Umesh Pal the key witness in 2005 BSP MLA murder case shot dead in Prayagraj 2
Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case, was shot dead at his residence here, police said.
One of his gunners, who too was hit in the firing, died later at a hospital, they said.
Prayagraj Police Commissioner Ramit Sharma told reporters that Umesh Pal was attacked with crude bombs and shot outside his house this evening. Two of his gunners were also injured in the attack.
Both gunners were deployed for Pal’s security by the government. One of the gunners, Sandeep Nishad, succumbed at the hospital.
Umesh was the prime witness to the 2005 murder of Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Raju Pal. The main accused in the Raju Pal murder is mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, who is currently lodged in a Gujarat jail.
A severely injured Umesh Pal was rushed to Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital, where he succumbed during treatment, police said.
Nishad, who was critically ill, was put on a ventilator before he succumbed. The other gunner is being operated upon by doctors, the police said.
Sharma said that efforts are being made to identify the attackers on the basis of CCTV footage of the area.
“The incident occurred right outside the house of Umesh Pal.” “So far, it has been confirmed that two bombs were thrown and he was fired at by a small firearm,” said Sharma.
A case was registered at the Dhoomanganj Police Station on the complaint of the family members of the victim.
“We have formed eight police teams to investigate every aspect of the incident and arrest those behind the attack,” the officer added.
I was born in Mumbai and have known the Shiv Sena since I was a child. I never imagined Thackeray’s legacy would be lost in my wildest dreams. Shiv Sena was very close to my heart because I grew up in Girgaon and was Pramod Navalkar’s neighbor. Uddhav Thackeray seems to be getting into a lot of trouble these days. First, he lost the government, and then he lost the Shiv Sena party and its precious symbol. There is buzz that he could lose party funds as well as some offices. All this is happening after Eknath Shinde, who was supposed to be his once-trusted associate, rebelled against him. Uddhav could not handle his unplanned success; he never took his party workers into confidence. There was a lack of communication, and keeping Aditya ahead spoiled it further. Meeting Balasaheb was very easy, but getting time to meet Junior Thackeray’s father and son is a big task. Balasaheb always had the guts to entertain his opponents and his critics.
I remember there was a journalist who was trashed by Shiv Sainiks in 1990 for criticizing Balasaheb, and Shiv Sena graciously invited him to Matoshri. Balasaheb was not only kind to him, but he gave an interview to Uddhav and his son Aaditya, who always avoided people who slightly disapproved of them. Balasaheb played the politics of adding people, whereas Uddhav played the politics of avoiding people.
Uddhav’s biggest mistake was the change in the party constitution in 2018. With this amendment, he gained complete control of the electors for the party president election. In other words, the party president decided who the voters for his post would be. The Election Commission of India, in its order favoring Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, said that it’s against the spirit of inter-party democracy. Only when their self-interest-driven personal schemes fail, politicians remember the voters and beg them to restore their lost fortunes. Another mistake that Uddhav made was the delay in taking action against the Eknath Shinde faction. When Shinde left for Surat in the middle of the night on June 20, 2022, immediately after voting in the Legislative Council polls, Uddhav should have expelled him and his 15 other MLA colleagues. This would have at most shrunk his party on the floor of the House but would have saved his legacy as the expelled group could not have claimed the party as their own. Uddhav could have gracefully faced the floor test, but he not only resigned but left CM House on a very humbling note. He surrendered to the situation without fighting the battle appropriately.
Maharashtra is more attached to Balasaheb Thackeray than to his party, the Shiv Sena. This party was a source of pride for Mumbaikars, particularly Maharashtrians. Eknath Shinde is confined to Thane and, to some extent, Mumbai, while the former Shiv Sena encompasses the state. So, it gives some leeway to Uddhav Thackeray if only he wants to resurrect himself. Thackeray will have to nurse the rural hinterland, forging local rainbow alliances of castes and communities. If Thackeray is really keen to revamp the party in the vicinity, he should give up his old habit of hopping around villages in a chopper, addressing a meeting or two, and returning home without meeting people in person. He should give up his selective approach of picking up certain people for media publicity photos.
When Eknath Shinde became CM, the first thing he did was greet all relevant and irrelevant people. He developed a special bond with media people. He has hired various strategists who are executing his publicity activities.
Uddhav Thackeray never realizes the need to keep the party in good repair; he doesn’t realize that his own political fortunes are tied to how well he manages his party. Say he can’t afford to dwell on the past. If he does not act, he will perish, as have many other family enterprises and political party scions. By breaking away and joining a bigger and more aggressive BJP, Eknath has actually reduced himself to a bit player in the larger BJP game. He was a big fish in the small Shiv Sena pond, but in the larger BJP pond, he is now a small fish. Even if the BJP comes to power in 2024, an outsider like Eknath Shinde cannot hope to outshine “native” BJP leaders. Devendra Fadnavis is a shrewd politician and an excellent administrator. All the bureaucrats and police department officials silently supported him when he had to resign as chief minister. He channeled his humiliation and manifested his fate.
If Eknath Shinde’s revolt against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership was correct, breaking away is like burning boats behind his exit. On the other hand, for a person of his merits and following, there was no hope of heading the party, particularly when the party chief liked to live in his ivory tower. For as long as he lived in Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde was subject to the family’s orders. What could be more galling than taking orders from Aaditya Thackeray? This has irked many senior leaders of the former Shiv Sena. Uddhav’s unpredictable behavior, continued ED and IT raids, corruption, and propaganda have all worked against his interests.
Now Uddhav Thackeray is like a fish out of water for survival. If he opts for a relationship with the BJP, that party will spurn it as they have a close relationship with Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena. If Uddhav Thackeray switches back to Hindutva, people will not believe him. The best way for Uddhav Thackeray is to continue his alliance with the NCP and Congress and oppose Hindutva and Modi.
He can be one among many and swim in politics for some more years until the Modi tide engulfs the entire country in a big way. Only voters decide a politician’s fate in a democracy, and Maharashtra voters will decide whether Uddhav Thackery has lost the Shiv Sena legacy or not. This fate will be decided in many elections in the coming years: municipal elections (including BMC), the 2024 Lok Sabha election, and the 2024 Assembly election. And politics is about patience, so even if Uddhav Thackeray loses this election, he will have time to bounce back in later elections. Balasaheb, as Shiv Sena chief, could get anything done in Maharashtra if he wanted to. He knew the Shakha Pramukhs by name. In contrast, Uddhav is a poor replica of his father. He is dependent on others to do his work. I hope common sense prevails and he returns to power, or at the very least recreates the Shiv Sena.
With the Election Commission ruling in favour of the Eknath Shinde section, the Shiv Sena will now be without the Thackerays, the next generation of Balasaheb Thackeray, who established the party. When Eknath Shinde rebelled against the Shiv Sena and walked out of the party with 40 MLAs and 13 MPs, the Shiv Sainiks held on to the belief that the Shiv Sena, founded by Balasaheb Thackeray on June 19, 1966, would continue to have the Thackerays in the party. Thackeray’s could never have predicted that they would one day lose everything Balasaheb had built.
Shiv Sena—Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT)—led by Balasaheb’s son and former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray of Maharashtra struggled a lot to hold everything back but it slipped in no time. The Thackerays are also facing the tough challenge of holding on to power at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which the party has been ruling for over three decades. In the interim period, the EC had allotted the flaming torch (Mashaal) symbol to the faction headed by Uddhav Thackeray. But Bihar’s Samata Party is in a rush to claim Mashal, which is their party symbol.
The Samata Party (SAP) is a political party in India, initially formed in 1994 by leaders George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, now led by Uday Mandal, its National President. The Samata Party once launched Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister of Bihar. It was an offshoot of the Janata Dal, with the alleged casteism of the parent party being the reason given for the split. The party has communist leanings and, at one point, wielded considerable political and social influence in North India, particularly in Bihar. The majority of Samata Party members joined the Janata Dal (United) in 2003. Only a faction led by MP Brahmanand Mandal remained in the Samata Party and continued to use the party name and symbols.
In the general elections of 1996, the Samata Party formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and won eight seats, six of which were in Bihar and one each in Uttar Pradesh and Odisha. Before the election, the party was largely rooted in Bihar. In the 1998 general elections, again in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, it won twelve seats: ten from Bihar and two from Uttar Pradesh. The Samata Party and the BJP have a traditional alliance. Meanwhile, the BJP is hell-bent on harassing Uddhav Thackeray, and they are not ready to let him settle. So here comes the Samata party to take on Uddhav’s Shiv Sena. The Samata Party’s election symbol is also Mashal (a burning torch).
In March 2000, Nitish Kumar was elected leader of the NDA for the post of Chief Minister of Bihar. On March 3, he was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the first time at the behest of the Vajpayee government in the centre. The NDA and its allies had 151 MLAs, whereas Lalu Prasad Yadav had 15 MLAs in the 324-member house. Both alliances were less than the majority mark of 163. Nitish resigned because he could not prove his numbers in the house. Radhabinod Koijam became the second chief minister from the Samata Party when he was sworn in as chief minister of Manipur on February 15, 2001. The government was, however, short-lived. The coalition he was leading fell in May of the same year.
In the 1999 Lok Sabha election, the Samata Party was in an informal alliance with the Lok Shakti and the Janata Dal (U). A proposal to merge the three into a single party was called off in January 2000 by George Fernandes, who said the party would run in the 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly election on its own. In October 2003, George Fernandes, the president of the Samata Party, announced that the party would be completely merging with the Janata Dal (United). The Janata Dal (United) was part of the ruling coalition in the National Democratic Alliance.
The BJP is a staunch Hindutva party, while the Samata Party espouses communist ideology. There were ideological differences, but George Fernandes supported the BJP the most. Samata Party Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) Brahmanand Mandal was opposed to the merger with the other members. Mandal was the leader of the minority faction that opposed the merger. Since all the members did not support the official merger and Brahmanand’s faction challenged the merger of the party in front of the ECI, the merger wasn’t officially recognized by the Election Commission of India. Because the Election Commission of India determined that the merger was not technically complete, a faction was permitted to operate under the Samata Party name.
Then the Party leader Sharad Yadav, announced that the ECI decision would have no effect on his merger plans as all candidates of Samata Party would be contesting the upcoming 2004 Lok Sabha election as candidate of Janata Dal United on the election symbol of Arrow. The majority of the party’s members merged with JDU as proposed, but a small portion of the Samata Party retained the name Samata Party under the leadership of Brahmanand Mandal.
In the 2009 general elections for the 14th Lok Sabha (2009–2014), it contested 11 seats and was defeated in all of them. It had secured a total of 31324 votes, which was only 0.02 per cent of the total number of votes cast in that state. For the Lok Sabha elections of 2014, the Samata Party decided to forgo any alliance, stating that it would not ally with the Congress. The Samata Party began to shrink gradually after all of its top leaders defected to the Janata Dal (United). With its poor election performance, it began to lose popularity and was almost on the verge of closure.
In 2020, the leadership of the party was given to Uday Mandal. The party follows socialist ideology, in particular that of Ram Manohar Lohia. In the recent development the delegation of Samata Party approached CM Eknath Shinde and sought help to take back the Mashal symbol from Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena.
Congress senior leader Pawan Khera detained by Assam Police from airport 6
Congress leader Pawan Khera was detained by police on Thursday after being deplaned from a flight to Raipur in connection with his alleged remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the party said.
Khera, against whom a case has been registered in Assam, was asked to deplane by the Delhi Police. Congress leaders sat on a dharna on the tarmac in protest and did not allow him to be taken away without an arrest warrant.
Senior Delhi Police officials later handed over a document from the Assam Police seeking their help in the detention of Khera.
Congress leader Randeep Surjewala accompanied Khera to a police station at the airport, where there was a huge deployment of CISF. A case has been registered at Haflong police station in Assam against Khera under various sections of the IPC for his alleged remarks against the prime minister.
Earlier, several party leaders got off the plane after Khera was deboarded and staged a dharna on the tarmac. Khera was on his way to Raipur for the Congress plenary.
As the drama escalated at terminal one of the domestic airport here, flight staff told Congress leaders there was confusion with Khera’s bags. They said the police were on their way and would explain the reason to him.
“We are all on the @IndiGo6E flight 6E 204 to Raipur and all of a sudden my colleague @Pawankhera has been asked to deplane,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, who was also on the flight, said on Twitter. What sort of highhandedness is this? Is there any rule of law? “On what grounds is this being done and under whose order?” she asked. The flight was delayed.
Since 2022, many IT companies have closed or shrunk their manpower. Thousands of Indian IT professionals across the globe, who have lost their jobs due to the series of recent layoffs at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, are now struggling to find new employment. In order to remain in the country, they are now battling to find new employment within the time frame allowed by their work visas.
Twitter’s Delhi and Mumbai offices were closed two days ago, and employees were asked to work from home. Amid layoffs and severe cost-cutting, Twitter has closed its offices. The microblogging platform’s Bengaluru office, which largely has engineering staff, remains operational. The Delhi and Mumbai offices shuttered a few weeks ago, with the remaining staff now working from home. However, the number of employees affected by the move could not be immediately ascertained.
The closure of the two offices in key locations in India comes as the platform has initiated a massive cost-cutting drive globally after billionaire Elon Musk’s USD 44 billion takeover of Twitter last year.
Twitter fired the majority of its over 200 employees in India as part of the subsequent layoffs. Only a handful of positions were spared as layoffs culled roles across engineering, sales and marketing, and communications teams. A potential economic recession is a big red flag. With inflation soaring in most parts of the world, central banks have been scrambling since March this year to rein it in by increasing rates so as to make it more costly to borrow and consume. This will eventually affect economic growth and jobs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cited forecasts for global GDP growth in 2022 and 2023 as “gloomy,” given the pandemic and ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Setting aside the 2008 financial crisis numbers, estimates for this calendar year and the next by the IMF are the weakest since 2001.
Satya Nadella, the Microsoft CEO, announced earlier this month that the tech giant would fire 10,000 employees, or approximately 5 percent of its entire workforce, calling it a difficult decision the tech giant had to make to remain a “consequential company” in the face of economic uncertainty throughout the world. As the job-killing spree in the IT sector continues in 2023, Microsoft is the third company, following Facebook and Amazon, to announce job cuts.
The current era is one of “significant change,” according to Indian-origin Customers who increased their digital spending during the pandemic outbreak, according to Nadella, are now optimizing it to accomplish more with fewer resources.
Since November 2022, approximately 200,000 IT employees have lost their jobs, including record numbers at firms like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. Some industry insiders estimate that between 30 and 40% of them are Indian IT professionals, many of whom are in possession of H-1B and L1 visas. A non-immigrant visa called the H-1B allows US businesses to hire foreign nationals for specialized jobs that require theoretical or technical competence. It is essential to the hiring of tens of thousands of workers each year from nations like China and India by technology companies.
The most recent Google move to pause their Green Card procedure just makes things worse for Indian IT professionals. This is primarily due to the fact that they cannot be seen arguing before USCIS that they require a foreign IT professional as a permanent resident at a time when they have sacked thousands of people. It is anticipated that other businesses will do the same.
The US has now launched new initiatives that will help cut visa processing delays in India. Special interviews are being scheduled for first-time applicants, and the strength of the consular staff is being increased. A spate of mass layoffs has rocked the technology industry globally, with an estimated 100,000 people losing their jobs in just the first 40 days of 2023, amid an uncertain economic climate.
While the Indian tech industry has not been left untouched by the global carnage, experts are confident that the impact on India will be limited and the country will continue to remain a strong tech hub.
While it is very unfortunate whenever someone gets laid off, in India that will largely be restricted to the start-up sector or IT product sector, which employs less than 200,000 people as compared to the four to five million people that are employed in IT services today.
Another setback to Thackeray, as SC refuses to stay EC's decision on the Shiv Sena name and symbol 9
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the Election Commission’s order to allot the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the ‘Bow and Arrow’ symbol to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, saying, “we can’t stay an order at this stage”. The SC clarified that the Uddhav Thackeray camp can pursue other remedies of law if any action is taken which is not based on the EC order.
The top court listed the matter after two weeks. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal insisted on SC granting interim relief and said that they are taking office after office and urged the court to pass a status quo order.
Supreme Court asked rival camp Eknath Shinde to file a reply to the petition. On Tuesday, Kapil Sibal urged the Supreme Court to hear the plea on Wednesday, submitting that if the EC decision is not contested and challenged, the rival faction will take over everything, including the party’s bank accounts, among other things.
CJI Chandrachud said, “It will not disrupt the Constitution Bench hearing because three judges are waiting for them.” He added that he would finish the Constitution Bench hearing on the Maharashtra political crisis and take it up the plea contesting the EC’s ruling on the Sena symbol thereafter on Wednesday. The court said that it will read the matter first.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena moved the Supreme Court challenging the EC’s move to allot the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and ‘Bow and Arrow’ symbol to the rival faction led by CM Shinde. Uddhav, in his plea filed on Monday, said that ECI failed to consider that his faction enjoys the majority in the Legislative Council and Rajya Sabha.
Uddhav Thackeray in the plea, also submitted that the legislative majority alone, in this case, could not be the basis for passing of the order by EC. Challenging the EC decision, Uddhav Thackeray said the poll panel was erroneous in its decision and said that, “the entire edifice of the impugned order (EC’s decision) is based upon the purported legislative majority of the Respondent (Shinde) which is an issue to be determined by the top court in the Constitution Bench”.
“The ECI has failed to consider that the Petitioner enjoys a majority in the Legislative Council (12 out of 12) and Rajya Sabha (3 out of 3). It is submitted that in a case of this kind where there is a conflict even in the legislative majority i.e., Lok Sabha on the one hand and Rajya Sabha on the other as well as Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, more particularly, having regard to the fact that there is a possibility of the alleged members losing their right of membership, the legislative majority alone is not a safe guide to determine as to who holds the majority for the purposes of adjudicating a petition of the Symbols Order,” the plea said.
A 22-year-old man was detained on Tuesday in Karnataka for throwing acid on a minor after she turned down his advances several times. A case has been reported under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses) Act.
The accused has reportedly been identified as Sumanth, a Kurupete resident in Kanakapura. The victim suffered second-degree burns on her eye, partially damaging it.
With this case, the issue of the open sale of acid in the market and the nationwide increase in acid attacks has been raised once more.
According to NCRB-Crime data in India, the total number of cases reported in 2019 is 50, with 54 victims shown in the data. The total number of cases reported in the year 2020 is 56, and the victims in these cases are 58. The total number of cases shows 69, and the involved victims in these cases are 71.
When we checked the data for the last 3 years, it showed many people had gone through incidents of acid attacks, which affected the victim physically, emotionally, and mentally. Many of them have lost their self-esteem, as it has put many of the women down. While many of them lose their eyesight and kidney function, they also have difficulty breathing due to the damage to their nostrils.
When we talked to lawyers about the increasing issue of acid being so easily available to people in the state, here’s what they had to say:
Advocate Abha Singh told Afternoon Voice, “Even if there is a ban on the sale and purchase of acid as per the Supreme Court order and it can be allowed to operate from licensed shops, it is still easily available everywhere.”
Many young people become involved in this crime and easily dispose of acid. “These incidents usually occur as a result of rejection from a girl, and acid has been thrown on her face to put her down and take revenge,” Advocate Singh continued.
Many acid-survivors are not able to get a normal job, which people usually need for their survival; they are not able to accomplish their goals, as many of them have been told to be quiet by their parents.
“To protect many people, especially girls and women, from the increased number of acid attacks, there should be awareness campaigns set up,” said Advocate Manisha Rote.
Following the incident in Karnataka, we attempted to contact many BJP leaders to better understand the situation as an increase in the number of cases is seen in the state of Karnataka, but they refused to comment.
Even after so many legal aids were brought into the system, acids are still easily available on the market. When we spoke to some acid attack survivors to know the reason for people not filing complaints over this issue, an acid attack survivor and activist, Daulat Bi Khan, said, “The law in our country is not at all stringent, and even if any survivors are filing cases against them, they are easily out on bail, which doesn’t leave any regret for the crime they have attempted.”
When we spoke to some political leaders of other states, we asked them about the increased number of cases despite stringent laws on the sale and purchase of acid and also asked why there were no strict actions taken to curtail this issue.
“I have raised the issue in parliament for the stringent law revolving the acid, as it is easily available online in the name of floor cleaner, which has to stop as many people are misusing it for attempting heinous crimes,” parliamentarian Dr Fauzia Khan said.
While a BJP leader disagreed, stating, “The government should work against the easily available acid in the market, but if a complete ban is applied on it, criminals will find another source of weapons,” said Dr Prameela Devi, a former member of the Kerala Women’s Commission and State Vice President of the BJP.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction has received another big setback after Shiv Sena’s office in Parliament House was allotted to Eknath Shinde-led faction by the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Tuesday.
The Shinde camp now has a Sena office in Parliament House, in addition to the party office in Vidhan Bhawan. Eknath Shinde took over the Shiv Sena party office at Vidhan Bhawan a day ago. Eknath Shinde took over the Shiv Sena party office at Vidhan Bhawan a day ago.
MLA Bharat Gogavale along with his party colleagues and office bearers of Shinde group went to assembly building and took possession of the office. Now, Devendra Suryavanshi will be office head of the Shiv Sena legislative party.
After the Election Commission’s order, the Thackeray faction has turned to the judiciary for justice. The Supreme Court of India will hear Uddhav Thackeray’s plea challenging the Election Commission’s order recognizing Eknath Shinde’s faction as the official Shiv Sena tomorrow.
Uddhav Thackeray and his faction of leaders, who were upset with ECI’s decision, said that they will approach the Supreme Court against their decision. Thackeray had also demanded the dissolution of the poll panel; the Sena (UBT) leaders alleged that the Shinde faction stole the name and symbol from them. Shiv Sena’s name and symbol were awarded to the Shinde faction.
The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray suffered a body blow on Friday when the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognized the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena. Shinde supporters burst crackers outside their party office opposite Mantralaya. The ECI, in its 78-page order, also allotted the symbol “Bow and Arrow” to Shinde’s faction.
The Sena, founded by the late Bal Thackeray in 1966, had consistently fought elections on the “Bow and Arrow” symbol all these decades, and its allotment to Shinde is a major setback to Thackeray.
The Supreme Court on Monday took note of the submission of the Delhi Police that the probe in a case of hate speeches made at religious assemblies in the national capital in 2021 was at an advanced stage and asked them to place on record the charge sheet to be filed in the matter.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud was told by Additional Solicitor General K M Nataraj, appearing for the Delhi Police, that they were expecting a Forensic Science Laboratory report on voice samples of the accused.
The law officer said the probe agency will be filing a charge sheet in the matter shortly.
“The additional solicitor general submitted that the investigation is now at an advanced stage.” The report of the voice sample is expected soon from the forensic lab. A copy of the charge sheet be placed on records. The matter in the first week of April,” the bench said in its order.
Earlier on January 30, the city police had told the top court that the 2021 hate speeches matter was “substantially completed” and a final probe report would be filed shortly.
The hate speech case is related to a Hindu Yuva Vahini event organized in Delhi under the leadership of Suresh Chavhanke, the editor of “Sudarshan News,” in December 2021.
The top court, meanwhile, had asked the Delhi Police to file an affidavit giving details of the steps taken by them in the case so far.
Lawyer Shadan Farasat, appearing for activist Tushar Gandhi, said the police had not taken any concrete steps to prevent such hate speeches.
On January 13, the apex court posed a volley of questions to the Delhi Police over the delay in registration of an FIR and the “no palpable progress” made in the investigation of a case of hate speeches made at religious assemblies in the national capital in 2021 and sought a report from the investigating officer.
The top court was hearing a contempt petition filed by Gandhi, alleging inaction by the Uttarakhand Police and Delhi Police in alleged hate speech cases.
On November 11 last year, the bench had discharged the Uttarakhand government and its police chief from a list of parties to the contempt plea.
The contempt petition was filed seeking punishment for the police chiefs of Delhi and Uttarakhand for their alleged inaction in the cases in violation of the apex court judgment in the Tehseen Poonawala case.
In the judgment, the top court had laid down guidelines as to what action needed to be taken in hate crimes, including mob lynching.
In his petition, the activist sought contempt action against senior police officials for not taking any steps in accordance with the top court’s guidelines meant to curb hate speeches and mob lynching.
The plea claimed immediately after the events took place, the speeches were available in public domain but still the Uttarakhand Police and the Delhi Police did not act against the offenders.
The hate speeches were made at the “dharma sansad” held in Haridwar from December 17 to 19, 2021, and in Delhi on December 19, 2021, the petition alleged.
Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena moves to SC against losing symbol, party name 14
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena has moved to the Supreme Court on Monday against the Election Commission’s move to allot the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” to the rival faction led by CM Eknath Shinde. A caveat application has already been filed by the Shinde group in the Supreme Court over the matter. A caveat application is filed by a litigant to ensure that no adverse order is passed against him or her without being heard.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday allotted the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (the present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year.
While the Shinde faction welcomed the decision to be recognized as the real Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray faction said they would challenge the decision in the Supreme Court. The Uddhav Thackeray faction accused the Election Commission of haste and said the decision shows “it works as a BJP agent.”
The Commission observed in its order that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic and has been “mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all.” It said such party structures fail to inspire confidence. Calling the poll panel’s decision as “murder of democracy”, Uddhav Thackeray said he will approach the Supreme Court against the decision.
Last month, both Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted written statements in support of their claims of control over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission. The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and had allotted the “Two Swords and Shield symbol” to the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, and the “flaming torch” (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the by-election in the Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.
However, exuding confidence in winning the election with the ‘torch’ symbol, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday challenged Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde to contest the election with the “stolen bow and arrow”, stating that the ‘battle has begun’. He further said that the thieves were given the holy “bow and arrow” and that this is their test.
“Thieves were given the holy “bow and arrow,” and the “torch” (mashaal) can be taken away as well.” I challenge them—if they are men, come in front of us even with the stolen “bow and arrow,” and we will contest the election with the “torch.” “This is our test; the battle has begun,” Thackeray said.
