Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. Tune in to get updated about the major news stories of the day.
Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Ajish Jimmy George, and these are the major news stories of the day:
SC puts sedition law on hold, no new FIRs to be lodged till review is complete
SP Sojan to be booked for defamatory remarks against dead Walayar girls
Congress leader KV Thomas to campaign for CPM candidate in Thrikkakara bypoll
Police check Kavya Madhavan's bank locker; likely to be questioned again
Arrest warrant against Vijay Babu handed over to Dubai Police
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Let's get into the details:
The Supreme Court on Wednesday urged the Centre and state governments to refrain from registering any FIRs invoking sedition provision, Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code, till review of the law by the Centre is complete.
In an interim order, the bench said no new FIRs should be lodged under the sedition provision and those already in jail can approach courts for relief.
Crime Branch SP MJ Sojan will be booked for defamatory remarks against the minor girls who had died in their Walayar home under suspicious circumstances five years ago.
A POCSO court issued the order on a complaint filed by the mother of the dead girls. Sojan had reportedly made an obnoxious remark about the girls.
It was earlier also alleged Sojan, as Assistant Superintendent of Police, had sabotaged the inquiry into the sensational case, thus resulting in the acquittal of the initial suspects in late 2019 by the court.
Senior Congress leader K V Thomas will campaign for CPM candidate Dr Jo Joseph for the May 31 Thrikkakara assembly byelection. The former Union minister announced his decision at a press meet in Kochi on Wednesday.
Thomas said he will attend the Left Democratic Front's election convention to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday.
Thomas has been sharing a bitter relation with the state leadership of the Congress ever since he was denied a seat to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He was recently stripped off all party positions after attending a seminar organised by the CPM violating a Congress diktat.
The police probe team on Tuesday checked the bank locker of actress Kavya Madhavan at a private bank at Panampilly Nagar in Kochi as part of the continuing probe into the sensational case over the sexual assault of her film industry colleague in 2017.
The locker was checked reportedly in response to allegations that the visuals of the assault taken by the abductors of the actress had leaked from the custody of the court.
Kavya's actor-husband Dileep is a co-accused in the case and widely held as the mastermind of the crime that shocked Mollywood and Kerala society.
Separate police teams searched the locker in the morning and in the evening. The police were tight-lipped about the queries regarding the articles recovered from the locker.
The arrest warrant issued against actor-cum-producer Vijay Babu in a sexual assault case has been handed over to the Dubai Police by the authorities. The Kerala Police is now trying to take him into custody with the help of their Dubai counterparts and the Interpol.
It was on April 22 that the actress, a newcomer, had complained to the Kochi police that she was sexually assaulted by the actor many times.
Now let's check out the COVID numbers:
With 2,897 coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of cases rose to 4,31,10,586, even as active cases have decreased to 19,494.
The Union Health Ministry data released at 8 am also showed that 54 fatalities, including 48 from Kerala alone, were reported in a 24-hour span.
The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 0.61 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.74 per cent.
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That brings us to the end of this episode. Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.