BJP leaders accord warm welcome to Yogi Adityanath in Mangaluru

Kozhikode, Jun 9: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's daughter Veena T is all set to marry DYFI National President and CPM state committee member PA Muhammad Riyas on June 15. Interestingly, it's the second marriage for both. 

Veena, the elder daughter of Pinarayi Vijayan and Kamala Vijayan, is an IT entrepreneur based in Bengaluru.

According to sources, the marriage will be a simple function in Thiruvananthapuram where only close relatives will participate. The marriage registration has already been done. 

"It's only a private affair of two individuals," Riyas told media persons, reluctant to divulge more details. 

The 44-year-old Muhammad Riyas started his political career with the Students Federation of India (SFI) and climbed up the rungs through DYFI. He had unsuccessfully contested against UDF's M K Raghavan from Kozhikode parliament constituency in 2009. 

The son of retired IPS officer P M Abdul Khadar, Riyas is the familiar face of the left in primetime TV discussions, strongly articulating the CPM stance. 

A law graduate, he had begun at the grassroots level and gradually worked his way up the ladder. 

His marriage to Dr Sameeha Saithalavi, a former syndicate member of Calicut University, happened in 2002. The couple separated in 2015 and they have two sons aged 10 and 13. 

The 40-plus Veena is MD of the IT firm Exalogic Solutions since 2014. 

Prior to that, she was the CEO of RT Technosoft, a Thiruvananthapuram-based company owned by NRI industrialist Ravi Pillai. Before that, she had a six-year stint with Oracle. She has a son from her first marriage. 

"They both were divorced for more than five years. They knew each other and the marriage decision was taken by them only. It's completely a private affair," said a DYFI leader.

New Delhi: BJP leader Yogish Gowda, who was a member of the Dharwad Zilla Panchayath in Karnataka, was killed because of "political reasons", the CBI has alleged in its charge sheet filed against eight accused before a Dharwad court, officials said on Thursday.

Mr Gowda was killed on June 15, 2016 in front of a gym in Dharwad.

The charge sheet was filed before the Judicial Magistrate First Class Court in Dharwad against Santosh Savadatti, Dinesh M, Sunil KS, Harshith, Aswath S, Nazeer Ahamad, Shanawaz and Nutan K. All but one are in judicial custody.

"The accused allegedly came to Dharwad on two occasions in June 2016 and with the support of the other accused, allegedly planned the murder of Yogish Gowda. These accused fled after the crime," CBI spokesperson RK Gaur said.

The agency has alleged that the killing had "political reasons" behind it and was a result of political rivalry, the officials said.

The agency had taken over the case on September 24, 2019, nearly three years after the murder, on the request of the BJP government in Karnataka and a referral from the centre.

The case was earlier probed by the Karnataka Police which had charged six people for allegedly planning and executing the killing.

The CBI has arrested eight accused in the case of which seven are in judicial custody, they said.

"Further investigation into the role of the other accused and larger conspiracy in this case is continuing on a day-to-day basis," Mr Gaur said.

BJP leader murder caseYogish GowdaCentral Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

Bengaluru, Jan 18: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "flag-bearer" of the Indian culture and tradition.

In his speech at an event organised by Vedanta Bharati here, Shah said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi is touring across the globe as the flag bearer of the Indian culture and tradition." To buttress his point, the BJP National President said Modi took a holy dip in Ganga and attended Ganga Arati in Varanasi before taking oath as the Prime Minister.

It was for the first time that Modi sent red sander to Pashupatinath Temple in Nepal to perform special prayers on behalf of the government of India.

Shah also slammed the previous governments for their wrong interpretation of secularism, preventing them from honouring the best things of the country. "But after a long interval we have a Prime Minister who sends across the message that we have a lot to give to the world," Shah said.