Zulfiqar Ali whispering his selfie wish to Narendra Modi at Sonarpur
KOLKATA: A photograph of a man in a skull cap whispering something into Narendra Modi’s ears recently went viral, triggering a flurry of memes on social media over the past week and even prompting AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi to mock the PM at a public meeting.
Who was this mystery man and what had he said? TOI tracked down 38-year-old BJP worker Zulfiqar Ali, a Garden Reach resident, busy with “booth duties” at Metiabruz on Saturday.
“I had only asked for Modiji’s permission for a selfie with him. He had gladly agreed. He rested his arm around my shoulder and asked a photographer accompanying him to click. I will cherish those 40 seconds spent with him forever,” said Ali, visibly basking in the glory the viral photograph had offered him.
Kolkata: Two heavyweight candidates one a central and the other a state minister from the Tollygunge constituency presented a picture in contrast on the polling day on Saturday. While BJP’s Babul Supriyo chose to hit the turf challenging “fake women voters” and even “punishing’ one of them by asking her to apologize in front of a dozen cameras Trinamool’s Aroop Biswas mostly stayed put with his close aides, rarely answering to calls and appearing in public, choosing to marshal his troops from his residence at New Alipore and his office.
Babul, who set out early in the morning from The Tollygunge Club in his SUV, chose to stay close to Golf Green and Bijoygarh before moving towards Garia. It was a call from a polling agent at the Niva Ananda Vidyalaya close to Battala Bazar in Bansdroni that made him rush there around 10.15am. “I was told that an elderly woman was trying to cast a fake vote. When my agent objected, Trinamool polling agents and supporters brough
Kolkata: A raid on the Kalka-Howrah Netaji Express Special at Asansol station led to recovery of 110 parakeets and 55 small species of munia in the ea.
T he CBI on Saturday questioned Anup Maji alias Lala for the third day in connection to the probe into the illegal coal mining case. An IPS officer was also questioned. The central investigating agency is looking at any probable involvement of officers across departments. The agency had earlier claimed that Lala greased the palms of several officials to run the operations. The agency has questioned a few police officers to figure out the steps taken by them to curb illegal coal mining. A former superintendent of Purulia was also questioned on Saturday. TNN
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail
Representative image
KOLKATA: CID, which had started a parallel investigation into the multi-crore coal scam, made its first arrest on Friday night. The state probe agency arrested businessman Randhir Singh from Andal in West Burdwan after questioning several ECL employees from Durgapur and Asansol-Raniganj coal belt through the week.
Confirming the arrest, DIC (operations) Ajoy Thakur said the complaint was filed by ECL authorities in 2020. He, however, refused to share more details saying the matter was under investigation. Sources said more arrests were likely.
Singh s arrest is being seen as important since he is considered a close aide of multi-crore coal scam prime accused Arup Majhi alias Lala, who has not responded to several CBI efforts to question him. A lookout notice has been issued against him. The enforcement directorate is also investigating the case.