Odisha: Taxi driver arrested for looting visitors from Bengaluru
Jajpur (Odisha), Oct 17: A taxi driver was arrested in Odisha's Jajpur district on Thursday for allegedly looting two people from Bengaluru of their gold and diamond jewellery and Rs 2,000 in cash, police said.
The arrested taxi driver has been identified as Prakash Chandra Barala, a resident of Kalapathar area in Khurda district.
The passengers, Tushar Priyadarshi and his wife, had come from Bengaluru and had hired a taxi in Bhubaneswar to visit Joda in Keonjhar district on Wednesday.
When the taxi reached near Panikoili on NH-16 on Wednesday night, Tushar asked the driver to stop the vehicle near a hotel for dinner.
After the couple returned to the vehicle post-dinner and left the hotel, they found their gold jewellery including a chain, three pairs of earrings, a diamond ring and Rs 2,000 in cash missing from their bag, a police officer said.
Priyadarshi asked the driver to take them back to the hotel, where they narrated the ordeal to the hotel owner.
As the driver saw the owner checking the footage of a CCTV camera installed in front of the hotel, he dumped the luggage of the passengers and sped away with the vehicle towards Chandikhole on NH-16, the officer said.
"We have arrested the driver and registered a case under sections of BNS and seized his taxi," Panikoili police station inspector-in-charge Ranjan Kumar Pradhan said.
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Sanjay Raut demands re-election, alleges irregularities in EVMs during Maharashtra polls
Mumbai, Nov 25: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday demanded a re-election in Maharashtra using ballot papers, claiming there were irregularities with the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
Talking to reporters, Raut alleged several complaints about EVMs malfunctioning and questioned the integrity of the recently held elections.
The BJP-led Mahayuti won 230 out of 288 seats in the assembly elections, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi managed 46 seats, with Shiv Sena (UBT) winning just 20 out of 95 seats it contested.
"We have received nearly 450 complaints regarding EVMs. Despite raising objections repeatedly, no action has been taken on these issues. How can we say these elections were conducted fairly? Hence, I demand that the results be set aside and elections be held again using ballot papers," Raut said.
Citing some instances, he said a candidate in Nashik reportedly received only four votes despite having 65 votes from his family, while in Dombivli, discrepancies were found in EVM tallies, and election officials refused to acknowledge the objections.
The Sena (UBT) leader also questioned the credibility of the landslide victories of some candidates, saying, "What revolutionary work have they done to receive more than 1.5 lakh votes? Even leaders who recently switched parties have become MLAs. This raises suspicions. For the first time, a senior leader like Sharad Pawar has expressed doubts about EVMs, which cannot be ignored."
Asked about the MVA's poor performance in the elections, Raut rejected the idea of blaming a single individual.
"We fought as a united MVA. Even a leader like Sharad Pawar, who commands immense respect in Maharashtra, faced defeat. This shows that we need to analyse the reasons behind the failure. One of the reasons is EVM irregularities and the misuse of the system, unconstitutional practices, and even judicial decisions left unresolved by Justice Chandrachud," he said.
Raut stressed that though internal differences might have existed within the MVA, the failure was collective.
He also accused the Mahayuti of conducting the elections in an unfair manner.
"I cannot call the elections fair given the numerous reports of discrepancies in EVMs, mismatched numbers, and vote irregularities across the state," Raut said.
