Top stories on November 16 in a capsule

Sabarimala temple issue: Activist Trupti Desai returns to Mumbai after protests intensify

In a high octane drama over the Sabarimala temple entry issue in Kerala, gender activist and President of Bahumata Brigade Trupti Desai returned to Mumbai after protesters blocked her for more than 12 hours at the Cochin airport on Friday after she arrived in the state to seek darshan. Trupti along with four women colleagues, was stuck inside the airport since 4:30 am while angry protesters led by BJP youth activist Rahul Easwar demanded they go back as no women of menstrual age would be allowed inside the temple, irrespective of the Supreme Court’s recent order allowing the same. “Taxi operators are not taking my bookings. The police have asked me to stay inside as of now. But I will not go back without darshan,” Desai had earlier said over the phone to TV channels. Justifying the protests, BJP secretary MN Gopi said “She (Desai) has no other way but to return”, news agencies reported. Meanwhile, the temple opened on Friday as part of the 2-month long annual pilgrimage season even as the temple board revealed that it would seek more time from the Supreme Court to implement its recent order.  

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Assembly elections 2019: PM Modi, Rahul Gandhi take on each other in rallies

Leaving no stone unturned before the crucial assembly elections, Prime Minister and Congress President Rahul Gandhi slammed one another while addressing rallies in the poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Interacting with the public in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur district, PM Modi advocated the BJP led state government’s work for the poor. “I challenge Congress to make a party president outside the Gandhi family. Can they do that?” he questioned. Meanwhile, Gandhi attended a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar calling people to vote against the idea of ‘two Hindustans.’ Terming demonetization as the biggest scam, Gandhi said, “PM Modi is creating one Hindustan for the industrialists, another for the common man. We don’t want two but one country, and we want justice.

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CM Chandrababu Naidu bars CBI from entering Andhra without permission

Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday announced that they will bar the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from operating in the state without prior permission from the CMO's office, a move the CBI said they have recived no official notification of. According to a report by Indian Express, "while Section 5 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act 1946 gives powers to the CBI over all areas in the country, Section 6 states that without the consent of the particular state government, the central agency cannot enter that state’s jurisdiction," which Naidu has enabled. The move also received a green signal from West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee saying, Naidu has done the right thing. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday hearing the case of bribery charges against CBI Director Alok Verma said it will not give him a clean chit yet as the court needs more time to go through the report by Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) on him.
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Anti-Sikh riots victim identifies Congress leader Sajjan Kumar 

Bringing back the ghosts of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, a victim identified veteran leader Sajjan Kumar as a prime accused in the tragic event that saw the death of over 2,000 people. Giving a statement in Delhi's Patiala House Court, witness Cham Kaur said she and others had filed an application against the accused politician in Delhi court in September 2018 after which she has been receiving threat calls and even bribes. Sajjan and four others, currently facing trial are accused of murder and rioting in west Delhi's Sultanpuri area after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Meanwhile, in a first for the case, the court convicted two people and termed them as guilty in the three-decade-old case.

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Delhi AAP minister's house attacked by mob, bullets fired

At least 60 armed men attacked AAP MLA Jitendra Kumar vehicle outside his residence on Thursday evening leading to CM Arvind Kejriwal to express grief over the incident. Kejriwal even tweeted about the incident and asked, “What is going on in Delhi?” The attackers fired 10 rounds of gunshots outside Kumar’s residence and tried to break into his house. After the attack, Kumar said that the fatal incident is politically driven, reported a news agency. Joint commissioner of police Devesh Chandra Srivastava said “initial enquiry revealed that the Councillor had an argument with some locals on Wednesday and the suspects are being identified. An appropriate legal action would be taken as per law.” On Wednesday Kumar had an argument over public urination with his neighbor in the locality. But Kumar refused the incident to have any connection with the Thursday firing episode outside his residence.

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