A Mumbai-based Sunni Muslim group, Raza Academy, has reportedly issued a fatwa against filmmaker Majid Majidi and Oscar-winning music director AR Rahman.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the fatwa is issued against Iranian filmmaker Majidi’s upcoming film titled ‘Muhammad: Messenger of God’. The film will be the first of the trilogy on the life of Prophet Mohammad.

The fatwa demands that Muslims shun the film as it makes a mockery of Islam. It also says that no visual or picture of Prophet be created in any way. The fatwa also claims that non-Muslim actors have been cast in key roles.

Raza academy wrote to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis seeking ban on the film last week.

The fatwa added that since Majidi and Rahman have committed sacrilege, they will have to read the kalma again and also solemnise their marriage again.

Saudi Embassy has not responded to the Ministry of External Affairs’ demand to cooperate in the case involving a Saudi diplomat charged with rape of two Nepalese women, amid speculation that Saudi government may withdraw the accused from India. A day after India had asked Saudi Arabia to waive the official’s diplomatic immunity and cooperate in the investigation, official sources said, “a response is awaited to what we conveyed to them yesterday”.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabian Ambassador Saud Mohammed Alsati was called to the MEA and told that the accused diplomat should give a statement to the Gurgaon police probing the case. “MEA Chief of Protocol called in Saudi Ambassador and conveyed request of Haryana Police for cooperation of Embassy in the case of two Nepali citizens,” Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup had said. It is learnt that the diplomat along with his family has shifted to the Saudi Embassy. The two Nepalese women have already gone back to their country yesterday.

The envoy was called a day after MEA had received a “detailed report” about the case from Gurgaon Police including the second medical report confirming rape and sodomy. Asked whether Saudi Arabia has invoked diplomatic immunity of the diplomat, accused of confining and raping the women at his house in Gurgaon, to enable him escape prosecution, the sources said India has not been informed about any such move. The options before Saudi Arabia are to either withdraw the diplomat or waive his diplomatic immunity to enable prosecution proceedings. The latter being very unlikely.

India can declare him persona non grata if he does not cooperate with the investigation. The Saudi Embassy has termed the allegations as “false” and said it has protested police “intrusion” into a diplomat’s house against “all diplomatic conventions”.

The two Nepalese women have alleged that they were confined and raped by the diplomat and his “guests” repeatedly in a flat in Gurgaon on the outskirts of the national capital after which the local police filed an FIR in the matter.

China has begun developing a new generation of attack helicopter which will have stealth abilities and should start deliveries to the Chinese armed forces by about 2020, the official China Daily newspaper said on Friday.

The helicopter is being developed by Aviation Industry Corp of China (AVIC), one of the country’s leading arms manufacturers, the state-run English-language publication said. Its stealth capabilities will “reshape the combat patterns” of the People’s Liberation Army, company chairman Lin Zuoming was quoted as saying.

“It is a trend that the ground force will become increasingly dependent on helicopters because they have better strike capability and mobility than armoured vehicles, and transport supplies to frontier troops,” Lin said.

The company’s chief helicopter designer, Wu Ximing, said the aircraft would have “supreme manoeuvrability in complicated environments, outstanding survivability and joint operation ability”, the report added.
It provided no other details.

President Xi Jinping has pushed to toughen and modernise the country’s 2.3 million-strong armed forces as China takes a more assertive stance in the region, particularly in the South China and East China seas. That has included developing a series of high-tech weapons, including stealth jets, aircraft carriers and emerging technology aimed at shooting down satellites.

Twelve persons have been convicted for their involvement in the 2006 serial blasts in Mumbai that killed over 180 persons. The trial has been on now for the last nine years.

While initial reports said five had been convicted, reports later said that 12 of the 13 accused have been convicted while one person has been acquitted.

The accused convicted by the court are: Faisal Shaikh, Ali Bashir Khan, Mohammad Ali, Majid Shafi, Sajid Ansari, Kamal Ansari, Ethesham Siddiqui, Zameer Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Tanvir Ansari and Naved Hussain.

The accused were convicted under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (Mcoca), special public prosecutor Raja Thakre said.

Abdul Shaikh was the only accused to be acquitted by the court, reported CNN-IBN.

“Arguments on sentencing of the accused will take place on Monday,” Thakre said.

Here’s everything you need to know about the case:

The blasts

Seven blasts in crowded Mumbai local trains took place on the evening of 11 July 2006 in which a total of 189 persons were killed. Over 820 people were injured in the blasts.

The blasts took place at Mahim and Matunga in central Mumbai and at Khar, Bandra, Jogeshwari, Mira Road and Borivali in the northern suburbs. All the blasts took place on the Western Railways line of the city’s suburban rail network.

The blasts were allegedly engineered using a mixture of RDX and ammonium nitrate. The explosive mixture was allegedly packed into seven bags which were then placed in trains leaving from Churchgate in south Mumbai for the suburbs. The bombs were planted in the first class coaches of the trains.
AFP image

AFP image

The accused and the alleged plot

The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad had arrested 13 persons for their alleged involvement in the case. The police has said that the accused were linked with terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba and banned group Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

They are: Faisal Shaikh, Ali Bashir Khan, Mohammad Ali, Majid Shafi, Sajid Ansari, Kamal Ansari, Ethesham Siddiqui, Zameer Shaikh, Sohail Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Tanvir Ansari, Naved Hussain and Abdul Shaikh. One of the accused, said to be a Pakistani, allegedly died in the blasts.

The police has said that the bombs were assembled at Mohammed Ali’s house by the accused, along with Pakistani nationals.

Former Mumbai police commissioner AN Roy, at the time of filing of the chargesheet, had said that there were allegedly 14 people involved in the planting of the bombs.

“They were divided into seven teams, each consisting of a Pakistani national and an Indian national. We have arrested five out of the seven Indian nationals. One out of the seven Pakistanis died at the blast site, while we have asked for the other six who are reportedly hiding in Pakistan to be externed,” Roy was quoted as saying in a Mumbai Mirror report.

All 13 have been charged under sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), Indian Penal Code, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Explosives Act, Railway Act, Passport Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. They face a maximum punishment of the death penalty.

The 13 accused have been in prison for seven years already as the trial against them has proceeded.

The police has also named 15 others in the chargesheet in which Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Pakistan-based leader Azeem Cheema has been named as the prime conspirator.

Trial so far

The verdict is set to come a year after special judge YD Shinde concluded the trial. At the time he had declared that the judgement could be announced on 19 September, 2014.

The prosecuting agency, state Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS), had examined 200 witnesses in the case against 13 accused, while the defence lawyers examined a total of 40 witnesses.

The ATS has filed a chargesheet that runs into over 10,000 pages.

Special public prosecutor Raja Thakare, who appeared for the ATS in this case, said the court must be ensuring that all the evidence and arguments of both the prosecution and defence is covered in the judgment and there are no loose ends.

“During the trial, we (prosecution and defence lawyers) submit a lot of evidence and judgments in support of our arguments. All that has to be perused and considered by the judge before passing judgment. It is a huge task,” Thakare told PTI.

The controversies

The pressure cooker factor: The first controversy in the trial came thanks to a statement made well the chargesheet was filed. When announcing the arrests in the case in 2006, former police commissioner AN Roy had said that the bombs used in the blasts were packed into pressure cookers which were then planted on the trains.

However, the pressure cooker theory was later found missing in the chargesheet in the case. The police justified its absence saying that they had mentioned “household items” in the chargesheet. But at the end of the trial, the special public prosecutor told the court that pressure cookers “could have been used”. This, despite the fact, that none of shopkeepers from where the cookers were allegedly bought were examined by the prosecution during the trial.

Torture: The accused in the case have accused the police of torture in order to extract confessions. Confessions are admissible as evidence under Mcoca. Two of the accused filed an application before the court accusing the police of torture. Media outlet Gulail had released interviews with some of the accused using hidden cameras in which the Mumbai Police was accused of torture.

At least 107 people were killed when a crane toppled over at Mecca’s Grand Mosque on Friday, Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence authority said, less than two weeks before Islam’s annual hajj pilgrimage. At least 238 people were wounded, Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence body said.

“All those who were wounded and the dead have been taken to hospital. There are no casualties left at the location,” General Suleiman al-Amr, director general of the Civil Defence Authority, told al-Ikhbariya television. Strong wind and rains had uprooted trees and rocked cranes in the area, he said.

MEA is trying its best to clip off the accused in the rape of two Nepali women along with 7 of his accomplices in this deadly inhuman act. As a senior Congress leader quoted today it is the petrol arrogance that the diplomat is trying to exhibit.This is the most perfect comment that could one make in regards to the deadly inhuman act and seeking diplomatic immunity.
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The national as well the international media must see that this devil in the form of a diplomat does get away with his so called diplomatic immunity. He must be cornered from every part of the world to create an embarrassment for the country and its diplomat.

These kinds of inhuman activities (rape and torture) from the petrol arrogant countries have happened with many other nationals which have gone unrecorded due to the compulsions and circumstances of the victim. It would now be on the part of the media to unfold such horrific stories of the so called arrogant petrol countries.

The media has time again reported that these two women took up the job due to the deadly earthquake in Nepal. Nepali people seeking employment abroad has been going on for more than two decades. Until five years ago Nepali women were restricted to work in the Middle east but later was relaxed.

Therefore there should be immunity for the rapist. He should be brought to book.

By Govind Ghimire

Gurgaon rape case: The vicitms claimed that the Saudi diplomat also took them to other places, including Nainital and Agra, where they were introduced to other ‘guests’ and subjected to further sexual assault.

Last four months were a curse for us. It was so ugly…we thought we were going to die in that house and our families would never even find our bodies,” said the 20-year-old woman from Nepal, who had been sexually abused for months.

The woman and her 44-year-old mother were rescued from the Gurgaon residence of a diplomat from Saudi Arabia on Monday night. Hired as domestic help, they were allegedly held hostage at the house and sexually abused every day for the last four months by the diplomat and his ‘guests’.

“There were days when seven to eight men — all from Saudi Arabia — would assault us. If we resisted, the diplomat and his family would threaten to kill us and dispose of our bodies in the sewer,” said the older woman. She claimed that on one occasion, the diplomat had even slashed her on the arm with a knife.

On some days, they would be given no food at all, she said. But they were allowed to bathe, right before they had to meet the diplomat’s ‘guests’, who would rape and sodomise them, said the women.

The diplomat’s wife made no attempt to help them; instead, she beat them up, alleged the women. “We were made to do all the household chores, from morning till late in the night, and then subjected to sexual assault at the end of the day. We were not given food. Sometimes we only survived on biscuits, bread and watery tea. We were never allowed to step out of the house,” said the women.

They claimed that the diplomat also took them to other places, including Nainital and Agra, where they were introduced to other ‘guests’ and subjected to further sexual assault.

“Right after we were employed, our employer took us to Saudi Arabia for 15 days. There, he did not touch us or misbehave with us. After we returned in May, he asked us to massage him… he then raped us and forced us to have unnatural sex and oral sex. After that he offered us to his friends regularly,” they stated in their police complaint.

“Last four months were a curse for us. It was so ugly…we thought we were going to die in that house and our families would never even find our bodies,” said the 20-year-old woman from Nepal, who had been sexually abused for months.

The woman and her 44-year-old mother were rescued from the Gurgaon residence of a diplomat from Saudi Arabia on Monday night. Hired as domestic help, they were allegedly held hostage at the house and sexually abused every day for the last four months by the diplomat and his ‘guests’.

“There were days when seven to eight men — all from Saudi Arabia — would assault us. If we resisted, the diplomat and his family would threaten to kill us and dispose of our bodies in the sewer,” said the older woman. She claimed that on one occasion, the diplomat had even slashed her on the arm with a knife.

On some days, they would be given no food at all, she said. But they were allowed to bathe, right before they had to meet the diplomat’s ‘guests’, who would rape and sodomise them, said the women.

The diplomat’s wife made no attempt to help them; instead, she beat them up, alleged the women. “We were made to do all the household chores, from morning till late in the night, and then subjected to sexual assault at the end of the day. We were not given food. Sometimes we only survived on biscuits, bread and watery tea. We were never allowed to step out of the house,” said the women.

They claimed that the diplomat also took them to other places, including Nainital and Agra, where they were introduced to other ‘guests’ and subjected to further sexual assault.

“Right after we were employed, our employer took us to Saudi Arabia for 15 days. There, he did not touch us or misbehave with us. After we returned in May, he asked us to massage him… he then raped us and forced us to have unnatural sex and oral sex. After that he offered us to his friends regularly,” they stated in their police complaint.

The women were finally rescued with the help of NGO Maiti Nepal India, which was informed about their plight by another woman who had been employed as a domestic help at the diplomat’s residence but ran away within three days.

NGO members then enlisted the help of someone who had access to the women and managed to pass on a mobile phone to them. “They were in constant touch with us for the last five days. They would narrate their ordeal on the phone and we assured them that they will be rescued soon,” said Bal Krishna Pandey, convener of NGO Maiti Nepal India.

The NGO then informed the Nepal Embassy, which wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs and Gurgaon police. A police team raided the diplomat’s residence on Monday night and rescued the two women.

Maiti Nepal India has also made arrangements to take the women back to their home — in Nepal’s Morang district — on Wednesday.

Who was the anonymous caller who set the ball rolling in the Sheena Bora murder case? As speculation continues around the all-important question that led to the unravelling of the conspiracy, dna has learnt that the caller who tipped off the Mumbai Police is the Meerut-based husband of one of Sheena’s closest friends.

The man works with one of the armed forces and is currently posted in Meerut, friends close to Sheena have disclosed, refuting the many theories doing the rounds, including one that the call came from a socialite friend of Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

It was to attend this couple’s wedding that Sheena had last visited Guwahati in November 2011. Sheena and this friend had been together since childhood and also went to the same school. Mikhail, who drove his sister to the airport after the visit, says that was the last time he saw Sheena. This is backed up by her other friends in Guwahati too – that they saw her last at the wedding.

However, the close friend and her husband met her last in Mumbai when they went to visit her and even stayed with Sheena. There are many questions, of course. How did the caller know about the details of the murder? And if the person knew, why was he quiet for so long?

According to Sheena’s friends, the couple was alarmed when she stopped communicating suddenly. The couple even went to Indrani later to find out Sheena’s whereabouts. Indrani had reportedly threatened them, after which they left. They also spoke to Rahul Mukerjea, who did not actively pursue the case after Indrani told the cops that he was stalking Sheena.

“They kept quiet for good measure. But then, suddenly, as a last resort they went to the police. The husband called the police and narrated what they knew, and I can tell you with confidence that they were privy to a lot of Sheena’s personal ongoings,” explained a close friend of Sheena who now resides in Mumbai. He says the friend chooses to remain anonymous, because her husband is in one of the wings of the armed forces and has been asked by his office not to be seen in the media.

The Mumbai-based friend of Sheena, who met her several times while she was in college in Mumbai, says that after Indrani brought her to Mumbai for higher studies, Sheena seemed happy initially. “Her mother gave her a very comfortable life; a car was always at her disposal, and she would often meet Bollywood stars,” he says. “But when she became financially independent, Sheena realised that she needed legitimacy and not the money.

Perhaps, that is the reason she is no more.”

Mumbai, Sep 10: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party in protest to the temporary meat ban of four days in Mumbai sold chicken in Agar Bazar in Dadar, Mumbai on September 10. Meat has been banned in Mumbai on September 10, 13, 17 and 18 to respect the Jain community who is celebrating Paryushan for ten days. (READ: MNS to protest against temporary meat ban in Mumbai by selling mutton)

Consumption of meat, eggs, sea food or roots are against the religious sentiment of Jain community. Political parties condemned the ban which favours a particular community in a secular nation. Shiv Sena spokesperson Neelam Gorhe talking about the ban said, “The Mayor of BJP-ruled Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation (in Maharashtra’s Thane District) is trying to use a section of society for political reasons.”

In a democratic country like India where every religion have their preferences imposing ban on the other is very undemocratic.