Gulf Times

Wednesday, September 2, 2020 9

INDIA INDIA
RULING DECISION POLITICS CLAIM TRAGEDY

Allahabad court grants
bail to Kafeel Khan
The Allahabad High Court yesterday
granted bail to Dr Kafeel Khan of Uttar
Pradesh’s Gorakhpur city. Khan had been
booked under the National Security Act
(NSA) and is lodged at the Mathura jail
since his arrest in January. The court asked
Khan to submit two sureties of Rs60,000
each and an undertaking that he will not
repeat the offence. The state government
had opposed his release on the ground
that he would again make provocative
speeches and vitiate the atmosphere. Khan
had been arrested for his speeches made
during the anti-CAA protests in the Aligarh
Muslim University.
Monuments other than Taj
reopens in Agra today
Officials of the Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI) and the district administration said all
necessary preparations and precautions were
in place to welcome visitors to the historical
monuments in Agra, other than the Taj Mahal
and the Agra Fort. Basant Kumar, superintending
archaeologist of the ASI said all visitors would
be thoroughly screened, sanitised before
being permitted to enter monuments. Tickets
would need to be purchased online, as ticket
windows will not be opened at the monuments.
All visitors will have to wear masks. Only 2,000
visitors would be allowed daily. The hospitality
industry in Agra has suffered a major dent due
to Covid-19.
Jose Mani-led faction
original party: EC
Jose K Mani, son of Kerala Congress-Mani’s
late founder K M Mani, now has something
to cheer after the election commission
recognised his faction as the original party.
Going through the claims of the rival factions
led by Jose Mani and party veteran and
senior legislator P J Joseph, the poll panel
allotted the party symbol of two leaves to
his faction. Expressing happiness, Jose Mani
said truth has finally triumphed. “We lost the
Pala by-election because we did not have the
symbol. We will now seek the resignation of
the legislators in the faction led by Joseph,”
he said. Joseph said they will go in appeal
against the directive.
‘Sasikala’s properties in
Tamil Nadu attached’
The Income Tax (IT) department is said to have
attached about 65 properties belonging to V
K Sasikala and her associates in and around
the Tamil Nadu capital. Senior IT department
officials, however, declined to confirm or deny
the action. As per some reports, one of the
properties that is being attached is a residential
building under construction in Poes Garden.
It is said Sasikala after her release from the
Bengaluru jail will be residing at the Poes
Garden residence. Sasikala and two of her
relatives are in a Bengaluru jail after being
convicted in a corruption case. In 2017, the IT
department had raided about 187 properties
said to be linked to Sasikala and her relatives.
Mumbai accident
toll climbs to five
The toll in a late night accident in Mumbai after
a speeding car rammed an eatery climbed to
five, officials said. Kamlesh N Singh, 21, who was
admitted to the Sir J. J. Hospital, succumbed
yesterday morning, said an official of Pydhonie
Police Station. Earlier in the day, the police
arrested the vehicle driver Syed Sameer Ali, 46,
alias Diggy – who is a known history-sheeter.
Ali is suspected to have been in an inebriated
condition at the time of the accident. He
sustained minor injuries and is admitted in a
hospital. Late on Monday night, four people –
Saroja Naidu, 65, Zubeda A Khan, Saira Banu, 60
and Mohamed Naeem, 55, died, while four others
were injured.

Farewell to Mukherjee
CPI-M, Congress
trade charges
over murder of
two activists
IANS “I am ready to take up the
Thiruvananthapuram challenge as I have done noth-
ing in this. As the local MP, it’s
my duty to get involved when

W
ith the Kerala Police
yesterday formally
arresting four Con-
gress workers and taking into
custody another four alleged
to be part of the conspiracy to
eliminate two activists of the
CPI-M’s youth wing, a war of
words has broken out between
the two parties. The Congress
is demanding a Central Bureau
of Investigation probe into the
double murder.
The four were arrested on
Monday and another four ac-
cused were being questioned
yesterday.
The murders took place close
to midnight on Sunday, when
24-year-old Haq Mohamed
and 32-year-old Mithilaj, both
youth wing activists of the CPI-
M, were hacked to death by
our party workers are wrongly
arrested by the police. Since
Jayarajan has levelled this alle-
gation about me, the onus is on
him to prove it,” said Prakash.
Joining issue was state
Congress president Mulla-
pally Ramachandran who con-
demned the brutal murders and
said they do not have faith in a
probe by those who are close to
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
“The CPI-M is a party which
celebrates murder and they in-
dulge in collecting party funds
in the name of murder. We do
not have faith in a probe by the Military police escort an ambulance carrying the body of former president Pranab Mukherjee as they leave his residence ahead of his funeral in New Delhi yesterday.
police of Vijayan, instead we Mukherjee, a veteran powerbroker once described in leaked US diplomatic cables as “the ultimate Congress Party fixer”, died on August 31 at the age of 84, his family said.
demand a CBI probe, then only
the truth will come out. The
Congress party is not one which
dabbles in violence and has al-
ways condemned any such acts.

Minister accuses Facebook

five people who came on bikes
armed with swords and knives
at Venjaramoodu, about 25kms
from the state capital’s suburbs.
According to the police, the
arrested include Shejith, Ajith,
The Congress party has no role
in this ghastly incident,” said
Ramachandran.
Even though the police
charge-sheet does not mention
that these are political mur-

of bias in deepening row

Najeeb and Sathi, while two
others – the prime accused
Sajeev and Sanal – are yet to be
arrested. Four more people have
been picked up for questioning.
State Industries Minister E
P Jayarajan, soon after visiting
the homes of the victims alleged
that the Congress MP from the
locality, Adoor Prakash, knew
ders, the police pointed out that
these two factions first clashed
during the May 2019 Lok Sabha
polls and since then, there has
been an uneasy calm between
them.
The top CPI-M leadership, AFP ister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya elections, “there was a concert- speech on the platform. phemous nexus between the BJP
including Chief Minister Pi- New Delhi Janata Party and disparaged the ed effort by Facebook...to not Ajit Mohan, its India chief, and Facebook”.
narayi Vijayan, condemned the opposition in internal posts. just delete pages or substantially defended the company’s actions “The aim of the BJP is ‘divide
double murder and ordered a The Journal reported that Fa- reduce their reach but also offer and denied any bias. and rule’ and the social media

everything about the incident.
“There are reports that have
come out that after the brutal
murder of the two young CPI-
M party workers, the attackers
got in touch with Prakash. This
is a cold blooded murder un-
leashed by the Congress party,
who are out to wreck things. A
detailed probe will have to be
done,” said Jayarajan.
Reacting to this, Prakash said
the onus was on Jayarajan to
prove his allegation.
probe into it.
The incident occurred when
the two victims, who were trav-
elling on a bike, were stopped
and attacked by the five persons
who came on two bikes. While
Mithilaj died on the spot, Mo-
hamed died in hospital.
After the incident, angry
CPI-M workers went around
the area and are alleged to have
damaged the Congress offices
at several places in Thiruvanan-
thapuram and Kollam districts.
T
he communications min-
ister yesterday accused
Facebook of bias against
right-wing politics, even after
fresh reports about claims that
a high-ranking staffer at the so-
cial media giant supported the
country’s Hindu-nationalist
ruling party.
The row erupted after The
Wall Street Journal published
two reports alleging that Ankhi
Das, Facebook’s top public pol-
icy executive in India, had ex-
pressed support for Prime Min-
cebook also failed to take action
against posts containing hate
speech against Muslims by a
Hindu nationalist lawmaker out
of concern for its business inter-
ests in India — the firm’s largest
market in terms of users.
Time magazine also published
an article last week with similar
allegations.
But Communications Minis-
ter Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed
in a letter dated yesterday to Fa-
cebook chief Mark Zuckerberg
that ahead of the 2019 national
no recourse or right of appeal
to affected people who are sup-
portive of right-of-centre ideol-
ogy”.
Prasad also alleged in the let-
ter that the recent press reports
were the result of “selective
leaks...to portray an alternate
reality”.
“This interference in the po-
litical process through gossip,
whispers and innuendo is con-
demnable.”
Facebook has been under in-
tense pressure to act against hate
But the company also admit-
ted it had to do better on tackling
hate speech.
The Time magazine article
said Facebook had commis-
sioned an independent report
on its impact on human rights in
India before the first of the two
WSJ reports was published.
Politicians from the opposi-
tion Congress party have ac-
cused the company of favouring
the BJP.
The party said in a statement
yesterday that there was a “blas-
giant Facebook is helping them
achieve this,” it said in the state-
ment.
Facebook’s Das had told staff
that hate speech rules should
not be applied to BJP individuals
and party allies even though the
post had been flagged by staff,
the Journal reported.
The company’s executives
have been ordered to appear be-
fore an parliamentary informa-
tion technology committee on
September 2 over the contro-
versy.

Fighting Covid
Troops hold hilltops after Trouble looms for Vijayan
in gold smuggling case
face-off with China forces IANS to him and prime accused Swap-
na Suresh, would be asked to ap-
Thiruvananthapuram
Reuters troops move responded to an at- mountain pass. pear before one or more of these
New Delhi tempt by a large number of Chi- “What India has done runs probe agencies.

W
nese infantry to push through a counter to the efforts made by ith three national The gold smuggling case was
key mountain pass late on Sat- both sides for a period of time to agencies all set to unearthed when P S Sarith, a

A
senior official yesterday
said Indian troops had
deployed on four strate-
gic hilltops after what New Delhi
called an attempted Chinese
incursion along the disputed
Himalayan border, underlining
simmering tensions between the
Asian giants.
China denied that it had moved
first, with an embassy spokes-
woman in New Delhi accus-
ing Indian troops of trespassing
across the Line of Actual Control
(LAC) — the de facto border —
and conducting “flagrant provo-
cations”.
Indian and Chinese troops
have been locked in a high-al-
titude border confrontation for
months in the western Himalay-
an region of Ladakh.
The two sides have disputed
the course of the frontier for
more than half a century.
The official, who was briefed
on the latest incident, said the
urday.
“We mobilised and occupied
the four heights,” the official
said, adding all four hilltops were
on India’s side of the LAC.
The official said the Chi-
nese soldiers were backed up by
military vehicles and drew close
enough to engage Indian troops
in verbal arguments, but there
were no clashes.
He said the incident occurred
on the southern bank of Pangong
Tso, a picturesque lake in the
snow desert region where Indian
and Chinese troops have been
facing off since April.
The official said the Chinese
had also been consolidating po-
sitions on the northern bank of
the lake with what appeared to be
new defensive positions.
But Ji Rong, a spokeswoman
for the Chinese embassy in New
Delhi, said Indian troops had vi-
olated the LAC at Pangong Tso’s
southern bank and near another
ease and cool down the situation
on the ground, and China is reso-
lutely opposed to this,” she said.
“India...said it pre-empted
Chinese military activity,” Chi-
na’s state-backed Global Times
said in an editorial. “The word
‘pre-empt’ shows it was In-
dian troops that first took de-
structive action, and the Indian
troops initiated the stand-off
this time.”
In June, 20 Indian soldiers
were killed in hand-to-hand
combat with Chinese troops in
Ladakh’s Galwan area, the most
serious clash between the two
countries in 50 years.
Both sides then agreed to pull
back with military chiefs in the
region holding five rounds of
talks.
But the Indian military said
this week Beijing had reneged on
the deal by carrying out “pro-
vocative military movements to
change the status quo”.
again question M
Sivasankar, former secretary to
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi
Vijayan, it is going to be uneasy
days ahead for the latter.
The customs, enforcement di-
rectorate (ED) and the National
Investigation Agency (NIA) are
now probing the case and have
arrested around two dozen peo-
ple, who were directly or indi-
rectly involved in this case.
Since July 5, when customs
busted the gold smuggling case,
Sivasankar has been questioned
by these three agencies for long
hours. The last time was on Au-
gust 15, when he was questioned
for five hours by the ED.
After that, these investigat-
ing agencies have been evidence
and corroborating it with the ar-
A worker sanitises the floor of a shopping mall reopened rested. According to sources, the
after the government eased a nationwide lockdown imposed agencies have found that there
as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus, in are some missing links and very
Chennai yesterday. soon Sivasankar and a chartered
accountant, who has been close
former employee of the UAE
consulate here, was arrested by
the customs department on July
5 when he was facilitating the
smuggling of 30kg of gold in the
diplomatic baggage to Thiru-
vananthapuram from Dubai.
It turned murkier when the
name of Swapna Suresh, a former
employee of the consulate, and
employed with the state’s IT de-
partment, surfaced and more so,
when her links with Sivasankar,
who held the dual posts of prin-
cipal secretary to Vijayan and
state IT secretary, was revealed.
What has added to the already
beleaguered Vijayan’s woes is a
fire in the secret section of the
general administration depart-
ment in the state secretariat that
took place last week.
With the BJP and Congress al-
leging that it was a ‘created’ fire,
a team of NIA officials will soon
visit the site of the blaze.