Bengaluru, Jun 9: Senior BJP leader and Former Karnataka Minister V Somanna on Sunday said he will honestly work towards fulfilling the expectations of the party leadership on him as the minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet, which will be sworn in this evening.

He said he has no expectations regarding the portfolio and will serve in the department assigned to him by the prime minister with an aim to ensure that the government's benefits reach the people.

"Our party gave me an opportunity from Tumkur, I won from there, I have fulfilled the various responsibilities given to me by the party. Considering all this our state and central leadership have given me this opportunity. I thank them and the people of Tumkur, and workers and leaders of both BJP and JD(S)," Somanna said.

While speaking to reporters in New Delhi after meeting with PM Modi, he said, he will work honestly to fulfill the responsibility given to him, by serving the people of the country, using his 45 years' political experience.

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"The challenge before me is to work to ensure that the benefits provided by the government reach the people of the country equally," he added.

Somanna won the Tumkur Lok Sabha segment by a margin of 1,75,594 votes, against Congress' S P Muddahanumegowda.

Asked about meeting with PM Modi, Somanna said, "In a friendly way he (PM) spoke to us and advised on various topics, and asked us to work towards ensuring the fulfilment of the intention with which we are being made the ministers."

"He also asked us to keep in mind the party and the unity of the NDA," he said, adding that he will work to fulfill Modi's expectations, and would work in whatever portfolio assigned to him. "I have no such expectations (of a specific portfolio)."

The 73-year-old had served as Housing Minister in the previous BJP government in the state, and had unsuccessfully contested 2023 assembly polls from Varuna against now Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress, and also in Chamarajanagar assembly segment.

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Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.

The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.

Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.

"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.

Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.

“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.

Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.

"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.

The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.

Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.

"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.

The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.

Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.