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‘Mehul Choksi introduced himself as Raj, gifted me fake diamonds’: Alleged girlfriend Barbara Jabarica

OpIndia Staff
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‘Mehul Choksi introduced himself as Raj, gifted me fake diamonds’: Alleged girlfriend Barbara Jabarica

The case of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi is getting murkier every day. Days after it was reported that Mehul Choksi was honey-trapped and abducted with the help of a mystery woman, Barbara Jabarica, the woman in question, revealed in an interview with the Times Now that she did not go to Dominica with him.

Jabarica further added that Mehul was planning to use her as an alibi in case things went wrong for him.

“I have not gone to Dominica with Mehul Choksi,” Barbara Jabarica said.

Clearing the air on her relationship status with Mehul, Barbara said she did not share anything beyond friendship with the fugitive diamantaire. The woman, who was reportedly claimed to have honey trapped Choksi into arrest, also revealed that Mehul had given her a bracelet in April and a ring in May, saying it’s made of diamond. Barbara, however, said that she knew it was a fake. The woman further said that Mehul’s wife was probably unaware of their numerous rendezvous.

In an interview with India Today, Jabarica has revealed that Choksi had introduced himself as ‘Raj’ and had even gifted her fake diamond jewellery.

In a freewheeling interview with Times Now, Barbara also split beans about Mehul Choksi’s plans. She said Mehul asked her if she had been to Cuba and offered to book a flight ticket for her. It is then that she realised that Mehul might be mulling over moving to Cuba.

The woman also accused Mehul of using her as a backup plan and as an alibi if things went south for the fugitive diamantaire. “I think Mehul Choksi considered me as a backup plan and an alibi because I was a tourist,” Barbara said.

Earlier reports suggested Mehul Choksi was planning to settle in Cuba

The revelations made by Barbara jibes with the reports that said that Mehul Choksi might have staged his own abduction. Earlier yesterday, a CNN-News18 report claimed that Choksi had planned his own abduction in connivance with his agent, who purportedly helped him escape from Antigua and Barbuda.

According to the initial probe, the man had planned to take Choksi to Cuba through the sea route, however, the plan was foiled after he was nabbed in Dominica.

Meanwhile, Choksi’s close friend Govin in Antigua revealed that the fugitive holds another citizenship of a Caribbean country, apart from Antigua and Barbuda and exposed his plan to leave Antigua and settle in Cuba. 

Mehul Choksi accuses Barbara of being a part of team that kidnapped him

A couple of days ago, fugitive Mehul Choksi, the uncle of fugitive Nirav Modi, had filed a complaint against Barbara to the Antiguan Police Commissioner. In his complaint, Choksi claimed that he was attacked by 8-10 men when he went to a female friend identified as Barbara Jabarica, his alleged girlfriend. Alleging that she was an integral part of the entire scheme to kidnap him, Choksi claimed she did not attempt to help him while he was being beaten up and placed on small watercraft.

He said, “Over the past year, I have come to be on friendly terms with Barbara Jabarica. She used to originally reside opposite my residential complex in Jolly Harbour but later shifted to the Coco Bay Hotel. She was on friendly terms with my staff and we used to meet and interact regularly, often going for walks in the evenings.” Notably, Choksi’s wife had claimed that he was honey-trapped.

The Mehul Choksi ‘honey trap’ saga

Earlier, reports had claimed that Choksi was honey-trapped by a woman who was possibly in cahoots with a team of men who abducted, tortured and conveyed him to Dominica. A report published in India Today quotes sources close to the fugitive businessmen to claim the woman was part of the team, which was involved in his “abduction, torture and arrest”.

Choksi had gone missing a few days ago from Antigua and Barbuda and was later traced to and arrested in Dominica. The fugitive diamantaire had alleged through his counsel that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour on May 23 and people having links with India were responsible for his abduction.

According to the report, the woman was staying in Antigua and had started meeting Choksi during morning and evening walks. She allegedly befriended Choksi and invited him to come over to her place on May 23. A team was lurking at her residence, waiting for Choksi to turn up. When he did arrive at the woman’s apartment, the group abducted him and spirited him away to Dominica, where he was arrested. 

Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi have fled from India after committing a loan fraud of over 13,000 crores.

‘Journalist’ Tavleen Singh thinks only people below poverty line get free ration: Read who is eligible under National Food Security Act

OpIndia Staff
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‘Journalist’ Tavleen Singh thinks only people below poverty line get free ration: Read who is eligible under National Food Security Act

On June 8, ‘journalist’ Tavleen Singh published a tweet expressing her confusion over the number of people going to be benefitted under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). She said, “The Prime Minister’s decision to give 80 crore Indians free food grain till November is puzzling. Are there that many Indians now below the poverty line?”

Tavleen Singh seems to be unaware who is eligible to receive subsidized foodgrains. Source: Twitter

From her tweet, it can be assumed that she thinks only those families that are below the poverty line are eligible to get subsidised or free ration. If that had been the case, as per the Tendulkar Committee approach, only 21.92% population would have been eligible for receiving ration at a subsidized price. Interestingly, the so-called journalist and her fellow intellectuals seem to be unaware of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and PMGKAY.

Understanding NFSA and PMGKAY

To understand how the government of India claimed that 80 crore people will be benefitted from the extension of the PMGKAY scheme, it is essential to learn about NFSA first. According to the National Food Security Act, all people, at all times, should get access to basic food for their active and healthy life.

It has to be noted that the Constitution of India does not have any explicit provision for the right to food. However, the Fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution may be interpreted to include the right to live with human dignity that may further have the right to food and basic necessities.

The act was enacted on September 10, 2013. It enables the government to provide for food and nutritional security in the human life cycle approach by ensuring access to an adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity and for matters connected in addition to that or incidental thereto.

According to NFSA’s website, out of maximum coverage of 81.34 crore persons, around 80 crore persons have been covered under NFSA at present for receiving highly subsidised foodgrains. It is implemented in all states and UTs. Notably, the states and UTs identify the beneficiaries continuously. It not only covers the inclusion of the persons on account of birth as also that of genuine left-out households but also the exclusion of ineligible/fake/duplicate ration cards and also exclusion on account of death, migration etc.

Cash Transfer of Food Subsidy Rule, 2015

During the initial years, it was noted that in some cases, the beneficiaries were not able to get the subsidised foodgrains. To tackle the non-availability of food grain, the government of India notified the Cash Transfer of Food Subsidy Rule, 2015. Under the said rule, “In case of non-supply of the entitled quantities of foodgrains or meals to entitled persons under NFSA, such persons shall be entitled to receive such food security allowance from the concerned State Government to be paid to each person, within such time and manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government.”

Classification of Ration Cards

There are different types of ration cards under NFSA and the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). It is the responsibility of the state governments to categorise an issue different ration cards based on the categories stated under NFSA and TPDS. There are two types of ration cards for all the states in the country under NFSA.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)

The persons who do not have a stable income are eligible for this card. It covers unemployed people, women and old aged people. The cardholders under this category are eligible to receive 35 KG of food grain per month per family. They get the food grains at a subsidised price of Rs.3/kg for rice, Rs.2/kg for wheat and Rs.1/kg for coarse grains.

Priority Household (PHH)

The second category is PHH. Under this category, the cardholders will receive 5 KG of food grain per person per month. They get the food grains at a subsidised price of Rs.3/kg for rice, Rs.2/kg for wheat and Rs.1/kg for coarse grains.

Ration Cards Under TPDS

The states that have not introduced NFSA yet issue ration cards under the old scheme. Different cards issued under TPDS are as follows.

Below Poverty Line (BPL)

The families that are considered BPL families are eligible to receive 10 KG to 20 KG food grains per family per month at 50% of the economic cost. The items that are subsidised under the scheme vary from state to state and may include wheat, rice, sugar and other items.

Above Poverty Line (APL)

These families are eligible to get 10kg to 20kg food grains per family per month at 100% of the economic cost decided by the state government. The states decided on the retail price for rice, wheat, sugar and other essential items.

Annapoorna Yojana (AY)

These cards are for people who are poor and above 65 years of age. They are eligible to get 10 KG of food grains per month.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY)

All the ration card holders under NFSA are eligible to receive ration under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). The initiative was introduced in April 2020 to provide relief to the ration cardholders during the pandemic lockdown. Notably, due to the lockdown, several families lost their jobs and businesses, and it affected a large portion of the population.

To ensure every citizen has access to the food grains, the government of India announce the scheme and allocated 5 KG of food grains per person per month at zero cost. As mentioned above, there are over 20 crore ration cardholder families in India and assuming each family has four members, the scheme benefitted close to 80 crore people covered under National Food Security Act, 2013. Notably, this allocation is over and above NFSA foodgrains.

Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Householders (PHH) are covered under the scheme. They are being provided with an additional quote of free-of-cost food grains, i.e. wheat and rice, at 5 KG per person per month over the entitled quota under NFSA.

As per reports, under PMGKAY-I (April-June 2020) and PMGKAY-II (July-November 2020), the government of India, through the Food Corporation of India, supplied 305 LMT foodgrains to the respective State/UT governments.

Distribution of food grains in India

According to the data provided by the Department of Food and Public Distribution, 43 LMT foodgrains were allocated to the states, out of which they distributed close to 38 LMT in the month of May 2021. In June 2021, the union government has allotted 43 LMT food grains to the states and UTs, out of which 7.4 LMT has already been distributed. So far, 3.46 crore transactions have taken place across India to date. PMGKAY has been extended by the union government till Diwali 2021.

UP govt seals Agra hospital after video of owner admitting to snapping oxygen of patients goes viral

OpIndia Staff
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UP govt seals Agra hospital after video of owner admitting to snapping oxygen of patients goes viral

The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to take stringent action against Paras Hospital in Agra after an old video of the proprietor of a private hospital admitting to having snapped the oxygen supply to critical patients on the 26th of April went viral on social media recently. The state government has not only given orders to seal the facility but also asked authorities to register an FIR against the hospital under the Epidemic Diseases Act. 

The action against the hospital was taken after the matter showcasing the hospital’s laxity, leading to the death of 22 patients, came to light when the video to that effect surfaced on social media sites.

According to reports, the process of sealing the hospital would commence once all the 55 patients currently housed in the facility are shifted to another hospital.

Viral video shows Agra hospital owner admitting he switched off oxygen of critical patients

Earlier in the day, OpIndia reported on a viral video. In the video, the owner of Paras Hospital Dr Arinjay Jain is heard telling some people that he had asked the hospital authorities to conduct an experiment or a “mock drill” to ascertain which patient was in actual need of oxygen since there is an acute shortage of medical oxygen and the patients’ family members were not ready to discharge their patients despite multiple requests.

“I decided to perform an experiment/mock drill since we were experiencing a severe oxygen shortage and Modinagar had run out of it. People were refusing to release their patients despite repeated requests. So on April 26, at 7 am, we cut off the oxygen supply for five minutes.

Soon after, 22 patients’ bodies turned blue and they began gasping for air, indicating that they would not live if oxygen was not available. Then we asked the remaining 74 patients’ families to arrange their own oxygen cylinders”, Arinjay Jain, owner of Paras Hospital, who is not visible in the purported video, was heard saying.

State authorities assured action against Paras Hospital if video is confirmed to be genuine

When asked, the chief medical officer of the Agra district, Dr RC Pandey, had said that they have taken cognisance of the video and a committee has been constituted to investigate the issue.

UP Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh had also confirmed receiving the complaint and had assured that the state administration would look into the video and take necessary action against the hospital if the video is confirmed to be genuine.

Akhilesh Yadav concedes defeat already? Goes from ‘will take vaccine by SP govt’ to ‘Made in India’ vaccine ahead of elections

OpIndia Staff
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Akhilesh Yadav concedes defeat already? Goes from ‘will take vaccine by SP govt’ to ‘Made in India’ vaccine ahead of elections

Ahead of Uttar Pradesh parliamentary elections, Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, has made a complete 180-degree turn from his previous stance on the Chinese coronavirus vaccines. Former UP CM has today announced that he will take the COVID vaccine jab now that government of India has ‘made it free for all’.

In January this year, when Indian was planning to roll out the vaccination process, the Samajwadi Party supremo had indulged in low-level politics by discrediting a vaccine that has been duly developed and tested enough.

He was amongst the first to spread panic by publicly announcing that he won’t take the indigenous vaccine “developed by the BJP”. Instead, would get vaccinated when his government will be formed after the next election. He had also claimed that he would give free vaccines to all.

“I am not going to get vaccinated now. How can I trust BJP’s vaccine, when our government will be formed everyone will get free vaccine. We cannot take BJP’s vaccine,” Akhilesh Yadav had said addressing a press conference on January 2.

However, in a Tweet today, Akhilesh Yadav declared that he would indeed take the vaccination, which he had earlier dismissed as ‘BJP’s vaccine’. Welcoming the vaccine of ‘Government of India’, he also appealed to others who have not got themselves vaccinated yet to take the jab.

“We were against the BJP’s vaccine, but we welcome the vaccine made by ‘Government of India”, Akhilesh Yadav tweeted, leaving many people perplexed as to what he meant.

“I will also take the vaccination and appeal to others who could not get it due to lack of vaccine to get vaccinated too,” the SP chief added.

His declaration came just a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that, beginning June 21, the Centre will take over the government’s vaccination procedure, eliminating the need for states to acquire vaccines independently.

Immediately, Akhilesh Yadav Tweeted that he welcomes the decision and said that now he will also take the Covid vaccine.

Interestingly, the Samajwadi Party head had previously stated that he would only be immunised when his government is constituted during the next election. Uttar Pradesh is slated to go to polls early next year. It seems, just few months before the election schedule, Yadav has given up hopes of ‘Samajwadi Party government’ giving vaccines to people for free.

Not only that but Mulayam Singh Yadav, Akhilesh’s father and Samajwadi Party’s patriarch, received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday.

Akhilesh Yadav asked to apologise after his father takes first dose of Covid vaccine

It may be noted that after Mulayam Singh Yadav took his first vaccination, the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya demanded an apology from his son Akhilesh Yadav for deliberately creating vaccine hesitancy for months.

Thanking Mulayam Singh Yadav for taking the vaccine, Maurya in his Tweet said, “Thank you SP patron and former Chief Minister Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav ji for taking the indigenous vaccine. You getting vaccinated is proof that SP’s national president, Mr. Akhilesh ji had spread rumors about the vaccine. Akhilesh ji must apologize for this.”

SP chief peddles half-baked data to prove that India is far behind in the vaccination process

For the uninitiated, Akhilesh Yadav had not only spread rumours and created vaccine hesitancy but also peddled skewed statistics to prove that India lags behind in the immunisation process.

Last month, Akhilesh Yadav shared an infographic about Covid-19 immunizations around the world, claiming that the country has to start a national immunisation push right away that is robust, thorough, and quick.

Akhilesh Yadav had cherry-picked data from immunisation surveys to fit his political narrative, as we have reported earlier.

Though the likes of the Samajwadi Party chief have been regularly engaged in fear mongering against Indian-made vaccines in order to advance their political agenda, resulting in a surge of vaccination apprehension among the public, the fact is that Uttar Pradesh has reached the milestone of administering over 2 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses in the state. It has vaccinated over 30 lakh people between the ages of 18 and 44, the highest in the country for this age group.

Supreme Court questions West Bengal and Delhi for not providing data on children orphaned since March 2020

OpIndia Staff
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Supreme Court questions West Bengal and Delhi for not providing data on children orphaned since March 2020

On Monday (June 7), the Supreme Court pulled up the Delhi and West Bengal governments for failing to provide data about children orphaned since March last year. Last month, the apex court had directed all states to upload information about these children on the portal of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

The suo motu case regarding the Contagion of Covid in Children Protection Homes was heard by a 2-Judge Bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Nageswara Rao. During the hearing, the court observed that only the states of West Bengal and Delhi had failed to upload correct information about the children who had become orphans after March 2020.

West Bengal government cites ‘confusion’ for not submitting data

The Counsel for West Bengal claimed that the data could not be submitted due to the confusion over ‘six stages’ mentioned in the web portal of NCPCR. This was despite the apex Court’s order dated June 1 wherein it said that the states need not provide data for all the six stages immediately and provide the data for the first two stages only.

While pulling up the counsel for the state of West Bengal, the Bench said, “We said gather information pertaining to children orphaned after March 2020, and include CNCPs(Children in Need of Care and Protection) also. All the other states have understood it properly and have uploaded the information, how is it that only West Bengal doesn’t understand the order…Don’t take refuge under confusion. All other states have provided it, there is confusion only for West Bengal?”

The Bench then directed the state of West Bengal to immediately upload the data of children who have lost one or both parents after March 2020 onto the NCPCR portal.

Delhi government claims ‘difficulty’ in data collection

Counsel for the Delhi government, Chirag M Shroff, submitted before the Supreme Court that the data could not be uploaded on the NCPCR website owing to problems in ‘data collection.’ He said that the Delhi government had recently decided to depute government officers at the grassroots level for data collection and upload the information immediately.

Shroff added that the basic needs of orphaned children would be taken care of by the government, including steps enshrined in the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015. The Supreme Court directed Delhi to follow the suit of other states, which had collected data through the constitution of District Task Officers (comprising of revenue officers, the District Collector, and the Magistrate). It added that the data could be broken up in Divisions for easy collection.

Tamil Nadu shares incorrect, selective data in contravention of the Court’s orders

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu had also provided ‘incorrect information’ about the children who had lost one or both parents since March last year. The Court observed that not even one child was produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC). Moreover, the state had provided data for those children whose parents died due to the Wuhan Coronavirus infection. However, the apex court had directed States to upload information about all children orphaned since March last year, irrespective of the cause of the death of the parents.

As per an affidavit filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), data uploaded on its portal until June 5, 2021 showed that 30,071 children had lost one or both parents or have been abandoned. Since March 2020, a total of 3621 children had become orphans while 26,176 children had lost one parent. About 274 children were abandoned by their parents during the said period.

Actor and model Aisha Sultana claims Govt of India deployed COVID-19 as bioweapon against people of Lakshadweep: Details

OpIndia Staff
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Actor and model Aisha Sultana claims Govt of India deployed COVID-19 as bioweapon against people of Lakshadweep: Details

With the reforms being announced for the Lakshadweep Islands, those perennially opposed to development have resorted to dangerous levels of fear-mongering to tarnish the central government and cast their attempts to catapult the islands towards development as malevolent. Recently, Lakshadweep-based actor and model Aisha Sultana levelled serious allegations against the government of India during a debate on Malayalam news channel MediaOne TV. Sultana alleged that the central government had used COVID-19 as a bioweapon against the people of Lakshadweep Islands.

“Before centre took care, Lakshadweep had 0 cases of COVID-19. Now, it is reporting a daily spike of 100 cases. What the centre has deployed is a bioweapon. I can say this clearly that the central government has deployed bioweapon against the people of Lakshadweep,” Sultana in Malayalam during the debate on Media One.

In order to undermine the efforts to bring development to the Islands, Sultana tried to conceal the crumbling health infrastructure of the islands that is resulting in the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and used the surge to target the central government.

The unfounded allegations against the central government came in the wake of reforms announced by administrator Praful K Patel, who announced a slew of proposals aimed at ensuring the safety and well-being of residents, along with promoting the islands as a tourist destination on par with the Maldives.

Administrator Praful K Patel announces reforms for Lakshadweep Islands

The draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation (LDAR) 2021 proposed a new law to ban cow slaughter and beef, which is in line with the prevailing law in an overwhelming number of states in India. The draft also included a two-child policy to educate people about the importance of family planning. In order to deter people from having more than 2 children, the law proposed preventing such people from becoming a member of the gram panchayat.

Another provision in the draft authorised the sale of alcoholic beverages on the islands, strictly to the resort owners, in a bid to boost tourism in the archipelago. Currently, prohibition is in place on all inhabited islands, with liquor served only at resorts on the uninhabited Bangaram island. The new regulation is aimed at attracting more tourists by allowing liquor sale in resorts on the inhabited islands of the Lakshadweep archipelago.

Besides, the draft regulation also accords the administrator the authority to “declare any area to be a planning area” on the islands, for the purpose of development, and will also allow the administrator to acquire any land required for a public purpose under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, commonly known as the Land Acquisition Act.

The plan was to develop the Lakshadweep Islands like any other state to increase its revenues and boost its tourism. However, soon after the new regulations were introduced, a seemingly innocuous effort to steer the islands towards growth and development was politicised by the detractors, who resorted to fear-mongering and making wildly illogical and unreasonable assertions to oppose the changes proposed by Patel.

The critics of the reforms have cited the overwhelmingly Muslim population of the islands to allege that the central government is saffronising the islands under the guise of promoting reforms. However, in doing so, they are trying to preserve the Muslim dominance of the islands. Sultana seems to be among those who would rather see the Islands slide into the abyss of Islamic radicalism on the lines of Jammu and Kashmir than charting the path of growth and development. Her preposterous utterances in the news debate is a testimony to that assertion.

Bolo pencil, Yami Gautam cancil: ‘Liberals’ cancel the Bollywood actress after ‘stalking’ husband Aditya Dhar

OpIndia Staff
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Bolo pencil, Yami Gautam cancil: ‘Liberals’ cancel the Bollywood actress after ‘stalking’ husband Aditya Dhar

Yami Gautam has recently gotten married and photographs of the Bollywood actress in traditional Hindu-attire has taken the internet by storm. However, ‘cancel culture’ has struck again and the ‘Woke’ individuals have now ‘canceled’ the actress after realizing she married Aditya Dhar, the director of the film ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike.’

Upset over Yami receiving appreciation over her photographs in Hindu attire, liberals ‘stalked’ her husband in an attempt to cancel the duo altogether.

A Twitter user by the name ‘walnut-crumble’ said, “Did some stalking of Yami Gautam’s husband and can confidently say he’s a bhakt. No wonder RW is salivating over the photos!”

Image Source: Twitter

To this, liberals flooded her comments section taking jibes at filmmaker Aditya Dhar and the Indian army.

An unusual comment by ‘Sohinichat’, who as per her Twitter profile is a difficult woman and writes for media publications such as New York Times, Al Jazeera and The Hindu, said the movie glorified the lynching of Md Akhlaq.

Image Source: Twitter

A netizen was quick to question if she thought that Md Akhlaq from Dadri was a Pakistani resident. 

Image Source: Twitter

Another user claimed that the entire movie was based on ‘jingoism’.

Image Source: Twitter

A user by the name ‘Suhail Maddie’ claimed that all ‘mid-level’ filmmakers are Bhakts.

Image Source: Twitter

In a completely unrelated comment, the user also tagged a Twitter post by Satish Shah, a famous actor who featured in the Indian sitcom Sarabhai vs Sarabhai.

Yami Gautam was also mocked by actor Vikrant Massey for her wedding look where she was seen draped in a beautiful red Banarsi silk saree. Vikrant Massey on Yami Gautam’s Instagram post commented that she was looking “pure & pious like Radhe Maa.”

Source: @ThtKashmiriGuy/Twitter

Yami Gautam tied the knot with Bollywood film director Aditya Dhar on June 04. 

Bihar: Madarsa ‘explodes’ in Banka, bomb squad arrives to investigate

OpIndia Staff
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Bihar: Madarsa ‘explodes’ in Banka, bomb squad arrives to investigate

A case of an explosion in a non-operational Madrasa has been reported from the Banka district of Bihar on Tuesday morning. The explosion led to the collapse of the roof and walls of the Madrasa causing damage to the nearby buildings and injuring four.

The cause of the blast has not been ascertained as yet as informed by Arvind Gupta, the SP of Banka district. “Madarasa wasn’t functional due to lockdown. We’re waiting for FSL team & bomb squad to arrive at spot. There is no evidence of any injured person at moment,” he added.

No deaths have been reported due to the blast, however, the situation remains tensed in the locality. The explosion is suspected to have taken place at 8 am inside a locked room on the ground floor of the Navtolia madrasa building situated in the Town police station area. Police say the explosion cracked the madrasa walls and roof, which led to its collapse moments later. 

As per the police, more than ten people were present in the madrasa at the time of the explosion. Going by a Dainik Jagran report, four people have been allegedly injured in the blast but are missing since the time of the explosion. A few local women present around the incident site have refused to divulge any information.

Meanwhile, people residing in the nearby buildings which were damaged due to the impact of the blast have fled their homes. 

Apart from Banka police, a bomb squad, a dog squad and anti-terrorism squads (ATS) are at the spot to determine the cause of the blast.

Some locals suggested that a 5-kg LPG cylinder could have caused the explosion, however, the cylinder was found at the location even after the blast. 

Reports also suggest that possible explosive substances stored in the locked room could have resulted in an explosion.

While the Bihar home department has ordered an intensive probe into the matter, a case of criminal conspiracy, negligent conduct with respect to the explosive substance has also been registered against unknown persons under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under Section-5 of the Explosive Act. 

Reddit, Guardian, NYTimes, Amazon and half the Internet websites went down in major outage

OpIndia Staff
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Reddit, Guardian, NYTimes, Amazon and half the Internet websites went down in major outage

On Tuesday (June 8), the websites of several international news organisations went offline for over 30 minutes. The media portals that were affected included The Guardian, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and New York Times (NYT).

On browsing the website of the Guardian, it read, “Error 503 service unavailable. Guru Mediation: Details: cache-maa10237-MAA 1623147217 1618632269. Varnish cache server.”

Screengrab of the Guardian website

The website of the BBC also showed similar results.

Screengrab of the BBC website

The website of the New York Times also read, “Fastly error: unknow domain: www.nytimes.com. Details: cache-maa 10225-MAA”

Screengrab of the New York Times website

Websites crashed due to infrastructural problem

According to the Independent, several of the world’s biggest websites including Amazon, Uk government and Reddit had crashed. In a tweet, it said, “Large swathes of the internet broke after an apparent problem with the infrastructure underpinning many of the world’s biggest websites #Fastly.”

The Independent informed that its own website was affected during the crash. “The current internet issues appear to be the result of a problem with #Fastly a cloud computing company that provides key services to many websites,” it said.

By the time of publishing, the websites of the Guardian, BBC and New York Times were restored in some parts of the world.

Newly appointed media advisor to MP CM claims he has turned down the job offer, his ‘gau mutra’ jibe tweets had gone viral

OpIndia Staff
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Newly appointed media advisor to MP CM claims he has turned down the job offer, his ‘gau mutra’ jibe tweets had gone viral

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s newly appointed media advisor on Tuesday took to Twitter to inform that he has turned down the job offer.

This came just within 22 hours of his announcing that he has been appointed as MP CM’s media advisor.

Soon after his announcement on Twitter, his old tweets where he had made ‘Gau mutra’ jibes and mocked PM Modi had gone viral on social media.

Cow urine joke

Cow urine jibe is often used by radical Islamist and Islamist apologists to mock Hindus and Hinduism who hold the cow holy. Many believe that cow urine has medicinal property as well. In February 2019, Pulwama terrorist Adil Ahmed Dhar who killed 40 CRPF jawans in a suicide attack had said he was doing so (terror attack) to kill the ones who drink cow urine.

Cow urine jibe
Tushar’s tweet on PM Modi

He also made fun of PM Modi’s personal life.

Jai Shree Ram tweet

Soon after the 2019 general elections, when the fake mob lynching cases under name of Jai Shree Ram were emerging, he had tweeted where India is heading with such slogans. On 23rd July 2019, Aurangabad man had admitted that he invented the ‘Jai Shree Ram’ chanting and lynching story to win applause in the community.

Tushar on Modi’s criticism

He even toed the opposition line on how everyone votes for Modi but questions opposition instead.

After the furore on social media, he has now announced that he has turned down the job offer.

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