Pramod Thomas is a senior correspondent with Asian Media Group since 2020, bringing 19 years of journalism experience across business, politics, sports, communities, and international relations. His career spans both traditional and digital media platforms, with eight years specifically focused on digital journalism. This blend of experience positions him well to navigate the evolving media landscape and deliver content across various formats. He has worked with national and international media organisations, giving him a broad perspective on global news trends and reporting standards.
SHOTS have been fired at comedian Kapil Sharma's recently opened restaurant in Canada's Surrey for the second time in less than a month, police said.
Surrey Police Service (SPS) said its officers are investigating the incident that occurred at the Newton neighbourhood business in the early hours of Thursday (7).
"At approximately 4.40am on August 7, 2025, SPS frontline officers responded to a report of shots fired outside a business in the 8400 block of 120 Street. The same business was the location of a similar incident on July 10, 2025," SPS said.
Police further said that the staff on the premises were not injured while multiple shots caused damage to the windows and the building.
A day after last month's attack, the café had said in an Instagram post that they were "processing the shock" but stand firm against violence.
"We opened Kap's Café with hopes of bringing warmth, community, and joy through delicious coffee and friendly conversation. To have violence intersect with that dream is heartbreaking. We are processing this shock but we are not giving up," the café said in its statement.
The café opened in Surrey, British Columbia, on July 4.
Surrey Police Service is continuing its investigation into both incidents and has not yet released information about potential suspects or motives for the attacks on the establishment.
THE INDIAN government on Friday said incidents of attacks on Hindus and vandalisation of temples have been reported in the UK, Canada and the US.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said that since last year, five cases of vandalisation of Hindu temples have been reported in the US and four in Canada.
The Ministry of External Affairs was responding to a question from Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Yeshwant Desai on whether the government had noted instances of attacks on Hindus, vandalisation of temples, and discrimination in some countries.
"Cases of attack on Hindus and vandalisation of Hindu temples have been noted in UK, Canada and USA. However, no such case has come to notice specifically in Scotland (UK). Since last year, five cases of vandalisation of Hindu temples in USA and four cases in Canada, have taken place," Singh said.
On whether a motion against such "Hindu phobic attempts" was under consideration in the Scottish Parliament, Singh said, "No motion against Hinduphobia is currently under consideration in Scottish Parliament."
Regarding steps taken to address such incidents, Singh said, "Whenever such cases come to our notice, the matter is promptly taken up with the host government, with a view to ensure safety and security of concerned organisation and individual as well as to take necessary action for bringing perpetrators of such acts to justice."
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Hardeep Singh Kohli to stand trial in November over alleged sexual offences against three women
Comedian and former Celebrity Big Brother contestant faces six charges of alleged sexual offences.
Allegations include incidents at BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay studio, hotels, and a Glasgow bar.
Kohli denies all charges, with a special defence of consent lodged for one allegation.
Trial set for November at Glasgow Sheriff Court, expected to last up to five days.
Scottish comedian and broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli is set to face trial in November over allegations of sexual offences involving three women, dating from 2007 to 2016.
The 56-year-old, who appeared on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018 and has been a familiar face on British television and radio, is accused of a series of indecent assaults and breaches of the peace at various locations, including BBC Scotland’s headquarters in Glasgow, hotels in the city and Dumfries and Galloway, and a Glasgow bar. Kohli denies all six charges.
Hardeep Singh Kohli to stand trial over BBC studio indecent assault claim and other sex offence chargesGetty Images
What are the allegations against Hardeep Singh Kohli?
Prosecutors allege that between April 2007 and September 2008, Kohli indecently assaulted a woman at BBC Scotland’s Pacific Quay studio by grabbing her buttocks and attempting to hug her. It is further claimed he made sexual remarks to the same woman during an encounter at an unidentified Glasgow bar and restaurant in the same period.
He also faces an additional charge relating to the same complainant, alleging that he stroked her back and touched her hair at Glasgow’s Radisson Blu Hotel.
Comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli accused of sexual offences against three women as trial set for NovemberGetty Images
Alleged incidents at Cross Keys Hotel and Yes Bar
A second woman has accused Kohli of indecent assault at the Cross Keys Hotel in Canonbie, Dumfries and Galloway, in June 2008. According to court documents, he allegedly seized her by the arm, lunged towards her, and attempted to kiss her face. On the same occasion, prosecutors claim Kohli committed a breach of the peace by performing a sex act in her presence. For this charge, Kohli has lodged a special defence of consent.
The final charge involves a third woman, who alleges that in December 2016 at the Yes Bar in Glasgow, Kohli grabbed her and attempted to kiss her, allegedly trying to insert his tongue into her mouth.
BBC presenter Hardeep Singh Kohli denies indecent assault allegations ahead of court trialGetty Images
Court proceedings and trial details
At a preliminary hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court, defence lawyer Urfan Dar confirmed that the defence is prepared for trial and reiterated the special defence of consent for one of the charges. Prosecutor Sean Docherty told the court that the Crown intends to call seven civilian witnesses and one police officer to give evidence.
Sheriff John McCormick scheduled the trial to begin on 24 November, estimating it will last between four and five days. Vulnerable witness orders have been granted for all three complainants, and a joint minute has been agreed between the prosecution and defence.
Kohli, who attended court wearing a purple turban and a black-and-grey Adidas tracksuit, was released on bail.
Hardeep Singh Kohli faces multiple sex offence charges including BBC Scotland studio incidentGetty Images
Who is Hardeep Singh Kohli?
Born and raised in Glasgow, Kohli is of Indian Sikh heritage and has had a varied career as a comedian, presenter, and writer. He was a reporter on BBC’s The One Show, appeared on The Wright Stuff on Channel 5, and has featured on programmes including Question Time, Desi DNA, and Celebrity MasterChef, where he reached the final.
He has also been a regular voice on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends and contributed columns to national newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent.
Hardeep Singh Kohli charged with sexual offences spanning nine years as Glasgow trial approaches Ask ChatGPTGetty Images
In 2023, Police Scotland charged him with multiple sexual offences, including rape and assault, a development that significantly affected his public reputation.
The outcome of his November trial will determine whether the long-running allegations against him are proven in court or dismissed.
A RECRUITMENT company director has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after making gang rape threats and hurling racist abuse at cabin crew during an international flight, according to court reports.
Salman Iftikhar, 37, was travelling first class with his wife and three children on a Virgin Atlantic service from London Heathrow to Lahore in February 2023 when he launched into a terrifying tirade against flight attendant Angie Walsh.
The British Pakistani businessman, who runs a recruitment firm according to his LinkedIn profile, told Walsh she would be "dragged by her hair", "gang raped and set on fire" and would "be dead on the floor of her hotel", Isleworth Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Abdul Kapadia told the court that Iftikhar had been drinking champagne at the aircraft's bar when he leaned over to get ice himself. When cabin crew asked him to return to his seat, he responded with a torrent of abuse.
"Don't tell me what to do you racist fing b**. I know where you are from in Cardiff," he shouted at Walsh, before calling her a "fing white Welsh c*".
The situation deteriorated so badly that crew members discussed diverting the aircraft to Turkey. Iftikhar's behaviour continued despite his children "crying and pleading for him to stop", with prosecutors saying his wife appeared ashamed by his conduct.
During the eight-hour ordeal, Iftikhar made over 100 separate incidents of abuse while "slurring his words". He also threatened to "blow up the floor of the Avari Lahore Hotel" where the cabin crew were scheduled to stay.
Another passenger filmed part of Iftikhar's outburst, during which he repeatedly accused Walsh of racism, claiming she had called him a racial slur "in front of everybody".
Walsh, who had worked for Virgin Atlantic for 37 years, was left so traumatised by the threats that she took 14 months off work. In her victim impact statement, she described how the incident had "broken" her.
"I was working when all flights were grounded on 9/11, and I've even flown into a war zone. But this incident has broken me," she was quoted as saying. "I have had the best career in the world for 37 years. But he has taken that away from me."
According to various reports, Iftikhar leads a lavish lifestyle from his £2 million six-bedroom home in Iver, Buckinghamshire. The businessman owns several luxury vehicles including a Range Rover, Bentley, and Rolls-Royce, which feature regularly on the family's social media accounts.
Court documents revealed that Iftikhar has two wives - Erum Salman, with whom he runs the London staffing business, and Pakistani supermodel and actress Abeer Rizvi.
When the plane landed in Pakistan, no immediate action was taken against Iftikhar. However, he was arrested at his Buckinghamshire home in March last year.
Iftikhar pleaded guilty to making threats to kill and racially aggravated harassment against Walsh. He was cleared of assault and threats to kill charges relating to another flight attendant, Tommy Merchant.
Defence barrister Ben Walker-Nolan told the court that while there were "over 100 incidents over the course of eight hours", the most serious threats were limited. He cited Iftikhar's "long-standing drug and alcohol problem, which he has not addressed for many years".
The court heard that Iftikhar has six previous convictions covering 15 offences, including common assault in 2004 and drink-driving in 2008.
Passing sentence, Recorder Annabel Darlow KC condemned the defendant's actions: "Your threats to kill were made in the presence of children, specifically your three young children. This was an appalling incident which has caused long lasting and devastating consequences."
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Indian National Congress (INC) party leader Rahul Gandhi (L) addresses the media in front of a screen showing India's prime minister Narendra Modi (C) and home minister Amit Shah at the party headquarters in New Delhi on August 7, 2025. (Photo by ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)
INDIA's opposition leader Rahul Gandhi made explosive allegations on Thursday (7), claiming he had evidence of "huge criminal fraud" in India's elections perpetrated by the ruling BJP through the Election Commission. He described this as a "crime" against the Constitution.
Congress leader Gandhi said the judiciary needed to intervene because "the democracy that we love so much does not exist".
Speaking at a press conference at the All India Congress Committee's Indira Bhawan headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi presented an analysis of electoral data from Karnataka's Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency during the 2024 elections.
Gandhi said his party had expected to win 16 seats in Karnataka based on internal polling, but secured only nine. The party then examined the seven unexpected losses, focusing on the Mahadevapura Assembly segment within Bangalore Central. "All the data we have here is from the 2024 elections, sourced from the Election Commission," he said.
According to Gandhi's analysis, in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 658,915 votes in the Bangalore Central seat, winning by a margin of 32,707 votes.
In the Mahadevapura assembly segment specifically, Congress received 115,586 votes while the BJP garnered 229,632 votes. "The Congress won all the assembly constituencies except Mahadevapura, where the BJP swept and secured a victory margin of 114,046 votes. This seat significantly contributed to their election win," he explained.
Gandhi claimed there was systematic "vote stealing" of approximately 100,250 votes in the Mahadevapura segment, alleging 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 voters with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters registered to single addresses, 4,132 voters with invalid photographs, and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6 new voter registration forms.
Supporting his allegations with data displayed on screens, Gandhi showed examples of what he termed fake voters, duplicate voters, and single-address voters.
"This is Election Commission data, and the EC claims it is conducting free and fair polls. In one assembly segment, 100,000 fake voters are there. We are telling the people of the country, this is your future. The whole system is being stolen," he asserted.
Gandhi alleged this pattern existed across multiple states. "We see there is a pattern. We are absolutely convinced that this crime is being done on a huge scale across the country, state after state after state." He claimed the Election Commission was destroying evidence, including CCTV footage and voter lists.
The press conference came after the Election Commission demanded Gandhi provide a signed declaration regarding his claims.
Gandhi dismissed this requirement. "I am a politician. What I say to the people is my word. I am saying it to the people publicly - take it as an oath," he said. "Interestingly, they haven't denied the information. They haven't said the voter lists are wrong. They are saying Rahul Gandhi should say it under oath... they know the truth."
Gandhi demanded the Election Commission provide electronic voter data from the past 10-15 years and share CCTV footage from polling stations.
"If the Election Commission now does not give us electronic voter data of the last 10-15 years, and if it does not share the CCTV footage, they are taking part in the crime," he said.
He called for judicial intervention, saying: "I think the judiciary needs to get involved in this. We need to understand what is going on, because what we love so much - our democracy - doesn't exist."
The BJP termed Gandhi's allegation of poll fraud against the Election Commission a “calculated deceit” and accused the Congress of “systematically” attacking constitutional institutions under a larger conspiracy against India's democracy and the Constitution.
Senior leaders of the ruling party took on Gandhi for questioning election results, with Indian minister Dharmendra Pradhan labelling him "bayan bahadur" (someone who makes tall claims) and accusing him of insulting the “discerning decision” of the people. He (Gandhi) has completely lost his composure in the agony of losing power, Pradhan said in a post on X.
“The ideologically hollow Congress party is systematically attacking constitutional institutions. It cannot be ruled out that there is a larger conspiracy against India's democracy and Constitution behind this calculated deceit,” the senior BJP leader said in a post on X.
Hitting out at the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said voters will continue to reject the Congress for such “irresponsible and shameless” character and conduct.
Meanwhile, Gandhi issued a stern warning to polling officers allegedly involved in electoral fraud: "There are going to be consequences for every single polling officer who is doing this. It doesn't matter how senior or junior you are. One day, the Opposition is going to come to power, and then you see what we do to you."
He described the alleged fraud as an attack on "the foundation of what our forefathers who fought for India's freedom built".
Gandhi argued that prime minister Narendra Modi, who leads a government with a slender majority, only needed to "steal" 25 seats to remain in power. He noted that the BJP won 25 Lok Sabha seats with margins of less than 33,000 votes.
"Anti-government sentiment hits every single party, but the BJP is the only party that does not suffer from this in a democratic framework," he claimed.
Gandhi also questioned why exit polls and internal surveys consistently proved wrong, and why elections now took months to conduct when previously they were held together across the country with minimal technology.
"This is a crime that is being committed against the Indian Constitution, against the Indian flag. This is nothing less than that," Gandhi declared, alleging widespread poll rigging.
He described his message to the Election Commission: "You are not in the business of destroying Indian democracy but in the business of protecting it."
The Congress leader concluded that the Election Commission was refusing to provide data because "they are afraid that what we did in Mahadevapura, we will do in the remaining Lok Sabha seats, and then the truth of the country's democracy will come out".
A BRITISH ASIAN minister is under mounting pressure to resign after claims she evicted tenants from her property and then hiked up the rent by nearly £700 a month.
Politicians from across the political spectrum are calling for homelessness minister, Rushanara Ali, to quit her job, accusing her of "staggering hypocrisy" after the allegations emerged.
Four tenants who rented Ali's four-bedroom house in east London were given four months' notice last November and told their lease would not be renewed because the property was going to be sold, according to the i Paper.
The tenants, who had been paying £3,300 a month, left the property as requested. However, they claim the house was then relisted for rent at nearly £4,000 a month after no buyer was found.
The property, located near Ali's Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency, was put up for sale at £914,995 in November but the price was later reduced in February.
The report has sparked outrage across party lines, with politicians branding Ali a hypocrite given her public stance on protecting tenants' rights.
Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative party chairman, said: "I think it shows staggering hypocrisy. Rushanara Ali has been somebody who's obviously a government minister in charge of homelessness. She's spoken out about exploiting tenants, about providing more protections to tenants."
He added: "You can't say those things, then do the opposite in practice, as a landlord. She's got to resign."
The shadow housing secretary, James Cleverly, said the allegations "would be an example of the most extreme hypocrisy and she should not have the job as homelessness minister".
Peter Wishart, the SNP's deputy leader at Westminster, said: "Once this shameful story broke, Labour's homelessness minister should have immediately resigned. The fact that she still hasn't means this is now a direct test of Keir Starmer – he needs to sack her immediately."
Even members of Ali's own party have criticised her. Jess Barnard, a former chair of Young Labour and a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, said: "Seems an appropriate time to reiterate MPs should not be landlords, and landlords should not be Labour MPs."
Martin Abrams, a Labour councillor in Lambeth, posted: "You couldn't make this up! Rushanara Ali should resign #LandlordsOutOfLabour."
Ali's spokesperson said: "Rushanara takes her responsibilities seriously and complied with all relevant legal requirements."
A source close to the minister told the BBC that the tenancy had a fixed-term contract and that the house had been put on the market while the tenants were still there. They said the tenants had been told they could stay on a rolling basis while the house was on the market, but they had chosen to leave. The house was only relisted for rental because it had not sold.
When asked about Ali's actions, home secretary Yvette Cooper said she was not familiar with the specifics of the case but believed the minister had acted within the law.
The controversy is particularly damaging given Ali's public statements about tenant protection. She has spoken out against private renters being exploited and said the Labour government would "empower people to challenge unreasonable rent increases".
Ben Twomey, chief executive of campaign group Generation Rent, said: "These allegations are shocking and a wake-up call to government on the need to push ahead as quickly as possible to improve protections for renters."
Meanwhile, the government's Renters' Rights Bill, due to come into force next year, will ban landlords who have ended a tenancy to sell a property from relisting it for six months.