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Punjab: Mob kills another man over alleged sacrilege in Kapurthala, second such lynching within 24 hours

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab: Mob kills another man over alleged sacrilege in Kapurthala, second such lynching within 24 hours

The youth who was caught and beaten up in the wee hours of December 19 over the charges of sacrilege at a village in Kapurthala has been reportedly lynched after the scuffle between Sikh Groups and Police. The incident took place at a Gurdwara in Nizampur village in the Kapurthala district of Punjab. As per reports, the crowd at the Gurudwara where the youth was caught did not let the Police detain the accused. The crowd had swollen up several folds since the morning, and demand for instant justice was raised. Later it was reported that the youth was lynched to death by the crowd. Some reports had suggested he was handed over to the police.

A youth was brutally thrashed on charges of disrespecting the Nishan Sahib (Sikh flag) in Punjab. The Gurdwara caretaker Amarjit Singh had alleged that he saw a youth desecrating the Sikh flag during the wee hours of Sunday. At around 4 am, Singh had stepped out of the Gurdwara to do Nitnem (prayers). Reportedly, the youth tried to disrespect the Nishan Sahib and had taken refuge in the Gurdwara after the lights went out.

When the lights came back, the Gurdwara managers noticed the youth and tried to nab him. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media. He attempted to flee the scene but was caught. The youth was then brutally thrashed. This was second case of lynching over alleged sacrilege in 24 hours in Punjab.

Punjab: Home Minister assures fast-track investigation in Golden Temple case, no word on lynching

OpIndia Staff
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Punjab: Home Minister assures fast-track investigation in Golden Temple case, no word on lynching

On December 19, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Home Minister, Punjab, interacted with the media and answered the queries related to the lynching of a man at Shri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), Amritsar, that happened on the eve of December 18. Earlier, he had a meeting with the Police officials at Amritsar.

Series of events as explained by Randhawa

Before answering the queries, Randhawa informed the media that the accused had entered the Golden Temple premises at around 11:30 in the morning. He stayed there till evening when the incident took place. He had entered the premises alone, and as there were no identification papers, wallet or phone found on him, it was not possible to identify him. He denied that the man was identified as suggested in some reports.

He further added that he had a meeting with the police officials and the officials of the Shri Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC). The formation of a special intelligence wing was discussed with SGPC. He said that the officials at SGPC have agreed to question everyone who comes to Golden Temple as a devotee and stay there to ensure no such incident happens in the future.

‘Many facts would remain unanswered with his death

Randhawa said that there should be some background to the fact that he came alone and stayed at the premises for the whole day. He said, “He came alone and slept in front of Akal Takht the whole day before attempting to disrespect Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. There must be some back story to the incident that would remain hidden after his death.”

Though Randhawa mentioned that if the accused had been alive, some questions would have got answers which were not possible after his death, he did not condemn the lynching.

‘Most of the things would be revealed in a couple of days

Randhawa said though the accused died after the incident, the Police is checking CCTV footage around the premises to find out where the person came from. He said, “There are CCTV cameras at almost every corner, shop and house around Golden Temple. It would not take more than a day or two to find out where he came from and what had happened in the last couple of days.”

A reporter asked him that there were reports that around nine people had entered Golden Temple premises, including him. To the query, Randhawa said, “We do not have any such information. The Police are investigating the case and would take a couple of days to provide a clearer picture.”

‘No identification documents found’

There have been several reports about the identity of the accused. However, the Home Minister said that during the investigation, the Police did not find any identification documents, phone, wallet or any papers on him. “He has not been identified yet as he was not carrying any identification documents,” he said.

‘Attempts to demean Punjab and Punjabis’

Randhawa further added that there had been attempts to demean Punjab and Punjabis in the past. He said, “Be it at the time of partition or during the last few decades, there have been several attempts to demean Punjab and Punjabis. Even now, attempts are being made to cause disruption in peace using sensitive matters.” He urged the people of Punjab to remain vigilant and avoid any altercations based on rumours.

‘I had written to Union Govt to increase punishment in 295A’

In 2018, Punjab Government had passed a bill to increase the punishment under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code to a minimum of 10 years. Randhawa said, “The Union Government has not taken any decision on it. When I took charge three months ago, I wrote to the Union Home Ministry once more to add subsection A in the law to increase the punishment in 295A cases.”

No word on lynching

The Home Minister didn’t condemn the murder inside the Golden Temple for the alleged sacrilege of the holy book. He didn’t say anything about the mob taking the law into hand and lynching a person instead of handing him over to authorities.

Murder of youth in Golden Temple not the first mob lynching by Sikhs for alleged sacrilege, here are some such cases in the past

OpIndia Staff
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Murder of youth in Golden Temple not the first mob lynching by Sikhs for alleged sacrilege, here are some such cases in the past

On December 18, a man was lynched to death by the Sikh Sangat (Sikh devotees) in Shri Harmandir Sahib Gurudwara (Golden Temple) in Amritsar over an alleged attempt to disrespect the holiest book of Sikh religion, Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. As the CCTV footage showed, the young man jumped into the Sanctorum where the holy book was placed. He picked up the kirpan (sword) that was placed next to the holy book. By that time, Sikh Sangat present got into action and grabbed him. Reports suggest the Sangat alleged he was trying to desecrate Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

The man was lynched by the Sangat, and his body was placed outside the Gurudwara premises. Notably, no political leader or the Police said a single word about people taking the law into their own hands and lynching the person accused of disrespecting the holy book. Notably, this is not the first time someone has been killed over accusations of sacrilege of a holy book linked to Sikhism. Several such lynchings have taken place in the recent past.

The Singhu Border Lynching case

On the intervening night of October 14 and October 15, a man identified as Lakhbir Singh from a small village of Punjab was murdered at Singhu Border, where farmer protests were going on. His right hand was chopped, and the dead body was hung on a barricade at the Kundli border by Nihang Sikhs. It was alleged that Lakhbir tried to run away with the Sikh Holy book Sarbloh Granth linked to Nihang Sikhs.

It is still unclear why Lakhbir, who was a Dalit Sikh, went to the Singhu border without informing his family. No one knows why he did what Nihang Sikhs alleged that he did. Several arrests were made in connection to the murder of Lakhbir Singh. The action taken by Nihang Sikhs was praised by many claiming the governments have failed to take any strict action against those who disrespect the holy books.

Gurdaspur lynching case

On the intervening night of July 1 and July 2, an Army staffer, identified as Deepak Kumar, was lynched in a Gurudwara located in a village near Gurdaspur, Punjab. He was lynched for allegedly committing sacrilege against Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Daljit Singh Kashmir alias Bobby was booked as the main accused in the case, among others. Damdami Taksal Jatha Rajpura, actor-turned-activist and Republic Day riots accused Deep Sidhu, and several others came in support of Daljit Singh and justified the lynching.

CCTV footage revealed that Deepak Singh had visited Gurudwara to drink water after getting off the bus at the wrong bus stop. According to SP Harvinder Singh, Jaspinder Singh, Granthi, Gurudwara Sahib noticed Deepak Singh in the Gurudwara premises. He told Deepak to leave immediately, which he did. Later, when other members of Gurudwara, including the main accused Daljit Singh, came, he informed them about Deepak Singh and told them that he suspected blasphemy. Allegedly, they had found some pieces of bricks and stones near the door.

After hearing this, they then went out of the Gurdwara to find Deepak Singh. CCTV footage also showed Jaspinder Singh and Daljit Singh Kashmiri slapping Deepak in front of Gurudwara Tehel Singh. He was standing by the road when the accused arrived on a two-wheeler, stopped near him and slapped him. After that, they dragged him onto the motorcycle, forcefully made him sit on it and brought him back to the Gurudwara premises, where he was allegedly lynched. Gurjit Singh, Harjeet Kaur and Darkirat Singh are from the same family and manage the Gurudwara located at Tibri Chowk. All accused, including one juvenile, was arrested in the case.

The murder of main accused of Bargari sacrilege case in jail

On June 22, 2019, Mohinder Pal Singh Bittoo, a Dera Sacha Sauda follower and the main accused of the 2015 Bargari sacrilege case, was murdered by two of his inmates in high-security Nabha prison in Patiala. According to the reports, the incident took place at 5:45 PM. Two of the inmates, identified as Gursewak Singh and Maninder Singh, attacked him with rods and lynched him to death. He was rushed to the hospital but declared brought dead.

49-years-old Mohinder Pal Bittu was accused of sacrilege in 2015 in Faridkot district’s Bargari and was arrested on June 9, 2018, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, carrying an illegal weapon and his alleged involvement in unlawful activities by an SIT of Punjab Police probing the four-year-old sacrilege incidents. He was shifted to Nabha Jail after he feared danger to his life ten months prior to the incident.

The murder of main accused of Ghawaddi sacrilege case

On July 26, 2016, 47-year-old Balwinder Kaur was shot dead in broad daylight by two motorcycle-borne men who appeared to be Amritdhari Sikhs. Kaur was the main accused of desecrating Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in October 2015. As per reports, her younger son, Ranjodh Singh, was also targeted, but the gun misfired. A letter was dropped by the killers that suggested they killed her to take avenge for sacrilege.

The men were later identified as Gurpreet Singh Jagowal of Amargarh of Sangrur and Nihal Singh of Patiala using CCTV footage. The Police revealed that the mother-son duo was called to provide them support for rehabilitation. The attackers had engaged in conversation with them for around 15 minutes before killing her.

Jatinder Singh Aulakh, the then-Police Commissioner, was quoted by Hindustan Times saying, “They called the woman to the Gurdwara on the pretext of helping her out with money. When she got in at 8 AM, Jagowal and Nihal, who had been waiting for 30 minutes, sat in Ranjoth’s three-wheeler. After a while, they took out what seemed like country-made pistols and shot the woman in the chest and got away on a white motorcycle parked a few metres away.”

In 2015, 20 Ang (pages of the holy book are called Ang or limbs) of Shri Guru Granth Sahib Ji were found scattered in a Gurudwara in Ghawaddi Gurudwara that caused an uproar among the Sikh community. Later, Kaur confessed to the crime. She had allegedly torn the pages and later raised the alarm about the incident herself. Some reports suggested she did it to frame the granthi.

After her death, her daughter Rajwant Kaur alleged sarpanch of the village had framed her. “My mother was an Amritdhari Sikh. How can a woman who spent seven years serving the gurdwara disrespect Guru Granth Sahib? Police arrest her for avoiding investigation, and after she got out on bail, the sarpanch barred her from the village,” she had said.

Since 2015, there have been hundreds of cases of sacrilege in Punjab linked not only to Sikhism but other religions as well. However, the sacrilege of Sikh Holy books has become a major political issue. It was one of the main issues raised by political parties in the 2017 state elections. Though Congress promised to solve the cases and assured the cases would be controlled, but the Congress-led state government failed to do so. Even in the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections, it seems sacrilege of Sikh Holy books is going to be a major political issue.

Another mob justice for blasphemy in Punjab: Youth thrashed by Sikhs for alleged sacrilege of Nishan Sahib in Kapurthala district

OpIndia Staff
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Another mob justice for blasphemy in Punjab: Youth thrashed by Sikhs for alleged sacrilege of Nishan Sahib in Kapurthala district

A day after a man was lynched to death for alleged sacrilege at the Golden Temple Complex, another youth was brutally thrashed on charges of disrespecting the Nishan Sahib (Sikh flag) in Punjab. The incident took place at a Gurdwara in Nizampur village in the Kapurthala district of Punjab.

As per reports, the Gurdwara caretaker Amarjit Singh had alleged that he saw a youth desecrating the Sikh flag during the wee hours of Sunday. At around 4 am, Singh had stepped out of the Gurdwara to do Nitnem (prayers). Reportedly, the youth tried to disrespect the Nishan Sahib and had taken refuge in the Gurdwara after the lights went out.

When the lights came back, the Gurdwara managers noticed the youth and tried to nab him. A video of the incident had gone viral on social media.

He attempted to flee the scene but was caught. The youth was then brutally thrashed. While speaking about the matter, Gurdwara caretaker Amarjit Singh said, “When I challenged the suspect, he tried to escape in dark but he was caught after some time. The suspect only told that he was “sent” from Delhi and a sister of his has also been ‘killed for sacrilege’ at another place”. The authorities also claimed to have recovered several identity cards from the youth.

The ‘blasphemy’ accused allegedly conceded that he had come from Delhi to carry out the act of sacrilege in exchange for money. However, he refused to divulge additional information about his identity and real name. Meanwhile, the villagers had threatened to punish him as per Sikh traditions. According to Amarjit Singh, the matter was escalated to the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in Amritsar. A team will soon visit Nizampur village from Amritsar.

Man lynched at Golden Temple Complex

On Saturday (December 18), a man was killed after an alleged sacrilege at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The incident of sacrilege happened inside the sanctum sanctorum of Darbar Sahib in the evening, when regular prayers were going on. CCTV footage shows that suddenly a man entered the sanctum sanctorum and hit the holy Granth Sahib with a Kirpan.

Reportedly, he had picked up the golden Kirpan from the sanctum sanctorum of the Gurudwara itself, which was placed near the holy Sikh Scripture. He had also stepped close to the Granth Sahib, which is also considered a sacrilege of the holy book. Soon after the incident, the accused was surrounded by people present at the temple.

Initially, he was taken into custody by Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) staff and moved to the SGPC headquarters. But later his dead body was placed near the SGPC main gate, which suggests that he was beaten to death by the staff in the office. After the man’s body was placed on the floor in front of SGPC office, people gathered around him and celebrated instant justice. They chanted Sikh religious slogans to celebrate the murder.

Update: The man has now been lynched by the mob.

From stoic silence on lynching to downplaying it as ‘altercation’, politicians, cops stay silent on the brutality inside holy Sikh site

OpIndia Staff
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From stoic silence on lynching to downplaying it as ‘altercation’, politicians, cops stay silent on the brutality inside holy Sikh site

A man was lynched to death on allegations of desecration at Darbar Sahib (the Golden Temple) on Saturday, December 18. The video of his lifeless body being brought out of the temple has gone viral.

However, many politicians have focussed only on the alleged sacrilege while maintaining deafening silence over the lynching of a man on these allegations. Instead of condemning the mob violence in as many words, the statements by politicians seem to be focussing only on the alleged sacrilege.

Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh termed the incident of attempted sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji at Darbar Sahib as horrific. He demanded the government to go to the bottom of the fact.

“Govt must get to the bottom of what led this man to act in such a despicable manner,” Amarinder Singh in a tweet.

He did not mention even once that the mob should not have taken law into their own hands.

Founder of Khalsa Aid, one of the NGOs that had explicitly supported and provided logistic support to the recently concluded ‘farmer protests’ at the Delhi borders, termed the incident of ‘sacrilege’ as ‘a terror act’. He then said how he would like to know who sent the man to carry out sacrilege and what motivated him. Except, in a twisted fate, it would perhaps be hard to know because the ‘congregation’ decided to give mob justice and kill him instead of handing him over to police like one would expect in a civilised world.

BJP Punjab State President Ashwani Sharma, too, condemned the ‘sacrilege’ and asked for investigation. He, too, stayed silent on the man’s lynching.

Former Punjab CM Sukhbir Badal, too, condemned the ‘sacrilege’, but stayed mum on the lynching. In fact, the called it a deeprooted conspiracy that has ‘shaken the entire Sikh quom’.

Punjab DCP Rampal Singh even referred to the lynching as ‘altercation’.

DCP Parminder Singh Bhandal said how the man who ‘barged inside’ the Golden Temple where the Guru Granth Sahib is kept and tried desecrating it with sword. He said how the man was ‘taken out by Sangat people’ where he ‘died in the altercation’.

Some even described the lynching as ‘justice delivered’.

Bali has often identified himself as a journalist and has been quite a vocal voice in the recently concluded farmer protests. He also suggested that the Indian ‘liberals’ should not question the ‘Panth’.

Amritsar lynching incident over ‘sacrilege’

On Saturday, a 23-24 year old man was lynched to death by a mob over allegations of sacrilege inside the Golden Temple, Amritsar.

The video of the incident suggests that he was standing calmly with the sangat in the sanctum sanctorum for darshan.

But as his turn came, he suddenly scaled and jumped inside the railing and picked up the sword kept in front of the saroop (copy) of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

The youth was immediately overpowered by sewadars on duty. He was taken out and beaten to death near Teja Singh Samundri Hall. The deceased aged between 20 and 25 is yet to be identified as police did not find any document or identification card on the dead man. But some reports have claimed that the deceased was a native of Uttar Pradesh.

In the last two months, this is the second incident of lynching for the alleged sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Nihang Sikhs brutally killed a Dalit youth Lakhbir Singh at the farmers’ protest site at the Kundli border for allegedly showing disrespect to the holy book.

Political parties have expressed concerns and condemned the incident of alleged sacrilege. But as can be seen, maintained silence over lynching.

Kerala: BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivas hacked to death hours after SDPI leader was killed, had contested 2016 elections

OpIndia Staff
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Kerala: BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivas hacked to death hours after SDPI leader was killed, had contested 2016 elections

On Sunday (December 19), a BJP leader was murdered at his residence by suspected SDPI workers. The incident took place in the Alappuzha district of Kerala.

As per reports, the victim was identified as Ranjith Sreenivasan. The unidentified perpetrators broke into his house in the wee hours of Sunday and hacked Ranjith to death. He was a member of BJP Kerala committee and OBC Morcha (State) Secretary. Ranjith had contested as a BJP candidate from the Alappuzha constituency in 2016. The BJP leader was an advocate by occupation.

Following the incident, Section 144 (prohibit the gathering of four or more people in an area) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was imposed in the Alappuzha district to prevent any untoward incident.

The incident happened hours after a state level leader of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) leader was killed in same district. SDPI is the political arm of Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) which is banned in several parts of India.

RSS member hacked to death in front of his wife

On November 15, a 26-year-old Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker A Sanjith was hacked to death allegedly by the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) goons. SDPI is the political wing of the Islamist organisation Popular Front of India (PFI). The incident occurred at Ellapully in Palakkad district at 9:30 in the morning.

A Sanjith was a native of Elappully. He was going for his work on his motorcycle with his wife when he was brutally attacked by the SDPI members. Local reports suggest that the assailants, who came in a car, stopped his bike and attacked him in broad daylight in front of many people including his wife. Sanjith was then rushed to the hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries. 

While speaking to the media, Palakkad BJP district president KM Haridas termed the incident a “well-planned” political murder by the SDPI. He slammed the LDF government led by CM Pinarayi Vijayan government for backing SDPI. “A Sanjith was going with his wife when he was stopped and brutally attacked. The SDPI in the state has got the ruling party’s backing,” Haridas alleged.

Pakistan: Locals in Karachi loot bank blown up by suspected gas explosion that killed 15 people

OpIndia Staff
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Pakistan: Locals in Karachi loot bank blown up by suspected gas explosion that killed 15 people

After the deadly explosion in Karachi, Pakistan which caused a bank building to collapse, some locals of the Sher Shah area took the opportunity to steal cash from the debris and even unearthed the iron safe of the bank from the rubble to smuggle it out of the site.

The security guard of the bank reported about the bizzare incident that some people present at the site of explosion tried to do away with the iron safe of the bank buried in the wreckage post the explosion. He also explained how people gathered to collect the bank notes after the explosion. The security guard said, “A man told me that he saw two bundles of Rs 5,000 notes in the hands of one person,”. The guard further stated that he too received few bags of bank notes from some people after the explosion.

As per reports, few men tried to move the bank safe and tried to open it and rolled it over multiple times. Another bank safe and an ATM were flung into the nearby drain.

However, the HBL has issued a notification for the public and called the explosion an unfortunate event.

In the notice the Habib Bank Limited said, “An unfortunate incident, involving an explosion, took place at our branch in Sher Shah, Karachi, this afternoon,18 December 2021. The explosion has damaged the branch and there have been injuries and casualties. Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We are closely monitoring the situation under the guidance of the authorities. the cause and nature of explosion is bein determined by the suthorities present on the location…” Then the notice said that the focus of the bank under the circumstances was to work closely with the authorities and help in the rescue and relief efforts and provide support to the the families of those affected by the incident.

On Saturday December 18, an explosion occurred at a bank branch in Karachi’s Shershah area which killed more than dozen people and left several others injured. The bank branch damaged by the explosion belonged to the Habib Bank Limited which was also the Pakistan’s largest lender. According to a senior police officer, the blast could have been caused by a gas leak as the bank was constructed over a drain. However, the police in Pakistan are trying to determine the actual cause of the explosion.

Conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar had arranged private jets and helicopters for Jacqueline Fernandez, reveals ED

OpIndia Staff
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Conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar had arranged private jets and helicopters for Jacqueline Fernandez, reveals ED

More and more details of how conman Conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar had spent money on Bollywood actresses have started to appear. According to reports, apart from hiring private jets for Jacqueline Fernandez, Sukesh had also booked helicopter rides for the actress from the Kerala airport to hotels. Though ED sources had earlier claimed that Jacqueline visited Chennai to meet Sukesh, the ED probe reveals that Jacqueline also visited Kerala and Karnataka in luxury private jets and choppers arranged by Conman Sukesh.

As per reports, Jacqueline had told the ED in August that she had actually met Sukesh personally. She said, “I travelled twice to Kerala on a private jet, he (Sukesh Chandrasekhar) also arranged the helicopter ride from the airport to the hotel. Both were personal trips.” She also added, “The hotel expenses were taken care of by Sukesh (Chandrasekhar). I had pickups and drop-offs in a private jet from Mumbai to Kerala and also helicopter rides were arranged from the airport to hotels,” Jacqueline stated that during her first trip to Kerala, she had stayed there for a single day trip and that her second trip lasted for two days.

Jacqueline in her statement to ED seemed to state that she visited Karnataka (Bengaluru) only once in a private jet arranged by Sukesh. She told ED, “The last trip I took was to Bangalore (Karnataka) but it was only one way, as I refused to go back in the private jet and I flew commercial.” 

Also about her Chennai trip, Jacqueline informed ED that Sukesh had claimed that his uncle had passed away and that Sukesh had invited her for the funeral as he was depressed. “I said I would come to the funeral on the said date. But a day before I was leaving (for Chennai) he said the funeral could not happen that day as the priest had not given the date yet and it was yet to be determined. Chandrasekhar still requested me to come and meet him so I agreed,” Jacqueline told ED.

According to Jacqueline’s statement to ED, Sukesh had arranged a private jet for her from Mumbai to Chennai and the meeting took place at Hyatt hotel. She said, “He (Sukesh Chandrasekhar) sent me a private jet to take me from Mumbai to Chennai. He did not meet me at the airport but had sent an assistant. I reached the Hyatt hotel and he arrived an hour after that.” Jacqueline informed that Sukesh left the hotel after having lunch with her, “His (Chandrasekhar) assistant came in the room twice to speak to him, he then told me he has to go back for night prayers with his family and it will go on till late night and he will see me the next day,”

Conman Sukesh in his statement to the central agency had stated that Jacqueline was his friend and that he had given $180,000 to Jacqueline’s sister Geraldine who lived in the USA. He also claimed that a Maserati and a Porsche was gifted to Jacqueline’s mother in Bahrain. Sukesh also informed ED that he had gifted Jacqueline several expensive gifts, which included Gucci outfits and Gucci shoes, Rolex watch, 15 pairs of earrings, 5 Birkin bags, Hermes bangles and LV bags.

Navi Mumbai: Brother of Shiv Sena leader among two arrested for transporting beef

OpIndia Staff
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Navi Mumbai: Brother of Shiv Sena leader among two arrested for transporting beef

Two people, including the brother of a Shiv Sena leader, have been arrested by Navi Mumbai police for transporting over 40 kgs of beef.

The police were acting on a tip-off about some people bringing cow meat from Karjat to be sold in Navi Mumbai. The police laid a trap and arrested two individuals who were carrying 40 kgs of beef in a rickshaw for sale.

During the police interrogation, both the accused admitted to bringing beef to Navi Mumbai for sale without having any official license. The police also learned that one of the arrested persons in the case is the brother of a Shiv Sena sub-divisional chief from Khairane village in Navi Mumbai. Both the accused have been remanded to police custody for two days.

The BJP government in Maharashtra had banned the slaughter and consumption of the meat of bull and bullock in March 2015. As per the legislation, violators get a jail term of five years and/or a fine of Rs 10,000. Cow slaughter was already banned under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976.

However, since then smuggling of beef into Maharashtra has steadily grown. Just recently, in September 2021, close to 100 tonnes of illegal beef and buffalo meat was recovered from two places in Gulbarga after a Mumbai-based NGO filed a complaint to the Karnataka state authorities about illegal cattle slaughters taking place along the Maharashtra-Karnataka border, and the illegal beef and buffalo meat being smuggled into Mumbai and Navi Mumbai areas by road. 

DRDO scientist planted bomb at Rohini court in bid to kill neighbour: Delhi Police

Vijay Deo Jha
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DRDO scientist planted bomb at Rohini court in bid to kill neighbour: Delhi Police

In the Rohini court blast case, Delhi police arrested Bharat Bhushan Kataria (47), a senior scientist with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Although it was initially assumed to be a terror attack due to the use of a low-intensity tiffin bomb, police have now said it was a murder attempt.

Delhi Police clarified that the Rohini court blast was a murder bid and not a terror attack. The accused wanted to kill his neighbour who is a lawyer by profession with whom he has been locked in a legal battle for the past many years. Police said that both had lodged several cases against each other.

The police arrested Kataria on Friday (December 17) and sent him to judicial custody. Police zeroed in on him with the help of CCTV footage and he was picked for questioning.

On December 9, a low-intensity blast had taken place at courtroom number 102 of Rohini court. The explosion took place where the metropolitan magistrate hears traffic-related cases.

Investigation revealed it was a tiffin bomb. A constable of Delhi Police Rajiv Kumar was injured in this low-intensity blast. Since it was a tiffin bomb, security agencies suspecting it was a terror attack became alert. National Security Guard was also called to support the investigation.

But subsequent investigation revealed that it was Kataria who had planted explosives. Police checked the case list of the said court scheduled for hearing on December 9. Police questioned concerned parties of these listed cases and asked whether they had the previous rivalry with anyone.

In the meantime, the police gathered CCTV footage and found Kataria moving in a suspicious condition. The lawyer who was supposed to appear for the hearing that day identified him as his neighbour.

Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana said that Kataria carrying two bags entered the court at 9.33 am on the day of the incident. He left one bag inside the courtroom and exited the court premises at 10.35 am.

Accused said that he prepared and assembled explosives in a steel tiffin box at his house with the help of instructions on the internet. It was connected with a 12-volt two-wheeler battery.

Since the circuit of the tiffin bomb, stuffed with half kilogram ammonium nitrate-based explosives and shrapnel, was not assembled properly, hence only the detonator went off.  

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