Operation Sindhu: 272 Indians, 3 Nepalese nationals evacuated from Iran
New Delhi (PTI): India has evacuated 272 Indian and three Nepalese nationals from Iran following the conflict with Israel, officials said on Thursday.
A special flight carrying them arrived in Delhi a little past midnight from the Iranian city of Mashhad.
"#OperationSindhu update 272 Indian and 3 Nepalese nationals were evacuated from Iran on a special flight that arrived in New Delhi from Mashhad at 00:01 hrs on 26th June. 3426 Indian nationals have been brought home from Iran as part of #OperationSindhu," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal posted on X.
India on Wednesday had evacuated 296 Indian citizens and four Nepalese nationals from Iran.
India on Tuesday had evacuated more than 1,100 citizens from Iran and Israel.
It has brought back 594 Indians from Israel, using C-17 heavy-lift aircraft of the Indian Air Force to fly out more than 400 people after they were moved out of Israel to Jordan and Egypt by land transit points.
Also, 161 Indians were brought back in a chartered flight from Amman after they had moved to the Jordanian capital from Israel by road.
A total of 573 Indians, three Sri Lankan and two Nepalese nationals were evacuated from Iran in two chartered flights on Tuesday, according to details shared by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Several other flights have brought Indian nationals back home after being evacuated from Iran in the past several days.
Israel and Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones at each other's cities and military and strategic facilities since the hostilities began more than a week ago.
The tensions escalated significantly following the US bombing of three major Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning.
India has evacuated its nationals on chartered flights operated from the Iranian city of Mashhad, the Armenian capital of Yerevan and the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat since June 18. Iran lifted airspace restrictions on June 20 to facilitate three chartered flights from Mashhad.
The first flight had landed in New Delhi late on Friday last week with 290 Indians, and the second one had landed in the national capital on Saturday afternoon with 310 Indians.
Another flight had arrived from the Armenian capital city of Yerevan on Thursday last week. A special evacuation flight from Ashgabat had landed in New Delhi early on Saturday morning.
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Karnataka MLA Vinay Kulkarni disqualified after conviction in Goudar murder case
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Saturday issued an official notification regarding the disqualification of Congress MLA Vinay Kulkarni following his conviction in the murder case of BJP leader Yogeshgouda Goudar.
The former minister is currently in prison, serving life imprisonment in the case.
“Consequent upon the conviction of Vinay Kulkarni, Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly representing the Dharwad constituency, by the LXXXI Additional City Civil & Sessions Judge, Bengaluru City (CCH-82), in Spl CC No. 565/2021, he stands disqualified from the membership of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the date of conviction, i.e, April 15, 2026,” the notification read.
“He stands disqualified in terms of the provisions of Article 191(1)(e) of the Constitution of India, read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and such disqualification shall continue for a further period of six years after his release, unless the conviction is stayed by a competent court,” it added.
Hence, one seat in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly has fallen vacant, the notification said.
Bypolls were held on April 9 to fill two other seats in the 224-member Assembly that fell vacant due to the death of sitting MLAs. The results will be declared on May 4.
On April 15, Judge Santhosh Gajanan Bhat convicted Kulkarni and others under various IPC sections, including criminal conspiracy and murder. Subsequently, on April 17, the court sentenced Kulkarni and 15 others convicted in the case to life imprisonment.
The case pertains to the killing of Goudar, a BJP Zilla Panchayat member, in Dharwad on June 15, 2016. Kulkarni was a minister at that time. Hired assailants attacked and hacked Goudar to death in his gym at Saptapur in Dharwad.
Following demands from Goudar’s family and others, the then-BJP government transferred the case to the CBI in 2019.
The CBI filed a supplementary chargesheet in 2020, naming Vinay Kulkarni as the “main conspirator.” It alleged that he perceived Yogeshgouda Goudar as a growing political rival in Dharwad and hired contract killers to eliminate him.
Kulkarni was arrested by the CBI in 2020. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in August 2021 under certain conditions, including a ban on entering Dharwad district. However, in June 2025, the apex court cancelled his bail following allegations of witness tampering and attempts to influence prosecution witnesses.
Kulkarni again sought bail in January 2026, but the High Court rejected it, citing judicial propriety.
However, the Supreme Court granted him bail on February 27 after noting that all witnesses had been examined.
