Thousands in Karnataka pay homage to Tipu Sultan on his 270th birth anniversary

Birth Anniversary

With no state sponsored celebrations this year, a few private celebrations were held in Mandya and Mysuru districts, the seat of Tipu's erstwhile Mysore kingdom.

TNM Staff

Scores of people paid tributes to 18th century controversial Mysore ruler Hazrath Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) in Karnataka's Srirangapatna on his 270th birth anniversary. This included Congress legislator Tanveer Sait who paid tributes to Tipu Sultan in Srirangapatna. "Though the BJP government discontinued Tipu Jayanthi from this year owing to opposition from its legislators and right-wing groups, Sait, cadres and religious leaders paid tributes to the erstwhile king by offering flowers and a shawl (chadar) to his tomb at Gumbaz in Srirangapatna," party's state unit spokesman Ravi Gowda said. Hundreds of Muslims celebrated it along with Prophet Mohammed's birthday on Eid-Miladin-Nabi across the southern state amid tight security. Tanveer, a four-time lawmaker from the Narasimharaja assembly segment in Mysuru, is also chairman of Tipu's Saheed Wakf Estate in the state's cultural capital. Inayath ur Rahman Rizvi, Shahi Imam, Masjid e Aqsa, Gumbaz, prayed and read some verses of the Holy Quran. There were no celebrations in Kodagu district of Karnataka. The celebrations, which were held by the state government from 2015, were discontinued this year after an interim order was passed by the BJP-led government on July 30, just days after the party came to power in the state. In the first year of celebration, two persons were killed in Kodagu district after violent clashes.  The order by the BJP-led government was challenged in the Karnataka High Court and on November 6, the high court's division bench, headed by Chief Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice S.R. Krishnakumar, directed the state government to reconsider its July 30 cabinet decision and respond by third week of January 2020. The bench also said that private celebrations of Tipu Jayanti were allowed and asked the state government to place on record the order cancelling Tipu Jayanti celebrations in the state.  The previous Congress government revived Tipu Jayanthi in November 2015 and continued till 2018 when it was in the 14-month coalition government with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD(S)) till July 23 despite opposition by the BJP then. The ruling BJP and its right-wing allies consider Tipu a tyrant, religious bigot and anti-Hindu who forcibly converted hundreds of Hindus to Islam and persecuted those who opposed. Every year since 2015, the BJP ran a campaign criticising Tipu for killing Kodavas and Mangaluru Christians, and pillaging temples in south India. The opposition Congress, however, claim Tipu was a valiant hero, secular and a freedom-fighter who fought the British to protect his kingdom and its people from the invaders. The developments also come at a time when Appachu Ranjan, the MLA of Madikeri in Kodagu, has petitioned the Karnataka Education Department to remove all references to Tipu Sultan in textbooks printed in the state. With IANS inputs

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Additional Bengaluru-Whitefield train, reduced travel time between Bengaluru-Mysuru

Transport

Railway officials said that the Bengaluru-Whitefield train will have a composition of two motor cars and six trailing cars.

TNM Staff

PTI/ File image

Rail users from Bengaluru and nearby towns and cities have reasons to cheer with the recent upgradation of infrastructure undertaken by the South Western Railways. While a new train suburban service from Whitefield was flagged off on Saturday, traveling on trains between Bengaluru and Mysuru will take 30 minutes less than it used to take before. Benefiting a lot of people commuting between Bengaluru Central Business District areas and Whitefield, the South Western Railway has started an additional train service between City Railway Station (Majestic) and Whitefield.  The train will start from KSR Bengaluru at 5.50 pm and reach Whitefield at 6.40 pm and will run via Bengaluru Cantonment, Bengaluru East, Baiyappanahalli, KR Puram, and Hoodi. In the opposite direction, the train will depart from Whitefield station at 6.50 pm and reach Cantonment at 7.25 pm. Railway officials said that the train will have a composition of two motor cars and six trailing cars. While the motor cars can carry 226 passengers – 155 sitting and 121 standing – the trailing cars can carry 325 passengers  Flagging off the train, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan said, “In response to demand of commuters, I am happy to inform additional trains will commence operations. I thank the Minister of State, Railways, Suresh Angadi for agreeing to my request and sanctioning additional trains.” According to officials, automatic signalling works have facilitated this addition of service.   Krishna Prasad, a veteran suburban rail activist, said, “This is a long standing demand and it will benefit a lot of IT/BT professionals, students, domestic and factory workers alike.” This announcement comes after similar addition of services between Tumakuru-Yeshwantapur line. Bengaluru-Mysuru The electrification and doubling of tracks between Bengaluru and Mysuru will see as many as 11 trains to reduce the travel time between the two cities.  For this, the departure time of these trains have been deferred by 30 minutes. With the use of electric engines, the railways will also save a lot of financial resources otherwise used as fuel expenses as trains with 24 coaches need two engines in this route due to the undulating terrain.

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Bengaluru woman chases and nabs man who molested her in moving train

Crime

While the Bangalore Cantonment Police registered a case, it was transferred to the Jolarpettai Railway Police Station based on jurisdiction.

Soumya Chatterjee

Image for representation

The Tamil Nadu police detained a man after a 28-year-old Bengaluru marketing executive accused him of groping her while she was asleep when travelling by train last week. This after she confronted the alleged assaulter with the help of her friends after a chase through the train’s compartments, despite no immediate help from the police or rail officials. According to the FIR which TNM has accessed, Christina* (name changed) boarded coach S-8 of the Kochuveli-Mysore Express at Ernakulam along with her friends on November 5. The alleged groping occurred around 5 am the next day. The accused has been identified as 32-year-old Sunish V. While the Bangalore Cantonment Police registered a case under IPC section 354A (Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment), it was transferred to the Jolarpettai Railway Police Station based on jurisdiction. The police have taken down the details of the accused and are likely to arrest him based on further investigation, sources said. The official transfer of the case will take 10 days. The FIR read: “Midway through her journey on 06-11-2019 early morning 04.45 am to 05.30 am between Salem and Tirupattur she was awakened from her sleep to find the accused who touched her back and bottom in a sexually intended manner. She immediately got up and the accused began to quickly walk away to the next coach. She followed him whilst raising an alarm for help and finally caught hold of him in the adjacent coach. When confronted, the accused feigned innocence, but she did not receive immediate help.” It added, “Then she went back to her coach to find help during which the accused managed to slip away. Along with her fellow travellers and friends traced him down to a few coaches away and confronted him again. They immediately tried to find TTE or the police but to no avail and had to wait till the next station Tirupattur to get help. Here, they got off to look for help but did not find any immediately. Due to the lack of immediate available of help and lack of time her friend pulled the emergency chain, till we got help. Only after this did the GRP police and RPF Tirupattur arrived and the accused was handed over to them at Tirupattur (sic).” The woman could not register a complaint with the local police immediately due to lack of time, and lodged a complaint with the Bangalore Cantonment Police after she alighted. Vadivukarasi, Inspector at Jolarpettai Railway Police Station, said, “We were not able to take further action since a complaint was not registered. If the complaint was filed with the Bengaluru Cantonment Railway Police, they should have reached out to us to know about the accused so as to make the arrest. Immediate communication would have meant that we could have handed him over.” 

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Namma Metro suspends services between Yelachenahalli and RV Road from Nov 14 to 17

Transport

Alternate BMTC Metro feeder buses will be provided on all four days for the benefit of passengers affected by the suspension of services.

TNM Staff

File photo

Bengaluru Metro train services between Yelachenahalli and RV Road on the Green Line will be suspended for four days, from November 14 to 17. Normal train services will resume from the morning of November 18. The suspension of services is to accommodate the work being undertaken to convert the RV Road Metro station into an interchange station between the Green line and the proposed Electronic City Metro Corridor. Alternate BMTC Metro feeder buses will be provided on all four days for the benefit of passengers affected by the suspension of the services. These buses can be availed at the affected metro stations and will stop at the intermediate Metro stations – Banashankari and JP Nagar. The buses will be available from 4.45 am onwards from the Yelachenahalli Metro station and from 5.30 am onwards at the RV Road Metro station. They will be available up to 10.30 pm at the Yelachenahalli Metro station and up to 11.45 pm at the RV Metro station. However, on Sunday, November 17, the bus services will start later in the morning; at 6.30 am from Yelachenahalli and at 7.15 am from RV Road. The work being undertaken is to launch viaduct superstructures south of the RV Road Metro station. Viaducts are structures that are designed to cross waterbodies and valleys with several short arches without the construction of a bridge. BMRCL expects to finish the scheduled work within the four days. This work comes close on the heels of the Karnataka government’s decision to extend the service of the state-run Metro network to 300 km from the current 119 km. This comes at a whopping cost of Rs 30,695 crore. The service is expected to take thousands of vehicles off the road. All other Metro services will continue as usual next week. The Purple Line will not be affected by this work.

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Karnataka bye-polls on December 5, Model Code of Conduct kicks in from Monday

Politics

The SC will announce its verdict on the rebel MLAs case on November 13

TNM Staff

The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced that the byepolls in 15 Karnataka Assembly seats will be conducted on December 5 as earlier announced. For the same, the Model code of conduct will come into force from Monday in the district(s) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for election is included, subject to partial modification. The announcement by EC comes after the Supreme Court on Friday said the fate of the 17 disqualified Karnataka MLAs will be decided on November 13. These MLAs of the former JD(S)-Congress coalition government had resigned from their positions to pave way for the BJP to form a government in the state. The MLAs are hoping for a favourable verdict as they want to contest the bye-elections in the 17 constituencies. The bye-elections to 15 constituencies were initially scheduled for October 21 but it was later deferred until the three-judge bench decides on the petitions by the 17 disqualified legislators. Bye-elections to RR Nagar and Maski are yet to be announced. The bye-elections were first rescheduled for December 5 but the disqualified MLAs once again moved the SC to further defer the polls until the case is resolved. The polling will happen in 4185 polling stations. The 17 rebels include Pratap Gouda Patil, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Someshekhar, Byrati Basavraj, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar, MTB Nagaraj, Shrimant Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatahalli and R Shankar from the Congress and JD(S) legislators AH Vishwanath, Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda. For the byepolls, the EC said an integrated Complaint Monitoring and Media Monitoring centre has been established in the O/o Chief Electoral Officer, 2nd floor, East Wing, Khanija Bhavan, Race Course Road, Bengaluru. Other than letters and email at ceo.karnataka@gmail.com, voters can complain of violations through National Grievances Redressal System (NGRS) web portal, or by calling 1950  toll free number for District Voter Helpline and 1800 4255 1950 for State Voter Helpline.

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IMA scam: Former Bengaluru Urban DC Vijay Shankar, 2 others booked for taking bribe

Crime

The move comes after the CBI on Friday conducted raids on two IPS officers in the state.

TNM Staff

Just a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided IPS officers in Karnataka, including Hemant Nimbalkar and Ajay Hilory, in the I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam, a case has been registered against IAS officer BM Vijay Shankar. Vijay Shankar was the Deputy Commissioner for Urban Bengaluru district when the scam broke out. Other than Vijay Shankar, the CBI has booked LC Nagaraj, the then Sub-Division Officer, Bangalore North Division; Manjunath, Village Accountant, officiating at Sub-Division Office, Bangalore North Division; among others. All of them have been booked under Section 7 (Public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration); Section 7(A) (taking undue advantage of public), Section 8 (Taking gratification, in order, by corrupt or illegal means, to influence public servant) and Section 12 (Punishment for abetment of offences defined in section 7) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.  In a release, the CBI said. “Vijay Shankar and Nagaraj accepted illegal gratification from the Directors of IMA Group of companies through Manjunath who acted as a mediator for the transaction. The illegal gratification was demanded and accepted by the above two public servants for forwarding a favourable report to Government in an enquiry into the illegal activities of IMA Group of Companies which was under their consideration.” It added, “The illegal gratification of Rs 1.5 crores demanded by Shri. B.M. Vijay Shankar was delivered to a real estate.” Further, Nagaraj obtained an illegal gratification of Rs 4 crores and Manjunath, who acted as a mediator for these transactions, accepted Rs 8 lakhs as illegal gratification from the Directors of IMA Company, the CBI said. IMA has allegedly duped over 40,000 investors to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore under the pretext of ‘halal’ investment. The scam broke out on June 10, after thousands of investors accused the Managing Director of IMA, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, of cheating them. While the investigations were started by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) as ordered by former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, the CBI is currently probing under the orders of current Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. Incidentally, this is the third FIR registered by the CBI in the case.

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Karnataka remains peaceful post Ayodhya verdict

Police said the decision to extend Section 144 throughout the state will lie with the district police chiefs and local magistrates taking a call on the local conditions.

IANS

Karnataka state witnessed no untoward incident on Saturday, post Supreme Court's landmark verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute, said a police official. "No violence or any sort of untoward incident occurred in Karnataka or Bengaluru. Absolutely peaceful," Karnataka Additional Director General of Police Amar Kumar Pandey told IANS. Neither violence nor any rally of any sort was reported from across the state or in Bengaluru following the verdict on the decades-long dispute, Pandey said. Interestingly, the top police official confirmed that no party erupted in joy with pyrotechnics or sweets distribution in the light of the Supreme Court decision. Earlier in the day, a five-member Constitutional bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, delivered the judgement in New Delhi, directing the central government to hand over the disputed land to the Hindus for building a Ram temple by a state-run trust. Pandey said the decision to extend Section 144 throughout the state will lie with the district police chiefs and local magistrates taking a call on the local conditions. Similarly, the decision on the liquor ban across the state will also be taken by local district authorities, factoring in the prevailing situation, added Pandey.  BCP has made elaborate security arrangements in view of #AYODHYAVERDICT as a precautionary measure to ensure safety and security of the citizens. For any emergency inform Dial-100 or nearest Police Station. pic.twitter.com/tJkSBFWMdZ — BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) November 9, 2019 Aiming at thwarting any untoward incident on Friday after the Supreme Court verdict, security has been tightened across the city and state. All Bengaluru schools and colleges were shut and Section 144 of the CrPC (Criminal Procedure Code) was in force from 7:00 a.m. to be continued till midnight on Saturday to prevent assembling of more than five persons in public places. Bengaluru police deployed 15,000 policemen and women with additional 50 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), 30 platoons of the City Armed Police (CAR) and 20 platoons of home guards were roped in to be deployed in sensitive areas. Despite the heightened security, life was normal in Bengaluru like any other Saturday.

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