Regional
Returning Akademi awards politically motivated: Bengal governor
Kolkata: West Bengal Governor K.N. Tripathi on Thursday said a section of authors returning Sahitya Akademi awards in protest against what they described as “rising religious intolerance” in the society is politically motivated.
“Several incidents occurred in the country from the time they received the award and then eventually returned it. It makes one wonder if there is small group of people who are lobbying for the return of these awards,” Tripathi said here on the sidelines of an event.
“How it is that none of them were prompted them to return the award earlier and why now,” he added.
Questioning the “sudden awakening” of the authors, Tripathi hinted towards a political configuration behind the decision.
“Why did they not return the award when the (2013) Muzaffarnagar riots happened? How is that they have awakened now. There appears to be some kind of political configuration behind the return of the awards,” added the veteran BJP leader.
Noted writer Nayantara Sahgal’s decision last week to return her Sahitya Akademi award over the public lynching of a Muslim man in Uttar Pradesh over rumours that he ate beef, and the murder of rationalists in Maharashtra and Karnataka has triggered a wave of similar reactions from other awardees across the country.
Tripathi’s comments come a day after about 100 intellectuals and authors from the state on Wednesday wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking that the Narendra Modi government take a tough stand against fundamentalists.
Condemning the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, leftist Govind Pansare and scholar M.M. Kalburgi, the intellectuals including the likes of eminent poets Shankha Ghosh and Nabaneeta Dev Sen expressed deep concern over the rising communal polarisation and intolerance in the country.
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What monkey fled with a bag containing evidence in it: Read full story
The court, generally, considers a person who commit a crime and the one who destroys the evidence, as criminals in the eyes of law. But what if an animal destroys the evidence of a crime committed by a human.
In a peculiar incident in Rajasthan, a monkey fled away with the evidence collected by the police in a murder case. The stolen evidence included the murder weapon (a blood-stained knife).
The incident came to light when the police appeared before the court and they had to provide the evidence in the hearing.
The hearing was about the crime which took place in September 2016, in which a person named Shashikant Sharma died at a primary health center under Chandwaji police station. After the body was found, the deceased’s relatives blocked the Jaipur-Delhi highway, demanding an inquiry into the matter.
Following the investigation, the police had arrested Rahul Kandera and Mohanlal Kandera, residents of Chandwaji in relation to the murder. But, when the time came to produce the evidence related to the case, it was found that the police had no evidence with them because a monkey had stolen it from them.
In the court, the police said that the knife, which was the primary evidence, was also taken by the monkey. The cops informed that the evidence of the case was kept in a bag, which was being taken to the court.
The evidence bag contained the knife and 15 other important evidences. However, due to the lack of space in the malkhana, a bag full of evidence was kept under a tree, which led to the incident.