Youth held for posting objectionable pic of deity on social media  

Bengaluru, June 23: Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar has urged his party colleagues to be active on social media to counter the propaganda of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to media persons, the KPCC president said that no more than 20 out of the 68 Congress MLAs are active on social media.

“All those MLAs who are doing well need to be projected. We want leaders, not mere followers. They all should be the face of Congress in Karnataka. Party should not depend on just my face or Siddaramaiah’s,” he said.

Shivakumar’s diktat has resulted in the party’s social media unit scrambling to get leaders to create their accounts.

“We’re pressuring all the party MLAs and leaders. We’re asking their personal assistants or gunmen to operate their accounts if they are not savvy with social media,” KPCC social media chief A N Nataraj Gowda said.

He pointed out that the 20 MLAs who are active on social media include U T Khader, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byre Gowda among others.

“We’re also trying to get the accounts verified of those who are beginning to get active. For example, it was only recently that we got the accounts of S R Patil and Vijay Singh verified,” Gowda said.

Tapping the full potential of social media is crucial for the Congress because the BJP has found much success in reaching out to voters through various online platforms.

In fact, ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress found that there were 10 ministers and some 40 MLAs who had turned a blind eye towards social media.

Shivakumar said he was also working on putting in place a system in the party under which all developments related to the state and country will be communicated to all party leaders at 10 am every day.

Feb 28: The Supreme Court on Friday granted more time to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a counter affidavit on a petition filed by Karnataka BJP leader and mining baron Gali Janardhana Reddy seeking permanent relaxation on his bail condition to allow him to visit Karnataka's Bellari and Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Indira Banerjee listed the matter for further hearing on March 16 after the CBI sought more time to do file the counter affidavit.

Earlier, the apex court had issued a notice to the CBI and sought its response on the plea.

Last year, the Court had allowed Reddy to visit the Ballari district for a period of two weeks to meet his father-in-law, who the petitioner claimed had suffered a stroke and also allowed him to move a bail modification application seeking permanent relaxation of his bail condition.

In January 2015, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Reddy in an illegal mining case involving Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) on the condition that he will not visit any of the mining zones in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh.

By the time he was granted bail, Reddy had already spent over three years in prison.

Reddy and his brother-in-law BV Srinivas Reddy, who was the Managing Director of OMC, were arrested by the CBI on September 5, 2011.

Bengaluru, Feb 4: A 33-year old woman techie allegedly stabbed her mother to death and made a murderous assault on her younger brother before fleeing their home here, police said on Tuesday.

According to police, the woman fatally stabbed her mother using a knife and attacked the brother early on Monday.

The injured brother has been hospitalised here.

A search was on for the techie and the motive for her action under investigation, police said.

The woman, employed as a software engineer with a company here, earlier had told her mother and 30-year old brother that she has been transferred to Hyderabad and she may have to relocate.

The brother told police that in the early morning on Monday he saw his sister searching something desperately and offered to assist, which she refused.

However, minutes later she made a murderous assault on him, he told police, adding when he screamed for help and called his mother, his sister said she has killed their mother.

She stabbed him and attacked with an iron rod before fleeing, her brother told police.

The body of the mother was found in another room in the house.

"We are still investigating the matter. We are not clear about the motive behind the murder," a police officer told media adding the woman was yet to be arrested.