In the wake of the sensational arrest of the BrahMos engineer for allegedly spying for Pakistan, The Intelligence Bureau has issued a high alert against the hostile neighbour’s ‘honeytrap’ strategy, which is prevalent in India.
The alert states that Pakistan’s ISI has been utilizing good looking Chinese and Pakistani girls to lure and set the trap on high ranking officials and those involved in dealing with sensitive information.
The latest intelligence report says that the ISI is targeting young Indian scientists. The spy agency’s strategy includes profiling the scientists and then engaging them online using the fake profile of women. Intelligence agencies have reportedly issued an alert to government officials, especially in the defence forces, to raise awareness against honey trapping attempts.
ISI’s ‘honeytrap’ strategy also includes vulgar chats. To make sure the victims believe in the fake profiles, at times dummy models are used for erotic video calls. Sources also said that to hide their locations, ISI agents use the ‘IP masking technique’ which means rerouting IP addresses.
Reports also stated that the ISI is suspected of using English and Urdu speaking women to trap Indian officers through social media. After profiling potential targets, they send friend requests to officers on Facebook and exchange numbers and start chatting, before blackmailing the officers to provide classified information.
Nishant Agarwal, an engineer with the BrahMos Aerospace unit in Nagpur, was arrested on charges of passing on sensitive information to Pakistan’s spy agency.
BrahMos aerospace is tasked with developing the supersonic Brahmos missiles that are considered the fastest cruise missiles in the world. The Nagpur Brahmos unit where Nishant was employed makes propellants for the missiles.
A probe has revealed that Nishant was in touch with two suspected ISI agents who were operating with fake facebook accounts named Neha Sharma and Pooja Ranjan respectively and allegedly shared classified information after being honey-trapped online.
Accused Nishant Agarwal was working at this facility from last 4 years. Uttar Pradesh ATS had claimed that highly sensitive documents were found stored in Nishant’s personal computer. The accused has been alleged to have been passing this sensitive and classified information to Pakistan as well as the US agencies. He was reportedly lured with a job offer of USD 30,000 per month in Canada.
‘Honey Trapping’ is a commonly used technique practised for very long by spy agencies to extract sensitive information. According to reports, 13 serving and retired defence personnel had been arrested for allegedly spying for the ISI or being part of its espionage racket over the past four years.
In February this year an Indian Air Force officer, Captain Arun Marwaha, was taken into custody by the counter-intelligence wing of the force for alleged involvement in espionage and leaking classified documents and had been arrested by the police under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
In April it was reported that a 23-year-old man named Gaurav Kumar, who was honey-trapped by Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was arrested from Rohtak for allegedly passing information to the Pakistani spy agency about Indian Army camps he had visited for recruitment tests.
Earlier this year, an Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta was sentenced to jail for allegedly leaking sensitive information to ISI officials who had honey trapped her during her stint at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.
The Delhi High Court today quashed the Aam Admi Party government’s circular on giving preferential treatment to the residents of Delhi over non-residents at the GTB Hospital.
An NGO called Social Jurist had filed a PIL challenging the AAP government’s pilot project. The NGO in its plea said that the hospital cannot discriminate against patients based on their regional identity and added that such discrimination was not seen anywhere else in the country.
A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao was examining whether the AAP government’s project at the GTB Hospital to give preferential treatment to city residents was violating the rights to equality and life enjoyed by others under the Constitution. The bench was unimpressed by the contention of Delhi government that the huge influx of patients was putting a lot of strain on its infrastructure and staff, and it was also leading to manhandling of doctors by patients or their attendants. The HC bench reportedly asked, “Who is responsible for this? The courts? Or is it mismanagement? If you cannot manage then stop the facilities.”
The Delhi government launched its pilot project of reserving 80 per cent beds for the residents of Delhi at Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) hospital on October 1. According to the circular, out of the 17 registration counters, 13 were to be meant for the residents of Delhi, while four for people from outside Delhi. The identification of the residents of Delhi was to be done on the basis of voter identity card. Minors would have to present the voter identity cards of their parent. In the IPD (inpatient department), 80 per cent of beds would be for the residents of Delhi, while 20 per cent would be for the patients from outside Delhi. The circular had also stated that free medicines will only be available to the residents of Delhi.
What comes as a tough blow to the awkward coalition the Congress-JD(S) government, stitched up in an attempt to knuckle down the BJP government in the recent Karnataka assembly elections, is that the lone BSP Minister, N Mahesh, resigned his position in the coalition ministry on Thursday.
Though the minister said he is resigning over “personal reasons”, it is believed the surprise move came days after BSP chief Mayawati announced that her party would not forge an alliance with the Congress “at any cost” for the Assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Claiming that the decision was taken without consulting the party supremo Mayawati, the Minister said, “I am resigning my post as a cabinet minister but continue as an MLA and I support the JD(S) and Kumaraswamy… I want to concentrate on my constituency.”
Assuring to continue supporting the coalition government, Mahesh said he would campaign for the JD(S) during the bypolls for three Lok Sabha and two assembly seats on November 3. “I do not have any grouse against anybody in the government. As a minister, I did my best and toured the state. This resignation is purely due to personal reasons,” he said.
Congress party has been incidentally facing a massive internal turmoil, as they move toward the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Along with several disclosures of rifts within the JDS-Congress alliance doing the rounds, continuous news of many regional leaders distancing themselves from the party have emerged. Recently their veteran leader and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Vice-President Mani Shankar Pandey, who has been closely associated with the party for over 45 years, had resigned from the party.
In a similar setback, senior Congress leader and 4 times Meghalaya CM DD Lapang had resigned from the party after citing frustrations due to faulty party policies.
Carrying on the latest trend, four suspended Bihar Congress leaders had in February stepped down to join Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United).
Similarly, in the month of April, we reported that the Youth Congress leaders from the Dakshin Kannada district submitted mass resignations over the party’s decision to deny a ticket to Youth Congress president of Dakshina Kannada District.
During the same time, we also reported Congress MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh, MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh and the Zilla Panchayat chairman Awadhesh Pratap Singh, from Rae Bareli, which is one if the key constituency of the Congress, quitted the party citing neglect from top leaders of the party despite winning consistently from the constituency.
The Times of India on the 11th of October published a report with the headline “40% Maharashtra BJP MLAs, 27% MPs fare poorly in party report card” where it was claimed that a survey had been commissioned by the BJP and conducted by ‘Chanakya’ which showed the performance of the MPs and MLAs of the party in the state.
Furthermore, it was claimed that 45 of its 121 MLAs and 6 of its 22 MPs were “in danger zone”. It was also reported that CM Fadnavis apparently made a point to these elected representatives that they better start working hard or the party will replace them with newer faces in 2019 elections. The report quoted unnamed sources to back up its assertions.
However, the Maharashtra unit of the BJP came out on Twitter and called the entire TOI report ‘Fake News’. They also said that it was not expected from a media outlet like TOI.
It’s not the first time, however, that the Times of India has indulged in misleading journalism. The Indian Army has called them out for spreading misinformation that an army man had been arrested for burglary when in fact the culprit was a civilian employee at Military Engineering Services. TOI is also known to regurgitate Congress party’s lies without even the most basic fact-checking. The Air Traffic Controllers Guild wanted legal action to be taken against TOI for reports which they claimed deliberately tried to tarnish the image of Air Traffic Controllers and their profession.
Akshay Kumar who has just returned to India from Itali has announced on Twitter that he is cancelling the shooting for the movie Housefull 4 after sexual harassment allegations surfaced against Director Sajid Khan.
In a note, Akshay Kumar has said that he is deeply disturbed with the allegations and he has requested the producers to cancel the shoot till an investigation is conducted.
He said that these allegations deserve stringent action that he will not be working with any proven offenders who have harassed women.
Earlier, grave charges had surfaced against Sajid Khan, the director, of sexually harassing women and preying on them. A freelance Bollywood journalist had taken to Twitter to narrate her ordeal.
She narrated that while she was interviewing Sajid in the 2000s, he would talk about how large his penis was how he could satify women. When she ignored the trash talk, he left the room only to return with with genitals exposed. When the journalist tried to leave, he blocked her way and molested her.
When years later she had to work with him again, she confronted him in order to warn him to maintain decency. The victim claims that he Sajid then rhetorted to her that she is fatter than she used to be and that he wouldn’t touch her with a bargepole.
After this, other stories also tumbled out. Actress Rachel White too narrated her horror story of sexual harassment at the hands of Sajid Khan.
The #MeToo campaign has finally come to India with several celebrities being outed for alleged sexual harassment. These celebrities include comedians, politicians, journalists and bollywood personalities.
We have reported earlier on the targeted violence in Gujarat against non-Gujaratis following the rape of a 14-month old girl in the state. The Police had confirmed the involvement of Congress leaders in the violence that had ensued and the consequent exodus of migrants from the from Gujarat. The state government was forced to make an appeal to those affected to return and that things had been brought under control. Police have arrested hundreds of people for violence on non-Gujaratis, most of them members of Thakor Sena led by Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor. Several Congress leaders also have been arrested after evidence of their involvement in instituting was surfaced.
While all these developments are taking place, the Chhattisgarh wing of the Youth Congress took to Twitter to share an image that was claimed to be of migrants fleeing Gujarat in recent days and equated the event with the partition of the country in 1947. The image was shared with a caption that appeared to blame the BJP for the riots.
गंगा के लाल ने, अपना फर्ज निभा दिया,
यूपी बिहार के बिछड़े, बच्चों को वापिस घर पंहुचा दिया।
जिन्होंने 1947 का विभाजन नहीं देखा ,उनको 2018 का विभाजन दिखा दिया। pic.twitter.com/2QbHOcEXh0
A simple Google image search reveals that the picture is definitely not of the recent riots in Gujarat. It is a Reuters photo that appears in an article by BBC in 2012.
The same image with higher resolution appears on International Business Times in 2011. The image is described as “Hindu devotees travel on a crowded passenger train to take part in the “Guru Purnima” festival in Goverdhan town near the northern Indian city of Mathura”.
While it is becoming increasingly evident that Congress leaders were involved with the targeted violence against non-Gujaratis in the state, the party is resorting to spreading Fake News to boost its electoral prospects. The Congress MLA had even announced an indefinite fast demanding the release of the riot accused arrested by the Police. He was even seen in a video making incendiary remarks against migrants in the state. Under such circumstances, with the role of Congress in the violence all but confirmed, it is embracing desperate measures to target the BJP for a deed allegedly committed by its own party men. Congress President Rahul Gandhi too was caught lying regarding the same matter in the past.
Two separate petitions filed by senior Congress leaders Kamalnath and Sachin Pilot seeking orders to the Election Commission to provide the draft voter list in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in text format were quashed by the Supreme Court on Friday.
Senior advocates Abhishek M Singhvi and Kapil Sibal represented the petitioners in the court. The petition claimed that there were a large number of duplicate voters on the voters’ list and urged the Supreme Court to make the voters’ list available in text format to ease scanning of names in the list.
In their petition, the Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Pilot had claimed that as many as 60 lakh names on the voter list in Madhya Pradesh were duplicate and that they had also presented the case before the Election Commission along with other senior leaders in the State in that regard. In addition to this, the petitions filed also implored for VVPAT slips to be verified with votes counted in at least 10 percent randomly selected polling stations in each Assembly constituency/ Assembly segment.
Representing the Election Commission, Senior advocate Vikas Singh stated that a large number of duplicate entries from the voters’ list were already weeded out by the EC without this issue being taken up by the Congress party.
Voter list matter: Supreme Court dismisses Kamal Nath’s and Sachin Pilot’s petitions seeking a direction to the Election Commission with respect to the upcoming Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan State assembly elections.
The order was passed by a Bench of justices AK Sikri and Asok Bhushan. The apex court had reserved its verdict on October 8 on the petition of leaders alleging duplication of voters in the list and sought a proper redressal of grievances to ensure free and fair elections.
In the past too, the Supre Court had rapped Congress on the knuckles for filing frivolous petitions. Just a week back, in a Supreme Court hearing of this case, the Election Commission had accused Congress leaders of fabricating the voters’ list. In another hearing of the same case on October 8, the Election Commission alleged that Congress was using forged documents to undermine the integrity of the EC. Last year, Supreme Court had slammed Congress over the issue of NOTA in Rajya Sabha.
On 6 October 2018, some excerpts of an upcoming book of Lt. General (Retd.) Zameeruddin Shah, “The Sarkari Mussalman” were published which claimed that when riots broke out in Gujarat in February 2002 following the carnage of Sabarmati Express train where pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive, the Gujarat government led by Narendra Modi failed to provide immediate transport to the Army, thereby delaying Army deployment in the riot-affected state.
As per the reports, Lt. Gen Shah has claimed that he met Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, with the then defence minister George Fernandes at 2 am in Ahmedabad on the intervening night of 28th February and 1st March. The Sabarmati Express was set on fire killing 59 people on 27th February 2002 following which the state was engulfed in one of the worst communal riots in the history of Gujarat.
Lt. Gen. Shah claims that the “3,000 troops had landed at the Ahmedabad airfield at 7 am on 1st March but had to wait for a day before the Gujarat administration provided transport.” He says since the crucial time was lost, it led to more deaths in the state. Shah further writes that
Upon arriving at the “dark and deserted” Ahmedabad airfield, he enquired: “Where are the vehicles and other logistic support we had been promised?” He learnt that the state government was still “making the necessary arrangements”.
“The crucial periods was the night of 28th February and the 1st of March. This is when the maximum damage was done. I met the chief minister at 2 am on the 1st morning. The troops sat on the airfield all through the 1st of March and we got the transport only on the 2nd of March. By then the mayhem had already been done.”
He claims that had Modi government would have provided necessary logistical support, the damage and loss to life would have been contained.
“What the police couldn’t do in six days we did in 48 hours despite being six times smaller in size than them. We finished the operation in 48 hours on the 4th of March but it could have been finished on the 2nd of March itself had we not lost those crucial hours.”
He then claims that at such a crucial time, the arrangement of transport for Army troops could have been done faster. He even adds that the police were “dumb bystanders” while the “mob was setting fire on streets and houses”.
They were taking “no action” to prevent the “mayhem” that was being done.
“I did see a lot of MLAs from the majority community sitting at the police stations. They had no business to be there. Whenever we used to tell the police to impose the curfew, they never did so in the minority areas. So the minorities were always surrounded by the mobs. It was a totally parochial and biased handling,”
Following the publication of this news, it was widely shared by people over social media. The truth, however, seems far from these claims.
Following the Sabarmati Express carnage on 27th February 2002, where 59 pilgrims returning from Ayodhya were burnt alive, widespread riots broke out and escalated on 28th February. As reported by India Today in 18th March 2002 issue, Modi had called officially called for the Army by 4 pm on 28th February and by 6:30 pm a formal request for the Army landed in Delhi. On 1st March at 1 am, the then defence minister George Fernandes reached Ahmedabad and at 11:30 the Army was staging a flag march.
The Hindu reported on 1 March 2002 (Friday) that “The Army units, frantically called by the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, as the situation seemed to slip out of hand, started arriving in Ahmedabad and are likely to be deployed in the city on Friday (1 March).”
Another 1st March The Hindu report from the front page says,
The Army began flag marches in the worst-affected areas of Ahmedabad, Baroda, Rajkot and Godhra cities and the ‘shoot at sight’ order was extended to all 34 curfew-bound cities and towns in Gujarat as the orgy of violence in the aftermath of the Godhra train carnage continued unabated for the second day today.
The report further stated,
He (then Gujarat CM Modi) claimed that despite the prevailing tension in the walled city and labour-dominated areas of Ahmedabad, the flag march had a “salutary effect”. He said one Army brigade, airlifted from the border areas and which arrived early this morning, began flag march later in the day while another brigade was expected to arrive in the night.
Rediff report from 1st March corroborated above claims of deployment of Army as well as shoot at sight orders on 1st March itself.
Modi has issued directives to the police to deal ‘strictly with arsonists and if need be shoot-at-sight any person indulging in rioting’, they added.
Meanwhile, the army staged flag marches in the violence-hit areas of Ahmedabad – Daraipur, Shahpur, Shahibaug and Naroda – to instill confidence among the people as unabated violence has claimed 111 lives in the city alone so far.
The army personnel were out in different areas like Daraipur, Shahpur, Shahibaug and Naroda, police said.
The same fact is also reflected in the note submitted by ACS (Home), Ashok Narayan as part of the investigation.
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi requesting for Army on 28th February 2002
The note further states that in wake of the terrorist attack on the Parliament in December 2001, there was a war-like situation on the border. Hence, the whole force was deployed in the forward/border areas of the country. The state government then requested for Army personnel in the cantonment of Ahmedabad, but no force was available there either. Despite the fact that in such a scenario, withdrawing the Army from the border would require a high-level decision at the Centre, the decision to withdraw the same and deploy to Gujarat was taken without delay.
Note giving details of deployment of Army in Feb-March 2002 in Gujarat
The note says Army personnel were airlifted by using about 40 aircrafts from the border and landed in Ahmedabad by 28th February midnight. 6 buses, 9 trucks and 15 jeeps were sent for use by the Army by 2:30 am on 1st March 2002. During the day 39 additional vehicles were provided. A total of 131 vehicles were provided to the Army. Additional executive magistrates were provided to the Army. Escort officers from the police force were provided to the Army.
Personnel were airlifted to be deployed to Vadodara and Rajkot as well.
Contradicting Lt. Gen. Shah’s claims, the note further states that the deployment of Army started in the early hours of 1st March and by 11 am, the Army had already started reaching some of the affected areas in the city.
Details of Army deployment in Ahmedabad, Godhra and other parts of Gujarat
The report further states that while parts of the state like Bhavnagar and Surat were initially unaffected by violence, riots soon started there as well. Following which, the Army was deployed there as well on subsequent days.
At the peak of deployment, as many as 26 Army columns were deployed in the state. Finally, once the law and order improved, it was decided that Army is sent by 10th March 2002. However, considering the situation in Ayodhya, the Army was kept on standby. Following incidents of violence in Surat and Vadodara later, Army was again deployed there and on 15th March, the Army held a flag march.
To summarise, first oral communication was made to the Army on 27th February itself and the state was informed that no personnel were available for internal security duties.
Army deployment summary
Within 16 hours of official communication, the Army was brought from forward/border areas and deployed in Gujarat, thereby completely refuting Lt Gen Zameeruddin Shah’s claims.
Brother of actor Naseeruddin Shah, Lt. Gen. Zameeruddin Shah was appointed as the vice chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University in 2012, under the UPA. As vice chancellor of AMU had rejected demands of girls to access the Maulana Azad Library by reportedly saying that there would be ‘four times more boys’ in the library if girls are around. Since Times of India reported the incident, Lt. Gen. Shah banned Times of India on the campus.
Note: The article has been compiled with help from Gujaratriots.com.
Senior Congress leader, Dr Ajoy Kumar tweeted on 11th October welcoming Geeta Koda to the party. He tweeted a picture where Dr Ajoy Kumar and Rahul Gandhi were seen posing with Geeta Koda.
Geeta Koda, who is now being warmly welcomed to the party, is the wife of Madhu Koda, the former chief minister of Jharkhand who is now in jail, convicted of criminal conspiracy, cheating and corruption in a coal block allocation case. In 2017, Madhu Koda was sentenced to three years in prison. He was convicted for accepting huge bribes for allotting iron ore and coal mining contracts in Jharkhand. It is also alleged that Madhu Koda and his associates laundered staggering Rs 3,356 crore.
BJP was quick to react on Geeta Koda joining the Congress party.
Preeti Gandhi, who is the National In-charge of Social Media for Mahila Morcha asserted that this was “typically Congress”.
Madhu koda ex-CM of Jharkhand is in jail for corruption and here you’re flaunting ties with his wife, Geeta Koda. So typically Congress!!
Birds of a feather flocking together fail to realise that zero plus zero will still remain zero!!
The Delhi BJP IT Cell incharge also lashed out at Congress.
.@INCIndia Boss @RahulGandhi proves to the world again that corruption & Congress are two sides of the same coin. Happily taking Geeta Koda, wife of icon of corruption Madhu Koda in his Party. @narendramodi ji’s candid, virtuous politics is beyond comprehension of Cong supporters pic.twitter.com/aR4dSQ53rs
Congress leader Alamgir Alam said, “She was interested in joining Congress fold for quite some time now. Today she was welcomed to the party by Rahul ji and other senior leaders”.
Geeta Koda won from Jagannathpur in 2014 on a Jai Bharath Samantha Party ticket and has had two back to back stints in the Jharkhan assembly.
Modi government has started collecting all the deals and projects, awarded to Anil Ambani’s Reliance group, during the tenure of UPA, reports Economic Times. This is to counter the charges levied by Congress on BJP of being a crony capitalist and favouring conglomerates like Reliance by keeping at stake national interest especially in the Rafale deal.
Rahul Gandhi had done a press conference on October 11, where he claimed that PM Modi’s government had pickpocketed public money, and had given that money to Anil Ambani. An OpIndia fact-check of the allegations had demolished many of his oft-repeated claims regarding the Rafale deal.
The government is reportedly focusing on six companies of Anil Ambani like Reliance Capital, Reliance Power and Reliance Infrastructure, RCom, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Mediaworks which majorly benefited during UPA.
The preliminary enquiry, according to the report, tells that Rs 100,000 crore-worth projects were awarded to Anil Ambani’s firms in the last seven years of UPA rule in various sectors like Engineering, metro, roads and power. Out of which Rs 77,000 cores were in the power sector alone.
Government is encasing data from ministries like power, telecom, road transport and other government undertakings like Delhi Metro and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and National Highway Development Authority.
The report states that the biggest growth spurt was seen in Reliance Infrastructure limited which, in a span of 5 years during the UPA rule had transformed from a mere electricity distribution company to India’s largest infrastructure company with the help of 12 major contracts worth 16,500 crores from the UPA government.
It undertook Delhi-Agra, Bengaluru- Chennai, Pune- Satara and Jaipur Bikaner road projects along with Delhi Metro Express line and Mumbai Metro line 1. The government has also reportedly asked the Maharashtra government to provide data regarding some of the projects.
A spokesperson from Reliance Infra has been quoted in the report as saying that the company had won all its Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects under the ten year UPA rule from 2004 to 2014. They have also reportedly added that under the current NDA regime they have not participated in any BOT/PPP project.
Anil Ambani and his company have categorically denied the allegations being levelled by Congress and its leaders. Ambani has also filed a Rs 5000 crores defamation suit against Congress mouthpiece national Herald for spreading lies about their company.
