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Amid firecrackers ban in several states, traders in Telangana expect roaring business as Diwali nears

OpIndia Staff
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Amid firecrackers ban in several states, traders in Telangana expect roaring business as Diwali nears

Telangana is set to celebrate Diwali with the dazzling lights of diyas and stunning vistas of the fireworks, amidst other states prohibiting the usage of firecrackers ahead of the Hindu festival.

According to firecracker traders, limited production of green crackers and a 30-35 percent increase in cracker pricing over the previous year may have an impact on their business, as demand for green crackers is increasing.

Sivakasi, the hub of firecracker manufacturing units has slashed production after the Supreme Court banned the use of barium nitrate in firecrackers. 

T Praveen Kumar of Cracker Mela told TOI that the school holidays in Telangana have been announced and sales are likely to go up from Saturday onwards. He also informed that last year they had a turnover of 70 crores but this year it may cross 100 crores.

Rocket shots, which were offered for Rs 80-130 a box last year, now cost Rs 170, according to traders. The price of sparklers and pencil crackers, which were sold for Rs 100 last year, has risen to Rs 130-140 per box. A small anar, which cost Rs 60 a box last year, is now worth Rs 100. 

According to Manik Rao, owner of Bhavani Crackers,” as per Supreme Court rules, all licensed dealers have planned to offer green firecrackers this year.” They have prohibited the production of synthetic firecrackers due to their low emission. However, our biggest issue this time is that production of crackers was very low owing to terrible weather, and low availability of metals is also quite limited due to rising raw material prices. As a result of the Central Government directive, manufacturers have stopped importing metals from China.”

“There are no registered green manufacturing companies in Telangana,” said Telangana Fire Workers Dealers Association (TFWDA) president K Venugopal, “but we import the stock from Sivakasi fireworks industries in Tamil Nadu.” Last year’s market was mixed, but this year, apart from the unsold crackers, we’re only selling green fireworks.”

“We offer a variety of green crackers, and sales have surged because of the ongoing holidays this year after Covid.” Green crackers are priced 30-40% more than ordinary crackers,” he added.

Overall, despite facing several challenges Telangana is likely to witness a rise in firecracker sales this Diwali and give a much-needed boost to the fireworks industry.

Delhi

Meanwhile, Gopal Rai, Delhi’s Environment Minister, announced on October 19 that producing, storing, and selling firecrackers in the national capital is a serious offense. He went on to say that anyone caught engaging in these activities could face a Rs 5,000 fine and a six-month jail sentence.

Furthermore, anyone found purchasing and bursting firecrackers is also a punishable offence. Anyone caught engaging in these acts faces a Rs 200 fine and a six-month jail term.

The minister stated that 408 teams had been formed to enforce the prohibition of firecrackers. The Delhi Police has formed 210 teams under the supervision of the assistant commissioner of police, the Revenue Department has formed 165 teams, and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has formed 33 teams. These teams will enforce the ban on Delhi residents and, if necessary, arrest those “accused” of bursting firecrackers on Diwali.

On October 10, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the AAP government’s ban on firecrackers, but the court refused to issue any further instructions, citing that the court had already delivered a clear decision. The Supreme Court has declined to overturn the ban on firecrackers in Delhi ahead of the October 24 holiday, citing pollution and advising petitioners to instead spend their money on sweets.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin recently wrote to his Delhi colleague Arvind Kejriwal, requesting that he allow the sale of firecrackers that comply with permitted regulations. The letter comes after firework makers in Tamil Nadu criticized the AAP Delhi government’s decision to prohibit the sale of fireworks in the state.

According to the manufacturers, the prohibition will hurt them for the third year in a row, affecting 15% of their sales. Stalin reminded Kejriwal in his letter that bursting crackers as a form of celebration is an internationally accepted practice, especially in highly environmentally concerned countries.

Haryana

Manohar Lal Khattar, the Chief Minister of Haryana, has said that all non-green crackers will be banned this Diwali. All around the state, appropriate locations have been selected for the selling of these green firecrackers. He went on to say that even with the holiday spirit, we must take care of the environment. Due to growing pollution in the state, Haryana banned the use of firecrackers this month. This decision was made in response to instructions issued by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) and the National Green Tribunal. “There will be a blanket ban on standard firecrackers on Diwali; only green crackers will be permitted,” ML Khattar stated. 

Punjab

The Punjab government which has apparently failed in dealing with the issue of stubble burning which is the major contributor to increased pollution levels has announced a two-hour window for bursting firecrackers on Diwali, October 24, and has approved the usage of Green Crackers on the occasion. Notably, on October 12, the Punjab government issued guidelines allowing residents to use fireworks during Diwali and other festivities over the following three months. According to the guidelines, residents will be allowed to burst firecrackers only for two hours on Diwali, from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. 

West Bengal

On October 11, the Calcutta High Court ordered that no fireworks other than green crackers with QR codes be sold or used in West Bengal. The court has ordered state pollution control board (PCB) representatives and police officers to inspect firecrackers that would be sold in the market and confiscate those that do not match the acceptable requirements.

Banning of firecrackers by several states ahead of Diwali is not only a major setback for the fireworks industry but also spoils the spirit of the celebration of the festival.

From Leicester violence to The Wire fabricated story saga: The Omerta, unity of the Left and Islamists and the small victory for Hindus

Ganesh R
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From Leicester violence to The Wire fabricated story saga: The Omerta, unity of the Left and Islamists and the small victory for Hindus

On the face of it, the recent anti-Hindu riots in Leicester, UK and the Wire serial lying saga appear completely unrelated and independent. But it will be foolish indeed to miss the common thread that runs through them. How? They both clearly show the remarkable unity of purpose and ideological fraternity among the Islamists and leftists. 

When Beijing and Pakistan declare each other as “taller than a mountain, deeper than the ocean, sweeter than honey” allies, it is not just an alliance between two states – it is an alliance of ideologies that are remarkably similar in many ways. It is an alliance of Islamist fascist, jihadi fanatics and Stalinist, Maoist left ideologies. As such its foot soldiers across the world are expected to obey and implement it. Dissent is not an option. Nor is quitting. “This is not a country club, 007!”. And unity both among your own and with your all-weather allies is a must to keep the “enemy” firmly in the gunsight. 

In the Indian context, this alliance expects to revive the glory days of the Mughal or Sultanate era when Hindus were dhimmis, as well as serfdom to the despot in China (aka amadher Chairman) and its interests to be in total power. What is the biggest hurdle? Of course, it is the Hindu faith, stupid! It is a natural target. Unless the standing crop is burned down entirely, the new one of Stalinist leftism cannot take root. Leftist hatred for Sanatana dharma is especially vicious as other major faiths – Christianity, Buddhism and even Islam (in the former USSR, Afghan etc) have never really stopped them from grabbing total power. Hinduism is unique in its pro-democratic DNA that has strong built-in antibodies to the left ideology of total obedience to one despot. It is diverse, lacks a central authority, is adaptable and constantly changing.

As such this alliance requires that there is complete unity of purpose within the left ummah and total coordination of strategy, tactics and day-to-day action with the political Islamists and its foot soldiers as well as ideologues. The Wire saga represents a clear example of the former and the Leicester one is just another example of the latter imperative. 

We saw such unity of purpose during the anti-CAA agitation too. After all, how can you allow victims of rape, murders and forced conversions done by your bosom buddies to take refuge in this country? Will they not keep that bad news in their conscience for too long? Better let them die there and bury it forever.  Future Romila Thapars can write history that all was fine and there was peaceful syncretism.

The unity of purpose of the left in the face of inconvenient facts and embarrassing news is not new or unique. When the rapist savagery and mass murders in Nandigram temporarily disrupted left unity, Noam Chomsky, one of left’s demi-God ideologues said it should not be discussed at all to protect “left unity”. In fact, even as they fight and even kill each other, exactly like their jihadi pals, leftist groups show remarkable unity of purpose when it comes to taking on the enemy, in this case, Hinduism. On paper mainstream left will pretend they are in total opposition to the violent fringe left tanzeems, but in practice when one of the brothers gets arrested the mainstream left will provide legal and media propaganda assistance. Even the woke left, usually preferring to keep its deep red shades covered up, will jump in to extend support.

Do you now understand why leftists across India and the West are trying to find the best ways to rescue Comrade Varadarajan from his temporary embarrassment? On the gigantic scales of the left which can bury Stalin’s mass murders as “may have made mistakes”, this is not even jaywalking level of crime. Mark my words, it will work. Soon it will be neatly airbrushed away. Omerta will be total. If anyone dares to update the Wiki page of Wire or its honchos with anything close to the truth, it will be deleted, and locked for editing. You can bet on it. Future history books will write about it as a case of a poor activist journalist becoming a victim of a vast right-wing conspiracy. Not one of deliberate lying and covering it up with more and increasingly ridiculous lies. The chances of a typo by OpIndia journalist staying in the MSM news are much brighter than this saga.

If the Wire saga is an example of left unity, Leicester is an example of perfect coordination among the all-weather allies. Borrowing on the time testing “one from the inside and one from the outside” strategy, the Islamists were allowed to wield their sticks and batons, (just as guns in the case of Pakistan or Kashmir) the leftists provided ideological cover fire and one-sided media coverage. Leftist coaching was clearly seen when Islamists, usually crude in their façade and direct in their threats, cleverly employed woke lingo and referred to every Hindu as Hindutva-wadi. What better than to reduce your victim to a hated monster first so that you can kill him and yet play the victim card? And leftist media covered violent Islamist attacks by focusing on the one guy that protected a “woman sporting bindi” from a “violent” mob. Of course, they did not say which violent mob. Perhaps it was a gang of Jain munis. All Islamist violence was neatly airbrushed away so that the victim card works. 

The same ideological fraternity that classified Al Baghdadi as a religious scholar (for once they were right, but the truth was embarrassing to their own propaganda) reduced “Jai Sri Ram” to a terrorist war cry. So that every time someone says it, he can be classified as a Hindutva fascist and dealt with accordingly. Soon JSR may even get banned across the EU just as (Hakenkreuz re-branded) Swastika is.

But let us also look at the bright side of things. 

Both affairs have positive aspects. Leicester incident woke up Hindus to threats they face both as “majority” and as “minority”. In fact, the minority status is deliberately denied to Hindus even in places like the UK, in order to totally obliterate their faith and identity by linking them to the Hindu majority in India. No one will dare link the Muslims in the UK to the Pakistani majority. And the Wire saga further reduced the credibility of its key players even in the eyes of their own fraternity that retained a semblance of independent thought.

Just look at the number of woke left handles that said something along the lines of “Many things need explaining” or “I hope they will clarify” etc. That’s about as far as they could go without getting a slap on the wrist from the GHQ or worse, a cancel notice. Sadanand Dhume, yet to completely wipe his past sin of supporting Modi and is furiously knocking on the doors of the woke club and lucrative franchises that lie beyond even certified a leftist “fact checker” asking mealy mouth softy-softy “hope-I-haven’t-knocked-too-hard-with-feather” questions as having more “integrity”.

Yes, soon even these diluted dissidents will be brought back to the fold, made to swallow their words and play the Politburo-sanctioned tune. The left ummah is unforgiving. But the damage is done. Their credibility is now inversely proportional to the distance from the Palazzo servant quarters or Politburo HQ. You can call it Ganesh’s first law of leftist journalism, if you may!

More importantly, the left-Islamist alliance which works best when covert or subtly overt has been brought to the foreground and increasingly seen as a harsh reality we must deal with. To me, that is the biggest gain.

Small as these victories are, they are worth raising a toast. 

Delhi’s best-in-the-world education minister Manish Sisodia greets Dhanteras by praying to “Maa Dhanvantari”, here is a little education for him

OpIndia Staff
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Delhi’s best-in-the-world education minister Manish Sisodia greets Dhanteras by praying to “Maa Dhanvantari”, here is a little education for him

The festive season of Diwali is here, the first day of this 5-days-long festivities is marked by Dhanteras. Delhi Deputy CM and Education Minister Manish Sisodia took to Twitter to extend his wishes on the festival of Dhanteras. However, the ‘Bharat Ratna’ worthy and the world’s best Education Minister as hailed by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, needs little education on Hindu festivals and Devtas.

In his now-deleted tweet written in Hindi, Manish Sisodia wrote, “I pray to the goddess of health and prosperity, Maa Dhanvantri to bring happiness and peace and fulfil everyone’s wishes. Wishing all the citizens a happy Dhanteras.”

Screengrab of the deleted Tweet by Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia

The alleged best education minister in the world did not even know that Dhanvantri is a god and not a goddess as he mentioned in his tweet. Netizens were quick to call out Sisodia for his outright ignorance compelling him to delete his tweet.

Popular Twitter user Vikrant Kumar called Manish Sisodia a ‘Chunavi Hindu’ over the latter’s gaffe. “Bharat Ratana deserving, World’s Best Education Minister, Modern Bhagat Singh changed the Sex of Lord Dhanvantari from Male to Female. This is what happens when you are a chunavi Hindu,” he tweeted.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla also took a dig at Manish Sisodia for wishing on Dhanteras by praying to Dhanvantari—an avatar of Lord Vishnu.

Several other netizens too called out the Delhi Education Minister and educated him about the Hindu festival.

Amidst backlash from social media users, the Delhi Education minister quietly deleted the tweet wishing his followers on Dhanteras.

Sisodia certainly needs some education on Hindu gods, festivals, and scriptures. Dhanteras also referred to as Dhanatrayodashi, is Lord Dhanvantari’s birth anniversary. On this day, Lord Dhanvantari, the Ayurvedic God who bestowed Ayurvedic wisdom for the welfare of humanity, is worshipped. This day has been designated as ‘National Ayurveda Day’ by the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani Siddha, and Homeopathy.

Since 2016, National Ayurveda Day has been observed on the occasion of Dhanvantari Jayanti or Dhanteras. 

Lord Dhanvantri appeared during Samudra Manthan, holding the Kalash full of Amrit in one hand and the sacred book of Ayurveda in the other, according to Hindu scriptures. According to renowned experts on the subject, on the day of Dhanteras, when the devas and asuras conducted the Samudra Manthan (ocean churning) for Amrit, Dhanvantari (the physician of the Gods and an avatar of Vishnu) appeared carrying a jar of the Amrit (elixir).

Notably, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in August said that the main accused in the Excise on Liquor scam, Sisodia should get a Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India for his “work” in the field of education. He also hailed Sisodia as the best education minister of independent India. 

Interestingly, Kejriwal has had a weird habit of seeking awards for AAP leaders who have been accused of scams or have been arrested. 

When the Enforcement Directorate detained Satyendar Jain in an alleged hawala scam in June, Kejriwal said that he should be awarded the Padma Vibhushan instead of facing legal action. 

Rajasthan: Woman abducted, gang-raped, murdered after being forced-fed beef, made to offer namaz in Bharatpur, case registered

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: Woman abducted, gang-raped, murdered after being forced-fed beef, made to offer namaz in Bharatpur, case registered

In a shocking incident that took place in the Sikri police station area of Bharatpur in Rajasthan, a woman was abducted, gang-raped, and murdered after being forced to offer namaz. The father of the deceased has lodged a named case at the Sikri police station making several serious allegations. He has accused the woman was forcibly fed beef and was forced to offer namaz.

Sikar police station head officer Mahesh Meena said, “On October 18, the suspicious death of a woman was reported. We then went to the spot in the village and kept the body of the woman in the mortuary of Sikri Health Center and sent information to the family of the deceased. After receiving the information, the father of the deceased, a resident of Haryana, who reached the spot in the Sikri area, lodged a case at the Sikri police station. The father of the deceased has written in the report that some unidentified miscreants kidnapped his daughter from the village about 8-9 months ago.”

In the report filed, the father of the victim alleged that all the family members were looking for the daughter since the incident. About three-four months ago, the daughter called from an unknown phone number and told that Irshad (son of Waheed), Fayyad, Waheed (son of Chand Singh), Usman (son of Kammu), Kasam (son of Dinu) had forcibly picked her up and taken her away. Every one of the accused raped the victim woman at gunpoint. They threatened to kill her. The father was told by the daughter on the phone that the accused used to forcefully threaten her and feed her beef and make her offer namaz.

On Wednesday, the police handed over the body to the family after conducting a post-mortem. Station House Officer Mahesh Meena said that the family had earlier lodged a case of the kidnapping of their daughter at Khairthal police station. At present, on the complaint of the deceased’s father, a case has been registered and an investigation has been started into the whole incident.

‘Ran 40 servers to defeat ‘BJP IT Cell’, used NIT and IIT infra, formatted devices 2-3 times a day’: Read the claims of The Wire’s ‘tech expert’ Devesh Kumar

OpIndia Staff
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‘Ran 40 servers to defeat ‘BJP IT Cell’, used NIT and IIT infra, formatted devices 2-3 times a day’: Read the claims of The Wire’s ‘tech expert’ Devesh Kumar

Devesh Kumar, the so-called tech specialist for the leftist propaganda website ‘The Wire’ who wrote two fake stories targeting the BJP, and who claims to be the torchbearer of ‘unbiased journalism,’ apparently operated a ‘parallel BJP IT cell’ against the Bharatiya Janata Party during the 2019 anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) rallies. This revelation comes from a post made by Devesh himself on Reddit.

In a post made on Reddit some 3 years ago, Devesh stated that he ran a ‘parallel IT cell’ against the BJP from his home and he deployed some 40 servers on Amazon Web Services (AWS) for the task. He wrote, “For the last three months, I have been running more than 40 servers on AWS to analyse social media, particularly Tweets from 2 lac+ bot accounts and run a campaign against the IT Cell of the current regime.” It was confirmed that this was his account by the virtue of his Twitter account having the same username.

“This has been a resource-intensive task, and as you can see in the screenshot attached, it has been expensive as well. But the report and results of the campaign are showing. It’s consistently defeating rigged Twitter Polls of the IT Cell and giving more energy/voice to the people protesting against this draconian law,” Devesh wrote referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act. “…What makes me happy is that government with so much power and money are not able to do a thing if men and women are willing to think. Let’s keep protesting. I am contributing with my technology skill till I can. #CAA_NRC_Protests” he concluded.

OpIndia reported about this story at the time of its publishing in 2019. Devesh had said that he had spent more than Rs 4 lakhs in just two months to alter Twitter polls using Twitter bots to suggest that people did not favour CAA and NRC. Essentially, Devesh Kumar had said that he was spending a large amount of money to run Twitter bots, monitor Twitter accounts, and manipulate ‘BJP’s Twitter bots’ to defeat BJP in online polls, and also to rig trending hashtags.

Numerous Reddit users responded to the post, offering their assistance in ‘fighting the BJP IT cell’ through the use of technology. Many of them claimed to be highly skilled in data science, programming, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, software development, and other sectors of information technology, and they offer to help with the so-called ‘project.’ Many of them even advised shifting the conversation to Slack or Telegram so that others couldn’t see it. Some users also offered assistance in lowering the AWS cost, and many proposed organising a fundraiser to cover the costs.

Posts by Devesh on Reddit reveal a lot about his reservations and ideological subscriptions. Devesh shared a cheatsheet on Reddit to respond to what he called ‘state propaganda on CAA/NRC.’ The respective file on the embedded Google Drive link has now been deleted.

Post by Devesh.

Another post titled “Amit Shah must resign. This is not Chanakyaniti but Danga shastra” was shared by Devesh and was removed by Reddit India for it being of contentious nature.

Post by Devesh.

Notably, Devesh was quite active on Reddit, as evident from the posts made by him on the platform.

Recent posts by Devesh.

Devesh Kumar had justified his use of Twitter bots to defeat BJP in online polls by saying that he is not living in an ideal scenario. “In an ideal scenario, a social network should not mean a thing, but we’re not living in an ideal scenario. Are we? So I decide to monitor and manipulate Twitter accounts of bots run by IT cell of BJP,” he had claimed.

Bizzare claims by The Wire’s ‘tech expert’

After writing the TekFog story on The Wire which claimed that BJP has developed this app with superpowers to manipulate major social media platforms, Devesh Kumar made some bizarre claims about his career in July of this year. He claimed in a series of tweets in a thread that his servers were being attacked, which he kept shifting to save his ‘archival data.’ He claimed that he moved his servers from AWS to Azure to Digital Ocean in the previous six months, and all those servers on the web platforms run by world’s top IT companies were hacked to target his servers. He had also claimed that he tried to run the serves from his home, but was hampered by electricity ad connectivity issues.

After that, he had a shocking claim, saying that he has been using government servers to run his anti-BJP propaganda. He claimed that after his attempts to host his servers in web platforms and home computers failed, he moved them to the IT infrastructure of NITs and IITs. “A couple of friends and colleagues helped me create a distributed network of servers across five different NITs and IITs through their alumni connections. Now, these servers do the archiving of over 2,30,000 Twitter accounts and a few thousand blogs,” he claimed.

If the claim is true, it means that a huge amount of IT resources in India’s premier technology institutes are being misused by Devesh Kumar to create fake stories against the BJP.

Devesh also claimed that he was being spied on and that he had to ‘format’ his gadgets two to three times a day to keep them safe. He added that he discovered that his microphone was operating in the background and that MacOS failed to identify this. To combat this, Devesh, funnily, formatted his devices instead of disabling or disconnecting the microphones. He said his mic on both on his computer and phone were being remotely used.

It is surprising to know that a ‘tech-expert’ like Devesh Kumar does not know that the microphone on a computer can be easily disabled. And if he is over-paranoid and does not believe in disabling it from device settings, he can physically remove the hardware. But no, instead he formats the PC ‘2-3 times a day’. While disabling the mic on a phone is not easy, a ‘tech-expert’ should be able to do it, or should be able to get it done. Actually, it will be easier to physically damage the mic by poking with a pin instead of formatting the phone 2-3 times a day, as he claims he was anyway using a separate phone for this work.

Devesh Kumar claimed his devices are infected moments are they are formatted. Such incredible hacking is not even shown in Hollywood movies that show that hacking devices remotely is ridiculously easy for hackers.

All these claims by the so-called tech expert, whose email and Twitter accounts have allegedly been hacked, reveal a lot about him.

It is notable that on October 15, the Meta vs Wire saga took another twist after The Wire published a “rebuttal” to Meta’s assertation that the alleged expose by the leftist portal was based on fabricated evidence. In its rebuttal, The Wire made several claims to justify its expose. However, most of their claims raised even more questions over the authenticity of the evidence presented by them. All the screenshots of emails they used have been proven to be fake as the concerned persons have clarified they never wrote those emails. The Wire had published a video showing a Workspace account, but Meta has said that it was a fake account created by Wire on the Workspace platform, and it was created 2 days after Wire published the story.

Apart from Meta and the independent experts cited by Wire saying that the proofs are fake, common netizens also found numerous loopholes in them, like misaligned buttons on screenshots, wrong dates and days in emails, wrong user DP and other discrepancies in the Workspace account, missing details in email DKIM verification etc. According to Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan, all work related to tech in the story was done by Devesh only.

As the evidence debunking The Wire’s preposterous claims against Meta piled up, the leftist propaganda website on Tuesday decided to “suspend the stories” until it carried out a “thorough internal review of all material and documents and sources,” an implicit admission that they have erred in the reportage.

‘I am beholden to pope…I did what I was told to’: Pastor among 3 arrested in the sexual assault case of a 15-year-old boy

OpIndia Staff
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‘I am beholden to pope…I did what I was told to’: Pastor among 3 arrested in the sexual assault case of a 15-year-old boy

On Friday, three pastors were charged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) in a sexual assault case of a 15-year-old boy in Pune, Maharashtra. While the primary accused in the case identified as Father Vincent Pereira is still absconding, two prominent pastors have been booked for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old kid at his house in December last year. 

According to the reports, when the alleged act was committed, Pereira (56) was out on bail in another case of sexual misconduct. He had spent 18 months in Pune’s Yerwada jail in another POCSO case. The case dated back to 2018 when the accused assaulted a student studying in class 8 while he acted as the principal of St Patrick’s High School in the district. He also showed the kid pornographic videos and tortured him for worse. He was residing at Navsadhana Pastoral Centre after he was released on bail.

In the current case, the accused who was staying at a pastoral centre visited the house of the victim and sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy in December last year. The complaint stated that the family members of the victim informed about the incident to Thomas Dabre (77), the bishop of the Pune diocese, and Cardinal Oswald Gracias (70), the Archbishop of Bombay. However, the duo failed to act against Pereira. The family of the 15-year-old also alleged that they went to five police stations over the next three months after the alleged assault, seeking an FIR, but a complaint was only filed after they approached two Pune-based activists in August.

Activists Maruti Bhapkar and Dominique Lobo also initially were not entertained until they contacted the Pune police commissioner on August 17 this year. Later they were compelled to go to the National Human Rights Commission in September which recorded the statements of the family of the victim and issued a notice to the police. On September 30, an FIR was filed in response to Bhapkar’s complaint at the Hadapsar police station, and the case was later moved to Kondhwa.

The Newslaundry happened to talk to Pune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta who said that the prime accused in the case had been arrested and the investigations were underway to check on the other two accused. However, Kondhwa police station inspector Sardar Patil revealed that the prime accused in the case Pereira is still absconding. “Pereira is absconding but we will arrest him soon. We haven’t arrested the bishop and the cardinal as it seems they were not involved in the act, but we have not given them any clean chit. We have booked them for not reporting the crime despite being aware of it”, Patil added.

Meanwhile, accused Dabre has denied all the allegations posed against him and has said that he is beholden to the Pope and his staff. “This whole thing is fabricated. I only act according to church law. You have to understand that I am beholden to the civil authorities whom I obey but I am also beholden to the Pope and his staff. I have reported the matter to them and I have been doing what I was told by them…My job was only to inform the police, my job was not to file the FIR…I cannot go beyond my brief…I am in charge of the Pune diocese and have to take care of many things”, he was quoted.

The family of the victim said that they visited five police stations in Pune- Hadapsar, Kondhwa, Wanawadi, Bund Garden, and Pune railway stations over December, January, and February to complain, but no FIR was filed. Then they asked the Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Gracias, to look into the matter. He responded to the parents in March over the phone and asked the bishop of Pune to do the needful.

Later in April, one of the pastors in Pune named Father Wilfred Francis wrote to the Kondhwa police station with a complaint on the direction of the bishop of Pune. But according to the family, no action was taken in the case by the Police. Reports mention that the family knew the accused well and had helped him while he was staying at Navsadhana Pastoral Centre post bail in another POCSO case. The accused was not allowed to step out of the pastoral centre without Dabre’s permission. But he happened to violate the rules to visit the victim’s house where he sexually assaulted the 15-year-old boy.

The family of the victim said that they sought help from Dabre, and also contacted the archbishop but were helped by none. “Neither the church nor the police authorities came to our rescue to get justice for our child”, they said. One of the activists named Bhapkar who helped the family in the case said that both, the bishop and the archbishop tried to protect the prime accused in the case.

“As per rules under the POCSO Act, the person in charge of the institution needs to report such cases to the police…none of them took any action against the accused person. Police are under a lot of pressure as the matter involves high-profile people”, added another activist, Lobo.

Father Vincent Pereira, the prime accused has already served 18 months of jail under the POCSO act in another sexual misconduct case. Also, Cardinal Gracias had earlier failed to report cases of sexual abuse. The complaint against accused Father Vincent Pereira, Thomas Dabre, the bishop of Pune diocese, and Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay under the POCSO act. Further investigations into the case are underway.

UP Madarsa Survey finds Darul Uloom Deoband to be an unaided madarsa registered under the Societies Registration Act

OpIndia Staff
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UP Madarsa Survey finds Darul Uloom Deoband to be an unaided madarsa registered under the Societies Registration Act

On the instructions of the Uttar Pradesh state government, the madarsas in the state are being surveyed. So far, 360 madrasas in the Saharanpur district have been found to be unaided by the government. Darul Uloom Madarsa of Deoband is one such unaided madarsa. Darul Uloom is a 156-year-old madrasa. It is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1861—an act for the registration of literary, scientific and charitable societies.

In fact, after the order of the state government, District Magistrate Akhilesh Singh had also instructed to conduct a survey of unaided madarsas. The survey was started by forming teams at the tehsil level. The survey work started in the district on September 10. Sadar tehsil of Saharanpur has the highest number of unaided madarsas. The least aided madarsas have been found in Behat tehsil. As the survey is still on, the number of such madarsas may increase.

So far, more than 360 such madarsas have been found, which do not get assistance from the government. So far, more than 360 such madrasas have been found, which do not get assistance from the government. The highest number of 123 madarsas are in Sadar tehsil. While the lowest madarsas have been found in Behat tehsil. However, the survey is going on in Behat tehsil. Officials say that the number of madarsas in Behat tehsil is expected to increase. The DM will prepare the survey report and send it to the government by November 15.

District Magistrate Akhilesh Singh said, “The survey team is preparing a report on the prescribed format. In this, a point-wise survey report is being prepared on the curriculum of madarsas, establishment year, founder, operating institution, the number of students, government aid to madarsas, and the number of teachers, etc.”

DM Akhilesh Singh added, “So far, 360 such madarsas have been detected which do not take help from the government. Darul Uloom also does not take help from the government. It is registered in the Societies Act, but it cannot be said that it is illegal. There is some confusion among people about the survey. The survey aims to find out how many madrasas are getting aid from the government. madarsas that are aided by the government are required to register with the minority department. But madarsas that are not taking aid from the government cannot be called illegal unless it is confirmed that the source of aid received by them is not proper.”

A conference of madarsas of UP was held in Darul Uloom Deoband in protest against the survey of unaided madarsas by the state government. In this, Maulana Arshad Madani said that it is the right of the government to conduct a survey of madarsas. There is no illegal activity inside madarsas. It is the responsibility of the Government to find out if there is any. In the conference organized on the survey of unrecognized madarsas, Darul Uloom Deoband clarified its stand and said that there is no need to fear and panic about the survey, but cooperate in the survey and give complete and correct information.

‘Even after denial, The Wire continued to lie that I verified Meta email’: Microsoft employee Ujjwal Kumar issues statement on the withdrawn fake story

OpIndia Staff
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‘Even after denial, The Wire continued to lie that I verified Meta email’: Microsoft employee Ujjwal Kumar issues statement on the withdrawn fake story

Days after the ultra-leftist news portal The Wire withdrew its series of reports claiming that BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya had some superpowers to remove posts from Meta-owned Instagram, new developments are still emerging exposing how the entire story was based on lies, and how the portal had misquoted experts. After Meta had denied the claim, The Wire posted a screenshot of an email from a Meta official which seemed to prove that the allegations were true. When the official Andy Stone had said that the screenshot was fake, Wire had claimed that two independent experts had checked the email and certified them to be genuine.

Subsequently, both the experts, Kanishk Karan and Ujjwal Kumar, denied verifying the email, after which The Wire was forced to withhold the story. While initially, The Wire didn’t name Karan, they had named Microsoft employee Ujjwal Kumar, based in Singapore, and claimed that he had verified their fabricated email. However, soon after that, Ujjwal Kumar had denied doing DKIM verification of the email. The Wire had published a screenshot of a mail purportedly sent by Kumar certifying that the email is genuine. But Ujjwal Kumar said that he never sent an email.

And now, Ujjwal Kumar has revealed that even after he had issued the denial, Wire continued to lie that he had verified Andy Stone’s email. Taking to LinkedIn, the employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps for job seekers and employers, Kumar wrote a long post on Friday, October 21, showing how Wire continued to peddle lies even after issuing denials, before the reports were taken offline.

He wrote that he is providing this statement to clarify and certify that he does not have and has never had any involvement with The Wire’s reporting on Meta. Prior to the publishing of The Wire’s story on 15 October 2022, no reporter from The Wire reached out to him for any statement on or verification of, The Wire’s processes, Kumar said, adding that the email screenshot included in the report was not sent from his email account.

Kumar stressed in his statement that he had no participation in The Wire’s reporting on Meta at any point, and he chastised the portal for incorrectly attributing remarks to him. He added that after he issued the denial, The Wire had modified its report to falsely claim that had sent the email to Wire saying that he has verified the Meta email and found it to be true, but he does not want his name to be mentioned in the reports. Notably, initially Wire didn’t mention Kumar’s name, but later modified the concerned report to reveal his identity, after which tech expert Pranesh Prakash had contacted him, and Kumar had told Prakash that he didn’t send the email to Wire and didn’t verify the Meta email.

The statement issued by Ujjwal Kumar is as follows:

“Over the weekend, a publication erroneously attributed commentary to me. The investigations have proven that the claims are factually inaccurate, and I, have requested a correction to be published.

Screenshot of Ujjwal Kumar’s LinkedIn post

On 15 October 2022, The Wire had published a report titled, “Meta Said Damaging Internal Email is ‘Fake’, URL ‘Not in Use’, Here’s Evidence They’re Wrong”. I clarified to The Wire that I had not conducted verification of, or commented on the validity of The Wire’s processes and findings, as claimed in the report.

The email screenshot reproduced in the report was not sent from my email account and I had not even been approached by The Wire to make any verification before publication of The Wire’s report dated 15 October 2022.

Despite my denial, The Wire modified its report to falsely claim that while I had issued an email confirming validation of The Wire’s processes, I did not wish for the article to continue to carry my name.

The Wire finally took down the report dated 15 October 2022. The Wire has further acknowledged in its report dated 18 October 2022 that I have denied making assessments of The Wire’s processes.

It does not clarify that I have, in fact, not verified or validated The Wire’s reporting on Meta.

To put an end to the confusion, I am issuing this statement to clarify and confirm the fact that I do not have, and have not had, at any stage, any involvement with The Wire’s reporting on Meta. At no point of time, prior to the publication of The Wire’s report dated 15 October 2022, did any reporter from The Wire reach out to me for any statement on, or verification of, The Wire’s processes. The email screenshot reproduced in the report was not sent from my email account.”

Meta vs The Wire saga and how the latter dragged the Microsoft employee’s name in the entire fiasco

It may be recalled that recently the leftist propaganda outlet The Wire had published stories accusing Meta of being hand in gloves with the BJP and granting absurd superpowers to its IT Cell head Amit Malviya. In its reports, which are now withdrawn, The Wire claimed Meta official Andy Stone sent an email to his team expressing anger over how this was revealed and asked to put The Wire journalists on ‘watchlist’. After Andy Stone said that the email screenshot is fake, Wire claimed that Ujjwal Kumar, lead architect currently working at Microsoft Asia, and another expert verified the email sent by Stone. Founding Editor of The Wire Siddharth Varadarajan claimed that Ujjwal Kumar said that the mail ‘passed the DKIM test’.

Varadarajan shared a screenshot of an email sent by Ujjwal Kumar saying that he used the manual method and corroborated that the dkimpy, a library that implements DKIM (DomainKey Identified Mail) email signing and verification, uses the same algorithm.

Here is the email shared by Siddharth Varadarajan.

The Wire claimed Ujjwal Kumar of Microsoft Asia corroborated their ‘evidence’.

In another separate tweet, Varadarajan had claimed that he had consent from Ujjwal Kumar to share the email and his finding regarding the so-called mail from Meta and had shared the screenshot.

Hours after The Wire published the story and Varadarajan publicly shared the above screenshot of the mail, The Wire claimed that Kumar had backed down from putting his name public. It turned out, Microsoft had denied Kumar being involved in the circus and had said how the mail was not sent by him. In fact, amid all this, The Wire never admitted that Microsoft had reached out to them to deny Ujjwal Kumar’s involvement in this Meta saga. It came to the fore only after Pranesh Prakash said that Kumar has told him that he didn’t verify the email and that the screenshot of his email published by Wire is fake. Soon after, Newslaundry published a report saying that Microsoft had issued them a statement denying Kumar’s involvement in this.

The leftist portal withholds reports claiming Amit Malviya has special powers to block content on Instagram

On Tuesday, The Wire decided to “suspend the stories” on its claims against BJP and Meta after evidence debunking their preposterous claims piled up. They also promised “thorough internal review of all material and documents and sources”, an implicit admission that they have erred in the reportage.

They were forced to take down the stories after domain experts and independent researchers refuted its claims, and multiple experts quoted in the reports have refuted their involvement. The Wire had claimed that Kanishk Karan, a policy manager overlooking public safety on platforms, and Microsoft employee Ujjwal Kumar had verified the digital evidence provided by The Wire and certified them to be authentic.

But both Karan and Kumar came out to say that they didn’t do the verification of the evidence, including a purported email from a Meta official.

The Meta fiasco was not a one-off, not a mere error by The Wire. As we have documented over the years, the far Left portal has been peddling fake news and fake allegations habitually. They have sold lies on multiple occasions and with explicit editorial sanction. What has changed this time around is that they poked a tech giant and got burned in return.

Notably, OpIndia has laid down the ups and downs and back and forth in the long-running Meta vs The Wire controversy.

Maharashtra: Anees Ansari convicted, sentenced to life imprisonment in a cyber-terrorism crime case

OpIndia Staff
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Maharashtra: Anees Ansari convicted, sentenced to life imprisonment in a cyber-terrorism crime case

On Friday, a Mumbai sessions court convicted and sentenced a 32-year-old computer engineer named Anees Ansari to life in jail on charges including cyber terrorism.  Ansari was apprehended in October 2014 and has been held since on accusations that he misused the computer and internet service of the private firm where he worked to gather information for a conspiracy to launch an attack on an American school in the city’s Bandra Kurla Complex and kill children at the school.

The court found him guilty under multiple provisions of the Information Technology Act, including 66 (F) (cyber-terrorism), and sentenced him to life in prison. According to the reports, this is the first conviction in the state of Maharashtra which is related to a case involving cyber-terrorism. 

Ansari was also convicted under Sections 115 (abetment of an offence punishable by death or imprisonment for life) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by Additional Sessions Judge Dr A A Joglekar. The accused under this clause has been sentenced to five years in prison. He has also been ordered to pay a Rs 25,000 penalty under Section 43(a) of the IT Act (compensation for failure to protect data).

The court on October 21 said that Ansari was given access to a computer and the network in his private office for official work, and he created a phoney Facebook account on Facebook using the official device. According to the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), from August 2, 2011, to October 10, 2014, Ansari used his bogus account to interact with individuals and send offensive messages on ISIS ideology to ‘threaten the unity and integrity of the nation in’. 

The ATS had submitted that Ansari created a profile in the name of Usayrim Logan, corresponded with another individual, and had discussed carrying out a “lone wolf” attack targeting many places in Mumbai. It was also reported that he obtained information about a thermite bomb as part of a scheme to target an American school and kill children of foreign nationalities.

The Court further said that Ansari had exceeded such authorized access provided by the company. According to the court, this proved the accusation of cyber terrorism. “The evidence tendered by the prosecution in the given case do certainly demonstrate that the accused knowingly and intentionally with an intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any section of people by exceeding such authorised access,” additional sessions judge Joglekar said.

The court took into account the depositions of 25 witnesses in the case. Special public prosecutor (SPP) Madhukar Dalvi demanded the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Ansari, citing the seriousness of the offences and the accused’s ‘high level of qualification’. Dalvi told the court that if he is released, there is a chance he might execute his plans from 2014.

Ansari’s lawyers, Sharif Shaikh and Kritika Agarwal, meanwhile stated that there was no evidence that Ansari used his office’s internet connection to promote terror activities or that he planned to carry out the attack. The counsel also argued that the provision on cyber terrorism only applies to those who break or infiltrate a computer system to which they are not authorized, not to those who misuse access.

They also requested mercy because he already had served eight years in prison. They further said that the accused should be released as he came from an impoverished family and that the offence was not actually committed. However, the Court said that the act may have harmed the country’s integrity and security and that the punishment must be equal to the magnitude of the offence.

Rajasthan: Maulvi drags a 17-year-old girl inside a mosque and attempts to rape her, arrested

OpIndia Staff
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Rajasthan: Maulvi drags a 17-year-old girl inside a mosque and attempts to rape her, arrested

A shocking incident of a Maulvi attempting to rape a minor has emerged. A Maulvi forcibly took a 17-year-old girl into a mosque in the Halaina Police Station region of Rajasthan’s Bharatpur and attempted to rape her on Thursday. The victim’s cries for help, however, were heard by locals, who, along with the victim’s family members, dragged the Maulvi outside the mosque and brutally assaulted him. Police have registered a case under POCSO Act and the accused Maulvi has been arrested.

SHO Vijay Singh Chonkar informed that the 17-year-old girl in her complaint said that she went to fill out a scholarship form at around 11:30 am on Thursday when the accused Maulvi who has been identified as Rashid, asked the girl for her mobile and after the girl gave her mobile to Rashid he started walking towards the mosque, the girl also followed him, soon after reaching near the mosque the accused Maulavi dragged the girl inside the mosque and started touching her inappropriately. However, the family members of the girl were informed by locals about the Maulvi dragging her inside the mosque. After thrashing the Maulvi, the locals handed him over to the police.

The SHO also told that the victim knew the accused Maulvi Rashid. The mosque where the accused Maulvi used to reside for over 10 years is near the victim’s residence. Police are questioning the accused and necessary action will be taken.

Unnao: Maulvi attempts to rape a 5-year-old minor in madarsa, arrested

A similar case where a Maulvi attempted to rape a minor was reported in Unnao. A Maulvi attempted to rape a five-year-old girl studying in a Madarsa in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district. The Ganga Ghat police registered a case under serious sections on the complaint of the victim’s family members and arrested the accused Maulavi Abdul Rahim. The incident took place in the district’s Shukla Ganj area.

Maulvi Abdul Rahim from Baaghraasi, Darbhanga, Bihar, teaches in a madrasa named Jamia Rahmat near the Ganga Ghat police station. This madrasa was where the 5-year-old girl used to study, as per reports. The Maulvi lured the girl into seeing a pond. The Maulvi allegedly molested and attempted to rape the minor. When she returned home, she was in tears and told her family about her ordeal. Family members filed a complaint at the Ganga Ghat police station.

Another such incident was recently reported in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore. A Maulana molested a 12-year-old girl at a Madarsa in Madhya Pradesh. The 52-year-old cleric has been booked under relevant sections of the IPC and POCSO Act after the incident came to light. The maulana’s family members also have been booked for assaulting the relatives of the victim girl. The police registered a case against the 52-year-old Maulana of the Madarsa under section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (assaulting or using criminal force on any woman) and the relevant sections of the Protection of Children against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

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