From the 24th of February to the 26th of February, Delhi burnt with massive communal riots that were a direct consequence of the sabre-rattling by Islamist mobs. One of the first Hindu casualties was constable Ratan Lal, who was mercilessly killed by Islamist mobs. The chargesheet filed by Special Investigation Team of Delhi Police in the murder of Ratan Lal and deadly attacks by rioters on IPS Amit Sharma and IPS Anuj Kumar mentions at least 17 accused.
There are about 4 to 5 key conspirators in the entire case, which includes Salim Khan, Salim Munna and Shadab. The police stated that the riots were engineered in Delhi through a conspiracy to malign the image of the country. Interestingly, DS Bindra, who was hailed by the media as a messiah serving food to anti-CAA protestors was also named as one of the instigators of the riots that led to the murder of Ratan Lal.
Ratan Lal was mercilessly lynched by a crazed Islamist mob while he was trying to do his duty on main Wazirabad Road, Chand Bagh. The mob had come prepared for a riot according to the charge sheet. In the chargesheet, as reported earlier, it is mentioned that the agencies collected live cartridges and even used cartridges along with petrol bombs and Molotov cocktails from the rooftop of a rickshaw shop in the vicinity as well. Several bricks and stones were also collected for examination.
The video that had emerged at the time of an Islamist mob mercilessly lynching Ratan Lal had left the nation shocked. The rage and the coordination of the mob were rather evident from the video. It was reported at the time that the police had essentially gone to speak to the mob, pacify them and ask them not to continue with their illegal march, and it was then that they were attacked.
With the chargesheet being filed in the murder of Ratan Lal, a chilling fact has come to the fore. During the perusal of the chargesheet, OpIndia noticed that several witnesses who were examined by the authorities attested to the fact that before Ratan Lal was lynched to death by the Islamist mob, another police officer was held hostage by the mob.
Two police inspectors who were beat officers in the area and were responsible for maintaining law and order in the area after the mob had decided to take out an illegal march in protest of the CAA have given their statements where these facts are mentioned explicitly.
Excerpt of Chargesheet
The chargesheet says that Salim Munna, one of the main accused, was already telling Muslims congregated in the area to “show their might”. Before the murder of Ratan Lal, the statements of the two police officers say that the mob was already armed with sticks and rods. On the instruction of ACP Anuj Kumar, two police officers, who are the witnesses giving their statement, in this case, went in the tent of the protest site to speak to Salim Munna so the crowd build-up could be stopped. The police officers had gone there to tell the protestors to meet with the ACP and speak to him.
However, the two officers were held captive by the crowd and managed to escape with great difficulty.
A Muslim victim had also testified to the same hostage situation. His witness statement is also attached in the chargesheet.
Witness statement
The witness statement clearly says that the constables who had been sent in the tent to talk to the protestors were surrounded by the angry and agitated rioters and had escaped only later.
In December 2019, when riots had broken out in various parts of the country by Islamist mobs, a similar incident had taken place.
In Meerut, the police had received a tip-off that things could turn ugly during one of the protests on a Friday. Soon after the Friday prayers, a crowd of people wearing black bands came out from the Jama Masjid at around 2 pm to protest against the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. When police tried to stop them, they started chanting slogans against the police after which the police lathi-charged them. After that, 15-20 miscreants reached the Lisadi gate intersection and started creating ruckus there. As the crowd kept swelling, the protestors started throwing stones at the police forces.
DM and SSP reached the spot as bullet started flying from both sides. On Hapur road, where around 25-30 RAF police trainees were deployed, realising that the police deployment is less, the agitating crowd shifted there, vandalising scores of vehicles and pelting stones against the law enforcement personnel. To protect themselves from the stone pelting, the trainee policemen took shelter inside a shop, but they were taken hostage by the violent protestors inside the shop by shutting down the shutters. The mob also tried to torch the shop, but was unable to do so.
The trapped policemen called their seniors, and a police force from Nauchandi police station reached the spot, but their vehicles were also stopped and they were attacked with stoned by the protesters. After that, the police opened fire on the mob, and eventually rescued the trapped RAF soldiers and brought the spiralling situation under control.
With this precedent, it is evident that the constables who were stuck in the tent, right before Ratan Lal was murdered by the same mob, were in an extremely precarious position. Soon after, the same mob mercilessly murdered constable Ratan Lal and grievously injured several others.
The Aam Aadmi Government-led by Arvind Kejriwal has been receiving criticism for all quarters for its unpreparedness in tackling the coronavirus crisis in the national capital. At such a time, his die-hard fans and supporters have taken it upon themselves to rebuild his lost credibility. Arvind Kejriwal’s adherents are taking to Twitter to hail him for ‘saving life’ of a Modi voter. Even after the party getting trolled time and again for taking unnecessary credit for things not done by them, the AAP supporters under the hashtag #DelhiDefeatingCorona, went ballistic hailing Kejriwal for something in which he actually had no role to play.
A Twitter user named Sushant Saurabh, who lives in Delhi, was diagnosed with coronavirus infection. His wife too was apparently infected. According to his Tweet, they both got themselves admitted in Delhi’s LNJP Hospital on June 20. Sushant Saurabh, who has now recovered from the infection took to Twitter to laud the health workers, the doctors and the staff at LNJP hospital in Delhi who took good care of him and his wife. While praising the facilities at the hospital, Sushant Saurabh had tagged Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy CM Manish Sisodia in his Tweets.
AAP supporters heap praises for Kejriwal
The AAP supporters, who were quick to spot this, dug up Sushant Saurabh’s Twitter account only to find, that he is a Modi supporter. This got the ball rolling for the Arvind Kejriwal fan club who started sharing Sushant Saurabh’s 2019 Tweets where he had expressed support for Modi. During the 2019 general elections, Sushant had voiced his support for Modi by writing “Namo Namo” under hashtag #MeraVoteModiKo. Sharing screenshots of his old Tweets and his current ones praising LNJP hospital, its doctors, health care workers and the facilities, AAP supporters started hailing Kejriwal was “saving life” of a Modi supporter.
So much was the excitement, that one of Arvind Kejriwal’s supporter was quick to declare him the next Prime Minister. Saying that this would give us great hospitals all over India, the Twitter user asks everyone to choose the next PM wisely.
AAP leaders also jumped in to show their adherence for their leader. Kundan Gogia, the power movement in charge from Patiala constituency, said that there are two kinds of leaders, one who takes care of votes and the other you take care of his people, insinuating that Kejriwal is amongst the second kind.
Taking needless credit for the work done by someone else is something which the Aam Aadmi Party has expertise in. The AAP chief has many times used sensitive issues to gain PR brownie points. Last month, the Aam Aadmi Party was caught claiming credit for the 10,000-bed coronavirus facility in Delhi, built by ITBP under the union home ministry. Soon after India’s largest facility for coronavirus patients, the Sardar Patel COVID Centre and Hospital, Chattarpur became operational in Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party, which had almost given up the coronavirus fight in Delhi, soon jumped to take the credit for the newly built coronavirus facility despite the fact that Arvind Kejriwal-led government had a very limited role to play in setting up the facility.
Going by his penchant, Kejriwal had also tried to take credit for Center’s free ration scheme. Exposing Kejriwal, BJP leader had shared screenshots of an e-coupon Delhi government has issued for free ration under Chief Minister Corona Relief Free Ration Scheme. The e-coupon which had a photograph of Arvind Kejriwal nowhere mentioned that the Delhi government had actually got the ration from the centre under PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.
Moreover, during the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic, AAP’s MLAs, including Manish Sisodia and Raghav Chaddha, posted photos of themselves leading the disinfection drive. The party also tried to take credit for the recently established coronavirus facility at Radha Soami center in Delhi, the work for which was actually carried out by the Central Government.
The talks between Indian and Chinese sides to diffuse the tension at the LAC in Ladakh has started to yield results as the first phase of disengagement has been completed, and the second phase will begin shortly. According to a report by ANI quoting government sources, armies of both the countries have completed withdrawal from conflict sites along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh, in Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso lake and other conflict areas.
Disengagement between India and China completed at Patrolling Point 17 (Hot Springs) today. With this, disengagement complete at PP-14, PP-15 and PP-17. Chinese Army thinning out in Finger area in Ladakh: Indian Army Sources pic.twitter.com/60Na3maoEW
During the first phase of disengagement, the Chinese military has moved back from Finger 4 to Finger 5 along the Pangong Tso lake. Apart from that, they have also moved back by around two kilometers in Galwan Valley, Hot Springs (Patrolling Point 17) and Patrolling Point 15. The disengagement took place after Coprs Commander level talks between the two sides.
Chines troops had retreated from Patrolling Point 14 few days ago, following the talks between the two sides. Recent satellite images also show that the Chinese side has withdrawn from contentious sites at Galwan Valley. The buffer zone at the Galwan valley will be the area on the both sides of PP14.
Similarly, Indian forces also moved back from their positions as per the agreement. At Pangong Tso, Indian side has moved back to Dhan Singh Thapa post near Finger 3, where the base post of Indian side is located. After both sides move back into their own territories, the vacant space now created between the positions of India and China will be treated as temporary non-patrolling zones by both the countries, and the troops will not enter this area. For example, at the Finger area, the space between Finger 3 and Finger 5 will become a non-patrolling area. It is reported that approximately 3 kilometers of land will be kept as non-patrolling area.
Talks on the second round of disengagement will begin by next week, which will focus on both sides moving back to permanent locations, as decided during the recent meeting between Indian NSA Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart. Corps Commander-level talks will take place between the two armies after meeting of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) scheduled to be held tomorrow.
Both India and China have agreed that it was necessary to ensure to complete the disengagement of troops along the LAC at the earliest to fully restore peace and tranquillity at the border.
Taking PM Modi’s call to make India self-reliant or Atmanirbhar Bharat, 150 firms in Morbi have joined hands to create local alternatives to products currently being outsourced from China. As the call to boycott China and its product gains momentum, Morbi, known as a hub of ceramic tiles in Gujarat, is aspiring to replace the Chinese toy market.
Around 150 electronics item and clock manufacturers from Morbi are in talks with firms which source parts or finished products from China for the Indian market. The manufacturers believe that with more than 25000 skilled manpower and the required infrastructure, they are well equipped to make many such products in Morbi.
The MD of the world’s largest wall-clock maker- Ajanta-Oreva Group, Jaysukh Patel, said that due to the decrease in demands since the Covid-19 outbreak, Morbi has been operating at barely 20 per cent capacity. “So, we started looking at our strengths and decided to replace China as a supplier for small electronic equipment for consumer appliances, toys and gift articles,” explains Patel.
The MD of Ajanta clocks furthered that the manufactures will not only be engaging with toy and gift articles makers but also consumer durable firms such as Hitachi, Samsung and LG for new business.
Speaking on cost-efficiency, Patel said that they are confident of not only delivering products at a better cost than China but also manufacturing superior quality products.
Letter sent to PM Modi asking for support
Patel added that Morbi has already approached the centre for help. “A letter has been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking government support and protection for this segment of products”, Jaysukh Patel said.
Raising concerns on under-invoicing/tax evasion by Chinese companies to dump goods into the Indian market and ruin the country’s MSME sector, the letter to the PM dated July 5 read: “Indian MSME is competent enough to compete with Chinese products provided we curb the unethical imports of Chinese products. It will be a great assistance and boon to the MSME sector, if we can curb such unethical imports.”
Morbi, the ceramic tiles hub of India
For the uninitiated, Morbi or Morvi is a town and a municipality in Morbi district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Morbi is a huge industrial hub, especially famous for the production of ceramic tiles. Apart from housing 80% of India’s ceramic vitrified tile manufacturing units, Morbi is also famous for the Ajanta plant, one of the leading manufacturers of electronics items and clocks. Morbi initially used to be a manufacturing hub of clay roof tiles (commonly known as Naliya tiles in Gujarat). But as days progressed, the manufacturers turned to ceramic vitrified tile and now it has become the hub for such ceramic tiles in India.
China is the biggest exporter of ceramic products, especially vitrified floor tiles in Europe, the US, far-eastern countries and Africa. According to tiles makers in Morbi, Gujarat, as supply from neighbouring country has stopped, China-dominated markets are now looking at Indian tile manufacturers.
One Covid-19 victim who went missing from the newly-commissioned Global Hub Corona Hospital in Thane, Maharashtra, actually died three days ago, and the hospital, in a major goof-up, handed over the dead body of the 72-year-old Coronavirus victim to another family from Kopri, whos patient was also being treated for coronavirus in the same facility.
As per Janardhan Sonawane’s son, he received a call from the Thane hospital on July 3, informing him that his father had died due to Covid-19. Since the body was wrapped up in plastic and the face was covered, following the Covid-19 protocol, the family, accepted the body thinking it to be of their family member and performed the last rites on July 4.
Two days later the family again received a call from the hospital authorities, which, this time, informed them that Janardhan Sonawane was actually alive and was being treated in the ICU. Thinking it to be a prank the son disconnected the call, but he then received another call from the police station informing him the same. He then went to the hospital and found that his father is indeed alive.
Family mulling legal action against Thane hospital and civic body
On the other hand, the family of the deceased Gaikwad whose body was reportedly cremated in place of Sonawane has accused the hospital staff of covering up the matter. Gaikwad’s son-in-law Ravindra Salvi said: “My father-in-law Bhalchandra Gaikwad was admitted to the hospital on June 29 at 10 pm after he tested positive for COVID-19. He died on July 3. The hospital staff is telling us that on the same day, four people had died and they got a little confused and handed my relative’s body to someone else, who even conducted the last rites. This is really shameful. The hospital is now trying to hush up the matter,” said Gaikwad’s relative mulling legal action against the hospital and civic authorities.
Meanwhile, the hospital claimed that operations are being run with just 30 per cent of the staff and both medical and paramedical personnel are over-stressed.
Similar goof-up by Delhi hospital
Recently, a similar case was reported from Delhi, where the body of Muslim coronavirus victim was cremated by Hindu family and the body of Hindu victim who also died of Covid was given to Muslim family for burial after Delhi AIIMS Trauma Center bundled up and exchanged bodies of two Covid-19 victims.
Stand-up comedian Kenneth Sebastian has been in the news After his misogynistic comments on Instagram went viral, another video of him mocking ancient Indian language Sanksrit has now surfaced on social media.
In the original video titled, ‘Journey to the centre of my brain’, which has now been made private, Kenneth remarked, “Sanskrit is an amazing language. All the people speaking it are dead. Thank God for that.” The comedian did not stop at wishing death to Sanskrit speakers. He further imitated a dying father, in need of oxygen supply, to a native Sanskrit speaker.
Kenneth mocked Sanksrit by citing the example of a hostage situation where the ancient language could only be used for negotiation with terrorists. He lamented the fact that the Indian language was a mandatory part of the educational curriculum in the 5th and 6th std.
” Sanskrit is the useless subject in the history of making unless I was a cop and there was a terrorist situation and they were holding 10 people hostage. The terrorists would only negotiate in Sanskrit. What do we do..? Kenny, do you speak Hindi? 5th and 6th compulsory! Could you talk to the terrorist? Of course, I can. ‘Kimgachami’, ‘Kimkaroti’, ‘matra’ and they let the kid go… Now, they can go and learn Sanskrit,” Kenneth Sebastian was heard as saying. He further claimed that he was hit by his teacher for pronouncing the name wrong.
Kenneth Sebastian hurls abuses on Instagram, NCW takes cognisance
In some of the comments on a post, Sebastian was seen hurling vile, obscene abuses targeted at female body parts. In his defence, Sebastian took to Twitter to claim that the screenshots making rounds on social media are ‘fake. However, social media users then shared screen-video recordings of their phones to show that the screenshots taken were not manipulated as claimed. The National Commission for Women (NCW) took cognisance of his remarks on Friday. In a Twitter post, NCW acknowledged that netizens had raised concerns over the abusive posts and had tagged the government body in the ‘snippets of misogynistic comments.’ NCW further stated that chairperson Rekha Sharma had written to the Director-General of Police in Maharastra and has asked him to conduct an investigation into the issue.
Sheikh Safiqul Islam, a journalist in West Bengal who runs a web news channel named Arambagh TV, was arrested by the West Bengal police on June 29. Along with him, his wife Alima Khatun and journalist Suraj Ali Khan working in the web channel were also arrested.
Arambagh TV has been facing action from the state govt after it had questioned the Mamata Banerjee government over making donations to various clubs in the state during the Coronavirus pandemic. After the channel exposed that many of clubs which had received grants from the government actually does not exist, several FIRs were filed against the channel and its owner Sheikh Safiqul Islam.
Earlier, the police had filed cases under sections 420, 468, 469, 471, 500, 505, 120B of the IPC against the channel and its owner. Safiqul had got bail in two of the cases filed against him from Kolkata High Court. Now, the police have arrested them in fresh charges of extortion, according to reports. The new charge was filed just days after the channel aired the visuals of police taking bribes from trucks.
Reportedly, they were arrested after some person filed a case against them alleging that they had threatened to publish a report of illegal tree cutting by that person if they were not paid Rs 30,000. That person claimed that Journalist Suraj had demanded the money from him despite being told that trees were cut as per Panchayat’s order.
Safiqul, his wife and the journalists were arrested just few hours after the fresh FIR was registered by police. They were arrested even before they could approach any court for bail. West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had tweeted on 29th June that Safiqul Islam was arrested for expose of govt in distributing public money to non-existent clubs. “If journalists are silenced, so is democracy,” he had tweeted.
Safiqul Islam arrest(Arambagh TV) for expose of govt in distributing public money to non-existent clubs raises fundamental issue of freedom of media @MamataOfficial
— Governor West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankhar (@jdhankhar1) June 29, 2020
While national media is oblivious to the attack on Arambagh TV by West Bengal police, sections of civil society have started to demand the release of arrested persons. retired Supreme Court Justice Asok K Ganguly, former State Chief Secretary Ardhendu Sen, filmmakers Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen and Tarun Majumdar and others have issued a statement demanding their release.
“These persons were treated in this way not for any heinous crime like murder, rape or dacoity, but only for broadcasting news critical of the State. The way the police surrounded their houses, broke down the doors and carried them off to the police station along with their minor children, bodes ill for our democracy and the Constitution,” the statement said.
After the arrests, no new report has been posted on the Arambagh TV’s YoutTube Channel. The last few videos posted on 29th June show police and people in plainclothes surrounding the house of Safiqul. Some of them are seen trying to break a window using sticks. One video shows some persons trying to enter the house through the roof using a ladder.
After ‘comedian’ Kenneth Sebastian went on an obscene and abusive rant on Instagram, the National Commission for Women (NCW) took cognisance of his remarks on Friday. In a Twitter post, NCW acknowledged that netizens had raised concerns over the abusive posts and had tagged the government body in the ‘snippets of misogynistic comments’. NCW also stated that they have observed claims made by the comedian saying that the screenshots were fake.
NCW further stated that chairperson Rekha Sharma had written to the Director-General of Police in Maharastra and has asked him to conduct an investigation into the issue.
@NCWIndia has been tagged in posts with snippets of misogynistic comments made by stand-up comedian @knowkenny. We’ve also observed his statement claiming them to be fake. Our Chairperson @sharmarekha has written to @DGPMaharashtra for immediate investigation in the case
Kenneth Sebastian turns ‘abusive’ in comments, cries foul later
In some of the comments on a post, Sebastian can be seen hurling abuses like ‘teri maa r*ndi’, ‘teri maa ko ch*dunga pehela’, ‘put it in your mom an*s’ and other such obscenities. In his defence, Sebastian took to Twitter to claim that the screenshots making rounds on social media are ‘fake’. He claimed that the abuses posted from his account were ‘manipulated’ as he reported an account of someone who he claimed was ‘abusing his religion’. However, social media users then shared screen-video recordings of their phones to show that the screenshots taken were not manipulated as claimed. Many users had also questioned Netflix and Amazon Prime, the online streaming services, which have hosted shows by him asking whether they endorse his abusive behaviour.
For the last several days, social media is abuzz with tales of Prathap NM, a young man who has been dubbed as the drone boy, and a drone scientist. Netizens are sharing stories of how Prathap has won numerous gold medals in various drone expos around the world, has been invited to 87 countries, and has been offered work by various govts apart from Indian govt, apart from PM Modi asking DRDP to hire him.
Although the stories of the 22-year old boy from Karnataka are not new, they are floating in the internet for last 2 years, suddenly his stories have started going viral. And while most Indians are sharing and re-sharing the stories of the drone boy, there are some who think that his tales sound suspiciously similar to familiar stories of ‘school boy selected by NASA’ stories, which almost always turn up to be untrue. In that context, here is the analysis of claims made for Prathap NM.
Medals and awards
According to a report by Deccan Herald in December 2018, Prathap has won Albert Einstein Innovation Gold Medal in the International Drone Expo 2018 held at Hanover in Germany, a gold medal in the International Drone expo held in Germany, secured the first place in CeBIT Drone Expo-2018 at Hanover, Germany, and also bagged the gold medal in International Robotic Exhibition held at Tokyo, Japan, in December 2017.
If we see carefully, we see that he won three awards in Hanover in Germany in 2018, two at International Drone Expo and one at CeBIT Drone Expo. A web search for events with exactly these names didn’t return any result. CeBIT is a Computer Expo that takes place in Hanover, Germany, but there is not any separate Drone expo by CeBIT. There is no report of any other International Drone Expo held at Hanover, so it is not clear where he participated and won the awards.
More importantly, there is not any independent report of Prathap winning awards at these expos. While CeBIT Innovation Award is given at the CeBIT event, there is not any report of the event saying that Prathap won the award. All past nominees and winners of the award are companies like Motorola, McAcfee etc, and there is no report any individual winning it.
Similarly, there is no report of any Albert Einstein Innovation Medal in any drone expo in Hanover. All search results for the award with this name only point toward stories of Prathap NM, there is no other source talking about such an award. There is an award named Albert Einstein World Award of Science, the list of winners don’t include the name of our drone boy, and this is not awarded by CeBIT. Although there is a photograph of Prathap with a medal and a certificate saying Albert Einstein Innovation Medal by CeBIT, there is no record of CeBIT giving any such award.
According the reports on Prathap NM, he had participated in a robot competition at the International Robot Exhibition in Japan 2017, for which he was helped by his college teachers to arrange money for the airfare. The International Robot Exhibition held in Tokyo is a trade fair where companies making robots participate. College and university students with their robots also take part in the show, but there is no record of drones being part of this event, and there is no record of Prathap winning the first prize, or any prize, in the event.
Although there are several robot competitions in the world, there is no record of any competition being held at the International Robot Exhibition, which is basically a trade fair for industrial robots. Although students also participate in the event to showcase their creations, they are not included in any competition.
While Prathap has reportedly won a large number of awards and medals for his drone, there is not a single photograph or video showing him receiving such awards. There are few photographs of him with such medals and awards, but they are not from any ceremony where he received them.
He has also claimed to have addressed sessions on drones at IITs and IIMs, but there is no independent report to back that claim.
The Drones
Most of the internet stories on Drone boy are based on a report by Edexlive published in December 2019. Edexlive is an initiative of The New Indian Express. It features a photograph of Prathap ‘with his drone during one of the expo’. The photograph, which is carried by dozens of websites, is reproduced below.
Prathap with ACSL drone at an ACSL stall
Here, we see an impressive looking drone along with Prathap. But after the first glance, one can see that the drone is branded with the name ACSL on several places. This ACSL happens to be a Japanese company, that makes unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. It can easily be seen that it is actually the logo of ACSL on the drone photographed with Prathap. A little bit of online search shows that it is the PF-1 drone made by ACSL, and it’s not a drone made from recycled parts by the drone boy. The photograph also has a person with an ACSL branded shirt, and the ACSL Logo can also be seen in the wall of the stall, and on the TV mounted on the wall. All these point towards the possibility that Prathap had attended some exhibition where ACSL had showcased its drones, and got himself photographed with one of the drones made by the Japanese company.
Another article on Prathap published by The Better India carries several photographs of him with several different kinds of drones in exhibition stalls, apart from the above photo. In one of the photos it can be determined that it is an exhibition in Japan. Here too, in the following photograph, the brand of ACSL is visible in one of the motors of the quadcopter, implying that it is another drone made by the Japanese company.
Prathap with another ACSL drone
Moreover, sales brochure in Japanese can be seen on the desk, which means that it is a commercial production drone. Other photographs in the same article also shows Prathap getting photographed with commercial production drones exhibited in Japan and Germany. The drones are accompanied by promotional material, and none of them look like made from e-waste, as Prathap is known for making drones by recycling materials.
One redditor had sent a mail ACSL asking to know whether Prathap works for the company or had developed drones for them, in reply, the company categorically stated that he has never been involved in any product development of the company. They said that they were not even aware of his before they received the e-mail. They also confirmed that the PF-1 drone seen in the photo with Prathap was developed in-house in Japan, and they have IP patents and rights for the same. This proves that Prathap had just got photographed with Jagdeepa ACSL drone, and he is not associated with its development.
Mail from ACSL denying any link with Prathap
Despite supposedly making 600 drones using e-waste, it is a big surprise that not a single photo or video of the drones made by the drone boy is available on the Internet. All photos of drones that appear with him on various websites are commercial production drones made by various companies.
The flood relief
According to the Edexlive article, during the floods in Karnataka in 2019, Prathap used his drone to deliver to food and relief material to the effective areas. The article also carries a photograph of Prathap with a drone remote in his hand in a rescue boat, accompanied by two rescue persons. But here are two issues with this claim of using ‘his drones’ to distribute food.
First, the kind of drones that are seen with him in various photographs are not suitable to distribute food during natural disasters like flood. These small rotary wing drones can carry only a small weight, and therefore they can’t be used to distribute food. Generally, boats and helicopters are used to distribute relief materials in flooded areas, drones are not used for the same. But drones play a vital role in relief operations during disasters like flood. They are useful in aerial assessment of extent of the damage done, locating stranded people etc.
Prathap with Yuneec Typhoon H+ remote, the remote for comparison
The second issue is the remote-control unit Prathap is holding in his hands in the photo. Again, this is a commercially produced unit, and not made at home from e-waste. When we looked at various drones and their remotes, we found that the remote Prathap is holding looks surprisingly similar to the ST16S ground station for Yuneec Typhoon H+ drone.
Therefore, it points to the possibility that Prathap was assisting the rescue personal in operating a Typhoon H+ drone in assessing the flood situation, and he was not using a drone made by him.
African encounter that defy mathematics
In the Edexlive report, Prathap narrates a story of using his drone to deliver antivenom to an 8-year-old girl who was bitten by a snake in Sudan. According to him, a person can survive for only 15 minutes after bitten by this snake, a black mamba. He said that he used his Eagle 2.8 drone which can cover 280 km per hour, and the place was 10 hours by road from where he was.
This claim has several things that does not add up. The place was 10 hours by road, which means the place was approximately 400-500 km away. ‘His drone’ can cover 280 km in an hour, which means it will take 1.5-2 hours for the drone to each the remote place to deliver the antivenom. According to his own admission, it will be too late for the girl as needs the antivenom within 15 minutes.
But he also claims that the anti-venom was delivered in eight and a half minutes. Which means, the drone travelled at a speed of more than 3000 km per hour. This is almost three times the speed of sound, or mach 3. Such kind of speeds can be attained only by jet fighters, not rotary-wing drones. None of the fighter jets owned by Indian Air Force can fly at mach 3. Even the military drones made by USA and Israel don’t fly at supersonic speed. Therefore, it is not possible that Prathap’s drone flew at such high speed.
First, he says his drone’s speed is 280 kmph, then he says the drone reached a place that is 10 hours away by road in just 8.5 minutes, certainly this is a mathematics defying claim.
The next problem with the claim is the range of battery-powered drones. Such drones can’t cover the kind of distance that he has claimed to have covered in Sudan. The DJI Mavic 2 Zoom drone, one of the drones in this category with the longest range, can cover a maximum of 8 km, and it has a maximum flight time of 31 minutes. There is no way battery-operated drone that can cover over 400 km, which will be double if we consider the return journey.
Another important aspect limiting range of drones is the connectivity with the control unit. Drones are operated using a handheld remote control with a wireless connection with the drone. And there is limitation of the range of this connection. Therefore, both battery capacity and radio signal range limit the range of drones.
The large military drones, like the Predator drone of the USA, don’t have this limitation. They fly using engines, not battery power, and they are controlled using satellite connections, which means they can be controlled from anywhere in the world.
Prathap said that 22,000 people died from Black Mamba bites in one year in a particular tribal area in Sudan. This claim is not backed by any news report. Although lots of people die from snakebites in Africa, even the annual fatality from all snakebites in the continent is less than 22,000. Moreover, it is not possible to identify the snake in every such case of snakebite.
None of the claims made regarding the Sudan story is supported by logic and known capabilities of drones, and sounds like a made up story.
The e-waste
Prathap has reportedly built around 600 drones using e-waste. Although it is true that lots of electronic and electrical components from defunct gadgets can be used in DIY projects, the kind of description given by Prathap about his method raises doubt. In the Edexlive story, he says, “for example, if there is a mixer-grinder that is defunct, I can remove the motor and use it in my drone. Similarly, I make use of chips and resistors from broken televisions to build my drones”. Yes, mixer-grinders contain a motor, but it is not suitable to be used in a drone. It is a heavy AC motor with 500-600 watt power consumption, while drones use DC motors, and need to consume less power so that the battery lasts longer. Using an AC motor in a drone will mean it will need an DC to AC inverter, as the drones run batteries that give DC power. This will make the drone very heavy because the inverters tends to be heavy equipment, and it is not a practical solution to add an additional device just to use old mixer grinder motor when actually DC motors are present in several devices which can be salvaged to build drones.
The claim of using ‘chips and resistors from broken televisions’ to make drone is also questionable. While resistors are simple electrical components which can be used in other devices, chips contain software and instructions specific to the product it is built for, and the chips in consumer electronic products can’t be used in other devices. One needs to use programable chips or logic devices where customised programs can be loaded, and chips from TVs can’t be used for the same.
Importantly, it may be reiterated there is no photograph or video or any of the 600 drones made from e-waste by Prathap, as all the photographs of him feature state of the art commercial drones at various exhibitions.
More logic defying tales
A recent story by Organiser on the drone boy has an interesting tale on his participation at this event. It says that as he didn’t have money in his pocket, he didn’t take the famous bullet train to reach the venue after landing Tokyo. But the problem is, the bullet trains or Shinkansen service is an inter-city high-speed train service in Japan, and The International Robot Exhibition is held at the Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo. Which means, one need not take a bullet train to reach the exhibition venue, which is actually just 15 kms away from the international airport.
It is also interesting that while he claims his Japan trip in December 2017 was made possible by financial help from his professors, he was travelling business class to Europe in just few months later. “When I travelled to France for the first time, people were shocked and judged me for travelling in business class. However, this did not matter to me,” we are not even sure what he wants to mean by this.
Prathap NM has claimed to have 600 drones from e-waste. Apart from the shocking absence of any photographic or videographic evidence of the same, the claim also raises another question. Making a device takes time, even while assembling a drone using ready to use kits which are readily available these days. The drone boy has claimed to have even assembled the logic boards and motors on his own, using resistors and chips from discarded items like televisions. Such a single project will take several weeks to complete. As he is not known to have any assistant, 600 drones mean several years of work when not done in an industrial setup. In between, he has been attending drone competitions and expos and lectures in logic defying 87 countries. In short, the timeline does not support the claim.
The miracle coincidence
Prathap NM says that one of the drones made by him is named Eagle 2.8. Surprisingly, this name is remarkably similar to a drone made by a well-known drone boy, the Eagle A7 made by Harshwardhansinh Zala from Gujarat. 17-year-old Harshwardhansinh is the founder and CEO of Aerobotics7, and he has developed the Eagle A7 drone which can reportedly detect and destroy landmines. Unlike Prathap NM, photographs and videos of Harshwardhansinh’s drone are available online. More importantly, from the photos it is evident that they are home-made drones, and they carry A7 and Eagle A7 branding, and therefore they are not commercially produced drones as in the case of Prathap.
This points towards the possibility that Prathap NM was inspired by Harshwardhansinh Zala so much that he named his unseen drones the same as Zala’s drone.
In conclusion, there is no evidence of drone scientist Prathap NM making any drone, winning any award and medal. The awards and medals he has won do not exist in reality. All stories about him on various websites are based on other websites carrying the same. There are several loopholes in claims in regard to his achievements, and most importantly, his claim is remarkably similar to the story of another drone boy.
Sarla Devi, the mother of the dreaded gangster Vikas Dubey, on Thursday reacted to the arrest of her son in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh and revealed that Vikas Dubey had close relationships with the Samajwadi Party.
Speaking to the media, Sarla Devi, the mother of Vikas Dubey said that they were made aware of his arrest after watching the news on the television. She also revealed about the gangster’s political links stating that Vikas Dubey was ‘with the Samajwadi Party (SP) these days’.
“इस टाइम वो भाजपा में है नहीं सपा में है” “महाकाल ने विकास को बचा लिया।” – ये कहना है सरला देवी, विकास दुबे की माँ का! pic.twitter.com/WRmfNdrZAe
— Anjana Om Kashyap (@anjanaomkashyap) July 9, 2020
“Hamare kehne se kuch nahin hoga bhaiya, itni badi sarkar hai, is time woh bhajpa mein hai nahin, woh sapa mein hai (We cannot say anything about the arrest. The government, it is big and powerful. He is currently a member of SP and not the BJP”, said Dubey’s mother.
As a reporter asked her again regarding her son’s links with the Samajwadi Party, Sarla Devi once again reconfirmed Dubey’s Samajwadi Party saying, “Is samay sapa mein hai, samajwadi party mein hai (He is currently a member of the Samajwadi Party)”.
She also said that the gangster had a relative in Ujjain and that his in-laws are in Ujjain, from where he was picked up. Sarla Devi revealed that Vikas Dubey visited the Mahakal temple in Ujjain every year.
Vikas Dubey arrested in Ujjain
The notorious gangster Vikas Dubey, who was responsible for the death of 8 policemen in Kanpur was arrested from Ujjain’s Mahakal temple on Thursday.
According to the reports, Vikas Dubey was present in the Lord Mahakal temple at Ujjain on Thursday. The visuals showed that Madhya Pradesh police nabbed the gangster inside the premises of Lord Mahakal temple. Reports stated that the security personnel at the temple had identified Dubey and had alerted the local police.
Vikas Dubey, dressed in white shirt with a mask, was then brought to the Mahakal police station. The police had reportedly found credible identity proof with him after the arrest proving that the man arrested is Vikas Dubey.
