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Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘Hurts Islamic sentiments': BJP slams Akhilesh Yadav's mosque visit. SP chief responds
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday slammed the meeting held by Akhilesh Yadav inside a mosque on the Parliament Street in the national capital. BJP also lodged an objection to Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav's attire during the visit.(@MPDharmendraYdv ) BJP Minority Morcha National President Jamal Siddiqui, while condemning the meeting, alleged that there was a 'political meeting' inside the mosque. 'I condemn the way Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav has conducted a meeting in the pious mosque in front of the Parliament,' Siddique told ANI. He further 'condemned' the imam of the mosque, Mohibbullah Nadvi, for letting the visit happened in this way, adding that he was a 'religious teacher and Muslims' representative.' Nadvi is also a member of Samajwadi Party. Siddique also lodged an objection to Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav's attire during the visit, saying it hurts religious sentiments of the Muslim community. 'The way Dimple Yadav is sitting with bare back and head against the code of conduct of Mosque, hurts Islamic sentiments worldwide,' the BJP leader said. Demanding action against the SP chief and his wife, Siddique said that they would file an FIR against them. 'This shows Akhilesh Yadav thinks all Islamic religious places are in his pocket...' Siddique said, adding that the BJP and its minority morcha would protest the visit. Siddique also targeted AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi. 'Why are so-called representatives of Muslims like Asaduddin Owaisi, hidden now?' he questioned. 'BJP wants people to stay divided': Akhilesh Yadav Responding to the BJP's remarks, Yadav said that 'faith connects' people. 'We stand with any religion or faith that connects people,' Yadav said. 'However, the BJP wants people to stay divided, not united,' he said. He further said that he had 'faith in all faiths', adding that the BJP's 'tool' is religion. Akhilesh's wife Dimple Yadav also refuted allegations of a 'political meeting' inside the mosque, while accusing the BJP of 'misleading' people, according to ANI. 'There was no meeting going on there. BJP's intention has always been to mislead…' Dimple said.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Muddied investigations deny justice to not just the accused but also the victims
Justice JR Midha (retd) of the Delhi High Court once profoundly stated, 'In a court of 'justice' both parties know the truth; it is the judge who is on trial.' For anyone familiar with the quality of evidence presented in the 2006 7/11 Mumbai serial train blast case, the Bombay High Court's decision on Monday to acquit 11 men (Kamal Ansari passed away while the proceedings were pending)—five of whom had been sentenced to death by a trial court in 2015—was simply a discharge of its duty. Muddied investigations deny justice to not just the accused but also the victims This article won't delve into the unspeakable horrors of the third-degree torture these men endured in prison and later testified to in court, nor the agonizing wait for judgment that stretched from days into months, years, and even decades, or the abject poverty resulting from their incarceration, or the deaths of spouses and parents during their 19-year-long imprisonment. Instead, this article aims to raise critical questions about a case shrouded in controversy from its inception, specifically regarding the accountability of investigating agencies that relied on unreliable evidence to secure convictions and assuage 'society's collective conscience'. In this particular case, such evidence sealed the fate of 13 men, some of whom were merely students at the time of their arrest in 2006. The 7/11 train blasts trial was riddled with allegations of forced confessions and improbable eyewitness accounts right from the beginning. Eleven of the 13 accused in the case testified under oath to prove their innocence, providing vivid details of third-degree police torture, particularly before their alleged confessions. Forced confessions are inadmissible as evidence under law. Medical reports from the time largely substantiated their testimonies and were accepted by the Bombay High Court to discard the confessions. As for eyewitness accounts, Ehtesham Siddique, accused of planting one of the bombs, filed hundreds of Right to Information (RTI) applications to demonstrate the improbability of statements made by eyewitnesses. For instance, an eyewitness claimed to have seen a man with a 'heavy bag' at Churchgate station on the day of the bombings and identified Siddiqui as that man. However, Siddique cited RTI replies to show that the eyewitness may have been lying about his whereabouts at the time of the incident. The witness claimed he was visiting someone at the ENT hospital near Fort who either didn't work there or hadn't reported to work at all. Since the ATS was exempt from providing information under the RTI Act, Siddique and the other accused in the case sought information from several other government forums and hospitals to counter the prosecution's theory. At a conspiracy level, the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) alleged that the blasts were orchestrated at the behest of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a terrorist group based in Pakistan. ATS further claimed that one Indian and one Pakistani planted the seven bombs that detonated in first-class men's compartments of Mumbai local trains on July 11, 2006, resulting in 188 deaths and 829 injuries. However, not a single Pakistani or LeT member was prosecuted over time, immediately casting doubt on the ATS's initial allegations. Moreover, the prosecution failed to establish a credible link between the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), to which many of the accused belonged, and the LeT. In fact, in 2008, Sadiq Israr Sheikh, a former SIMI member who later joined the terror outfit, the Indian Mujahideen (IM), claimed responsibility for the train blasts. Sheikh, arrested in a separate 2009 Indian Mujahideen case provided a detailed account to the Mumbai Crime Branch of how the IM executed the train blasts, but his claims were not substantially investigated by an independent agency, perhaps because it could have exposed critical loopholes in the ATS's investigation. Unsurprisingly though, during the 7/11 trial when Sheikh was called by the defence, he denied any involvement. His confession to the crime branch, however, did muddy the waters. Echoing the questionable investigative patterns of the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts probe was the 2006 Malegaon blasts probe. Two months after the train attacks in Mumbai, four bombs ripped through Malegaon city on Shab-e-Baraat, a holy day for the city's Muslim-majority population. The ATS swiftly arrested nine Muslim men, operating under the theory that they would target their community near a mosque. This investigation mirrored the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts probe, where 'confessions' were extracted in written Hindi from Urdu speakers and evidence, like RDX traces found months after the blasts, was presented. Two of the 7/11 accused, Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh and Asif Khan were also implicated in the Malegaon blasts, with the ATS alleging their involvement in procuring explosives. However, after the case was transferred to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Hindu extremist Swami Aseemanand in 2007 claimed responsibility for the blasts and the ATS's investigation in Malegaon blasts of 2006 subsequently fell apart under scrutiny. It turned out that Shabbir Masiullah, said by the ATS to have been a key conspirator in Malegaon blasts was already in police custody when he was alleged to have helped Mohammed Ali Alam Shaikh and Asif Khan procure explosives. Nearly 10 years after these revelations, in April 2016, a special court discharged Mohammed Ali and Asif Khan in the Malegaon blasts case along with the other accused, castigating the ATS's 'unbelievable' theory. These glaring inconsistencies and the human cost of wrongful arrests make one thing clear: there needs to be a complete overhaul of how investigating agencies perceive and investigate cases related to terrorism and how courts fix accountability. Agencies should refrain from making overly ambitious claims at the outset when their investigation is not yet scientific. Doing so is an affront to every victim of terror—living, injured or dead. Sharmeen Hakim is a journalist and the author of Six Minutes of Terror: The Untold Story of the 7/11 Train Blasts
Hans India
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hans India
Hectic parleys begins as new AMMA office bearers to be elected on Aug 15
Kochi; Ever since the explosive Hema Committee report surfaced last year, the affairs in the Malayalam film actors body -- Association of Malayalam Movie Artists (AMMA) has been fluid. Things went for a toss after the incumbent Secretary of AMMA -- popular actor Siddique resigned after a former actress pointed fingers at him of misbehaviour. Soon thereafter names of other actors also surfaced accusing them of similar behaviour. Seeing all this the AMMA President Mohanlal made it clear that he was not keen to continue, forcing the entire 17-member executive to resign. Following this, the committee under Mohanlal was asked to continue in the capacity of ad hoc committee until fresh elections are held. At the recently held annual general body, the decision was made that on August 15 a new executive should be appointed through a democratic process. Now with the last date of nomination coming up on July 24 and on July 31 it will be known if there is going to be voting. With around 500 members in AMMA, it's going to be a race against time as hectic parleys have started on the name of candidates who will be going to contest. With Mammootty now undergoing treatment and Mohanlal has already announced that he is done with anymore posts, the race has begun. By now factions have also emerged with one section led by State Transport Minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar, who is already controlling the body of Television and Serial actors, he is keen to be a kingmaker in the film actors association too. Another faction who are keen to make it to the helm includes actor Baburaj who has started to make the vital moves. While there is another group which wants college professor-turned-actor Jagdeesh to take the lead. Yet another section is trying to see if a compromise can be reached to avoid an election, but their plans have reached a dead end when veteran actor Vijayaraghavan backed out, so did popular actor Kunchacko Bobban. Incidentally, the outgoing committee which was elected in 2024 had its term till 2027, but circumstances saw that it had a premature end when Mohanlal expressed his inability to continue. Many AMMA members now lament that with the passing away of comedian Innocent, who was the President for 15 years till 2018, things have not been the same as he had the knack of running AMMA through his deft handling without hurting the ego of any through his jokes.
Indian Express
16-07-2025
- Indian Express
Deal gone wrong: Drug manufacturer abducted by gang and tortured in captivity for 33 days rescued
More than 32 days after a Surat-based man with narcotics cases against him had been abducted and beaten up brutally by a gang with suspected links to Dawood Ibrahim's gang, he was rescued by the Mumbai crime branch in a joint operation with the UP Special Task Force (STF) on Tuesday night from Banda in UP. A total of seven accused, including one suspected to have close ties to Dawood aide Chhota Shakeel, were arrested by the police. They were produced before the court on Wednesday and remanded to police custody till July 19. DCP (crime) Raj Tilak Roushan said that on June 13, two persons including Sajid Electricwala and his aide, one Shabbir Siddique were abducted in three cars from Hotel Alibaba in Oshiwara by the accused. The duo was taken to a farmhouse at Neral in Raigad and were beaten up there. Since the main focus was on Electricwala, Siddique managed to pull out one of the three railings in a grill and managed to jump out of the farmhouse and escape. He returned to his Kurla residence the next day. The gang got scared that Siddique would lead the police to the farmhouse, and hence they fled to Nashik where they stayed for a few days. They continued changing locations and moved to Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi as well. An official said the gang headed by one Sarwar Khan, who is suspected to have links to Chhota Shakeel, had earlier this year paid Rs 50 lakh to Electricwala as he allegedly know how to manufacture mephedrone. The money was paid to manufacture mephedrone or MD and return the profits. 'However, since Electricwala did not return the amount and kept avoiding them, they decided to kidnap him. After they abducted him and his aide, they beat him up and kept calling his wife demanding Rs 50 lakh,' an official said. Electricwala told the police that the Rs 50 lakh had been paid to him to purchase property. The official added that while they got back the amount they had paid him, they got greedy and started demanding that the family pay interest as well and sought nearly Rs 3 crore and held him captive even as they kept changing locations. Till then the matter was under wraps as Electricwala's family is based in Gujarat and had not reported him missing. However, when he was not released even by July, Siddique, who had escaped earlier, approached the police and gave a complaint based on which an FIR was registered at the Oshiwara police station on July 10 and the matter was handed over to the crime branch. Six teams comprising of various crime branch officers began tracking the movements of the accused and eventually on Tuesday the team reached Banda in UP. The crime branch took assistance from the UP Special Task Force (STF) and launched an operation finally rescuing Electricwala from the clutches of the accused persons. While Sarwar Khan, Rahul Sawant and Mahtab Ali were arrested from UP, four others identified as Santosh Waghmare, Satish Kadu, Yunis Tevarpalli and Tausif Sandhi were arrested from Mumbai and Raigad. 'Seven accused have been arrested in the case so far while we are looking for a few more accused in the case,' Roushan said. Sajid Electricwala, the primary target of the abduction, was previously arrested by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in 2015 in a multi-crore MD drug case from Oshiwara. During his time in prison, he reportedly became acquainted with notorious gangster Harish Mandvilkar, who helped him threaten a witness in the case against him. After this came to light, an FIR was registered against both Electricwala and Mandvilkar.
Time of India
11-07-2025
- Time of India
‘Revival' plan lands 3 fugitives in jail
Chennai: Attempts to re-establish contact with their prospective aides in Tamil Nadu proved to be the undoing of three fugitives who were linked to multiple terror-related cases across TN, Karnataka and Kerala, and were on the run for almost three decades. And the state police's continued intel gathering paid off when the Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) in two carefully coordinated operations in Kartnataka and Andhra Pradesh between June 30 and July 10, finally nabbed the trio. For nearly 30 years, they blended into small-town life under borrowed names. The suspects, originally identified as Tailor Raja, Abu Backer Siddique, and Mohammad Ali, were living under the aliases Shajahan (Vijayapura, Karnataka), Amanullah, and Mansoor (Rayachoti, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh). ATS officers said they were involved in a series of high-profile crimes, including parcel bombings, coordinated blasts, and targeted killings in the late 1990s and early 2000s. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai Police said the arrests followed specific intelligence that the suspects re-established contact with individuals in TN to revive dormant sleeper cells. An ATS officer said, "The breakthrough came when Siddique, facing severe health issues, attempted to rally a new faction and reignite fundamentalist activities." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Has Toyota Done It Again? The New RAV4 Is Finally Here (Take A Peek) FrequentSearches | Search Ads Learn More Undo Police, who seized material used to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from the suspects' premises, said they maintained a low profile in towns where they were unknown and misled contacts in TN into believing they were hiding in Mumbai. Siddique and Ali were arrested in Kadapa on June 30, while Raja was arrested in Vijayapura on July 10. ATS sleuths tracked them for more than three months, maintaining undercover surveillance where they lived. Siddique, once employed in the UAE, possessed 18 mobile phones, including old models dating back two decades. Siddique and Ali, allegedly involved in the 1995 parcel bomb murder of Thangam Muthukrishnan in Nagapattinam and a foiled parcel bomb attempt in Nagore, were also linked to the 1995 Hindu Munnani office blast in Chennai's Chintadripet, the 1999 serial blasts in Chennai, Trichy, and Coimbatore, the 2011 pipe bomb targeting former Deputy PM L K Advani, and a 2012 murder in Vellore. Mohammad Ali, identified as one of those behind the 1999 bombing of old Chennai police commissioner's office, was also implicated in the 2013 blast near the BJP office in Malleswaram, Bengaluru. All three were linked to extremists such as S Fakruddin, Panna Ismail and Bilal Malik. Tailor Raja, associated with Al-Umma and named in the 1998 Coimbatore serial blasts, moved to Vijayapura, worked as a tailor and later established a vegetable wholesale business. At a press conference on Friday, DGP Shankar Jiwal praised the ATS team and said, "I cannot disclose the operational details or the names of officers involved at this stage." They are expected to be formally charged under multiple provisions of IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
