Home Blog Page 6839

ED raids the residence Congress leader and ‘gold buddy’ of Robert Vadra, detain him for questioning

OpIndia Staff
-
0
ED raids the residence Congress leader and ‘gold buddy’ of Robert Vadra, detain him for questioning

The Enforcement Directorate today conducted raids in the residence of Congress leader Jagdish Sharma. He has been taken to the ED office for interrogation. Jagdish Sharma is said to be a close aide of Robert Vadra, Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law.


Yesterday the ED had conducted raids at the offices of Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, along with three other locations related to close aids of Vadra.

ED sources have reportedly informed that the raids were conducted on suspects who have allegedly received bribe money from defence suppliers.


Sharma, however, has reportedly stated before being taken away that it is a conspiracy against Robert Vadra. Reports have cited Jagdish Sharma as one of the close aides of Vadra.

In 2012, Sharma had hurled a shoe at Arvind Kejriwal during a press conference. After Kejriwal accused him of carrying out the Gandhi family’s orders, Sharma had stated that he is a ‘Gold Buddy’of Robert Vadra but the Gandhis had not asked him to throw a shoe at Kejriwal. He also had boasted that he had hit Kejriwal twice with a shoe.

Regarded by many as a Vadra loyalist, Sharma had also led a protest in front of the Congress national headquarters after the massive 2014 defeat. He was reportedly holding placards demanding Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to be brought to ‘save the party’.

Vadra’s lawyer Suman Khaitan had yesterday complained that the ED is searching the offices of Vadra’s associates without showing any search warrant.

Roots of sexual exploitation lies in Abrahamic religions, says American professor

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Roots of sexual exploitation lies in Abrahamic religions, says American professor

As Christmas draws closer, most Christians would ideally be buying Christmas trees and readying their carols and cakes. However, a professor from Minnesota, USA, Eric Sprankle decided to open a can of worms on Twitter by calling the Biblical God a sexual predator.

Eric Sprankle took to Twitter on 4th December and asserted that the virgin birth story is about an “all-knowing, all-powerful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario”. He signed off by wishing everyone ‘Happy Holidays”.


Eric Sprankle is a professor of clinical psychology and sexuality studies at Minnesota State University.

Responding to critics who quoted Bible verses to counter his theory, Eric Sprankle said “The biblical God regularly punishes disobedience. The power difference and the potential for violence for saying ‘no’ negates her ‘yes’. To put someone in this position is an unethical abuse of power at best and grossly predatory at worst”.


The professor’s Twitter bio, in fact, includes the words “Ave Satanas” (hail Satan). “Hail Satan” is a Satanist slogan. Satanism is an Abrahamic religion that is based on the inversion of the core tenets of Christianity. However, in recent times, the slogan has also gained popularity among atheists and secularists who use the words to make known their opposition to Abrahamic religions. Sprankle likely falls in this category as he describes himself as a secularist.

At a time when people like Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are holding placards blaming Brahmins for Patriarchy, the professor’s comments are likely to ruffle many feathers. However, unlike their Indian counterparts, American liberals are known to be quite harsh in their criticism of all versions of traditional religion.

CPI-M youth wing leader and father of victim among those arrested for the rape of 16-year old in Kannur

OpIndia Staff
-
0
CPI-M youth wing leader and father of victim among those arrested for the rape of 16-year old in Kannur

In a recent incident of gangrape of a minor in Kerala’s Kannur, the police have taken 13 people into custody so far. According to reports, one of them is a local DYFI leader who was earlier seen participating in a rally demanding justice for the victim. DYFI is the youth wing of the ruling CPI-M in the state.

As per reports, a 16-year-old girl had alleged that she was befriended by a person using a fake name and was asked to come to a place in Parassinikkadavu. From there she was allegedly abducted by four men and taken to a lodge where she was gang-raped by several men.

In her complaint to the police, the victim had revealed that she had been raped by 20 different men, including her own father. In the recent incident, the main accused, a person identified as Mridul, reportedly abducted her to a lodge and even shot a video of her abuse. The case was reported to police when Mridul showed the video to the victim’s brother and demanded money.

During counselling, the teenage victim revealed that she had been sexually abused by her own father since she was 13.

On Tuesday, the local DYFI unit reportedly took out a protest march demanding justice for the victim. However, after the police started making arrests, it was revealed that a local DYFI leader, named Nikhil Mohanan (Nikhil Thaliyil) is one of the accused. A report by Asianet News had revealed that Nikhil was marching in a red jersey demanding justice for the victim.

The News Minute reported that the local district secretary of DYFI has confirmed Nikhil’s association with them. He has reportedly added that Nikhil has a drinking problem and hence he was not given any important positions.

The police have registered six cases and seven accused persons are said to be still absconding. Nikhil was arrested yesterday. The names of some of the other accused are Sandeep, Shamsuddin, Shabbir, Ayub, Pavithran, Achit Valsaraj and Mridul. The manager and receptionist of the lodge have also been arrested for facilitating the crime.

The police have revealed that the girl was blackmailed and subsequently raped several times by the accused. Charges under POCSO Act have been registered against all the accused.

Court cites disgraced cop Sanjiv Bhatt’s criminal past, behaviour and false statements, denies bail

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Court cites disgraced cop Sanjiv Bhatt’s criminal past, behaviour and false statements, denies bail

A Palanpur court in Banaskantha district has denied bail to the tainted former cop Sanjiv Bhatt in the drug planting case that dates back to 1998. The disgraced cop had been arrested in September this year by the Gujarat CID over a case of planting drugs. The probe was underway after the directions of the High Court.

Disgraced former cop Sanjiv Bhatt had contested that he has long-standing in the society with movable and immovable assets and hence, is not at flight risk. He had also asserted that he has no criminal past and has been interrogated already. He told the court that on the basis of this record, he should be granted bail in the case.

The CID vehemently contested his bail. The probe agency said that Sanjiv Bhatt was the mastermind behind the drug plan that framed Rajasthan lawyer in a false case. Rajpurohit, the lawyer who was framed by Sanjiv Bhatt to get a shop in Pali vacated, had also opposed Bhatt’s bail plea and filed an affidavit in this regard.

The court was less than moved by Sanjiv Bhatt’s submissions and came down heavily on the disgraced cop. It cited Bhatt’s false statements and bad behaviour before denying bail. The court also mentioned Sanjiv Bhatt’s criminal past and that if granted bail, he would be in a position to tamper with evidence since the case diary had already been tampered with.

The court also mentioned Sanjiv Bhatt’s past behaviour while denying bail. Reportedly, the court observed that earlier, Bhatt had got bail from a Pali court in the same case on the condition that he would not leave the country. But the disgraced cop ended up leaving the country multiple times, disregarding his bail condition. Owing to his past behaviour, the court observed that if bail was granted to him, there was no guarantee that he would stick to his bail conditions.

It was also mentioned that in 2017, Sanjiv Bhatt had lied to the passport office and asserted that he had no cases or summons pending against him.

The plight of the victim, in this case, was also cited. The court observed that since Rajpurohit was a lawyer himself, he could continue to fight for justice, however, any ordinary person would have given up and accepted his fate.

In November, the CID chargesheet said that Sanjiv Bhatt, who was then the Superintendent of Police of Banaskantha district, gave Rs 20,000 to a policeman to buy opium from a particular place to falsely implicate the lawyer. He had instructed policemen to buy 1 kg of opium and plant it on the Rajasthan based lawyer. After the plant was complete, they conducted a fake raid to implicate the lawyer.

The lawyer, Sumer Singh Rajpurohit was allegedly kidnapped from Pali (Rajasthan) and the drugs were planted on him by Palanpur police. In a sordid twist, it was also alleged that the Palanpur police had done so to get the lawyer to vacate the property which allegedly belonged to the relative of the then Gujarat HC judge, Ramanlal Rajmal Jain.

Sanjiv Bhatt is accused of being the mastermind behind the entire operation of kidnapping the lawyer and plating the narcotics that implicated the Rajasthan based lawyer.

2018 Assembly Elections: Here are the BJP internal survey numbers

Nupur J Sharma
-
0
2018 Assembly Elections: Here are the BJP internal survey numbers

The country was witnessing perhaps the most fiercely fought assembly elections in a long time. Five states, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Mizoram went into assembly polls, the last phase of voting ending today.

With voting drawing to an end, every pollster released their exit poll numbers and predicted which party might win the respective states.

Interestingly, most exit polls were vague with large margins of errors. Even so, most polls predicted a resounding defeat for BJP.

Chattisgarh

Source: CNN News 18

With the majority mark in Chattisgarh being 46, only Times Now-CNX and Republic-Jan Ki Baat seemed to project numbers where BJP might just get to the halfway mark.

Rajasthan

Source: CNN News 18

For Rajasthan, the halfway majority mark is 101. None of the major pollsters seems to give the state to BJP. Jan Ki Bat gave BJP 83-103, Congress 81-101 and Others, 16. Jan Ki Baat has given an extremely wide range of 20 seats.

Madhya Pradesh

Source: CNN News 18

With the majority mark being 116, Axis and Jan Ki Baat do predict a majority for BJP but with extremely high margin or error of 20 seats. CNX also seems to believe that BJP is poised to cross the halfway mark in Madhya Pradesh.

Telangana

Source: CNN News 18

With the ones updated so far, Telangana seems to be going TRS’ way unanimously and BJP has no stake in the elections.

Mizoram

Source: CNN News 18

Mizoram seems to be going the MNF way with neither parties reaching the halfway mark.

BJP internal survey

Credible sources within the BJP party have told OpIndia that BJP is predicting a narrow victory for itself in all three major states of Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, contrary to what most Exit Polls are predicting.

Following are the numbers of BJP’s internal survey

BJP Internal Survey numbers for Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh

With the majority mark being 116 in Madhya Pradesh, BJP internal survey is giving the party anywhere between 115 to 120 seats.

With the majority mark in Rajasthan being 101, BJP internal survey is giving the party anywhere between 95 and 102 seats.

With the majority mark in Chattisgarh being 46, BJP internal survey is giving the party 47 to 52 seats.

With several years of anti-incumbency in all three states, BJP, sources tell us, are confident of their prospects in all three states even with their internal numbers giving them the edge marginally.

The final results of all states are to be released on 11th December.

Zee News rejects Congress charge of doctored video, moves EC against Congress

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Zee News rejects Congress charge of doctored video, moves EC against Congress

The Editor-in-Chief of Zee News Sudhir Chaudhary has put the Congress party in a tough spot after he accused the Congress party of attempting to muzzle the voice of the media in the country. Sudhir Chaudhary made this statements as Congress media defiantly accused Zee News of telecasting a fake video.

Sudhir Chaudhary speaking to DNA referred to the video of an election rally addressed by senior party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu in which ‘Pakistani Zindabad’ slogans were raised by some people. The Congress leaders, however, had said that no such slogan was raised, and alleged that Zee News was spreading fake news. Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala as a proof of their claim had posted a 45-second clip of the video to falsely accuse Zee News of posting fake news.

We at OpIndia had made a ‘fact-check’ on the issue and had found that someone indeed had shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ during the Sidhu’s speech at an election rally in Khairthal, Alwar in Rajasthan on December 1. The Congress leaders had edited out this part while posting a video proof that no such slogans were raised.

Sudhir Chaudhary has outrightly denied the allegation of the video is fake and said they can present at least seven feeds to prove that pro-Pakistan slogans were indeed raised during the election rally. He further added that Zee News stands by its video. He also shared other videos of the speech where the slogan was heard on Twitter.

“It has become fashionable now that when a leader of Congress is caught red-handed, the party comes to his defence by terming the video to be a fake. This is nothing but yet another Congress tactic to get out of the situation,” said Sudhir Chaudhary in his interview with DNA.

Sudhir Chaudhary also objected to the harsh words used by Navjot Singh Sidhu after he had threatened him by saying “nani yaad dila denge”. The Congress always claims that the party believes in freedom of expression and in democratic values but it is a clear attempt to muzzle the voice of the media for not toeing the line of the party, said Sudhir Chaudhary

Responding to the question regarding Congress party’s backing to Sidhu in the recent controversy, Chaudhary said that in a large set-up like Congress, a leader like Sidhu can’t do it alone. He further referred to recent controversial Amritsar visit of Sidhu, where he had claimed that Rahul Gandhi was his captain and had even said that Rahul Gandhi had asked him to go to Pakistan. The Zee News Editor-in-Chief added that Sidhu has the approval of the leadership of Congress party for his actions.

Sudhir Chaudhary expressed his disappointment over the Editor’s Guild of India for not taking the issue of Congress’s onslaught on the media into the cognizance. He added that other media groups will stand by their organisation. He said that they have already sent a written complaint to News Broadcasters Associations and another to the Editors Guild of India.

Zee News has also filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and other Congress leaders over the incident. “Zee News always believes in the democratic system of the country. We believe in the legal system so will take all the steps within the legal framework to seek justice…We have also sent a complaint to the Election Commission of India. If need be, we will move the court,” said Sudhir Chaudhary.

Facts, No Fiction: Socialists must realise, there are no free lunches

Karan
-
0
Facts, No Fiction: Socialists must realise, there are no free lunches

With the election season in full swing, I am reminded of the famous phrase “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. As clear as this phrase is to Economists, politicians tend to disregard this important lesson while they formulate populist economic policies that tend to garner more support than sound economic policies. Socialists just want to spend, spend and spend as if it’s a free buffet, little do they realise that at the end of the day, there’s someone’s labour that is responsible for paying for the buffet. A good example of how such policies can be detrimental has been the recent inflation that has been experienced in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s economy has largely been driven by Oil Exports as it has the largest proven reserves of Oil. The domestic economy of Venezuela didn’t produce many goods except for petroleum products and it was dependent upon imports for most of their needs. Thus, when the prices of international crude oil reduced, the economy started to face the heat as the value of its exports started to fall while its imports continued. The government started to fuel economic growth by expansionary fiscal policy and as a consequence over a period of time, inflation rates accelerated. One of the reasons behind the high inflation rate is the fact that there is too much of demand for goods while the supply for them is limited and this has to do with the fact that most of the goods in Venezuela were imported from other nations. Thus, the twin deficits could be held majorly responsible for the current high levels of inflations.

Venezuela Inflation. Source: Banco Central De Venezuela

The case of hyperinflation (or exceedingly high inflation) is not just limited to Venezuela as it has been historically observed at different points in time in Germany, Zimbabwe and other nations. The reason why I am highlighting this issue today is to reiterate the point that in Economics, there are no free lunches. This is a case in point as India too witnessed a brief phase of high inflation between 2011-2014 and this coincided with a phase of high current account deficit and a high fiscal deficit.

Thus, it is important to be aware of the fact that India too maintains a current account deficit as we import more than we export. As a result of this, we need to be careful with the way we maintain our fiscal and monetary policy to ensure that strong fundamentals can subdue any downside risks to our growth in the short or medium run. The first instance of fiscal recklessness came in the budget of 2008, which was a pre-election budget. Over the course of the financial year 2008-09, populist measures led to a widening of the fiscal deficit and the North Atlantic Financial Crisis in September 2008 led to a global recession which slowed our growth. The period coincided with high inflation and the “taper tantrum” episode whereby external market interventions by the Reserve Bank of India didn’t have a significant impact on rupee stabilisation.

India- Food Inflation. Source: MOSPI
India- Consumer Price Inflation. Source: MOSPI

Given that there are no free lunches, it is amusing to see that socialist policies continue to resonate the discourse every now and then. The recent increase in international crude oil prices and the subsequent politicisation of the same by the UPA demonstrate that clearly, they haven’t learnt their lessons. The problem with such populist policies is that their economic costs are huge and have to be borne by subsequent governments while the benefits are immediate. A good example of this can be the fiscal expansion by the UPA government in 2008 which led to high growth for financial years 2009-10 and 2010-11 post which, growth started to collapse.

The current government has taken an entirely different approach towards economic policymaking as it has relied upon strong structural reforms to revive growth while ensuring fiscal prudence. The commitment by the government towards fiscal consolidation, especially in an election year is worth appreciation as it shows to some extent there is decoupling of economic policymaking from short-term political considerations. This, I believe is an important reason why our current account deficit and fiscal deficit has been lower than what it was between 2007-2013.

The fact that socialists continue to scream for federal spending illustrates that they don’t regard the fundamental principle of economics that merely increasing the liquidity will not automatically translate into real growth in the economy. This disregard towards the inflationary impact of such policies is the reason behind Venezuela’s current crisis and this disregard is also responsible for the double-digit inflation that India experienced during the period of 2011-14. It would be wise if socialists take out a page from the book of economics and remind themselves of the popular phrase that there are no free lunches. The Socialists, who speak of labour, must be reminded, that if a lunch is free, then they stole from the wage of the worker, who prepared the meal in the first place!

 

Karan Bhasin is an economist by academic training. His research interests are diverse in the field of economics. He tweets at @karanbhasin95.

Exclusive story of Christian Michel’s extradition and how the grand plan was implemented by CBI and Ajit Doval

Chiranjeevi Bhat
-
0
Exclusive story of Christian Michel’s extradition and how the grand plan was implemented by CBI and Ajit Doval

The middleman Christian Michel in the Agusta Westland Helicopter Scam was extradited by the Dubai Government and was brought to India by a special plane on December 5th. He is the witness and the accused alive in this Rs 3,600 Crore scam. It indeed is a great achievement of the Government to extradite and bring him to India. Calling it another Surgical Strike wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

The credit of this massive feat is due to the seamless coordination between NSA Ajit Doval and the CBI.

How did this action plan get in place? How did Ajit Doval plan it? What were the games Christian Michel played with CBI to dodge the imminent extradition?

CBI and other sources have revealed some startling details of the entire saga of how the plan unfolded and how, the unthinkable was achieved to extradite a man who possibly holds several secrets, Christian Michel.

Agusta Westland

This by no means is the first scam related to Agusta Westland. Its shenanigans extend up to South Korea, India and Panama. It had sold Westland Choppers to South Korean army by conniving with Army officials and those close to them by bribing them with amounts running into crores. Tenders were manipulated to make them eligible to supply Choppers of inferior quality. This scam got exposed and those Korean beneficiaries involved, including Army officials and middlemen, were punished.

It is common knowledge as to what happened in India. For VVIP transport, the specifications for the Choppers included its ability to fly at altitudes of 6000 meters. Agusta Westland choppers did not have required safety clearances to fly at those altitudes. In order to qualify and bag the tender, Agusta Westland attempted to exert influence to reduce this altitude to 4500 meters in the tender specification. Christian Michel is the middleman who allegedly bribed then ruling Congress family. To get flying clearances, he also allegedly bribed Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi through his sister, Julie Tyagi.

In Panama, Agusta Westland had sold military equipment and choppers. Since the accusation of kickback was directly against their President, the agreement was cancelled. All this information is available in the UK based Corruption Watch report. This may not constitute official records, authorities have conducted anti-corruption operations based on these documents.

Entry of Christian Michel

Christain Michel was not part of this deal in the initial stages. Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini were allegedly in India much before him. In 2013, in Italy, they were charged with invoicing fraud and corruption charges and sent to jail.

After several stages of legal fights, Italian courts finally sentence them for 2 years in prison on charges of Invoicing fraud. In the interim, they had appointed 3 middlemen for India. Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa and Christian Michel. In the beginning, the deal was being managed by Haschke but since Christian Michel was a resident of Dubai and with excellent relationship with India and Congress family and also with good knowledge of Indian market, Haschke brought Michel to the forefront.

In October 2014, Italian Supreme Court overturned the verdicts of lower courts and ordered that it was not only an invoicing fraud but corruption was also involved. At this juncture, all 3 middlemen nominated by Orsi and Spagnolini were in different countries and thus escaped action.

The plan behind the arrest of Michel

In view of the charges against him in Italy, UK Citizen Michel became a resident of Dubai and used to surface off and on. On knowing that CBI and Indian Intelligence agencies were on the lookout, he used to disguise himself wearing long robes like Arab Muslims and vanish. It is said he escaped once, disguised as a woman.

But this game did not play out for long. On July 18th, he was arrested by Dubai police. How did this happen? It was based on information that NSA Ajit Doval and CBI had in their possession and with his knowledge. Dubai police were informed about the exact arrival time, the Emirate flight details including the country of embarkation. They were also informed that if he is not arrested from the airport, he has something else up his sleeve.

Had it been anyone else other than Michel, Dubai Police would have extradited from the airport itself, which is the actual law of UAE. Since the catch was among the top 10 defence company’s middleman, they arrested him and took him to a Jail. Thereafter he was produced before a court on August 26th. However, he was released on bail on September 2nd.

Christian Michel controlled misinformation campaign using Indian Media?

Michel is a big ticket player of these games and is not to be underestimated. The moment he got bail from Dubai court, Indian Media started spreading false information. The headlines screamed ‘setback to ED and CBI’. Some even asserted that everytime the Dubai court had asked India to produce necessary documents, India had failed to comply.

It is a well-known fact that Christian Michel had media personnel on his payrolls. However, the media is generally managed in a far more sophisticated manner. Sources believe that Michel fed misinformation through his trusted channels to send media on wild goose chases. Since the media is not inclined to confirm facts, the misinformation to tarnish CBI, ED and undermine the operation was spread far and wide.

Officials spent sleepless nights

A 12-year-old scam not only had to be solved within 4 years but also arrests had to be made. This was not an easy task. They had to study more than 2 Lakh files and records. Credit is due to the officials concerned for their diligent efforts in studying, understanding technicalities of Choppers, aircraft, Agusta Westland, Christian Michel, collating all evidence and then studying it in minute details to establish the links. A fact to be appreciated is that this was facilitated and supported completely by Ajit Doval.

Dubai-UK close relationship

The Operation to bring Christian Michel back to India was not limited to Dubai alone. This is precisely the reason why this can be considered as a second surgical strike. Dubai and United Kingdom share an extremely close bilateral relationship. UK is considered the architect of basic infrastructure in UAE. Most of the projects have been designed, executed by the UK. In other words, UK was a very important and much-needed ally of Dubai. It is in view of this special relationship that Michel despite being a UK Citizen established his residence, his business in Dubai for the past decade.

He was confident that India just a sea-hop away would not be able to touch him. The documentary evidence submitted by CBI/ED was so thorough and powerful that it could not be disregarded by Dubai courts and they had no options but to extradite Michel.

Michel-CBI dialogue and extradition

Michel lost his appeal in Dubai courts on November 20th. If the Law Minister had taken a view that since he is not a citizen of UK, he cannot be extradited would have been the entire exercise futile and there was nothing left for CBI to pursue. Despite getting clearance from the courts, Indian officials did not rejoice but waited patiently till December 4th.

Not sure if India was lucky or if Michel’s luck ran out, even the Law Minister took a stand that Court’s verdict is final. That very moment the team got the most awaited communication from Dubai police for extradition. Once this message was received, CBI had just a few (less than 4) hours to arrange for a special plane. Once again it was Ajit Doval who was the saviour. With his help even this was achieved well within time – a special aircraft was waiting in Dubai.

Christain Michel arrived and boarded the aircraft. He was extremely irritated and angry. It was also noticed by the CBI Officials. Sometime during his travel, he initiated a conversation on his own. He claimed “This extradition process is illegal and done by deception. I am being hijacked”. Not to be beaten down, the officials replied, “It was only a matter of time, if not today, tomorrow you would have to come. Even Dubai disowned and did not retain you realizing that you have been in illegal business, despite your persistent efforts. Do not pontificate to us about law and morality.” Shocked by this response, Michel kept quiet.

Upon arrival in Delhi, he was received by other CBI with a “Welcome to Delhi!” greeting.

Dubai’s hospitality

Dubai Police provided great hospitality to the Indian officials. Even the officials acknowledged that the reason for this is the political acumen and strategy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, Indian officials did not accept any hospitality. Remaining extremely cordial to the hosts, they stayed and used facilities paid in full by them, as per Indian Government norms. Their objective was one: Get Christian Michel to India. Period

‘India police are morons’

We have an image of Indian police as people with a paunch, unfit, silly and converse on those lines about them. It was no different when Agusta Westland middlemen conversed amongst them – “Indian police are morons (They always used this as a code word to refer police). Even if we are caught, no one will know what it is about. They will not even find a sign of corruption because we have paid the Army man’s family only by cash. It thus will not be traceable. At the most, we may have some issues with Taxes. By the time these morons find documents and arrange evidence, it would be decades”.

However, the extradition took precisely 4 years since the Modi government came to power. As they say, the proof was in the pudding.

When I asked my source how this entire plan was made possible, his answer was rather simple. Prime Minister Modi left them to do their work without interference, and, of course, there is always Ajit Doval.

Kerala law minister calls IUML member ‘fake Muslims’ for supporting idol worshippers of Sabarimala: Reports

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Kerala law minister calls IUML member ‘fake Muslims’ for supporting idol worshippers of Sabarimala: Reports

As per a report on The New Indian Express, Kerala Law Minister AK Balan has created a furore with his remarks on Islam and polytheism. Things got heated while discussing the Kerala Police (Amendment) Bill 2018 and Balan ended up telling IUML leaders to not be “Munafiqun”.

Balan told the IUML members, “You are the followers of Prophet Mohammed who opposed idol worship and polytheism. You should not become fake believers. Don’t be Munafiquns.” In Islam, Munafiq refers people who pretended to be Muslims outwardly while concealing disbelief and actively seek to undermine the Muslim community. Munafiqs are condemned as more dangerous to Islam than non-Muslim opponents of Islam.

As per a report by The Hindu, Balan made the remarks while admonishing the IUML for supporting the devotees of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala. He asked IMUL leaders how could they support the Congress on the matter. The Opposition dubbed his remarks “religiously alienating and socially schismatic”.

VD Satheesan from the Congress party condemned the law minister’s words. He stated, “Here everyone lives together – those who believe in one god and many gods. This comment is bad taste and would divide people. This should be expunged as per Rule 307.”

The controversial remarks by the Law Minister come at a time when the communist government in Kerala has been accused of committing severe atrocities on the devotees of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala.

NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma has also asserted that Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan and the Kerala government was turning a blind eye to the reality of forced religious conversions in the state.

Radical Islam has also been gaining ground at an alarming pace in Kerala, a concern that is raising eyebrows across the nation. The PFI, a radical Islamist organization whose members have been accused of committing a variety of violent crimes, has also established a vast network in Kerala right under the noses of the Kerala government.

Enforcement Directorate raids three locations connected to Robert Vadra

OpIndia Staff
-
0
Enforcement Directorate raids three locations connected to Robert Vadra

According to reports, today Enforcement Directorate raided the offices of Robert Vadra, the son in law of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The ED raided three locations related to close aids of Vadra and reportedly, his office.


The lawyer of Robert Vadra said that ED has locked the offices of Skylight hospitality, and did not allow anyone to go inside.


ED sources told media that the persons being raided had received money in their bank accounts from defence suppliers.


It is alleged Robert Vadra has close links with arms dealers. One of his close associate Sanjay Bhandari had tried to partner with Dassault Aviation. But Dassault had refused his offer after learning about Bhandari’s association with Vadra.

Robert Vadra is also under investigation in a money laundering case related to a land deal. It is alleged that Vadra had “fraudulently” acquiring land in Bikaner meant for rehabilitation of poor villagers through his company Sky Light Hospitality Pvt Ltd. ED had sent two summoned to Vadra to appear before them, but he had ignored both the summons. ED issued the third summons today which was also ignored by Robert Vadra.

Earlier Vadra had said that the summons of ED is‘ political witch-hunts’ and said that the investigation agencies have an agenda to tarnish his reputation.

1...6,8386,8396,840...7,674Page 6,839 of 7,674