Paris Olympics: India wins 4th bronze medal, defeats Spain in Bronze medal match in Hockey
India win medals in consecutive Olympics in Hockey after 52 years
Paris, Aug 8: Skipper Harmanpreet Singh rose to the occasion once again with twin strikes as the Indian hockey team beat Spain 2-1 to claim a second consecutive bronze medal at the Olympics and give a perfect send-off to veteran custodian P R Sreejesh here on Thursday.
The Indians recovered from the heart-wrenching 2-3 defeat to Germany in the semifinal and played positive hockey for most part of the match to come out trumps.
Harmanpreet (30th, 33rd minutes) converted two penalty corners after Spain skipper Marc Miralles gave his side the lead against the run of play in the 18th minute from a penalty stroke.
The Indians regrouped themselves and showed their mental strength to claim another podium finish at the world's biggest sporting spectacle. This was after they broke a 41-year jinx by claiming a bronze in Tokyo three years ago.
The 36-year-old Sreejesh came up with some excellent saves to leave his mark in the final game of his illustrious career that spanned 18 years.
The Indians were the aggressors in the first quarter, dominating the early exchanges with precision, but Spain came back hard after the first 15 minutes.
Spain had nine penalty corners as against India's six of which the latter converted two.
Spain did have better share of possession but India were the more offensive side as they penetrated the Spanish defence regularly in the first 15 minutes.
They walked in with more purpose and intensity in the second quarter and pressed hard on the Indian goal.
Spain took the lead in the 18th minute but Harmanpreet brought his A game to the fore yet again to steer India through.
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SIT files charge sheet in 'vote theft' case, names ex-BJP MLA, son, 5 others
Bengaluru (PTI): The SIT which is probing the alleged 'vote chori' (vote theft)' in the Aland Assembly segment in 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka, has filed a charge sheet naming seven persons, including a former BJP MLA, his son and his close aide.
The charge sheet, filed before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate in Bengaluru by the Special Investigation Team, relates to alleged efforts to remove the names of 5,994 voters.
According to sources in the CID, the charge sheet comprises over 22,000 pages explaining in detail the modus operandi adopted to delete the voters' names.
Those named in the charge sheet are Subhash Guttedar, a four-time former MLA from Aland, his son Harshanand Guttedar, his personal secretary, Tipperudra, three Kalaburagi-based data centre operators-- Akram Pasha, Mukaram Pasha and Mohammed Ashfaq-- and Bapi Adya from West Bengal.
Adya was the first person to be arrested in the case. He allegedly operated a website, OTPbazaar, which was linked to a US-based platform to provide an "OTP bypass" facility. He was later released on bail.
A special court had earlier granted anticipatory bail to Guttedar, his son and Tipperudra, sources said.
On Saturday, Harshanand rubbished the charges against him saying he and his father has been framed in a false case.
Meanwhile, speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the campaign against vote chori drive has started from the Freedom Park in Bengaluru.
On Sunday, a protest rally against vote chori has been organised at Ram Leela Maidan in Delhi where thousands of people are going to take part, he added.
Congress leaders from across the state and more than 100 legislators are taking part in it, the Deputy CM said.
Shivakumar said he is also going to Delhi to attend the protest rally. He being the Congress Karnataka state unit president has to make arrangements for the accommodation of people from the state.
"We may have faced defeat but we are confident about spreading awareness among people. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has organised the protest while AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge is leading the campaign. We are going there to support them," the Deputy CM said.
