Siddaramaiah dares BJP to come clean on bid to topple Cong-JDS govt
Bengaluru, Jan 2 : Former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah Wednesday challenged the BJP to come clean on its alleged attempts to bribe his party MLAs to destabilise the coalition government in the state.
The Congress leaders are locked in a war of attrition with the BJP ever since the ministry was recently expanded and reshuffled, amid reports that the saffron party was in touch with disgruntled MLAs who missed ministerial berths.
"I am not indulging in a blame game with the BJP in connection with attempts to bribe the MLAs. There is a basis behind the statement. Is it not true that they (BJP) made an offer to B C Patil? When the time is ripe, I will disclose a few more things," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.
Two days ago, the leader of the Congress Legislature Party had alleged that the BJP had made a fresh attempt to topple the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government by offering Rs 25 to 30 crore to the legislators.
Rubbishing the charge, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president B S Yeddyurappa had asked Siddaramaiah to speak responsibly and provide evidence to back his charge.
Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara too had on Tuesday accused the BJP of making a fresh bid to topple the government, claiming that efforts were underway to arrange a meeting of his party's disgruntled MLAs with BJP president Amit Shah.
Parameshwara's charge had come amid reports that aggrieved Congress MLA, Ramesh Jarkiholi, who was dropped from the ministry in the recent reshuffle, was camping in Delhi.
Jarkiholi, who claims to have the support of a significant number of Congress MLAs, has remained incommunicado since he was removed from the ministry.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
