The Indian Panorama

Tag: UK

  • Indian Origin Surgeon in UK Dies of COVID- 19

    Indian Origin Surgeon in UK Dies of COVID- 19

    LONDON  (TIP): Jitendra Kumar Rathod a prominent Indian origin cardiac surgeon who worked for years in the National Health Service (NHS), has died after testing positive from coronavirus. Rathod, 58, was admitted to the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff where he died on Monday, April 6 morning.

    Rathod, who was based in Wales, was an associate specialist in cardio-thoracic surgery at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW). His death was announced by the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board in a statement: “It is with profound sadness that we must inform you that Mr Jitendra Rathod, associate specialist in cardiothoracic surgery, has passed away. He died early this morning on our general intensive care unit after testing positive for Covid-19. Jitu had worked in the Department of Cardio-thoracic Surgery since the mid-1990s and came back to UHW in 2006 after a brief stint abroad. He was an incredibly dedicated surgeon who cared deeply for his patients. He was well-liked and greatly resected by one and all. He was very compassionate and a wonderful human being. His commitment to the specialty was exemplary. He is survived by his wife and two sons. We will miss him greatly.”

    Dr Rathod went to the UK after earning his MBBS degree from Bombay University. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

     

     

  • Indian-Origin Woman Appointed Head of Sustainability Team for European Bank

    Indian-Origin Woman Appointed Head of Sustainability Team for European Bank

    LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin Nandita Parshad senior executive, has been announced as the head of consolidated new sustainable infrastructure group of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

    Ms.Parshad, currently Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources at the EBRD, in her new role will lead the bank’s engagement in environmental, transport and energy sectors in 38 countries across three continents with a particular focus on decarbonization and sustainable financing, a statement said.

    “Green investments increasingly require a complex approach combining energy, emissions, water and waste,” said Ms Parshad, who was born in Kolkata and holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

    “This integration is shown in the emergence of a number of important cross-cutting themes such as electrification of trains, buses and electric vehicles, water-energy nexus, including the growing role of desalination, as well as green, sustainable cities. By joining efforts of bankers structuring energy and infrastructure projects, we will capitalize on a common ethos and working model,” she said.

    Nandita Parshad is a member of the Energy Transition Commission and of the World Economic Forum Council on Future Energy, where she represents the EBRD and shapes policy-making and thinking in global challenges of decarbonization.

    The Bank’s new Sustainable infrastructure group has a portfolio of over euro 22 billion and invests yearly over euro 4.5 billion in new investments, or about half of the EBRD’s annual business.

    Of her new team, effective from January 1 next year, Ms Parshad added: “Our consolidated team – with its extensive experience of structuring projects with public companies and private investors – will continue working with authorities to build confidence and promote enabling policies in both energy and infrastructure sectors, reinforcing the close integration of investment and support for reform which is at the heart of the EBRD’s mandate.”

    The EBRD said Nandita Parshad has 30 years’ experience in investing in the energy sector in diverse emerging economies. She joined the EBRD’s Power and Energy Utilities team in 1993 and took over as Director of the team in 2007.

    She was appointed as Managing Director, Energy and Natural Resources in January 2017 and continued driving the Bank’s increasing presence in renewables and strategic regional energy, in line with the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition initiative.

    The London-headquartered EBRD is a multilateral development bank set up in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin Wall to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in emerging Europe.

    It invests in 38 emerging economies across three continents, according to a set of criteria that aim to make its countries more competitive, better governed, greener, more inclusive, more resilient and more integrated.

    India joined as the EBRD’s 69th shareholder earlier this year, with the membership opening up joint investment prospects for Indian companies in markets such as Central Asia, Egypt and Jordan.

  • Indian-Origin Scotland Yard Cop Fired after Homeless Man Kicked Out of Station Dies

    Indian-Origin Scotland Yard Cop Fired after Homeless Man Kicked Out of Station Dies

    LONDON(TIP): An Indian-origin Scotland Yard police constable (PC) has been fired from her job without notice for failing to exercise reasonable care in her treatment and monitoring of a homeless man after ejecting him from a police station in west London.

    PC Bhupinder Kalsi was fired following a Metropolitan Police Unsatisfactory Police Performance meeting which found that her performance was grossly incompetent, and she was guilty of unsatisfactory performance.

    Pericles Malagardis, a Greek national who was sleeping at Heathrow Airport, had gone to Uxbridge police station to collect his dog on a cold day in March 2016. The 63-year-old died of hypothermia after he was made to leave the police station for smoking inside the station.

    The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the independent police watchdog, had referred the case to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider charges of gross negligence manslaughter.

    “We found there was not enough evidence to prosecute for any offences and took no further action,” the CPS said.

    However, an internal disciplinary panel found that Kalsi “did not provide information requested by the London Ambulance Service regarding actions taken to support Mr. Malagardis and failed to follow instruction and training when dealing with unresponsive casualties”, after he was found unconscious on the pavement.

    The panel also concluded that Kalsi was viewing a DVD whilst on duty, following Malagardis’ ejection from the front office area of the police station.

    Another police station staff member is facing a separate disciplinary hearing over the same incident.

    Once the internal Metropolitan Police reviews are completed, an inquest into the death of Malagardis is expected to take place.

  • The Usurpation of Free Speech

    The Usurpation of Free Speech

    By Vidya Ram

    The notion that the far right is being muzzled despite the inordinate media attention it has garnered — from print, television, radio and digital — is one that it has managed to project with great success, feeding into the wider image the far right has attempted to propagate of it being an anti-establishment, revolutionary force

    Last month, ‘Newsnight’, a weekday BBC current affairs program, faced much criticism online over a segment due to be aired that evening on 35-year-old Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known to the world as Tommy Robinson, co-founder of the English Defence League and a cause célèbre of the far right globally. Alongside the provision of yet another platform to him, it was the way the story was promoted that troubled observers the most. Ahead of the program, ‘Newsnight’ ran images of Mr. Robinson staring determinedly into the camera, his mouth covered with duct tape. “Is Tommy Robinson a man raising concerns that others ignore, or a far-right figure exploiting the victims of sexual abuse for his own ends?” asked the program on its social media promotional.

    This image of Mr. Robinson muzzled was the very one that he and his supporters had been seeking to project, despite the fact that as Miqdaad Versi, a spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain, noted on Twitter that in the last three months he has been mentioned on broadcast over 100 times. Far from him being shunned by the media, he has been interviewed on prominent news shows in recent years, as well as being an invitee at the Oxford Union. “Is Tommy Robinson being ignored and silenced by the media asks the media who won’t stop reporting on him,” tweeted Amna Saleem, a Scottish-Pakistani writer rather fittingly. The preposterousness of the suggestion that he is being silenced is also evidenced by his social media profile: clips of him speaking, often looking furtively into the camera as if to emphasize the supposed silencing, attract millions of viewers.

    Image Management

    The notion that the far right is being muzzled despite the inordinate media attention it has garnered — from print, television, radio and digital — is one that it has managed to project with great success, feeding into the wider image the far right has attempted to propagate of it being an anti-establishment, revolutionary force. It also appears to be something that many of its proponents ardently believe. “We are being gagged,” a supporter of Mr. Robinson, wearing a t-shirt with the logo “#Free Speech #Free Tommy”, told the Canadian media website The Rebel Media outside a court recently. Hundreds of his supporters gathered outside the Old Bailey last month for a hearing over allegations of contempt of court that Mr. Robinson is facing over his filming of suspects in a criminal trial involving “grooming gangs”. While his supporters have insisted he is a “martyr” to the British cause, and the only one to speak out, others have rightly pointed out that he has simply exploited the case of grooming gangs to further his toxic, Islamophobic world view, exacerbating the situation and taking the attention away from the victims and the debate on real practicable ways in which grooming gangs could be prevented from harming more people in the future.

    He is far from the only figure on the right in Britain to present himself as a “brave soldier” of free speech, and the “oppressed” — as among the only ones willing to take on the “dangerous liberals” supposedly trying to clamp down on free speech and impose their world view to the determinant of the marginalized majority. Katie Hopkins, an ultra-right campaigner, proclaimed herself the “Jesus of the outspoken”. In May, a “Day for Freedom” protest took place on London’s Parliament Square that attracted leading figures on the right. In April, Mark Meechan, a right-wing comedian, sought to portray a fine of £800 by a court in the U.K. for teaching a dog to do a Nazi salute for a YouTube video in terms of the curtailment of free speech.

    In academia

    The same contention has also been propagated by sections of the right more broadly. In an article last year, Niall Ferguson, the right-wing British historian of empire, insisted that the “biggest threat to free speech” came from the left. Last year, when academics and students protested against Oxford University’s support for the “ethics and empire” project that sought to create a list of the rights and wrongs of the empire, publications such as the Daily Mail accused them of bullying and attempting to silence Nigel Biggar, the professor behind the initiative. Last year, the Daily Telegraph ran an incendiary story accusing a young black student of “forcing” the University of Cambridge to replace white authors with black authors and only retracted the factually incorrect story after huge public outrage and a torrent of abuse directed at the student herself.

    It has also manifested itself in other ways. Last year Britain’s Universities Minister gave priority to a requirement that universities be required to guarantee free speech or face fines and potential de-registration in a consultation that was set to take place, pointing to “examples of censorship”. This again appeared to be an acknowledgement of an argument propagated by those on the right that “snowflake” students — too easy to take offence — were somehow stifling voices on the right through no-platforming initiatives that sought to protest the space given to them to voice offensive perspectives. There have been a handful of cases where students have pushed for particularly controversial speakers not to be allowed to speak on campus, yet the right managed to put the issue at the top of the government’s agenda, despite the many challenges facing Britain’s university sector.

    The mainstreaming of this perspective has been toxic and debilitating on public life in the U.K. and beyond. A fear of being perceived to be closed to the perspectives of the right — which has been labelled “balance” — has led to a willingness by media outlets to offer voices even on issues where scientific consensus leaves little doubt. Earlier this year, the BBC faced much criticism over the space it provided to climate change deniers, until a briefing note sent to the staff in September pointed to the danger of a “false balance”. “You do not need a ‘denier’ to balance the debate,” the organization was forced to clarify to its staff in a reference to man-made climate change.

    Meanwhile, the far right has continued to rise steadily, spurred on by burgeoning acceptance of the issues raised by them that would once have been unthinkable, including by the media. There are over 100 live terror investigations related to the far-right as of October, while it emerged that MI5 is to take the lead in dealing with right-wing terrorism amid rising concern about its reach. Last week at least five men were arrested in connection with a video that showed the burning of an effigy of London’s Grenfell Tower. The blaze at the tower, home to largely ethnic minority residents, in June 2017 killed 72 people.

    Beyond Britain

    The usurpation of the free speech debate by the far right is, of course, not confined to Britain. It has become an essential part of the playbook of the movement across the world, while Mr. Robinson himself is held up by right-wing figures across the world as a poster-boy. The unwillingness of the media in Britain and beyond to call out those efforts for what they are will only continue to bolster that effort. The ability of the media to confront the far right, without unconsciously or otherwise adopting its rules of engagement, and its positioning of debates, is likely to be one of its biggest challenges going forward.

    (Source: The Hindu. The author can be reached at vidya.ram@thehindu.co.in)

     

  • 2 Indian-origin Ministers quit British govt.

    2 Indian-origin Ministers quit British govt.

    LONDON(TIP): Two Indian-origin Ministers on Thursday, November 15 resigned their positions in protest at the draft withdrawal agreement passed by the British Cabinet, while a Pakistani-origin politician resigned from his role as trade envoy to Pakistan over the government’s approach to offering asylum to Asia Bibi as well as the Brexit deal.

    Shailesh Vara, the Minister of State for Northern Ireland and Suella Braverman, a Minister within the Ministry for Exiting the EU, both tendered their resignations to the Prime Minister in letters made public on Thursday morning, joining more senior figures, including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.

    Sri Lankan-origin Ranil Jayawardena also stepped down as a Minister. Rehman Chishti said he was stepping down as the Conservative Party’s vice chairman and the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Pakistan.

    Mr. Vara became the first Minister to tender his resignation following the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In his letter, he said that he could not support an agreement that left Britain in a “half-way house with no time limit on when we will finally be a sovereign nation.”

    “There is every possibility that the U.K.-EU trade deal that we seek will take years to conclude. We will be locked in a customs arrangement indefinitely, bound by rules determined by the EU over which we have no say,” he warned.

    Pointing to Northern Ireland, he warned that it would be subject to a different relationship with the EU with the rest of U.K., threatening the economic and constitutional integrity of the U.K. While Mr. Vara had supported the Remain campaign in the run up to the referendum, he supported the leadership bid of Brexiteer Michael Gove in his party leadership campaign in 2016 following the resignation of David Cameron.

    “The proposed Northern Ireland Backstop is not Brexit,” insisted Ms. Braverman in her resignation letter. “It prevents an unequivocal exit from a customs union with the EU.”

    Ms. Braverman was an influential campaigner to leave the EU, chairing the European Research Group, which has been campaigning for a “hard” Brexit, until she joined the government earlier this year.

    Mr. Chishti also expressed his disagreement with the withdrawal agreement and his disagreement with the “lack of leadership shown by the U.K. government” over the Asia Bibi case. “What I found shocking is that this British government is failing to put into practice the core values that our country stands for; religious freedom, justice, morally doing the right thing… the government should not wait to see if another country offers sanctuary, we should have had the conviction to lead on this matter and offer sanctuary ourselves straight away,” he wrote in his letter.

    The resignations further reduce the presence of Indian-origin Ministers in the U.K. government, following the high-profile resignation of Priti Patel last year. Rishi Sunak, the son-in-law of Infosys’ Narayana Murthy, remains a Minister within the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as does Alok Sharma, Britain’s Minister for Employment.

  • Indian-Origin Man in UK Ordered to Forfeit Funds

    Indian-Origin Man in UK Ordered to Forfeit Funds

    LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin former bank employee who has been jailed was ordered on October 21 by the court to forfeit 62,000 pounds by a UK court for his role in a money laundering scam to help Romanian criminals by opening around 400 fake bank accounts.

    Nilesh Sheth had pleaded guilty to his role in setting up around 400 fake accounts to help Romanian criminals to launder more than 16 million pounds (Rs. 153 crore approx) and sentenced to four years behind bars in November last year.

    The 54-year-old, serving his sentence for money laundering and possessing criminal property, was told by proceeds of crime hearing at the Old Bailey court in London this week to pay 62,000 pounds (Rs. 59.19 lakhs) within three months or serve an extra year in jail.

    “Sheth abused his position of trust at the bank to knowingly open sham accounts for the network, providing a vital service which enabled them to launder GBP 16 million worth of stolen cash,” said Mike Hulett, head of Operations at the National Crime Agency’s (NCA) National Cyber Crime Unit.

    The NCA found that Sheth, a personal banking manager at Barclays, was instrumental in the opening of a large number of “mule” accounts, using false ID and address documents. Its investigation revealed that mastermind Iurie Mereacre ran the money laundering service from his home in east London, along with his associates, Ryingota Gincota and brothers Iurie and Serghei Bivol.

    Over a three-year period, the gang of five set up and controlled around 400 bank accounts in a conspiracy which involved receiving stolen funds into one account, then dispersing it in smaller amounts to a number of other accounts to try and confuse authorities. This process would be repeated several times to disguise the source of the money before it was transferred back to cyber criminals in Eastern Europe.

    Prior to their arrests in November 2016, the gang was under surveillance by the NCA and was seen meeting with Sheth on numerous occasions at the bank and in public places including restaurants and car parks. When officers raided Sheth’s home at the time, they found 16,000 pounds in cash, nine mobile phones and a handwritten guide to money laundering.

    “These men deliberately and persistently set about transferring millions of pounds of stolen money out of the UK to eastern Europe,” said Rose-Marie Franton, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) International Justice and Organised Crime Division, during the time of their sentencing last year.

    “The evidence we gathered showed how Nilesh Sheth abused his position as a bank employee for personal gain by facilitating the laundering the criminal proceeds of an organised crime group both within the UK and across borders,” she said.

    The court heard how Sheth started the scam after criminals tempted him with money that he stuffed behind cushions and under the kitchen sink at his home in Essex, near London.

    He used his Barclays office to meet 38-year-old Mereacre, an illegal immigrant, and his associates, all of whom have since been jailed for a total of 28 years.

    Barclays said it worked closely with the authorities during the investigation.

    A spokesperson said: “Barclays will always support law enforcement in identifying criminal activity and bringing prosecutions.”

     

  • Indian-Origin Man and 16 other Gang Members Jailed for Sex Abuse in UK

    Indian-Origin Man and 16 other Gang Members Jailed for Sex Abuse in UK

    LONDON(TIP): An Indian-origin ringleader is one of the 16 men jailed for a combined period of over 200 years for being part of a grooming gang which sexually abused vulnerable young girls in the West Yorkshire region of England.

    Amere Singh Dhaliwal, 35, was jailed for life with a minimum of 18 years behind bars, with other members of the gang jailed for between five and 18 years in jail at Leeds Crown Court.

    The court had been hearing the cases since the beginning of January and were told of the men’s years of repeated serious sexual abuse of the girls, supplying them with drugs and alcohol and trafficking them across the West Yorkshire region for their sexual gratification.

    The third trial in the case concluded on October 8, with reporting restrictions imposed on the entire case by the judge lifted only on Friday.

    “The investigation into this case has been extremely complex and the investigative team have worked tirelessly for the past five years to ensure that no stone has been left unturned. We welcome the convictions and sentences which have been passed down throughout the year to these depraved individuals, who subjected vulnerable young children to unthinkable sexual and physical abuse,” said Detective Chief Inspector Ian Mottershaw, from West Yorkshire Police, who led the investigation.

    “I hope the outcomes of these trials will enable the victims to start the process of putting this trauma behind them and reassure any other potential victims that we will treat them with the utmost respect and sensitivity and take positive action against perpetrators,” he said.

    Jailing the men, who are all of South Asian origin including Pakistani-origin men, Judge Geoffrey Marson said: “The way you treated these girls defies understanding; this abuse was vile and wicked. As cases of sexual abuse with which the courts have to deal, this case comes top of the scale”.

    Ringleader Dhaliwal, a married father of two, had been charged with 21 counts of rape, assault by penetration, four counts of sexual assault, five counts of inciting sexual activity with a child, 13 counts of trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of making indecent images, one count of inciting child prostitution, two offences of administering a substance with intent to commit a sexual act and a racially aggravated assault.

    As Dhaliwal was sentenced, the judge added, “The extent and gravity of your offending far exceeds anything which I have previously encountered. Children’s lives have been ruined and families profoundly affected by seeing their children, over months and years, out of control, having been groomed by you and other members of your gang”.

    A further four men found guilty will be sentenced on November 1 at Leeds Crown Court and have been remanded in custody. All 20 men will also be handed down indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Orders, put in place to prevent them from any unsupervised contact with female children under 18.

    The convictions follow an “extensive and extremely complex and sensitive investigation” conducted by detectives in Kirklees district of West Yorkshire, spanning nearly five years, in order to bring a case in front of a judge.

    In 2013, the first report was made to the police by a victim and since that point, police identified 15 victims and pieced together the investigation.

    The location of the crimes was around Huddersfield and all suspects originate from that town. The offences committed occurred between 2004 and 2011 against girls aged between 11 and 17.

     

  • Indian-Origin Chirag Patel Jailed in UK for 19 High Value Stolen Vehicles

    Indian-Origin Chirag Patel Jailed in UK for 19 High Value Stolen Vehicles

    LONDON (TIP): Indian-origin Chirag Patel has been sentenced to eight years in jail by a UK court for handling of 19 stolen high-value vehicles worth over 7,00,000 pounds.

    Patel, 39, was found guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods and possession of criminal property at the end of a five-week trial at Croydon Crown Court.

    “Patel played the leading role in a sophisticated operation to handle high-value, stolen vehicles, motivated only by sheer greed,” said Acting Detective Sergeant Billy Clough, who led the investigation for the Metropolitan Police.

    “He even attempted to convince the jury that he was a legitimate businessman, who had simply been unlucky in obtaining such a vast quantity of stolen items, but the jury saw through this and convicted him of being the key player in a significant criminal enterprise,” he said.

    Patel was jailed for conspiracy to handle stolen goods in relation to the cars and keys, for which he received eight years’ imprisonment.

    He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for possessing criminal property and in relation to over 440,000 pounds of unexplained cash deposits which had been identified from two personal bank accounts in his name

    Both the sentences will run concurrently.

    “I hope this sentence sends a message that those involved in this type of organized criminality will be pursued robustly,” the Met Police said.

    The court was told that in February 2015, Patel reported to police that his Porsche had been stolen.

    At first, Patel resisted giving his home address, instead providing details of his parent’s address.

    When he finally gave his own address, officers attended the property as part of their investigation into the stolen car.

    Here they discovered a number of high-value vehicles in the basement car park. Officers identified that one of cars had a personalized number plate identical to one seen earlier on a vehicle outside Patel’s parent’s address.

    Further inquiries by officers established that the five vehicles in the car park had false number plates and all were later confirmed to have been stolen.

    Patel was arrested at his home address soon after.

    During a search of his property, Met Police officers recovered 26 sets of car keys, as well as lists of vehicles and registrations, machines for accessing on-board computers in vehicles, programming keys and a number of mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

    Following a detailed investigation, led by officers from Croydon’s Serious Acquisitive Crime Unit, a total of 19 stolen vehicles with an estimated value of 728,000 pounds were linked to Patel and subsequently seized, as well as nine sets of keys which had been stolen from Jaguar Land Rover’s plant in Solihull, West Midlands, and a laptop stolen during a burglary in Streatham area of south London.

    During the trial, judge H H J Gower praised the work of the Scotland Yard officer, Police Constable Andy Garland, whose work identified the first stolen vehicle.

    The judge said: “It was his sharp eyes and investigative nose and approach which first spotted a stolen vehicle and set this investigation in motion and he receives my formal commendation.”

    The police later discovered that Patel had been using the vehicles in the running of an “off-the-books” vehicle rental business, where vehicles were rented out to his associates and contacts.

    The vehicles had been stolen by unknown individuals during burglaries and keyless thefts across London between October 2012 and January 2015 and were stored at or near addresses owned by Patel and his family, or with associates who looked after the vehicles for him or rented them from him.

     The identities of the cars were concealed using legitimate insurance details of vehicles which had been written off on official records.

     

  • Indian-Origin Man suffering from a Degenerative Eye Condition first to get Guide Horse in UK

    Indian-Origin Man suffering from a Degenerative Eye Condition first to get Guide Horse in UK

    LONDON(TIP): An Indian-origin man, who suffers from a degenerative eye condition, is set to become the first person in the UK to get a guide horse to assist him with daily tasks once he loses his vision completely.

    Mohammed Salim Patel, a journalist based in Blackburn at Lancashire, suffers from a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa, due to which he is left with a very small amount of sight in his right eye and will eventually become totally blind.

    The 24-year-old, who suffers from a deep-seated fear of dogs since a scary childhood encounter, could not rely on the more commonly used guide dogs for the blind and that is how the concept of a miniature guide horse came to his attention.

    “Digby (guide horse) is still a baby and will be two years old in May 2019. His training will take around two more years, so I expect to be able to bring him home to Blackburn once he’s finished his training,” Mr Patel told the media.

    “There is no rush though, as there would be for a guide dog. Digby will be able to work into his 40s, whereas a guide dog has to retire at the age of eight,” he said.

    After spending some time with his companion-to-be, Patel believes a guide horse has many added benefits over guide dogs, including a much longer working life, 350-degree vision and ability to see in the dark.

    “Guide horses can work for a lot longer, therefore even if his training takes longer than two years, it doesn’t matter too much as once he’s trained, I will have decades with him as my assistant animal,” Mr Patel explained.

    The story of Digby caught the attention of the annual Amplifon Awards for Brave Britons, where the horse is among the finalists in the Hero Pet category – aimed at honoring animals who have transformed the life of their owners.

    “It’s very nice to have Digby recognized for his great work, despite still being in training. He is a star,” said Patel, in reference to the awards, which were announced on Tuesday October 16.

    The BBC journalist began working with his local station, BBC Radio Lancashire, before moving on to BBC North West Tonight TV after completing a Journalism Trainee Scheme.

    “I fancied being a TV presenter and decided to give media studies a go. I found myself making documentaries on taboo subjects, and essentially creating journalistic pieces. This is when I strongly considered pursuing a career in journalism, as a journalist rather than a TV presenter,” he said.

    However, it was not an easy journey, being told that a broadcast journalism course would be too difficult for a blind person to complete.

    “I used my time at university to get as much broadcasting experience as I could. I loved radio. I was fortunate to achieve a First Class BA Honors in International Journalism and got a job as a reporter at my local BBC radio station,” said Patel, whose family has their roots in Gujarat.

    “My mother was born in India but then came to the UK to marry my dad. He has family in Gujarat too,” he said.

    “I love visiting India as it’s a beautiful country that fascinates me. I take every opportunity I can to visit my cousins who live there and to also visit the many different cities in India,” he added.

    It remains to be seen if Digby might join him on one of these visits in the future.

     

     

     

     

     

  • 22-Year-Old Sikh Soldier who made history in UK faces expulsion after being tested positive for Cocaine

    22-Year-Old Sikh Soldier who made history in UK faces expulsion after being tested positive for Cocaine

    LONDON(TIP): The 22-year-old Sikh soldier Charanpreet Singh Lall, who created history by becoming the first to wear a turban during an annual parade to mark British Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday ceremony, could be kicked out from his post after he was tested positive for cocaine, according to a media report.

    Singh made headlines across the world for wearing the turban during Trooping the Color in June.

    However, last week he failed a random drugs test at his barracks, with insiders claiming he registered “high levels” of cocaine, according to media reports.

    “Guardsman Lall has been discussing it openly in the barracks. The Guards carry out public duties at the Palace, it’s disgraceful behavior,” a source was quoted as saying by the report.

    Brigadier Christopher Coles, Head of Army Personnel Services Group, said: “I can confirm that a number of soldiers from the Coldstream Guards are under investigation for alleged drugs misuse.”

    Mr Lall, who was born in Punjab, moved to the UK with his family as a baby. He later joined the British Army in January 2016.

    He hit the headlines in June after he made history as part in the 1000-strong ceremony marking the Queen’s 92nd birthday.

    While Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her actual birthday on April 21, the Trooping of the Color ceremony takes place on any Saturday of June.

    The ceremony has commemorated the birthday of the sovereign for more than 250 years and also functions as a display of army drills, music and horsemanship.

     

  • Indian- Origin British Sikh Woman Jailed for Harassing Hindu Ex-Boyfriend and Family

    Indian- Origin British Sikh Woman Jailed for Harassing Hindu Ex-Boyfriend and Family

    LONDON (TIP): An Indian- origin British Sikh woman was handed down a two-year suspended jail term by a UK court for launching a campaign of racist abuse and harassment against her Hindu ex-boyfriend and his family over a period of five years, including posting beef through their door as an attack on their faith.

    Amandeep Mudhar had pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment and was handed down a two-year sentence at Swindon Crown Court in south-west England on September 25.

    “Most people from religious backgrounds seek to find a common ground on what they share, be it a faith in god or human nature. Not from you: your behavior was unrelenting, provocative and extremely frightening,” said Judge Robert Pawson during the sentencing hearing.

    The court was told of Amandeep Mudhar orchestrating a series of attacks on the unnamed family of her former boyfriend, including abusive and threatening phone calls and attacks on social media.

    The court was told that the 26-year-old had a brief relationship with the man, which was “never fully intimate”, over a few weeks in 2012.

    But after he ended the affair citing cultural differences, Amandeep Mudhar and her family launched into the attacks which included threats of rape against his sisters and mother and also to blow up their home and cars, the local daily reported.

    Prosecutor Sue Cavender told the court that after 2015, she was made subject to a harassment warning by the police and a civil injunction brought by the family, which prevented her from contacting them.

    However, she breached that with a social media message two minutes before it expired, saying to one of his two sisters “now watch what happens”, the report said.

    Amandeep Mudhar then enlisted the help of a friend, 30-year-old Sandeep Dogra, to send numerous “offensive” Facebook and Instagram posts directed at the family. As well as threats to kill them and rape them, one of the comments branded them “fat, like your elephant god”.

    The duo also went to the temple the family frequented, where they harassed the man’s parents, the report said.

    In another incident, a parcel of beef was put through the door of the family home which, being Hindus, they found very upsetting, the prosecution said.

    In victim impact statements, the man’s two sisters said they had suffered great stress for many years because of the harassment and one of them claimed that Amandeep Mudhar even got another child to bully her six-year-old son at school as part of her campaign of abuse.

    Amandeep Mudhar and Sandeep Dogra had both pleaded guilty to harassment but avoided time behind bars as they were handed down two-year suspended jail sentences, which refers to a deferred custodial sentence on strict conditions.

    She also faces a six-month curfew, during which her movements will be curtailed. She has also been directed to complete 100 hours of unpaid community service, attend rehabilitation days and pay 750 pounds towards legal costs.

    The judge also imposed a restraining order banning Amandeep Mudhar and Sandeep Dogra from contacting the family, going to the roads they live on or the temple they visit.

    “I hope this sentence draws a line in the sand and there will be no repetition. You have been warned, both of you,” the judge said.

    Amandeep Mudhar’s lawyer highlighted her difficult childhood, during which her mother treated her harshly, and Sandeep Dogra’s lawyer said that he became involved after he felt the victims had racially abused his mother.

    The court was told that they both had been shunned by their local community after the details of the case had emerged earlier this year.

     

  • Indian-Origin Bus Driver Who Killed 2 in UK Crash was Suffering from Dementia

    Indian-Origin Bus Driver Who Killed 2 in UK Crash was Suffering from Dementia

    LONDON(TIP):  Indian-origin bus driver, suffering from dementia was found by a UK court to have caused the deaths of two people with his dangerous driving in the city of Coventry nearly three years ago.

    Kailash Chander was deemed unfit to stand trial for the fatal crash due to his mental state and the jury at a “trial of facts” hearing at Birmingham Crown Court was directed to only determine whether Kailash Chander “did the acts”.

    Kailash Chander, a former town mayor of Leamington Spa, mistook the accelerator for the brake before the fatal smash, which caused the death of seven-year-old schoolboy Rowan Fitzgerald, who was sitting at the front of the upper deck of the bus and died of a head injury.

    A 76-year-old pedestrian, Dora Hancox, died from multiple injuries after being hit by the double-decker bus and a falling lamppost when it crashed into a supermarket in October 2015.

    Kailash Chander had been warned about his “erratic” driving after four crashes in the previous three years, the court was told. It was said he had struggled to punch a ticket seconds before the fatal crash because his hands were shaking.

    Judge Paul Farrer, summing up the case at the hearing, said one witness had described the movement of Kailash Chander’s double-decker bus as appearing to have “no driver with the accelerator jammed on”.

    The court heard that Kailash Chander had experienced suicidal thoughts, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and was “very preoccupied” by the crash. The 80-year-old may face a supervision order at a further hearing in November.

    Bus company Midland Red South, which has pleaded guilty to health and safety law breaches, faces an unlimited fine and will also be sentenced later.

    Lawyers for Kailash Chander, who was 77 at the time of the crash, argued he was driving carelessly and should not be found guilty of dangerous driving.

    Before the jury handed down their verdict, the judge told the panel: “You will obviously feel sympathy for the very real tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Hancox and her family and Rowan and his family.

    “But in judging this case and in deciding whether the prosecution have proved the act of dangerous driving, you have to put emotion to one side. You are here to judge the evidence objectively and dispassionately.”

    A spokesperson for the bus company said: “We are deeply sorry for the heartache of those affected, particularly the families of Rowan Fitzgerald and Dora Hancox.”

    In a statement, Rowan Fitzgerald’s family said “no sentence would ever stop the hurt that we feel” for his loss and called for a change in the law preventing people driving buses in old age.

     

     

  • Indian-Origin Family Faces Hate Crime Attack in UK

    Indian-Origin Family Faces Hate Crime Attack in UK

    LONDON (TIP):  An Indian-origin family of four faces hate crime according to police in the UK. They had a lucky escape when their house was targeted in an “unprovoked” arson attack.

    Mayur Karlekar, called as Mac Karlekar, and his wife Ritu and two young children were asleep in their home when they were woken up by their neighbors, who had called in the fire brigade to tackle a huge blaze outside their home in south-east London’s Borkwood Park area of Orpington.

    “The Metropolitan Police is investigating this as a hate crime. It is being dealt with as a case of arson and criminal damage. No arrests have been made so far,” a Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.

    CCTV images from the area reportedly show a group of four-five youths, dressed in hoodies, attempting to start a fire on the hedges outside the Karlekars’ home.

    “We all were sleeping and were luckily woken up by neighbors on time. Though most of the damage was done to the hedges leaving the house now exposed, my son’s bedroom was just saved – he was sleeping in it at the time of the incident,” said Mayur Karlekar, a digital consultant who move to the UK from Mumbai in the late 1990s.

    “We are glad it was stopped on time but the damage to our neighborhood, our society, to our home has been done, irrecoverably. We have not caused any trouble to anyone and have only helped others in all our lifetime. I was special police myself doing voluntary unpaid work. This act happening to us was a complete shock,” said the 43-year-old, who has been appealing for information to bring the suspects to justice across various social media channels.

    Mayur Karlekar, originally from Dombivali in Thane district of Maharashtra, said he wanted to ensure no other families in the neighborhood become victims of a similar hate crime.

    “Hope this kind of arson attack does not happen to any family as it happened on ours unprovoked. If you know anyone or seen any video floating around on social media of dares, please help stop it. Be safe, be vigilant,” he said in his appeal.

    Images posted on social media reveal huge flames and extensive damage to the outside of the property in the residential suburb in the borough of Bromley in London. Mayur Karlekar has expressed his unhappiness with the nearly 32-hour delay in the Met Police starting their investigation into the case.

    “This is the second incident in this area, the first one being a robbery, but we feel more may have happened or are going unreported. We want those people to come out and raise their voice too,” he said.

    British police describe hate crimes as those perceived as motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a personal characteristic and monitor it under five strands – race or ethnicity; religion or beliefs; sexual orientation; disability; or transgender identity.

    According to official figures released earlier this year, incidents of hate crime had registered a spike in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum in 2016. There were 80,393 offences in 2016-17, compared with 62,518 in 2015-16, the largest increase since the UK Home Office began recording these figures in 2011-12.

     

  • Indian-Origin British Businessman First Person to get top Royal Navy Post

    Indian-Origin British Businessman First Person to get top Royal Navy Post

    LONDON(TIP): Wales-based Indian- origin businessman has become the first ever Indian origin person to be appointed Honorary Lieutenant Commander in the UK’s Royal Navy.

    Raj Aggarwal, who is India’s Honorary Consul in Wales, was appointed to his naval post by Admiral Sir Philip Jones following the formal approval of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.

    The move will see the pharmacist and healthcare expert take on the rank of honorary lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, which is equivalent to the rank of an army major, and he will be affiliated to the Royal Navy ship ‘HMS Dragon’ in his new role.

    “Raj is a great friend and advocate of the Naval service and his appointment will deepen the relationship between the community and the Royal Navy,” Royal Marine Brigadier Graeme Fraser told the ‘Wales Online’ newspaper.

    “Our Armed Forces are inclusive employers; we recognize the value of diversity and proudly serve all members of our communities at home and overseas. As the only Honorary Royal Navy officer in Wales, it is fitting that we celebrate his appointment. He will wear his Naval officer’s uniform at the ceremony with pride,” Mr Fraser said.

    Each honorary officer is expected to bring a breadth of experience and make a contribution in their own distinct way to the Royal Navy. The official inauguration ceremony, which took place on Sunday on ‘HMS Cambria’ – the only Royal Navy base in Wales, was dubbed the Royal Naval Mela in honor of Aggarwal’s Indian roots.

    Mr Aggarwal said, “It is my great honor to accept this position in the Royal Navy as one of the ‘special’ honoraries. I want to use this position to create greater diversity in the Navy, to show the community that the Navy will be supportive and that there are amazing careers on offer, with first rate skills-training and opportunities to see the world”.

    Raj Aggarwal, chairman of pharma firm RK Aggarwal Ltd, migrated from Kenya to Wales in 1967 and studied pharmacy at Cardiff University before settling down in Cardiff.

     

  • Indian- Origin British Officer Honored in UK for “Toughest Policing Role”

    Indian- Origin British Officer Honored in UK for “Toughest Policing Role”

    LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin British counter-terrorism chief has won the Asian Achievers’ Award in the Uniformed and Civil Services category for his contribution to policing in the UK.

    Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, who is the Metropolitan Police’s National Lead for Counter Terrorism and the Head of the Met Police’s Specialist Operations, had sent a colleague from the force to receive the award on his behalf at the 18th annual awards event, organized by UK-based media house Asian Business Publications Limited (ABPL) Group.

    The award citation described Mr Basu’s job as “one of the toughest policing roles in the country” and praised his hard work and dedication in achieving such seniority within the force as the “first officer of Asian heritage to hold the post in the UK”.

     “(British Asians) continue to excel across all spheres of society…I am determined to ensure the government looks more like the country it serves, and to see a new generation creating opportunities for people across the whole of the UK,” Prime Minister Theresa May noted in her message for the awards night at Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, London.

    Among some of the other key winners, selected by a panel of judges made up of academics and entrepreneurs, included Rishi Khosla, the CEO of unicorn start-up OakNorth who was named Businessperson of the Year, and Adarsh Radia, the founder of the popular Dishoom chain of Indian restaurants in the UK who was named Entrepreneur of the Year.

    “The awards have grown in stature year after year and once again we received an overwhelming number of nominations, which is an indication that the success of the British Asian community in various fields continues unabated,” said CB Patel, the founder-chairman of ABPL Group and Editor and Publisher of ‘Asian Voice’ and ‘Gujarat Samachar’ – the weekly newspapers which invite its readers to nominate achievers for the annual awards

    “Our awards recognize all those unsung heroes within the Asian community – many of whom arrived here as migrants. They have made great strides, not just within their communities and professional sectors but have made huge contributions to British society and the UK economy,” added Patel, who presented a special Editor’s Award to leading NRI hotelier and Chair of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London, Joginder Sanger, for his contributions in the field of business and philanthropy.

     The Asian Achievers Awards has helped to raise around 1.5 million pounds for various causes and charities since its launch in 2000. This year’s chosen beneficiary was Oracle Cancer, a leading charity funding research into head and neck cancer, which attracted nearly 100,000 pounds through donations and an auction hosted by famous British author Lord Jeffrey Archer.

    The high-selling auction lots for the night included a shirt signed by the Indian cricket team, which went under the hammer for 5,000 pounds, and a seven-night luxury tour aboard India’s ‘Deccan Odyssey” train clinching 10,000 pounds.

    Leading general practitioner (GP) and honorary secretary of the Welsh Division of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) Hasmukh Shah was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

    Other major winners on the night were Indian-origin BBC presenter, author and documentary filmmaker Babita Sharma in the media and arts category and healthcare entrepreneur and CEO of Regent’s Park Healthcare Anil Kumar Ohri, who was named Professional of the Year.

  • Indian-Origin Man Killed by Underage for Refusing to Sell Cigarette Paper to Him

    Indian-Origin Man Killed by Underage for Refusing to Sell Cigarette Paper to Him

    LONDON (TIP): An Indian-origin shopkeeper, who refused to sell cigarette paper to a 16-year old, was murdered by the underage. The teen has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment.

    The shopkeeper, Vijaykumar Patel sustained a fatal head injury in the unprovoked attack by the boy, whose name has not been revealed for legal reasons, outside a mini-market in Mill Hill, north London, in January. The 49-year-old had refused to sell the tobacco related item to the boy and his two friends who came into his shop on January 6 because they were under 18 years of age.

    Sentencing the teenager at a hearing on Sep 7, Justice Stuart-Smith described the boy as a “time bomb”, who had been out of on bail at the time of the attack.

    “The record, the facts of this case, the contents of the PSR (pre-sentence report) with the analysis of very high risk of causing significant harm. I do not find the PSR surprising at all,” the judge noted.

    He sentenced the boy to four years’ detention and a further three years on license, or under monitoring.

    A trial at the Old Bailey court in London was told the boy, who had five alcoholic drinks at a party on the evening of the attack, became aggressive and shouted abuse before hurling himself at Patel outside the shop. The attack was captured on CCTV and it was possible to see the moment Mr Patel was hit.

    Mr Patel was rushed to St Mary’s Hospital in central London but died the following day from the injury to the back of his head.  The teenager had claimed self-defense but was found guilty of manslaughter at the end of the trial in July.

    “The CCTV shows he was simply standing with his hands in his pockets doing nothing,” the judge told the boy during the sentencing hearing this week.

    “What happened next was that you deliberately moved to the left and launched yourself at Mr Patel, taking him off his feet and to the ground. He was completely defenseless and did not move. You struck him,” he said.

    The court was informed that the Patel family was in India and therefore no victim impact statement was presented.

    Another shop worker had chased the boys away with a billboard sign and a broom following the incident. The boys were then seen laughing and joking as they fled the scene.

    The court was told the boy suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and low intelligence and had previous convictions for weapons offences and kicking and punching a teacher at his school.

    His lawyer Philippa McAtasney said the boy was “not beyond hope and help” and had been seriously affected by the stabbing of a youth worker friend who had confronted a drug dealer. The teenager himself had written a letter to trial judge expressing his remorse over the killing of Mr Patel.

     

  • Indian-Origin Lawyer Jailed in UK for Fraud

    Indian-Origin Lawyer Jailed in UK for Fraud

    LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin Harvinder Kaur Thethi, described as a “bogus immigration lawyer” has been jailed for five years’ after she was found guilty of six counts of fraud by false representation.

    Ms. Thethi, from the West Midlands region of England, had been convicted by Southwark Crown Court in London in July for falsely claiming to be a barrister, solicitor and a UK Home Office official with the ability to progress immigration applications.

    Despite being unqualified in any of these fields, she went on to obtain GBP 68,000 from vulnerable people in payment for immigration related services, which were promised but not delivered, the court was told.

    At a hearing, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith sentenced the 46-year-old to five years behind bars for each of the six counts, to run concurrently.

    “You decided to embark on a fantasy life, when you claimed to be a successful lawyer earning a large income. You were nothing of the sort,” the judge said during the sentencing hearing.

    “The large amounts of money you obtained came entirely from money you had stolen from people you had befriended and cheated,” he noted.

    The judge observed that people whose immigration status is precarious are “very, very vulnerable”, which would make them susceptible to somebody they thought was a family friend and could be convinced to part with large sums of money they could ill afford.

    Harvinder Kaur Thethi was found to have ingratiated herself to her victims and was, in many cases, treated as a daughter or sister. Her prosecution was the result of an investigation led by the UK’s Office of the Immigration Service Commissioner (OISC), in partnership with Immigration Enforcement and the Metropolitan Police Service.

    “You preyed on their vulnerability again and again… the investigation was thorough, fair, and – it is clear from the Victim Personal Statements – kind. I commend both officers in this case,” the judge concluded.

    The offences took place between June 1, 2013, and September 8, 2014 in Hounslow, west London. Harvinder Kaur Thethi had been remanded in custody pending a sentencing hearing in July.

    Ian Leigh, Deputy Immigration Services Commissioner, said his team was delighted with the outcome of the case, which they hope would send a “clear deterrent message” to anyone considering acting similarly.

     

  • Indian-Origin British Lawmaker Challenges Theresa May’s Brexit Strategy with a ‘Stand Up 4 Brexit’ campaign

    Indian-Origin British Lawmaker Challenges Theresa May’s Brexit Strategy with a ‘Stand Up 4 Brexit’ campaign

    LONDON (TIP): Indian-origin Conservative party lawmaker and former UK Cabinet minister Priti Patel has joined the race along with 20 other party rebels who are challenging British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strategy with a ‘Stand Up 4 Brexit’ campaign.

    The grassroots drive against any negotiations with the European Union (EU) that could lead to a so-called soft Brexit is being backed by another ex-minister Ian Duncan Smith and is expected to mount pressure on May to ditch her Chequers plan, which is rejected by Eurosceptic lawmakers within her Conservative party.

    ‘Stand Up 4 Brexit’ supporters, who also include former foreign secretary Boris Johnson’s key ally Tory lawmaker Conor Burns, pledge to fight plans to keep the EU rules on British goods and free movement in terms of migration.

    Ms Patel, a leading pro-Brexit voice in the lead up to the referendum in favor of Britain’s exit from the EU in June 2016, has previously called on the government to be “tougher” in its negotiations with Brussels.

    The Stand Up 4 Brexit campaign is building momentum as Mr Johnson, the poster boy for the pro-Brexit camp, launched a scathing attack on Theresa May’s plans in his weekly newspaper column in ‘The Daily Telegraph’ on Monday, saying the approach agreed at Chequers “means disaster” for Britain.

    Mr Johnson said negotiations based on the Chequers plan had so far seen the EU take “every important trick”, adding, “The UK has agreed to hand over GBP 40 billion of taxpayers’ money for two-thirds of diddly squat [nothing].”

    The so-called Chequers plan put forth by PM May would see Britain agreeing a “common rulebook” with the European Union for trading in goods, in an attempt to maintain frictionless trade at the border.

    Critics of the strategy argue this would leave the UK tied to the EU rules even after it formally leaves the economic bloc on March 29 next year and prevent Britain from striking its own trade deals in years to come.

    As the UK’s parliamentary recess period of August comes to an end and the political parties in the country prepare for their annual party conferences this month, the battle lines around Brexit are expected to deepen further.

    Even after the UK and the EU have reached some sort of an agreement over their future trading relationship, any agreed plan will then be tabled before lawmakers for a vote – a process which will be accompanied with its own share of upheavals.

     

  • Indian-Origin Pathologist Accused of Bungling Post-Mortem Reports in UK

    Indian-Origin Pathologist Accused of Bungling Post-Mortem Reports in UK

    LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin pathologist, Khalid Ahmed, has been accused of mis handling some post-mortems at a UK hospital and is under police investigation to establish if any criminal charges need to be brought against him. Ahmed, who worked as a consultant pathologist at the Royal Oldham Hospital in Manchester, carried out an undisclosed number of post-mortem tests for the north Manchester coroner’s office.

    An investigation revealed that he repeatedly recorded the wrong cause of death for patients, misidentified organs and potentially mixed up bodies, The Daily Telegraph reported.

    In May last year, the senior coroner at the north Manchester coroner’s office raised concerns about Khalid Ahmed’s examinations and a recent review found “significant concerns” with his “inadequate” said reports.

    Professor Simon Kim Suvarna, a consultant histopathologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, carried out the review into Ahmed, who qualified as a medic in Bengaluru in 1989, and found some reports to have an “incorrect” cause of death given.

    Suvarna is also reported to have noted that Khalid Ahmed’s tests “do not even meet the standards that are expected for pathology students to pass the autopsy component of the final exam”, the reports said.

    A subsequent police referral was made by the coroner and that the police investigation is still underway.

    A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said: “GMP is assessing what, if any, criminal offences may have been committed in relation to findings presented to the coroner.”

    Khalid Ahmed joined Pennine Acute NHS Trust in January 2007, but no longer works there.

    In a statement, the trust said after they were told of the coroner’s concerns, an “in-depth internal review” into Khalid Ahmed’s practice was carried out, which concluded in February this year.

    The trust added that a “thorough and extensive investigation” of Ahmed’s work for the UK’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS) work “provided assurance” his practice was “within the range of a reasonable pathologist”.

    The UK’s General Medical Council said he is still licensed to practice as a histopathologist.

     

  • Indian-Origin Man in UK to be Deported to India to Finish Jail Term for Wife’s Murder

    Indian-Origin Man in UK to be Deported to India to Finish Jail Term for Wife’s Murder

    LONDON(TIP): An Indian-origin man serving a jail term in a UK jail for killing his wife over eight years ago is to be deported to India to serve the remainder of his murder sentence in Punjab.

    Harpreet Aulakh was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in London in December 2010 for plotting the murder of his wife, Geeta Aulakh, after she asked for a divorce. The 40-year-old will be deported under the India-UK Repatriation of Prisoners Act, the BBC reported today.

    “All arrangements are in place. According to the plan, the UK authorities will bring him to Delhi from where a team of Punjab police officers will bring him to Amritsar,” IPS Sahota, a top prison official in Punjab, was quoted as saying.

    Inspector general of prisons Roop Kumar said Harpreet Aulakh, who is from Punjab, had told UK authorities that he wanted to serve his remaining term in India.

    Geeta Aulakh, 28, was brutally attacked with a machete during the attack in Greenford, west London, in November 2009. She worked for local Indian community radio station, Sunrise Radio, and her murder had hit headlines around the world at the time of the attack.

    In November 2009, the victim, who was the mother of Harpreet Aulakh’s two sons, was hacked to death with a sword, which her husband of 10 years had chosen from a selection of swords at a store days before the murder.

    The attack took place when Geeta Aulakh went to pick up her sons after leaving work at the radio station where she worked as a receptionist.

    She was found with head injuries and her right hand severed, and died a few hours later in hospital.

    Harpreet Aulakh, also known as Sunny, and two others, Sher Singh, 19, and Jaswant Dhillon, 30, were also found guilty of Geeta Aulakh’s murder in 2010. Sher Singh, who actually wielded the sword, and Jaswant Dhillon, who acted as the lookout for the group, were sentenced to 22 years behind bars. During the trial, the court was told that British-born Indian-origin Geeta Aulakh wanted to divorce her husband over his involvement in violent crimes, leading him to plot her murder.

     

  • Indian-Origin student group in UK calls for action on fake calls scam

    Indian-Origin student group in UK calls for action on fake calls scam

    LONDON (TIP): An Indian-origin student group in London called for action to support members who had been subjected to a fake calls scam, which involves fraudsters claiming to be from the UK Home Office and threatening innocent students with deportation.

    Indian National Students Association (INSA) UK resolved at its annual National Executive meeting in London over the weekend to provide support to students affected by the scam.

    “At the meeting, representatives from Westminster University and King’s College London chapters highlighted the issue of fake calls being made to Indian students and resolved to provide support to those affected,” INSA UK said in a statement.

    The case of Hardik Somani, from Westminster University, emerged as a case study after he was targeted by fraudsters posing as “officials of the Home Office”.

    He was threatened with immediate deportation for failing to fill out paperwork “correctly” and was warned he faced a 10-year ban from the UK unless he paid a “fine” of up to 6,500 pounds. INSA UK said it supported him through the process of alerting the UK authorities.

    Shweta Kulkarni, President of the students’ body, said: “INSA UK was set up to speak up on behalf of Indian students and we are keen to address all issues of concern, including such fake calls and visa hurdles.

    “We urge the authorities to take action against the fraudsters and increase the level of support for the targeted students.”

    A Home Office spokesperson said: “Legitimate Home Office officials will never contact individuals to demand payment over the phone for visa fees or fines.

    “Anyone who thinks they have been a victim of fraud should contact the police.”

    Earlier this month, another Indian students’ body — the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK — and the University of Manchester had issued alerts directed at Indian students, warning them to be wary of such scam phone calls.

    It called on students not to engage with such callers, who use software to create “spoof” numbers that may seem legitimate.

    “The fraudster may use the terms ‘deportation notice’, ‘alien registration form’ and ‘late fee charges’… Do not make any payment… Report the matter to Action Fraud,” the advisory said.

     

  • Indian- Origin British Billionaire Plans Clean Energy Project in Australia

    Indian- Origin British Billionaire Plans Clean Energy Project in Australia

    CANBERRA(TIP): India-origin British billionaire has launched a $1 billion, one-gigawatt renewable energy plan based in South Australia’s mid-north that he says will lead the country’s industry transition to more competitive power.

    Sanjeev Gupta’s energy company Simec Zen and its Cultana Solar Farm released the details on August 16. It said that “In the first of a number of projects slated for the upper Spencer Gulf region, will include a 120MW lithium-ion battery bigger than the 100MW battery built by Elon Musk’s Tesla in South Australia in 2017.”

    The project will produce 280 megawatts of power and feature 780,000 solar panels, generating enough electricity for 96,000 homes. The Cultana Solar Farm will begin construction in early 2019, employing 350 workers during construction, reports stated

    “Today’s event is symbolic of our desire to develop and invest in new-generation energy assets that will bring down Australia’s electricity prices to competitive levels again,” Mr Gupta said on Wednesday, August 16.

    “Solar will be the main base of our ambitions in Australia but we will have some wind and we have lots of storage solutions.”

    When completed, Mr Gupta’s battery will surpass the battery built by Tesla as the largest in the world, reports said.

    However, the Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance has no intention to stop there with plans for pumped hydro projects and expanded solar farms being developed for South Australia.

    “All of these projects will not only improve reliability and greatly reduce the cost of electricity in our own operations, they will also provide competitive sources of power for other industrial and commercial users, while at the same time playing a key role in the market’s transition towards renewables,” he said.

    “We have a strong conviction that traditional carbon-intensive generation sources do not have a long-term future as the predominant source of power in Australia and globally.”

    “We believe the world is undergoing a momentous transition to renewable power as the cost of renewables drops dramatically and quickly,” he added.

  • Indian Origin Businessman Jailed for Hitting War Veteran with Sports Car in UK

    Indian Origin Businessman Jailed for Hitting War Veteran with Sports Car in UK

    LONDON(TIP): Indian-origin businessman Ravi Ruparelia has been jailed for a year and two months for crashing his luxury sports car into a 68-year-old war veteran on the streets of London and then fleeing the scene in November last year.

    Ruparelia, 30, who runs a successful hotel and catering business in London, lost control of his McLaren 540C Coupe; in London’s Park Lane area, jumped a red light and hit Anthony Davis who was waiting to cross the road at a junction.

    The victim was knocked unconscious and left with a broken leg in the crash. Ruparelia pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident.

    Judge Martin Beddoe, at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London, said Ruparelia’s decision to flee was “almost as bad and as callous an example of that as one could contemplate,” the media reported.

    “There has been nothing to prevent him (Ruparelia) since the accident contacting the victim and saying how sorry he was,” the judge added.

    The court was told that Mr Davis had been on his way to a Remembrance Day parade in Whitehall, held annually to honor the war dead, when the crash happened on November 12, 2017. He was left temporarily wheelchair-bound and unable to work as a security guard.

    Besides a 22-month jail sentence, Ruparelia has also been banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay 5,000 pounds as compensation to the victim.

    Prosecutor Carol Summers said Mr Davis had stopped for the light to turn green but “heard a high-speed racing car coming in his direction”.

    “He could hear the engine revving and said it was going really fast,” Ms Summers said.

    Mr Davis decided not to cross the road even though the light turned green. But the next thing he knew he was on the ground surrounded by paramedics and police, she said.

    CCTV showed Ruparelia looking towards the victim, before pulling his hood over his head and fleeing.

     

  • Indian Origin Sikh Teen Shot Dead Outside Home in Canada

    Indian Origin Sikh Teen Shot Dead Outside Home in Canada

    TORONTO(TIP): Indian Origin 19-year-old Sikh teen was shot dead outside his home and his cousin was injured by so far unidentified persons in an apparent targeted shooting in Canada, police said.

    Gagandeep Singh Dhaliwal, who was known to local police but had no criminal records, got home on Sunday, August 5 with his family following a wedding reception. He then went to the garage to hang out with his cousin, and it was at that time when the shooting started, his family told the media.

    The Abbotsford Police Department said officers responded to a report of shots fired at a home around 11:30 pm. Upon arrival, they found two men who had been shot.

    Mr Dhaliwal was pronounced dead shortly after arriving in hospital and his cousin is in hospital receiving treatment, the report said.

    His cousin, who is “roughly the same age” as Mr Dhaliwal, is expected to survive. The injured man has not been identified, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT) said in a statement.

    “It’s not clear what the motive was but investigators believe the shooting was targeted,” Corporal Frank Jang with the IHIT said.

    “Whenever, you know, some person or persons decide to discharge or fire a gun in the community, there’s always that concern that it could hit someone else. In this case we believe the bullets hit their target. We believe Dhaliwal was targeted for murder,” he said.

    Mr Jang said they believe “an unknown person approached the residence and shots were fired but have not yet determined a motive.

    “Right now, it’s too early to tell if it’s gang-related or drug-related or a personal conflict with somebody,” Mr Jang said, adding that no arrests have been made so far.

    Family friend Jaskarn Singh Dhaliwal said “All of sudden, someone came over and started shooting them.”

    “Something went wrong and when, why, we have no clue yet. Police are working on it. His family tried hardest to keep him on track. The family is in shock. The whole community is in shock.”

    Mr Dhaliwal was working as an electrician’s apprentice.

    The incident has rattled neighbours, who said there had not been any problems at the home before.

     

  • Indian-Origin man sentenced for 6 years in UK

    Indian-Origin man sentenced for 6 years in UK

    LONDON(TIP):  An Indian-origin man has been sentenced to six years of imprisonment for the death of two women in a road accident in northern England in 2016. He was checking his mobile while driving.

    The 26-year-old youth has also been banned from driving for nine years.

    Mohmed Patel was checking his mobile phone and did not see Shelby Maher, 17, and Rachel Murphy, 23, as they crossed the road in Preston, Lancashire, in April 2016.

    While Rachel Murphy died on the spot after being hit by Patel’s BMW, Shelby Maher died in a hospital later.

    Another teenage girl in a group of five crossing the road was also seriously injured in the mishap. She was in hospital for a week.

    Patel was sentenced to six-year imprisonment by the Preston Crown Court on August 7, which concluded that his distraction while driving had resulted in the crash.

    “No text was so urgent that it was worth the life of these two young women. It is clear the defendant failed to see any of those people in the road,” Judge Altham said after being told that Patel’s phone revealed he had sent two text messages to his girlfriend around the time of the crash asking her whereabouts.

    The court was told that 42 seconds after he sent the text, he was calling the 999-emergency number from the crash scene.

    Patel claimed that he had sent text to his partner while stopped at a nearby set of traffic lights and then replaced the phone in the glove compartment. But another motorist told the court that the accused had overtaken him shortly before the crash and he had seen Patel holding a mobile phone in his hand as he rested it on the steering wheel.

    “This was plainly an avoidable distraction. So distracted was he that at the point of collision he may as well have been driving with his eyes closed,” the judge said.

    He also noted that Patel had shown “no significant remorse” but rather “sadness for the predicament he now finds himself in” and jailed him for two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

    Patel had admitted that his driving, while taking his mother and sister on a shopping trip, was careless, but denied the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

    “I do accept I should have seen the pedestrians in the road. I don’t know why I didn’t see them. But it was not because of my mobile phone,” Patel had told the court.

    Meanwhile, the victims’ families said they were disappointed with the length of sentence.

    Shelby’s mother Melanie Maher said: “He has ruined all our lives, my child’s life, I’m never going to see my daughter again because of him and I hate him.”