Prank goes awry: Bengaluru youth dress up as ghosts to scare people, get arrested

Crime

The youths have been given bail.

Theja Ram

In the '90s Kannada horror films, a ghost typically wore white robes and a wig with long hair that covered its face - and many of us may have scared a sleeping sibling by taking inspiration from the screen. But these seven Bengaluru men took it a notch higher and tried to scare unsuspecting late night commuters in the city. They have now landed in the police net. The Bengaluru police on Monday arrested seven men for dressing up in white robes, wearing wigs covering their faces and scaring commuters on the road in Sharifnagar near Yeshwanthpur. Videos of the pranks they pulled on several homeless residents and commuters went viral soon after the arrest. In one of the videos, two men dressed like ghosts are seen running towards an autorickshaw in an attempt to scare the driver. The autorickshaw driver is seen reversing his vehicle and driving away with fear. Several other videos of the group trying to scare motorists have also gone viral. Around 2 pm on Monday morning, 20-year-old Shaan Kalik and his friends tried to pull pranks on unsuspecting commuters. While they scared a few of them, an auto driver, whom the group targeted, reported the incident to a beat constable attached with the Soladevanahalli Police Station, who was deployed for duty. "The auto driver was scared. He initially said that there were ghosts on the road. Soon after he complained, several other commuters too complained of a few youths who were pranking commuters. We arrested seven men later in the day after obtaining some CCTV footage," DCP North Sashikumar said. Shaan Nallik (22), Nived (20), Sajeel Mohammed (21), Mohammed Akhyub (20), Saakhib (20), Syed Nabeel (20) and Yousef Ahmed (20) are the arrested accused. “The boys were trying to pull pranks. They are young and wanted to have some fun but scaring people and causing mischief is illegal and since the auto driver filed a complaint, we had to take action,” a senior police official said. The seven accused have been booked under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 504 (insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. “They procured station bail and have been let off since the offences are bailable,” the Soladevanahalli police said. 

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Savarkar did not advocate cow protection, became an atheist: Author Vaibhav Purandare

Bangalore Lit Fest

Vaibhav Purandare, author of 'Savarkar: The true story of the father of Hindutva', discussed the Hindutva leader at Bangalore Lit Fest.

Prajwal Bhat

Photograph via Bangalore Literature Festival

While the BJP-led government has been making efforts to position Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (also known as Veer Savarkar) and his ideologies as their guiding principles, an author of a recent biography revealed that Savarkar also held views that wouldn’t necessarily be endorsed by the BJP today. Author and editor Vaibhav Purandare recently made this point during a discussion with journalist Varghese K George, an associate editor with The Hindu, at the Bangalore Literature Festival. Vaibhav is the author of 'Savarkar: The true story of the father of Hindutva', a biography of the Hindutva leader.           “Savarkar seems to be steering the Indian government at present because he was very clear that the concept of religion is implicit in the definition of who is an Indian citizen,” Vaibhav said, referring to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the proposed amendments to the Citizenship Bill.  However, at the same time, Savarkar was averse to religious ritualism and was an atheist towards the end of his life, according to Vaibhav. "Towards the end of his life, he was a complete atheist. For him, Hindutva was more about regaining Hindu spaces from British invaders and the Muslims who had desanctified and destroyed them," he said. Vaibhav also said that Savarkar was not a proponent of protecting cows. "Even his stance on cow protection has been misinterpreted by most. Contrary to popular belief, his principles of Hindutva condemn the killing of a cow only when it is motivated by spite, not for dietary causes," Vaibhav said. "He (Savarkar) said that if the cow is the mother of anything then it is the bullock", he added. Vaibhav described Savarkar as a complex person and someone who would “often plunge into an activity just simply because he very strongly believed in something.” This applied to the change in his ideologies through his lifetime. According to Vaibhav, Savarkar advocated Hindu-Muslim unity for the first half of his life, and later embraced Hindutva and aggressive Hindu assertiveness in the second half of his life. He put this change down to "30 years of inhumane living conditions, torture, and debasing at the hands of Muslim, Pathan, and Baluchi jailors in the Cellular Jail,” Vaibhav said. Savarkar was imprisoned in the Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the first time in 1911. Varghese however pointed out that another eminent freedom fighter of that time, Bal Gangadhar Tilak also went to prison, and instead came out a strong advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity. However, the brutality at the Cellular Jail prompted Savarkar to shift ideologies. He had also submitted mercy petitions to the British upon his arrest.   Varghese contrasted Savarkar's plea for mercy with Bhagat Singh's martyrdom and sacrifice. Vaibhav responded by stating that the two situations were from different points of the freedom struggle. "Savarkar, you see, was a person who was convinced that he was a leader of a movement. He was not a mere foot-soldier. He felt that his leadership was necessary to guide people, and so he didn’t want to end his own life," Vaibhav added.  While in prison, Savarkar codified the Hindutva philosophy in a book, Hindutva: Who is a Hindu. 

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75-year-old Bengaluru man arrested for allegedly shooting dog with air gun

Animal Cruelty

The dog, which was lying in a pool of blood, was rushed to the hospital by Bengaluru residents.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

A stray dog was shot at three times with an air gun in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar 5th block on Monday morning. The police have arrested a 75-year-old man in connection with the incident. A group of citizens noticed the brown stray dog lying in a pool of blood. They called for help, and then rushed the dog to Jeeva Pet Hospital in JP Nagar in an auto. The x-ray reports showed three air-gun pellets in three different places in the dog’s body. The images also showed that there was a long superficial cut on the dog’s body near the chest area. Visuals of the dog show it lying on a stretcher, with an IV line connected to its paw, in a semi-conscious state. The dog is currently out of danger. However, the dog is on IV to maintain its fluid levels while it recovers from the shock. Jayanagar MLA Soumya Reddy also visited the dog in hospital and promised that the offender would be brought to book. The Jayanagar police have filed an FIR against a couple.  Police said that the wife is a former military officer and is permitted service weapons. The Jayanagar Police said that Dr C Shyamsundar allegedly shot the dog as it was dirtying the spot outside his house. "He told us that he shot the dog as it had been dirtying the spot right outside the gate to his house. We have arrested him and booked him under relevant sections of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act," the Jayanagar Police said. In December 2017, an ex-army man in New Delhi allegedly shot dead a dog with his rifle. A video of the crime went viral on social media. The dog had allegedly bitten his prize buffalo and the man wanted to take revenge on it. On Sunday, a pregnant cat was found hung to death in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Read: Pregnant cat found hanged to death, Kerala police register FIR

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Girish Karnad celebrated at the Bangalore Lit Fest through talks, venue names

Bangalore Lit Fest

The two venues at the festival were named after Karnad's plays, 'Tughlaq' and 'Yayati.'

TNM Staff

Discussion by Jayant Kaikini, B Jayashree and K Marulasiddappa

The influence of Girish Karnad and his work were ever-present at the 8th edition of the Bangalore Lit Fest which concluded on Sunday.  The literature festival celebrated the eminent theatre personality with sessions revolving around his work. Two of the three venues at the festival were named after Karnad's plays, Tughlaq and Yayati.  "We had a remembrance for him and he is Bengaluru's own. So, therefore we named our two stages after his plays to honour him," says Shinie Antony, Founding Trustee and Director of the festival.  Karnad passed away in June this year after a career spanning over six decades. He is considered one of India's most noted playwrights, and is a recipient of the Jnanpith, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards. He wrote his first play, the critically acclaimed Yayati (1961), when he was still at Oxford University. A session was also held on Saturday title 'Writer, Playwright, Humanist: The Life and Work of Girish Karnad'. It was a discussion between Jayant Kaikini, noted poet and short-story writer, B Jayashree, actor and theatre personality, and K Marulasiddappa, a Kannada writer. It was moderated by Preethi Nagaraj. In the session, Jayant spoke about his experiences and encounters with Karnad. "We generally read or see his fiction works in the form of books and movies which gives us exposure to his excellence of creation while his non-fiction provides an extended glimpse of Karnad as a person," he said. Jayashree meanwhile sang a song written by Karnad from the play Nagamandala. Jayashree and Karnad acted together in the film based on the play.  A four-minute speech by Karnad from the Amar Ujala Awards, which was his last time on camera, was also screened at the festival. In 2017, Girish Karnad was a panelist at the Bangalore Lit Fest. He spoke alongside Guillermo Rodriguez, who edited a book on late poet-scholar AK Ramanujan. The topic of the panel discussion was 'The World of AK Ramanujan' in which Karnad paid tribute to the poet-scholar who was his personal acquaintance.

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K’taka Premier League betting case: Haryana bookie in police custody

Cricket Betting

A local court remanded Sayyam to nine days' police custody, for his role in the J.P. Nagar case, related to the KPL betting scam.

IANS

A Haryana-based cricket bookie has been arrested in connection with an old Karnataka Premier League (KPL) betting case, an officer said on Monday. "Sayyam has been arrested, however, we are not able to extract much information from him yet, the interrogation is continuing," Central Crime Branch ACP S.M. Nagraj told IANS. A local court remanded Sayyam to nine days' police custody, for his role in the J.P. Nagar case, related to the KPL betting scam. Police arrested Sayyam in Bengaluru on Sunday, however, no valuables such as cash or others were confiscated from him, Nagraj said. Two cricketers accused of receiving money in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL) betting case were remanded to seven-day police custody for interrogation on Friday. Former Karnataka Ranji wicketkeeper-batsman C.M. Gautam and his team batsman Abrar Kazi were arrested early on Thursday under section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. Since the investigation began after Belagavi Panthers' owner Asfaq Ali Thara was arrested on September 25, six persons have been taken into custody -- Gautam, Kazi, Nishant Singh Shekawat and Vishwanathan of Bengaluru Blasters, their bowling coach Vinu Prasad and Tuskers drummer Bhuvenash Bafna. The KSCA runs the KPL T20 tournament every year on the lines of the popular Indian Premier League (IPL) of the cash-rich Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The KPL tournament for 2019 was held from August 16-31. The KPL has seven teams representing prominent cities and towns across the southern state, including Bengaluru Blasters, Bellary Tuskers, Bijapur Bulls, Hubli Tigers, Mysuru Warriors and Namma Shivamogga squad. KSCA suspended Gautam and Kazi from all activities in the state and barred both of them from using its facilities at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in the city.

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The VA at a crossroads

Modernizing the VA will help it serve veterans, but some worry about privatization.

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178 weak buildings identified in Bengaluru, owners will be asked to vacate

Infrastructure

The BBMP will conduct a structural audit on these buildings and decide whether they have to be demolished.

TNM Staff

Representation Photo

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or BBMP, Bengaluru's civic body has started issuing notices to owners of 178 buildings across the city and asking them to vacate the premises. The BBMP officials say that these 178 buildings are “on the verge of collapsing” as they have structural flaws. Of the 178 buildings, the BBMP issed notices to 77 building owners on Monday and have asked them to vacate the premises immediately and make way for structural audit of the building. BBMP officials say that notices to the remaining building owners would be issued by the end of Tuesday. Of the 77 buildings, 30 are located in the South Zone, 6 in the West Zone, 33 in East Zone, 8 in Yelahanka and 2 in Mahadevapura Zone. In July this year, the Karnataka High Court had taken suo motu cognisance of unauthorized and illegal constructions in Bengaluru after two buildings collapsed in Cooke Town and killed five people. The Karnataka High Court had pulled up the BBMP for not taking action against unauthorized and illegal constructions and it was then that the BBMP conducted a survey based on the court's directions. “The court had asked us to conduct a survey of all buildings in Bengaluru and come up with a list of structurally unsafe ones. Each zonal chief engineer was directed to conduct a survey and so far the survey has been completed in five zones,” said Prasad, BBMP Additional Commissioner of Town Planning. Once the structural audit is complete, the chief engineer of each zone has been instructed to write up reports stating whether the structural defects in each building can be repaired or not. “The owners, whose buildings can be repaired, can make the necessary repairs and only then can people occupy the building. If the building cannot be repaired, the BBMP will demolish such structures," Prasad added. The survey revealed that the buildings had either not complied with prescribed norms during the stage of construction or used substandard materials. In the Cooke Town building collapse case, the builder had constructed one additional floor without approval. The foundation and the building plan were flawed. The strength of the building could not withstand the weight of the additional floor and the people and items lodged in the building; Additional Commissioner Prasad says.   “In most of the cases, the building plans show two or three floors and the actual structure has more number of floors. There are a lot of such constructions in Bengaluru but in the ones we have identified, the structural integrity of the building cannot withstand the weight of the additional floors like the Cooke Town case,” Prasad said. Speaking to TNM, head of BBMP Legal Cell Keshav Deshpande said that the Karnataka High Court had instructed the BBMP to conduct an audit in July. The survey was completed last week and the details were also submitted to the High Court on Friday.  

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