Crime
Trouble brews over Bhopal’s Jama Masjid, 11th-century Bhojshala monument

Two neighbouring states of north India, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, seem to be sailing in the same boat with similar headlines they have been making in the last few days.
While the Gyanvapi mosque case in Varanasi is being debated in and outside the court, a similar issue of ‘temple vs mosque’ seems to be brewing in Madhya Pradesh with a fresh instance surrounding the 19th century Jama Masjid located in Bhopal’s Chowk Bazar area.
A right-wing outfit, Sanskriti Bachao Manch, has claimed that the Jama Masjid located in old Bhopal’s Chowk Bazar locality was built in the 19th century on a Shiva temple.
The issue gained momentum after a group of right-wing activists on Thursday met the state Home Minister Narottam Mishra and drew the state government’s attention to this matter.
Sanskriti Bachao Manch headed by Chandrashekhar Tiwari submitted a memorandum demanding a detailed survey of the Jama Masjid.
Tiwari said that he is preparing to file a petition in the local court over the issue in the coming days.
“We have demanded a detailed archaeological survey of the Jama Masjid by the state government. We will also file a petition in the court seeking a survey and excavation to bare the history of the mosque built over a temple called Sabha Mandap’,” Tiwari told the press after meeting Mishra on Thursday.
Tiwari said that he has raised demands for the survey on the basis of facts collected in Hayate-I-Qudsi (a book on Bhopal’s first woman ruler Nawab Qudsia Begum). The empress (1819-1832) built the Jama Masjid and Gohar Mahal Palace in Bhopal.
“In the book on her life, Nawab Qudsia Begum mentioned that the work on building the Jama Masjid in Bhopal began in 1832 and was completed in 1857. It is also clearly mentioned that the mosque was built on the same land where a Hindu temple known as ‘Sabha Mandap’ already existed,” Tiwari claimed.
Notably, the same issue has been raised by another right-wing outfit called the ‘Hindu Dharma Sena’.
However, this is not the only ‘temple vs. mosque’ dispute in Madhya Pradesh that is being debated these days. Earlier this month, an organisation called the ‘Hindu Front for Justice’ filed a PIL in the high court claiming that the Bhojshala monument located in Dhar district belongs to the Hindu community.
A PIL was filed challenging the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) order of 2003, which imposed restriction on Hindus to worship at Bhojshala daily.
Subsequently, the Indore bench issued notices to the ASI, Centre and the MP government seeking their response on the matter.
Bhojshala is an ASI protected 11th century monument which Hindus claim is a temple of Vagdevi (Saraswati), while the Muslim community treats it as the Kamal Maula Mosque.
As per the arrangement made by ASI on April 7, 2003, Hindus perform puja on the premises every Tuesday, while Muslims offer namaz in the complex on Fridays.
“Only the members of the Hindu community have a fundamental right under Article 25 of the Constitution of India to perform puja and rituals at the place of goddess Vagdevi within the premises of Saraswati Sadan, commonly known as Bhojshala situated in Dhar,” the petition claimed.
“Members of the Muslim community have no right to use any portion of the aforesaid property for any religious purposes,” it added.
The petitioner also urged the court to direct the Centre to bring back the idol of goddess Saraswati from the museum in London, and re-establish the same within the Bhojshala complex.
The plea has cited that the then rulers of Dhar had installed the holy statue at Bhojshala in 1034 AD and it was taken to London in 1857 by the British.
One of the petitioners, Ashish Goyal, said, “We have now started fighting legally to reclaim our religious place. The court found our petition comprehensive and issued notice.”
Crime
Delhi Police arrest notorious cyber stalker in Palam

CRIME
New Delhi, July 2: A 21-year-old man was arrested in Delhi’s Palam village for allegedly harassing a college student by creating fake Instagram accounts and using artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate objectionable content.
The accused was persistently stalking and defaming the victim, a college-going girl, through multiple fake Instagram profiles, Amit Goel, Deputy Commissioner of Police, South West District, said in a statement.
The complainant approached the Cyber Police Station, West District, on June 16, reporting that the accused was daily creating new accounts using her photographs, posting them with derogatory captions, and targeting her and her followers.
Acting on the complaint, the police registered a case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
“In view of the seriousness of the matter, a dedicated team led by SI Priyanka was formed to identify and apprehend the accused,” the statement added.
A team of PS Cyber, South-West District, arrested the notorious cyber stalker and recovered the smartphone used in the commission of the offence, the statement read.
During the investigation, it came to the fore that the accused was impersonating a female using a profile picture taken from the victim’s public Instagram account, the police said.
The police said the accused further used AI tools to convert the images into sexually explicit content and uploaded these edited pictures through fake Instagram stories.
Despite efforts to mask his identity by not linking any accounts to verifiable mobile numbers or Gmail IDs, the cyber team used advanced technical analysis to track the suspect to the Palam area of South-West Delhi. Multiple raids were conducted before he was successfully arrested.
The accused, whose identity has been withheld, confessed to the crime during interrogation, the police statement read.
Further investigation is underway.
Crime
CBI books ex-SBI branch manager in Assam for illegal assets of Rs 80 lakh

CBI
New Delhi, June 30: The CBI has booked a former manager of the State Bank of India branch in Assam for possessing allegedly illegal assets worth over Rs 80 lakh, an official said on Monday.
Pinku Kumar, former Branch Manager, SBI, Ramkrishnanagar Branch, Karimganj, is also facing a separate investigation over his alleged collusion in a multi-crore scam involving sanction of loans using forged documents, the official said.
CBI’s Shillong-based Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) registered the latest Disproportionate Assets case against Pinku Kumar on June 27 after receiving a complaint from a preliminary investigator.
The complaint alleged commission of criminal misconduct by Pinku Kumar while intentionally enriching himself illicitly, during the check period from April 1, 2019 to March 27, 2025.
During this period, he was found in possession of pecuniary resources/property, disproportionate to his known sources of income which he cannot satisfactorily account for, to the tune of Rs 99.20 lakh -(81.84 per cent DA), said the CBI FIR filed against the former bank manager.
Taking note of the preliminary probe conducted in the matter of criminal misconduct, the CBI’s FIR said, “The facts mentioned in the aforesaid complaint, prima facie, reveal commission of congnizable offences, punishable under Section 13(2) read with 13(1)(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (as amended 2018) on the part of Pinku Kumar.”
Section 13 of the Act defines various forms of criminal misconduct by public servants. These include actions like abusing their position, misappropriating property, or possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
Earlier in March, the CBI booked Pinku Kumar twice in separate corruption cases naming two brokers Sumen Paul and Jadab Paul, along with the former, in each of the cases.
Raids conducted by the federal agency in these two cases led to seizure of 481 grams of gold, 11.11 gram of diamond-studded jewellery and 1,092 gram silver.
The CBI investigation showed that the former bank manager conspired with the two brokers and allegedly approved loans base on forged papers, leading to a loss of crores of rupees to the SBI.
Crime
Kolkata law college rape case: College ignored criminal antecedents of accused

Kolkata, June 30: As the investigation into the rape of a law student within her college premises at Kasba in South Kolkata, West Bengal, continues, information has surfaced that the said college authorities allegedly ignored criminal antecedents of one of the three prime accused, Monojit Mishra, while giving him contractual employment.
Sources said Mishra originally got admission for the LLB course in the same college in 2012.
In 2013, he was booked in a police case on charges of hooliganism in the Kalighat area in South Kolkata, in which he chopped off the finger of an individual.
Thereafter, his admission at the same college was cancelled, and he remained absconding and away from the state for over three years. He returned to Kolkata after the case against him was settled and got re-admission at the same college in 2017.
Again in March 2018, two female students of the same college accused him of sexual harassment, following which he was partially suspended for some time from attending the college, except for appearing for examinations. However, somehow the matter against him did not proceed for a long time, and he started attending the college regularly.
In March 2023, he was again accused of sexual harassment by a female student of the college. In December 2023, some students filed a complaint at the local police station, accusing Mishra of entering the college with outsider anti-social elements and beating them up.
Now, questions are being raised about how the college authorities gave him a contractual appointment, ignoring his criminal antecedents.
College insiders said that Mishra happened to be an extremely close confidant of the ruling party MLA, who is also in the governing body of the same college, whom the accused used to address as “uncle”.
Questions have started surfacing on why just “initials” of the three persons accused of raping a law college student in Kolkata were mentioned in the FIR instead of full names.
The names of the three accused are Monojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, all linked to the Trinamool Congress’ student wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP).
However, in the FIR registered in the case, the three accused persons were referred to as “M”, “J” and “P”.
While the leaders of the opposition parties claim that this mention of just the initials of the three accused in the FIR was done deliberately by the cops to conceal the fact that the accused persons were linked to TMCP, even legal experts feel that in this case, there was no reason for the police to mention just the initials instead of the names.
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