Archives for 2022

Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday expressed disappointment over the Centre’s rejection of the State Tableau for the Republic Day celebrations in the national capital and sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s immediate intervention to have it included.

Excluding the tableau would deeply hurt the sentiments and patriotic feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu, he said. “That the expert committee chooses to ignore and reject all the seven designs shown to it as per the modifications suggested by its members is unacceptable,” the Chief Minister said.

“I am given to understand that Tamil Nadu was not called for the fourth round of meeting and it was informed that Tamil Nadu has been left out while shortlisting,” Stalin claimed in the letter addressed to the Prime Minister, a copy of which was made available to the media here.

Stating that this was a “matter of grave concern to Tamil Nadu and its people,” he sought the PM’s “urgent intervention to arrange to include the tableau of Tamil Nadu” that will showcase the freedom fighters of Tamil Nadu in the Republic Day parade 2022 in New Delhi.

Expressing “disappointment” to know that Tamil Nadu has been deprived of the opportunity to participate in the ensuing Republic Day parade on January 26 in New Delhi, he said the Defence Ministry had proposed “India @ 75 Freedom Struggle, Ideas @ 75, Achievements @ 75, Actions @ 75, & Resolve @ 75” as the theme of the tableaux for Republic Day Parade, 2022.

Accordingly, Tamil Nadu submitted sketches choosing the theme “Tamil Nadu in the Freedom Struggle” depicting the renowned freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu.

The State representatives appeared before the expert committee for tableaux selection thrice. In the first meeting, the expert committee expressed satisfaction about Tamil Nadu’s theme which depicted freedom fighters of Tamil Nadu during the British Raj at the front and during the East India company’s period at the rear of the tableau, he said.

“The design had V O Chidambaranar (VOC), the famous freedom fighter who founded the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company in 1906 during Indian Independence movement to compete against the British. VOC was charged with sedition by the British Government and sentenced to imprisonment,” Stalin said.

Also, the design had Subramania Bharathi, popularly known as Maha Kavi Bharathiar who kindled patriotism in the minds of the people with his fiery patriotic songs and writings during the Indian Independence movement. The poet was held in high esteem by Mahatma Gandhi also. The rear of the tableau was designed to showcase a statue of Rani Velu Nachiyar riding a horse with a sword in hand and with women soldiers.

She was the first Indian queen to wage a war with the East India Company in India. She was the queen of Sivagangai region from 1780 to 1790 and blew up an ammunition storage of East India Company by arranging a suicide attack. “She is hailed as Veeramangai’ a brave woman,” the Chief Minister explained in the letter.

Marudhupandiyar brothers (known as Maruthu brothers) offered protection to Queen Velu Nachiyar and helped her to win the war against the East India Company and win back Sivagangai. “They also became Kings of Sivagangai and later were executed by the East India Company. The images of Maruthupandiyars are proposed to be depicted in the tableaux,” the Chief Minister said and added that V O Chidambaranar, Maha Kavi, Veeramangai Velu Nachiyar and Maruthu brothers are some of the several freedom fighters from Tamil Nadu.

Mumbai: Three students arrested in connection with a case pertaining to the ‘Bulli Bai’ app, which targeted Muslim women, deceptively used names belonging to the Sikh community for their social media accounts with an intention to breach peace in the society and create animosity among religious groups, the Mumbai police told a local court on Monday.

The city police’s cyber cell submitted its affidavit before the metropolitan magistrate in suburban Bandra opposing the bail pleas filed by the three accused in the case – Vishal Kumar Jha, Shweta Singh and Mayank Rawat.

Singh (18) and Rawat (21) were arrested by the Mumbai police’s cyber cell from Uttarakhand on January 5, while Jha was nabbed from Bengaluru on January 4. All three are currently in judicial custody with Jha and Rawat quarantined in a BMC-run facility after they tested positive for coronavirus.

The court heard the arguments put forth by the accused’s advocates and posted the bail applications for further hearing on Tuesday.

The police on Monday sought the court to reject their bail pleas, arguing the accused could flee or tamper with evidence in the case.

The cyber cell added that a police team has been sent to the national capital to seek custody of two more persons Niraj Bishnoi, arrested in another Bulli Bai app case lodged by the Delhi police, and one Omkareshwar Thakur, apprehended in the ‘Sulli’ deals app case.

According to the police’s affidavit, Jha, Singh and Rawat were part of several social media groups operating with a specific mindset. The accused were highly active on social media and were posting material which could cause breach of peace in the society, it said.

These accused falsely included names and words from the Sikh community in their Twitter handles and also while posting messages through these social media accounts with an intention to create animosity between two religions, the affidavit maintained.

The timely arrest of the accused persons has prevented a law-and-order situation, it said, adding the police were still on the look-out for other accused in the case.

The accused persons have created the Bulli Bai app by impersonating as Sikh group followers and the intention behind this needs to be ascertained through further probe, the police said.

They added that further investigation was required to ascertain if any person was instigating the arrested accused to target women from a particular community.

Probe is also on to see if there was any monetary gains by the accused for which bank statements (of the arrested accused) has to be looked into, the affidavit said.

Preliminary probe has revealed that apart from the Bulli Bai app, the arrested accused were also active in the ‘Sulli’ deals app of July 2021 and further probe is required to be done with this regard, the police said.

The police’s affidavit further said that all the three accused Rawat, Singh and Jha – knew Bishnoi, an engineering student, arrested by the Delhi police.

The Delhi police’s special cell, which nabbed Bishnoi from Assam, has claimed he was the main creator of the Bulli Bai app.

The four accused were among those who created the Bulli Bai app, the Mumbai police affidavit said.

It added that the three accused are students and have good knowledge of the cyber world.

The accused tried to hide their location history while using their social media accounts by showing that they have logged in from other countries. Their accounts also hide their true identity, the police said.

As per investigation carried out so far, the trio during their custodial interrogation have accepted that the Bulli Bai app was created by Twitter accounts @giyu84, @giyu44 and @giyu94. These three accounts used the GitHub platform to set up the app, the police said.

These three accounts were operated by Bishnoi, police said.

The police told the court that all the three accused were operating multiple social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Gmail.

The cyber cell further said that many of the accounts were deleted or suspended for posting defamatory content and information regarding the same is yet to be procured.

The Mumbai police registered an FIR in the case following complaints made by several women, who were targeted by the ‘Bulli Bai’ app.

The app made public the details of several Muslim women, allowing users to participate in their ‘auction’.

Yati Narsinghanand

Dehradun: Fresh charges have been slapped on Yati Narsinghanand for abusing a journalist and photographer after being offended by a question they had asked during an interview.

The Dasna temple priest has already been sent to 14 days’ judicial custody in the Dharma Sansad hate speech case.

The fresh charges were slapped on the Dasna temple head priest on the basis of a complaint filed by a journalist, Haridwar city police station SHO Rakinder Singh Kathait said.

Offended by a question asked during the interview on Saturday, Narsinghanand had allegedly threatened to have the journalist and the photographer accompanying him beaten up, he said.

The IPC sections imposed on him are 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation, officials said.

Narsinghanand has been arrested in connection with the Dharma Sansad case and booked under IPC sections 295 (A) (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).