Attempt to murder RSS worker, 6 held in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jan 17: A Bengaluru terror module has been busted with the arrest of six members of the Social Democratic Party of India who had allegedly attempted to kill an RSS worker on December 22 for taking part in a pro-CAA rally, police said on Friday.
The arrested have been identified as Irfan, Syed Akbar, Syed Siddiqui, Akbar Basha, Sanaulla and Sadiq Amin alias 'Sound Amin', all residents of KG Halli in the city, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao told reporters here.
BJP Bengaluru south MP Tejasvi Surya and right wing leader Chakravarthy Sulibele were among the prominent speakers at last month's pro-Citizenship Amendment Act rally.
According to Rao, the SDPI members reached the venue on three stolen motorcycles. They wanted to storm into the crowd initially but due to heavy police presence, they could not.
They wanted to create a panic situation by hurling stones so that people will flee deserting their leaders making it easier to eliminate their targets, the commissioner said.
However, the stones missed the target.
They later decided to zero in on RSS worker Varun who was supplying water and taking care of the participants at the rally.When he was on his way home, the SDPI activists waylaid and attacked him, Rao said.
According to the commissioner, Varun survived due to timely medical assistance.
They wanted to carry out the act to create a lot of disturbance in the city, Rao said.
"All of them are from the SDPI and they wanted to carry out the dastardly act to create lot of disturbance in Bengaluru City on December 22," Rao told reporters here.
They were being paid Rs 10,000 per month from their handlers to carry out their agenda, the commissioner said, adding the matter has now been handed over to the Anti-Terror Squad.
In addition to it, a Special Investigation Team will be formed to ensure that such people do not create any disturbance, Rao said.
"We are not going to spare anyone whoever their handlers and financiers are whether inside the country or outside.I am constituting an SIT to see that such people do not create any disturbance," Rao said.
The arrested members were all radicalised and their agenda was to recruit cadres, train and radicalise them, cause destruction and kill prominent people to cause mass disturbance in the city, he said.
"We have named them as the Bengaluru terror module of chapter-1. All of them are in our custody. They wanted to kill the main speakers of the event (pro-Citizenship Amendment Act rally)," Rao said.
After the incident, a special team was formed which examined footage of more than 700 CCTV cameras, identified and nabbed the perpetrators of the crime.
Besides registering a case of attempt to murder, cases have been booked against them for creating enmity between two religious communities and under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Rao said.
Reacting to the arrest, Tejasvi Surya said "SDPI is an organisation, which has not been banned yet. The SDPI has become strong because the then chief minister Siddaramaiah dropped cases against its members."
He called the arrest only a tip of the iceberg and said he would bring the activities of the SDPI to the notice of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
