‘Electoral Bond is the biggest corruption in the country’s history’, says Sudhir Kumar Murolli
Udupi: State Congress spokesperson Sudhir Kumar Murolli opined that the electoral bond scam revealed by the Supreme Court of India is the greatest corruption the country has ever seen. He was addressing the media at District Congress office at Bramhagiri in Udupi before a meeting convened on upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Congratulating the Supreme Court for this daring disclosure, Murolli stated that Centre had accumulated thousands of crores through electoral bonds from companies which were threatened by CBI, IT and ED raids. He expressed shock about nationalistic BJP obtaining bonds from a Pakistani company. “The information shows that most of the fraudulent companies in the country have donated to BJP”, he added.
Quoting Supreme Court lawyers Prashant Bhushan and Kapil Sibal, Murolli said that 90% of donations in the yet undisclosed electoral bonds procured in 2018-19 belonged to BJP. “If SBI follows the deadline given by the court, more details of the scam shall be out”, he hoped.
Sudhir Kumar Murolli explained how the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley under the Modi government had brought changes in the donations act by introducing Finance Bill-2017 which ended transparency in the process. “This horrifying scam has seen light only due to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) put in the Supreme Court by Association for Democracy Reforms and CPM. 14 out of 30 major companies were raided by IT, ED or CBI before they purchased the bond”, he added. A company building the faulty tunnel which trapped 41 workers and Chennai ‘Lottery King’ Martin’s company which showed only 220 crore profit has also donated thousands of crores to BJP, Murolli said.
When asked about his aspiration to get ticket for Udupi-Chikkamagaluru constituency, Murolli said that his aspiration would end once the name of the candidate was announced and he would work for anyone named by the party. “It is all a part of internal democracy of the party”, he stated.
Speaking on Kota Srinivas Poojary’s candidature, Murolli said “BJP has given tickets to many like Poojary who didn’t ask for it. Even if he loses, he still has the constitutional duty of being the opposition leader”.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
