CBI files appeal before HC against acquittal of accused in Soujanya murder case
Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an appeal in the High Court of Karnataka against the acquittal of the accused in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old student in Dharmasthala by a lower court in July this year.
Soujanya, a student of SDM College in Ujire near Dharmasthala, was murdered on October 9, 2012.
The CBI had taken over the investigation and filed a charge sheet in 2015. Santhosh Rao, who spent six years in jail as an undertrial was released following the special CBI court verdict. The appeal is yet to be listed before a HC bench for hearing. The CBI had 60 days to file the appeal.
Earlier in September, the HC had refused to entertain a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking reinvestigation in the case. The HC had observed while rejecting the PIL that appeal against the acquittal should be filed by the investigating agency or the parents of the victim. The petitioners were allowed to withdraw their PIL. The victim's father had also filed a petition before that in 2018 seeking reinvestigation which was rejected by the HC in 2021.
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'Rear-guard action': BJP over Mamata accepting sports minister's resignation after Messi event
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Tuesday alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's accepting Aroop Biswas' resignation as the state sports minister is nothing but a "rear-guard action" to douse public anger over the mismanagement of football icon Lionel Messi's event last week.
BJP co-in-charge for West Bengal Amit Malviya alleged that this is also an "open confession" that the Messi event fiasco was not accidental but a government-manufactured disaster, borne out of the poor governance of Banerjee, her ministers and the state bureaucracy.
Banerjee on Tuesday accepted Biswas' resignation as the sports minister in the wake of the controversy over the mismanagement of football icon Messi's event last week, a senior leader of the ruling TMC said.
Biswas, who had written to the chief minister seeking to be relieved of his responsibilities as sports minister, will continue as a cabinet minister, retaining charge of the power department.
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Reacting to the development, Malviya said in a post on X, "TMC Sports Minister Aroop Biswas resigns after the Messi fiasco and Mamata Banerjee accepts it in record time."
"Do not mistake this for accountability; this is nothing but a rear-guard action to douse public anger. anger! This is not 'Raj Dharma'," he added.
The BJP leader alleged that the incident was the outcome of "loot" of common people which is "so synonymous" with the TMC.
The incident was also the outcome of the "shameless VIP culture that TMC thrives on and deep-rooted cronyism promoted by Banerjee," he charged.
Malviya further alleged that Biswas' resignation exposes a "collective failure of Mamata Banerjee, her partisan bureaucracy, and her crony cabinet".
"This is a symbolic sacrifice, a political hoax, soon to be buried under layers of bureaucracy, with no justice, no accountability, and no remorse," the BJP leader said, adding, "No resignation will bring back the time lost, the money wasted, or the stolen chance for football lovers to witness Messi in Kolkata."
