The Home Minister of the United Kingdom has approved the extradition of the fugitive Indian businessman Nirav Modi, the Central Bureau of Investigation said on Friday. The fugitive billionaire is wanted for fraud and money laundering in the ₹ 14,000-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam.
United Kingdom’s Home Minister has approved the extradition of Nirav Modi: CBI official pic.twitter.com/cdqLHDYM92
The move comes after the UK court in February 2021 had accepted that prima facie, a money laundering case has been established against Modi. The UK’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court had also acknowledged that the diamantaire had conspired to destroy evidence and intimidate witnesses and ordered that Nirav Modi may be extradited to India to stand trial.
Nirav Modi is the prime accused in the $2 billion USD PNB scam
Nirav Modi is accused in two criminal cases. First is the USD 2 billion PNB scam slapped on the diamantaire by the CBI. Second, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) case relating to the laundering of the proceeds of that bank fraud. He also faces two additional charges of evidence tampering and intimidating witnesses, which were added to the CBI case.
He had fled India just before the PNB scam was brought to the light. He had left the country and fled just when PNB had reported a massive 11,300 crore loan fraud by Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi.
The second wave of the novel Coronavirus pandemic continues to rage through the country. While people are discussing healthcare and ways to help people, liberals online are busy debating whether they should help ‘Sanghis’ in these trying times of Covid-19.
One person on Twitter with the username @pinkpaisley3 asked, which no doubt appeared to her a very poignant question, “Will you help a sanghi if it was in your capacity to do so?” The responses to her tweet is quite telling and emblematic of the hatred that festers in the heart of so many.
One Farhan answered, “I wouldn’t. Pretty much everyone holds extreme hatred for Minorites. Let their Supreme leader save them”.
Farhan says he will not help Sanghis
Another said that she would help Sanghis but only because she wants to see them in solitary confinement for their crimes. Solitary confinement is one of the worst forms of torture where a person is kept in forced isolation without any human contact.
One suggests solitary confinement
One Arpan refused outright and said that he only helps those who believe in humanity. Ironically enough, Arpan does not appear to realize that he is engaging in the dehumanization of his fellow citizens, which always has devastating consequences.
Arpan says no
One Anindita said that she would give them the contact details of Ram Janambhoomi Trust authorities instead. “They live to destroy India,” she said while referring to ‘Sanghis’.
Source: Twitter
Some admitted that they were genuinely wondering whether they should. It is quite a bizarre situation in such circles.
Source: Twitter
Vijay Subramanian acknowledges that his mother will be disappointed with the person he has become but insisted, “They bought it upon themselves..universe being a leveller!” We can only say that we sympathise with his mother.
Source: Twitter
In case there was any doubt that they were referring expressly to the Covid situation, one user clarified specifically that it was in the context of Covid-19.
Source: Twitter
Even in times of Covid-19 surge, the desire to rob Temple funds reigns supreme. The Government has not said at any point that financial conditions are a constraint at this point. And yet, they want Ram Mandir funds to be used up anyway.
Instead of usurping Ram Mandir funds, they could have organised a fundraiser or suggested a new fundraising initiative to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. And people would have donated if the requirements were such. But common sense measures are not in fashion today. All they want is to usurp the Ram Mandir funds.
Let us be very clear here. If intentions were pure, new fundraising measures would have been suggested or organised. The first thought is never “Let’s use the funds people donated for a Temple!” The suggestion came from a person on Monday out of the blue and those from the same end of the political spectrum are simply running with it. None of them stopped for a minute to ask if there are other avenues that could be explored.
Source: Twitter
Naturally, Hindus were not pleased with the demand and responded in kind. And their responses were reasonable. Why not use funds from Waqf Boards and Church properties instead, why does it have to be the Ram Mandir? For such responses, ‘Sanghis’, which is really a euphemism for Hindus, are being accused of spreading hate.
Such unreasonable, and unfair, demands to use the Ram Mandir funds are quite clearly designed to instigate and defame Hindus. The purpose is not to help combat the Coronavirus pandemic, the objective is to inflame passions even under such critical circumstances.
The objective is to find another convenient excuse to demonise the Hindu community and unleash a propaganda campaign against the Ram Mandir. If there was ever any doubt about the intention behind the demand, the conversations that are currently underway do not leave scope for any.
While liberals debate whether they should even help ‘Sanghis’, they wish to usurp the hard-earned money Hindus have donated towards the construction of the Bhavya Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Such hateful rhetoric really defies all conventions of civility.
As King Theoden says in the Lord of the Rings after the Orcs and Uruk-hai overrun Helm’s Deep, “What can men do against such reckless hate?” But even so, citizen-led efforts during this crisis demonstrates that there is still goodness in this world.
While liberals online continue to fester in their hate, people from all walks of life have come together to help their fellow citizens deal as much as they can with the misery that Covid-19 has unleashed. And a significant section of them are from Hindu organisations and ‘Sanghis’ who continue to work tirelessly to help people overcome this terrible tragedy.
A man in Taiwan has married the same woman four times and divorced her thrice in a span of 37 days, to get his paid leave extended. He pulled off this bizarre stunt up until he managed to get his 8 days paid leave extended up to 32 days.
The Taiwan man, who works as a clerk at a bank in Taipei was granted an 8-day paid leave for his marriage. He got married on April 6, 2020, and once his marriage leave was over, he divorced his wife, only to remarry her again the next day. This he reportedly did to get another paid leave, which he felt he was entitled to by the law.
The man kept repeating this process of divorcing and remarrying his own wife until he managed to get leaves for four marriages for a total of 32 days.
The Taiwanese over smartness, however, did not pay off as the bank fathomed what he was trying to do and refused to grant him extra paid leaves. The bank granted him paid leave only for 8 days for the first marriage.
Despite this, the clerk went ahead with his plan of marrying four times and divorcing three times.
He then filed a complaint against his employer at the Taipei City Labour Bureau and accused the bank of breaking the law by not obeying Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules.
Bank employer fined for refusing to pay extra paid leave to Taiwan man
Accoridng to Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules employees are entitled to eight days of paid leave when they get married. Since the clerk had gotten married four times, he should have technically received 32 days of paid leave.
The Taipei City Labour Bureau investigated the case and ruled in favour of the employee observing that the employer had indeed violated the Labour Law. The bank was fined NT$20,000 (Rs 52,800) in October 2020.
The bank approached Beishi Labour Bureau and in its appeal claimed that its employee’s “malicious abuse of marriage leave was not a legitimate cause of leave under the Labour Leave Rules”.
On April 10, Beishi Labour Bureau also upheld the previous ruling, saying that while the clerk’s conduct was unethical, he was not wrong lawfully. It observed that the bank had violated Article 2 of the Labour Leave Rules.
While observing the ruling, the Commissioner of the Labor Standards Section of the Labor Bureau Huang Jingang said that there is no such provision in the Labour Standard Act that a person cannot marry the same person to get leaves. Though he agreed that the employee’s practice was unreasonable, he was compelled to rue in his favour.
According to a report by TOI, a 23-year-old Muslim girl has confirmed to the Noida Sector 20 police on Tuesday that she had married her Hindu boyfriend, whom she knew for the last 12 years, after taking up Hinduism on her own free will. The girl’s confession came after her family lodged a police complaint against the Hindu youth accusing him of kidnapping, forceful conversion and marriage.
According to Noida police, the girl had gone missing from outside her shanty in Sector 9 on February 22. When she did not return for the past two months and her family learnt that she had eloped with the Hindu youth, they approached the Sector 20 police with a complaint against the youth. They alleged that their daughter was in danger.
When the Muslim girl was questioned by the police on Tuesday, she expressed her desire to stay with her husband and not to go back to her parents. A local court, thereafter, allowed the woman to live “wherever she wants”.
Police confirmed that the couple had been living together in Prayagraj for very long. It said that they called the woman for conciliation with the family but she did not turn up.
Munish Chauhan, the Sector 20 SHO, said the woman had told the police as well as the magistrate that she would like to stay with her husband and not go back to her parents. The court had then granted her permission to live wherever she felt like.
Incidences where Hindus have become victims of religious bigotry for being romantically involved with Muslim women
We have previously reported as many as 20 instances where Hindus have been assaulted and killed by the family members of their Muslim lover/wife. These instances of religious bigotry exhibited by Muslim family members against Hindu men for being romantically involved with their daughter have often failed to garner the attention of mainstream media organisations and leftist portals since in these cases the perpetrators are Muslims.
The French Parliament on Thursday passed legislation, setting the minimum age for sexual consent at 15. The law came in the wake of series of allegations of sexual abuse, paedophilia, and incest levelled against some of France’s prominent personalities.
Though the age of consent was previously 15, prosecutors in France needed to prove that sex was forced to obtain a rape conviction. The new legislation has essentially outlawed having sex with children under the age of 15, characterising such acts as rape and punishable by up to 20 years in jail.
“This is a historic law for our children and our society,” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said in the National Assembly. “No adult aggressor will be able to claim the consent of a minor younger than 15-years-old.”
The vote in favour of the bill was unanimous in its final reading, the Assembly said.
Some concerns were raised by the French legislators that an age of consent below which sex automatically constituted rape might criminalise a consensual sexual relationship between a minor and a person just a few years older.
As a result, a “Romeo and Juliet” clause was introduced in the legislation that permitted sexual relationship between a minor and an individual up to five years older. However, the clause will not apply in cases of sexual abuse.
The law also comes down hard on online paedophilia, with any person trying to raise children aged under 15 for sexual acts over the internet-facing up to 10 years in prison and a fine of €150,000 ($180,000).
Besides, the legislation criminalises incestuous sex with a minor under 18 and considers it to be rape.
France’s MeToo reckoning as prominent intellectuals face accusations of sexual abuse, paedophilia and incest
In what could be described as a delayed reaction to the global #MeToo movement, France is in the throes of a social churn as powerful men from some of the most prominent fields —politics, sports, the news media, academia and the arts — have faced direct and public accusations of sexual abuse, paedophilia and incest in a society that had long shrugged off sex between two adults and minors as a harmless and intimately private affair.
However, the conscience of France’s civil society was stirred after allegations of sexual abuse and paedophile were levelled against celebrated French author Gabriel Matzneff. Incidentally, Matzneff had openly talked for decades about engaging in paedophilia and defending and justifying child sexual abuse through his books and public appearances.
Soon thereafter, several prominent personalities were accused of either indulging in sexual abuse, paedophilia, non-consensual sex and incest. The issue of consent repeatedly came up after a 28-year-old man, who had sex with an 11-year-old girl in a park, was charged with a lesser offence, and not rape.
The case had touched off a public outcry, with people asking the man be charged with offences that constitute rape. The latest legislation comes on the heels of an incest scandal involving one of France’s most prominent intellectuals after he was accused of sexually abusing his stepson.
A former head of France’s ace political science institute and a regular speaker on French Television, Olivier Duhamel was accused by his daughter-in-law Camille Kouchner of abusing her twin brother when they were in their early teens. Duhamel had confessed to his allegations on Tuesday in an interrogation with police that investigates crimes against minors.
Robert Emmanuel Jacob, the former Democrat mayor of Sebastopol, California, was arrested over multiple counts of child sex crimes last Saturday. Jacob is a progressive Democrat who supports the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and ironically advocates for defunding the police.
The Sebastopol Police have charged 44-year old Robert Emmanuel Jacob on 11 different counts of sexual assault and related sex crimes against a minor aged 14 or 15. These heinous charges include transportation of a child for lewd and lascivious acts, arranging a meeting for sexual purposes with a person believed to be underage, sexual penetration of a child under 16-years-old and harmful material sent with the intent to seduce a minor.
According to local police, the child sex abuse from Jacob may have begun from December 2019 and continued through March 2021. Jacob was in the Sebastopol City Council from 2012 to 2016 and was appointed Mayor of Sebastopol in 2013. The small city is located almost 89 KM north of San Francisco.
Jacob is openly gay and married according to his Facebook profile. He was featured in a glowing profile done by The New York Times in 2014. According to NYT, “Mr. Jacob far outraised and outspent his rivals by running the most expensive campaign in Sebastopol’s history.”
Jacob had vocally supported, hailed BLM rioters
Jacob was a consistent critic of former U.S. President Donald Trump, especially during the BLM riots of 2020. On Facebook, Jacob thanked the BLM “rioters” explicitly, crediting the actions of the BLM rioters for “creating change”.
“Everyone wants to make the rioters the enemy. They are our warriors. Think of them as the infantry. They’re on the front lines, getting arrested, getting pepper sprayed, getting beaten. These rioters are, our rioters. People should be talking about them as hero’s. This is a war. A civil rights war. Violence is what it takes to win wars.” wrote Jacob on Facebook.
Jacob’s Facebook post
Also wanted to ‘defund the police’
In another Facebook post, Jacob advocated for “defunding the police”. “Defunding is about re-funding,” he wrote on Facebook. “Defund the police to re-fund the resources we’ve been slashing for generations.” Jacob also praised the Minneapolis city council’s commitment to dismantle its police department, which resulted in an upward spike of violent crime in Minneapolis, and the hiring of more police officers.
Sebastopol Police Chief Kevin Kilgore told local outlet SFGate that one victim, who remains unidentified due to the individual’s age, has decided to come forward. However, the investigation is still ongoing.
It’s traumatic for our community, it’s traumatic for the survivor of the sexual assault, it’s traumatic for everyone and it weighs a toll on our community,” Kilgore added.
In a rare development in Bollywood, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions has not only fired actor Kartik Aaryan from an ongoing movie project, but also decided to not work with him again in the future. According to a report by PeepingMoon, the premier Bollywood studio has decided to replace Aryan in the movie Dostana 2 due to his ‘unprofessional behaviour’.
The entertainment industry gossip website said that Dharma Productions was pushed to the wall by Kartik’s “unprofessional behaviour” during the shooting of Dostana 2, and took the extreme decision to replace him after shooting a significant portion of the movie.
Reporting the development, DNA quoted a source close to the production house saying, “Dharma has decided to replace Kartik Aaryan in ‘Dostana 2’. Kartik expressed creative differences over the script of Dostana 2 after one and a half years. However, he completed nearly 20 days of shoot in 2019 after reading the same script and agreeing to it.”
The source also added that lack of clarity on dates by the actor was also another reason to drop him from the project. “Also, lack of clarity on the commitment of dates from his agency is another reason. It has never happened in the history of Dharma Productions that an actor has shot a film for a while and then walked out alleging creative issues. Therefore, Dharma has decided to not work with Kartik Aaryan in future as well,” the source said.
Dostana 2 is a sequel to the 2008 blockbuster Dostana starring Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Priyanka Chopra, which was directed by Tarun Mansukhani. The Dostana 2 is being directed by Collin D’Cunha, and it has Janhvi Kapoor and Lakshya Lalwani in the leading roles, along with Kartik Aryan. But now the production house will need to find a different actor to take the place of Aryan. This movie is going to be the Bollywood debut for TV actor Lakshya.
The Logical Indian (TLI) has apologised for spreading fake news about Uttar Pradesh Minister Sunil Bharala claiming that he had attended the Kumbh Mela in Uttarakhand after testing positive for Covid-19. In a statement, TLI acknowledged that they misrepresented facts.
The statement said, “The Logical Indian earlier reported that Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Sunil Bharala tested positive for COVID-19 and still attended the Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. However, in an interview with NDTV, the leader said that he attended the event and later added that he is currently COVID positive.”
The Logical Indian apologises
“We wish to acknowledge that we inadvertently misrepresented the facts. The Logical Indian apologizes for the incorrect statement that claimed he attended the event while he was infected with the virus,” he added.
In the fake news post, TLI attributed a fake quote to Sunil Bharala. The fake quote said, “I’m COVID positive myself. I still went to Kumbh. Dharma is above Corona guidelines.” The news post further claimed that Kumbh Mela has become a ‘Covid hotspot’.
The post was then widely circulated on Instagram and WhatsApp groups. People on social media pointed out that TLI was spreading misinformation about the whole matter.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO and owner of Serum Institute of India, appealed to US President Joe Biden to lift the embargo on the export of raw materials so that manufacturing of vaccines can be ramped up in India amidst the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Adar Poonawalla appeals to Joe Biden
Adar Poonawalla said that “if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details.”
Previously, he had said that the production of COVID-19 vaccines in the country had taken a hit because of the restrictions imposed by the United States and the European countries on the export of critical raw material.
“I wish I could go there and protest in the US myself to say that you are holding back critical raw material that are required for Covaxin and so many vaccine manufacturers in India and other parts of the world,” he had said earlier in an interview with India Today.
He added that the shortage and and struggling for raw material is for short term because in a few months, they will be able to develop other suppliers. Poonawalla also added that SII is not looking to import raw material from China because of its quality issues and other supply constraints.
The Print, the digital media venture of Shekhar Gupta, has published an opinion piece by one Abhishek Minus Verma where the author has declared that ‘Savarnas’ have established a modern casteist hegemony on Instagram Reels. The article makes it abundantly clear that Instagram Reels are the next great enemy that must be overcome.
The author begins with the declaration, “One of the main reasons for my resentment with the new Reels culture is the crude display of privilege and the mono-cultural world of the so-called upper castes or Savarnas.” Shortly after, the author says, “Sadly, this domain (influencer market), like any other economic domain, is also the stronghold of Savarnas.”
The headline of The Print article
The whole article is littered with one gem after the other. At one point, Verma says, “Instagram Reels are designed in such a way that you feel like you’re entering an expensive restaurant where you can be judged and mocked for your clothes, accent, and your pronunciation. There is a very subtle and sophisticated form of casteism that plays out in this digital corner.”
Immediately after, he declares, “Instagram Reels seems to have an algorithm that prefers particular Savarna aesthetics.” He continues, “All one sees are Savarnas expressing the joy and melancholy of living a life full of privileges. Instagram actively promotes the most ‘beautiful’ looking Reels on these trends. Anyone who opens the Reels tab on their app can always see that it’s the Savarna influencers who are trending.”
There is this particular instance which comes across as extremely offensive towards non-Savarnas. Verma says, “It’s very difficult for non-Savarna users, who lack the same cultural and social capital of looks, clothes, and clean, picture-perfect backgrounds to succeed in this culture of making ‘aesthetic’ Reels.”
Verma also accuses Savarnas of cultural appropriation, which appears to be borrowed from progressives in the western context to be weaponized against Indians. In a particularly disturbing instance, the author says, “Today, the grandchildren of those who once directly discriminated against lower-castes are now singing and dancing on Insta Reels. They are now doing the same activities that made lower-castes ‘impure’, ‘brash’ and ‘loud’, but in perfect lighting and aesthetic settings.”
After careful evaluation, Verma concluded, “In the Insta Reels ecosystem, creators who dance or create videos outside of these aesthetics and songs are labeled ‘cringe’. As is often said online, ‘modern problems require modern solutions’ thus modern Savarnas, too, have come up with modern casteism. Personally, I would call it ‘castiesm with a good vibe’.”
The article was edited by Fiza Ranalvi Jha and is part of The Print’s Dalit History Month 2021 series, along the lines of Black History Month that is observed in the USA. The article, at one point, describes TikTok users as ‘digital refugees’ since the app has been banned in India.
The Print is noted for publishing such stellar columns. Earlier, one of their journalists had claimed Narendra Modi was a sex symbol for women in villages. More recently, Jyoti Malhotra of The Print was mocked for not knowing that pharmaceuticals are chemicals.
