Gujrat’s ex-police DGP P P Pandey was discharged by a special CBI court on Wednesday in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed in 2004.
As per reports, Pandey’s discharge application was allowed by the special CBI court judge P K Pandya on the grounds that there was no evidence against him that proves the allegations of kidnap and killing of Ishrat Jahan and her associates. The court also added that there were no witnesses who accused Pandey of the alleged kidnapping and killing charges put forth by the CBI and the witnesses in the case have given contradictory statements to different investigating agencies.
The CBI had accused Pandey of being involved in the kidnapping and killing of the persons in the encounter in 2013. Pandey was the head of Ahmedabad Crime Branch in 2004 when the encounter happened.
The special court also stated that as Pandey was a serving police officer under the Gujrat state government at that time, as per section 197 of CrPC, due permission to prosecute him should have been taken from the state before filing charges against him, which was not done by the CBI.
The CBI had filed the charge sheet against Pandey and seven other officers of Gujrat police including D G Vanzara and D L Singhal in 2013.
The CBI had also filed a supplementary charge sheet where four officials of IB are named including former Director Rajinder Kumar and officer M S Sinha. The supplementary charge sheet is yet to receive approval from the centre.
DG Vanzara has tweeted about the discharge of his former colleague:
My co-accused retired DGP PP Pandey is discharged from Ishrat Jahan #encounter case by Spl CBI Court Ahmedabad: But for this Genuine Encounter, d Precious Life of Shri Narendra Modi, the then CM of Gujarat & Present PM of India would not have been saved: lndian Judiciary is Just.
Pandey, who is a 1980 batch IPS officer, was arrested in July 2013 by the CBI. He and almost 19 months in jail. He was granted bail in February 2015, reinstated in the State Police and was promoted to DGP level. He retired an April last year.
In June 2004, Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh alias Pranesh Pilai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were gunned down by Crime Branch officials in the outskirts of Ahmedabad. Ishrat’s mother Shamima Kausar had filed a writ petition in Gujrat High Court seeking a CBI inquiry on the encounter and claimed that her daughter has been falsely named as a terrorist. A Pakistani media outlet had quoted Lashkar-e-Taiba as claiming that Ishrat was their operative. LeT had later retracted their statement. In 2016, Terrorist David Headley had picked Ishrat’s name from a list of three names during his testimony, identifying her as a Lashkar operative. Later former home secretary G K Pillai had alleged that former UPA home minister P Chidambaram had edited the testimony to erase any reference to Ishrat as a LeT operative. Home Minister Rajnath Singh had stated in the parliament that UPA had been using the case to falsely target PM Modi.
The AAP government in Delhi has become embroiled in a massive mess with reports claiming that two of its MLAs assaulting Delhi’s Chief Secretary at Kejriwal’s residence while the Chief Minister himself looked on. Since then the AAP government has been further put in the dock with the Chief Secretary’s medical report confirming cut marks and injuries around his face.
Massive outrage and strong protests meant that the police arrested AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal from his Delhi residence, and later the second accused Amanatullah Khan surrendered before the police. The controversial MLA though decided to adorn an Islamic attire in order to possibly play the persecution card.
While this drama was playing on, the Home Ministry began a probe in this matter by examining a report sent by Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday. The LG in his report divided the incident into three parts: criminal, administrative and political. Out of this, the criminal aspect will be dealt by the Delhi police and the other two are the responsibility of the Home Ministry.
President Ram Nath Kovind too might get involved in the matter soon with Delhi’s IAS association asking for an appointment with the 1st citizen, to demand action against those involved in the Chief Secretary’s assault.
Now another angle has come to the fray, with the BJP and Madhya Pradesh’s IAS body outright demanding the dismissal of the AAP government.
The BJP as per reports has demanded an imposition of President’s rule after the dismissal of the AAP government and also plans to carry out a massive protest against AAP throughout Delhi. The Madhya Pradesh IAS association too called for a similar move and also demanded that criminal cases be registered against the accused. This was conveyed via a resolution passed by the body.
The AAP though has refused to step back and continues to brazen it out by claiming that there was no proof regarding the Chief Secretary getting assaulted. As per the AAP, this whole affair is BJP’s plan to dethrone their Delhi government.
The relentless crackdown in the Nirav Modi – PNB scam case continues. The Enforcement Directorate today reported that it had seized several premium cars belonging to Nirav Modi and his companies. The cars include a Rolls Royce Ghost, Porsche Panamera, 2 Mercedes Benz, 3 Honda, 1 Toyota Fortuner & an Innova, as per the Enforcement Directorate.
It was also declared that shares & mutual funds worth Rs 7.8 Cr of Nirav Modi & Rs 86.72 crore of Mehul Choksi group were frozen by the Enforcement Directorate. All the above was tweeted out by the Enforcement Directorate:
ED seizes 9 cars including Rolls Royce Ghost, Porsche Panamera, 2 Mercedes Benz, 3 Honda, 1Toyota Fortuner & an Innova of Nirav Modi & his companies. Shares & Mutual Funds worth Rs 7.8 Cr of Nirav Modi & Rs 86.72 crore of Mehul Choksi group also frozen. pic.twitter.com/lolYF8CgB9
The above move comes on the back of multiple actions taken by various authorities over the past few days. On 16th February, in raids that continued late into the night, the ED seized Rs. 5,100 crores worth of Gold, precious gems and Jewellery. The Enforcement Directorate also tweeted about additional raids being conducted and that diamonds, gold and jewellery worth Rs. 549 crores (book value) have been seized.
Yesterday, Sharad Pawar was interviewed by MNS chief Raj Thackeray at an event in Mumbai. The unique event was obviously keenly watched by all. In the interview, Pawar mentioned an incident relating to Rahul Gandhi, which inadvertently became a matter of ridicule. Pawar was, in fact, trying to praise Rahul, but Thackeray quickly realised how Rahul had in fact been embarrassed by this.
Thakeray had asked Pawar about his views on PM Modi. Pawar stated that while it was easy to be the CM of a state, it was harder to be the PM, and one needed to have the ability to learn. He claimed that he saw this ability in Rahul Gandhi, and presented an example of the same: (abridged version)
Pawar: I am the chairperson of a sugar institute, which does research on sugarcane and sugar. One day Rahul Gandhi suddenly came to visit me. He spent 2 hours at the institute and asked questions like what is sugarcane, what is its method, (audience laughs) what are the godowns, what is sugar…
Thakeray: He asked, “what is sugarcane”? (audience laughs)
Pawar: He asked about the different types of sugarcane etc.
(Thakeray narrates an unrelated joke)
Pawar: Currently, Rahul’s thought process is to learn the issues he does not understand, and if he continues on this route, and if the youth back him, then Congress may see good days ahead.
Pawar tried his best to praise Rahul Gandhi, but even in that attempt, Rahul Gandhi’s glorious reputation seems to have taken the forefront as the audience as well as Raj Thakeray, listened to the story in amusement.
India’s ambitious project, to start its first bullet train, has always been in the eye of controversy, due to the opposition. We have seen numerous attempts to slander and spread half truths about the project. Most famously, Kejriwal once calculated the fare as Rs 75,000. Now, we may have a new theory, which tops that of Kejriwal
In a unique interview, Raj Thackeray from the MNS, interviewed NCP honcho Sharad Pawar, at an event in Mumbai. One of the questions from Thackeray, talked about the bullet train and raised an interesting theory. The abridged version of the relevant part of the interview is as below:
Raj Thakeray: Nitin Gadkari recently announced a Mumbai-Vadodara express highway, for which he will sanction Rs 22,000 crores. PM Modi after the elections, announced Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train costing Rs 1.10 lakh crores. Is this an outcome of the wound which was inflicted on Gujarat when Maharashtra split from Gujarat but Gujarat lost Mumbai? Is this then a conspiracy to distance Mumbai (from Maharashtra). Mumbai does not need a bullet train. Now, we will be able to reach very fast to Ahmedabad in the morning itself, what do we do there? Should we eat dhokla, fafdas? Why isn’t bullet train being brought on long distance routes like Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Kolkata etc? So is this an attempt to make Mumbai independent?
Sharad Pawar: There was lot of discussion on this, and we had objected to this. We had said bullet train should have been from Mumbai to Delhi, or one which goes through various Mumbai towns. No one will go to Ahmadabad via this bullet train, they will all come to Mumbai, crowd of Mumbai will increase. Let anyone do whatever they can, Mumbai cannot be broken away from Maharashtra.
Later Pawar confirmed that such a conspiracy is visible. He then said that he can see boards in Gujarati language in some areas of Mumbai, but he has no problem with the boards per se.
This theory has to be seen in the background of the fact that once upon a time, Maharashtra and Gujarat were united. After independence, for around 13 years, large parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat formed one state, known as “Bombay state”, which was also called “Maha Dwibhashi Rajya”, meaning, “the great bilingual state”. Finally in 1960, after protests, the two were split into Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Thakeray and Pawar were hinting at this event, and the purportedness bitterness amongst Gujaratis, at having lost Mumbai (Bombay) to Maharashtra. Hence, the moves to link Gujarat and Mumbai via expressways and bullet trains, are being painted as a move to split Maharashtra again. The undertone again gains significance since a Gujarati PM is at the helm.
The theory seems laughable for various reasons. Firstly, this is not the first time this kind of conspiracy has been sought to be fanned. Before the 2014 Maharashtra assembly elections too, this angle was brought alive, and PM Modi had to categorically state from the stage of a rally, that he had no plans to separate Mumbai from Maharashtra.
Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders are spreading a new lie that Mumbai will be separated from Maharashtra. But I want to assure you that as long as I am in Delhi, no power in the world can split Maharashtra. Can anyone born in this country think of splitting the land of Shivaji?
Secondly, the theory by Thackeray-Pawar fails because although the project of bullet train between Ahmedabad and Mumbai was reinvigorated by PM Modi, the base for this project was laid during UPA rule. The project as we see it today, was a result of the joint work of the Gujarat, Maharashtra and the central government.
The then Gujarat CM Modi had first travelled in a bullet train way back in 2007, and the first mention of any such project in India came via the Railway Budget February 2009. Back then a decision was taken for pre-feasibility study for running bullet trains between Ahmedabad-Mumbai and Pune, among other routes.
By 2010, the final report was examined by all stake holders i.e. state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat, Central and Western Railways and various Directorates of Ministry of Railways. The UPA government had identified six corridors for conducting pre-feasibility studies :-
Mumbai-Ahmedabad
Delhi-Amritsar via Chandigarh
Delhi-Patna via Lucknow and Varanasi
Hyderabad-Chennai via Vijaywada
Howrah-Haldia
Cheenai-Ernakulam via Bangalore
Out of the above 6 only Mumbai-Ahmedabad passed the feasibility study and rest of them were either rejected or were still in bidding phase for appointment of consultant to prepare a pre-feasibility study report. Finally in 2012 the Railway Minister proposed to undertake a survey of new line for high speed rail corridor (HSRC) and trains between Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad. In 2013 UPA Government appointed Japan International Consultants for Transportation Co.Ltd(JIC) to conduct feasibility study and the findings of the same are here.
In May 2014, CM Modi became PM Modi, and from then on, the move to bring the bullet train to India picked up steam, and soon we saw the signing of the MoU with Japan.
So, will Thackeray-Pawar still stick to their stand that the bullet train and other initiatives to connect Mumbai and parts of Gujarat, are part of a conspiracy to split Mumbai from Maharashtra? If yes, then at least Pawar being part of UPA is equally responsible.
This “conspiracy” then is basically another attempt to split India on the lines of states. To make one state bay for the blood for another. Basically, a sophisticated “bharat tere tukde honge” at play.
Don’t you just hate it when you pay extra for a premium service and that “premium service” doesn’t work?
Mumbaikars will remember how a decade ago, the city’s transport company (Transco) – the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking – launched its purple-coloured air-conditioned Kinglong buses with much fanfare. Back in the day, A/C buses were a no-go for us middle-class high school students, but we did manage to sneak in the occasional trip.
At a time when other cities getting high-end Volvo buses (manufactured in Hosakote, Karnataka) at ₹75lakh, BEST made news by saying it would spend ₹40lakh and get a bus that was made in China. However, this is where the problem began.
Having moved out of Mumbai around the time these purple buses made their first appearance, my first (mis)adventure on them was two years later in 2010. I was taken aback by the huge size of the bus.
My first trip on BEST’s Kinglong in 2010. (Srikanth Ramakrishnan on the Wikimedia Commons)
… and I then asked myself the very first question: If this is a Kinglong bus, why does it not look like the Kinglong buses that I have seen on the internet and more importantly why does the logo say Cerita and not Kinglong?
This was, however, only my initial reaction on seeing the bus. My main observations came while commuting. The bus I took, was headed to Andheri (Agarkar Chowk) from Mulund Check Naka. While crossing Powai, where the road is undulating and has several inclines, the airconditioning practically stopped working. Suddenly, the ₹35 ticket didn’t seem like value for money to me.
A year or two later, my questions were answered when a newspaper report surfaced. The buses were not Kinglong buses at all, but buses made by Jaycee Coaches (JCBL) under the brand of Cerita in Mohali, Punjab. Kinglong’s participation in them was a few components within the bus – a spark plug here and a spark plug there.
The man behind the procurement of these buses was the then General Manager of BEST, Uttam Khobragade. Does the name ring a bell? His daughter Devyani, after all, made international headlines for the alleged mistreatment of her domestic help. She gained further notoriety when none other than the Supreme Court of India held that her posting as an IFS officer was made by bending rules in 1999.
Now, coming back to these “Purple Faeries“, both Khobragade and then Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh had called them Kinglong buses at the inauguration ceremony. Worse, an excuse was made, the floral decoration during the inauguration hid the logo and thus nobody realised that it wasn’t what it was supposed to be.
When asked about it several years later, Khobragade responded saying he didn’t remember the specifics because the matter was too old. The 285 buses broke down over 4,000 times in 2.5 years, caught fire numerous times and were still in operation. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC or ST) which had around 15 of these buses in its fleet (operating on the Dadar-Pune route) quickly phased them out the minute one of them caught fire.
The buses were so terrible that they perennially ran empty and were always a white elephant (or rather a purple elephant for us). They cost a lot to maintain and were heavily loss-making. On one occasion at Thane Station, when I boarded a BEST AS-700, the conductor asked me: Aap is bus mein kyon chad rahe ho, woh TMT (Thane Municipal Transport) ka bus lelo, jaldi pahunch jaoge aur kam paise lagega (Why are you boarding this bus, take that TMT bus, it’ll reach faster and will cost less).
BEST ultimately scrapped all AC services after playing around with certain plans such as slashing fares, introducing short distance routes and introducing discounted fares during off-peak hours (Happy Hours), but it just didn’t work out. Today, a lot of these buses have been converted into non-AC buses and operate on short trips as Fort Pheri services after the decade-old Starbus fleet was phased out.
The interesting part of all this? An IAS officer who worked with Khobragade had same very scathing views about the man. He said, “I agree that Khobragade is ‘corrupt’ and may have conspired on the King Long deal. But the question is will the Government prosecute him?”
Around the same time, another scam came to light. This scam, was huge, so huge in fact that it saw the incumbent CM Ashok Chavan being shunted out and being replaced with Prithviraj Chavan. I’m sure at this point, you have understood the scam I am talking about: The Adarsh Housing scam.
The scam had both Khobragade Sr and Khobragade Jr involved in it to a major extent. While the details of the scam are known to everyone – how a group of officials in the armed forces and bureaucracy bent rules, violating FSI, zoning laws, coastal guidelines, and more to build the apartment complex and then allotted houses to themselves – there is one interesting thing that stands out. The Adarsh building stands right next to BEST’s Backbay Depot in Cuffe Parade and according to several reports, the land was meant to be for expanding the depot. Now, given that Khobragade Sr was in charge at the time, it would have been quite impossible for the matter to proceed without his involvement. But how deep was his involvement? Pretty deep, according to this Firstpost report, that says that thanks to the shady land swap, the Adarsh building went up from six floors to 31 floors! You read that right. The building was originally meant to be six floors, but due to some land being usurped from BEST, it had the required FSI to go up to 31 floors! After this, Khobragade Jr got herself a flat in the building, along with another flat allotted in a government colony in Oshiwara where she paid a minor sum to get it.
During a trip on an AS-4 to Backbay Depot in 2015, I had a conversation with the driver and conductor. While they both were criticising the rattling bus, the conductor pointed to the monstrosity in front of the depot and asked me if I knew what it was. Before I could reply, he said (without batting an eyelid) – Adarsh Ghotala. The eyesore that stood adjacent to the bus depot, was the scam-ridden building.
But why is all this relevant? Around ten days ago, news came out that Uttam Khobragade had joined the Congress. Yes, the same Congress that did nothing for highways till 2004 and then had the nerve to tell voters that they did more in 10 years of UPA than what the NDA did in five years under Vajpayee. The same Congress under whose watchful gaze (1999 to 2014), Mumbai fell victim to no less than 7 terror attacks killing over 450 people. The same Congress that pulled off astronomical scams and yet comes to us begging for votes. The same Congress whose functionaries go to Pakistan and say “get rid of them and bring us back”.
Transport is a very personal issue for a lot of us and any official who messes it up needs to be reminded that they are hurting the common man.
Despite Indian government’s strong stand against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s non-committal stand against pro-Khalistan separatists, a Khalistani terrorist, Jaspal Atwal, convicted of attempted assassination of Malkiat Singh Sindhu, was invited to an official state dinner hosted during Trudeau’s India visit.
Invitation from Nadir Patel, High Commissioner for Canada to India to Jaspal Atwal to attend official dinner on Justin Trudeau’s India tour (Image credit: Toronto Sun
Sindhu was the former Minister of State, who was ambushed by Canadian Sikhs during his private visit to Canada in 1986 and shot at. Sindhu survived the assassination attempt and four men who attempted the assassination, including Atwal, were convicted in 1987.
Atwal is a former member of the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), a militant group fighting to establish an independent Sikh state Punjab and was banned in Canada and designated a terrorist organization in 2003. While he was invited to a formal event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner Thursday in Delhi, the invitation now stands rescinded. Despite this, Atwal was seeing photographed with Trudeau’s wife Sophie and Liberal cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi at a reception hosted by the Hindi film industry in Mumbai on Tuesday. This comes as a major embarrassment to Trudeau, who said Trudeau’s government and Canada stand for unified India and opposes any form of violence and extremism.
Ujjal Dosanjh, a Canadian lawyer and politician, reportedly told Canada based CTV News Channel, that during the summit at Davos, Prime Minister Modi and took Prime Minister Trudeau aside and expressed concerns over Canadian ministers, including Trudeau, hobnobbing with Khalistani extremists in Canada. He says that the public association of Canadian politicians with the extremists is a matter of grave concern.
Atwal has also been convicted in an automobile fraud case and was charged, but not convicted, in a 1985 near-fatal attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who has been an opponent of Sikh separatist movement. While it is not clear how Atwal got into the guest list, it raises serious questions over Canada’s stand over support to Khalistani extremists.
Whenever a new car is launched in the market, the manufacturers, analysts and shareholders are usually unaware as to how the product will perform. Will people love the design? Is the comfort ok? How much is the mileage? Is the pricing right? Which models will this new car compete with? All such questions are taken into account before designing and launching a new car model.
Many factors play their role in the success or failure of a new car model. Even though a model is launched with much fanfare, it may perform miserably, like Tata Nano. Other models which were launched silently may become a hit, like Maruti Swift. The right placement of a product in the market, at the right time is crucial for its success or failure. The situation of political parties is also somewhat similar.
The new party in the country, Tamil Nadu to be specific, is Kamal Haasan’s ‘Makkal Needhi Maiam‘ or ‘People’s Justice Hub’. A normal citizen watching the launch of this party, might be wondering about its prospects and future. Here is an assessment of its Kamal’s prospects in Tamil politics.
Kamal Haasan is not Kejriwal of Tamil Nadu
Though there are some similarities between Kamal Haasan and Kejriwal, it is not right to compare him with Kejriwal. Both of them entered politics when there was a vacuum in the political space in their respective states. In the case of Kamal Haasan, the political space vacated after Jayalalitha’s demise is open for grabs. Kejriwal rode on people’s disillusionment with established parties in Delhi.
However, Kamal Haasan has never been an activist like Kejriwal. He didn’t take part in any significant movement like the current Delhi CM. Kejriwal had a cadre that was associated with Lokpal movement at his disposal. They had been active social activists before taking a plunge into politics. But Kamal Haasan has to build his cadre from scratch. They may be drawn from his fan clubs or contacts in cinema industry. Even if he does that, this cadre is not driven by a ’cause’ like Kejriwal’s AAP cadre.
Secondly, Kejriwal had a fixed agenda for his newborn AAP. But Kamal Haasan is still trying to find out what his ’cause’ is. He is trying to crowdsource a cause through social media. This may or may not work for him. Usually, the electorate is able to rally behind a cause defined by a leader rather than define a cause for itself in normal times. However, we can expect Kamal to adopt a secular , left of centre ideology for his party.
Thirdly, the support of Delhi based media helped Kejriwal immensely as the Delhi population is familiar with the language and is fairly urban in composition. Kamal Haasan will not be able to gain much from the hulabaloo in Delhi based media as Tamil Nadu has a significant rural electorate which does not follow Delhi centric news. Even urban population may not connect to propaganda aired from Delhi.
Even though Kejriwal and Kamal shared stage during the launch of the new party, they cannot be compared with each other.
Maneuvering space for Kamal is limited, but he might end up as a significant player
The right wing’s attempt to call him a communist or a Naxal is also not going to have any effect on his electoral prospects (both positive or negative), because Naxal problem has never entered Tamil Nadu. Whether he sympathises with the ideology or not will not be a major poll issue for a majority of the electorate. Tamil Nadu is a state where issues like language, culture, anti-Brahminism and freebies are more likely to work. The last item i.e. ‘freebies’ has been a deciding factor in election results in Tamil politics.
Unlike Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan doesn’t have a ‘mad’ mass following among Tamil cinema goers. Kamal appeals to refined cinema goers and has tried to experiment with his art rather than appeal to his fan base consistently. As a result, some of his films have also flopped in the box office.
If one analyses the result of 2016 assembly polls in Tamil Nadu (or for that matter any poll is last 2 decades), one will realise that Tamil Nadu is a fairly bipolar contest between DMK and AIADMK. Out 232 seats , the two parties had won 223 seats in 2016. The remaining 9 seats were won by INC (8) and IUML (1). Thus, the next Tamil Nadu assembly poll will be won by those who can fill the space left by Jayalalitha and outsmart the DMK.
The performance of Kamal Haasan in politics will be defined by how he evolves or positions himself vis-a-vis existing players (DMK and AIADMK) , Rajnikanth, smaller Tamil parties , BJP and INC. Though it would unreasonable to expect Kamal to sweep polls in 2019 Lok Sabha or 2021 assembly polls, we can expect him to win some seats and if luck is on his side, he may play the role of a kingmaker. Or he may end up like Tata Nano. A grand launch but failed product.
After talking a lot about changing the face of politics and making other such tall promises, the Aam Aadmi Party of Arvind Kejriwal has been reduced to raking up communal issues time and again to deflect attention from unwarranted behaviour from their MLAs.
In the most recent instance, the party has alleged that its MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal are being targeted for being Muslim and Dalit respectively. MLA Prakash Jarwal was arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with the assault on the Delhi Chief Secretary and Khan has been detained for the same.
Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal targeted for being Muslim, Dalit: AAPhttps://t.co/IdeeEEd0ye
It’s not the first time that Amanatullah Khan has played the Muslim card. Earlier, when then LG Najeeb Jung dissolved the Delhi Waqf Board and declared the appointment of Khan as illegal, the AAP MLA accused the LG of “running RSS agenda” and of targeting him because of his Muslim identity.
Today, Khan, who has a history of accusations of criminal behaviour against him, turned up at the Jamia Nagar Police Station to surrender himself, he was dressed in a fashion that strongly emphasized his religious identity.
Alleged assault of Delhi Chief Secy: AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan reaches Jamia Nagar Police Station, says that he has come to surrender, also added that, ‘I have not done anything wrong.’ pic.twitter.com/enQIO7CKSM
Former Women and Child Development Minister of Delhi, Sandeep Kumar, also alleged targeted harassment against himself when he was sacked after a sex tape featuring Kumar was leaked. He had then stated that the video was a “conspiracy” against him as he was a Dalit.
Commenting further on the incident involving Khan and Prakash Jarwal, Sanjay Singh also threw in religious references, “The chief secretary said he was assaulted. There is no evidence or witness to back him, but what he has said is (treated as) Ramayana or Bhagwad Gita. A minister says he was manhandled, but no action is taken on his complaint.”
The BJP led Jharkhand government placed a ban on violent Islamist outfit PFI after calling its members as influenced by the ISIS. An official directive to this tune was issued by the government on Tuesday with a message that the action was taken in accordance with a proposal by the home department, which was approved by the law department.
As per the release, the organisation which is active in Pakur district of the state, has members which are internally influenced by the ISIS. A inquiry carried by the special branch also has revealed that some of its members from south India secretly went to fight for the ISIS, a fact which has also been reported in the media.
It seems that the PFI even tried to normalise itself in the state by putting up posters for a let’s go to school campaign in Pakur but the posters were taken down after the police conducted a flag march for a couple of days.
As per Dinesh Kumar Singh, the Principal Secretary (Law), this decision to ban PFI was taken based on reports of their increased activity.
The PFI in recent years has been accused of carrying out various violent activities. This includes chopping off hands of a Kerala Professor for allegedly insulting Islamic Prophet Mohammed in Kerala.
It has also been accused by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) of being involved in the controversial ‘love jihad’ cases in Kerala. In recent days, activists of its political arm SDPI were arrested in connection with an ABVP worker’s brutal murder in Kerala’s Kannur. Their violent nature also extends to Karnataka where they were accused of attacking a Hindu boy and Muslim girl in Mangalore. The BJP has been demanding a ban on PFI which it claims is responsible for killing Hindu activists in Dakshina Kannada district.
Despite the threat the organisation poses, the governments of Kerala and Karnataka have refused to ban it.
About a week back, MOS Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju was quoted as saying that Kerala had demanded a ban on PFI, this though was soon refuted by the state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who claimed that if any communal outfit needs to be banned, it was the RSS.
Karnataka’s Home Minister too ruled out any immediate ban on PFI by claiming that there was no immediate proposal for the same. The Congress government in the state had even notched a controversy in 2015 by proposing to withdraw 175 cases against the PFI.
