NEWS

The Supreme Court on Monday asked CBI to collect all relevant material and evidences to pursue case against people accused of framing ISRO aerospace scientist and Padma Bhushan awardee Dr Nambi Narayanan in 1994 espionage case after the agency told the court that it had registered an FIR in the case.

A bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjeev Khanna said that CBI should not just proceed only on the basis of report filed by court-appointed Justice D K Jain committee and it had to proceed as per the procedure.

Former Kerala police chief Sibi Mathew, who has been named in the FIR along with other 16 people, pleaded the court that the CBI should provide all relevant documents including FIR in trial court so that he could pursue his remedy.

Hotseat took on a new meaning whenever BS Yediyurappa assumed the high office of chief minister. Every time, it has been an “agni pariksha”, triggered by political upheaval, graft charges or natural calamities. So though he single-handedly managed to form a BJP government in the south for the first time, and brought it to office another three times, he never completed a full term in office.

In all, Yediyurappa kept the chair for just 5 years, 2 months and 9 days. These include the seven days during his first term in November 2007 and three days in May 2018. While he never had a stable government, due to lack of majority, it did not help that dissidence had become a norm in the party. Monday’s mid-term resignation was his fourth since becoming the chief minister for the first time in 2007. He first resigned days after taking over as CM when JD(S) withdrew support to BJP by breaking the 20:20 power-sharing pact. However, it helped his cause as BJP managed to return to office in 2008, crying betrayal.

The inter-state boundary dispute between Assam and Mizoram saw a rare faceoff on Twitter between their chief ministers who sought to blame each other’s police and people for the tension in Cachar. The Centre, meanwhile, tried to de-escalate the matter by directly engaging with the two CMs and advising them to resolve the issue peacefully.

As the Mizo border residents in Cachar gathered amid what their CM described as “Mizoram-Assam border tension”, Zoramthanga put out a tweet: “Shri @AmitShah ji…kindly look into the matter…this has to be stopped right now”. He also put up a video of a battered car, tweeting: “Innocent couple on their way back to Mizoram via Cachar manhandled and ransacked by thugs and goons. How are you going to justify these violent acts”.

Police in Tripura have detained 23 members of poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) at a city hotel since a little after Sunday midnight. They are not being allowed to leave the hotel. Police said they were verifying their documents and ascertaining the motive for their visit.

Hotel sources said police personnel stormed into the premises at around 1am on Monday and demanded to see the hotel register. After identying the I-PAC team, police called a few of the team members and asked them to come down for an interaction but they declined, the hotel staff claimed.