Archives for May 2017

Mysuru: According to the reports, Janata Dal Secular state unit party president HD Kumaraswamy (HDK) slapped one of his party workers here in Mysuru after a booth level meeting when the youths pressured HDK to issue party ticket to Harish Gowda, son of sitting JDS MLA GT Deve Gowda on Wednesday afternoon.

A booth level meeting was organised in the city to prepare a strategy for the upcoming state assembly elections. A group of party workers who were gathered in the meeting forced HDK to issue party ticket to their beloved leader Harish Gowda to contest from Hunsur assembly constituency. HDK tried his best to answer their queries on the spot, however, one of the party activists physically touched HDK and tried to pull him back which made him loose his patience and slap the youth.

There are a number of reasons to what have forced Harish Gowda supporters to provoke HDK, as many of the party leaders are trying to get party ticket from Hunsur constituency in the next assembly elections. Meanwhile, HDK rejected the media reports on slapping and said no such incidents occurred in Mysuru.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: Sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra on Wednesday began an indefinite hunger strike at his home here and threatened not to eat anything till Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal “reveals” who funded foreign trips of five AAP leaders in the last two years.

In an open letter to Kejriwal, Mishra, suspended from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after he alleged corruption by the Chief Minister, said he was on a “satyagraha” at his home.

Mishra also alleged that he was getting “life threats from international numbers,”

“I got the call from an international number, but I didn’t respond to that, then I received a death threat on a Whatsapp message,” he said.

Mishra said he was fasting “all alone in one corner of my house” and would not end his protest till Kejriwal made public the details of foreign trips of the Chief Minister’s “five friends — Sanjay Singh, Ashish Khetan, Satyendar Jain, Raghav Chadhha and Durgesh Pathak”.

He said he “won’t eat anything, will only drink water”.

Mishra said he knew Kejriwal was not bothered about his life and would persist with his protest till it was known “where they all visited, why they went, what did they do (during foreign trips) and from whose money did they do all these things”.

“Many people have said the amount of the hawala money, discrepancies in donations, cash transactions would be revealed in minutes if these information are made public.”

Mishra on Tuesday filed a graft complaint with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Kejriwal, his relatives and other AAP leaders. Mishra was earlier removed as Delhi’s Water Minister on Saturday.

(IANS)

New Delhi: The International Court of Justice Tuesday stayed the execution of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of “spying”.

The order by the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) came a day after India approached it against the death sentence handed down to Jadhav by Pakistan’s Field General Court Martial last month, official sources said.

India, in its appeal to the ICJ, accused Pakistan of “egregious” violations of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and asserted that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he was involved in business activities after retiring from the Indian Navy but Pakistan claimed to have arrested him from Balochistan on March 3, 2016.

Reacting to the development, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said, “I have spoken to the mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav and told her about the order of President, ICJ under Art 74 Paragraph 4 of Rules of Court.”

Swaraj said senior advocate Harish Salve was representing India before the ICJ in the Jadhav case.

ICJ President Ronny Abraham has reportedly written a letter to Pakistan government, asking it to act in such a way which would enable the implementation of any order the ICJ may issue in the case.

India, in its appeal, contended that it was not informed of Jadhav’s detention until long after his arrest and that Pakistan failed to inform the accused of his rights.

It further asserted that, in violation of the Vienna Convention, the Pakistani authorities were denying India its right of consular access to Jadhav, despite repeated requests.

“Referring to ‘the extreme gravity and immediacy of the threat that authorities in Pakistan will execute an Indian citizen in violation of obligations Pakistan owes to India’, India urges the Court to deliver an order indicating provisional measures immediately, ‘without waiting for an oral hearing’,” India’s appeal said.

Jadhav, 46, was given death sentence last month by the Field General Court Martial in Pakistan, evoking a sharp reaction in India which warned Pakistan of consequences and damage to bilateral ties if the “pre-meditated murder” was carried out.

In its application, India had also informed the ICJ that it learned about the death sentence against Jadhav from a press release.

“India claims that ‘linking assistance to the investigation process to the grant(ing) of consular access was by itself a serious violation of the Vienna Convention’,” the ICJ release said.

The ICJ said India urged it to restrain Pakistan from carrying out the death sentence, and direct Islamabad to take steps to annul the decision of the military court.

Pakistan claims its security forces had arrested Jadhav from the restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. It also claimed that he was “a serving officer in the Indian Navy.”

Jadhav was sentenced to death for “espionage and subversive activities”.

India acknowledges that Jadhav had served with the Navy but denies that he has any connection with the government.

India has also handed over to Pakistan an appeal by Jadhav’s mother, initiating a process to get his conviction overturned.

The appeal on behalf of Jadhav was given last month to Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale, who also handed over a petition by Jadhav’s mother seeking the Pakistan government’s intervention for his release and expressing the desire to meet him.

(PTI)

Srinagar: An army officer was found dead in Shopian district of south Kashmir on Wednesday, police sources said.

The body of Umar Fayyaz, a Lieutenant who had joined the Army five months ago, was found with bullet wounds in Hermain area of the district, they said.

Police said the officer, hailing from neighbouring Kulgam district, had gone to Shopian to attend the marriage function of a relative.

An army official here said they have received an input and are verifying the circumstances in which the officer was found dead.

According to reports, he was abducted by terrorists late last night and was shot dead.

(PTI)