Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday stated that some members of the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha butchered cows in order to instigate communal violence during the Ram Navami parade in Agra.

On the eve of Ram Navami, Agra Police arrested four youngsters suspected of cow killing. During a raid during Ram Navami celebrations in Gautam Nagar in the Etmaduddaula region of Agra, the youngsters were apprehended.

According to the police, Sanjay Jat, the Hindu Mahasabha’s national spokesperson, is the chief conspirator. Many others are also reported to be part of the plot. A man named Jitendra Kushwaha reported the cow slaughter at Etmaduddaula police station.

According to DCP Suraj Rai, several facts came to light during the police inquiry. The police arrested two people identified in the FIR: Imran alias Thakur and Shanu.

Shanu informed police that he arrived at Mehtab Bagh at 8 p.m. on March 29 and encountered Imran, Salman, and Sairo. They then decided to slaughter a cow that was wandering about in the street. That’s when Shanu and Imran went to inform Jitendra Kushwaha.

“(Mahasabha leader) Sanjay Jat is the main conspirator. His followers and friends slaughtered a cow in the Mehtab Bagh area on the night of March 29 and told party member Jitendra Kushwaha to file a case against Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Nakim and Mohammad Shanu. The police arrested Imran Qureshi, a fourth suspect, and Shanu the next day. Later, the investigation revealed that the named accused had nothing to do with the crime. An inquiry suggests that Sanjay had an enmity with some people and wanted to implicate them in the case,” The Telegraph quoted R.K. Singh, additional commissioner of police of the Chatta area of Agra, as saying.

“The cow was slaughtered on the eve of Ram Navami to disturb social harmony. We had unconfirmed reports about such an incident but got conclusive evidence when they tried to implicate some innocent people,” another cop said.

Some Hindu Mahasabha workers complained about Jitendra Kushwaha and Sanjay Jat, claiming that they personally had the cow slain in order to disrupt Agra’s communal peace on Ram Navami.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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Kolkata: Clashes and violence over the Ram Navami procession at Rishra in Hooghly district of West Bengal on April 2 were instigated by the processionists, the state government has informed the Calcutta High Court.

Chandernagore City Police, under whose jurisdiction Rishra comes, on Friday evening, submitted to the court a detailed report on the clashes.

Sources aware of the contents of the report said that it mentions that those participating in the procession had been constantly “instigating” the local people by using “abusive and offensive” language constantly since the beginning of the procession.

As per the report, although initially a section of those participating in the procession restricted themselves to using offensive language, later, some of them started pelting at the local people. Also, DJ was used in the procession without police permission and some of the participants even brandished lethal sharp weapons.

The report has maintained that such use of such offensive language and pelting of stones instigated the locals who retaliated by resorting to counter stone-pelting. It said as police tried to restrain both sides, attacks were led against the cops and some of the police vehicles were vandalized.

On April 2 evening, clashes first broke out at Rishra over the Ram Navami procession. Among those injured were BJP legislator Biman Ghosh and some police officers. Tension escalated and continued till April 3 night, when violent mobs started pelting stones at trains passing by in Rishra.

The police report submitted to the Calcutta High Court also detailed the situation over the continued tension on April 3.

As per the reports, that evening when the police contingent was patrolling at Rishra Rail-Gate area, a group of around 500 people suddenly attacked the cops with sticks, stones and bricks.

They also started pelting stones at the trains passing by. The police had to resort to lathi charge and charging of teargas shells to bring the situation under control.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress on Saturday raised concern over use of casteist slur in a skit performed at a college fest here.

“There is a video containing abusive and objectionable content on Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Dalit communities being exhibited in a programme organised at Jain college in Bengaluru,” it stated in its social media handle.

Demanding an action by the City Police Commissioner and Bengaluru police in this regard, the party said, “The police should take cognisance of the incident and initiate legal action.”

The incident during a college skit recently in Bengaluru has triggered a row with a police complaint being registered.

‘The Delroys Boys’, who performed the skit, have tendered an unconditional apology for the same. However, the debate over the issue is gaining traction.

On Thursday evening a group of students published an online petition on Jhatkaa.org bringing the incident to light. The petition stated the college contingent from Jain University’s Centre for Management Studies (CMS) staged an incredibly casteist and insensitive skit at the event.

The anonymous petitioners objected to the normalisation of caste discrimination in the pretext of humour. The skit was performed as part of ‘MadAds,’ a segment at the fest where the participants had to advertise imaginary products along lines of humour.

‘The Delroys Boys’, the theatre group from CMS, who are in the thick of controversy, in their skit, exhibited a man belonging to the lower caste attempting to date an upper caste woman. The skit turned B.R. Ambedkar as Beer Ambedkar. The phase of why be Dalit, when you can be D-Lit.

Akshay Bansode, State Member of the Vanchit Bahujan Yuva Aghadi has filed a police complaint in Maharashtra under provisions of the Atrocity Act and IPC. The complainant had urged the police to treat the complaint as FIR and initiate action against the performers and University.

The complainant had urged the police to treat the complaint as an FIR and initiate action against the performers and University.

Sources explain that the controversial skit was performed at other platforms. The Delroys Boys maintained that they apologise to everyone they have spoken badly about.urtesy

Courtesy: The Diaily Siasat

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Three persons – a father and his sons – were arrested on Wednesday on charges of assaulting two Muslim minor boys in Khasparia village of Barabanki district, Uttar Pradesh.

According to police, the incident happened on January 29. The victims – Shadab and Shakeel – had gone to the village to collect fodder for their goats.

As they were returning home, they were suddenly intercepted by Triloki and his sons – Sonu and Suraj – who tied them to a tree and started beating them with sticks.

A video has gone viral on social media platforms regarding the incident. In the video, abuses are being hurled at the minor boys who look visibly scared. 

Location: Noorpur, Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh

Two Muslim kids had an argument w/locals over collecting leaves to feed their goat.

They were then tied to a tree and mercilessly beaten after a local named Triloki falsely accused them of molesting a girl. pic.twitter.com/IGwQSmvtZN

— HindutvaWatch (@HindutvaWatchIn) February 1, 2023

The boys were soon rescued by nearby villagers. They informed their father Majbulla who immediately rushed to the spot and took his boys home.

A police complaint was lodged against Triloki, Sonu and Suraj under sections 342 (Whoever wrongfully confines any person shall be punished with imprisonment), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

However, police said that Triloki has alleged he beat Shadab and Shakeel because they were caught harassing his minor daughter.

While Triloki is in his 50s, Sonu and Suraj are majors. Investigations are still on, police said.

Courtesy: The Daily Sisat

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Senior journalist and NDTV’s Group Editor Sreenivasan Jain resigned from his post on Saturday ending a three-decade association with the national news channel. The move comes after the recent Adani takeover of the company in November 2022.

Jain announced his resignation on his official Twitter page amid allegations of fraud on the Adani Group by US-based Hindenburg Research.

“Hi all. An amazing, nearly three-decade-long run at NDTV comes to an end today. The decision to resign wasn’t easy, but .. it is what it is. More later,” he tweeted.

Hi all. An amazing, nearly three-decade long run at NDTV comes to an end today. The decision to resign wasn’t easy, but .. it is what it is. More later.

— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) January 28, 2023

Jain’s resignation comes months after former senior NDTV India journalist Ravish Kumar resigned from his post in November.

Jain began working with NDTV in 1995. Over the years, he covered various prominent national and international news reports and conducted interviews with many eminent personalities and politicians. Jain hosted the weekly show Truth vs Hype on NDV 24×7. He was also the Mumbai bureau chief from 2003-2008 and was briefly the Managing Editor of NDTV’s business channel ‘Profit’.

Adani’s NDTV takeover:

On November 30, 2022, the Adani group gained full control of NDTV after it acquired most of the founders — Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy’s — stakes at a premium of almost 17 percent over the rate it paid to minority shareholders of the firm.

Though the takeover happened in November, the official announcement took place on August 23. Gautam Adani used RRPR Holdings Private Limited, a company that was founded by the Roys and bears their initials in its name, to buy 27.26 percent shares from Prannoy and Radhika Roy at a price of Rs 342.65 per share.

Adani Group first acquired Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL), a little-known company that had given Rs 403 crore of an interest-free loan to RRPR Holdings in 2009-10 in exchange for warrants that allowed it to buy a stake in the newsgroup at any time. Adani group exercised those rights in August this year, which NDTV said was done without its consent.

The national news channel came out strongly condemning the decision taken without any discussions or consent with the Roys.

“The NDTV founders and the Company would like to make it clear that this exercise of rights by VCPL was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders, who, like NDTV, have been made aware of this exercise of rights only today. As recently as yesterday, NDTV had informed the stock exchanges that there was no change in the shareholding of its founders,” the statement from NDTV said then.

As Adani formally took over the company on November 30, 2022, Prannoy and Radhika Roy submitted their resignation from the board of directors, even after claims by Gautam Adani that he had requested the Roys to continue serving as the network’s chair in an interview with the British daily Financial Times.

“Why can’t you support one media house to become independent and have a global footprint?” In the interview, Adani makes the comment that there isn’t a single news source in India that can be compared to outlets like the Financial Times or Al Jazeera.

He claims that his conglomerate’s investment in establishing a global media organisation will be “negligible.”

The board also appointed Sanjay Pugalia and Senthil Chengalvarayan as directors on the RRPRH board with immediate effect.

A day after Roy’s resignation, on November 30, 2022, NDTV received another blow with one of its most significant members – senior journalist Ravish Kumar from NDTV Hindi – announcing his disassociation with the company with immediate effect.

Announcing his resignation through his official Youtube channel an emotional but composed Ravish said that the ecosystem and atmosphere for journalism are being destroyed.

“At this time, I don’t want to say anything about my organisation,” Kumar said. “Because when one is emotional, one is not objective. I have spent 26-27 years in NDTV. A journey like that has many ups and downs.”

Ravish Kumar’s resignation took the Twitter world by storm as many journalists and opposition political parties expressed their concern over the future of NDTV.
 

In an interview to discuss his resignation from @ndtv and to discuss @gautam_adani‘s intention of acquiring a majority stake in NDTV and take over its channels, @ravishndtv says that Mr Adani is spending crores only to silence him (Ravish Kumar) and to make him unemployed. pic.twitter.com/yoOCuq1ZxE

— The Wire (@thewire_in) December 20, 2022

Ravish Kumar regularly reports on his Youtube channel – Ravish Kumar Official – on the current political situation and trends in the country. His team had recently covered Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo yatra in New Delhi. The yatra has reached its last leg – Jammu and Kashmir.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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The Ambedkar International Center, Inc. (AIC), a US-based civil rights group that fights against caste oppression, and other groups have asked the Seattle City Council to ban caste-based discrimination. The proposed ordinance, officially introduced by Councilmember Kshama Sawant, would put Seattle at the national forefront of protecting the caste-discriminated.

The proposed ordinance for the Seattle City Council would add caste to its civil rights laws, prohibit caste-based discrimination, and include protections against discrimination in employment, public places, housing, and contracting, said a press release from the AIC.
 

BREAKING: Councilmember Kshama Sawant and community leaders are announcing first-in-the-nation legislation aimed at combatting caste discrimination in Seattle. pic.twitter.com/LTanmrZwaa

— Seattle City Council (@SeattleCouncil) January 24, 2023

The AIC has worked closely with council member Kshama Sawant, the Coalition of Seattle Indian-Americans (CSAI), Equality Labs, and the Ambedkar Association of North America (AANA) to help draft this proposed ordinance. This proposal builds on AIC’s policy in Seattle and advocacy efforts to end caste-based discrimination and fight for justice for victims of caste discrimination.

“Taking up such a model legislation is the need of the hour; a raft of evidence shows that the evils of caste and caste discrimination is present in the United States”, said Anil Wagde, a member of the AIC. According to the Seattle-based AIC, the 2020 census data shows that the South Asian population is the fastest-growing major ethnic group in Seattle, home to a large tech industry, where caste discrimination has thrived.

“The proposal comes in light of a growing movement to recognize and stop caste discrimination in the States. If passed, Seattle will become the first city in the States to ban caste discrimination and add protections against it,” stated the release.

More recently, Brown University became the first Ivy League institution to add caste to its non-discrimination policy and explicitly prohibit caste discrimination, joining a number of US colleges and universities. The AIC’s in Seattle proposal is also being supported by Ambedkarite Buddhist Association of Texas, Boston Study Group and Ambedkar Kings Study Circle.

“Such legislation will not only bring the evils of caste to light and how caste bias operates but will also be much-needed legal teeth for the victims of caste discrimination. We thank Council member Kshama Sawant for her support and CSAI for this initiation. We would also like to thank our policy advisor Sumit Anand for his guidance and expertise. We hope that other city councils will follow suit and these small steps culminate in a national ban on caste discrimination”, Anil added.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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New Delhi: The hearing on Bilkis Bano’s plea challenging the remission of sentence of 11 convicts in the gang-rape case by the Gujarat government, could not be held in the Supreme Court on Tuesday as the judges concerned were hearing a matter related to passive euthanasia as part of a five-judge Constitution bench.

The petition of Bilkis Bano, who was gang-raped and seven members of her family slaughtered during the 2002 Gujarat riots, was scheduled to be heard on Tuesday by a bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar.

However, Justices Rastogi and Ravikumar were busy hearing, as part of a Constitution bench headed by Justice K M Joseph, the pleas seeking modification of guidelines on execution of a “Living Will or Advance Medical Directive” for permitting passive euthanasia.

A fresh date for hearing will now be notified by the apex court registry..

Bilkis Bano had moved the apex court on November 30, 2022 challenging the grant of remission of sentence to 11 convicts by the state government, saying their premature release has “shaken the conscience of society”.

Besides the plea challenging the release of the convicts, the gang-rape survivor had also filed a separate petition seeking a review of the apex court’s May 13, 2022 order on a plea by a convict.

In its May 13, 2021 order, the apex court had asked the state government to consider the plea of a convict for premature release in terms of its policy of July 9, 1992 which was applicable on the date of conviction and decide it within a period of two months.

All the 11 convicts were granted remission by the Gujarat government and released on August 15 last year.

Her review plea, however, was dismissed by the top court in December last year.

The victim, in her pending plea, said the state government passed a “mechanical order” completely ignoring the requirement of law as laid down by the Supreme Court.

“The enmasse premature release of the convicts in the much talked about case of Bilkis Bano, has shaken the conscience of the society and resulted in a number of agitations across the country,” she said in the plea.

Referring to past verdicts, the plea said enmasse remissions are not permissible and, moreover, such a relief cannot be sought or granted as a matter of right without examining the case of each convict individually based on their peculiar facts and role played by them in the crime.

“The present writ petition challenging the decision of the State/ Central Government granting remission to all the 11 convicts and releasing them prematurely in one of the most gruesome crimes of extreme inhuman violence and brutality by a group of human beings upon another group of human beings, all helpless and innocent people – most of them were either women or minors, by chasing them for days together persuaded by hate towards a particular community,” it said.

The plea, which gave minute details of the crime, said Bilkis and her grown up daughters were “shell-shocked with this sudden development”.

The decision of the government came as a shock to the citizens, nationally and internationally, and the society across segments showed “anger, disappointment, distrust” and protested the clemency shown by the government.

“When the nation was celebrating its 76th Independence Day, all the convicts were released prematurely and were garlanded and felicitated in full public glare and sweets were circulated and this is how the present petitioner along with the entire nation and the whole world came to know about the shocking news of premature release of all the convicts (respondents no. 3-13) of one of the most gruesome crime this country has ever seen of multiple time gang rape of a pregnant woman,” it said.

It referred to wide-virtual public protest in each city, on all social media platforms and news channels, portals.

“It was also reported heavily that Muslims of the area started fleeing away from Rahimabad in fear after release of these 11 convicts,” the plea said.

The top court is already seized of PILs filed by CPI(M) leader Subhashini Ali, Revati Laul, an independent journalist, Roop Rekha Verma, who is a former vice chancellor of the Lucknow University, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra against the release of the convicts.

Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing the riots that broke out after the Godhra train burning incident. Her three-year-old daughter was among the seven family members killed.

The investigation in the case was handed over to the CBI and the trial was transferred to a Maharashtra court by the Supreme Court.

A special CBI court in Mumbai had on January 21, 2008 sentenced the 11 to life imprisonment on charges of gang-rape of Bilkis Bano and murder of seven members of her family.

Their conviction was later upheld by the Bombay High Court and the Supreme Court.

The 11 men convicted in the case walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its remission policy. They had completed more than 15 years in jail.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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Badaun: A Dalit boy, aged 10 years, was allegedly killed by a group of upper caste men over a property dispute in Badaun district.

The Class 3 student went missing on Sunday evening and his body was found, hours later, hanging from a tree in the village farm.

The incident occurred in Rafatpur that has a mixed population of upper castes and Dalits.

The present village head is a Dalit.

According to the boy’s family, Gurjeet, the victim, was playing in the farm near the disputed part of the land when the accused men caught the boy, strangled him to death and tied him to a tree.

The men fled after noticing a few villagers in the area.

The police said that the matter is being investigated and the body has been sent for post-mortem.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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New Delhi: A group of students affiliated to the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has called for a protest at DU’s Hansraj College against the “discontinuation” of non-vegetarian food at the institution and alleged attempts at “saffronising the campus”.

The Hansraj College unit of the SFI said in a statement that an uproar is building inside the college campus against the “ban” on non-vegetarian food and the protest will be held outside the Hansraj Hostel on January 20.

The students said Hansraj College stopped serving non-vegetarian food at its canteen and hostel after it reopened following the pandemic in February last year. There has, however, been no official order on this.

The SFI claimed that there have also been instances where the Hansraj administration confiscated eggs from students who brought it to the hostel.

It said a survey was conducted within the Hansraj hostel in which almost 75 per cent of students were found to be non-vegetarians. Hansraj Principal Rama Sharma had earlier claimed that 90 per cent of students of the college were vegetarians, the SFI added.

“Majority of students of Hansraj are against this ban on non-vegetarian food and see this as an attempt to establish cultural hegemony. When these issues were raised on campus there was a violent response by the right-wing forces to suppress it,” the statement noted.

“This response by the right-wing forces and the attitude of the administration towards this shows an attempt to saffronise the university spaces,” it added.

Third-year student Alok Sharma, who resides in a hostel, said the college stopped serving non-vegetarian food abruptly. “We were not informed about any such order. I dont think any order was issued. This is unfair. We are living away from our family and we need proper food,” he said.

Courtesy: The Daily Siasat

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Aligarh: Members of two communities clashed here in Uttar Pradesh following a brawl at a shop selling meat products, said police which deployed a large number of its personnel to bring the situation under control early Tuesday.

The clash was reported around midnight from the Sarai Sultani area, police said.

Police said two persons entered into an argument at the shop selling cooked chicken and meat products, and a brawl broke out on Monday night.

As the news about the incident at the shop spread, members of two communities confronted each other and it turned violent with people throwing stones at each other, police said.
 

Uttar Pradesh | Stones pelted after a scuffle broke out between some people over buying meat from a shop in Aligarh

Some people went to a meat shop. An argument happened between the people and the shopkeeper & later stone pelting happened. 2 got injured: Aligarh DM pic.twitter.com/ALyKGhdETh

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) January 16, 2023

They said as soon as information was received, a large deployment of personnel was made in the area, and the situation was brought under control.

Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani, who rushed to the spot along with other top district officials, told reporters early Tuesday that the situation is under control but a strict vigil is being maintained.

He said a report is being filed, and strong action will be taken against the perpetrators. Security arrangements in the area have been tightened. No casualties were reported, the officer said.

Courtesy: Siasat

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