Archives for 2019

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has called an emergency special meeting at Tumkur Math on Monday afternoon when Dr Shivakumar Swamiji’s health condition in Tumkur Siddaganga Math has been worsening.

CM Kumaraswamy will soon take an emergency meeting with the ruling council, senior officials, younger swamiji, DCM Parameshwar, home minister MB Patil, BS Yeddyurappa and V Somanna in the monastery after coming to Mysore from Tumkur.H

More than 8,000 policemen have been deployed in major locations including Tumkur’s outer zone in the wake of the precautionary measures. Police have also been assigned to Bangalore and Tumkur National Highway Toll Gates.

He will also hold a meeting of five top police superintendents including Tumkur. The Tumkur Deputy Commissioner and SP will be accompanied by police officials, the report said.

:The LED has been planned to be installed around the monastery and the LD vehicle has come in this direction. Helipads are being built. Important entrances have been closed. There was a clash between the police and the public in this regard.S

There has been some recovery in Srirang’s health. Many specialist doctors are being called by Bangalore. Devotees do not have to come to the monastery for the vision of Sree. Pray for Suresh’s recovery from wherever you are. Please do not need any confusion about Srirangam’s health, said Dr Paramesh, a psychiatrist.

Nasheman News : Sabarimala temple custodian, the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB), on Monday extended time to Tantri Kantararu Rajeeveru to explain why a “purification” ritual was conducted following the visit of two women devotees to the Lord Ayyappa shrine just after New Year, said a board official.

“Till Sunday he was at Sabarimala. Now that he is free, he might have to take opinion from others before he gives his reply. So we gave him another 15 days time,” TDB president A. Padmakumar told the media here.

“Generally when a normal purification ritual is done, the tantri does not need to take the permission of the TDB, but what happened on January 2, was not a normal one,” Padmakumar added.

The temple was shut for an hour around 10.30 a.m., on January 2, for “purification rituals” after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed two women — Bindu Ammini and Kanaka Durga, belonging to the hitherto banned age group — completed a ‘darshan’ at 3.30 a.m. in Sabarimala. 

“We have asked for an explanation from him (Rajeeveru), why the TDB permission was not sought,” said Padmakumar.

On January 4, after serving the notice to the tantri, Padmakumar said the purification ritual went against the directive of the Supreme Court that on September 28 allowed all women entry inside the shrine.

Action against the tantri for closing the shrine to conduct the “purification” ritual would depend on his explanation of the action, especially as Vijayan had asked the TDB to take a serious look into the matter.

Confirming the entry of Kanaka Durga and Bindu Ammini then, the Chief Minister had said that the state abided by the apex court directive and had come down heavily on the tantri for the blatant violation.

Vijayan had said that Rajeeveru has every right as a person to differ with the court order but if he was not able to digest the verdict, he could well have quit his post.

Nasheman News : Calling ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar the “architect of modern Goa”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday prayed for his quick recovery.

“I wish my best friend … well and hope for his quick recovery. He is indeed the architect of modern Goa. And I salute his efforts at work despite being ill,” Modi said, in response to a question from a party worker in Goa during video conference.

Parrikar is suffering from advanced pancreatic cancer and has been in and out of hospitals in Goa, Mumbai, Delhi and New York since February 2018.

Modi said both the state government as well as the Central government were making efforts to resume mining in the state, which was banned by the Supreme Court in February 2018.

“Goa’s economy is hinged on mining,” he said.

Mining was banned in the state by the apex court, citing irregularities in mining lease renewal procedures.

The BJP has accused former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of accepting a 2019 Mercedes Benz sedan as a gift from Congress MLA Byrathi Suresh from Bengaluru’s Hebbal constituency. The car is touted to cost an estimated Rs 1.8 crore. Incidentally, Byrathi Suresh is one of the richest MLas in Karnataka with his election affidavit saying he has assets worth Rs 416 crore.

This is not the first time that such a controversy has erupted in Karnataka.

Though Suresh has denied these allegations and has claimed that he gave the car to the former CM for a ride once, the BJP insists that the car was a quid pro quo. Suresh had recently been posted as the chairman of the Karnataka State Small Industries Development Corporation recently.

“Congress MLA Byrathi Suresh gifts Sri siddaramaiah a Mercedes-Benz car worth 1.5 crore. Wears spectacle costing ₹2 Lakh. Wore 80 lakh worth hublot watch Siddaramaiah vere looks like you have made enough & more money during your 10% govt,” the party said in a tweet.

sSpeaking to media, Suresh claimed, “It’s my car. It’s the one I use to travel. It’s registered under my wife’s name. I did not gift it to Siddaramaiah. I only let him use it once. Is that wrong? Wouldn’t you let your friends ride your car if they need to? It was not a gift. Please try to understand.”

Congress senior leader and Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar too tried to downplay the allegation saying, “There is no gift or anything. We also sometimes take our friends’ vehicle to travel. There is no issue. Is there any record that he has received a gift or anything? Nothing, no record.”

former Lokayukta and SC judge Santosh Hegde had said any government official or party leader should declare any gift worth above Rs 5,000 as per rules.

sA controversy had erupted in 2016 when the Congress had accused BS Yeddyurappa of accepting an SUV worth Rs 1 crore from BJP leader Murugesh Nirani. The Congress had alleged that Nirani had gifted Yeddyurappa the SUV so he could be comfortable while travelling for his “drought-tour”. Yeddyurappa had denied allegations that the car was a gift and stated that he had returned it to Nirani.

The Hublot watch controversy also took broke out in early 2016 during Siddaramaiah’s tenure as Chief Minister.

At a time, when the state was reeling under extreme drought and farmers were committing suicide, Siddaramaiah had appeared in public sporting the diamond studded luxury watch costing over Rs 70 lakh. He claimed it to be a gift from a long time friend currently residing in the Middle East. The BJP had then claimed that Siddaramaiah’s goggles are also of a luxury brand which allegedly cost a minimum of Rs 50,000. However, Siddaramaiah claimed that they were collectively not worth more than Rs 5 lakh.

Then opposition leaders— former CM BS Yeddyurappa of the BJP and current CM HD Kumaraswamy had even asked for a CBI enquiry on the issue. Later, Siddaramaiah had to hand over the watch to then Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa who declared it to be the property of the state legislature.

Nasheman News : Karnataka Congress legislator Anand Singh was hospitalised on Sunday after an alleged brawl with other party MLA while staying at a resort in Bengaluru, a party leader said.

“Anand Singh was taken to hospital after there was a friendly fight between few MLAs at the resort. Everything is all right and Anand is taking rest at the hospital,” state’s Food and Civil Supplies Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan told the media.

Singh is a legislator from Vijayanagara Assembly segment in Ballari district. He was shifted to a private hospital in the city centre.

The details of the attack on Singh were, however, not disclosed by the party leaders.

Earlier in the day, party leaders, including D.K. Shivakumar, however, denied any such attack on Singh.

The state unit BJP alleged that Congress MLAs “fear for life” under Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy government.

“Congress MLAs fear for life under HDK government. Siddaramaiah preaches everyone about Constitutional values, we demand (Congress state unit president) Dinesh Gundu Rao and Siddaramaiah to immediately suspend their party MLA responsible for the attack on Anand Singh,” the party tweeted.

The southern state’s Congress legislators have been residing at a private resort on the city outskirts since Friday night, after a party meeting was chaired by Siddaramaiah at the state legislature building Vidhana Soudha, as a show of legislators’ strength.

The party’s senior leaders and MLAs at the resort have been holding discussions over the alleged poaching attempts by the Bharatiya Janata Party and preparing for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections in April-May, the state Congress said.

Sasikala and Ilavarasi had a corridor to themselves in the Bengaluru Central Prison when they were lodged there in 2017; they had free movement inside the prison; and they met visitors for several hours at a time, completely against the prison rules. These were allegations made by IPS officer Roopa in mid-2017, and the one-man commission that was constituted to probe her claims has vindicated her. Media has accessed a copy of the Vinay Kumar commission report – which was submitted to the government in 2017, the details of which have not been made public until now.

In his report, the retired IAS officer found that the prison officials had falsified several records for VK Sasikala – the aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa – and her sister-in-law Ilavarasi, who have been lodged there in a disproportionate assets case. Among the irregularities found by the Vinay Kumar commission are – an entire corridor with five rooms being left empty for Sasikala’s use, under the guise of providing security to her; extended visiting hours and falsification of records to cover this up; and free movement within jail premises with the help of jail officials.

tIn mid-2017, the allegation of special privileges to some prisoners including Sasikala and Abdul Karim Telgi had caused embarrassment to the Karnataka government, then led by Siddaramaiah. IPS officer Roopa, who was the DIG of Prisons in the state back then, had submitted a report where she alleged a quid-pro-quo arrangement between jail officials and high profile prisoners. The report was submitted to the then-DGP Prisons HN Satyanarayana Rao – who disagreed with Roopa – and was also leaked to the media.

As a fallout of the same, both Roopa and Satyanarayana were transferred out of their positions as were other senior staff of the jail. Retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar was then tasked to find the truth in the matter, and he submitted his report later in 2017, after which the case was shifted to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).

rRoopa had alleged that an entire corridor with five cells were cordoned off for Sasikala (and Ilavarasi) to use exclusively. The Vinay Kumar commission found this to be true, when they visited the prison on July 19, 2017. “The entire block of 5 cells, together with their corridor, was open to use by Sasikala and Ilavarasi alone, not by anyone else. The shelves were empty but tell-tale marks of the things having being removed from them were still there,” the report says.

The commission also notes that while the prison officials had claimed that this was done as a security measure, as Sasikala – being a high profile prisoner – could face threats, the officials had done nothing to investigate the source or scope of these threats even several months after she was lodged in the prison.

The report also takes note of the cramping caused in the rest of the cells occupied by other female convicts.

“It is pertinent to observe here that the authorised strength of the Female Barrack is 100 prisoners and it has 28 cells i.e. an average of about 4 prisoners per cell. When 5 cells are taken away for 2 prisoners, the cramping of prisoners in the remaining 23 cells will be much more than the authorised level. On 24.7.2017 the number of prisoners in Female Barrack was 124 i.e an average of over 5 prisoners in the remaining 23 cells, excluding 5 for Sasikala,” reads the report.F

Taking cognisance of three videos submitted to the commission by Roopa, and other CCTV footage from inside the prison, the commission concluded that Sasikala enjoyed free movement within the prison. The proof includes short video clips of Sasikala and Ilavarasi, one of which shows them going out of the female barrack with a bag in hand.

“These short video clips carry evidence of the fact that they have the freedom to use their personal clothings and are escorted by Superintendent Anitha, who had been appointed their security incharge by the DGP & lG Prison,” the report nortes.F

The commission found that, as per CCTV footage, Sasikala met with a person in white shirt and white pants for over four hours on June 11, 2017. According to the prison register, the person is A Ashokan, her advocate; however, the register claims she met with him for only 45 minutes – which is the maximum time that a prisoner can spend with a visitor – as against the CCTV evidence that showed she met him for several hours.

“The [Daily Report submitted by the chief superintendent of the prison for 11.7 .2017] also shows that ilavarasi on that day had seven visitors and the total time of the visit, in her case, was again 45 minutes from 1400 hours to 1445 hours. This can only be explained as deliberate misreporting on the part of the concerned prison officials to escape falling within the prohibition of Rule 601 of the Karnataka Prison Manual 1978. In other words, it is a case of falsification of records,” the commission noted.

This wasn’t the only instance when a record was falsified, the commission said. On one incident of July 7, 2017, the commission noted while the video evidence suggested she met visitor for close to seven hours, there is no mention of it in the records. Again in the case of one incident of June 29, “similar manipulation” was discovered.  

“While the total time recorded comes to five hours, the Daily Report for this day shows something very different. The visitor is shown as Asokan, Advocate from 1515 to 1600 hrs i.e. 45 minutes,” the report mentions.

‘The committee taking cognisance of photographic evidence of D Roopa had probed allegations of food being prepared for Sasikala inside the jail other than in the jail kitchen. The photographs showed presence of cooking vessels including a pressure cooker in her cell.

The committee took note of the fact that opposed to claims by the then Jail Superintendent Krishna Kumar, pressure cookers are generally used to cook food rather than store food and also observed that Krishna Kumar’s or no other jail staff did not categorically deny if cooking activity took place at all.

SIPS Roopa had told the commission that Sasikala met her visitors in a separate room on the first floor of the building which had a table, a revolving chair, four other chairs and curtains.

Based on his investigations, Vinay Kumar concluded that while a special facility in the first floor room, for interview of prisoners with their visitors, had existed since April 2016 – several months before Sasikala was jailed – a separate register was maintained since February 2017 only for Sasikala.

“For Mrs Sasikala l was orally directed to arrange interviews with the visitors in the first floor visitors’ room,” Jail Superintendent Anitha told the commission.C

The committee found that certain procedures and arrangement were made between February 15 and 18, 2017, based on the orders of HNS Rao dated February 14, when Sasikala was jailed. These were similar to ‘Class A’ privileges – that some prisoners get, on the basis of court orders. However, the commission noted that a court order had categorically denied Class A privileges to Sasikala – like permission to use her own clothes and to get a cot – but the privileges continued in prison nonetheless.

The facilities include barricading of adjoining corridors, tasting of evening meal and tea, two plastic chairs, eight additional women warders, facility of “entertainment” and using fruits, biscuits, soaps, toothpaste and clothes.

Nasheman News :  Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will break up the country if they return to power in the 2019 general elections.

“Agar inki desh mein dobara sarkar aa gayi 2019 mein, toh yeh desh ke tukde tukde kar dengey (If they return to power in the 2019 elections, they will break up the country),” Kejriwal told the media in Sangrur town in Punjab, around 130 km from here.

Kejriwal said that people in the country wanted to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha polls.

“The country is fed up with the five year rule of Modi and Amit Shah. They have destroyed this country in five years. They have poisoned the minds of people,” the Delhi Chief Minister said.

“The whole country wants to defeat them. Leaders of all parties have got together and urged people to defeat them (BJP) in the elections,” Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal, who was accompanied by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia, reached Sangrur by train.

After meeting party leaders from Punjab, Kejriwal left for Barnala town by road to launch the party’s campaign for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.