by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Hyderabad : MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday said justice was yet be done for the families of the 42 people who lost their lives in the 2007 twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad.
Reacting to the verdict of a city court, which convicted two accused and acquitted two others, he said that closure for the victims had not happened.
The Hyderabad MP told reporters that the investigating agencies should properly conduct a fresh inquiry and the accused who were absconding should be brought to book.
The Second Metropolitan Sessions Court on Tuesday held Anique Shafiq Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary guilty. The quantum of punishment will be announced on September 10.
Farooq Sharfuddin and Sadiq Ahmed Sheikh were acquitted for lack of evidence.
The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president said the blasts were the tragic moment for Hyderabad.
“Justice is yet to be done and families of the 42 people who lost their lives and the 54 injured are still suffering,” he said.
Owaisi said that he personally knew a Sharma who lost his daughter in this terror attack.
The MP said the youths who were acquitted spent nine years in jail. “What will happen to them?”
While 32 people were killed at Gokul Chat, a popular eatery, 10 others lost their lives at Lumbini Park, near State Secretariat, in near simultaneous blasts on August 25, 2007.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : The CBI on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it has completed its investigation into the disappearance of Jawaharlal Nehru University student, Najeeb Ahmed, from “every aspect” and sought permission to file a closure report in the case.
The CBI counsel told a bench of Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Vinod Goel that the agency has analysed “everything” related to the matter, and that it now wants to file a final report seeking to close the case.
Advocate Colin Gonsalves appearing for Ahmed’s mother Fatima Nafees requested the court to direct CBI to re-investigate the matter or order a further probe by another special investigation team which must comprise officials not belonging to the probe agency.
Gonsalves requested the court to supply him the status reports filed by the agency.
He alleged the probe agency has not conducted the investigation in a fair manner and has shielded members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) by not conducting their custodial interrogation.
He alleged political influence in the case as the BJP-led Central Government has “protected” the ABVP members who had threatened Ahmed.
Countering his submission, CBI said that it was just a presumption.
The court observed that it cannot direct CBI to supply status report to the petitioner.
However, the bench said that as per procedure, the petitioner can get detailed reports of the investigation after the final report is filed.
The court also observed that the petitioner can contest the matter once a closure report is submitted.
The bench reserved its order on the habeas corpus plea filed by Fatima Nafees, Ahmed’s mother.
Ahmed, 27, an MSc first year student, was reported missing on October 15, 2016 after a fight allegedly with the ABVP members. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated student body has denied any involvement.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan, who had resigned as chairperson of Delhi Waqf Board in January, was again elected “unopposed” for the post on Tuesday.
The Delhi Waqf Board was dissolved in 2016 over allegations of corruption. Khan, who held the post of chairman for nearly six months, had in the same year resigned amid allegations of irregularities.
The reconstitution of the Waqf Board had been controversial ever since then Lt Governor Najeeb Jung dissolved it in October 2016. But in August this year, the Delhi government recast the Board by releasing a list of its appointed members.
Jung had referred the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation for a probe into the alleged corruption and procedural irregularities in the functioning of the board chaired by Khan.
The board is responsible for the management of over 2,000 waqf properties, including land parcels, residential buildings, shops and graveyards across the national capital and utilisation of revenue generated from these properties for the welfare of the Muslim community in Delhi.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Bombay High Court
Mumbai : The Bombay High Court on Tuesday declined to stay a lower court order for framing of charges in a case against Lt. Col. Srikant P. Purohit and 13 other accused in connection with the 2008 Malegaon blast.
Purohit had challenged the decision of the lower court in the high court, seeking a stay on the framing of charges on September 5, the critical pre-trial process in the case.
On August 29, Special Judge Vinod Padalkar of the NIA Special Court had ruled that charges would be framed against Purohit and the remaining 13 accused in the Malegaon case.
Besides challenging the Special Court order, Purohit also sought a stay on the proceedings until the court finally decided on the applicability of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, under which all the 14 main accused, among them Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, have been charged, besides provisions of the Indian Penal Code and other laws.
He also questioned the sanction granted by the Maharashtra government in January 2009, for his prosecution and the dismissal of his plea seeking a discharge from the case by the Special Court in December 2017.
The development came exactly 10 years after a powerful low-intensity bomb planted on a motorcycle ripped through a crowded Muslim-majority locality of Malegaon town in Nashik, on September 29, 2008, killing seven and injuring over 100 people.
Purohit, who was granted bail in 2017 after spending nine years in custody, is currently posted at the Military Station in Colaba, south Mumbai.
The 14 accused (including Purohit) are: a former Major Ramesh Upadhyay, Sadhvi Pragnya Singh Thakur, a self-proclaimed seer, Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey, Rakesh Dhawde, Sameer Kulkarni, Sudhakar Chaturvedi, Pravin Takalki, Shivnarayan Kalsangra, Shyam Sahu, Ajay Rahirkar, and Jagdish Mhatre, besides two absconders, Sandeep Dange and Ramchandra Kalsangra.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Books, News
New Delhi : Best-selling author Chetan Bhagat has revealed the cover and a “movie-style promo” of his new book “The Girl in Room 105” — “a funny kind of thriller” about a Kashmiri Muslim girl and a Hindu boy — in a Facebook live on his fanpage on Monday.
The book, published by Westland, will be released in October. Terming the book as “not a Chetan Bhagat love story”, the author pointed to its “an unlove story” tagline .
What’s interesting is that Bhagat also released a “movie-style promo” for it, reasoning that youngsters love videos, but the idea is “to bring them back to books”.
The story is about “a boy who is trying to unlove his ex-girlfriend and gets involved in something bigger”, said the “2 States” and “One Indian Girl” author.
He went on to say it is about a boy, Keshav Rajpurohit, who is from an IIT and teaches in a coaching centre, and is trying to “unlove his ex-girlfriend” Zara, a Kashmiri Muslim.
The dramatised promo has the lead, Keshav, asking his audience: “Have I told you my dad is a senior member of the RSS?”
The two-minute-long promo shows him drinking one night as he receives a message from Zara and goes to meet her upon her asking.
However, in the confusion about whether Zara sent those messages, the promo ends, leaving “an element of surprise” for the audience, as Bhagat put it in the 25-minute Facebook live.
He said people will love the suspense and humour in the book, because it is “a funny kind of thriller” — “a mystery but a funny mystery”. The book cover reveal comes after Bhagat invited his fans to #GuessTheTitle during social media contests.
Answering questions from viewers, Bhagat said the “unloving part” of the story comes from him.
“I find it very difficult to get over people. I just can’t move on. How can you move on when your heart is attached to someone,” he said.
“How can you unlove? It’s not like unplug.”
Asked about why he changed his genre, Bhagat responded that one cannot keep repeating the same formula just because “one thing is a hit”.
Bhagat also answered a question about the protagonist’s name — Keshav — which is in line with his practice of naming his lead characters after Krishna.
“Krishna’s name is taken billions of times when you make that small change in a name,” he said, adding it is a not a conicidence that his heroes’ names have been based on Krishna since the last eight times.
A viewer asked Bhagat if a movie can be expected, as his books have continuously been cinematically adapted.
The movie will come later and my readers are more important, Bhagat said, adding that he likes to keep books exciting.
He said “The Girl in Room 105” can be pre-ordered online on Amazon. The book will hit the stands in October.
—IANS
