'Need to question Mansoor Khan about police involvement': SIT on IMA Scam probe

Crime

Mansoor Khan has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody by a Bengaluru court and is not allowed any visitors.

TNM Staff

Founder of I Monetary Advisory Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who is accused of duping thousands of people to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore, was on Thursday remanded to 14-day judicial custody by a Bengaluru court. The 1st CCH Court in Bengaluru remanded Mansoor Khan to 14-day judicial custody as the Enforcement Directorate’s custody ended on Thursday. The ED officials produced him before the magistrate, where the Special Investigation Team probing the IMA Scam case, requested the court permission to take Mansoor Khan into custody. Mansoor Khan’s counsel argued that there is a major threat to his life and that he is suffering from a heart ailment. The court directed the SIT sleuths to take Mansoor Khan for an angiogram at Jayadeva Hospital in the city and later transfer him to Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. The SIT also requested the court that Mansoor Khan must not be allowed any visitors except for his counsel, which the court agreed to. “We are expecting to question him while he is at Parappana Agrahara. After his judicial custody ends, we will petition the court for his custody as we need information, only he can provide for the investigation,” SIT sources said. On Monday, the SIT had conducted a search operation at the office of Inspector General of Police, Criminal Investigation Department & Economic Offences. The SIT is currently probing senior police officers, who allegedly helped Mansoor Khan obtain a clean chit and Monday’s search operation was done to obtain evidence against the current Inspector General of Police of Anti-Corruption Bureau Hemanth. The SIT’s search operation was conducted at his previous office in CID headquarters as he had served as the IGP of CID’s Economic Offences wing, when Mansoor Khan was given a clean chit. SIT sources say that Hemanth Nimbalkar was allegedly heading the probe into the functioning of IMA run by Mohammed Mansoor Khan, after the state police had asked the CID to look into the matter following a notice it had received about IMA’s alleged illegal dealings from the RBI. “On January 18 this year, Hemanth Nimbalkar had given a clean chit to IMA and had submitted this report to the Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru Urban. On July 10, exactly a month after IMA scam broke out, Hemanth Nimbalkar was transferred from IGP of CID’s Economic Offences Wing to IGP of the ACB,” the SIT source said. The sleuths say that they have recovered allegedly tampered documents pertaining to the CID’s investigation into IMA. SIT is also on the lookout for CID DySP Shridhar, who was also part of the investigation team looking into IMA. “There are several police officers including former DCP East Ajay Hillori and ACP Ramesh Kumar, who have been accused of helping Mansoor Khan get a clean chit. We are looking into the matter and need to question Mansoor Khan regarding this as well. We also suspect that several bureaucrats and politicians too were involved. He has told ED about political links, which we need question him about,” the SIT source added.  

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BBMP should pay compensation to victims of pothole-related accidents: K’taka HC

Civic Issues

In order to avoid going to court over the issue, the judges held that an aggrieved party can directly approach the civic body for compensation.

TNM Staff

Pothole-riddled roads are a common sight in Bengaluru and over the years, the city has witnessed numerous pothole-related deaths. In a relief to commuters plying these dangerous roads with craters, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday passed an interim order stating that Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials would be held responsible for accidents due to potholes. The court also said that the BBMP would be liable to pay compensation to victims or their families who incur losses due to these hazardous roads. The court was hearing a PIL filed by Koramangala resident Vijayan Menon, who had petitioned that the BBMP be held responsible for accidents caused due to potholes and had also stated that victims of such accidents have a right to compensation. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka along with Justice PM Nawaz observed that tax-paying citizens are at a high risk of getting injured due to the bad condition of the roads. Prior to the judgement, victims had to move the court to seek compensation. In order to avoid going to court over the issue, the judges held that an aggrieved party can directly approach the civic body for compensation. “The scope of Article 21 has been expanded by the Supreme Court. Every citizen has a right to meaningful and dignified life and good roads are absolutely necessary. Ensuring pothole-free roads is a legal and constitutional obligation of the BBMP,” Justice Oka observed. On Tuesday, the High Court had rapped the BBMP officials for not maintaining the city’s roads properly. The BBMP also told the court that the pothole filling works are being carried out regularly, to which the court had demanded a status report. The BBMP had submitted to the court that out of 85,430 roads spanning 13,694 km, only 2,695 roads across 897 km had potholes in them. Of these 2,695 roads with potholes, the Palike said that 108 are arterial roads with a length of 401 km, while the remaining are 2,587 are other roads with bylanes. Delivering an interim order on Wednesday, the bench has instructed the BBMP to set up a grievance redressal mechanism by creating a mobile app to lodge complaints. The court also directed the BBMP to inform each and every complainant about action taken in each case. The court also stated that ward committees and the traffic police must come together and monitor the condition of the roads. The court has directed the ward committees to conduct regular checks of roads in their respective localities and report inadequacies to the traffic police and the BBMP. Ward committees have also been instructed to keep tabs on Bescom, BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board), KPTCL (Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited) and other agencies, which regularly dig up roads for maintenance work. The committees have been instructed to write reports and submit it to BBMP, which will then have to take necessary measures to ensure that the roads are free of potholes. The court has also said that the ward committee reports on the condition of roads must be submitted at the end of each month to the BBMP commissioner, who in turn, will submit the gist of such reports to the court. The next hearing is on September 9, 2019, where the court will examine the status reports of the ward committees.

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‘No helmet, no petrol’ rule to come into effect in Bengaluru from Aug 5

Road Safety

The number of fatal road accidents involving two-wheelers has been increasing over the years, reveals data from Bengaluru traffic police.

TNM Staff

Representational image/ Twitter

Taking a cue from many states in India including neighbouring Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, police in Bengaluru will enforce a ‘no helmet, no petrol’ rule for bikers from August 5. This the police hope will improve awareness on rider safety in light of increasing fatal accidents.   Speaking to TNM, DCP Traffic East, Bengaluru KV Jagadish, said, “We will hold a meeting with the owners of the petrol pumps on Saturday. We will start implementing the rule from Monday. There are no provisions of penalising the petrol pump workers but we are seeking social cooperation for a good cause.” According to the Bengaluru traffic police statistics, the number of fatal road accidents amongst two-wheeler users have been increasing over the years. For 2018, the number of two-wheeler riders who died in accidents were 150 which is 10 more than that of 2017. Till last month, in 2019 the number of such casualties had reached 105. The same trend can also be observed in the number of injuries. A United Nations study says that a proper helmet can improve chances of accident survival of by 42% and helps avoid 69% of injuries to riders. While statistics show an increase in the number of fatalities among two-wheelers there is a trend of increasing violation of the rule. In 2015, the number of riders fined in Bengaluru for not wearing helmets was 1.77 crore. The same number gradually increased to 1.88 cr in 2016 and more than 2 cr in 2017 respectively.   A similar such exercise was taken up by police in Andhra Pradesh in September 2017 and Kerala state police in August 2016. Ravindra, President of the Bengaluru Petroleum Owners’ Association, said, “There have been a select few outlets that have been approached by the police as of now. This is obviously good and will increase the safety of the riders. We don’t have a problem with this rule but in certain pockets of the city there are a rowdy elements, who might vandalise the store if we deny them service. So, we have to see what the police proposes for this.” 

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Thousands turn up to bid adieu as Coffee King VG Siddhartha laid to rest

Death

The crowd was largely dominated by the presence of coffee plantation workers, who had turned-up from Chikkamaglur, Kodagu, Hassan and Dakshina Kannada district.

By Mohan K and Nagaraj As the sun set on Wednesday, the funeral pyre of VG Siddhartha was lit by his emotionally overwhelmed eldest son Amartya Hegde, even as the late Siddhartha’s mother Vasanthi Hegde, wife Malavika Hegde and son Ishaan were seen consoling one another. A person close to the family confided that the information about Siddhartha’s death has been withheld from his father Gangaiah Hegde, the 95-year old who has been in coma at a private hospital at Mysuru. “In fact, recently prior to meeting his family he had visited his father at the hospital to check on his health, Siddhartha had made some routine inquiry and did not seem to be in distress,” he said.    At least 10,000 people were seen around the family’s Chattanahalli estate at Cheekanahalli village in Mudigere taluk. Political representatives including Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, former CM HD Kumaraswamy; legislators including CT Ravi, UT Khader, MB Patil and local elected representatives were present in Chikkamagaluru to pay their respects. Across several parts at Kandya Hobli, Balehonnur, Cheekenahalli, Kottigehara in Chikkamagluru district, several private establishments had declared holiday on Wednesday.  “The moment the mortuary convoy along with the police escort entered Mudigeri taluk; people thronged towards it, children, workers, young, landlords, old almost everyone had filled the streets to catch the final glimpse of the man who had turned-around their fortune, especially the coffee plantation workers and the landowners who were thankful to him for streamlining the local produces and taking it to the global market” Murlidhar, Secretary of Karnataka Growers Federation said. While initially the body that was escorted from Mangaluru was brought to Amalgamated Bean Company (ABC) facility at Chikkamagluru for public viewing, it was later taken to the families private at Chattanahalli estate in Cheekanahalli village for final rites. Murlidhar observed that the major part of the event was observed 'silently' by the crowd befit as a tribute to the sober and humble nature of the Siddharatha, occasionally to be broken by the chants of ‘Long live Siddhartha’ by the crowd. Largely dominated by the presence of coffee plantation workers, who had turned-up from Chikkamagluru, Kodagu, Hassan, Dakshina Kannada district, people were seen mourning the loss of VG Siddhartha, the founder proprietor of Café Coffee Day. Vinay, one of the managers, who had worked for over 20-years at the ABC’s Coffee curing unit in Hassan, recounted the sober and ground-to-earth persona of Siddhartha. “He knew most of the workers personally, he would just walk up to them for conversation and talk about the need to sustain environment in the district,” he said. A holder of a Masters of Degree in Economics from Mangalore University, Siddhartha had not only worked at international financial firms, but went on trading in the stock market. He eventually took over the licence of stock-broker Sivan Securities in 1984, which was renamed as Way2Wealth Investments Consultancy Firm in 1999. Vinay says that Siddhartha very much reflected conservative ideas of his father Gangaiah, when it came to doing business. However, Siddhartha was enterprising in his own way. “Since he had a broad access to education and work experience, he wanted to explore on how local employment and opportunities can be created from the plantation in both financial and environmentally sustainable manner,” he said. This aspiration eventually turned into the setting-up of ABC in 1993, that procured coffee beans from its over 12,000 acres of coffee plantation and delivered the coffee and allied products to domestic and international markets, Vinay said. Content provided by Story Infinity, Subs and Scribes Media LLP  

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10 years of BQFF: How Bengaluru’s queer film festival has grown

LGBTQ+

TNM spoke to three of BQFF’s co-directors to understand how the festival was created, its growing popularity and the ever-evolving slate of films.

Nikhita Venugopal

Roshan Shakeel

A few mattresses, a handful of friends and a day of movies that celebrated queer culture. That simple gathering back in 2009 was the start of what would become the Bangalore Queer Film Festival. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, the festival has grown into a four-day affair from August 1 to August 4. TNM spoke to three of BQFF’s co-directors to understand how the festival was created, its growing popularity and the ever-evolving slate of films. A rise from early days Back in 2009, Pedestrian Pictures, Swabhavan’s Vinay Chandran and a host of others started a film festival called ‘Bangalored’ at Attakkalari studios in Wilson Garden.  It was only three or four years later that the event was given its current name — the Bangalore Queer Film Festival. Joshua Muyiwa, a co-director who has been involved with the festival from its first year, said they never planned for BQFF to grow the way it did. As more and more films were submitted, the festival grew organically to two, three and now four days to showcase filmmakers and their movies portraying the queer community.  “What started out as a very small event and became a very anticipated event,” said Rovan Varghese, a co-director who started working with BQFF around eight or nine years ago.  And in honour of the festival’s home in Bengaluru, organisers ensure they have at least one filmmaker from the city whose work is highlighted at the festival. This year’s Bengaluru-based creators include Christy Raj whose short film Our Stories Our Journeys will be screened on Friday, August 2 and Mujeer Pasha and Veena Kulkarni whose film Mud Mud Ke Na Dekh will be shown on Sunday, August 4.  The films When BQFF first began it was just one day and mostly focussed on international films since they were just easier to access. “Initially, the movies we got were very West-leaning,” Joshua said. The festival has continued to evolve (though the signature mattresses stayed) and the number of film submissions grew. This year, after hundreds of films were sent in, the selection has been narrowed down to 73 feature films, shorts and documentaries from 27 countries from diverse group of filmmakers that includes queer and transgender persons who are getting behind the camera to offer a textured reading of their own lives. What’s more, it’s not just films from the West anymore. “Over the past five years, what we’ve seen ourselves is a lot more fiction films coming from India,” said Joshua.  And it’s not just the festival that’s evolved, but the films too. “BQFF has always tried to push the envelope,” Rovan said. Organisers tend to look for experimental films and make an effort to seek out new filmmakers. During this year’s festival, a series called ‘Engaging with Sexualities,’ presented by Public Service Broadcasting Trust, will feature short documentaries from early-career or first-time filmmakers.  Joshua notes that the films themselves have grown up along with the festival. The filmmakers this year tell their stories without being “pedantic or preachy or telling you how to live your queer life,” Joshua said. Rather, there’s nuance in these narratives that are more reflective of people’s lives. “We can be bad people, we can be good people, we can break up, we can be in love,” Joshua said. “It’s much more visceral to my experience.” The BQFF community Over the last 10 years, BQFF has offered a welcome space for people from all walks of life as it has turned into one of the largest queer film festivals in south India — from regulars who eagerly await the festival’s arrival every year (this year, it was pushed from its usual February slot to July) to new attendees who hear about BQFF and its growing popularity.  “There are definitely lots of people who come back every year,” said Nadika N, who has been part of the organising team since 2016.” “The festival is not just for queer people. It’s for film lovers.”  Rovan adds, “The reason it has successfully been a decade is because of the love that the community brings,” he said.  For the BQFF schedule, click here. 

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VG Siddhartha death: Police say he was riddled with a large debt

"Coffee Day itself was in debt of around Rs 7,000 crore. In addition, there was the Rs 3,500 crore debt of private holding companies,” police said.

TNM Staff

The Mangaluru Police investigating the death of VG Siddhartha — Coffee Day founder and son-in-law of former Chief Minister SM Krishna, now suspects that he may have taken the drastic step as he was riddled with debt amounting to over Rs 10,000 crore. Speaking to TNM, police officials who are looking into his financials say that the several holding companies of Coffee Day, in which he was a shareholder, had incurred a debt of Rs 3,500 crore in total.   Sivan Securities, Devadarshini Info Technologies, Coffee Day Consolidations and Gonibedu Coffee Estates were Siddhartha's personal holding companies and he had pledged his shares in these companies for the loan, police sources say. "Coffee Day itself was in debt of around Rs 7,000 crore. In addition, there was the Rs 3,500 crore debt of these private holding companies and he had to pay back over Rs 10,000 crore in loans. We suspect that this huge amount of debt had put him under a lot of stress. He had leveraged shares in so many companies he owned that it had become difficult to repay them," the police said.  Police say that investigations led them to believe that Siddhartha wanted to clear the loan he had taken from the private equity firms Standard Chartered and KKR, which had 5.6% and 6% stake in Coffee Day Enterprises. "Devadarshini Info had also taken a loan from these two PE firms. He wanted to pay back the loans to Standard Chartered and KKR as he had pledged that the lenders could take over his shares in Coffee Day if he failed to repay the loans," the police added.  VG Siddhartha went missing on Monday night near the Netravathi river bridge. He was travelling from Bengaluru to Mangaluru when he allegedly told his driver to stop the car on the bridge. Siddhartha is believed to have told his driver to stay inside the car and that he was going to take a walk. Over an hour after he left, his phone was switched off, which began worrying his driver. The driver, Basavaraj Patil then informed Siddhartha's family and the police.  A fisherman named Symond D'Souza had also informed the police that he had seen a man fall off the bridge on Monday night, which led them to suspect that it could have been Siddhartha. His body was found in the river by fishermen on Wednesday morning after a 36-hour search operation. His last rites were performed in Chikkamagaluru later on Wednesday. 

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Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha cremated at his estate in Karnataka

Crime

Hundreds of people, including women and elders from the surrounding towns and villages, thronged the estate in the Mudigeree taluk for the last glimpse of the coffee baron

IANS

The body of Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) founder V.G. Siddhartha was on Wednesday afternoon taken to Chattanahalli, his village, in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district. The last rites would be performed at one of his coffee estates by evening, a family source said "The flower-decked cortege with his body in a glass-cased coffin was brought to the estate from Mangaluru after the autopsy at a state-run hospital," the source told IANS on phone. The coffee estate is 150 km from Mangaluru and 250 km northwest of Bengaluru in the biodiverse Western Ghats of the state. The body was taken to the Coffee Day Global Enterprises office in Chikkamgaluru town on way to the village. Hundreds of people, including women and elders from the surrounding towns and villages, thronged the estate in the Mudigeree taluk for the last glimpse of the coffee baron and pay homage to him. After two fishermen found the body floating in the backwaters of the Netravathi river earlier in the day, the police shifted the body to Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru for post-mortem. "The Siddhartha's body was handed over to his family after the autopsy," said the source. Siddhartha's father-in-law SM Krishna and mother-in-law Prema flew to Chikkamagaluru from Bengaluru, while other family members and relatives have also reached the estate for the last rites. "As a holiday has been declared for the day in all the coffee estates of the district, hundreds of plantation workers and owners have come to pay their respects to Siddhartha, who generated thousands of direct and indirect jobs in his 12,000-acre coffee estates and 1,751 retail chain outlets across the country over the last two decades," the source said. Karanataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa also flew from Bengaluru to attend the last rites and console the bereaved family members. Siddhartha went missing on Monday night and was suspected to have committed suicide by jumping off the bridge.

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