Archives for January 2019

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.

Nasheman News : Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday attacked the opposition, saying they were coming together fearing defeat against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

“Fearing defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, they all are coming together after looking at the massive support towards Modi,” Chouhan said while addressing party workers at the Vijay Sankalp rally at the Ramlila Maidan here.

Hitting out at the opposition parties for not being able to decide on a prime ministerial candidate, Chouhan said: “The opposition is unable to decide their candidate, as everyone has a different opinion on it. In the south, people want Rahul Gandhi’s government while Bengal wants Mamata Banerjee as Prime Minister whereas in Uttar Pradesh, people want Mayawati. There is no decision.”

Terming the Congress-led government in Madhya Pradesh as being handicapped, he questioned how long it will function.

“In the recently held Assembly elections, a very surprising thing happened in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP got more votes but the Congress got more seats,” he said, adding that in terms of Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies, the Bharatiya Janata Party was leading in 17 out of 29 seats.

“Yet they are short of a majority government. This government is a handicapped government. I don’t know for how long it will function,” he said.

Vowing that the BJP will again win more than 27 seats in Madhya Pradesh, the three-time Chief Minister said: “In 2014 elections, the BJP won 27 out of 29 seats. Right now looking at the vote percentage we are leading on 17. 

“But I can assure you that we are going to win 27 seats again and will try to win all the 29 seats,” the BJP leader added.

After the BJP’s Gurgaon retreat, it is the turn of Karnataka’s Congress lawmakers for a staycation, at a Bengaluru resort. The same where they were sequestered just seven months ago, when the elections threw up a hung verdict and lawmakers were flying between rival parties.

Four Congress lawmakers were AWOL on Friday as the party rallied its flock for a headcount amid what it suspects is a BJP strategy to topple the Janata Dal Secular-Congress government headed by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. Two more rebels had “returned” to the party fold on Wednesday.

The absentees ignored calls, which caused some disquiet among the leadership of lingering attempts to break them.

The 76 Congress lawmakers who did show up for the legislature party meeting were rewarded with an instant holiday package. They were all bundled into buses and driven to the Eagleton Golf Resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

“They are being taken to a resort to keep them safe from the BJP,” former chief minister Siddaramaiah, the leader of the Congress legislature party, told media.

Siddaramaiah and another leader, DK Shivakumar, have been accusing the BJP’s BS Yeddyurappa, a former chief minister, of offering inducements to Congress lawmakers in a renewed plan to take power in Karnataka before the national election, due by May. They allege that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah are completely behind the plan.

“All MLAs wanted to show unity, they wanted to send a message. We are sure of our numbers. Everybody is there except three,” said Mr Shivakumar, the Congress’s troubleshooter in Karnataka and the man credited with guarding the flock against “poaching” attempts way back in May, after the state elections.

“We are against resort politics,” he sought to clarify.

Action will be taken against the “missing” lawmakers; Umesh Jadhav, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli are believed to be at a Mumbai hotel and B Nagendra, the fourth absentee, told reporters he had a court hearing. Ramesh Jarkiholi has been seething since he was dropped as a minister. Well after the meeting began, Umesh Jadhav sent a note saying he was unwell and couldn’t travel.

“I will send notice to the absentees and seek an explanation. Then I will speak to the high command,” said Mr Siddaramaiah.

Eagleton, with a pool, spacious rooms and various sports activities, is tried and tested in “resort politics”. Last year, the same Congress bunch had stayed there during government formation moves. In 2017, the resort hosted Gujarat Congress lawmakers who were in demand ahead of a Rajya Sabha election that became a thriller.

Earlier this week, 104 BJP lawmakers checked into a resort in Gurgaon near Delhi as speculation peaked that the ruling coalition in Karnataka was on the verge of collapse. The buzz intensified after two independent lawmakers withdrew support from the Kumaraswamy-led government.

The Congress repeatedly called it a redux of “Operation Lotus (the BJP’s election symbol)” – the name given for a past BJP attempt to lure away rival lawmakers. The term was coined in 2008 when the BJP allegedly engineered defections of opposition legislators to ensure that its government headed by Mr Yeddyurappa remains stable.

After the return of two lawmakers, the ruling coalition leaders said the BJP had aborted its coup attempt. Mr Yeddyurappa also confirmed that over 100 BJP leaders would finally return to Bengaluru.5

The JDS-Congress alliance has 118 lawmakers in the 224-member Karnataka assembly where the majority mark is 113.