Muslim community is not anyone’s property; I belong to all: Khader gives it back to upset Sait

Udupi, Jun 24: Nearly four years after he was arrested in the murder case of NRI entrepreneur Bhaskar Shetty, the District Sessions court has granted conditional interim bail to Niranjan Bhat, one of the three prime accused in the case.

The development comes two days after the death of Niranjan’s father Srinivas Bhat(65). Though Srinivas and his driver Raghavendra were also arrested in the case on the accusation of destruction of evidence, they were released within a month.

Through his lawyer Niranjan had appealed to the court seeking bail to perform his father’s post-death rituals. 

After hearing the arguments, the court granted conditional interim bail till July 7 on furnishing a bond of Rs 5 lakh. The judge directed the accused to report to the court on or before July 7 to be taken into judicial custody.

Bhaskar Shetty, who owned a chain of supermarkets in Saudi Arabia, went missing from his house in Udupi on 28 July 2016. His mother Gulabi Shetty lodged a missing person complaint on July 29. The police arrested his wife Rajeshwari, her son Navaneeth and astrologer Niranjan Bhat on the charge of murdering Bhaskar Shetty and destroying the evidence, in Udupi on August 7, 2016. Rajeshwari is already out on bail. Navneet is still in prison.

Shetty was murdered at his house in Indrali and later his body was taken to Belman. It is alleged Niranjan Bhat had put the body of deceased Bhaskar Shetty in the pit used for Homa rituals and burnt it.

New Delhi, Jan 28: The Supreme Court of India today granted bail to 17 convicts sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002 Gujarat massacre case, pending their appeal before the Supreme Court.

The convicts also have to participate in social and spiritual services, said the court, announcing the riders for bail.

The Bench of Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant directed for the convicts to be segregated into two groups to be sent to Indore and Jabalpur.

District legal authorities in Indore and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh have been asked to ensure that the convicts do the spiritual and social work the court has asked for.

The Supreme Court has also asked the administration to find them work for livelihood. The state legal services authority has been asked to file a compliance report as also report on their conduct.

The case concerns the mass killing of 33 innocent Muslims - mostly women and children - who were burnt alive at Sardarpura village in March 2002.

This was part of the mass massacre that swept through Gujarat in the aftermath of the death of train passengers on Sabarmati Express in Godhra on Feb 27, 2002. Thousands of innocent Muslims were killed and raped in the three-day violence. The victims include hundreds of children including newborns.

In 2016, the Gujarat High Court had upheld the conviction of 17 accused in the Sardarpura massacre case.

Earlier, a Special SIT court had convicted a total of 31 persons in the case, after three years of trial against 73 persons from Sardarpura and nearby villages.

Bengaluru, May 19: Karnataka on Tuesday recorded the highest single-day rise in the COVID-19 cases in the state as a whooping 149 people tested positive for the virus. With the spike in new cases, the overall tally has risen to 1,395.

This is for the first time the state recorded 100 plus cases in a single day. So far, 40 people have also succumbed to the virus including three deaths today. 

The new deaths consist of a 61-year-old male patient, a resident of Ballari; a 65-year-old male patient, a resident of Vijayapura; and a 54-year-old male patient from Bengaluru.

Among the new cases, a maximum of 71 are reported from Mandya, followed by 22 in Davanagere, 10 in Shivamogga, 13 in Kalaburgi, six in Bengaluru Urban, four each in Udupi and Uttara Kannada, five in Chikkamagaluru, three in Hassan and one each in Yadagiri, Chitradurga, Vijayapura, Gadag.

Most of the new cases are of the people who traveled to Mumbai in Maharashtra, Solapur, Ahmedabad, and Kerala.

The remaining are those who came in contact with the people who had tested positive earlier.

At present, 811 people are actively taking treatment, while 543 have been discharged after recovery.