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‘Namaz in open spaces will not be tolerated’, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on the Gurugram Namaz impasse

OpIndia Staff
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‘Namaz in open spaces will not be tolerated’, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar on the Gurugram Namaz impasse

Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has categorically stated on Friday that Namaz in open spaces will not be tolerated in his state. The CM was addressing the media on the ongoing impasse over the offering of Namaz at these public places in various sectors in Gurugram, Haryana.

He stated that members of all faiths should offer prayers in their own personal space or areas designated for worship. Namaz should be read in Mosques or Idgahs rather than public spaces. The trespassing on public spaces in the city under the guise of conducting religious prayer would not be allowed by the state administration henceforth.

“If someone offers Namaz at his place we have no problem in that. Such programs should not be held in the open. This practice of offering Namaz which has been done in the open will not be tolerated at all”, said the Haryana CM.

“An amicable solution to the matter should and would be found,” he said. Offering public prayers is leading to clashes, he said and that should not happen. “We’d found a solution but that was found ineffective. There will be new talks to find a solution,” said Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, announcing that his government has withdrawn the previous circular that mentioned some designated sites to offer Friday prayers.

It may be noted that on December 9, Thursday, Muslim groups like Muslim Ekta Manch in the city had reiterated their obstinacy to offer namaz on Friday at all 37 objected public grounds which have been occupied to offer namaz despite people facing problems. On the other hand, the Hindu outfits had also reiterated their resolve to strictly oppose the offering of Namaz at these public places from December 10 onwards.

Hindu Sangharsh Samiti president Mahavir Bharadwaj said that for the last three months Hindu outfits and the local residents of Gurugram’s Sector-47, 12A, Sector-18 and now Sector-37, have been opposing the illegal occupation of public places by Muslims to offer their religious prayers. According to Bharadwaj, from December 10 onwards, the Hindu Sangharsh Samiti will not allow Muslims to offer Namaz in any of the open places which they have been attempting to encroach on in recent months.

He said that the district administration have been given a forewarning that if the Muslims attempt to again encroach public spaces to offer Namaz on December 10, they would face strong resistance from members of the Hindu outfits.

Opposition to the illegal occupation of public places by Muslims to offer their religious prayers is steadily gaining momentum. For weeks now, locals have been pushing back against Muslims who have resorted to communal praying in public locations rather than designated places of worship for weeks.

‘Might of State cannot be used to browbeat political opinions’: SC raps WB govt while quashing FIRs against OpIndia Editor, read detailed order

OpIndia Staff
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‘Might of State cannot be used to browbeat political opinions’: SC raps WB govt while quashing FIRs against OpIndia Editor, read detailed order

The Supreme Court on Thursday, December 9 quashed all four FIRs filed by the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal against OpIndia Editor-in-Chief Nupur J Sharma, Ajeet Bharti, the then Hindi editor of OpIndia, CEO Rahul Roushan, and Nupur J Sharma’s husband Vaibhav Sharma. In its order, the details of which were made public by the apex court later in the day, the bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh made it evidently clear that the State cannot use force to browbeat opinions.

While making some scathing observations against the West Bengal government, the SC also raised concerns about how journalists are having to bear the repercussions of publicly available information. “State force should never be used to either browbeat a political opinion or the journalists suffer the consequences of what is already in public domain,” the bench observed.

The two-judge bench while quashing the FIRs said that they did not want to “let go of the opportunity of saying something which is troubling society and the court”.

“It is undoubtedly the debasement in dialogues which is taking place which needs introspection from the political class across the country. In a country which prides itself on its diversity, there are bound to be different perceptions and opinions which include political opinions,” it observed.

‘Petitioners had only reproduced what politicians had said’: Supreme Court observes while quashing the FIR against the editor-in-chief of OpIndia

The court said the petitioners had only reproduced what politicians had said against each other, and this information was already in the public domain.

The apex court made the aforementioned statement in reference to the first case that was filed in relation to a Hindi article published on OpIndia Hindi on 14th May 2020, which had reported an exchange of words between BJP leader and union minister Debasree Chaudhuri and TMC leaders.

The BJP MP from Raiganj had alleged that Mamata Banerjee is planning to convert West Bengal into an Islamic state and merge it with Bangladesh. It was a report on comments by her, and reactions to the same by TMC leaders, which was also reported by several media organisations. But the Bengal government decided to file FIR against OpIndia English editor and her husband, who are residents of Kolkata, and Vaibhav was summoned to the police station on 16th May.

It may be noted that Vaibhav is not related to OpIndia, but one phone number used by Nupur is registered in his name, and only because of that phone number, he was interrogated by police. During the interrogation on May 16, the police had threatened that if the report is not deleted, they will be arrested. 

Police had even talked to Nupur Sharma’s 68-year old father and issued the same threat. When a copy of the FIR was requested, the police had refused the same.

The other three FIRs registered against OpIndia Editor-in-chief at the behest of West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee were in reference with three other reports published by OpIndia. In one report which was published on October 7, 2020, we wrote on Azan being played at a Durga puja pandal. This was not an OpIndia exclusive but was also reported by several national and local media houses. Moreover, a video of the same had also gone viral on social media. However, the state decided to single out OpIndia and come after us.

Another report which irked the Mamata Banerjee regime was a report on COVID handling in Bengal and one on the Telinipara riots where Hindus were attacked.

After the repeated threats by police to get reports deleted, the four persons targeted by the West Bengal government decided to move Supreme Court relief, and accordingly, a petition was filed on 12th June through advocate Ravi Sharma seeking to quash the FIRs.

The apex court had then stayed three such FIRs in June 2020, and another one in September this year.

Nupur J Sharma forced to leave West Bengal by Mamata regime

In September this year, the OpIndia editor-in-chief wrote how the vindictive Mamata Banerjee government in the state had made it almost impossible for her to follow her instincts and do her job truthfully.

“I have left my home of decades with a heavy heart”, OpIndia editor in chief Nupur J Sharma took to Twitter on Thursday, September 9 to announce that she was forced to leave her home and her loved ones back in Kolkata, West Bengal. She had to flee overnight because of the constant threats she had been receiving from the Mamata Banerjee government in the state.

OpIndia editor-in-chief thanks Supreme Court for upholding the truth

Following the Honourable Supreme Court’s decision to have the West Bengal government withdraw all four FIRs against OpIndia Editor-in-Chief Nupur J Sharma, she issued an emotional statement thanking OpIndia readers, her team, friends, family, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani and lawyer Ravi Sharma, and, most importantly, the Supreme Court of India for upholding the truth.

“OpIndia took on the malicious, motivated and drunk-on-power state and emerged victorious. This is a victory for every Dharmic voice who fought for us, stood by us and supported us. We will continue to do the work we do and I know you will continue to be our rock”, wrote Nupur J Sharma.

Mountaineer who had found a box of gems from a crashed Air India flight in the French Alps gets to keep half of the treasure

OpIndia Staff
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Mountaineer who had found a box of gems from a crashed Air India flight in the French Alps gets to keep half of the treasure

A French mountaineer who had found a box containing gems and jewellery from the wreckage of a crashed Boeing 707 plane that crashed in 1966 at the Alps will get to keep half of the fortune. The unnamed climber had found the box while climbing atop a glacier in 2013 at the Mont Blanc in the French Alps and had handed over the same to the authorities.

The metal box with emeralds, sapphires and rubies worth around Rs 1.28 crore was found in the wreckage of Air India Flight 101, which had crashed into Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966. The box had an Air India logo on it. The crash had killed all 177 people including passengers and crew on board, and had scattered the wreckage across the mountainside.

The other half of the gems will be kept by the Chamonix town in France, where the box is been kept. After the discovery of the box, the officials tried to locate its owners or heirs, but as it was not successful, the decision to divide the find between the finder and the town was taken.

The Town officials announced in a Facebook post that two gemmology experts sorted and divided the gems into two equal parts. One half was given to the mountaineer while the other half was given to the town.

Chamonix officials announced that they will display their part of the treasure at the recently enlarged and renovated Chamonix Crystals Museum. The new collection will be open for public from December 19.

The man who is getting the other half said that he would use some of the money from selling some gems to renovate his apartment. He also said that he does not regret for being honest and handing over the box to the police instead of keeping it.

Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said that he was very happy with the development, and praised the man for his “integrity” in turning his find over to police, which is required as per law.

The Boeing 707 had crashed at almost exactly the same spot where another Air India flight had crashed in 1950, the Air India Flight. The crash of that Lockheed Constellation aircraft had also killed all 48 people aboard. The wreckage of both the flights was buried by snow and were hidden and preserved for decades.

However, global warming has caused the melting of the snow, and in recent years, the wreckage of the planes, remains of some victims and bodies of mountain climbers etc have been discovered on Mont Blanc. A year before the box was found, a bag of diplomatic mail, stamped ‘On Indian Government Service, Diplomatic Mail, Ministry of External Affairs’, was recovered in 2012, which was collected by Indian officials.

The melting glacier had also unearthed copies of Indian newspapers from the day, with headlines announcing that Indira Gandhi is the new prime minister of the country. Similarly, wreckage, luggage and other remains of both the flights are regularly discovered.

The plane crashed because the pilot had wrongly assumed that the plane had crossed the peak of the mountain, and had started to descend for landing, and directly crashed into the mountain. The Air India flight 101, named ‘Kanchenjunga’, was flying from Bombay to London, with stops at Delhi, Beirut, and Geneva.

The 1966 crash was also subject to conspiracy theories because one of the passengers killed in the accident was Homi Jehangir Bhabha, father of India’s nuclear industry.

J and K Bank suspends employee for making derogatory remarks after CDS Bipin Rawat’s death

OpIndia Staff
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J and K Bank suspends employee for making derogatory remarks after CDS Bipin Rawat’s death

The Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Srinagar has suspended an employee named Afreen Hassan Naqash for making derogatory remarks on a social media platform after the tragic death of Bipin Rawat, according to reports.

The bank has stated in its suspension order that the employee has misused the social media platform in spite of several circulars issued by the bank against such behaviour.

Source: @Spoof_Junkey/Twitter
Source: @Spoof_Junkey/Twitter

The order dated December 9 2021 said, “Despite repeated circulars issued from time to time against misuse of social media platforms by employees contrary to interests/rules of the Bank. in one such incident, one of our employees has made derogatory comments/remarks on the social media platform on a tragic accident.”

The order pointed out that the contents posted by the employee were ‘purely defamatory and against the service rules of conduct. It said, “The contents are purely defamatory and not in consonance with the conduct rules governing the services of an employee and tantamounts to misconduct”

Further, the order stated that disciplinary proceedings were initiated against her and that she was put under suspension immediately.

Earlier, IIT Delhi had taken cognizance of the display of insensitivity by one Ram Pabaharan after the tragic incident of the helicopter crash that led to the death of CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife and other top armed forces personnel on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. Professor V. Ramagopal Rao, Director of IIT Delhi stated that the institute will investigate the matter and take further action.

In another incident, Prabal Chatterjee, an employee of the South Eastern railways had mocked the death of CDS Bipin Rawat. Prabal Chatterjee had been reportedly detained at Mathura, though the details have not been confirmed yet.

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait greeted with ‘Go Back’ slogans outside CDS General Bipin Rawat’s residence

OpIndia Staff
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BKU leader Rakesh Tikait greeted with ‘Go Back’ slogans outside CDS General Bipin Rawat’s residence

Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Friday was greeted with ‘Go Back’ slogans outside the residence of CDS General Bipin Rawat when he was on his way to pay his last respect to the martyred officer.

A massive throng of people who had gathered around the General’s residence chanted ‘Go Back Rakesh Tikait’ as the BKU leader tried to approach the CDS’ home to pay his homage.

Besides ‘Go Back Rakesh Tikait’, people also chanted ‘Rakesh Tikait Murdabad’, ‘Desh Drohi(Traitor) Rakesh Tikait’ as they protested against the BKU leader’s visit to the decedent CDS’ residence. As can be seen in the video embedded in the above tweet, as soon as Rakesh Tikait tried to enter through the barricades placed outside the CDS General’s residence, a legion of people started protesting against his entry and raised slogans against him.

Last rites of CDS Bipin Rawat, his wife and Brigadier Lidder

The mortal remains of General Bipin Rawat, the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), were cremated with full military honours today in the Brar Square crematorium in Delhi. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttarakhand CM and Delhi CM paid homage to the late Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat at Brar Square in Delhi. The Rawats, along with 11 others, were killed in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor on Wednesday.

CDS Gen Bipin Rawat and 12 others die in a chopper crash

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat died in a helicopter crash on December 8 while he was on his way from Sulur Air Force base in Tamil Nadu to Wellington where he was to deliver a lecture in Defence Staff college. Gen Rawat along with his wife Madhulika Rawat and other senior officials were onboard the aircraft. Gen Rawat was shifted to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to the burn injuries. His wife, too, succumbed to the burns.

The IAF Mi17V5 helicopter had crashed in the Nilgiris near Wellington. Among the 14 passengers, CDS General Bipin Rawat, his wife Mrs Madhulika Rawat, Brigadier LS Lidder, Lt Col H Singh, Naik Gursewak Singh, Naik Jitender, LN Vivek, LN Sai Teja, Havildar Satpal, WC PS Chouhan, Sqn Ldr K Singh, JWO Das, JWO Pradeep A had succumbed to fatal injuries. Group Captain Varun Singh (Shaurya Chakra) is the sole survivor of the crash who is critical and is currently struggling for life in Bengaluru.

Have you seen the video of late CDS Bipin Rawat’s face carved on a leaf? Here is the artist who made it

OpIndia Staff
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Have you seen the video of late CDS Bipin Rawat’s face carved on a leaf? Here is the artist who made it

Tributes have been pouring in from all quarters as the country’s decorated officer CDS Bipin Rawat left for his heavenly abode after the fatal crash of the Mi-17V5 Indian Air Force chopper on Wednesday, December 8. Amidst many such tributes pouring in for the fallen soldier, one particular has gone viral on social media. Since yesterday, several people on social media, including Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, actor Anupam Kher, Mahindra Group boss and Padma awardee Anand Mahindra and IPS officer HGS Dhaliwal have shared the leaf tribute created by and Karnataka-based artist Shashi Adkar for late CDS Rawat.  

The artist shared his one-of-a-kind masterpiece on Facebook yesterday, in which he deftly carved CDS Bipin Rawat’s picture out of a peepal leaf. In a 0.26 video, Sandesh showed off his flawless piece of artwork, where he trimmed the epidermis of a peepal leaf with the most delicate and meticulous strokes to produce an identical image of the late CDS.

Sandesh Adkar, Shashi’s younger brother shared his brother’s artwork on Twitter captioning his post : “Om Shanthi adgpi Bipin Rawat Sir”, coupled with a crying face and folded hands emoji.

This Tweet was soon picked up and reshared by many social media users. At the time of writing this report, the video had amassed over 23.3K likes, 5.6K reshares and 235 comments.

OpIndia spoke to Sandesh Adkar, Shashi Adkar’s younger brother who told us that professionally, Shashi helps his uncle in his business of building stage platforms for theatres and events. Shashi pursues this art form as a hobby said Sandesh, adding that Shashi suffers from a disability in his one leg but has never let this disability change his goals in life.

Artist gave similar tribute with his leaf art to Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar

On October 30, the artist had also paid a similar tribute to Kannada superstar Puneeth Rajkumar.

According to his Facebook profile, Shashi Adkar, who currently resides in Mangaluru, originally hails from Sullis in Dakshina Kannada district of the state of Karnataka. He has done his schooling at Payaswini High School Jalsoor in Sullia, Karnataka and graduated from SSPU college Subrahmanya.

Last rites of CDS Bipin Rawat, his wife and Brigadier Lidder

The mortal remains of General Bipin Rawat, the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), is being cremated with full military honours today in the Brar Square crematorium in Delhi. Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Uttarakhand CM and Delhi CM paid homage to the late Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and his wife Madhulika Rawat at Brar Square in Delhi. The Rawats, along with 11 others, were killed in a helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor on Wednesday.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra greeted by resignations of party leaders during her Goa visit

OpIndia Staff
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Priyanka Gandhi Vadra greeted by resignations of party leaders during her Goa visit

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday (December 10) was greeted by a spate of resignation from party leaders and workers as she landed in Goa to launch the campaign for assembly elections in the state. She interacted with youths as well as tribal Women, at Morpirla village in Goa.

While Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is appealing to people to join and vote the Congress, leaders and workers of the Goa unit are confused about the party’s proposed alliance with like-minded forces to unseat the BJP from power in the 2022 assembly election.

A group of Congress leaders from the Porvorim assembly constituency, having the support of Independent MLA Rohan Khaunte, resigned from the party. Leaders claimed that the Congress leadership lacks seriousness to contest Goa assembly polls scheduled the next year.

Gupesh Naik, a former zilla panchayat member who is leading the Porvorim group, told the media that the Congress party has not shown seriousness to contest upcoming Goa elections. He alleged that Congress has become a non-starter due to the attitude of some of its leaders.

Senior Congress leader from Curtorim of South Goa, Moreno Rebelo too has resigned from the post of secretary of state unit as well as from the primary membership of the party.

Rebelo in his resignation letter addressed to Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar questioned the promotion of Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco as working president of the party.

Rebelo said that Reginaldo never participated in any party activity for the last four-and-half years. He abused the party leaders and also worked against the official party candidate of Curtorim and Raia in the recently held Zilla Panchayat election. Besides, Reginaldo was declared as a party candidate by senior leaders during a recently held convention.

Conflicts and confusions prevail among top leaders also

Last week, the Congress and Goa Forward Party (GEP) agreed to forge an alliance for the assembly polls. The decision was taken in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. Opposition leader Digambar Kamat, GFP president Vijai Sardesai and Congress’ Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao held a meeting with Rahul Gandhi and decided to come together.

But the AICC Goa election in-charge P. Chidambaram is clueless about the Congress GFP alliance. He said that GFP had only extended support to Congress and refused to term it as an alliance at this stage. Mr Chidambaram had said, “So far we had one party leader Vijai Sardesai who came to Delhi and said, ‘in order to defeat BJP, my party offers support to the Congress party’. Rahul Gandhi said we accept the support. All other details have to be discussed further.”

Within minutes of Chidambaram’s statement, Dinesh Gundu Rao tweeted said that he has invited Vijai Sardesai for a meeting with the Goa Congress president and others on December 11.

Mumbai: Cops arrest one Saif Ali for murdering neighbour over loud music

OpIndia Staff
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Mumbai: Cops arrest one Saif Ali for murdering neighbour over loud music

On Wednesday (December 8), the police arrested a 25-year-old man by the name of Saif Ali Chand Ali Sheikh for murdering his neighbour over loud music. The incident took place in Ekta Chawl society in Ambujwadi in the Malad West area of Mumbai, Maharashtra.

As per reports, the deceased was identified as 47-year-old Surendra Kumar Gunnar. He was listening to music on his tape recorder outside his house. Irked by the supposedly loud music, Sheikh asked Gunnar to lower the volume. However, the latter refused to do so. An agitated Sheikh then went on to throw blows at the victim, resulting in head injuries. The Times of India reported that Sheikh banged Gunnar’s head on the floor, following which the latter fell unconscious and bled excessively. He was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.

Screengrab of the news report by The Times of India

Following a complaint by the victim’s wife, Saif Ali Chand Ali Sheikh was arrested under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions. The duo were labourers by occupation. While speaking about the matter, a police officer said that the intention of the fatal attack was not to murder the victim. Police Inspector (Crime) Arjuna Rajane informed, “He was produced before a magistrate court and remanded to our custody.”

Allahabad HC grants protection from arrest to Saghir Khan who had urged Muslims to seek revenge in case Ayodhya verdict was in Hindu’s favour

OpIndia Staff
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Allahabad HC grants protection from arrest to Saghir Khan who had urged Muslims to seek revenge in case Ayodhya verdict was in Hindu’s favour

The Allahabad High Court has granted protection from arrest to one Muhammad Saghir Khan, who had urged Muslims to seek revenge if the Supreme Court’s 2019 Ayodhya verdict was in favour of the Hindu community.

While granting protection last week, the Allahabad HC bench of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Saroj Yadav observed that the speech rendered by the petitioner Muhammad Saghir Khan in 2019 does not reflect or urge the Muslims to engage in any criminal conduct by rebelling or using violence.

The court said that the allegations in the FIR did not render any offence under section 124-A of IPC (Sedition). The bench opined: “We prima facie do not find anything which suggests that the petitioner in the meeting addressing the Muslims youths appear to have incited the person present there to create disturbance of public peace by taking recourse to violent means.”

The court was hearing the plea of Muhammad Saghir Khan who had moved the court challenging an FIR registered against him under Sections 124-A, 153, 153-A, 153-B, 505 (1)(b)(c) of IPC.

According to the FIR, prior to SC’s Ayodhya verdict in November 2019, Muhammad Saghir Khan had said: ‘in case the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court is rendered in favour of one community then Muslims should be ready to take steps to counter the same and that they should take revenge in their own manner’. Khan had also urged his people to circulate the message via Whatsapp.

However, Khan challenged the claims before the court, claiming that the allegations against him were untrue and that he had been needlessly hounded for political and extraneous reasons.

SC hands over the Ayodhya land to Hindus, Islamists cry foul

Interestingly, ever since the apex court handed over the Ayodhya land to Hindus, Islamists have been whining and crying, pointing out that the judgment favouring Hindus was a form of injustice against Muslims.

In a historic judgement ending a dispute spanning centuries, the Supreme Court of India on November 9, 2019, handed over the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri masjid land to the Hindu parties, making way for Hindu devotees to have a grand Ram Mandir at the birthplace of Lord Ram. The Apex court also ordered the union government to provide 5 acres of land at an alternate site at a prominent location in Ayodhya to the Sunni Waqf Board to rebuild the Babri Masjid which was demolished in 1992.

The 5-judge bench of the supreme court delivered a unanimous judgement in the Ram Janmabhoomi case. The top 5 senior judges came to the decision after weighing the arguments presented by all sides for 40 days. 

The construction of Bhavya Ram Mandir

After the formation of Ram Mandir Trust in 2020, as per Supreme Court guidelines, the Bhoomi Pujan ceremony was conducted on August 5, 2020, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other religious and political leaders. The foundation work for the temple is almost complete. L&T is taking care of the construction. Ram Mandir is being built using the donations from the devotees from across the country collected via donation drive under the supervision of Ram Mandir Trust. The construction is expected to be completed by December 2023.

UK High Court says Julian Assange can be extradited to USA, overturns lower court order

OpIndia Staff
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UK High Court says Julian Assange can be extradited to USA, overturns lower court order

The High Court in the UK has allowed the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to the USA. As per reports, the government of the USA has won its appeal in the UK High Court against the order of a lower court, which had said in January that Assange should not be extradited to the USA.

Assange’s fiance Stella Morris has called the High Court’s decision a ‘grave miscarriage of justice’.

Earlier today, High Court judge Timothy Holroyde announced that the US government’s appeal is allowed. As per reports, though the decision ups the possibility for Assange’s extradition to the USA where he is facing life imprisonment, his defence lawyers still have the right to appeal against the verdict.

Assange being persecuted by USA govt for exposing warcrimes

Ironically, this verdict has come on International Human Rights day. The USA, the nation which lectures every other nation on earth about human rights and press freedom, is persecuting a journalist for doing his job.

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, is currently under imprisonment at one of the harshest jails in the United Kingdom for exposing US war crimes and their undercover secrets. He has been lodged in prison since 2019 when he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He had taken refuge in 2012 in the Embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over a sexual assault case that was subsequently dropped in November 2019.

He was indicted by US authorities on 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse related to the publication of secret US military documents that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

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