Himachal Pradesh CM's wife Kamlesh Thakur wins Dehra assembly bypoll
Shimla (PTI): The Congress won the Dehra Assembly seat for the first time on Saturday with its candidate Kamlesh Thakur, the wife of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, defeating BJP candidate Hoshiyar Singh by a margin of 9,399 votes.
Thakur polled 32,737 votes in the bypoll against 23,338 votes polled by Singh. The three Independent candidates in this seat could not get even 200 votes each.
Of the 86,520 voters in this assembly segment, 65.42 per cent exercised their franchise on July 10.
Dehra Assembly constituency was carved out after a delimitation exercise in 2012. Senior BJP leader and former minister Ravi Inder Singh was elected from the seat in 2012. Hoshiyar Singh won the seat as an Independent in 2017 and 2022.
Hoshiyar Singh, as an Independent MLA, had voted in favour of the BJP's candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections held in February. He later resigned and joined the BJP. The party, in turn, made him a candidate for the Dehra bypoll.
During her election campaign, Kamlesh Thakur had said that she would not need to go to the secretariat to get the work of Dehra done. "I will get the work done from the chief minister at home itself," she had said.
Celebrations erupted at the official residence of the chief minister in Shimla, with supporters bursting crackers even before the final result was declared.
Bypolls to Dehra, Hamirpur and Nalagarh were necessitated after the three Independents who had voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha polls on February 27 resigned on March 22.
They joined the BJP the next day but their resignations were accepted by the Speaker on June 3. The BJP had fielded the Independents from their respective seats as party candidates.
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'Godman' Kharat held in 8th sexual exploitation case; court denies police remand, sends him to jail
Nashik (PTI): Police took custody of self-proclaimed godman-cum-astrologer Ashok Kharat in an eighth case related to sexual exploitation of women and produced him before a Nashik district court which sent him to jail till May 12 after rejecting the plea for his police remand on Thursday.
On April 29, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Nashik police in north Maharashtra filed a request application in the court demanding Kharat's custody in the eighth case.
After the court granted them the necessary permission, the SIT took custody of Kharat, who was in jail in connection with the seventh case of sexual exploitation registered against him.
The 'godman', named in a dozen FIRs related to rape and financial fraud, was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate B N Ichpurani in the eighth case through video conferencing due to security reasons.
The eighth case related to Kharat allegedly sexually exploiting a woman who had approached him in search of solutions to her family problems, according to police.
During the hearing, the prosecution demanded police custody of the accused in the latest case.
However, the defence strongly opposed the demand and argued that the SIT was giving same reasons for police custody every time and there was no strong reason for accepting their plea.
The court accepted the argument put forth by the defence and remanded Kharat to judicial custody till May 12 in the eighth case.
The SIT will produce Kharat in the court on Friday again and seek his police custody in the ninth case. As the self-styled godman has been granted judicial custody in the eighth case, he will be sent to Nashik Road Central Jail and the SIT will take his custody from there.
Meanwhile, Kharat's judicial custody in the fourth case ended on Thursday. On April 18, the accused was remanded to judicial custody till April 30 in the fourth case of sexual exploitation of women.
In a related development, the SIT conducted a search at Kharat's office in the 'Canada Corner' area of Nashik city on Wednesday. A 'panchnama' (record of search and seizure proceedings) was conducted and the office was locked and sealed again.
Kharat, a well-heeled man with political connections, was arrested for the first time on March 18 after a woman alleged he had repeatedly raped her for three years.
He is accused of sexually exploiting several women by claiming to have divine powers and knowledge of black magic, and also committing large-scale financial fraud.
The SIT is conducting a probe into 12 cases of sexual exploitation and financial fraud registered against the astrologer in Nashik and Ahilyanagar districts.
