Eagleton resort brawl: Congress MLA Ganesh gets bail in attempt to murder case

Crime

Ganesh was earlier rejected bail by a special court for MLAs and MPs in Bengaluru.

TNM Staff

More than two months after his arrest, the Karnataka High Court granted bail to JN Ganesh, the Congress MLA from Kampli constituency in Ballari district on Wednesday in connection with an attempt to murder case at Eagleton resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Ganesh was arrested for allegedly grievously assaulting his fellow MLA colleague Anand Singh who represents the Vijayanagar constituency in the same district. The Hindu reported Justice BA Patil granted bail to Ganesh on condition of him executing a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and sureties sought by the trial court. The court also directed Ganesh not to influence the investigation in any way or threaten witnesses during his bail. The Hindu quoted the Court’s observation as, “This is an unfortunate case in which people’s representatives, who should be models to society and guide the people, had resorted to altercation resulting in this case, and such conduct would affect the image of the institution that they represent”. He was earlier rejected bail by a special court for MLAs and MPs in Bengaluru. Deccan Herald reported that HC observed that since the special public prosecutor has submitted that a limited bail can be granted shows there is no seriousness in the alleged crime. Ganesh has been asked to report to the nearest police station every 15 days till a chargesheet is filed. The HC also noted that the accused can’t leave the country without the permission of the trial court. Ganesh was arrested by police on February 20, a month after he had managed to abscond after being booked by Bidadi Police for his alleged assault on Anand Singh that took place at Eagleton resort on January 19. The Congress legislators were holed up in the resort after a special legislature meeting was called by party leader Siddaramaiah during a time of threat to the coalition government. He was booked under sections 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 307 (Attempt to murder), 504 (intentional insult to breach peace) and 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).  

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Ending speculation, rebel Karnataka Congress MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi to resign

Politics

Ramesh Jarkiholi said he will contest against his brother Satish in the next elections from Yemkanmardi on a BJP ticket.

TNM Staff

Ending months of speculation, Ramesh Jarkiholi, the rebel Congress MLA from Gokak in Belagavi district, announced that he will tender his resignation on Thursday. “I will contest from Yemkanmardi seat in next Assembly elections on a BJP ticket,” Ramesh Jarkiholi said on Wednesday, while making arrangements for the BJP candidate in Chikkodi Lok Sabha constituency.  Yemkanmardi is currently held by none other than his brother and Forest Minister Satish Jarkiholi. He also suggested that a few other Congress MLAs might also resign and said discussions to that effect are going on. This statement from Ramesh Jarkiholi comes a day after he said that he was “technically with the Congress” suggesting an announcement was due soon. He had also said, “I am happy to support Lakhan (another brother) if he decides to contest from Gokak. I am a responsible person and I have been in politics for many years. When Umesh Katti was refused the ticket from Chikkodi by the BJP, BS Yeddyurappa had met Umesh Katti and sorted out the issue within a matter of hours. Congress has not approached me at all.” The announcement has created a possibility of the current JD(S)-Congress coalition government losing its majority in the state Assembly. Meanwhile, BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa has been claiming that he will be the CM once the Lok Sabha results are out. Ramesh Jarkiholi was one of the four dissenting Congress MLAs whom the party hierarchy wants to be disqualified for failing to attend the special legislature party meeting called ahead of the Budget session. The Speaker is yet to make his decision on the disqualification as urged by the Congress top brass. The three other dissenting MLAs were Mahesh Kumathahalli, Umesh Jadhav and B Nagendra. Out of them, Jadhav already joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha polls against Congress heavyweight and its leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge from Kalaburagi.

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HHS nearing plan to roll back transgender protections

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Postcard News founder Mahesh Vikram Hegde detained by Karnataka cops in fake letter case

Arrest

Mahesh Hegde's website had published a fake letter last year, which they claimed had been written by Karnataka Home Minister MB Patil to Sonia Gandhi in 2017.

TNM Staff

Mahesh Vikram Hedge, the founder of the website PostCard News, was detained by the Karnataka CID at Kodagu on Wednesday. Mahesh Hegde was in Kodagu to attend an event and a CID team headed by Chandra Gupta IPS detained Hegde from a resort at Virajpet in Kodagu district. The website, notorious for posting fake stories, had published a fake letter last year, which they claimed had been written by Karnataka Home Minister MB Patil to Sonia Gandhi in 2017.   The letter, on Lingayat issue in Karnataka, re-surfaced on April 19, 2019 as it was published on the front page of  Hubbali edition of Kannada newspaper Vijaya Vani. Vijayavani was launched by Vijay Sankeshwar in 2012. Sankeshwar was previously a BJP MP from Dharwad (North) constituency. The same day, the Karnataka unit of the BJP tweeted the fake letter alleging that Home Minister MB Patil and former All India Congress Committee chief Sonia Gandhi had “conspired to break the Lingayat community in 2017”. To prove its claim, the party tweeted the letter which says the only way to increase Congress tally is by dividing Hindus and subsequently uniting Christians and Muslims. Based on the minister’s complaint, Hegde was picked up by the police for interrogation. His arrest will be recorded later, a source told TNM. After news of Hegde's detention spread, BJP and RSS leaders took to social media to condemn the police action. Karnataka govt has arrested Mahesh Hegde Vendetta politics of @hd_kumaraswamy's govt exposes their desperation of loosing elections. I urge govt to release Mahesh & stop suppressing nationalist voices Also State BJP legal cell is looking into this matter#IStandWithMaheshHegde — Chowkidar Arvind Limbavali (@bjparvind) April 24, 2019 In frustration of loosing elections Karnataka Govt arrests Shruti Bellakki & Mahesh Vikrama Hegde for their social media posts ... Shruti sent to jail now .... Shame on you @hd_kumaraswamy @MBPatil for the high handed approach ... @suvarnanewstv @Vijaykarnataka — B L Santhosh (@blsanthosh) April 24, 2019 Why the letter was fake The letter carried the signature of MB Patil, on the letterhead of the Bijapur Lingayat District Educational Association (BLDEA) of which he is President. The letter has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp in 2018, since a little before the Karnataka Assembly Elections, when the issue of a separate Lingayat religion was at its peak. It was first published by PostCard News. The 'letter' talks about a meeting that a few ministers held with representatives of the “Global Christian Council” and “World Islamic Organisation” regarding the strategy to be adopted for the Karnataka Assembly Elections. However, these two organisations do not exist. When this was exposed by fact checkers BoomLive and AltNews in 2018, PostCard News had deleted their story and tweets. However, M B Patil went ahead and filed a police complaint, to initiate legal action against those responsible. Mahesh Vikram Hegde was first arrested by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch in March last year, for a story that he had carried on PostCard News claiming that a Jain monk had been attacked. At the time, the police had said that a Jain monk who had come for the Shravanabelagola festival had met with an accident on March 13, but Postcard News published a status message on social media stating that he had been attacked by Muslim youth.

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Mortal remains of 7 JD(S) workers killed in Sri Lanka attacks arrive in Bengaluru

Death

IANS

The mortal remains of the seven seven JD(S) activists, who died in the Colombo blasts on Sunday arrived In Bengaluru from Sri Lanka on Wednesday. "The bodies were flown from Colombo in separate flights of SriLankan Airlines in coffins and taken to their homes to allow the public to pay homage before the last rites," state protocol Deputy Secretary Vijay Mahantesh said in a statement. The bodies were of KG Hanumantharayappa, KM Lakshminarayana, M Rangappa, H Shivakumar, A Maregowda, H Puttaraju and LG Ramesh. The activists went to Sri Lanka on a holiday on April 20 after campaigning in the second phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on April 18 in the state's southern region, including Bengaluru. All of them hailed from Nelamangala in Tumkur district, about 50km northeast of Bengaluru. "The (JD(S)) activists were staying in Shangri-La star hotel where one of the serial bomb blasts went off, ripping through the restaurant when they were having breakfast," a party official told IANS earlier. Besides these seven, three others from Bengaluru also died in the blast. They were S.R. Nagaraj Reddy, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Remurai Tulasiram. "Reddy's body arrived here on Tuesday night, while the bodies of other two were yet to be flown from Colombo, pending formalities," added Mahantesh. JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda and his third son and state Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy paid floral tributes to the activists and consoled their bereaved families at their respective homes. Puttaraju's sibling Rudresh told IANS on Monday that his elder brother called him on Sunday morning and said he landed in Colombo along with six others safely and were in a hotel (Shangri La). "There was no call again from him after the blasts. None of the family members of the other six activists also got call from any of them after the blasts," Rudresh added. The activists flew to the island nation on April 20 on a four-day holiday trip for sight-seeing in Colombo and Kandy. They were booked to fly back on April 24.  

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Desilting, other preparations begin in Bengaluru but will it be done before monsoon?

Civic Issues

Ahead of the monsoon,over 240 vulnerable areas have been identified in Bengaluru as low-lying and prone to water-logging.

Prajwal Bhat

When heavy rains lashed Bengaluru last Thursday, it brought the city's traffic on Old Madras Road to a halt. For many, the logjam on the road foreshadowed what the city's residents experience during the monsoon when rains create havoc in the city.  This year, the city's civic officials held a meeting on Wednesday to assess the preparations for the upcoming monsoon season and take precautionary measures to tackle floods. The meeting was convened by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and was attended by BBMP, BWSSB, BESCOM and police officials in Vidhana Soudha. This is the first time such a meeting has been convened as early as April. Parameshwara confirmed that 246 vulnerable areas in the city have been identified by analysing data from the last four years. These areas include low-lying areas and areas susceptible to water-logging. "We have studied and mapped storm-water drains and the process of desilting lakes is ongoing," he said speaking to reporters after the meeting. Out of 167 lakes in the city, desilting work will be done in 74 lakes, of which work in 18 has been completed.  BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad, who was also present in the meeting, revealed that 1950 encroachments into storm-water drains have been identified in the city, of which only 450 have been removed. When questioned about the remaining 1500 encroachments, he said, "It is a continuous process and new encroachments are being identified." He further added that storm-water drain sidewalls had been constructed in 440 km of roads in the city. "We are working to ensure the remaining 400 km is also covered," he said. No deadlines were mentioned for the ongoing works and it is not confirmed whether it will be completed before the monsoon begins in June.   Meanwhile, Parameshwara stated that 63 control rooms will be set up in the city for residents to lodge complaints. "Among the control rooms, there will be a central control room which will take calls from all areas in the city. BESCOM will have an emergency team on standby to attend to cases of electric poles falling down and other issues that might crop up," he said.  He also vowed that the state government will fill up potholes in the city. "The Cheif Engineer of each BBMP zone has been strictly informed about this. As you know, the High Court has given directions to the BBMP over the state of potholes in the city. The BBMP should not be told by the court to do its duty," he said.  Officials are also preparing for cases of dengue and have directed hospitals to be equipped with medical help necessary to tackle dengue cases. In 2017, more than 1400 cases of dengue were reported in the city. The number reduced to 250 in 2018 while 240 cases have been reported in 2019 so far. The issue particularly affected Mahadevapura area in the city. 

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In pics: When Bengaluru’s science enthusiasts gathered to witness ‘Zero Shadow Day’

Science

On April 24th, Bengaluru experienced ‘Zero Shadow Day’ at 12:18 pm where the sun was at its zenith position and there was almost no visible shadow.

Rohit R.

Braving the summer heat, Samyak and his friends are busy plotting points and recording the shadow movements as the size of the shadow reduces as each minute passes. Along with Samyak, several other children gathered at the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bengaluru did the same, to find the exact minute when the Zero Shadow phenomenon is noticed. On April 24th, Bengaluru experienced ‘Zero Shadow Day’ at 12:18 pm where the sun was at its zenith position and there was almost no visible shadow. The phenomenon occurs twice a year as the sun traces its path to the Tropic of Cancer and then retraces its path towards the south. Usually, the sun transits by small margins towards the north or south around noon. But on Zero Shadow Day, it was exactly overhead.   This phenomenon is used to calculate the circumference and the radius of the Earth. Speaking to TNM, Pramod Galgali, Director of Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, said, “Zero Shadow happens in an instant. It will happen in different cities at different times. Once we have the data, we will calculate the speed of Earth’s rotation.” He adds that this activity is a coordinated effort with planetariums at Chennai, Mangaluru, Delhi, Jaipur, the Aryabhat Foundation based in Bhopal and the Science Teachers Association in Srinagar. The Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bengaluru had also showcased demonstration models in an exhibition which was open for the public. Many people thronged to these exhibits, taking photos and asking questions to the volunteers. A 3 feet-long pole was erected to demonstrate the Zero Shadow effect along with other poster exhibitions. An experiment named ‘Hear’ was the crowd-puller, a unique experiment which is in the shape of a cannon. It has a convex lens placed above it and the lens would focus on the firecracker kept inside which would light it up. This concept was said to be used as a messaging system in ancient times. Bengaluru experiences two Zero Shadow days in a year, with the next one on the 18th of August. However, Galgali said noticing this would be difficult because of the monsoon season and the month is usually clouded. Chennai and Mangaluru also experienced Zero Shadow day on April 24.

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