Fake currency racket busted in Jharkhand, two arrested.

Source – newindianexpress.com

RAMGARH: An inter-state fake currency racket was busted and two persons arrested after vendors at a vegetable market here raised an alarm, a senior police officer said on Monday.

The two accused, including a woman, had attempted to buy vegetables with counterfeit currency notes at Gola area in the district on Sunday, he said.

The vendor, who was approached with fake notes, had drawn the attention of locals, who then informed the police, SP Prabhat Kumar told reporters.

One of the accused, during interrogation, confessed to have been running a fake currency racket in Dhanbad with the help of three other persons, including two from Bihar’s Nalanda district, the SP said.

A team of police offers carried out a raid at a residence in Mada colony of Dhanbad and seized a printing machine, 85GSM papers used in printing currency notes, printed notes of face value Rs 2000, semi-printed sheets of fake notes and laptop, Kumar said, adding that police were on the lookout for other members of the gang.

Mad rush among Congress, JMM MLAs in Jharkhand to join BJP.

Source – indiatoday.in

Speculations are rife that three MLAs from the Congress and three MLAs from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) camp may join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on October 23.

The reports come just ahead of formal announcement for Assembly elections in Jharkhand.

It may come as a jolt for the Congress and JMM. The list doing rounds in political circles includes the name of former state Congress president and MLA from Lohardagga Sukhdev Bhagat, formidable MLA from Barhi (Hazaribag) Manoj Yadav and Badal Patralekh from Jarmundi (Dumka).

The JMM is also said to face desertion.

MLA from Bahragora Kunal Sarangi (Jamshedpur), Chamra Linda from Bishunpur (Gumla) and MLA from Mandu (Ramgarh) JP Patel are likely to join the BJP on Wednesday.

The Congress had nine MLAs. The party will be reduced to six if the three MLAs make their way to join the BJP. Similarly, the JMM will also be left with 16 MLAs if the three MLAs say goodbye to the party.

Most of the MLAs could not be contacted. Their phones are either switched off or not reachable hinting at them joining a new party.

Kunal Sarangi has confirmed that he will join the BJP. He said that he has no differences with Hemant Soren and will continue to enjoy a very good personal rapport with him in future.

The MLAs and many leaders aspiring for a good career in politics see prospects and a bright future for themselves in the BJP.

Jharkhand: Over 500 Muslims defy Sec 144 in Ramgarh to protest against mob lynching

Source: dnaindia.com

A group of over 500 people belonging to the Muslim community gathered in a school in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh on Monday to protest against the rising incidents of mob lynchings plaguing their community even amid prohibitory orders issued by the Ramgarh district administration, the Times of India (TOI) reported.

The group, under the banner of the Mutheda Muslim Mahaj, met at Chitrarpur High School just off the National Highway 23 in Gola Road area, to voice their grievances regarding violence against their community. They had earlier sought permission from the district administration for a demonstration rally, which was at first granted but cancelled later on keeping in mind the incidents of violence that are increasingly being associated with anti-mob lynching rallies in the state, the report said.

For a bit of context, a joint group of Muslim organisations had taken out a similar anti-mob lynching rally in state capital Ranchi on Friday but it ended with the group vandalising a Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP) bus in protest demonstrations, according to a Hindustan Times (HT) report. The rally had been taken out specifically in protest of the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand’s Seraikela Kharsawan district on June 18.

In light of this, the Ramgarh district administration, fearing disturbance centering around the rally, had on Sunday cancelled the permission for the rally and also issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that barred all unlawful assembly along the proposed route of the demonstration.

According to reports, even though the rally did not happen, hundreds of Muslims still gathered at the Chitrarpur High School to carry out their protest demonstrations, which, being an unlawful assembly, is also in violation of the prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.  

The district administration at Ramgarh in Jharkhand said it will take legal action in response to the incident on Monday.

TOI quoted Ramgarh Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) Anant Kumar as saying, “What they (outfit) did was in defiance of the prohibitory orders and we would initiate lawful action against them now.”

On the other hand, the secretary of the Muslim outfit who led the protest demonstrations on Monday, Ahmad Khan, reportedly claimed that even though the permission for the rally had been denied, they had received police permission for a meeting after request on Sunday night.  Ramgarh Superintendent of Police (SP) Prabhat Kumar denied this claim, saying “no such permissions were issued,” according to the HT report.

The report further said that the Chief Speaker at the Muslim gathering, Sahjada Anwar, clarified the purpose behind the demonstration. The Supreme Court had issued directives to every state, including Jharkhand, to the Home Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) to review mob lynching cases every three months and constitute a task force to look into such cases. “However, nothing of that sort has been done in Jharkhand,” HT quoted an aggrieved Anwar.