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Terrorists who hijacked Indian Airlines plane to Lahore in 1981, set free by Delhi court

OpIndia Staff
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Terrorists who hijacked Indian Airlines plane to Lahore in 1981, set free by Delhi court

Two pro-Khalistani terrorists of the banned secessionist organisation Dal Khalsa were set free by a court in Delhi yesterday. According to reports, the duo, named Tejinder Pal Singh and Satnam Singh were accused of hijacking an Indian Airlines flight to Lahore in 1981.

It is notable here that both the accused have served life imprisonment terms in Pakistan after they were convicted by Pakistani courts for the hijacking. Tejinder Pal Singh entered India in 1997 and Satnam Singh arrived in 1999 after being released from Pakistani prison. Upon reaching India the duo had reportedly filed discharge application in court under double jeopardy provisions pleading that they cannot be tried for the second time for the same crime with the same facts.

While Satnam Singh was discharged by the court under double jeopardy provisions, the other accused had filed a similar application the next year and the Delhi police sought prosecution on Tejinder and Satnam only after that. Tejinder Pal Singh was acquitted after the prosecution failed to prove charges of sedition against him. The Delhi police had filed cases of sedition and waging war against India on both of them after sanctioning of prosecution by the Delhi government. Addition sessions judge Ajay Pandey yesterday stated on his verdict that the prosecution has failed to prove charges against the duo.

Judge Ajay Pandey also reportedly remarked that this was a unique case as the prosecution of charges against the accused was not initiated by the authorities in India but was launched only after the accused filed discharge applications. The prosecution had filed their case under section 121 (waging war against India), 121A, 124A (sedition) and 122B (collecting weapons with intentions of war). The cases were filed only after Satnam Singh’s discharge plea was approved by the court and Tejinder Singh filed a similar application.

Both Tejinder Singh and Satnam Singh were part of a five-member gang that had hijacked the Indian Airlines flight IC-423 from Delhi to Srinagar in September 1981 with crew members and 111 passengers on board. They were demanding the release of pro-Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. Three of the accused, Gajinder Singh, Jasbir Singh and Karan Singh were declared absconders.

Judge Ajay Pandey, in his 79-page verdict, has reportedly stated that the accused person was not identified by any witnesses. Though the prosecution had submitted that the accused had admitted to hijacking the plane in their discharge application, the court dismissed the argument. The duo, who were in an Indian jail, were reportedly granted bail in July last year.

There has been growing concern in India over the pro-Khalistani elements being stirred up again. There has been a rise of radical Sikh violence in recent times and many reports suggest that the Aam Aadmi Party has been infiltrated by Khalistani elements. In December last year, a radical Sikh magazine was found glorifying terrorist Burhan Wani as a ‘hero’ in one of the local fairs in Fatehgarh Sahib.

Recently in London, pro-Khalistani groups had organised an event calling for the ‘Khalistan Referendum’. There were reports that it was being supported by Pakistan.

Ahmedabad District Co-Operative Bank files a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi

OpIndia Staff
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Ahmedabad District Co-Operative Bank files a criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi

The Congress party has landed itself in a tight spot as the Ahmedabad District Co-operative Bank (ADCB) has slapped a criminal defamation case against Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala and party president Rahul Gandhi in a metropolitan court on Monday, over their allegations that the bank was involved in a ‘scam’ to convert Rs 750 crore within five days of demonetisation.

The case was filed in lieu of the false and defamatory statements made by the two.

Congress leader Randeep Surjewala had claimed that Ajay Patel, the chairman of Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank, which mobilized Rs 745.58 crore worth of banned notes in just four days in November 2016, is a “close associate” of BJP president Amit Shah, who is a director and former chairman of the bank. While demanding a probe into the deposits, Surjewala had said that the RTI reply had “exposed an attempt to convert black into white money in the guise of demonetization”.

Out-on-bail Congress President Rahul Gandhi had alleged that this pointed towards a scam in which Amit Shah was involved.

Taking to Twitter, Rahul Gandhi had said, “Congratulations Amit Shah Ji, Director, Ahmedabad Dist Cooperative Bank, on your bank winning 1st prize in the conversion of old notes to a new race. 750 Cr in 5 days! Millions of Indian whose lives were destroyed by Demonetisation, salute your achievement.”

These insinuations were made even after NABARD came out with a statement saying, “NABARD conducted 100 % verification in Ahmedabad DCCB which revealed that the bank had complied with all the KYC Guidelines of the RBI while accepting the demonetized notes”. OpIndia too had comprehensively debunked the story being concocted by The Wire and furthered by Rahul Gandhi and Congress leaders.

The metropolitan court has ordered an inquiry into the allegation under section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). “The court prima facie found substance in our complaint and accepted it. A further hearing will be held on September 17,” said Ajit Jadeja, counsel for the petitioner.

He furthered that Surjewala had made claims, that BJP made 81% gains from the transaction, without verifying facts. “Forget about Rs 745 crore, the bank didn’t even have 7% of the amount he claimed,” said Jadeja. The lawyer said that such type of insinuations led to creating doubts in the minds of depositors.”It also affects the new account holders who may want to bank with us,” said Jadeja.

The bank is planning to use video recordings of the press conference and transcripts as evidence against the two ministers to puncture the false allegations made by them against the bank.

The master of self-goals has indulged in such hollow hit-jobs umpteen of times before through friendly media. The Wire is already facing a Rs 100 crores defamation suit for their hit job against Jay Shah, Amit Shah’s son. Rahul Gandhi is also getting sued by the RSS for defamatory statements and recently, Anil Ambai has sued several Congress leaders for Rs 5000 crores for their defamatory statements with regards to the Rafale deal.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar expresses happiness that Rahul Gandhi out of PM race for 2019

OpIndia Staff
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NCP supremo Sharad Pawar expresses happiness that Rahul Gandhi out of PM race for 2019

While the Congress and other opposition parties trying hard to project a united front ahead of 2019 general elections, they are apprehensive about the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.

Sharad Pawar, the NCP supremo has expressed happiness over the fact that Rahul Gandhi will be not the face of the Grand Alliance ahead of 2019 general elections. He said that, “I am happy that the Congress leader (Rahul Gandhi) has also said he is not in the race for the prime minister’s post”.  Pawar added that once the elections are over and BJP is out of power, the opposition parties will sit together and decide who could be the prime minister. “Whichever party has got more seats can claim the prime minister’s post”, he said.

Even as the Congress tries to put up a brave face projecting Rahul Gandhi as the prime ministerial candidate, it is not the first time that the leaders of the grand alliance have expressed their doubts in the abilities of the Congress President.

Recently, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also hinted about her apprehensions regarding projecting Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister candidate. Mamata Banerjee, who herself is dreaming to be the Prime Minister of the country someday has been playing safe when it comes to being associated with the grand alliance.

The opposition parties are yet to figure out their agenda to fight the BJP ahead of the 2019 general elections. Many leaders of the opposition parties have expressed their doubts regarding the leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said has that a lot of people were capable of becoming PM, while Akhilesh Yadav has claimed the country would see a new prime minister after 2019 elections. The BSP is expecting that Mayawati could be the united Opposition PM nominee, if the grand alliance performs well in the general elections.

Sharad Pawar has also come up with a new set of strategies to fight the BJP. Speaking to the media, Pawar said the opposition party which gets the maximum number of seats after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls could claim the post of the prime ministership.

In addition to this, he is keen on the idea of forging alliances of political parties at the state level and said the prime ministerial candidate could be decided after the election results, as happened after the 1977 and 2004 general polls. The Maratha leader said he would “try to go to each state and make regional parties which are not with the BJP to join us (the opposition alliance)”.

He further added that the situation is different in each state. He said that there are looking for an alliance with the strong regional parties in each state to fight the BJP. He noted that Congress was strong in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan while in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati-led BSP and Samajwadi Party are the strong enough to fight the BJP.

BSP member shares fake image of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes being sold on Amazon

OpIndia Staff
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BSP member shares fake image of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes being sold on Amazon

BSP social media activist, Devashish Jarariya, today shared an image on Twitter claiming to be ashes of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who passed away earlier this month, being ‘sold’ on the e-commerce website Amazon.in.


In his tweet, he was seen ‘condemning’ the ashes being sold for ‘politics’. The image shared showed a copper Kalash (urn) which had ‘ashes’ of the former prime minister which were sold along with a book on Prime Minister Modi, retailing at Rs. 999, sold for Rs. 899.

Picture shared by Devashish Jarariya

The image next to it also included ‘reviews’ of the ‘product’ (ashes of Vajpayee). One review, with a ‘verified purchase’ tag (meaning the reviewer has legitimately purchased the product he/she is reviewing), said that the ‘product’ is ‘fantastic’ but ashes are ‘too less’. ‘It must be stolen by some congressi, mulla or aaptards. Delivery timing is so quick and the book is fabulous namo namo’. Another such reviewer said it was ‘trust worthy materiel’ (material).

Second picture shared by Devashish Jarariya

Devashish Jarariya had ‘tagged’ Tehseen Poonawalla, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, Sanjay Singh of Aam Aadmi Party, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Anil Yadav, ‘VYAPAM whistleblower’ Anand Rai, journalist Narendra Nath Mishra and Congress national media coordinator Radhika Khera amongst other people. The image, which is clearly morphed, has already been shared by 170 people and has 341 likes.

One of the responses to the above tweet was by one Twitter user ‘YoYoModi1’ who claimed that the image was fake as it was the only who had ‘shared it’.

‘YoYoModi1’ claiming that he shared the ‘fake’ image.

We went to YoYoModi1’s Twitter profile to check the claims. Interestingly, the first time he shared the above set of images was on 25th August 2018. Interestingly, this Twitter user had shared the image in response to a self-proclaimed ‘fact-checker’ and co-founder of AltNews.in.


Despite being tagged, AltNews co-founder neither corrected him nor called him out. ‘YoYoModi1’ shared the image with many Congress supporting and Left handles, including Kavita Krishnan and Sanjiv Bhatt, but none of them have called out the insensitive tweet and the morphed image of Vajpayee’s ashes being sold on Amazon.

Former PM Vajpayee passed away on 16th August after a prolonged illness. BJP has decided to immerse ashes of Vajpayee in nearly 100 rivers across the country.

Godhra Case: Trial court convicts Farukh Bhana and Imran Sheru for setting train on fire which killed Kar-sevaks

OpIndia Staff
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Godhra Case: Trial court convicts Farukh Bhana and Imran Sheru for setting train on fire which killed Kar-sevaks

A special trial court has sentenced two more accused, Farukh Bhana and Imran alias Sheru Batuk, to life imprisonment in relation to the case of burning the Sabarmati Express train in 2002 at Godhra railway station that led to communal riots in Gujarat. Three more accused, Hussain Suleman Mohan, Kasam Bhamedi and Faruk Dhantiya who were arrested by different agencies in 2015 and 2016 were acquitted.

The carnage had taken place when ‘Kar Sevaks’, who were returning in Sabarmati Express from Ayodhya after attending a religious ceremony, were burnt in train near Godhra. The victims were mostly Hindu and official figure reports that 59 people had died in this incident.

Special judge H C Vora awarded the life sentence to Farooq Bhana and Imran Sheru after the prosecution proved their role in the burning of the two coaches. Another accused Sabir Abdul Gani Pataliya, had died during pendency of the trial.

Interestingly, the one of the convicted Farukh Bhana, was the sitting corporator of Polan-Bazar area of the Godhra municipality in February 2002 when the train was set on fire, killing 59 Hindu devotees. It is reported that on the eve of the incident, Farukh Bhana had held a meeting at the Aman Guest House to incite people to burn down S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express.

The other convict, Sheru Batuk has been awarded the life imprisonment, was part of the conspiracy to burn down the Sabarmati Express. Special Additional Public Prosecutor N N Prajapati said, “While Bhana was the mastermind of the attack, Batuk was actually leading the mob”.

Judge Vora awarded the sentence after considering the statements of 37 witnesses and other evidence provided by the Supreme Court-appointed SIT. After this verdict, a total of 33 people have been convicted in the case, while 67 others have been acquitted. Eight more accused are said to be absconding.

In 2011, the SIT court had convicted 31 persons related to the case of conspiracy to burn down the train. Out of all the 31 convicts, 11 of them were awarded capital punishment, while 20 others were handed the life term in jail. However, the Gujarat High Court in its 2017 judgement commuted death sentence of 11 convicts to life imprisonment and upheld life imprisonment of 20 convicts awarded by the trial court.

CPI accuses CPM of highjacking Kerala relief material and distributing it under its party banner

OpIndia Staff
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CPI accuses CPM of highjacking Kerala relief material and distributing it under its party banner

The ceaseless relief work administered by Kerala State Government, to combat one of the worst disasters the state is yet to recover from, has fenced several allegations, indicating the uneasy ties between two major constituents of the ruling LDF government. Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) has been accused of hijacking relief materials meant for flood relief victims, Manorama has reported. This accusation has been hurled by its alliance partner the Communist Party of India (CPI).

According to reports, CPI has accused the CPM of diverting relief material meant for the Munnar relief camp to its party office from where it is being distributed in vehicles with the party banner affixed on it. This allegation was, however, countered by CPM workers, which reportedly led to tensions in Munnar.

The report claimed that more than half the relief material was hoarded in the party office, and was later distributed under CPI(M)’s banner, thus converting the entire operation into a sham, alleged the members of CPI. They furthered that the CPM workers were obstructing the free and fair distribution of the relief material, hinting that the relief material was not reaching the ones in need.

Despite several complaints, which also led the sub-collector to issue a warning to the CPM workers, they, on Saturday (25th August) were witnessed diverting three relief material shipments that came from Tamil Nadu and were later blocked from doing so by the CPI workers.

In one such similar incident that Times Now had reported, two Kerala government officials were arrested by the police for stealing the relief material. Meanwhile, a similar incident was also reported from Chengannur where the accused was a temporary government official.

Cracks in JDS-Congress alliance: Is the Karnataka Government on the verge of collapsing?

OpIndia Staff
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Cracks in JDS-Congress alliance: Is the Karnataka Government on the verge of collapsing?

The rift within the JDS-Congress alliance seems to have widened as former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah recently expressed his wishes to become the chief minister again. The speculations increased when Karnataka Agriculture Minister Shivashankar Reddy told the reporters yesterday that if the Congress and JDS sit together and take some decision regarding change, Siddaramaiah could again become the chief minister as they (Congress) had fought election under his leadership.

Reddy’s remarks come just a few days after Siddaramaiah had said that if people wish, he will become chief minister again which had raised doubts about the longetivity of the already turbulent JDS-Congress alliance in the state. Congress MLA from Basavakalyan, B Narayan, too backed Siddaramaiah’s chief ministership and said that the possibility of him becoming the chief minister is ‘as truthful as the rise of the Sun in the east’. B Narayan also ‘cautioned’ chief minister Kumaraswamy that he should know that he is running a coalition government on Congress’ shoulders as JDS only has 37 MLAs while Congress has 80.

Kumaraswamy reportedly admitted that he is aware of efforts being made to destabilise his government but ‘it would not work’. Meanwhile, the central leadership in Congress is keeping a close watch on the developments to ensure the coalition is not weakened as it is trying hard to portray a strong anti-BJP stand for the upcoming 2019 elections. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly even reached out to JDS leaders including Kumaraswamy and assured stability of government.

Earlier, Kumaraswamy broke down saying he is swallowing the poison and had accused certain Congress leaders of ‘tormenting’ him. The ‘opportunistic alliance’ between the Congress and JD(S) in its craving to form the government in Karnataka, which was evidently nothing but a compromise, seems to be constantly grappling to accommodate each other.

Amar Singh calls SP ‘Namazwadi Party’, threatens to expose their ‘secular credentials’

OpIndia Staff
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Amar Singh calls SP ‘Namazwadi Party’, threatens to expose their ‘secular credentials’

In a video posted on Facebook, Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh has dubbed Akhilesh Yadav’s party as ‘Namajwadi Party’ and has threatened to expose the “secular credentials” of the party before the public. Singh’s video came in response to Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan alleged threat of cutting Singh into pieces and throwing acid on the faces of his daughters.

“He should be ashamed of talking of building Vishnu temple. He is not president of Samajwadi Party but Namajwadi Party. I saved dignity of many women and girls in the Yadav clan and now Azam Khan threatens to cut me into pieces and shower acid on my daughters. I will expose them all,” Singh said in the video.

“If secularism means to compromise my self-respect and being ashamed of own religion then I would prefer to be called a non-secular person. I will unmask Samajwadi Party’s secular face in the country,” he added.


In the video, Amar Singh can be see visibly angry and he even went on to call Azam Khan a ‘raakshas’. He also compared the Samajwadi Party leader to Alauddin Khilji and and Mahmud Ghaznavi. He has stated on Twitter that he will address a Press Conference tomorrow at Lucknow to expose Azam Khan.

Did the govt threaten to stop supply of petroleum if the PM’s photo is not displayed in petrol pumps?

Raju Das
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Did the govt threaten to stop supply of petroleum if the PM’s photo is not displayed in petrol pumps?

On 24th August 2018, The Hindu published a report that state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) have issued a verbal instruction to Petrol Pump operators to display a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at their retail outlets and that this instruction has triggered protests from dealers of the petrol pump. The report also claims that OMCs have threatened to block supply to those outlets who refuse to display picture or PM. This was informed by S.S. Gogi, president, Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) to The Hindu. This report was subsequently picked up by some other media outlets, all of them using the Hindu report as their source.

Incidentally, The Hindu failed to carry any response from either petroleum ministry or any of the OMCs regarding the issue.

The Hindu’s assertions were based on the statements of on SS Gogi (Shamsher Singh Gogi) who claims to be the President of Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers.

However, when one looks closely, an entirely different story that was innocuously missed by The Hindu emerges. When searched on the Social Media site, Twitter, one stumbles upon the Twitter handle of SS Gogi. In his page, he has mentioned that he is the General Secretary of Haryana Pradesh Congress.

That on 24th August 2018, he shared a clipping of the same news article, presumably from The Hindu confirms that he is the same SS Gogoi who made these assertions to The Hindu.


He has made wild assertions like equating RSS to Taliban on his Twitter timeline as well.


One has to question the authenticity of the news published by The Hindu considering that it is rather odd that the news outlet would fail to mention that the one making such assertions is politically affiliated to the Congress party.

The Print spoke to an IOCL official on the issue, and the official denied any move to cut off supplies. “No OMC has threatened to choke supply as the dealers are alleging. Also, the fact that many are saying that the petrol pumps are being used to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photographs is incorrect. What we are doing is promoting the schemes. Now many of the schemes have been initiated by this government and therefore have his photograph. So, while promoting the schemes, his photograph automatically comes up. There is nothing more to it,” said the official.

Oil Marketing companies IOCL, HPCL and BPCL are owned by Government of India, and the premise of petrol pumps of such OMCs have been used to display hoardings, posters etc promoting various government schemes in the past also. And some of these promotional materials contain an image of Modi.

The claim of threatening to block the supply of fuel to those pumps who refuse to display image of the Prime Minister seems far-fetched at best, and malicious at worst. Selling petroleum products is the business of the OMCs, and it is unlikely that they would stop the supply of petroleum products to retail outlets for such a trivial reason. That will happen only because of some serious breach of contract, like adulteration, tampering with the pump etc. It is also worthy to note, that petrol pumps running dry would cause far greater damage to any government in power compared to the PM’s photograph not being displayed. Hence, it seems outlandish for any government to issue such a self-defeating order.

What casts greater aspersions at the report by the Hindu, aside from the fact that their source is a Congressman who might have the motivation to weave fiction against the incumbent government, is that the order purportedly came in the form of a “verbal order” by some “field officer”. One wonders if such a politically damaging instruction would simply be handed out to field officers to be verbally communicated to petrol pumps.

Neither The Hindu report nor any of the subsequent reports quote any other source other than the Himachal Pradesh Congress President. That further raises doubts about the entire affair.

There are several associations of petrol pump dealers in India. And it seems only one among them, Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers, which is incidentally headed by a Congress party leader, has a problem with display of such advertisement at petrol pumps and in the 3 days that this news has been in circulation, nobody, other than the consortium headed by Himachal Pradesh Congress President has raised a stink over this alleged diktat.

In all, this report by The Hindu certainly raises serious suspicions over the veracity and authenticity of the purported diktat by the Modi led government.

We also reached out to HPCL for their comment, this article will be updated when the response is received.

Punjab Assembly: Amarinder Singh names Congress leaders involved in 1984 anti-Sikh genocide

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab Assembly: Amarinder Singh names Congress leaders involved in 1984 anti-Sikh genocide

A day after Captain Amarinder Singh defended Rahul Gandhi’s assertion that the Congress party was not involved in the pogrom against Sikhs in 1984, he has named Congress leaders in the Punjab Assembly who are believed to have been involved in the slaughter of Sikhs while continuing to maintain that individuals were involved, not the party. Amarinder Singh claimed that the names were given to him by riot victims.


Aam Aadmi Party MLA and a long time crusader for justice for the victims of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom, H.S. Phoolka claimed that Amarinder Singh’s admission that the Congress leaders were involved is evidence of the fact the pogrom was backed by the party as the leaders mentioned continued their involvement with the party and received important positions.


The Speaker of the Assembly had initially sought to expunge the names mentioned by Singh from the record. However, after protests by members of the Aam Aadmi Party and approval from Singh, the Speaker allowed the names to go on record.


Amarinder Singh has come under attack himself from various quarters for defending Rahul Gandhi’s remarks during his foreign tour. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, leader of Akali Dal, has said that he should consider drowning himself in shame.

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