Special court will deal with Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi murder cases: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru: Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah has order the setting up of a special court to quicken the hearings in the cases of murder of rationalist MM Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh, who were both known for holding strong views and being vocal against communalism and religious fundamentalism.
The investigations of the cases have revealed that the murders had been ideologically motivated and linked to a wider conspiracy that targeted left-weaning activists.
Kalburgi had been shot dead outside his house in Dharwad in August 2015. The legal proceedings had been consistently delayed although the charge sheet was submitted in 2018 and family inquiries had been completed. Following persistent requests by Umadevi M, the CM, in an order dated December 2, directed the initiation of necessary action to form a special court exclusively for the Kalburgi murder case.
Gauri Lankesh, who was a journalist, was assassinated in a similar manner in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. The police arrested 18 persons for involvement in the case, and also presented a comprehensive charge sheet with as many as 1,200 pieces of evidence in the murder case.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had said in the charge sheet filed in 2019 that 'Sanatan Sanstha', the Hindu extremist organization, was responsible for the murder of Gauri Lankesh, adding that the murder was linked to the killing of other activists and rationalists like Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare. The police officers had concluded that a common group, driven by ideological motives, was behind the murders.
The trial began in July 2022 but was hampered by the court backlog. In response to the Gauri Lankesh's sister Kavita Lankesh's plea, Siddaramaiah ordered the formation of the special court with a full-time judge.
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Teachers start relay hunger strike to protest job loss, police action
Kolkata (PTI): A section of teachers who lost their jobs following a Supreme Court judgment which held that the whole appointment process was tainted, on Thursday began a relay hunger strike outside the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC) office in protest over the issue.
Joining the protesters, BJP MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay who is a former judge of the Calcutta High Court, blamed the state administration and its wings for their plight.
The teachers and other staff who lost their jobs said that they were also protesting police action against their compatriots at the district inspector (DI) of schools' office at Kasba in south Kolkata on Wednesday.
"We started a relay hunger strike agitation with one teacher at the beginning and will soon chalk out further programme to protest the issue," one of the protesters told reporters outside the SSC office at Salt Lake here.
The agitating teachers have been holding a sit-in outside the SSC office building 'Acharya Sadan' since Wednesday night to protest the loss of jobs and police action against their compatriots.
The protesters alleged they were subjected to baton-charge and were even kicked and shoved around by law enforcement personnel during their agitation outside the DI office, situated beside Kasba police station of the Kolkata Police.
Noting that the police have lodged cases against the protesting teachers over Wednesday's protest at Kasba, Gangopadhyay said that this should not have been done.
"Cases have been lodged against innocent teachers who lost their jobs for the illegal acts of others," the BJP MP told reporters.
Maintaining that he had not gone to meet Education Minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday in protest against the police action, he said that the BJP leadership was with him in his decision.
Gangopadhyay said that he, along with former Rajya Sabha MP Rupa Ganguly, came to the protest site at Acharya Sadan to express solidarity with the teachers and other staff who lost their jobs.
Gangopadhyay, as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, had ordered a CBI investigation in November 2021 into alleged irregularities in the recruitment process.
He had also ordered the termination of more than 25,000 jobs of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government-run and -aided schools after finding irregularities in the process.
This order was upheld by a division bench of the high court and thereafter by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on April 3 upheld a 2024 Calcutta High Court judgment annulling the recruitment of 25,753 teaching and non-teaching staff appointed through a recruitment drive by SSC in 2016, terming the entire selection process "vitiated and tainted".
Those who were rendered jobless claimed that the reason behind their plight was the inability of the SSC to differentiate between the candidates who secured employment through fraudulent means and those who did not.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested former West Bengal education minister Partha Chatterjee and some others, who held positions in the state's SSC when the irregularities in the recruitment process took place.
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