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Don’t be Digvijay Singh, that video of Pope slapping Trump’s hand is fake

OpIndia Staff
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Don’t be Digvijay Singh, that video of Pope slapping Trump’s hand is fake

A video has been going viral in the last couple of days that shows Pope slapping US President Donald Trump’s hands in irritation, after Trump wiggled his little finger on Pope’s hand and tried to hold it. The video is supposedly a clip cut from live telecast by CNN.

You can see the video here:


//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsJust in case you thought that Trump actually decided to play some kid level games with Pope, you are wrong. There are enough hints in the video itself, if you look closely, which prove that it is mischievously edited for some fun.

For example, the shirt cuff of Trump is visible rather prominently in the close-up shot where he is wiggling the pope, but is hidden under his coat throughout the rest of the video. Similarly, the background in the close-up shot shows part of a brown coloured waiting chair, while a black figurine is visible in the background in the rest of the video.

These are clues enough to conclude that the close-up video, where Trump is seeing doing the mischief, was shot separately with some actors wearing similar dresses like those of Pope and Trump, and later inserted in the actual clip of Trump and Pope meeting at the Vatican City.

Alert people on social media have the ability to spot these clues, but you may miss these details if you are either in a hurry to believe things or if you are fooled easily, thanks to either bias or low level of awareness.

The latter happened with senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh, when he slammed Trump while reacting to the above video:


In fact, Digvijaya Singh, as is the name spelled by him, went on to predict, based on findings in the edited video, that Donald Trump will not last his full term. Looks like chacha, as Digvijaya is lovingly referred to on Twitter, now wants to attain the reputation of an expert on international politics.

It is not wrong to have high ambitions, but it is important to have a discerning eye to spot real from fake in the current world where video and photo editing tools are used for propaganda as well. But maybe Digvijay Singh doesn’t care much for these details as he himself have been found propagating fake pictures and videos earlier. The latest incident had happened in February this year when he tweeted a morphed photograph of Amit Shah.

Coming back to the Trump video, just in case you wondered if it was a random fun-cut of Trump-Pope meeting video, maybe it was not. The western liberals have long commented on the relationship between Trump and his wife Melania claiming all is not well between the two, including some moments where Melania is supposed to have refused to hold hands with Trump. This video could be a parody of the same and is most probably meant to say, in a funny way, that no one wants to hold hands with Trump as he is always nasty in his relationships.

Or maybe it indeed is just random fun-cut video for fun, but just don’t treat it as a real incident and become a Digvijay Singh.

Indian woman forced to marry a Pakistani at gunpoint returns home, here’s her story

OpIndia Staff
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Indian woman forced to marry a Pakistani at gunpoint returns home, here’s her story

Delhi based Indian national Uzma Ahmed met Pakistani man Tahir Ali during a two month trip to Malaysia last year. The two became friends and Uzma, in her early 20s, soon fell in love with him and got engaged. She in her consequent interviews termed Tahir a soft spoken and nice person who told her to come to Pakistan to meet his family.

He then sent her a sponsor letter to help her obtain a visa, and she crossed into Pakistan via the Wagah border on 1st May. She reportedly got married to Tahir within a couple days of reaching Pakistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. On 5th May, the couple then reportedly traveled to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to apply for an Indian visa for Tahir.

But after entering the commission, Uzma refused to come out, and that is when this whole issue came to public light. Tahir claimed that she has been ‘held hostage’ by the Indian High Commission.

Around 9th May, Uzma filed a petition in a local court and things slowly started unraveling. According to Uzma, she sat in Tahir’s car after crossing over from the Wagah border, where he gave her some medicine after which she became unconscious and woke up at 10 in the night. She was reportedly sexually assaulted, tortured, and threatened at gunpoint into signing the marriage papers.

Tahir reportedly also took away her immigration papers. Uzma claims that she wasn’t aware that Tahir was already married and had 4 kids, and that she was not mentally prepared to marry him. She further claims that he kept assaulting and intimidating her in the coming days.

On 12th May, Uzma reportedly petitioned the Islamabad High Court asking it to allow her to return to India. Her ‘husband’ didn’t sit quiet and also petitioned the court requesting it to allow him a meeting with Uzma which, which she subsequently refused. During the hearing it is reported that she had fainted and paramedics had to be called in but she soon recovered.

She was finally provided relief by the High Court on Wednesday, which gave her back the immigration papers and told her she was free to return to India. Uzma reportedly has a daughter in India from an earlier marriage who needs immediate medical attention; this factors also worked in her favour. The court ordered the authorities to ensure adequate security for Uzma till she crosses Wagah border.

Uzma after coming back to India, at Wagah border (source)

After she stepped into India, she was welcomed by the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj:


Uzma’s brother Wasim Ahmad too thanked Sushma Swaraj for her efforts and stated that the Indian government did more than what was expected from them.

After coming back to India, Uzma addressed a press conference along with Sushma Swaraj and External Affairs officials, where she said that no Indian woman should marry in Pakistan as there is no freedom there.


Meanwhile Tahir back in Pakistan is insisting that Uzma remains his wife as the divorce never happened. But with Uzma back in India, perhaps there is not much he can do.

Retired Pakistani Army Lt Gen nails Pakistan’s lies on Kulbhushan Jadhav

OpIndia Staff
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Retired Pakistani Army Lt Gen nails Pakistan’s lies on Kulbhushan Jadhav

Nailing Pakistan’s lies in Kulbhushan Jadhav case, Amjad Shoaib, a former official of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and a retired Lieutenant General of the Pakistani Army, has acknowledged that Jadha, an ex-Indian Navy officer, was captured from Iran.

This revelation coincides with India’s claim that Pakistan had kidnapped the 46-year-old former Indian Navy officer from Iran where he was involved in business activities after retiring from the service.

Pakistan claims that it had arrested Jadhav from Balochistan in Pakistan on 3 March, 2016. In that context, the statement of the former ISI official is a damning evidence of how Pakistan has framed Kulbhushan Jadhav with false and concocted charges. This has also exposed the real face of Pakistan, its armed forces establishment, ISI and the civilian government.

India will now use Amjad Shoai’s statement to further strengthen its argument at the next hearing of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). On 18 May, the Hague-based International Court of Justice ordered Pakistan to stay the execution of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav until further notice.

During its submission, India had demanded the immediate suspension of Jadhav’s death sentence, expressing fears that Pakistan could execute him even before the hearing at the ICJ was over. Making a forceful argument before the ICJ, India had had contended that Pakistan has clearly violated the Vienna Convention and conducting a “farcical trial” for convicting Jadhav without a “shred of evidence”. The ICJ had upheld New Delhi’s demand.

On 10 April, Jadhav was given death sentence by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and sabotage activities in Karachi.

In a blatant miscarriage of justice, India was not informed of Jadhav’s detention until long after his arrest. Jadhav has not been given a fair trial. Moreover, India has sought consular access for Jadhav 15 times, but Pakistan has turned down India’s request every time violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Stolen headphones, vandalized LCDs, toilets not flushed – Tejas Express’ maiden trip

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Stolen headphones, vandalized LCDs, toilets not flushed – Tejas Express’ maiden trip

The Tejas Express, which flagged off on the Mumbai Goa route by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, was touted as the train which would usher in a new era for the Indian Railways. The semi-luxury train is reported to have automatic doors and can run at an impressive speed of 200 Kmph.

The train also boasts of state of the art facilities like on-board entertainment system, LCD screens, WiFi, coffee vending machines, snack tables, smart windows with automatic blinds, GPS based passenger information display system among others. The toilets too are equipped with automatic water taps, hand dryers and bio toilets.

Even though the Indian Railways has tried to provide the best possible facilities, some passengers decided to do whatever they could to ruin the pristine condition of the train.

First it was reported on Saturday that as the Tejas coach reached Mumbai from Delhi, one of its windows was found vandalized possibly due to a stone being thrown at it. There were no passengers inside then as it was brought to Mumbai before the launch. Now it appears that that was just the beginning of the story and the train went though something far worse during its maiden round trip.

As per reports, some passengers stooped to new lows and damaged the LCD screens, stole the headphones which accompanied the entertainment systems, soiled the toilets and littered in general. The report quoted a passengers who claimed that he saw some co-passengers trying to uproot the LCD screens in order to possibly take them home. He also rued the fact that the bio-toilet was soon stinking as the people who had used it didn’t bother to flush properly.

After the train had completed its journey, the railway maintenance staff were shocked to find the whole floor littered with plastic bottles, cups, wrappers even though the train was equipped with dustbins having a novel garbage compacting facility.

The Tejas Express is also equipped with CCTV cameras so it remains to be seen whether the railway authorities would try to track down and punish the unruly passengers.

This isn’t the only time passengers of Indian Railways have shown an abject lack of civic sense. It was reported in 2016 how the modern Mahamana Express too was meted out the same treatment. The train which was flagged by PM Modi runs from Varanasi to New Delhi.

Just 10 days after the train started running, people were appalled to note unhygienic coaches with tattered newspapers thrown around, food littered on the floor and even a discarded beer bottle lying around. Passengers just didn’t litter the train, according to reports they also ended up stealing the taps and toilet kits fitted in compartments.

How fake websites are being used by Pakistan to burn India in caste wars

Ashutosh Muglikar
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How fake websites are being used by Pakistan to burn India in caste wars

Pakistan Senate last year had passed a resolution highlighting their renewed Kashmir policy, which stressed on reaching out to Modi haters, using Media, and importantly, stoking communal tensions between various ethnic groups in India especially caste by ‘talking about Dalits’.

To break India by exploiting fault-lines in the society was declared an official state policy. Coincidentally Indian media too seems to be toying this Pakistan line and following the same policy. Coincidentally again, using the mainstream media too was part of this policy of Pakistan.

But not just the Indian media, Pakistan also realizes the importance of social media and the internet. And it appears that they are working on that front too.

Recently I saw people referring to a video titled Brahmins “The Upper Caste”. Many people on Facebook and Twitter were sharing angry responses to the utter lies and distortions being peddled in that video. When this tweet was shared on my Timeline I decided to investigate the source of this post which was some website called CJ Post.

Being aware about Pakistan’s declared policy, I decided to investigate more about the website. The whois data shows owner details we under privacy lock. The “Contact us” page has no details and only mentions “coming soon”. The website concentrates on “atrocities” against Dalits and other castes.

Their social media presence however gives away the Pakistani connection as a bulk of those sharing its links are Twitter or Facebook users from Pakistan. With these “Dalit” stories, now they are trying to get Indian followers too, and it seems, they are getting successful.

The anti-Brahmin video posted on their Facebook page was viewed over 2.55 lakh times and shared about 10,000 times. There are many responses by Indians to this video trying to dismiss all the fake claims as well.

Pakistani propaganda on caste
Pakistani propaganda reaching a large audience

To create this video with a seemingly “professional” and “foreigner” news reader, these propagandists have used services available online, which they can avail of while sitting in some garage in Islamabad.

It is but obvious that none of the claims in the video are true and hence I am not repeating the same. Still if you are curious, let me tell you that one of the claims in the video says that people belonging to Brahmin caste are not charged any money for staying anywhere in India. Do you really think such ridiculous charges are worth countering?

However my real concern is that on the Facebook page sharing this fake news, I observed many Indians fighting among themselves over caste differences:

Caste hatred
How Pakistan is winning this cyber war

I also came across many Indians who identified these nefarious designs and called them out. Someone even copy-pasted my tweets on that article to warn others.

Pakistani propaganda being fought back
Some fight back against the propaganda
how to respond to hate speech against Brahmins
The best way to respond to such incendiary propaganda

For those who don’t know, this website has a history of coming up with fake news to target India.

In January this year, this fake news website posted an article claiming that an Indian national had raped a Nepali girl inside the Indian Embassy in UAE and RAW officials were also involved in the matter. The website thought that they will be able to create some sensation in the wake of UAE soldiers taking part in Indian Republic Day parade, where Abu Dhabi crown prince was the chief guest.

Some Pakistani accounts even “trended” this news across Twitter and Facebook under a particular hashtag, hoping they will be able to fool the mainstream media of India, Pakistan, UAE, and Nepal. Fortunately, no one was fooled and their antics remained on social media only.

Now they seem to have decided to focus on ‘caste’ because such articles can easily be believed. One can’t deny that in many parts of India, especially rural India, caste tensions exist. Now Pakistanis are adding their own propaganda and ‘creativity’ (like the aforementioned video) to exploit the fault-lines. Today, they are trying to trend a hate hashtag against Brahmins hoping that it gets picked up in India:


In such sensitive and critical times we live in, it is becoming increasingly important to spot the Pakistani propaganda and warn Indians, who knowingly or unknowingly, are becoming party to it.

Pakistan is ready with petrol and waiting for sparks like Saharanpur. Some in the Indian media are ready to carry that petrol on their behalf, but we have to be ready for fire-fighting. Remember, Pakistan is currently winning this war, but we can fight back.

Surrendered Maoist denies police pressure, villagers protest against ‘urban naxals’

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Surrendered Maoist denies police pressure, villagers protest against ‘urban naxals’

A few days back we had reported how a surrendered Maoist named Podiyam Panda had claimed that he used to be a link between the top Maoist leadership and some ‘eminent’ citizens cum activists. Panda had alleged that he used to drive activists from Delhi, including Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar and prominent ‘activist’ Bela Bhatia, deep into the forest of Sukma to meet top Maoist leaders.

Incidentally Times of India which had initially reported the incident had changed its headline from, “Maoist nails DU Professor, top Activist” to “Maoist confession forced, says DU professor” within a matter of hours.

Further reports then started claiming that the family members of Panda had come out to claim that his surrender was under possible duress and that he was never a Maoist. They claimed that he had been “picked by the police” on 3rd May and that when they had tried to meet Panda in jail on 10th May, the cops only took food and clothes they had carried for Panda but didn’t allow them to meet him.

The family then reportedly filed a habeus corpus petition in Bilaspur High Court on 12th May in this regard and after that they claimed that the cops had forced Panda to call them up and state that he had voulntarily agreed to surrender and that they need to withdraw their case.

This petition prompted the High Court to ask the Bastar police to produce him in front of the court on Monday, even though the cops insisted that he was free to appear in the court anytime. The High Court also remarked that:

Let him say in front of the court that he wasn’t coerced to surrender

The authorities also argued that he was not being kept away from his wife and claimed that the state had sought her help in convincing Panda to surrender.

As per reports, Panda had given a statement to the media, claiming that he had asked his wife to return to her village but she expressed her inability as there were “women lawyers who weren’t allowing her to go”.

Panda was finally brought in front of the court on Monday, where he put the whole “victim narrative” to rest. As told to the court by Panda, he had surrendered voluntarily and was under no pressure from the police. The report also claimed that Panda told the court that he was not assaulted by the police and that the lawyers, activists of the CPI had forced his wife to file the case.

Some reports also claimed that in the court Panda and his wife were allowed to privately converse with each other for 15 min but the wife still maintained in a statement to the media that Panda was doing everything under police pressure.

Incidentally the wife had also claimed that her husband had helped the police in the past. This, if fact, goes against her theory that Panda had not surrendered voluntarily. Maoists in the past have been notorious in eliminating police informants. So Panda would rather surrender and feel safe among the police, which he incidentally is reported to have said.


Meanwhile local residents in the Naxal affected areas have also started speaking up. A dharna-protest was organised by victims of Naxalism in Konta, Bastar, where villagers protested against likes of Nalini Sundar, Bela Bhatia and other human rights activists and lawyers. It should be noted that the lawyer of Podiyam Panda’s wife is also an activist.

A Gujarat lawyer has filed an RTI to know the IQ of a Judge

Hemant Bijapurkar
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A Gujarat lawyer has filed an RTI to know the IQ of a Judge

In a “Mad mad world” incident which has come to light from Ahmadabad, a lawyer has filed a Right to Information (RTI) application inquiring about the IQ of a sitting Judge of a session’s court.

The lawyer named Anand Brahmbhatt reportedly decided to take this route after he wasn’t very pleased at the judge’s courtroom behavior and style of judicial functioning.

The RTI application inquires:

  • Whether the judge in question had appeared in any competitive examination that provided an IQ score
  • Whether the judge was allowed to take such an examination
  • Specific information has also been sought about whether the Judge’s IQ is zero or somehow in the negative

The RTI query is addressed to the court registrar and principal sessions judge who is now tasked with somehow furnishing the information. The application was accepted by the city civil court’s correspondence department on Monday.

Certain personal information has also been sought by lawyer Brahmbhatt:

  • The lawyer Brahmbhatt wants to know whether the Gujarat High Court had medically examined the judge and if it had then whether the judge had exhibited signs of mental illness during this process
  • Lawyer Brahmbhatt has also inquired about the amount of years spent by the judge in clearing his board exams, graduation and obtaining his law degree
  • Lawyer Brahmbhatt has also sought information about the assets of the judge and whether there’s any complaint pending against him

Lawyer Brahmbhatt has claimed that he has sought the information under the capacity of a private citizen and has stated that if the authorities wish to deny his request then they should cite proper sections of the law for doing so.

It remains to be seen the tone of the RTI reply, given the loaded questions in the query.

Also, this might possibly be the first time a ‘private citizen’ has asked for information about a judge’s IQ. There have though been instances in the past about former judges passing statements about the intelligence of Indian citizens.

In 2012 former Supreme Court Judge Markandey Katju had outright stated that he considered 90% of Indians to be idiots and that they didn’t have a brain in their head as it was easy to take them for a ride.

Mr Katju’s impression of Indians though hasn’t improved over time and in his Facebook post it was revealed that the number had actually risen to 95%. He had further stated that after so many Indians thronged to attend the Justin Bieber concert in Mumbai, he was increasing the number to 97% with the possibility of further escalation in the future.

No more free lunch? US to convert aid to Pakistan into loan

Saswat Panigrahi
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No more free lunch? US to convert aid to Pakistan into loan

This should be seen as a significant shift forward in the US foreign policy towards Pakistan. In his maiden annual budget submitted to the US Congress, American President Donald Trump has proposed to convert the US grant to Pakistan – for purchase of military hardware – into loan. The State Department will take a final call on the proposal. However, for countries like Israel and Egypt, the US military aid will continue in the form of grant.

Though the move is seen as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to help pay for increased US military spending, it is loaded with the new US stance on Israel and Egypt vis-a-vis Pakistan. Like India, Israel and Egypt are victims of terrorism. The Trump administration has vowed to protect Israel and Egypt from Hamas and Islamic State respectively. But at the same time, Pakistan aids and abets terrorism of which the entire South Asia region, particularly India, is the victim.

The move came close on the heels of the President Trump told the Arab-Islamic-US Summit that countries must ensure that no terror outfit is existing in their soil. While asserting that India is among the victims of terrorism, Trump had said, “Every nation has an absolute duty to ensure that terrorists find no quarter on their soil.” Obviously, this was in oblique reference to Pakistan.

Ever since Donald Trump took over as President, American is going tough against Pakistan. Recently, in its first assessment of the security situation in South Asian region, Trump administration had issued severe indictment of Pakistan.

Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence in Trump administration, had blamed Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism and held that it is responsible for destabilising the South Asian region.

For decades Pakistan has been peddling terrorism on American dollars by pulling wool over US eyes. President Donald Trump’s proposal to convert the US grant to Pakistan into loan is a much awaited revision in US’s Pakistan policy. This is a clean break from the approach by successive past US administrations – Obama, Bush and Clinton – on Pakistan.

It could be noted that as of now Pakistan is the leading recipient of the US aid. According to a study conducted by the Congressional Research Service, the US has given a whopping $18 billion aid to Pakistan from 2002 to 2015. The country also received $13 billion from the Coalition Support Fund as reimbursements for so called logistical and operational support it provided to the US troops operating in Afghanistan.

But what does Pakistan do with these billions of US aid? It diverts it to train, finance and support terrorist organisations against India and other South Asian countries precisely explaining how Pakistan uses terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

Donald Trump’s proposal to convert the US grant to Pakistan into loan is certainly significant. This is not to dispute that finance plays a very significant role in running terror operations. Once the US finance is choked, Pakistan’s terrorist factory will be automatically shut down. Economically Pakistan is in a terrible state. It can’t afford to use its own money to finance terror operations. Nor it can afford to divert the loan from the US for the purpose of terrorism.

This is clear validation of New Delhi’s position that Pakistan is the mothership of International terrorism and it is important to keep the heat on the rogue state.

Twitter calls out ‘political correctness’ in responding to Manchester terror attack

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Twitter calls out ‘political correctness’ in responding to Manchester terror attack

The world was shocked after the news broke of a deadly suicide bombing at the Manchester arena in England at about 10:30 PM (UK time) on Monday. The bomber, who has now been identified as UK born Libyan origin 22-year-old man Salman Abedi, reportedly blew himself up near one of the exits just as the crowd was filing out of a music concert.

The attack resulted in the death of 22 people, mostly young women and teenagers including an 8 years old girl. Reports suggested that the ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack, the bomber Salman Abedi also reportedly had ties clear ties to the Al Qaeda and had also received terrorist training abroad.

The report also claimed that Abedi’s own family members had previously informed about him to the police. Also the bomb used is being thought to be too big and sophisticated and was made using material that were hard to obtain in Britain, hence it was possible that the attacker might have had possible help from others.

However, most of these pieces of information was presented (and some denied) with ‘liberal’ dash of political correctness. This behavior was nothing new as in the past too we had reported how the Berlin terror attack in December last, where a terrorist drove a truck through a busy street killing 12 people, was styled as a “lorry attack” by various media houses.

Here are a few instances:

Some publications took on themselves to highlight religion of people who were helping. A user on twitter had posted a picture of a Sikh cab driver who was offering free rides to victims. Cosmopolitan, a glamour magazine, got in touch with him asking permission to use that picture, to which the user readily gave. When the report came out people found that the magazine had used the Sikh cab driver’s picture for a “Muslim Taxi drivers took kids trying to escape the Manchester Ariana Grande concert home form free” article:


//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js


The media houses also started to give new novel politically correct names to terrorist attacks. In April after a attacker had mowed down 4 pedestrians using a truck in Stockholm, the Economist had proceeded to report it as “vehicular terrorism”.

This time they found a way not to use “suicide bombing” in the reports:


Some could give the terror attack altogether new spin – it was about gender:


All such attempts were done apparently to save Muslims and Islam from backlash. To which a user had this reaction:


A user also questioned Twitter over its decision to limit his account even though he had just tried to shut up a writer who had cracked an utterly distasteful ‘joke’ after the attack:


One gave suggestions which the politically correct media could implement:


A media house carried an article which touted the same old cliched line:


The positive responses to it were given a smart reply by an user:


Another ‘liberal’ reaction in wake of terror attacks is “let us keep politics away” – this political correctness was also called out this time:

Tortured for not accepting Islam after marriage – CBI files chargesheet in Tara Shahdeo case

OpIndia Staff
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Tortured for not accepting Islam after marriage – CBI files chargesheet in Tara Shahdeo case

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a chargesheet in the case involving a national level shooter Tara Shahdeo, who had in 2014 claimed that she was pressurised and tortured by her in-laws to accept Islam after she married a person, who she thought was a Hindu.

The incident had come to light in August 2014, when Tara left the house of her in-laws and made these shocking charges. She was barely married for a month before she had to walk out of it to save her dignity and choice of following her religion.

Tara had married another shooting professional named Ranjeet Kumar Kohli on 7 July 2014 in Ranchi. Ranjeet reportedly had been doing well professionally and was well connected with high profile people. Tara had met Ranjeet the same year earlier during shooting practice. He started courting her and later proposed to her, to which she agreed.

Both were married as per Hindu rituals but Tara says that just a day after the wedding, she came to know that Ranjeet was not a Hindu. His real name was Raqibul Hasan Khan and he was a Muslim. Due to this reason, this incident was reported as a possible case of ‘Love Jihad’ back in 2014.

Now with the CBI filing the chargesheet against Ranjeet alias Raqibul, his mother Kaushal Rani, and Mushtaq Ahmed, the then Registrar (vigilance) of the Jharkhand High Court, more details are emerging.

According to reports, both Raqibul and his mother used to mentally and physically torture Tara, asking her to accept Islam if she wanted her married life to be normal.

“Either change your religion, or partners in your bed will keep changing,” Raqibul’s mother is alleged to have threatened Tara. She was strictly warned not to apply ‘sindoor’, failing which her hands will be broken. There were dowry demands too from the in-laws, Tara had alleged.

A group of maulvis were also called a couple of days after their wedding where Tara was asked to convert. Tara alleges that she was beaten up badly when she refused. She was further threatened that not only her, her family members will also be killed if she opened her mouth, Tara alleges.

The torture continued for a month before Tara decided to break free. As per reports, she used mobile phone of a domestic help on 17 August 2014 to call her brother and asked him to come to her in-laws’ house along with police. The incident came to public knowledge thereafter.

Love Jihad violence
Tara Shahdeo showing her injuries (2014, source)

Pictures of a distraught Tara with injury marks, including of cigarette burns, were proof enough that something was wrong and a case was registered. Tara had to be hospitalised after she was rescued from the torture.

Raqibul Hasan Khan later accepted that he had physically assaulted Tara but denied putting pressure for religion conversion. He was subsequently sent to judicial custody on 27 August and he is lodged in a Ranchi jail ever since. His mother was given bail though in the case.

The High Court had asked the CBI to investigate the case and the case was transferred to the central agency in May 2015. CBI now has filed the chargesheet under sections of criminal conspiracy, sexual assault, domestic violence and for fraudulently organising marriage ceremony without lawful marriage.

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