Here are the big stories from Karnataka today
The Hindu
Karnataka Today newsletter: Rape-accused Prajwal Revanna remanded to SIT custody for six days, and more
The 42nd Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court remanded Prajwal Revanna, Hassan MP who is facing charges of sexually abusing several women, to Special Investigation Team (SIT) custody for six days.
Soon after his arrival from Munich to Bengaluru in the wee hours of May 31 around 12.30 a.m., the suspended JD(S) leader was arrested by the all-women team of the SIT and was taken to the CID office for interrogation.
The 33-year-old grandson of JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, was then brought to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Bengaluru for medical examination. After the conclusion of the medical exam, he was taken to the City civil court where he was produced before the 42nd ACMM court judge.
It was reported that the SIT was also contemplating a potency test on Prajwal. The Special Court for Public Representatives will hear the bail plea of Mr. Prajwal and his mother Bhavani Revanna on May 31. Here is a timeline of the case.
The Karnataka High Court on Friday, May 31, ordered issue of notices to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on a petition filed by former minister H.D. Revanna, who has challenged registration of an abduction case against him, and to Mr. Revanna on a petition filed by the SIT, which has sought cancellation of bail granted to him by a special court in the case.
Justice Krishna S. Dixit, before whom both the petitions came up for hearing, has adjourned the hearing on SIT’s petitions observing that the SIT has made out an arguable case by pointing out interpretation of Section 364A (kidnapping for ransom, etc.,) made by the Special Court of Sessions for criminal cases against MPs and MLAs in its May 13 order of granting bail to Mr. Revanna.
The Konkani-speaking people from across Karnataka will come together on June 2, and celebrate Konkani-Utsav 2024 at King’s Court, Palace Grounds, in Bengaluru.
“Writing, in general, is a very solitary process,” says Yauvanika Chopra, Associate Director at The New India Foundation (NIF), which, earlier this year, announced the 12th edition of its NIF Book Fellowships for research and scholarship about Indian history after Independence. While authors, in general, are built for it, it can still get very lonely, says Chopra, pointing out that the fellowship’s community support is as valuable as the monetary benefits it offers. “There is a solid community of NIF fellows, trustees, language experts, jury members, all of whom are incredibly competent,” she says. “They really help make authors feel supported from manuscript to publication, so you never feel like you’re struggling through isolation.”
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.