Terror link: Bengaluru cleric Anzar Shah Khasmi finally let off as investigators find no proof

Belagavi, Mar 14: After the first COVID-19 related death reported in the state, less number of people are travelling in North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) buses, official sources said here.

There were less number of travellers on Saturday as compared to any other day.

According to sources, many passengers cancelled their reservations to major cities like Bengaluru, Pune, Mumbai, Goa and Kalaburagi too.

Hubballi, Jan 29: Thousands of people took part in a protest march against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) causing traffic snarl in the city on Tuesday.

Various Dalit organisations had taken part in protest organised under the aegis of the 'Samvidana Samrakshana Samiti'.

KPCC members including MLA Prasad Abbayya, former Minister A.M. Hindasageri and office-bearers also joined the protest.

They congregated first at B.R. Ambedkar Statue near the Head Post Office in Hubballi. Holding flags and banners, the protesters marched from Ambedkar statue to mini Vidhana Soudha covering Lamington Road, Sangolli Rayanna Statue and Kittur Chennamma Circle.

Mr. Abbayya said that despite opposition from various minority communities and progressive organisations, the Union government had not changed its stand. The opposition would continue till the new law was repealed, he said.

He termed the CAA as a draconian law that meted out injustice to not only Muslims but also to Hindus. “Giving citizenship based on documents is highly condemnable. At a time when the country is undergoing an economic slowdown, it is highly condemnable that thousands of crores are being spent to enact the law. The Union government should immediately abolish the new law,” he said.

They submitted a memorandum to the Hubballi tahsildar that was addressed to the President, seeking abolition of the new law. In view of the march, the police had diverted traffic and had made elaborate bandobast.

New Delhi, Mar 20: The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16, 2012 were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on Friday, ending a horrific chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul. Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya, the fearless one.

This is the first time that four men have been hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. The executions were carried out after the men exhausted every possible legal avenue to escape the gallows. Their desperate attempts only postponed the inevitable by less than two months after the first date of execution was set for January 22.

They were hanged at 5.30 am, Director General of Prison Sandeep Goel said.

After raping and brutalising the woman, the men, one of whom was a juvenile at the time, dumped her on the road and left for dead on the cold winter night. Her friend who was with her was also severely beaten and thrown out along with her. She was so severely violated that her insides were spilling out when she was taken to hospital. She died in a Singapore hospital after battling for her life for a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and the juvenile, were named as accused.

While Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case, the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.

The road to the gallows was a long and circuitous one, going through the lower courts, the High Court, the Supreme Court and the president's office before going back to the Supreme Court that heard and rejected various curative petitions.

The death warrants were deferred by a court thrice on the grounds that the convicts had not exhausted all their legal remedies and that the mercy petition of one or the other was before the president.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for March 20 at 5.30 am as the final date for the execution.