Karnataka govt appoints one-man judicial commission to probe PSI recruitment scam
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka government has constituted a one-man judicial commission to inquire into the police sub-inspector (PSI) recruitment scam.
Retired Karnataka High Court judge B Veerappa will conduct the probe, and the government notification constituting the probe has set a deadline of three months for the inquiry.
The Congress had strongly taken on the then BJP government over alleged irregularities and corruption in the recruitment of 545 PSIs. It was one among its major ammunitions against the saffron party during the campaign for the Assembly polls.
Following allegations that the exam results were manipulated, the then government had ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which arrested several officials from the Police Recruitment Cell, including its then chief Additional Director-General of Police Amrit Paul and also a large number of candidates who appeared for the exam.
The government had also annulled the results of the exam and decided to hold a re-exam, which is yet to happen.
The order constituting the judicial inquiry lists four questions as its terms of reference: Were rules violated during the process of recruiting 545 PSIs? What were the violations or illegalities and at what level were they committed? Who are the persons that gained undue benefit from the illegalities? What measures can the government take to hold the PSI recruitment exam as per rules and in a transparent manner?
The order has also asked the CID and the police recruitment wing to cooperate with the commission by providing necessary documents and information.
Further, the DG & IGP has been asked make sure the commission gets an office in Bengaluru with the required facilities and staff.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
