BBMP wades into row by dropping Mercy Angels from Kempegowda Award list
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Bengaluru: Honouring Dr Taha Mateen of 'Mercy Angels' with Kempegowda Award in recognition of the efforts to ensure dignified last rites for persons who died from Covid-19, the BBMP has blundered by removing him from the list of awardees.
Mercy Angels volunteers were instrumental in providing dignified burials for bodies of Covid-19 victims whose families did not come forward to conduct last rites.The BBMP presented 33 persons with the award and Dr Taha Mateen was among them. The list of awardees released to the media in the morning had Dr Mateen's name. But by evening, the name had disappeared.A row erupted after BBMP opposition leader Abdul Wajid took up the issue. "The mayor dropped Dr Mateen's name at the behest of the RSS," he said.
Mayor M Goutham Kumar, however, said there was a different reason. "The list of awardees I signed didn't have the name of Mercy Angels' Taha Mateen. As the Kempegowda Award can't be given to non-governmental organisations, the name was dropped," he said.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who spoke after the award ceremony, said as per the practice, the BBMP has honoured achievers from various spheres. "This year, it was decided to honour people who involved themselves in different streams to fight COVID," he said.
Responding to the allegation that people with links to RSS were getting awards, he said, "There is no rule against awarding those in RSS. Whoever contributes to social welfare and those who achieve should be honoured. We have done that," he said.Meanwhile, the mayor said he would look into the claim that Nandidurga Balu Gowda was given the Award for the second time. "I didn't know about this. I will look into it," he said.
The list of achievers included Dr Aseema Banu, who had set up the dedicated Covid ward, Dr Meena Ganesh, Dr Naveen Benakappa and Dr Venkatesh Murthy for championing the cause of home isolation, Tasleem Arif Syed from the biotechnology field, Nitin Kamath and several others. The celebration, scheduled to be held last week, was deferred following the death of former President Pranab Mukherjee.
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Defamation case: Application filed in court for voice sample of Rahul Gandhi
Sultanpur (UP) (PTI): An application for obtaining a voice sample of Rahul Gandhi was filed in an MP-MLA court here on Saturday during a hearing in a defamation case against the Congress leader over his alleged objectionable remarks against then BJP president Amit Shah in 2018.
The plaintiff Vijay Mishra's advocate, Santosh Kumar Pandey, said he filed the application requesting that a voice sample of Gandhi be collected and sent to a forensic science laboratory for comparison with a CD that has already been submitted to the court.
Rahul Gandhi's lawyers registered their objections to this demand. The next hearing in the matter is fixed for April 6, Pandey said.
On February 20, Gandhi, the Lok Sabha MP from Raebareli, had appeared before the court and recorded his statement, claiming the case was filed against him due to political vendetta.
He had also told the court that the audio and video evidence submitted by the complainant was incorrect and said he would present his own evidence.
In December 2023, the court issued a warrant against Gandhi after he failed to appear before it. He later surrendered before the court in February 2024 and was granted bail on two surety bonds of Rs 25,000 each.
The hearing was deferred on Friday due to a holiday on Ram Navami.
Pandey said that during the previous hearing, the complainant's side had filed an application seeking verification of audio and video evidence of the alleged statements made by Gandhi by matching them with his original voice.
The case stems from Gandhi's alleged objectionable remarks against Shah during the 2018 Karnataka election campaign. Following the remarks, Vijay Mishra, a resident of Hanumanganj under Kotwali Dehat police station area in Sultanpur, filed the defamation complaint.
