FSTDT

Krana Rajan, Parvathi and Kumaresan #fundie #psycho thehindu.com

Kalakkad police have nabbed three persons, including a tantrik (black magician), for allegedly attempting to offer human sacrifice to retrieve buried treasure.

Krana Rajan, 55, of Dohnavur near Kalakkad approached Parvathi, 70, of Sadaiyamaankulam and told her that she would get treasure worth several crores of rupees lying under her house if she could sacrifice a rooster and a black cat after performing special puja in her house. She agreed to it and Krana Rajan reportedly took ₹2 lakh from her in several installments to perform the puja.

When Parvathi passed on the information to her foster son Kumaresan, he too was lured by the promise of the tantrik.

After Kumaresan handed over the sacrificial bird and animal to Krana Rajan, the puja started on Sunday night in Parvathi’s house. A pit was dug in the bedroom and the rooster was sacrificed. Krana Rajan then took the cat from a gunny bag, but it escaped. The tantrik told Kumaresan to bring one of his two sons to be sacrificed to get the treasure.

Since Kumaresan, who was under the influence of alcohol, was unable to take a decision, Krana Rajan tried to snatch the two-year-old boy from Kumaresan’s wife, who managed to run out of the house with both children. As she screamed for help, neighbours rushed to the spot. They thrashed Krana Rajan and handed him to Kalakkad police, who also picked up Kumaresan and Parvathi for interrogation.

Further investigations are on.

Pakistan government #fundie thehindu.com

Three members of the persecuted Ahmadiyya community have been sentenced to death in Pakistan’s Punjab province for committing blasphemy by tearing up posters that demanded boycott of the minority sect.

They have also been fined Rs 200,000 each and in case they don’t pay the fine, they would undergo six months of rigorous punishment.

Additional District and Sessions Judge of Sheikhupura district of Punjab province Mian Javed Akram announced the verdict on Wednesday after the prosecution submitted evidence and presented all witnesses in the case.

A blasphemy case registered against them in May in 2014 for tearing religious posters.

According to Sharqpur police station official Muhammad Ashar, the people had displayed posters in the village urging social boycott of the Ahmadiyya community. “The posters carried Islamic verses,” he said.

On removing the posters, a complaint was filed against the three men that led to their subsequent arrest.

The convicts admitted before the court that they had removed the posters for demanding social boycott of Ahmadiyya community but not to commit blasphemy.

Their counsel will challenge the verdict in the higher court.

On Wednesday, ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s son-in-law Mohammad Safdar launched a tirade against the Ahmaddiya community, demanding their exclusion from the government and military service.

The Ahmadiyya community was declared non-Muslims in Pakistan through a constitutional amendment in 1974 during the tenure of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

This measure was later followed with former president Gen Ziaul Haq, making it a punishable offence for Ahmadiyyas to call themselves Muslim or to refer to their faith as Islam.

The community is also banned from preaching as well as from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. They are also not allowed to publish any material propagating their faith.

Members of the community in Pakistan have often been targeted.

Amit Jani #fundie thehindu.com

Hindutva activist Amit Jani on Sunday threatened to enter JNU and gun down the university Student's Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and research scholar Umar Khalid. In his warning on Facebook, Jani warned the two students to leave Delhi by March 31, failing which he would get them “gunned down” by his volunteers.

A self-styled “protector” of Hindus and chief of the Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena, Jani announced on his Facebook profile that, “there are just four days left in the ultimatum of leaving Delhi. Tell us, countrymen, should we get them bombed ? All preparations have been made. Boys are ready and so are the weapons! We will do it silently, without any information so that they do not disappear like Owaisi...I swear it on Maa Bhagwati, I would leave politics if I am unable to get them shot in JNU”.

Jani's announcement on Facebook got about 1800 likes, 1000 comments and was shared 148 times in less than a day.

Jani shot to infamy in 2012 when he vandalised the Statue of former State Chief Minister Mayawati. Last week he tried to enter the residence of Asaduddin Owaisi but was detained before that.

Speaking to The Hindu, Jani reiterated his threat. “This I want to make clear that if Umar and Kanhaiya, who repeatedly insulted the country, do not leave Delhi, then I will enter the university and slay them. I am repeating it that nobody would be able to save and protect them from us”.

“We are from western UP. We will not sit behind the bangles of law. We know how to take action ourselves. The JNU students had also insulted Ma Durga. *I will slay the “mahisasurs” before April 8 as a homage to the goddess,” he told The Hindu.

Recalling precedents, he said “in 2012, I had asked Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to raze the statues of Mayawati. when he could not get it done, I myself broke the statues. So, I am a man of words who does what he says”.

Local police officials said that they would look into the matter and take action if necessary.

*[ Mahishasura was an evil, destructive buffalo demon from Hindu Mythology, who was killed by the goddess Durga (the light counterpart to Kali).]

Shankarbhai Vegad #fundie thehindu.com

Dung and urine from cows are more potent than medicines and can cure deadly diseases like cancer, asserted Shankarbhai Vegad, a BJP MP from Gujarat in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Participating in a discussion on the Union budget, the Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill, 2015 and the Appropriation Bill, 2015, Mr. Vegad said cows were being slaughtered in the country on the pretext of making up for food grain deficit.

Pushing for a ban on cow slaughter he said: “Cow dung and urine can cure cancer. Today, if someone has cancer, there is no cure for it; cancer is equivalent to cancel.”

He went on to say that he can vouch for the fact that urine and dung from cows can cure cancer, but there are no takers for his views. “I am witness to it, cow dung and urine are a 100 per cent cure for cancer,” he said, adding “if cow slaughter is not stopped, there will be no wealth of animals in the country.”

Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena and numerous Maharashtrian occultists and tantriks #fundie thehindu.com

Maharashtra, considered one of the most progressive States in the country, has reported cases of at least one human sacrifice per month on an average in the last one year. Of the 104 cases registered in the first year after the previous Maharashtra government passed the Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Act in December 2013, activists have pointed out 15 cases of human sacrifice.

The Act, before it was passed by the Maharashtra Legislature, was termed by the then Opposition parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, anti-Hindu. The Opposition had stalled the Assembly proceedings for several times in protest against the Act.

However, data gathered from across the State has shown that using the Act’s provisions, activists and the police have prevented possible human sacrifices in seven cases.

“We had been saying that such incidents do happen in Maharashtra and that is why we needed the Act. Now it is time to implement the law more effectively to curb such inhuman practices,” said Krushna Chandgude of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS). Mukta Dabholkar, daughter of the late rationalist Narendra Dabholkar who had first proposed the law, said the fact that seven cases were prevented itself showed its importance.

Rubbishing claims that the Act was against Hindus, Ms. Dabholkar said around 20 cases had also been registered against occultists from the Muslim community. Mr. Chandgude pointed out that most of these murders were committed after tantriks claimed that the sacrifice would bring hidden treasure. “Poverty and lack of education are certainly the reasons behind these crimes. There is a need to propagate scientific temper,” he said.

Asaram Bapu #sexist thehindu.com

About the gang-rape of a 23 year old woman in India

"The spiritual leader’s remarks could be paraphrased thus: Those who were at fault were drunk. Had she taken guru diksha and chanted the Saraswati Mantra, she would not have boarded any random bus after watching a movie with her boyfriend. Even if she did, she should have taken God’s name and asked for mercy.

She should have called them brothers, fallen at their feet and pleaded for mercy. Had she said, “I am a weak woman, you are my brothers”, such brutality would not have happened.

The self-proclaimed godman also said he was against harsher punishments for rape accused as such laws could be misused."