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Letters between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten still remain a secret even as some diaries of the last viceroy of India get published for the first time

OpIndia Staff
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Letters between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten still remain a secret even as some diaries of the last viceroy of India get published for the first time

On July 22, personal diaries and letters of Lord and Lady Mountbatten that are available in the Broadland Archive were released digitally. The letter was published online four days after an early day motion signed by 22 British MPs was tabled in the House of Commons that called for the publication of the documents without any further delay and obfuscation.

These documents would possibly shed light on the relationship between Edwina Mountbatten and former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the royal family, how fair the India-Pakistan partition was, and what Mountbatten thought of Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. While documents till 1960 were released, 1947-48 diaries and letters were withheld.

Andrew Lownie, author of “The Mountbattens”, spent Rs 2 crore (£250,000) and raised another Rs 51 lakh (£50,000) through crowdfunding for the court case to get all the documents up to 1960 and the letters that the couple wrote to each other released.

As directed by the Cabinet Office, the University of Southampton, that as the diaries and letters of the Mountbattens as part of an archive they had bought, had closed off all 47 volumes of Lord Mountbatten’s diaries and all 36 volumes of Lady Mountbatten’s diaries, and their letters to each other.

It is believed that the diaries for 1947 and 1948 might reveal a lot about what Mountbatten thought of Jinnah, Gandhi, Nehru and the British officials like Cyril Radcliffe, who was the one who drew the boundary between India and Pakistan. These documents might have crucial information about how close they were to Nehru and how impartial or not they were over the partition. According to Lownie, “These are crucial questions if we are looking at Indian Independence and Partition and an important source for Indian historians.”

The relationship between Nehru and Edwina

There is no secret that there was an affair between Edwina, wife of Lord Mountbatten and the first Prime Minister of Independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru. In an article in Daily Mail, it was described how Mountbatten fell in love with Nehru and how her promiscuity took a toll on her children. According to Lady Mountbatten’s daughter Pamela, ‘She found in Panditji [Nehru] the companionship and equality of spirit and intellect that she craved. Each helped overcome loneliness in the other.’

The relationship found its way into the popular Netflix series The Crown, which is a historical drama that chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth from her younger days to her reign and gives a glimpse into the personal life of the royals. Lord Mountbatten was also the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth. There are a few references to Lord Mountbatten and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

In the first season’s first episode, during the wedding ceremony of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at first Winston Churchill appeared to be referring to Lord Mountbatten as the man who gave away India. In the same sequence, few other people too said the same. In the second season, Lord Mountbatten appeared to accept the affair his wife had with Jawaharlal Nehru to Queen Elizabeth.

Notably, Edwina was buried at sea by Lord Mountbatten in accordance with her wishes. At that time, Nehru had sent the Indian Navy frigate INS Trishul as an escort and had a wreath cast in her memory. Lady Pamela Hicks, daughter of Lady Mountbatten, also says that on her death in 1960, Edwina was buried at sea as per her wish. As her bereaved family steamed away from the scene after casting wreaths at the spot, the Indian frigate INS Trishul “quietly took our place and, on Panditji’s instructions, marigolds were scattered upon the waves”.

World Sikh Organisation wants CAA-like law in Canada for Sikhs and Hindus escaping from Islamic countries

OpIndia Staff
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World Sikh Organisation wants CAA-like law in Canada for Sikhs and Hindus escaping from Islamic countries

On July 19, World Sikh Organization, Canada, has urged the Canadian government to launch a special program for Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. In this regard, The Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation, Khalsa Aid Canada, and the World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) had issued a joint statement.

In their statement, they urged the Canadian government to create a special program for highly vulnerable Sikh and Hindu minorities in Afghanistan. It read, “As the situation on the ground in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, we are seeing Afghan interpreters who worked side by side with Canadians, coming under threat and fearing for their lives.” They urged the Government of Canada to act swiftly to provide safety to the vulnerable population in war-torn Afghanistan.

The Organization claimed that the Hindus and Sikhs who have moved to India after the suicide attack on Gurdwara Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib in Kabul in March 2020 have no viable option of resettlement. Notably, On May 20 this year, the government of India had invited applications for non-Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh to grant Indian citizenship. The said order to grant such refugees citizenship was not a part of CAA.

The statement quoting Tarjinder Bhullar of the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation further added, “Now is the time for progress to be expedited to ensure that we can assist as many Afghan Sikhs and Hindus that face deep uncertainty and imminent danger on an hourly and daily basis.” WSO President was quoted saying that it is time to act; otherwise, Hindus and Sikhs remaining in Afghanistan would be targeted and killed.

On July 22, Aaj Tak reported that out of 60 Sikh and Hindu families living in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 53 had moved to India amidst an ongoing war-like situation in the country. Only seven families are still living in a Gurudwara in Jalalabad. On July 21, Times of India had reported that Sikhs and Hindus living in Afghanistan had urged the international community to help them before its too late. Gurnam Singh, president of Gurdwara Kartae Parwan, Kabul, said there were around 150 Sikhs and Hindus living in Kabul under constant fear of Taliban. He added, “For now, we are living in Kabul and are safe but for nobody knows for how long we will remain safe.”

WSO had called CAA a controversial law

WSO has been urging the Canadian government to create a special program under Section 25.2 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to ensure “to bring these vulnerable individuals to safety.” The demand for a special law for the persecuted minorities’ safety is very much similar to what CAA is aimed at. However, the Organization had categorically called it a “controversial act” repeatedly since it was passed in 2019.

WSO had blamed Hindus for Delhi Riots 2020

Notably, WSO had blamed Hindus for the Delhi Riots that erupted in February 2020 following the protests against CAA. Blaming Kapil Mishra for inciting the riots, the Organization said, “Once again, we are seeing communal attacks on minorities in India with police assisting the mobs and themselves engaging in violence.  Reporters have also been attacked.  It is deeply disturbing that it was a member [Kapil Mishra] of the ruling BJP party that had warned of violence if the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) did not end.”

They added, “India has repeatedly seen attacks against minorities, including Sikhs, Muslims and Christians, that have been either sanctioned by the state or ignored.”

Over 100 people die as floods inundate parts of Maharashtra, IMD issues red alert for 6 districts

OpIndia Staff
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Over 100 people die as floods inundate parts of Maharashtra, IMD issues red alert for 6 districts

Over hundreds of people have lost their lives and thousands shifted to safer places as heavy rains pummel several areas in Maharashtra. The state has experienced its heaviest July rain in decades.

According to news agency ANI, as many as 112 people have died and 1,35,000 people have been evacuated and moved to safer places from flood-affected areas in the state. A total of 53 people were injured and 99 are missing.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for six districts, namely Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan and Pune, Satara and Kolhapur in western Maharashtra. The department has forecasted “extremely heavy” rainfall and recommended preventive actions.

NDRF said its 34 teams are engaged in relief and rescue operations in Mumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri, Palghar, Raigad, Sahara, Sangli, Sindhudurg Nagar and Kolhapur in coordination with the state administration.

As heavy rains continue to overwhelm hundreds of villages, sweeping away houses and leaving residents stranded, additional eight teams, four each from Kolkata and Vadodara, are being airlifted to Maharashtra. Also, 3 units each of Indian Army and Indian Coast Guard, 7 of Indian Navy and 1 of Indian Air Force, besides local authorities, are engaged in the rescue operations nonstop for the past over 24 hours. 

According to reports, at least 136 people have died in rain-related incidents, including landslides and floods, in the state over the last few days, officials said on Saturday. Most of the deaths are reported from Raigad and Satara districts, the official said.

The deceased included 38 people who died in a landslide in a village in the coastal Raigad district’s Mahad tehsil on Thursday and 27 in Satara, as per officials. The landslide in Raigad district took place near Talai village in Mahad tehsil on Thursday evening. 

Apart from the Raigad district, landslides were also reported in Ambeghar and Mirgaon villages in Satara during Thursday night. As per officials, as many as 379 villages in the district were affected due to heavy rains over the last three days and more than 5,000 people were shifted to safer places, as per the local administration. The death count in Satara rose to 28 by late Saturday evening while at least 14 persons are still reported to be missing. 

Besides, Kohlapur and Sangli are the other two worst flood-affected areas in Maharashtra. According to reports, more than 75,000 people have been evacuated and shifted from Kohlapur. The district has reported 7 deaths so far.

In a video shared by ANI on Saturday, the Indian Air Force (IAF) can be seen airlifting relief materials and NDRF personnel in continuation of flood relief efforts in Maharashtra.

Reports suggest that Taliye is another area that has been hit hard by the incessant rains in the state. Here the toll from landslides and flooding went up to 112 on Saturday. Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray visited Taliye on July 24 (Saturday) to take stock of the situation. He assured assistance to the people affected by the floods in the area.

The Maharashtra government has announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each for the kin of those who have been killed in the landslides caused by incessant rains in the state. The injured will be treated in hospitals at government expense, the statement from Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s office said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed pain on the loss of lives and said would provide assistance to the affected.

West Bengal: Two more accused arrested for brutal murder of BJP worker Avijit Sarkar during post-poll violence

OpIndia Staff
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West Bengal: Two more accused arrested for brutal murder of BJP worker Avijit Sarkar during post-poll violence

On Saturday (July 4), the police arrested two more accused involved in the gruesome murder of BJP worker Avijit Sarkar in the Narkeldanga area of Kolkata. Sarkar was killed shortly after the results of West Bengal Vidhan Sabha polls were announced on May 2.

As per reports, the two accused have been identified as 26-year-old Sanjay Dey and 25-year-old Avijit Dey. The duo was arrested from their relative’s residence in Chandannagar in the Hooghly district. They were produced before a local court yesterday. While speaking about the matter, Joint Commissioner (Kolkata police) Murlidhar Sharma informed, “Two more FIR named accused persons have been arrested. With these, a total of seven out of eight people named in the FIR have been arrested.”

The said arrests were made only after a 5-Judge Bench of Calcutta High Court observed that the West Bengal government failed to investigate complaints of post-poll violence. On Thursday (July 22), the Court stated, “The proceedings have become adversarial because the state has failed to properly investigate.” Earlier, the police had arrested 5 other accused, namely, Sufal Das (alias Ruidas), Sanjay Das (Alias Rana), Sanjat Samanta, Samir Samanta, and one other accused.

(Video Courtesy: Youtube/ ABP Ananda)

NHRC report and observations by Calcutta High Court

According to ABP Ananda, the case was initially probed by the Narkeldanga police station. Later, it was transferred to the Detective Department of the Kolkata police following public outrage. The brutal murder of Avijit Sarkar featured prominently in the report submitted by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on July 13 before the Calcutta High Court. NHRC condemned the ‘pernicious politico-bureaucratic-criminal nexus’, demanded a CBI investigation, and called for conducting the trial outside West Bengal.

While noting that only 3% of the accused in West Bengal post-poll violence were behind bars, NHRC stated, “The situation in the state of West Bengal is a manifestation of the law of ruler, instead of rule of law…This was retributive violence by supporters of the ruling party against supporters of the main opposition party.” Earlier on July 2, the Calcutta High Court ordered a second autopsy of the deceased BJP worker and asked the report to be submitted within a week’s time. The development came after a complaint by his brother Biswajit Sarkar, who alleged that Avijit’s corpse was destroyed by maggots in the morgue.

The gruesome murder of Avijit Sarkar

On May 2, BJP worker Avijit Sarkar took to Facebook to narrate the harrowing tale of violence that he was subjected to by the TMC goons. The video was uploaded just hours before he was lynched to death by the miscreants. “I don’t know how to come live (on Facebook). They hurled bombs right in front of my eyes and vandalised my house and the party office. My only mistake is that I am a BJP worker.,” he recounted.

Pointing towards his dog, he lamented, “I had brought her from Sealdah. She had given birth to some puppies. They slaughtered the puppies mercilessly.” The BJP worker broke down into tears. He said that the attack took place in Ward no. 30 in the Beleghata neighbourhood in Kolkata under the supervision of TMC leaders Paresh Paul and Swapan Samandar. Sarkar recounted that his puppies were also hacked to death by the accused.

The victim, an office-bearer of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Trade Union Council, had repsonded to a knock at his door. Avijit Sarkar was then dragged outside, brutally assaulted, and strangled with a cable TV wire. His dead body was later discovered at some distance from his house.

From overstating expenses to siphoning off of the profits: What the Income Tax dept raids at Dainik Bhaskar group offices revealed

OpIndia Staff
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From overstating expenses to siphoning off of the profits: What the Income Tax dept raids at Dainik Bhaskar group offices revealed

Two days after the raids on the Dainik Bhaskar group, the Income Tax Department put out a statement detailing the series of irregularities and violations that the conglomerate had indulged in, prompting them to conduct searches against them multiple locations across the country.

In a statement, the Income Tax Department revealed that it has found evidence of profits being siphoned off from listed companies and fictitious transactions of Rs 2,200 crore during the raids on the offices at Dainik Bhaskar group. Similarly, documents relating to unpaid taxes on Rs 700 crore of income over six years, violations of stock market rules have been found in searches at the Dainik Bhaskar Group.

On Thursday, the Income Tax officials had conducted raids at 20 residential and 12 business premises belonging to the Dainik Bhaskar group spread over nine cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bhopal, Indore, Noida and Ahmedabad.

The Income Tax Department said that during the search, they found that the DB group was operating several companies in the names of their employees, which have been used for booking bogus expenses and routing of funds. During the search, several of the employees, whose names were used as shareholders and directors, admitted that they were not aware of such companies and had given their Aadhaar card and digital signature to the employer in good faith.

“Some were found to be relatives, who had willingly and knowingly signed the papers but had no knowledge or control of the business activities of the companies, in which they were supposed to be directors and shareholders,” the statement said.

Booked bogus expenses, siphoned off profits

The Dainik Bhaskar group used such companies for multiple purposes, including booking bogus expenses and siphoning off the profits from listed companies, routing of funds so siphoned into their closely held companies to make investments, making of circular transactions etc.

The nature of such bogus expenditures includes the supply of manpower, transport, logistics and civil works and fictitious trade payables, resulting in evasion of taxes to the amount of Rs.700 crore spread over a period of six years. The Income Tax Department suspects that the quantum of evasion may be more as the group has used multiple layers. The IT department is probing to unravel the entire money trail.

Further, the IT department has found the company was involved in cyclical trading and transfer of funds among group companies to the tune of Rs 2200 crore. The investigations have revealed that the company was involved in fictitious transactions without any actual movement or delivery of goods. The tax effect and violation of other laws are being examined.

“The real estate entity of the group operating a Mall had been sanctioned a term loan of Rs 597 crore from a nationalised Bank. Out of this, an amount of Rs.408 crore has been diverted to a sister concern as a loan at a low-interest rate of 1%. While the real estate company has been claiming expenses of interest from its taxable profit, it has been diverted for personal investments of the holding company,” the Income Tax Department said in a statement.

The Dainik Bhaskar Group, which operates more than 100 companies, did barter deals for advertisement revenues through its media channel, in which it received immovable properties in lieu of actual payments, the department said. The IT department has found evidence indicating cash receipts in respect of the subsequent sale of such properties.

Meanwhile, the IT department has also found 26 lockers at the residential premises of the promoters and key employees of the group, which are being operated. The voluminous material found during the search operations is being examined, it said.

IT Raids against Dainik Bhaskar Group

On Thursday, Income Tax Department carried out raids at media house Dainik Bhaskar’s offices across multiple locations.

The Income Tax Department conducted raids in as many as 40 locations, including Bhopal, Jaipur, Ahmedabad. As per sources, the raids started at around 4:30 AM on Thursday after it received a tip-off of alleged tax evasion by the group.

The IT department said that the group has more than 100 companies, including holding and subsidiary companies. The flagship company is DB Corp Ltd, which publishes the news daily Dainik Bhaskar. Besides media, the group is involved in various sectors such as power, textiles and real estate, with a group turnover of more than Rs 6,000 crore per annum.

Headquartered in Madhya Pradesh, Dainik Bhaskar is one of the leading dailies with over 60 editions in multiple languages.

Did you know that you can get tax free income if you inform govt about smugglers? This and more as OpIndia’s Nirwa Mehta chats with Dr Kiran Kumar Karlapu, IRS

OpIndia Staff
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Did you know that you can get tax free income if you inform govt about smugglers? This and more as OpIndia’s Nirwa Mehta chats with Dr Kiran Kumar Karlapu, IRS

Did you know that the code name for smuggled gold bars is ‘Cadbury’ because of the size and shape? Or that Customs officials have developed a sixth sense to sometimes catch gold smugglers at airports? Oh, did you know how the smugglers smuggle gold hidden in their rectum and how Customs officials retrieve it?

OpIndia Editor Nirwa Mehta, in a freewheeling chat with Dr Kiran Kumar Karlapu spoke about this and a lot more.

All things you may or may not wanted to know about pichhe se sona kaise nikalta hai.

Amongst other things, Dr Kiran mentions how informants, who give tipoffs to Customs officials can get up to 20% of the value of the goods retrieved. And all this is tax free.

You can follow Dr Kiran Kumar Karlapu on Twitter @scarysouthpaw and Nirwa Mehta on @nirwamehta.

Bollywood entertainer Alia Bhatt shares 2012 London Olympics picture as current Tokyo games, gets mocked

OpIndia Staff
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Bollywood entertainer Alia Bhatt shares 2012 London Olympics picture as current Tokyo games, gets mocked

Bollywood entertainer Alia Bhatt on Friday shared an image of Indian contingent from 2012 London Summer Olympics as that of Tokyo 2020 Games.

Alia Bhatt’s Instagram post

Taking to Instagram, Bhatt tweeted an image opening ceremony of London Olympics with hashtag of Tokyo 2021. An Indian woman, Madhura Honey, had gatecrashed the Indian contingent back then and walked alongside the athletes during the opening ceremony. She could be seen wearing the red jacket and blue jeans in the image shared by Bhatt.

Bhatt, daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and his wife and former actress Soni Razdan, however, was mocked at for sharing wrong image of the wrong Indian contingent of athletes.

Netizens also pointed out that one of the athletes present in the contingent is wrestler Sushil Kumar, who is currently lodged in jail over murder charges.

Some even resorted to self deprecating humour.

During such depressing times, seems like Alia Bhatt offered some entertainment to netizens.

Meanwhile, Team India has opened its tally on day one of Olympics with Mirabai Chanu won the silver medal in the 49kg category of weightlifting.

Hindustan Times tries to whitewash the Batla house encounter convicted terrorist Ariz Khan, quietly deletes post after being caught

OpIndia Staff
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Hindustan Times tries to whitewash the Batla house encounter convicted terrorist Ariz Khan, quietly deletes post after being caught

The Indian Mujahideen terrorist Ariz Khan, who was awarded the death penalty for the murder of decorated Delhi Police Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma in connection with the sensational 2008 Batla House encounter case, has moved the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and sentence. Going by its penchant, the Hindustan Times, has once again attempted to absolve the convicted terrorist from the heinous crime by prefixing the term ‘alleged’ before his name.

Hindustan Times Tweet, which has now been quietly deleted and reposted with a different caption

The mainstream media house while sharing the news on its Twitter handle captioned its Tweet as: “Alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorist Ariz Khan has challenged in the Delhi court his conviction over the killing of inspector Mohan Chand Sharma.

The typical pattern of various media houses, of the likes of Hindustan Times, to humanize the terrorists did not fail to catch the attention of various social media users. @BefittingFacts mocked the media house by saying: “@htTweets you people should try writing “allegedly convicted”

Veteran journalist and Senior Adviser to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Kanchan Gupta schooled Hindustan Times for its biased reportage. Sharing the Tweet by Hindustan Times, he wrote: “Once convicted, an accused is no longer an ‘alleged’ accused”.

It is pertinent to note here that following the outrage Hindustan Times has quietly deleted the Tweet and reposted the news with another caption. “On March 8 this year, Khan, 35, was found guilty of killing inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, and sentenced to death on March 15”, read Hindustan Times new Tweet posted a short while ago.

However, the media house has not posted any sort of apology for the evident mistake it made while posting its previous Tweet. Probably, Hindustan Times had premeditatedly attached the prefix only to whitewash the crime by the terrorist but craftily removed it after being called out. This prospect appears even more plausible considering Hindustan Times previous misconducts.

Here it becomes imperative to recollect how the media house had attempted to water down the Pulwama attack during its first anniversary, by humanizing the terrorist Adil Ahmed Dar. The Hindustan Times article written by habitual Pakistan lover Harinder Baweja wrote in detail about the suicide bomber’s apparent love for cricket. He sneakily added that the terrorist, who had called all Indians ‘cow-piss drinkers’, “always cheered for India”. Basically, through its report, HT had then almost implored its readers to sympathize with the family that has produced three terrorists thus far with the possibility of more joining terrorist ranks. 

Clubhouse Data Leak claim: Experts rubbish Hacker’s claims, data contains only numbers that can be collected from anywhere

OpIndia Staff
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Clubhouse Data Leak claim: Experts rubbish Hacker’s claims, data contains only numbers that can be collected from anywhere

On July 23, a hacker group claimed that they have got access to over 3.8 billion phone numbers from Clubhouse servers. The claim posted on a hackers’ forum alleging the leak states that the list of numbers contains cellphone, fixed, private and professional numbers. The information about the claim was shared on Twitter by Jiten Jain, Director, Voyager Infosec.

The alleged hackers have claimed that they were able to evaluate the level of the network of each phone number in the world. ‘We can do a national and international ranking of each human and organisation’, they claimed, and said that they will sell the data of 3.8 billion phone numbers through a private auction on the 4th September 2021, on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of Google.

Furthermore, the Hacker claims that the Clubhouse connects to users’ phonebooks in real and every time someone adds a new number, it gets synced to the Clubhouse servers. Though the claim is fairly true as it shows who has joined Clubhouse from the phonebook of a user, many fingers are pointing at the claims made by the Hacker.

Posts by the hacker.

Post marked as ‘Bad Sample’

The hackers’ forum has marked the post as Bad Sample, which possibly means that the sample provided by the Hacker has not much ‘useful’ information. When we scanned through the comments on the forum, we noticed that many users on that forum had called his data trash.

Left: Sample provided by the hacker. Right: Users on the forum calling it a trash database.

Experts’ views on the alleged leak

OpIndia contacted Sunny Nehra, Admin at Hacks And Security, to get his point of view over the alleged leak. He said, “I have seen this Hacker making mountainous claims before as well, but in the end, his alleged leaks are mostly fake. The list he is providing contains only phone numbers that can be extracted by any means. There are thousands of databases available for every country with only a list of phone numbers. Who knows if he had just compiled all the lists together and marked it as Clubhouse Leak! To be honest, such forums are mostly full of fakes.”

In a tweet, Nehra said, “News of Clubhouse data breach on #darknet is getting viral. The first thing the seller claims FREE sample, but it requires eight credits to unlock. Second, it’s just random Japan phone numbers. Third, threat actor is quite new on that forum, is least active & habitual to making such lame claims.”

He further added, “The threat actor seems to be scamming users of that forum on the name of #clubhouse #dateleak. Earlier someone made a similar claim, and the data was just scraped public data of clubhouse users. And this one is even more lame. Just providing a random japan numbers list.” Nehra said that such numbers could be generated using a simple script as well.

While talking to OpIndia, Rajshekhar Rajaharia, Internet Security Researcher, said, “Hacker is just selling Clubhouse mobile numbers that seems generated. There is no name, photo or any other details available. This list of phone numbers can be generated very easily. PII (Personal Identification Information) is not available for any number in the database. Data leak claim seems a fake.”

In a tweet, he said, “A #Hacker is allegedly selling a list of 3.8 billion phone numbers of #Clubhouse. Seems completely fake. There are only mobile numbers without names, photos. This list of phone numbers can be generated very easily. PII not available.”

He further added, “This seller has a bad past. Attracting buyers by showing lakhs telegram followers. Seems Fake. This is the same Telegram group that was selling the Fake #Whatsapp database of 470 mn users “Without Name & Photo”. Now they changed the group name from “Whatsapp Database Leak” to “ClubHouse Database Leak”. Now selling fake Clubhouse  numbers without name and photo.”

Co-Founder & CTO at cybercrime intelligence firm Hudson Rock said in a tweet, “The new Clubhouse database leak is pretty much b*llsh*t. It is just a list of phone numbers, without any additional information, they could have arrived from anywhere.”

The experts believe that the alleged leak is not real and such numbers can be generated via simple scripts. The users should not panic and wait for an official statement from ClubHouse.

Jail term for farting? UK ministers claim to have seen ‘credible evidence’ that passing gas can transmit Covid-19

OpIndia Staff
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Jail term for farting? UK ministers claim to have seen ‘credible evidence’ that passing gas can transmit Covid-19

Ministers in the United Kingdom claim to have seen evidence that Covid-19 could be transmitted by farting in public. One of them said they have read “credible-looking stuff on it” from data on other countries, reported The Telegraph.

According to the report, the source claimed that there was evidence of a “genomical-linked tracing connection between two individuals from a [lavatory] cubicle in Australia.” Apparently, there are also “well-documented cases of diseases spreading through waste pipes during lockdowns in Hong Kong when the U-bend had dried out.”

There is no confirmation of the same, however, and one Minister told The Telegraph that Covid-19 is a “respiratory disease, transmission and shedding is mostly taking place through the mouth and actually mainly from the nose.”

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that he was not aware of such claims. “We keep the latest scientific evidence review,” he said.

The claim was first made by an Australian researcher last year. He had said, “I think that what we should do in terms of social distancing and being safe is that … you don’t fart close to other people, and that you don’t fart with your bottom bare.”

Dr. Andy Tagg had claimed, “Well, SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in faeces and has been detected in an asymptomatic individual up to 17 days post-exposure.” He had added, “Perhaps SARS-CoV-2 can be spread through the power of parping – we need more evidence… So remember to wear appropriate PPE at all times and stay safe!”

SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, has been found in the faeces of infected patients. However, it is not confirmed whether transmission is possible through farting.

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