An accused needed in a porn production case has revealed that Raj Kundra could have been arrested long back, but he avoided arrest so far by bribing Crime Branch officers with Rs 25 lakh. Fliz Movies [or Nuefliks, as previously known], the firm of Arvind Srivastava alias Yash Thakur, named as the kingpin of the racket in March, had complained to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) via an email the same month. The ACB forwarded it to the Mumbai police chief’s office in April. On Wednesday, the crime branch raided Kundra’s Andheri office.
Srivastava’s name cropped up again during the interrogation of the arrested accused, said officers. The accused told the police that after making a pornographic film, they would send it to Srivastava, who has also financed some of the films. The films were uploaded on Nuefliks, HotHit and Hotshots apps.
Nuefliks also claimed that a “demand, through a police informer, to pay an equal amount was also made to the firm”, in the email. Police had named the firm in March and seized two of its owner Srivastava’s bank accounts having about Rs 4.50 crore. These accounts were opened in Kanpur and Indore branches.
A senior officer from the crime branch told Afternoon voice on the condition of anonymity that “In such cases, the accusation is a common thing; they need to come with proofs. Whereas Police have busted this racket and have concrete evidence of this porn racket.”
Milind Bharambe, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) told AV, “When Raj Kundra’s name got involved in the case; the crime branch investigated the case by gathering enough evidence. He was arrested and named in the chargesheet only after detailed investigations.”
There were two aspects of the police probe. One was nabbing those who produced these porn shows and the other focused on those who broadcast these clips. Some of these production houses broadcast from servers outside the country.
One such UK production house, found to be uploading such content, came under the police scanner and its executive Umesk Kamat was arrested. An officer said that Kundra’s alleged connection to Kamat and the company that uploaded such pornographic content landed him in trouble.
Technology can be a great rescuer, but can it sometimes be a public menace? 4
Despite the government’s persistence may not be as clear-cut as a case of state domination and over-reach. It turns out that the Indian government might be right to fear that technology, for all the very real benefits it’s brought India, could also be helping to magnify ancient communal tensions in a way that costs lives and, perhaps even worse, might destabilize the delicate social balance within the world’s second-largest country. Technology didn’t cause any of this, of course. But social media and text messaging, both of which are becoming increasingly common in the reaches of India’s enormous lower and middle classes, accelerated the flow of rumours and of inflammatory images.
The government, unable to counter the destabilizing rumours, shut down some of the means of their dispersal. Whether or not the Indian government’s censorship does anything to calm this crisis, their apparent desperation is understandable. Still, India’s willingness to censor the web is part of the government’s longer-running effort to standardize the Internet, to which Western governments and web freedom advocates have persistently objected. Some of India’s sweeping restrictions compel web companies like Google and Facebook to self-police and then self-censor, any content that could be perceived as profane or offensive to ethnic groups.
In the recent past #censorship was a big debate on social networks; these days many accounts are deactivated or blocked by the social network authorities. In general, censorship in India, which involves the suppression of speech or other public communication, raises issues of freedom of speech, which is protected by the Indian constitution. A classic example of censorship in India is the Central Board of Film Certification or Censor Board, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Board regularly orders directors to remove anything it deems offensive or subjects considered to be politically subversive.
The censorship of films is governed by the Cinematograph Act, 1952. It assigns certification as Universal, Adults, and Parental Guidance to films in India before the public exhibition. The Indian government has earlier blocked around 250 websites, ordered Google and Facebook to pull content, threatened legal action against Twitter if it doesn’t delete certain accounts, and has arrested several people for sending provocative text messages, all in the name of the public safety.
Web freedom activists distinguish this as little more than an excuse for online authoritarianism, and they’re probably often correct. We cannot isolate ourselves from this but can make a safe distance to access genuine information. A parallel system needs to strict its security norms so that any state against information and data is not within the reach of the common citizen of the country.
Being a person from Cyber Security, I know how much it is for us to fool inexperienced people on the internet and then use those resources to do something illegal and improper. There should be a body that will not only work towards the security of cybercrime in government and Militant organizations but also work towards enforcement of awareness of cybercrime. It is always better to take precautions.
Rapidly increasing two-edged sword, social media has created a vibrant online community and widened public discourse, allowing a platform for activists with a thousand causes. On the flip side, it has also become a vehicle of skewered misinformation. The perspective of an individual using a social networking site in an enigmatic manner is much more in a social networking site than in social media. There is no procedure for registration and ownership. And so, there is no way to pin down the culprits.
Censorship has become a weapon in the hands of the State to make people agree with its ideology. Now is the time to look into the role that can be played by healthy criticism, analysis, and cinema literacy, posts, cartoons, blogs or tweets rather than relying on controllers that act as moral police, stopping the dissent. Information technology seems to be the latest weapon of waging proxy wars.
Countries have borders and restrictions to each other’s jurisdiction, but cyberspace has no boundaries. The recent NE exodus was a disastrous moment for Indian Citizens and the Government. With 2-3 online users and a couple of hours of editing work, various groups were able to trigger the most massive internal exodus of People in India and nationwide protests. Most of the public who does this assumes that they do this with a false sense of secrecy.
While Cyber War between India and Pakistan is not new, it was limited to hacking each other’s websites. Interestingly, this time it may not have been carried out by so-called hackers. Since it was easier to spread hatred than to block websites, the whole episode would have been carried out by 4-5 Social Media addicts. The law is there to prevent this, but enforcement is far from adequate. There are many such instances and evidence that one country rages its anger or one particular religion condemns another religion hurting its sentiments online.
The fact that there is proof of some Pakistani organizations uploading obnoxious and provocative stuff on the Internet, leading to the exodus of people of the northeast from Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and other cities, shows that some elements from across the border want to knock off the balance of our country. To prevent their designs we, people, should defy such provocations. In the wake of the recent Assam riots, the rest of the country should have stood together to condemn all forms of violence.
But we did not do so. It was our prejudice and lack of unity that contributed to the success of the mischief-mongers. To control the situation and stabilize the country, the Government opted for censorship. There is no point in blaming the government. At least the educated should take pains to verify the truth. Pointing a finger at Pakistan will not solve the problem. The crisis has brought social media to the forefront, relegating print and electronic media to the background. Perhaps it is one more revolution in the history of mankind. It is clear that people today believe in non-stop, one-to-one communication/conversation, rather than the mass media.
Anyways, censorship might help control the situation but this will remain as superficial of the problems that the country is facing. Making the people aware of the “cyber threat” takes an hour but censorship can’t be the exact way out. India really requires proper systems to be adopted in order to be safe or else this might really create big disasters in the future. In the information age, we cannot lock our cyberspace because it is among one of the main tools for the sustainable development of the state. But curbing cyber-attack in any form either cyberwar or putting illegitimate material on the web has really become necessary around the globe. Though we are having strict policies, we are still not guarding our information web properly and which causes recent NE exodus type events.
Protect your phone from Pegasus spyware; most media reports on Pegasus relate to the compromise of Apple devices 8
There is nothing particularly complicated about how the Pegasus spyware infects the phones of victims. The initial hack involves a crafted SMS or iMessage that provides a link to a website. If clicked, this link delivers malicious software that compromises the device.
Pegasus is gifted at reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, tracing the location of the phone, accessing the target device’s microphone(s) and video camera(s), and gathering information from apps (everything that you would expect from spyware).
Sunny Nehra, admin at Hacks and Security said, “Pegasus, iOS Trident Vulnerabilities and WhatsApp miss call vulnerability (CVE-2019-3568) are quite different from each other. Pegasus is fully-fledged spyware that is created to spy on complete operating systems (we are aware of its samples of iOS and Android; it may have versions for other OS too which may not have been detected so far). The important thing to understand is there are many spyware which you can find on the internet (you can purchase and use them but please use for parental control or other legal use only) but what makes Pegasus special is not the spyware itself (of course all spyware does similar type spying on phones) rather the vulnerabilities that it comes with which helps its installation.”
When we asked Manu Zacharia, a Cyber Security Analyst on ways to stay protected by these Spywares he said, “Technically you cannot protect someone from being spied or from these spyware software’s, as these companies use some undisclosed tactics to enter into someone’s phone. But the best way to stay safe from these spying software’s is, interact with only those whom you trust and do not accept documents or unknown files through messaging apps.”
That being said it should be obvious that NSO will keep its spyware updated with the latest vulnerabilities they keep getting and that’s what has been going on. NSO claims that they provide the spyware to authorized agencies of governments in a legal way to combat terror and crime but several times it has been found that their spyware has been used to spy on human activists, journalists etc. The aim is to seize full control of the mobile device’s operating system, either by rooting (on Android devices) or jailbreaking (on Apple iOS devices).
You can always install apps in Android even those not available in the Play Store, just need to allow unknown source and disable Google Play Protect scan (Kind of Antivirus) in case it is not well known but still asks for critical permissions. Usually, with root, you can give it more power by say turning it into a system lever app to control other apps and much more. Similarly, a jailbreak can be deployed on Apple devices to allow the installation of apps not available on the Apple App Store, or to unlock the phone for use on alternative cellular networks. Many jailbreak approaches require the phone to be connected to a computer each time it’s turned on (referred to as a “tethered jailbreak”).
Rooting and jailbreaking both remove the security controls embedded in Android or iOS operating systems. They are typically a combination of configuration changes and a “hack” of core elements of the operating system to run modified code. In the case of spyware, once a device is unlocked, the perpetrator can deploy further software to secure remote access to the device’s data and functions. This user is likely to remain completely unaware.
The spyware infects Android devices too but isn’t as effective as it relies on a rooting technique that isn’t 100 per cent reliable. When the initial infection attempt fails, the spyware supposedly prompts the user to grant relevant permissions so it can be deployed effectively. Apple devices are generally considered more secure than their Android equivalents, but neither type of device is 100 per cent secure.
Apple applies a high level of control to the code of its operating system, as well as apps offered through its app store. This creates a closed system often referred to as “security by obscurity”. Apple also exercises complete control over when updates are rolled out, which are then quickly adopted by users.
On the other hand, Android devices are based on open-source concepts, so hardware manufacturers can adapt the operating system to add additional features or optimise performance. We typically see a large number of Android devices running a variety of versions — inevitably resulting in some unpatched and insecure devices (which is advantageous for cybercriminals).
Ultimately, both platforms are vulnerable to compromise. The key factors are convenience and motivation. While developing an iOS malware tool requires greater investment in time, effort and money, having many devices running an identical environment mean there is a greater chance of success at a significant scale.
What should you do to be better protected?
Although most people are unlikely to be targeted by this type of attack, there are still simple steps you can take to minimise your potential exposure — not only to Pegasus but to other malicious attacks too.
Only open links from known and trusted contacts and sources when using your device. Pegasus is deployed to Apple devices through an iMessage link. And this is the same technique used by many cybercriminals for both malware distribution and less technical scams. The same advice applies to links sent via email or other messaging applications.
Make sure your device is updated with any relevant patches and upgrades. While having a standardized version of an operating system creates a stable base for attackers to target, it’s still your best defence. If you use Android, don’t rely on notifications for new versions of the operating system. Check for the latest version yourself, as your device’s manufacturer may not be providing updates.
Although it may sound obvious, you should limit physical access to your phone. Do this by enabling pin, finger or face-locking on the device. The eSafety Commissioner’s website has a range of videos explaining how to configure your device securely.
Avoid public and free WiFi services (including hotels), especially when accessing sensitive information. The use of a VPN is a good solution when you need to use such networks.
Encrypt your device data and enable remote-wipe features where available. If your device is lost or stolen, you will have some reassurance your data can remain safe.
Raj Kundra, a London born middle class boy whose father was a migrant from Ludhiana and worked as a bus conductor, later started a business which was on a way smaller level. Raj was not much keen on studies and he left his studies at the age of 18. His father, Bal Krishan Kundra was a small-time businessman and his mother worked as a shop helper.
Raj Kundra’s journey to success has been quite remarkable, more so because unlike many other rich businessmen, Raj Kundra did not inherit his wealth. He had a humble beginning, but through his hard work and innovation he managed to create a mark in the global business circles.
At the age of 18, Kundra left home for Dubai further went to Nepal and started a business of pashmina shawls and sold them to all major fashion houses in Britain and made his first millions. In 2004, SUCCESS magazine ranked him as the 198th richest British Asian.
Kundra made his first millions through his first business of import. He used to import the now famous Pashmina shawls from Nepal by container load, and distribute them to all the prominent fashion houses in London. This venture was a success, and this is how his journey towards success began.
In 2007 he moved to Dubai and set up Essential General Trading LLC a company dealing in precious metals, construction, mining and green renewable energy projects. He was also at that time involved in the financing and production of Bollywood films. He was ranked as the 198th richest British Asian by Success (magazine).
In 2009, Kundra and Shetty invested in the Indian Premier League cricket team Rajasthan Royals using an offshore company based in Mauritius. The legality of the investment was questioned by departments of the Government of India. In June 2013, Kundra was questioned by Delhi Police with regard to the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing case, which had involved the arrest of some Rajasthan Royals players, further Delhi police have given a clean chit to Kundra in reply on right to information (RTI).
In July 2015 a panel appointed by the Supreme Court of India imposed a life ban from cricket-related activity on him. Further, Kundra denied the involvement and appealed to the Supreme Court of India. Umesh Goenka a business partner of Raj Kundra claimed in a court that he was forced to name him in betting by Delhi Police and to save himself from physical torture and from being booked under MCOCA Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
In 2015, Kundra was among the promoters of online and television broadcast platform Best Deal TV, an Indian television home shopping channel capitalising on celebrity endorsements. His co-promoter was Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar.
His idea of Pashmina Shawl changed his life and his business ideas. A British Indian businessman, Raj Kundra is one of the richest British Asians today. His net worth is estimated at about $400 million, which is equivalent to INR Rs. 2500 crores. In addition to this, recent data shows that he also has steady earnings of about $100 million a year.
It is only natural to wonder as to from where does Raj Kundra get so much money. But the answer is very simple: He has earned so much money due to the diversified investments in various industrial sectors, as well as through his own innovation with respect to business verticals.
Since then, Raj Kundra has invested in various industries. A major portion of his investments has been in the Bollywood movies and sports industry, but his company Viaan Industries is focusing more on the online gaming sector right now.
The ED had summoned Raj Kundra, in connection with its money laundering probe against late gangster Iqbal Mirchi and others. They said Kundra has been asked to depose before the investigating officer of the case here on November 4 and his statement is expected to be recorded once he appears.
The agency is expected to record his statement under the anti-money laundering law. The proceedings in the case are being conducted under the criminal provision of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The central probe agency is looking at Kundra’s purported dealings with Ranjeet Bindra and a firm called Bastian Hospitality in connection with this case.
Some business dealings between the two need detailed information and hence the summons, they said. Bindra has been arrested by the agency in this case sometime back. He was grilled by the agency last year in connection with a bitcoin scam case. Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.
The PMLA case is based on multiple Mumbai Police FIRs and the ED has conducted multiple raids in this case over the last few months. On 19 July 2021, the property cell of the Mumbai Crime Branch arrested Raj Kundra after questioning him regarding the busted case, registered at the Malwani police station in suburban Mumbai in February 2021, for being the key conspirator in creating and distributing pornographic content through mobile applications and websites. Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale claimed they have sufficient evidence regarding this case.
According to Mumbai Police, Raj Kundra had invested around Rs 8 to Rs 10 crores in this porn industry. Raj Kundra and his brother living in Britain together formed a company, named Kenrin. The videos were shot in India and were then transferred to the UK via WeTransfer to Kenrin, a UK Based firm.
The police have arrested a total of 12 accused in this case, including Kundra. One of the accused from Vashi, Navi Mumbai, Umesh Kamat was earlier arrested by a property cell. Kamat claimed that he used to work in the company of Kundra and as a coordinator in Kenrin. Police also claimed, Kamat during the interrogation told that he used to take obscene videos from model and actress Gehana Vasisth and forward those videos to Kenrin that later used to upload them on an app called ‘hotshots’.
Raj Kundra faces charges of cheating and obscene advertisement displays 11
These days a TikTok guy otherwise businessman Raj Kundra, husband of actress Shilpa Shetty was arrested in an alleged pornography case by the city crime branch on Monday. The entire saga was unearthed early this year, in which nine persons, including model and actor Gehana Vasisth, were arrested. The complaint was filed last year under the Indian Penal Code section pertaining to obscenity, the Information Technology Act and the Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention) Act.
Among those arrested was an employee of a tech start-up linked with Kundra. The arrest was made on the basis of the statement of model Sherlyn Chopra. The employee was granted bail in April. Kundra was then summoned by the police. He lashed out the allegations stating that he had no links to the offence, as he had exited from the start-up. He had also said that he submitted documents regarding his investments and exit from the company to the police and had nothing to do with the alleged shoots or web series.
Kundra’s name surfaced after the property cell probing the case stumbled upon the involvement of a UK production company, Kenrin and police arrested its executive, Umesh Kamat. The former employee of Kundra was accused of uploading at least eight “pornographic and obscene” videos shot by Vasisth on a social media app for monetary consideration.
Pradeep Bakshi, the proprietor of Kenrin, and Yash Thakur as absconding accused. Police suspect Kundra has a stake in Kenrin. In February, the property cell led by inspector Kedar Pawar and assistant inspector Laxmikant Salunkhe raided a bungalow at Madh Island in Malad and busted a live porn video film-making racket, and rescued a woman. Police arrested Yasmin Rowa Khan, Pratibha Nalawade, Monu Gopaldas Joshi, Bhanusuryam Thakur and Mohammed Asif alias Saify under IPC sections for cheating, indulging in obscene acts in public places and publicly exhibiting or circulating obscene books or literature, and under the Information Technology Act.
Raj Kundra filed an anticipatory bail last month in a sessions court after model and actress Poonam Pandey filed a complaint in the Bombay High Court against Raj Kundra alleging that the latter’s company has used her pictures and videos illegally after her contract with the company was over.
This isn’t the first time that Pegasus created controversy in India 13
The Citizen Lab, a Canadian organization published a complete report in September 2018, identifying 45 countries, including India, where the spyware was being used. According to the report, Pegasus and WhatsApp hacks were used in India by a group calling themselves Ganges to target journalists and activists. The targeting by the Ganges had “political themes”.
In October 2019, WhatsApp also revealed that journalists and human rights activists in India have been targets of scrutiny by operators using Pegasus. This revelation was followed by a lawsuit that was filed by WhatsApp in a US Federal Court in San Francisco, in which it suspected that the Israeli NSO Group, which owns Pegasus, targeted some 1,400 WhatsApp users with the spy software.
Indian journalists and activists who were spied on included Bela Bhatia, a human rights activist and lawyer based in Bastar; Shalini Gera, another human rights lawyer based in Bastar, and Degree Prasad Chauhan, a tribal and Dalit rights activist based in Raigarh. Out of these, Amnesty found evidence that the phones of Sushant Singh, Thakurta, Abdi, Varadarajan and Venu were compromised with Pegasus spyware.
For Smita Sharma, the analysis found evidence of a hacking attempt through a vulnerability in Apple’s iMessage system, but nothing to indicate that her phone was successfully infected. Vijaita Singh’s Android phone also showed evidence of an attempted hack, but no evidence of a successful compromise was detected. While the results do not indicate what the attacker did using Pegasus, it comes to a few key conclusions for the following people:
S.N.M. Abdi’s Phone was compromised by Pegasus during the months of April 2019, May 2019, July 2019, October 2019 and December 2019. Amnesty was not able to verify the attack vector. Sushant Singh’s Phone was compromised by Pegasus from March 2021 to July 2021, through what Amnesty International calls a zero-click exploit in the iMessage service. The attack is referred to as ‘zero-click’, because it does not require the victims to take any action (such as clicking on a malicious link in an SMS or e-mail) for the infection to occur.
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta’s phone was compromised by Pegasus during parts of April 2018, May 2018, June 2018 and July 2018. Amnesty was not able to identify the attack vector that the spyware used to infiltrate the phone. M.K. Venu Analysts at Amnesty found that the phone was infected with Pegasus as recently as June 2021, through what they called a zero-click iMessage to exploit.
Siddharth Varadarajan’s phone was compromised by Pegasus during parts of April 2018. Digital forensics could not determine the manner in which the spyware infected the phone. Digital forensic analysis was also conducted for the iPhone of a senior editor at a mainstream Indian newspaper, but no traces of Pegasus were found — primarily because it was not the same device being used by the journalist when her number showed up on the list.
The Wire reached out to a number of other journalists, both at mainstream publications and otherwise, to ask whether they would be open to participating in forensic analysis. They refused, citing a number of reasons including a lack of support from their management or their inability to trust the underlying process. Two journalists whose phone numbers appear in the leaked records obtained by the Pegasus Project are among those who received messages from WhatsApp in 2019 that their phones were compromised.
Of that group, records show that former Lok Sabha MP and veteran journalist Santosh Bharatiya was also marked on the list in early 2019. The former parliamentarian, who early in his career worked as a journalist, publicly stated that he too had received a message from WhatsApp.
The leaked data also throws up the numbers of journalists who work far away from Lutyens’ Delhi and the national glare. This includes northeast-based editor in chief of Frontier TV Manoranjana Gupta, Bihar-based Sanjay Shyam and Jaspal Singh Heran. Heran is editor-in-chief of the Ludhiana-based Punjabi daily Rozana Pehredar. The newspaper has reporters in every district of Punjab, is read widely and has a sizable impact on the narrative in the state. The octogenarian told the Pegasus Project that due to his newspapers’ critical reportage; he has had run-ins with all governments over the years and has been at the receiving end of several legal notices.
Roopesh Kumar Singh is an independent journalist based in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh and three phone numbers belonging to him are part of the leaked data. The leaked data includes the numbers of top journalists at big media houses like the Hindustan Times, including executive editor Shishir Gupta, India Today, Network18, The Hindu and Indian Express.
The Pegasus Project, a consortium of news organisations that analysed this list, has reason to believe that the data is indicative of potential targets identified in advance of surveillance attempts. The presence of a phone number in the data does alone not reveal whether a device was infected with Pegasus or subject to an attempted hack – technical examination of the phone’s data is needed for that. Independent digital forensic analysis conducted on 10 Indian phones whose numbers were present in the data showed signs of either an attempted or successful Pegasus hack.
Pegasus is sold by the Israeli company, NSO Group, which says it only offers its spyware to “vetted governments”. The company refuses to make its list of customers public but the presence of Pegasus infections in India, and the range of persons that may have been selected for targeting, strongly indicate that the agency operating the spyware on Indian numbers is an official Indian one.
Two founding editors of The Wire are on this list, as is its diplomatic editor and two of its regular contributors, including Rohini Singh. Singh’s number appears after she filed back-to-back reports on the business affairs of home minister Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, and Nikhil Merchant, a businessman who is close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and while she was investigating the dealings of a prominent minister, Piyush Goyal, with businessman Ajay Piramal.
Founded in 2010, the NSO Group is best known for having created Pegasus, which allows those operating it to remotely hack into smartphones and gain access to their contents and functions, including the microphone and camera. The company has always insisted Pegasus is not sold to private entities or even to any and every government. In fact, in its letter to The Wire and its media partners, NSO reiterated that it sells its spyware only to “vetted governments”.
Phones of 40 Indian journalists were tapped; the leaked database was accessed by a Paris-based media 15
The phone numbers of over 40 Indian journalists appear on a leaked list of potential targets for surveillance, and forensic tests have confirmed that some of them were successfully snooped upon by an unidentified agency using Pegasus spyware, as per the report published in the Wire.
In 2019, WhatsApp, along with Canada-based Citizen Lab, alerted dozens of Indians who had been affected by a Pegasus attack that exploited a hole in the messaging app firm’s security. The security lab’s overarching methodology was peer-reviewed and endorsed by Citizen Lab.
According to reports, phones of two serving union ministers, three opposition leaders, and one constitutional authority, current and former heads of security organisations were also allegedly bugged using the Israel spy software Pegasus.
ANI quoted the government as having said in its response that, “The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people have no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever. Similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp by the Indian State in the past. Those reports also had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties, including WhatsApp in the Indian Supreme Court”.
Government of India’s response to inquiries on the ‘Pegasus Project’ media report. pic.twitter.com/F4AxPZ8876
The phones of former Indian Express journalist Sushant Singh, former TV18 anchor Smita Sharma, former EPW editor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, former Outlook journalist S.N.M. Abdi, the Hindu’s Vijaita Singh and the Wire’s two founding editors Siddharth Varadarajan and M.K. Venu was analysed.
The Wire’s founding editors, diplomatic editor and two regular contributors, including Rohini Singh appear on the list. Singh’s number features following the publication of her back-to-back reports on Amit Shah’s son, Jay Shah, and Nikhil Merchant, a businessman who is close to Narendra Modi. She was also investigating dealings of former minister Piyush Goyal, with businessman Ajay Piramal.
Former Indian Express journalist Sushant Singh was included in mid-2018, at a time when he was investigating the controversial Rafale aircraft deal. Digital forensics conducted on his current phone showed signs of Pegasus infection earlier this year.
The NSO Group that created the spyware has denied that the leaked list was linked in any way to the functioning of its software. In response to the Pegasus Project, NSO has said that people in the list were not targeted by the governments using Pegasus but were maybe a part of a larger list of numbers those other customers of theirs used for different purposes.
Maha Vikas Aagahdi to complete its five-year tenure 17
On Saturday, 17th July NCP supremo Sharad Pawar met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two days ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament on July 19. The meeting came at a time when speculation of trouble among the MVA allies having a rift. But the inner sources said the meeting was to strengthen the present government and there was no other agenda.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale urged that the NCP should join the NDA. Athawale also requested Pawar to withdraw his support from Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and instead join hands with BJP to form a government in Maharashtra.
Athawale told Afternoon Voice, “It is high time that the BJP and NCP government should come together and form a government in Maharashtra. I request Sharad Pawar Ji that he should change his decision. The support that he gave to Shiv Sena must be withdrawn. The Congress party is repeatedly warning you. Congress’ Nana Patole is repeatedly giving controversial statements against Pawar Ji. That’s why I feel that Sharad Pawar Ji should come with NDA.” He further claimed that Congress has supported Shiv Sena in Maharashtra for more than the past year because of NCP and Sharad Pawar, but, “government is not running the way it should.”
On NCP leader and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik’s clarification that two parties would not come together due to ideological and political differences, Mr Athawale said, “Even Shiv Sena, Congress and BJP were on different shores on a river, but they came together. Why can’t the BJP and NCP come together? The Constitution framed by Babasaheb (Ambedkar) tries to bring different sides together.”
He also reacted to Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant’s claim that Pawar met PM Modi on farmer’s issue, and said, “Even if they talked about farmer’s issue, then too it was good. The agitation should end, and farmers should get justice. Sharad Pawar has previously said that there is no need to repeal the law but should be amended to resolve the issues of the farmers. Whatever be the conversation, Sharad Pawar’s friendship with PM Narendra Modi should remain good.”
Being an editor of a newspaper and also a passionate medical reporter, many cases of malpractices come across me. A few days back a man approached our newspaper complaining about a doctor for his misconduct. We told him to first talk to the doctor and resolve the issues, if not then file an FIR, let the judiciary do its duty. He said the doctor has taken multiple signatures on some sorts of consent forms, before operating on him. Still, I personally contacted the doctor and told him to look into the said matter and somewhat the things got addressed. What we need is a willingness to determine the problem and talk one to one rather than to take vengeance.
Well! My intention was to instil faith in medical practices, and I keep mitigating such cases peacefully for the larger interest. Well! Recently, there was an assistant to a doctor who secretly told me that his doctor charged lakhs of rupees from a patient in the name of liposuction and tummy tuck, the anaesthetist was paid few thousand, the tuck was given but the patient was told that the liposuction was performed, whereas he never required that treatment. Not only had that but the doctors instructed his staff to tell lies to the patient.
A clinic assistant said, “I don’t trust doctors because I’ve worked with them. I’ve heard doctors talk about patients like they were less than animals. I have had to care for the patients & been asked to lie against patients & mistreat ones w/o money; while also, pamper richer patients who were over-prescribed new expensive medications they should not have been prescribed, which the doctor knew, but these days doctors decided the fess judging the pocket of the person. There are lots of horror stories to follow; in India, patients are ‘losers’.
In the meantime, there was a suggestion that the Doctors should be barred from taking Pharmaceutical companies or any other sources, kickbacks for undermining the wellbeing of their patients for profit. This is a disgustingly common occurrence but surprisingly no such doctor is ever punished. Doctors though vocal enough when boasting about their intelligence and skill, sink into quiet cowardice when any government agency wants to enforce and impose inhumane regulations on how much a patient much suffer, and right now in India people are choosing self-suffering after their doctors turn them away from the care they have been dependant on for years.
Doctors know that the only way they will be punished is if they go against the Government regulations or norms or if the patient is resourceful. That’s the reason the general public gets cheated in most cases. Doctors do not deserve your trust right now because they look at you and see non-humans who might mean income. Lots of experiences have made me realize that there are ordinary and downright terrible or crazy doctors in the state, said one of the nurses practising in a reputed private hospital.
While hearing all the odd stories, I came across a person who told me about his childhood memories stating that he had been an excellent General practitioner when he was growing up as a child in Mumbai. His name was Dr Deshpande. His work was his life. He used to visit the homeless shelter and treat people there for nothing in his own time. He was a bulk billing doctor (no gap fee) who had no interest in pharmaceutical companies or their sales reps. His interest in medicine was purely about people, not money. He was beloved by all his patients who he knew on a personal level. His waiting room was always full, both because he was so popular and because he took as much time with each patient as they needed.
More than the new patients, the recovered ones used to wait at his clinic for hours just to thank him and bless him. Although he practised until cancer forced him to retire in his 80s his mind was sharp and he was as up to date on the latest research as any younger doctor. I was so spoiled by having such a good doctor when I was young I thought that’s what they were all like. Those days are gone; such doctors were incarnations of God. Those days there was immense faith in doctors. But today there are a lot of trust issues.
There was an old lady who shared a horrible experience of her life; she went to get an operation to have a lens in her eye replaced. She is elderly and the operation is done in the public health system for people with cataracts. When she went in they dropped some anaesthetic into her eye. That turned out to be some sort of ‘cleaning fluid’, no anaesthetic! The fluid burned her cornea and she was in serious pain, which took a year to settle down. Later on, she developed a vision disorder. As a result, she has an uncomfortable puffy lump under her eye, which she is very conscious of. It is not subsiding even though it’s been something like a year now.
There is another doctor who seems to try to minimize everything he sees. My brother was taken there with difficulty breathing. He examined him and concluded it was the flu or a cold. He was taken home and seemed to be getting worse. Instead of the doctor, he was taken to the emergency room and he was admitted straight away. He had serious fluid in the lungs and needed immediate treatment. This doctor couldn’t even recognize a medical emergency. It’s not the first story I’ve heard about him telling someone that it’s nothing and then it turns out to be something serious, the saga was narrated by a young collegian.
Similarly, how can we forget the Yoga teacher Ramdev who infuriated doctors across the country with his disparaging remarks on allopathic medicine? In a widely shared video, he was heard saying, “Lakhs of people have died because of allopathic medicines, far more than those who died because they did not get treatment or oxygen.” He even purportedly called allopaths a “stupid and bankrupt” science, offending the whole medical fraternity. Later, challenging calls for his arrest, said, “Even their baap (father) cannot arrest Swami Ramdev”. His firm, Patanjali, said it would give a “befitting reply” to any defamation notice. Various units of the Indian Medical Association filed complaints against him with the police, based on which multiple cases were lodged. The association, which had sought an apology within 15 days, later sued him for defamation and demanded a compensation of Rs 1,000 crores, but the general public at large stood by Baba but not with the doctors. Even our Prime Minister who asked us to clap for doctors maintained silence on this issue.
I have heard many such stories and writing all of them in one edit is not possible, let me conclude by reminding you that no doctor wants to do deliberate damage to his/her patients. Mistakes happen and they are also human beings, not aliens. Each sector has one odd side so the medical fraternity too, there are corrupt and fake journalists, there are corrupt politicians, there are corrupt businessmen, teachers are also unethical. But doctors are more responsible because your life is in their hands. The time has come to acknowledge those good doctors’ vs those scavengers in the medical fraternity.
The biggest question at this moment is, who should be held responsible for such disgrace to the doctors?
Pulitzer winner Indian photojournalist Danish Siddiqui killed in Afghanistan's Kandahar 20
Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Indian photojournalist who worked for Reuters news agency, was killed on Friday in Afghanistan while covering the fierce fighting between Afghan troops and the Taliban militants near a border crossing with Pakistan in Kandahar province.
Siddiqui, in his early 40s, was covering the worsening security situation in Kandahar over the last few days following the withdrawal of US troops from war-torn Afghanistan.
Afghan Special Forces had been fighting to retake the main market area of Spin Boldak in Kandahar province when Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire, an Afghan commander told Reuters.
”We are deeply saddened to learn that our photographer, Danish Siddiqui, has been killed in Afghanistan,” Reuters President Michael Friedenberg and Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said in a statement.
He was embedded with Afghanistan’s special forces in Kandahar province when they came under attack on Friday morning.
”Danish was an outstanding, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, a devoted husband and father, and a much-loved colleague. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time,” they said.
”We are urgently seeking more information, working with authorities in the region,” the statement said.
The killing of Siddiqui comes as the Taliban captured Spin Boldak district in Kandahar this week. Fierce fighting has been underway in Kandahar, especially in Spin Boldak, for the last few days. Pakistan this week closed down the Friendship Gate crossing at the Chaman border in Balochistan province following reports of Taliban fighters taking control of the key border crossing point Spin Boldak in Afghanistan.
Clashes between the government forces and the Taliban have intensified since US troops began to withdraw from the country.
The Taliban recently claimed their fighters had retaken 85 per cent of territory in Afghanistan – a figure disputed by the government.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a total of 53 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan between 1992 and 2021.
Siddiqui was based in Mumbai. He had received the Pulitzer Prize as part of the Photography staff of Reuters news agency.
Siddiqui graduated with a degree in Economics from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi. He had a degree in Mass Communication from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia in 2007.
He started his career as a television news correspondent, switched to photojournalism, and joined Reuters as an intern in 2010.
