The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the bail plea of former Congress leader and 1984 anti-Sikh riots convict Sajjan Kumar saying his medical condition is stable. The SC additionally remarked that the senior Congress leader cannot be treated like a “VIP patient” and be allowed to be treated in a hospital of his choice.
Kumar who is serving a life sentence for instigating the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre had filed an interim bail citing poor health condition despite receiving the required medical attention. The former Congress leader had reportedly collapsed in jail following which he was undergoing treatment in the Emergency ICU at Safdarjung Hospital.
“You are feeling as if he is the only patient to be treated in the country. He is accused of a series of heinous crimes and you want him to be treated as a super VIP patient. That we won’t permit,” observed a bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
The order came after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed a response saying Kumar’s medical condition was stable and that he had been showing signs of improvement.
The Court, however, said that if the medical authorities find it necessary to shift the accused to Medanta for further treatment, they might do so.
Representing Kumar, senior advocate Vikas Singh had submitted a plea seeking permission to shift the Congress leader to a private hospital for better treatment.
In the previous hearing, the Bench had said, “We want somebody from the state to verify it. We want the state to verify what the medical condition is.”
This is not the first time the Congress leader sought bail on medical grounds after being convicted. The Court had rejected his bail plea last year too.
Convicted in 1984 anti-Sikh riots
Sajjan Kumar was one of the many Congress leaders involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre that happened after the assassination of former PM Indira Gandhi in 1984. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Delhi High Court on December 17, 2018.
He was found responsible for the murder of 5 Sikhs (Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh, and Kuldeep Singh in the Delhi Cantonment area.
Kumar was charged under Section 302 IPC (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy), Section 153A IPC (communal hatred speech) and other relevant sections of the IPC.
Friends and family of late actor Siddharth Shukla have begun arriving at the crematorium in Mumbai’s Oshiwara to perform the last rites. Heartbreaking visuals of his good friend and Bigg Boss co-contestant Shehnaz Gill have surfaced on social media.
Shefali Jariwala, Arti Singh, Sambhavana Seth and Rahul Mahajan also arrived at his residence to pay last respects.
Hailing from Mumbai, the actor garnered a huge fan following after starring in the popular show Balika Vadhu. He had also participated in several TV reality shows like Khatron Ke Khiladi, India’s Got Talent and was also the winner of the last season of Bigg Boss.
The 40-year-old actor suffered a heart attack on Thursday morning. The actor was declared dead on arrival by the Cooper Hospital in Mumbai.
Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari took the first step on Friday to rehabilitate sexual harassment accused Tarun Tejpal. The Tehelka founder was acquitted by a district court in Goa on charges of rape filed by a junior colleague.
The NDA government in Goa has filed an appeal against the acquittal and the Bombay High Court came down harshly on the verdict as well. The Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court noted that the verdict read like a “manual for rape victims” as it had gone on to describe how a victim should or should not respond in such cases.
Source: Twitter
After his acquittal, Tarun Tejpal had thanked multiple Congress leaders for their support. And now, it appears that another senior leader of the party, Manish Tewari, is trying his level best to rehabilitate the alleged sexual predator.
Manish Tewari went to the extent of claiming that Taruj Tejpal was “hugely politically persecuted” and that he has been “honourably exonerated”, thereby contributing to the further trauma of the victim.
Even Rohini Singh of The Wire, in her response to the comment by Tewari, said, “He wasn’t politically persecuted Manish. There were serious charges against him. Women journalists who have worked with him have had similar stories. It is appalling that you are making him out to be the victim here. Shame on you.”
Manish Tewari is also being heavily criticised by people on the social media platform.
Take note of the “Welcome back”. This is how you re-establish rapists into the ecosystem. What else can one expect from a full blown Congressi. https://t.co/8BBw7CSsqG
Tejpal’s acquittal was heavily criticized across all sections of the political spectrum. The Goa Government consequently announced that it will be challenging the acquittal in the Bombay High Court.
Pastor V David, the Chairman of St Pauls College of Arts was arrested by the Coimbatore police on Thursday for inciting communal tension. The pastor had been releasing pamphlets asking people to conduct a ‘prayer yatra’ or a Christian pilgrimage on the day of Vinayaka Chaturthi.
The pamphlet reportedly also carried various controversial comments, taking cognizance of which Hindu Munnani, a Tamil Nadu-based Hindu organization filed a police complaint.
David has been arrested under sections 153 (a) (1) (a), 504 and 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code and has been remanded to 14 days of judicial custody. He is currently lodged in the Central jail.
Hindu Munnani protests against DMK
Meanwhile, the same religious and cultural organization formed to defend Hinduism and Hindu religious monuments held prayer protests outside temples in Tamil Nadu.
Hindu Munnani has taken objection to the ban imposed by the DMK government on placing Ganesh idols in public places or taking out processions this Ganesh Chaturthi.
“No one should ban how one should pray. We are protesting by praying to the gods that the government and bureaucracy be given good sense to allow us to conduct Ganesh Chaturthi,” remarked Meghananthan, the general secretary of the organization.
Hindu Munnani members protest outside a temple. Posters read, “If TASMAC can be open, why can’t we celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi?” Image Source: India Today
They also protested saying if the liquor shops can open attracting huge crowds, why can’t the upcoming Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi be celebrated.
The organization has also announced installing 1 lakh Ganesh idols in the state this season to not let the festival spirit dampen.
With the festival being called off last year due to the pandemic, the idol makers suffered a huge blow and were hopeful of making up this year. However, the government’s ban on the festival has once again landed them in trouble.
A 23-year-old man in Uttar Pradesh has been arrested for allegedly using a fake profile to pose as a woman on Instagram to trap innocent minor girls. The accused lured innocent minor girls into sending him obscene pictures and videos. According to the reports, the accused, identified as Abdul Samad, an air-conditioner mechanic, was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police by tracing him through electronic surveillance from Lucknow.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP South) Atul Kumar Thakur said that the accused Abdul Samad was arrested from his house in Lucknow and recovered his smart mobile phone containing the details of many girls and their obscene videos and photos.
The police said that Samad initiated conversations with teenage children and asked them to send their obscene photographs and videos. The incident came to light after a 15-year-old victim registered a complaint on August 27.
During the investigation, the Uttar Pradesh police sent notices to WhatsApp and Instagram asking them to provide details of mobile numbers and Instagram IDs of the accused. Based on those details, the police team traced the accused from Lucknow.
During interrogation, the accused confessed to the police that he posed as a woman to start conversations with a teenage girl.
The accused had a keen interest in Internet-based social media sites and learnt about them from YouTube, said the police. The accused also learnt about some other applications like “Text Now”, wherein he used to send messages and made video calls to girls through international numbers. He has also represented himself as an NRI from Canada and used the photos of a fair girl as profile pictures, which he had downloaded from the internet, added Atul Kumar Thakur.
The DCP said, “When the girls used to send him their obscene videos and photos, he blackmailed them and also circulated those”. The police officer said that the accused has multiple Instagram IDs and used to keep on making new Instagram IDs so that he would not be traced.
Moeed Yusuf, national security adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan, has chosen to tread the path forged by Imran Khan and was found ranting on Monday about the supposed threat “Modi’s India” posed to the world. Yusuf compared the democratically elected government of India to Nazi Germany and demanded that the world take cognizance of it.
“I hope the world doesn’t wake up to the reality of Modi’s India as late as it did to the internal policy failures in Afghanistan,” said Moeed Yusuf. He claimed that Pakistan had warned that the “military-dominated strategy in Afghanistan was doomed to fail.” The he proceeded to claim that India was a threat to the entire world.
Source: Twitter
“This too will blow up in the face if the world doesn’t acknowledge the fascism of this Hindutva inspired regime,” he added. Yusuf’s cautions about Afghanistan appear a bit hollow given the fact that the primary reason why the country is back under Taliban rule is due to the support it received from Pakistan against the Afghan government.
Furthermore, with its embrace of terrorism as a matter of state policy, Pakistan is an actual legitimate threat to world peace. Yusuf’s rants appear consistent with the rhetoric adopted by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan against India.
On multiple occasions in the past, Imran Khan has accused the Indian Government of being ‘fascist’. “To understand the link between Nazi ideology and the ethnic cleansing & genocide ideology of RSS-BJP Founding Fathers just Google,” he had said in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370.
More recently, during the Pegasus debacle, Pakistan accused the Indian Government of hacking Khan’s phone. Moeed Yusuf, remaining true to his country’s ramblings against the Narendra Modi Government, has decided to peddle the ‘fascist’ line again.
The Delhi High Court on Friday granted bail to 5 people accused in connection with a case pertaining to the murder of head constable Ratan Lal and injuries caused to a DCP during the anti-CAA riots that convulsed the national capital in February 2020.
The high court gave the order on 5 of the 11 pleas filed in the case. The order on pleas filed by 6 other accused will be pronounced sometime next week.
The order was reserved by Justice Subramanium Prasad after hearing detailed arguments proffered by advocates representing the accused and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju and Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad appearing for Delhi police. Citing a large number of accused in the case and the likelihood of different punishments they would get as per their role, Justice Prasad wondered if it would be wise to curtail their liberty till the completion of the trial and decided to grant bail to the accused.
Delhi Police in its charge sheet said Ratan Lal’s murder was part of a deeper conspiracy
Delhi Police had last year filed a charge sheet in connection with the killing of head constable Ratan Lal during the violence that swept northeast Delhi in February that year. The police, in its charge sheet, had stated that the murder of Ratan Lal was a part of a deeper conspiracy to gin up communal riots across the national capital.
The Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police has filed a 1,100-page charge sheet in the murder of Ratan Lal and deadly attacks by rioters on IPS Amit Sharma and IPS Anuj Kumar. At least 17 accused were named on the charge sheet. There were about 4 to 5 key conspirators in this whole case, which includes Salim Khan, Salim Munna and Shadab. The police stated that the riots were engineered in Delhi through a conspiracy to malign the image of the country.
Earlier, Constable Ratan Lal was murdered on February 24 2020 when he was shot at by rioters while patrolling along with his seniors. The police had alleged in the charge sheet that a group of 45 people held a meeting at the basement of a house on February 22, where the conspiracy of the riot was conceived. On February 23, after the conspiracy was hatched, rioters asked senior citizens and children to stay indoors as they ran riot on the streets, indulging in vandalism.
A day later, on February 24, rioters and vandals again hit the streets, damaging public properties, setting vehicles on fire and causing bloodshed. Around 1 PM in the Chand Bagh area, patrolling party in Chand Bagh was vastly outnumbered by a huge crowd of rioters. Senior police officials tried to placate the riotous mob but the crowd turned violent and attacked the police. Head constable Ratan Lal was shot dead by the rioters. Amit Sharma, Anuj Kumar and several policemen received serious injuries, the charge-sheet said.
Local Court pulls up Delhi Police for “callous” probe
Earlier on Thursday, a court in the national capital pulled up the Delhi Police for its unsatisfactory and “callous” probe into the Delhi anti-CAA riots, noting that it “will surely torment the sentinels of democracy”.
The scathing remarks from the court came while discharging three accused in the case related to alleged loot and vandalism in a shop during the riots in the Chand Bagh area. One of the discharged accused was former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain’s brother Shah Alam.
“When history will look back at the worst communal riots since Partition in Delhi, the failure of the investigating agency to conduct a proper investigation by using latest scientific methods will surely torment the sentinels of democracy,” Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav said.
Coming down hard against the police, the court said a lot of time of the judiciary is consumed on cases like the present one, where the police have hardly carried out any investigation. The court witheringly noted that the case seems to have been solved merely by filing the charge sheet without any sincere efforts applied in tracing out the eyewitnesses, real accused persons and technical evidence.
“This court cannot permit such cases to meander mindlessly in the corridors of the judicial system, sweeping away precious judicial time of this court when the same is the open and shut case,” the court said.
Pakistani Prison minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, on Thursday displayed his nibbling skills when he cut a ribbon at inauguration of a store with his bare teeth.
اپنے حلقے میں دوکان کے افتتاح کا انوکھا انداز۔۔۔!!! قینچی کند اور خراب تھی۔۔!!! مالک دوکان کو شرمندگی سے بچانے کے لیے نیا عالمی ریکارڈ قائم کر دیا۔۔!!!@UsmanAKBuzdarpic.twitter.com/MRxedX0ZaB
Video was shared by the Minister from Pakistan’s Punjab on Twitter. He said that he was inaugurating a shop in his constituency and the blunt scissor would not work. So he displayed his skills on ribbon cutting.
This triggered a slew of jokes on the entire incident.
Some even mocked him and claimed that since there is no difference between his tongue and his teeth, one may never know what was used for cutting the ribbon.
Some even complimented him and said that if anyone is invited to ribbon cutting ceremony, they should sharpen their teeth like Chohan, as one may never know.
The makers of the Malayalam movie titled ‘Vaariyamkunnan’ have decided to shelve the project after several people accused the moviemakers of whitewashing the crimes of Jihadists in the name of the freedom movement.
The movie ‘Vaariyamkunnan’ is based on the life of Variamkunnath Kunhamed Haji and Ali Musaliar – the Jihadis responsible for carrying out genocide against thousands of Hindus in Kerala during the early 1920s,
Amidst the growing outrage, the filmmakers have reportedly decided to shelve the controversial project. Director Aashiq Abu has not commented yet, however, sources close to the project said he had cited production issues as the reason for the withdrawal.
According to New Indian Express, the movie ‘Vaariyamkunnan‘ was announced as a joint venture of Compass Movies Ltd and Abu’s OPM Cinemas. However, the producers could not provide sufficient resources to the project, and the differences of opinion led to the scrapping of the project.
Malayalam director Aashiq Abu had cast controversial Malayalam actor Prithviraj Sukumaran in his period film titled ‘Vaariyamkunnan’, which was slated to be released in 2021. The controversial movie is based on the story of the Jihadi leaders of the Moplah community, who massacred thousands of Hindus during the Malabar or Moplah communal riots in 1921.
In June 2020, controversial Malayali actor Prithviraj Sukumaran took to Facebook to announce the new movie and hailed the Jihadists in his post. The actor, sharing the posters of the movie, said Variyam Kunnathu stood up against an empire that ruled a quarter of the world.
The new Malayalam movie on the life of Islamic terrorist Variyam Kunnathu, who had unleashed massive terror on Hindus in the Malabar region of Kerala, had created a massive uproar not just in Kerala but across the country.
The moviemakers were accused of whitewashing the crimes of Jihadists of the Moplah Hindu massacre under the garb of freedom of movement. Several people had raised objections against the movie, alleging that the movie was another attempt to absolve crimes by hailing a terrorist as someone who “rebelled” against the British.
They had alleged it is another attempt to erase the history and also a dangerous act of rewriting the history of Malabar or Moplah Hindu massacres to suit their anti-Hindu narrative.
Earlier, one of the scriptwriters of Abu’s ‘Variyamkunnan’ had also quit from the film after his old controversial Facebook posts had re-surfaced on the internet.
Moplah Hindu genocide and Jihadist Variyam Kunnathu Kunjahammed Haji
Variyam Kunnathu or Chakkiparamban Variyamkunnathu Kunjahammed Haji, who proclaimed himself to be the “Sultan of Eranad” – the region of Kerala where the Moplah genocide occurred, was, in fact, the Father of the Moplah Hindu genocide, who along with Muslim forces looted and massacred Hindus of the region under the garb of rebelling against the British in the early 1920s.
The Moplah Hindu Genocide, also often whitewashed as the Malabar Rebellion, or the Mappila Rebellion, are a series of incidents in the history of the country, where the Muslims did not only butcher Hindus, but also the entire barbarity was erased from history in its entirety, or altered to fit a suitable political narrative.
The four-month period of horror in the Malabar region of Kerala when Muslim rioters carried out a mass genocide against Hindus started as a freedom struggle against the British but ended up being a reason for the Jihadist Variyamkunnathu to wipe out the Hindu population of northern Kerala.
Along with his friend and aid – Ali Musliyar, Variyam Kunnathu led the Moplah riots in Kerala in 1921 and was an active supporter of the Khilafat movement, which eventually led to the partition of the country and the creation of Pakistan. The estimated Hindu deaths of the ethnic cleansing in the Moplah massacre accounts for somewhere around 10,000, and it is believed that as many a 100,000 Hindus were forced to leave Kerala in the wake of the riots.
The number of Hindu Temples that were destroyed in the genocide is speculated to be a hundred. In addition, the forcible conversion of Hindus were rampant and unspeakable atrocities were poured upon Hindus. It can be read about in more detail here.
The atrocities against Hindus were so barbaric that the leading national leaders of the day had to express their shock against the Moplah massacres.
Babasaheb Ambedkar, in his book, Pakistan or the Partition of India, wrote, “The blood-curdling atrocities committed by the Moplas in Malabar against the Hindus were indescribable. All over Southern India, a wave of horrified feeling had spread among the Hindus of every shade of opinion, which was intensified when certain Khilafat leaders were so misguided as to pass resolutions of “congratulations to the Moplas on the brave fight they were conducting for the sake of religion.”
Annie Besant described the events in her book “The Future of Indian Politics” as, “They murdered and plundered abundantly, and killed or drove away all Hindus who would not apostatize. Somewhere about a lakh of people were driven from their homes with nothing but the clothes they had on, stripped of everything. Malabar has taught us what Islamic rule still means, and we do not want to see another specimen of the Khilafat Raj in India.”
The Malayalam movie “Vaariyamkunnan”, produced by a team mostly of Malabar Muslims, may have just thought that they could ignore the massacres unleashed against Hindus by their forefathers and re-write the history to hail the genocide maniac through their films. It looks like good sense has prevailed as they have now decided to shelve their propaganda movie.
The Supreme Court today stayed the 4th FIR filed by the Bengal Government against OpIndia. The petition will now be heard in November according to the Apex Court, and no investigation in the matter can be done in the meantime. The 4th FIR filed in West Bengal was filed in connection to OpIndia’s coverage of the Telinipara riots in Bengal in 2020.
Nupur J Sharma, the editor-in-chief of OpIndia and Rahul Roushan, the CEO were summoned for interrogation by the CID on a Friday earlier this month. The duo had responded requesting for the interrogation to be done via video-conferencing and had also extended their full cooperation to the investigation.
Represented by senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani and Ravi Sharma, the duo had approached the Supreme Court seeking relief. The petition had stated that the 4th FIR is the latest in a series of FIRs that were field maliciously against OpIndia. The first 3 FIRs were stayed by the Supreme Court in 2020.
The petition had argued that even though the 4th FIR was registered in 2020 as well, there was no intimation of the same to the duo. In fact, the FIRs had not even been uploaded on to the website of the Bengal police or the CID. Uploading the FIR registered is mandatory by law.
Arguing this, Mahesh Jethmalani, who is fighting the case pro-bono for Nupur J Sharma and Rahul Roushan argued that the 4th FIR must also be clubbed with the previous 3 FIRs and stayed. The Supreme Court granted relief to the duo and slated the case to be heard in November.
Previous FIRs against OpIndia and its editors in 2020 that was stayed by the Supreme Court
In June 2020, the Supreme Court of India stayed three FIRs filed by the West Bengal government against four persons, three of them associated with OpIndia for articles published over the portal. Fourth individual named in the FIR is Vaibhav Sharma, husband of Nupur J Sharma, not associated with OpIndia. Apart from staying the FIRs, the bench also issued a notice to the West Bengal government.
The FIRs were filed in relation to three different news articles related to West Bengal on the portal. These reports were published by other media outlets also, and some of the OpIndia reports were actually based on other media reports, but the Mamata Banerjee govt had chosen to target only OpIndia for the reports. You can read in detail about it here.
