Kharge demands answers from PM on action against Verma
New Delhi, Oct 25: Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge has demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the action against CBI director Alok Verma without consulting other members of the panel that selected him.
In a strongly-worded letter to the prime minister, Kharge accused him of acting "arbitrarily" and creating a "false equivalence of charges" between the CBI director and his deputy Rakesh Asthana.
Kharge was part of a three-member panel headed by Modi that had selected Verma last year to head the CBI. The then Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar was the other member of the selection committee.
He said that "no meeting of the selection committee was convened to deliberate on this issue as prescribed under law".
The Congress leader also accused Modi and his government of resorting to "snooping" on Verma to "cover-up" the Rafale 'scam'.
A row erupted as four Intelligence Bureau personnel were "picked up" by police on Thursday after they were found outside Verma's official residence.
The government did not respond to the snooping charges.
Kharge also alleged that while prime ministerial legacies are built by strengthening institutions, Modi's term will be remembered for the opposite.
"One must answer publicly as to what are the reasons behind this snooping? Is the PM trying to scare the dissenting voice of an officer and giving message of similar consequences to others? Or is the PMO scuttling the probe with the sole aim of preventing the truth of the reported corruption in the Rafale fighter jets purchase.
"Sir, prime ministerial legacies are built by strengthening institutions. Your term, it seems more and more likely will be remembered for the opposite," he wrote in letter.
The Congress leader also said that in a country where official conduct is supposed to be above suspicions, "we are witnessing an embarrassing breakdown in the working of premier institutions".
He further alleged that there was a "pretence" to protect certain people and exclude others in an attempt to control the CBI, in violation of Supreme Court guidelines and the CBI Act.
"I am constrained to write this letter in light of the distressing events that have taken place over the last couple of days.
"The state of disarray and arbitrariness that has characterised the functioning of key institutions such as the Central Vigilance Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation and above all, your own office is unprecedented in our nation's history," he said.
"The actions taken in early hours of the morning of October 24, 2018, in transferring the director and his entire team, amount to a grave violation of the law, the Supreme Court's clear directions on the subject and the Constitution of India," he also said.
These events are a poor reflection on your promised style of "minimum government, maximum governance", he told the prime minister, adding that the latest development was extremely "worrying and alarming".
"The whole country watched on TV today while snooping and keeping surveillance on opposition and political opponents have been very basic nature of this government, but to meddle so blatantly in an ongoing explosive investigation will further erode the sanctity and trust that our police force and its officers have earned over the past 70 years," the letter said.
"Lastly, it would be a ridiculous misinterpretation of the law if the government admits that it cannot appoint, remove or transfer the Director, yet can ask him to sit at home and appoint someone else in his stead," Kharge said in his letter.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
