Controversial video of senior K'taka police officer goes viral, CM warns of action
Bengaluru (PTI): A video purportedly showing Karnataka DGP (Civil Rights Enforcement) K Ramachandra Rao in an alleged compromising position with women went viral in the social media on Monday.
Rao sought to reject the videos outright terming them "fabricated and false."
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah warned of action if the official was found guilty. The DGP's attempt to clarify his position with Home Minister G Parameshwara did not fructify.
The top police officer is the stepfather of Harshavardhini Ranya alias Ranya Rao, arrested in a sensational gold smuggling case and currently lodged in the Bengaluru Central Jail.
Kannada TV news channels too aired the blurred images of women in the video.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, "We will get it investigated."
"I got to know about it in the morning. We will initiate disciplinary action against him. No one is above law, notwithstanding how senior the police officer is," he said responding the controversy surrounding the Director General of Police.
As the videos went viral, Rao rushed to meet Parameshwara but the meeting did not take place.
Speaking to reporters outside the minister's house, he said, "I am also thinking how and when it happened and who has done it. In this era anything can happen. I have no idea about it.”
When reporters said that this is an old video, he said, "Old means, eight years ago when I was in Belagavi."
Asked about his next course of action, he said he would discuss with his advocate about it.
"I am shocked. It is all fabricated, lie. The video is all false. I have no idea about it," Rao said.
When reporters asked how this happened, he said, "I will know only if it had happened. I don't know about it."
He added that he will explain to the Home Minister that false information is being spread.
Karnataka minister Laxmi Hebbalkar said the government will take action if someone has done something wrong.
"Being the Woman and Child Development Minister I can tell you that we will take action mercilessly, irrespective of the seniority he holds," she told reporters.
Senior BJP MLA and former Minister S Suresh Kumar slammed the "disgraceful act of police officer" as "an inexcusable crime".
"Rao has committed an act that has brought a blot on the entire police department. The act committed by this senior officer, in uniform and within his own office, has made people view the police department itself with suspicion and doubt," Kumar said in a statement.
The MLA alleged that earlier when large-scale gold smuggling had taken place by misusing the official's name and position, the government had washed its hands of the matter by sending him on compulsory leave.
Social activist Dinesh Kallahalli demanded Rao's suspension.
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Woman declared foreigner gets Indian citizenship under CAA
Guwahati (PTI): A woman, who spent two years in detention after being declared a foreigner, has been granted Indian citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam's Cachar district, her lawyer said.
The woman, identified as 59-year-old Depali Das, a resident of the Hawaithang area under the Dholai assembly constituency, was declared an illegal migrant by a Foreigners' Tribunal (FT) in February 2019.
Depali is the first declared foreigner in Assam who had once been lodged in a detention centre and later released on bail to receive Indian citizenship under the CAA.
The police detained her after the tribunal's order and sent her to the Silchar detention centre on May 10, the same year, where she remained for nearly two years before being released on bail on May 17, 2021, following a Supreme Court order, her lawyer Dharmananda Deb said.
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Depali was originally a resident of Dippur village under Dhirai police station in Bangladesh's Sylhet district and had married Abhimanyu Das of Parai village under Baniachong police station in Habiganj district in 1987, he said.
A year later, in 1988, the couple entered India and moved to Cachar district, where they have been living since then.
Her citizenship came under scrutiny in 2013 when police initiated an inquiry against her, and a chargesheet was submitted by the police on July 2, 2013, stating that Depali was a resident of Baniachong in Bangladesh and had entered India illegally after March 1971, Deb said.
"The chargesheet later proved crucial in her application for Indian citizenship under the CAA because the applicant must provide documentary evidence showing migration from Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan," he said.
"In most cases, applicants fail to produce such documents, but in Depali's case, the chargesheet submitted by the police officer in 2013 clearly mentioned that she was from Bangladesh. The authorities accepted this document as valid proof," he added.
After her release on bail in 2021, she wanted to apply for citizenship under the CAA and had approached Deb for legal assistance once the rules of the Act were notified in 2024.
Her first hearing took place on February 24 last year at the office of the Superintendent of Post Offices in Silchar, which is designated to process such applications.
Two more hearings were held subsequently, after which all her documents were submitted online to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
"She was called to the office of the Superintendent of Post Offices in Silchar for a final appearance on May 25 last year after the field verification by Home Ministry officials, and on March 6, she received her Indian citizenship certificate," social activist Kamal Chakraborty said.
Her three children, a son and three daughters, can now rely on their mother's citizenship certificate if their own citizenship is ever questioned in the future, since all the children were born in India, he added.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed by Parliament on December 11, 2019, triggered widespread protests across the country, particularly in Assam.
The Act allows Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Parsi migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India between March 25, 1971 and December 31, 2014 to apply for Indian citizenship.
Before Das, four Bangladeshi nationals living in Assam were granted Indian citizenship under the CAA.
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