New Delhi: Critically acclaimed Indian writer and Journalist Sonia Faleiro on Sunday took to her official Twitter account to express anguish over the situation of COVID-19 in India as the country is facing a major second wave outbreak of the deadly virus.

Sonia, whose critically acclaimed first novel The Girl was published by Viking in 2006, said she was gutted to see the situation of the virus in India and that it need not be this way in the first place. “The country literally produces vaccines!” she wrote in the tweet adding “This is how it ends when you vote for hate”.

Absolutely gutted to see the situation in India. It didn’t have to be this way at all. The country literally produces vaccines! This is how it ends when you vote for hate” her tweet read.

In another tweet, Sonia added, “Almost every day I find myself sending someone in India a condolence message. So sad, sorry and frankly heartbroken by the situation”.

Sonia’s writing and photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, Granta, The California Sunday Magazine, The Guardian, and Smithsonian. She is a co-founder of Deca, a global journalism cooperative that creates long-form stories to read on mobile devices.

She was awarded the 2011 Karmaveer Puraskaar for Social Justice for "drawing attention to India's most vulnerable and writing about them with sensitivity, humanity, and integrity". She is the recipient of a runners-up award in the CNN Young Journalist Award of 2006[4] as well as of awards from the Ratan Tata Trust, the Oxford Cambridge Society of India, and the British Council's de Souza Trust.

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Udupi: Udupi City Police have registered a case of online fraud after a 62-year-old hotel chef was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.13 lakh by a woman who befriended him on WhatsApp, claiming to be based in London.
The victim, identified as Pandu Kariappa Poojary, a resident of Kuthpadi in Udupi, was working at a hotel in Mangaluru.

He reportedly came into contact with a woman identifying herself as Emilda William on WhatsApp. During their interactions, she told Poojary that she planned to start a cosmetics and hotel business in India and would meet him during a visit to Mangaluru.
On April 7, Emilda sent Poojary a flight ticket from London to Delhi via WhatsApp. The following day, Poojary received a phone call from a woman who informed him that Emilda had arrived at Delhi airport carrying a demand draft worth Rs 5 crore along with other items. The caller allegedly asked him to pay Rs 70,000.
Subsequently, Poojary also received a call from Emilda, who was reportedly crying and spoke about the situation. Believing the claims, he transferred a total of Rs 1,13,300 in phases using a scanner. He later realised that he had been cheated.