HC expresses displeasure over absence of MP Prajwal Revanna during hearing of election petition
Bengaluru, Jun 17: The High Court of Karnataka on Friday expressed displeasure over Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna not being present during the hearing of an election petition (EP) challenging his election. The court witnessed the chief examination of the EP filed by one G Devarajegowda, a voter from the constituency.
The matter came up for hearing before Justice K Natarajan.
Justice Natarajan who is on the roster in the Dharwad Bench was in Bengaluru today to hear the petition. The EP challenged Revanna's election on grounds that he had not secured the maximum number of valid votes. The petition alleged bribery and non-disclosure of assets.
Noticing that the first respondent Revanna himself was not present at the hearing, the court observed, "You can't pay advocates to attend the case and stay away."
During the examination, the petitioner-witness pointed out various instances wherein the assets declared by Revanna were allegedly wrong.
The second respondent in the case is A Manju, the defeated candidate in the same election.
His chief examination was also conducted by the petitioner's counsel and senior advocate Pramila Nesargi today.
During the examination, the example of the "Chennambika Conventional Hall" was cited, which is said to be worth at least Rs five crore but declared as worth only Rs 14 lakh. Another example was a bank balance in an account declared as Rs five lakh but allegedly having a deposit of Rs 48 lakh.
It was alleged that there were several benami' assets of the MP and income tax fraud.
The Court adjourned the hearing to June 24.
This EP was earlier dismissed by the High Court on technical grounds that the annexures were not attested. The Supreme Court, however, set aside that order and sent the petition back for hearing.
Another EP was filed against Prajwal Revanna by A Manju, the defeated candidate in the Lok Sabha election held in 2019.
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Formulate model SOP for trekking safety in Karnataka: Minister Khandre tells officials
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre has instructed authorities to formulate a standard operating procedure (SOP) for trekking safety, intended to serve as a national model.
The Minister issued the instruction in writing to the chief wildlife warden in the wake of the disappearance of a woman from Kerala in the dense Tadiandamol forest, and the search for a minor girl in Chandradrona hills, his office said in a release on Thursday.
Like the ‘e-Gastu’ app already developed by the Forest Department and the ‘MStripes’ app used in tiger reserves, if a similar kind of app is temporarily installed on the mobile phones of trekkers during the trek, it will be easier to track those who go astray, hence the Forest Minister has directed to take steps to develop the app and provide group insurance to trekkers, it said.
In addition, Khandre has suggested that nature guides should be equipped with wireless communication sets and they should be held accountable for safety and coordination of trekking groups under their supervision, it added.
