Attempts to hoist separate statehood flag during Rajyotsava foiled

Srinagar, Jan 14: Davinder Singh, deputy superintendent of police, who was arrested on Saturday along with two Hizb terrorists and a Hizb overground worker in Kulgam, has confessed to his interrogators that he had received Rs 12 lakh from the terrorists to ferry them to Jammu and then Chandigarh for their onward journey to New Delhi, IG (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar told the media here on Monday.

Intelligence sources said the terrorists planned to carry out attacks on Republic Day.

The DSP was suspended on Monday and is likely to be stripped of all his awards, including the President’s Police Medal for anti-militancy operations.

Davinder, who was interrogated by various intelligence agencies, including IB, military intelligence and RAW, besides the police, has disclosed that he had put up the terrorists at his Indira Nagar house in Srinagar, right next to the Army’s 15 Corps HQ, and thereafter accompanied them to Jammu in a Maruti car driven by the Hizb overground worker, intelligence sources claimed.

Meanwhile, sources said the Union home ministry may hand over the case to the NIA to find the real motive of the terrorists, Davinder’s links to terrorism and whether he had helped terrorists in the past as well.

The two Hizb terrorists arrested with Davinder are Naveed Babu alias Babar Azam, a resident of Nazneenpora in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, and his associate Rafi Ahmad Rather. The Hizb overground worker, identified as Irfan Shafi Mir, was driving the vehicle when it was intercepted by the police on Saturday. Irfan Shafi Mir has travelled to Pakistan five times on his passport.

Davinder, interestingly, was on duty ensuring security cover for the envoys of 15 countries who visited Srinagar at the Union government’s invitation last week.

Udupi, Jul 18: Noted multi-lingual scholar Dr Uliyar Padmanabha Upadhyaya passed away last night at a private hospital in Manipal. The 88-year-old was survived by a son and a daughter.

His wife Susheela Uadhyaya, who was also a multi-lingual scholar, had passed away in January 2014 at the age of 77. The duo had compiled the six-volume Tulu Lexicon. Its first volume was published in 1988 and the last volume in 1997.

Son of Sitaram Upadhyaya, who was a scholar in the court of the Raja of Travancore, Dr Padmanabha was born on April 10, 1932 at Uliyar in Majur Village near Kaup in Udupi district. 

The Upadhyaya couple had conducted serious research work in linguistics and folk culture and produced a number of books-some of them jointly, some individually and some in collaboration with others. 

Dr Padmanabha had acquired three Master of Arts degrees in Sanskrit, Kannada and Linguistics from Madras, Kerala and Pune Universities, Vidwan in Hindi and PhD in Linguistics from the Pune University for his thesis titled “A Comparative Study of Kannada Dialects”.

He was a visiting Professor at the Universities of London and Paris. He knew Hindi, Kannada, Tulu, Malayalam, Tamil, English, French and Olof, the language of Senegal in Africa.

His works include Nanjanagudu Kannada (Vokkaliga Dialect), Coorg Kannada, Kuruba - A Dravidian Language, Kannada - A Phonetic Language, Malayalam Language and Literature (with Ms. Susheela), Effect of Bilingualism on Bidar Kannada, Coimbatore Tamil, Kannada as Spoken by Different Population Groups in Mysore City, Dravidian and Negro African: Ethno Linguistic Study (with Ms. Susheela), Conversational Kannada, Coastal Karnataka and Bhuta Worship: Aspects of a Ritualistic Theatre (with Ms. Susheela).

Also Read: Eminent linguist Dr Susheela P Upadhyaya no more

Ahmedabad/New Delhi, Jan 22: Interpol has issued a Blue Corner Notice seeking information about controversial self-styled godman Nithyananda, who fled the country amid allegations of wrongful confinement of children, officials said on Wednesday.

A Blue Corner Notice is issued by the international police cooperation body to collect additional information from its member countries about a person's identity, location or activities in relation to a crime.

The Gujarat Police had sent a request to the CBI, the nodal body for Interpol matters in India, seeking a Blue Corner Notice against Nithyananda, the officials said.

"Interpol issued the Blue Corner Notice against the controversial godman this month," Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad (rural), K T Kamariya, told PTI.

The police said they are now working to get Interpol to issue a Red Corner Notice, a global arrest warrant, against Nithyananda.

The Gujarat Police had registered an FIR against Nithyananda after two girls went missing from his ashram in Ahmedabad.

He was charged with kidnapping and wrongful confinement of children to make them collect donations from followers to run his ashram.

Nithyananda was earlier declared wanted by the Gujarat Police.

While police continue to look for him, reports emerged in December last year that he has created a Hindu nation, Kailaasa, with its own flag and political setup, on an island near Ecuador.