Accused in duping case, Swami Abhinava Halashri held in Cuttack; B'luru CCB gets custody
Bengaluru: Swami Abhinava Halashri of Hirehadagali taluk in Vijayanagara taluk, was arrested in Cuttack in Odisha on Tuesday and remanded in Bengaluru CCB Division police officers for 10 days. The pontiff is suspected to have been involved in the case of duping businessman Govindababu Poojary from Byndoor in Udupi district of crores of rupees with an assurance that Poojary would be given the BJP local ticket for the last Assembly elections.
Bengaluru CCB Division police officers had arrested the pontiff, who is the third suspect in the duping case, when he had been travelling under disguise and travelling in a train in Cuttack in Odisha on Tuesday. The police officers had also appealed before court to be granted custody of the pontiff.
On Wednesday, the Bengaluru 19th ACMM Court remanded Swami Abhinava Halashri in the custody of the Bengaluru CCB Division police officers for a period of 10 days, till September 29.
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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.
