Woman in critical condition after gang rape in Mysuru, police search for suspects

Crime

A man accompanying the woman was also attacked and is being treated for a fractured leg.

Theja Ram

Representation Photo

A horrifying case of gang rape has come to light in Karnataka's Mysuru, where a woman in her late-twenties was allegedly raped by four men on Wednesday night in Mysuru's Lingabudi area.  According to the police, the woman worked at a lodging facility as an assistant. On Wednesday night, she and the lodge's front desk manager set out to return some money she had borrowed from a person in Lingabudi, police said.  On the way, the man had parked his two-wheeler on the road as he wanted to urinate. "According to the statement given by the man, there were four men who had parked their car in the dilapidated area and they seemed to be drunk. They saw the woman waiting for the man and attacked her," said Mysuru SP Amit Singh.  He further stated that the men dragged the survivor and the man into an empty plot of land near the road. "The four of them raped the woman and also assaulted the man," he added.  Police say that the attackers allegedly threw a huge stone on the man's leg and fled the spot. "The man's cries for help woke up a few people who live in a colony near the empty plot of land. They immediately called the police and the Jayapura Police arrived at the spot," he said.  The survivor and the man were rushed to KR Hospital in Mysuru City, where they are currently undergoing treatment. Police say that the man has three stitches on his forehead, a fracture on his right leg and bruises on his arms. The woman is in critical condition and is undergoing treatment. The Jayapura Police have registered a case against four unidentified persons under section 376D (gangrape), 376 (punishment for rape), 323 (assault), 324 (assault with deadly weapon) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.  Mysuru SP Amit said that eight teams have been formed to nab the suspects. "We are checking CCTV footage and pursuing all lines of inquiry to catch the culprits soon," he said.     

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Another shot at CM? How Yeddyurappa could unseat the Congress-JD(S) govt

In depth

Bye-elections to the two seats of Kundagol and Chincholi are crucial for the survival of the coalition government in Karnataka.

Sowmya Aji

The fate of the troubled JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka hangs in balance as bye-elections to two state Assembly seats are to be held on May 19. The bye-polls to the two seats -- Kundagol and Chincholi -- has brought the coalition to a knife-edge. Both seats were held by the Congress but are in danger of being swept up by the opposition BJP amid grumbles of discontent between the coalition partners. So much so that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has had to forcibly state that he was not in the race to become the CM again in place of HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) as "the seat is not vacant." The Kundagol bye-poll was necessitated as sitting MLA and Minister CS Shivalli, who won the 2018 Assembly Elections with a super-slim margin of 634 votes, passed away in March. The Congress-JD(S) has fielded his wife Kusuma, while the BJP has chosen Eshwargoud Chikangoudra, the man who beat Shivalli earlier and almost pulled it off in 2018. Chincholi had elected Umesh G Jadhav of the Congress, who was up against BJP’s Sunil Valyapure last year. But Jadhav fell out with his mentor and Congress leader Mallikarjun M Kharge, who is the MP of his district, Kalburagi. Umesh went on to quit the seat and the Congress party in March, joining the BJP. He recently contested against Kharge in the Lok Sabha poll that was held in April. His son Dr Arvind Jadhav is the BJP candidate in the bye-poll, while the Congress-JD(S) candidate is another Kharge protege, Subhash Rathod. If the BJP manages to wrest these two seats, the party could bring down the Congress-JD(S) government. The numbers The Congress presently has 77 MLAs excluding the Speaker, who only votes in the event of a tie, while the JD(S) has 37 legislators. With one BSP MLA also supporting the coalition, the Congress-JD(S) combine have 115 MLAs. The BJP has 104 MLAs in the 224-member Assembly. The majority mark is 113. BJP, which now has the support of two independent MLAs, could see its tally rise to 108 if it wins the bye-elections.  However, with four Congress MLAs reportedly ready to switch camps and indications that a fifth legislator may cave in under tremendous pressure from the powerful mining barons, Janardhan Reddy-Sriramulu, the BJP may be able to touch the magic figure.   The results of the Lok Sabha Elections are a double-edge sword for the Congress. Even if the party manages to retain one or both these bye-poll seats, it faces the risk of losing three sitting Congress MLAs - Krishna Byre Gowda, Rajshekar Hitnal and Eshwar Khandre - who have contested the Lok Sabha polls. If they win and give up their Assembly seats, the Congress has put itself under tremendous pressure to retain the seats and save the state government. This is said to be a major reason why a "winning" candidate like Khanapur Congress MLA Anjali Nimbalkar was not asked to contest against Anantkumar Hegde of the BJP for the Karwar Lok Sabha seat. From 2018 to now The 2018 Assembly Elections, which delivered a fractured mandate, saw the BJP emerge as the largest party with 104 seats. The Congress and JD(S) which came together post polls managed to cobble together 118 seats, excluding the support of two independents, while the BJP at the time was stuck nine short of the 113 mark. A seething BS Yeddyurappa of the BJP, who had to step down after two days as Chief Minister, conceded defeat and did not take a trust vote, after the intervention by the Supreme Court. It paved the way for Kumaraswamy to take charge as the head of the coalition government. In the last one year, however, the coalition has seen many ups and downs and repeated efforts on both sides to maintain balance. Karnataka has already seen the BJP blueprint of Operation Kamala in 2004, where opposition MLAs were lured to resign from their seats, contest again on a BJP ticket and win with huge money power, and be made ministers. Both Congress and JD(S) had ‘safeguarded” their MLAs last year around this time, putting them up in resorts and keeping vigil over phone calls. The situation is different now as there is open disgruntlement among some Congress MLAs who were not accommodated in the cabinet or were dropped in a reshuffle. Four MLAs have been openly dissenting and siding with the BJP, led by former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who even issued a statement that he was leaving the Congress and would contest on a BJP ticket in Yamkanmaradi constituency against his brother Satish, who replaced him in the Kumaraswamy ministry. If the BJP wins both Kundagol and Chincholi, the magic number of 113 will be very much within their grasp. And this time, Yeddyurappa’s claims of becoming the CM of Karnataka might not just be empty bravado. Sowmya Aji is a political journalist who has covered Karnataka for 26 years.    

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'PM should not have spoken about Rajiv Gandhi': K'taka BJP MP candidate

Politics

“Rajiv Gandhi was a clean Prime Minister and led an exemplary life. I have seen this from up close,” said Srinivasa Prasad, the BJP candidate from Chamarajanagara constituency.

TNM Staff

A Karnataka BJP MP candidate has defended former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi following comments made against him by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Srinivasa Prasad, the BJP candidate from Chamarajanagara constituency, told reporters that PM Modi should not have spoken ill of Rajiv Gandhi.  "PM Modi should not have spoken about Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi was a clean Prime Minister and became a Prime Minister at a young age. He led an exemplary life. I was an MP and I have seen this from up close,” Srinivasa said. "There was no weight to the corruption charges against him even in relation to the Bofors scam. Even now, it is accepted that he was not involved. He should not have spoken about corruption allegations against Rajiv Gandhi," he added. Srinivasa also clarified that he had immense respect for PM Modi. He was responding to Modi's comments on Congress President Rahul Gandhi at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh on May 4. "Your father was termed 'Mr Clean' by his courtiers, but his life ended as 'Bhrashtachari No 1," Modi reportedly said.  Srinivasa's comments contradicting PM Modi have raised eyebrows in the state. The comments came on the same day he met JD(S) leader AH Vishwanath in Chamarajanagar. However, he claimed that the meeting was conducted out of courtesy as political rivals. Srinivasa was previously with the Congress, before he quit in 2016 and joined the BJP a year later.

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15 Bengaluru restaurants lose trade licences over unhygienic kitchens

Health

Surprise checks carried out by BBMP health officials at various dine in and take out restaurants, bars and night clubs found 15 of them violating prescribed hygiene norms.

Theja Ram

Bengaluru’s civic body officials on Thursday cancelled the trade licenses of 15 dine in and take out restaurants in the city as the outlets were unhygienic and had dirty kitchens. Between February and April this year, the BBMP health department officials across the eight zones carried out surprise checks at various dine in and take out restaurants, bars and night clubs in the city and found that 15 of them were violating the prescribed hygiene norms. According to Dr Kalpana, Health Officer of the Mahadevapura zone, the licences of Box 8, Andhra Ruchulu, Annan Mess, Ruh and Punjabi Nawabi were cancelled. “The cooked dishes were kept open in these restaurants. Flies were gathering around it. The kitchens were dirty and these outlets were not segregating the dry and wet waste either,” she added. In Dasarahalli zone, Dr Surendra and his team conducted checks and found that Hotel Elite Restaurant and Karama Hotel had unhygienic kitchens. “The dishes were not washed properly as these hotels had not appointed people to wash dishes. The dishes were dirty and the kitchen equipment was also dirty. The people cooking the food were also not maintaining hygiene,” he added. According to BBMP health officials, the civic body has sent notices to 20 other eateries in the city regarding unhygienic kitchens in their establishments. “We are following the procedure. After a notice is issued, we wait for them to respond. Then we will take a call on whether their license must be cancelled or not. We have cancelled the licenses of 15 outlets now. A week later, if they rectify the issues and submit proof, we will consider issuing fresh license,” the official added. BBMP officials also said that among the 15 restaurants, those with dining spaces had not installed CCTV cameras inside the kitchens. “In 2016, BBMP had made it mandatory for dine in restaurants to install CCTV cameras inside the kitchen so that customers could see how the food was being prepared. This step was taken after an incident in 2016 when around 50 hotels were found to be running unhygienic kitchens and customers had found cockroaches in the food. Apart from having unhygienci kitchens, these restaurants did not have CCTV cameras either,” the BBMP official added.    

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Bengaluru Homigo housing fraud: Minister Sadananda Gowda also a victim of scam

Crime

The co-living startup has defaulted on its rents in March, and its co-founders have been absconding since.

Soumya Chatterjee

PTI/ File image

The investigation into the multi-crore real estate scam allegedly perpetrated by co-living startup Homigo Realty Pvt Ltd. has taken a new turn. Investigators say that Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda is also a victim in the scam. According to documents accessed by TNM, Sadananda Gowda had rented out a property to Homigo, whose three founders are currently evading arrest. TNM has accessed the 33-month lease (e-stamp paper) document between the minister and Homigo, which states that Sadananda Gowda rented his property located in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout for Rs 2,20,000 per month and a security deposit of Rs 8,00,000. Sadananda Gowda and his office have declined to comment on the matter. Homigo has been in the news for defaulting on rents they owe to property owners since March 2019. The company's model was such that they leased properties or apartments and sub-leased it to customers after furnishing them. The company raised funding from investors such as Mebelkart, Livspace and Chaitanya Cotha (one of the directors of Krishniah Chetty Jewellers), among others. Curiously, Chaitanya Cotha, who was also named as one of the accused, has not been arrested even after his plea for anticipatory bail was rejected. In March, property owners asked hundreds of Homigo customers to vacate their houses overnight. While owners are losing out on their rent, Homigo customers are at risk of losing their security deposit or lease amount. Speaking to TNM, ACP Lakshmi Narayan, the investigating officer in the case, said, “Yes, it has come to our knowledge about it. But so far, there has been no complaint filed by the minister or his office." He also confirmed that the Central Crime Branch failed to make any arrests in the case.  The case was transferred to the CCB by Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar. Sources told TNM that the investigation might begin in full swing only after May 23, as some of the policemen tasked with the investigation have been deputed outside Bengaluru for election duty. TNM had earlier reported that Homigo’s founders Jatin Mitruka, Aaskash Verma and Nikunj Batheja, all alumni of IIT-Kanpur, absconded after being denied bail in cheating cases filed against them.  

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Another hare-brained project? Will the signal free corridor reduce Bengaluru traffic?

Civic Issues

The BBMP is spending Rs 109 crore on the construction of three underpasses between ASC Centre and Hope Farm Junction. Experts, however say its a bad idea.

Harshitha AB

From driverless pod taxis to constructing flyovers and underpasses, Bengaluru’s civic body – the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has, over the years, come up with several hare-brained plans to reduce the city’s traffic. In another attempt to reduce the congestion on the city’s roads, the BBMP has now begun work on its signal-free corridor project. Like many of the Palike’s projects, the signal-free corridor project too began years ago but has not yet come to fruition. The BBMP proposed the plan in 2014. The signal free-corridor was to stretch between Army Service Corps Centre and Hope Farm Junction in Whitefield. The civic body had planned the construction of three underpasses for this signal-free corridor – at the ISRO junction in Marathahalli, at Suranjan Das Road Junction near HAL, and at Kundalahalli Junction on Old Airport Road. However, the work has begun recently, and has already run into roadblocks. In August 2018 the BBMP began constructing one of the underpasses at ISRO Junction. However, the project was halted just a month later as the workers found a 220KW Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPCTL) cable. “These were electricity cables which provided power to the entire HAL area and hence, we could not continue the construction work,” a senior official with BBMP Project Central-4 Department told TNM. The work will resume only after KPCTL relocates the power lines. ISRO Junction underpass Similarly, BBMP officials say that the stage I of the construction of Kundalahalli underpass will be completed soon. However, the construction work had to be stopped due to problems with land acquisition. Further, the construction work along Suranjan Das Road started only in April this year after BBMP acquired 3,100 acres of land from HAL in March. Kundalahalli Junction underpass The BBMP is spending Rs 109 crore for the construction of the signal-free corridor. But the larger question is – will it reduce traffic jams? Speaking to TNM, traffic expert MN Srihari says that the project is not pragmatic and is unsuitable for Bengaluru’s roads. “The signal free corridor is not a practical idea because Indian roads mostly comprise of cross roads. Due to this, the traffic is also heavy and vehicles enter from all directions . The underpasses are being constructed at junctions. If the underpasses were being constructed on one-ways, it would have made sense. Such a concept is feasible for roads that continue for a stretch of 10-20 kms such as the New Airport Corridor, and not for roads that have cross-way traffic,” he said. Srihari maintains that coordination of signals is a better idea and must be followed in Bengaluru to reduce bottlenecks. This means that two or more signals in a single corridor must be coordinated so that a large number of vehicles moving along one path do not get stuck at subsequent traffic signals. For instance, if a commuter who is travelling from Ulsoor to Anil Kumble Circle sees the green light at Trinity Cirlce, by the time he/she reaches Manipal Centre Circle, the traffic signal should have turned green. “Because the red and green signals are not coordinated properly, traffic jams happen,” Srihari says.

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MB Patil fake letter row: HC issues notice to Bengaluru police over FIR

Crime

Sharada Diamond, a techie and BJP sympathiser accused of propagating fake news, moved the HC claiming that she was arrested under a section that does not exist in the IT Act.

TNM Staff

Sharada Diamond | Image via Twitter

The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to Bengaluru police over an FIR registered against Sharada Diamond, an engineer and BJP sympathiser accused of propagating fake news, under a section that does not exist in the Information Technology (IT) Act.  Sharada was booked by police officials at Srirampura police station in the city under section 66A of the IT Act for posting a fake letter which she claimed had been written by Karnataka Home Minister MB Patil to Sonia Gandhi in 2017.  Section 66A of the IT Act was made unconstitutional in 2015 by the Supreme Court.  In spite of this, Srirampura police registered an FIR against Sharada on April 25 under the section. The FIR was registered based on a complaint by J Saravana, who alleged that the petitioner had posted the fake letter on her Facebook page on April 16 and also posted comments to defame MB Patil. Sharada was arrested for promoting the fake letter that talked about a meeting that a few ministers held with representatives of the “Global Christian Council” and “World Islamic Organisation” in 2017 about the strategy for the Karnataka Assembly Elections. (These organisations do not exist). The hearing in the case filed by Sharada was adjourned to May 14.    Meanwhile, Hemanth Kumar, a journalist based in Bengaluru, Shruti Belakki, a resident of Dharwad and Mahesh Vikram Hegde, the founder of Postcard News, a website notorious for publishing fake news, were also detained and questioned by the police over promoting the letter.  The action taken by the police prompted the BJP to term it as a state of emergency in Karnataka.  Read: Four BJP sympathisers held on fake news cases, party says 'Emergency' in Karnataka      

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