Munawar Faruqui

Indore: A local court on Friday adjourned the hearing in the case of stand-up comedian Munawar Faruqui, who was accused of passing indecent remarks against Hindu deities during a stand-up act, citing that the police had failed to present a chargesheet against him even after more than a year.

The Tukogang police station has registered a case against Faruqui under section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and other provisions of IPC in January last year.

The police were supposed to present the chargesheet on Friday, but they couldn’t do so, as the state government’s nod was awaited, an official said.

The state government is yet to give its approval on the chargesheet, inspector Kamlesh Sharma of Tukogang police station said.

The court has now posted the hearing for March 10, it was stated.

The Indore police had on January 29, 2021 written to the state government seeking its permission to file a chargesheet in the matter, the official said.

The state government’s nod was mandatory to put up a challan under section 295 (a) citing the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

The comedian and four others were booked based on a complaint lodged by Eklavya Singh Gaur (36), son of local BJP legislator Malini Laxman Singh Gaur.

Faruqui, a resident of Gujarat, was arrested along with four others for allegedly making indecent remarks against Hindu deities and Union home minister Amit Shah during a show at a cafe in 56 Dukan area of Indore on January 1.

The comedian, who was in custody for 35 days, walked out of the Indore Jail on late February 6 night last year after the Supreme Court granted him bail.

Ahmedabad: Rohit Sharma’s tenure as India ODI captain began with a 3-0 demolition of the West Indies after the impressive hosts put up an all-round performance to win the third game by 96 runs here on Friday.

Shreyas Iyer’s responsible 80 coupled with Rishabh Pant’s aggressive 56 powered India to a challenging 265 in the inconsequential fixture.

The hosts then shot out their opponents for 169 in 37.1 overs as the visitors continued their dismal batting show.

With one eye on the 2023 ODI World Cup, the Indian team management gained plenty positives from their experiments in the third-match series including the emergence of pacer Prasidh Krishna as the strike bowler. He ended with nine wickets in the series.

Deepak Hooda, who did not play the third ODI, showed promise as a middle-order batter while Suryakumar Yadav showed that he could curb his natural aggressive intent if such a situation arises.

The wrist spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, who made a return as a pairing, did not bowl together but did well individually. An ordinary batting performance the West Indies batters also made the Indian bowlers’ task easier throughout the series.

The away team was never in the chase and was blown away by another stellar show of fast bowling.

Pacer Deepak Chahar, playing his first game of the series, struck twice in the fifth over. First he sent back Brandon King (14), who edged to Suryakumar Yadav in the slip cordon and then on the last ball of the over, removed Shamarh Brooks (0), leaving the visitors at 25/3. West Indies could not recover from there on.

The ODI series will be followed by three T20 in Kolkata beginning February 16.

Earlier, Shreyas and the flamboyant Pant resurrected the India innings with their 110-run stand after India suffered a top-order collapse to be reeling at 42/3.

The duo toyed with the opposition attack even as the southpaw displayed his hard-hitting prowess, striking six fours and a six.

The Mumbaikar, who was playing his first game after COVID recovery, looked in his elements, as he mixed caution and aggression. He completed his ninth ODI fifty with a single to deep extra cover.

After his fifty, Shreyas upped the ante as he and Pant completed their 100-run stand in 112 balls.

Pant too notched up his fifth ODI 50 with a single. But in the 30th over, he perished, giving leggie Hayden Walsh (2/59) his first wicket and Suryakumar Yadav (6) followed suit, as India lost half their side for 164.

But a determined Shreyas played his shots at will before giving a sitter to Darren Bravo at long-off in the 38th over. In his 111-ball knock, he hit nine boundaries.

However, Chahar (38; 4×4; 2×6) and Washington Sundar (33, 2×4; 1×6) played their parts to perfection and forged 53 runs for seventh wicket. Their knocks propelled India past the 260-run mark.

After opting to bat, India lost opener Rohit Sharma (13) cheaply. Pacer Alzarri Joseph (2/54) pegged the hosts back, by first cleaning up Rohit on the third ball of the fourth over and then dismissed Virat Kohli (0) on the fifth ball to leave the hosts teetering at 16/2.

Kohli tried to flick a delivery that was going down the leg, but edged to Shai Hope in what was a soft dismissal, extending the wait for his 71st hundred in international cricket.

Shikhar Dhawan (10) and Shreyas tried to rally the innings but were able to add only 26 runs for the third wicket.

Dhawan, who too played his first game of the series after recovering from COVD, became pacer Odean Smith’s (1/36) first victim as he was caught by Jason Holder in the slip cordon.

New Delhi: Mere delay in intimating an insurance company about theft of an insured vehicle cannot be a ground to deny the claim if an FIR about the incident has been lodged, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

The significant verdict came on an appeal of a company whose insured truck was robbed on November 4, 2007 and the police, acting on the FIR which was lodged next day, arrested the accused but could not recover the insured vehicle.

Oriental Insurance Company Ltd repudiated the claim on the ground that it was informed about the loss of vehicle belatedly and won the case at the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).

The NCDRC, in 2016, had set aside the findings of the District Consumer Forum and the Haryana State Consumer Disputes Commission holding that the insurance firm rightly repudiated the claim on the ground of delayed intimation.

A bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Bela M Trivedi set aside the NCDRC judgement and held that the mere delay in intimating the insurer was not fatal to the claim when an FIR had been registered promptly.

The precise question that falls for consideration before this Court is – whether the insurance company can repudiate the claim in toto, made by the owner of the vehicle which was duly insured with the insurance company, in case of loss of the vehicle due to theft, merely on the ground that there was a delay in informing the company regarding the theft of vehicle, the bench said.

Justice Trivedi, writing the judgement, referred to an apex court verdict in which it was held that when an insured has lodged the FIR immediately after the theft of a vehicle occurred and when the police after investigation have lodged a final report after the vehicle was not traced and when the surveyors/investigators appointed by the insurance company have found the claim of the theft to be genuine, then mere delay in intimating the insurance company about the occurrence of the theft cannot be a ground to deny the claim of the insured.

Dealing with the facts of the case, the judgement said in the instant matter, the FIR was lodged immediately on the next day of the occurrence of theft by Aina Construction Company and the accused were also arrested and chargesheeted.

However, the vehicle could not be traced out. Of course, it is true that there was a delay of about five months on the part of the complainant in informing and lodging its claim before the Insurance Company, nonetheless, it is pertinent to note that the Insurance Company has not repudiated the claim on the ground that it was not genuine, it said.

The verdict said the claim has been repudiated only on the ground of delay and when the complainant had lodged the FIR immediately and law was set in motion, the insurance firm could not have repudiated the claim merely on the ground that there was a delay in intimating about the theft.

Palakkad: Young trekker R Babu, who was trapped in the face of a mountain cleft and was rescued by the Indian Army through a breathtaking operation recently, said on Friday that trekking was his passion and he was sure that someone would come to rescue him from the steep gorge.

“I was not afraid. The cleft was like a tiny cave. When it was too cold and too hot outside, I used to crawl into the gorge and came outside whenever I heard anyone calling my name,” he told reporters here.

The 23-year-old youth was discharged from the district hospital here this morning as the doctors certified that his health condition was stable. However, they advised him to take rest at least for one week.

When asked whether he realised that his rescue was breaking news in channels, the trekker said he was not aware about it but he was sure that someone would come to lift him to safety.

“The mobile phone lost its charge by the evening. Before that, I managed to click some selfies and sent to my friends to inform them that I was stranded there. I also tried to convey the message to the Fire and Rescue personnel,” he detailed.

Babu said besides the severe climate, the lack of food and water was also an issue as he developed difficulties with the time running out.

On the failed mission of airlifting him from the cleft initially, the youth said it was not possible as its rotors would hit the rock.

Stating that he would like to continue his passion for travelling and trekking, Babu also said his present priority was to take proper rest and have good food.

After being trapped in a cleft on a mountain face in Malampuzha area of Palakkad district in Kerala for nearly two days, rescue teams of the Army were able to reach Babu, provide him food and water and then haul him to safety on Wednesday morning.

A specialist mountaineering team of the Madras Regimental Centre (MRC) rescued him from the cleft.

The Army deployed two teams consisting of qualified mountaineers and rock climbing experts from Parachute Regimental Centre, Bangalore and Madras Regimental Centre, Wellington.

Babu, along with two others, had on Monday decided to climb to the top of Cherad hill there, but the other two abandoned the effort halfway.

However, Babu continued to climb to the hilltop, and after reaching there, slipped and fell and got trapped between rocks on the mountain face.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

New Delhi(PTI): Faced with criticism for her latest Budget not doing enough for the poor, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s 2013 comment of poverty being a state of mind, and asked if this is the poverty she was supposed to address.

Replying to the discussion on Budget 2022-23 in the Rajya Sabha, she said her Budget brings stability to the economy and has measures to create jobs.

Without naming Gandhi, she referred to the Congress leader’s remarks on poverty to counter the criticism from Opposition leaders, including former finance minister P Chidambaram of the Budget leaving out the poor.

“Please be clear, is this the poverty that you wanted me to address, the poverty of mind?” she said.

As Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi protested that she was mocking the poor, Sitharaman said, “I am not mocking the poor people. The person who had mocked the poor people, you are in alliance with his party.”

Amid repeated interruptions, she took Congress leaders to the cleaners for the poverty comment.

“What is the poor that you are talking about?,” she asked. “Your former (Congress) president said the poverty does not mean scarcity of food, money or material things. If one possesses self-confidence, then one can overcome it. He said it’s a state of mind. I’ve not named the person but we know who it is.”

As protests broke out, she said the comment was reported in the media and she was just quoting the Congress leader.

Taking the help of a Tamil proverb, Sitharaman said she did not take any name but everybody started defending. “If you want a rough translation of the Tamil proverb, it is — during rainy seasons no one knows where the frog is, but you know where it is when it makes the croak-croak.”

Sitharaman took strong exception to senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal’s remark that ‘India is not in Amrit Kaal but in Rahu Kaal since 2014’.

‘Rahu Kaal’ was then, when an ordinance brought by the Prime Minister of their own party was torn in front of the media, she said referring to the 2013 incident of Rahul Gandhi.

“That was the Rahu Kaal”, she said. “Rahu Kaal is what produces G-23”

G-23 is a grouping of 23 Congress leaders including Sibal who have voiced concerns over the party’s leadership style.

“Senior leaders of the party are leaving the party. That is Rahu Kaal,” she said. “No wonder Congress party which is facing the ‘Rahul Kaal’ is getting 44 seats and remaining there and is not able to come out. Where Rahu Kaal is where the Congress is in power”.

On Priyanka Gandhi’s slogan of ‘Ladki hoon lad sakti hoon’, the finance minister cited incidents against women to mock the Congress party.

On charges that she did not know the ground reality as she was not an elected member, Sitharaman said, “Did the honourable member imply that all Rajya Sabha members of their time, including the former Prime Minister were disconnected from the reality?” 

Rampur (UP): Taking a swipe at the ruling BJP, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday said while Azam Khan is in jail for building a university, a Union minister’s son is out on bail in a case pertaining to the killing of farmers, and mockingly said this is the “new India” of the saffron party.

He also claimed that the voting in the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls has given enough indications that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be wiped out from the state.

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted bail to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra, in a case of violence in Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed.

Addressing an election meeting here in favour of Khan and other SP candidates, Yadav said, “Even if the BJP performs 700 squats, the farmers will not forgive the party.”

He said Khan’s son Abdullah Azam had to languish in jail for two years on false cases.

“Azam Khan was also sent to jail on false charges. Cases of buffalo theft, chicken theft and theft of books were lodged against him. But the man who crushed farmers under the wheels of a jeep has come out of jail. This is the new India of the BJP,” the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister added.

“The man who built a university for you, fought for your rights and honour, was sent to jail. And the man who crushed farmers using a jeep has been sent out of jail. Nowhere in the world, farmers have been crushed by a jeep. But since the Uttar Pradesh polls are here, he has got bail and is out,” he said.

Khan got the Jauhar University built in Rampur. He is currently lodged in the Sitapur jail on various charges.

The SP has fielded Khan from the Rampur Assembly segment and his son from the Suar constituency in the district. Rampur will vote on February 14.

“People were waiting for March 10 for the election results, but the way voting took place in the first phase (on Thursday), it seems that the results were out by yesterday evening.

“In the first phase of polling, people from different sections of the society including farmers, have wiped out the BJP and whatever is left (of the party), will be wiped out in the second phase from Saharanpur to Rampur,” Yadav said.

He also claimed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been saying that he has distributed laptops among youngsters, but not a single laptop has been given to anyone in Rampur.

“BJP leaders lie a lot. The first time they had lied was during demonetisation, when they had said the move will curtail corruption. Corruption could not be curtailed, but it doubled during the double-engine government,” he said in a reference to the saffron party being in power both at the Centre and in the state, and urged people to vote for the SP-RLD alliance.