UK elects first Dalit female mayor in London council
London(PTI): An Indian-origin politician from the UK's Opposition Labour Party, Councillor Mohinder K Midha, has been elected mayor of Ealing Council in west London, becoming the first female mayor of a local London council belonging to the Dalit community.
Midha was elected for the next year's term of 2022-23 at a council meeting on Tuesday.
We are so proud that Cllr Mohinder Midha has been elected Mayor of Ealing for the next year, the Labour Party in Ealing said in a statement.
The election is being celebrated by the British Dalit community as a proud moment.
The first ever Dalit woman mayor in the UK. A proud moment for us, said Santosh Dass, chair of the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisation (FABO) UK, an umbrella group representing Dalit rights in the country.
Midha, who was re-elected as a Labour councillor for the Dormers Wells ward in the Ealing Council in the May 5 local elections in London, had been serving as the Deputy Mayor for the council previously.
Tackling the cost of living. Recovering from the pandemic. Fighting violent crime and antisocial behaviour. Fixing social care. Re-growing, re-wilding and recycling. Delivering more genuinely affordable homes, reads the local Labour Party manifesto she campaigned on.
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Four held for Rs 33 lakh online investment fraud; interstate racket busted
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi Police has busted an interstate cyber fraud syndicate involved in an online investment scam and arrested four persons, an official said on Saturday.
A crime branch team arrested the accused in a case where a victim was allegedly cheated of Rs 33.83 lakh on the pretext of lucrative returns through online trading platforms.
“Police said the accused lured victims with promises of high returns and later coerced them into depositing more money on the pretext of unlocking or withdrawing earlier investments,” the officer said.
Police said the racket operated across several states, including Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan, and used a network of mule bank accounts to route and layer the defrauded money to conceal its origin.
“During the investigation, the cheated amount was traced to 15 bank accounts. Thirteen of these accounts were registered outside Delhi, indicating the organised and interstate nature of the syndicate,” said the police officer.
The accused have been identified as Mohammad Khalid (26) and Atiur Rahman (23), both residents of Delhi, Ramandeep Singh (29) from Punjab, and Tanish alias Heera Ram (27) from Rajasthan.
According to the police, Khalid was arrested on March 15 and allegedly disclosed that he gave his bank account details and SIM card to a co-accused for a commission.
Rahman, who was already lodged in a jail in Haryana in a similar case, was later formally arrested. Ramandeep Singh was arrested on April 6 and allegedly admitted to sharing his account credentials for monetary gain.
Tanish was apprehended from Rajasthan on April 9 for facilitating the use of such accounts in the fraud network.
During the probe, officers analysed over 100 call detail records, IMEI data and transaction-related digital evidence to track the accused and establish the money trail.
Three mobile phones and SIM cards used in the crime have been recovered.
Further investigation is underway to identify other members of the syndicate and trace additional financial linkages, the police said.
