Uttarakhand: Four days after woman found charred, brother's body found in a ditch nearby
Gopeshwar (PTI): The mystery shrouding the death of a woman whose charred body was recovered last Sunday from a burnt car near Tapovan in Chamoli district has deepened with the discovery of her missing brother's body from a ditch nearby, police said.
The body of Sunil Senapati was retrieved on Thursday from a ditch 400 metres away from the spot where his sister Shweta Padma Senapati was found dead.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police and State Disaster Response Force personnel discovered Sunil's body with the help of sniffer dogs, the district police said.
The cause of his death will be ascertained after post-mortem, they said.
Senapati was initially viewed as a suspect since he went missing the same day his sister was found dead.
Shweta and Sunil were originally from Bengaluru but had been living in Dhak for some time, police said.
The woman was found charred inside a car on Sunday.
Police who reached the spot after receiving information about a burnt car parked on Chachdi-Bhavishya Badri Road near Tapovan, found a charred skeleton from the front passenger seat.
They found some ornaments near the skeleton which indicated that it belonged to a woman.
A number plate (KA01-0590) was also found near the burnt vehicle.
Further investigation revealed the identity of the deceased. It was learnt that Shweta and her brother from Bengaluru had been living together in Dhak.
A police team that visited Bengaluru to verify their identities and spoke to their relatives were informed that the siblings were broke and often borrowed money from family and acquaintances.
Relatives said the brother-sister duo would call them to say that their condition was dire and that they could be driven to committing suicide, police said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
UK Professor Nitasha Kaul's Overseas Citizenship of India cancelled
Academician decries move as "transnational repression"
London/New Delhi: Professor Nitasha Kaul, a London-based academic, announced on May 18, 2025, via a social media post that her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card has been cancelled by the Indian government. She described the move as a "bad faith, vindictive, cruel example of transnational repression" intended to punish her for her scholarly work critical of the Modi government's policies concerning minorities and democracy.
The cancellation follows an incident in February 2024 when Professor Kaul, who holds a British passport and held an OCI card, was denied entry into India upon arrival at Bengaluru airport. She had been invited by the then Congress-led Karnataka state government to speak at a conference on "The Constitution and Unity in India."
According to an image of the letter shared by Professor Kaul, the Indian government stated that it had been "brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been found indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history." The letter further accused her of regularly targeting India and its institutions on matters of India's sovereignty through "numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms."
Professor Kaul, who is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, London, vehemently rejects these accusations. She stated she had provided a 20,000-word response to what she termed the government's "ridiculous inanity about ‘anti-India’," but the OCI was cancelled through a "rigged process."
In her social media posts, Professor Kaul lamented the decision, questioning how the "mother of democracy" could deny her access to her mother in India. She characterized the action as stemming from "thin-skinned, petty insecurity with no respect for well-intentioned dissent."
The February 2024 denial of entry had already sparked controversy. At the time, immigration officials reportedly cited "orders from Delhi" without providing formal reasons, though Professor Kaul mentioned informal references to her past criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Ministry of External Affairs had then responded by stating that the entry of foreign nationals into India is a "sovereign decision." Unofficial government sources had indicated that a "preventive lookout circular" was issued against her due to her alleged "pro-separatist" and "anti-India" stance on Kashmir.
The BJP in Karnataka had criticised the state government for inviting her, labelling her an "anti-India element." Conversely, the then-Karnataka government and various international human rights organizations and academic bodies had condemned the denial of entry.
Professor Kaul has been an outspoken commentator on Indian politics, including the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and has testified before international bodies such as the US Congress on human rights in the region. She maintains her work is academic and pro-democracy, not anti-India.
The cancellation of her OCI card effectively bars her from entering India, a country to which she has personal and academic ties. This incident adds to a growing list of academics, journalists, and activists of Indian origin whose OCI status has been revoked or who have been denied entry to India in recent years, raising concerns about freedom of speech and dissent. Reports indicate that over 100 OCI cards were cancelled by the Indian government between 2014 and May 2023. Furthermore, in 2021, new rules were introduced requiring OCI cardholders to obtain special permission for activities such as research and journalism.
