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, Vishnu, and these are the major news stories of the day:
1. Bengal minister arrested over school jobs scam
2. Actress Assault Case: Actor Dileep leaked visuals of the crime, states additional chargesheet filed by Crime Branch
3. India reports over 21,000 new COVID cases, 67 deaths
4. Moral policing: Boys and girls beaten up for sitting together in Kerala's Palakkad
5. Ukraine, Russia sign UN deal to export grain on Black Sea
Let's get into the details:
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1. West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Saturday in connection with its investigation into the alleged school jobs scam, an official of the agency said.
The Trinamool Congress secretary general, who was the state education minister when the scam took place, was arrested after around 26 hours of grilling which commenced on Friday morning.
Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the party is keeping a close watch on the situation and will come out with a statement at an appropriate time.
Meanwhile, Speaker Biman Banerjee said the Enforcement Directorate should have informed the speaker before arresting a member of the assembly, as is the constitutional norm.
The Enforcement Directorate also detained Chatterjee's close aide Arpita Mukherjee, from whose property Rs 21 crore in cash was seized, an agency official said.
Chatterjee, who was the state education minister from 2014 to 2021, was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation in April and May this year in connection with the scam.
The Opposition BJP went hammer and tongs over the development and demanded a reply from chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said the arrest proves that the Trinamool Congress is knee-deep in corruption.
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2. The Crime Branch, in the supplementary chargesheet submitted to the First-Class Judicial Magistrate Court at Angamaly, alleged that actor Dileep, who is the eighth accused in the actress assault case, leaked crucial visuals of the crime. The investigating agency also expressed doubt whether the visuals were destroyed.
The chargesheet, which was filed yesterday, also blamed the actor for hiding many pieces of evidence in the case beyond recovery.
It was DySP and Inquiry officer Baiju M Paulose who submitted the supplementary chargesheet, which named 102 new witnesses, to the court.
Businessman and Dileep's friend G Sarath was named an accused in the case as per the supplementary chargesheet. The main witness in the case is film director P Balachandrakumar.
The Crime Branch said it has in its possession the digital data recovered from the phone of Dileep’s brother Anoop to substantiate the statement of Balachandrakumar that Dileep had seen the visuals of the sexual assault on the actor.
The chargesheet will reach the trial court from the magistrate court before the next posting of the case on July 27.
However, the Crime Branch has thrown enough hints that it may continue with the investigation into the changing of the hash value of the memory card while it was under the custody of courts.
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3. India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 4,38,68,476 on Saturday with 21,411 fresh cases, while the number of active cases increased to 1,50,100, according to Union health ministry data. The death toll climbed to 5,25,997 as 67 more people succumbed to the viral disease. An increase of 618 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate stood at 4.46 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 4.46 per cent. The 67 new fatalities include 32 from Kerala; seven from West Bengal; six from Maharashtra; three each from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh; two each from Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and Meghalaya; and one each from Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Puducherry, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu. The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
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Before we move on, here's a quick reminder to checkout Onmanorama's other podcasts, Wacky News and News Brake. Wacky News is a collection of the weirdest and strangest news from across the globe and News Brake is a clutter-free explainer of the major news story of the week. Both programmes are available on all podcast platforms.
Now, back to Daily News Dose.
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4. In yet another incident of moral policing in Kerala, students of a higher secondary school near Karimba in Palakkad were beaten up by a group of onlookers at a bus stop. The students have lodged a complaint with Kalladikode Police alleging that some miscreants were against boys and girls sitting together.
One person has been taken into custody over the incident. The attack happened when the students were waiting for their bus home. According to the students, the mob questioned why boys and girls were sitting together. When the students retorted that they had all the right to, the mob thrashed the girls first, hurling abuses with each blow. The boys, who quickly intervened, were also beaten. The mob dispersed only when the commotion attracted other locals.
The injured students were taken to a local hospital for treatment. Their parents have also raised concerns regarding moral policing in the area.
The complainants are insistent that it cannot continue and are proceeding with legal action. The Students Federation of India too have expressed its concerns.
The incident comes just days after a similar moral policing incident near the College of Engineering in Thiruvananthapuram, where miscreants damaged the steel bench in a bus waiting shed in an attempt to stop boys and girls from sitting together.
In response, the enraged students put up a photo wherein they were seen sitting on the laps of one another.
The very next day, Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran paid a visit to the area and promised a new gender-neutral waiting shed.
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5. Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements on Friday with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for exporting millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain as well as Russian grain and fertilizer ending a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe.
The deal will enable Ukraine, one of the world's key breadbaskets, to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to Russia's invasion.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it a beacon of hope for millions of hungry people who have faced huge increases in food costs.
A deal that allows grain to leave Black Sea ports is nothing short of lifesaving for people across the world who are struggling to feed their families, said Red Cross Director-General Robert Mardini, who noted that over the past six months, prices for food staples have risen 187 per cent in Sudan, 86 per cent in Syria, 60 per cent in Yemen and 54 per cent in Ethiopia.
The European Union immediately welcomed the agreements.
Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but Russia's invasion of the country and naval blockade of its ports have halted shipments. Some Ukrainian grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river, but the prices of vital commodities like wheat and barley have soared during the nearly five-month war.
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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.