Bengaluru, Feb 14: Glowing tributes were paid to eminent playback singer and Bharat Ratna awardee Lata Mangeshkar, who passed away recently, along with others in the Karnataka assembly on Monday.

Speaking in the assembly, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said words fall short to portray Lataji's personality.

"Lata Mangeshkar was a special creation of God. The purity of Saraswati flowed through her voice. She would give life to the lyrics with her scintillating voice in a way that the song would remain etched in the memory forever," Bommai said.

In his tribute to Mangeshkar, Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah said the Bharat Ratna recipient was an unparalleled singer who had become a living legend by singing over 30,000 songs.

She sang over 10,000 Hindi songs and lent her voice for songs in 36 different languages, Siddaramaiah said.

Hailing the emotions that Mangeshkar would pour into her songs, the former chief minister said 'Aye Mere Vatan Ke Logon', which was a tribute to the soldiers who died during the 1962 Sino-India war, had brought tears to the eyes of then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru.

The assembly also paid tributes to former minister and former chief secretary J Alexander, former MLA M M Sajjan, former minister H B Patil, Prof Chandrashekhar Patil, religious orator Ibrahim Sutar and Justice K L Manjunath.

After the homage, the assembly was adjourned for the day.

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New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant bail on medical grounds to former chairman of the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) E Abubacker in a case registered against him under anti-terror law UAPA.

Abubacker, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) during a massive crackdown on the organisation in 2022, had approached the high court after the trial court rejected his bail application.

A bench of Justices MM Sundresh and Rajesh Bindal said it was not inclined to release Abubacker at this stage after looking at the medical report.

According to the central anti-terror agency, the PFI, its office bearers and members hatched a criminal conspiracy to raise funds for committing acts of terror in various parts of the country and were organising camps to indoctrinate and train their cadre for this purpose.

In his plea, Abubacker claimed he is in his 70s, has Parkinson's disease, and had also undergone surgery for treatment of cancer. He contended that on merits also he was entitled to bail as the NIA has "miserably" failed to put together a case against him.

Abubacker was arrested on September 22, 2022.

The arrests were made in Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Delhi and Rajasthan.