BJP stages demonstration near Home Minister's residence over Udupi washroom video case
Bengaluru: The BJP on Thursday staged a demonstration near Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara's residence alleging the Congress government was supporting ''terrorists'' and siding with the accused girls in the Udupi washroom video case.
Party activists also staged protests in several parts of Karnataka including the coastal district headquarters town of Udupi accusing the Congress of indulging in ''appeasement politics.'' In Bengaluru, the activists raised slogans near Parameshwara's residence alleging that he is ''preparing ground'' to withdraw police cases against the rioters of DJ Halli and KG Halli riots three years ago in which the then sitting Congress Dalit MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy's house and KG Halli police stations were torched.
Three people were killed and over 50 injured in the riots that erupted in D J Halli and K G Halli, allegedly due to a derogatory social media post by a relative of the Murthy in August 2020. Parameshwara has asked officials to examine the request by a Congress MLA to withdraw cases against ''innocent'' youths and students, who were arrested under ''false cases'' in connection with protests and riots in Bengaluru's D J Halli and K G Halli, Shivamogga and Hubballi among other places.
The Opposition BJP has sharply reacted to this and has accused the Congress government in the state of giving ''clean chit to the communal criminals of one community, and playing to the tune of Jihadists and PFI terrorists''.
Parameshwara has, in a July 19 note to Principal Secretary-Prisons, Civil Defence and Auxiliary Services (PCAS), Home Department, cited a request letter by Narasimharaja MLA and former Minister Tanveer Sait in this regard.
''It has been requested that innocent youths and students have been arrested under false cases in connection with protests and riots in Bengaluru's D J Halli and K G Halli, Shivamogga, Hubballi and other places, and to withdraw cases in accordance with rules, after review. It is instructed to take necessary action in this regard after review,'' the Home Minister's note said.
The activists who marched towards Parameshwara's residence raised slogans: ''We condemn the Congress government supporting the DJ Halli and KG Halli 'terrorists'.'' In 'Freedom Park' here, the women's wing of BJP staged a sit-in demonstration. They shouted slogans accusing the Congress government of shielding the accused girls in the washroom video case..
Three people were killed and over 50 injured in the riots that erupted in D J Halli and K G Halli, allegedly due to a derogatory social media post by a relative of the Murthy in August 2020. Parameshwara has asked officials to examine the request by a Congress MLA to withdraw cases against ''innocent'' youths and students, who were arrested under ''false cases'' in connection with protests and riots in Bengaluru's D J Halli and K G Halli, Shivamogga and Hubballi among other places.
The Opposition BJP has sharply reacted to this and has accused the Congress government in the state of giving ''clean chit to the communal criminals of one community, and playing to the tune of Jihadists and PFI terrorists''.
Parameshwara has, in a July 19 note to Principal Secretary-Prisons, Civil Defence and Auxiliary Services (PCAS), Home Department, cited a request letter by Narasimharaja MLA and former Minister Tanveer Sait in this regard.
''It has been requested that innocent youths and students have been arrested under false cases in connection with protests and riots in Bengaluru's D J Halli and K G Halli, Shivamogga, Hubballi and other places, and to withdraw cases in accordance with rules, after review. It is instructed to take necessary action in this regard after review,'' the Home Minister's note said.
The activists who marched towards Parameshwara's residence raised slogans: ''We condemn the Congress government supporting the DJ Halli and KG Halli 'terrorists'.'' In 'Freedom Park' here, the women's wing of BJP staged a sit-in demonstration. They shouted slogans accusing the Congress government of shielding the accused girls in the washroom video case.
The BJP activists also alleged that the Congress government was ''diluting'' the Udupi case. Police have filed an FIR against three girl students -- Shabnaz, Alfia and Aleema -- and the management of the paramedical college where the alleged incident of secretly filming a fellow student in a washroom took place last week. The three students have been suspended from the college. Due to the police barricades, the activists couldn't go near the minister's house. They were all detained and taken away.
In Udupi, students and the members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad too staged demonstrations against the Congress government.
During the protest, the ABVP activists, in which a majority were girls, raised slogans seeking ''justice''. They also sought to know why there was a delay in registering a case.
They demanded an independent and fair inquiry into the case.
Meanwhile, Parameshwara said he never called the Udupi incident an innocent act of children.
''You all have studied in college. Sometimes certain things used to happen between the students and we would resolve it amongst us. That shouldn't be a big issue,'' Parameshwara told reporters here.
He also said such issues should be left among students only.
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Ahmedabad plane crash: Six months on, college hostel lies in ruins, sans bustle of students
Ahmedabad (PTI): Six months after the AI-171 plane crash, the B J Medical College hostel complex in Ahmedabad stands as a haunting reminder, with its charred walls and burnt trees replacing the once lively chatter of students with an eerie stillness.
Scattered across the crash site are grim remnants of daily life - burnt cars and motorcycles, twisted beds and furniture, charred books, clothes and personal belongings.
The Atulyam-4 hostel building and the adjoining canteen complex stand abandoned, with entry strictly prohibited.
For residents near the site, memories of the incident still linger, casting a lasting shadow on their lives, with some of them saying they are still afraid to look up at the sky when an aircraft passes overhead.
On June 12, Air India flight AI-171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London, crashed moments after take-off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, killing 260 persons.
The aircraft slammed into the BJ Medical College hostel complex in Meghaninagar, turning a lively student neighbourhood into a landscape of ruin and grief.
"The area now lies very silent, only a few birds chirp here," Sanjaybhai, a security guard deployed at the premises by authorities to prevent trespassing, told PTI.
Mahendrasingh Jadeja, a general store owner whose shop is just 50 metres from the point where the aircraft struck, described it as an unimaginable calamity. "In all my years, I have never seen anything like this."
Pointing to a tree behind his shop, the 60-year-old said the aircraft first struck there before crashing into the hostel building.
"It was a scorching summer afternoon. Not many people were outside. When I heard a loud crashing sound, I ran out of my shop. We were all terrified," he recalled.
"Even today, we instinctively look up whenever a plane passes overhead," he added.
Another local, Manubhai Rajput, who lives barely 200 metres from the site, said he witnessed the horror unfold on June 12.
"The plane was flying unusually low. Before I could understand what was happening, there was thick black smoke and a deafening crash," he said.
For over three decades, Rajput and his neighbours lived close to the airport without giving much thought to the aircraft overhead.
"We never looked up at the sky. But that day is etched in my mind. The plane hit a tree first, and then there was a loud sound," he said.
Rajput recalled how hundreds of locals rushed to the site even before police, fire services or the Army arrived.
Tinaben, another resident of Meghaninagar, said she never imagined something like this could happen in Ahmedabad.
"Despite being close to the airport, this area always felt safe," she said.
As an aircraft roared overhead during the conversation, Tinaben paused, looked up nervously and said, "It's still scary."
A senior official of Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the state government has yet to decide what to do with the damaged site.
Currently, investigations are going on and the site is strictly prohibited for people, he added.
