has also not received any compensation from Delhi government as promised.

Media reports of villages in Arunachal Pradesh near China border being vacated are false, says Defence Ministry

On Thursday, the Ministry of Defence rejected the media reports that falsely claimed that people living near the Tibet border in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh have been fleeing from their villages amidst the mounting tensions between India and China along the LAC.

Earlier, a news portal East Mojo had reported that amidst high tension at the LAC in Ladakh, the villagers near the McMahon Line in Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh have been vacating their homes.

Image Source: East Mojo

Similarly, HW News Network, which has a history of peddling fake news, also shared the similar news claiming that villagers along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh are being vacated from their village amidst mounting tensions between two countries.

Image Source: HW News

Responding to such misleading news reports, the Public Relations Officer, Tezpur from the Ministry of Defence called such reports “malicious” and suggested that people of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam should not to pay attention to the rumours.

“The news of vacation of villages near LAC are fake and malicious. The public of Arunachal Pradesh & Assam are advised not to pay heed to such rumours and get all news confirmed by authorities before retweeting it,” PRO, Defence, Tezpur tweeted.

The clarification from the Ministry of Defence comes amidst the ongoing border stand-off between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Ladakh.

India occupies strategic heights along LAC near Pangong Tso

The Indian Army had recently outfoxed China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) by taking preemptive action and securing strategic height near Pangong lake’s southern and northern bank. Last week, the Indian Army had announced that they had occupied strategic heights on in the Panging Tso regions to prevent Chinese incursions into Indian territory.

Indian troops had taken control of the dominating heights, connecting through a ridgeline along the LAC from the southern bank of Pangong Tso to Spanggur Tso till Chushul-Rezang La. Their positions extend up to Requin La, which overlooks the crucial PLA camp in Moldo, as per reports.

These locations, which are strategically important for India, overlook the Spanggur Gap, China’s Moldo Garrison, and also of Spanggur lake. From these tops, the Indian troops can keep a vigil on PLA troops that are deployed in the Chushul sector.

Following India’s action, China has rattled and has been issuing a series of threats against India through its communist-controlled media.

Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal fact-checks Subramanian Swamy on JEE aspirants issue

Union Education Minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal on Wednesday fact-checked his own party colleague BJP MP Subramanian Swamy after the senior leader took to social media to put misleading numbers pertaining to the total number of students who had attended the recently held JEE exams.

Earlier on Wednesday, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Twitter had claimed that only 8 lakh students out of the 18 lakh who had downloaded the JEE admit card actually appeared for the exam.

The senior BJP leader, who was advocating for the postponement of the NEET-JEE examination for the last few weeks, said that the decision to conduct JEE exams was a disgrace for the nation that extolled ‘Vidhya and Gyan’.

Responding to the claims made by Subramanian Swamy, the Union Minister for Education Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank placed some facts pertaining to the recently held JEE exams. The Union Minister said that the number of applicants were 8.58 lakhs and not 18 lakhs as Swamy suggested.

The Minister said that out of the 8.58 lakh JEE Mains applicants, nearly 6.35 lakhs had appeared for the exam. He added that both the central and respective state governments assured all possible assistance to the students. This entire effort displayed the spirit of cooperative federalism, the Education Minister added.

Rejecting the claims of low attendance during the JEE exams, the Union Minister added that the JEE exams are held twice in a year. Dr Pokriyal pointed out that several students who did not appear for the exam in September may have done well in the January exam hence may not have to sit for the exam held recently.

“We are ascertaining those numbers,” the minister said adding that any further delay in the exams would not have been in the interest of students and their plans for college admissions.

Explaining the rationale for holding exams amidst the pandemic, Dr Pokhriyal said, “Any further delay of the exams would not have been in the interest of our hardworking students and their plans for college admissions. Our NDA Government has always been unwavering regarding student welfare and student safety. We will always work for the interests of our youth.”

Swami shifts goalposts when fact-checked

After getting fact-checked by the Education minister, Subramanian Swamy changed tracks. He then claimed that the the number of JEE applicants mentioned by the ministry in court and mentioned by the minister in his reply were different.

Without bothering to explain why he had claimed the number 18 lakhs, that is more than twice the original number, Swamy stated that the Education Minister’s statement that the number of applicants for JEE was 8.5 lakhs did not match with what the ministry had submitted at the Supreme Court.

Swamy’s tweet

The JEE Mains 2020 examination was conducted by the National Testing Agency from September 1 to 6, 2020, at various centres across the country. The tentative date for the declaration of result is September 11.

#HappyBirthdayCharsiAnurag trends on Twitter. Read why

#HappyBirthdayCharsiAnurag was trending on Twitter from Wednesday night through Thursday morning when it became one of the top trends.

Happy birthday ‘charsi’ Anurag trends on Twitter along with ‘Maharashtra ka CM napunsak (impotent) hai’

Turns out it is filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s birthday on 10th September and his critics took to Twitter to wish him in a unique way. Charas is a form of cannabis.

Twitter user shared a video where Kashyap appears to be rolling a joint while interacting with some men. Some shared screenshots of the video for better clarity.

A day prior, Kashyap had revealed how he had refused to work with Sushant Singh Rajput because he found him ‘problematic’. He had also painted the late actor as ‘unprofessional’ just after his last film Dil Bechara released in July after his death. Sushant died of alleged suicide in June this year and his death has led to CBI probe where the investigating agency is probing a drug angle amongst other things.

Mumbai: 12th pass Alfaz Jamani arrested for stalking, blackmailing and child pornography using Instagram photos of minor girls

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Cyber Unit of Mumbai police has arrested 20-year-old Alfaz Jamani from Gujarat for stalking, blackmailing, hacking and child pornography using images of minor girls between 9 to 15 years of age. As per the reports, police have found over 700 nude photos of minor girls on his mobile phone. He managed to get these photographs from girls after hacking in their Instagram accounts.

Dr Rashmi Karandikar, DCP (Cyber), said that they received a complaint from some girls’ parents on 6th September that someone has uploaded nude pictures of their children on Instagram. “All the girls are aged 9 to 15,” she added. The cyber police initiated the investigation and traced the accused’s location in Mahua village of Bhavnagar district, Gujarat.

Afzal morphed minor girls’ photographs and shared them on fake accounts

Police said that they sent a team to arrest Alfaz Zamani. During initial interrogation, he admitted to the crime. He said that he used to send friend requests to minor girls. Once they accept the request, he would start talking to them regularly. He used to download their photos from the Instagram account and morph them to upload on his other Instagram account. He then takes a screenshot of the morphed image and sends it to the victim, claiming that someone has uploaded her nude photo. He then asks them to share their username and password to remove the image which most of the panicked girls shared.

“Once the girl shared the login credentials, he would change the password, the password recovery email id, and mobile number, to ensure that the girl cannot recover the password. He would then again blackmail them to send their nude photographs and videos,” said a police officer at cyber cell Mumbai.

The accused pretended to be the victim and made other girls send nude photos and videos

Zamani also informed that he would talk to the victim’s friends pretending to be her. He would ask them to share their nude photos and videos, claiming that he would share diet and medicine details to keep their bodies in shape. DCP Karandikar said, “We found out 17 fake Instagram profiles made by the accused, which he used to become friend with minors.” Police officials are also asserting where else he could have saved photos including storage devices, cloud storage and others.

Jamani left his studies after 12th and took a job in an onion dehydration plant. This is not the first time his name had appeared in such a case. He was arrested in 2019 for cyberstalking, but at that time, he was granted bail.

The cyber police have registered a case against him under IPC section 354 D (stalking), POSCO Act Section 12 (punishable for sexual harassment),13 (Use of child for pornographic purposes), and Cyber law Sections 43, 66, and 66 (a). A metropolitan magistrate has remanded him for six days in police custody.

US State Dept releases detailed account of abuses perpetrated against Uyghur Muslims by Chinese Communist Party

The United States administration has released a new web page that highlights the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Communist Party of China against the Uyghur Muslims and members of the other minority communities in China.

On Wednesday, the US state department released a detailed account of the Chinese human right violations against the minority Muslims in China. Releasing a dedicated web page to highlight the human right abuses, the Donald Trump administration said that they are committed to leading the global fight against these egregious human rights abuses.

The web page accounts the targeted campaign unleashed by the Communist Party of China against Uyghur women, men, and children, and members of other Turkic Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang, China.

Uyghurs are a Turkish-Muslims ethnic group living in Xinjiang, the largest and most western of China’s administrative regions surrounded by Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

US highlights human rights abuses by China against Uyghurs

The state department also accused China of carrying out human rights abuses against these minorities that include coercive population control methods, forced labour, arbitrary detention in internment camps, torture, physical and sexual abuse, mass surveillance, family separation, and repression of cultural and religious expression.

“In recent years, these egregious abuses have increased through government policies under the pretext and justification of fighting the ‘three evils of ethnic separatism, religious extremism, and violent terrorism’,” the web page reads.

The US State Department also alleged that the CCP was perpetrating a sustained campaign of forced sterilization, forced abortion, and involuntary implantation of birth control. It added that the documented evidence of such practices in Xinjiang demonstrated CCP’s utter disregard for the sanctity of human life and basic human dignity. 

Forced Labour, Religious freedom violation of Uyghur Muslims

The US administration pointed out that since 2017, the CCP has increased its campaign of brutal repression of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority groups and have detained members of these groups based on spurious “birth policy violations”.

“The CCP’s use of forced labour to target members of ethnic and religious minority communities is not confined to the Xinjiang region and is increasingly taking place throughout China through the CCP government-facilitated arrangements with private-sector manufacturers,” the document stated.

The Donald Trump administration also pointed out that CCP is among the worst violators of religious freedom in the world as it has displayed a blatant disregard for religious freedom and exercises extreme hostility to members of all religious faiths, including Protestants, Catholics, Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and Falun Gong.

US to block key exports from Xinjiang

Following allegations against human rights abuse by the Communist Party of China in Xinjiang province, the US is all set to block key exports from the region saying that they are produced using forced labour.

The proposed bans include cotton and tomato products which are two of China’s major commodity exports.

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will be withholding release orders which allows it to detain shipments based on suspicions of forced labour involvement. The law is aimed at combating human trafficking, child labour and other human rights abuses.

Earlier this year, the US lawmakers had proposed legislation which would automatically assume all goods produced in Xinjiang were made with forced labour.

Congress trolls circulate document claiming Kangana Ranaut was issued demolition notice in 2018, Kangana says it’s related to different property and Sharad Pawar answerable for it

The war between Kangana Ranaut and the BMC was put to rest temporarily after the stay order of the Bombay High Court but the debate around the controversy has not died down. A court order is being circulated on social media to show that Ranaut was issued a demolition notice by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCMC/BMC) in 2018 and thus the actress could see this coming. Congress supporter Saket Gokhale and others circulated it to show that BMC has issued a notice of demolition for Kangana Ranaunt’s office, which was demolished today by BMC, in 2018 itself and not yesterday as informed by the actor.

The document being circulated is an order of Additional Sessions Judge A T Wankhede dated 20/10/2018. However, Kangana rubbished the allegations that she was issued a demolition notice by the BMC back in 2018 for her office situated in Pali Hill. Attacking the Maharashtra government, Ranaut said that the fake information was being spread by the paid sources of the government. Accusing the civic body of lying, she added that she never received any notice from the BMC until yesterday.

Moreover, she also informed that the proceedings of a sessions court being circulated as notice to her actually related to a completely different property, the apartment building in Khar where her residential flat is located. When a Twitter user pointed out that the document shared by Saketa Gokhale relates to her flat in DB Breeze, she responded by saying that BMC had issued notice to the entire building, and not just her flat.

She also added that the building DB Breeze belongs to Shardar Pawar, and she had bought the flat from Pawar’s partner. Ranaut said that Sharad Pawar is responsible for this, not her.

Later, a Twitter user who goes by the name Shash (@BefittingFacts) shared the images of the complete court order, which was cropped by Gokhale. The user also confirmed that the order related to a completely different case.

According to the copy of the order shared by the user, the case was disposed of on the third hearing by the court and the order was never contested by the BMC. It is difficult to infer from the said court order that demolition notice was served to Ranaut as it is not expressly mentioned in the order but it does mention about the regularisation of the notice structure. At the bottom of the court order says ‘disposed of otherwise’, suggesting that the case was disposed and it is no longer active in the court.

Indian Railways busts racket that was gaming the tatkal ticket system for Coronavirus special trains, makes over 900 arrests

Continuing its crackdown against ‘touting’, the Indian Railways arrested 994 touts, involved in ‘gaming’ tatkal tickets of special trains during the coronavirus pandemic. The arrests were made by the Railways Police Force, which had launched an intensive drive, anticipating an increase in tout activity after the government had announced coronavirus special trains following the lockdown.

As a part of this initiative, future tickets worth Rs 87.70 lakhs were blocked and 239 agents, along with 994 touts were arrested for continuing with the illegal act.

Railways bust touting racket which used Real Mango software to illegally buy tickets

According to the documents accessed by OpIndia, the Indian Railways has recently busted a sophisticated touting racket prevalent in the country. The arrests made in the case revealed that the racket was not limited to a particular region or state alone but was active across the country.

A software called “Real Mango” was used by the touts to illegally book train tickets. The Railway Police began its investigation probing the YouTube accounts of those who posted videos explaining the working of the software. Mobile phone numbers were recovered from the analysis of the YouTube channels but it led to a dead end.

However, the police soon made a breakthrough when they got two leads: one Rehan Khan from West Bengal and another one from Surat. The police also obtained another lead of Matiyar Khan from YouTube analysis.

Meanwhile, Akhay Jenna and Pravin Bhai, both agents of Real Mango were arrested by the police from Surat on August 27. The user ID and password retrieved from them was used to access the data on illegal software server and to understand the working of the software. Contact details of a senior member of this racket was recovered. The police traced him down to Silchar and eventually arrested him on September 3.

At the same time, the interrogation of Rehan Khan led police to another man involved in the racket. The police identified Subhandu Biswas from the single PayTM transaction made by Rehan Khan. Subhandu Biswas, along with one Rahul Roy, were apprehended from Helencha, Bagdah near Bangaon.

Arrested Rahul Roy named the kingpin of the entire racket, dubbed as “The Mango Guy”. Phone records and chat history of Rahul Roy disclosed that a man named Chandra Gupta of “Kreation Next” was the mastermind behind the touting racket that used ‘Real Mango’ software to illegally book Railway tickets. Gupta, known for gis skills in developing network based software, was arrested by the police. He had reportedly confessed to having developed the Real Mango software after discussing it with Rahul Roy.

How did the racket carry out touting with the use of Real Mango software?

The three fundamental requirements for touting are:- Multiple User IDs, multiple SIM cards to activate those IDs, and multiple email-IDs associated with the distinct User IDs.

Multiple user IDs were created by a single group of touts. These IDs were activated through different phone numbers by pre-activated SIM agents at different locations. Once the IDs are activated, the SIM cards are sold in the market. There is no connection between the activated IRCTC accounts with the owner of the SIM cards. These activated accounts are then sold in the market and commission for User ID creator and generator is sought.

The Real Mango software bypassed V3 and V2 captcha and synchronised bank OTP with help of a mobile app, feeding it to the requisite form automatically. It auto-filled passenger and payment details and allowed simultaneous log in through multiple IDs.

The touts used auto-fill technology in which passenger data, payment details are pre-fed in the system. They logged in through multiple IRCTC accounts through proxy IP service, bypassing captcha and doing away with the need to fill the details of the passengers and payment. The payment OTP is also auto-filled with the help of a mobile app linked with server. In this way, touts were able to book tickets in bulk and are significantly ahead of time in comparison to the normal customers.

So far 40 people have been arrested in operating, selling, and using Real Mango software into the system. The Railways have also accessed the software server to understand its working. Data has been downloaded for analysis. Besides, proxy IP details that enabled simultaneous login from more than 2 accounts, IRCTC User IDs and PNRs of the tickets booked by the illegal software has been identified. A thorough investigation is underway in the case and raids are in progress to arrest people associated with running the software.

Indian Railways’ crackdown on illegal ticket booking

For a long time now, Railways has been plagued with the scourge of ‘touting’, where touts snapped up the Railway tickets in large numbers and later sold them at a premium to the travellers. The central government has time and again taken stringent measures to curb the sale of Railways ticket illegally.

The latest clampdown on touting is in line with the Indian Railways’ nationwide concerted attempt to end the menace of illegal booking of tickets by the touts. In January this year, the Railways had busted a similar touting gang, involving a team of software engineers based out of Dubai, IP addresses linked to Yugoslavia and a sprawling corporate structure in India such as country head, super-admins, lead-sellers and over 20,000 agents.

It took about two months for the Railway officials to get to the bottom of the scam. They identified a certain Hamid Ashraf as the mastermind operating out of Dubai. About 26 arrested were made in the case, with the RPF apprehending the gang’s India head, Ghulam Mustafa from Bengaluru. The western head of the gang, Deepal Saha, was taken into custody from Mumbai’s Borivali while he was trying to flee to Gujarat.

Earlier this year, the Railway Protection Force(RPF) had launched a drive, employing PRS data analysis through the PRABAL module, along with ground intelligence to identify the touts and bring them to book. In May 2020, the Indian Railway issued a statement, stating the arrest of 14 touts, including eight agents of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). Tickets worth Rs 6,36,727 were recovered from them.

Aaj Tak faces embarrassment as women protestors shout Aaj Tak Murdabad slogans on live TV

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While the day saw a lot of drama following the demolition of Kangana Ranaut’s office by BMC, Aaj Tak journalist Mausami Singh had to face real embarrassment on an eventful day. First, she had to face angry women protesting against her channel, and she was snubbed by a backhoe loader operator who had demolished the office on BMC orders.

When she was covering the protests being held by women gathered outside Kangana Ranaut’s house against the demolition, Mausami Singh had to face the anger of the protector for the channel’s anti-Kangana position. As Singh went to the women protestors to ask questions, they started shouting the slogans of “Aaj Tak Murdabaad” to her face.

However, this was not the only embarrassment faced by the journalist during the coverage of demolition. She did not receive as very warm welcome by the operator of the JCB machine that was used for carrying out demolition when she went to talk to him.

As Mausami Singh climbed up the JCB backhoe loader to interact with the driver and asked his name, the driver straightaway asked her why she was interested in knowing his name. “Driver saab, apka kya naam hai“, she asked. “Kya karogi mera naam jaan k“, came the reply from the driver.

This is not the first time Mausami Singh has faced embarrassment while reporting. Last year, after Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was appointed as in-charge of the Congress party in Uttar Pradesh, Mausami Singh was seen instructing the Congress workers to look excited for Vadra. She had earlier tried to play victim on camera while live reporting from Srinagar airport where shooting videos was prohibited. Singh had accused the security personnel of manhandling her when they tried to stop her from recording videos. Her own excitement about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra being entrusted the command of UP before the 2019 General elections came to light when she covered Vadra’s airplane trip on “normal Indigo flight”.

Reporters mistake postman for BMC official.

Today was a particularly bad day for TV media, as in another incident, they were seen questioning a wrong person asking why he had demolished the office of Kangana Ranaut.

In a video that has gone viral, a man is seen surrounded by several TV reporters, asking the reason behind the demolition. But to this, the man replies, ‘I have not demolished it, I am a postman’.