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‘People from Muslim community are threatening to kill me: Qasim receives death threats after voluntarily converting to Hinduism

OpIndia Staff
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‘People from Muslim community are threatening to kill me: Qasim receives death threats after voluntarily converting to Hinduism

A 28-year-old Muslim man by the name of Qasim Khan has been receiving death threats from his own community members after he willingly left Islam and embraced Hinduism.

While talking to the media, he said, “My name was Qasim and after I converted people from Muslim community are threatening to kill me & my family. I need police protection.” Aligarh Superintendent of Police (Crime) Arvind Kumar informed that a case has been registered based on his complaint. He added that Qasim is being threatened by some people and that security has been deployed outside his house in Aligarh.

As per reports, Qasim had married 24-year-old Hindu woman named Anita Kumari in 2012. He met Anita when his father had taken a construction workshop on lease from her father. They fell in love and got hitched 8 years ago. Reportedly, Qasim Although the girl’s family was not happy with the marriage, the duo married as per Hindu traditions in 2013. The couple, who resides in Aligarh, has two kids, 7-year-old Kasifa and 4-year-old Ayaz.

He had earlier raised security concerns. Qasim said, “I had sought security from the district administration but they didn’t get back to me. I request the government again, I need protection.” His wife Anita had conceded that there was no pressure on her to convert to Islam or not follow Hindu rituals.

Conversion facilitated by a Hindu group

Eight years after his marriage, he voluntarily decided to convert to Hinduism. “No one forced me. I took this decision on my own,” Qasim emphasised. After embracing Hinduism, he has adopted the name of Karamveer Singh.

His conversion was facilitated on Sunday by a Hindu group. A member of the said organisation, Neeraj informed, “They are welcome to the fold of Hindu religion. We did the rituals at Arya Samaj temple on Sunday.” Although Qasim had applied for legal conversion on December 15 to the district magistrate, he did not hear back even after 5 days. As such, the Arya Samaj temple took it upon itself to facilitate the conversion.

50 Muslim families convert to Hinduism

The day Ram Mandir’s Bhoomi Pujan in Ayodhya was successfully performed by PM Narendra Modi, as many as 250 Muslims of 50 families, living in Motisara village of Payala Kalla Panchayat Samiti of Barmer city, in Rajasthan, decided to re-convert to Hinduism. According to reports, Vedic rituals were performed at the village and all 250 members of the 50 families converted to Hinduism by wearing the sacred thread.

The family members asserted that they have not been forced and that they have converted out of free will. The senior members of these Muslim families asserted that they originally belonged to the Kanchan Dhadhi caste. They were following Hindu customs for the past several years. They celebrate Hindu festivals every year at their residences.

On his 96th birth anniversary: A look at 5 key steps undertaken by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee that radically transformed India

Jinit Jain
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On his 96th birth anniversary: A look at 5 key steps undertaken by former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee that radically transformed India

25 December 2020 marks the 96th birth anniversary of one of the most admired politicians in the history of independent India and the tenth Prime Minister of India — Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Born in 1924 in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, to a middle-class Brahmin family, Vajpayee had completed his M.A. in Political Science with a first-class degree from DAV College, Kanpur.

His first brush with politics occurred in August 1942 at the time of Quit India Movement. Vajpayee and his elder brother Prem faced 23 days of incarceration after they heeded Mahatma Gandhi’s call to join the movement. Vajpayee was deeply inspired by RSS ideologue Syama Prasad Mookherjee after joining the Bharatiya Jan Sangh in 1951.

Vajpayee jumped into the election fray in 1957 and won from the Balrampur Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituency of Uttar Pradesh. He also served as the President of the party from 1969 to 1972. Subsequently, Vajpayee also served as the Minister of External Affairs in 1977 when the Janata Party won the Lok Sabha elections and Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister of India.

Three years later, in 1980, Vajpayee joined L.K. Advani, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and his other colleagues from RSS, Jan Sangh to form Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and became the party’s first president. In 1984 Lok Sabha elections, the party won just two seats. But, an unflinching Vajpayee weathered the political storm and led the party during these tumultuous years, fashioning out an identity for itself by aligning with the Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir Movement by RSS and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

A decade later, in a turn of fortunes, BJP rose in prominence after performing well in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat state assembly elections. This brought Vajpayee and BJP back into the political centre stage of the country.

Known for his impeccable oratorical skills, Atal Bihari Vajpayee remains the only non-Congress prime minister to have occupied the chair three times and only the third overall after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Vajpayee came to power for the first time on May 16, 1996, by forming a minority government. But his government barely lasted a fortnight till June 1 as it failed to pass the floor test.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister of India for the second time on 19 March 1998. The NDA proved its majority in the house but the government lasted for only 13 months after the AIADMK under Jayalalithaa withdrew its support. The government lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha by a single vote.

When fresh elections were held in 1999, the NDA came back with a majority and Vajpayee became the prime minister for the third time. His government lasted till 2004, completing a full term of five years, the first non-Congress government to have done so.

Though his first brief tenure remained relatively uneventful, his other two tenures were seminal in shaping India’s growth trajectory. The important initiatives he presided over, the crucial policies his government formulated had a far-reaching and profound impact on the country’s On his 96th birthday anniversary, here is a look at the key decisions taken by late Vajpayee that transformed the country radically.

Developing Infrastructure in India

India witnessed a rapid growth of infrastructure development under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. For decades, the Indian politicians, primarily from the Congress party and the left, turned a blind eye towards building a robust infrastructural capability to advance the country into the modern age.

Soon after Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to power in 1998, he turned his attention towards connecting far corners of the country through a network of interconnected highways. In 2001, Vajpayee launched the Golden Quadrilateral, connecting the major industrial and cultural centres across the length and breadth of the country was a brainchild of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

His critics mocked him stating that the government of India lacked funds to bankroll such an ambitious project, however, years later he proved them wrong as major metro centres of the country was connected with the roads and highways. The project was modelled on the lines of the National Highway System of the US. Vajpayee firmly believed that construction and infrastructure advancement would act as harbingers of economic development.

Another contribution made by Vajpayee in developing the country’s moribund infrastructure was by launching the rural roads scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). The project aimed at providing all-weather connectivity to hitherto unconnected villages. Vajpayee was of the opinion that the development of roads and improved connectivity to pave the way from economic development of the hinterland. It is little wonder then that the subsequent UPA government continued with this scheme implemented by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Though the policy of developing roads and highways appeared to reinforce the urban connectivity programme, in reality, it was a policy that provided Rural India access to Urban India. More than 6,000 KMs of roads were built under the projects envisaged by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Lakhs of people, from both Rural and Urban India, got employment under this visionary plan. Farmers and rural artisans were connected to the nearby urban centres which enhanced their business and employment prospects and brought greater prosperity.

How Atal Bihari Vajpayee transformed India into a nuclear power

Amongst the many decisions taken by Atal Bihari Vajpayee while he was in power, transforming India into nuclear power was the most significant and momentous of them all. It demonstrated, perhaps for the first time, that India’s decisions would be guided by its self-interest and not by the geopolitical pressures.

After Vajpayee came to power in his second term in March 1998, he immediately ordered nuclear tests. In May 1998, Vajpayee hurriedly called a press conference to announce that India had conducted three underground nuclear tests in Pokhran. The decision evoked sharp criticism from several countries across the world and India had to face harsh sanctions, denying it critical nuclear and space technology.

However, Vajpayee was not preoccupied with the threats of sanctions from the international community. He was concerned with the expanding nuclear capabilities of India’s hostile neighbours. Earlier, Indira Gandhi had conducted first nuclear tests in Pokhran but India’s nuclear programme hit a snag following Rajiv Gandhi’s emphasis on nuclear disarmament. Meanwhile, China was continue augmenting its nuclear capabilities and India’s arch-nemesis, Pakistan, had also clandestinely acquired know-how for building its nuclear capabilities.

What is, perhaps, a little-known fact is that Vajpayee was predisposed to have the nuclear tests done in 1996 itself when he formed a minority government at the centre and which lasted for just 13 days. According to the accounts narrated by journalist Raj Chengappa in his book ‘Weapon of Peace’, the former Prime Minister was prepared to do the test even during his short-lived tenure in 1996 and instructed the then DRDO chief A P J Abdul Kalam to prepare for the test.

In a bid to create deterrence against India’s two neighbours, Vajpayee felt the urgency to revive India’s dormant nuclear programme. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with the Missile Man of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, ushered the country into the nuclear age. Shortly afterwards, Pakistan followed the move and carried out its own nuclear bombs. On the other hand, China sought a great commercial relationship with India after it demonstrated its nuclear capabilities.

As nations were coming to terms with India’s nuclear proficiency, Vajpayee told the Indian Parliament that the government was ordering a voluntary moratorium on further tests. The then Prime Minister also assured that India would not be the first to carry out a nuclear strike and would always follow a No-First-Use doctrine. Besides, he also added that nuclear weapons would never be used against a non-nuclear state and remain under civilian control, reinforcing India’s commitment towards maintaining peace and stability.

A decade later, this decision by Atal Bihari Vajpayee of exerting the country’s nuclear capabilities played a crucial role in the country’s signing of a nuclear pact with the United States in 2008 that granted India the recognition of being a responsible nuclear weapon state with strong non-proliferation credentials. The deal with the US not only paved the way for India to gain access to critical technologies, it also made the import of supercomputers and high-technology equipment easier.

Education for All with ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’

Realising that even after decades since India’s independence, the literacy rate of the country was at abysmal levels, Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched a revolutionary scheme— ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan'(SSA) in 2001, aimed at providing elementary education to all in a time-bound manner and achieving universal literacy.

The initiative was mandated by the 86th Amendment to the Constitution of India making free and compulsory education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 a fundamental right. As a consequence, the school drop-out rate came down by 60 per cent within five years of its implementation.

The SSA is hailed as one of the most successful education schemes implemented by any central government. The fact that a non-Congress government, almost after 50 years of India’s independence, had to come up with as basic a scheme as compulsory education for children in the age group of 6 to 14 is a scathing indictment of all the central governments that preceded the Vajpayee regime. Moreover, the SSA formed a cornerstone for the implementation of the Right to Education Act, which has helped push elementary education in India.

Pioneering a telecom revolution with New Telecom Policy

Under the leadership of Vajpayee, the Indian government announced the New Telecom Policy (NTP) on 3 March 1999, opening up the sector to private players and giving a push to what had become a static and lacklustre industry.

The New Telecom Policy ended the hegemony of government-owned telecom companies and catalysed the participation of private companies that kicked up a telecom revolution. The government waived off a fixed fee that the telecom companies were asked to pay for using the spectrum. Instead, the companies were asked to share a part of their revenue under the new telecom policy.

The New Telecom Policy touched off a massive revolution, bringing in more revenue from the greater amounts of profits made by the private players. The new policy also reduced the cost of telecom companies owned by the government. The policy made a clear separation between policy formation and service provision, turning the old telecom department into a corporation – BSNL.

Competition among the private players led to a dramatic fall in tariffs and a massive improvement in the quality of services being offered. This, in turn, prompted mobile phone companies to draw the focus on India and flood the markets with new and feature-rich mobile phones. So great and extensive the impact of the New Telecom Policy that it still fuels the growth in the country’s telecom sector. India has become the second-largest smartphone market and is all poised to surpass China in the coming years.

At Corporate Awards Functions in December 2009, when Idea Cellular’s then managing-director Sanjeev Aga was asked to point out the turning point in India’s telecom sector, he referred to the 1999 NTP, saying, “When I read it today, it is still contemporary and comprehensive”. He described the NTP policy as ‘watershed moment’ of India’s telecom sector.

Authors Harsh Madhusudhan and Rajeev Mantri in their recently released book–’A New Idea of India’ hail the policy as an action that liberated the telecom sector from the political control. They also argued that Atal Bihari Vajpayee should be given the due credit that he deserves for pioneering a futuristic telecom policy as against the former PM Rajiv Gandhi and technocrat Sam Pitroda who are falsely hailed by Congress ministers and supporters as progenitors of the mobile revolution.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee and laying the foundation for strong economic reforms

The six years of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure from 1998 to 2004 was an important interval between the drab rule of Congress-led governments for over 6 decades. Vajpayee’s regime reset India’s economic aspirations and laid the foundations for strong economic growth for years to come.

Even though Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ‘India Shining’ campaign failed in 2004 and UPA government came back in power, the country really shone in the years after Vajpayee when economic growth picked up to high single digits almost as soon as the NDA government lost. This was due to the economic reforms and the sound fundamentals of the Vajpayee years.

Disinvestment gathered pace under Atal-Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. While disinvestment was kick-started by Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao when he started selling minority stakes of the state-owned companies, but it was Vajpayee who took the courageous decision of privatising public sector companies under “strategic sales”.

In fact, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first Prime Minister of the country to have a separate disinvestment ministry. The Vajpayee government privatised as many as 12 public sector companies during their tenure, including behemoths such as Maruti Udyog, Hindustan Zinc, Bharat Aluminium, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited and many others.

The Vajpayee-led NDA government was one of the few regimes which were more conscious than many other governments to how the international investors viewed the Indian market and the government. There was an unswerving focus on the fiscal rectitude with the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act providing the framework within which the fiscal math had to be contained.

NDTV promoters caught again, after insider trading, Prannoy Roy and Radhika fined Rs 25 cr by SEBI in ICICI loan case: Read details

OpIndia Staff
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NDTV promoters caught again, after insider trading, Prannoy Roy and Radhika fined Rs 25 cr by SEBI in ICICI loan case: Read details

Markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Thursday imposed a penalty of Rs 25 crore on controversial news outlet NDTV and Rs 1 crore each on its promoters. SEBI has imposed fines on NDTV and its promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy for “violating various securities” norms by hiding information from shareholders regarding certain loan agreements.

According to the reports, RRPR Holding, the promoter entity of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV), has been fined by SEBI after they concealed information about loan agreements that had clauses having an adversarial effect on the NDTV shareholders.

Ordering the Roys to pay the penalty for the violation, the SEBI said it began an investigation after receipt of complaints from Quantum Securities Pvt Ltd, a shareholder of NDTV in 2017, about the violation of rules by non-disclosure of material information to the shareholders about loan agreements with VCPL. One loan agreement was with ICICI Bank, and two were with Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Ltd (VCPL).

According to the regulator, the agreement was signed in 2009 with VCPL for a loan of Rs 350 crore to repay the ICICI Bank loan and a second loan agreement with VCPL was signed for Rs 53.85 crore, a year later. These loan agreements included clauses and conditions that substantially affected the functioning of NDTV.

One of the terms of loan agreements allowed VCPL to indirectly acquire 30 per cent shareholding of NDTV through the conversion of warrants into equity shares of RRPR Holding.

The loan agreements were structured that clauses on matters pertaining to NDTV, which had price-sensitive information, were concealed from the minority shareholders.

Meanwhile, the promoters – Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, who are also accused of committing crores of tax fraud, have claimed that NDTV was not a party hence there was no requirement for them to make disclosure of the agreement to the stock exchanges.

SEBI fines NDTV, here is why: Roys entered loan agreements creating a conflict of interests, violated provisions

SEBI Adjudicating Officer Amit Pradhan said that thought NDTV was not a party to these loan agreement, however, contents and clauses of loan agreement clearly demonstrates that the scheme was devised by the notices in such a way that though NDTV would not be a party to the said loan agreements, yet the loan agreements would contain certain crucial, onerous and hostile stipulations pertaining to NDTV.

“Such stipulations included NDTV’s capital restructuring, which was agreed to be undertaken by Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, only with the prior consent of ICICI Bank/ VCPL,” he added.

Through such acts, Prannoy Roy, Radhika Roy and RRPR Holding violated provisions of PFUTP (Prohibition of Fraudulent and Unfair Trade Practices) norms, SEBI said in its order.

The accused Roys had also entered into loan agreements which created a conflict of their personal interest with the interest of NDTV, however, failed to make disclosure as required under the company’s code of conduct. They violated the code of conduct of NDTV and provisions of equity listing agreement.

“Accordingly, a fine of Rs 25 crore has been imposed on Roys and RRPR Holding, which needs to be paid jointly and severally. Besides, a penalty of Rs 1 crore each has been levied on Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy,” the SEBI said in its order.

NDTV promoters accused of ‘insider trading’

In November this year, in yet another blow to controversial media network NDTV, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had found its promoters Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy guilty of making undue gain from insider trading. As a penalty for the financial crime, SEBI has barred them from trading in the securities market for two years and directed them to return the illegal gain of Rs 16.97 crore they had made from the insider trading more than 12 years ago.

Apart from Pranoy Roy and Radhika Roy, former NDTV CEO Vikramaditya Chandra, senior advisor Ishwari Prasad Bajpai, group CFO Saurav Banerjee also have been found guilty of insider trading.

According to an investigation conducted by SEBI, Pranoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy have violated the Prohibition of Insider Trading (PIT) Regulations. They are accused of possessing Unpublished Price Sensitive Information (UPSI) during 2007-2008 relating to discussion on the reorganisation of New Delhi Television Ltd.

NDTV accused of tax fraud, financial irregularities

The controversial far-left alleged news channel – NDTV in recent times has been embroiled in controversies over alleged financial irregularities. NDTV is facing multiple cases related to violation of FDI norms, Income Tax violation, and non-compliance with disclosure norms. CBI is probing a case against NDTV in relation to a Rs 375 crore loan from ICICI Bank and a corresponding wrongful loss of Rs 46 crore to the bank.

There is a chain of borrow, repay and borrow where Roys took a series of loans in 2008 as they sought to buy back a large chunk of NDTV shares from the market, allegedly violating foreign direct investment (FDI) rules in a 2007-09 investment, a charge denied by the company.

In August 2019, NDTV founders Prannoy Roy and his wife, Radhika Roy, were prevented from leaving the country after authorities had suspected that the accused Roys could run away from the country amidst massive tax fraud allegations against them.

Indian crew on two ships stuck for months at Chinese ports as China does not allow them to unload cargo

OpIndia Staff
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Indian crew on two ships stuck for months at Chinese ports as China does not allow them to unload cargo

Displaying a vile gesture, China has not allowed two Indian cargo vessels with many Indians on board to unload their cargo at Chinese ports. The Ministry of External Affairs informed the same today, saying that the two cargo ships with a total of 39 Indians on board have been on anchorage in Chinese waters for several months as they were not allowed to unload their cargo, even though some other ships were allowed to do so.

According to reports, Spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Anurag Srivastava said that the crew on the ships are under a lot of stress. “There is a considerable amount of stress on the crew members on account of this unprecedented situation”, he said.

Vessels of other countries allowed to unload

China has allowed the vessels of other countries to enter Chinese ports and unload their cargo during the months when two Indian ships with several crew members on board were not allowed to do so on the grounds of Covid-19 related restrictions. However, no case of Covid-19 has been reported so far on the Indian cargo vessels. Srivastava said bulk cargo vessel MV Jag Anand is on anchorage near the Jingtang port in Hebei province of China since June 13. The vessel had 23 Indians on board. The other vessel MV Anastasia is on anchorage near Caofeidian port in China since September 20. It has 16 Indian nationals on board.

Yesterday China had said that it was in touch with Indian authorities regarding the situation of the cargo vessels and the Indian nationals on board. However, it did not say anything about when the crew members will be allowed to leave the vessel.

China citing Covid restrictions

China, on Wednesday, said it was in touch with Indian authorities on the situation of the 23 Indian sailors stranded on a ship anchored off a northern Chinese port since June, but did not say when they will be allowed to leave the vessel. “Our Embassy in Beijing has been in constant touch with provincial and central government authorities in China, requesting that the ships be allowed to dock and/or the crew be allowed to be changed”, said Srivastava.

Srivastava said the Chinese authorities have conveyed that crew change is not being permitted from the ports on account of coronavirus-related restrictions imposed by the local authorities. “We also understand, however, that some other ships, which arrived after Indian ship had arrived, have actually managed to discharge cargo and leave. The reasons for this are not clear,” he added. The spokesperson further stated that  India has taken note of the Chinese foreign ministry’s statement on Wednesday about the provision of necessary facilitation and assistance.

After getting banned for two years for failing dope test, Basketball Player Satnam Singh joins farmer protests

OpIndia Staff
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After getting banned for two years for failing dope test, Basketball Player Satnam Singh joins farmer protests

Basketball player Satnam Singh Bhamara, who was banned by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) today for failing a dope test, was seen joining the farmer protests. The Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel of NADA imposed a ban of 2 years on Singh after he tested positive for Higenamine Beta-2-Agonist.

After joining the protesting farmers at Singhu border, Singh extended support for the protesting farmers and said that he stood with the farmers. He said that he went to offer his services so that the farmers did not face any problem.

Singh was given a provisional suspension last month after he failed an out-of-competition test conducted in Bangalore by NADA during a preparatory camp for the South Asian Games. He had denied the charges levelled against him and had requested NADA for a hearing by its Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel.

The ban imposed on him will end on November 19 next year with the ban period beginning retrospectively on the same day in 2019. Singh was picked in the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft by Dallas Mavericks five years ago. He played in the Development League with Texas Legends, an affiliate of the Mavericks, for the next two years. In 2018, he became the first Indian to play in the National Basketball League of Canada after signing a deal with St John’s Edge. He represented India at tournaments like the Asian Championships, 2018 Commonwealth Games and 2019 World Cup Qualifiers.

Meerut: Man gives Triple Talaq to his wife for refusing to dance and wear jeans, later sets himself on fire

OpIndia Staff
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Meerut: Man gives Triple Talaq to his wife for refusing to dance and wear jeans, later sets himself on fire

A Muslim man in Meerut Uttar Pradesh gave triple talaq to his wife after she refused to dance and wear jeans on his demand. The man later went to the house of his in-laws and set himself on fire. However, his in-laws saved him and informed the police.

According to reports, the woman, a resident of New Ismailnagar, was married off to the man named Anas from Pilkhua, Hapur eight years ago. Anas used to work in Delhi.

As alleged by the woman, the man used to force her to dance and sing, and wear jeans, which would lead to quarrels between them. She had even approached a local Panchayat to get the problem resolved but it did not work. On Tuesday, the man gave triple talaq to his wife over the same issue. Later he set himself on fire at his in-laws place. He was immediately rushed to the hospital by his in-laws. The police are investigating whether there was any motive behind the man setting himself on fire.

CO Arvind Chaurasia said that the as soon the police received the information about the man burning himself, they reached the spot and arrested the man.

Woman divorced for developing vaginal infection

Last month, a Muslim man gave triple talaq to his 24-year old wife who was diagnosed with vaginal infection. The man even threatened the woman that he would remarry and demanded money from her parents. In the same month, a Muslim man gave triple talaq to his wife for not bringing a car and Rs 20 lakh in dowry. In another similar incident in that happened in the same month, a Muslim man pronounced triples talaq to his wife for not giving birth to a male child.

Begusarai: Mohammad Chotu enters house of a Hindu woman by jumping over a Mosque wall, attacks her with knife for resisting molestation

OpIndia Staff
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Begusarai: Mohammad Chotu enters house of a Hindu woman by jumping over a Mosque wall, attacks her with knife for resisting molestation

In a Muslim dominated area of Bihar’s Begusarai district, a youth named Mohammad Chotu forcefully entered the house of a 30-year-old Hindu woman and tried to physically assault her. After she tried to put up resistance against the accused, the latter allegedly attacked the victim with a sharp knife, leaving her injured. The incident occurred in Baro Rampur Tola village falling under the Gadhara station area in​​ Begusarai, Bihar.

According to reports, Mohammad Chotu broke into the woman’s house by jumping over the walls of a Mosque which is adjacent to her house. Thereafter, when the accused attempted to physically assault her, the woman resisted and raised an alarm to gather the villagers. The villagers, in turn, apprehended Mohammad Chotu and handed him over to the police. They rushed the injured victim to a nearby hospital for treatment. The accused was later released by the Begusarai police.

Accusing the police of siding with the accused, the woman is now demanding justice for herself.

Begusarai Hindu victim narrates her ordeal

Narrating her ordeal, Gunjan Devi said that on the night of December 21 (Monday) she was sleeping in her house with her three children when suddenly Mohammad Chotu broke into her house and grabbed her in her sleep. He then forcefully started taking off her sari, recolleted Gunjan Devi, who said that she was so devastated that for a second that she became blank and didn’t know what to do.

Gunjan Devi immediately started screaming to collect her neighbours. Her children, who got up from their sleep because of the noise, opened the door of the house to let the neighbours in. Seeing people approach Mohammad Chotu tried to flee but by then Gunjan said she caught hold of his legs tightly, not allowing him to escape. The accused then took out a knife and attacked the victim several times. Despite being gravely injured, Gunjan did not let go of Chotu until the villagers gathered.

Gunjan Devi said that before going to the hospital, she went to the police station and filed a complaint against the accused. The police also assured her that they would investigate the case and lodge an FIR against Chotu. However, when she went to the Police Station the next day, their attitude towards her had changed completely. She said that Chotu was in police custody for two days after which he released. When Gunjan Devi questioned the police she was rebuked and asked to leave.

Concerned about her and her children’s well being, Gujan Devi, worried how would she stay alone in her house. She said that her children were small and her also husband did not live with them as he worked in Uttar Pradesh. She feared that her live was now at risk.

“How will Hindus ever be able to live in the area”, lamented area’s ward councillor and a BJP member

To know more about the incident, Opindia got in touch with the area’s ward councillor and a BJP member, Krishnanand. He confirmed to us that Gunja Devi was assaulted by Mohammad Chotu. He said that the victim lived alone in her house with three small children as her husband worked for the railways. The BJP worker revealed that since Gunjan Devi’s house was adjacent to a Mosque she was an easy target for such hoodlums.

Begusarai police not cooperating, says BJP leader

Lauding Gunjan Devi for her courage, Krishnanad lambasted at the police for their laxity in handling the case. He said that they did not conduct any enquiry and left the accused on a PR bond within two days. The accused had beaten the woman so much that her mouth, hands, legs were all swollen, recollected the ward councillor.

Krishnanand said that the area was a Muslim dominated area. He revealed that prior to this, a similar incident had taken place with Gunjan Devi when another youth had jumped the wall of the Mosque and broken into her house. He said that Gunjan had then complained to the Mosque authorities, who did not take her complaint seriously and settled the matter by temporarily barricading the terrace of the Mosque.

Calling the incident extremely unfortunate, the BJP leader opined that if some concrete action is not taken against these hoodlums, they would get a very pass and make it impossible for Hindus to live in the area. “How will Hindus ever be able to live in the area”, lamented Krishnanand?

Expressing his displeasure over the police apathy, Krishnananda said that if the police already had plans to release the accused there was no point of creating a farce of presenting him in the court.

Opindia also tried to contact the police to know their version of the story, but they could not be contacted.

It is pertinent to note that few media reports have mentioned that three youths had entered the victim’s house. However, when we spoke to Gunjan Devi she only named Mohammad Chotu.

Police arrests Haroon who fooled people by pretending to be a Hindu priest named Pandit Rahul Shastri

OpIndia Staff
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Police arrests Haroon who fooled people by pretending to be a Hindu priest named Pandit Rahul Shastri

Delhi police yesterday arrested a person name Haroon alias Shahji Bangali for duping people pretending to be a Hindu priest named Pandit Rahul Shastri. Haroon, a resident of Zakir Nagar in Meerut, had registered himself on Google and Truecaller app as Miyaji Shah Bangali under his fake name. He had reportedly duped a number of people.

Haroon got Rs 85,000 deposited in his account by a woman

According to reports, there are several cases of murder and riots filed against Haroon. His son named Arif was also involved in the frauds he committed. Haroon was nabbed by the police after a woman filed a complaint against him. The woman, who is a resident of Keshavpuram in Delhi, said that she had received a phone call from an unknown number and the person on the other side introduced himself as Pandit Rahul Shastri. He told her that he could fix all the domestic issues that she was facing by performing a Yajna. He even induced the women to transfer an amount of Rs 85,000 to his account. However, the woman grew suspicious after Haroon asked her to deposit Rs 55 thousand more in his account.

He and his son arrested by the police

A case was registered against Haroon on the woman’s complaint. A team of police led by SHO Sanjay Rawat started the investigation in the case. The police traced Haroon through his phone location and arrested him from Meerut. His son Arif was also arrested by the police. The police are investigating how many people Haroon has fooled.

Muslim dressed as Sadhus

In October this year, a video had emerged showing three Muslim men hiding their identities by dressing in saffron clothes pretending to be Hindu sadhus. Their true identities were revealed when a man confronted them. When he asked their true identities, they told their names as Suddu, Diwan and Ali Hussain. All the three confessed that they were Muslims. One of them said to the man asking about their real identities that they did not commit a crime or steal anything. This might be true but if such people hiding their identities behind saffron robes commit any crimes the Hindu sadhus are defamed.

Amitabh Bachchan’s post on ‘Chai’ stirs up a storm, actor accused of plagiarism

OpIndia Staff
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Amitabh Bachchan’s post on ‘Chai’ stirs up a storm, actor accused of plagiarism

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been dragged into a controversy on social media for sharing a poem without giving credits to the person who wrote it. The avid social media user took to his Facebook and Twitter accounts on December 24 (Thursday) to share a few lines of a poem in Hindi along with a picture of himself. However, he missed out on sharing the name of the poet.

Amitabh Bachchan’s Tweet

The controversy, however, erupted after the woman who reportedly wrote that poem replied to the megastar’s posts. One Tisha Aggarwal, took to Facebook and Twitter to claim that the poem Big B had shared was actually written by her. “Sir, these lines are mine. At least give credit”, reacted Tisha Agarwal.

Tisha Agarwal post on Facebook

Within minutes she retweeted Amitabh Bachchan’s post captioning it: “When Amitabh Bachchan copies your post and does not even give credit, should you be sad or overjoyed?”

Tisha Agarwal’s post

She requested him to atleast give her the due credit. She said she would have been very happy had the megastar given her credit for her work.

Tisha Agarwal’s tweet

Tisha Agarwal’s posts did not go unnoticed. Many people took to social media to question the cine icon.

One Facebook user Pradeep Shukla spoke on how one Youtuber named Gyan Prakash Mishra had once received a legal notice from Amitabh Bachchan for sharing his father Harvansh Rai Bachchan’s poem on his Youtube channel. Though Mishra recited the poem after giving due credit to Harvansh Rai Bachchan, still Amitabh was so furious that he sued him. Mishra wrote emails, sent the megastar messages asking for apology, but Amitabh was not ready to let go, said Pradeep Shukla.

Schooling the actor for his hypocrisy, one user reminded Big B how in 2017, he had sued AAP leader Kumar Vishwas for copyright infringement of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s poem and today he did the same thing.

For the unversed, in 2017, Amitabh Bachchan has sent a legal notice to AAP leader Kumar Vishwas for using a poem by the megastar’s late father, the poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan in a video, and asked him to give an account of the revenue generated from it. Bachchan had then said that the video, in which Vishwas was seen singing the poem, was a “copyright infringement” and should be removed from the popular video-sharing site YouTube, within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, some called Amitabh Bachchan “arrogant” for using someone else’s work without giving due credit.

Others too slammed the actor accusing him of plagiarism.

OpIndia got in touch with Tisha Agarwal, who claims to be the original writer of the poem shared by Amitabh Bachchan. Tisha said that though plagiarism has become rampant on social media servers with most people using someone else’s tweets, comments, and blogs by showing them as own, at least celebrities that too someone like megastar Amitabh Bachchan should act responsibly and should not indulge in such flippant acts.

Tisha said: “Last night, I saw Amitabh ji’s post and I understood that these lines are mine. Then I also checked on my Facebook wall, which convinced me that this is my poem. I also searched on Google and I realised that this poem had been published by many other bloggers, and some people had also published it in their own voices on YouTube.”

Tisha said that when she shared this post on her Facebook wall, some people informed her about the 2017 incident when Senior Bachchan had got so irked that he sued AAP leader Kumar Vishwas for using his father’s poem. She said that many have advised her to do the same. However, she does not want to take any decision in haste and would only decide after discussing the issue with her family.

‘Nuns pimped out boys to Christian priests at sex parties, clergy paid them for allowing to rape children,’ victim narrates ordeal in Germany

OpIndia Staff
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‘Nuns pimped out boys to Christian priests at sex parties, clergy paid them for allowing to rape children,’ victim narrates ordeal in Germany

Christian nuns working at a children’s home in Germany is accused of pimping out boys to Christian priests, politicians and businessmen who would rape the children at sex parties.

According to the reports, a Social Welfare Court in Darmstadt, Germany awarded a 63-year-old person compensation after he detailed how nuns dragged him to be abused by priests and powerful men at parties, starting at age five. The victim said that the nuns were paid by these powerful priests for allowing to indulge in sexual intercourse with young boys.  

The victim, who remains anonymous, said he was raped around 1,000 times during his time at the home in the 1960s and 70s, alongside other boys.

The Bishop of Speyer, Karl-Heinz Wiesemann also publicly named Bishop Rudolf Motzenbäcker, who died in 1998, as the accused who involved in such heinous abuse. The bishop said three further victims have since come forward.

Nuns acted as ‘pimp’, supplied young boys to clergy at ‘sex parties’

The victim was abused at the age of five when he joined the home run by the Order of the Sisters of the Divine Saviour in the German city of Speyer in March 1963. The victim said he was ‘literally dragged’ by the nuns to Motzenbacker’s apartment to be sexually abused. The Christian priests would beat him when he resisted.

The victim, who was an altar boy at the Speyer Cathedral, said he was assigned the priest as a confessor. The victim said visitors to the clergy would abuse him at ‘sex parties’’. The nuns would act like ‘pimps’ and supply youngsters aged between seven and 14 to clergymen, local politicians and businessmen.

“There was a room where the nuns served drinks and food to the men and in the other corner the children were raped,” the victim said to the court in his testimony. He added that the nuns earned money as the men present donated generously.

The victim said before the court that the nuns were key in aiding the abuse of the children at the home, even claiming the sisters themselves would sexually abuse underage boys. The children’s home was shut in 2000.

‘Brutal torture if disobeyed orders of church, was raped multiple times,’ says victim

According to the victim, if any of these boys disobeyed the orders of the church, they would be beaten with sticks or have their heads smashed against the wall. He said he was raped by three priests at the same time on one occasion.

“Sometimes I would run back to the home in blood-smeared clothes, the blood ran down my legs. Before I left in September 1972, I had been sexually abused about a thousand times,” the former altar boy narrated his ordeal.

The Catholic Church paid the victim with 15,000 euros in compensation and 10,000 euros for therapy costs alongside a victim’s pension. “For victims of abuse, taking legal action is associated with considerable psychological stress”, said Judge Andrea Herrmann from the Darmstadt Social Court.

However, the victim asked what is the use of the money after suffering such post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He asked, “My marriage is broken. My bones, liver and kidneys are too”.

Since 2010, the Catholic Church has faced a number of cases of sexual abuse. An internal investigation into abuse in 2018 revealed abuse involving 1,670 clerics and 3,677 victims between 1946 and 2014. There has been a dangerous trend of repeated cases of rape and other abusive incidents at Churches across the world. Unfortunately, India is not immune to this plague either. Christian priest and churches, like most cases worldwide, have been targeting the poor, destitute for their crimes but the cases go unnoticed.

 

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