Rajput outfit announces Rs 1 cr for ‘burning Deepika Padukone alive’

Bidar, Jan 31: In a disturbing development, the police have arrested two women – a schoolteacher and mother of two students – in connection with staging a play against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens at a prestigious school in Karnataka’s Bidar.

The arrested have been identified as Farida Begum, headmistress of Shaheen Urdu Medium Primary School, and Navida, the mother of a student who played a role in the play.

The development comes days after police filed a sedition case against the management of Shaheen School following a complaint lodged by the ABVP claiming that play contained objectionable dialogues against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The drama was performed during an annual function of the school on January 21.

Bidar SP Sreedhara T confirmed the arrest of Farida Begum and Navida, and said the accused were remanded to judicial custody on Thursday.

Sreedhara said that based on the complaint by one Neelesh Rakshal, the police filed an FIR under sedition charges, initially against the headmistress and management of the school on Saturday. He said that the police have questioned about 50 people, including the members of the management committee of Shaheen Urdu Medium Primary School, staff of the school, audience, parents and students. Based on the statements and evidence, the headmistress and the parent have been arrested.

The SP said that as per the statements and evidence collected, they came to know that the headmistress played a major role in organising the controversial play. The students practised the drama for a week and the headmistress knew about its script containing controversial dialogues against the Prime Minister and senior BJP leaders.

Considering this, she has been booked for creating communal disharmony and abetting sections. The SP said that when a dialogue of slapping the Prime Minister was said on the stage, Navida gave her chappals to the child, to be used while saying the dialogue. She has been arrested for abetting.

Expressing shock over sedition case and arrests, Dr Abdul Qadeer, the chairman of Shaheen Group of Institutions, said that the school management would fight out legally.

About Shaheen Group

Founded by Dr Abdul Qadeer, Shaheen Group has spread its wings through nine states of India and runs 43 institutions and related units. It has also been running a unique course for Huffaz named as ‘Hifz Ul Quran Plus’ in which Huffaz are prepared to appear and excel in competitive exams (NEET-JEE(IIT)).

According to Dr Qadeer, Shaheen’s mission is to engage, educate and empower wards, equipping them with strengths to enter the world of opportunities through free education across various domains in state- owned academic centers of excellence.

The group also runs coaching centers for medical and engineering entrance examinations. So far 1,200 students from the Shaheen Group of institutions got seats in government medical colleges, he said.

‘Hifz Ul Quran Plus’ course was for huffaz between 12 and 17 years. A four-year integrated course is conducted for Huffaz-E-Karam for getting students modern education. By pursuing this course and by appearing in competitive exams (NEET-IIT JEE), Huffaz will be able to get admission into MBBS, BE, & MBA, he said.

Hubballi, Jan 6: Elected representatives of the BJP, Congress and JD(S) on Sunday decided to sink their differences and fight unitedly for Karnataka’s rightful share in the Mahadayi and Kalasa-Banduri water dispute with Goa.

The meeting convened by JD(S) MLC Basavaraj Horatti here saw participation of BJP ministers Prahlad Joshi and Jagadish Shettar, Congress and JD(S) lawmakers, among others.

After a 70-minute closed door meeting, MLC Horatti told reporters that they discussed the water dispute in detail and decided to take steps based on inputs from legal and technical experts on the rightful apportioning of water. “Today, we took the first big step towards the overall development of the region, unencumbered by political divisions,” he said.

Though the air was filled with a sense of jubilation as the issue had united seemingly hostile political parties on one side, a few activists expressed disappointment that the meeting failed to set a timeline to resolve the dispute.

Bengaluru, Apr 25: Former Karnataka Health minister and senior Congress leader Dr H C Mahadevappa on Saturday urged the state government to chalk out a comprehensive plan to conduct tests among the vulnerable sections in the society to impede the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic in the state.

Speaking to media persons, Dr Mahadevappa, felt that only restricting people to remain indoors will not suffice to tackle the spread of the contagious disease he said that "There needs to step up testing the people especially belonging to the vulnerable sections of the society".

Maintaining that the COVID-19 disease, which has progressed itself as a pandemic, across the globe, former Health Minister said that "there is also a need to fight the menace with multiple dimension, as it has potential to cause damage not only the social life of the people but also their livelihood".