Regional

Chamarajanagar (Karnataka), Sep 30 (IANS) Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi entered Karnataka on Friday amid a warm welcome by Siddaramaiah and his supporters, who in the process violated forest rules.

Siddaramaiah and his supporters had gathered in the Tiger Reserve Forest near Kekkanahalli at the Karnataka border. The forest department had denied permission for the padayatra in the reserve forest and had given permission to travel by car only.

But Siddaramaiah stopped his vehicle and welcomed Rahul Gandhi in the Tiger Reserve Forest along with former ministers and senior Congress leaders Mahadevappa, K.J. George and others.

Rahul Gandhi will participate in a convention organised at Gundlupet town before the launch of the 21-day Bharat Jodo Yatra through Karnataka. The party has arranged lunch for 30,000 party workers in the Veeranapura village.

Rahul Gandhi will walk for four kilometers after the convention on the National Highway before halting for lunch. He will interact with Adivasis and families of victims who died due to lack of oxygen in Chamarajanagar district hospital during Covid-19 pandemic.

The padayatra will resume at 4 p.m. near Bendakalli Gate, and at 7 p.m. the first day's yatra will end at Begur village.

--IANS
mka/dpb

Bengaluru, Sep 30 (IANS) A Dalit youth has accused the Karnataka police of third degree torture and illegally detaining him for 12 days here.

Rajesh A, a resident of RR Layout in Ramamurthy Nagar in Bengaluru, has filed a complaint with the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, the State Human Rights Commission and the Bengaluru Police Commissioner in connection with the incident, authorities confirmed on Friday.

He has lodged a complaint against Police Inspector Melvin Francis, sub-inspector Shivaraj and other staff attached to Ramamurthy Nagar police station.

In his complaint, the youth stated that the accused police who picked him up forced him to confess to an attempt to murder case. "The seven police personnel had picked me up on September 4 from B Narayanapura bus stand in Bengaluru in a car and took me to the police station," he stated in the complaint.

"Sub-Inspector Shivaraj stripped me and filmed it. Later, on the directions of the police inspector Melvin, they took me upstairs and beat me up with wooden logs and cricket bats," he alleged.

"On September 4, 5 and 6, I was given electric shocks on my private parts. "They sprayed urine on my body with their boots. My hands and legs were tied. Sub-inspector Shivaraj sat on my chest and attacked my face with his boots," he stated.

"After 12 days, I was released but they threatened to implicate me in false cases and sent to jail if I revealed anything about the torture." The police, he said, also forced him to sign on blank papers.

He was admitted to a government hospital and later decided to lodge a complaint against the police. However, the police department has refuted allegations against their staff.

DCP Bhimashankar Guled stated that Rajesh is facing the fear of arrest in connection with an attempted robbery case. The police have given him notice to appear for investigation and he was questioned, he added.

--IANS
mka/shb/

Lucknow, Sep 30 (IANS) In a shocking incident, a farmer and his brother killed their father who was attempting to kill his ten-day-old granddaughter, police said on Friday.

The brothers have been arrested.

The incident took place in the Gosainganj area.

According to police, Ramesh Chandra Rawat, 50, was found dead in his house with his throat slit earlier this week.

His sons Avadhesh (29) and Rajneesh (25), who live in another house nearby, lodged an FIR alleging that Ramesh was killed by a local due to past enmity.

However, during investigation, police found blood stains at Avadesh's house and started interrogating the family members.

Ramesh's daughter Renu broke down and revealed that her brothers had killed their father.

Renu said that Ramesh was a habitual drinker and had a disliking towards girls. He was not happy with the birth of Avadhesh's daughter and they fought regularly at home.

On the day of the incident, the father had a fight with his sons and he tried to kill the granddaughter by strangling her.

DCP South Zone, Rahul Raj, said that in a fit of rage, Avadhesh slit his father's throat.

--IANS
amita/shb/

Bhubaneswar, Sep 29 (IANS) A special vigilance court here on Thursday convicted Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim and former IAS officer Vinod Kumar, and sentenced them to three years in jail in connection with a Rs 1.5o crore loan scam, an official said.

Apart from the duo, Swosti Ranjan Mohapatra, ex-company secretary, Odisha Rural Housing Development Corporation (ORHDC), and Peeyusdhari Mohanty, director, Metro Builders Pvt Ltd, have also been sentenced to three years in jail by the court, said vigilance SP, M. Radhakrisna.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on each of the convicted persons, defaulting which they will have to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for a period of six months, he said.

According to vigilance sources, Vinod Kumar and Swasti Ranjan had sanctioned a loan of Rs 1.50 croe to Metro Builders for the Metro City-II project at Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar, for the construction of 50 flats in 2000. Moquim was then the Managing Director of Metro Builders.

On the direction of Vinod Kumar, the loan was sanctioned and disbursed in three instalments. The loan agreement and other connected documents were signed by Mohanty on behalf of Metro Builders.

Though Vinod Kumar was not delegated with any financial power for sanction and disbursement of loan by the board of directors of ORHDC at that time, he along with Swasti Ranjan had sanctioned and disbursed the loan amount in haste by showing undue favour to the builder, the vigilance sources said.

Further, the loan proposal was neither placed before the board of directors nor before the loan committee for approval. It was also sanctioned without any spot/site verification.

During investigation, the vigilance sleuths also found that documents like BDA plan, project estimate and fire prevention certificate submitted by Metro Builders were forged and fabricated, and such documents were used as genuine for availing the loan. No tripartite agreement was executed between the parties, the official said.

The accused persons caused huge loss to the government and thereby caused wrongful gain to the builder, the official said.

Commenting on the court order, Moquim said, "If you are in the Opposition, you will go through such situations. The vigilance court has given its judgement and I will take the matter to the high court. Everything will be done as per law."

He also claimed that bail has been granted to him in this case.

--IANS
bbm/arm

Bengaluru, Sep 29 (IANS) Pressure mounted on the rape accused, jailed Karnataka Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, to step down as the head of Chitradurga Murugha Mutt, amid the demand that new religious pontiff should be anointed in place of rape accused seer.

The followers and prominent leaders of the Lingayat community held an important meeting in Chitradurga to discuss the future of the historical, cash rich mutt on Thursday.

Making things more complicated, Karnataka High Court has denied permission temporarily to the accused Lingayat seer to put his signatures to cheques. Sources state that as accused seer is not allowed to sign the 200 plus cheques, the activities of the mutt are severely affected and employees are not able to get salaries.

The High Court which took a sympathetic view on employees earlier and it was expected that it would give consent. The mutt has 3,000 branches all over the country and runs more than 150 premier education and other institutes.

In spite of the pressure and demand to step down, the accused seer has categorically refused to quit, according to sources. The meeting was held in the leadership of former minister H Ekantaiah in this regard and discussed future course of action.

The leaders discussed how to retain the legacy, history and heritage of the Chitradurga Mutt as accused seer is refusing to step down. Many leaders had demanded in the meeting to appoint a new swamiji.

In another development, a group of religious seers met the accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru at the prison and held important discussion. The details of the meeting have not been made public.

Denying bail to rape accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the powerful Lingayat seer of Chitradurga Murugha Mutt, the Second District Additional Sessions Court on Tuesday extended his judicial custody till October 10.

Judge B.K. Komala also extended the judicial custody of accused number two, hostel warden Rashmi till October 10.

The accused seer, whose judicial custody ended on Tuesday, was presented before the court and later after the order, he was taken to the Central Jail of Chitradurga district.

--IANS
mka/uk

Chennai, Sep 29 (IANS) Director General of Tamil Nadu police, C. Sylendra Babu has directed the district superintendents and commissioners of police to show compassion towards their subordinates.

He wrote a letter to the officers urging them to show more compassion while sanctioning leave to the subordinate officers.

The DGP was referring to the denial of leave to a Special Sub Inspector of Police in Sivaganga. The SSI, who was to participate in the engagement of his daughter, was instead denied leave and posted on security duty in Coimbatore. The Sub Inspector had to cancel the function. He later aired his ordeal on a television programme. This led to the DGP taking up the matter with the District Superintendents of Police and Commissioners.

Sylendra Babu in the letter to the District Superintendents of Police/ Commissioner said, "The Station House Officer and the Sub- Divisional Officers should have had the basic compassion for an SSI, who had wanted to attend the engagement function of his daughter which was fixed a long time ago. The SSI should have been excused from the security duty in Coimbatore."

He instructed the officers to have empathy and to use their discretion while examining the genuine requests of the sub-ordinate staff for leave and to grant the eligible leave to the men and women in their charge depending on the nature of the occasion to which leave was sought.

The DGP also said that denial of leave for such a crucial function would lead to major mental distress to the field staff.

--IANS
aal/dpb

Havana, Sep 29 (IANS) Cuba launched recovery efforts n the wake of hurricane Ian's destructive path across the island's western tip.

In the westernmost province of Pinar del Rio, which was hit the hardest when Ian made landfall on Sunday, two deaths were reported due to the collapse of a wall and an accidental electrocution when a farmer in the town of San Juan y Martinez tried to shut off a wind turbine used to pump water for irrigation, Xinhua news agency quoted the authorities as saying.

Heavy rain and strong winds have triggered flash floods and road closures, swept away houses, and destroyed tobacco farms across the island nation, local media said.

Ian also knocked down trees and power lines in the Isle of Youth and brought major flooding to the Cuban provinces of Matanzas, Mayabeque and Artemisa, forcing residents to evacuate.

Cuba's Institute of Meteorology said heavy rains were also reported in the mountainous regions of the central provinces of Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.

Sanitation crews in Havana began to clear over 1,000 downed trees and debris from waves that crashed onto the city's waterfront promenade.

Also Wednesday, Cuba's Electric Union began to gradually restore power nationwide after the hurricane knocked out electricity across the country.

Ian caused agricultural damage, including to plantain, tomato and cassava fields, according to state media.

Now strengthened into a category 4 hurricane, Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday and is expected the batter the US state until Thursday.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs through November 30.

--IANS
ksk/

Kochi, Sep 29 (IANS) The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the Popular Front of India (PFI) to deposit a sum of Rs 5.20 crore as compensation for the damage caused during the September 23 bandh called to protest the arrest of their leaders.

A division bench of Justices A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and C.P.Mohammed Nias took suo-motu proceedings against the PFI and directed all the lower courts in the state not to give bail without compensation.

Proceedings should be taken to confiscate personal assets of all those who indulged in the destruction if they fail to pay for the damage.

The court also directed to set up a Claims Commission, which will deal with all the matters of paying the compensation to those who have suffered a loss.

As per the directions, the amount has to be paid in two weeks time with the Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, towards the damages estimated by the state as well as the KSRTC, arising from the destruction caused to public and private property in the state.

It also directed the state government to make PFI general secretary Abdul Sathar an additional accused in all cases.

As many as 487 cases were registered with 1,992 people arrested and 687 taken into preventive custody, the government informed the court.

"Whenever the word hartal is said, it has a different meaning among the citizens. People are living in perpetual fear. What does a common man have to do with this? Common man suffers, and for what? Not supporting an ideology of yours ?," asked the Court.

This strong court directive came after the state, as directed by the Centre, came out with an order asking the Kerala Police to go forward in taking the appropriate steps which includes locking up of all the offices of the banned organisations besides freezing of bank accounts of such organisations.

--IANS
sg/shb/

Gorakhpur, Sep 28 (IANS) Actor-cum-politician Ravi Kishan has allegedly been duped of Rs 3.25 crore, police said.

Kishan, who is the MP from Gorakhpur Sadar and a film actor, has filed a complaint at Gorakhpur Cantonment police station against a builder for duping him of Rs 3.25 crore.

The police have said that a complaint has been registered and appropriate action will be taken after the investigation. The case has been filed under Section 406 of the Indian Penal Code.

The actor-cum-politician was allegedly duped by a Mumbai-based businessman, said the actor's public relations officer.

The MP had given the amount to accused Jain Jitendra Ramesh in 2012. However, when Kishan demanded his money back, the builder gave him 12 cheques of Rs 34 lakh each, some of which later bounced.

After failing to convince Ramesh to return the favour, Kishan initiated the complaint and filed it with the police.

--IANS
amita/khz/

Prayagraj, Sep 28 (IANS) The Allahabad high court (HC) has reserved its judgment on a petition seeking direction from the court for registering a complaint against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for an alleged "objectionable speech" delivered by him during an election campaign in Rajasthan's Alwar in 2018.

Hearing a petition filed by one Naval Kishore Sharma of Mau, the order was passed by Justice Samit Gopal after hearing petitioner's counsel Mohammed Iftekhar Faroqui and on behalf of the state, Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal, Government Advocate S.K. Pal and Additional Government Advocate A.K. Sand.

According to the petitioner, Adityanath had delivered a speech during an election campaign in Alwar district, which according to the petitioner had hurt the religious sentiments of the people.

Earlier, the petitioner had filed a complaint case in this connection before the Mau district court, which was rejected. Therefore, he filed the present petition before the HC challenging the order of the lower court and requesting it to direct for the registration of a complaint case against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for the speech.

--IANS
amita/khz/