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Indian rapper goes viral with toxic waste gibes at Unilever

Mumbai - Hindustan Unilever, the Indian subsidiary of the consumer goods company, has denied wrongdoing. It disputes claims of former workers who say their health has been damaged by exposure to mercury.

An Indian rapper has gone viral with a music video calling on consumer products giant Unilever to clean up alleged toxic waste from a forested southern hill station and compensate residents.
Sofia Ashraf's video, posted online by a nongovernmental organization called Jhatkaa, or "shock" in Hindi, has had more than a million views on YouTube, drawing attention to accusations against a thermometer factory in the town of Kodaikanal that closed down 14 years ago.
Hindustan Unilever, the Indian subsidiary of the consumer goods company, has denied wrongdoing. It disputes claims of former workers who say their health has been damaged by exposure to mercury.
"There was no adverse impact on the health of employees or the environment," the company said in a statement on its website.  
The company said it shut down the factory in 2001 when environmental activists including Greenpeace "brought to Hindustan Unilever's attention the fact that glass scrap containing mercury had been sold to a scrap dealer about three kilometres away from the factory".
The company did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the video.
Set to the beat of Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda", and retweeted by Minaj herself, Ashraf asks Unilever to compensate workers.
"Kodaikanal won't step down, until you make amends now," she raps.
 

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The story so far...
 Shafqat Hussain's execution was scheduled for the fifth time on 4 August. 
* Shafqat was arrested and sentenced to death in 2004 for the kidnapping and involuntary murder of a 7-year-old boy, who lived in a Karachi apartment building where he worked as a security guard.
 * His lawyers maintain he was under 18 years of age when the crime was committed and that he was forced to 'confess' under torture. 
 * Shafqat Hussain was arrested and sentenced to death in 2004. 
 * According to Hussain's family, he was 14 years old at the time of the offense he was convicted of.
 * He has described that the police subjected him to torture and forced him to make a "confession" and has always maintained his innocence.
 
Timeline of the postponement of his executions...
Jan 14, 2015 - Earlier, scheduled to be hanged on January 14, 2015 the federal government stayed his hanging and ordered an investigation following protests by civil society members
March 19, 2015 - He was later scheduled to be hanged on March 19, 2015 but was yet again provided a last minute reprieve after protestors gathered outside the presidency.
A reinvestigation into the case was then ordered by the Interior Ministry. A three-member team of the Federal Investigation Agency was formed to ascertain his age which later concluded that Hussain was 23 years old at the time the court had announced its verdict.
May  6, 2015 - Hence the conclusion regarding his age was drawn on the basis of the existing documentary evidence and not through a biological test. The ATC then issued a black warrant for Hussain on April 24 which scheduled his hanging for May 6.
However, the Islamabad High Court stayed his hanging for a day questioning the legality of the committee formed. Hussain had also filed an application seeking a judicial inquiry into the matter of verification of his age. He had expressed dissatisfaction over the FIA's inquiry. However, the IHC on May 11 dismissed the application.
June 9 - On expiration of the 30-day stay, the Superintendent Central Jail Karachi wrote to ATC III judge demanding to issue fresh death warrants for the convict. Later, the ATC had issued black warrants for Hussain for the fourth time, for June 9.
Aug 4, 2015 - Scheduled for the fifth time
 

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