Mumbai: Sonu Nigam, who created a storm with his tweets on the use of loudspeakers in morning prayers at mosques, addressed the media at his house to clear his stand over the issue. The singer also invited celebrity hairstylist Aalim Hakim to cut his hair, in response to a West Bengal cleric’s fatwa offering Rs 10 lakhs to shave off Sonu’s head.

The ace singer started off by saying that he didn’t expect such a simple thing to become such a big topic of discussion. “I have considered Mohammed Rafi as my guru. My driver is a Muslim. I am not anti-Muslim, I consider myself secular,” he said on him being labelled as anti-Muslim.

Sonu urged that “we need to be considerate with each other”. He clarified that he’s talking on the issue under a social context, and not a religious context.

On being asked why he was shaving his head, Sonu said, “It’s not an agitation, not a challenge that I am throwing someone’s way. I am shaving my head just to show that the person cutting my hair is a Muslim. It’s all about interpreting things the right way. I exhort the media to present it like that and not in a confrontational way.”

When analogies were drawn with his concerts using loudspeakers, the singer rebuked by saying that he sings only within the permissible time limits. Sonu also stated that “being secular doesn’t mean we accept everything”. Congress leader Ahmed Patel echoed Sonu’s sentiments over the use of loudspeakers for Azaans in mosques. Sonu ended the interaction by quoting Ahmed Patel’s remarks, “Azaan zaruri hai, loudspeaker nahi”.

The singer then proceeded to have his head shaved at the hands of Aalim. Sonu emerged minutes later with a shaved head.

On Monday, Nigam blew up a controversy when he lashed out as “forced religiousness” in India after being woken up by the sound of the morning Aazaan from a mosque presumably near his home. “I don’t believe in any temple or gurudwara using electricity to wake up people who don’t follow the religion. Why then..? Honest? True? Gundagardi hai bus.”

He went on to tag Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to look into the matter.

“Dear Devendra Fadnavis please note and help us force police to act against illegal blaring of Azaan and other such activities,” he added.

He was trolled by Twitteratti and organizations with protests and some planning to move court against him.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: BSF on Wednesday dismissed Constable Tej Bahadur Yadav, whose video post on poor food being served to security personnel deployed on Line of Control (LoC) went viral, citing gross indiscipline.

The action against Yadav came after a Court of Inquiry (CoI) found Yadav guilty of violation of service rules by taking his grievances to public domain rather than raising it with his superior officers.

“BSF court has found him guilty on certain charges of indiscipline. He has been dismissed from service today, following provisions of BSF Act and rules. Individuals have options to appeal against the verdict in three months,” a senior BSF official said.

The Constable had earlier applied for voluntary retirement but the force had recalled the order it on the ground that a Court of Inquiry on his claims and disciplinary proceedings against him was pending. Yadav’s family had alleged that he was being “threatened and tortured mentally” and was under arrest.

The video posted on Facebook in early-January by Yadav detailing about the poor quality of food had went viral, prompting the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to intervene.

Soon after the video went viral, the BSF had pointed fingers at Yadav, saying he was an “alcoholic” and court-martialled. The BSF also said that he was allowed to continue in service after the force thought about his family.

The BSF was of the view that there was no shortage of rations at any post and that security personnel deployed along the borders never complained about food. It also issued fresh guidelines for maintaining high quality of food for its personnel.

The force also directed its special snoop teams to check on the morale of the personnel and said said instances of complaints being voiced via the social media were being dealt with “strictly”.

Around half-a-dozen such videos emerged soon after Yadav’s post complaining about various grievances. A CRPF personnel came out with a video post addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding parity on facilities with military.

The posts of military personnel also came to fore protesting against the ‘sahayak’ system and it prompted Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat to issue a stern warning not to use social media for grievance redressal.

(Agencies)

Bengaluru: Bengaluru City police have busted a hi-tech prostitution racket in the city and arrested three middle men and saved three women involved in the racket. The arrested have identified as Parvez Khan, Suresh Singh and Sharavana whereas two other accused in the racket, Usman and Rishabh were escaped from the spot during the police raid.

The police on an information raided a posh bungalow located at BTM layout in Kuvempunagar on Monday, the police sources said. The people who were involved in the racket used to get beautiful models from Mumbai into the city targeting rich people. A fee from Rs 20000 to Rs 50000 was fixed by the operators for every act. For those who wish to opt for cashless transaction, the operators installed 4 swiping machines in the bungalow. Credit, debit card transactions of the gang was registered under Brigade Platinum Escorts and the gang was running its business through online operations.

Meanwhile, during interrogation, the three accused have informed the police that a head constable at Parappana Agrahara police station had information on the sex racket. Following the allegations, the head constable would be interrogated by the police department to get clear picture whether he has any link with the gang.

(Agencies)

Kashmir: Police have registered a case against unnamed army personnel in the incident of allegedly using a civilian as a human shield against stone-pelters during the polling in Beerwah area of the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency.

The FIR was registered at Beerwah police station yesterday, two days after a video showing a man being tied to an army jeep as a shield against stone-pelters during the April 9 bypoll to the Srinagar Lok Sabha constituency surfaced, drawing widespread condemnation and anger.

A police officer said the FIR has been registered under sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 367 (kidnapping or abducting in order to subject person to grievous hurt) of the Ranbir Penal Code.

The investigation of the case has been handed over to an officer of the Deputy Superintendent rank, he said. In the video that surfaced on April 14, Farooq Ahmad Dar from Khansahib in Budgam district is seen strapped to the front of a moving army jeep. A soldier can be heard saying, “This will be the fate of people who throw stones.”

(Agencies)

Malappuram: Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislator P.K. Kunhalikutty won the Malappuram by-poll in Kerala on Monday by 171,038 lakh votes.

The IUML strongman remained far ahead of his nearest rival — Communist Party of India-Marxist candidate and youth leader M.B. Faisal throughout the counting process.

The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate N. Sreeprakash came a distant third.

Earlier Kunhalikutty came out of his home as jubilant supporters shouted slogans and lifted him up.

Speaking to the media Kunhalikutty said the party has led in village councils where the Left was ruling.

“This is because the electorate has placed faith in me as I spoke about the need for a secular outlook. Also the unity of the Congress-led-UDF has helped us in this,” Kunhalikutty added.

The total turnout at Malappuram by-election on April 12, was 71.33 per cent.

With Kunhalikutty far ahead in the race right from the time counting began, he always had more than 50 per cent of the counted votes.

The re-poll was necessitated after the death of sitting MP and IUML leader Ahamed.

Malappuram district is the citadel of the IUML and Ahamed won the 2014 polls with a record margin of 1.94 lakh votes.

But during the 2016 assembly elections, the margin of the IUML legislators, who won in all the seven assembly constituencies, came down to 1.18 lakh votes.

The outcome of the poll could well be the first indicator on how well the 10-month-old Pinarayi Vijayan government has functioned.

(IANS)