Latest news with #Mohanty


New Indian Express
a day ago
- Science
- New Indian Express
Sachidananda Mohanty new UGC-DAE CSR member
BHUBANESWAR: Academician Sachidananda Mohanty has been nominated as a member of the governing board of the UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research (CSR), Indore. He has been nominated by the chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Vineet Joshi for a three-year term. The UGC-DAE Consortium, established in 1989, is one of the inter-university centres set up by the UGC. As an autonomous institution, it aims to promote advanced research and teaching in areas involving sophisticated scientific infrastructure, including accelerators, lasers and nuclear reactors. Mohanty is a current member of the UGC and a former vice-chancellor of the Central University of Odisha. He has received numerous national and international accolades, including awards from the British Council, Salzburg Global Seminar, the Katha Foundation and the Fulbright Program. Mohanty has written 30 books which have been published in leading international forums like Oxford, Routledge, Sage publications, etc.


Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Hindustan Times
SIT questions complainant in Dharmasthala mass burial case
The interrogation of a former sanitation worker, who claimed to have buried hundreds of bodies in Dharmasthala village, continued for the second consecutive day on Sunday, with special investigation team (SIT) chief and director general of police (internal security) Pronab Mohanty personally questioning the whistle-blower, officials familiar with the matter said. The team also held detailed discussions with local authorities, scrutinised records of missing persons, and revisited earlier reports of suspicious deaths in the region (File photo) The SIT, which officially took over the case files from local police on July 25, has prioritised verifying the complainant's narrative before moving into more sensitive aspects of the probe. Officers said there are inconsistencies in the complainant's statements to the media and those given to police, thus multiple rounds of questioning is needed to establish a clear timeline. 'The complainant is at the centre of the case and his questioning will be the first step. Based on that, the next course of action will be decided,' an official in the know of the development said on condition of anonymity. The officer added, 'There are inconsistencies in his version of events. Before proceeding further, we need to establish a coherent timeline and verify the facts.' The team also held detailed discussions with local authorities, scrutinised records of missing persons, and revisited earlier reports of suspicious deaths in the region, officials said. Investigators also interacted with residents in and around Dharmasthala and inspected specific sites believed to be associated with the allegations, they said. The complainant, whose identity has been kept confidential, has been granted protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018. Local police have also approached the court for permission to conduct brain mapping and narco-analysis tests, though these procedures require the complainant's consent. 'The tests are being considered to assess the veracity of his account. But these will only be done if the complainant agrees and it will not be considered evidence in the court,' an officer said. The SIT, headed by Mohanty, consists of deputy inspector general of police (recruitment) MN Anucheth and IPS officers Soumyalatha SK and Jitendra Kumar Dayama. Twenty police personnel — inspectors, sub-inspectors, head constables and constables — from Udupi, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada have also been deployed to the SIT. The SIT is currently in the first phase of its investigation, focusing entirely on fact-verification, officials said, adding that the next phase, possibly involving the exhumation of alleged burial sites, will be initiated only after this phase is completed. 'Exhumation depends entirely on what emerges from the first phase,' an officer said. Officials said a dedicated SIT office will soon be established in Dharmasthala to coordinate further action. The present case originated from an FIR registered on July 4, based on a complaint by a former sanitation worker who alleged that he was forced to bury numerous bodies during his tenure in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014. According to the complaint, many of the deceased were allegedly victims of sexual violence and murder. The man also claimed that his own relative had been assaulted, prompting him to flee the town in fear. According to officers, further investigation could include the creation of a database of the potential victims and eventually a DNA database. But the process is expected to be tough. The SIT is also coordinating with local law enforcement to retrieve historical police records, including FIRs and missing persons reports from the period in question. The fact that Dharmasthala didn't have a police station until 2016, complicates this process. Investigators say this effort will involve combing through 20 years of documents, some of which may be incomplete or missing altogether. 'But before we get to that, it all depends on whether he can point out the locations as he claims. Only then will a database be meaningful. We've been told this area was also used to bury unclaimed bodies, so verification is going to be difficult. We're hoping that details from old missing persons cases and information shared with police helplines, especially in instances where first information reports (FIRs) were not registered, will help us build that database,' the officer added. According to investigators, while extracting DNA from remains is possible, finding the match would be tough. But the biggest challenge will be establishing rape and murder as only skeletal remains will remain. (With PTI inputs)


Scroll.in
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
‘Dance of Shadows': Violence and glory abound in this Mahabharata-inspired fantasy novel
The Mahabharata, a sprawling epic written in more than two million words, has seen several reimaginings in fiction, especially in the last decade. Reimagining the war and its consequences through the eyes of its male and female characters is all the rage. In his latest novel, Dance of Shadows, Gourav Mohanty expands his grimdark universe that began with Sons of Darkness. A different Mahabharata In the content warning for The Goddess of the River, Vaishnavi Patel writes that the Mahabharata has every horrifying act one can imagine. In Dance of Shadows, the second novel in The Raag of RTA series, Mohanty expounds this argument. This, of course, is not a faithful rendition of the events that happened in the epic. Mohanty has taken familiar characters from the epic and dunked them into a cauldron boiling with blood, war, revenge, plotting, murders, coercion, and everything else. He adds a disclaimer at the beginning: This is not the Mahabharata. It indeed is not and how fun is that! Divided into 18 books, the Mahabharata has more than 75,000 verses. The first 11 of these books are about the royal clan of Kuru. The 12th and 13th books elaborate views on religion, morality, duty and so on. This is the part where Bhishma, on his deathbed, shares stories with Yudhishthira. It also serves as a handbook for kings that offers advice on how to be a successful ruler. When Yudhishthira asks Bhishma a particularly tricky question, he often replies in this vein: 'There is an old tale about this very issue…' and goes on to narrate it. Mohanty seems to have taken inspiration from Bhishma as he sets about to tell his own story. Dance of Shadows abounds in a darkness that subsumes all: deity and demon. An extensive retelling of the Mahabharata, here, every character is baying for blood. The reason for it can be either ambition or revenge. No act is too grotesque to win what one wants. In Dance of Shadows, the story doesn't move forward as much as it moves parallel to the events that happened in Sons of Darkness. Each character is fleshed out and given their own arc. The prologue featuring Manu had me at the edge of my seat – I knew I was in for a wild ride. To add to the madness, we have a deadly pandemic here too. Guess its name? Marigold! The novel is not at all apologetic about the violence it portrays. Mohanty writes it with glee and confidence, and while some scenes seemed to have been purely added for drama, one cannot complain that they are boring or repetitive in any way. Rebellious women In her Mahabharata -based short story collection, The Dharma of Unfaithful Wives and Faithful Jackals, Wendy Doniger writes: 'A strange portion in Mahabharata suggests violent punishments for both men and women who have been promiscuous. Among these are the young student who sleeps with his old guru's young wife and this has been taken very seriously in the stories. He should be killed by having him embrace a red-hot hollow metal column. Or he may cut off his own penis and his testicles and holding them in his hand, walk southwest until he drops dead. When a woman does this, she must suffer from similar punishments. Many of these ideas are carried verbatim into the Manusmriti.' In these stories, it is the woman who is primarily blamed for the sexual transgressions of both involved. Women are to be revered only when they perform their socially accepted duties. In fact, Bhishma says: 'All women, always, are of two sorts, good and evil. The good women are fortunate, honoured, the mothers of the world, and they uphold this earth, with its forests and groves. The ones who are not good have evil intentions; they behave badly and destroy their families. They can be recognised by the evil marks that arise spontaneously on their limbs.' As if to challenge Bhishma's preachings, Mohanty makes the women in his novel do all kinds of heavy lifting, from poisoning their princes to crossing continents. They are warriors, librarians, scribes, adventurers, killers, and revenge-seekers. He gives them the freedom that the epic had forbidden. I have turned into a fan of Mati (Bhanumati), the pirate princess of Kalinga (Mohanty is her compatriot, not in time but in location), who is hell-bent on dropping her husband right into the lap of heavenly baikunth. Then there is Vahura, a bookdragon-ish princess ready to go to any length to save her sister. 'Inevitability is often the mother of surrender but with the right dosage of circumstances and will, can be the step-mother of defiance,' writes Mohanty. Fate is inevitable in his universe, and so is defiance.


The Print
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Dharmasthala SIT probe mired in uncertainty with 2 officers' request to exit & govt's attempt at retention
'Two officers have made it clear that they do not want to be part of the SIT. They have conveyed this to the government and are convinced about opting out,' said one person aware of the developments. In an order on 19 July, the Siddaramaiah-led government had said that Director General of Police Pronab Mohanty would lead the team, and would be assisted by three IPS officers—M.N. Anucheth, S.K. Soumyalatha and Jitendra Kumar Dayama. Bengaluru: The special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe allegations of rape, murder and mass-burials in Dharmasthala is embroiled in controversy even as it is yet to begin its investigation in the matter, with two officers requesting to be replaced, ThePrint has learnt. The person added that one officer said that they would rather face disciplinary action than getting entangled in the politics of the case, since it allegedly involves members of one of the most influential and wealthiest families in the state. On 3 July, a former sanitation worker of Dharmasthala temple had alleged that he was coerced to bury, burn or dispose of 'hundreds' of dead bodies, adding that most of these bodies were those of women who appeared to have been victims of rape and torture. According to people aware of the developments, the government is still trying to convince the officers to continue in the SIT as their exit would send the 'wrong message' to the public. 'It's like they are doomed if they do, and doomed if they don't,' said the person quoted above, requesting anonymity. The concern that the two officers requesting to opt out have shared is that they would be subject to extreme scrutiny and political pressure due to the nature of the case and those allegedly involved. 'If they find something, they will face political pressure to alter it or water it down. And if they don't find anything as expected by those opposing the powerful family, then they will be judged as sellouts. It's that sort of a case where doing anything or nothing will be equally damaging,' the person told ThePrint. Also Read: The dead speak in Dharmasthala. Sinister story behind temple town's mass graves, unearthed 'No changes' Mohanty is the DGP (Internal Security Division), while Anucheth, who was serving as Joint Commissioner (Traffic) was transferred as Deputy Inspector General (Recruitment) on 14 July. Soumyalatha serves as Deputy Commissioner of Police (City Armed Reserve Headquarters), and Dayama is Superintendent of Police (Internal Security Division). Mohanty told ThePrint that as far as he was aware, there were no changes to the SIT. On Wednesday, the government released another order in which it named 20 police officers who will be part of the SIT. But the confusion with respect to the team has delayed the commencement of the probe on top of the initial delay by the Dakshina Kannada Police. The police filed an FIR on 4 July, and the former sanitation worker even made a statement before a Belthangady court on 10 July. But the district police made no progress. The former sanitation worker had offered to take the police to the burial sites, but the latter showed no interest in even finding out if the claims made by the former were true or not. On the afternoon of 16 July, he sat in a car while his lawyers waited on the road by the Nethravathi river, expecting the police to arrive. Media personnel and townsfolk watched from across the bridge, but the police never showed up. The complainant waited for 30 minutes and left. In a statement last Wednesday, the Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police said that there were credible intelligence inputs that the witness was likely to abscond after the digging of the graves. He also said that the police officers have put in a request to carry out brain mapping, fingerprint scans and narco tests on the complainant. Even the skeletal remains that the complainant handed over to the police were not sent to the forensic science laboratory and were kept in a hospital for medical opinion. The delays in the SIT probe have not helped. Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara has further fuelled confusion by saying that all officers (IPS-level) will remain in the SIT for now. 'If someone has requested the DGP or commissioner, they will be replaced. For whatever reason, the people in that committee, if they give a convincing reason not to be in it, they will be replaced,' Parameshwara told reporters Tuesday. He, however, claimed that he was aware of this information only through media reports and that none of these requests had reached him officially. (Edited by Mannat Chugh) Also Read: Witness protection for Karnataka Dalit who 'buried scores of women for Dharamsthala temple authorities'


New Indian Express
6 days ago
- New Indian Express
Odisha college lecturer booked in case of sexual harassment
JAGATSINGHPUR: Police have registered a case under the POCSO Act against the Mathematics lecturer of Swami Arupananda College of Education and Technology at Raghunathpur for his alleged involvement in the sexual harassment of a 17-year-old girl student. Lecturer Susant Mohanty was booked on basis of the complaint filed by Jagatsinghpur sub-collector Prasant Kumar Tarai, who is also the president of the college governing body. However, the victim or her family members are yet to lodge a complaint with the police. On Monday, Tarai filed an FIR in Jagatsinghpur police station alleging involvement of Mohanty and college principal Ramesh Chandra Sahoo in the sexual harassment of the minor student. In his complaint, the sub-collector said on January 15, the girl had submitted a written complaint to the principal alleging sexual harassment by Mohanty. However, Sahoo allegedly suppressed the matter in connivance with the lecturer. According to the report previously submitted to the district administration by the principal, lecturer Mohanty had confessed to sexually harassing the student. Despite this, the principal failed to inform the president of the college governing body or the authorities of Higher Education department. Subsequently, the sub-collector filed the FIR and urged police to conduct a proper investigation and take strict action against the principal and the lecturer. Raghunathpur police recorded the statement of the student in the local court under section 183 of the BNS. Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Tirtol Chinmay Rout said a case has been registered against Mohanty under section 74 of BNS and sections 12 and 21 (2) of the POCSO Act. Police are investigating the role of the college principal in the incident and appropriate action will be taken after completion of the probe. Notably on Monday, Jagatsinghpur collector J Sonal had suspended the principal for allegedly suppressing the sexual harassment case and the lecturer for his involvement in the incident. The duo has reportedly absconded after availing leave from the college.