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Saffron terror suspect, rapists find place on seer’s list of 14 'fake babas'

coastaldigest.com news network
September 11, 2017

Allahabad, Sept 11:  Irked by recent controversies surrounding self-styled godmen, the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, the top body of Hindu sadhus, today released a list of 14 "fake babas" and demanded a crackdown on "rootless cult leaders" by bringing in a legislation.

Giving out the list, which includes names like Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Rampal, Asaram and his son Narayan Sai, the parishad's president Swami Narendra Giri said, "We appeal to even the common people to beware of such charlatans who belong to no tradition and by their questionable acts, bring disrepute to sadhus and sanyasis."

The parishad is a council of akharas, which are monastic orders drawing their spiritual lineage from 8th-century seer Adi Shankara, who is said to have established orders of martial monks with the aim of defending the Hindu Dharma. The development comes close on the heels of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Haryana sentencing Dera Sacha Sauda chief Ram Rahim to 20 years in prison for the rape of two of his former disciples.

Large-scale violence took place in various parts of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan following his conviction by the court in the two cases.

Forty-one people were killed in Haryana in the clashes. However, no death was reported from Punjab and Rajasthan. While Asaram is in jail in connection with a sexual assault case, his son Narayan Sai, also booked in a similar case, is out on bail.

Rampal is behind bars, facing trial in a number of cases relating to violence.

"We are going to send copies of this list to the Centre, the state governments as well as all the opposition parties with the demand that a strong legislation be brought to check the activities of these self-styled cult leaders," Giri told reporters here. 

He also claimed that he had yesterday received a phone call from a person claiming to be a devotee of Asaram, who "threatened to kill me if a mention was made of his guru in the list of fake babas we planned to bring out today".

"An FIR has been lodged at the Daryaganj police station in the city, based on a complaint of Giri. The matter is being investigated," Senior Superintendent of Police of Allahabad Anand Kulkarni said.

Here are the 14 fake babas on the parishad’s list:

Asaram Bapu (Asumal Sirumalani)

The 76-year-old white-bearded man was arrested in 2013 after a teenage devotee accused him of raping her at a religious event. Another female follower later also accused him of rape. He has been in jail since 2013 on charges of rape and criminal intimidation. Yet Asaram continues to have thousands of supporters flock to court when he appears for hearings.

Several local newspapers have reported on the mysterious killings of three witnesses in the criminal cases he faces.

Radhe Maa (Sukhwinder Kaur)

A Punjab resident, Sukhwinder Kaur later changed her name to Radhe Maa and moved to Mumbai. She hosts regular religious events at her Radhe Maa Bhawan located in Boriwali. The Punjab and Haryana high court recently issued a notice against a police official asking why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for failing to act on a complaint against Kaur.

A Phagwara-based man had lodged a complaint against her, seeking registration of a case in 2015 for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, threatening and other offences under the IPC.

Last year, Mumbai resident Niki Gupta filed a complaint, accusing Kaur of instigating her in-laws against her for dowry.

Sachchidanand Giri (Sachin Datta)

He is called ‘Builder Baba’ by many. Sachin Dutta alias Sachidanand Giri had been declared a proclaimed offender in a case registered with the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Delhi Police and was later arrested from his house in Lucknow.

In 2015, a case of fraud had been registered at Sector 58, Noida against Dutta and seven others for allegedly mortgaging sold flats in an Indirapuram housing society to obtain bank loans. The case was subsequently transferred to the Indirapuram police station and the accused declared a proclaimed offender.

Gurmeet Singh

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Singh, known as the guru of bling for the bejeweled costumes he wears in self-produced films, was recently sentenced to 20 years’ jail after being convicted of raping two female followers. Hundreds of his followers went on the rampage when he was convicted, attacking train stations, buses and television vans.

Secret tunnels, including one which linked the jailed sect chief plush residence with female disciples’ hostel, an empty box of AK-47 cartridges, an illegal firecracker factory were among the detections made during a search at his sect headquarters.

Swami Omji (Vinodanand Jha)

In November 2008, an FIR was registered against Vinodanand Jha aka Swami Omji on a complaint by his younger brother Pramodh Jha, who accused him of breaking the lock of his bicycle shop in Lodhi Colony along with three men and stealing 11 bicycles, expensive spare parts, sale deed of the house and important documents.

The self-proclaimed godman also faces charges under the Arms Act, Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act in other matters.

Nirmal Baba (Nirmaljeet Singh)

Nirmaljeet Singh Narula, better known as Nirmal Baba, has appeared on television as part of his show, ‘Third Eye of Nirmal Baba’. This Jharkhand-raised self-styled godman shot to fame through the controversy surrounding the donations and the charging of admission fees (Rs. 2,000 per person) to his ‘darbar’ sessions. He is estimated to be worth hundreds of crores and has a huge following despite dispensing advice bordering on the absurd. He even has an app on Facebook called ‘Live Darshan 24/7’. A polarising figure, Nirmal Baba has ardent devotees and vocal doubters.

Ichchadhari Bhimanand (Shivmurti Dwivedi)

Shivmurti Dwivedi was arrested in 2010 for allegedly running a sex racket. Dwivedi, alias Icchadhari Sant Swami Bhimanand Ji Maharaj Chitrakoot, was booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act. “He has political ambitions. He did not want to join politics now but was gaining ground steadily. He wanted to use his followers as his vote bank,” a senior police officer had said after his arrest.

Swami Aseemanand

Swami Aseemanand is a Hindutva (saffron) activist, who is accused of planning 2007 Ajmer sharif dargah blast and Mecca Masjid blasts as well as the 2006 Malegaon blasts and the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Aseemanand on 19 November 2010 for his involvement in the Mecca Masjid bombing. On 24 December 2010, he was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Swami Assemanand was acquitted in 2007 Ajmer sharif dargah blast case by NIA court on 8 March 2017.

Aseemanand confessed to the alleged acts before the Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Dabas at Tis Hazari courts on 18 December 2010. He stated that he and other Hindutva activists were involved in bombings at various Muslim religious places as they wanted to answer every Islamist terrorist act with “a bomb for bomb’’ policy. His confession, recorded in Hindi, has been reported in Tehelka news magazine issue dated 15 January 2011, “In the Words of a Zealot.’’ However, in late March 2011, Aseemanand stated that he had been pressurized by the investigating agencies to confess that he was behind these blasts.

In February 2014, a controversy erupted over interviews given by Swami Aseemanand to a magazine called The Caravan, in which he alleged that some of the worst terror attacks in India were sanctioned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or RSS, and its then General Secretary Mohan Bhagwat. Although Aseemanand subsequently denied making such allegations, the magazine released audio tapes of the interviews which included the Swami's stunning allegations.

Narayan Sai

Asaram’s son Narayan Sai is in jail for allegedly raping a Surat-based woman disciple of his father between 2002 and 2005. She was allegedly raped when she was living at Asaram’s ashram in Surat. Sai, 40, is also accused of having physical relations with eight other girls.

Rampal

In November 2014, five bodies were discovered by the police after they stormed the ashram of a self-styled godman, Rampal, in Haryana’s Hisar. Another of the man’s followers died in hospital. The police were seeking Rampal’s arrest after he refused court orders to appear to answer charges including conspiracy to murder, inciting mobs and contempt of court.

Rampal considers himself an incarnation of the 15th-century poet Kabir.

The ashram was guarded by hundreds of followers for several days. Police fired water cannon and lathi-charged the supporters who were armed with stones, petrol bombs among other weapons.

Some followers later came out of the ashram, saying they had been held at the ashram against their will.

Acharya Kushmuni

Acharya Kushmuni Swarup is national spokesperson Akhil Bhartiya Dandi Sanyasi Prabudh Samiti. After the list of fake babas, Kushmuni alleged most of the people in the akhada had criminal cases against them. He has in the past called for fake babas to be reprimanded.

Brahaspati Giri

Giri allegedly tried to gain control of temples of Alkhnath Trust in Uttar Pradesh.

The other two babas on the list are Om Namah Shivay Baba and Malkhan Singh.

Comments

OPen Heart
 - 
Sunday, 17 Sep 2017

Worship the CREATOR not his Creation... There is no God but ALLAH and Muhammad pbuh is the final messenger of ALLAH who conveyed the message of one God (who has no image, pic statue etc.) who is worthy of worship. Vedas also call us to the same God who has no image.... NA TASYA PRATIMA ASTI (There is no image of God) .

 

When U worship one God, U will never need such babas to give you blessing. Look for the CREATOR who created U, me and all that exists ... U will be successful. Those who are honest in looking for the CREATOR who is worthy of worship will find him.

 

Well Wisher
 - 
Tuesday, 12 Sep 2017

As a part of cleanup fake babas, we also request the government to take a necessary step to clean up muslim community from babas and fake tangals routing to Kerala.

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News Network
February 12,2020

Feb 12: China on Wednesday reported another drop in the number of new cases of a viral infection and 97 more deaths, pushing the total dead past 1,100 as postal services worldwide said delivery was being affected by the cancellation of many flights to China.

The National Health Commission said 2,015 new cases had been reported over the last 24 hours, declining for a second day. The total number of cases in mainland China reached 44,653, although many experts say a large number of others infected have gone uncounted.

The additional deaths raised the mainland toll to 1,113. Two people have died elsewhere, one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.

In the port city of Tianjin, just southeast of Beijing, a cluster of cases has been traced to a department store in Baodi district. One-third of Tianjin’s 104 confirmed cases are in Baodi, the Xinhua state news agency reported.

A salesperson working in the store’s small home appliance section became the first individual in the cluster to be diagnosed on Jan. 31, Xinhua said. The store was already closed at that point, then disinfected on Feb. 1. Nevertheless, several more diagnoses soon followed.

The next to have their infections confirmed were also salespeople at the store. They had not visited Wuhan recently and, with the exception of one married couple, the patients worked in different sections of the store and did not know one another, according to Xinhua.

Japan’s Health Ministry said that 39 new cases have been confirmed on a cruise ship quarantined at Yokohama, bringing the total to 174 on the Diamond Princess.

The U.S. Postal Service said that it was “experiencing significant difficulties” in dispatching letters, parcels and express mail to China, including Hong Kong and Macau.

Both the U.S. and Singapore Post said in notes to their global counterparts that they are no longer accepting items destined for China, “until sufficient transport capacity becomes available.”

The Chinese mail service, China Post, said it was disinfecting postal offices, processing centers and vehicles to ensure the virus doesn’t spread via the mail and to protect staff.

It said the crisis is also impacting mail that transits China to other destinations including North Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The World Health Organization has named the disease caused by the virus as COVID-19, avoiding any animal or geographic designation to avoid stigmatization and to show the illness comes from a new coronavirus discovered in 2019.

The illness was first reported in December and connected to a food market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak has largely been concentrated.

Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese epidemiologist, said that while the virus outbreak in China may peak this month, the situation at the center of the crisis remains more challenging.

“We still need more time of hard working in Wuhan,” he said, describing the isolation of infected patients there a priority.

“We have to stop more people from being infected,” he said. “The problem of human-to-human transmission has not yet been resolved.”

Without enough facilities to handle the number of cases, Wuhan has been building prefabricated hospitals and converting a gym and other large spaces to house patients and try to isolate them from others.

China’s official media reported Tuesday that the top health officials in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, have been relieved of their duties. No reasons were given, although the province’s initial response was deemed slow and ineffective. Speculation that higher-level officials could be sacked has simmered, but doing so could spark political infighting and be a tacit admission of responsibility.

The virus outbreak has become the latest political challenge for the party and its leader, Xi Jinping, who despite accruing more political power than any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, has struggled to handle crises on multiple fronts. These include a sharply slowing domestic economy, the trade war with the U.S. and pushback on China’s increasingly aggressive foreign policies.

China is struggling to restart its economy after the annual Lunar New Year holiday was extended to try to curb the spread of the virus. About 60 million people are under virtual quarantine and many others are still working at home.

In Hong Kong, the diagnosis of four people living in an apartment building prompted worried comparisons with the deadly SARS pandemic of 17 years ago.

More than 100 people were evacuated from the building after a 62-year-old woman diagnosed with the virus was found living 10 floors directly below a man who was earlier confirmed with the virus.

Health officials called it a precautionary measure and sought to assuage fears of an epidemic, dismissing similarities to the SARS community outbreak at the Amoy Gardens housing estate in 2003.

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News Network
January 22,2020

Jan 22: India's ranking in the latest global Democracy Index has dropped 10 places to the 51st spot out of 167 owing to violent protests and threats to civil liberties challenging freedoms across the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been criticized by rights groups and western governments after shutting off the internet and mobile phone networks and detaining opposition politicians in Kashmir.

Modi’s government has also responded harshly to ongoing protests against a controversial, religion-based citizenship law. Muslims have said their neighborhoods have been targeted, while the central government has attempted to ban protests and urged TV news channels not to broadcast “anti-national” content. Some leaders in Modi’s ruling party called for “revenge” against protesters. India’s score in 2019 was its worst ranking since the EIU’s records began in 2006, and has fallen gradually since Modi was elected in 2014.

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2019 Democracy Index, which provides an annual comparative analysis of political systems across 165 countries and two territories, said the past year was the bleakest for democracies since the research firm began compiling the list in 2006.

“The 2019 result is even worse than that recorded in 2010, in the wake of the global economic and financial crisis,” the research group said in releasing the report on Wednesday.

The average global score slipped to 5.44 out of a possible 10 -- from 5.48 in 2018 -- driven mainly by “sharp regressions” in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. Apart from coup-prone Thailand, which improved its score after holding an election last year, there were also notable declines in Asia after a tumultuous period of protests and new measures restricting freedom across the region’s democracies.

Asia Declines

Hong Kong, meanwhile, fell three places to rank 75th out of 167 as more than seven months of violent and disruptive protests rocked the Asian financial hub. An aggressive police response early in the unrest, when protests were mostly peaceful, led to a “marked decline in confidence in government -- the main factor behind the decline in the territory’s score in our 2019 index,” the group said.

In Singapore, which ranked alongside Hong Kong at 75th, a new “fake news” law led to a deteriorating score on civil liberties.

“The government claims that the law was enacted simply to prevent the dissemination of false news, but it threatens freedom of expression in Singapore, as it can be used to curtail political debate and silence critics of the government,” EIU analysts said.

China’s score fell to just 2.26 in the EIU’s ranking, placing it near the bottom of the list at 153, as discrimination against minorities, repression and surveillance of the population intensified. Still, in China “the majority of the population is unconvinced that democracy would benefit the economy, and support for democratic ideals is absent,” the EIU said.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 25,2020

Mangaluru, May 25: Four domestic flights that were scheduled to operate from Mangaluru International Airport today have been cancelled. 

A total of six flights were scheduled to depart Mangaluru Airport today. 

Among them, two flights to Mumbai, one to Chennai and one to Bengaluru were cancelled due to lack of passengers and other reasons, sources said.

The remaining two flights – both to Bengaluru – are expected to take off with limited passengers later in the day.  

Domestic flight operations resumed in the country today after a gap of two months. All flight operations had ceased when the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March.

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