Archives for 2022

New Delhi: The Delhi Police has registered a case of rape and criminal intimidation against Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s personal secretary P P Madhavan on a complaint by a 26-year-old woman, officials said on Monday.

The woman alleged that the accused lured her on the pretext of providing her a job and had promised marriage, they said.

A police officer said the victim was allegedly raped and threatened of dire consequences by the accused if she reported the matter.

“A complaint was received at the Uttam Nagar police station on June 25. A case under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered. We are investigating the matter,” said M Harsha Vardhan, Dwarka Deputy Commissioner of Police.

He said the police were investigating the allegations levelled against a 71-year-old man who is working as a personal secretary to a senior political leader.

Though the DCP did not name the political leader, officials in the Delhi Police said the allegations were levelled against Madhavan.

The officials said the woman lives in Delhi and her husband died in 2020. The husband used to work at the Congress party office, they said, adding that he used to affix hoardings.

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Monday arrested Journalist Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of AltNews on charges of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity.

His colleague and co-founder of AltNews alleged that Zubair was called for questioning in a different case but was arrested in this one. He also added that mandatory notice was not given despite repeated requests.

“No FIR copy is being given to us despite repeated requests,” he tweeted.

Police, however, said Mr Zubair had joined the investigation in this case, registered at the Special Cell police station, and was arrested “after having sufficient evidence on record”. He is still being questioned and police will present him before a magistrate tomorrow to seek further custody, it is learnt.

Roorkee (Uttarakhand): A woman and her six-year-old daughter were allegedly gangraped in a moving car in Haridwar’s Roorkee by a man and his friends after giving her a lift in his car, police said Sunday.

They said the woman was on her way home from Piran Kaliyar, a Muslim religious site, during the night with her six-year-old daughter when she was offered the lift by a man named Sonu.

Superintendent of Police (Rural) Pramendra Doval said some friends of the man were already in the car.

According to the complaint, Sonu and his accomplices allegedly raped the woman and her daughter in the moving car and dumped them near a canal.

The woman somehow managed to reach a police station in the middle of the night and narrated the incident to the police.

According to police, said while the woman could not tell exactly how many men were there in the car, she said the person driving it was named Sonu.

Police said the two were admitted to the Roorkee Civil Hospital, and their medical examination confirmed rape.

Police said they have registered a case and started looking for the accused, but have not been able to trace them yet.

New Delhi TRS working president and Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao (KTR) on Monday described as “tokenism” the NDA’s decision to field a tribal candidate for the presidential election, and said the Modi government has done nothing for the uplift of the community in the last eight years.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is supporting the Opposition’s candidate Yashwant Sinha to uphold the constitutional values which are under attack in the Modi regime, he said.

The TRS leader was in the national capital to extend support to Sinha, who filed nomination his papers in the Parliament House on Monday.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has fielded tribal leader and former Jharkhand governor Droupadi Murmu as its candidate in the presidential poll to be held on July 18.

“We don’t believe in tokenism. It is not about Murmu’s candidature. She represents a party which is heavily reliant on unconstitutional practices. Therefore, we are vehemently opposing the BJP candidate,” Rao told reporters.

He alleged that the Modi government has been abusing all constitutional offices and there is a need to stop this. “Someone has to raise voice against this,” he said.

Even the plight of Dalits has not changed much after Ram Nath Kovind, a member of the community, became the President, he added.

Stating that BJP has not done anything for the welfare of the tribal community in the last eight years, the TRS leader said a tribal university was promised for Telangana as part of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act but it has not seen the light of the day yet.

Besides, the Telangana government had requested the Centre to increase the reservation for tribal people in the state due to increase in their population. “A resolution was passed in the assembly four years back but the Centre has not accepted this request,” he said.

Rao also said that the NDA government through an ordinance forcefully took away seven blocks from Telangana which had more than 90 per cent tribal population.

“We don’t believe in tokenism. We don’t have any choice but to support Yashwant Sinhaji who has been supported by all Opposition parties. We are hopeful that he will be elected with (the support of) a lot of like-minded voters,” he said.

On the Maharashtra political crisis, the TRS working president said the Modi government has been successful in pulling down democratically elected governments in eight states, including Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

He complained that the central government has not done enough for Telangana despite the state government contributing a major share in the country’s growth annually.

“We are the fourth largest contributor to the country’s GDP. The state has constructed the world’s largest lift irrigation project Kaleshwaram. What has Modi government contributed in return to Telangana in last eight years? Let the Modi government bring out a white paper on this,” he said.

Bantwal: In an incident reported on Monday evening, a gang of miscreants that arrived on an auto, stabbed a woman to death near Neralakatte near Vitla here.

The murdered woman has been identified as Shakuntala (35), a resident of Devi Nagar here.

According to the reports, the incident took place when Shankuntala was heading towards Mani from Puttur on two-wheeler. A gang of miscreants arrived and assaulted her with knives leaving her critically injured.

Shakuntala was rushed to a local hospital where she was declared dead, reports added.

More details about the incident are awaited.

New Delhi: Welfare Party of India strongly condemned the arrest of Activist Teesta Setalvad and Ex IPS Officer Sreekumar and called it political vendetta by the ruling dispensation and a sad day for Democracy.

Dr. SQR Ilyas National President of the Welfare Party of India said the recent arrest displays the ugly picture of a new India under Modi’s rule which is intolerant, vengeful, intoxicated with power, and strongly criticized blatant misuse” of the central agency for “vindictive reasons”.

He pointed out that Setalvad was a bold and brave activist who had litigated the case of 2002 anti-Muslim massacres in Gujarat which led to the conviction of prominent BJP leader and former minister Maya Kodnani and called this vendetta murder of justice.

He pointed out that Sreekumar while in service had filed four affidavits before the Justice (retired) G T Nanavati and Justice (retired) Akshay Mehta Commission that had been set up by the Gujarat government to probe the Godhra incident. In the affidavits, he had claimed to have exposed “the alleged collusion of government agencies with rioters” for which he is targeted now.

He said a day after the Supreme Court upheld the clean chit by the SIT to then CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) arrested activist Teesta Setalvad and Sreekumar who backed the petitioner, Zakia Jafri.

Dr. Ilyas hailed Teesta Setalvad and Sreekumar for courageously exposing the criminal involvement of BJP leaders in the Gujarat riots and implored the citizens of the country to stand up in unison against this arrest.

Sanjay Raut

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Monday termed the Enforcement Directorate’s summons issued to him as a “conspiracy” to stop him from fighting against their political opponents, and said he will not be able to appear before the agency on Tuesday as he has to attend a meeting in Alibaug.

Raut, who is the Shiv Sena’s chief spokesperson, also said that even if he is killed, he will not resort to the “Guwahati route” taken by rebel MLAs from Maharashtra.

The ED has summoned Rajya Sabha member Raut on Tuesday for questioning in a money laundering probe linked to the re-development of a Mumbai ‘chawl’ and other related financial transactions involving his wife and friends, officials said.

The development comes as the Shiv Sena battles rebellion from a group of its MLAs, putting a question mark on the future of Maharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

Rebel Shiv Sena legislators, who were first taken to Surat, are now camping in Guwahati.

Raut in a tweet said, “I just came to know that the ED has summoned me. Good! There are big political developments in Maharashtra. We, Balasaheb’s Shivsainiks are fighting a big battle. This is a conspiracy to stop me. Even if you behead me, I won’t take the Guwahati route.”

“Arrest me ! Jai Hind!” he added. In his tweet in Marathi, he also tagged BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis.

Later, talking to reporters, Raut said, “I cannot go tomorrow as I have to attend a public meeting in Alibaug, and I will attend it.” The parliamentarian said he is a “Shiv Sena tiger” and the executive editor of a fierce newspaper like the (Sena mouthpiece) ‘Saamana’.

He asserted that such actions cannot weaken him mentally. Raut said if there are orders from the BJP leaders, they (the probe agency sleuths) can arrest him.

Sanjay Raut’s brother MLA Sunil Raut claimed the ED summons were to scare the parliamentarian as he has been opposing the BJP.

In April, the ED provisionally attached assets worth more than Rs 11.15 crore of Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha Raut and two of his associates as part of this investigation.

NEW DELHI: Social network Twitter was asked by the government to block multiple accounts and some tweets from advocacy group Freedom House, journalists, politicians, and supporters of farmers’ protest last year, according to a document filed by the platform on June 26.

The requests from the government were sent between January 5, 2021, and December 29, 2021, according to the document filed with Lumen database.

Leading internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter file information with Lumen database about weblinks or accounts that they have been asked to block by any entity under applicable laws.

However, details about whether the request to block a link or account was fulfilled are not available on the database.

According to the document filed by Twitter, the social network was asked by the government to block tweets of the international advocacy group Freedom House which conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights including freedom of speech and expression on the internet across the world.

An e-mail query sent to the Ministry of Electronics and IT did not elicit any reply.h

According to the document, the government had asked Twitter to block a few tweets from Freedom House which talked about the state of internet freedom in 2020 and noted its sharp decline in India.

The document showed that the government requested to block tweets belonging to members of the Indian National Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, including MLA Jarnail Singh.

The government had also requested Twitter to block the account of Kisan Ekta Morcha.

A random check showed that most of the tweets and Twitter accounts that were requested to be blocked were accessible to users.

In a statement released on Monday, the umbrella body of farmers’ unions, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), raised strong objections to the requests made by the government for blocking tweets of those who stood in its support.

“Samyukta Kisan Morcha strongly opposes and condemns the withholding Twitter accounts allied with the farm movement on the instructions of the Union Government. Twitter has withheld about a dozen Twitter accounts in India, including the Twitter handle @kisanektamorcha allied with the Farm Movement, without any warning,” SKM said.

The international group Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the government’s move to block tweets of journalists– Rana Ayyub and CJ Werleman.

“Twitter complying with the Indian government’s directive to withhold journalist @RanaAyyub’s tweet and block columnist @cjwerleman’s account in India are part of an unacceptable new trend of censorship on social media. This must stop! Journalists’ voices are essential for a democracy,” CPJ Asia tweeted.