SIT will soon begin probe into Dharmasthala 'mass burial' case: Minister Parameshwara
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Tuesday said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe allegations of mass burials in Dharmasthala in the Dakshina Kannada district, will soon visit there and begin the inquiry.
The SIT, headed by Pronab Mohanty, Director General of Police (Internal Security Division), consists of Deputy Inspector General of Police (Recruitment) M N Anucheth and IPS officers Soumyalatha S K and Jitendra Kumar Dayama.
"We have already given them (SIT) instructions to go there (Dharmasthala) immediately. Based on the records available at the police station, they will begin (the investigation). Instructions have gone to the local police too from the DG to give the related records and documents to the SIT.
"Mohanty (SIT chief) and his team will probably go there in a couple of days and will begin their work," Parameshwara said.
Responding to a question on reports claiming that two officers from SIT were seeking to leave for personal reasons, he said if anyone in the team makes a request not to be its part, citing reasons, and convinces, they will be replaced.
"For now, all four of them are part of the team. Yesterday I saw some media reports, but it has not come to me. If anyone from the team has requested the DG or the Commissioner, they will be replaced," he added.
The SIT was constituted by the government following claims about alleged mass murder, rape, and mass burials in Dharmasthala, over the past two decades.
A former sanitation worker, whose identity has not been revealed, has claimed that he worked in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014, and that he was forced to bury a number of bodies, including those of women and minors, in Dharmasthala.
He had alleged that some of the bodies showed signs of sexual assault. He has also given a statement before a magistrate in this regard.
To a question about an alleged report submitted to the government in 2018 regarding unnatural deaths in Belthangady (the taluk under which Dharmasthala comes) and no action was taken based on that, the home minister stated that he was unaware of it. However, he assured that he would look into if such a report exists officially.
"Who has submitted the report I don't know. Who was in the committee? Who constituted it? Was it authorised by the government? Or was it private? Nothing is known. If any report has come to the government officially and if it was authorised by the government, then it will be examined," he said.
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Bangladesh court sentences Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in jail in corruption cases
Dhaka (PTI): A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in jail in two separate corruption cases related to alleged irregularities in allocations of land in a government housing project.
Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-4 Judge Rabiul Alam handed down the verdicts, sentencing Hasina to a total of 10 years’ imprisonment — five years in each case, state-run BSS news agency reported.
The court sentenced 78-year-old Hasina, her nephew Radwan Mujib Siddiq, and her nieces, Tulip Rizwana Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq, and others in the cases over alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots under the Rajuk New Town Project in Purbachol.
The judgment was pronounced at around 12.30 pm.
Tulip Siddiq was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment — two years in each case — while Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq were each sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in both cases.
Rajuk member Mohammad Khurshid Alam, the only accused to surrender before the court, was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment in each case, totalling two years.
The court also fined all convicted persons Tk1 lakh each and ordered them to serve an additional six months in prison in default of payment.
Hasina has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5 last year in the face of the massive protests. She was earlier declared a fugitive by the court.
The cases were filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over alleged abuse of power in the allocation of two 10-katha plots.
According to the prosecution, the accused manipulated the allocation process and violated existing rules and regulations of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk).
