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‘Journalist’ Ali Sohrab tries to pass off 2013 image of CISF jawan martyred in terrorist attack as image from Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370

The Kashmir valley is returning to normalcy slowly, however, some section of media is hellbent on fear-mongering in the valley by sharing fake news to incite violence.

In a similar case, a ‘journalist’ Ali Sohrab tried to pass off an old image of two army men cleaning a pool of blood on a road as a recent one. He shared the misleading image implying that it was taken during the ongoing situation in Kashmir. He posted the image on Twitter with a caption #28DaysOfKashmirShutdown.


While the image is indeed from Kashmir, it is not a recent one. It is actually of security personnel cleaning up after a terrorist martyred a CISJ jawan in Srinagar in October 2013. According to the fact-checker – Facthunt.in, this image shared by ‘journalist’ Ali Sohrab is almost 6 years old. A simple reverse image check leads us to an article posted by the Indian Express with the headline “CISF jawan killed in militant attack in Srinagar”.

Indian Express photo from 14th October 2014 after a CISF jawan was killed by a terrorist.

This article was posted on October 14, 2013. It consists of a few images that show the aftermath of a militant attack in Srinagar and one of the images is the one tweeted by the user.

Ali Sohrab, by tweeting an old, unrelated image and connecting it with the ongoing situation with the Kashmir, deliberately attempted to indulge in fake news and push pro-Pakistan agenda. Taking a cue from Ali Sohrab, the image has been shared by several others on social media to claim that the bloodshed incident had occurred in Kashmir after Modi government abrogated Article 370.

Following the repealing of special status, some of the sections of media, political parties, the intelligentsia had hoped that violence would erupt in Kashmir valley as a mark of protest against the Modi government’s decision. As normalcy is returning back to Kashmir, the ‘liberal-secular’ forces seem to be in discomfort and have now resorted to putting pro-Pakistan agenda to discredit the Narendra Modi government’s decision to correct the historic blunder.

Kulbhushan Jadhav under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims: MEA after consular meet

An Indian diplomat met Kulbhushan Jadhav today at a sub-jail for an hour after Pakistan granted consular access to the former naval officer “in line with the ICJ judgement.”

In a statement, which was released hours after the first consular access, the Indian government has said that Kulbhushan Jadhav appears to be “under extreme pressure” to parrot a false narrative.

“While we await a comprehensive report, it was clear that Shri Jadhav appeared to be under extreme pressure to parrot a false narrative to bolster Pakistan’s untenable claims. We will decide a further course of action after receiving a detailed report from our Cd’A and determining the extent of conformity to the ICJ directives,” the MEA said in a statement.

It furthered that only after receiving a detailed report will India decide on the future course of action.

“The Charge d’ Affaires, High Commission of India in Islamabad, met Shri Kulbhushan Jadhav today. This meeting was held in the light of the unanimous judgment of the International Court of Justice delivered on 17 July 2019 which found Pakistan in egregious violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, 1963 on many counts and ordered Pakistan to provide Indian consular officers access to Shri Jadhav,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He added, “Today’s consular access is a part of the binding obligations of Pakistan, as ordered by the ICJ, to ensure effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence awarded to Shri Jadhav through a farcical process.”

The MEA spokesperson also said that the External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has spoken with Jadhav’s mother and has briefed her of today’s development.

He added the government remains committed to continue to work towards ensuring that Kulbhushan Jadhav receives justice at the earliest and returns safely to India.

India had accepted Pakistan’s offer for consular access to detained former navy officer Jadhav on Monday and had hoped that Pakistan officials would ensure the “right atmosphere” for the meeting, keeping with the letter and spirit of the ICJ order.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands had directed Pakistan to stay Jadhav’s execution and allow him consular access. Based on ICJ’s verdict in a 15-1 decision on July 17, Pakistan had on July 30 sent its first proposal to India but with 2 riders attached. One that Pakistani security personnel will be present during the meeting and second there will be CCTV cameras present in the room.

India had rejected Pakistan’s first offer with riders and had demanded unimpeded access. According to article 36 of the Vienna Convention, “Consular officer shall be free to communicate with nationals of the sending state and to have access to them.” The first rider by Pakistan was in clear violation of the Vienna Convention.

Jadhav is an Indian national and a retired navy officer, who was arbitrarily arrested by Pakistan in 2016 for being an ‘Indian spy’. The Indian government had approached the ICJ over the arbitrary death sentence handed down to Jadhav after an ad hoc hearing in Pakistan.

A Pakistani military court had sentenced him to death in April 2017 on charges of espionage and terrorism. However, the ICJ in The Hague had asked Pakistan to hold off the execution till it reached the final verdict in the case.

The ICJ had conducted a public hearing of the case in February this year. India has sought annulment of Jadhav’s death sentence and his immediate release stating that Pakistani army court verdict had failed to satisfy even the minimum standards of due process. Senior advocate Harish Salve had presented India’s case at the ICJ.

SIT to probe the harassment charges levelled by LLM student against Swami Chinmayanand, Allahabad HC to monitor: SC

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The sexual allegation case against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand, levelled by a law student from Shahjahanpur in UP, has taken several twists and turns. Yesterday, the ‘abduction’ angle in the case was ruled out after the victim herself confessed before the Supreme Court that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”

Now with one of the serious allegation eliminated, the Supreme Court today ordered the government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) that will probe the harassment charges levelled by the LLM student against Swami Chinmayanand.

UP police had filed an FIR against Swami Chinmayanand, booking him for abduction and intimidation on the basis of the victim’s father’s complaint.

Taking the case suo motu on an application by some activist lawyers, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices R Banumathi and AS Bopanna informed that following the interaction with the student, she had expressed certain grievances and her parents have expressed apprehensions.

To look into these grievances and apprehensions, the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh will constitute an SIT headed by a police officer of the rank of Inspector General of Police. The team will also comprise the superintendent of police and other police officials, ordered the apex court today. The Court has, however, clarified that it is not expressing any opinion on the correctness of the grievances and apprehensions.


Moreover, the SC has requested the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to constitute a Bench to monitor this probe. The SIT will also take note of the FIR and the cross FIR filed in the case.

However, the Supreme Court retained the suo motu petition with itself on the limited aspect of ensuring that studies of the girl are not discontinued or disturbed. It directed the Counsel for the State of Uttar Pradesh to apprise the Court of the institutes where the girl can be accommodated.


After a week-long hunt, the UP police traced the girl in Rajasthan with one of her friend named Sanjay Singh, and extortionist, who had allegedly made ransom calls to Swami Chinmayanand demanding Rs 5 crore.

After the Uttar Pradesh LLM student, who had initially accused BJP MP and former Union Minister Chinmayanand of sexually harassing her, went missing, her father had alleged that the BJP leader has abducted her. Accordingly, the police had registered against Swami Chinmayanand. But after being produced before the Supreme Court yesterday within hours of being traced by police, she told the judges in an in-camera interaction that she had left Shahjahanpur with her three college mates on her own will “in order to protect herself.”

The Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the incident after a group of lawyers had written a letter to the Court urging for the same. The matter was mentioned before the Bench headed by Justice NV Ramanaon Wednesday.

The LLM student from the Swami Shukdevanand Law College (SS Law College) in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh had released a video on social media on August 23, levelling allegations of sexual harassment against BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand.

In a video posted on Friday, the girl alleged that Chinmayanand, the director of her college, is threatening to kill her and her family as she has evidence that could land him in trouble. She asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath for help. The student, however, went missing three days after the allegations were made. This had raised suspicion that the BJP leader had abducted her and accordingly, the police had registered a case against him.

Earlier, Swami Chinmayanand had stated that he was being framed in the case as a part of a big conspiracy to malign the Uttar Pradesh government’s reputation.

Former Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit confuses porn star Johnny Sins with a Kashmir youth blinded by pellet gun

Parody nation Pakistan has at least, been extremely consistent when it comes to providing ‘entertainment’ to humankind. Whatever the situation may be, Pakistan never fails to give Twitterati its regular dose of entertainment through its consistent dose of bloopers.

Pakistan’s recent anecdotes on India’s decision to abrogate Article 370, has also been nothing but a full-fledged gag show which is getting better and better with every passing day. Though all Pakistan’s machismo and psyops over Twitter have been busy creating an atmosphere of being at war against India, their regular gaffes exposing their low IQ has always left Twitterati in splits.

After recently Pakistan Senator Rehman Malik gave the world a sneak-peak into his pea-sized brains by tagging the ‘UNO’ game instead of ‘United Nations’ in his Tweet criticizing Modi, the former Pakistan Envoy Abdul Basit has today gone a step further and asked the world to ‘pray for Johnny Sins’.

In haste to peddle anti-India narrative, the former Pak Envoy took to Twitter to re-tweet an image of the adult movie star Johnny Sins claiming he is Yousuf from Anantnag who has been blinded by a pellet.


For the people who are unaware, Johnny Sins is a pornographic actor who has received nominations for numerous adult industry awards, including the AVN award for male performer of the year, twice. He is consistently among the most popular pornography searches.

Twitterati, as usual, had a field day. Though Basit was quick to undo his retweet, the alert users were faster to point out this gaffe by the former Pak Envoy by taking screenshots.


And there were few who had no words for this ‘intelligentsia’!


This trend of fooling well known Pakistani personalities started after many Pakistanis, including their media, started spreading old images and videos of other places claiming them to be recent imageries from Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistanis have been caught using dozens of such unrelated images and videos claiming atrocities by Indian armed forces on civilians in the state. Some enterprising social media users started contacting people in Pakistan government claiming to have evidence of such ‘atrocities’, only to send images from movies etc. Although most people recognise such trolling after seeing the images, few of them believe them, and Abdul Basit was one of them.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan says Pakistan will not use nuclear weapons first against India

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As Pakistan continues to knock at the doors of the international community against India’s decision to fully integrate Jammu and Kashmir, prime minister Imran Khan made a significate statement today. He said that Pakistan will not use nuclear weapons first, as any escalation between the two nuclear-capable countries will put the entire world in danger.


Addressing a gathering of Sikh community in Lahore, Imran Khan said, “we both are nuclear-armed countries. If these tensions increase, the world could be in danger”. “There will be no first from our side ever,” he assured.

He repeated his rants against RSS in his speech, saying its totalitarian ideology will target other minorities like Sikhs and Dalits also, not just Muslims. He urged the Sikh community raise their voice against the RSS ideology.  Imran Khan was addressing the closing session of International Sikh Convention at the Governor House as the chief guest.

His comments come just a few weeks after Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh saying that India may review its no first use doctrine of nuclear weapons if needed, indicating that India may not stick the ‘no first use’ doctrine if the government feels the need to use the deadly weapon.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s assurance of not using nuclear weapons came just a day after his cabinet colleague, railway minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, warned India that Pakistan has tactical nuclear weapons capable of causing targeted damage in India. “Pakistan has small 125-250 gram atom bombs which may hit a targeted area in India,” he had said while talking to media on Sunday.

While India has self-declared no first use doctrine on nuclear weapons, Pakistan does not have any such official position. Pakistan claims that its first use doctrine is entirely deterrent in nature.

MP forest minister claims Digvijay Singh is trying to destabilise Kamal Nath government, writes to Sonia Gandhi

One of the ministers of Kamal Nath led cabinet in Madhya Pradesh has levelled serious allegations against Congress party veteran and former CM of the state Digvijaya Singh, accusing him of trying to destabilise the Madhya Pradesh government.

Umang Singhar, forest minister in the MP state government has written a letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi Sunday in this context. The letter exposes the infighting within the MP Congress, which the party has been trying to cover.


Singhar has in his letter to Gandhi had written that he was pained to inform her that senior party leader and MP, Digvijaya, was trying to destabilise the Kamal Nath government install him as a power centre.

He further added that Digvijaya was writing letters to the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues and sharing the same on social media platforms.

“He had also written letters to Nath regarding Vyapam, e-tendering and tree-plantation scams, but had not written about Simhast (Kumbh Mela) scam as his son Jaivardhan Singh is heading the urban administration and development ministry. The Congress had made it (Simhast scam) a big issue while it was in the opposition,” the letter stated.

“Such letters give credence to the opposition, including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and leader of the opposition Gopal Bhargava, that Digvijaya is running the government from behind the curtain,” it further read.

Singhar, who is a tribal MLA from Gandhwani seat, also said in the letter, “When he is running the government from behind the curtain, which is known to everyone including the Congress workers, then what was the need to write a letter (to ministers)?”

Singhar confirmed to the PTI about writing the letter to Gandhi. In the same breath, he asked, “What is wrong with it?”

Reports of fiction in the Madhya Pradesh party unit have been surfacing for a while and recently a section of the party workers favouring Jyotiraditya Scindia threatened to mass resign if her was not made the party chief in the state.

Digvijaya, a known Gandhi family loyalist, had recently written to the state ministers for an appointment to seek the updates on the transfers and works recommended by him.

State public relations minister PC Sharma jumped in defense of Digvijaya and his act of writing to the CM and ministers citing his stature as a present Rajya Sabha MP.

“People come to him with their problems and he highlighted them by writing letters,” Sharma said and added, “He did the ‘Narmada Parikrama’ (circumambulation), and a large number of people contact him with their problems. There is nothing wrong in writing letters.”

Sharma who is believed to be a loyalist of Digvijaya rubbished the claims that he was running a parallel government in the state. “It is chief minister Kamal Nath who is running the government and all senior leaders and ministers are supporting him,” he asserted.

P Chidambaram’s CBI custody extended by one day, court to hear interim bail plea tomorrow

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A Delhi court today extended the CBI custody of former union minister P Chidambaram by one more day. Special Judge Ajay Kumar Kuhar will hear the bail plea of the senior Congress leader tomorrow. Chidambaram was produced at the court as his CBI remand was expiring today which was extended by three days on 30 August.

The CBI opposed any relief to Chidambaram and sought one more day in custody, which was granted by the court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal moved an interim plea seeking interim bail at the court today, after the Supreme Court directed him to move the trial court for interim protection. Appearing for CBI, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought time to submitted a written reply to the plea, and also said that CBI must be issued a notice in this regard as per rules.

The hearings in the special CBI court was followed by dramatic developments in the Supreme Court today. SC was hearing Chidambaram’s petition against CBI remand today, where his lawyers requested the court that he should not be sent to Tihar jail on judicial custody. His lawyers had said that put Chidambaram in house arrest if needed, instead of Tihar Jail.

In a very unusual order, the Supreme Court had asked the trial court to extend CBI remand if his bail plea was to be rejected today. This order had prevented the trial court from sending P Chidambaram to Judicial custody. Later SG Tushar Mehta was able to convince the apex court to hear the matter again tomorrow, as CBI was going to seek custody till tomorrow.

When the CBI court started hearing the case, it had not received the SC order, creating some confusion. After the order was fetched, the court extended the CBI custody of P Chidambaram by one. The court will hear the interim bail plea on Tuesday, and take further decisions on the case after Supreme Court issues its order tomorrow.

Chidambaram was arrested late night on 21st August by the CBI from his Jor Bagh residence in New Delhi in connection to the INX Media case. The arrest came after high-intensity drama where CBI officials had to climb up walls to reach the senior Congress leader. The CBI court had sent him to CBI remand for 4 days on 22nd August, which was extended by 4 and 3 days after expire of earlier remands. ED is also seeking to arrest him on money laundering case.

NDTV slammed for referring to Wing Commander Abhinandan as the pilot who was captured by Pakistan

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It seems that controversial media house NDTV, which is known for its anti-India fake news propaganda, never misses a chance to propagate scandalous anti-India narrative.

On Monday, NDTV, a part of the left wing media ecosystem, was subjected to severe shaming after it tried to dishonour war hero Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman by referring to him as a ‘captured pilot’.


In a historic event, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who had piloted a MiG-21 Bison retaliating Pakistan Air Force’s attempt to attack India after India’s airstrike at a terror camp in Pakistan’s Balakot in February, flew a sortie together in a two-seater version of the Russian-origin MiG-21 from Pathankot airbase.

Following his ejection from the downed MiG-21, which is physically very demanding, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was undergoing rehabilitation. As the entire country welcomed Abhinandan Varthaman getting back his flying category after six months, perhaps NDTV could not hide its anguish and seems to have deliberately attempted to discredit Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman by referring to him as ‘captured pilot’ in the same tone and tenor as Pakistan.

The NDTV’s hatred for Indian Armed Forces was soon caught by social media users, who slammed the controversial media house for its insensitive reporting. Few users responded with tweeting the edited image of the NDTV’s tweet with a more appropriate headline.


Some social media users even accused NDTV of being a Pakistani media after it referred to Abhinandan Varthaman as a ‘captured pilot’.


On 27th April, when Pakistan Air Force had attempted to retaliate the Balakot strikes, Abhinandan Varthaman’s MiG-21 Bison was one of the planes scrambled by the IAF to tharst the attack. During a dog fight, Abhinadnan had shot down an F-16 of Pakistan, but he had entered PoK by that time and was shot down by a Pakistani fighter plane. He has been awarded the Vir Chakra on independence day last month.

China offers to treat Timatar Reporter at one of their ‘reeducation camps’ after his latest rant

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The ‘Tauba Tauba’ journalist is back again, this time with a rant on Kashmir. In a recent video, he has appealed the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan to drop atom bombs in New Delhi. Earlier, he had boasted of Pakistani being an ‘Atami taakat’ but rued the fact that India had stopped ‘timatar’ supplies to the terror state.

He said, “This is a ‘Tauba Tauba’ situation, today it has been 27 days since the curfew has been imposed in Kashmir. People are waiting for medicines, the sick are waiting to get to the hospital, people are not getting water and electricity, people don’t have internet and mobile services. This is Tauba Tauba situation, Indian Forces have imposed a curfew for 27 days.”

“In this situation, I’d like to appeal to Imran Khan and Pakistan Force that they should immediately attack Kashmir and drop an atom bomb on Delhi. Atom bomb should be thrown on Delhi and other cities of India. This is a Tauba Tauba situation and Indian Forces must be taught a lesson that if Kashmir is in sorrow, then every Indian child must feel the pain,” the Tauba Tauba reporter added.

In unrelated news, according to reports, 50 million Pakistanis were said to be suffering from mental health issues as of 2016. The psychological effect of the abrogation of Article 370 on the mental health of Pakistanis is yet to be evaluated.

Reactions have been pouring in on the Tauba Tauba reporter’s ridiculous rant. Himesh Reshammiya roared, “Mujhe tere ghar me timatar chahiye, garibi nahi! (I want tomatoes in your home, not poverty!”. Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar thundered, “Aaj meri pagri bhi Kesari, jo bahega mera lahoo bhi Kesari, aur mera jawaab bhi Kesari! (Today, my turban is Saffron, my blood that will flow is Saffron and my answer is also Saffron!)”.

Mithun Chakraborty said, “Laat maarbo ekhaney, Laash porbey shoshaney! (I will kick you here and your body will land straight in the crematorium!).” Noted singer Kailash Kher said, “Tauba tauba tauba uff, Tauba tauba tauba uff, Tauba tauba tauba uff, Tauba tauba tauba, Tauba tauba ve teri surat, Masha-e-allah ve teri surat, Tauba tauba ve teri surat, Masha-e-allah ve teri surat, Tuenu jera mere liye, Rab ne banaya mere yaara, Dildaara dise rab da nazara.” We don’t quite understand what he meant.

The Supreme Court of India, too, was concerned with the rhetoric and raised the matter with the apex court of Pakistan. When it learned that the Pakistani apex court couldn’t comment on such matters, it was surprised. “Strange. Here in India, the government can’t even deport illegal immigrants before we have first heard at least a dozen PILs,” one judge observed ruefully.

BBC took cognizance of Timatar Reporter’s comments and, after much debate and deliberation, came to the conclusion that Hindu Nationalism was responsible for the Pakistani’s genocidal rhetoric. New York Times, in an editorial, accused the Indian government of committing genocide not only in Kashmir but also in Pakistan. “India’s actions have created a mental health crisis in Pakistan that needs immediate attention from the World Health Organization. The recent comments made by Timatar Reporter ought to be seen in that light.”

China has meanwhile offered to treat Timatar Reporter at one of their ‘reeducation camps’. Hillary Clinton has requested Pakistan to desist from the attack as the first victims of war are primarily women because they are left without husbands. The Democrat party issued a similar statement where it said it was useless to nuke New Delhi as the city was not dominated by White Males.

Beto O’Rourke, a Presidential aspirant who is known to speak in Spanish during debates to reach out to Hispanics, said, “Despacito , Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito, Deja que te diga cosas al oído, Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo.” Vladimir Putin reportedly called Narendra Modi to enquire whether India wanted some Russian interference to deal with Pakistan. The Indian PM has apparently declined the offer as he doesn’t want another Mueller Report.

Noted panelist on Memri raised his shoe and said, “This is my only comment. A worn-out shoe is my only comment.”

Image result for this shoe is my only comment memri

Another panelist told Timatar Reporter, “By Allah, Behave Yourself. I will give you a taste of my shoe.”

Image result for by allah behave yourself

Naruto only said ‘Dattebayo!’. Uzumaki Deidara said, “Art is an EXPLOSION!” It is hereby clarified that OpIndia.com does not endorse such violent rhetoric. Voldemort refused to comment on the matter but told us that his spokesperson, Peter Pettigrew, would soon issue a statement. When we inquired where we would find Wormtail, he told us Pettigrew was recently spotted in the Supreme Court, arguing for a senior Congress leader. We aren’t sure who he meant.

Image result for kapil sibal wormtail

Manchester United fans were seen outside Old Trafford urging Ed Woodward and the Glazers to take a trip to New Delhi after Timatar Reporter’s video went viral. Arsenal fans, meanwhile, enquired whether they could send their owners to New Delhi on the same flight as well since their club, apparently, doesn’t have enough funds after the transfer window.

People in India are glad that they will be able to celebrate Diwali properly this time as firecrackers were banned by the Supreme Court last year. “It’s a genuine goodwill gesture that will promote peace and harmony between the two countries,” said Javed Akhtar. Arvind Kejriwal claimed credit for it and said that it was because of the Aam Aadmi Party that people will be able to celebrate Diwali with firecrackers this year.

When reminded that Timatar Reporter was talking about nuclear bombs and not firecrackers, the IITian Delhi CM said, “Hum gadhey nahi hai ji. Atom bomb bola na, hum jaantey hain atom bomb kya hota hai, bachpan me hum bhi khoob phora kartey the (We are not donkeys. We know what an atom bomb is, we used to burst them in our childhood too).”

Meanwhile, Imran Khan has taken the words of Timatar Reporter seriously and phoned Daenerys Targaryen to request her to lend one of her dragons to drop an atom bomb on New Delhi. It appears that Imran Khan, like Jon Snow, knows nothing. The Dragon Queen was recently assassinated by Jon Snow for the greater good.

Former Pakistani Cricketer and permanently retired finally, Shahid Afridi, implored Imran Khan to see reason and said that there was no need for nuclear war and the Kashmir issue can be resolved through another Twitter battle with Gautam Gambhir. He promised to direct more mean tweets at the current BJP Lok Sabha MP and former Indian cricketer. Timatar Reporter’s incendiary remark had resulted in marital problems for Shoaib Malik, hence, he was unavailable for comments.

Record number of Income Tax Return filed in a single day, I-T dept to issue PAN if ITR filed with only Aadhaar

In an official statement issued on Sunday, the Income Tax department has revealed that it has made history with a quantum jump in the e-filing of Income–Tax Returns (ITRs) with an all-time high record of 49 lakh 29 thousand and 121 ITRs filed in a single day on August 31, 2019.

31st August was the last date of filing income tax returns after it was extended by a month. According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the peak filing rate per second on August 31, was at 196 ITRs and peak filing rate per minute was at 7447 ITRs.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) frames policies for the tax department. The CBDT data showed that more than 5.65 crore returns were filed till 31 August 2019, marking a 4 per cent increase in the filings from the 5.42 crore returns filed in 2018-2019.

On the last week of August, a rumour was spreading on social media that the last date for filing ITR has been extended again. But the Income Tax department had issued an advisory stating that no such extension has been given. The department had asked citizens to file the returns within the extended due date of August 31, 2019.

Due to the department’s efforts in providing pre-filled forms as well as guidance to taxpayers through social media, the filing of tax returns surged 41 per cent on the last date to 49 lakh filings in the assessment year 2019-20 from the previous year.

Moreover, as a part of a new arrangement to link both Aadhar and PAN, a notification was issued by the CBDT on August 30, which says that if taxpayers file ITR with only Aadhaar, they will be automatically alloted PAN (Permananet Account Number) by the I-T department. It said that if a person who does not have PANm furnishes only Aadhaar number for filing returns, “shall be deemed” to have applied for allotment of PAN and they will not be required to apply or submit any more documents.

The notification said the tax department will “obtain demographic information of an individual from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)” for allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN). This rule has come to effect from September 1, 2019.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on July 5 announced that PAN and Aadhaar are being made interchangeable as the government will allow those who do not have PAN to file I-T returns by simply quoting their Aadhaar number and use it wherever they are required to quote PAN.

On being asked whether the Income Tax Department-issued PAN will be dead, CBDT chairman P C Mody had told PTI in an interview in July that the department would “suo motu” allot a fresh PAN to a person who files I-T Returns (ITR) with only Aadhaar as part of a new arrangement to link the two databases. “In cases where Aadhaar is being quoted and PAN is not there, we could possibly think on the terms of allotting a PAN to the person (who is filing an income tax return).” “The law provides that the assessing officer can suo motu allot PAN. So, if Aadhaar is being quoted without PAN, I give him the PAN. It becomes linked,” Mody had said. This means that the PAN will continue, and individuals who have Aadhaar but not PAN will be issued PAN automatically.

Aadhaar is issued to individuals only, while PAN is issued to corporate and other non-personal entities too who pay tax and file returns, and the entire Income Tax database is based on PAN. Therefore, it seems logical that PAN will continue to be used even if interchangeability with Aadhaar had suggested that it will become obsolete.

The government has made it mandatory to link the two databases. While Aadhar is issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to an individual, PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the tax department to a person, firm or entity.

The information provided in an Aadhar, that is the individual’s name, date of birth, gender, photo and address, and also biometrics, is the same which an individual person would require to acquire a new PAN. As per data, over 120 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued in the country and about 41 crore PAN numbers have been generated. Out of these, more than 22 crore PANs are linked with Aadhaar.

Section 139 AA (2) of the I-T Act provides that any individual who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar or is having PAN as on July 1, 2017, is required to declare their Aadhaar number to tax authorities. After the Supreme Court upheld the section 139AA, the government in March this year declared that the deadline for linking PAN-Aadhaar was till September 30. If the PAN of individuals are not linked with Aadhaar within 30 September, such PANs will become invalid. Residents Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir have been exempted from this where Aadhaar penetration is low.

Last year the SC had upheld that the Government’s flagship Aadhar scheme as constitutionally valid and declared that the biometric ID would remain mandatory for filing of I-T returns and allotment of PAN.

Now, according to the latest notification, the tax department will be “responsible for evolving and implementing appropriate security, archival and retrieval policies in relation to furnishing or intimation or quoting or authentication of Aadhaar number or obtaining of demographic information of an individual from the UIDAI, for allotment of permanent account number and issue thereof”.