Sacrilege cases Actor Akshay Kumar appears before Punjab Police SIT

Agencies
November 21, 2018

Chandigarh, Nov 21: Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar Wednesday appeared before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Punjab Police, which is probing the 2015 police firing incidents at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in the state following cases of sacrilege in Faridkot. 

Soon after his arrival at the Chandigarh airport, the actor headed straight to the Punjab Police headquarters at sector-9 here where security has been stepped up.

Kumar refused to talk to reporters at the airport. 

The SIT wants to question Kumar as his name was mentioned in the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege incidents. The SIT had earlier asked him to appear before it on November 21 at the Amritsar circuit house. However, police later allowed the actor to appear before the SIT at Chandigarh.

The Justice Ranjit Singh commission report, which was tabled in the Punjab Assembly in August, had given a reference of a letter written (October 9, 2017) to it by former MLA Harbans Jalal claiming that a meeting took place between Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal at the actor's flat in Mumbai in 2015 in connection with the release of the Dera head's movie "MSG".

The meeting was allegedly held before the Dera chief was pardoned in a blasphemy case. The movie "MSG" was not released in Punjab in September 2015 because of an edict by the Akal Takht, the supreme temporal seat of the Sikhs, against it.

Kumar has denied arranging any meeting between former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal and the Dera Sacha Sauda sect head.

The actor has also denied having ever met the Sirsa headquartered Dera head, who is currently serving a 20-year jail term in a rape case.

Kumar had issued the denial on November 12 after the SIT summoned him along with former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. 

"It has come to my knowledge that some rumours and false statements are being loosely made on social media about my involvement with a person named Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the context of a fictitious meeting involving Sukhbir Singh Badal,” Kumar had said in tweet.

"With all humility, I would like to state the following facts. I have never ever met Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in my life, anywhere. I learnt from social media at some point that Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh resided for a while at some place in my locality Juhu in Mumbai but we never crossed each other's paths,” Kumar had said.

The SIT has already questioned former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal in Chandigarh.

On Monday, Sukhbir told SIT members, that he had never met Akshay outside Punjab when he was asked by the SIT members whether he had met the actor in Mumbai.

The summons are related to the investigation of cases involving various incidents of sacrilege in 2015, police had said.
 
The summons had been issued under the section 160 of the CrPC, requiring the attendance for investigation, relating to the Bargari sacrilege case and the Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing incidents.

The summons state, "The presence of the aforesaid person is necessary for the purpose of inquiry into the above-mentioned offence” and the person summoned needed “to give such information relating to the said alleged offence as he may possess.”

The 5-member SIT was set up by the state government in September this year.

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News Network
February 12,2020

London, Feb 12: Oscar-winning British director Steve McQueen is returning to his art roots with a series of short films at London's Tate Modern art gallery, offering a sensory exploration of black identity.

McQueen, who became the first black director to win the best picture Academy Award in 2014 for "12 Years a Slave", is now based between London and Amsterdam and is focused on championing diversity in the film industry.

Visitors to his new exhibition will be greeted by "Static", a film of New York's Statue of Liberty, scrutinising the iconic symbol from every possible angle at very close range against a deafening backdrop of the helicopter from where the footage was filmed.

"What interests Steve is our view of the world, how humans are trying to represent Liberty," said Fiontan Moran, assistant curator of the exhibition.

"7th Nov, 2001" features a still shot of a body while McQueen's cousin Marcus tells of how he accidentally killed his brother, a particularly traumatic experience for the artist.

"Western Deep" is another visceral work, giving a sense through sights and sounds in an interactive installation of the experiences of miners in South Africa, following them to the bottom of the mine.

"Ashes", meanwhile, is a tribute to a young fisherman from Grenada, the island where McQueen's family originated.

The images of beauty and sweetness filmed from his boat are tragically reversed on the other side of the projection screen, which shows a grave commissioned by McQueen for the eponymous young fisherman, who was killed by drug traffickers.

African-American singer, actor and civil rights activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976) is honoured in "End Credits".

The film shows censored FBI documents detailing the agency's surveillance of Robeson, read by a voice-over artist, for five hours.

"He is... testing the limits of how people can be documented in an era of mass surveillance," said Moran.

In a similarly militant vein, the exhibition features the sculpture "Weight", which was first shown in the prison cell where the writer and playwright Oscar Wilde was imprisoned.

It depicts a golden mosquito net draped over a metal prison bed frame, addressing the theme of confinement and the power of the imagination to break free.

The show runs alongside an exhibition of McQueen's giant portraits of London school classes, many of which appeared on the streets of London last year.

"I remember my first school trip to Tate when I was an impressionable eight-year-old, which was really the moment I gained an understanding that anything is possible," said McQueen, adding it was "where in some ways my journey as an artist first began".

He recently told the Financial Times newspaper the difference between his art films and his feature films was that the former were poetry, the latter like a novel.

"Poetry is condensed, precise, fragmented," he said. "The novel is the yarn".

The exhibition opens on February 13 and runs until May 11.

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News Network
July 4,2020

London, Jul 4: Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth says he is really excited about the biopic on WWE legend Hulk Hogan, which is currently in development.

"The Thor" actor revealed that he will bulk up his physique for the much-anticipated film to be directed by “Joker” helmer Todd Phillips.

“This movie is going to be a really fun project. As you can imagine, the preparation for the role will be insanely physical. I will have to put on more size than I ever have before, even more than I put on for Thor.

''And then there is the accent as well as the physicality and the attitude. I will also have to do a deep dive into the rabbit hole of the wrestling world, which I'm really looking forward to doing,” Hemsworth told British magazine Total Film.

The project was announced last year, with “8 Mile” scribe Scott Silver and John Pollono attached to pen the script.

It is expected to look into Hogan's rise from the Florida wrestling circuit to becoming the face of the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s where he squared off with villain Andre the Giant.

The 36-year-old actor, however, said that the team is still “quite a way away” from starting production on the film.

“'I haven't even seen a script yet. The project is deep in development. Todd Phillips and I met to chat about it maybe a year or two ago. We talked about the idea for the film, which I think was going to be a TV series at one point.

''There were a few different ideas about what portion of his life it was going to be set in, so we spitballed about what it could be and what I thought it might be. Thankfully, they ran with a few of those ideas and the script is in the process of being written - but Hulk Hogan is still quite a way away.''

The biopic will be produced by Michael Sugar through his Sugar23's first-look Netflix deal along with Joint Efforts' Phillips and Bradley Cooper, Eric Bischoff, and Hemsworth.

Hogan will also serve as executive producer along with Sugar23's Ashley Zalta. Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman will serve as co-producers.

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News Network
May 30,2020

California, May 30: Priyanka Chopra Jonas on Saturday shared a gorgeous sunkissed selfie sporting cherry lips and beaded dangler earrings.

The multi-talented star who owns a production house put out a morning selfie on Instagram wherein she is seen sporting a white collared top, flaunting her cherry red lips and dangler earrings as she embraces her peach glow in the sheer sunlight, while her shiny curls bounce the sunshine.

Along with the picture, the 'The Sky Is Pink' actor wrote, "A cherry lip and sunshine...maybe even a earring...I'm feeling adventurous."

On sharing the gorgeous selfie, the Chopra received heaps of praises from fans and celebrity followers, and the post reached more than 1.9 lakh likes including one for Sussanne Khan.

Model Masaba Gupta also chimed in the comment section and adored the beauty of the 'Baywatch' star writing, "Stunning" with a heart emoticon.

Currently, the actor is quarantined in her California house along with singer and husband Nick Jonas and has been quite active on social media.

Earlier, Priyanka recalled her parents' service in the Indian Army as America observed Memorial Day, and the 37-year-old actor dug out an old picture of her parents in uniform and posted it on Instagram.

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