K'taka's stand on boundary dispute justified, confident of "good outcome": CM ahead of SC hearing
Bengaluru/New Delhi, Nov 29: Set for a legal battle with Maharashtra over the border dispute, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday expressed confidence about a "good outcome", as he asserted that as per the Constitution and the States Reorganisation Act, the state's stand is justified.
The Chief Minister is in New Delhi and held discussions with senior advocate in the state's legal panel Mukul Rohatgi, in the wake of the case coming up before the Supreme Court for hearing on November 30.
"I have met Rohatgi on the border dispute, the advocate general has briefed things, I too shared inputs regarding the background on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border issue and we discussed the legal status. He told me that all the preparations have been made for tomorrow," Bommai said.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Rohatgi in the national capital, he said, the important thing is the maintainability of Maharashtra's case.
"In 2017, the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Deepak Mishra had framed preliminary issues regarding the maintainability of the case, which was challenged by Maharashtra. What should be our objections or arguments to it has been decided, and we are confident that as per the Constitution and the States Reorganisation Act Karnataka's stand is justified. We are confident of a good outcome," he added.
The border dispute dates back to the 1960s after the reorganisation of states on linguistic lines.
Maharashtra laid claim to Belagavi which was part of the erstwhile Bombay Presidency as it has a sizable Marathi-speaking population. It also laid claim to 80 Marathi-speaking villages which are currently part of Karnataka.
Responding to a question on damages caused to Karnataka's vehicles in Maharashtra during the last couple of days, the CM said, such things have happened earlier too, "due to internal politics" in that state, as part of an attempt by political parties there, to "showcase their seriousness" on the border issue.
"I had asked our Home Secretary and Chief Secretary to speak to their counterparts in Maharashtra to control such things and now it has been controlled to an extent," he said.
To another query on people of more than 40 villages in Maharashtra, bordering Karnataka, wanting to meet him, with a demand to merge their areas with the state, Bommai said any further decision on this will be taken only after consulting all political parties in the state and legal experts.
"This stand by them (people in border villages) is not new, I too have spoken about it.... but the issue is before the Supreme Court, so it has to be decided after consulting all political parties and legal experts," he said.
Responding to a reported statement by leader of opposition Siddaramaiah, questioning as to why not include those villages of Maharashtra, as desired by the people there, Bommai called it a political statement.
"When he (Siddaramaiah) was the Chief Minister a similar resolution was made, why did he not join them then? The question is not that, for joining parts of the other state, things have to be considered legally. I'm a responsible Chief Minister and everything has to be done within the Constitutional and legal framework," he added.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
