Multi-million fraud with Hajis

Even the Haj is not safe from frauds. The faith with which Muslims go to this sacred pilgrimage is being used to dupe them. Hi Time has learnt that on this Haj alone, frauds amounting to millions of rupees were done, both by people within India and the Saudis.
News of fresh scandals is percolating down, as more plains carrying Hajis return from Jeddah, the Saudi capital.
Zaheer Zaidi, associated with a leading travel agency in Delhi, who has just returned from Haj, revealed to Hi Time how even fake Tashrihs were sold by the apex authority of Saudi government – Mossisa – with no proper arrangement for stay for the Hajis. Tashrihs are the permits granted by the Mossisa after proper scrutiny of residential facilities, including fire-fighting equipments, safety and general amenities, where the Hajis are to say. Without proper Tashrihs, visas for Haj are not issued. The Hajis who went to Makkah with Tashrihs this year found to their surprise that the addresses on which residential permits were issued were not in existence. Finally, such Hajis had to look for other accommodation, at far off places.
Moreover, it is being said that the fake Tashrihs were sold at 350 riyals each. Considering the fact that lakhs of Hajis go on Haj and the going rate for riyal is around Rs. 12 per riyal, the total amount of illicit deal can well be gauged.
Buzz was also circulating among the Hajis, while on Haj, particularly among the tour operators, that of the total quota of Tashrihs that was sent to Ministry of External Affairs, the minister distributed a good number (1700 as per the rumours) among his relatives, thereby leading to a situation where there were less permits for visas and more Hajis standing in queue to go. Resultantly, tour operators were left with no choice but to purchase the Tashrihs at higher prices, at times from these relatives of the Minister himself, and the consequent higher charges were passed on to the Hajis. Hi Time has learnt that while the visa (along with the Tashrih and moallim fee) was costing around Rs. 12,000 each, it was sold to the Hajis for price ranging from Rs. 20,000 onward. Consequently, the tour operators charged more this time, owing to there being more Hajis and lesser visas available for them.
As if this was not enough, a travel agency, named Royal Tours and Travels, duped more than 100 unsuspecting village-folks and ran off with the money they had laboriously collected to go on pilgrimage. Located at Rustamnagar under the Saadatganj police station, the agency, run by Intezaar Mehdi as the co-ordinator and Naaz Naqvi - the patron - collected Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 1,20,000 from people and even set December 14 as the date of leaving Lucknow for Delhi by Neelanchal Express. Bidding adieu to their near and dear ones, the Haj aspirants reached the station with their relatives, only to find that there were no reservations on train. The names of 36 members of agency’s committee were given on the payment slip, some of whom are influential people of the society. However, when these people were contacted they said their names were put on the slip without their permission. When asked why they didn’t object when the print campaign in various Urdu newspapers was being carried out and their names were even printed on the brochures, they had no reply to give. A lot many of the mobile numbers given on brochures were found to be switched off. An FIR has been registered in this connection and SSP, Lucknow has promised that the culprits will be nabbed soon. But perhaps because some of the respected names of the community are involved, the police has till now refrained from taking action against all those whose names figured on the brochures.
Hi Time enquiries have revealed that this is not the first case that Intezaar Mehdi has duped people on Haj. He was running a travel agency by the name of BBC Travels in Delhi till a few years and had to close shop when he was rounded up by the Hajis when he tried to sell airline ticket with fake ‘OK’ stamp. He still owes money to several people and companies in Delhi.
A short while ago, a leading TV channel too had brought to light the illicit deals which people connected with Haj committee were doing for sending the Hajis. This included even selling the application form for a price, given free otherwise, and also promising names in lottery for tour groups. Some of the members of the Haj committee were removed from their positions consequent to this exposure.
Hi Time’s revelations further prove that all sort of illicit and shady deals are being done in the name of Haj, by people whose sole wish is to earn, even if it means earning from the hard-saved money for the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage of Haj. But with names of certain respected figures, prominent Saudi authorities, the Haj cell and even the minister for external affairs coming in picture, it remains to be seen to what extent action will be taken.

Half-baked news, full-fledged experts

At a time when we were writing an article headlined “Executed on the day when goats and sheep are sacrificed” (Hi Time, 6-12th January, 2007), a correspondent of a leading fortnightly magazine ‘Frontline’ had this to write in his article ‘Victor’s justice’ published in the 12th January issue of the magazine: “The appeals court ruled that the sentence of death by hanging should be carried out within 30 days but the American-installed Iraqi government preferred to carry it out two days before the holy feast of Id. The feast symbolizes the sacrifice of Prophet Ibrahim to Allah. Some Iraqi politicians and preachers who opposed Saddam have started characterizing the hanging of Saddam as a gift from God. Such symbolism is bound to alienate further a significant section of the Iraqi populace.”
This contradiction in views amply reveals how short deadlines increasingly push the journalists to pursue and derive conclusions from half-baked news to build stories, something that has potential for large-scale ramifications. The journalist, in the aforementioned case, not only miscalculated the day on which Saddam Hussain was sacrificed but also derived his own view based on the wrong judgment.
Fact is that Saddam Hussain was killed not two days prior to the Id, but very much on the dawn of the day when the entire Middle East woke up to celebrate Id, while the Muslims assembled at Makkah were readying to perform Haj. Id was celebrated two days later in India, due to the confusion created over sighting of moon sometime back, and this became the reason why the behind-the-scene dynamics of execution of Saddam could not be told to the Indian readers.
Question arises what was the motive behind executing Saddam on the day of Id? Was it not a purposeful attempt to make Saddam a martyr and ignite the passions of the Sunni world, thereby further heightening the divisions between the Sunnis and Shias in the region? Already, Iraq is on the verge of civil war, something that the occupying forces badly need to go ahead with the division of the country and thus strengthen their hold in the region. This is to be reminded that as per Pentagon’s latest quarterly report, violence in Iraq has reached the highest level recorded so far. There was an average of 959 attacks by the Resistance every week in the last four months, an increase of 22 per cent, clearly suggesting that Iraq is on the brink of disintegration.
That there is a deliberate attempt to heighten the wedge between the two sects of Muslims can be gauged from the latest reports that the execution ‘ceremony’ was filmed under the sanction of the US authorities. It were the US soldiers who were posted at the entrance of the room in which execution was carried out who searched all those entering into the room and took their mobile phones but allowed two people to carry mobiles inside. The photos were released to the Western media almost immediately after the execution, thereby further heightening fears of a sinister design.
Already, the Baath Party, in a statement posted on the web, had said that it would retaliate against American interests everywhere if the sentence on Saddam was carried out. “The American administration will be held responsible for any harm inflicted on the President, because the United States is the decision maker in Iraq and not the puppet Iraqi government,” the statement had warned. The release of pictures with Shias cheering the execution was to take the blame away from the United States, so that the Iraqis remain involved in killing each other and leave the occupying forces in peace. That has already begun to happen!
Moreover, millions of Muslims come to Haj from all corners of the globe. Gulf between the Shias and Sunnis could have reached all over the globe if certain Shias there had celebrated the execution, as happened in Iran and elsewhere, or Sunnis would have mourned the death.
All these consequences could not be derived due to ‘half-baked news’ that the reporter in contention presented. Unfortunately, this bane has crept into our media, particularly the electronic media, where recruitment is made of youths, more on looks and speaking capabilities, rather than analytical skills and understanding of the affairs of the society. Of course, that is another thing that given an opportunity, all of these would be staking claim as ‘full-fledged experts’.

The dawn of a new era - SSP Lucknow

Inspired by real life incidents of a SSP of Lucknow, a film ‘Sehar’ (Dawn) has been made that shows the might of organized crime, ever changing dynamics of UP’s politics, railway contracts, politician-mafia-police-builder nexus, activism of criminal gangs, criminalization of University and how the SSP – played by Arshad Warsi – organized a Special Task Force to fight all these evils.
Far away from the glamour of reel life, the real life hero of our story is Lucknow’s present SSP – Rajiv Krishna – who may not agree that all the aforementioned evils are part and parcel of Lucknow’s society but he definitely has the looks and built to give Warsi a run for his money. Talking about ‘Sehar’, Rajiv Krishna agrees that the theme of reel life is based on real life but the events are further dramatized using intuitive genius, something that does not happen in real life.
The ’91-batch IPS officer, who completed graduation from Roorkee University in 1989, got schooling in several schools, courtesy the transferable nature of his father’s job. Even after joining as IPS officer, traveling seems to be inadvertently linked with his profession. Starting with ASP-Bareilly, Rajiv Krishna has worked as ASP-Kanpur, SP City-Aligarh, SP-Intelligence (Kanpur), SP-Firozabad, SSP-Etawah, SSP-Mathura, SSP-Fatehgarh, SP-GRP (Agra), SP-Human Rights (Lucknow) and was posted in Moradabad before coming back to Lucknow. All this is courtesy the policy of frequent transfers that the present-day governments put into practice, for reasons best known to them. Rajiv Krishna though justifies this policy of frequent transfers and says that a person who stays for long period is likely to develop vested interests. However, he agrees that too short stints mean that the officer is unable to know the area fully or build an effective, result-oriented team.
Rajiv Krishna rues the fact that there is little personal life and agrees that his is a high pressure job; as everybody right till the level of destitute and poor expect you to deliver. This is the reason why, upon coming to Lucknow, the first thing that he focused on was the common man. The visible law and order is the petty crime, something that common man has to encounter every day. These crimes are of such a nature that at times it is not even possible to register a case. People, however, feel that law and order is bad. “I stressed the need to curb these crimes and have been successful to an extent,” says Rajiv Krishna. Another area that is of prime concern to him is the strengthening of the communication network so that what you want and desire percolates down to the lowest level. In this regard, he has already taken 4 meetings at various levels, during the one-month stay in Lucknow.
Another list of 3000 criminals is being prepared, their verification being done and the officers are verifying whether they are still involved in crimes or not.
Krishna is of the opinion that law and order in Lucknow is fairly good and it is when people wrongly start relating daily problems that are not linked with the police department, like cleanliness, non-availability of electricity and water, sewage problems and encroachment, they conclude that law and order is bad.
As regards to Nithari killings, Rajiv Krishna is of view that legally no FIRs could have been registered in cases of ‘missing children’. It is only when a person points an accusing finger at somebody that FIRs can be registered. But he agrees that the very fact that about 30-35 children got missing from a locality in a short span of time should have raised the antennas, at least at SO level and they should have reported the case to their seniors. ‘Missing children’ is not a crime but the frequent nature of these incidents should have made them suspicious of criminal intent. The Government has wisely made each of these cases a special report case and now the matter will come in front of senior officers, as soon as some child gets missing.
Undoubtedly, Rajiv Krishna is sitting on a chair that has enormous clout and responsibilities. Expectations too are high and from all quarters. Naturally, under such circumstances, the job pressure could lead to stress. “Proper time management is necessary,” says he and smilingly passes on his mantra of facing the stressful life. “Don’t get stressed!” A mere utterance to some, commentaries running into pages can be written on this statement by those who are aware.
Of course, Rajiv Krishna has a two-and-a-half year old kid at home who surely is a good de-stressing agent, an area of his life that he doesn’t talk much about, while on duty.