Month: September 2020

Sushil Batra

A Delhi court has directed the authorities to hand over the keys of the residential portion of the Markaz Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin area to the family of its chief Maulana Saad after five days from the receipt of this order, to enable the probe agencies to inspect the premises before the handover.

The applicant, mother of Maulana Saad, and her family members were also directed to give an undertaking on an affidavit that they shall not obstruct the investigation in any manner and the residential portion of the property will only be used for residing by its residents only and that they will not enter any part other of the Markaz and its premises for any other purpose.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur of Saket Courts complex, while granting relief to the application on Friday, said that every person, who is a citizen of India is entitled to the right to life and liberty enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India and the right to access to the residential property would fall within one of these sacrosanct rights.

“This court is not an appropriate form to decide the ownership of any property. It also requires mentioning that in the present case, the applicant only seeks unlocking of the residential premises. It also requires mentioning that the fact that the applicant and her family are only residing in the residential portion of the property… has never been disputed by any of the opposite parties till date either during the hearing or in any of the replies filed,” the order said.

The court also noted that after sanitization, the premises was locked as per the directions of the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) and keys were handed over to police officials for facilitation as premises were required to be inspected by various agencies.

“Even though, it is not mentioned in any of the reply filed, that the residential portion is a scene of crime or whether it has been inspected by concerned agencies for the preservation and evidence purposes, this court, will deem it appropriate to give one more opportunity to the investigating agencies to inspect the premises sought to be unlocked within five working days from the date of receipt of this order. Thereafter, keys should be handed over to the applicant against acknowledgment,” the order said.

During the arguments, special public prosecutor argued that the property was not sealed under any provision of the law, but the premises sought to be unlocked was locked for the preservation of the crime scene. The prosecutor submitted that the keys are with the Delhi Police and investigation is still pending in the present case.

The counsel for Khalida, mother of Maulana Saad, had argued that all the concerned officials have admitted the fact that the keys of residential premises are with Delhi Police and the applicant and her family have been denied access to her residential premises for more than six months now. The counsel argued that no person can be restricted/restrained for using residential property in any provision of law.

According to the application, after the registration of an FIR on March 31, 2020, the entire Markaz premises was vacated and locked for the purpose of sanitization and disinfection by the authorities and keys of the premises were handed over to the police.

“It is further averred in the application that the residential part of the premises is a four storey building and the said building is divided by wall into two section, wherein, in one section the applicant and her family resides and the entrance for both the sections of the building are separate and not interconnected,” the application said. (ANI)

Siddharth Sharma

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has announced a restructuring of the Congress Working Committee.

A committee of six leaders has also been formed to support the Congress president. Along with this, the in-charge of many states has been changed and the central election authority which conducts the organisation elections in Congress has also been reorganised.

This reshuffle took place within 20 days of the recent letter written by 23 Congress leaders to party president Sonia Gandhi and the subsequent CWC meeting. The leaders who wrote the letter demanded that the CWC be elected but Sonia Gandhi reorganised the CWC.

A total of 22 leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, AK Antony, Ambika Soni, have been made members of the CWC.

Randeep Surjewala has got the biggest promotion in the reshuffle. Randeep, Tariq Anwar and Jitendra Singh have been made general secretaries and have got a place in the CWC. Randeep Surjewala’s name is also in the committee formed to assist Sonia Gandhi.

Dissent letter signatory leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik have also got equal space. Ghulam Nabi Azad has been made a member of the CWC but has been removed from the post of general secretary.

Ambika Soni and Mallikarjun Kharge have also been relieved of the responsibility of the General Secretary.

Although both have been made members of the CWC. Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik have also been retained as a member of CWC. Mukul Wasnik has been retained in the post of general secretary and he has also been given a place in the committee to assist Sonia Gandhi.

Bhupendra Singh Hooda, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari among the leaders who wrote the letter are not mentioned in any list. Sachin Pilot has also been ignored.

However, leaders like Manish Tiwari and Sachin Pilot may get other major responsibilities in the coming days.

Among those returning is Digvijay Singh who has been made a permanent invitee member of CWC. The most important is the name of Jitin Prasad who has been made in-charge of Bengal and due to this, special invitee member of CWC has been promoted to permanent member. Jitin Prasad was also among the 23 leaders who wrote the letter. Leaders like Salman Khurshid, Jairam Ramesh, Rajiv Shukla, Pawan Bansal have also been made permanent invitees.

Among the general secretaries, Randeep Surjewala has been made in-charge of Karnataka, Tariq Anwar of Kerala, Jitendra Singh of Assam and Harish Rawat of Punjab. Ajay Maken has already got the charge of Rajasthan and Mukul Wasnik of Madhya Pradesh. Priyanka Gandhi will remain in charge of Uttar Pradesh.

Veteran leader Motilal Vora has left. He did not find a place in the CWC and has also been relieved of the responsibility of the General Secretary Administration. Pawan Kumar Bansal has got the administration charge.

Jitin Prasad has been made in-charge of West Bengal, Rajiv Shukla of Himachal Pradesh, Manikam Tagore of Telangana, HK Patil of Maharashtra, Vivek Basal of Haryana, Devendra Yadav of Uttarakhand and Manish Chatrath of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Rajni Patil was made the new in-charge of Jammu and Kashmir.

A special committee has been formed to help Congress president Sonia Gandhi. AK Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Venugopal, Mukul Wasnik and Randeep Surjewala are its members.

Madhusudan Mistry has been made the president of the Congress’s Central Election Authority. With this, the process of electing the next president in the Congress can begin. Four other leaders, including Arvinder Singh Lovely, have been made its members. Significantly, Lovely was also among the leaders who wrote the letter.

Overall, Rahul Gandhi’s trusted leaders have got a lot of space in Sonia Gandhi’s new team along with her old confidants. Those who have patience have got a reward. The faction that wrote the letter has not been ignored, but an attempt has been made to give the message of ‘discipline’ by giving some names.

However, the big question still remains that who will be the next president of the Congress in place of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi or will he be a leader outside the Gandhi family? (ANI)

Impressed by the grit of a young boy who sells ‘Golgappas’, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced a grant of Rs 5 lakh for him.

A press note read, “Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday announced a grant of Rs 5 lakhs for a young boy from Amritsar whose viral video of selling Golgappas on the roadside to earn his livelihood had touched the hearts of thousands of people.”

As per the press note, the youngster was seen refusing the offer of money from an individual, and said he wanted only his hard-earned money.

According to the press note, the Chief Minister told a questioner on #AskCaptain today that he had also seen the video, which captured the spirit of `Punjabiyat’. He agreed with the citizen’s suggestion that the boy should be helped by the state government and immediately announced Rs 5 lakh.

Captain Amarinder said he will ask Amritsar DC to invest the grant in a Fixed Deposit and the interest on it will be used for the boy’s education. “I am impressed by the grit of this young boy,” he added. (ANI)

China is ready to take “conciliatory steps” in order to avoid new violations of the obligations on India-Chinese border, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, a day after holding a crucial meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over the current standoff in Ladakh.

Speaking during a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Wang said troops and equipment should be withdrawn from the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“As for relations between China and India, the whole world follows developments. BRICS member states are in contact on the matter, I discuss it all the time with Minister Jaishankar and India’s security officials … Yesterday, I had a long conversation with my Indian counterpart (Jaishankar),” Sputnik quoted Wang as saying.

“Indian partners expressed commitment to cooperation and dialogue for de-escalating tensions at the border. We are ready to take conciliatory steps … The most important thing is to avoid new violations of the obligations on the border … Troops and equipment should be withdrawn from the Line of Actual Control,” he added.

Jaishankar met Wang on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Foreign Ministers’ meet in Moscow on Thursday.

According to a joint press statement about the meeting, the two leaders had a “frank and constructive discussion on the developments in the India-China border areas as well as on India-China relations.”

“The two Ministers agreed that both sides should take guidance from the series of consensus of the leaders on developing India-China relations, including not allowing differences to become disputes,” it read.

Tension is high along the LAC as Indian and Chinese Army are engaged in a standoff at several points.

The meeting came days after Chinese soldiers fired in the air while attempting to close in on Indian positions across the LAC in eastern Ladakh.

The Indian Army had said on Tuesday that Chinese troops have been “blatantly violating agreements and carrying out aggressive manoeuvres”.

In a statement about the Thursday’s meeting, the Chinese defence ministry said the two sides have reached a five-point consensus regarding the current situation after a full in-depth discussion, says a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

This was the second high-level face-to-face meeting between the Chinese and Indian officials.

Last Friday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe on the sidelines of the SCO dialogue in Moscow that attempts by Chinese troops to unilaterally alter the status quo along the LAC was in violation of the bilateral agreements, and Beijing should work with New Delhi for complete disengagement from all friction areas including Pangong Tso. (ANI)

Actor Rhea Chakraborty, who has been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in a drug case linked with Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has revealed names of around 15 B-Grade Bollywood celebrities who are involved in drug use, sources said.

Among these 15 celebrities, some are procurers of drugs and some are consumers, they said.

The NCB investigation also revealed that there is some circle also who procures and supply drugs to celebrities, sources said.

During the NCB investigation, it was found that Showik Chakraborty and Dipesh Sawant used courier service for the delivery of drugs from Sushant’s house to Rhea’s house in April, amid lockdown. Courier person has confirmed that he collected courier from Dipesh Shawant and was delivered to Showik Chakraborty amid lockdown, sources said.

In the statement, the courier boy has revealed that he took courier from Sushant’s house from Dipesh and delivered to Rhea Chakraborty’s house where Showik Chakraborty received the packet containing half kilogram of drugs.

According to sources, the phone number of Dipesh and Showik was saved in the mobile of courier boy.

Call details between courier boy, Showik and Dipesh have also confirmed this movement of the drugs, sources said. Cross questioning has been done with Dipesh, Showik and Courier boy in this regard.

A special court in Mumbai on Friday rejected the bail plea of actor Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and others in connection with a drug case related to the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.

The Special NDPS court also rejected the bail plea of Abdul Basit, Zaid Vilatra, Dipesh Sawant and Samuel Miranda, who were arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in the case. (ANI)

Actor Taapsee Pannu on Friday shared a short video story revolving around the plight of migrant labourers wherein she is seen reciting a poem ‘Safar.’

The ‘Pink’ actor took to Instagram to share the cartoonised video that speaks about the sufferings of the migrants during the lockdown.

Pannu gave the voiceover for the video story as she recited the poem in Hindi and Punjabi languages.

“#Safar Kyunki kuchh logo ke liye ye abhi bhi khatam nahi hua hai. The suffering continues …..#migrants #Lockdown #Covid #safar #Journey,” she wrote in the caption.

“P.S- Swipe right for the Punjabi version coz Yours Truly has exercised her multi-language skills,” she added.

The poem recited by the actor spoke about the innumerable things that the migrant labourers do to make it easier for the people to sustain in metro cities without making

The video story was dedicated to several migrant labourers who were affected due to the coronavirus lockdown as their livelihood was disrupted. (ANI)

As China faces worldwide condemnation over the atrocities faced by Uyghur Muslims of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, victims from the community narrates horrific experiences in a recent webinar hosted by Campaign for Uyghurs, an organization for the human rights and democratic freedoms for the Uyghurs and other Turkic people.

According to the recent report by the academic Adeian Zenz and IPAC, Uyghur women are subject to forced abortion particularly if they fail to comply with the Chinese Communist Party arbitrary birth spacing requirements which generally require Uyghur women to wait between 3 or 4 years in between having children.

One of the former detainees Zumret Dawut said, “We were administered unknown medicines. The medication made us extremely lethargic and we noticed that our menstrual cycle stopped and till that day my cycle has not returned. We were also injected with an unknown substance once a week”.

Ziba Murat, a Uyghur American residing in Virginia and also a daughter of Dr Gulshan Abbas who is under Chinese government detention said, “My mother is missing and I don’t know where she was taken from her home to concentration camps on September 11, 2018. My mom’s case is just a tip of the iceberg, as there are millions of other families who have suffered in similar ways.”

The Communist Party of China has detained at least 8 million Uyghurs and other minorities in concentration camps. Reports claim that At least 80,000 Uyghur were sent to work in factories across China against their will.

Kelley Currie, Ambassador-at-large for global women issues who was also part of the panel said, “The CCP has always shown utter disregard to the sanity of human lives and basic human dignity and this is what is happening in Xinjiang. Their effort to attack the core of Uyghur identity at the family level is so pernicious that we often lack a vocabulary to even explain how horrific this is”.

Meanwhile, Nury A. Turkel, U.S. commission on international religious freedom said “UCIRF commended the U.S. government for taking action against these issues by banning imports from Chinese companies suspected of using forced labors”.

According to reports, around 80 per cent of Uyghur women of childbearing age in the four Uyghur-populated prefectures have been targeted for forced sterilization. (ANI)

The tech giant Microsoft said on Thursday that it has spotted multiple cyberattacks from Russia, China and Iran on individuals and organisations involved in the ongoing presidential campaigns in the United States.

“In recent weeks, Microsoft has detected cyberattacks targeting people and organisations involved in the upcoming presidential election, including unsuccessful attacks on people associated with both the Trump and Biden campaigns,” the company said on its blog. “The activity we are announcing today makes clear that foreign activity groups have stepped up their efforts targeting the 2020 election as had been anticipated.”

Microsoft said that attackers– the hacker groups Strontium, Zirconium and Phosphorus– operate from Russia, China and Iran, respectively.

Among more than the 200 Strontium targets are US-based consultants serving Republicans and Democrats, think tanks, national and state political party organisations in the United States as well as political parties in the United Kingdom.

According to Microsoft, Strontium was also identified in the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report as the organisation primary responsible for the alleged attacks on the Democratic presidential campaign in 2016.

“Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) has observed a series of attacks conducted by Strontium between September 2019 and today,” the company said.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the US political system, saying the allegations have been invented to excuse Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 election as well as deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.

Microsoft said that China’s Zirconium attacked high-profile individuals involved in the election, including people associated with Joe Biden’s campaign and “prominent leaders in the international affairs community.” Iran’s Phosphorus continues to attack personal accounts of people associated with Donald Trump’s campaign, according to the publications.

Microsoft pointed out that the majority of the attacks were detected and stopped by security tools built into its products. The company added that it has notified those who were targeted or compromised so they can take action to protect themselves. (ANI/Sputnik)

Prime Minister Imran Khan recently claimed that there is no crackdown on the press in the country. However, the arrest of editors and threats of violence against journalists clearly show the stark reality of the situation in Pakistan.

“I don’t mind criticism but there is blatant propaganda against the government. Unfortunately, it is the government who feels unprotected, not the media,” Khan told Al Jazeera.

There are many who disagree.

As per an article by Brad Adams, director of the Human Rights Watch in Asia, Mur Shakilur Rehman, the editor in chief of the Jang group, has been in pretrial detention since March 12 after being arrested in Lahore by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) pertaining to a 34-year-old property transaction.

Rehman had requested bail on account of ill-health but was denied by the Lahore High Court. However, the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Pakistan Bar Council termed the ruling as “disappointing and painful”.

“The NAB has been widely criticised as being used for political purposes and it’s evident that the charges against Rehman were politically motivated. Rehman’s ordeal epitomizes the fast-shrinking space for dissent and criticism in Pakistan,” wrote Adams.

The article further cited the Jang Groups’ allegations of its reporters, editors, and producers receiving dozens of letters of “critical reporting of the NAB. GEO TV, a private channel of the group was forced “off the air” and audience access restricted “as punishment for editorials criticising the government”.

“Pakistani authorities frequently use prolonged pretrial detention as a form of punishment and intimidation. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has stated that ‘pretrial detention should be an exception and as short as possible’,” the Asia director for Human Rights Watch wrote further.

“In Pakistan, arbitrary arrest, detention, and baseless criminal prosecutions are used as instruments of press censorship. So long as Rehman and others in the media are punished for practicing journalism, Prime Minister Khan’s statement that “I don’t mind criticism” is not worth the paper it won’t be printed on,” Adams wrote.

The United Nations Human Rights Office on Tuesday expressed its concern over the increasing instances of threats of violence against journalists and human rights activists in Pakistan.

“We have followed with increasing concern numerous instances of incitement to violence – online and offline – against journalists and human rights defenders in Pakistan, in particular against women and minorities. Especially worrying are accusations of blasphemy – which can put accused individuals at imminent risk of violence,” said a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Rupert Colville in a briefing.

Pakistan is ranked 145th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index, three places lower than in 2019. (ANI)