Bengaluru woman murder: Husband "main suspect," attempted suicide, say police
Bengaluru (PTI): The husband of a 32 year-old woman, whose body was found in a suitcase in the city, seems to be the main suspect in the case and was now undergoing treatment in Pune for alleged suicide attempt, police said on Friday.
The body of Gauri Khedekar was found on Thursday with severe injury marks and stuffed inside a suitcase here. She is a native of Maharashtra.
Her husband Rakesh Rajendera Khedekar fled to Pune after the crime where he allegedly attempted suicide by consuming poison, police said.
He has been detained in connection with the murder and is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in the Maharashtra city.
Addressing a press conference here, City Police Commissioner B Dayananda said the police have registered a case in this regard and it is seen that the woman's husband only is the main suspect. He had flown out of the city earlier.
"He was found admitted in a hospital in Pune. Apparently, it is said he had consumed poison in a suicide attempt. He is in the hospital and our team has already contacted Pune police," he said.
According to him, a team of Bengaluru Police have gone to Pune, and as and when he is discharged from the hospital, he will be brought here for interrogation.
Marital dispute is said to be the reason behind the murder.
"Relatives of the deceased have come to Bengaluru and further details will be sought from them," he added.
Earlier, the police control room was alerted by the house owner at around 5.30 pm on Thursday.
The woman and her husband, who works as a project manager in an IT firm here, moved to Bengaluru last month and were living in a flat at Doddakammanahalli village in Hulimayu police station limits.
The victim's body was found dumped in the suitcase inside the bathroom of the flat. There were stab injuries on her body.
The exact motive behind the murder will be ascertained after the accused is brought here and interrogated, a senior police official said.
Responding to reports that the man had informed his wife's parents about killing her, the officer said, "the matter is under investigation and these details needs to be verified."
The woman had a Bachelors degree in Mass Media and her husband was working from home, police said.
Forensic experts visited the spot and collected samples, police said.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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