DKS arrest: Vokkaliga community members, Congress stage huge protest in Bengaluru

Politics

Heavyweight Congress leaders like Dinesh Gundu Rao, Krishna Byre Gowda and Ramalinga Reddy joined the protests.

Prajwal Bhat

All photos by Prajwal Bhat

In a show of strength in support of former Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar who is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate, members of the Vokkaliga community backed by Congress held a massive protest against the BJP in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The protests saw heavyweight Congress leaders like Dinesh Gundu Rao, Krishna Byre Gowda and Ramalinga Reddy taking part. Vokkaligas are a dominant community in Karnataka most prevalent in the southern part of the state especially the Old Mysore region from where Shivakumar hails. DK Shivakumar hails from this community. While the Congress and JD(S) is thought to enjoy their patronage, the BJP is yet to make strong connections with the community. Instead, BJP is perceived to be favoured by the other dominant caste in Karnataka, the Lingayats. Carrying photos of DK Shivakumar, hundreds of supporters shouted slogans against the BJP crying “vendetta politics”. Crying chants in favour of their leader, they called for “justice”. K Mallaiah, ex-vice president of Vokkaliga Sangha said, “This is a clear case of misuse of power and political vendetta. He was seen as a threat to the BJP that is why he was being targetted by the probe agencies. He was the target since he helped the election of Ahmed Patel to the Rajya Sabha.” Various smaller rallies of protestors from different parts of the city and nearby districts joined the march led by Congress top leadership from National College Grounds to Freedom Park, triggering massive traffic jams in many parts of the city. Key areas leading to the central business district of the IT capital like National College, PMK Road, Vani Vilas, JC Road, Town Hall, Mysore Bank Circle, Kalidasa Road, Freedom Park, and surrounding areas were severely affected. Addressing reporters, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao who took part in the protests, said, “Members of the Vokkaliga community, their leaders and other Kannada organisations have come together today to protest against the central government. They are expressing their anger. Today’s protest is not called by any political party.” He claimed that even BJP supporters were present today to protest against the alleged misuse of central probe agencies for political purposes.  He even implied that SM Krishna, a former Congress CM and Union Minister from the Vokkaliga community, had to join the BJP due to the Centre’s misuse of the Income Tax Department against his son-in-law and CCD founder VG Siddhartha. Incidentally, Shivakumar is seen as SM Krishna's prodigy.  “Last three years, the government has been raiding people, threatening people. What was the reason behind SM Krishna joining BJP? Now we know how VG Siddharth was being harassed by I-T officials. It is there in his (suicide) note.  Operation Kamala was going in broad daylight to topple the Kumaraswamy government. Hundreds of crores were being offered. We have written to the I-T Department and asked ‘please take action’. But nobody was touched. Just because of some Karnataka MLAs staying in some resorts, the I-T Department raided us. But when BJP MLAs are kept in hotels in Haryana or when our MLAs are kept in Mumbai, why does the I-T department not take action then?” the KPCC president asked.  “Agencies are being used to raid and humiliate opposition party leaders. Political vendetta and things like this won’t work. Today country is being run in an undemocratic way and democracy is in danger,” he added. Ahead of Wednesday’s protests, DK Shivakumar in a tweet had thanked his supporters for the protest and asserted that he will come out clean. He said, "I wholehartedly thank leaders, supporters, well-wishers and friends who have organised a massive protest in my support tomorrow in Bengaluru. I humbly request that the protest be peaceful and doesn't cause any inconvenience to citizens. Please ensure the public property isn't harmed." He added, “I would like to reiterate that I have done nothing wrong and am a target of vendetta politics. With the support and blessings that I am receiving from all of you and my belief in God and our judiciary, I have full faith that I will emerge victorious both legally and politically." 

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Building houses, roads by modifying slopes caused Kodagu landslides, find geologists

Landslides

Geologists from the Geological Survey of India studied surface cracks and landslides that occurred in Kodagu in August, which left at least 11 people dead.

Prajwal Bhat

It is now over a month since landslides recurred in Karnataka's Kodagu district. "Mud from the top of the hill wiped out everything in its way in a matter of minutes," recalls Vijay Kumar, a resident of Thora village where a landslide claimed the lives of six people.  Landslides recurred in as many as five areas in Kodagu district in August, a year after the devastating landslides in the region in 2018, which killed 18 people and displaced over 7,000 others. Scientists attempting to find an answer to the recent spate of landslides in the region have now linked it to slope modification works in the district to construct roads and houses. Geologists from the Geological Survey of India (GSI) studied surface cracks and landslides that occurred in Kodagu last month, killing at least 11 people. In a preliminary analysis, GSI scientists Sunandan Basu and Kapil Singh who visited Kodagu concluded that the cause of the landslides in the district was due to human modification of slopes. Scientists also studied the rainfall pattern in the district and its link to the landslides. As many as five landslides were reported in the district in August in Talacauvery, Thora, Korangala, Ayyappa Hill and Virajpet-Heggala road while surface cracks were observed in three areas in Brahmagiri, Nehru Nagar and Ayyappa Hill.  Two of the landslides which occurred in Korangala and Thora villages after a spell of heavy rain on the morning of August 9 killed 11 people. The landslide in Korangala turned fatal for five members of a family. "The scientific causes of the landslide are slope cut for house construction, toe cutting of the slope by stream and reduction of strength of overburden material on super saturation," reads the analysis by GSI scientists.  Toe cutting of slope by stream refers to erosion caused by water at the foot of a slope while landslides in the Western Ghats are attributed to deposits of overburden materials on slopes. These include loose soil, stones and debris, and such areas witness landslides in times of heavy rainfall. GSI scientists could not study the landslide in Thora village due to adverse weather conditions. Ten people went missing after the landslide occurred and only six bodies have been recovered from the debris, one month after the disaster. Search operations were called off even though four people are still missing "Due to wet weather condition and thick pile of debris, the main body of the landslide was inaccessible and only run out part at the valley could be approached," reads the report by GSI. For many days after the disaster, residents of Thora returned to the spot of the landslide to help with the search for survivors and dead bodies but after 23 days, the search operations were called off after district authorities took the consent of the families of the missing persons. Meanwhile, the landslide on Virajpet-Heggala road that occurred on August 8 and the landslide near Talacauvery temple that occurred on August 9 were also linked to road construction in the area while the landslide in Ayyappa Hills was linked to the "construction of houses without proper support".

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Bengaluru artist’s ‘moonwalk’ on pothole-ridden road recreated in Mexico

Civic issues

Bengaluru artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy confirmed to TNM that Mexican ad agency Boveda Celeste had contacted him and taken permission to recreate the viral video.

TNM Staff

Just days after Bengaluru artist Baadal Nanjundaswamy’s rendition of a ‘moonwalk’ on the city’s Tunganagar Main Road went viral, a digital advertising agency in Mexico has recreated it on a road there. Baadal had got an actor to suit up as an astronaut, and walk on Tunganagar Main Road as he would on the moon. Why? Because the potholes on the road were big enough to be likened to craters on the moon itself. The video of this ingenious idea soon went viral, with people from across India and many other countries saying that this could be done on their damaged roads as well. The Mexican agency Boveda Celeste, decided to do just that. Baadal confirmed to TNM that Boveda Celeste had contacted him on Facebook and taken permission to recreate the video. Their video, shot in Pachuca, the capital of Mexico’s largest state Hidalgo, is much like Baadal’s. It shows someone dressed up in an astronaut suit, walking slowly, deliberately on an uneven surface. The person carries the Mexican flag, and there is audio in the background much like the one you would imagine between an astronaut communicating with the base back on Earth.   The mirage is broken soon though, as a car passes by behind the astronaut, and we realise that the surface the astronaut walked on is actually a heavily pothole-ridden road.         View this post on Instagram                   Una inconformidad más para los gobiernos que han dejado mal a nuestras ciudades. Esperamos un cambio y con esto nos unimos al reto #AstroBache#Challenge #BovedaCeleste A post shared by Boveda Celeste (@boveda_celeste) on Sep 10, 2019 at 4:12pm PDT The video ends crediting Baadal, with a call to join the demonstration against the bad condition of roads in Mexico’s cities. Watch Baadal’s original video here. Hello bbmp @BBMPCOMM @BBMP_MAYOR @bbm #thelatest #streetart #nammabengaluru #herohalli pic.twitter.com/hsizngTpRH — baadal nanjundaswamy (@baadalvirus) September 2, 2019 Baadal has received many requests to recreate this ‘moonwalk’ in other parts of India and various cities in the US and other countries as well. “I am not sure yet if I will recreate this… they (BBMP, Bengaluru’s civic agency) have taken up the repairs now. The response to the video has been really good. It went viral globally!” he says. 

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Protests in Bengaluru against DK Shivakumar's arrest: Full list of traffic diversions

Politics

Thousands of people affiliated to Congress and various Vokkaliga organisations will take out a protest from National College Grounds to Freedom Park.

TNM Staff

Traffic diversions are in place in several parts of Bengaluru on Wednesday as thousands of people are expected to gather for a protest to show solidarity with Congress leader DK Shivakumar, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) earlier this month. Thousands of people affiliated to Congress and various Vokkaliga organisations will take out a protest from National College Grounds to Freedom Park. The procession will start from the National College Grounds at 11.30am. Congress cadre and members of various Vokkaliga organisations from 12 south Karnataka districts, mostly from Ramanagara, Kanakapura and Bengaluru Rural, will be participating in the protest. In order to facilitate flow of traffic due to the protests, diversions have been put in place. Commuters plying from KG Road via Palace Road must turn right at Elite Junction and go through Tank Bund Road. Those going to Chalukya Circle must must turn left near Maharani College Bridge and go through KR Circle. For commuters travelling from Seshadri Road, the upper ramp near Anand Rao Circle must be used to go through Race Course Road via JD(S) circle. Those travelling from Kempegowda Bus Stand to KR Market must start from NR junction and go through Devanga Junction, Poornima Talkies and then through Lalbagh Main Gate before reaching Lalbagh West Gate and then go to KR Market. Commuters must turn left at Hudson Circle and reach Devanga Junction to reach Richmond Circle. Those going from Richmond Circle to Majestic must go through Hudson Circle, reach KR Circle and take the Old Post Office Road. Vehicles going towards KR Puram must go through Seshadri Road, Race Course Road, Chalukya Circle, Raj Bhavan junction and go through Infantry Road from the Coffee Board signal. Around 5,000 civil police personnel will be deployed along the protest route. Fifty platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police and 40 of City Armed Reserve, and 550 home guards will also be deployed. A total of 11 DCPs, 42 ACPs, 106 inspectors and 373 sub-inspectors are also being deployed, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao said. Over 500 temporary CCTV cameras have been fixed along the stretch and policemen in plainclothes will also carry video cameras to shoot the protest footage.

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Rs 38 cr Goldman Sachs fraud: Former employee and accomplice of VP arrested in B’luru

Crime

The former employee of Goldman Sachs who has been arrested, has been identified as 28-year-old Vedanth Rungta.

TNM Staff

A day after it was reported that a Vice President of Goldman Sachs in Bengaluru was arrested for allegedly attempting to swindle Rs 38 crore ($5.4 million) from the company, it has come to light that his accomplice has also been nabbed. Incidentally, he is a former employee of the global investment bank. He has been identified as 28-year-old Vedanth Rungta.  It was earlier reported that Ashwani Jhunjhunwala, the vice-president (Foreign Exchange and Equity Settlements) of the investment company’s Bengaluru office was accused of logging on to computers belonging to his juniors and carrying out these illegal transactions. “Vedanth used to work for Goldman Sachs and was fired from the company for carrying out a similar fraud last year. That fraud was not reported. Ashwani had got in touch with Vedanth as he accrued losses in his online poker games. After they got in touch, Vedanth suggested to Ashwani that he should transfer the company’s money to an international account controlled by him. Vedanth was currently working in Synergy,” Whitefield DCP Anuchet told TNM. According to the FIR, a copy of which is with TNM, Ashwani allegedly accessed the computers of his juniors – Gaurav Mishra, Abhishek Yadav and Sujith Appaiah, on the pretext of training them. Jhunjhunwala had incurred debt of over Rs 50 lakh by playing online poker and he had also taken private loans from people. He told the police that he wanted to clear these debts.  Ashwani was booked under Sections 34 (common intention), 408 (criminal breach of trust), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) and 409 (criminal breach of trust by a banker) of the IPC. The FIR had mentioned Vedanth’s role in the case. The international bank account was in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ASIA) Limited. Whitefield police said an alert request was raised to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of Chia where the money was fraudulently transferred, to stop and prevent the transfer of money. Accordingly, the bank has stopped the transfer and sent the entire amount back to Goldman Sachs.

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Six children drown in Karnataka pond while immersing Ganesha idols

Accident

According to police, the pond was 8 feet deep and all the children had entered the pond holding each other’s hands.

IANS

Representational image

Six children – four girls and two boys – drowned in a pond near a village in Karnataka's Kolar Gold Fields town on Tuesday while immersing idols of Lord Ganesh, police said. The town in Kolar is located about 100 km northeast of Bengaluru on the Old Madras Road. "The incident came to light after their parents and relatives came to the pond in search of their children. The kids had left their homes after lunch to play under the tree around the pond with the idols which were put up on September 2, when the 10-day Ganesha festival commenced," the SP said. According to local jurisdictional police, the pond was 8 feet deep and all the children had entered the pond holding each other’s hands. Deccan Herald reported that a farmer who was nearby attempted to rescue them but failed. "The incident occurred when the victims, aged between 8-12 years, went into the pond on the outskirts of Maradaghatta village to immerse the idols, got stuck in the mud and drowned as they did not know how to swim," KGF Superintendent of Police Mohammed Sujeetha told IANS on phone.  Two children from the same group had chosen to not go into the water body. As their friends drowned, they rushed to inform other villagers. The victims were identified as Rakshitha, Tejaswi, Veena, Vyshnavi, Rohit and Dhanush. A case has been registered at Andersonpet Police Station. "Fire brigade personnel rushed to the pond, retrieved the bodies and handed them over to the families after autopsy. A case of unnatural deaths was registered at the local police station," Sujeetha added. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the family of the victims.

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DK Shivakumar's daughter Aisshwarya summoned by ED, asked to appear by Sep 12

Crime

Incidentally, according to Shivakumar’s affidavit submitted to the Election Commission ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018, Aishwarya owned assets of Rs 108 crore compared to only Rs 1.09 crore in 2013.

IANS

In more trouble for arrested Congress leader DK Shivakumar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has now summoned his daughter Aisshwarya for questioning as part of its probe into the money laundering case against the former Karnataka Minister. A senior ED official told IANS: "We have summoned Aisshwarya for questioning in the money laundering case on September 12." The official said that while scrutanising the financial dealings of Shivakumar, the agency found documents pertaining to a trust handled by his daughter. "To get the details of the functioning of the trust and its financial transactions, we have summoned Aisshwarya for questioning," he said.  The financial probe agency had arrested Shivakumar on September 3 after questioning him for over two days in connection with case. A day later, a Delhi court sent Shivakumar to 10-day ED custody. The official said that if required, the agency would also confront Aisshwarya with Shivakumar along with the financial transaction documents related to the trust. Shivakumar has been on the radar of the Income Tax Department and the ED since demonetisation in 2016. An Income Tax search at his New Delhi flat on August 2, 2017 led to the seizure of unaccounted cash worth Rs 8.59 crore. Thereafter, the I-T Department lodged cases against the Congress leader and his four associates under Sections 277 and 278 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, and Sections 120(B), 193 and 199 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Incidentally, according to Shivakumar’s affidavit submitted to the Election Commission ahead of the Assembly elections in 2018, Aishwarya owned assets of Rs 108 crore compared to only Rs 1.09 crore in 2013. Shivakumar however clarified that Aisshwarya was not dependent on his income, and that he was still declaring her assets as per the Representation of People Act.   Other than this, his affidavit mentioned her  paying an advance towards purchase of built-up area in Soul Space Spirit Mall in Bellandur worth 76.1 crore and  This summon comes after the ED raided Karnataka Bhavan employee Anjaneya Hanumantha, an aide of the former minister in connection with the money laundering case. Sources in the ED say they are also probing an alleged transaction in which Shivakumar hd bought 60% of the solar park at Ballari's Hagaribommanahalli. Sleuths also want to confirm if the transaction was allegedly carried out by Shivakumar by misusing his position as Energy Minister in the Siddaramaiah government.

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