Siddaramaiah said Sudhakar was running the crusher on a leased patta land at Kallaganguru and was given the C Form, or the licence, to run the crusher unit on April 12, 2019. 

SHIVAMOGGA: Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, who visited the Hunasodu blast site near Shivamogga on Wednesday, demanded an inquiry into illegal stone mining in Shivamogga district by a sitting judge of the High Court and said he will raise the issue during the Assembly session.Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and district in-charge minister K S Eshwarappa should take the responsibility for illegal stone mining in the district and the death of six people in the recent blast, he said. He demanded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and more to the families of the deceased, besides registering a murder case against crusher owner Sudhakar. 

Siddaramaiah said Sudhakar was running the crusher on a leased patta land at Kallaganguru and was given the C Form, or the licence, to run the crusher unit on April 12, 2019. Quoting the police, he said the supplier from Andhra Pradesh himself delivered the explosives to Sudhakar.

“Sudhakar had neither informed nor obtained licence from the police, revenue or mines and geology departments to bring the explosives. None of the official know how the explosives detonated. The police suspect that it may have occurred when the explosives were being transported to another location,” he said. 

The truth will come out only if an inquiry is conducted by a sitting High Court judge. “The inquiry should reveal how many benami quarries are running in the district. If they were allowed during the Congress government, they too should be probed,” he said. 

There are 97 crushers and 76 quarries as per official records. “Only 23 quarries have permission to carry out blasts, while others are doing it illegally. Is it possible for such activities to run without the notice of the CM and district in-charge minister? All those running illegal quarries belong to the ruling party,” he said. 

BELAGAVI:  Hitting out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for raking up the boundary issue again, Belagavi district in-charge minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on Wednesday said, “It is Shiv Sena’s agenda to provoke and mislead people. After failing on all fronts, Thackeray and Sena are raising the issue to gain people’s sympathy.’’Thackeray, launching a controversial book on the boundary dispute in Mumbai on Wednesday, said, “We will not rest until we win the boundary dispute case. If the long-pending issue is not resolved during this (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government’s tenure, it will never be.”

He alleged that Marathi-speaking people in border areas are being subjected to atrocities and said Marathi-majority areas in Karnataka should be merged with Maharashtra.Jarkiholi said that leaders from across parties in the state are united on the boundary issue and there is no need to panic.Textiles Minister Shrimant Patil, who hails from Sangli in Maharashtra, said that the boundary dispute is a closed chapter, but some leaders are keeping it alive for political gains. “The popularity of Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti has waned. The Samiti and its agenda have no significance in border areas,” he added.

Thackeray, on Karnataka leaders terming the book and his recent tweets on the boundary issue as contempt of court, said, “When the case is being heard in the Supreme Court, the Karnataka government renames Belgaum, declares it as its second capital, constructs a Legislature building and holds a legislature session there. Isn’t this contempt of court?”

The new 530-page book, ‘Maharashtra-Karnataka Seemavad: Sangharsh Aani Sankalp’ (Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute: struggle and pledge), gives an account of the boundary dispute between the two states. 

Former CM and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy told The New Indian Express, “It was 14 years ago, during my tenure as chief minister that we held the first legislature session in Belagavi. We had already declared it as the second capital. I remember that we worked overtime, made the preparations in 10 days flat and managed to hold the session.” In a series of tweets on the sensitive issue, he said, “(Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav) Thackeray has so many priority issues as CM to attend to. Why is he talking about this.’’ He said the Congress, which is supporting Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, should take up this issue. 

Nearly 400 policemen were injured during the tractor parade of the farmers who have been protesting against three central farm laws at Delhi’s borders since November.

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday will visit two hospitals to enquire about the health of policemen injured in the violence that broke out during the farmers’ tractor parade in the national capital on Republic Day, officials said.

Nearly 400 policemen were injured during the tractor parade of the farmers who have been protesting against three central farm laws at Delhi’s borders since November.

The home minister will visit two hospitals — Shushrut Trauma Centre and Teerath Ram Hospital — to enquire about the health of the injured police personnel, an official from the Home Ministry said.

Both the hospitals are located in Civil Lines.

The Delhi Police on Wednesday had alleged that farmer leaders made inflammatory speeches and were involved in the violence during the tractor parade by agitating farmers that left 394 of its personnel injured, as it warned that no culprit will be spared.

Addressing a press conference here, Delhi Police Commissioner S N Srivastava said farmer unions did not follow conditions set for the parade that was supposed to be held from 12 pm to 5 pm with 5,000 tractors and accused them of betrayal.

Tens of thousands of farmers broke barriers to storm the national capital on Tuesday, their tractor parade to highlight their demands dissolving into unprecedented scenes of anarchy as they fought with police, overturned vehicles and delivered a national insult hoisting a religious flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort, a privilege reserved for India’s tricolour.

From Rajpath to Red Fort, the day unfolded in scenes of contrasts.

One that Indians have seen for seven decades and the other that seared itself into collective memory with its imagery of protesters demanding a repeal of the three farm laws storming the Mughal era monument, the centrepiece of India’s Independence Day celebrations.

A protester died after his tractor overturned near ITO, one of the major flashpoints of trouble.

A bench headed by CJI SA Bobde stayed the acquittal of the accused after Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that the judgment would set a dangerous precedent.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Bombay High Court order acquitting a man accused of child abuse on the ground that groping a child’s breasts without ‘skin-to-skin contact’ didn’t amount to ‘sexual assault’ under the POCSO Act.

A bench headed by CJI SA Bobde stayed the acquittal of the accused after Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that the judgment would set a dangerous precedent.

Venugopal urged the top court to take cognisance of the High Court’s verdict that said groping a child’s breasts without ‘skin-to-skin contact’ would not amount to ‘sexual assault’ under the POCSO Act.

“It is a very disturbing conclusion. Your Lordships should take note of this. I will have a petition filed tomorrow or Your Lordships may take suo motu notice,” Venugopal said.

The top court allowed the Attorney General to file a Special Leave Petition against the January 19 verdict of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court that acquitted an accused in the case and also issued a notice to the Maharashtra government and the accused.

The verdict was passed on January 19 by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court where it was said that there must be skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent for an act to be considered sexual assault.

The order said the act of groping falls under the definition of offence but not a sexual assault as there was no specific data as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside the top and pressed her breast etc.

“The words ‘any other act’ encompasses within itself, the nature of the acts which are similar to the acts which have been specifically mentioned in the definition on the premise of the principle of ‘ejusdem generis.’ The act should be of the same nature or closure to that,” the court opined while acquitting the accused under POCSO.

The Samkyukta Kisan Morcha will meet around 3 pm on Wednesday and discuss all aspects pertaining to violence that happened during the tractor parade in Delhi, a farmer leader said.

Samkyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting unions, has called a meeting later on Wednesday to discuss the violence that broke out during the farmers’ tractor parade in the national capital.

Before the Morcha meeting, representatives of 32 Punjab unions will also meet at the Singhu border, a major protest site against the three new farm laws.

A senior farmer leader said, “The Samkyukta Kisan Morcha will meet around 3 pm on Wednesday and discuss all aspects pertaining to violence that happened during the tractor parade in Delhi”.

The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions, is leading the protest against the three central farm laws at several border points of Delhi.

After violence broke out during the tractor parade on Tuesday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha had called off the parade and appealed to participants to immediately return to their respective protest sites.

The tractor parade on Tuesday that was to highlight the demands of the farmer unions to repeal three new agri laws dissolved into anarchy on the streets of the city as tens of thousands of protesters broke through barriers, fought with police, overturned vehicles and hoisted a religious flag from the ramparts of the iconic Red Fort The Delhi Police has registered 22 FIRs so far in connection with the violence in several area that has left over 300 policemen injured.

The Kisan Morcha had disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade, and alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.

Farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at several Delhi border points, including Tikri, Singhu and Ghazipur, since November 28, demanding a complete repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee on minimum support price for their crops.

Outrage over protesters hoisting a religious flag at the Red Fort during the tractor rally on Republic Day, actor Deep Sidhu, who was present during the incident, sought to defend their action, saying they did not remove the national flag and had put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ as a symbolic protest.

The ‘Nishan Sahib’ flag, a symbol of Sikh religion, is seen at all Gurdwara complexes.

In a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday evening, Sidhu claimed it was not a planned move and that they should not be given any communal colour or dubbed as fundamentalists or hardliners.

To symbolically register our protest against the new farm legislation, we put up ‘Nishan Sahib’ and a farmer flag and also raised the slogan of Kisan Mazdoor Ekta, said Sidhu.

The flag represents the country’s unity in diversity , he said while pointing towards ‘Nishan Sahib’, the triangular saffron flag with the emblem of ‘Khanda’, a two-edged sword, Chakra, a disc, and two Kirpans that cross each other at the handles.

He stated that the national flag was not removed from the flagpole at the Red Fort and that nobody raised a question over the country’s unity and integrity.

Leaders across the political spectrum condemned the violence and the Red Fort incident, with the Congress’ Shashi Tharoor saying he supported the farmers’ protests from the start but cannot condone “lawlessness”.

“Most unfortunate. I have supported the farmers’ protests from the start but I cannot condone lawlessness. And on #RepublicDay no flag but the sacred tiranga should fly aloft the Red Fort,” the former union minister said on Twitter, tagging a tweet that carried a video of the incident.

Sidhu, who has been associated with the farmers’ agitation for the last many months, said “anger flares up” in a mass movement like this when the genuine rights of people are ignored.

In today’s situation, that anger flared up, he said.

Sidhu was an aide of actor Sunny Deol when the latter contested from Gurdaspur seat in Punjab during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Deol, now a BJP MP, had distanced himself from Sidhu in December last year after he joined the farmers’ agitation.

Swaraj Abhyan leader Yogendra Yadav, who is among the leaders spearheading the agitation against the farm laws, said Sidhu had been disassociated “from our protest right from the beginning”.

“When he participated in a protest at Shambu border and seeing their activities, the farmer unions had decided to keep them away from our movement,” he said.

The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of 41 farmer unions that is leading the protest against the three central farm laws, also disassociated itself from those who indulged in violence during the tractor parade and alleged that some “antisocial elements” infiltrated their otherwise peaceful movement.

Sidhu, however, said that Tuesday’s incident should not be seen in isolation as they have been holding their protest for the last six to seven months.

And it (today’s incident) was a continuation of that, he said.

Sidhu said the protesters did not go to Delhi to hurt anyone or damage public property, nor they had any weapon.

We held a peaceful protest without destroying anything or causing any damage to the public property we exercised our democratic right peacefully, he claimed, adding, If we think one person or a personality could do such a big mobilisation of people, then it will be wrong.

Wielding sticks and clubs and holding the tricolour and union flags, tens of thousands of farmers atop tractors broke barriers, clashed with police and entered the city from various points to lay siege to the Red Fort.

Over 80 police personnel have been injured in the violence.

Hyderabad: A 45-year-old man, who was allegedly involved in 18 cases of murder of women, besides other offences, was arrested here on Tuesday, police said.

With his arrest, two recent cases of murder of women have been detected.

The man, a stone cutter, was apprehended by the sleuths of city police Task Force and the police of Rachakonda Commissionerate.

Earlier, he was arrested in 21 cases, including 16 cases of murder for gain, four property offences and one case of escaping from police custody.

He got married at the age of 21, but his wife eloped with another man within a short period and he bore a grudge against women since then, police said.

He started his criminal activity in 2003, targeting single women by offering them money for sexual favours.

He would kill his victims after consuming liquor or toddy with them and then flee after stealing their valuables, police added.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan was addressing a programme organised at the state BJP headquarter to mark the death anniversary of Vijaya Raje Scindia, popularly known as the Rajmata of Gwalior.

BHOPAL: Jyotiraditya Scindia was the second member from his clan to pull down a Congress government in Madhya Pradsh, decades after ‘Rajmata’ Vijaya Raje Scindia toppled the “anti-people” Congress government in the state, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Monday.

He also said the entire Scindia family is now part of one party (BJP).

“Rajmata, who was one of thefounding members of the BJP, had toppled the anti-people DP Mishra-led Congress government in the state (in 1967). She would have been happy to see that her grandson (Jyotiraditya Scindia) helped in bringing down the minority government of Congress (in year 2020). Now, the entire (Scindia) family is in one party,” Chouhan said.

He was addressing a programme organised at the state BJP headquarter to mark the death anniversary of Vijaya Raje Scindia, popularly known as the Rajmata of Gwalior.

Chouhan was referring to the collapse of Kamal Nath-led Congress government in March last year, after 22 MLAs, who were loyalists of Jyotiraditya Scindia, resigned and quit the party.

They later joined the BJP, which returned to power under Chouhan.

Meanwhile, the Congress has taken a dim view of Chouhan’s remarks.

“The sense of glory and pride in toppling an elected government is a shameful expression of democratic values. People’s verdict should be respected,” he said.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien alleged that the three laws were bulldozed through the Parliament’s monsoon session.

NEW DELHI: The Trinamool Congress on Monday urged the government to repeal the new contentious agrarian legislation in the upcoming budget session of Parliament and said there is no question of short cuts or rewriting the three farm laws.

TMC Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien alleged that the three laws were bulldozed through the Parliament’s monsoon session and remarked that he was among the eight Rajya Sabha MPs who were suspended over protesting against the passage of these bills.

“All of you know TMC’s stand on the three farm laws and Mamata Banerjee’s commitment on the issue of land and farmers. In the upcoming session of the Parliament, the government must introduce a Bill and turn it into an Act to repeal the three farm laws. There is no question of taking any shortcuts or rewriting the present bills,” Brien said.

“The nation saw how democracy was murdered in the monsoon session,” he said.

The TMC leader also countered the BJP’s criticism of the West Bengal government alleging that it was stalling implementation of the PM Kisan Yojana in the state.

He said West Bengal has already successfully implemented the Krishak Bandhu Yojana which is far more effective than the PM Kisan Yojana.

“Under Krishak Bandhi, Rs 5,000 per acre, while in case of PM Kisan the government gives only Rs 1,214 per acre. The Krishak Bandhu scheme covers all farmers. While PM Kisan is only for farmers with land holding two hectares or less,” he said.

Dismissive of the discourse of the BJP’s resurgence in the state, where nearly a dozen TMC lawmakers have joined the saffron party in the last few months, the leader said the big test will be in 2024.

“The big election is not in 2021 but in 2024. In 2021, BJP has already lost elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. By 2024 elections, the opposition will once again have to fight for the constitution of India and the idea of India, what our founding fathers created over 70 years ago.”

“There will be a lot of distraction, but this election will be fought on the development work done by the Mamata Banerjee government,” he added.

He said the confidence in writing off the BJP came from working on the ground relentlessly.

“It is the same confidence that a good student who has studied over a period of time goes into the exam with. There is no arrogance or cockiness, this is about believing that we have done a good job under Mamata Banerjee.”

Questioning the BJP on its challenge to the TMC in the upcoming West Bengal polls, he said, “Under whose leadership is BJP fighting the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal? The BJP is desperate to appropriate the minds and soul of Bengal but their senior most leaders get confused about basic details such as the birthplace of literary giant Rabindranath Tagore”.

BJP President J P Nadda in a speech in December last year had claimed that Tagore was born in Visva Bharati.

On November 10, Union Home minister Amit Shah during his trip to Bankura had garlanded the statue of a local hunter mistaking it to be that of Birsa Munda.