Daily News Dose: Key accused in actor assault case gets bail | Apr 4, 2022

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm Ajish Jimmy George, and these are the major news stories of the day:

1.Key accused in actor assault case gets bail

2. INTUC-Satheesan rift widens, Chandrasekharan has some history lessons for opposition leader

3. K V Thomas asked to respect KPCC decision and keep away from CPM Congress

4. Central Administrative Tribunal stays appointment of tainted IFS officer Sajan

5. Imran Khan to continue as PM until appointment of caretaker premier, says Pakistan President

Let’s get into the details.

The Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to a key accused in the 2017 actor assault case in which actor Dileep is also an accused.

The Court granted relief to fourth accused Vijeesh, who was allegedly involved in the crime.

Last week, the High Court had denied bail to Sunil N S also known as 'Pulsar Suni', who is the main accused in the case.

The actor-victim, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, was abducted and allegedly molested in her car for two hours by some persons who had forced their way into the vehicle on the night of February 17, 2017 and later escaped in a busy area. The entire act was filmed by those persons to blackmail the actor.

After meeting KPCC president K Sudhakaran in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday, INTUC state president R Chandrasekharan told reporters that the trade union he led was indeed a feeder organisation of Indian National Congress.

This was in response to opposition leader V D Satheesan's angry remark on March 29 that INTUC was not a feeder organisation of the Congress. With a preface that it is important to understand history, Chandrasekharan said that both All India Congress Committee (AICC) and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) had issued circulars in which INTUC was listed as a feeder organisation of Indian National Congress.

A top Congress source said that Chandrasekharan had complained to the KPCC president during their meeting on Monday that Satheesan's arbitrary remark had deeply hurt INTUC members. He had reportedly told Sudhakaran that Satheesan's stance had sullied the public image of INTUC.

The Congress high command has once again shot down the permission sought by K V Thomas to attend a seminar as part of the CPM Party Congress that is all set to begin from April 6. Earlier, the AICC had advised Shashi Tharoor and Thomas to abide by the decision of the KPCC on the issue.

Following the AICC stand, Tharoor had officially announced that he would not participate. However, the CPM continued to express confidence that at least some of the Congress leaders would attend the seminar. CPM Kannur district secretary M V Jayarajan had openly said that he expected Thomas to participate.

Thomas also said that he was trying to get the high command's nod. 'I have written seeking permission to attend the seminar," he told reporters.

Thomas even saw his participation as part of attempts to mobilise a grand coalition of secular and opposition forces against the BJP. He said the CPM Party Congress was not a local event but a national one. He also argued that unlike in Kerala, the Congress and the CPM were not on the opposite sides of the divide nationally.

The AICC leadership, however, did not find any merit in the arguments of Thomas and asked him to toe the line of the state leadership. Congress's organisation secretary K C Venugopal has reportedly conveyed the High Command's decision to Thomas.

The appointment of Indian Forest Service officer NT Sajan as the Chief Conservator of Forests, Southern Zone, has been stayed by the Central Administrative Tribunal.

In the latest reshuffle in the Kerala Forest Department, Sajan was given the high-level posting despite his role in the Muttil tree-felling case. Sajan was the Social Forestry Deputy Conservator at Kollam when he was named as the Chief Conservator of Forests, Southern Zone.

Earlier an inquiry conducted by Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests had indicted Sajan for gross misconduct in the tree-felling case, but he escaped with a mere transfer from Kozhikode to Kollam. The Chief Minister's office reportedly took a stand that the charges were not that serious to take action against an IFS officer.

It was alleged the present promotion was given to Sajan with the aim of giving him a future posting in Kozhikode as the Chief Conservator of Forests, Northern Zone.

Imran Khan will continue to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan until the appointment of a caretaker premier, according to a notification issued by President Arif Alvi on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the Cabinet Secretariat issued a notification stating that Khan had "ceased to hold the office of the prime minister of Pakistan with immediate effect".

However, under Article 94 of the Constitution, the president "may ask the Prime Minister to continue to hold office until his successor enters upon the office of Prime Minister".

On Sunday, President Alvi had dissolved the National Assembly on the advice of Prime Minister Khan, minutes after Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri rejected a no-confidence motion against the premier, who had effectively lost the majority in the 342-member lower house of Parliament.

Now, let’s check out the covid update:

6) India recorded 913 new COVID-19 cases on Monday taking the tally to 4,30,29,044, while the active infection count fell below 13,000.

India recorded COVID-19 cases below 1,000 for the first time since April 18, 2020 when 991 cases were reported.

Thirteen new fatalities pushed the death toll from the pandemic to 5,21,358, according to the Union Health Ministry.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.29 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.22 per cent.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.