Bengaluru police arrest serial killer who targeted ATM security guards

Crime

Two months after he escaped from police custody, the Bengaluru police nabbed Benki Raja for multiple murders in the city.

TNM Staff

The Bengaluru police on Sunday arrested a 28-year-old serial killer, who had escaped from police custody in April this year. After a two-month chase the Kumaraswamy Layout Police arrested Rajendra alias Benki Raja on Monday. The investigators in the Kumaraswamy Layout Police Station had initially arrested Benki Raja on April 4 this year in connection with the murder of a security guard in the area, which had occurred in March. At 4.22 am on March 24, the police control room received a call from a woman named Nischita, who had found the body of a security guard at the Karnataka Bank ATM near Uttarahalli. The police found that the security guard, 60-year-old Lingappa Davalagi’s head was smashed with a stone. The police had also found a bloodied stone outside the ATM, which they had suspected was the murder weapon. “The weapon was sent to the forensic science lab and the blood matched the security guard’s,” the police said. During the investigation, the police came across the CCTV footage of Benki Raja carting a stone around and walking towards the same ATM on the morning of the murder. Soon, the police tracked him down and arrested him on April 4. “We had taken him for a medical exam and he escaped from police custody,” the police said. Upon his arrest on Monday morning, the police have unraveled a series of killings which Benki Raja is suspected to have committed. Police say that Rajendra allegedly set his younger sister on fire and killed her at the age of eight, thereby earning him the moniker Benki (fire) Raja. Five years ago, he was arrested by the Basavanagudi Police in a drug possession case. The Basavanagudi Police say that he was in possession of cocaine and was lodged in the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison for four years. In 2018, Benki Raja was released and his first victim was allegedly a security guard at an ATM in Basavanagudi Police Station limits. “There is a murder case registered against him. In that case too, he had smashed a security guard’s head with a stone, while he was asleep inside the ATM. The Next case was in the Konanakunte Police Station limits. Here too, he smashed a sleeping security guard’s head with a stone. In both these cases, he had stolen their mobile phones, sold them and used the money to purchase drugs,” an investigating officer said. Benki Raja’s third victim was the 60-year-old Lingappa Devalagi. He allegedly attempted to kill another ATM security guard in JP Nagar days after killing Lingappa. “He tried smashed the security guard’s head with a stone in JP Nagar. But the guard was taken to the hospital on time by one of the beat constables, who was patrolling the streets. He survived. He described the man to the police and that’s when we knew that it was Benki Raja,” the police said. The Kumaraswamy Police have also registered another case of attempted murder against Benki Raja with the Puttenahalli Police Station. On April 4, when Raja escaped police custody, he allegedly tried to kill the head constable, who was chasing him down. “Our head constable was chasing him when he escaped from the hospital. He smashed our head constable on the head with a stone. He was bleeding profusely and we rushed him to the hospital. He survived the attack. After his arrest, we are now looking to see if he has committed similar murders in other areas in the city,” the Kumaraswamy Layout Police said. Benki Raja has been booked for murder in Basavanagudi, Kumaraswamy Layout and Konanakunte Police Stations. He has also been booked for attempted murder in the JP Nagar Police Station.    

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Bengaluru man kills son as part of 'suicide pact,' video captured by daughter

Crime

The video was captured by his 17-year-old daughter whom the man planned to hang as well.

TNM Staff

Representation photo/Bengaluru City Police Facebook page

A 48-year-old man was arrested by Bengaluru police after a video of him hanging his 12-year-old son from the ceiling fan went viral. According to the police, the incident was part of a ‘suicide pact’ planned by the man. In the disturbing video, 48-year-old Suresh Babu is seen smothering his 12-year-old son’s face with a pillow. The boy fell unconscious. In a second video, Suresh Babu is seen hanging him from the ceiling fan at their residence in Vibhutipura near HAL. “Baba (Father), please don’t do this. I beg you. Please leave him,” the boy’s 17-year-old sister is heard saying. The mother and sister –  the latter was capturing the video – were heard crying in the video. The boy’s mother, Geeta Bai, is seen banging her head against the wall after the death of the child. Soon after, Geeta Bai too took her own life. The entire incident caught on camera was part of a ‘suicide pact’ that the man had hatched to escape indebtedness, the police said. According to the police, Suresh Babu worked as a sales executive in a private firm and Geeta Bai, who worked as a cook in a few households, also ran a chit fund, which was running under severe loss. The family had allegedly accumulated a debt of Rs 5 lakh, which they were unable to pay off. On Saturday evening, investors in the chit fund business had allegedly visited their home, demanding that Geeta and Suresh return their money, police said. With debtors breathing down their neck, the couple allegedly decided to end their lives. “We have questioned the girl. She says that her mother took her own life too after her son died. She was the third in line, after which the father had planned to hang himself,” an investigating officer said. The 17-year-old girl began screaming for help when her father tried to hang her as well, which alerted the neighbours, who rushed to her rescue. However, Suresh Babu allegedly informed them that his wife and son had taken their own lives. At around 2.30 pm on Sunday, Suresh Babu was making arrangements for the funeral, when the local media, which had heard about the incident, went to his residence. “Initially, the media too was under the impression that it was a suicide. One reporter from Raj News asked Suresh Babu for a picture of the mother and son. He gave them his phone and asked them to transfer it. Suresh did not know that his daughter had recorded the entire incident. The journalist found the video and immediately called the HAL Police Inspector,” a senior police official told TNM. The Inspector was on leave and when there was no response from any senior police officials, the local media aired the story on Sunday evening. Additional Commissioner of Police (East), Seemanth Kumar Singh, then demanded that DCP Abdul Ahad take charge of the case immediately. Suresh Babu was arrested on Sunday night and his daughter was taken in for questioning. Suresh Babu has been booked for murder and will be produced before the magistrate later on Monday.

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What explains Cong win in Karnataka local body polls just after massive LS defeat?

Politics

The Congress, which got just one seat out of 28 in the LS polls, recently won the most number of ULB wards (509), followed by the BJP (366) and the JD(S) (174).

Sowmya Aji

Representational image

Six days after the BJP swept Karnataka to win a dominating 25 of the state’s 28 Lok Sabha seats, a phase of polling for urban local bodies (ULBs) was held across all regions on May 29. The election was for 1,296 wards out of a total 3,988 across all the ULBs in the state that includes town panchayats (TPs), town municipal councils (TMCs) and city municipal corporations (CMCs), which rule over what is termed as a ‘rurban’ – a combination of rural and urban – landscape. The first phase of these polls to 2,662 wards was held in September 2018, where ruling coalition partner Congress got 982, principal opposition got 929 and ruling partner JD(S) got 375 seats, all in the regions where each party had its ‘strongholds.’ In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, these results were hailed by the coalition partners to mean the BJP’s ‘jhumlas’ were being rejected by the people. No one acknowledged the closeness of the fight, given that Congress used to traditionally dominate these polls. The May 29 elections, results, however, has stunned all political parties. The Congress, which has got reduced to just one seat out of 28 in the Lok Sabha polls – a never-before scenario in their traditional bastion of Karnataka – won the most number of ULB wards (509), followed by the BJP (366) and the JD(S) (174). This is a pattern that is very similar to earlier polls, with a bigger edge to the Congress. Given that the elections were held just after the stunning victory of the BJP in all regions of the state including all the traditional strongholds of the Congress and the JD(S), the apparent flip-flop by the electorate in a matter of days has given rise to a slightly hysterical euphoria in the Congress camp and some concern in the BJP. A bemused Congress functionary said in idiomatic Kannada just after the ULB results came in: “Heng helodu yaake anta. Devarige gottu jana yavudakke vote haaktaare!” (We can’t explain it. God knows what people vote for.) That pragmatism was not evident in his party leaders, including state president Dinesh Gundu Rao who claimed that it was a thumping victory for the Congress that instantly cast aspersions on the recent Lok Sabha results. He tweeted: “Congress wins 509/1221 of the #KarnatakaUrbanLocalBodiesElections Winning almost 42% of the seats, it clearly shows that the people of Karnataka are with the Congress. What surprises me is how did BJP lose after winning by huge margins in the Loksabha. Needs investigation.” (sic) The results, however, are completely aligned with Karnataka’s history. The state has consistently voted differently for each level of elections, whether it is gram panchayats, ULBs, state assembly or Lok Sabha, irrespective of how close together the polls have been. Political parties have often made the mistake of assuming that the electorate is showing its preference or rejection of them based on individual election results, but the people have made the difference clear. The minority Janata Party led Ramakrishna Hegde government in 1983, which introduced Panchayat Raj in the state, saw Karnataka voting overwhelmingly for the Congress party in the Lok Sabha polls of 1984. Hegde, as CM, took it as a referendum on his government – the first non-Congress one in Karnataka – and resigned. Elections were held again for the state assembly in 1985 and Hegde came back with a sweeping majority, barely a few months after that result for the Congress. This pattern has continued since, with no major variations. In 2004, SM Krishna decided to dissolve the state assembly six months early and the state saw simultaneous elections for both assembly and Lok Sabha. The state gave a clear 17 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats – a majority – to the BJP. But simultaneously, even in the regions the BJP won hands down, voted for a very mixed result in the 224 member state assembly – BJP got 79 seats, Congress got 65 and JD(S) 58. All the three parties have their distinct vote bases in the state and, in general, the voting patterns reflect these strengths. And that is what the ULB results, which all three parties fought on their individual strengths, also reflect. The recent Lok Sabha polls were an anomaly that saw a two-cornered fight all across the state, with the division working along the lines of non-Congress votes or non-BJP votes. The JD(S) had no real role to play, as they were seen as ‘surrendering’ to the Congress that led to even their traditional votebank of Vokkaligas going with the BJP’s brand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s muscular Hindutva. So the ULB results are neither a matter of ‘victory’ for the Congress nor ‘loss’ for the BJP, but just a reaffirmation that Karnataka has space for both of them and for the JD(S) in their individual capacities. Each party has a base that has not changed all that much. Sowmya Aji is a political journalist who has covered Karnataka for 26 years. Views expressed are the author’s own.

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Lightning hits purple line services on Bangalore Metro as electrical equipment damaged

Metro

The lightning damaged electrical equipment at Baiyappanahalli metro station resulting in disruption of services for 47 minutes on the purple line.

TNM Staff

Rainfall accompanied by strong winds, thunder and lightning on Sunday night disrupted metro services on the Purple Line for 47 minutes, as the lightning damaged electrical equipment at Baiyappanahalli metro station.  The power outage at the station lasted from 7:23 pm to 8:01 pm prompting metro officials to start operations on the Purple Line from Indiranagar to Mysore Road metro stations. Full operations resumed on the line at 8:10 pm, reported The New Indian Express.   Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) officials stated that the heavy rains and winds had caused a power outage at the Baiyappanahalli metro station, which is one of the starting points of the Purple Line of the metro. “Traction power supply on the Purple Line was not available from 7.23 p.m to 8.01 p.m. During this period, short-loop train operations were done between Indiranagar and Mysuru Road station. Full services on Purple Line, between Mysuru Road and Baiyappanahalli, were restored at 8.10 pm,” a release from BMRCL stated as per The Hindu.  The rains lasted from 7 pm to 8:30 pm and affected traffic on Hosur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Outer Ring Road, Mysuru Road, Double Road, Ballari Road, Tin Factory and Tannery Road. Loud thunderclaps were heard in Kaggadaspura, Indiranagar, Baiyappanahalli and CV Raman Nagar. The rains were a result of cyclonic circulation in south interior Karnataka, as per Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC). Maximum rain of 144mm was recorded in Kasgattapura while other areas received 50-100mm rainfall. Five incidents of trees falling were reported from across the city. The rains come ahead of the monsoon, which is expected to hit the state next week.  Meanwhile, two persons died due to the rains and intense thunder, lightning in Tumakuru district. The victims were identified as Gangamma and Basavaraj. 

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Bengaluru bar claims to have lost Rs 3 lakh after fight over plastic cup

Customers allegedly took advantage of the commotion and slipped out without paying.

TNM Staff

A fight between waiters and customers over a plastic cup at a popular Bengaluru bar has allegedly cost the place Rs 3 lakh after other customers used the commotion to leave the premises without paying their bill. Jagadeesh, 31, the manager at Indiranagar's Bob's Bar claimed that the restaurant had lost money due to the incident on Thursday night. A 27-year-old software engineer and her male friend allegedly picked a fight with the staff at the bar after they refused to give them a plastic cup to take leftover alcohol since the use of plastic cups is banned in Bengaluru. The argument devolved into a fight and during the commotion, other patrons at the bar left without paying their bills, reported Deccan Herald. Indiranagar police have received complaints from both parties — the couple and the manager of Bob's Bar — and are currently investigating the incident. The couple had stayed till closing hour on Thursday night at the restaurant and had a bill of Rs. 5,000. “We asked the staff to pack the leftovers, including the eatables and drinks, and also asked for a disposable plastic cup, which the staff did not have,” said the woman in her complaint as per The Hindu. However, police officials investigating the case stated that when the bar employee refused to give them the disposable plastic cup, the couple began to abuse the waiter. The heated argument quickly turned into a full-scale fight between the restaurant staff, the couple and her colleagues. In the ruckus, several customers drinking at the pub managed to slip away without paying their bills. The couple has filed a complaint accusing the staff at the pub of outraging the modesty of a woman, assault and unlawful assembly. Bob's Bar manager Jagadeesh filed a counter-complaint against the couple for causing a ruckus and assaulting the staff at the restaurant. Police are looking at CCTV footage of the incident.

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MM Kalburgi murder: SIT takes into custody man who drove shooter to professor's home

Crime

Praveen Prakash Chatur alias Krishnamurthy is allegedly a member of a radical right-wing group.

Theja Ram

Almost four years after Professor MM Kalburgi was shot dead at his home in Karnataka’s Dharwad district, the Special Investigation Team probing the case has made a major breakthrough. The SIT took Praveen Prakash Chatur alias Krishnamurthy into custody, who is suspected to have driven alleged shooter Ganesh Miskin to Professor Kalburgi’s home in Dharwad. The story was first reported by The Quint. According to the investigators, Praveen is allegedly a member of a radical right-wing group which was formed in 2011 to target ‘durjans’, or those the gang members named as ‘anti-Hindu’. The SIT probing the murder of Gauri Lankesh took over the probe of Professor Kalburgi’s murder in 2018. The case was initially being investigated by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which had not made any forays in identifying the suspects. SIT investigators learned of Praveen’s involvement in Professor Kalburgi’s murder after they interrogated Amol Kale, the alleged mastermind and prime accused in Gauri Lankesh’s murder. The SIT will now set up a lineup of the accused for eye-witness identification. Professor Kalburgi was shot dead on August 30, 2015, by two bike-borne assailants who posed as college students and entered his house. Journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her house in Bengaluru on September 5, 2017. Investigators had initially narrowed down the suspects in Kalburgi’s murder as Ganesh Miskin and Amit Baddi. Amit Baddi has been accused of training Gauri Lankesh’s alleged shooter – Parashuram Waghmore — in the use of firearms. However, eyewitness accounts ruled out Baddi as the man who drove Ganesh Miskin to the professor’s home. SIT sources say that Ganesh Miskin claimed to have conducted a recce of Kalburgi’s home before he was murdered. Meanwhile, in a parallel probe being conducted by the CBI into the murder of anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar, investigators have learned that another accused in Gauri’s murder – Sharad Kalaskar — allegedly destroyed the firearms used in the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, CPI activist Govind Pansare, Professor MM Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh. Narendra Dabholkar was killed on August 20, 2013, at Omkareshwar Bridge in Pune while he was out for a morning walk. CPI activist Govind Pansare was shot dead on February 20, 2015, in Kolhapur. The SIT probe had connected the dots and found that the four murders were allegedly perpetrated by the same gang. The CBI probe revealed that Sanathan Sanstha counsel Sanjiv Punalekar allegedly told Sharad Kalaskar to destroy the firearms, including the weapons used in the Gauri Lankesh case. Sources say that Sharad Kalaskar allegedly dismantled and disposed three weapons in the Thane creek on July 23, 2018. The probe also states that Sanjiv Punalekar's associate, Bhave, helped the shooters in Narendra Dabholkar’s murder – Sharad Kalaskar and Sachin Andhure —  in conducting a reconnaissance of Dabholkar’s home before the murder.

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Kannada activists oppose Hindi imposition in Centre's draft education policy

Culture

The draft proposes that as part of the three-language formula, non-native speakers must learn Hindi in school, apart from the regional language and English.

Soumya Chatterjee

File image of protests against Hindi imposition

Activists in Karnataka are up in arms against the Centre’s draft National Education Policy 2019 which gives primacy to Hindi as part of a three language formula. The draft proposes that as part of the three-language formula, non-native speakers must learn Hindi in school, apart from the regional language and English. Similar protests against imposition of Hindi have been noticed from non-Hindi speaking states including Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Ganesh Chetan, a member of Kannada Grahakara Koota, argued that the Constitution had to be amended. As it presently stands, Hindi has been given special privileges under part XVII and articles 343- 351, he pointed out. These make Hindi an official language in India; however, it doesn’t mean that Hindi is the national language, as many believe. “Hindi has been given special privilege under the Official Languages Act. I do not know why the government has proposed something like this,” Ganesh said. “We have been running a campaign across the nation against Hindi imposition. Last year, we had a convention in Bengaluru with representatives of 30 languages. We need language equality or the campaign will continue.” Read: Not Hindi, tweet to me in Kannada or English, Siddaramaiah taunts BJP leader Srivatsa, National Campaign-in-charge for the Indian Youth Congress, called for all MPs from Karnataka to oppose the Centre’s move. He tweeted, “MPs of Karnataka must vociferously oppose this new draft education policy. Hindi Imposition will be resisted by all non-Hindi speaking states & not just the south @narendramodi must in fact declare all 8th schedule languages as official languages of India. #StopHindiImposition.”   MPs of Karnataka must vociferously oppose this new draft education policy. Hindi Imposition will be resisted by all non-Hindi speaking states & not just the south@narendramodi must in fact declare all 8th schedule languages as official languages of India#StopHindiImposition — Srivatsa (@srivatsayb) June 1, 2019   Former NASA scientist and polymath Ashwin Mahesh also weighed in the issue and tweeted, ”The 3-language mis-recommendation is an example of a deep error in our approach to policy - a Centre-appointed committee makes recommendations on what states should do, in a matter that is in almost entirely within the states' purview!!” In his subsequent tweets, he focused on the importance of the mother tongue. “We need 3 formulas for language, not a 3-language formula. (a) Learning in the mother tongue is easier. (b) Familiarity with local language has social, economic and cultural value. (c) Access to languages of the marketplace increases opportunities,” he said. He added, “Parental choice is also important. Policy-makers tend to decide what is good for the people without asking them, or they claim to already know what they (should) want. Respect for their choices is key, and I'm confident it will broadly align with the '3 formulas' approach.” Read: ‘Why only English, Hindi?’ KDA demands Kannada in passports issued in state   The 3-language mis-recommendation is an example of a deep error in our approach to policy - a Centre-appointed committee makes recommendations on what states should do, in a matter that is in almost entirely within the states' purview !! — Ashwin Mahesh (@ashwinmahesh) June 1, 2019     We need 3 formulas for language, not a 3-language formula. (a) Learning in the mother tongue is easier. (b) Familiarity with local language has social, economic and cultural value. (c) Access to languages of the marketplace increases opportunities. — Ashwin Mahesh (@ashwinmahesh) June 1, 2019     Parental choice is also important. Policy-makers tend to decide what is good for the people without asking them, or they claim to already know what they (should) want. Respect for their choices is key, and I'm confident it will broadly align with the '3 formulas' approach. — Ashwin Mahesh (@ashwinmahesh) June 1, 2019   The draft was released on Friday by former ISRO chief Dr K Kasturirangan and the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). “In keeping with the principle of flexibility, students who wish to change one of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6, so long as the study of three languages by students in the Hindi-speaking states would continue to include Hindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages from other parts of India, while the study of languages by students in the non-Hindi-speaking states would include the regional language, Hindi and English,” the draft states. However, in the face of vigorous opposition, the Centre issued a clarification saying that the text was a draft only. When asked about this by reporters in Bengaluru on Saturday, Union Minister of Fertilisers and Bengaluru North MP DV Sadananda Gowda said, “The Prime Minister in his first meeting with the MPs, categorically said that regional languages and regional issues should be taken on priority. So I don’t think there is any confusion [that Hindi won’t be imposed].”

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