To repay debts, Bengaluru couple allegedly murder elderly relatives

Crime

The couple allegedly stole jewellery worth Rs 8.6 lakh from their relatives after murdering them.

TNM Staff

A couple from Bengaluru has been arrested for allegedly murdering an elderly couple. 30-year-old Venkatesh and his wife 21-year-old Arpita resided in Amruthahalli in Bengaluru. The two had gotten married in 2016 and have one child. Venkatesh worked as a cab driver. The couple had a debt amounting to Rs 10 lakh.  In order to settle the debts, the couple allegedly decided to commit the murders. According to reports, the victims, 63-year-old Chandragowda and his wife 55-year-old Lakshmamma, were bludgeoned to death at their residence in Bengaluru’s RHB Colony in Garudacharpalya on October 16. The crime came to light the next day following which the police formed teams to catch the criminals. Lakshmamma was reportedly a distant relative of Venkatesh. Venkatesh and Arpita had met the elderly couple at a wedding about one month ago in Mysuru. After seeing the jewellery worn by Lakshmamma the duo decided to target the elderly couple. In order to win the couple’s trust, they had even visited their house twice to build up a good connection. On October 16, Venkatesh and Arpita went to the resident of Lakshmamma and Chandragowda and allegedly assaulted them to death using a spanner. The duo then allegedly ransacked the house for cash, gold, silver and other valuables. The gold they found was sold at Shri Dhanalaxmi Jewellers for a whopping Rs 8,60,000 lakh. They then escaped to a village in Dakshina Kannada where they were caught by police on Saturday. Reports have stated that upon further investigation, Venkatesh allegedly confessed to committing a similar crime earlier in July of this year, wherein another elderly couple was killed in Mandya district.  The couple, 55-year-old Gundegowda and 50-year-old Lalitamma, were also said to be distant relatives of Venkatesh.

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Bengaluru civic body floats tender to widen Ballari, Jayamahal Roads, 100 trees maybe cut

Civic

Previous attempts to widen the road have seen massive public opposition.

Soumya Chatterjee

Almost a decade after it was first proposed, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has floated tenders for the widening of Jayamahal Road and Ballari Road, despite a legal tangle and widespread public opposition to its previous attempts. The same stretch was set to be part of the controversial steel flyover project, which hard sparked massive protests in the city. The protests had forced the then Siddaramiah government to shelve the project in 2016. The vehement opposition to the project primarily hinged on environmental grounds, as the widening would result in the loss or translocation of at least a hundred trees. Opponents also felt that the road widening would further encourage private vehicle usage, shifting traffic bottlenecks elsewhere down the route. Vijay Nishanth, known as the ‘tree doctor,’ said, “There is no way that we are going to let this go through. We will hold protests like we did against the steel flyover. Strangely, the BJP had supported us when the Congress government had proposed it. Now the tables have turned.” Though the road-widening project was first proposed in 2009, it has been repeatedly delayed over the years. In 2017, about 30,000 residents wrote to the BBMP in opposition to the project.  Recently, the Karnataka High Court had come down heavily on the BBMP for not conducting a tree census, and had said that a single tree could not be cut before the formation of a Tree Committee. The Bangalore Environment Trust had approached the court stating that authorities were bypassing mandated public consultation processes due to existing loopholes. While authorities have to hold public consultation for any project requiring the felling of 50 trees, authorities like the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation had sought individual clearances by dividing its projects into smaller project components. According to BBMP estimates in 2017, the number of trees set to be cut or translocated for the project is as many as 112, while other independent studies suggest the number could be much higher.  Activists opposing the project had also cited numerous Karnataka High Court judgements to suggest that tree cutting should be considered as an exception rather than the rule. When the project was last discussed in 2017, the BBMP had said it had not conducted any feasibility studies as yet.  Speaking to TNM, Prabhakar, Executive Engineer for Road Widening, BBMP, said, “We have sought clearance from the Tree Committee through the BBMP DCF. They will take a call on the issue. It is not that we will cut all the trees, we will transplant some of them.” Earlier in 2017, BBMP had said that 45 trees will be translocated. Speaking on the same, Leo Saldhana, senior lawyer and co-ordinator of the Environment Support Group, said, “They (BBMP) may float any number of tenders. But they cannot fell trees unless tree census is conducted and the permission of the High Court-appointed committee is obtained.  Besides, the committee has to hear various voices before they take a decision.” 

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16-yr-old Mangaluru girl’s remains found 2 weeks after going missing, brother arrested

Crime

Fiona Swedal Cutinho had gone missing on October 8, with police launching a massive manhunt for the 16-year-old.

Harsha Raj Gatty

More than two weeks after a missing case was registered, Mangaluru City Police (MCP) discovered the skeletal remains of a 16-year-old girl in a forest area behind her residence on Saturday evening. Based on the preliminary findings, the jurisdictional police said that they suspect it to be remains of Fiona Swedal Cutinho. The police have also arrested Fiona’s brother Samson Cutinho (18) in the murder. According to the complaint filed by the victim’s father Francis Cutinho on October 8, his son Samson Cutinho had allegedly told him that Fiona had gone to Mangaluru but never returned. Francis, a resident of Pajeer near Mudipu, which is around 25 km from Mangaluru, tried contacting friends, relatives over phone but the whereabouts of Fiona remained unknown. Following the complaint, a kidnap case was registered at the jurisdictional Konaje police station. The city police had launched a massive manhunt to trace the 16-year-old, who was a student pursuing her first PUC at a private college in Mangaluru city. Initially, police said they interviewed nearly 40 people in an attempt to trace the ‘missing person’. Mangaluru City Police commissioner PS Harsha had also sought public help to find Fiona. Investigators suspicion turned to the family after electronic surveillance of Fiona’s cell phone was traced to Mudipu (close to the victim’s home) contradicting the family’s version that she had gone to Mangaluru. Further, police also received a tip-off that Fiona’s elder brother Samson was allegedly addicted to ganja and other contrabands and since failing his engineering degree was idling at home, the police official said. Subsequently, Samson was questioned, when he allegedly admitted to killing his sister with a hammer over a trivial reason at home. “Samson was miffed that his parents focused more on Fiona over him. This we believe might have lead to jealousy that turned into a rage during an argument with his sister – that instigated him to kill her,” the police said. Following the murder, the victim’s elder brother allegedly dumped the body in an isolated forest area behind the house, and then fabricated a story of his sister leaving to Mangaluru, the police said. According to the police, Samson also showed the authorities the spot where he had allegedly dumped the body after committing the crime. Police also found the victim’s mobile phone, teeth and hair samples around the same spot and are further scouting the areas for more evidence. Police said that they have dispatched the skeletal remains for forensic examination to ascertain that the body belonged to Fiona. Subsequent to the verification by Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Konaje police said that they will convert the kidnap case to murder. The hammer used for the crime has been recovered by the police. Samson is currently in police custody.  (Content provided by https://ift.tt/2DX7vnh and Scribes Media Ventures LLP).

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Bengaluru Metro’s Green Line to get two more six-car trains

Transport

On Friday, the Namma Metro registered its highest ridership of 4.83 lakh.

Soumya Chatterjee

Commuters of the Green Line of the Namma Metro in Bengaluru have reason to cheer as the authorities have decided to add two additional six-car trains from Monday to ease the rush hour journeys. At present, the Green Line trains has only four six- car trains out of the total 18 that ply on the Nagasandra-Yelachenahalli route. Compared to this, all the 18 trains running in Purple Line ((Baiyappanahalli to Mysuru Road) have six cars.  Until June 2018, all Namma Metro trains plying in the city consisted of three coaches with a total capacity of 975 passengers at a given time. This caused a space crunch during peak hours. The six-car train, in comparison, can accommodate as many as 2,000 passengers. All the six-car metro rakes are provided by Indian public sector unit Bharat Earthmovers Ltd (BEML). The first compartment is reserved for women in all six-car trains. Passengers on the Green Line have been complaining of crowding during peak hours as the capacity of the trains have stayed the same since operations began, while all trains on the Purple Line have been converted to six-car trains.   While the Green Line between Nagasandra-Yelachenahalli spans 24.22 km, the Purple Line between Baiyyappanahalli and Mysore Road runs for 18.08 km. However, ridership has been consistently higher in the Purple Line than in the Green Line. Incidentally, the announcement comes when the Metro on Friday also breached its peak daily ridership figures. On the eve of Deepavali (Friday), more than 4.83 lakh people used the metro which pipped the previous record of 4.64 lakh recorded on Dasara (October4). Out of these, 2.63 lakh was on the Purple Line and 2.19 lakh were on the Green Line. Speaking to TNM, BMRCL Executive Director Operations A Shankar said, “This spike in ridership ensured that our farebox revenues increased by a substantial margin.” While the fare earnings on Friday was Rs 1.12 crore, the average daily fare collections for the 2018-19 financial year was Rs 0.97 crore.

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Bengaluru police detains 60 suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants

Crime

Police said they will be deported to Bangladesh by the Border Security Force

TNM Staff

The police in Bengaluru detained as many as 60 persons on Saturday, suspecting them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. There were 29 men, 22 women and nine children, police said.  At a press conference led by City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao, the police said that these suspected illegal immigrants were living in shanties in peripheral areas of the city falling under Ramamurthynagar, Bellandur and Marathahalli police station limits. “All the arrested will be deported to Bangladesh. There is information about some foreign nationals who are overstaying in KR Puram, Bagalur and other areas. Efforts are being made to arrest them. The passport and visa documents of all foreigners staying in the city are being checked,” Bangalore Mirror quoted one official as saying. Those detained were rounded up during a raid by the Central Crime Branch police who were probing the issue of illegal migrants after an intelligence report. According to reports, police also fear that those detained, who have been living here for a considerable time, may also have obtained identification documents such as Aadhaar and Voter ID cards illegally. Many of the people were employed as daily wage labourers and worked either in the construction sector or collected scraps. Some of them were also employed by the contractors of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). Police said most of these workers work at night and stay indoors during the day. The cops added that the Foreigner’s Regional Registration Office has been informed and the people will be handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF), who will deport them to Bangladesh. Police are also looking to book the agents who brought them here. The City Police Commissioner also said that from now on, property owners would be booked if it is found that they did not check the identity of tenants before renting their property. It was reported in July that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had directed the Karnataka government to look into the issue of illegal foreigners making their way into the city. 

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Pelosi's office working to kill progressive change to drug pricing bill

House Democratic leaders are telling rank-and-file lawmakers they have concerns with the wording of the amendment.

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Capture of wild elephant in Bandipur sparks fresh debate on GPS-enabled radio collars

Wildlife

The tusker was fitted with a GPS-enabled radio collar but forest officials involved in the capture said that the elephant was untraceable.

Prajwal Bhat

On Thursday, forest officials in Bandipur Tiger Reserve were faced with a tough operation - to capture an elephant which had attacked two residents of a village on the periphery of the tiger reserve. The elephant was fitted with a GPS-enabled radio collar just a month ago but forest officials involved in the capture said that the elephant was untraceable on Thursday.  "The collar was not working. We are unsure why this happened. Whether the battery was not working or whether it was not transmitting the location because of a technical defect," says T Balachandra, Conservator of Forests and Field Director, Project Tiger, Bandipur. Eventually, forest officials had to resort to the traditional method of alerting local residents about the tusker. "We decided to circulate the photograph of the elephant on TV channels and newspapers and sent it to each village panchayat in the area. On Thursday morning, a few residents informed us that the elephant is in a farm near Gundlupet," explains Balachandra. The elephant was soon tracked and a team of four trained elephants was used to get close to it. The wild elephant was then bound with thick ropes and led to a truck and shifted to the elephant camp at Dubare in Kodagu. The capture of the elephant sparked a fresh debate on the use of GPS-enabled radio collars on elephants.  Elephant captured in Bandipur  What is a radio collar? The GPS-enabled radio collar is an electronic device with a radio telemetric transmitter which acquires the GPS position and sends it to a local server. The GPS-enabled collars will update the location of a herd and help forest officials track them even during migration. They are powered by a lithium battery and weigh as much as 10 kg, a fraction of the body weight of an elephant.  Earlier this year, the Karnataka Forest Department fitted GPS-enabled collars on wild elephants as an experiment to track their movement and potentially reduce human-elephant conflict. The radio collar on the captured elephant was however fitted by forest officials in Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai reserve. The elephant had strayed from Mudumalai to the periphery of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.   Elephant fitted with a GPS-enabled radio collar 'Collars are not foolproof' "The collars are not foolproof solutions to track elephants. It is a machine that is susceptible to damage based on what the elephant does. If some part is not working, it has to be rectified but usually, it is difficult to do that. This is what happened with the recent case in Bandipur," adds Balachandra. Placing the collar on the elephant is a task that requires meticulous planning. First, trained elephants are used to familiarise themselves with elephants in a herd. Then the female leader, usually the largest and strongest elephant in a herd, is identified. Experts give her a dosage of a tranquillising drug when she is isolated. The dosage depends on the strength of the elephant. When the elephant falls asleep, the collar is fitted on the elephant. Identifying the female leader of the herd allows forest officials to track the herd since the elephant kingdom is matriarchal.  The experiment with radio collars might have its detractors but forest officials in Kodagu's Virajpet taluk say that it has been beneficial to them in stopping human-elephant conflicts in the region. "There are practical difficulties but it allows us to find out where elephants are and monitor them easily. This allows rapid response teams to reach faster than before," says Gopal, a forest officer in the Virajpet range.  Forest officials in Kodagu Human-elephant conflict Elephant-human conflict is common whenever elephants stray into the agricultural fields of farmers. The conflict has led to loss of both human and elephant lives in Karnataka. Forest officials say that the lack of water in the forest is forcing elephants to turn up in coffee plantations and paddy fields to quench their thirst. In the last few years, forest officials have tried to set up solar fencing that gives a mild jolt, iron fencing, spike pillars and digging trenches, to reduce human-elephant conflict particularly in Kodagu. "They (radio collars) have not reduced instances of elephant-human conflict but have allowed us to respond faster to defuse situations,” says Gopal. "We need to communicate with local residents effectively to reduce the instances of conflict," he adds. Conservationist Joseph Hoover says that in addition to attaching a radio collar, forest officials should regularly keep a check on whether the device is transmitting the location. "There should be coordination between the forest departments of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu because Nilgiris is situated in a tri-junction area," he says.

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