Mamata Banerjee vows to gherao EC over voter roll changes in Bihar, Bengal
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17 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
‘Atrocious and terrible': TMC expresses shock at detention of Bengali-speaking workers in Gurugram
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she was shocked at reports alleging that several migrant Bengali-speaking workers were being detained in Gurugram in Haryana. 'This is atrocious and terrible,' the Trinamool Congress chief said on X. 'We are not going to tolerate this.' On July 19, the police in Gurugram detained at least 74 migrant workers on the suspicion that they were from Bangladesh, The Wire reported. Of these, 11 were from West Bengal and 63 from Assam. The workers have been detained at a municipal community centre in Gurugram's Sector 10A, Newslaundry reported. Amid the crackdown, hundreds of migrant workers have reportedly fled Gurugram for fear of being detained. Since the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, Bengali-speaking migrant workers have been rounded up by the police in several states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and asked to prove that they are Indian citizens. In some cases, individuals who were mistakenly sent to Bangladesh returned to the country after state authorities in India proved that they were Indians. Banerjee on Thursday said she also received reports from other states like Rajasthan about West Bengal residents being 'pushed' into Bangladesh although they had official documentation. 'There are tortures and tortures on hapless poor Bengali workers from West Bengal in these States,' she said. '…Stop this linguistic terror.' Have been increasingly receiving reports of detentions of and atrocities on our Bengali-speaking people from different districts of West Bengal in Gurgaon, Haryana. West Bengal police is receiving these reports from Haryana police in the name of requests for identity searches.… — Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 24, 2025 In a similar vein, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra asked whether the Sector 10A community centre was being used as an illegal detention camp. 'This is illegal,' she asserted, 'This is like living in Nazi Germany, where the Jews were being completely terrorised and [were] living in constant fear of being picked up and put in camps.' Moitra said that migrant workers could not be branded as Bangladeshis merely because they spoke in Bengali. Attention! Migrant workers from Bengal being picked up illegally by @gurgaonpolice, is Sector 10 A community center an illegal detention camp? Maids, cooks, menial workers living in complete terror. #NaziGermany — Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) July 24, 2025 Commenting on the allegations, Gurugram Police Public Relations Officer Sandeep Kumar was quoted as saying by The Wire that the 'suspected immigrants' were being held as per government guidelines, and claiming that they were not being detained. However, he did not specify what the guidelines were. 'They are not detained,' Kumar was quoted as saying by the news portal. 'As per the guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA], certain holding centres have been created, and suspected Bangladeshis are being kept there. All basic necessities, including medical facilities, are being provided to them at the centres.'
Hans India
17 minutes ago
- Hans India
Delhi court reserves verdict on issuing notice to Robert Vadra in land deal case
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday reserved its decision on issuing a notice to businessman Robert Vadra, son-in-law of former Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in connection with a money laundering case linked to a land deal in Haryana's Shikohpur. The Rouse Avenue Court will likely pronounce its verdict on July 31 regarding the issuance of a notice to Vadra, the husband of Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had filed a prosecution complaint under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), claiming that Vadra's Skylight Hospitality 'fraudulently' purchased 3.53 acres of land situated in the village of Shikohpur in Haryana's Gurugram district through 'false declaration'. During the hearing, advocate Zoheb Hossain, appearing for the ED, stated that the sale deed falsely declared a payment of Rs 7.5 crore, whereas in reality, no such payment was made. This amount was paid at a later stage to evade stamp duty, a fact that has been confirmed by key witnesses, added Hossain. Further, the federal anti-money laundering agency claimed that Vadra, 'through his personal influence', obtained a commercial license on the land purchased. As per the ED, the land was later sold to DLF at a higher price, and this aspect of the case is still under investigation. In April this year, Vadra was questioned in multiple rounds by the ED, during which his statement was also recorded. The land purchase deal in question was executed in February 2008 when Congress was at the helm in Haryana, and Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the Chief Minister. The mutation process, which usually takes months, was done the next day. Months later, Vadra received a permit to develop a housing society on the land, and the value of the plot increased. He sold it to DLF in June at Rs 58 crore. Suspecting the proceeds to be part of a money laundering scheme, the ED has been probing the trail behind the windfall gains. In October 2012, IAS officer Ashok Khemka (now retired), who was then posted as the Director General of Land Consolidation and Land Records-cum-Inspector-General of Registration of Haryana, cancelled the land purchase deal, citing procedural irregularities. Later in 2013, an in-house government panel gave a clean chit to both Vadra as well as DLF. When the BJP-led government came to power, an FIR was registered by the Haryana Police against former Chief Minister Hooda, Vadra, and others.
The Hindu
17 minutes ago
- The Hindu
After Giridhari, JD(U) MLA opposes ongoing SIR in Bihar
After Banka MP Giridhari Yadav, another leader belonging to the Janata Dal (United) has expressed reservations about the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in Bihar. Sanjeev Kumar, MLA from the Parbatta Assembly constituency, told The Hindu that voters who work outside the State may be left out of the SIR exercise. 'In my own Assembly constituency, many such names have been left out. The SIR should be conducted during festivals such as Holi, Diwali and Chhath, when people working outside the State return. I am unable to contact my voters. Their houses are locked and they come to Bihar once or twice a year,' Mr. Kumar said. He said many migrant workers won't be able to afford the costs of returning to Bihar more than once or twice a year. Mr. Kumar also said many migrant workers are bound by contracts that prevent them from travelling frequently. 'It is very unfortunate that such migrant workers' names would be removed and I think the Election Commission should do something about this,' Mr. Kumar said. As per the EC's official statement on Thursday, '99% electors have already been covered' by the exercise and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and Booth Level Agents (BLAs) had 'reported names of 21.6 lakh deceased electors and 31.5 lakh electors who have permanently migrated...., while 1 lakh electors are untraceable'. However, Mr. Kumar said, 'Even though the EC claims [to have covered] 99%, I am sure at least 1% of genuine voters have been removed. I think more time should have been given for this exercise. These are National Democratic Alliance [NDA] voters.' He stressed that all political parties in Bihar will face the heat as names of many genuine voters were likely to be removed from the voters' list. Meanwhile, JD(U) MLC Khalid Anwar said the SIR should go ahead, but the EC was not the 'final authority'. 'The EC is not above the Parliament, they don't have the right to remove genuine voters from the list. The EC cannot dare to remove the names,' Mr. Anwar said. Senior JD(U) leader and Minister Shravan Kumar also accepted that people are facing difficulties, but expressed confidence that the EC will look into the problems being faced by the voters and resolve them with the help of political parties. AIMIM MLA hits out On Thursday, during the ongoing Monsoon Session of the State Assembly, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA Akhtarul Iman raised concern over alleged discrimination against the Muslim population in the Seemanchal region. 'The BJP men by looking at our beards, caps and the minarets of our mosques, do not consider us Indians but as Bangladeshis. Let me say this... if Seemanchal had opted to join Pakistan during the partition, India would have been split into two parts,' Mr. Iman said. He also termed the SIR as Tughlaqi farman (diktat). 'In Bihar, only 14% people have the required documents and 70% of the poor people, consisting of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes do not have any documents. The EC has just issued a Tughlaqi farman to submit the documents,' Mr. Iman said. Meanwhile, police used water cannons against National Students' Union of India (NSUI) members attempting to gherao the Vidhan Sabha during their protest against the SIR exercise. Notice to Girdhari On Thursday, the JD(U) issued a show-cause notice to Mr. Yadav for raising questions on the SIR. In a conversation with The Hindu on July 23, Mr. Yadav had said poor people were finding it difficult to get the documents needed for the exercise. He had also raised questions about the timing of the revision and asked if the EC could have begun the SIR effort earlier. 'Our party, the Janata Dal (United), has consistently supported the EC and the use of EVMs, both during our time in the INDIA bloc and now as part of the NDA. Your public comments on such a sensitive matter, especially in an election year, not only cause embarrassment to the party but also inadvertently lend credibility to the baseless and politically motivated allegations made by the Opposition,' Afaque Ahmad Khan, National General Secretary and MLC said in the letter issued in the evening. He further said, 'JD(U) views your conduct as a lapse in discipline and not in consonance with the party's stated position on the matter. You are hereby called upon to show cause within 15 days of receipt of this notice, failing which disciplinary action may be initiated against you.'
