Karnataka government to establish 33 Special Police Stations for SC/ST atrocity cases
Bengaluru: The Karnataka government announced on Thursday the establishment of 33 police stations dedicated to handling cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities. This initiative is aimed to improve the efficiency of investigations and increase the currently low conviction rates for such cases.
The state government plans to fill 450 vacancies in these new stations to ensure they operate effectively. This move is part of a broader effort to enhance the enforcement of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.
Karnataka joins states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala, which have already implemented similar measures. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah previously highlighted this initiative in his 2023-24 budget, focusing on strengthening the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement.
The state Cabinet has approved the creation of one special police station per district, with Bengaluru receiving two. Each station will be headed by an IPS officer of the rank of Deputy Superintendent or Assistant Commissioner of Police. The total expenditure for establishing and maintaining these stations is estimated to be around Rs 73 crore annually.
Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil, speaking after the Cabinet meeting, noted that local police forces are currently overburdened with various responsibilities, including law and order maintenance, traffic control, providing security to dignitaries, and election duties. This workload has adversely affected the efficiency of police investigations, particularly in cases of atrocities against SC/ST communities.
Minister Patil emphasized that the new specialized police stations would ensure quicker and more focused investigations of atrocity cases. He acknowledged the low conviction rates, citing that out of 7,633 registered cases since 2022, only 1,723 had been disposed of, with 1,363 acquittals and just 68 convictions—a mere 4 percent conviction rate.
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Video Does Not Show S Jaishankar Being Asked To Leave Trump’s Inauguration
CLAIM: Video shows External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar being asked to leave Trump's inauguration ceremony.
FACT CHECK: The live streaming of the event shows a staffer requesting a photographer, who was taking pictures, to move back from the front row, and not S Jaishankar.
A video from Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony as the 47th president of the United States has surfaced with false claims that it shows External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar being asked to leave the ceremony midway.
BOOM went through the live streaming of the event and found that a staffer was requesting a photographer who was taking pictures, to move back from the front row, and not Jaishankar. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met foreign ministers from Japan and Australia at the ceremony. In the photographs shared from his X handle, Jaishankar can be seen seated in the front row.
A user on X posted the video with the below caption.
Click here to view the post and here for an archive.
Fact Check
The video was streamed live on the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies' official YouTube channel on January 20, 2025.
From the 3:08:30 timestamp of the video, we found that a photographer was capturing moments from Trump's inaugural ceremony from various angles. At one point, she is seen stepping in front of External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, seated in the front row, to take photographs of the event.
After noticing the woman photographer taking pictures from the front row, a staffer came towards her, called the photographer, and requested her to move back. This can be seen from timestamp 3:08:50.
The staffer was then seen leaving the front row shortly after making the request. At the timestamp 3:09:18, the photographer can be seen moving back. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Jaishankar can be seen remaining seated in his position.
We then zoomed in on the video and was able to establish that it was the woman photographer and not Jaishankar, who was asked to move back. It can also be noticed that the staffer was not looking at Jaishankar, but instead looking at the photographer, as she was taking pictures from a lower angle.
That specific part of the live stream is shown below.
(This story was originally published by boomlive.in, and republished by english.varthabharati.in as part of the Shakti Collective)
