Karnataka officials planted rumours about lndian Administrative Service Officer DK Ravi’s alleged affair with his batch-mate, said the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday. Bureau officials said that a preliminary probe showed Ravi had made only one call to his batch-mate on March 16, the day he was found hanging at his home in Bengaluru. This contradicted statements made by state officials, who had alleged that he had made 44 calls on that date. The CBI said that it was now focusing on examining the officials who had spread the rumours. A spokesperson for the agency said that it had yet to draw its conclusions on whether Ravi’s death was actually a suicide. Ravi had been a prominent opponent of the sand mafia in the state.Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest by authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday. This was done to prevent him from attending a rally on Thursday to commemorate the death anniversary of his father Moulvi Mohammad Farooq, who was assassinated by militants in 1990. “It is state-sponsored terrorism and an example of aggressive politics,” said a Hurriyat spokesperson. The Mirwaiz called for a complete strike on Thursday and urged his supporters to march to the site of his father’s assassination.The Shiv Sena on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to assist farmers in Maharashtra, even as he was offering a $1 billion line of credit to Mongolia. “We can call Mongolia more fortunate than Maharashtra to have received aid from India,” said an editorial in the party newspaper Saamna. Modi had visited Mongolia last week as part of a three-nation tour that saw him visit South Korea and China as well.Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi on Wednesday said that the Election Commission was yet to decide on the schedule for assembly elections in Bihar. Zaidi said that the Commission was currently conducting a summary revision of voters’ lists, which would be published by July 31. He said that the electoral process would have to be completed by November 29 as the tenure of the present Assembly would expire by then. Political parties would also have to be consulted with before the Commission arrived at its final schedule, he said.Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tathagata Roy was sworn in as the Governor of Tripura on Wednesday. Roy, a university professor by profession, was sworn in by state High Court Chief Justice Deepak Gupta. He had previously faced criticism for his anti-Muslim tweets. He said that he would not post any more political tweets due to the compulsions of his office. Meanwhile, Lieutenant-General (Retired) Nirbhay Sharma will be sworn in as the Governor of Mizoram on May 26. Sharma will be the state’s eighth governor in 10 months.