11 more dead Maoists found in Maharashtra river; toll reaches 33
Gadchiroli (Maharashtra), April 24: The security forces have recovered at least 11 more bodies of suspected Maoists from the Indravati River here early on Tuesday, official sources said.
The bodies, which were bloated and have started to decompose, were found floating on the banks of river which flows along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh borders.
These 11 Maoists are believed to be from among those who managed to escape to the forests during a gunfight with security forces on Sunday. They must have succumbed to their injuries, an official declining to be identified told IANS.
Searching and combing operations in the entire Gadchiroli district, which has been virtually sealed by the security forces, continues in the jungles, villages, hills and valleys to track and snuff out the Maoists from their hideouts.
At least six Maoists were gunned down in a fresh gunfight in the district, barely 36 hours after Sunday's encounter which left 16 rebels dead.
The fresh encounter took place late on Monday in the Rajaram Kahnhila village in Jimlagatta with the crack commandos of the C-60 force.
A high-ranking commander of the Aheri Dalam, identified as Nandu, is among those killed.
Jimlagatta is 60 km from the scene of Sunday's ambush in which 16 Maoists including three of their high-ranking commanders and seven women were killed.
Other Maoist-infested states besides Maharashtra -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are on a state of high alert, ever since the state security forces here launched their biggest anti-Maoist operations in around four decades.
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CM Siddaramaiah appears before Lokayukta police for questioning in MUDA case
Mysuru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appeared before the Lokayukta police here on Wednesday in response to the summons issued to him for questioning in the MUDA site allotment case.
The CM, who has been named as accused number 1 in the FIR registered by the Lokayukta police, is facing allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to his wife Parvathi B M by the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
They had on October 25 questioned his wife, who has been named as accused number 2.
Siddaramaiah, his wife, brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy and Devaraju -- from whom Swamy had purchased a land and gifted it to Parvathi -- and others have been named in the FIR registered by the Mysuru-located Lokayukta police establishment on September 27.
Swamy and Devaraju have already deposed before the Lokayukta police.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court had on Tuesday issued notice to Siddaramaiah and others on a writ petition filed by RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna, seeking a direction to transfer the case to CBI.
Justice M Nagaprasanna, who also issued notice to Parvathi, Swamy, Union of India, the State government, CBI, Lokayukta and others, directed the Lokayukta to place on record investigation conducted in the case so far.
The court posted the next hearing to November 26.
On October 24, the CM filed an appeal before the division bench of the High Court, challenging the decision of a single judge bench in connection with the MUDA site allotment case that had come as a setback to him.
The bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna had on September 24 dismissed the CM's petition challenging Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot's approval for a probe against him in the case, observing that the gubernatorial order nowhere "suffers from want of application of mind".
Siddaramaiah had challenged the legality of Gehlot's sanction for the investigation against him in the alleged irregularities in the allotment of 14 sites by MUDA in a prime locality.
Following the High Court order, a Special Court here on the very next day had ordered a Lokayukta police probe against Siddaramaiah, and directed to file the investigation report by December 24.
Parvathi, meanwhile, had written to MUDA to cancel 14 sites allotted to her and the MUDA had accepted it.
On September 30, the ED filed an enforcement case information report (ECIR) to book the CM and others taking cognisance of the Lokayukta FIR, and is also probing the case.
In the MUDA site allotment case, it is alleged that 14 compensatory sites were allotted to Siddaramaiah's wife in an upmarket area in Mysuru (Vijayanagar Layout 3rd and 4th stages), which had higher property value as compared to the location of her land which had been "acquired" by MUDA.
The MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where it developed a residential layout.
Under the controversial scheme, MUDA allotted 50 per cent of developed land to the land losers in lieu of undeveloped land acquired from them for forming residential layouts.
It is alleged Parvathi had no legal title over this 3.16 acres of land at survey number 464 of Kasare village on the outskirts of Mysuru.
