Month: January 2022

Mumbai reported 20,181 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the positivity rate to 29.90 per cent, informed Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday.

With these, Mumbai’s tally of COVID-19 cases jumped to 853,809, while the tally of active cases stood at 79,260, said the BMC in a bulletin. With 2,837 in the last 24 hours, the cumulative recoveries mounted to 755,563. The recovery rate is currently at 88 per cent in the city

A total of 16,388 people died so far with four new deaths in the last 24 hours.

The overall growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai is 0.99 per cent and the doubling rate of patients is 70 days.

As per BMC, a total of 67,000 test samples were collected of which 20,181 were tested positive.

1,170 patients were hospitalised today. 106 patients are on Oxygen out of total hospitalised patients.

Out of 35,594 available beds, only 5,998 are occupied by the patients so far. Only 16.8 per cent of beds are occupied out of the total available beds.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra reported 36,265 new cases, 13 deaths and, 8,907 discharges today.

The State reported 79 Omicron cases today, taking the tally to 876 including 381 recoveries. (ANI)

The decision by the United States to boycott the Beijing Olympics in February 2022 in the wake of the genocide and inhumane treatment of Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province is a fair response in all respects because the humiliation, torture, and suffering of 1 million Uyghur Muslims in the reformatory camps in Xinjiang is unbearable and indescribable, reported Pakistan Vernacular media.

The international human rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also confirmed that Uyghur Muslims face severe restrictions and violence to renounce their religion Islam.

“China is Islamabad’s trusted ally. There is complete understanding and cooperation between Islamabad and Beijing on important international issues including Kashmir, Taiwan, and Palestine,” said the vernacular media.

Pakistan-China friendship is a proud golden chapter in the history of both countries. However, it must be remembered that Muslims are one Ummah. In the same way, we will continue to demand the protection of the religious and human rights of Uyghur Muslims, said Pakistan’s vernacular media.

China must in its own interest not only liberate the Muslims inside the Xinjiang province from concentration camps but also restore religious freedom, including their civil rights.

Otherwise, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party should understand that the US will be able to win the support of the Muslim public against China with regard to Uyghur Muslims.

We are well aware that the US is using the issue of Uyghur Muslims as a political weapon against China. However, the Islamic world is also feeling that whatever the hidden motives of the US, there is no denying the fact that the way in which the US is exposing the suffering of the Uighur Muslims on a global scale is not a lie or propaganda, the vernacular media said.

Rather, it is a complete and unequivocal truth on which the American position will and should be appreciated and encouraged. We hope that the Beijing administration will immediately reverse the unjust and cruel measures taken against Islam and Muslims in Xinjiang province, Pakistan vernacular media added. (ANI)

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed event at Ferozepur in Punjab on Wednesday had to be cancelled owing to security lapse, national spokesperson of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) Rakesh Tikait said that it was an attempt by the Centre to find a cheap way to gain public sympathy.

Speaking to ANI in this regard, Tikait said, “When the Prime Minister was coming to Punjab, what arrangements did he make regarding security? The news about him saying that he survived makes it clear that it was a stunt. It was an attempt to find a cheap way to gain public sympathy.”

The farmer leader further said that the Prime Minister should not have opted to go to Punjab.

“Central Government says that there was a security lapse and the Punjab Government says that Prime Minister did not go there because chairs in his rally were empty. Both are only trying to defend themselves. The Prime Minister should not have gone there,” Tikait said.

Regarding the cancelled event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Ferozepur in Punjab, Tikait on Wednesday said one needs to investigate whether there was a security lapse or the farmers were expressing their anger.

“There is talk about rally being cancelled due to lapse in the security of PM Modi ji. On the other hand, the Chief Minister of Punjab is claiming the PM returned witnessing empty chairs. Now it is necessary to investigate whether there is a lapse in the security or the farmers were expressing their anger,” Tikait said in a tweet in Hindi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed event at Ferozepur in Punjab had to be cancelled owing to a ‘security lapse’, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement today.

The ministry has sought a detailed report from the State government, fix responsibility for the lapse and take strict action.

PM Modi was scheduled to visit Ferozepur on Wednesday to lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 42,750 crore.

The Home Ministry said in a statement that PM Modi landed at Bathinda on Wednesday morning from where he was to go to the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala by helicopter.

Due to rain and poor visibility, the Prime Minister waited for about 20 minutes for the weather to clear out.

The statement said that when the weather did not improve, it was decided that he would visit the National Marytrs Memorial via road, which would take more than two hours. The Prime Minister proceeded to travel by road after necessary confirmation of necessary security arrangements by the DGP Punjab Police.

Around 30 kms away from the National Martyrs Memorial in Hussainiwala, when the Prime Minister’s convoy reached a flyover, it was found that the road was blocked by some protestors.

The Prime Minister was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes.

“This was a major lapse in the security of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s schedule and travel plan was communicated well in advance to the Punjab Government. As per procedure, they have to make necessary arrangements for logistics, security as well as keep a contingency plan ready,” the statement said

“Also in view of the contingency plan the Punjab Government has to deploy additional security to secure any movement by road, which were clearly not deployed. After this security lapse, it was decided to head back to Bathinda Airport,” it added.

Government sources said what was witnessed on the flyover was “a surprising scene of connivance between Punjab police and so-called protestors”.

They said only Punjab police knew the precise route of the PM and “never has such police behaviour been witnessed”. (ANI)

Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit (IFSO), Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested the main conspirator of the ‘Bulli Bai’ case from Assam on Thursday.

KPS Malhotra, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) IFSO Delhi, informed, “Neeraj Bishnoi, arrested from Assam by Delhi Police Special Cell’s IFSO team, is the main conspirator and creator of ‘Bulli Bai’ on GitHub and the main Twitter account holder of the app. He is being brought to Delhi.

Neeraj Bishnoi (20) is a resident of Digambar area of Assam’s Jorhat. He is a BTech student of Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal: IFSO

The Bulli Bai case was transferred to the IFSO on Wednesday.

Several complaints were received by several police stations in the country regarding the listing of Muslim women for “auction” on the ‘Bulli Bai’ mobile application with photographs sourced without permission and doctored. It has happened for the second time in less than a year. The app appeared to be a clone of ‘Sulli Deals’ which triggered a similar row last year.

Earlier, an engineering student from Bengaluru, a young girl from Uttarakhand, and one of her friends has been arrested by Mumbai Police in connection with the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case, informed police on Wednesday.

“Three people have been arrested in the ‘Bulli Bai’ app case, including Vishal Kumar Jha and Shweta Singh. The third accused is Shweta’s friend,” said Hemant Nagrale, Mumbai Police Commissioner.

Vishal Kumar has been sent to police custody till January 10 by a Bandra court and Shweta Singh is on a transit remand.

Mumbai Police on Monday filed a first information report (FIR) against unknown persons based on complaints that doctored photographs of women were uploaded for auction on the ‘Bulli Bai’ application hosted on the GitHub platform.

On Sunday, West Mumbai Cyber Police station registered a case against the ‘Bulli Bai’ app developers and Twitter handles that promoted the app.

The case was registered against the unknown culprits under sections 153(A) (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion etc), 153(B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), 295(A) (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), 354D (stalking), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 500 (criminal defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 (publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act.

After both the Delhi and Mumbai police lodged FIR in the matter under relevant sections, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a tweet on Sunday said, “Government of India is working with police organizations in Delhi and Mumbai on this matter.” (ANI)

The Punjab government has constituted a high-level committee to probe the security lapses that occurred during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ferozepur. The committee will submit its report in three days.

An official spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office on Thursday said that the committee would comprise Justice (Retd) Mehtab Singh Gill and Principal Secretary, Home Affairs and Justice Anurag Verma. “The committee shall submit its report within three days,” added the spokesperson.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to visit Ferozepur on Wednesday to lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 42,750 crore.

The Home Ministry said in a statement that PM Modi landed at Bathinda on Wednesday morning from where he was to go to the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala by helicopter. Due to rain and poor visibility, the Prime Minister waited for about 20 minutes for the weather to clear out.

The statement said that when the weather did not improve, it was decided that he would visit the National Martyrs Memorial via road, which would take more than two hours. The Prime Minister proceeded to travel by road after necessary confirmation of necessary security arrangements by the DGP Punjab Police.

Around 30 km away from the National Martyrs Memorial in Hussainiwala, when the Prime Minister’s convoy reached a flyover, it was found that the road was blocked by some protesters.

The Prime Minister was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes.”This was a major lapse in the security of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s schedule and travel plan was communicated well in advance to the Punjab Government. As per procedure, they have to make necessary arrangements for logistics, security as well as keep a contingency plan ready,” the statement said. “Also in view of the contingency plan, the Punjab Government has to deploy additional security to secure any movement by road, which were clearly not deployed. After this security lapse, it was decided to head back to Bathinda Airport,” it added.

It said only Punjab police knew the precise route of the PM and “never has such police behaviour been witnessed”.The Home Ministry has taken cognizance of the “serious security lapse” and has sought a detailed report from the Punjab government. The state government has also been asked to fix responsibility for this lapse and take strict action. (ANI)

India reported 90,928 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.

The daily positivity rate stands at 6.43 per cent while the weekly positivity rate stands at 3.47 per cent. As many as 325 patients lost their lives taking the death toll in the country to 482876.

With this, the active caseload in the country stands at 2,85,401.

19,206 patients recovered from the disease during this period taking the total number of recoveries in India to 19,206 recoveries in the last 24 hours increases Total Recoveries to 3,43,41,009.

The recovery rate currently is 97.81 per cent.

According to the health ministry, the active cases account for less than 1 per cent of the total cases at 0.81 per cent.

The ministry further informed that 68.53 crore COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the country so far with the administration of 148.67 crore vaccine doses under the Nationwide Vaccination Drive. (ANI)

Actor Shilpa Shetty shared her first social media post with husband Raj Kundra after his release in a pornography case. The couple recently sought divine blessings at Sai Baba temple in Shirdi.

Taking to her Instagram handle, Shilpa shared a video of herself with Raj in which the duo could be seen praying in front of Sai Baba’s idol.
“Sabka Maalik Ek. Shraddha aur Saboori. Om Sai Ram,” she captioned the post that accumulated more than 1 million views on Instagram.

Shilpa could be seen clad in a dark red kurta while Raj was seen wearing grey attire.

The duo recently celebrated this year’s Christmas together with their kids and friends in Mussoorie. Shilpa shared a few pictures and videos from her holiday getaway.

Earlier in November, Shilpa and Raj made their first public appearance for a temple visit in Himachal Pradesh, post the latter’s bail in the pornography case.

Raj was arrested on July 19 along with 11 other people on charges related to the alleged creation of pornographic films. (ANI)

Holding the Charanjit Singh Channi government responsible for the security lapse during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Punjab, that eventually led to the cancellation of all his programmes on Wednesday, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has demanded dismissal of the government and imposition of President’s rule in the state.

In a statement issued here today, the former Chief Minister said, “This government has lost all the moral and constitutional authority to continue in office as it failed in its constitutional duty to provide security to our Prime Minister”.
He said, by trying to deflect the issue and claim that it was a spontaneous protest by some people that blocked the Prime Minister’s route, the government was trying to defend the indefensible and run away from responsibility.

“If the Prime Minister of the country has to cancel all his programmes owing to a grave security breach, what should be the plight of the ordinary person living in Punjab?” the former Chief Minister asked, while asserting that sooner this government was dismissed better it would be for the state and its people.

Captain Amarinder Singh said, it was a deliberate mischief of the government to disrupt the Prime Minister’s programmes in Punjab, as he was to start various development projects to the tune of more than Rs 50,000 crores, which would benefit the people of the state.

The former Chief Minister regretted that this government had stooped so low that it orchestrated disruption of the rally and did not provide proper security to the Prime Minister and he had to cancel his programmes. “Just because he belongs to the opposition party does not mean that you disrupt his programmes. After all he is the Prime Minister of the entire country”, Capt Amarinder told the Chief Minister, while adding, “what happened today was shameful and disgraceful and the government and the Chief Minister cannot escape the responsibility for it”.

PM Modi was scheduled to visit Ferozepur on Wednesday to lay the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 42,750 crore.

The Home Ministry has taken cognisance of the “serious security lapse” and has sought a detailed report from the Punjab government. The state government has also been asked to fix responsibility for this lapse and take strict action.

The Home Ministry said in a statement that PM Modi landed at Bathinda on Wednesday morning from where he was to go to the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala by helicopter.

Due to rain and poor visibility, the Prime Minister waited for about 20 minutes for the weather to clear out.

The statement said that when the weather did not improve, it was decided that he would visit the National Marytrs Memorial via road, which would take more than two hours. The Prime Minister proceeded to travel by road after necessary confirmation of necessary security arrangements by the DGP Punjab Police.

Around 30 kms away from the National Martyrs Memorial in Hussainiwala, when the Prime Minister’s convoy reached a flyover, it was found that the road was blocked by some protestors.

The Prime Minister was stuck on a flyover for 15-20 minutes.

“This was a major lapse in the security of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s schedule and travel plan was communicated well in advance to the Punjab Government. As per procedure, they have to make necessary arrangements for logistics, security as well as keep a contingency plan ready,” the statement said

“Also in view of the contingency plan the Punjab Government has to deploy additional security to secure any movement by road , which were clearly not deployed. After this security lapse, it was decided to head back to Bathinda Airport,” it added.

Government sources said what was witnessed on the flyover was “a surprising scene of connivance between Punjab police and so-called protestors”.

They said only Punjab police knew the precise route of the PM and “never has such police behaviour been witnessed”. (ANI)

The COVID-19 cases in Delhi and Mumbai continued to see a rising trend as the national capital reported over 10,000 cases and Mumbai 15,166 cases and three deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to the bulletin issued by the state health department, Delhi has reported 10,665 fresh cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours. There are 23,307 active cases of COVID-19 in the city. The total count of cases is now gone up to 14,74,366.
With eight COVID-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the death tally has gone up to 25,121.

Meanwhile, 2,239 people recovered from the infection. With this, the recovery tally in the capital city now stands at 14,25,938.

A total of 782 patients are currently undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in Delhi hospitals.

Delhi has been witnessing a rise in infections following the emergence of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron.

The overall growth rate of COVID-19 cases in Mumbai is 0.78 per cent and the doubling rate of patients is 89 days.

A total of 714 people were recovered in the last 24 hours and the cumulative recoveries mounted to 7,52,726. The recovery rate is currently at 90 per cent in the city.

As per the BMC, 1218 patients were hospitalised today. 80 patients are on Oxygen out of total hospitalised patients.(ANI)

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi evaded custom duty to the tune of Rs 653 crore in India, Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

Based upon an intelligence that M/s Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited (Xiaomi India) was evading customs duty by way of undervaluation, an investigation was initiated by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) against Xiaomi India and its contract manufacturers.

“After completion of the investigation by the DRI, three show cause notices have been issued to M/s Xiaomi Technology India Private Limited for demand and recovery of duty amounting to Rs 653 crore for the period 01.04.2017 to 30.06.2020, under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962,” Finance Ministry said in a statement.

During the investigation, searches were conducted by the DRI at the premises of Xiaomi India, which led to the recovery of incriminating documents indicating that Xiaomi India was remitting royalty and licence fee to Qualcomm USA and to Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co. Ltd., under contractual obligation.

“Statements of key persons of Xiaomi India and its contract manufactures were recorded, during which one of the directors of Xiaomi India confirmed the said payments,” the Finance Ministry said.

During the investigations, it further emerged that the “royalty and licence fee” paid by Xiaomi India to Qualcomm USA and to Beijing Xiaomi Mobile Software Co. Ltd., China (related party of Xiaomi India) were not being added in the transaction value of the goods imported by Xiaomi India and its contract manufacturers, it added.

The investigations conducted by the DRI further showed that Xiaomi India is engaged in the sale of MI brand mobile phones and these mobile phones are either imported by Xiaomi India or assembled in India by importing parts and components of mobile phones by contract manufacturers of Xiaomi India.

The MI brand mobile phones manufactured by the contract manufacturers are sold exclusively to Xiaomi India, in terms of the contract agreement.

Evidence gathered during the investigations by the DRI indicated that neither Xiaomi India nor its contract manufactures were including the amount of royalty paid by Xiaomi India in the assessable value of the goods imported by Xiaomi India and its contract manufacturers, which is in violation of Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962 and Customs valuation (determination of value of imported goods) Rules 2007.

By not adding “royalty and licence fee” into the transaction value, Xiaomi India was evading Customs duty being the beneficial owner of such imported mobile phones, the parts and components thereof, the Finance Ministry said. (ANI)