Dalit BJP MP denied entry into Karnataka village
BENGALURU:LOCAL villagers in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district allegedly stopped Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker A Narayanaswamy from entering their village because he is Dalit, prompting authorities to order an inquiry on Tuesday.
Narayanswamy and state minister Jagadish Shettar confirmed that the Chitradurga MP was allegedly stopped on Monday at Gollarahatti, a village dominated by the backward Yadava community, because of his caste. The BJP’S lawmaker was on a visit to the village to discuss drinking water problems.
”I visited the village as part of a team to provide reverse osmosis water plants in every school in the village, when I was denied entry by a group of residents,” Narayanaswamy said.
“I could have forcibly entered the village but chose not to do so because I didn’t want to make the situation worse,” Narayanswamy said. “I think the incident highlights how much more work is required to be done in terms of educating the people about the Constitution and about human equality,” he added.
The lawmaker said he had requested the authorities not to press charges against anybody in the village.
Meanwhile, some villagers told local TV channels that according to their tradition, “Dalits cannot enter” their community settlement. KOLKATA/NEWDELHI:FORMER Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Tuesday failed to get relief from a district and sessions court in West Bengal’s Barasat on his anticipatory bail application in the Saradha chit fund case, hours after a special court refused to hear his plea.
Kumar was served a fresh notice by the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) to appear before it for assisting in the probe in the case after the Calcutta High Court on September 13 vacated its interim order granting him protection from arrest in the chit-fund case. But the IPS officer did not show up. Sessions judge S Rashidi disposed of Kumar’s anticipatory bail plea and said it has no jurisdiction in the matter as the multi-crore case was registered at Alipore district court.
While the Barasat court is in North 24 Parganas district, the Alipore court is in adjacent South 24-Parganas.
Kumar’s lawyers moved the prayer before the sessions judge after a special court in the district, incharge of trial of criminal cases against MPS and MLAS, refused to hear the petition , saying it does not have jurisdiction to hear anticipatory bail pleas. It also said Kumar
could move the court of Barasat district sessions judge with his application.
CBI has formed special teams to locate Rajeev Kumar as he is repeatedly avoiding agency summons, according to two officials aware of the developments.
The special teams will look for Kumar within the state of West Bengal, where the officials cited above believe he is currently hiding. “The decision to form special teams in West Bengal has been taken after Kumar
didn’t respond to three CBI summons in last four days. We had also written to the state DGP asking him to convey to Kumar that he needs to appear for CBI on Monday. The state DGP informed us that he is on leave till September 25. Then his lawyer was informed and Kumar was asked to appear today at 10 am. But again he didn’t turn up. He is evading the probe and there is a risk that he may go underground for a long time,” said one of the officials..