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#MeToo: MJ Akbar and Alok Nath sue their accusers for defamation

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo: MJ Akbar and Alok Nath sue their accusers for defamation

Facing allegations of sexual harassment, Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar has taken a legal course to prove his innocence and has filed a defamation case against the journalist Priya Ramani in Delhi’s Patiala Court.

According to ANI, M J Akbar has filed a defamation case through his lawyers Karanjawala & Co. against the journalist Priya Ramani. The veteran journalist had earlier dismissed all the allegations of sexual misconduct against him as ‘false and fabricated’ and ‘malicious’.


The Minister of State for External Affairs had accused Ramani of “willfully, deliberately, intentionally and maliciously” defaming him and has sought her prosecution under the penal provision on defamation, PTI reported.

MJ Akbar was accused by several former women colleagues for sexual misconduct against him when he was serving in senior editorial positions in a number of media organisations in the past. M J Akbar was on an official foreign tour when these accusations were levelled against him. He returned to India on Sunday and issued a lengthy statement.

The Union Minister upon his arrival here from a week-long tour to Africa had broken his silence on the issue and had said that the accusers were lying. He had earlier said he would take the future course of legal action against the women who had accused Akbar of sexually harassing them.

However, despite speculations of resignation M J Akbar over the allegations, he is yet to resign from his ministerial post. M J Akbar has further questioned about the motives of the victims and called the accusations as “false, baseless and wild allegations” to bring irreparable damage to his reputation and goodwill.

Veteran actor Alok Nath also has filed a defamation case against writer-producer Vinta Nanda, who had accused him of raping her almost two decades ago.


The actor has sought a written apology from Vinta Nanda and ₹ 1 (Rupee one) as compensation. Earlier, Alok Nath’s wife had submitted before Andheri Magistrate court allegation defamation by Vinta Nanda. According to Ashu, Vinta was holding grudges against Alok Nath because she thought her serial was shut down because of him. “For one reason or the other, the said serial had gone off the air after the change in the star cast and storyline. It seems she has been carrying an impression that because of Alok Nath, the artists and storyline were required to be changed and the said serial had gone off the air and accordingly, she has been holding grievances against him.” Ashu had claimed.

The complaint also stated that after the allegations were made against Alok Nath, she and her husband were terrorised, as when they go out, people have been looking at them with a “different attitude”. The petition had requested the court to direct the police to investigate the issue.

Taking their case further, today the actor filed a separate civil defamation suit against Nanda, albeit with a twist. While the trend is to file defamation suits for hundreds of crores, Alok Nath has sought only one Rupee as compensation.

Patna: FIR against Kanhaiya Kumar after he and his supporters misbehaved with AIIMS doctors

OpIndia Staff
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Patna: FIR against Kanhaiya Kumar after he and his supporters misbehaved with AIIMS doctors

Kanhaiya Kumar, the leftist leader and former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student’s Union is in fresh trouble after an FIR has been lodged against him in Patna. As per reports, the hospital administration in Patna’s AIIMS has lodged an FIR on the leftist leader following an altercation with junior doctors of the institution on Sunday evening.

Junior doctors in AIIMS, Patna had alleged that Kanhaiya and his supporters had misbehaved with them and hospital staff on Sunday evening. They had threatened to go on a strike if the hospital does not take action against the leftist leader. As per latest reports, the strike was called off after the hospital lodged an FIR against Kanhaiya and his supporters on Monday.

According to reports, leftist student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, along with his supporters had gone to AIIMS on Sunday evening to visit AISF State Secretary Sushil Kumar, who was admitted there for treatment.

The leader and his supporters who allegedly entered the ward in a big group to meet Sushil Kumar, got into an altercation with the junior doctors of the orthopaedic department and the hospital staff as they attempted to caution the leader of the hospital rules, asking them to meet the patient one at a time.

Kanhaiya Kumar and his gang irked by the instructions given to them allegedly started creating a ruckus. Junior doctor Avinash Pandey reportedly asked the hospital security personnel to escort them out. The junior doctors have alleged that following this, Kanhaiya’s supporters started misbehaving with the hospital staff and nurses.

Following the altercations, the hospital’s junior doctors have afterwards asked the administration to file an FIR against Kanhaiya Kumar and his supporters. The doctors warned the administration of going on an indefinite strike if their demands were not met.

Kanhaiya Kumar, the controversial JNU student leader who is all set to contest the next Lok Sabha elections from Begusarai of Bihar, has been a part of several controversies. From the recent being that of his close aide accusing him of being a ‘liar’ and ‘casteist’, to the worst when Kanhaiya was accused of flashing his d***k to a woman.

We had earlier also reported that how Kanhaiya Kumar had used a disreputable journal, which is blacklisted internationally, to get his article published for PhD thesis submission.

Filmmaker who accused Vinod Dua of molestation asks The Wire to fire him to allow fair investigation

OpIndia Staff
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Filmmaker who accused Vinod Dua of molestation asks The Wire to fire him to allow fair investigation

Filmmaker Nishtha Jain, who had earlier revealed that veteran ‘journalist’ Vinod Dua had sexually abused her, has expressed doubt about the neutrality of the investigation that The Wire is said to be conducted on the issue. Currently, Vinod Dua is working as senior editor at the leftist propaganda website The Wire.

After the allegations against Dua were made by Nishtha in a Facebook post, The Wire had issued a statement saying that their Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) had taken note of the incident and they will deliberate on the matter. The publication also had noted that the alleged incident happened 26 years ago and at that Dua was not working with them.


But it seems there is no progress in ‘deliberation’ by the Wire in the matter, as noted by Nishtha. She has tweeted that even after 24 hours, the publication has not contacted her yet to hear directly from her. She also questions how can an objective investigation can be expected from The Wire with Vinod Dua remaining a part of the organization.

Therefore, the filmmaker has demanded that the publication should ask Vinod Dua to resign so that a full and fair investigation into the matter can be ensured.


Talking about the report that The Wire has published today about the incident, Nishtha alleges that instead of talking to her, the publication has quoted her from other reports published in other media sources. “Is this the way their ICC will carry out its investigation by selectively copy-pasting from other newspapers and my facebook posts?”, she asks in a Facebook post.

It is interesting that The Wire is supposedly investigating the allegations of sexual harassment against its senior editor, but they refuse to talk with the victim, neither for the investigation nor for reporting on the matter.

Goa BJP website hacked, ‘Pakstan zindabad’ note left by hackers

OpIndia Staff
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Goa BJP website hacked, ‘Pakstan zindabad’ note left by hackers

Pakistan has been indulging in a cyber hide and seek with India for a long time. Their latest target seems to be the Goa BJP website that seems to have been hacked allegedly by persons in Pakistan.

The official website of Goa BJP that can be found at goabjp.org seems to have been hacked by a Pakistan based group. As can be seen, by the image of the website, the website now has the message “Pakistan Zindabad” written on it.

The message followed the hashtag #Hacked.

There is an email address which has been displayed on the hacked website called ‘[email protected]’.

Below that, one can see the signature of the hacker which reads ‘Muhammad Bilal’ with ‘Team PCE’ that follows it. There is no confirmation yet as to who is behind this cyber attack, but judging by the defacement of the website and the message left behind, it seems to be the handiwork of groups in Pakistan.

The Goa BJP state unit has been in low spirits recently with the ailing chief minister Manohar Parrikar. This hack attack comes after over the past few weeks, Congress has tried to displace ruling BJP after news of Parrikar’s ailment was made public.

This is a developing story and we will update this article when more information comes to the fore.

Shashi Tharoor stirs up controversy, says no ‘good Hindu’ would want a Ram Mandir at ‘Babri site’

OpIndia Staff
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Shashi Tharoor stirs up controversy, says no ‘good Hindu’ would want a Ram Mandir at ‘Babri site’

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has once again stoked a controversy after he claimed that ‘no good Hindu would want to see a Ram temple at Babri site’.

According to the reports, Shashi Tharoor was invited to speak at the Hindu Lit For Life Dialogue 2018 on the topic ‘India: Issues and Opportunities’. Tharoor, while addressing the gathering, said, “While a vast majority of Hindus believes that Ayodhya was the birthplace of Lord Ram, no good Hindu would want to see a Ram temple built by demolishing somebody else’s place of worship”.

The Congress leader went on to claim that in future there may be chances of a riot-like situation in the country and Indians should have to brace for communal tensions in the future. He went on to instil fear against the ruling dispensation by saying, “I think we have to brace ourselves for some more unpleasantness in the months to come because there has been a correlation, in the not so distant past, between the advent of elections and the stoking of religious passions, communal rioting. That’s indeed my worry.”

The Congress’s effort to seek appropriation in the Ayodhya movement and its decision to engage in ‘soft-Hindutva’ comes after the recent Supreme Court’s judgement which rejected the plea to refer the Ayodhya land dispute case to a larger constitutional bench. The apex court had said it will begin hearing the Ayodhya matter from October 29 to decide the suit on merit.

The Congress previously has decided to maintain its ambiguity over Ram Mandir dispute and reportedly, the party does not want to take any stance on Ram Mandir issue and refrains from commenting on the matter. Senior Congress leader, Kabil Sibal has been representing Sunny Wakf Board in the Ram Mandir case, has repeatedly asked for adjournment till 2019 general elections, to preserve the decorum of law and order, while Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been busy playing Janeu dhari Hindu and  Shiv Bhakt.

Nun Rape case: Arrested Bishop Franco Mulakkal granted bail by Kerala High Court

OpIndia Staff
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Nun Rape case: Arrested Bishop Franco Mulakkal granted bail by Kerala High Court

Bishop Franco Mulakkal, a Catholic priest who was arrested by the Kerala police for allegedly raping a 44-year old nun, has been granted bail by the Kerala High Court.

According to reports, the Kerala High Court on Monday has issued some directions to the rape accused before approving his bail plea. The court ordered the bishop to be present before the investigating officer once in two weeks. The rape accused bishop has also been asked to surrender his passport to the court and it has also prohibited him from entering Kerala.

Interestingly, the prosecution did not object to Bishop Franco’s bail plea. However, they asked the court to grant bail to Franco on strict conditions. The court further warned the accused of cancellation of his bail if he is found to be violating any of the conditions.

Earlier, the bishop had moved the high court after a magistrate’s court in Pala rejected his bail application. On October 3, the Kerala High Court had heard his petition and had dismissed the bail plea. At that time Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan had accepted the prosecution’s argument that if the Bishop is granted bail, he may try to influence witnesses. He is currently under judicial remand in a sub-jail at Pala in Kottayam district.

Bishop Franco Mulakkal, Archdiocese of Jalandhar, Punjab, was arrested by the police officials on September 21st after the investigating team finally found evidence that linked him in the sexual harassment case. The court had pointed out the availability of evidence to pursue the case and evidence shows that there are materials that prima facie show that the allegations against the Bishop are true and serious.

Franco Mulakkal, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, is said to have raped the nun at a guest house in Kuravilangad in May 2014 and exploited her sexually on several other occasions. The nun has registered a complaint in June this year and has been allegedly threatened by the accused of doing so. The congregation has also stood by the rape accused and referred to him as an “innocent soul”. We had also reported that Kerala MLA PC George had called the alleged rape victim a ‘prostitute’.

Senior Congress leader shares fake image to target BJP govt in Madhya Pradesh, gets slammed by the CM

OpIndia Staff
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Senior Congress leader shares fake image to target BJP govt in Madhya Pradesh, gets slammed by the CM

One of the contenders for the seat of Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh from the Congress party, Kamal Nath, took to Twitter and accused the BJP dispensation in power of rampant corruption. He used a picture of a shoddily constructed road that’s falling apart to take potshots at Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s government.


This was also retweeted by the Twitter handle of Madhya Pradesh Congress.

Unfortunately for the Congress leader, the picture does not depict any place in Madhya Pradesh or even in India but Bangladesh. The picture was shared on Twitter in June 2016 by user @RifatAlam007 who was quite disillusioned with his own government.


Another report from an apparent Indonesian outlet in September 2016 claims that the folding road is from Indonesia. Madhu Kishwar had been slammed by then Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, for claiming that the image was from Bihar. Therefore, it’s quite clear that the image is either from Indonesia or Bangladesh but definitely not from anywhere in India.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was quick to bust the narrative the Congress leader was peddling. He said, “What can we say about our friends from the Congress party? First, Digvijay Singh brought a pool in Pakistan to Madhya Pradesh and now Kamal Nath has brought a Bangladeshi road to Madhya Pradesh.”


Shivraj Singh Chouhan was referring to Digvijay Singh’s blooper in June when he claimed that the photo he had shared on Twitter showed a damaged overbridge from Subhash Nagar Railways Faatak in Bhopal. However, the damaged bridge almost certainly was from Pakistan and surely not from Madhya Pradesh as has been reported by us earlier. Digvijay Singh later issued an apology over the tweet.

The Congress party appears to have upped its ante with regards to spreading fake news. Only yesterday, senior Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had posted a fake petrol bill on Twitter to instigate the public against the BJP. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan came out himself and chastised the Congress leader over the tweet. On a far more serious issue, Youth Congress had shared a fake image of ‘exodus’ of North Indians from Gujarat to target the BJP government in the state only days after Congress leaders had instigated the violence against migrants.

#MeToo: ‘Who wanted to kiss whom,’ Chetan Bhagat shares email of the woman accusing him of sexual misconduct

OpIndia Staff
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#MeToo: ‘Who wanted to kiss whom,’ Chetan Bhagat shares email of the woman accusing him of sexual misconduct

As the #MeToo movement in India gains momentum, the social media has been abuzz since the past few days as more and more women have come out and accused many men in the powerful position of sexually exploiting them. One of the men named has been author Chetan Bhagat, who has been accused by women of crossing professional boundaries as well as sexual misconduct.

Ira Trivedi, an author, has also accused Chetan Bhagat of trying to forcefully kiss her as well as inappropriate behaviour. Trivedi narrates an incident from a decade back where Bhagat was moderating a panel at Jaipur Literature Festival. She says how upon being asked what would she do if anyone hits on her at book launches, Trivedi, who was 22 then, said jokingly, she would kiss a guy who buys her 100 books and marries him if he buys them all.

A few weeks later, she claims that Bhagat invited her for a tea and later, under the pretext of giving her a signed copy of his book, invited her to his room. Trivedi accuses Bhagat of making a pass at her and trying to plant a kiss on her lips as “he had bought a hundred copies of her book and donated to a library in Pune.” She expressed her shock at the behaviour. Later, in Bhagat’s book ‘Half Girlfriend’, she read a scene where the male protagonist tries to forcefully kiss the female protagonist and found it ‘eerily familiar’. She had then wondered with how many women had Bhagat “reenacted this very scene before he penned it into his book.”

She claims that she continued being friends with Chetan even after that, but he continued making overtures where she would just roll her eyes and move on. She later accuses Bhagat of groping a friend of hers on a moving bus. She even accuses him of having a repeated behaviour pattern of exploiting young women.

Chetan Bhagat being accused of sexual misconduct by Ira Trivedi

In his defence, Chetan Bhagat took to Twitter to clarify his stand regarding the allegations and also to appeal to people to leave him alone for peace of his family. He shared a screenshot of an email sent by Trivedi to him back in October 2013 where she signed off with “Miss u kiss u.” Bhagat questioned, “So who wanted to kiss whom?”


He even slammed Outlook for publishing the article without getting his side of the story.


He shared a video where Bhagat had launched Ira Trivedi’s book in 2015-16 and questioned whether anyone would call their harasser as chief guest for their book launch.

Adding that a person’s reputation is the most prized asset and it takes a lifetime to build one he said such “motivated, fake attacks” on him are “abhorrent and the sickest thing a person can do.” He then appealed to everyone not to believe the allegations.


He said that he is not a vindictive person and just wants to be left alone.


In the course of the last few days, two women came forward and accused The Wire’s co-founder and founding editor Siddharth Bhatia of sexual harassment. The #MeToo movement on social media has taken the country by a storm with many big industry names like Vinod Dua, Alok Nath, Rajat Kapoor, Varun Grover and comedians like Tanmay Bhat and Gursimran Khamba, co-founders of All India Bakchod being accused of sexual misconduct. Journalists like Prashant Jha and film director Vikas Bahl and many, many more have been named as perpetrators of harassment.

Revenue department sends notices to about 10,000 people under the benami law

OpIndia Staff
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Revenue department sends notices to about 10,000 people under the benami law

The revenue department, while scrutinizing data on deposits of demonetized currencies has issued notices to about 10000 people under the benami law seeking sources of their income, as reported by The Economic Times.

Sources in the department confirmed that many other may get similar notices in the coming week. “While the money may have come into the banking system, the money has come with a name,” said a senior official close to the development. “Not just income tax but several government departments can now use the data for future investigations.”

Experts have reportedly stated that the Income Tax department is focusing on larger transactions as of now and the people who have evaded tax could be in trouble.

The department has been utilizing data analytics including phone numbers, credit card and PAN details, tax returns and even data available on social media platforms to detect tax evasion.

The benami notices are preliminary and have been issued to those who had deposited unaccounted cash or whose cash deposits may not correspond with their income or in many cases not belonging to them. The report also mentioned that the notices would mean both the bank account holder and the one who deposited the amount would face benami investigations.

Experts maintained that demonetization has brought several suspicious transactions under the tax department’s scrutiny through ‘cross-referencing’ with older data. They furthered that the government is using advanced tools to analyze and establish relationships among different entities up to 16 levels deep, based on different details such as addresses, phone calls, social media interactions, travel trends and IT returns.

The Modi government, since the time, has come to power, undeterred to fight corruption and tax evasion has tightened the noose around tax dodgers.

The November 8, 2016 decision to scrap banknotes of Rs 500- and Rs 1,000 denomination was aimed at cornering black-money hoarders into depositing or exchanging old notes at banks.

Under ‘operation clean money’, which was launched on January 31 2018, to detect shady funds deposited with banks, more than 60,000 persons, including 1,300 high-risk persons, according to data collected until February 2018, had been identified for an investigation into claims of excessive cash sales during the demonetisation period and were sent notices to explain the sources of their income.

As reported on July 25, in its quest to fight corruption the government had attached more than Rs. 4,300 crores of benami properties in the country.

Benami properties are those assets which are bought by an individual, not under his or her name. It can include properties which are held in the name of spouse, child or any other family members, for which the amount is paid out of known sources of income.

Experts believe the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act 1988 which was amended by the present government to provide more teeth to fight against illicit transactions and black money, is stringent and infractions can lead to imprisonment up to seven years and fine for violation of the Act which may extend to 25% of the fair market value of the benami property.

Recently, the government cracked down more than 16,500 shell companies and has put another 80,000 companies under the scanner and has also introduced a reward scheme to clamp down on benami properties.

Ayodhya Art Festival: It might appear a minor swing in pendulum, but it is a step towards reclaiming lost glory

K Bhattacharjee
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Ayodhya Art Festival: It might appear a minor swing in pendulum, but it is a step towards reclaiming lost glory

The city of Ayodhya organized the Ayodhya Art Festival to commemorate the life and times of its beloved king, Shri Rama. The three-day festival which began on the 12th of October saw artists from all across the country descend at Ram Janambhoomi to create a wall to wall paintings depicting different events from the Ramayana. The theme of the event is “Rama and his Life” with focus on 10 different episodes of his life, including Bal-kand, Ayodhya-Kand, Aranya-Kand, Sundar-Kand, Lanka-Kand, Uttara-Kand, Lav-Kush-Kand and Ram Darbaar.

Initial sketching began on 12th and artists could be seen working hard on their art. The winners will receive a prize money of Rs. 25000, Rs. 15000 and Rs. 10000 for their respective position on the podium.


Karan Acharya, the creator of Hanuman 2.0 which is a rage on the internet, has also joined the event.


Ayodhya holds a special place in the heart of every pious Hindu. It is the birthplace of our Shri Rama and in independent India, it is the place where Hindu Renaissance began. For far too long, efforts were made to curtail the cultural potential of the city. But the mystical power that the city is teeming with is impossible to curb for long. It is at Ayodhya that the seeds of Hindu consolidation were sown and it is in the sacred soil of that sacred city where the fire of Dharma burns the brightest.

For a long time, Ayodhya was famous, or rather infamous, for the bloodshed it witnessed in the early part of the 1990s. One of the holiest cities of Hindus was not given the recognition it was due because of internal politics of the country. It was only last year after the saffron-clad Mahant of Gorakhnath Math assumed the seat of the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, did Ayodhya receive the adulation it deserved. In what was one of the most powerful acts of symbolism in Narendra Modi’s reign as Prime Minister, the ghats of the legendary Sarayu was lit with hundreds and thousands of Diyas at the behest of Yogi Adityanath.

It was during Diwali last year that Ayodhya had finally managed to cast off the dark shadows of tyranny that the Babri had inflicted on it since centuries and continued to even after its demolition. It was a poignant message that was conveyed through the simple act of celebrating Diwali with great pomp and vigour at Ayodhya, a simple message that our culture and our heritage shall no longer be held hostage by the vicious claws of appeasement politics.

The art festival at Ayodhya may appear to some as a minor swing of the pendulum in the grand scheme of things. However, it is a further testament to the fact that Ayodhya shall no longer be a mere reflection of Mughal tyranny in the public mind. Ayodhya shall again honour the one true king it has ever known, Prabhu Ram. The art festival is an auspicious start but one hopes that in the years to come, the entire city will be transformed to reflect its great heritage and ancient history. More importantly, the art festival appears to be preparing the city for the Bhavya Ram Mandir that was promised. Long years have passed and many appear to be losing faith but it is my firm belief that the Bhavya Ram Mandir is not too far away.

It is in the sacred soil of Ayodhya that the future of our great nation rests. Our commitment to the city and our veneration of it will determine whether the Hindu civilization will still continue to serve as a beacon of Pagan culture in a world devoured by the intolerance of monotheistic cults or fade away into oblivion like our Roman and Greek cousins.

The world as we know it is undergoing a tectonic shift and great powers appear to be afoot to shape the destiny of our people and our civilization. The protests in Kerala after the Supreme Court struck down a tradition centuries old are a testament to the fact that the great Hindu spirit is very much alive. The protests have garnered great support from all across the country and Hindus regardless of their caste and transcending barriers of regionalism have come forward to show their support for the great Sabarimala Temple.

It is also important to remember to not lose sight of the great scheme of things. Yes, we are at a situation where every tradition of ours is under attack from an undemocratic wing of the state and an evangelist ideology that seeks to crush every pagan act of devotion. We have suffered and continue to suffer heft defeats but there are enough reasons to make us optimistic about the future.

The protests at Sabarimala have shown that there’s greater unity among Hindus and a greater consciousness about the siege on our faith and the willingness and dedication to combat the forces of evil. Also, the sacred city of Ayodhya is finally being reclaimed from the clutches of appeasement politics and being transformed to honour its true King.

These are signs that ought to give hope to every Hindu alive. There are plenty to reasons to be unhappy about but we are indeed, finally, moving in the right direction.

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