News18 Daybreak | SC Judges' Set-up Panel on Sexual Harassment Allegations Against CJI Gogoi and Other Stories You Need to Watch out For

A panel of three Supreme Court judges -- including a woman judge -- will look into the allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, levelled by a former employee of the court. According to sources, the decision to set up the panel was taken by a full court - attended by all the judges except Chief Justice Gogoi. Justice SA Bobde, who is next in seniority to Justice Gogoi, will head the panel. The others are Justices NV Ramana and Indira Banerjee.

Chief Justice Gogoi has strongly denied the allegations, asserting that the independence of the judiciary is "under threat" and it was being made a "scapegoat". "This is unbelievable. I don't think I should stoop low even to deny these allegations," he said on Saturday during an emergency hearing.

That hearing, however, was criticised by two associations of the top court - the Supreme Court Bar association and the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association, which wanted the full court to take a call on further action. In a statement, around 33 personalities including Medha Patkar, Arundhati Royand Aruna Roy sought an independent inquiry.

Earlier yesterday the three-member bench heard the affidavit of lawyer Utsav Bains, who alleged that the "false case of sexual harassment" was part of a conspiracy aimed at forcing the Chief Justice to resign. He claims to have been offered R

s. 1.5 crore in order to represent the woman and arrange a press meet against top judge.

The court asked the advocate to present himself in court on Wednesday and submit all the relevant material in this regard.

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Islamic State claims responsibility for bombings in Sri Lanka, releases photo of attackers

The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a series of bombings that killed more than 320 people in Sri Lanka, and released a photo and video of the men it said were involved in the attacks. "Those that carried out the attack that targeted members of the US-led coalition and Christians in Sri Lanka the day before yesterday are Islamic State group fighters," IS propaganda agency Amaq said in a statement.

Recent Developments: In a later statement, the group gave the noms de guerre of seven people it said were behind the "blessed attack" that targeted Christians during their "blasphemous holiday". The group said that three fighters named as Abu Obeidah, Abu Baraa and Abu Moukhtar were behind the attacks on the Shangri-La, Cinnamon Grand and Kingsbury hotels. Three other fighters -Abu Hamza, Abu Khalil and Abu Mohammad were named in the statement as the ones responsible for the attacks on three churches. A seventh fighter named Abu Abdallah is said to have killed three police officers in an attack in a Colombo suburb.

The terrorist groups's Amaq News Agency also released a 59-second video showing the attackers pledging to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The perpetrators: Meanwhile, several reports on Tuesday said that the sons of wealthy Colombo spice trader Mohammed Yusuf Ibrahim — were among the perpetrators. Reports say that 33-year old Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim and 31-year-old Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim blew themselves up as guests queued for breakfast at the Shangri-La and Cinnamon Grand hotels in the capital.

A leader of the left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party, Ibrahim is close friends with the minister for industry and commerce Rishath Bathiudeen and was seen in many of opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa’s receptions.

What next: Amid the ongoing investigation, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena announced that he is likely to remove the heads of defence forces within the next 24 hours for failing to share prior intel of the attacks. PM Ranil Wickremesinghe had earlier said that he had not been told of the intelligence report from April 11.

66% recorded in third phase of voting as controversy brews around Modi’s roadshow

Voting in the largest phase took place on Tuesday with a total of 116 seats going to the polls. According to initial data released by the Election Commission, 66% of the electorate in the polling constituencies turned up to vote. This is a 3% drop from the 2014 elections, which recorded a voter turnout of 69.3%. The numbers are, however, likely to increase.

Tuesday’s polls was an action-packed one with several high-profile voters casting their vote. PM Narendra Modi himself cast his vote from Gujarat’s Ahmedabad constituency following which he held a ‘roadshow’. The rival Congress party cried foul over the roadshow and lodged a complaint with the Election Commission claiming that PM Modi had violated the Model Code of Conduct. The poll panel, in response, said that it has sought a report from the Gujarat Chief Election Officer.

Meanwhile, polling in some of Kerala constituencies were marred by the deaths of eleven voters over “natural causes”. West Bengal also witnessed a tragic conflict when a scuffle between Congress and Trinamool Congress workers in Murshidabad eventually led to the death of the former.

SC exempts Rahul Gandhi from personal appearance in contempt petition hearing and another controversy sparks around Congress chief

Expressing regret has not earned Rahul Gandhi any reprieve after he admitted yesterday to misquoting the Supreme Court on its order on the Rafale fighter jet deal. The Congress chief has been asked to explain by next Tuesday why he should not be held in contempt for suggesting that the court had endorsed his sharpest political attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi this election season. However, he won't have to appear in person to file his response.

On Monday, Mr Gandhi had said in an affidavit that he had falsely quoted the top court as "rhetorical flourish in the heat of political campaigning", without having seen, read or analysed the order..

The Supreme Court will take up the case next Tuesday, along with review petitions against its Rafale order.

On April 10, the court had ruled that classified documents accessed by the media can be used as evidence to consider requests to review its clean chit to the Rafale deal. Hours later, Rahul Gandhi cheered the order with the "chowkidar" slogan that has become central in the Congress attack on PM Modi.

The BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi accused him of putting words in the mouth of the top court and sued him for contempt.

Sunny Deol adds to star power in BJP, fielded from Gurdaspur; Kirron Kher gets Chandigarh

Actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol joined BJP on Tuesday and is being fielded from Punjab’s Gurdaspur seat. Speculations of Deol’s entry into the party had been doing the rounds following his meeting with BJP president at Pune airport last week. "The way my father (film star Dharmendra) was attached with Atalji, today I have come to join Modiji… Whatever I can do for this family (BJP), I will do it... I won't talk, I will show you through my work," Deol said after joining the party in the presence of defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and railways minister Piyush Goyal. The saffron party also announced the names of two other candidates. Kirron Kher retained her Chandigarh seat while former IAS officer Som Prakash was fielded from Hoshiarpur replacing Union Minister Vijay Sampla.