Karnataka Lokayukta raids Bangalore Development Authority office following complaints
Bengaluru, Feb 10: The Karnataka Lokayukta police on Friday raided the Bangalore Development Authority's office following many complaints and public grievance petitions against the agency.
According to a senior Lokayukta officer, the teams swooped down at the BDA office here in the morning and carried out searches in six different sections of the agency with several files being scrutinised.
Later speaking to reporters, Karnataka Lokayukta Justice B S Patil said the searches were conducted following many complaints flooding the Lokayukta office.
"We will investigate the cases in a systematic way, so that people should not face such problems in future. We have to investigate the previous cases and streamline things for future," Justice Patil said.
"We are scrutinising all the files. We will open all the pending cases even if it takes 12 midnight or 1 am. We will bring out everything," the Lokayukta said.
Refraining from sharing the details, Justice Patil said this was not the right time to share details and asked people to wait for the right time.
"We are in the process of investigation. We will not share the details. We will only tell you that our team has come and started investigation. We will seize all the documents and conducted searches if required," he added.
According to sources in the BDA, there were complaints of large-scale irregularities in the BDA with regard to some layout formation, distribution of plots, land acquisition processes and denotification of acquired land.
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Dalit groom prays at temple near Ambedkar's birthplace in police presence
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Indore (PTI): A groom from the Dalit community had to offer prayers at a Lord Ram temple, located near Dr B R Ambedkar's birthplace, in police presence after an argument between two groups in a village here.
The incident took place on Monday, when the country celebrated the birth anniversary of the Constitution's chief architect and social reformer Ambedkar, a revered figure among Dalits who was born on April 14, 1891 at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district.
As per accounts provided by eyewitnesses and videos on social media, the groom, who arrived at the temple in Sanghvi village, 25 km from Mhow, with his marriage procession and guests, offered prayers at the temple along with a few of his family members in the presence of police.
The police, however, denied claims that the Dalit man was prevented from entering the temple, and asserted there was an argument between two groups over entering the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine, where only priests are allowed as per local traditions.
Some videos of the incident have surfaced on social media. In one of the videos, the groom is seen standing outside the temple with his marriage procession and 'baraatis' (guests) arguing with the other side, said to be members of a privileged caste.
After a controversy erupted, police issued a statement clarifying the entire episode.
"A rumour that a Dalit groom was prevented from entering the temple in Sanghvi village in the Betma police station area is being circulated on social media, which is misleading. The groom and his family went to the temple and prayed. After this, the wedding procession was taken out peacefully," statement said.
On receiving information about the argument between the wedding party members and the other group, a police team reached the spot and resolved the issue by convincing people of both the sides regarding entering the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, it said.
After offering prayers at the temple, the wedding procession left for its destination, the statement said.
Betma police station in-charge Meena Karnawat told PTI, "In Sanghvi village, no one stopped the groom from a Scheduled Caste to enter the temple. The 'baraati' side was talking about entering the temple's sanctum sanctorum, where according to local traditions, only priests are allowed. No devotee goes inside the sanctum sanctorum of this temple.''
The groom belonged to the Balai community.
Manoj Parmar, president of the All India Balai Mahasangh, said, "Due to the frustrated mentality of some people, our community still has to face caste discrimination in rural areas. The groom from the Dalit community was able to offer prayers at the temple under police protection after nearly two hours of argument."
