Bengaluru, May 9: Former Karnataka food and civil supplies minister Haratalu Halappa was arrested in Shimoga on Sunday evening after being accused of rape by a friend’s wife. Mr Halappa was questioned by the CID for three hours and taken into custody at 6 pm, and remanded by a court to judicial custody for 24 hours, till Monday.

He categorically denied the rape charge filed against him by his friend Venkatesh Murthy’s wife Chandravati, and reportedly denied visiting Mr Murthy’s house on November 26 last year. It is reliably learnt that he told the investigating officer he had visited the Murthys on an earlier occasion but not on the day when she alleged he had raped her.
He confessed he knew Mr Murthy very well, but added he was being framed for political reasons. The CID will send the victim’s stained petticoat and the dhoti Mr Halappa was reportedly wearing that night for a DNA test. Besides the clothes, the CID will also send the mobile phone in which Mr Murthy took a video of the alleged rape for forensic examination.

Bala Chauhan
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GoM will meet soon on Gr Noida airport
Age Correspondent
New Delhi

May 9: With UP’s BSP government pushing hard for the Greater Noida airport project, the Group of Ministers is likely to meet in the next few days on its clearance. The GMR group, which operates Delhi’s IGI airport, has verbally told ministry officials it would suffer losses if the new airport was built.