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Delhi: Muslim suspect’s name missing in FIR after Dalit girl goes missing, police calls family ‘communal’ when questioned

OpIndia Staff
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A minor girl belonging to a Dalit family has been reported missing from her residence in the Sultanpuri area of New Delhi for two weeks now. The victim’s family alleges that despite naming the suspect, in this case, Saddam Ansari, as confirmed by an eye-witness, the police refused to mention his name in the FIR registered by them, objecting to which the police accused the family of being ‘communal’, reported Swati Goel Sharma, a Journalist with Swarajya.

According to the family’s statement in the FIR, their 14-year-old daughter, a Class VIII student, accompanied by her two elder sisters went to school like any other day on 13th August but did not return home.

An exclusive report by Swarajya mentions that when the mother of the missing minor, accompanied by two social activists helping the victim’s family, asked the police for an explanation as to why the name of the suspect was not mentioned in the FIR, the police, in turn, incriminated them of giving a ‘communal colour’ to the case. The family says that the officers told them that the girl must have eloped with her lover.

The minor girl’s mother said that her daughter was accompanied by her two sisters, both minors, on her way to school. “On their way, Saddam stopped the three. Since Saddam was a neighbour, this did not raise suspicion. But after talking to them for a while, Saddam asked the two elder daughters to leave. When they resisted, he threatened them with dire consequences. The girls came home and told me the whole story. My daughter has been missing since,” she said.

“Saddam is also missing from his house since that day,” the mother said.

Satish Vaid, an activist, who came to know about the case through social media and met the victim’s family on 22nd August, said, “I was shocked to see in the FIR that the police had neither mentioned the suspect’s name nor attached documents that showed the victim was a minor,” he said. “The police has not even invoked the SC/ST Act in the case despite the family telling them so.”

Vashi Sharma, another activist helping the victim’s family said, “all this while, they (the police) had neither booked the accused nor initiated any investigation. It was only after our intervention that they even retrieved the call details of the victim.”


The girl’s mother asserted that they are very scared to stay in the Muslim dominated area, and they will leave the area once her daughter is found. As being the only Hindu family living there, they are under constant threat.

She also confirmed that the police had also been humiliating them at every step and putting in no efforts to locate her missing daughter, they even asked money for petrol to carry out search operations.

Doing this to give history lessons to Rahul Gandhi: BJP’s Tajinder Bagga on Rajiv Gandhi posters

OpIndia Staff
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Doing this to give history lessons to Rahul Gandhi: BJP’s Tajinder Bagga on Rajiv Gandhi posters

The 1984 Sikh genocide has been a talking point again after Rahul Gandhi said that Congress was not responsible for the pogrom. 1984, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the country was gripped with fear as frenzied mobs, spearheaded allegedly by Congressman, massacred Sikhs, because Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards. Several eye-witness accounts indicted Congress leaders.

Rahul Gandhi’s U-Turn was also pointed out since, in a 2014 interview with Arnab Goswami, Rahul had admitted that ‘some Congressmen were involved” in the 1984 Sikh genocide.

The conversation has now been gathering steam with different sections of Congress coming out to defend Rahul Gandhi’s statement giving a clean chit to his party.

Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, BJP Delhi spokesperson, decided to respond to Rahul Gandhi’s statement in his inimitable style. The national capital, hence, woke up to the posters with pictures of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi referring to him as ‘Father of Mob Lynching’.


The posters were put up by BJP Delhi spokesperson, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga who said that after Rahul Gandhi’s statement distancing Congress from 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Congress President needs a lesson in history.

Speaking to OpIndia, Bagga said that not only Congress, but even his (Rahul Gandhi)’s father was director and producer of 1984 massacre. Referring to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots as the biggest mob-lynching event in India, Bagga said that he wants to increase the general knowledge of Rahul Gandhi that his father was involved in the riots.

Following the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 31st October, widespread anti-Sikh riots took place in and around Delhi which quickly spread across the country. Rajiv Gandhi famously gave a statement which instead of condemning the actions of the violent mobs, encouraged it.

Many Congress leaders like Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were accused of leading the mob against the Sikhs. Despite that, these leaders continue to be associated with the grand old party.

Bagga has said that he would not apologise for the posters and if they are brought down, he will put them up again.

ISRO committed to send 3 Indians to space by 2022 as part of Gaganyaan project announced by the PM

OpIndia Staff
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ISRO committed to send 3 Indians to space by 2022 as part of Gaganyaan project announced by the PM

India’s first manned space flight-Gaganyaan is expected to send three persons into space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.

Talking at a press conference, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh said, GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability. He also confirmed that two unmanned Gaganyaan missions would be undertaken prior to sending humans into space.

“The total programme is expected to be completed before 2022 with the first unmanned flight within 30 months. The mission will aim to send a three-person crew to space for a period of seven days. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km. The programme is expected to cost less than Rs. 10,000 crore,” Singh said. He further added that, “The mission will make India the fourth nation in the world to launch a Human Spaceflight Mission.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day speech, had vowed to put an Indian in space by 2022. “When India celebrates the 75th year of Independence in 2022, and if possible even before, an Indian son or daughter will undertake a manned space mission on board ‘Gaganyaan’, carrying the National Flag,” the PM had announced from the ramparts of the red fort on the occasion of Independence Day.

“This is most ambitious space programme taken up by ISRO till date and essential as it will give a big boost to the Science and Technology development within the country,” ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan said. “The ISRO is committed to honouring the wish of PM. This has also been the dream of thousands of scientists and citizens of the country,” ISRO said.

ISRO also said that to accelerate the programme, it may consider seeking collaboration with space agencies from friendly countries with advanced space programmes.

The proposed ‘Human Spaceflight Programme’, which has been on the table since 2004, had the UPA government sanctioning only Rs. 145 crores for the pre-launch activities. However, ISRO is expected to get more funds from the NDA government in the coming months following the PM’s announcement.

As of today, though there is no specific estimation on any public domain, insiders say that ISRO needs a budget of at least Rs. 10,000 – Rs. 12,000 crores to carry out this mammoth task. Everything said and done, if this materialises, this complex programme will truly be a national endeavour, making Indian the fourth nation to send a human being into space, after United States, Russia, and China.

Death toll rises to five as political violence continues in Bengal over Panchayat Board formation

OpIndia Staff
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Death toll rises to five as political violence continues in Bengal over Panchayat Board formation

After reports of rampant violence that plagued ‘panchayat elections’ in Bengal, a BJP worker died at a hospital in Bengal’s Purulia district on Monday night, taking the total number of people killed in political violence to five since August 25. Two BJP workers lost their lives due to the unabated violence that continues in various districts of West Bengal over the formation of panchayat board.

Purulia has become a hotbed for clashes between the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in the state. Damador Mondal (58) was injured in a clash that occurred at Joypur village in Purulia, following which he was rushed to the Deben Mahato hospital in a critical condition. Another BJP worker died instantly due to a bullet injury allegedly due to police firing, namely Niranjan Gope (28).

The violence that took place over the formation of boards meant to run rural bodies began on Saturday. While a Trinamool Congress (TMC) worker died that day, the ruling party and the BJP lost two supporters each in clashes that broke out across Purulia and Malda districts.

BJP alleges that TMC goons were waiting outside the Panchayat office on Monday as the winning candidates tried to enter the office.  Bombs were hurled outside the Panchayat Building in Chodpadi, which falls under Raghunathpur Panchayat Samiti, Purulia.

BJP district leader Vivek Ranga accused the police administration of colluding with the TMC and held them responsible for the death of Niranjan Gope and the injury sustained by six other BJP workers from Police firing.

Police authorities denied the charges of made by BJP, District police superintendent Akash Magharia stated :

“We only fired in the air to control the situation. Our own personnel was injured in the violence. We are investigating the circumstances surrounding Damodar Mondal’s death,”

Sporadic violence was also reported to form Deganga, north 24 Parganas, and Khejura also. It is worth mentioning that TMC has not won any seats in Khejura and allegedly the Panchayat office is captured by TMC workers.

India Today deletes article quoting Amartya Sen after no one could figure out what he was talking about

OpIndia Staff
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India Today deletes article quoting Amartya Sen after no one could figure out what he was talking about

Prime Minister Modi’s victory in 2014 has rendered many people who belonged to the upper echelons of the ecosystem rather agitated. So much so, that oftentimes, their criticism becomes rather incoherent.

Today, a similar article was published by India Today that quoted Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen. The article headlined “Hindus are in minority in Indian society: Amartya Sen”.

The article quoted Amartya Sen as saying:

“Let me begin with the concept of ‘minority’. If society was to be divided according to Muslims and Hindus, then the latter would be a minority. People who are not minorities cannot pretend to be one. In 2014, the BJP won in the Parliament with 55 per cent seats but managed to obtain this with just 31 per cent votes. So these people cannot be called a minority. I think this is happening because of minority importance. I think this is greed and we should condemn it. There are two sides to this. If we think that the majority is always greater, and we should always respect them, and that they are arrogant, then this thinking is wrong.”

Unsurprisingly, nobody really understood Amartya Sen’s convoluted logic. He first said that if the society was to be divided, Hindus would be a minority – an assertion that made no sense whatsoever. He then asserted that since BJP won with 55% seats but only 31% votes, “these people” cannot be called a minority. One wonders if he meant that only Hindus (who he says are a minority) cannot be called a minority because they managed to (he assumes only Hindus voted for BJP?) form a majority government. Then he says the majority (who he earlier called minority?) are arrogant and that “this is a result of greed” (what is? Nobody really knows).

Many on Twitter wondered what Nobel Laureate Sen really meant.

Veteran journalist Kanchan Gupta announced a neat prize for anyone who could decipher the comment by Sen.


NDTV, however, quoted Amartya Sen’s comment in a slightly clearer fashion, the argument being equally convoluted.

“I think in modern days, the majority and minority cannot be decided based on who is a Hindu or who is a Muslim, as it is not really clear who is a Hindu. Definitely, the number of Dalits and other minorities is very less. But the fact is that those who are ruling the nation they are not the majority in terms of number, but the reason of their power is that they are aptly using the tools of our political system,” Mr Sen said at a discussion on where the Indian democracy is heading.

We have many reasons to join hands with other people who are not really leftists. This is a striking question even before the 2019 election. But one thing must be made clear that joining hands doesn’t mean that two parties forming an alliance must give consent to all views of each other. One needs to fight against the divisive politics and the minority treatment,” 2019 election is the agenda”.

In essence, Amartya Sen seems to be saying that majority and minority should be decided on the basis of who supports PM Modi and who doesn’t, and in extremely convoluted language, is asking for a mahagathbandhan of all minorities.

After Social Media tore into Amartya Sen’s purported statement, India Today has now deleted their article which ended up making a convoluted statement incoherant.

SC dismisses ex-Tehelka Editor’s plea to restrain ED officer from investigating graft case against him

OpIndia Staff
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SC dismisses ex-Tehelka Editor’s plea to restrain ED officer from investigating graft case against him

The Supreme Court today dismissed the plea filed by ex-Tehelka editor and journalist Upendra Rai to restrain ED officer Rajeshwar Singh from investigating a graft case against him. According to reports, an SC bench comprising of justice AK Girl and Ashok Bhushan stated that the cases lodged against Rai are unrelated to the 2G case pending before it and Rai’s plea is not maintainable at present.


According to reports, senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, who was representing Rai, stated in court that the ED has lodged cases against Rai as Rai had made allegations against Rajeshwar Singh. Countering it, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi reportedly stated that such allegations have always been made against officials of probing agencies and the court has protected them. He also stated that the cases filed against Rai are on charges of graft and extortion and the CBI has already found Rs 100 crores in his bank accounts which is extortion money.

It is notable here that legal activist Subramanian Swamy had earlier stated that Rai had made scurrilous remarks against ED officer Singh because Rai’s name has been linked in the Aircel Maxis case and Singh has been investigating the case. Prominent journalist J Gopikrishnan who helped unearth the 2G scam also had supported Rajeshwar Singh.


The petitioner against ED officer Rajeshwar Singh, ex-Tehelka editor Upendra Rai have earlier been allegedly linked with former finance minister P Chidambaram’s benami deals. He has reportedly amassed huge wealth and as many as 19 residential properties in various cities in the country, including a bungalow worth Rs 30 crores in Delhi. Rai was arrested by CBI in May 2018. As per claims by gurus.com, Rai got paid through consultancy deals via shell companies. He has developed powerful contacts in the then UPA government and reportedly earned hundreds of crores through lobbying and influencing policy making.

In July, Rai was taken into CBI custody in a fresh case where he was alleged of demanding Rs 15 crores from a Mumbai based builder, a person named Balwinder Singh Malhotra, one of the directors of White Lion Real Estate Developers. Rai was also allegedly involved in money laundering and IPL betting. Prior to joining Tehelka, he was associated with the Sahara Group. There too, he was accused of threatening and blackmailing CBI officers who were investigating Sahara’s Subroto Roy

Massive crackdown on Urban Naxals, raids conducted at several locations across India, arrests made

OpIndia Staff
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Massive crackdown on Urban Naxals, raids conducted at several locations across India, arrests made

In a massive crackdown on ‘Urban Naxals’, Pune Police has conducted raids at least 8 locations in 5 states across the country in connection with alleged Maoist links to a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the violence at Bhima Koregaon.


Shivaji Bodkhe, Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Pune, confirmed the development and said, “Simultaneous searches are being conducted at several locations across Hyderabad, Delhi, Haryana, Mumbai, and Ranchi in connection with Elgar Parishad.”

As per reports, searches were conducted in the residential premises of ‘human rights activist’ and ‘journalist’ Gautam Navlakha in Delhi, ‘writer’ and ‘activist’ P Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, ‘activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Pereira in Mumbai, ‘civil rights’ lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Delhi, civil rights ‘activist’ Anand Teltumbde in Goa and ‘activist’ Stan Swamy in Ranchi.

Republic TV has also reported that Gautam Navlakha has been arrested under the UAPA Act. Vara Vara Rao has also been arrested by the Police. The Police confirmed that the raids were likely to continue throughout the day. They are likely to be produced at a local court first for a transit remand to Pune. Police also stated that investigations have revealed that banned Maoist groups were involved in financing and organizing the Elgaar Parishad event.

We had reported earlier that a letter unearthed by Pune Police in June had revealed Maoist plans to assassinate PM Modi. The letter had also mentioned an alleged nexus between Maoists, the Congress, Gujarat Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mevani.

The major success against Left-wing terrorism has been one of the crowning feathers of Narendra Modi’s term as Prime Minister and Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s achievements. The coordinated efforts towards curbing Maoist terror has started bearing fruits.

AIB shared a post linking Rakshabandhan to patriarchy, got brutally slammed by social media

Sanghamitra
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AIB shared a post linking Rakshabandhan to patriarchy, got brutally slammed by social media

Whenever a Hindu festival is around the corner, our ‘secular, liberal, intellectuals’ go through their checklist of propaganda. The checklist has a designated tag for each Hindu festival. some of the most popular tags are patriarchy, animal rights and pollution. Recently, even Hindu terrorism tag is in fashion. While Karwa Chauth and Rakshabandhan come under patriarchy, Diwali and Holi come under pollution, Jallikattu and some other regional festivals are for animal rights activism. Interestingly, the checklist goes missing and liberals turn on their ‘silent mode’ when festivals of other religions are being celebrated. No liberal sheds tears for the slaughtered goats on Bakrid and no “liberal” gets hurt over chopped off trees on Christmas.

On Sunday, most Indians celebrated Rakshabandhan, a celebration of the familial bond between sisters and brothers. As expected, the checklist was out. Patriarchy was the tag of the day and liberals were Tweeting and sharing their contempt for the festival. All India Bakchod, the comedy group that does more politics and less comedy shared a post titled ‘Raksha Bandhan and patriarchy’ on their Facebook page.

AIB’s Facebook post

The short post argued patriarchy has managed to ‘f@#% around’ with everything good, bad or ugly our culture has to offer. It also claimed patriarchy has made Rakshabandhan a festival about a brother protecting his sister. It argued brothers should stop taking the moral high ground and being the hero. They should only support their sisters as they try to change the system.

Facebook users, however, did not seem to find the post funny or valid. Most of the comments called out the hypocrisy of AIB and the misogynist stand of its promoters. Clearly, the tagging of an innocent Hindu festival that celebrates the sibling bonds with all its colours as ‘patriarchy’ did not go down well with many Facebook users. Comments on the Facebook post made it clear. Here are some samples.

Not only girls, even boys found the post low on truth and high on hypocrisy. Some Facebook users dug out AIB promoter Tanmay Bhat’s objectionable statements.

Even on Twitter, many users called out their maligning propaganda against every Hindu festival.

Not only AIB, maligning Rakshabandhan with the patriarchy tag was done by many others too. Twitter users too, had their share of ‘rakhi phobia’ which they promptly called out like their Facebook counterparts.


Feminism has long been misused by a certain brand of self-proclaimed liberals as a tool to laugh at traditional practices. Interestingly, these liberals tend to maintain a stunned silence on real issues that women all over the world have to face. They do not raise their voices against practices like FGM, religious oppression and polygamy but never miss a single chance to malign traditional harmless practices that celebrate love and harmony. Thankfully, social media users often call the propaganda out and dare to hold a mirror to the hypocrites. From the looks of it, the millennial generation is not entirely lost to fake feminist liberal activism after all.

Bihar: 20 year old Mohammad Ziauddin arrested for rape, murder of 4 year old girl in Siwan

OpIndia Staff
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Bihar: 20 year old Mohammad Ziauddin arrested for rape, murder of 4 year old girl in Siwan

In a gruesome incident, a four year old girl was brutally raped and strangulated in Siwan district, Bihar around midnight on Saturday. A partly buried body of the girl with undergarments stuffed in her mouth was recovered in the maize field and the accused, Mohammad Ziauddin has been arrested, who has confessed to the crime. Reportedly, he lured her to the field where he stuffed her mouth so that her cries could not be heard.

A report in Prabhat Khabar stated that the girl was gang raped by 3 men and the police has arrested them and interrogation is undertaken. As per reports, Ziauddin is a daily wage earner who was engaged in erecting tent at the marriage function. The girl’s mother got worried when she did not reach home late in the night. The girl’s father works in the Middle East. During the search some villagers informed the family that she was last seen with Ziauddin.

The forensic experts have taken samples of the soil found in his nails for further investigation. Bloodstains and fluids were also found on his clothes.

Lt Col Purohit approaches SC after RVS Mani’s revelation regarding Congress’ ‘saffron terror’ plot

OpIndia Staff
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Lt Col Purohit approaches SC after RVS Mani’s revelation regarding Congress’ ‘saffron terror’ plot

Lieutenant Col Purohit has approached the Supreme Court for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into his abduction and torture by Anti-Terrorism Squad in 2008. Purohit is an accused in the Malegaon Blast case who was granted conditional bail last by a top court after spending 9 years of jail.

Purohit stated that he decided to move the court following former Joint Secretary RVS Mani’s interview to various media outlets and the release of his book titled ‘The Hindu Terror—Insider Account of Ministry of Home Affairs 2006-2010’ which revealed information that he was being framed for political reasons to conjure the narrative of ‘Hindu Terror’. The petition states, “The content of the interview clearly suggests the implication of the Petitioner in a false criminal case and branding him as a ‘Terrorist’ only for the reason that ‘he was breaking the back of the radicals such as SIMI, ISI terror network etc.’.”

The petition claims that troubles began for Purohit with the issuing of a ‘Movement Order’ dated 28th October 2008 which required him to travel from his then place of posting i.e. Panchmarhi, Madhya Pradesh to Integrated HQ of MoD (Army). He claims in the petition that he was then forcibly taken to Mumbai by the Officer who was accompanying him and was whisked away to an undisclosed location at Khandala where he was tortured for 8 days.

The petition further states, “There has been a complete subversion of the criminal justice system, by the state itself and there is credible reason to fear that a citizen of this country, no less than an Int Officer of the Indian Army, can be abducted, brutally tortured, labelled as a terrorist and put away for as long as 9 years, without a trial.” It goes on to add, “It has become just, proper, fair and necessary in the interest of justice that there should be a judicial inquiry as to the official/s concerned of the Respondents (the Union of India and RVS Mani) who have subverted the process of justice and who were conspirators in the abduction, torture and illegal handing over of the Petitioner to secure personal political gains and make them accountable for their illegal acts.”

Purohit says that his life and that of his family is under threat. He also claims that he has been used as a “pawn” in the “larger scheme of things.” He has also requested compensation for the illegal detention and torture he suffered at the hands of the Maharashtra ATS officials of the time.

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