Arrested for allegedly killing wife, undertrial found dead in Bengaluru Central Prison

Accident

He was arrested on July 14 from his hometown in Dharmapuri.

TNM Staff

A 35-year-old man, who was arrested and undergoing trial for allegedly murdering his wife, was found dead inside the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison on Sunday morning.  Reports said that he killed his wife suspecting she was having an affair. Following the crime, he had fled to his hometown Dharmapuri from where the police arrested him. He was working as a scrap dealer in the city. Deccan Herald reported that the prisoner identified as Chinnaswamy had slipped to death from a barrack he was staying at. His fellow prisoners found him lying in a pool of blood after which they alerted the prison officials.    He was soon rushed to the prison hospital and then taken to Victoria Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. Preliminary investigation has found that Chinnaswamy had suffered an epileptic attack. Parappana Agrahara Police have registered a case of unnatural death and are awaiting the post-mortem report.   According to police, the deceased who lived in Someshwara Layout in Bengaluru, was arrested on July 14. He was suspected of killing his wife by hitting her with an empty LPG cylinder on her head on July 12. “We learnt he was suffering from epilepsy and he might have collapsed due to his health issues. The autopsy report will give us the exact cause for his death,” a policeman told the Times of India.  This incident comes to light two months after a jail warden and others were booked in connection with the unnatural death of another undertrial prisoner Syed Fairoz. Syed Fairoz, a 21-year-old man, was lodged at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru in January 2018. Fairoz was undergoing trial for possession of marijuana. On January 19, Fairoz was rushed to the prison hospital as his right leg had developed an infection. On January 21, when his condition worsened, he was taken to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru where he succumbed to his injuries two days later.  The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission had even recommended the Criminal Investigation Department to probe into the alleged police brutality that led to the death of the undertrial.  

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After moderate success in trial run, Karnataka to begin cloud seeding from Monday

Weather

Cloud seeding is a weather modification experiment to induce rainfall from rain-bearing clouds using chemicals.

Soumya Chatterjee

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The Karnataka government’s trial cloud seeding exercise to mitigate drought conditions in the state has seen moderate success. The Rs 91 crore-worth cloud seeding exercise will start on Monday and go on for the next three months, as the state is witnessing deficit rainfall and has seen three consecutive years of drought. There is a 19% deficit in rainfall for the state this year, with 50% of the taluks witnessing deficient rainfall.   Cloud seeding is a weather modification experiment to induce rainfall from rain-bearing clouds using chemicals. However, its success rate has remained debatable, given the astronomical costs involved. For Karnataka, flares of sodium chloride and potassium chloride will be used to trigger hygroscopic cloud seeding. Previously, the state government carried out cloud seeding in 2017, which saw considerable success. Following that, experts from the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, National Aerospace Laboratories and the Indian Meteorology Department suggested that the Karnataka government carry out this exercise every year. The first such trial run took place with two aircraft taking off from the HAL Airport in Bengaluru and flew over to Kanakpura and Chamarajanagar areas.  “Our trial run was done on Thursday in areas of Ramanagara, Kolar and we will continue this every day. We will do cloud seeding all over south Karnataka, to begin with, as most of the deficiency is in interior south Karnataka. Another factor to keep in mind is cloud density. Both of these factors will lead to our decision. So next we will look at Chitradurga and Tumakuru as they are the worst affected,” said LK Atheeq, the Principal Secretary of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj. “So far we have been moderately successful in the trial run,” he added. According to data released by the Karnataka State Disaster Monitoring Centre, the majority of the areas under the cloud seeding zone received rainfall in both areas where trials were conducted.

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All rebel MLAs in Karnataka disqualified by Speaker Ramesh Kumar

Politics

According to the Speaker, the disqualification is till 2023, which means the action will shift to the courts now.

TNM Staff

Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Sunday disqualified 14 more rebel MLAs from Congress and JD(S), days after he disqualified three other MLAs. The Speaker said that the 11 Congress and three JD(S) MLAs are also disqualified until 2023.  The disqualified MLAs are ST Somashekhar (Yeshwanthpura), BC Patil (Hirekerur), Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), Prathapgouda Patil (Maski), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), AH Vishwanath (Hunasuru), Narayana Gowda (Krishanarajapete), Munirathna Naidu (RR Nagar), Roshan Baig (Shivajinagar), MTB Nagaraj (Hoskote), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad) and Anand Singh (Vijayanagara). The MLAs who were disqualified on Thursday were Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Mahesh Kumathall (Athani) and R Shankar (Ranebennur).  All these disqualifications were made under Section 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution read with Article 19 1 (2). These means in total 17 MLAs of the Karnataka Assembly have been disqualified bringing the strength of the House to 207 and the magic number reduced to 104. The BJP has 105 MLAs of their own and independent MLA H Nagesh is likely to support them for BS Yeddyurappa’s floor test on Monday. While the Speaker has observed that they cannot re-contest elections until the expiry of the current Assembly term due to the disqualification, the rebel MLAs are set to contest the Speaker’s order in the High Court or the Supreme Court. If the Speaker’s verdict is upheld by the court, the rebels’ prospects of becoming ministers in the BS Yeddyurappa government is out of contention. In the recent case of 18 AIADMK MLAs, who were disqualified in September 2017, they were allowed by the apex court and the Election Commission to contest the bye-elections held six months later. The MLAs’ rebellion in Karnataka led to the downfall of the HD Kumaraswamy government last week. 

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Tiger found dead in Bandipur Tiger Reserve, suspected to have been hit by vehicle

Accident

This is the fifth tiger death in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve reserve since January.

TNM Staff

A tiger was found dead on the wee hours of Saturday on the edge of national highway leading to the Bandipur Tiger Reserve near Raghuvanahalli in Chamarajanagar district. According to forest officials, the tiger is suspected to have died after getting hit by a car when it was crossing the road outside the boundary. This is the fifth tiger death in Bandipur since January. There were scraping marks of the tiger’s claws at the spot, and also some tiger fur a little away from the spot where the carcass was found. Although there is a traffic ban between 9 pm and 6 am inside the tiger reserve for the 25 km stretch on National Highway 212, cars travel all night on the rest of the highway all the time, cutting across Bandipur forests. “We have filed a complaint, registered an FIR and are making efforts to track down the vehicle,” Conservator of Forests T Balachandra, who is also the Director of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve told The Hindu. This incident comes after former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday ruffled some feathers as he urged the Centre to lift the existing night traffic ban in Bandipur Tiger Reserve. He also asked if the Centre will consider the proposal for constructing an elevated corridor, which has been opposed vehemently by environmentalists and officials of the forest department. To his question, Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said that status quo will be maintained.  At present, only four government-run buses and emergency vehicles operate in the restricted period between 9:00 pm to 6:00 am in the 25-km stretch of the National Highway 212. In January, the Centre clarified that it will drop the project to construct elevated corridors in the Bandipur Tiger Reserve as proposed under the Bharatmala project.   

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Family of four from Bengaluru family die after car crashes into KSRTC bus

Accident

While the couple died on the spot, their two children succumbed to their injuries on their way to the hospital.

TNM Staff

  In a tragic accident, a family of four from Bengaluru was killed on Sunday in a vehicular collision that took place on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway at Gejjalagere in Maddur. The deceased have been identified as Ravi (31), Manjula (25) and their children Sukanya (10) and Sagar (5). They were staying in Kumaraswamy Layout In Bengaluru. While the couple died on the spot, the children succumbed to their injuries on their way to the hospital. Police said the family was heading towards Ravi's native village, Hebakavadi, in Maddur taluk of Mandya district.  Police said that a car hit Ravi’s car from behind, which forced his car to cross the divider and crash head-on with a KSRTC bus. Police said as the result of the impact, the car was mangled in the front, and they had to struggle to recover the bodies. The Maddur police have registered a case. While nobody on the bus was hurt, the Times of India reported that some students fainted after seeing the major accident. One such student said, "I've never seen such an accident. Within seconds, the entire family lost their lives and their bodies were mutilated in front of us.” This incident comes after in May-end another four persons— two couples from Kerala had died after their car crashed into a parked lorry in Maddur on the same Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway. Two months before that in March, 41 tourists from Kolkata were injured after a private bus they were travelling in toppled over on the same highway in Maddur.   According to the latest statistics published by the Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, a total of 464,910 road accidents were reported in 2017, resulting in the death of 147,913 people and injuring 470,975 people. This means that every day, on an average, 405 people die in road accidents. According to that report, Karnataka was the third-worst state in the country, with 11% of the total accidents in India.

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K'taka govt floor test: Prohibitory orders around Vidhana Soudha on Monday

Floor test

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa is set to prove majority on July 29 and Section 144 will be in place 2 km around the Vidhana Soudha from 6 pm to 12 am.

TNM Staff

Prohibitory orders will be in place around Vidhana Soudha on the day newly sworn-in Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa is to prove majority on the floor of the House. Section 144 will be in place 2 km around the Vidhana Soudha from 6 pm on July 29 to 12 am on July 30. Section 144 of the CrPC prohibits the gathering of more than four people in a public space.  BS Yediyurappa was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka in Bengaluru on Friday evening for the fourth time. He had met with Governor Vala earlier on Friday staking claim to form the next government in Karnataka. The Governor gave Yediyurappa a one-week deadline to prove majority on the floor of the Assembly. On Friday, Yediyurappa had said that he would hold a floor test to prove his majority in the state Assembly on Monday (July 29). "At the cabinet meeting held soon after I took oath as Chief Minister, I decided to go for floor test in the Assembly on Monday at 10 am, to prove majority," the 75-year-old Yediyurappa said at a press conference in the state secretariat. The BJP has 105 members in the 225-member Assembly. The current Assembly strength is 222 after Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Thursday disqualified three Congress rebels. The disqualification came after the rebels defied the whip issued for their presence in the House on July 23 when then Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy put the confidence motion he moved on July 18 to vote but lost. One Independent is also supporting the BJP. With all the remaining 13 rebels deciding to abstain from the Assembly till the trust vote is conducted, the Speaker's decision on their resignations by Monday will make no difference for the trial of strength by Yediyurappa.  With the absence of the 13, the house strength will be 209, with 105 as the halfway mark for a simple majority. The effective strength of the Congress in the House will be 63 out of original 79, while the JD(S) has 34 legislators.

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Another pedestrian accident on Bengaluru's ORR: When will promised skywalks get built?

Civic Issues

The Outer Ring Road is one of the most accident prone zones in the city, and yet the BBMP continues to delay the construction of skywalks.

Theja Ram

Representation photo

Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road, known as the death trap for pedestrians, now has another reason to add to its infamy. Devoid of skywalks, this busy stretch is one of the most accident-prone zones in the city. On Friday afternoon, 20-year-old Divya, an employee with HDFC Bank was crossing the road near Prestige Tech Park, when a tempo traveller rammed into her. The impact resulted in Divya incurring grievous injuries. According to HSR Layout Traffic Police Inspector Sanjay Rayappa, the driver of the vehicle, 31-year-old Venkatesh allegedly rushed her to Sakra Hospital soon after the accident. “Due to the seriousness of the injuries, she was shifted to NIMHANS, where she is under observation,” Inspector Sanjay said. Just like Divya, numerous pedestrians crossing the Outer Ring Road have to risk their lives as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has not completed the construction of the seven skywalks along the Outer Ring Road, since the project was conceptualised in 2017. According to Priya Venkat, a resident of Bellandur and a member of the citizens’ group Bellandur Jothege, the residents have lost count of the number of accidents along the stretch. The ORR was intended to be a signal-free corridor, connecting opposite ends of the city. Conceptualised in 1996, the ORR stretch was hardly inhabited then, but now it is home to multiple tech parks and large apartment complexes. Currently, from Iblur to Marathahalli alone, there are four major tech parks —  Ecospace, Embassy Tech Village, Prestige Tech Park and Cessna Business Park. Although there is no specific data on the number of deaths on Outer Ring Road, the state Home Department earlier this year, in a written reply to MLC TA Saravana, admitted that it is one of the worst stretches for pedestrians. “There have been seven serious accidents that have hurt pedestrians since the beginning of this year but more importantly, the smaller, minor ones are numerous and keep happening every day. Pedestrians being bumped against by two-wheelers, autorickshaws and cars causing minor injuries go unreported as people do not end up filing police complaints. It is a reality nonetheless,” Priya says. Currently, the BBMP has taken up the construction of seven skywalks near Innovative Multiplex, Iblur Junction, Central Mall, JP Morgan, Kalamandir, Sarjapur Road near Springfield and New Horizon School. The BBMP, which began the excavation work for constructing the skywalk near Kalamandir, abandoned the work in May. The body maintains that the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corpoation Limited, which is constructing the metro in the area, did not grant permission to construct the skywalk. When TNM contacted BMRCL, the officials said that the approval was granted in June 2018 and that the BBMP was yet to take up the work. The BBMP began constructing the skywalk near Central Mall in May this year. However, the work was abandoned in June and the construction has not yet resumed. The construction of the skywalk proposed near New Horizon School has not yet taken off. Similarly, work has stopped at Sarjapur Road near Springfield. “The contract for the skywalk near Springfield was given to a company connected to I Monetary Advisory. Since IMA and its holdings are under investigation by SIT, the work has stopped now,” a BBMP official told TNM. In December 2017, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan had promised residents of Bellandur that the long-demanded skywalk on ORR near Akme Harmony Apartments and Cloudnine Hospitals would be ready in three months. What prompted the announcement was a massive human chain protest by citizens in the wake of the tragic death of 19-year-old Sanjay Giri, who used to work as a security guard at the apartment complex. Sanjay was run over by a speeding cab and was declared dead when brought to the hospital. While the incident involving Sanjay might have brought the people out to the streets, the demand for a skywalk has been a long-standing one. The skywalk near Akme was only completed a month ago.    

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