H D Revanna fails to get relief, bail plea hearing adjourned
Bengaluru (PTI): JD(S) MLA H D Revanna, who is in the custody of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), on Tuesday failed to get relief from the Special Court for Elected Representatives here, which adjourned his bail plea hearing to Wednesday.
The 66-year-old former Minister was arrested by the SIT on Saturday in an alleged case of abduction of a woman and remanded to police custody till May 8. The court had on Saturday turned down his anticipatory bail plea.
Revanna, son of JD(S) patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, and his confidant Sathish Babanna were booked on Thursday night for allegedly abducting a woman on April 29.
The case was registered on a complaint filed by the woman's son, who alleged that his mother was sexually abused by Revanna's son and JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna.
The SIT has also secured the custody of Babanna.
The woman was allegedly abducted to prevent her from testifying against Prajwal, police sources said.
The explicit videos of alleged sexual abuse of women by Prajwal had been making the rounds on social media based on which the state government formed the SIT on April 28 to probe the case after the Karnataka State Commission for Women wrote a letter to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The 33-year-old Prajwal, who was the NDA candidate in the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency, reportedly left the country on April 27, a day after the elections, and skipped the SIT summons to appear before it.
Interpol has issued a Blue Corner notice against the absconding MP, who is facing sexual abuse charges.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
