Former hockey player from Kodagu stabbed to death by wife

Kasaragod, June 2: As Kerala commenced fresh academic year with online classes from Monday, a ninth-standard student at Malappuram district in North Kerala ended life allegedly owing to lack of online study facilities like television connection and a smartphone at her house.

Devika, daughter of Balakrishnan, hailing from a Dalit community at Valancherry, about 25 kilometres from Malappuram town, ended her life.

Balakrishnan told the media that he could not recharge the television connection owing to financial crunches. He was working as a daily wage worker and owing to COVID-19 and lockdown, he was not having much work these days. 

The family also did not have a smartphone or computer. The family members alleged that Devika was quite upset as she could not attend the virtual class that began on Monday. She was a student of a nearby government school.

Local police said that Devika, who was the eldest among four children of Balakrishnan, was suspected to have self-immolated using kerosene at a premise close to her house on Monday evening. The cause and provocations were still being probed only. No suicide notes were recovered yet.

New Delhi, Mar 2: The bloodthirsty arsonists allegedly hired by pro-CAA politicians in the capital of India to target Muslims, did not spare even the house of a Muslim leader of BJP.

Akhtar Raza, the BJP’s minority cell vice-president for the Delhi Northeast district, is now not in a position to share his pain with anyone. 

Even the police hadn’t come to his rescue, when the mob raising “Jai Sri Ram” slogans burnt down his house at Bhagirathi Vihar Nalla Road in northeast Delhi last week. 

“They were chanting slogans. Around 7pm, they started throwing stones at us. I called for police help. But the police asked me to leave. We managed to flee before they burnt my house and destroyed everything,” Raza, who returned today to witness the destruction, told media persons. 

“Those who attacked us were not locals. They were outsiders. They managed to identify and burn down all the 19 houses belonging to Muslims in this lane,” Raza said.

Apart from all the belongings in the house of Raza, the arsonists also have burnt down six vehicles belonging to his family. 

Raza is sad that no one from BJP contacted him after the violence even though he has been serving the party and promoting its ideology for past five years. “No party leader contacted me. There was no phone call. There was no relief or special treatment or anything,” Raza said.

Interestingly, Raza is still indentifies himself as a BJP leader. “I belonged to BJP. I may continue in the party,” he said.

The locality remained tense on Sunday too. On Monday, several groups distributed relief materials among people who had queued up to collect them. In front of Raza’s house is a lane from which several bodies of innocent Muslims have been recovered.

New Delhi, Jun 7: The Karnataka government has asked the railways to make announcements at originating stations that it was compulsory for passengers travelling to the state to register themselves on the ‘Seva Sindhu’ portal through which they can be tracked.

In a letter to Chairman Railway Board on Saturday, Chief Secretary of the state T M Vijay Bhaskar said many passengers are not aware of this mandatory rule of the southern state.

He said thousands of passengers are coming to Karnataka from New Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra and other states through trains everyday, but most of them are not registered under the Seva Sindhu portal of the Government of Kamataka.

"If passengers are not registered under Seva Sindhu, the state will not be able to track them. Therefore, it is necessary to create awareness among the passengers regarding registration under the portal.

"Hence, it is requested to give instructions to origin railway stations to make announcements that ‘It is compulsory for all passengers travelling to Karnataka to register in Seva Sindhu portal. Otherwise they will not be allowed for home quarantine’, and also to give passengers awareness (about this) at the time of booking tickets,” Bhaskar said in his letter to the national transporter.

Seva Sindhu portal, under the control of the Karnataka government, provides various online services to the citizens of the state.

Currently, this portal is playing an important role in helping those stranded amid the COVID-19 pandemic to fill online registration forms for availing e-passes.