Trouble mounts for Azam Khan, 27 FIRs over land grab

Agencies
August 4, 2019

Rampur, Aug 4: As many as 27 FIRs have been lodged against Samajwadi Party leader and Lok Sabha MP Azam Khan in the last one month on the allegation that he grabbed farmers' land for his university in Rampur, police said.

Khan, who was a cabinet minister in Uttar Pradesh during the Akhilesh Yadav-led regime, is the founder and Chancellor of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University which came into being in 2006.

"Since July 11, over two dozen farmers have approached the police with allegations of encroachment of their land for the university. We have registered 27 FIRs in these cases and investigations are underway," Superintendent of Police, Rampur, Ajay Pal Sharma told news agency.

Largely, he said, these cases have been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 447 (criminal trespass), 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offense, in order to commit extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation).

"Some farmers have claimed of the land grab of one bigha, some two, some much more. Altogether, so far, a complaint about 0.349-hectare land encroachment has been lodged and necessary action is being taken," Sharma said.

"Punishment in these cases could be arrest and imprisonment up to 10 years besides monetary penalty," the officer said.

The Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, which has enrolled over 3,000 students, is spread over an area of 121 hectares, according to its website.

Besides the land grab FIRs, the Rampur Police had lodged a criminal case against university authorities on June 16 on a complaint by the principal of the 250-year-old Rampur-based Oriental College, earlier known as Madrasa Aliya, that over 9,000 books were stolen and taken to the library of the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University.

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News Network
June 11,2020

New Delhi, Jun 11: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said the religious and constitutional rights of minorities are absolutely safe in India and it does not need any certificate from anyone as communal harmony and tolerance are in the DNA of the country and its majority community.

Comments of Rijiju, a Buddhist, came after a top Trump administration official has said that the US is very concerned about what is happening in India in terms of religious freedom.

"India doesn't need certificate on communal harmony and tolerance which is in the DNA of India and the majority community in India," Rijiju, who holds the charge of the Union minister of state for minority affairs besides being the union sports minister, said in a statement.

Rijiju said the social, religious and constitutional rights of minorities are absolutely safe in the country.

"A few politically intolerant people are trying to create an atmosphere of fear and intolerance. As a member of the minority community, I feel India is the best country in the world for the minorities," he said.

Samuel Brownback, the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, said on Wednesday that India has been a country area that spawned four major religions itself.

"We do remain very concerned about what's taking place in India. It's historically just been a very tolerant, respectful country of religions, of all religions," he said.

The trendlines have been troubling in India because it is such a religious subcontinent and seeing a lot more communal violence, Brownback said.

His comments came after the release of the '2019 International Religious Freedom Report'.

Mandated by the US Congress, the report documenting major instances of the violation of religious freedom across the world was released by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the State Department.

India has previously rejected the US religious freedom report, saying it sees no locus standi for a foreign government to pronounce on the state of its citizens' constitutionally protected rights.

"India is proud of its secular credentials, its status as the largest democracy and a pluralistic society with a longstanding commitment to tolerance and inclusion", the government had said earlier.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

New Delhi, Jul 31: With the highest single-day spike of 55,079 COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India's coronavirus tally breached the 16 lakh mark on Friday, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

With this latest spike, the total cases in the country stand at 16,38,871. Among these cases 5,45,318 are active. A total of 10,57,806 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

779 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported in the country in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 35,747.

As per the Union Health Ministry, Maharashtra has a total of 1,48,454 active cases and recorded 14,729 deaths due to COVID-19.
Tamil Nadu has a total of 57,962 active cases and 3,838 deaths in the state.

Delhi has a total of 10,743 active cases and 3,936 deaths.

The Indian Council of Medical Research on Friday informed that a total number of COVID-19 samples tested up to 30th July is 1,88,32,970 including 6,42,588 samples tested yesterday.

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News Network
January 15,2020

New Delhi, Jan 15: The Delhi government Wednesday told the high court that execution of the death row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case will not take place on January 22 as a mercy plea has been filed by one of them.

The four convicts -- Vinay Sharma (26), Mukesh Kumar (32), Akshay Kumar Singh (31) and Pawan Gupta (25) -- are to be hanged on January 22 at 7 am in Tihar jail. A Delhi court had issued their death warrants on January 7.

Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal were told by the Delhi government and the Centre that the petition filed by convict Mukesh, challenging his death warrant, was premature.

The Delhi government and the prison authorities informed the court that under the rules, it will have to wait for the mercy plea to be decided before executing the death warrant.

They also said that none of the four convicts can be executed on January 22 unless the present mercy plea is decided.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday dismissed the curative pleas of Mukesh and Vinay.

The mercy plea hearing began Wednesday morning and will continue in the afternoon.

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