AICC expels 14 rebel MLAs from Karnataka
New Delhi, Jul 30: The Congress on Tuesday expelled the 14 rebel MLAs from Karnataka who were responsible for bringing down the party's coalition government in the state.
All the MLAs, who resigned from the state legislature, had abstained from voting that led to the defeat of the Congress-JD(S) government in the trust vote.
The action by the party comes days after these MLAs were disqualified from the state legislature.
The then Karnataka Assembly speaker K R Ramesh Kumar disqualified 11 Congress legislators -- Pratap Gowda Patil, B C Patil, Shivram Hebbar, S T Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil on Sunday.
Three other rebel MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli and Shankar were disqualified on Thursday.
The Congress-JDS coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy crumbled under the weight of a rebellion by a big chunk of its lawmakers, 20 of whom were absent for the voting that led to the defeat of its trust vote.
The AICC has approved the proposal received from KPCC President, regarding the expulsion of the MLAs, a party statement said, giving the names of all the 14 MLAs.
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Three arrested for gangrape, blackmail of college student in Bengaluru
Ramanagara (Karnataka) (PTI): Three men have been arrested for allegedly gangraping a 19-year-old college student and blackmailing her using a video of the assault, police said on Thursday.
The incident occurred in October at the house of one of the accused in Magadi taluk of Bengaluru South district, they added.
Of the three accused, two are college students, while the third is an electrician by profession, police said.
According to police, the woman came into contact with the prime accused, also a college student, around six to seven months ago.
He befriended her, gained her confidence, and later entered into a relationship with her after promising marriage.
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On the pretext of the relationship, he allegedly established a physical relationship with her and secretly recorded the act on his mobile phone without her knowledge.
He later showed the video to his friends, who are co-accused in the case, a senior police officer said.
In October, the prime accused allegedly threatened and blackmailed the woman using the video clip of their intimate moments and forced her to comply with his demands.
He then allegedly sexually assaulted her along with the other two accused. The assault was also recorded, police said.
The video was later circulated on WhatsApp by one of the accused, they added.
Unable to bear the harassment, the victim informed her parents and approached the police.
Based on her complaint, a case was registered on December 17 at the Magadi police station under Sections 64 (rape), 70 (gangrape) and 71 (punishment for repeat offenders) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, police said.
Bengaluru South District Superintendent of Police Srinivas Gowda said all three accused were arrested.
"Two of them are students, and one is employed. All three were known to the victim and had been acquainted with her for more than a couple of months," he said.
