SPECIAL CBI COURT’S BABRI DEMOLITION ACQUITTALS CHALLENGED
Two Ayodhya residents on January 8 moved the Allahabad High Court, challenging a special CBI court’s ruling that acquitted all 32 accused, including BJP veterans L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case. Ayodhya residents Haji Mahboob and Haji Sayyad Akhlaq Ahmad filed the petition in the Lucknow bench of the high court on behalf of All India Muslim Personal Law Board. The two decided to challenge the special court’s judgement after the CBI did not move the high court against the acquittal of the accused by the special court, said a counsel for Ayodhya residents. Twenty-eight years after the Babri Masjid was razed, the special court last year had acquitted all 32 people including BJP veterans L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi and Uma Bharti, accused of inciting a mob of kar sevaks to demolish the Babri mosque.
SAURABH ARRESTED IN UP FOR ESPIONAGE, BOOKED UNDER UAPA
In a counter-espionage operation, the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has apprehended a retired Indian Army soldier, based on input provided by a Lucknow-based Military Intelligence (MI) Unit. As per the information, Saurabh Sharma, an ex-serviceman, was working for a Pakistani intelligence agency since 2016. The UP ATS took almost a month to track down and arrest the retired army man. UP ATS and the military intelligence (MI) unit tracked down retired Signalman Saurabh Sharma from his parental house, located in the Bihuni in Uttar Pradesh’s Hapur district. The military intelligence had earlier received a tip about the involvement of the retired army signalman in espionage activities. After receiving the tip, the “Operation Cross-Connection” was initiated to trace the retired army personnel and arrest Saurabh Sharma. Details of the operation were shared with UP ATS at the beginning of December 2020 and a joint investigation was started soon after. Sharma has accepted involvement with the Pakistan intelligence agency and revealed that he came in touch with a Pakistan Intelligence Operating (PIO) in 2014 on Facebook.
‘DOUBTFUL INDIANS’ IN ASSAM GET A CENTRE TO LEARN THEIR RIGHTS
Aditpur, about 20 km from western Assam’s Barpeta town, is teaching the Constitution of India to “doubtful” Indians who have never heard of it. Local activists and youth had on December 20 opened a Sambidhan Kendra, or Constitution Centre, at Aditpur’s TND Bazaar. Scores of people marked ‘D’ (doubtful voters) and facing citizenship issues have since been trooping to this two-room centre to know where they stand, what they need to do and how they can fight a system that makes them “victims” of the very Constitution they are a part of. “Assam has more than 5 lakh people who are being deprived of their citizenship rights because of having been struck off voters’ list and being slapped with notices as suspected foreigners,” said Mahiuddin Siddique, a teacher of a private college who conceptualised the centre that took six months to plan.
HC GRANTS BAIL TO THREE ACCUSED IN DELHI RIOTS CASE
A court here on January 4 granted bail to three persons in a northeast Delhi riots case, saying the investigation carried out was perfunctory and the charge sheet was filed in a lackadaisical manner. Additional sessions judge Amitabh Rawat granted relief to Osama, Aatir and Gulfam on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 10,000 with one surety of the same amount each in the case related to the looting and burning of a fruits godown during the rioting in Jafrabad area on February 25, 2020. The court said the list of witnesses filed with the reply of the police to the bail pleas mentioned some witnesses but no such statements had been filed with the charge sheet in May last year. It noted the reply to the bail pleas mentioned that the statements of two alleged eyewitnesses have been recorded by the police, which would be filed with the supplementary charge sheet.
FOUR ARRESTED AFTER WAVING SAFFRON FLAGS AT TAJ MAHAL
Four activists from a Hindu rightwing outfit were arrested for waving saffron flags within the premises of the Taj Mahal in Agra after a video showing the same went viral on social media. According to the Times of India, the men were identified members of Hindu Jagran Manch’s youth wing – Guarav Talwar, Rishi Lavania, Sonu Baghel and Vishesh Kumar. “Our security personnel use metal detectors for frisking visitors but a small piece of cloth can’t be detected. Selfie sticks are allowed and they used it for hoisting these cloth flags,” a CISF personnel who arrested them told the daily. The viral video shows three men unfurling and waiving saffron flags while a fourth person recorded the video. The four men have been charged under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 7 in the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
KERALA BAKERY FORCED TO REMOVE ‘HALAL’ INFO
Amidst a social media campaign by right-wing groups against halal certification for products in the country, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has removed the word from its ‘Red Meat Manual’. While the earlier Red Meat Manual of the APEDA, which handles agri-exports under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said “animals are slaughtered strictly according to halal method to meet the requirement of Islamic countries”, it now says “the animals are slaughtered according to the requirement of importing country/importer”. It has also deleted these lines: “The animals are slaughtered by halal system under strict vigilance of (a) recognised and registered Islamic body as per the tenets of Islamic Shariyat. The certificate for halal is issued by the representative of registered Islamic body under whose supervision the slaughter is conducted in order to meet the requirement of (the) importing country.”
DIDN’T SIGN LETTER SUPPORTING LOVE JIHAD LAW: FORMER JUDGES
Former Kerala High Court judges refuted reports that they were signatories to the campaign extending support to the implementation of the Love Jihad law in Uttar Pradesh. While a former HC judge said he was told about the campaign but never gave his support, another judge said he is not even aware of the signature campaign. A statement had claimed that four former HC judges have signed the letter sent to the UP Chief Minister. As many as 200 retired bureaucrats and judicial officers, including former chief justices of high courts, chief secretaries and DGPs, have sent a letter to CM Yogi Adityanath in support of the new law against religious conversions in UP. Justice Balakrishnan Nair, former judge of the Kerala HC, whose name appeared in the statement, said that nobody has contacted him in connection with the statement.
GDP SET TO DROP 7.7%, BIGGEST CONTRACTION SINCE 1952
India’s economy is set for its biggest annual contraction in records going back to 1952 as the rapid spread of coronavirus cases and measures to contain them hurt businesses and households, a report said on January 7. Gross domestic product will shrink 7.7% in the financial year ending March 2021, the statistics ministry said in its first advance estimate published on January 7. That’s steeper than a 7.5% drop forecast by the Reserve Bank of India, as well as economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The estimates may undergo sharp revisions due to disruptions caused by steps to contain the pandemic, said the statistics office, which had suspended data collection coinciding with a nationwide lockdown. The contraction in the nation’s GDP will also be the first since 1980, when the economy shrank 5.2%, and is set to be the worst slump in Asia after Philippines’ estimated 8.5%-9.5% drop.