BJP MLA arrested for graft

B D Narayankar

Bangalore: As the BJP was cooling off its heels by arresting Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik for plotting Mangalore pub attack, it faced yet another embarrasment when one of its MLA Y Sampangi was arrested by Lokayukta police for allegedly accepting bribe from a businessman to close a police case relating to a land dispute.

This is the first time in the history of Karnataka Lokayukta that an MLA has been nabbed for accepting graft.

A trap was laid on a businessman's complaint and Sampangi, who represents Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) constituency in Kolar district, was caught while allegedly accepting the bribe amount of Rs five lakh (Rs 50,000 in cash and cheque of Rs 4.5 lakh) at the legislator's home here, Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde said.

The MLA was arrested under Section (7) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. As required, Lokayukta has informed Legislative Assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar of the arrest, Hegde said.

Lokayukta needs the sanction of the Speaker for filing the charge-sheet.

Hegde said businessman Hussain Mueen Farook lodged a complaint to the Lokayukta that Ilias, Nayaaz and Khana Fiaz had prepared forged documents and attempted to trespass a plot belonging to him. Farooq approached Andersonpet police station sub-inspector, who refused to register the case.

Then the complainant approached the Superintendent of Police, on whose intervention a case was registered against the three persons. Meanwhile, Ilias' wife also lodged a complaint against Farook, claiming the site's ownership. Both cases were being investigated.

Meanwhile, police sub-inspector and circle police inspector suggested to Farook that he meet Sampangi in connection with the cases. Samangi allegedly demanded Rs five lakh from Farook to get the police case against him closed, Hegde said.

Asked whether he was confident of getting a sanction to file a chargesheet against the ruling party MLA, Hegde said: "In view of public reaction, I have no doubt that a responsible government will give sanction".

He said the two police officers who suggested to the complainant that he approach the MLA have also been made accused in the case.

Stimulus packages have started to work: Pranab

PTI

New Delhi: The two stimulus packages given by the government to boost the economy have started working and the economic growth in the current year is likely to be seven per cent, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also holding the charge of the Finance Ministry, said here.

That has been reiterated by the Reserve Bank Governor while announcing the (third-quarterly review of the) credit policy," Mukherjee said after his first meeting with Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal and senior officials of the ministry at North Block.

Mukherjee took charge of the Finance Ministry as the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was looking after the finance portfolio, is recuperating from a heart surgery at the All-Indian Institute of Medical Science.

The minister was briefed by the senior officials of the finance ministry on various issues, including preparation for interim budget which is to be presented in Parliament next month. As regards economic growth, Mukherjee said, "though the economy will not grow at 8.9 or 8.8 per cent, it will grow around 7 per cent.

There is no doubt about that .

Indian economy is sound and will bounce back ".

The RBI in its review of the credit policy projected a growth rate of 7 per cent for the current fiscal, down from 7.5 to 8 per cent estimated earlier. On his priority as in-charge of the Finance Ministry, Mukherjee said, "My first priority is to get the vote on account passed.

That is the top most priority and it is also a constitutional requirement."

Federer, Williams steam into finals

B D Narayankar

Melbourne: Roger Federer moved into the final of the Australian Open here on Thursday after defeating America's Andy Roddick in 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 in an enthralling encounter.

This is Swiss maestro's 18th grand slam final and fourth one in the Australian Open.

Earlier Serena Williams also advanced into the finals, trouncing Elena Dementieva. She will face Dinara Safina in the summit clash.

Federer set up a sterling performance under the stars. He played an unbelievablely precision tennis. For Roddick it was simply a nightmare.

Williams kept her cool, though, and cruised past an opponent who had won their previous three meetings.

Victory over Safina in Saturday's final will vault Williams back to world number one but the ranking is secondary to her.

Williams has nine grand slam singles titles to her name and is desperate to hit double figures.

Another Russian Safina ousted Vera Zvonareva 6-3 7-6 in the other semifinal.

Aus Open: Bhupathi enter doubles' final

B D Narayankar

INDIA's Mahesh Bhupathi and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles gatecrashed into their first Grand Slam Australian Open doubles final on Thursday.

The third-seeded Bhupathi and Knowles trounced Polish Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marachm 6-3, 6-3 in 58 minutes

The Indo-Bahamian pair will play American No 2 seeds and two-time champions Bob and Mike Bryan, who in a repeat of the 2007 US Open final stopped Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy from winning their first Grand Slam together.

Leander Paes' campaign in the mixed doubles had ended in the second round itself.

In the boys singles, top seed Yuki Bhambri overcame a late fightback from German Richard Becker 6-1, 7-5 to move into the semi-final in an hour and 12 minutes.

Yuki, who reached the semi-final in the last edition here, will play seventh seed Adrien Puget of France who beat Mikhal Biryukov of Russia 6-4, 6-2.

If Bhupathi clinches the Australian Open men's doubles title, he will win all four Grand Slams. He has a 4-3 record in Grand Slam finals, winning in 1999 and 2001 at Roland Garros, in 1999 at Wimbledon and in 2002 at the US Open.

Knowles won the Australian Open title in 2002 with long-time partner Daniel Nestor, with whom he also reached the final in 1995 and 2003. In addition to his win in Australia, he won the title in 2004 at the US Open and at Roland Garros in 2007.

Bindra surprised at Padma discrimination

B D Narayankar

New Delhi: India''s Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra expressed surprise at Beijing Games bronze medal winners Vijender Singh and Sushil Kumar being left out of the list of Padma awardees.

"I have no idea what the criteria are (for the Padma awards) but we as a nation need to support our Olympic athletes whether in victory or defeat because they will only bring us the global recognition in the field of sports," he said. "We need to encourage our Olympic athletes," he added.

In Beijing, Indian contingent for the first time won three Olympic medals. Vijender won the first ever boxing medal for the country while Sushil was only the second Indian grappler after Kasaba Jadhav (bronze in Helsinki Olympics) to fetch a medal in wrestling.

Pawar-Rane meeting stirs hornets nest

B D Narayankar

Pune: The secret meeting between Narayan Rane and Sharad Pawar on Monday in Pune has stirred a hornets nest in political sphere.

Sources say that the meeting was about creating a ground for Rane''s sons - Nitesh and Nilesh.

It is being said that Rane's elder son Nilesh is likely to contest for Lok Sabha from Sindhudurg constituency in Konkan, where his father has strong hold, and Nitesh would fight it out from a constituency in Mumbai.

The political aspirations of Nilesh and Nitesh are not hidden. In recent times, both were seen with their father in Swabhiman rally held in October last year in Mumbai.

Nilesh had reportedly said in the rally that there would not be two power centres and one would see political upmanship between him and Nitesh.
On the other hand, Nitesh is busy establishing his roots through Swabhiman Sanghatana, a social organisation. The three-year old organisation has presence in all the 35 districts in the state. Last Sunday, Nitesh inaugurated one of its offices in Pune too.

The function drew a sizable gathering of youths from the cross section of the society. The gathering saw Nitesh training his guns against the MNS without taking any names. "Pune is an education hub and students from outside will come to the city for higher education. We should welcome them. If anyone tries to disturb them, my volunteers will stand by them," he said.

When contacted, Nitesh said Swabhiman was purely a social organisation and had nothing to do with politics. "We will be initiating one youth - one vote campaign in every district. We will be going to college campuses in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha polls and appeal the youth to cast their vote," he said. "There are other programmes too like career guidance, traffic issues and unemployment. The whole idea is to motivate young people for better tomorrow," he added. Nitesh however refused to comment on the Pawar- Rane meeting.

"It was just a courtesy visit," Pawar on Wednesday said that suspended Congress leader Narayan Rane had given a courtesy visit to him on Monday evening, but ruled out any political discussion. "Rane was in Pune and just gave me a courtesy call. We did not have any political discussion," he said. However, the NCP chief said his guess is that Rane is mentally not prepared to go elsewhere and will stay in Congress. "It is good for the Congress-NCP alliance contesting the Lok Sabha polls," he said.

Won't allow pub culture: Karnataka CM

B D Narayankar

Bangalore: Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa is mulling ban on pub culture in the state and taking stringent action against those taking law in their hands.

"Pub is not a part of our culture and in fact, this was the reason for the outrage in Mangalore," he said. The pub incident was unfortunate, but has been blown out of proportion

Asked whether he would ban Sri Ram Sene, he said that the banning of an organization will not solve the issue. "We need to take appropriate measures to prevent these incidents from occuring in future," Yediyurappa said.

If necessary, Karnataka would consider invoking Goonda Act for taking action against the identified accused who had beaten up women in a Mangalore pub, Yediyurappa said.

Responding to yet another query, the chief minister rejected opposition Congress''' demand for the resignation of State Home Minister. "In fact there is a larger conspiracy to tarnish the image of BJP in Karnataka," Yediyurappa said.

Meanwhile, arrested Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muttalik has lambasted BJP for taking action against Hindu organizations. "BJP has come to power on Hindu agenda and I urge BJP not to sacrifice Hindu outfits to protect the government."