Aditi Ashok slips on final day, signs off with silver in women's golf
Hangzhou (PTI): Aditi Ashok's fortunes tumbled on the final day as she carded a topsy-turvy 73 to sign off with a silver for India's first medal in women's golf at the Asian Games here on Sunday.
Coming into the final day with a commanding seven-stroke lead, Aditi saw the advantage evaporate as she stumbled upon four bogeys and a double bogey against a lone birdie to slip to the second position.
The 25-year-old ended her campaign with a four-day aggregate of 17-under 271 as Thailand's Arpichaya Yubol held her nerves to produce her week's best card of 64 and claim the coveted gold medal.
Korea's Hyunjo Yoo, too, carded an improved 65 to win a bronze.
India's other two players, Pranavi Urs and Avani Prashanth, too struggled to bring home cards of 75 and 76 as the Indian women's team ended its campaign at the fourth place.
While the gold slipped out of her hands, it was still a creditable performance from the two-time Olympian from Bangalore, who had missed a medal by a whisker at the Tokyo Games after finishing fourth.
It was India's fourth individual medal in golf with Lakshman Singh and Shiv Kapur winning the gold in the 1982 and 2002 editions and Rajiv Mohta claiming a silver in New Delhi.
An Indian squad comprising Lakshman, Rajiv, Rishi Narain and Amit Luthra had won the team gold in 1982, while the country also won two team silver medals in 2006 and 2010 editions at Doha and Guangzhou.
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Assam Cong. leader Reetam Singh arrested for third time in a month
Guwahati: Assam Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh has been arrested for the third time in one month by the state police. Singh, known for his strong criticism of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on social media, reported The Wire.
It’s worth noting that Sarma is also the state’s Home Minister and has direct control over the police.
Singh who is also an Advocate was first arrested on March 15 by the Lakhimpur police after the wife of BJP MLA Manab Deka who is a close aide to CM Sarma filed a complaint. She claimed Singh had defamed her husband and her father in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Her father belongs to a Scheduled Caste, so the police charged Singh under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, along with defamation and IT Act charges.
The Gauhati High Court later granted Singh bail on March 28. According to the report, Congress MP and general secretary media in-charge Jairam Ramesh had stated that the Gauhati high court had found Singh’s arrest “riddled with procedural errors, evidencing the haste and illegality of the regime’s efforts to throttle his voice. Reetam was targeted by the State of Assam for his social media posts but now stands released from custody.”
Ramesh also in his statement asserted that no matter what the BJP government throws at the Congress workers and leaders, the party will continue to fight for the common public.
However, on April 12, Singh was arrested again this time by the Morigaon police based on another complaint under the same SC/ST law. The complaint came from a local BJP leader named Dhonti Sharma. Qouting a Press Trust of India report, The Wire reported that the police didn’t share details at first, saying the matter was still being investigated.
When Singh was brought to court on April 13, he told reporters that he was being targeted just for speaking about Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. After the court in Morigaon granted him bail, a different police team from Jagiroad arrested him once again.
A video of Singh’s third arrest has gone viral. It shows his father trying to talk to him through the police van, asking why he had been arrested again. When police refused, his father lay down in front of the van to stop it from leaving. Officers then removed him and asked him to visit the Jagiroad police station, about 27 km away, to get details.
Assam Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah condemned the arrest and accused the chief minister of trying to suppress free speech. He said Singh was being treated like a dangerous criminal even though all he did was criticize BJP leaders on social media. Borah also said, denying Singh’s parents a chance to see him was a violation of human rights.
This is not the first time Assam police has been in the news recently. They also arrested journalist Dilwar Hussain Mozumder while he was covering a protest at a co-operative bank linked to corruption. Chief Minister Sarma is a director of the same bank. Mozumder too was charged under the SC/ST Act and later granted bail. A few days after his release, his brother was arrested in a separate land-grabbing case.
