Odisha: BJD suspends 6 MLAs for cross-voting in RS polls
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Bhubaneswar (PTI): The Biju Janata Dal on Saturday suspended six of its MLAs for cross-voting during the recent election to four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha.
The suspended legislators were Chakramani Kanhar of Baliguda seat, Naba Kishor Mallick of Jayadev constituency, Souvic Biswal of Choudwar-Cuttack, Subasini Jena of Basta, Ramakanta Bhoi of Tirtol and Devi Ranjan Tripathy of Banki, an order by party chief Naveen Patnaik showed.
The suspension decision was taken at the opposition party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting presided over by Patnaik.
The six MLAs were issued a show-cause notice on March 17.
They submitted their replies on Friday evening, and those were found not satisfactory, said the BJD's chief whip in the Assembly, Pramila Mallik.
The ruling BJP won two of the four Rajya Sabha seats while the opposition BJD and a saffron party-backed Independent candidate bagged one seat each in the biennial polls held last Monday.
While the total number of BJP legislators and Independent MLAs supporting the ruling party was 82 in the 147-member House, the saffron party candidates secured 93 first preference votes, which was 11 more than its strength in the Assembly.
Of these 11 votes, eight were of BJD MLAs and three of Congress legislators, an official had said.
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Five, including three children, found dead in Kochi house
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Kochi (PTI): Five persons, including three children, were found dead at a rented house at Vaduthala here on Saturday, police said.
The deceased have been identified as Sreekumari (58), her daughter Aswathi Nair (36), two grandsons aged 14 and 4, and a two-year-old granddaughter.
They were natives of Vilappilsala in Thiruvananthapuram and had been staying in a rented house on Karsaka Road in Vaduthala.
Police suspect that the children were poisoned before Sreekumari and Aswathi hanged themselves.
According to police, the family had been living in the house since February for the treatment of the elder son at a nearby private hospital and were about to vacate the premises.
The incident came to light when a cable TV operator, who had come for work, noticed the two women hanging inside the room through a window and alerted others, police said.
The house owner and police soon reached the spot and initiated an investigation.
Police said Aswathi’s husband had died about eight months ago after the couple had separated.
He was allegedly suffering from liver disease due to alcoholism.
Following his death, neighbours and people close to the family had allegedly blamed Aswathi and her mother, officials said.
A police officer said the family was financially sound, as they were paying a monthly rent of Rs 35,000 and owned property and a house in Thiruvananthapuram.
Police said that a suicide note was recovered from the house.
The bodies were later shifted to Kalamassery Medical College, where postmortem examinations will be conducted on Sunday.
Ernakulam North Police have registered a case and begun an investigation.
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