Lucknow: The Saharanpur district authorities Friday refused permission to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi to visit the strife-torn district.

Rahul was scheduled to visit Saturday Shabbirpur village, where Dalit houses were torched on May 5.

“Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has not been given permission to visit Saharanpur,” said Senior Superintendent of Police, Saharanpur, Bablu Kumar.

Kumar replaced SSP Subhash Chandra Dubey, who was suspended on May 24 in the wake of clashes in the district.

BSP chief Mayawati had recently toured the village and lashed out at the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government for “failing to maintain law and order” in the state.

Saharanpur has witnessed widespread caste-based clashes his month.

Violence first broke out in Saharanpur about 40 days ago following a procession to mark Ambedkar Jayanti. On May 5, a person was killed and 15 people were injured in clashes between two communities.

About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured on May 9.

On May 23, another person was shot dead and two others were wounded, following which the government suspended the SSP and district magistrate and transferred the divisional commissioner and the deputy inspector general of police.

The Centre has sent 400 anti-riot police personnel to Saharanpur to help the state restore peace in the region.

(PTI)

Bengaluru: The Congress intends to quell dissidence in Karnataka’s districts with a view to making the party battle-ready before Assembly elections next year.

“To contain and settle the issues at local level, we plan to form co-ordination committees with a AICC member chairing it,” said the Congress General Secretary in charge of Karnataka, KC Venugopal.

“I have been able to sort out differences that has divided the party at many levels,” he added.

Venugopal warned that the party will take strict action against those who air their grievances in public. Indiscipline will not be tolerated in future. No leader should make any statement against the leadership or the party. Problems, if any, should be reported to us. We are here to find solutions,” he said.

However, he did not give a clear reply to a query as to why the party has been hesitant in taking action against leaders like A H Vishwanath and Janardhana Poojary who had been extremely critical of Siddaramaiah’s style of functioning.

(Agencies)

Lucknow: They perhaps feared that they could be acted against and wanted to ensure that Yogi Adityanath did not get ”stunk”, when he met these members of the dalit community.

In an incident reflective of the prevailing mindset of the people in the society today, authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar district reportedly asked members of ‘Mushar’ (an untouchable community, whose members are traditionally rat-catchers) community to wash themselves with soaps and shampoos and use scents before meeting the chief minister.

Adityanath, who was in Kushinagar on Thursday, visited the ‘Mushar Basti’ at Mainpur Kot village in the district, about 325 kilometres from here.

The members of the community were surprised, when they found senior district officials thronging their otherwise neglected slum in the past couple of days.

”New toilets were constructed…dusty roads were made pitched and lights were installed within no time,” said a resident of the slum.

”We were also given scented soaps, shampoos and perfumes and asked to use them before going to meet the chief minister,” said an elder member of the community.

The residents said that the officials also asked them to keep their homes neat and clean.

Quite apparently the officials did not want Yogi Adityanath to get ‘stinking feeling’. District officials, when asked, feigned ignorance about the reports.

The incident was somewhat reminiscent of a similar happening at another village in the neighboring Deoria district a few days back, when Adityanath had visited the home of the BSF jawan Prem Sagar, who had been martyred in Jammu & Kashmir a few days back.

The authorities had laid pitched road, installed lights and also an air conditioner in the room where the chief minister met the family of the martyr. It was another matter that they took away the AC soon after Adityanath left the village.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to Arnab Goswami for the breach of employment contract and the misuse of intellectual property of Times Now. Goswami is the former Editor of Times Now, a channel owned by the Bennett, Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL) .

BCCL, India’s largest media house that also publishes the Times of India, The Economic Times, Navbharat Times and a host of other properties, had recently filed a criminal complaint against Goswami, stating that audio tapes played during two stories aired on Republic TV – on Sunanda Pushkar and Lalu Prasad Yadav – were ‘procured and accessed’ by Goswami and Prema Sridevi (a former Times Now reporter) while they were still employed by Times Now.

During its launch on May 6, Republic TV carried an ‘expose’ on Lalu Prasad Yadav, where phone conversations between the former Bihar Chief Minister and Shahabuddin, while the latter was still in jail, were aired.

Another ‘expose’ was done by Republic TV on May 8 in which the audio of conversations between Prema Sridevi and Sunanda Pushkar and their domestic help Narayan were aired.

BCCL’s internal inquiry indicated that both these ‘exposes’ used material that were procured and accessed by Goswami and Sridevi as employees of Times Now. The duo had admitted that the audio of the conversation with the late Sunanda Pushkar and their domestic help was in their possession for the last 2 years.

MK Anand, CEO of Times Now says that “the management discovered these thefts only when it was aired on Republic TV. It is sad that a man of his stature has turned into a thief and stolen content from Times Now to launch his own channel. This obviously was well planned since he used both these stories in the first three days of the launch.”

BCCL has accused Arnab and Prema of willfully and deliberately using Times Now intellectual property and sought prosecution under section 403 and other sections of the IPC for criminal misappropriation of property and violation of certain sections of the Information Technology Act.

Section 66B of IT Act stipulates that anyone who “dishonestly receives or retains any stolen computer resource or communication device knowing or having reason to believe the same to be stolen computer resource or communication device,” shall be punished with up to three years’ imprisonment or fined up to Rs 1 lakh, or both.

Arnab Goswami quit Times Now last November and launched ‘Republic TV’.

(Agencies)

Mumbai: Gangster Chhota Rajan, the prime accused in Jyotirmoy alias ‘J’ Dey’s killing, had told an acquaintance that the journalist had grown close to his arch rival Dawood Ibrahim and “crossed his limit”.

This was disclosed in a recorded conversation between Rajan and Manoj Shivdasani, a friend of another accused in the case, Vinod Chembur (now deceased).

Shivdasani today deposed before the special court in Mumbai, where prosecution played a tape of the conversation between him and Rajan.

“He has identified his voice and Rajan’s voice in it,” special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said.

In one such recorded conversation, Rajan had purportedly referred to Dey as a rascal and said “Dawood se mila hua hai” (Dey has grown close to Dawood).

Rajan purportedly said that Dey had “crossed the limit”.

He had also mentioned the name of arrested journalist Jigna Vora.

Dey was shot dead in suburban Powai on June 11, 2011.

Rajan talked with Shivdasani over phone after Dey’s death.

The court on August 31 last year had framed charges against Rajan.

According to a supplementary charge sheet filed by the CBI, Rajan had the veteran crime reporter killed because he was miffed with some articles written by him, and also because a book being written by Dey portrayed him as a ‘chindi’ (petty) criminal.

The book, “Chindi–Rags to Riches”, was to be about 20 gangsters who rose from humble origins.

Rajan was arrested at Bali airport in Indonesia on October 25, 2015, and deported to India.

The first charge sheet filed in the case in 2011 named Satish Kaliya, Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane, Vinod Asrani, Paulson Joseph and Deepak Sisodia (all arrested) as accused.

A charge sheet was filed against Jigna Vora for allegedly instigating Rajan against Dey owing to her professional rivalry with the scribe.

The 55-year old gangster, once a close aide of fugitive terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, was brought to India to face trial in over 70 cases of killing, extortion and drug smuggling in Delhi and Mumbai.

He was recently convicted in a fake passport case by a special court in Delhi.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Central Crime Branch (CCB) police arrested three Pakistani nationals including a lady on Wednesday night at Kumaraswamy layout in the state capital. The three members arrested after they found staying in Bengaluru without necessary documents, permission and others. The arrested were residing in the area for the last 9 months and managed to get identity cards including Aadhar, voter identity cards issued by the government to Indian citizens after necessary verification of their documents, CCB sources said.

Three Pakistani nationals have been identified as Kiron Gulam Ali, Shamsheer Shamsuddin and Sameera Abdul Rehman. The trio were reportedly arrived from Pakistan via Nepal and the purpose of their stay in Bengaluru is yet be known. CCB and Kumaraswamy layout police investigating the case and further details are yet to be known. Meanwhile, Bengaluru city police commissioner informed that a Kerala resident was also arrested by the police last night along with the Pakistanis.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Crime Investigation Department (CID) gave clean chit to former Karnataka state minister, close alley of chief minister Siddaramaiah, HY Meti in an alleged sex scandal. In its eight page investigation report, CID informed the state government on May 17 that the CD which showcases HY Meti allegedly having sex with a woman is fake and there is no proof to prove the allegation except fake edited CD.

CID didn’t get true copy of the sex tape and it completed its investigation based on edited tape which contains the visuals of former minister having intercourse with a woman at a government guest house in the state. The CID also stated that there was a political motive behind the video to destroy political image of former minister.

(Agencies)