Karnataka Lokayukta joint commissioner Syed Riyaz was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday night for his alleged involvement in collecting bribes from state officials.

We have taken Riyaz into custody from a private hospital where he was taking treatment for blood pressure and diabetes, said a senior investigating officer.

As part of its probe into the graft charges against some unidentified officials in the watchdog, though the SIT team summoned Riyaz for interrogation, he delayed by extending his leave from July 17 to July 31 on returning from pilgrimage to Makkah on July 19.

Preliminary investigation and interrogation of three suspected extortionists whom we arrested last week revealed that Riayz was one of the kingpins in threatening many officials of booking graft cases and raiding their premises if they did not pay up over the years, the officer said.

The SIT, headed by Additional Director General of Police Kamal Pant, was set up by the state government on the request of Lokayukta, Justice (retd.) Y. Bhaskar Rao on June 30 to probe the graft charges, including a bribe of Rs.1 crore sought allegedly by his son Ashwin Rao.

The SIT is also on the lookout for Riyaz’s brother-in-law Sadiq for allegedly being part of the extortionist gang.

The three co-accused in the scam are Ashok Kumar, Srinivas Gowda and Shankare Gowda, who used to threaten officials and extort money after collecting information against them through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has said that Yakub Memon, the man convicted for the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai that killed 257 people, should not be hanged, rather his brother Tiger Memon who is the main accused in the case, should be sent to the gallows.

Mr Khan, 49, in a series of tweets last night, said, Get tiger hang him. Parade him not his brother.

The actor also said killing Yakub would be killing humanity.

In 2007, Yakub was found guilty of both plotting the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai and executing it. He was held guilty of distributing arms and ammunition, detonators and explosives to other accused and also of funding terror activities. 53-year-old Yakub will hang on the same day as his birthday, July 30. Of the 11 convicts in the case, he is the only one whose mercy petition was rejected.

Yakub has made a fresh mercy plea after his last one was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee in May 2014. He has also filed a fresh appeal in Supreme Court for stay on the execution, which will be heard on Monday.

Yakub, who has spent over two decades in jail, has repeatedly insisted that he was unaware of the conspiracy reportedly hatched by his brother, Tiger, and Dawood Ibrahim, who have been on the run since 1993.

Army will hold a memorial service at the Kargil War Memorial where prayers by religious leaders will be held.

Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag on Saturday said the armed forces will not let another Kargil-like conflict to take place. After paying tributes to the Kargil war martyrs at a memorial here, he said the “Army won’t allow another Kargil”.

Though the celebrations to mark the 16th anniversary of India’s victory in the Kargil War, also called Vijay Diwas, began on July 20, the main functions will be held today and tomorrow. Army will hold a memorial service at the Kargil War Memorial where prayers by religious leaders will be held. They will be followed by lighting of lamps. The wreath laying ceremony for the martyrs will be held on Sunday which will be followed by an interaction with Veer Naris. The Kargil war, which began in May 1999, lasted for more than two months before Pakistani soldiers, a bulk of them drawn from its Northern Light Infantry, and irregulars withdrew from the mountain tops they had occupied overlooking the Srinagar-Leh highway. In the conflict, the Indian Army lost 490 officers, soldiers and jawans.

Subham Jaglan created history on Thursday by winning a second junior world golf title in just two weeks.

Jaglan, hailing from Haryana is son of a milkman. But his humble roots proved to be of no obstacle, as he created a rare feat of winning the IJGA World Stars of Junior Golf event in Las Vegas on Thursday.

The 10-year-old prodigy, brought home a score of 106 in three rounds to win by five strokes, ahead of two Americans Justin Dang and Sihan Sandhu and Thailand’s Pongsapak Laopakdee for the Boys 9-10 years category title at the Angel Park. Jaglan had triumphed by one stroke at the Junior World Golf Championships after scoring a three-day total of seven-under 179 last Sunday at the Welk Resort Fountain Course in California.

“It’s just a dream come true. It was all my year’s hard work. I am celebrating in a great way. All my friends are congratulating me,” Shubham said. “It was all because of my family’s support, my coach, my school which helped me in the US, that’s why I could speak to you actually and my golf club DGC for giving me all facilities for playing. Especially my dad supported me through my life and it has been a great journey.

“I am just working hard and being honest, there are no short-cuts for me,” he told. Former golfer Nonita Lall Qureshi has been training Shubham since he was seven-years old. He was five years old when he started golf, practicing in an agricultural field. He has already won over 100 tournaments.

Obviously Jaglan’s family back in India is estatic. Reacting to Jaglan’s achievements, his proud mother, Anjala Jaglan, on Friday expressed delight at her son’s victory and thanked his coach for the youngster’s stunning success. “I am very happy that he has come first for the second time, there is one more tournament coming up…I wish that he keeps working hard and winning tournaments. I spoke to him after victory he was happy,” she told ANI.
“I would like to thank his coach for the hard work, I would also like to thank Delhi Golf Course,” she added.

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday took a dig at its ally and said that ground realities have remained unchanged despite BJP coming to power at the Centre, promising ‘Acche Din’.

“Even 50 years are not enough to clean up the mess created by the erstwhile government. But a lot has to be done in the next five years to fulfill the aspirations of people. You (the BJP) had promised ‘Acche Din’ to people and thus cannot cheat them now,” Thackeray said in an interview in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’. To a question, Thackeray said that even though the governments have changed at the Centre and in the state, nothing much has changed on “ground”.

Every morning when we open a newspaper, we keep reading the same news that once bored us…The thought which comes to our mind is that we used to read the same news before. Be it farmers’ suicide, protests of the unemployed people, crimes against women,” he said.

When asked to comment on Pakistani flags being raised in Kashmir, Thackeray said, “Haven’t seen it happen in a long time.” Replying to another query, he questioned the change the BJP has brought after allying with the PDP in Jammu and Kashmir.

“What can I do? It is surprising. I do not have personal enmity with anyone but what stand did you (BJP) have on Mufti Mohammed Sayeed before (election)? How can you forget his style of politics ? If Kashmir progresses, it is good. But bringing in a change does not mean giving the state a big financial package.

People there should be turned back towards India,” Thackeray said. The Sena chief also reiterated his stand on freeing farmers from their debts and said they should be financially sound so that they can take new debts if they wish to, in future.

A Jharkhand minister found herself at the receiving end of jokes after being seen paying tribute to a garlanded photo of former President APJ Abdul Kalam in images that surfaced on social media.

The pictures were reportedly taken at a school function where Neera Yadav, the state’s Human Resource Development minister, was chief guest. The pictures were published in a newspaper.

People on social networking sites pulled no punches as they criticised the minister for seemingly paying tributes to Dr Kalam, who is alive and well.

Cricket lovers are going have a treat this year as the Karnataka Regional Cricket Academy and Mangalore Occasionals, under the guidance of Karnataka State Cricket Association will be organizing ‘Mangalore Premier League (MPL)’.

The event is scheduled for December and is to be held at the NMPT ground, Panambur here from December 15 to December 27,” said KSCA Mangalore Zone Convenor Manohar Amin, addressing a press meet here on Tuesday July 21.

He said that the first edition of MPL had been organised in 2010 with the support of KSCA, however permission was not granted thereafter. But after the committee has been changed, the regional players will get a change to motivate themselves.

Chairperson of KRCA and one of the organisers of MPL, Mohammed Sirajuddin said, “The tournament will witness the participation of ten teams and 200 cricket players. Depending on the involvement of private team owners, around ten auctioned teams will vie for the MPL trophy.”

The tournament will witness the participation of ten teams and 200 players. Ten auctioned teams from among Kundapur, Udupi/Manipal, Karkala/Moodbidri, Suratkal/Mulky, Mangaluru, Bantwal/Beltangady, Puttur/Sullia, Ullal, Madikeri and Virajapet will vie for the MPL trophy, he informed.

The tender application for MPL team owners will be issued on July 22 and the pre-bid clarification and a meeting of all clubs will be held on August 2 The players will be auctioned in the month of October.

The main intention to organize the event is to give a boost to the players of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu and moreover to provide a good experience to the people of Mangaluru, the tickets for the general public are as low as Rs. 10 whereas for VIP lounge it has been decided as Rs. 100, informed the organizers

Health Minster UT Khader is said to be the chairperson of the advisory board. During the press meet, other members of the board, organizing committee and sponsors – such as Mohammed Sirajuddin, Asif Mohammed, Ranthan Kumar, Haneef G and others were present.

About the Organisers (Karnataka Regional Cricket Academy)

Karnataka Regional Cricket Academy is a premier seasoned ball cricket training Academy in the state that was started in 2013. It has guided and inspired many rural cricketers who have played under the club and also represented the zone.

KRCA has its coaching camp at different places like Kaup – Vidyaniketan School, Hejmadi, Nantoor- Padua School, and will be expanding in 10 rural places of Mangaluru zone by this year end.

No matter how hard the government and the administration try, the unending trial of the farmers that force them to take this extreme step does not seem to end. Once again, a farmer, from Kalghatagi (Dharwad) and the other from Chinnamulgund (Haveri), killed themselves after they were caught in the debt trap.

Both Ningappa Gudihal (22) of Tavargeri village of Kalghatagi and Ramappa Lamani (55) of Chinnamulagund tanda, Haveri, died in a similar fashion. They consumed poison on Saturday evening in their farmland and died at the hospital on Sunday.

Ningappa had grown sugarcane, maize and paddy on four acres of land. He borrowed Rs 3.5 lakh from various sources -Rs 1 lakh from the Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank, Rs 50,000 from a cooperative bank and over Rs 1 lakh from private moneylenders. “All crops had withered due to inadequate rain.

In Ramappa’s case, the farmer had pinned all his hopes on his cabbage and maize crops. He had taken a loan of Rs 1 lakh from Syndicate Bank, Rs 1 lakh from Grameena Bank and around Rs 50,000 from moneylenders. He suffered a huge loss. He was forced to sell his produce at Rs 1 per kg. His maize crop, too, failed due to insufficient rain. Ramappa had been distraught for a week and was it finding it difficult to face bankers and moneylenders and hence took the extreme step.

The Karnataka police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against the son of state’s anti-graft watchdog, the Lokayukta, for allegedly seeking bribe for avoiding a raid.

The Karnataka Lokayukta, Justice Bhaskar Rao’s son, Ashwin was booked after a written complaint was finally received from the man who had alleged that on May 5, he had been asked for Rs. one crore bribe on the Lokayukta premises to avoid a raid being conducted on his premises.

The FIR was filed this afternoon, just before the High Court issued a stay on an internal investigation which was to be headed by Superintendent of Police, Sonia Narang. The allegation of corruption was first brought to notice by Ms Narang who had forwarded it in a letter to the registrar.

Earlier in the day, lawyers held a protest outside the Karnataka Lokayukta’s office in Bengaluru, demanding the resignation of Justice Rao in the wake of corruption charges.

Yesterday, Justice Rao had said the question of his resigning “does not arise” and denied the involvement of any of his family in corruption. But he had also promised action against the guilty, “whoever it is, including my son”.

“He (Lokayukta) asked us to wait for a week. The Special Investigation Team is not a solution, we want a CBI inquiry. All his properties should be confiscated,” senior advocate Subba Reddy, who was part of the delegation.

Home Minister KJ George said that the matter could be investigated by a Special Investigation Team.

Justice Rao’s deputy, the Upalokayukta, Justice Subhash Adi, had initially ordered an internal probe when the allegation had surfaced.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has incurred a power bill of around Rs 1 lakh for two months.

An RTI query filed by Vivek Garg, advocate and RTI activist, revealed that the general administration department of Delhi government has submitted the copy of bill of Kejriwal’s Civil Lines house.

According to sources, very heavy load has been sanctioned to his house, where many ACs are installed. Kejriwal, before shifting, had asked to remove the ACs.

Delhi BJP has now sought report on electricity bills incurred by all Delhi ministers. The BJP leaders alleged that the Delhi government was paying lakhs for Kejriwal’s residential electricity bills.

“Kejriwal’s residence has two electricity meters. The latest bills for the meters are Rs 55,000 and Rs 48,000, which add up to Rs 1,03,000,” said a Delhi BJP spokesperson.

A government spokesperson said that the government will verify the bill before speaking on the matter.

There was huge outcry during Sheila Dikshit’s tenure when an RTI query revealed that she had 31 ACs in the 5,700-sq-ft Lutyens’ bungalow, apart from 25 heaters, 15 desert coolers, 16 air purifiers and 12 geysers. The bill for running a one-tonne split AC at her bungalow for seven hours was Rs 900.