Cong attacks BJP for 'brazen attempt' to destabilise Karnataka govt
Bengaluru, Jan 16: The Congress Wednesday slammed the BJP for its "brazen attempt" to destabilise the party's coalition government with JDS in Karnataka.
A political crisis is brewing in the state, where two Independent MLAs Tuesday withdrew support to the seven-month-old ministry amid trading of poaching charges by the ruling coalition and BJP.
The BJP's Karnataka MLAs have been camping at a resort in Haryana in an "effort to thwart any poaching attempt" by the ruling JDS-Congress coalition.
"The entire confusion has been created by the BJP. Was that really required? They did it brazenly throwing morality and ethics to the wind. It is shameful and disgusting," Karnataka Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
Blaming prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah for the current political crisis is Karnataka, Rao said the party under their aegis has become "anti-constitutional."
"The topic for discussion should not be the stability of our government but what BJP has reduced to under Modi and Amit Shah. The BJP today has become an anti-constitutional party.
"It is misusing the government machinery to threaten the MLAs and their rivals," he alleged.
Allaying fears over the stability of the Congress-JDS dispensation, Rao said, "All our MLAs are intact and nobody is going anywhere. They are all with us together."
The party has taken measures to address whatever grievances some people have but all the MLAs are very much in the party and nobody is going away, he added.
After two MLAs-- R Shankar and H Nagesh-- withdrew their support to the government Tuesday, rumour mill has been agog that the government's fall was imminent as many other Congress MLAs may follow suit and resign from their respective constituencies.
Despite claims that all the MLAs were with the party, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Umesh Jadhav remained incommunicado.
Congress spokesperson Subhash Agarwal said these two MLAs may not be in touch at this moment but they were very much in the party.
"Our party is stable. Those two MLAs withdrawing support is of no consequence. Numbers are in our favour and there is no threat to the government," he said.
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Snake venom case: SC quashes FIR, proceedings against YouTuber Elvish Yadav
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday quashed an FIR and subsequent proceedings against YouTuber Elvish Yadav under the Wildlife (Protection) Act in the snake venom case registered by Uttar Pradesh Police in 2023.
A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and N Kotiswar Singh said the case cannot be sustained in law as the complaint under the Wildlife (Protection) Act was not filed by an authorised person.
It said that offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) invoked in the FIR against Yadav were based on an earlier FIR registered in Gurugram, in which a closure report has been filed.
Referring to the provisions of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substance Act (NDPS) Act invoked in the FIR against Yadav, the bench said these cannot be invoked as the liquid substance (anti-venom) recovered from the co-accused was not a prescribed substance under the schedule.
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It referred to the earlier decisions of the court and said that the case against Yadav cannot be sustained in law, quashing the FIR and subsequent proceedings, including filing of the chargesheet and cognisance order of the trial court.
The case against Yadav was registered on November 22, 2023, and he was arrested on March 17, 2024, for the alleged use of snake venom at a rave party in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
The controversial YouTuber challenged an Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash the chargesheet and the cognisance order of the trial court, terming it a serious offence.
On August 6 last year, the apex court stayed proceedings in the trial court against Yadav in the case.
The chargesheet alleged the consumption of snake venom as a recreational drug at "rave" parties by people, including foreigners.
Yadav's counsel had argued in the high court that no snakes, narcotics or psychotropic substances were recovered from him and no causal link was established between the applicant and the co-accused.
Though the informant was no longer an animal welfare officer, he filed the FIR showing himself to be one, the counsel had added.
Calling Yadav a "well-known influencer" and someone who appears in multiple reality shows on television, the counsel had said his involvement in the FIR garnered "much media attention".
