Siddaramaiah slams Tejasvi Surya over alleged BBMP bed scam, asks why he was silent for 10 days
Bengaluru: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday, slammed Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya over the alleged bed-blocking scandal in BBMP COVID War Room.
Stating that Tejasvi Surya named people in the alleged scam from one particular community, Siddaramaiah added the BJP leaders would take political mileage in everything, from food to death of people.
He took to his official Twitter handle to express his anguish over the matter and said “It is really unfortunate & insensitive on the part of @BJP4Karnataka MP @Tejasvi_Surya to communalize the issue. From food to death, BJP leaders want to earn political mileage by targeting few communities” he wrote.
He continued his attack on Surya who is also the national president of BJP’s Yuva Morcha in a series of tweets and questioned his credibility in bringing out the scam. He asked if Surya’s claim that he came to know about the scam ten days back, then why was he waiting for 10 days to come out with it. “Was he negotiating a deal with BBMP officers? Or was he preparing a script to protect @BJP4Karnataka leaders?” he asked.
@Tejasvi_Surya, Ravi Subramanya & Satish Reddy should have conducted a sting operation against @CMofKarnataka, @BJP4Karnataka ministers, MLAs & MPs also. This whole drama is to protect the image of his political bosses. BBMP officers & workers are just scapegoats” he wrote in another tweet.
“Like King Like Ministers. @narendramodi's actual slogan is 'Mai Bhi Khaunga, Thum Bhi Khao'. And @BJP4Karnataka leaders are following the same even in #Covid19 management & scam” he added.
“How much money has the PM Cares Fund received from the state? How much aid has flowed into the state? How many ventilators, ICU, and oxygen has the state received? By prohibiting the right to obtain information, who is Narendra Modi trying to save, is it you? Or the authorities?” he questioned.
“Chief Minister Yediyurappa is begging the Prime Minister by asking him to provide beds, Ventilator, and oxygen to the state’s corona patients like a beggar. Which burrow have the 25 BJP MPs of the state dug themselves into? The MPs who used to roar like tigers in the state and burrowed themselves like rats when it comes to standing before Narendra Modi, why?” Siddaramaiah questioned.
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US SC rejects 26/11 attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s plea seeking stay on his extradition to India
New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.
