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Indian Express communalises road rage incident, says Muslim youth beaten up for being a Muslim

The Indian Express today communalised a road rage incident in Dahej, Bharuch, by reporting that a Muslim youth was beaten up by five men upon identifying his religion.

The report stated that a man named Faizal was beaten up by a group of men ‘after they inquired about his name and out out his community in Bharuch on Saturday.’ The report quotes Faisal who mentions (and we quote verbatim from Indian Express report), “I left on my bike and after crossing around 100 metres, I saw five youths in a verbal duel with another youth who was travelling on bike. I did not pay attention and tried to pass through the side when the men, speaking local language, caught hold of me and asked my name. When I said my name, they asked which company I was working for. I gave the company’s address when three of them started slapping me. When I asked what was my fault, they replied with fists. Somehow I managed to escape from the spot as my bike was on. I hid myself at a distance and informed a colleague, Imtiyaz Shaikh, about the incident.”

Even in his statement to Indian Express, Faisal himself has not mentioned that he was beaten up because of his religious identity. As per Faisal’s statement to IE itself, the assailants had asked him his name and where he worked. Following which he was beaten up.

OpIndia called up Dahej Police station and confirmed that there was no communal angle in the incident. The police confirmed that it was a road rage incident and a complaint has been registered against unknown assailants. Faisal in his statement to the police has not mentioned that it was a hate crime.

The police is investigating the case. “Faisal was on his bike and some arguement happened with some other guys on a bike. He was beaten up. We are looking into the matter. Faisal did not know them and we have registered a complaint against unknown assailants. We can confirm there is no religious angle to this,” the Dahej Police confirmed with OpIndia.

It is shocking that the Indian Express tried to give a communal colour to a report on road rage. This is not the first time mainstream media has communalised incidents like these. Earlier in May, IndiaTimes, a Times of India group website, also gave a communal twist to a road rage incident in Gurugram. One Dr Narul in Gurugram was beaten up by a mob when he went to buy milk for Iftar. He had mentioned that when he was being beaten up, he heard someone say that he (Dr Narul) is a Muslim and hence they (the men allegedly beating him up) should leave because this incident could lead to communal riots. However, IndiaTimes reproduced the story giving it a communal twist. The headline of IndiaTimes read that the mob thrashed Dr Narul while shouting “Muslims should leave”, while in fact, they fled the scene when they realised the person they were beating up was a Muslim.

Similarly, Indian Express just communalised a road rage incident and turned it into hate crime.

‘I failed to create profitable business model’: Read Cafe Coffee Day founder, VG Siddhartha’s letter to Directors before he went missing

VG Siddhartha, the son-in-law of former Karnataka Chief Minister SM Krishna and the founder-owner of the chain of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), has gone missing from Mangaluru in Karnataka. As per the reports, a new letter written by VG Siddhartha to board directors has surfaced into public now.

In a letter written to the Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) board, founder VG Siddhartha has said that he failed to create the right profitable business model despite taking best efforts.

“After 37 years, with strong commitment to hard work, having directly created 30,000 jobs in our companies and their subsidiaries, as well as another 20,000 jobs in technology company where I have been a large shareholder since its founding, I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts,” wrote CCD founder VG Siddhartha in his letter.

“I would like to say I gave it all, I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend,” Siddhartha wrote in his letter to the board.

Siddhartha further added that he faced tremendous pressure from other lenders led to “me succumbing to the situation.”

“There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking the position of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us,” he said in the letter.

“I sincerely request each of you to be strong and to continue running these businesses with new management,” said VG Siddhartha in his letter to the Board of Directors and his Coffee Day family, adding that “every financial transaction” is his responsibility.

“My team, auditors and senior management are totally unaware of all my transactions. The law should hold me and only me accountable, as I have withheld this information from everybody including my family. My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody, I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission. I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me,” Siddhartha wrote in the letter.

VG Siddhartha went missing after he got off from his car near a bridge across the Nethravathi River near Mangalore, about 375km from Bengaluru, but did not return even after an hour.

The police officials have begun a search in the area after Siddhartha’s driver filed a complaint with the police on Tuesday morning raising suspicion if the person who jumped off the bridge was indeed the CCD founder.

RSS to open school where children will be trained to join the Defence Forces, to be called Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir

In a first, the nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) is set to open an Army school in Uttar Pradesh to train children to become officers in the armed forces.

According to the reports, the Army school will be run Vidhya Bharati, the education wing of the RSS which runs over 20,000 schools across the country. The school will come up at Shikarpur in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshar and would be named after former RSS Sarsanghchalak Rajendra Singh, also known as Rajju Bhaiya. The school will be called the Rajju Bhaiya Sainik Vidya Mandir.

Rajpal Singh, a former soldier and farmer of Bulandshar has donated 20,000 square metres of his land for the school. The land is now part of a newly created trust, Rajpal Singh Jankalyan Sewa Samiti. The school will have a three-storey building for academics, a three-storey hostel, a dispensary, residence for staff members and a large stadium. The total cost of the project will be Rs.40 crores.


The construction for the residential school for boys began in August last year. It will follow the syllabus of the Central Board of Secondary Education and will have students from Class VI to Class XII.

“This is an experiment we are doing for the first time in the country and the model can be replicated to other places in future,” Ajay Goyal, regional convener of West UP and Uttarakhand for the Vidya Bharti Uchha Shiksha Sansthan.

As per the report, the prospectus for the first batch of students is almost ready and the applications for admission in the school will be invited from next month. “We will take 160 students for Class VI for the first batch,” Goyal said. The children of martyrs will reportedly get 56 seats under a reservation scheme.

Retired Army officers are expected to meet and offer suggestions for improvements in September. “A number of Army officers across the country are in touch with RSS or affiliate organisations. The date of the meeting will be finalised within a week,” Goyal said.

“There is a lack of Army, Navy and Air Force officers in the country. The reason behind that is not many young people can match the eligibility criteria for the officers’ post. There is one Army School in each state which is not able to fulfil the demand of officers in the Indian forces,” reads the brochure.

Cafe Coffee Day founder and SM Krishna’s son-in-law VG Siddhartha goes missing near Mangalore, search operations on

VG Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day and also owns Asia’s single-largest coffee estate, is reportedly missing since Monday evening.

Siddhartha, the son-in-law of former Chief Minister of Karnataka SM Krishna, got off from his car near a bridge across the Nethravathi River in Mangalore. His driver raised an alarm when he did not return even after an hour. The driver then informed the family and the police that Siddhartha travelled to the Ullal bridge from Mangaluru in his car and asked him to stop the car the other end of the bridge. He then walked some distance before he disappeared. Siddhartha’s phone is also switched off since last night, according to the reports.

The police have launched a search based on the information provided by the driver. More than 200 personnel including 25 swimmers have been put into action to search Siddhartha. According to his driver, Siddhartha was talking to someone on his mobile phone when he got off from the car near Kotekar. The police is also looking at who all he talked to last to try and get clues in the case.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Congress strongman DK Shivkumar visited former CM SM Krishna’s residence in Sadashivanagar, Bengaluru in the view of the latter’s son-in-law going missing.

Samajwadi Party leader owns the truck that hit Unnao rape victim’s car, denies any conspiracy; UP govt recommends CBI probe

In a shocking revelation, reports have emerged that the truck which was involved in the Unnao rape victim accident on Sunday evening belongs to a Samajwadi Party leader, Nandkishor Pal aka Nandu Pal. Lal, is a Samajwadi Party leader from Fatehpur district and his wife Ramashree Pal is also a Samajwadi Party leader. Nandu Lal has reportedly denied any conspiracy angle to the incident and insists that it was nothing more than an accident.

As per Amar Ujala, Samajwadi Party leader has claimed that the number plate were blackened out to evade the financiers. Pal has three other brothers, Devendra Kishore Pal, Munna Pal and Dilip Pal, who own 27 trucks amongst themselves. Nandu Pal has reportedly informed that the truck which was involved in the accident was in the name of Devendra Kishore Pal. The truck was returning from Rae Bareli to Fatehpur.

The accident took place between Rae Bareli and Lalganj. The Police has picked up the truck driver and the truck. The truck was reportedly being driven by one Ashish of Oti village. His elder brothers do farming in the village.

Meanwhile, a suspicious man was reportedly found outside the trauma centre where the girl is undergoing treatment after the accident.


The man, Sumit Shrivastav, has been taken away by the police for questioning.

In the meantime, the Uttar Pradesh government has sent a formal request to the government of India to transfer the Unnao rape victim’s road accident case to the CBI.

An FIR has also been filed against BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy. Sengar is also the prime accused in the 2017 rape case. In April 2018, a case was registered against Sengar under section 363, 366, 376, 506 and POCSO Act of Indian Penal Code and was sent to jail. Sengar along with his brother Atul Singh have been in jail since then.

On Sunday evening when the rape victim, along with her aunts and lawyer was traveling to Rae Bareli, the car met with an accident. Her two aunts died whereas the girl and her lawyer were critically injured.

Kuldeep Sengar is a BJP MLA from Bangarmau. He had joined BJP in 2017 after a ten-year stint with Samajwadi Party. He had first become an MLA from Unnao Sadar on a BSP ticket. He had joined SP later and had won the Bangarmau seat in 2007 and Bhagwant Nagar seat in 2012. He had joined BJP in 2017 and won the Bangermau seat.

Watch: Eyewitness narrates what happened in Chandauli where Muslim boy claimed he was set on fire for refusing to chant Jai Shri Ram

The Chandauli police today took to Twitter and posted the conversation it recorded with Dinesh Maurya, a witness to the entire Chandauli incident. Maurya, a hawker by profession yesterday witnessed a wanton attempt of self-immolation that was given a communal flair by propagandists in Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. The usual fearmongers continued to spread falsehood by lying that a Muslim boy was set on fire for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram.”


In the recorded video, the eyewitness mentions when he reached the spot where the incident transpired yesterday, there were few people already present there, most of whom were women.

He added that when he reached the police station along with the victim and here some people tried to put words in his mouth. They asked the victim to name one ‘Sunil’ behind the perpetrated crime. However, the eyewitness said he asked the people not to lie as he was present at the crime scene and no one named ‘Sunil’ had set the Muslim boy ablaze. The eyewitness claimed he tried his best to convince the people to refrain from giving the unfortunate incident a communal colour by peddling lies.

Maurya was questioned about the claims that few men in saffron-coloured clothes were present at the scene where the incident transpired, forcing the victim to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans. He clarified these were rumours and no such people were present when the Muslim boy set himself on fire in a dargah (maazar). He termed such claims as lies suggesting the victim has been giving different stories all this while.

Meanwhile, few more people can also be heard in the video, confirming the angle being given to the entire episode was fabricated and that nothing as such had transpired. They are heard saying that people present near the Mazaar were all good people and no one was involved in the crime.

Yesterday, Chandauli police had issued a statement on its social media account through, which it clarified that Muslim boy named Khalid Ansari, a resident of Township of Lohia Nagar town of Thana Syedaraja, who claimed that he was set on fire for refusing to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ was fake and fabricated by few people with an intention to spread communal discord.

In fact, the police also mentioned that an eyewitness whom the police had spoken to claimed that he saw the Muslim boy set himself on fire in a dargah (maazar). His burnt clothes and a slipper was also found from the dargah.


As soon as this news started doing rounds on the social media, the usual suspects sensing an opportunity to not let facts get in the way of agenda quickly proceeded to exploit the situation by giving it a communal flair. Despite UP police’s clarification that teenager self-immolated, a coterie of self-proclaimed liberals continued to peddle lies claiming he was set on fire for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram.”

All you need to know about the horrific Unnao gang rape case: Lies, cover-ups, mysterious deaths and an accident

Yesterday, the victim of the Unnao rape case was travelling to Rae Bareli with her two aunts, and her lawyer Mahendra Singh when their vehicle was hit by a truck, rendering them critically injured. The vehicle collided with a truck going in the opposite direction towards Lalganj in UP.

The victim’s aunts had received fatal injuries. Advocate Vimal Kumar Yadav, a junior of the victim’s lawyer Mahendra Singh, was quoted by ANI saying that the victim’s 2 aunts had succumbed to their injuries soon. The victim and the lawyer are serious.

BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar is the primary accused in the high profile rape case. The case pertains to how the victim was lured and raped by a host of people, including the BJP MLA and how co-ordinated and meticulous schemes were hatched to silent the victim and intimidate her relatives by framing them in police cases based on flippant charges. Let’s look at the sequence of events leading to the accident in which the victim’s aunts have died, while the victim is battling for her life.

Key junctures in the Unnao Rape Case

According to the victim, she was lured by a woman named Shashi Singh, Nidhi Singh-her daughter and Shubham Singh-her son to move to Kanpur, under the guise of giving her a job. The victim alleged that on the night of June 11, 2017, she was raped multiple times by Shubham Singh and his driver Awdesh Singh. She was later raped by unknown people and sold to one Brajesh Yadav for Rs 60000.

An FIR was registered under section 363 and 366 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) on 20 June 2017 against Shubham Singh and Awdhesh Tiwari. On 21 June, Uttar Pradesh Police tracked her down and recovered her from a village in Auraiya. She was sent for a medical examination on the same day. On 22 June 2017, she recorded her statement in front of a Judicial Magistrate under Section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in which she narrated her ordeal and named Shubham Singh, Awdhesh Tiwari, Brajesh Yadav and other unknown captors for the abduction and gang-rape. A second FIR was registered later under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and all the accused were sent to jail.

On August 17, 2017, the victim wrote an open letter addressed to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath claiming that on June 4, 2017, at around 8 PM in the evening, she was raped at the residence of the BJP MLA from Unnao, Kuldeep Singh Sengar. She mentioned that she entered the house for seeking Sengar’s assistance for getting her employment. She also stated that these details were reported to the police on June 22, 2017, but the police didn’t allow her to name MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in her complaint.

After being assaulted by Sengar’s supporters, the victim’s father was arrested by the police on April 5, 2018, and sent to judicial custody. His medical examination found consistent injuries after having been beaten. The police didn’t arrest Atul Sengar, Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s brother, who allegedly led the assault against the victim’s father. Three days later, on April 8, the victim tried to immolate herself in front of CM Yogi Adityanath’s residence, stating no action was initiated against the accused. A day later, the victim’s father, Pappu Singh succumbed to his injuries.

Following the death of the victim’s father, the local police sprang into action, arresting Atul Sengar and suspending 6 conniving police officials. Pappu Singh’s death and the victim’s self-immolation attempt triggered a widespread protest, after which an FIR was filed against Sengar. The case was shifted from local magistrate to Allahabad High Court and the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) took over the probe.

Following the Allahabad High Court order, MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was arrested by the CBI. The next day, on April 14, 2018, the CBI also arrested Shashi Singh, who allegedly took the victim to Sengar on the day of the incident. The CBI filed its first charge-sheet on July 11, 2018, naming Bhartiya Janata Party member of Legislative Assembly Kuldeep Singh Sengar as an accused in the alleged rape of the 17-year-old teenager. CBI filed another charge-sheet on 13 July 2018 and named Kuldeep Singh Sengar and his brother, three policemen and five other people for allegedly framing the Unnao rape survivor’s father.

Mohammed Yunus, who was a key witness in the attack on the survivor’s father, who later succumbed to his injuries when he was sent to jail by the local police after being framed in a fake case of possession of illegal firearms, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. Yunus ran a grocery shop at the intersection where the legislator’s brother and his aides attacked the gang-rape victim’s father.

In an 18-year-old gun-firing case, the gang-rape victim’s uncle who spearheaded a campaign accusing BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of the rape of his niece and the death of the rape victim’s father, his elder brother, in custody, was arrested on 21 November 2018.

Following the accident in Rae Bareli in which two women died and the gang-rape victim seriously injured, a murder case is filed against the BJP legislator Kuldeep Sengar. An FIR has been registered against Sengar, his brother Manoj Singh and eight others at Raebareli’s Guru Baksh Ganj police station for “hatching a criminal conspiracy to kill the rape survivor and her family”.

No, PM Modi is not a ‘climate change denier’: Propagandists rely on doctored video by Congress to criticise Modi’s appearance on Man vs Wild

Bear Grylls, the popular British adventurer today announced on Twitter about hosting a show with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Grylls, the popular host of the television show Man vs Wild, will feature PM Modi, who will raise awareness about animal conservation and climate change.

Ever since Grylls made the announcement, several people including left-wing ‘activist’ Kavita Krishnan came forward to tweet against the PM terming him a ‘climate change denier.’


These people were referring to the interaction between PM Modi and students on the occasion of Teacher’s Day five years ago.

On 5 September 2014, the PM had a Q&A video conference session with school children across the country. A student had raised her concern about climate change, which the PM responded. The media had reported that in his response PM Modi denied climate change. Here is what he had said.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h-XZeQnLVU?start=2890]

Below is the video that was uploaded by the Indian National Congress. Videos like these were popularly shared across social media platforms criticizing PM Modi for allegedly denying climate change.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oy0E7h-_Ic8]

If one watches the video uploaded by Congress carefully, one notices that the video is skipping a portion at the 0:23 and 0:45 seconds mark. The video appears to be clearly doctored. It doesn’t show the entirety of PM’s response in which he has clearly talk about the effect of mankind on climate change and that if we change our behaviour, the climate would become favourable to us.

The doctored video essentially shows the girl’s questions, PM Modi using the example of old people feeling progressively cold and a clip of him saying “climate has not changed. We have changed.”

As it can be clearly seen, the Prime Minister had used an example to explain that we need to differentiate between the symptom and the root cause of an event. In the example that he used, feeling cold was a symptom and growing older was the cause. Similarly, climate change is a symptom and change in human lifestyle is the cause.

Surprisingly, even the media had got this wrong. Here are some of the headlines.

India Today false headline

Note how India Today manipulated his statements in their report.

CNNNews18 report

Now here is a report done by News18. Notice that they have reported in the same pattern. They had reported in 2017 after the video clip resurfaced on social media.

The Hindu, however, had clearly lied in its report. They have quoted him but were liberal in what was filled within the quotes.

Report in The Hindu

The Guardian had also written an article compiling such reports and raising doubts over PM Modi’s stance about climate change. In the first line of its report, it mentions, “India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, reportedly will be a no-show at the United Nations climate summit this month. Could it be because he does not accept the science behind climate change?”

PM Modi’s stance on climate change is quite clear. In 2018 at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, he described climate change as one of the three critical challenges the world is facing. In the same year, United Nations Environment Programme chief said, “PM Modi has made India one of the champions to tackle climate change.”

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar says Doordarshan will hire ‘creative heads’, hints at lateral entry of professionals

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had inaugurated Video Walls in all eight Doordarshan Studios and Earth Station at DD Kendra, Delhi on Thursday. Speaking on the occasion, Prakash Javadekar emphasized on the significance of the Video Walls in enhancing the viewer experience.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MoIgT0uZI0]

Javadekar said that under the three-year action plan of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, support has been given to Doordarshan to modernize its infrastructure. He asserted that the addition of State of Art Video Walls and Spectrum efficient Satellite equipment is a step in the direction of revamping the Public Service Broadcaster.

The Earth Station is based on spectrum efficient technology and will enable DD to almost double the number of channels in the same bandwidth. It is also HD capable.

Significantly, however, the I&B Minister stated that professionals will be inducted into Doordarshan to make it more competitive and augment the quality of the broadcaster’s content. He said that while government officials will continue to be involved in administration, Creative Head will be inducted into the management of the broadcaster and professionals will be brought in to improve content quality. Prakash Javadekar thus hinted that lateral entry into Doordarshan is a strong possibility.

The Union Minister essentially proposed a clear separation of powers whereby the administrative responsibilities shall remain with the officers but professionals must run the editorial and creative wings. This would ensure professionalism and clarity in the long and short term.

The move appears to be along the lines of what the government has tried to achieve with Rajya Sabha TV. Despite initial obstacles, the model is functioning smoothly and yielding good results.

IT sleuths raid 13 properties linked to Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi, stashed foreign assets worth Rs 200 crore recovered

In a major search operation the IT-department has recovered foreign assets worth over Rs 200 crores after it raided 13 properties in Haryana, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, belonging to Haryana Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi and his family. The search operation began on July 23 and lasted for more than 4 days.

“The group, controlled by persons who have a significant political presence in a neighbouring state for decades and are occupying responsible political positions has been generating large amounts of undisclosed income over several decades,” the IT Department said in a statement.

“Evidence detected so far reveals undisclosed cash dealings of huge amounts in immovable property transactions, construction among others,” it added.

Though the statement did not name anyone official sources in the department confirmed that the case involves Congress leader Kuldeep Bishnoi. Kuldeep Bishnoi, son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, is a Congress MLA from the Adampur constituency in Haryana.

The Income Tax department in its statement confirmed that it has “successfully lifted the mask and has detected undisclosed foreign assets worth over Rs 200 crores, apart from domestic tax evasion of more than Rs 30 crores.”

Confirming that these foreign assets have been stashed in countries like the British Virgin Islands, Panama, UK and UAE and New Jersey for decades, the officials in the department said that this might invite “multi-agency ramifications”. This meant that the IT Dept might share the evidence against Kuldeep Bishnoi with agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and others.

Taking to Twitter, Kuldeep Bishnoi claimed that the BJP was trying to “harass” him and his family. “The way the BJP tried to harass me and my family with political hatred for four days, it reflects its close mind. Even my aged and sick mother was not spared. I have always lived a life of honesty and principles. Neither I feared the BJP nor I will,” Bishnoi had tweeted in Hindi on July 27.


Recently, the IT department had raided over 50 locations related to Madhya Pradesh CM and Congress veteran leader, Kamal Nath.

Kamal Nath’s OSD, his brother in law Deepak Puri who is the chairman of Moser Baer group and several other locations in Bhopal, Indore, Delhi, and Goa were raided by over 300 I-T officials. Documents seized from Deepak Puri’s location have revealed that the Moser Baer group had been involved in converting Rs. 242 crore of money to dollars by raising bogus bills.