The Hyderabad police Monday nabbed the three accused who had brutally hacked Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) MM Pahadi block president, Mohd Abdul Khaleel in full public view on a busy road in Rajendernagar area on Sunday night.
The police informed that the main accused Shaik Rasheed is a chef by profession and runs a hotel at MM Pahadi. The two other accused Mohammed Azmath and Syed Imran are also chefs by profession and works with Rasheed in his hotel.
Police furthered that Shaik Rasheed had taken a loan of Rs 15 lakhs from the AIMIM leader to renovate his hotel before the lockdown was imposed last year. Rasheed had been paying interest to Khaleel on a monthly basis. The accused, who had also taken a loan from a few other people, was finding it difficult to repay the amount since his hotel suffered due to the pandemic.
According to the police, the AIMIM leader had been pressurising Rasheed to handover his hotel to him in lieu of the loan amount. This reportedly caused a tiff between them, and the accused along with his associates, hatched a plan to kill Mohammad Khalil.
Hyderabad AIMIM block President chased and hacked to death in full public view
Yesterday, disturbing and violent video footage showing the three accused brutally killing Khaleel surfaced on social media. Police had suspected that the killers had followed Khaleel and at around 11:45 pm when he was near pillar no 248 of the PVNR expressway, they pounced on him and attacked him with knives. The murderers, after stabbing the victim, smashed his head with boulders multiple times. The victim died on the spot due to multiple injuries.
In a bizarre twist of events, the Tooter CEO has finally spoken up, but not very coherently. After allegations surfaced that Tooter, an ‘Indian version’ of Twitter, had opened unauthorised verified accounts of several leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, PMO and Amit Shah, the CEO has now taken to Twitter to blame BJP IT Cell head of sabotaging Tooter.
On January 11th, Amit Malviya, the IT cell head of BJP had taken to Twitter to clarify that Prime Minister Modi, who mysteriously has a verified account on Tooter, was not on Tooter and that the account was unauthorised. He has also clarified that Amit Shah, BJP, its state units, JP Nadda etc, who also had ‘verified accounts’ on Tooter were actually not on Tooter.
Responding to this tweet, Tooter CEO, Mr Nanda, took to Twitter and said that he painstakingly took 24 hours to “research” the issue and was finally ready to provide answers in 3 tweets.
Namaste Amit Malviya ji. My apologizes for not replying to your tweet sooner. I needed time to carefully research and draft my reply Here is my reply in 3 tweets (1/3) https://t.co/N87AiIzbbF
While everyone waited with bated breath, presuming that the CEO would apologise or at the very least, explain the bizarre decision to randomly open unauthorised accounts of various leaders, Nanda called the clarification by Amit Malviya as “careless, misleading and inaccurate”. He then asked Malviya to “delete this tweet”, oddly enough.
Sir, I say this with utmost respect. Your tweet is careless, misleading and inaccurate. It is common courtesy to discuss with us before tweeting about us, which was not followed here. So, please delete this tweet immediately (2/3) https://t.co/N87AiIzbbF
In his third and last tweet, Nanda said that Amit Malviya was actually hurting the cause of PM Modi by clarifying that PM Modi was not on Tooter and that his “verified account” on Tooter was actually unauthorised.
Decolonizing Bharat is a core mission of BJP and digital decolonization is our goal. We aim to make Bharat #atmanirbhar in the social media domain and@narendramodi ji is our inspiration. So, if you can, join us, if you can't, fine. But please don't sabotage us. Thank you?.(3/3) https://t.co/N87AiIzbbF
In the three tweets, Nanda offered no explanation as to why Tooter would open unauthorised accounts of government functionaries, party functionaries and even the PMO and PM Modi. This is clearly an odd move since unauthorised accounts of these kids are clearly deemed impersonation and can be extremely dangerous if someone decides to willy-nilly tweet whatever they please on their own, in the name of these powerful people.
We had earlier reported that Tooter seems to randomly making ‘verified accounts’ of whoever they think should be on Tooter and then, they are coding to ensure that their Tweets are then pulled into Tooter and reflect automatically in their Tooter account. However, according to the CEO, raising issues about this strange arrangement seems to “sabotage”.
The strangeness that is Tooter, the Indian version of Twitter
OpIndia had reported earlier about just how bizarre the functioning of Tooter really is.
Tooter, in its ‘About Us’ page says, “We believe that India should have a Swadeshi social network. Without one we are just a digital colony of the American Twitter India Company, no different than what we were under the British East India Company. Tooter is our Swadeshi Andolan 2.0. Join us in this Andolan. Join us!”.
Interestingly, the moment someone joins Tooter, they are automatically made to follow three accounts – that of the CEO of Tooter, Mr R Vaidya and one ‘news’ handle.
A detailed report by Inc24 highlights how privacy policy page mentioned that it wouldn’t provide a user’s data to any person “unless compelled by a court order issued by a US court, except in cases of a life-threatening emergency.” Another passage under the header “Children Under the Age of 18” read, “California residents under 16 years of age may have additional rights regarding the collection and sale of their personal information. Please see Your California Privacy Rights (below) for more information.”
In fact, the ‘Terms of Service’ mentioned that in matters relating to the website, any disputes or claims shall be governed in accordance with the internal laws of the State of Pennsylvania, a state in the US.
It would appear that when Tooter launched, they had mostly copied their terms and conditions from another website. However, after this was covered by Inc24, Tooter had updated their policy.
Tooter also says that its codebase and ‘free and open source’.
The Directors of Tooter Private Limited are Naresh Vankayalapati and Rameshwar Rao Vankayalapati. Not much is specifically known about them, or the CEO Mr Nanda.
Ichchhadhaari protester Yogendra Yadav is not too happy with the order passed by the Supreme Court in connection with the petitions filed regarding the newly passed farm laws. The newly minted farmer leader opined that the committee that will be formed as per the Court order to look into the laws is a “sarkari committee”.
Yogendra Yadav did not stop there and declared that the farmers would indeed prefer to negotiate with Agricultural Minister Narendra Singh Tomar instead of participating in the discussions involving the committee.
Yogendra Yadav is not too happy with the Supreme Court order
The newly minted farmer leader also declared that AP Singh, who appeared in Supreme Court today on behalf of BKU-Bhanu, was lying to the Court when he said that BKU-Bhanu had agreed to send the elderly back from the protest sites. Yogendra Yadav said that he has been informed by the president of the union that “there is no question of his organisation asking women and elders to go back.”
Yogendra Yadav claims lawyer for farmer union lied to the Supreme Court
It remains to be seen whether the claims being made are true and whether Supreme Court will take stern action if it discovers that it has been lied to. Yadav has been extremely involved in these protests, stumbling around in the guise of a farmer leader.
He has been threatening the government as well as farmers from Haryana and Rajasthan because they are not too keen on the protests. He has been making crazy demands knowing fully well that the government is not in a position to meet those demands.
Yogendra Yadav was shown the door by the government because they maintained that they will not allow politicians to participate in the negotiations, however, he has remained undaunted in his resolve to undermine the government using the garb of the farmer protests.
The Chief Financial Officer of India Today group Dinesh Bhatia is again summoned by Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 18 in connection with the TRP case. Bhatia was summoned on January 8 by ED, as reported exclusive by OpIndia.
He had appeared before ED on January 11 for questioning in connection with the alleged Television Rating Points (TRO) manipulation case. He was questioned for over nine hours on Monday by ED.
As per the reports, ED officials were not satisfied with the response given by Bhatia. The agency has asked him to bring some documents in the next appearance. ED has also asked the India Today group to explain some conversations with BARC officials. According to sources, these conversations could pertain to how India Today and AajTak had to kept high, in terms of TRPs.
The group’s name had appeared in the initial FIR registered by the Hansa Research in the case.
TRP case so far: India Today named in FIR, Republic blamed instead
On October 8, 2020, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had alleged that they have unearthed TRP manipulation and named Republic TV as one of the main accused. However, in the initial FIR, Republic TV was nowhere mentioned in it instead it had named India Today group as one of the main accused. Since the case has come to light, several allegations were made against the Republic TV network’s employees and the case has turned into an alleged witch-hunt against the channel by Maharashtra’s government.
So far police have arrested several people in the including owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema channels, distribution head of Republic TV and several former relationship managers of Hansa Research Group. In the FIR, it was alleged that these channels had paid Rs.400-500 monthly to households for watching particular channels.
11 million people of the northern province of Hebei, China are under lockdown amidst yet another coronavirus spread in the country. The people of Shijiazhuang, a provincial capital close to Beijing, cannot leave the city. All the major highways are blocked.
Public transport services, including buses, trains and flights, have been cancelled. The lockdown was announced after 117 Covid-19 infections, including 67 asymptomatic cases were found in the city on January 6. According to Hebei’s health commission, Shijiazhuang reported another 66 positive cases on January 7. Shijiazhuang is just 289 KM from Beijing.
Schools, public transport, residential communities and villages closed
The municipal officials have banned outbound travel for all residents and vehicles except for emergencies. There is a ban on gatherings as well. The local authorities closed down schools, residential communities and villages within the city boundaries. The restrictions resemble the March 2020 restrictions that China imposed on some regions to contain the virus.
Scares of faster spread amid Lunar New Year celebrations
In a few weeks, China will celebrate its annual festival to welcome Lunar New Year, which generally sees millions of people travelling to their family homes. Last year, just two days before the celebrations Wuhan was sealed off, but by then millions of people had already left the city potentially spreading the virus in other past of the nation.
There is a fear that Lunar New Year travellers will against increase the spread of the virus. As of now, Shijiazhuang has entered a “wartime mode” to contain the virus. As per the reports, the government will run a city-wide testing drive for all 11 million residents with the help of thousands of health workers. By Saturday, the government had deployed over 40,000 health workers to complete screening of all 11 million residents at the earliest.
Rural areas are the weak links, say authorities
As per the health officials, the first recent case of Covid-19 was found on January 2 in an old woman in a village on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang. Chinese Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan also visited the province to assess the preventive measures being taken by the authorities. Around 86 percent of the cases in the region were found in rural areas. Experts believe that spike in the number of cases among elders in rural areas show that they are more vulnerable to the disease.
China’s track record so far
So far, China has reported 87,433 Covid-19 cases out of which 82,211 recovered and 4,634 had died.
An astonishing video is floating on the internet where it is being claimed that the UP Police was discussing thrashing Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti who is currently in judicial custody after issuing death threats against CM Yogi Adityanath and misbehaving with police officials. The UP Police is claimed to have made the comment when asked about the former law minister of Delhi.
The video is from April 2018 and not even from Uttar Pradesh. It was uploaded by Zee 24 Taas on its YouTube channel. And the police official in the video is DIG of Jodhpur Central Jail Vikram Singh. At 8 minutes 40 seconds, the DIG says, “Abhi Dand nahi pela hai. Subah dekhte hain dand pelte hain ki nahi. (The punishment has not come yet. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.)”
Thus we can now confirm that the claim is absolutely cent per cent false. The Uttar Pradesh Police has not thrashed Somnath Bharti
Somnath Bharti is in Judicial Custody
“Nothing is going to happen from this. Yogi Adityanath’s death is assured. You have helped the attacker escape. You need to understand this. Tell Yogi Adityanath he would not achieve from such attacks,” Somnath Bharti had said on Monday.
“I will get you sacked. Bear this in mind. I can identify all of you. I will get all the officers who are trying to stop me today sacked,” said Somnath Bharti while threatening the police officer who stopped him from leaving the guesthouse.
Following the outburst, Somnath Bharti was sent to judicial custody.
Arvind Kejriwal behind the whole charade?
There are also rumours floating that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was sick of Somnath Bharti due to the multitude of allegations of abuse against him and therefore, decided to send the latter to Uttar Pradesh. Rumours are also floating that Kejriwal himself was scared of Bharti due to the potential for violent outbursts.
Therefore, it is rumoured, Kejriwal sent Bharti to Uttar Pradesh, famous for its policing. However, we cannot confirm or deny these rumours.
The Tamil Nadu government has agreed to get the Christian cemetery built in front of Manimoortheeswaram Uchishta Ganapathy Temple near Tirunelveli shifted to another place to avoid any possible law and order problems.
The state government’s decision came in response to a legal notice served by an independent legal activism collective named Legal Rights Observatory (LRO) to Tiruneveli City Police Commissioner Deepak Damoor and Deputy Commissioner (Law & Order) S. Saravana in November last year.
The notice stated that a plot of land belonging to the temple was illegally occupied by Sacred Heart Church which was claiming ownership and title over the land. The notice highlighted how the devotees who demanded action against the Church were illegally detained and slapped with the National Security Act (NSA).
Matter was raised before authorities in August 2019
Earlier, a complaint was filed by the LRO in August 2019, with the Deputy Commissioner Tiruneveli demanding removal of the illegal Christian cemetery on the temple land. Responding to the complaint, the Tiruneveli district authorities had said that the Christian cemetery was located in a private land. The authorities had imposed a ban on carrying out funeral at the cemetery.
According to the Commune magazine, burials kept happening at the Cemetery despite the ban and around 50 graves had come up at the location. Last year in October, Indu Makkal Katchi (IMK) cadres had reportedly demolished some graves in the cemetery. Thereafter, the surrendered at the police station. Christian pastors and some political parties had met Tiruveneli District Collector Mrs. Shilpa Prabhakar Satish IAS after the incident and had demanded the IMK members who demolished graves at the cemetery to be tried under the National Security Act. Eight IMK members were lodged at Nanguneri sub-jail. Seven of them have been released on bail after removing charges under NSA against them while one person remains in jail.
Earlier today, Attorney General KK Venugopal in the Supreme Court argued that Khalistanis have infiltrated into the ongoing protests. The apex court was hearing a case challenging the validity of the three Farm Laws that were passed by the Centre in Septemeber 2020.
The argument, which was voiced by Attorney General KK Venugopal, came in response to a query from the Court regarding a specific averment made in an application filed by one of the farmer groups in favour of the farm laws alleging that a banned organisation is helping the protests.
As KK Venugopal made the statement, the Court asked him to file an affidavit. The lawyer said he would do so by tomorrow along with the inputs from the Intelligence Bureau.
Furthermore, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for a petitioner supporting the farm laws, said, “Those who organised rallies for Khalistan have put up flags at the protests”.
However, the declaration of Khalistani involvement in the ongoing protests rattled the usual suspects, who were quick to descend on the social media websites to sow confusion and discord by attributing wrong statements and assertions to the central government. Scores of left-leaning ‘intellectuals’ took this opportunity to widen the chasm between the farmers and the Centre by alleging that the government had termed all the protesters as Khalistani proponents.
Leftists give a false account of KK Venugopal’s statement to allege Centre has called protesters Khalistanis
The Wire journalist Rohini Singh took to Twitter and quoted the tweet by Live Law where in KK Venugopal had affirmed that Khalistanis have infiltrated into the protests. Singh tweeted, “Protesting farmers are Khalistanis. Government’s official stance now”.
Source: Twitter
Swati Chaturvedi, an abusive troll masquerading as journalist, also quoted the tweet to allege that the central government thinks that the farmers agitating are Khalistanis. She also hoped that the SC won’t let the slur pass.
Source: Twitter
The Caravan’s Vinod Jose raised aspersions on the government’s submissions in the Supreme Court about the existence of Khalistani supporters involved in the ongoing protests. Jose sought evidence and opined that such irresponsible statements would damage the standing of the Centre even more.
Source: Twitter
Actor Swara Bhasker, who had earlier thrown her weight behind Delhi riots accused Umar Khalid, also took to the microblogging website to allude that the Centre has likened the protesting farmers to Khalistanis.
“What are we then if for years we are consuming food grains grown by these said Khalistanis?” Bhasker tweeted.
Source: Twitter
Another Caravan journalist Hartosh Singh Bal, who has a knack of peddling fake stories and media canards, also twisted the AG KK Venugopal’s assertion that the farmer protest has seen infiltration from Khalistani elements. Bal suggested that the apex court should have said in its response that any random group of 57 farmers in the protests is farm more patriotic that the collective of the Modi cabinet.
Source: Twitter
Professional propagandist and YouTuber Abhisar Sharma too joined the bandwagon of the liberals who had sought to tarnish the Centre’s standing among the farmers by falsely claiming that the Modi government had equated the protesters with Khalistanis. In a tweet, Sharma inexplicably linked the involvement of Khalistanis in the ongoing protests with the government’s reassuring remarks on the patriotism of Sikhs.
Source: Twitter
The government, represented by AG KK Venugopal, noted that Khalistanis have infiltrated into the farmer protests. However, the perverse set of leftists twisted this statement to allege that the government had painted all the protesters with the same brush, accusing all of them of being pro-Khalistanis. Contrary to what these leftists would have us believe, the statement meant that Khalistani supporters and sympathisers have joined the protests to throw the country into chaos and disorder.
Banned Khalistani outfits extend their support to Farmers’ protests
The statement of Khalistani involvement in the ongoing protests is not groundless or baseless as alleged by the leftists. The farmers’ protest saw participation from pro-Khalistani elements. Several ‘farmers’ resorted to violence and worrying slogans, supporting Khalistan were also raised. With pro-Khalistan and anti-Indian slogans being raised during the ‘farmer protest’ along the Haryana-Punjab border, questions were also being raised over the alleged involvement of SFJ in instigating Punjab farmers to protest against the Modi government under the pretext that the three farm bills are ‘anti-farmer’ in nature.
The shady role of the SFJ was being analysed as details started emerging that pointed towards the possible interference of pro-Khalistan elements to hijack these farmer protest. It is important to note that the Khalistan organisation SFJ, funded by Pakistan, had earlier declared a grant of $1 million for farmers in Punjab and Haryana in lieu of their support for Khalistan.
On 23rd September, it was reported that the SFJ had attempted to capitalise on the ongoing protests by farmers and had declared that it would distribute $1 million among farmers who had defaulted on agricultural loans.
“From October 1 to October 8, any farmer — irrespective of his faith — can register 25 votes for the Khalistan Referendum 2020 and get a grant of Rs 5,000 as assistance to repay their agricultural loans,” SJF said. The security agencies have since received inputs on the latest offer by SFJ.
Besides, another contentious organisation Khalsa Aid, which is believed to be a front organisation for the banned Khalistani outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), was also involved in the ongoing farmers’ protests.
Khalsa Aid had set up massage centres at the farmers’ protests in makeshift spaces at Singhu border. In a Facebook post, they announced, “Khalsa Aid India has set up this makeshift space as a massage centre. This is for our farmer brothers and sisters who were experiencing pain. We are overwhelmed by the love and blessings that our farmers bestow on us.”
Pro-Khalistani slogans and posters of Khalistani terrorist Bhindranwale raised at farmers’ protests
There have been several instances when demonstrators participating in the farmers’ protests have displayed their Khalistani proclivities. One of them was Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu, who had become the face of the farmers’ protest. Sidhu unabashedly hailed Khalistani terrorists Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a revolutionary fighter who fought for a strong federal structure. This was exposed in his interview with Barkha Dutt, who had self-admittedly provided him with a platform to come clean on the allegations of him being a Khalistani supporter.
However, the Punjabi actor refused to condemn Bhindranwale as a terrorist and went on to claim that the media during that time weaved a narrative and falsely portrayed him as a terrorist. He also alleged that about 80-90 per cent people in Punjab still do not consider Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a terrorist.
Sidhu was not the only Khalistani supporter who was associated with the farmers’ protests. On many instances during the protests, the demonstrators were seen raising pro-Khalistani slogans and holding posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. In one of the videos from the protests that had gone viral, protesters were seen gloating over the death of the former Indian PM Indira Gandhi and threatened PM Modi with a similar fate if their demands were not fulfilled.
A huge ruckus broke out at the state headquarters of Bihar Congress where a meeting of its farmers’ cell was being conducted. Newly-appointed state in-charge Bhakta Charan Das was conducting the meeting. The angry members, who were reportedly miffed by the party’s disastrous performance in the recently concluded 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, were seen abusing and throwing chairs at each other at the state headquarters.
It is being reported that the party workers were angry over Congress’ rout in the elections as well as ticket distribution. The video of the incident went viral on social media.
Bihar: Huge ruckus during Congress in-charge Bhakta Charan Das’ meeting with party workers in Patna. The party workers were angry over the defeat of Congress in elections as well as ticket distribution. (Note: Abusive language) pic.twitter.com/dB2nfYCE5n
In the video, the party members can be seen shouting (using abusive language), raising questions over the loss in Bihar elections, that concluded in November last year. The workers seemed so agitated that no one was willing to listen or calm down.
Reportedly, the newly-appointed AICC Bihar in-charge Bhakt Charan Das who was seated on the dais of the auditorium, besides top BPCC leaders at Sadaqat Ashram, BPCC headquarters, tried to pacify the enraged crowd by saying: “We have gathered here to share suggestions for the betterment of the party in the state. Please do not engage in personal attacks”.
“Pehle aaplog chup rahen (you all first keep quiet)”, Bhakt Charan Das is heard saying. However, the party members unfettered by the appeal continue to point fingers of accusation at each other.
According to reports, the Bihar police needed to intervene to control the frenzied Congress party functionaries at the state headquarters.
This sort of reaction seems to be extremely common with the Congress functionaries in Bihar. A similar ruckus had ensued at the Congress’ headquarter in Patna in November last year. Then too, the Bihar Congress leaders were seen calling each other names and exchanging blows over Congress’ poor show in the Bihar elections, in which the party had managed to win only 19 of the 70 seats it had contested, down from its previous tally of 27 seats out of 41 it had fought in the 2015 assembly elections in the state.
Pope Francis, the bishop of Rome and the head of Vatican Church, has changed the church law Monday affirming that the women would now be allowed to read gospels at the Mass, a role which was officially reserved for men, accept few exceptions. However, they would still not serve as priests in churches.
It is pertinent to note here that in the Roman Catholic Church, the priesthood is seen as an exclusively male preserve. Women are not allowed to be ordained as priests.
Meanwhile, in the decree, called Spiritus Domini (The Spirit of the Lord), Pope Francis said he had taken the decision after theological reflection and was making the change to increase recognition of the “precious contribution” women make in the church. However, Pope Francis stressed that these roles were “essentially distinct from the ordained ministry”, meaning that they should not be seen as an automatic precursor to women one day being allowed to be ordained, priests. The Vatican reserved the priesthood for men.
“The pontiff, therefore, has established that women can accede to these ministries and they are attributed by a liturgical function that institutionalises them,” the Vatican said in an explanatory note.
Pope Francis under pressure to allow women to be deacons
The change comes as the Pope remains under pressure to allow women to be deacons, (the ministers who perform many of the same functions as priests, such as presiding at weddings, baptisms and funerals), the position which is currently reserved for men even though historians say the ministry was performed by women in the early church.
According to reports, after the first commission failed to reach a consensus on whether women could be deacons, Francis created a second commission to look into the matter. While those in favour of expanding the diaconate to include women say, doing so would give women a greater say in the ministry and governance of the church, while also helping address priest shortages in several parts of the world. However, the ones opposing the stand opine that allowing it would become a slippery slope toward ordaining women to the priesthood.
