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As AAP blames the Centre for pollution, here is how Kejriwal cannot escape the responsibilities

OpIndia Staff
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As AAP blames the Centre for pollution, here is how Kejriwal cannot escape the responsibilities

On November 3, the Air Quality Index of Delhi NCR ranged between 400 to 900, that fall under the hazardous category. Amid National Capital being turned into a gas chamber, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have been doing pressers after presser blaming the central government and neighbouring states for the problem.

However, the Centre’s panels on air pollution said in its assessment that the AAP-led Punjab Government took negligible steps to control stubble burning. The Centre pointed out the bio-decomposers’ field experiments were successful in UP, Haryana and Delhi. No efforts were made in Punjab by the state government to employ the technique for stubble management.

Furthermore, while Haryana and Uttar Pradesh opted for bio-decomposer usage across 5,00,000 acres and 138,000 acres, respectively, Punjab used it only in 7,500 acres. Nurture Farms used another bio decomposer in another 250,000 acres in the state through a CSR initiative.

The panel added that not only bio-decomposer but also the government failed to deploy residue management machines effectively. There was inadequate implementation of public sensitisation over the matter. The Centre might take up the matter with Punjab Government soon.

Spike in stubble burning incidents in Punjab

As per the data available, the stubble-burning incidents increased by 33.5% between September 15 and November 1 compared to last year. Last year there were 15,065 incidents reported. In 2022, 17,846 such incidents were reported. According to ET, in 2021, 1796 incidents of stubble burning were reported on November 1. In 2022, it increased to 1,846 incidents. Notably, 40% of the crop in Punjab has not been harvested yet, and more such incidents are expected to get recorded in the coming weeks.

Data suggests that 70% of the farm fires were reported in Amritsar, Sangrur, Firozpur, Gurdaspur, Kapurthala, Patiala and Tarn Taran districts. These districts were red-flagged in 2021 as well.

Haryana and UP recorded a decline in stubble-burning incidents

Data shows that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are working extensively to reduce stubble-burning incidents. In 2021, Haryana reported 3,038 stubble-burning incidents. However, this year only 2,083 such incidents were reported marking a decline of 24%. In UP’s region around NCR, 53 stubble-burning incidents were reported in 2021, which has been reduced to 33 this year.

AAP blamed the Centre for not funding cash incentives

Notably, the AAP-led Punjab government had approached the Centre to fund the cash incentives for farmers (for not burning stubble) that were rejected. As a result, the AAP government has put the blame on the Centre for turning Delhi into a gas chamber. Contrary to the AAP’s allegations, the Centre’s assessment of the situation exposed the ineffectiveness of the Punjab government in deploying 120,000 crop residue machines available at the state’s disposal.

The Centre added that the monitoring and enforcement of the stubble management techniques at the field level were missing in Punjab. Notably, the Centre has sent Rs 1,347 crores to Punjab in the last five financial years, including 2022-23, to reduce stubble-burning incidents. However, instead of using the resources effectively, the Punjab government is not blaming the Centre and neighbouring states for its own mess.

BJP leader Kapil Mishra recreates Shankar Mahadevan’s ‘Breathless’ song to highlight pollution in Delhi due to a ‘useless CM’. Listen to the song

OpIndia Staff
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BJP leader Kapil Mishra recreates Shankar Mahadevan’s ‘Breathless’ song to highlight pollution in Delhi due to a ‘useless CM’. Listen to the song

BJP leader Kapil Mishra on Thursday dropped a single, ‘Breathless Delhi Useless CM’ where he recreated Shankar Mahadevan’s iconic song ‘Breathless’ and highlighted the woe of residents of Delhi-NCR owing to pollution caused mainly due to stubble burning by farmers mostly in Punjab.

In a tweet, Mishra exposes the apathy of Delhi government as well as Punjab government to control the stubble burning fires which lead to intense pollution over the northern India, particularly the national capital region. The air quality here has reached hazardous levels and residents are already facing various health related difficulties. While Delhi government had banned bursting of Diwali crackers claiming it adds to pollution, considering the level of air pollution here, it is clear beyond doubt that the firecrackers are not the major contributors as pollutants. The farmers, especially in Punjab, where Aam Aadmi Party is in power, continue to burn the stubble unabashedly in absence of strict measures by the state government.

Uttar Pradesh: Youth Ziaur Rahman assaulted after he entered a girl’s house in the night, the girl Tanu commits suicide after he dies of injuries

OpIndia Staff
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Uttar Pradesh: Youth Ziaur Rahman assaulted after he entered a girl’s house in the night, the girl Tanu commits suicide after he dies of injuries

A shocking case has come to light from the Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh in which a 20-year-old Muslim youth named Ziaur Rahman was beaten to death by a girl’s family as the youth barged into the house of the girl. While the boy’s side is saying that he had a relationship with the girl and he had gone to her house only to meet her, the girl’s family is saying that he had entered the house to molest her. However, the girl also died by suicide after the boy dies in the hospital. As the news spread, there was a fear of communal tension as both the boy and the girl belong to different communities. The police force and PAC have been deployed in the area as the matter is of two communities. Markets in the area are also completely closed.

The incident took place in the Islamnagar village in the Rampur Maniharan area of Saharanpur. 20-year-old Ziaur Rahman, son of Ayub, was a student of B. Sc. His father runs a grocery store. Along with his studies, Ziaur Rahman also helped his father in the shop.

According to police, Ziaur Rahman barged into the house of 20-year-old Tanu, daughter of Janeshwar, in the same Islamnagar village late on Tuesday night that is November 1. When he entered the house at around 11 PM, the family caught him. Alleging that he was molesting Tanu, the family members assaulted him. Ziaur Rahman was badly injured in the attack by the family members. The matter was then reported to the police.

When the police reached the spot, Ziaur Rahman was found injured. The police informed the family members of the youth, and he was admitted to the district hospital. Ziaur Rahman was referred to the Jaligrant Hospital in Dehradun as his condition became critical. While being shifted there, he died on the way. As soon as the news of the young man’s death spread, tensions prevailed.

Meanwhile, after the boy died, the young girl also died by hanging herself in the house on Wednesday. Police have sent the body for post-mortem. The forensic team also investigated the matter. At the same time, SSP Vipin Tada, SP City Abhimanyu, CO Ajendra Yadav, Station House Officer, etc. reached the spot. The SSP consoled the families of both of them. The officers also assured action after the investigation.

Deceased Ziaur Rahman’s uncle and other relatives alleged that Tanu’s family had invited Ziaur to their house by calling him on the phone, and after that, they assaulted him.

SSP Vipin Tada said, “In Islamnagar, a young man entered the house of a young woman. When the police got the information, they brought the young man with her. But the young man was injured due to the beating. He died during treatment. After this, the girl also committed suicide by hanging herself. No complaint is filed from either side of the two sides. A case will be registered when some complaint is filed.”

There was fear of communal tension as the youths who died are from different communities, and the markets were closed for some time. As a precaution, police forces have been deployed in the village.

2nd November 1990: The day when Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered to open fire at karsevaks protesting for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya

OpIndia Staff
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2nd November 1990: The day when Mulayam Singh Yadav ordered to open fire at karsevaks protesting for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya

On 2nd November 1990, Karsevaks were fired at in Ayodhya. The then government led by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had ordered to open fire at Ram bhakts. Now it has been 32 years since this brutal incident. It is the result of the sacrifice of these karsevaks gathered in Ayodhya that today we are seeing a grand temple of Lord Shri Ram being built there and not the disputed Babri structure. It was Kartik Purnima when the Mulayam Singh Yadav government got ram bhakts, who were protesting peacefully, killed.

There were no mobile phones or internet then, but some videos of this incident recorded with cameras occasionally come out on social media. One such video is available on Facebook, in which both the brutality of the police and the dedication of Ram bhakts can be seen together. At the beginning of the video, the police can be seen clashing with a sadhu. A Rambhakt is taken away by the police, to which a person says – ‘Woh Dekho, le gaye’ which means, see, they took him away.

In this video, the police can also be seen charging lathis on the saints and seers and firing bullets from their guns. A Ram bhakt can be heard saying, “Come, lathi-charge, kill. We won’t go, even if you shoot.” One can find arson at various places and people collecting stones in this video. People are also chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’. In many places, unconscious people are lying on the ground.

In many places in this video, police personnel can also be seen dragging devotees of Lord Ram on the road. The elderly were also not spared in the lathi charge and were also beaten up. On this day alone, 40 Ram bhakts were killed in indiscriminate firing on karsevaks. Kothari brothers who were killed by the police in Hanumangarhi were also among these people. Many Ram devotees also died due to a stampede on the Saryu bridge caused due to police brutality. A journalist present there put the death toll at 45.

60 people were also badly injured in this incident. In fact, there was no account of the injured. The devotees were not only killed but were not even allowed to be cremated as per Hindu rituals. They were buried. In another rare video, people were seen saying that the police barged into the houses of karsevaks and caught them, and brutalized them. A sadhu is seen saying in this video that more than 100 people have died in the firing of UP Police so far.

Gujarat: Man arrested for removing bolt from pandal of PM Narendra Modi’s public meeting in Tharad

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat: Man arrested for removing bolt from pandal of PM Narendra Modi’s public meeting in Tharad

On 2nd November 2022, one person was arrested in connection with a viral video from the public meeting of PM Narendra Modi held in Tharad on 31st October 2022. The video went viral on the internet in which the person was seen unscrewing and removing a bolt of the mandap set for the public meeting that was being addressed by PM Modi. It is notable that PM Modi’s voice is clearly heard in the viral video as the arrested person was removing the bolt as the PM went on delivering his speech.

After the video went viral, the Banaskantha police came into action. They nabbed the person seen in the video and he is now being investigated by the police in order to ascertain the purpose of removing the bolt. The arrested individual is a resident of the village named Tharad.

PM Modi was addressing the public meeting as he laid the foundation stone of several water projects worth over Rs 8000 crores in Banaskatha’s Tharad. The projects would benefit around 1000 villages in the six districts of Gujarat.

PM Modi visited Gujarat on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. He addressed the nation from the Statue of Unity at Kevadiya in Gujarat. He also visited the hospital where the people injured in the bridge collapse accident in Morbi were admitted. He also visited the bridge where the accident took place. PM Modi also visited the families of those deceased in this accident. PM Modi was joined by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

PM Modi also spoke to people involved in rescue and relief efforts at the site of the unfortunate incident in Morbi. Following a walkover around the site, Prime Minister Modi visited the civil hospital in Morbi to meet the survivors of the tragedy. The Prime Minister is closely monitoring the situation from the day of the incident. The PM also visited the Superintendent of Police’s Office in Morbi and took stock of the situation with senior police and administrative officials of the zone.

The Morbi mishap

On Sunday, October 30, 2022, over 130 people were killed when the cable bridge spanning the Machchhu River collapsed and everyone on the bridge plunged into the water. Laughter changed to screams of despair as dozens of people enjoying on the bridge drowned in an instant. The rescue efforts are still ongoing in and around the river.

According to the reports, the 150-year-old bridge located 300 km from Vadodara could take the weight of only about 125 people but there were around 400 people on the bridge when the incident happened. A total of 180 were successfully rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams.

The state government has announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh for each of those killed in the accident and Rs 50,000 for those injured. The Prime Minister also has announced monetary assistance of Rs. 2 lakh for each of the victims’ families.

The bridge was closed for operational use about 7 months ago. A private company by the name of Oreva Group (Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited) was given the contract in March of this year to renovate and maintain the said bridge. The suspension bridge, which is also known as the Jhoolta Pul, was reopened on the occasion of Gujarati New Year Day on October 26 this year after the completion of the renovation task of the bridge.

Devesh Kumar of Meta Vs The Wire saga denies being ‘mentally disturbed’ as claimed by the portal, says he is cooperating with police

OpIndia Staff
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Devesh Kumar of Meta Vs The Wire saga denies being ‘mentally disturbed’ as claimed by the portal, says he is cooperating with police

Devesh Kumar, the ‘tech expert’ behind the Tek Fog and Meta stories by The Wire which have been pulled down now after they were found to be fake, has made the first public appearance after the Meta controversy blew up. Appearing on Times Now, Devesh Kumar denied the claim by The Wire that he is mentally unstable, and said he accepts there were ‘errors’ in the story, but blamed his ‘sources’ for the fraudulent documents based on which the story was published.

Talking to Times Now on 2nd November 2022, Devesh Kumar said that he is cooperating with the police in this case, and informed that police have seized two computers and a phone from him in the case. He denied facing any mental health issues, responding to a claim by his former employer The Wire. It is notable that The Wire put Devesh Kumar under the bus after it was forced to retract the Meta and Fog stories, claimed that Devesh Kumar had defrauded them by supplying fake evidence, and also alleged that he is mentally disturbed. He said that The Wire has used the wrong language for him in the complaint filed against him with the police.

Devesh Kumar said, “No. I am not mentally unstable. This is the first time something like this is happening in my life. I am not troubled. The people of ‘The Wire’ and I are facing several difficulties right now. I was nervous and stressed. But the language that has been used is wrong, according to me.”

However, he refused to divulge any details about the matter. He added, “The investigation is currently ongoing. I don’t think I can reveal any details on this. At least not without consulting the police. For now, my statement is the same as that of ‘The Wire’, which tells the overreaching story of what happened.” Devesh also refused to reveal any detail about his background like his educational background. He said he does not want to be the story, therefore he does not want to share personal details.

On being asked about the investigation initiated by the police, Devesh Kumar further said, “I don’t know enough about the law to comment on this. I have completely cooperated with the police ever since ‘The Wire’ released its statement. Even when they seized my phone and computers, I cooperated with the police. I had requested the police for a hash value to make sure no tempering occurs. But so far, I have not received it. They gave me a document stating that they have seized certain devices and will be looking into the email IDs I had used to conduct the research.”

However, he added that he is not considering any legal recourse now as he is not named in any FIR, and police are questioning him only to gather information. It is notable that the complaint filed by Amit Malviya, based on which the FIR was registered, did not name Devesh Kumar. On the other hand, The Wire has filed a complaint against him, but the police are yet to register any FIR on it. He also pointed out that most of the reports were published in the names of others, not him. Of the three main reports where The Wire had made the claims about Amit Malviya and Meta, all three had Jahnavi Sen as one of the co-authors. Apart from her, Siddharth Varadarajan was a co-author in two reports, and Devesh was a co-author in just one of them.

Interestingly, Devesh Kumar said that he agrees with Wire’s statement that there were mistakes in the Meta story, and said his stand is the same as the Wire’s stand. This is a surprising statement because The Wire has claimed that Devesh Kumar defrauded them by supplying forged documents.

On October 29, The Wire filed a complaint at the Economic Offence Wing of the Delhi Police against its former employee and so-called ‘researcher’ Devesh Kumar, claiming he provided forged documents with “an intent to malign The Wire’s reputation”. Furthermore, it was noted by The Wire in its complaint that Devesh named Philip Chua, APAC Head of Public Policy at Instagram as the person who provided him with a ‘Post Incident Review Report’ that had pointed fingers at Bharatiya Janata Party’s Amit Malviya as the person responsible for the post takedown.

Devesh seemed ‘highly disturbed mentally’, claims The Wire.

The Wire claimed in its complaint that following the internal investigation and review of the material sent by Devesh by ‘reputed’ outside sources when they tried to contact Devesh, he did not revert. However, he called The Wire’s Product and Business Head Mithun Kidambi on October 27 and “confessed to fabricating all the material” that The Wire used in its Meta stories. “The impression Kidambi gathered was that Devesh Kumar seemed highly disturbed mentally,” claimed The Wire.

The complaint was sent to the Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravinder Singh Yadav on Saturday (October 29). The Print quoted Yadav saying that he received the complaint and the Police were “looking into the matter”. Police were yet to send a confirmation of the receipt of the complaint to The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan.

FIR lodged against The Wire

On October 29, BJP’s Amit Malviya filed a complaint with Delhi Police against The Wire, its editors, and reporters and said they published a series of stories with the intent to tarnish his reputation. Based on his complaint, an FIR was registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery with the purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for harming reputation), 471 (using forged document), 500 (defamation), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR was lodged after The Wire took down Meta stories that claimed Malviya was able to take down Instagram posts critical to the government, no questions asked.

WC T20: Pakistanis attack umpire Marais Erasmus as India clinch thriller against Bangladesh, diminishing Pakistan’s chances of qualifications

OpIndia Staff
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WC T20: Pakistanis attack umpire Marais Erasmus as India clinch thriller against Bangladesh, diminishing Pakistan’s chances of qualifications

Pakistani fans on Twitter lost their cool on umpire Marais Erasmus as India defeated Bangladesh in a close rain-stricken thriller at the T20 world cup, taking India one step closer to qualification for the semis and all but eliminating Pakistan from the next leg of the tournament.

Marais Erasmus, former South African cricketer and veteran ICC umpire who umpired in India vs Bangladesh encounter earlier today, attracted the wrath of disgruntled Pakistanis, who were perhaps fishing for a scapegoat to cover up for their team’s underwhelming performance at the world cup. A raft of Pakistanis took to Twitter to target Erasmus and accuse him of favouring India and helping it to be at a place where its qualification for the semis appears almost certain.

Pakistanis, who are still smarting the no-ball call given by Erasmus in the last over bowled by Nawaz in the Indo-Pak clash that tipped the treacherously poised game in India’s favour, started attacking Erasmus after he called a no-ball by a Bangladesh quickie to Virat Kohli.

Pakistanis vent their spleen against Marais Erasmus as India’s victory over Bangladesh diminishes Pakistan’s chances of qualification

Ihtisham Ul Haq, a Pakistani ‘journalist’, shared images of Marais Erasmus from India vs Pakistan and today’s Indo-Bangaldesh encounter to congratulate India for entering semis.

Another Pakistani user shared an image of Erasmus to insinuate he is prejudiced in favour of Kohli.

Several other Pakistani attacked Erasmus as India clinched a thrilling victory over Bangladesh, diminishing Pakistan’s chances of qualifying for the semis.

Some Pakistanis were particularly angry with Erasmus for resuming the match between India and Bangladesh that led to the latter’s defeat. Before the rain obstructed the game, Bangladesh was coasting comfortably, poised to chase down India’s target. And when the rain stopped the play, Bangladesh was well ahead of India as per the D/L method.

Earlier last month, Pakistanis resorted to attributing a fake quote to Nasser Hussain over the last-over no-ball that was hit for a six by Virat Kohli. As retweets mounted and deluded Pakistani fans expressed their frustration on the loss, Nasser promptly clarified, saying that he had not issued the said quote and it was a fake quote and fake news. But Pakistani fans remained inconsolable as they continued sulking over their team’s loss against India.

India currently sits on the top of the points table in its group with 6 points and a match to go. South Africa is positioned 2nd in the group with 5 points and two matches to go, one with Pakistan scheduled for November 3. Pakistan will have to beat South Africa to remain alive in the contest and then emerge victorious in its last match against Bangladesh, all the while hoping South Africa and India lose their matches against Netherlands and Zimbabwe respectively.

Kerala Human sacrifice: Son of victim waits for mortal remains of mother, accuses Pinarayi Vijayan govt of apathy

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala Human sacrifice: Son of victim waits for mortal remains of mother, accuses Pinarayi Vijayan govt of apathy

Days after a disturbing case of human sacrifice and black magic was uncovered in the state of Kerala, the son of one of the victim women who were killed brutally by the accused, alleged that the state is not taking the matter seriously. Selvaraj, son of Padma who was found to have been murdered as a part of a gruesome black magic ritual carried out by Md Shafi, said that he has been waiting for the mortal remains of his mother but the government is not helping him in the matter.

Two women named Padma and Rosily were murdered in September and June respectively and their body parts were severed and buried at Elanthoor in the Pathanamthitta district. The two were murdered by Mohammed Shafi (agent), BhagavalSingh, and his wife Laila to gain economic prosperity in life. However, both incidents had come to light on October 11.

As reported earlier, Padma worked as a lottery dealer and the entire case of human sacrifice had come to light after Sevalraj filed a missing complaint about her mother, who he said hadn’t called for the past several days. The complaint was filed by Sevalraj on September 28. After arriving in Kerala on September 28 in search of his mother, Selvaraj, a native of Tamil Nadu’s Dharmapuri, has been sharing rented accommodation with his aunt Palani Amma in Kochi.

Kerala government not taking the matter seriously

“I have met Kerala chief minister twice. He is not taking the case seriously. Even after filing a complaint, the officials are not helping us. DNA test should be done and the dead body should be released soon”, Sevalraj said on October 31.

According to reports, the mortal remains of Padma (killed in September) and another victim Roselin (killed in June) are kept in the Kottayam Medical College Hospital mortuary. The dead bodies will be handed over to their family members after DNA tests are completed. However, Sevalraj said that there is no clarity on when the DNA tests will be done.

“Mine and my elder brother’s blood samples were taken for the DNA test on October 13. Since then I have been enquiring to the police when will the tests be finished. Till now, I haven’t received any information regarding a date”, Sevalraj was quoted. The DNA test was just being performed to confirm Padma’s identity after her body was sliced into 56 pieces by the defendants.

Sevalraj also accused the state government and said that the accused would continue to commit these types of crimes when they would be released. “We came from Tamil Nadu and are suffering in Kerala. After the death of my mother, there was no help from the government. I am sure that the killers of my mother will commit these types of crimes when they come out”, he said.

Sevalraj has no money to even afford a lawyer

Selvaraj, who used to work in an IT firm in Chennai, has lost his job as a result of the lengthy leave he had to take after his mother went missing in September. After reports of Padma’s murder surfaced, more than ten of her family members traveled to Kochi. Others have returned, but the son of the deceased said that he will not return without his mother. He also said that he has no money to hire a lawyer for the case.

He has written a letter to Kerala’s Chief Minister, stating that he has been struggling to survive without work and money. He has also asked the government to release his mother’s body as soon as possible. “I don’t have the ability to pay for a lawyer for the case. It is not even possible to perform the last rites of my mother. Already lost over Rs 60,000 to stay in Kerala. I also lost my job due to pursuing the case”, Sevalraj said.

The accused in the shocking human sacrifice case in Kerala had subjected the two women to gruesome tortures, including chopping off one of their breasts and cutting the other’s body into 56 pieces. While investigating the case, the Special Investigation Team discovered 40 grams of gold taken from the body of the second victim Padma and mortgaged with a pawnbroker in Ernakulam by the main accused Shafi.

Haryana: 11-year-old Hindu girl raped by 32-year-old Sajid from Mewat, was sexually exploited for months

OpIndia Staff
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Haryana: 11-year-old Hindu girl raped by 32-year-old Sajid from Mewat, was sexually exploited for months

A case of rape of a minor girl has been reported in Faridabad, Haryana. The victim is an 11-year-old fourth-grade student. The name of the accused is Sajid, who is originally said to be a resident of Mewat. Sajid, who is about 32 years old, is married and the father of three children, according to the information received. After filing an FIR on Monday (October 31), police apprehended Sajid.

According to media reports, the incident occurred in Faridabad’s Sector 58 police station area. The 11-year-old Hindu girl lives here with her five siblings and father. The child’s mother has already died. Sajid, the accused, lives in the victim’s neighborhood and works as a welder. He has been sexually exploiting the girl for about six months, as per the complaint. According to the complaint, Sajid invited the victim to his home by luring her with food and then raped her for the first time. Later, he kept threatening the girl and continued to sexually exploit her.

Reportedly, the victim also got pregnant. When the minor girl’s grandmother became concerned about the changes in her body, she questioned the victim. Then the victim narrated her ordeal to her family members. When the victim’s family members confronted the accused Sajid about it, he pushed them away and fled. A police report was eventually filed. Sajid was nabbed by Faridabad’s Sector 65 Crime Branch and Mahila Thana Police. According to the police, Sajid has been charged under Section 506 of the IPC and the POCSO Act.

While speaking to the media, the victim’s family and neighbors revealed Sajid’s horrific crime.  Hindu organizations and the victim’s family have called for the accused to be hanged.

Faridabad Hindu organizations have expressed their outrage at this incident. Bittu Bajrangi of the ‘Gau Raksha Bajrang Force,’ a Faridabad resident, told OpIndia that he and the victim’s family worked tirelessly to have the accused arrested.

Devesh Kumar, who is now being blamed by The Wire, had been in left-wing activism for a long. Read how

Anurag
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Devesh Kumar, who is now being blamed by The Wire, had been in left-wing activism for a long. Read how

The Wire has accused one of its former employees and ‘tech expert’ of duping them by providing forged documents and evidence in the Meta stories. Devesh Kumar, who has worked on multiple stories for The Wire, is currently AWOL after he deleted his presence from the Internet entirely.

Since his name started to appear frequently following the Meta stories and fell apart, some disturbing and concerning facts about his history have come to light. Devesh also worked on Tek Fog “investigation” for The Wire. Those stories have also been pulled down by the portal. Interestingly, Devesh appeared on several platforms after Tek Fog stories and “explained” the investigation.

One such session with Devesh was done by the left-wing student organisation All India Students Association or AISA. On January 21, after Tek Fog’s story “shook” the nation, Devesh was called for an online session by AISA titled “Is the BJP-RSS regime turning skilled Young people into Criminals?”

In the session, Devesh explained the investigation he did with Ayushman for The Wire over a period of 20 months. He claimed that they found how trends were being run during the investigation. However, in the middle of QA during the session, he said, “We do not have any proof if these trends were being run via Tek Fog.” He added that BJP leader Kapil Mishra had quoted the story and said he should have been approached to know if he uses Tek Fog. Devesh said he told Mishra there was no proof, but it was about the network.

He further explained how Kapil Mishra and OpIndia were two main accounts that were the base points of the discussions on social media during the Delhi Riots. It was obvious OpIndia would have come up while checking trends on Delhi Riots as we were consistently covering the riots. Our stories exposed the biased of the mainstream media. OpIndia busted several misleading reports and propaganda against Hindus in the aftermath of the Delhi Riots 2020.

Devesh claimed that the content of OpIndia was non-verifiable, and portals like Alt News had raised questions over our coverage. However, the investigation into the Delhi Riots by the agencies, as well as remarks by different courts, proved on several occasions that our reporting was spot on about the larger conspiracy behind the riots.

The curious history of Devesh Kumar

Twitter user Herin Maru, who goes by the handle her1n on the platform, published a detailed thread on the curious history of Devesh. Here is what he pointed out in his thread. We are adding only those details that we could independently verify.

Adopting a girl child at the age of 19

In 2016, Devesh claimed in a blog post that he had adopted a girl child from a dead mother and HIV-positive parents. The timeline that Devesh mentioned was the time when he was only 19 years old and unmarried. Legally it was not possible for Devesh to adopt a child, that too a girl at the age of 19 while being single. It is possible that by adoption, he meant he was paying for the child’s day-to-day expenses, including food, schooling etc by way of sponsorship.

Devesh named the girl child Manjiri. In 2019, he claimed in a blog post that the girl child died. Manjiri, according to him, was only eight years old. He said that she died as a construction brick fell on her and crushed her head. Devesh claimed he did not go to see her one last time.

Women died around him a lot…

In a Quora post around five years ago, he mentioned that a 19-year-old woman named Rabya died in front of him in 2011. He claimed that he wanted to pay for her breast cancer treatment, but she passed away only 15 minutes after he promised to cover her bills.

According to another Quora post, Devesg said that another woman named Manvi died in 2011. She died after getting typhoid and a brain haemorrhage. Both Rabya and Manvi were talented women who died at an early age, he claimed.

In a 2016 post, Devesh claimed to have met a 12-year-old girl named Radhika in 2009. She passed away four years later, in 2013, due to HIV. She was allegedly abused by a police officer.

She also had a colleague named Snigdha who had passed away for reasons not mentioned in the blog post. However, he mentioned that another colleague who was drug-addicted fixed her life and named her child Snigdha.

It is unclear why so many women around him had such deep troubles, deaths and whatnot. Men around him seem to have lived a happy life.

A lot of money spent at a young age

Devesh claimed to have spent quite a large amount at a very young age. However, his posts where he boasted about spending money stopped at one point. Herin pointed out that this was when he started posting about running parallel servers to run bots to defeat BJP IT cell and allegedly organising conferences to raise funds.

OpIndia has a detailed report on Devesh’s claims about running a parallel IT cell to counter “BJP’s attempts to use social media for political gains”. He had claimed that he was spending lakhs of Rupees from his pocket to run up to 40 servers on Amazon Web Services to run and manipulate bots on Twitter. He had claimed that he was hijacking Twitter trends and polls using these bots. Essentially, he was doing the same thing using Twitter bots that he had claimed BJP was doing using Tek Fog, and he had justified his actions.

Devesh stole credit for illustrations

Another Twitter user Banbreach published a Tweet thread on October 31, explaining how illustrations credited to Devesh Kumar were created by someone else. A story written by Devesh on the Pegasus application is still available on The Wire. The story featured an artwork that was previously credited to Devesh. However, later it was credited to absurd.design and a footnote was added, “The article has been edited to reflect that the featured illustrations, previously credited to Devesh Kumar, are by illustrator Diana Valeanu, from absurd.design.”

The dubious claim of winning the Microsoft award

In the TedX speaker’s description, it was mentioned he won Devesh has also won the prestigious Microsoft Imagine Cup (India). However, the description failed to mention that his team, D Labs, had won the “people’s choice award”. It is clearly mentioned on the Microsoft website as well. Herin quoted a Twitter user saying Devesh lied about the award in the college and allegedly used scripts to get votes for his team. OpIndia could not verify the tweets as they seemed to have been deleted.

Source: Archive.org

In a report, OpIndia’s editor Nirwa Mehta explored an AMA session on Tek Fog hosted by The Wire’s Siddharth Vardarajan. The session meted out how conveniently Devesh, Ayushman and The Wire kept on building a story based on an app that “never existed”. You can check the details here.

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