IPS officer held, CBI makes first arrest in Narada sting case
Kolkata: The CBI on Thursday made the first arrest in the Narada tapes scandal, as it took senior IPS officer SMH Mirza into custody, an agency official said.
He was produced before a special CBI court here after a medical check-up, he said.
Mirza was the Superintendent of Police of Burdwan district when the sting operation was conducted by Mathew Samuels of the Narada News portal.
"Earlier, too, we had questioned him (Mirza) on several occasions. Today, we arrested him following another round of questioning. He is one of the key links in Narada tapes scandal," the senior official said.
In the sting operation, the footage of which had surfaced ahead of 2016 West Bengal polls, persons resembling senior Trinamool Congress leaders and the IPS officer are seen accepting money from the representatives of a fictitious company in return for favours.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
