Danish Siddiqui to get Mumbai Press Club's 'Journalist of the Year' award posthumously
Mumbai, Dec 24: Photojournalist Danish Siddiqui, who died while being on an assignment in Afghanistan, will be posthumously awarded as the 'Journalist of the Year' for 2020 by the Mumbai Press Club, the journalists' body announced on Friday.
Siddiqui, who had a long stint of working in the financial capital before shifting base to New Delhi, was the chief photographer for the news agency Reuters.
He is being awarded "for his spectrum of the investigative and impactful body of news photography ranging from the Rohingyas and anti-CAA protests to Covid-19 and the Afghanistan Civil War", the club said.
Chief Justice of India N V Ramana will be presenting the annual 'RedInk Awards for Excellene in Journalism' in a virtual event on December 29 and also deliver a keynote address.
Senior journalist and author Prem Shankar Jha, 83, will be bestowed with the RedInk Awards for lifetime achievement for his long and distinguished career of incisive and analytical writing, the club said.
Apart from Siddiqui and Jha, 24 other winners will be awarded in 12 categories as part of the 10th edition of the award event, the club said.
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Delhi LG recommends NIA probe against Kejriwal, AAP says conspiracy at BJP's behest
New Delhi, May 6: Delhi Lt Governor V K Saxena has recommended an NIA probe against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly receiving political funding from the banned terrorist organisation 'Sikhs for Justice', Raj Niwas sources said on Monday.
AAP alleged that the recommendation is "yet another conspiracy" against Kejriwal at the behest of the BJP.
In a letter to the Union Home secretary, the lt governor's secretariat said Saxena had received a complaint that the Kejriwal-led AAP allegedly received USD 16 million funding from extremist Khalistani groups for facilitating the release of Devendra Pal Bhullar.
Bhullar, who is in Amritsar Central Jail, was convicted in connection with the killing of nine people in a bomb blast in 1993 in Delhi. He was sentenced to death by a designated TADA court on August 25, 2001 and is undergoing life imprisonment after the Supreme Court commuted his death sentence.
“The electronic evidences adduced by the complainant requires investigation including forensic examination,” Saxena has said in the letter according to sources.
The complaint is made against a chief minister and relates to political funding received from a banned terrorist organisation, the letter stated.
The move comes a day ahead of the Supreme Court considering granting Kejrwal interim bail in view of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. The AAP chief, who is in Tihar jail, was arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an excise policy linked money laundering case.
The complaint refers to a video released by Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, where he alleged that the Kejriwal-led AAP received USD 16 million from Khalistani groups between 2014 and 2022, sources said.
In the complaint to the LG, it has also been alleged that Kejriwal held closed-door meetings with Khalistani leaders at Gurudwara Richmond Hills, New York, during his visit in 2014. Kejriwal allegedly promised to facilitate the release of Bhullar in return for substantial financial backing from Khalistani factions to AAP.
In a series of posts on social media, a former AAP worker, Munish Kumar Raizada, also shared purported pictures of Kejriwal’s meeting with Khalistani leaders, the complaint said, according to sources.
Reacting to the development, AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj called it "yet another conspiracy against Kejriwal at the behest of BJP".
"They are losing all seven seats in Delhi and are rattled by the fear of defeat in Lok Sabha polls," he said.
Bhullar was shifted to Amritsar Central Jail from Delhi’s Tihar Jail on health grounds in June 2015.
