Expelled BJP leader Usman Ghani briefly detained in Bikaner
Jaipur (PTI): Usman Ghani, who was recently expelled from the BJP, was briefly taken into preventive custody in Bikaner for not allowing police to check his vehicle, officials said on Sunday.
The Bikaner police took Ghani into custody under section 151 of Code of Criminal Procedure (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offence) on Saturday and later produced before Additional District Magistrate (ADM) for release, they said.
The incident took place in front of Mukta Prasad Nagar police station of Bikaner.
According to SP Tejaswani Gautam, the police stopped a vehicle, driven by Ghani, at a checkpoint during routine checking.
He, however, did not allow the police to check his vehicle and created a nuisance following which he was taken into preventive custody, SP Gautam said.
Ghani, who was Bikaner BJP Minority Morcha district president, was on Wednesday expelled from the party for "tarnishing" its image.
While talking to a news channel, Ghani had said that the BJP will lose three-four Lok Sabha seats out of 25 seats in Rajasthan.
He had also condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks made regarding Muslims during election rallies in the state.
"The party took cognizance of the act of Usman Ghani to tarnish the image of the BJP and expelled him from the primary membership of the party for six years, considering it a breach of discipline," BJP state disciplinary committee chairman Onkar Singh Lakhawat said on Wednesday.
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Melinda French Gates resigns as Gates Foundation co-chair, 3 years after her divorce from Bill Gates
New York, May 13: Melinda French Gates will step down as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit she and her ex-husband Bill Gates founded and built into one of the world's largest philanthropic organisations over the past 20 years.
“This is not a decision I came to lightly,” French Gates posted on the X platform on Monday. “I am immensely proud of the foundation that Bill and I built together and of the extraordinary work it is doing to address inequities around the world.”
She praised the foundation's CEO, Mark Suzman, and the foundation's board of trustees, which was significantly expanded after the couple announced their divorce in May 2021.
“The time is right for me to move forward into the next chapter of my philanthropy,” French Gates wrote in her statement. She organises some of her investments and philanthropic gifts through her organisation, Pivotal Ventures, which is not a nonprofit.
Bill Gates thanked French Gates for her “critical” contributions to the foundations in a statement, saying, “I am sorry to see her leave, but I am sure she will have a huge impact in her future philanthropic work.”
French Gates will receive $12.5 billion as part of her agreement with Gates, which she said would commit to future work focused on women and families.
The Gates Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment about whether those assets would come from the foundation itself. In an emailed statement, the foundation said that Suzman announced the decision to employees on Monday.
“After a difficult few years watching women's rights rolled back in the US and around the world, she wants to use this next chapter to focus specifically on altering that trajectory,” Suzman said of French Gates.
Suzman said he knew many had joined the foundation in part because of their admiration for her advocacy, especially around gender equity.
“I know how beloved Melinda is here,” Suzman wrote.
The Gates Foundation holds $75.2 billion in its endowment as of December 2023, and announced in January, it planned to spend $8.6 billion through the course of its work in 2024.
The Associated Press receives financial support for news coverage in Africa from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and for news coverage of women in the workforce from Pivotal Ventures.
