Sabarimala Issue: HC grants bail to activist Rahul Easwar
Kochi, Dec 21: The Kerala High Court Friday granted bail to Ayyappa Dharma Sena leader Rahul Easwar, who was re-arrested earlier this week for defying the bail conditions imposed in a case related to violent protests at Sabarimala in October.
He was arrested on Monday after a local court revoked his bail.
Granting the fresh conditional bail, Justice Sunil Thomas directed the activist not to enter Pamba, an important pilgrim spot enroute to the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala.
The judge also directed him to sign at Pathanamthitta police station once every month.
Easwar was arrested from a rest house in Palakkad on Monday, two days after the court at Ranni in Pathanamthitta district ordered his arrest for failure to appear before the local police as stipulated in the bail condition.
The Ayyappa Dharma Sena leader spearheaded protests against the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict permitting women of all age groups into the Lord Ayyappa temple.
He was earlier arrested in the case relating to violence at the Lord Ayyappa shrine when it was opened for the monthly prayers on October 17, for the first time after the apex court lifted the ban on menstrual age women visiting the shrine.
The local court, while granting bail, had stipulated several conditions, including that he has to appear in the Pathanamthitta police station every Saturday.
However, on December 8, he failed to appear, police had said, following which the court cancelled Easwar's bail.
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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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