Puttur, May 6: Raising the pitch for the BJP's election campaign in south Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday held massive roadshows at Puttur and Bantwal in Dakshina Kannada district and Karkala in Udupi.

Adityanath, who first arrived in Puttur, where party candidate Asha Thimmappa Gowda is pitted against Ashok Kumar Rai of Congress and a BJP rebel Arun Kumar Puthila, said the BJP is taking the country on path of progress.

Addressing the gathering from the campaign vehicle after the end of his roadshow, Adityanatha said the Congress has always been trying to put hurdles on the path of progress.

Though the Congress tried to prevent the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, the BJP successfully fought the issue in court and the temple will turn into a reality in the near future, he said.

The Congress is now after Bajrang Dal as the party is against patriotic people and try out to demoralise those who uphold nationalist policies, he said.

Adityanath said the people of Karnataka should vote for a Team India' to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the BJP has fielded the best candidate in Puttur and asked voters to support Asha Thimmappa Gowda.

Adityanath later campaigned for State Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar at Karkala in Udupi, where also the BJP is facing an unlikely rebel in the form of Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik. Congress has fielded Muniyalu Uday Shetty, a confidante of former Chief Minister Veerappa Moily in the seat.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister held a grand roadshow in Karkala and spoke to the gathering in a few words exhorting them to vote for a "double engine" government for sustained progress.

At the final roadshow of the day at B C Road in Bantwal, where BJP's young leader and incumbent MLA Rajesh Naik is facing former Minister B Ramanath Rai of Congress, Adityanath was given a rousing welcome by enthusiastic party workers.

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Addressing the huge gathering, Adityanath called upon the people of Karnataka to stop the Congress from coming to power as the party has declared intention to ban patriotic organisations like the Bajrang Dal. "Congress is always blocking the path to progress initiated by the BJP government under Narendra Modi," he said.

In a passionate speech, he also invited the people of Karnataka to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh when the Ram temple will be inaugurated in January next year, to the loud cheers from the public.

In all the three meetings, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel and leaders including candidates in the respective segments accompanied Adityanath.

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Singapore (PTI): An Indian-origin Malaysian man was sentenced in Singapore to 12 years' jail and 12 strokes of the cane for raping a domestic worker outside a train station after tricking her into thinking that he was a police officer.

Sharveen Chetty, 48, pleaded guilty on February 4 to one charge of raping the 35-year-old Indonesian woman in the bushes outside Exit F of a subway, Little India Mass Rapid Transit station, at about 8pm on July 11, 2022.

The victim was with her friends at the time, but Chetty lured her away before he sexually assaulted her, according to a report by The Straits Times on Thursday.

Two other charges – a second rape charge and a charge of impersonating a police officer – were taken into consideration during sentencing on Wednesday.

The witnesses who testified on the first day of the trial included a doctor from Women’s and Children’s Hospital who examined the victim a day after the rapes, and forensic scientists from the Health Sciences Authority.

Chetty had initially contested the charges in a High Court trial that began on February 3. But he changed his mind and pleaded guilty on what would have been the second day of the trial, according to the daily report.

In sentencing, Justice Dedar Singh Gill considered it aggravating that Chetty had targeted the victim because she was a foreigner who might be unfamiliar with the local authorities.

The judge rejected the defence's arguments that the rape was not premeditated.

The judge, however, noted that Chetty had pleaded guilty before the victim and key prosecution witnesses testified, thus sparing her and her friends from going through cross-examination.

The prosecution had sought a sentence of between 11 and 13 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane, noting Chetty’s extensive efforts to disguise himself, and his predatory act of leading the victim away from the rest of the group.

Chetty admitted that he became sexually attracted to the victim.