CBI court finds six policemen guilty of Udaya Kumar's custodial murder
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, July 24: Delivering relief to an aged mother who knocked all the doors to ensure that justice is done to her son whose life was cut short by callous men in uniform, the CBI Special Court on Tuesday found all the six policemen guilty in connection with the custodial murder of Udaya Kumar, a 27-year-old youth, at Fort Police station on September 27, 2005.
K Jithukumar and S V Sreekumar, who took Udaya Kumar and his friend Suresh Kumar to the station from a park in the city, were found guilty of murder while T Ajith Kumar (then S I), E K Sabu (then C I) and T K Haridas (then Assistant Commissioner) have been found guilty of fabricating evidences and hatching conspiracy. The third accused Soman, who was an additional sub-inspector at the time of murder, died during the trial. The quantum of punishment will be announced on Wednesday by CBI special court judge J Nasser. The first two accused were sent to remand while the rest have been asked to appear before the court on Wednesday.
Udaya Kumar and Suresh were whiling away time at Sreekandeshwaram Park when constables Jithukumar and Sreekumar apprehended them after they found `4500 in his pocket. Suspecting that the cash was stolen, the policemen took them to Fort station for interrogation. The duo were subjected to brutal third-degree treatment in a bid to extract confession from them. Udaya Kumar was also subjected to 'Uruttal'- a colloquial term used to mention the torture method where the lower limbs are crushed using a heavy wooden pestle-something that was widely used on naxal sympathisers in Kerala during the Emergency period.
The case that was investigated initially by the State Police before being taken over by the CBI witnessed several setbacks as witnesses, including Suresh and several police officers, turned hostile while there were efforts to fabricate evidence to implicate Udaya Kumar in theft case.
Courtesy: www.newindianexpress.com
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LPG crisis: Karnataka temples gear up to stock wooden logs for ‘Prasada’
Bengaluru (PTI): Temples in Karnataka have started preparations to stock wooden logs fearing that the LPG shortage could hamper the ‘Prasada’ preparation and distributions to the devotees.
The looming LPG crisis in the state in the wake of Iran-Israel conflict has made the temple managements jittery.
According to the Akhila Karnataka Hindu Temple Archakas Federation (AKHTAF) president M S Venkatachalaiah, there is no immediate crisis in the temples.
“We have LPG cylinder stock that can last for a week but if this scarcity continues then there will be a problem in serving Prasada (offerings to the deity) to the devotees,” AKHTAF president said.
He added that many temples in the state have started stocking wooden logs to overcome the LPG crisis.
“Our temples have started preparing to store wooden logs to prepare Prasada though currently we don’t have a problem, at least for a week,” Venkatachalaiah told PTI.
Another priest working in a temple belonging to the state Endowment Department said the temples may have to go back to the traditional way of cooking as done in the ancient time using wood.
The LPG crisis has not affected the mid-day meal programme for government school students yet, though there was a meeting in the Education Department to find ways to tackle if crisis deepens, sources associated with the Mid-day Meal programme said.
Meanwhile, the largest partner of the Mid-day Meal programme in the country is Akshaya Patra.
The NGO said they do not depend much on LPG gas cylinder.
“The LPG crisis has not affected us. Our kitchens are steam-based, and we generate steam through boilers which run on electricity. That’s point number one. Point number two—gas is used only for very minor things, mainly for seasoning. That is the tadka,” an Akshaya Patra executive told PTI.
According to him, the NGO has has a gas reserves for about nearly one month across India, though gas is used in very small quantities every day.
He pointed out that the Mid-day meal programme will not be affected because in one or one-and-a-half weeks, schools will close owing to summer vacation.
Akshaya Patra feeds 23.5 lakh children across more than 24,000 schools across India, in 16 states and three Union Territories, he said.
