Leaders of major opposition parties to meet after Karnataka elections: Congress sources
New Delhi(PTI): A meeting of top opposition leaders of around 19 parties for forging a joint front against the BJP will be held after the Karnataka assembly elections, Congress sources said on Monday.
The leaders were to meet up by the end of April earlier. Sources said the meeting has been delayed because of the May 10 Karnataka assembly elections.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to host the meeting sometime next month and has already spoken to leaders of several other parties in this regard, the sources said. There has been a flurry of meetings in the Opposition camp which has shown a sense of urgency in recent weeks for taking forward talks to put up a united front against the BJP.
On Monday, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met his West Bengal counterpart and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, saying that efforts were on to bring on board as many opposition parties as possible.
Sources said Kharge is also likely to speak to Akhilesh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee in the coming days.
Nitish Kumar had met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi earlier this month.
No welfare work is being done by the present dispensation which is only relying on publicity, the JD(U) leader said on Monday attacking the BJP after meeting Akhilesh Yadav at the SP office in Lucknow.
"I am not looking for any position for myself. My endeavour is to work for the country's good," Kumar, who was accompanied by RJD leader and Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, told reporters.
He alleged that efforts are being made to change the history of the country. Akhilesh Yadav raised the issue of price rise and said there was a need to remove the BJP government without any delay.
The Bihar chief minister had come to Lucknow after meeting Banerjee in Kolkata earlier in the day.
Banerjee asked Nitish Kumar to set up a meeting of all opposition parties in Bihar to "prepare together" for the next Lok Sabha polls in 2024.
"I have made just one request to Nitish Kumar. Jayaprakash ji's movement started from Bihar.
"If we have an all-party meeting in Bihar, we can then decide where we have to go next," said Banerjee after the meeting, adding that the first meeting would be "gharoa" (informal) and issues like a common manifesto, etc. could come later.
Socialist leader Jayprakash Narayan, popularly called JP, launched his `Total Revolution' movement against alleged misrule and corruption in 1974 from Patna.
"I want the BJP to become zero. They have become a big hero with the media's support, lies and fake videos," she claimed.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
