Well, one of their own in more ways than one. Here is the PTI version:
Senior journalist arrested for rapeKolkata, Sept 11 (PTI) Senior journalist S N M Abdi, who was one of the first to bring to light the Bhagalpur blindings of 1980, was today arrested on rape charges.
Abdi, who is in his fifties and working with the South China Morning Post, was alleged to have raped a 29-year-old woman when she went to his flat at New Alipore area in South Kolkata yesterday evening. The woman in her complaint alleged that Abdi had asked her to come to his house for a job interview. When she went there, Abdi along with a friend, Saiful Islam, raped her.
Police arrested Abdi from his residence this morning based on the complaint by the woman. Abdi was produced before the chief judicial magistrate of Alipore court who remanded him in police custody till September 16 after rejecting his prayer for bail. [PTI]
Most newspapers published this version, while The Times of India massaged it:
Man rapes woman after job offer, held
KOLKATA: A middle-aged man was arrested on the charge of raping a housewife at his New Alipore flat on Thursday. Another accused, however, is absconding. The two allegedly assured the woman that they would get her a railway job and called her to the flat on Thursday, according to joint CP (headquarters) Jawed Shamim.
'Medical test confirmed that she had been raped,' he said. The woman told police that a few days back, she came in contact with Saiful, the arrested man’s aide who offered her the job. [TOI]
The man is not named, his profession is glossed over. The article is written in a strangely twisted manner - if you are not careful you will miss the fact that Saiful the aide is the absconder.
Abid's lawyer is pleading a pretty strange defense:
Abdi's counsel Tamal Mukherjee submitted that the woman's allegation was false and made with an ulterior motive. Stating that Abdi had a bypass surgery just five months ago, Mukherjee said it was not possible for him to commit such an act and also that he was a man of impeccable character. [DNA India]
It was easy to to find the South China Morning Post, the newspaper Abdi works for and search for articles written by him during the time frame he had the aforementioned bypass surgery (see image at the top of the post). According to the lawyer, he must have had his bypass surgery sometime in April. His articles were published on 14th March, 28th March, 4th April, 8th May, 12th June and so on.
It is possible to be able to write an article within 2 - 3 weeks of a bypass surgery. But then again it is quite possible to have sex within five months, especially if he had help from someone in restraining the woman. This is assuming of course there was indeed such a surgery performed on the man.
This is hardly conclusive evidence of guilt but suspicions remain. Given the current situation in our country, Abdi's best defense could be secularism.
6 comments:
He will invoke secularism if the victim is Hindu. Otherwise he'll use his "journalism" connections. Either way, he can expect to nurse his ailing heart in the comfort of his home.
"It is possible to write.....it is possible to rape....after surgery"!
Pls get real: You DO NOT LOSE your drive till you have one foot in the grave.
The antecedents of the specified community are just too well known. As for the "Slimes of India", the less said the better. Appreciate your courage and commitment and ,for a change, your usage of the English language as well.Some blogs have been openly threatened by NDTV, for example.Wonder if you have any dogs nipping at your heels.Best wishes!
Women do not have much rights in Islam really. So, this is still a Hindu conspiracy to defame Islam.
If the victim is hindu, it does not matter. Move on.
If the victim is from a 'notified' minority, the guy may be in trouble. Note that the cop quoted is also from a certain 'community' so claiming victimhood may be tough. He may still escape if he's tried under sharia, which is now the norm given secularism.
Cool post, barb
You said on twitter:
Australians permanently soured at South Asians after that incident.
In the open: rapists campaign of vicious assaults - National - smh.com.au
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/07/21/1121539094208.html
I dont think they are so dumb that they can't distinguish b/n Paki Muslim fanatics and Indian Hindus & Sikhs.
You seemed to be discounting the hurt and offense our opportunistic politicians and cricket-fanatics caused to Aussie pride.
First our puppet PM Manmohan Singh says he loses sleep over Muslim terror suspect Mohamed Haneef and blames Australian law enforcement for over-reacting etc. Many Australians boycotted Indian professional services in Australia as protest for a brief time.
Then our Cricket fanatics humiliate Australian coach Greg Chappell to protect incompetent and arrogant captain Sourav Ganguly and almost throw him out of our country. We should realize that sports-obsession is a luxury third world countries can not afford.
And our idiot Harbhajan Singh calls Andrew Symonds a monkey. Though I suspect he might have said "Teri Maa ki" ( ---- your mother) which might have been misheard as "monkey" due to Australians' no knowledge of Hindi.
Manmohan Singh and Harbhajan Singh are the reason, Australians seemed to be having special hatred for Sikhs out of all Indians.
PS: Why don't you write a post on this.
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