Daily News Dose: Two more witnesses turn hostile in Madhu lynching case | Sept 15, 2022

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. We start on a grim note with the murder and rape of two Dalit sisters in UP, six have been arrested

2. Hinting his unwillingness to sign off on the Ordinances put forth by the Kerala govt, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan says he is not a rubber stamp

3. In the solar scam, the Kerala High Court asked why politicians were being excluded from the sexual assault case 

4. Alappuzha Kapico Resort demolition gets underway; 2 villas to be razed today

5. Two more witnesses turned hostile in the Madhu lynching case

Let's get into the details....

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1. Six men were arrested on Thursday in connection with the alleged rape and murder of two Dalit teenage sisters at Lakhimpur Kheri in UP. The girls, aged 15 and 17, were found hanging from a tree in a sugarcane field about a kilometre from their house in the Nighasan police station area on Wednesday.

The accused Junaid, Sohail, Hafizur Rehman, Karimuddin, Arif and Chottu were nabbed in an overnight operation, said Lakhimpur Kheri SP Sanjiv Suman.

Junaid and Sohail were allegedly in a relationship with the two sisters, according to police.

On preliminary investigation, it was found that the two sisters left their home on Wednesday afternoon after they were persuaded by Junaid and Sohail. The duo confessed to having strangulated the sisters after raping them.The postmortem report done on Thursday has also confirmed rape and strangulation of the minor girls, the police said.

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2. Hinting his unwillingness to approve the Ordinances passed by the Kerala Assembly, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday said he was not a rubber stamp to sign on dotted lines.

He questioned the contents of the University Act Amendment and Lokayukta Act Amendment bills without naming them.

He said that while the Assembly has every right to pass and adopt any measure, he had a duty to perform and an obligation to see that whatever recommended to him was in accordance with the constitution, with law, its spirit, and well-established conventions, not just in India, but all over the world. 

Speaking to reporters in Kottayam after attending a function at MG University, he alleged the bills were intended to legalise all illegal activities that had taken place so far.

“Based on what I've read in newspapers, I can make one thing clear. I will not allow the autonomy of the university to be diluted. I will not allow executive interference in the university - which means, the government is trying to take the power of university appointments into its own hands. This is not possible. It will result in the erosion of autonomy,” the Governor said.

Calling the concept of autonomy sacrosanct, he said he cannot allow a mechanism to be adopted whereby it can be used to appoint underqualified and unqualified relatives of those in power, or relatives of personnel staff of those in power.

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3. The Kerala High Court on Thursday sought explanation from the CBI and the state government for excluding politicians from the sexual abuse case filed by the accused in the solar scam.

The court asked the probe agency and the state to file their replies within two weeks.

The HC intervention was based on a plea filed by the survivor. She alleged that only four accused were listed in the case currently and that 14 people, including politicians and officials, were excluded from the case. She said the investigation refrained from including high profile individuals who sexually exploited her.

Though six cases were registered by the CBI, only one report has been submitted. The CBI took over the investigation into the separate cases of sexual abuse in August 2021.

Congress leaders Oommen Chandy, K C Venugopal, Hibi Eden, Adoor Prakash, former minister A P Anil Kumar, and BJP leader A P Abdulla Kutty are the accused in six different cases registered over sexual abuse charge. 

The cases against six leaders were registered over the past several years and investigated earlier by the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police. The woman had complained that she was exploited sexually by them in 2012.

The survivor is an accused in the multi-crore solar panel scam that shook the Chandy-led United Democratic Front government nearly a decade ago.

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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.  The demolition of the Kapico Resort at Panavalli Nediyathuruth, which was ordered by the Supreme Court for violating the Coastal Management Act, got under way on Thursday.

The demolition costs are being borne by the resort owners. They have contracted for the removal of the debris.

Meanhwile, authorities have warned that building debris should not fall into the lake and cause pollution.

Journalists who went to the site to report the demolition were assaulted by the resort staff.

On Wednesday, the Panavalli panchayat secretary and the district collector approved the master plan prepared by the resort owners for the phased demolition.

The building complex, spread over 5,900 square feet, has 54 villas and related facilities including swimming pools.

Two of the villas will be demolished first. The plan is to complete the demolition in six months.

In January 2020, the Supreme Court ordered the demolition of the resort built in violation of the Coastal Management Act. Demolition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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5. The trial in the Madhu lynching case saw two more witnesses turning hostile on Thursday. With this the number of people defected increased to 18. 

On Thursday, Manaf and Ranjith, jeep drivers of Mukali, defected. They are the 31st and 32nd witnesses in the case. Ranjith said that he did not know Madhu and did not see him being beaten.

Meanwhile, Sunilkumar, who turned hostile yesterday and claimed he could not recognise the people in the footage shown by the court, identified some of them today.

Prosecution sought action against Sunilkumar who lied to the court that he could not identify those in the footage shown to him. 

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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.