Bhubaneswar: Claiming that the Kohinoor diamond belonged to Lord Jagannath, a socio-cultural organisation of Odisha has sought the intervention of President Droupadi Murmu so that the United Kingdom returns it to the famous Puri temple.

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her son Prince Charles has become the King and, as per norms, the 105-carat diamond will go to his wife Duchess of Cornwall Camilla, who has now become the Queen consort.

Shree Jagannath Sena, a Puri-based outfit, submitted a memorandum with the President seeking her intervention to facilitate the process of bringing back the Kohinoor diamond, which is steeped in history, to the 12th-century shrine.

The Kohinoor diamond belongs to Sri Jagannath Bhagban. It is now with the Queen of England. Kindly request our Prime Minister to take steps to bring it to India for Lord Jagannath as Maharaja Ranjit Singh donated it to God Jagannath in his will, Sena convener Priya Darsan Pattnaik said in the memorandum.

Pattnaik claimed that Maharaja of Punjab Ranjit Singh had donated the diamond to the Puri Lord after he won a battle against Nadir Shah of Afghanistan.

However, it was not handed over immediately. Ranjit Singh died in 1839 and, 10 years later, the British took the Kohinoor away from his son, Duleep Singh, though they were aware that it was bequeathed to Lord Jagannath at Puri, historian and researcher Anil Dhir.

Pattnaik asserted that after he sent a letter to the Queen in this regard, he received a communication from Buckingham Palace on October 19, 2016, asking him to appeal directly to the United Kingdom government as her Majesty acts on the advice of her Ministers and remains strictly non-political at all times.

A copy of that letter was attached to the memorandum to the President, he said.

Asked why he was silent on the issue for six years, Pattnaik said he was denied a Visa to visit England due to which he could not take up the matter further with the UK government.

Sena’s claim is justified though there are several claimants like Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s heirs, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Dhir said.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s will before his death stated that he donated the Kohinoor to Lord Jagannath. The document was certified by a British Army officer, the proof of which was available at the National Archives in Delhi, said the historian.

Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Bhupinder Singh had raised the issue of bringing the diamond back in Rajya Sabha in 2016.

The BJP MLA of Puri, Jayant Sarangi, said he would raise the matter in the Odisha Assembly.

The Kohinoor diamond was “surrendered” by the Maharaja of Lahore to the then Queen of England and “not handed over” to the British nearly 170 years ago, the Archaeological Survey of India replied to an RTI query a few years ago.

Author and historian William Dalrymple noted in his book, “Kohinoor” that child Sikh heir Duleep Singh regretted having surrendered the jewel to Queen Victoria. However, he also wished to give it to the Queen as a man.

The Indian government’s stand in the Supreme Court was that the diamond, estimated to cost over USD 200 million, was neither stolen nor “forcibly” taken by British rulers but given to East India Company by erstwhile rulers of Punjab.

Considered to be one of the world’s most precious gems, the Kohinoor was reportedly found in India in the 14th century during coal mining in the Kollur mine in South India during the reign of the Kaaktiya Dynasty.

As Kohinoor diamond is said to bring bad luck to men, only women have been wearing it since it got into British hands.

New Delhi: Air India on Monday said it will progressively induct 30 new aircraft, including 5 wide-body Boeing planes, from December this year, as the Tatas-owned airline looks to boost its domestic and international services.

The airline has signed leases and letters of intent for inducting 5 wide-body Boeing and 25 Airbus narrow-body planes over the next 15 months.

“These new aircraft, which will enter service from late 2022, will increase the airline’s fleet by over 25 per cent. Not counting the 10 long-grounded narrow-body and 6 wide-body aircraft that have been returned to service in recent months, these new aircraft mark the first major fleet expansion since Air India’s acquisition by the Tata Group earlier this year,” it said in a release.

The planes being leased include 21 Airbus A320 neos, 4 Airbus A321 neos and 5 Boeing B777-200LRs.

The B777-200LRs will join the fleet between December 2022 and March 2023. They will be deployed on routes from Indian metro cities to the US.

“Mumbai will see the addition of flights to San Francisco as well as to both of the New York area’s international airports, Newark Liberty and John F Kennedy, while Bangalore will receive a 3x weekly service to San Francisco.

“These aircraft will result in Air India offering Premium Economy haul flights for the first time,” the statement said.

According to the release, the 4 A321 neo aircraft are expected to join the fleet in the first quarter of calendar year 2023, while the 21 A320 neos will be inducted in the second half of 2023.

These aircraft will be deployed on domestic sectors as well as for short-haul international destinations.

“After a long time without significant growth, Air India is delighted to resume expanding its fleet and global footprint. These new aircraft, together with existing aircraft being returned to service, address an immediate need for more capacity and connectivity, and mark a strong step forward,” Air India CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson said.

Currently, the airline’s narrow-body fleet stands at 70 aircraft. Out of them, 54 are in service and the remaining 16 aircraft will progressively return to service by early 2023.

Air India’s wide-body fleet stands at 43 aircraft, of which 33 are operational. The rest will return to service by early 2023.

Jitendra Narayan Tyagi

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday granted bail to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi, an accused in the Haridwar Dharma Sansad case related to alleged inflammatory speeches made against Muslims.

A bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B V Nagarathna directed Tyagi, formerly known as Wasim Rizvi, to furnish an undertaking before the trial court that he will not address electronic media or social media and shall not indulge in such alleged activities anymore, directly or indirectly.

“The petitioner may be produced before the Trial Court within three days and shall be released on post-arrest bail subject to such terms and conditions to the satisfaction of the concerned trial Court and furnishing undertaking in above terms before the trial Court.

“If the petitioner violates or commits a breach of any of the conditions on which bail has been granted to him, the respondents/prosecution is at liberty to move an application seeking cancellation of bail,” the bench said.

The top court on August 29 refused to extend the interim bail granted earlier on medical grounds and directed Tyagi to surrender.

The apex court on May 17 granted three months of interim bail to Tyagi on medical grounds and directed him to give an undertaking that he would not indulge in hate speech and not give any statement on electronic or digital or social media.

Tyagi had approached the top court after the Uttarakhand High Court dismissed his bail plea in March this year.

The case against him and others had been lodged on the complaint of Nadeem Ali, a resident of Jwalapur Haridwar at Haridwar Kotwali on January 2 this year.

He had alleged in his complaint that Dharma Sansad or religious Parliament was organised in Haridwar by Hindu sages from December 17 to 19 last year and in the garb of this event, the participants were instigated to wage a war against Muslims.

Objectionable words were allegedly used against the Holy Quran and Prophet Mohammad, Ali had said in his complaint, adding these provocative statements had later gone viral on social media.

These videos were circulated by Tyagi, Yati Narsinghanand, and others, he had alleged.

The FIR also alleged that an attempt was made by Prabodhanand Giri to spread violence against the people living in Haridwar’s mosques.

On Ali’s complaint, Narsindhanand Giri, Sagar Sindhu Maharaj, Dharamdas Maharaj, Parmanand Maharaj, Sadhvi Annapurna, Swami Anand Swaroop, Ashwani Upadhyay, Suresh Chavan along with Swami Prabodhanand Giri, Jitendra Narayan were booked under various sections of the IPC for allegedly delivering hate speeches in the name of religion at the conclave.

Bhopal: An NGO in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal that had planned to organise a ceremony for 18 men who were granted divorce after long-drawn legal battles and paying hefty alimony to end bad marriages have cancelled the event after protests.

The event, called ‘Vivah Vichchhedan Samaroh’ or marriage dissolution function was being organised by Bhai Welfare Society, an NGO registered since 2014, which runs a helpline for men seeking divorce.

It was to be held on September 18 at a resort located on the outskirts of Bhopal, a functionary from the NGO had said earlier.

“The society has decided not to hold this event after the booking of the venue was cancelled by the owner over protests by some organisations,” the organisation’s convener Zaki Ahmed told PTI on Sunday evening.

“We don’t want any controversy as our main work is to provide legal help and help people overcome crises,” he added.

He had earlier said it was a get-together but the invitation of the event meant for a small group went viral on social media.

“I am now receiving calls from people who are opposing it, claiming it is against Indian culture,” he had said.

People in the group were already celebrating their divorce, after long-drawn battles and paying huge alimony to get out of bad marriages, he said.

“We don’t support divorce, but a bad marriage leads to harassment and sometimes suicide. We want to stop it. Our organisation gives free legal help,” Ahmed said.

The invite for the event had said the Bhai Welfare Society was holding the first such programme in the country after winning “cases of dowry harassment, CrPC 125 (the case if husband has contracted marriage with another woman or keeps a mistress), Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005”.

He had claimed engineers, doctors and other working professionals, who have been victims of such cases, are members of the society.

New Delhi: The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has sought a report from DMRC chairman and Delhi chief secretary over a complaint by a Sikh who was allegedly stopped from entering a metro station here with kirpan.

The NCM called for necessary action against the officials responsible in the matter.

In a statement, the NCM said it has received a complaint from Gyani Kewal Singh, former Jathedar Damdama Sahib, that he was stopped from entering Dwarka Sec 21 Metro station, New Delhi, and was asked to remove kirpan.

As kirpan is an integral part of the Sikh religion and Article 25 of the Constitution allows wearing and carrying of kirpans by Sikh persons, the incident has hurt the religious sentiment of Sikhs, the statement said.

NCM chairperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura has sought a report in the matter from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation chairman, and the chief secretary of Delhi. He has sought necessary action on the officials responsible in the matter, it said.

Kirpan is among the five articles of faith that are worn by Sikhs.

Pune: An advertisement by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways promoting road safety and airbags for rear seat passengers in cars came under fire from Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday for alleged promotion of dowry.

In the advertisement, actor Akshay Kumar is seen admonishing the father of a bride for not caring about safety and sending her and her husband in a car with just two airbags for front seat passengers.

Kumar cautions him about an accident and the advertisement moves on to the couple then travelling in a car having six airbags, including for rear seat passengers.

“This is such a problematic advertisement. Who passes such creatives? Is the government spending money to promote the safety aspect of a car or promoting the evil & criminal act of dowry through this ad?” Shiv Sena MP Chaturvedi tweeted.

The issue of six airbags, including for rear seat passengers, took centre stage in the car safety debate after the death of industrialist Cyrus Mistry in an accident in Maharashtra’s Palghar on September 4.

Among those batting for six airbags in cars is Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that his government encourages private sector investment instead of setting up new Public Sector Units (PSUs) as it “does not subscribe to socialism”.

Opposition Congress sought to know if the chief minister wants to amend the Constitution as its preamble says India is a socialist country.

Replying to a query by Congress MLA Abdul Batin Khandakar during the Question Hour in the Assembly, Sarma said that the government has no intention to run companies, especially loss-making ones.

“The government’s job is in the field of law and order, health, education, roads and other welfare areas. We don’t want to set up companies, but encourage private investments,” he said.

He also emphasised that the Union government has also moved away from running companies as it is not “socialist”.

“Setting up PSUs is socialism and we are not (socialists). After forming a company, a humanitarian crisis evolves if it makes losses. Our IAS officers are not competent to run a company. They are not industrialists. Instead, we want to create an atmosphere of investment,” Sarma said.

On this statement, the opposition protested saying that the preamble of the Constitution says that India is a socialist country.

The Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia asked if the chief minister does not subscribe to the ideals of the Constitution and whether he wants it to be amended.

“Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had introduced the word socialism in our Constitution. We do not subscribe to the socialism of Karl Marx, Lenin and Stalin. Socialism is a matter of interpretation,” Sarma said, leading to a noisy scene in the House.

Earlier, Public Enterprises Department Minister Bimal Bora said Assam has 41 PSUs, of which 17 were declared closed between 2005-06 and 2010-11. Besides, three more PSUs are defunct as of now.

“Since the BJP came to power in 2016, around Rs 1 lakh crore investment has come to the state in different sectors,” he informed the House.

In a written reply to a separate query by BJP MLA Bidya Sing Engleng, Bora said a total of 86 big industries have been registered in Assam during 2016-21 as per the Secretariat for Industrial Assistance statistics of the central government.

In the five years from 2016, a total of 32,770 micro, small and medium enterprises were registered in the state as per the Central government data, he added.

ED seized huge amount of cash during raids in money-laundering case against promoters of alleged fraud mobile gaming app, in Kolkata

New Delhi/Kolkata: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday seized about Rs 17 crore in cash after it raided the promoters of a Kolkata-based mobile gaming app company as part of a money-laundering investigation.

A photograph released by the federal agency showed bundles of seized Rs 500 currency notes along with a few in the denomination of Rs 2,000 and Rs 200 stacked together on a bed.

The agency pressed in five note-counting machines and brought bank staff to ascertain the exact value of the cash haul.

The searches were conducted at half-a-dozen locations of the gaming app named ‘E-Nuggets’ and its promoter identified as Aamir Khan and others, the Enforcement Directorate said in a statement.

CRPF personnel escorted the ED teams to locations like Garden Reach, Park Street and Mominpur areas in and around the West Bengal capital, among others.

So far, about Rs 17 crore in cash has been found at the premises and the counting is still in progress, official sources said.

Links of some politicians with the gaming app business are under the scanner, sources in the agency said.

The raids sparked a fresh war of words between the ruling TMC in West Bengal and the BJP.

Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said the TMC has nothing to do with the businessman concerned but alleged that the Centre wanted to drive away investors from the state by spreading the fear of “harassment” by federal agencies.

The BJP rejected the charge, saying the raids were only against unscrupulous businessmen, and asked the TMC leader if he had anything to hide.

Hakim wondered if the ED’s investigations into money laundering cases are restricted to states ruled by non-BJP parties like West Bengal.

“If Rs 7 crore has been unearthed, the source of that money should certainly be investigated. But what about Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who had swindled more than Rs 7000 crore? Why did their wrongdoing not come to light before they left (India)?

“There are businessmen in BJP-ruled states and they might also have amassed large amounts of money,” he said.

“Does that mean that the raids will be directed selectively against businessmen of non-BJP ruled states like Bengal? It is for dissuading investors from coming to Bengal in the fear of harassment by central agencies,” the senior TMC leader alleged.

Reacting to Hakim’s comments, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya claimed that such statements come from fear as people are aware of the unholy nexus between money launderers and the TMC.

“The ED raid is not directed against the business community in general. It is only against unscrupulous businessmen. Does the former state transport minister has anything to hide?” Bhattacharya added.

The money laundering case stems from an FIR filed by the Kolkata Police against the company and its promoters in February 2021.

This FIR was registered at the Park Street Police Station based on a complaint filed by the Federal Bank authorities before a court in Kolkata, the ED said.

Aamir Khan, son of businessman Nesar Ahmed Khan, launched the mobile gaming application E-Nuggets that was designed to defraud the public, the agency alleged.

“During the initial period, the users were rewarded with a commission and the balance in the wallet could be withdrawn hassle-free.

“This provided initial confidence among users, and they started investing bigger amounts for a greater percentage of commission and a greater number of purchase orders,” it said.

The ED said that after collecting a “handsome amount” from the public, withdrawal from the said app was stopped all of a sudden under one pretext or the other – such as system upgradation and investigation by law enforcement agencies.

Later, all data, including profile information, was wiped off the app servers. It was then the users understood the ploy, the ED said.

Official sources said the agency is investigating if this app and its operators had links with other ‘Chinese controlled’ apps that had been issuing loans at exorbitant rates to gullible persons. In many cases, the loan takers ended their lives after they were threatened by these loan operators to pay up.

Islamabad: Jalandhar-based Sikh man Amarjit Singh’s happiness knew no bounds when he met his Muslim sister from Pakistan at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, 75 years after he was separated from his family at the time of Partition.

Singh was left out in India along with his sister while his Muslim parents migrated to Pakistan at the time of Partition.

All eyes went teary as wheelchair-bound Singh had an emotional meeting with his sister Kulsoom Akhtar at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province on Wednesday.

Singh arrived in Pakistan via the Wagah border with a visa to meet his sister, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Kulsoom, 65, could not control her emotions after seeing Singh.

Both hugged each other and kept crying. She had travelled from her hometown in Faisalabad along with her son Shahzad Ahmed and other family members to meet her brother.

Talking to the newspaper, Kulsoom said that her parents migrated to Pakistan from a suburb in Jalandhar in 1947, leaving behind her brother and a sister.

Kulsoom said she was born in Pakistan and used to hear about her lost brother and sister from her mother. She said that her mother used to cry whenever she remembered her missing children.

She said that she did not expect that she would ever be able to meet her brother and sister.

However, a few years ago, a friend of her father Sardar Dara Singh came to Pakistan from India and also met her.

Her mother told Sardar Dara Singh about her son and the daughter she left behind in India. She also told him the name of their village and the location of their house.

Sardar Dara Singh then visited her house in Padawan village and informed her that her son was alive but her daughter was dead.

Her son was named Amarjit Singh who was adopted by a Sikh family in 1947.

After getting the brother’s information, Kulsoom connected with Singh on WhatsApp and later decided to meet.

Kulsoom, despite her severe back pain, mustered the courage to travel to Kartarpur just to meet her brother.

Singh said that when he first learned that his real parents were in Pakistan and were Muslims, it was a shock to him. However, he comforted his heart that many families were separated from each other in addition to his own family.

He said that he always wanted to meet his real sister and brothers. He said that he is happy to know that three of his brothers are alive. However, one brother, who was in Germany, passed away.

He said he will now come to Pakistan to spend time with his family.

He also said that he also wants to take his family to India as well so that they could meet their Sikh family. Both the siblings had brought many gifts for each other.

Shahzad Ahmad, son of Kulsoom, said that he used to hear about his uncle from his grandmother and mother. He said that all of the siblings were very young at the time of Partition.

“I understand that since my uncle was brought up by a Sikh family, he happens to be a Sikh, and my family and I have no problem with this,” he added.

Shahzad said that he is happy that even after 75 years his mother has found her lost brother, The Express Tribune quoted him as saying.

This is the second time that the Kartarpur Corridor has reunited a family. In May, a woman born in a Sikh family who was adopted and raised by a Muslim couple met her brothers from India at Kartarpur.