Bengaluru: The alleged suicide by Mangaluru DySP M K Ganapathy on Monday rocked the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, with the Opposition demanding resignation of minister K J George and action against two senior police officers named by the officer in his suicide note.

Launching an all out attack against government, BJP and JD(S) accused it of trying to “cover up” the case by handing over the investigation to state CID and questioning Ganapathy’s mental health even before the probe.

Ganapathy (51) was found hanging from the ceiling fan in a room at a lodge in Madikeri on July seven.

As the House met, Opposition BJP Leader Jagadish Shettar demanded that the issue be discussed first and Minister for Bengaluru Development George should resign.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the issue was serious and “every one’s life is important, it is unfortunate that this incident has happened. This is a serious issue; Home Minister will make suo motu statement”, he said.

Objecting to this, Opposition members said they be allowed to raise the issue first and George must resign.

Shettar said, “By making a statement even before the discussion government is showing how much serious it is about the issue. It is an attempt to cover up the issue.”

Intervening, Speaker K B Koliwad said the issue will be taken up for discussion, but he will allow Home Minister to make the statement first.

This angered the opposition members with BJP and JD(S) MLAs entering the well of the House and shouting slogans against the government calling it “a murderer”.

Amidst pandemonium, Home Minister G Parameshwara read out a statement saying Ganapathy’s father Kushalappa in his complaint had said his son was under depression as he had family issues especially with his wife.

“When Ganapathy was working in Bengaluru his wife and children were in Mangaluru. After he was promoted and transferred as DySP to Mangaluru she continued ill treating him, because of this my son was under depression. Losing hopes in life, he has committed suicide,” Parameshwara said quoting from Kushalappa’s complaint in his statement.

(Agencies)

Thiruvananthapuram: Saying terrorists have no religion, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday said an entire community should not be blamed for the alleged links of some with the IS.

Extremist activities cannot be attributed to any particular religion alone, the Communist Party of India-Marxist leader told the assembly.

“Vested interests are creating an anti-Muslim feeling,” Vijayan cautioned. “This will not be allowed as a huge majority in our society is against such activities.

“It’s a very small segment which does this. To blame one particular community alone is not fair,” he said.

The Chief Minister spoke after three legislators raised media reports about several Keralites reportedly going missing to join the Islamic State.

Vijayan said the government would not be able to tackle the problem on its own.

“There has to be an overall awareness against terrorism and extremism and we need to take everyone into confidence.

“The state government will do its job and will work in tandem with the Centre to probe these reports,” he said.

According to Vijayan, 21 people, including children, were missing and this included 17 from Kasargode district, in the northern tip of Kerala, and four from Palakkad district.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said: “Overall Kerala is known to be a peaceful state. Even though we have no confirmation (that people are missing), it is disturbing and the need of the hour is to strengthen internal security and all of us would like to know the truth.”

Congress legislator P.T. Thomas pointed out a lady from his constituency was missing. She was working in Mumbai and had reportedly attended meetings in Andheri and was reported to be with the IS now, Thomas said.

“One way to bring an instant impact against these subversive forces is to see that this topic is introduced in schools in our state,” he said.

The Kerala Police and central intelligence agencies are said to be probing the issue, taking down statements from families which have alleged that their family members have gone missing.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: In a big relief to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald Case, the Delhi High Court today set aside trial court’s order summoning documents from the ministries of finance and corporate Affairs and other agencies and balance sheet of the party for 2010-2011.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had moved the high court to get access to the documents submitted my the ministry of corporate affairs, ministry of finance and other department in the matter. Congress leaders had challenged the order.

Swamy had told the high court that he needs access to the documents for arguments in the case.

A Delhi Court had on March 11 given its nod to Swamy’s plea, seeking the balance sheets of the Indian National Congress (INC) and Associated Journals Pvt Limited (AJL) for the purpose of investigation in this case.

What is National Herald case

Swamy had accused Sonia, Rahul and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs 50 lakh by which Young Indian Pvt Ltd.obtained the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore which the AJL had owed to the Congress.

Besides the Congress president and her son, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda are the other accused in this case.

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, who had appeared before a trial court, in the case were granted unconditional bail in December last year. The Gandhis were, however, asked to furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of same amount respectively.

(Agencies)

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Intelligence Department (SID) has given a clean chit to Dr Zakir Naik as it found no strong evidence to link the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation to terror-related activities.

SID, who was handling the investigation of the Dr. Zakir Naik case ordered by the Maharashtra government found no reason to register a case against the televangelist for now and will not and cannot be detained the preacher on his return to India based on the evidence against him, said a report on Tuesday.

The SID, as a part of his preliminary probe, has studied hundreds of YouTube videos and speeches given by Dr. Naik in and out of India and concluded that no case can be made out against him, except the charge of hurting religious sentiments.

“There is no case to be made out against the English-speaking preacher, except maybe the possible charge of hurting religious sentiments, but even that cannot be established from his speeches. We are tracking his movements and only if he speaks out of turn, can we ‘pin’ him down on a charge. For now, we are closely monitoring him,” a senior police official was quoted as saying by the Hindu.
The founder of Mumbai-based Islamic Research Foundation became the centre of a controversy after reports emerged that perpetrators of the Dhaka terror attack were inspired by the preacher.

Shiv Sena has demanded arrest of Naik on his landing in India and dismantling of his TV network.

Meanwhile,Samajwadi Party Maharashtra unit President Abu Azmi came in support of Naik and sought to know why action has not been taken for the last 25 years if his speeches are inspiring terrorists, and called for a fair inquiry into charges against him.

(Agencies)