NEWSMAKERS OF THE WEEK

HONEST OFFICER’S LIFE IS RATHER DIFFICULT. THE KARNAKATA GOVERNMENT HAS PROVED THIS ONCE AGAIN BY PENALISING POLICE OFFICER D. ROOPA FOR EXPOSING THE PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT GIVEN TO AIADMK (AMMA) CHIEF SASIKALA IN PRISON. After exposing the preferential treatment given to AIADMK (Amma) chief Sasikala, the Karnataka government has transferred Deputy InspectorGeneral (Prisons) D. Roopa to traffic and road safety wing as the Inspector-General. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered the probe and warned of strict action based on the inquiry report. The Maharashtra government defended eight months remission given to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt in the 1993 bomb blasts case. In an affidavit, the government stated that the actor had not been given any special treatment, and he received the remission as per prison rules. The government also cited the rules under which Dutt had been granted remission, parole and furlough.

In June, the Bombay HC had questioned the state over its “soft stance” and asked the latter to mention the criterion for releasing him. Hours after walking out of the Rajya Sabha in anger, BSP supremo Mayawati handed over her three-page resignation to the chairman of the Upper House, Hamid Ansari. He is yet to decide on her resignation. “I simply wanted the Rajya Sabha chair to pay attention to atrocities against the less fortunate sections of the society,” Ms Mayawati said. Rohit Tilak, 38, the national coordinator of Youth Congress and the great-grandson of freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak, has been booked by the police in Pune for allegedly subjecting a 41-year-old woman to rape, unnatural sex and intimidation. The FIR was registered on a complaint by the woman who alleged she knows Mr Tilak since March 2015 and was raped by him multiple times, at multiple places. Anantapur TD MP J.C. Diwakar Reddy would be able fly again after Indigo lifted the a flying ban imposed on him. Air India and Spicejet followed the suit thereafter. The MP had said that he had neither orally nor in writing tendered any apology to the airline for his alleged misbehaviour at the Visakhapatnam airport.

ROOPA SANJAY DUTT MAYAWATI ROHIT TILAK J.C. DIWAKAR