On the 9th of August, Matthew Smith (35), a former deputy head teacher of an elementary school in London was sentenced to 12 years in prison for using the dark web to commission child abuse. He would encourage men to lure children away from their family homes and then send him footage of sexual abuse. Between 2017 and 2022, Smith paid £67,000 for the on-camera sexual abuse of boys in India, in the age group of eight to ten.
Matthew Smith, a former deputy head of Thomas’s Preparatory School – Prince George and Princess Charlotte's first school – has been jailed for 12 years after he paid a teenager £65,000 to abuse children in India and send him footage of the attacks. pic.twitter.com/IPWU79ISDD
While imposing a sentence of 12 years on Smith, Judge Martin Griffith said, “You were paying money – £67,000 – and asked them to provide images of the sexual abuse of young boys under 13.”
The Southwark crown court judge said it was clear Smith “took advantage” of those he was abusing. He added, “You sent requests for images you wanted to be made, sometimes involving sending pictures and asking for them to be recreated by the boys in question.”
In November 2022, the National Crime Agency caught him red-handed while he was ‘chatting’ with a boy in India via the dark web and asking him to send sexual images of a younger child, in exchange for money. He was arrested from his home in East Dulwich. The NCA officials found more than 120,000 sexual abuse images of children on his devices.
Prosecutor Martin Hooper said, “Over 120,000 child sexual abuse images were found on Smith’s computers along with messages to men in India in which he encouraged them to rape and abuse children.”
During the proceedings, the court was informed that one of the men, Smith had commissioned to abuse children was someone he had groomed from a young age.
Earlier, he confessed his crimes and pleaded guilty to 17 charges. These included charges of encouraging the rape of a child under 13, causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and arranging the sexual abuse of a child.
During interrogation by NCA officers, Smith said, “Clearly I have an addiction, probably in this area. I don’t like the person I am. I would give anything to be normal. Anything.”
However, the Senior Officer at the NCA, Helen Dore categorically noted, “Matthew Smith is a prolific offender and master manipulator, who coerced young men into abusing children on his behalf.”
Earlier, at the age of 24, Smith moved to Chennai, India. However, he spent most of his stay in Nepal where he worked as a teacher. Between 2007 and 2014, he worked intermittently in orphanages and NGOs all around India. In July, he shifted back to the UK and started working as a deputy head teacher and head of pastoral care at Thomas’s prep school in Battersea.
Now, he will languish in jail for the crimes he committed against young boys in India and serve at least eight years of the 12-year prison sentence.
On 31st July, a Muslim mob in Nuh of Mewat, Haryana, attacked thousands of Hindu devotees attending the Jalabhishek Yatra on Shravan Somvar. OpIndia accessed several FIRs registered in the case. One of the FIRs was registered on the complaint of Exemplee Head Constable (EHC) Rajendra under Sections 147, 148, 186, 307, 323, 332, 353, 379B, 427 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It was registered against Tarif, Imran, Ashraf, Irshad, Asif, Rizwan, Azaharuddin, Mujahid, Farukh, Shahrukh, Aarif, Mustafa, Salim, Haroon, Sakeel, Asru, Salim, Aftab, Hamza, Aasif, Farmaan, Saabir, Saleem and others.
Details of the FIR
EHC Rajendra is posted at Taoru City Police Station, district Nuh. In his complaint, EHC Rajendra said he received information at the police station that some miscreants had jammed the Sohna Road on the Taouru bypass. Sub-Inspector Abdul Majid, SPO Manoj Kumar, constable Sunil, HGH Jaipal, HGH Subhash, ESI Mahendra Singh, SPO Shyamlal, SPO Dharmendra and EHC Rajendra went to the bypass road to clear the area.
Source: Haryana Police
When they reached the spot, 30-40 people on the road were not allowing the vehicles to pass. When asked to clear the road, they got agitated and started pelting stones at the police vehicles, where some police personnel got injured. The rioters had sticks and batons in their hands. They pulled down SPO Manoj Kumar, who is EHC Rajendra’s driver, out of the vehicle intending to kill him. They hit him on the head and body with stones and snatched Rs 3,000. Rioters caused severe damage to the police vehicles.
Source: Haryana Police
After that, the police personnel had to escape to save their lives. The rioters shouted at them and threatened to kill them if they returned.
Nuh Shobhayatra attack
On 31st August, hundreds of Muslim rioters attacked Hindu devotees participating in the Brijmandal Jalabhishek Yatra in Nuh, Mewat of Haryana. At least six people were killed as a result of the riots. During the investigation into the riots, OpIndia accessed over 25 FIRs and complaints that provided a clearer picture of what happened during the violence. Based on information available via FIRs, complaints and witnesses, it appeared that the attack was pre-planned. OpIndia came across several videos posted two days before the Jalabhishek Yatra instigating Muslims against Hindus.
Muslims have claimed the riots happened because of Bajrang Dal activist and Gau Rakshak Monu Manesar. Old videos of Manesar were circulated to instigate Muslims saying he was going to Nuh on that day. The video that was mostly circulated was from October 2022. Detailed reports can be checked here.
Furthermore, a cyber crime police station was attacked in Nuh. Police officials were injured. Home guards were killed. The rioters first shot one of the Bajrang Dal activists Abhishek, then his throat was slit and his head was crushed leading to his death.
OpIndia’s complete coverage of the Mewat Shobha Yatra Attack can be checked here.
The Karnataka High Court dismissed two criminal proceedings brought by a woman against a Bengaluru resident alleging rape in the promise of marriage following a six-year relationship. The court called it a textbook example of exploitation of the legal system.
The court said, “It is not one, two, three, four or five, but six years of a consensual physical or sexual relationship between the petitioner and the complainant after having met through a social media platform. The complaint narrates all details. The allegation that is made later is, from 27 December 2019, the intimacy between the two waned. Fading away of intimacy after 6 years of consensual acts of sexual intercourse cannot mean that it would constitute ingredients of rape.”
In general, if a man indulges in consensual sexual relations with a woman promising marriage and later refuses to fulfil the promise, the woman can level a rape charge against the man. But in this case, the court refuse to accept the charge because the relationship lasted 6 long years.
Justice M Nagaprasanna noted, “They were consensual acts from Day 1 and remained so till December 27, 2019.” He cancelled the proceedings relating to the First Information Reports lodged against the petitioner in the Indiranagar police in Bengaluru city and Davanagere police station in 2021.
The judge noted that it cannot but be inferred that the sexual relationship would not constitute rape for it to be criminal under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code considering the length of time it lasted which was six long years, to be exact.
The court cited the Supreme Court decision in the Pramod Suryabhan Pawar v. State of Maharashtra case and a few other similar examples. “If further proceedings are permitted to continue, it would run foul of (a) plethora of judgments rendered by the Supreme Court on the issue.”
The accused had befriended the complainant through Facebook in 2013. She claimed that because he lived nearby, she was frequently lured to his home under the pretence that he was an excellent chef. When she used to visit him, he would make delectable meals, and they would also drink beer as well as engage in sexual liaisons. However, he breached his commitment to marry her after maintaining sexual contact with her for roughly six years.
She filed a case with the Indiranagar police on 8 March 2021 and accused him of fraud and criminal intimidation among other things. Later, after discovering that he had moved to Davanagere after receiving bail, she went there and launched another case for assault and rape based on a similar set of charges. A second female was listed in addition to him in the second case. The police had submitted chargesheets in both cases.
On the other hand, the man alleged that the woman has the habit of befriending affluent men and later filing cases against them to extort money. He alleged that in another instance, she was involved in an intimate relationship with a man before making a similar complaint against him with the Bengaluru Airport police station in which she also accused him of breach of promise of marriage and rape, among other things.
The male was exonerated in 2016, the court was informed, when the woman became hostile and changed the facts of her account.
In a significant development in the Ghaziabad conversion case wherein a minor Jain boy was brainwashed over ‘Fortnite’ game to convert to Islam, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved National Security Act (NSA) invoked against the accused Maulvi Abdul Rehman who was arrested on June 4 for his involvement in the alleged conversion racket.
In accordance with the provisions of the NSA Act, accused Abdul Rehman will not step out of jail for at least a year.
This comes after Ghaziabad police invoked NSA against accused Mosque committee member Abdul Rehman in July of this year and forwarded the file to the Uttar Pradesh government. A hearing on the matter was recently convened by the state government’s board. According to reports, the Ghaziabad DM and DCP were also present at the hearing and gave their arguments in support of the NSA action against the accused. Reportedly, the file of co-accused Shahnawaz Maqsood alias Baddo has also been handed to the administration, and a decision may be made soon.
In June of this year, Ghaziabad police uncovered a conversion case in which Islamists used online games to entice young children to convert to Islam. As reported earlier, 3 Hindu boys and 1 Jain boy were identified as victims, brainwashed to follow practices of Islam including offering Namaz five times a day through an online game called Fortnite.
The matter was brought into focus after an FIR was filed on May 30 at Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar police station on the complaint of the minor Jain boy’s parents, who claimed that their “son was lured into accepting Islam while playing an online game.”
Following the complaint, a special UP Police team was dispatched to Thane, Maharashtra, which arrested Shanawaz Khan alias Baddo, the racket’s mastermind. The police nabbed another accused Maulvi Abdul Rehman alias Nanni s/o Mehmood Ansari or Sanjaynagar in the Madhuban Bapudham Police Station area of Ghaziabad.
During the probe, police found that several steps were taken to entice Hindu and Jain boys to convert to Islam. In the initial phase, Muslim guys created accounts with Hindu names and played Fortnite games with unaware Hindu and Jain players. If they lose, the accused would have them recite Islamic texts in the hope that it will help them win. Later, they would let them win in order to build trust.
In the second step, they were lured into following Islamic practices. In the third step, they would share videos of fugitive Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and Islamic speeches over the Discord app to brainwash the victims. They would use such videos to both inform them about Islamic practises and entice them to accept Islam.
The recent emergence of purported email correspondence between ThoughtWorks founder Neville Roy Singham and NewsClick Editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha among other comrades has revealed a sinister toolkit on how the nexus was allegedly working in tandem and using Chinese propaganda films and content to peddle pro-Chinese narrative in India and world over.
In a series of purported email exchanges, the pro-Chinese handlers are seen deliberating at great length on how to get ‘English Subtitles’ for the Chinese Propaganda film, ‘The Secret of China’, seemingly in an attempt to peddle a pro-Chinese narrative to audiences outside China.
Chapter 1 – English Subtitles for Film produced by the Propaganda arm of CCP
The to-and-fro exchanges of purported emails started on 26 January 2020 when Neville Roy Singham writes to several individuals stating, “Hello everyone. China has recently made a full-length feature film of Red Star over China – The Secret of China.”
He then goes on to ask, “Can we find a way to see if they plan to release an English subtitles or dubbed version of the film? I would be happy to find ways to make this happen. Carol & Candice: Can we write to Emei Film Group?”
Interestingly, the film is produced by the Propaganda Department of the CPC (Communist Party of China), the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, and the Propaganda Department of CPC Shaanxi among others.
The pressing thing about this purported email exchange is its recipient members. The recipient of the email includes Newsclick Editor-in-Chief Prabir Purkayastha, and another Indian named Vijay Prashad, nephew of CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat.
Apparently, Vijay Prashad is one of the contributors at People’s Dispatch and the Executive Director at Neville Roy Singham’s Tricontinental. Prashad also has close ties with Urban Naxal P Sainath, whose propaganda portal PARI recently removed references to Singham after his connection with the Chinese propaganda arm had come to the arm.
Going ahead, responding to the fact that the team have found someone that could translate the film, Singham replied saying, “Excellent News…I am interested in how the owners receive funds for the film today… How could we take this internationally?”
In the email reply, Singham further said, “Also would be good to improve the translation of the 1961 Red Detachment. In the current version of both Red Detachment and the 60th-anniversary film, the sync is off. I am happy to pay for both of these films to be updated. I would think the 1971 film is public domain.”
In the subsequent email exchanges, the recipients are giving important details about Chinese copyright laws. Apart from attaching the laws of the communist regime, Julie informs Roy that the producers of the film would only show interest if they could create large quantities of clicks, that is, peddle their narrative, otherwise, they may lose interest.
To read more about the other email exchanges that highlight how Prabir Purkayastha and the NewsClick team were introduced to Chinese handlers by Neville Roy Singham for defending China’s handling of COVID-19, click here.
Chapter 2 – Show CPC as the Paragon of Progress and Prosperity
During the centennial year of the establishment of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Indian leftist propaganda portal Newsclick carried an article piece praising the transformation of China as a world power under the communist regime.
Strangely, the article opens up with advice to read Edgar Snow’s book, ‘Red Star Over China’, describing it as “the classic work on the birth of the communist movement in China.”
According to China Daily, which is owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the CPC, Red Star Over China, is one of the most influential books written with a Western understanding and “sympathy” for the CPC in the 1930s.
The Newsclick article then goes on to heap several praises on the Communist Party of China and avoiding the authoritative nature of the party. It goes a notch higher and claims that the CPC represents the great inclusiveness of Chinese society and it has no parallel whatsoever throughout the world. Clearly, the repressive measures adopted by CPC against Tibetans, Uigyur Muslims, non-Han Chinese, or anyone who dare to speak their mind, as Jack Maa did sometime back, have been completely overlooked to present a hagiographic portrayal of the CPC.
The PR piece states that the CPC’s centennial marks a historic breakthrough for China by far exceeding the predictions of most foreign observers. It argues that the CPC has achieved the twin collective goals. First, it has gotten rid of poverty. Second, by standing up to bullying by foreigners, how exactly – by becoming a bigger bully?
Going overboard in praising the CPC, the article claims that the communist party presents uniqueness in its attributes and can’t be compared to any other political party in history.
It describes the CPC as a super political force that defines China’s institutional and state form. To present the red devil as the paragon of goodness, the article portrays the Western narrative and US hegemony as the root cause of the problem behind the negative perspective of China. Partly, it is true that the US hegemony has to share the blame for many things but to give China an easy pass for all its criminality and rogue attitude against the world, dispels doubt, if any, about the tone and tenure of the PR piece.
Contrasting it with the West, the leftist portal states that the CPC has exceeded the cognitive framework provided by Western political knowledge and experience.
As if the pleasantries were not enough, the leftist portal goes on to include an excerpt from a propaganda piece from People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Central Committee of the CPC. It asserts that in the last hundred years, Marxism has profoundly changed China and China has also greatly enriched Marxism.
As more and more details exposing the Chinese web and its handlers in India are coming out, the muck seems to be far scarier than it looks at the outset.
On 9th August 2023, the Gujarat High Court refused to grant an urgent hearing to so-called social activist Teesta Setalvad on her plea to quash the false evidence case against her. The case was lodged against her for allegedly fabricating evidence pertaining to the 2002 Godhra Riots case. Justice Sandeep Bhatt, a lone judge, declined to provide an expedited hearing, citing that the case was scheduled as item number 230 for the day.
Justice Bhatt said, “There is no question at all. I can’t grant an urgent hearing especially when admission matters of 2018 are still pending. You know the practice of this court no out-of-turn consideration, please. If your matter reaches today then I will hear it but if not then the shortest possible date will be given.”
Setalvad was taken into custody the day after a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court criticized her on June 24, 2022. The court was dismissing the plea filed by Zakia Jafri, the wife of Ehsan Jafri – a Congress Member of Parliament who lost his life during the 2002 Gujarat Riots. Accusations were put against her for allegedly plotting and presenting fabricated evidence to implicate high-ranking officials from the former Gujarat government in the cases linked to the 2002 riots.
In September 2022, Teesta Setalvad was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court in the case. She was directed to seek regular bail from the Gujarat High Court. However, on July 1, a detailed ruling by Justice Nirzar Desai, a sole judge on the Gujarat High Court bench, rejected her regular bail request. The judge’s decision was based on the concern that releasing her on bail could exacerbate communal divisions within the State. In response, Setalvad approached the Supreme Court once again to seek regular bail. On July 19, the apex court approved her request for regular bail.
The following day, a sessions court in Ahmedabad turned down her application for discharge from the case. Subsequently, she appealed to the High Court, seeking the dismissal of the case. On 3rd August 2023, Justice Samir Dave withdrew from presiding over the case. Now, the Gujarat High Court has denied an urgent listing for Teesta Setalvad in this case.
On Wednesday, the Karnataka Police arrested an Islamist social media influencer named Syed Ali Akbar Jagirdar for calling out to behead those who insult Prophet Muhammad. The arrested influencer through Instagram published videos provoking people to kill non-Muslims calling them ‘kafirs’.
ಈ ಸಂಬಂಧ @YadgiriPolice ಯಾದಗಿರಿ ನಗರ ಠಾಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಕರಣ ದಾಖಲಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಆರೋಪಿಗಳನ್ನು ಬಂಧಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ & ತನಿಖೆ ಪ್ರಗತಿಯಲ್ಲಿದೆ.
FIR has been registered in @YadgiriPolice Yadgiri Town PS. Accused have been arrested and further investigation is being carried out.https://t.co/qoKJXtnpD1
— ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ ರಾಜ್ಯ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ Karnataka State Police (@KarnatakaCops) August 9, 2023
“Behead those who abuse prophet,” “as per Quran the only place for Kafirs is hell,” and “kill Hindu men in interfaith relationship with Muslim women,” the accused could be heard saying in different videos that he posted on social media.
The incident came to the fore after his videos calling to kill non-Muslims went viral over social media. The Yadgiri Town Police Station from Karnataka took cognizance of the event and confirmed that an FIR has been registered against the accused and that he has now been arrested.
He is Syed Ali Akbar Jagirdar (syeds_jagirdar_v18), a popular influencer from congress ruled Karnataka, urging his community members to kill Kafirs (non-muslims)
"Behead those who abuse prophet"; "as per Quran only place for Kafirs is hell"; "kill hindu men in interfaith… pic.twitter.com/RF0KvbK7gx
The accused holds an Instagram account with the id identified as @syeds_jagirdar_v18. He has around 9000 followers and has posted more than 100 videos to date. He calls himself a video creator and believes in Islamic practices.
Bio of the accused from Instagram
However, a day after his video threatening to kill kafirs went viral over the internet, the accused happened to take down the video from his Instagram handle. The police have booked and arrested the accused and are further investigating the case.
A good 50 percent of Rahul Gandhi’s nearly 40-minute-long address in the Parliament was about Bharat Jodo Yatra and insinuating how he braved through it all. Seemingly flattered by his return as Lok Sabha MP, Rahul Gandhi began his speech by thanking Speaker Om Birla.
Rahul Gandhi began his painfully long prologue on Bharat Jodo Yatra by saying, “Today, I will not speak from my mind but from my heart”.
“I traveled from the sea shores to the snowclad mountains of Kashmir…,” the Gandhi scion said and was immediately interrupted by a taunt from the Treasury benches that he ignored Ladakh.
Rahul then said that when he was asked by many people during the yatra why is he marching and what is his aim behind walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, he said, “Initially, I could not answer these questions because perhaps I myself did not know why I had started this yatra.”
Now just how great is that? A nearly Rs 300 crore splurge on a 3,570-kilometre march purportedly to unite Bharat as suggested by the brand name and yet the face of the brand says he did not know why he started it. What has all the Bharat Jodo brouhaha been about then?
A few minutes into his address, RaGa had successfully drifted away from the no-confidence motion and ventured deep into his apparent philosophical awakening. “When I started the yatra, I wanted to know India and understand the people. Then I started understanding…the thing I loved, the thing for which I am ready to die, the thing for which I am ready to go to Modi ji’s jails, the thing for which I have taken abuses for 10 years, I wanted to understand that thing…what is it that has held my heart?”
From here he lapsed into the pain he endured during the yatra owing to a previous knee injury and how the yatra defeated his arrogance. “I have been running 8 to 10 km every day. So I had thought that if I can run 10 km then what is walking 25 km every day?”
“Today when I look back, there was arrogance in my heart but India erased that arrogance completely. The pain in my knee broke my arrogance. Ek tarah se, bhediya chinti ban gaya (the wolf turned into an ant). He who had left with arrogance to see India was free of arrogance after the yatra,” Rahul went on.
His tale of enlightenment was followed by too-good-to-be-true encounters which he recalled from the yatra which was probably an attempt to insist that he has a connection with the common India, a highly contested point of view in Indian politics. Another one of his many faux pas was saying that “Bharat logon ka dukh hai (India is people’s pain)” while making the point that India is a voice.
But eyebrows were raised when Rahul Gandhi said that when a farmer was talking to him and looking him in the eye, he could feel the shame the farmer must have felt while speaking to his wife. Read it again for it takes some time to digest. “I could not hear the crowd, only the person talking to me, their pain, their wounds, their sorrows all became mine.”
The Congress MP seemed to have finally arrived at his point when he raised the issue of Manipur. He said that the “BJP government has divided Manipur into two parts.” After narrating the conversation he claimed to have had with violence victims living in relief camps in Manipur, Rahul Gandhi said that the “BJP government has murdered Bharat Mata in Manipur.”
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju along with the other BJP MPs lashed out at Rahul Gandhi saying that the Congress was responsible for militancy in the Northeast. The BJP demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi saying that the Congress had finished Northeast.
A brawl broke out in the Lok Sabha even as Rahul Gandhi continued to reiterate that the “government had murdered the voice of Bharat Mata in Manipur.” “You murdered Bharat Mata in Manipur. You murdered Bharat Mata before the people of Manipur….you are anti-nationals, you are not desh bhakts, you are not patriots, you murdered India in Manipur,” Rahul cried.
The Congress leader attacked the PM saying that “he could not go to Manipur because he murdered Bharat Mata in Manipur.” Rahul Gandhi continued to speak the objectionable words despite caution from the Speaker.
“Indian army can bring peace in Manipur in a day if you allow but you are not allowing it,” the Congress MP said even as the party has indulged in spreading fake news on Manipur amid an already sensitive situation.
Equating Prime Minister Modi to Ravan, Rahul Gandhi said, “Lanka was not burnt by Hanuman, it was burnt by Ravan’s ego. Ram did not kill Ravan, Ravan’s ego killed Ravan.” He accused the government of “throwing kerosene in the entire country and setting it on fire.”
“You did that in Manipur and now you are doing this in Haryana,” the Congress leader said even as the violence in Nuh was perpetrated by Islamist mobs against Hindus.
Notably, the Gandhi scion left immediately after his address but courted a new controversy. Union Minister Smriti Irani while responding to Rahul Gandhi’s address alleged that he “blew a flying kiss while leaving Lok Sabha after his speech.”
On Tuesday, August 8, Uttar Pradesh Police arrested two individuals identified as Asif Khan and Aamir Khan for vandalizing the idol of Lord Hanuman in the Talbehat region of Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh. The police have filed an FIR against Asif, Amir, and also Nasir Khan who went absconding from the spot after damaging the temple.
According to the reports, the accused confessed to the crime saying that the three were in an inebriated state when they damaged the temple. The idol which has been vandalized is from a temple located in Maharaja Mardan Singh’s fort.
The incident is said to have happened on August 4 after which an FIR was filed in the case by Rahul Agariya against some ‘unknown’ persons. Police immediately began an investigation into the case and found two persons at gate number 1 of the fort. The duo were taken into custody and arrested after detailed interrogation. The two were identified as Asif Khan and Aamir Khan.
Reportedly, Asif Khan is a history sheeter and has several cases of assault and harassment registered in his name. The accused has also been booked in a past case under the sections of the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986.
थाना तालबेहट पुलिस द्वारा हनुमान जी मूर्ति के चोले को क्षति पहुँचाने वाले 02 वांछित अभियुक्तों की गिरफ्तारी के सम्बन्ध में क्षेत्राधिकारी तालबेहट श्री कुलदीप कुमार की बाइट । @Uppolicehttps://t.co/3Qd8jix795pic.twitter.com/eGvLJ4eBKx
The Talbehat Police commented on the issue saying that the action was based on a complaint filed by a security guard employed at the fort. “Two have been arrested, Asif and Amir. There were a total of three. The team is looking for Nasir. The arrested persons have confessed to the crime and said that they used stones to vandalize the temple. It happened on August 4 at around 8 pm,” the official added.
A peculiar incident took place inside Calcutta High Court in West Bengal on 7 August when Justice Jai Sengupta ordered the removal of a shivling in a case of land dispute. However, Assistant Registrar Biswanath Rai unexpectedly passed out as he was recording the decision after which the former declined to interfere in the conflict again.
He was brought to the High Court Health Centre after the instance, the reason behind which was unknown and the judge returned to his chamber. The latter eventually made his way back into the courtroom after ten minutes and informed that the court won’t intervene any further in the matter.
A disagreement involving two Khidirpur residents, Sudeep Pal and Govind Mandal of Murshidabad Beldanga led to the pronouncement. An altercation transpired between the two sides which also turned violent in May of this year following which they submitted complaints to the Beldanga police station against each other. The lower court had granted bail to both parties.
However, things took a fresh turn when Sudeep Pal appealed to the authorities, accusing Govind Mandal of installing a shivling on the disputed land. He demanded that the aniconic idol be taken down and alleged that no action was initiated by the police. He then reached the high court against the inaction of the latter.
The judge questioned Govind Mandal’s attorney about the religious structure and the reason behind its erection on contested ground. According to Mrityunjay Chatterjee, the Shivling was not put in place by his client, rather, it emerged from the earth on its own.
The judge subsequently issued a directive for its removal. The assistant registrar, however, collapsed unexpectedly as he was recording the verdict. Now, the lower court will handle the issue as a civil case.
