Archives for June 2024

Suraj Revanna

Hassan (Karnataka): JD(S) MLC Suraj Revanna — the brother of former MP Prajwal Revanna who is facing allegations of sexually abusing several women — was arrested on Sunday on charges of “unnatural offences” against him, police sources said.

He was booked on Saturday for allegedly sexually abusing a party worker a few days ago and has been booked under different sections of the IPC, including “unnatural offences.”

Suraj was questioned at CEN police station here overnight, before he was arrested, the sources said.

A 27 year-old man had complained to the police that Suraj Revanna, the eldest son of Holenarasipura MLA H D Revanna, sexually abused him at his farmhouse in Ghannikada on June 16.

Based on the complaint, the Holenarasipura police registered a case against the JD(S) MLC under IPC sections 377 (unnatural offences), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 506 (criminal intimidation) late on Saturday evening.

However, Suraj Revanna (37), the grandson of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and the nephew of Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy, has categorically refuted the charge. Suraj had also alleged the man had filed a false complaint against him in a bid to extort Rs 5 crore from him.

On Friday, police registered a case of extortion against the JD(S) worker on a complaint by Suraj Revanna’s close aide Shivakumar.

Shivakumar had alleged that the party worker was trying to extort money from Suraj Revanna by threatening to lodge a false case of sexual assault against him.

It has been alleged that while the man demanded Rs 5 crore from Suraj Revanna, later it was reduced to Rs 2 crore.

Suraj’s brother and former Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna is in police custody for allegedly sexually assaulting several women and was arrested upon his return from Germany last month.

Prajwal, who lost from Hassan Lok Sabha seat, was arrested on May 31 soon after returning from Germany where he was holed up after rape and intimidation cases were registered against him.

Their father H D Revanna and mother Bhavani are out on bail. They have been accused of kidnapping and keeping an alleged victim of their son Prajwal’s sexual assaults.

Kingstown: Afghanistan stunned heavyweights Australia by 21 runs in their Super Eight match of the T20 World Cup here on Sunday.

Afghanistan rode on openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60) and Ibrahim Zadran’s (51) half centuries to post 148 for 6.

All rounder Gulabdin Naib then produced his career-best figures of 4/20 to bowl out Australia for 127 in 19.2 overs.

With the win, Afghanistan kept themselves in contention of a semifinals spot. India and Australia game on Monday could now become a knockout fixture.

Afghanistan had earlier defeated New Zealand in the group stage.

Brief Scores:

Afghanistan 148 for 6 in 20 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 60, Ibrahim Zadran 51; Pat Cummins 3/28)

Australia 127 all out in 19.2 overs (Glenn Maxwell 59; Gulbadin Naib 4/20)

Former Union Minister Suryakanta Patil

Former Union Minister Suryakanta Patil has resigned from the primary membership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).“I have learned a lot in the last 10 years, I am thankful to the party,’’ she said after quitting.

Patil, who joined the BJP in 2014 after leaving the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, made the announcement shortly after the party’s disappointing performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Patil, a four-time MP from the Hingoli-Nanded constituency and once an MLA, had sought BJP’s nomination for the Lok Sabha elections in Marathwada’s Hingoli constituency but did not receive the ticket. Expressing dissatisfaction on social media following the decision, she had been allocated the role of poll chief for the Hadgaon Himayatnagar assembly constituency during the general elections.

The seat-sharing arrangement saw the Hingoli seat being allocated to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, a decision that likely contributed to Patil’s departure from the BJP.

The Shiv Sena had lost the Hingoli seat to the Uddhav Thackeray led faction.

Patil has represented the Hingoli-Nanded constituency four times as MP and once as MLA. She was the minister of state for rural development and parliamentary affairs during the UPA government.

Four people were injured as an ambulance caught fire after colliding with a truck in Odisha’s Balasore district on Sunday morning, police said.

The accident took place when the ambulance was heading to the Balasore district hospital from Basta with a patient, they said.

The ambulance hit the container truck from behind near Murkimundi Chhak in the Rupsa police station area. After the collision, the ambulance caught fire, they added.

The patient and injured persons were rescued and admitted to the Balasore district hospital, police said.

The pharmacist of the ambulance was seriously injured, and had been sent to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack for better treatment, they said.

A 19-year-old man was killed after a car speeding on the wrong side of a road hit his motorbike in Maharashtra’s Pune district, police said on Sunday.

The accident took place at around 9.30 pm on Saturday at Mauje Eklahare village on Pune-Nashik road in Ambegaon taluka. The car driver was arrested late night, they said.

The victim was identified as Om Bhalerao, the police said.

A case has been registered against the accused at Manchar police station, an official said.

“The accused was driving a Fortuner car on Pune-Nashik road. He was driving the car on the wrong side of the road while travelling to Manchar village when the vehicle had a head-on collision with the motorbike. The two-wheeler rider was seriously injured in the accident and lost his life,” a senior police official said.

“Both the vehicles were badly damaged in the incident. The car driver has been arrested and a case has also been registered against him. We are conducting further probe into the incident,” he added.

This mission simulated the approach and landing interface and high-speed landing conditions for a vehicle returning from space, reaffirming the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) expertise in acquiring the most critical technologies required for the development of a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), the space agency said.

The third and final test in the series of Landing Experiment (LEX-03) was conducted at 07:10 1ST at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Chitradurga, Karnataka.

Following the success of the RLV LEX-01 and LEX-02 missions, ISRO in a release said, RLV LEX-03 re-demonstrated the autonomous landing capability of the RLV under more challenging release conditions (cross range of 500 m against 150 m for LEX-02) and more severe wind conditions.

The winged vehicle, named ‘Pushpak’, was released from an Indian Air Force Chinook Helicopter at an altitude of 4.5 km “from a release point 4.5 km away from the runway. Pushpak autonomously executed cross-range correction manoeuvres, approached the runway and performed a precise horizontal landing at the runway centreline,” it said.

Due to this vehicle’s low lift-to-drag ratio aerodynamic configuration, the landing velocity exceeded 320 kmph, compared to 260 kmph for a commercial aircraft and 280 kmph for a typical fighter aircraft, it added.

ISRO said, after touchdown, the vehicle velocity was reduced to nearly 100 kmph using its brake parachute, after which the landing gear brakes were employed for deceleration and stop on the runway.

During this ground roll phase, Pushpak utilises its rudder and nose wheel steering system to autonomously maintain a stable and precise ground roll along the runway, it said.

According to the space agency, this mission simulated the approach and landing interface and high-speed landing conditions for a vehicle returning from space, reaffirming ISRO’s expertise in acquiring the most critical technologies required for the development of a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV).

Through this mission, the advanced guidance algorithm catering to longitudinal and lateral plane error corrections, which is essential for the future Orbital Re-entry Mission has been validated, the space agency noted.

The RLV-LEX uses multi-sensor fusion including sensors like Inertial sensor, Radar altimeter, Flush air data system, Pseudolite system and NavIC, it said, adding “Notably, the RLV-LEX-03 mission reused the winged body and flight systems as such without any modification, from the LEX-02 mission, demonstrating the robustness of ISRO’s capability of design to reuse flight systems for multiple missions.”

The mission, led by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), was a collaborative effort involving multiple ISRO centres — Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) and Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

The mission received significant support from the Indian Air Force, Aeronautical Development Establishment, Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment, Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness under Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, National Aerospace Laboratories, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Indian aerospace industrial partners, Indian Oil Corporation of India and Airport Authority of India.

S Somanath, Chairman, ISRO/Secretary, Department of Space, congratulated the team for their efforts in maintaining the success streak in such complex missions.

Dr S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of VSSC, emphasised that this consistent success boosts ISRO’s confidence in the critical technologies essential for future orbital re-entry missions.

J Muthupandian is the Mission Director and B Karthik is the Vehicle Director for this successful mission.

A fire broke out in a scarp godown in Rajasthan’s Barmer district early Sunday, police said.

No casualties have been reported.

The godown is located in a residential area and the fire caused panic among the locals, police said.

Several fire tenders were pressed into service to control the fire.

 Hundreds of people died during this year’s Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced intense high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom, officials said on Wednesday as people tried to claim their loved ones’ bodies.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the death toll amid the heat during the pilgrimage, required of every able Muslim once in their life, nor offered any causes for those who died.

However, hundreds of people had lined up at the Emergency Complex in Al-Muaisem neighbourhood in Mecca trying to get information about their missing family members.

One list circulating online suggested at least 550 people died during the five-day Hajj. A medic who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss information not released publicly by the government said that the names listed appeared genuine. That medic and another official who also spoke on condition of anonymity said they believed at least 600 bodies were at the facility. The list offered no cause of death.

Each year, the Hajj draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from low-income nations, “many of whom have had little, if any, pre-Hajj health care,” an article in the April edition of the Journal of Infection and Public Health said. Communicable illnesses can spread among the gathered masses, many of whom saved their entire lives for their trips and can be elderly with preexisting health conditions, the paper added.

However, the number of dead this year suggests something caused the number of deaths to swell. Already, several countries have said some of their pilgrims died because of the heat that swept across the holy sites at Mecca including Jordan and Tunisia.

Temperatures on Tuesday reached 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in Mecca and the sacred sites in and around the city, according to the Saudi National Center for Meteorology. Onlookers saw some people faint while trying to perform the symbolic stoning of the devil.

Others, including many Egyptians, lost track of their loved ones in the heat and the crowds. More than 1.83 million Muslims performed the Hajj in 2024, including more than 1.6 million pilgrims from 22 countries, and around 222,000 Saudi citizens and residents, according to the Saudi Hajj authorities.

On Wednesday at the medical complex in Mecca an Egyptian man collapsed to the ground when he heard the name of mother among the dead. He cried for some time before grabbing his cellphone and calling a travel agent, shouting: “He left her to die!” The crowd tried to calm the man.

Security appeared tight at the complex, with an official reading out names of the dead and the nationalities, which included people from Algeria, Egypt and India. Those who said they were kin of the dead were allowed inside to identify the deceased.

The AP could not independently confirm the cause of death at the complex. Saudi officials did not respond to questions seeking more information.

The kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family maintains a major influence in the Muslim world through its oil wealth and management of Islam’s holiest sites. Like Saudi monarchs before him, King Salman has taken the title of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, referring to the Grand Mosque in Mecca home to the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray towards five times a day, and the Prophets mosque in the nearby city of madina

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety measures for those attending the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of participants makes ensuring their safety difficult.

Climate change could make the risk even greater. A 2019 study by experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that even if the world succeeds in mitigating the worst effects of climate change, the Hajj would be held in temperatures exceeding an “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052, and from 2079 to 2086.

Islam follows a lunar calendar, so the Hajj falls around 11 days earlier each year. In 2030, the Hajj will occur in April, and over the next several years it will fall in the winter, when temperatures are milder.

A 2015 stampede in Mina during the hajj killed over 2,400 pilgrims, the deadliest incident to ever strike the pilgrimage, an AP count showed. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full toll of the stampede. A separate crane collapse at Mecca”s Grand Mosque, which preceded the Mina disaster, killed 111 people.

The second-deadliest incident at hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.

In his letter addressed to Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman, he said the statues of national leaders have been relocated to a separate corner “artbitrarily” without any consultation and this amounts to violation of the basic spirit of democracy.

He said he has written in the context of relocation of statues of major leaders in the Parliament House complex and the statues have been removed from their prominent places and relocated to a separate corner.

“I wish to emphasise at the very threshold that such removal of the statues  arbitrarily, without any consultation, violates the basic spirit of our democracy. Needless to mention that the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and other national leaders were situated at prominent locations after due deliberation and consideration. Each statues and its location across the Parliament House complex held immense value and significance,” Kharge said in his letter sent separately to the Speaker and RS Chairman.

He said thestatues  of Mahatma Gandhi in a meditative posture originally installed on October 2, 1993 in front of the old Parliament building held immense significance for India’s democratic polity.

Over the decades, this space had assumed sacrosanct value and members of Parliament (MPs) as well as visitors paid their respects to Mahatma Gandhi imbibing within themselves the spirit of the Mahatma.

“It is at this place that Members sought to voice concerns of the people in a democratic manner to draw the attention of the government seeking due redressal,” he noted.

In this context, he also drew the attention to the statues of Ambedkar which was installed on April 2, 1967 in the Parliament House precincts and its placement facilitated seamless movement of people paying their tributes to him on his birth and death anniversaries.

“The location of the statues had also proved to be quite convenient vis-à-vis general public’s movement and security concerns. The vantage point at which the statue was installed as well as the posture of the statue held great significance,” the Congress chief said.

The message which the statue of Babasaheb sought to convey was to extol the generations of parliamentarians to steadfastly hold on to values and principles enshrined in the Constitution of India, he said.

Kharge, in his letter, recalled that during his student days in mid-1960s he was at the forefront of demanding installation of the statues in the precincts of the Parliament House and noted that such concerted efforts eventually resulted in installing of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statues at the place where it was hitherto before placed.

“I am constrained to state this with anguish that all this has now been brought to a naught in an arbitrary and unilateral manner,” the Congress leader said.

The Congress chief, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, pointed out that there is a dedicated committee for installing portraits and statues of national leaders and MPs in the Parliament House Complex – “Committee on the Installation of Portraits and statuesof National Leaders and Parliamentarians in the Parliament House Complex” but the panel has not been reconstituted since 2019.

“Hence, such decisions made without any proper discussion and deliberation with relevant stakeholders are against the rules and traditions of our Parliament. Therefore, I demand that the  statuesof Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and other national leaders who greatly contributed for the unity and integrity of our nation must be relocated to their original locations with due respect and regard,” he wrote.

The Congress has taken strong objection to the shifting of the statues

The opposition parties have often held protest marches and agitations within the Parliament complex before the statues of Gandhi and Ambedkar.