Madikeri: Auto driver held for raping woman manual labourer returning from work in Ponnampet
Madikeri: Kodagu police officers arrested an auto rickshaw driver under charge of sexually assaulting a woman while she was returning home from work in Ponnampet recently.
The arrested Manikantha allegedly approached the woman, who was a manual labourer, in a Maruti Omni car in Ponnampet when she was on her way home at 5:30 pm on Sunday. He told the woman that he was going to Kunda and offered to drop her on the way. The woman, who wanted to go to B. Shettygeri, agreed for the drop.
The woman lodged a complaint with the Gonikoppa police on Thursday, alleging that Manikantha had stopped the car after a short distance, sexually assaulted her, also warned her not to file a complaint if she did not want to get killed, and left her on the road.
The Gonikoppa Police, who registered the complaint and investigated the matter, arrested Manikantha.
Virajpet DySP R Mohan Kumar, Gonikoppa Circle Inspector Vasant. K. M., Station officer Siddaraj and staff were a part of the investigating team.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
