India

Kanpur, Sep 30 (IANS) In a frightening replay of the Chandigarh incident, a sanitary worker has been caught red handed making video of girls in a private girls' hostel in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur.

The incident took place in a hostel located here in Tulsi Nagar area where medical aspirants are staying.

The accused allegedly made videos of girls in the bathroom.

The girl students filed a police complaint following which the man was arrested.

As per the complaint, the hostel staffer made several obscene videos of the girls in the hostel.

On Thursday, one of the girls saw the staff secretly filming and snatched his phone. The girl reportedly saw there were several such videos and approached the nearest police station to register a complaint.

The hostel is owned by a police officer who is posted as Additional SP in one of the districts in Uttar Pradesh and students from different districts are living in the hostel and preparing for medical exams.

ACP Kalyanpur Dinesh Shukla said that a complaint has been received from the girls and a case has been registered. Further investigation into the matter is underway.

--IANS
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Bhubaneswar, Sep 29 (IANS) BJP national President Jagat Prakash Nadda said on Thursday that the saffron party is fighting family-based parties in various parts of the country, including in Odisha.

Addressing booth-level workers at the Janata Maidan here, Nadda said BJP is the biggest political party in the world with a strength of 18 crore.

"There is no party in the world with such strength. We are an ideology-based national party. For us, it is always nation first, but keeping in mind the regional aspirations," he said.

"This is a cadre-based party with a mass following. After the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, we formed government in Bihar, Assam and Puducherry for the first time... So, we are a national party with government in maximum states," Nadda said.

"Today we are fighting against the Indian National Congress, but the party no longer remains national nor Indian as it has become a party of brother and sister," he said.

"We are also fighting against dynasty-based parties. Abdullahs and Muftis in Jammu & Kashmir, Chautalas in Haryana, Badals in Punjab, Akhilesh in UP, Yadav in Bihar, and Soren in Jharkhanda. In Odisha it is one man party... We are fighting parties run by families," he added.

"Dynasty politics is also prevalent in Odisha with the presence of Biju Patnaik's party. BJP is the only party that is not family-based and is driven by ideology," said the BJP chief.

Nadda also informed the party workers about the steps taken by the Narendra Modi government for providing safe drinking water, power supply, pucca houses, toilets etc. for the people of Odisha.

Institutions like AIIMS, IIM, NISER and many medical colleges have been set up by the Modi government in Odisha, he said.

"The first tribal President of India, Droupadi Murmu, is from Odisha and more than 15 persons from the state have been conferred with Padma awards. This was never the case during the UPA rule and shows PM Modi's immense love for the state," he added.

Taking a dig at the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government in Odisha, Nadda said, "This government puts lebels on Central schemes. The PM Awas Yojana is being branded as Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana. While 50 crore people have been included under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, 60 lakh people in Odisha are deprived of it."

The Centre has allocated Rs 15,490 crore to Odisha under MGNREGA but fake bills are being made here, he said.

"Similarly, crores of rupees are being spent under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Yet tribal women in Odisha are going to ponds and wells to fetch drinking water. It shows that the Naveen Patnaik-led government is riddled with corruption," the BJP chief said.

Claiming that protectors have become perpetrators of crime in Odisha, Nadda said, "The state of governance in Odisha can be gauged from the fact that three ministers are accused of murder."

Nadda added that even the 'Ratna Bhandar' of Lord Jagannath is not safe in Odisha.

"Ratna Bhandar's key was missing and later a duplicate key was found. Uproot this type of duplicate government and bring BJP to power in Odisha," he said.

"The BJD has been ruling Odisha for 20 years, yet it has failed to ensure ambulance service for pregnant women in the remote areas," the BJP leader claimed.

It's time to uproot this government and bring a double-engine 'sarkar' for development, Nadda told the party workers.

The BJP President is on a two-day visit to the state. This is Nadda's first visit to Odisha after being appointed as BJP chief.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) Despite the Indian government's heightened scrutiny of Chinese tech firms, the Chinese smartphone brands are expected to solidify their foothold in the country owing to booming sales in the 5G era, state-run Global Times has reported, citing industry experts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to officially announce the 5G launch on October 1 and there will be a new wave of sales in the domestic market, dominated by Chinese manufacturers.

"India's 5G network upgrade will mean a range of opportunities for Chinese mobile phone firms, which have two-thirds of the market, leading to an expected sale of 20 million 5G phones before the year end," the report mentioned.

That is equivalent to an additional month of sales for the Chinese phone makers, said Yang Shucheng, secretary general of the India China Mobile Phone Enterprise Association.

According to the report, Chinese smartphones have shown resilience in the market, despite heightened scrutiny of Chinese technology companies by the Indian regulators, "which have caused disruptions and concern among the Chinese businesses".

"But Chinese smartphone brands' popularity among the ordinary Indian consumers provides a firm foundation".

Shipments of smartphones in India reached 36.4 million in the second quarter, with Chinese brands accounting for about 70 per cent, according to data released by Canalys.

"This shows that Indian consumers put importance on phone quality, while not political factors," said Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University.

"Many Chinese mobile phones are already equipped with 5G functions, and with the launch of 5G service in India, they will be favoured by the Indian consumers," Feng was quoted as saying.

Earlier reports mentioned that troubled China-based smartphone brands in India are now planning to set up manufacturing plants in countries like Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.

The report, citing a Chinese executive based in India, claimed that companies will evaluate bilateral ties, market potential, preferential policies and labour costs to set up manufacturing plants elsewhere.

--IANS
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Guwahati/Dhubri, Sep 29 (IANS) In Assam's Dhubri district, a boat capsized in Brahmaputra river on Thursday morning and several people have gone missing since, officials said.

Manash Kumar Saikia, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dhubri told IANS that the accident happened at an under-construction Dhubri-Fulbari bridge on Brahmaputra river.

He informed that the boat hit a pillar of the under-construction bridge and capsized. Following the incident, at least five people could swim across the river and reach the shore. But, several others are still missing.

"There were reports of some 50 people on board the boat. But, we are still not sure about the exact number," he added.

It is learned that Dhubri Circle Officer Sanju Das, along with a land record official and an office staff were also on the boat to survey an erosion-hit area. All of them are missing after the accident.

The State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) was deployed to rescue the people. According to a police source, around 15 people have been rescued so far.

The locals claimed that many school children were also on the boat. It carried around 10 motorbikes as well.

The place of the incident known as Adabari is 3km from Dhubri town.

Notably, the Dhubri-Phulbari Bridge is a proposed bridge over the Brahmaputra river between Assam and Meghalaya.

The bridge, to be completed by 2026-27, would be India's longest bridge over water, spanning more than 19 km. This bridge, close to the Bangladesh border, will connect Assam's Dhubri with Meghalaya's Phulbari area.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Sep 29 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has virtually 'exonerated' Republic TV and R. Bharat -- English and Hindi news channels owned by Arnab R. Goswami, but the agency has booked 16 others of various private television channels and a market research group, for alleged money-laundering charges in the sensational TRP scam that erupted two years ago.

The ED charge sheet was filed on September 26 on behalf of Assistant Director Pawan Kumar before the Special PMLA Court Mumbai, and has sought initiation of proceedings, among others, to confiscate the provisionally attached properties of all the accused as stipulated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, as they were bought from the proceeds of the crime.

The accused named are: Shirish V. Pattanshetty and Manish R. Sangh, both owners of 'Fakht Marathi' channel, their company Lotus Enterprises, Narayan N. Sharma, owner of 'Box Cinema' channel and his company Box Cinemedia Pvt. Ltd., Vishwajeet O. Sharma and Darshan B. Singh, both owners of 'Mahamovie' channel and their company Teleone Consumers Product Pvt. Ltd.

The others are: Bompally Rao Mistry of Sanch Media, Umesh C. Mishra, Vishal V. Bhandari, Dinesh P. Vishwakarma, Vikas V. Burungale, Ashwin C. Motiwale, Mahesh S. Bompalli and Rajesh K. Vishwakarma (all ex-employees of Hansa Research Group), as named in the charge sheet.

The ED has urged the Special Court to take cognisance and issue process against all the accused individuals (for arrest), order the confiscation of their movable and immovable assets, seize their passports, etc.

Presumably giving a 'clean chit' to Goswami and his news channels, the ED termed its investigations under PMLA as "at variance" with the probe initially conducted by the Mumbai Police, as "no such evidence is forthcoming" in the statements of the accused/witnesses, digital data evidence and analysis of the raw data provided by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

The ED said that the Mumbai Police -- which had first exposed the scam in 2020 -- relied on a forensic audit report of Acquisory Risk Consulting Pvt. Ltd., that contended how the TRP calculation methodology was tinkered with and controls used to favour specific channels, was superficial and based on analysis of limited aspects.

The Mumbai Police had named Republic TV, India Today and other channels as allegedly involved in the TRP scam that had shaken up the country's media industry and sparked a massive political uproar.

In view of its findings, the ED charge sheet has not mentioned Republic TV, R. Bharat channels, its Editor-in-Chief Goswami or his company ARG Outlier Media, or any BARC officials.

However, the ED probe has detected instances of TRP manipulations not only in Mumbai and Maharashtra but also Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and has called for the FIRs filed by the respective state police for investigations.

Another FIR was registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police, which has now been transferred and under probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Delhi.

"From the investigations and evidence gathered, it is clearly established that the (16) accused committed the offence of money laundering... and are liable to be prosecuted and punished... and the provisionally attached properties involved in the money-laundering are liable to be confiscated... as per the PMLA," the ED concluded.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) Around two months after the liquor sale at the domestic terminals of the airport was stopped, the liquor shops are likely to restart soon at the terminals.

As per an official, the airport authorities have offered the shops to the Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation (DTTDC) to open liquor vends at the domestic terminals. "We have been offered four to five shops to open vends at the domestic terminals of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport," the official said.

Delhi government's four corporations namely Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIDC), Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC), Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd (DSCSC) and Delhi Consumers Cooperative Wholesale Store (DCCWS) have been given responsibility to open the stores across the city.

The liquor sale was stopped at the domestic terminals of the airport after August 31 as the new excise policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by the Delhi government. After Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena recommended a CBI probe into the new excise policy, Delhi government decided to go back to the old regime of retail liquor sale in the city.

However, the Excise Policy 2021-22, which was extended twice after March 31 for a period of two months each, came to an end on July 31. But, later it was given one month of extension to prepare before the old regime of Excise policy started from September 1.

--IANS
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Bhopal, Sep 29 (IANS) Ever since the poll schedule for the post of Congress president was announced, there has been an unending buzz that two leaders from Madhya Pradesh may file nominations -- Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh and state Congress chief Kamal Nath.

Kamal Nath said that he was not in the race of the Congress' top post as he wants to focus on the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, which is just 14 months away.

Digvijaya Singh on Thursday reached the party headquarters in New Delhi from Kerala where he was participating in Bharat Jodi Yatra with Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders, and collected the nomination form. With this fresh twist in the race of the Congress chief, he made it clear that he wants to be a contestant.

He has also got the support from the Congress unit of Madhya Pradesh and a delegation of party's MLAs would reach the national capital to extend their support to Singh.

Digvijaya's brother Laxman Singh, who had once joined the BJP and returned to the Congress in 2013, said, "Our parents have always taught us about struggle. Me and my brother, Digvijaya Singh, are not the ones who would step back. We will fight."

Meanwhile, leader of opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly -- Dr. Govind Singh, who is considered close to Digvijaya Singh, claimed that Kamal Nath had asked him to reach Delhi with party's MLAs. "Nearly two dozen MLAs, including Dr. Govind Singh would reach Delhi by late night or early Friday morning," sources told IANS.

"Why Digvijaya Singh would be the best candidate for AICC head, it has three reasons -- First, he is a good orator with a decades of experience of both administration and the organisation, second, he belongs to the Hindi-speaking belt where the party's condition is completely deteriorated, and third reason is that the Congress head should be a person who can take on PM Modi and, therefore Digvijaya Singh would be the best candidate for the party's to post," said a Congress leader on condition of anonymity.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Sep 29 (IANS) As the Kolkata Police intensifies its probe into mobile gaming app E-Nuggets in a fraud case, more associates of the prime accused are being arrested in connection.

Late Wednesday, the city police arrested Soma Naskar (28), who used to give her personal bank account on rent to Amir Khan, the prime accused, for depositing the proceeds of the app's transactions.

A reserve of Rs 30 crore in the account has also been confiscated by Kolkata Police.

With this, the total seizure in the E-Nuggets scam has reached a whopping Rs 74.68 crore.

The first seizure amounting to Rs 17.32 crore in cash was recovered by Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths from the residence of Amir Khan's father Naser at Shahi Astabal Lane in the city's Garden Reach area on September 10.

In the second seizure, the police on Thursday confiscated Rs 14.53 crore from a cryptocurrency wallet of Amir Khan.

The same evening, the ED sleuths seized Bitcoin worth Rs 12.73 crore, which was deposited in the cryptocurrency wallet of a local businessman who had hired it to Khan against a commission.

Besides Naskar, four other close associates have also been arrested -- Samit Mondal (37), Rahul Pal (37), Prasenjit Sarkar (32) and Pratik Bajpai (29).

Bajpai was the manager of Amir Khan's office in Salt Lake from where he used to operate the E-Nuggets fraud trade.

A couple of high-end sophisticated server machines, 1,952 mobile SIM cards, several laptops and desktops were recovered from the office.

Amir Khan, who was arrested by the Kolkata Police from Ghaziabad on September 24, is currently under custody. He will be produced before a lower court on October 8.

The accused had launched the app which was designed for the purpose of defrauding the public.

During the initial period, the users were rewarded with commission, and balance in the wallet could be withdrawn in a hassle-free manner.

This provided confidence to the users, who started investing bigger amounts for a larger percentage of commission and a greater number of purchase orders.

After collecting handsome amounts from the public, all of a sudden withdrawal from the said app was stopped on one pretext or the other.

Thereafter, all data, including profile information, was wiped out from the app's server.

--IANS
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Bhubaneswar, Sep 29 (IANS) Senior Congress leader and first chairperson of National Commission for Women (NCW) Jayanti Patnaik passed away here at a private hospital on Wednesday night. She was 90.

She is survived by son Prithvi Ballav Patnaik and two daughters. Her husband, former Odisha chief minister and ex-governor of Assam J. B. Patnaik had passed away in 2015.

Jayanti was elected to Lok Sabha three times from Cuttack and Berhampur constituency and nominated to Rajya Sabha once. She was also known for her literary skills having translated K.M. Munshi's Krishnavatara in Odia.

Condoling the death of the senior Congress leader, President Droupadi Murmu, in a tweet, said, "Sad to learn about the demise of Jayanti Patnaik, wife of former Odisha CM J.B. Patnaik. She was also an ex-MP and eminent social worker who endeared herself to the people of the state through her service and dedication. My condolences to her family, friends, and well-wishers."

Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, state Congress president Sarat Pattnayak and many other leaders from Odisha condoled the demise of the Congress leader.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS) A day ahead of the last date of filing nomination for the Congress presidential post, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday reached 10 Janpath to meet party interim president Sonia Gandhi, and sources said that the stalemate is likely to end soon.

Ahead of this meeting, Sonia Gandhi's emissary Mukul Wasnik met Gehlot.

The Sonia-Gehlot meeting gains significance as the loyal MLAs to Ashok Gehlot had boycotted the Congress Legislature Party meeting in Jaipur on September 25.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh will file nomination for the post of the party president for which election is scheduled to be held on October 17. Sources close to Singh have said the decision to contest the polls is his personal one, adding that none from the Gandhi family has asked him to do so.

The former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister may file the nomination by September 30, the last date of filing nominations.

Congress' initial plan was to field Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot for the top party post, but the high-octane drama in Rajasthan has miffed the Gandhis. Sources in the know of things said "Gehlot has not been ruled out from the race yet".

--IANS
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