Cops attacked by knife during standoff with murder accused in Bengaluru

Crime

The two accused persons allegedly murdered a man after a fight over a run-out during a cricket match.

Prajwal Bhat

Nithyananda, a sub-inspector at Rajagopal Nagar police station, and Basavanna, a staff member at the Nandini Layout police station in Bengaluru, were part of a police team sent to arrest two persons accused of murdering a man over a cricket match. However, in the process, the two were injured after they were attacked with knives. The incident took place in Nandini Layout on Saturday.Rohit and Chandan, alias ABCD Chandu, were accused of stabbing and killing G Uma Maheshwar, a resident of Ganesha Block near Nandini Layout, on Wednesday evening after a fight erupted between them over a run-out in a cricket match a few days prior to that. BN Lohit, an inspector at Nandini Layout police station, along with a team of police officials, were at GKW Layout (around 6 km from Nandini Layout police station) on Saturday morning to question Chandan and Rohit when the accused persons attacked the police team. Nithyananda and Basavanna sustained injuries on their hands, while the two accused were also injured after the police officials fired shots at them. Nithyananda and Basavanna are out of danger, a police official at Nandini Layout police station told TNM.  "The accused persons are hospitalised and will be arrested when they are discharged from the hospital,” Inspector BN Lohit told TNM. Uma Maheshwar and Chandan had fought over a run-out during a cricket match played on Monday evening at the Kamalammana Gundi grounds in Mahalakshmi Layout. Following this, Uma Maheshwar reportedly slapped Chandan. After the match, Chandan vowed to exact revenge and left the ground.  On Wednesday, Chandan and a group of assailants stabbed Uma Maheshwar near his residence and fled. The incident took place around 7 pm, and even though Uma Maheshwar was rushed to a hospital in Malleswaram, he succumbed to his injuries on Thursday. He was a student at the MES Institute of Management. Chandan hails from Chikkabidarakallu in Bengaluru and is unemployed. He is nicknamed ABCD Chandu for his habit of telling people off by saying, "You don't know the ABCD of this (a subject)." He and his associates were on the run following the incident and were tracked down by the police on Saturday morning.

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2XP1wbW
via IFTTT

After attack by pro-Kannada outfit, home guards posted at Bengaluru hospital for security

Hospital

This comes nearly four weeks after a young postgraduate student at Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital was attacked by a pro-Kannada outfit on November 1.

Dr Nimeshika Jayachandran

File image

Nearly four weeks after the attack on a young postgraduate student at Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital, home guards have been deployed at the hospital premises to provide protection to its doctors and staff. After seven days of protest by the students, the Karnataka government had assured to provide them with increased security, including better surveillance equipment.  On November 13, doctors of the government-run Victoria Hospital had met Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan to discuss a better solution to ensure the staff members were safe. At the time, the deputy CM had assured the doctors that he would provide the hospital with home guards for security. On Friday, based on the orders of the Deputy CM, the home guards, who serve as auxiliary to the police in maintaining internal security and law and order, were deployed on the hospital premises.  According to a notice issued by Victoria Hospital, dated November 22, 31 guards have been deployed so far. Nine guards have been stationed at Victoria Hospital’s main building, six at the Trauma Care Center, nine at Vani Vilas Women and Children's Hospital and seven at Minto Eye Hospital. Both the hospital buildings are located on the same premises as Victoria Hospital, which is situated near City Market in Bengaluru. As many as 20 more guards are expected to be deployed at the hospital. The doctors of the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) at the hospital, along with the hospital director, met the Deputy CM days after a Bengaluru sessions court granted bail to 12 activists of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), pro-Kannada outfit, who were arrested for allegedly harassing a female doctor at Bengaluru’s Minto Eye Hospital on November 1. The students have been protesting since November 2 at the hospital. A state-wide protest of outpatient clinics was also held on November 8 under the Indian Medical Association’s Karnataka branch. IMA called off the strike after the 12 individuals were arrested. They were granted bail the next day, on November 9.  The postgraduate student doctor from the ophthalmology department was harassed and attacked by members of Kannada Raksha Vedike, allegedly for not speaking in Kannada.  Following the incident, which took place on November 1, a complaint was registered at the VV Puram police station by the Dean of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI), Dr HS Satish.  Victoria Hospital, which is affiliated with Bangalore Medical College. Following this, the police registered an FIR (first information report) against unknown members of the KRV. Around 30 members of the KRV were taken into custody on November 8 in connection with the investigation of the incident. Later, the same day, 12 individuals among them were arrested by the police in connection with harassing the student doctor. 

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2OdXAhI
via IFTTT

Mangaluru police deny permission for kite flying event to protest incomplete flyover

Civic

The campaign was directed at BJP leader and Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel since the flyover has remained incomplete for over 10 years despite his repeated assurances.

Harsha Raj Gatty

Pumpwell Flyover, 2018

In a blow to the organisers and participants of a kite flying event protesting the incomplete construction of the Pumpwell flyover in Mangaluru, the city police denied permission for the event scheduled to be held on Sunday. The event organisers had dubbed the event as ‘Nalin Galipata Campaign’ after Dakshina Kannada MP and BJP State President Nalin Kumar Kateel. The campaign was directed at the BJP leader since the flyover has remained incomplete for over 10 years despite his repeated assurances.  However, police officials of the Kankanady police station denied permission for the event citing the Ayodhya verdict, which was delivered on November 9, as a reason. “In the backdrop of Ayodhya verdict and in the interest of maintaining the law and order in the city, the senior police officials have denied permission for protest event ‘Kite Flying Open to All’,” a police official said on Saturday, a day before the event was set to take place. The denial of permission for the event at the last minute has left the organisers – Mangaluru City Corporation Civic Group – and other citizen groups in the city fuming.  Speaking to TNM, Advocate Dinesh Hegde Ulepady said that expressing discontent with public work is the right of every tax-paying citizen. “As long as the organisers don’t use microphones and assure maintenance of public order, they don’t need to worry about police permission. Moreover there is peace over the Ayodhya verdict, so the police objection for the protest is meaningless. Maybe a particular political party is concerned whether the popularity of the kite flying would affect its prospects in the upcoming polls. Otherwise, the police reply to the protest is questionable, because the subject of the protest is purely concerning DK jurisdiction, not Ayodhya or any bye-poll,” he said. The organisers of the event told TNM that they had submitted a letter to the Kankanady police station on November 20 intimating the police and requesting protection for a peaceful kite flying event. The organisers say that they received an acknowledgement of the letter, but on Saturday the police denied permission for the event. “Since the verdict by the Supreme Court, there has been no law and order issue in Dakshina Kannada and controversies surrounding the same are non-existent. So there was no rational reason behind the curtailment of the kite flying event,” the organiser added. According to the organisers, 25 participants had registered to fly kites over Pumpwell flyover, scheduled to take place on Sunday 5 pm, and more people were expected to enrol on the spot. “The denial of permission happened just a day before and looks like our dissent has been stifled indefinitely by the police to patronise the ruling government, to which the MP Nalin Kumar Kateel belongs,” an activist added. The flyover in Pumpwell was granted a letter of approval in 2009. Nalin Kumar Kateel, a three-time MP from Dakshina Kannada, was first elected from the constituency in the same year. He subsequently won from the constituency in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections.  The flyover, which lies at the intersection of National Highway (NH) 66 and NH 55, was officially slated to be inaugurated on March 31, 2013. But six years on, the work is yet to be completed. The flyover was approved under Phase III of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) to the concessionaire Navayuga Udupi Toll-way Pvt. Ltd (NUTPL). The construction of the flyover began in 2010 as a part of the package deal which included road projects from Kundapur to Surathkal, and on the Mangaluru-Kerala border. The concessionaire was supposed to hand the property back to the government in 2035. However, due to slow progress in land acquisition by the government, court litigations and local political pressure, the firm’s work on the flyover has not materialised till date. “Each time he (Nalin) comes to the flyover construction site, he walks up to the media and announces a new date for the completion of the flyover, but then neither the project is fulfilled nor is the traffic congestion at the junction ever resolved. So we had dedicated the entire event to his name,” Roopan Fernandes, one of the organisers, said. Recently, Nalin Kumar Kateel said that the pending works on the flyover will be completed by December 31, 2019 and it will be inaugurated in January 2020. “The work of the concessionaire is being constantly monitored by the district administration. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which has extended funds for the completion of the project to NUTPL, is also overseeing the project. We are confident that it will be completed before the deadline,” Nalin Kumar Kateel said. However, civic groups in Mangaluru say that given the delay in the construction so far, the latest assurances of the MP cannot be accepted. In December 2018, activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) celebrated a mock inauguration of the incomplete flyover wearing masks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Nalin Kumar Kateel.   Read: Left activists wearing Modi, Gadkari masks ‘inaugurate’ incomplete K’taka flyover Story by Story Infinity (Subs and Scribes Media Ventures LLP.)

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2KOBeRI
via IFTTT

Bengaluru FC extend unbeaten record over Kerala Blasters in front of record home crowd

Sport

A flying header from Bengaluru FC captain Sunil Chhetri header settled the southern derby in the home team's favour.

Prajwal Bhat

ISL Media

Bengaluru FC rose to the second position in the Indian Super League (ISL) table with a 1-0 in an action-packed South Indian derby against Kerala Blasters at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Saturday. Bengaluru FC captain Sunil Chhetri's flying header in the 55th minute proved to be the winner in a packed stadium with 27,083 spectators, a record attendance for a Bengaluru FC game in the city. Bengaluru made one change to its time with Albert Serran replacing Rahul Bheke in defence after the latter's muscle injury ruled him out of the game. Kerala started the game with two strikers — Bartholomew Ogbeche and Raphael Bouli — but decided to leave new signing Vlatko Drobarov and young Indian national player Sahal Abdul Samad on the bench. Kerala started the brighter of the two sides with an energetic first-half performance and should have taken the lead when the two strikers Ogbeche and Bouli combined but a sliding Bouli could not stretch to convert the cross.  Despite a slow start, Bengaluru should have taken the lead in the 28th minute when Raphael Augusto headed in a cross by Udanta, but the goal was disallowed as the assistant referee deemed the ball had rolled out of play. Bouli had a glorious chance to take the lead just before half time after he raced clear on goal only to miss the target with his shot.  But after the half-time break Bengaluru began the second half with more composure and purpose and within ten minutes, found a breakthrough. Dimas Delgado's corner was met by the unmarked Chhetri with a diving header that flew into the corner of the net.  The goal silenced the large contingent of Kerala fans in the stadium and Bengaluru looked to seize control of the game in the second half. Raphael Augusto went close with a glorious chance from a cross by Udanta but failed to convert it.  The introduction of Sahal Abdul Samad seemed to revive Kerala however Bengaluru manager Carles Cuadrat responded by taking off Harmanjot Khabra and shifting Nishu Kumar to the right back slot. Aashique Kuruniyan, who had a bright game, dropped to the left-back role.  Bengaluru FC saw out the game with relative comfort despite a contentious offside decision towards the end which saw a through ball by Sahal Abdul Samad ruled offside even though replays suggested otherwise.  Before the game, thousands of Kerala Blasters fans gathered outside the Kanteerava Stadium to lend a frenzied atmosphere to the game. While many fans residing in the city turned up, hundreds arrived from different parts of Kerala for the occasion. Apart from the east stand designated for away fans, the north and south stands at the stadium were filled with Kerala supporters at the game.  The fan groups of the two clubs — Manjappada and West Block Blues — indulged in banter throughout the contest. But the bragging rights were reserved for Bengaluru, who are unbeaten in five matches between the two sides, winning four of them. 

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/33ldNpK
via IFTTT

KPL's next edition only after match-fixing scandal probe

Controversy

The KPL has been mired in controversy after seven people, including former Karnataka Ranji players CM Gautam and Abrar Kazi, were arrested.

TNM Staff

The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) has said that the ninth edition of Karnataka Premier League (KPL), which was hit by the multi-crore international match-fixing scam in September, will be announced only after the investigation in the matter is completed. The KSCA runs KPL —  a Twenty20 cricket league like the Indian Premier League (IPL) — every year.   The tournament, which concluded on August 31, was mired in controversy in September when police officials arrested the owner of Belagavi Panthers franchise Asfaq Ali over charges of match-fixing. It was alleged that players accepted money to fix matches in the league, including the final, in which two players have been accused of “slow batting”. Further investigation revealed a wide web of match-fixing in the Twenty20 cricket league, where players were allegedly blackmailed through honey-trapping tactics by bookies.  “Finding sponsors for a tournament like KPL requires months of groundwork and preparation, all of which went into a tailspin following the police investigation,” said KSCA Treasurer Vinaya Mruthyunjaya, prompting the state association to declare, on Wednesday, that there will be no KPL until the probe is over.  “When we decide the date, we will start looking for sponsors. No sponsor has committed to KPL for a long-term partnership, like two years, yet,” said Mruthyunjaya. When asked about the response of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which approves the Twenty20 cricket tournament, the association said that they have neither received any information nor communication from BCCI about the match-fixing scandal,” the treasurer said.  Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the state cricket association, Parthasarathi, is furnishing the information that the police demanded in the KPL betting scam probe. The investigation, led by Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch, sought information on the participating teams, scorecards, video footage of all the matches and details of all the players, including their phone numbers. Mruthyunjaya also added that the state cricket association will not lose revenue owing to the uncertainty surrounding the conduct of the intra-state tournament, as KPL is more of an opportunity than a revenue-generating platform. “We are not looking at any revenue from KPL, but at creating opportunities for the cricketers. It is more of an opportunity for cricketers,” he said. KSCA is depending on the police investigation to unearth the many facets of the betting scam, although the state cricket association has an ethics officer and ombudsman, Justice (retired) KS Keshava Narayana, who is a former Karnataka High Court judge.  The state cricket association's official website also invites suggestions and complaints from the public, listing the ombudsman's email address and informing about a dropbox kept at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. The KSCA Treasurer had earlier claimed that neither the BCCI nor the state association had any inkling of the betting, honeytraps, bookie-funded foreign holidays and spot-fixing scandals, which have plagued the local T20 league.  Bengaluru Commissioner Bhaskar Rao revealed that players were filmed during expensive trips abroad to Dubai and the Caribbean after they were 'honey-trapped'. The videos were used to blackmail them into fixing games.  Earlier, the police issued a lookout circular against former Bellary Tuskers' owner Arvind Venkatesha Reddy, who is suspected to have fled overseas for his involvement in the KPL betting scam. Since the investigation began after Belagavi Panthers' owner Asfaq Ali Thara was arrested on September 25, six persons have been taken into custody — Bengaluru Blasters players Gautam, Kazi, Nishant Singh Shekawat and Vishwanathan, their bowling coach Vinu Prasad and Bellary Tuskers drummer Bhavesh Bafna. The police also arrested Haryana-based bookie Sayyam for his role in the KPL betting scam. CM Gautam and Abrar Kazi are former Karnataka Ranji players.   Started in 2008, and functioning as a feeder tournament for the IPL, KPL has emerged as a leading local franchise-based league with BCCI's approval. KPL also provides a platform to tap the Karnataka hinterland cricket talent. As many as 16 KPL players have featured in the IPL. With IANS inputs

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2Dc9fqR
via IFTTT

Postmortem helps reveal man in Bengaluru allegedly murdered wife, mislead police

Crime

Rakesh’s wife Radha was found dead at their house in JC Nagar on November 18.

TNM Staff

A 29-year-old medical representative from Bengaluru was arrested on Saturday on charges of killing his wife. Police officials at Mahalakshmi Layout police station in the city arrested Rakesh Gupta for allegedly killing his wife and trying to make it appear like an accident.  Radha was found dead at their house in JC Nagar on November 18. At the time, Rakesh told Radha's family and the investigating police officials that she accidentally fell from the stairs and died.  In his statement, Rakesh claimed that he had asked Radha to take medicines stored in a room on the terrace. He then said that he allegedly heard her scream and rushed out. He said that she had fallen from the stairs even before he could take her to the hospital, police officials said quoting Rakesh, who hails from Andhra Pradesh. While the police waited for Radha's post-mortem report from MS Ramaiah Hospital, a policeman in plain clothes was deputed to monitor Rakesh. The post-mortem report arrived on Friday and revealed that Radha died on November 17, and not November 18, as claimed by Rakesh. He allegedly waited till the next day to take her to the hospital, The Hindu reported. Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) N Shashikumar said that the time of death, confirmed by the post-mortem report, did not corroborate what Rakesh had said. He added that Radha suffered severe internal injuries in her brain, allegedly as a result of a physical assault and that her ribs were also fractured, reported the Times of India.  Upon interrogating Rakesh again, based on the findings of the post-mortem report, he allegedly confessed to the crime. He admitted that the couple had a strained relationship and that Rakesh assaulted her because Radha accused him of having an affair. They got married in 2016 and have a two-year-old son, who according to Rakesh, was sleeping when the incident occurred. 

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/33aCpRH
via IFTTT

Bike-rental company Bounce introduces electric scooters in Bengaluru

Mobility

The company, which operates around 11,000 petrol-run bikes, is focussing on making at least half their fleet electric.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

Bike-rental company Bounce has begun rolling electric scooters in Bengaluru. The Economic Times reported in July that Bounce was looking to acquire fresh funding to add electric vehicles to their repertoire. Now, Bounce has joined the electric mobility fray by introducing 1,000 new electric bikes to their existing fleet of around 11,000 petrol-run bikes. Commuters can avail the electric bikes as through the Bounce app on smartphones by booking any vehicle that is close-by.  Electric bikes are differentiated slightly on the app, with a small additional thunderbolt icon on the map. Shared mobility platforms are also working towards rolling out electric vehicles. Yulu has introduced small one-seater electric bikes for last-mile connectivity, in addition to their fleet of shared bicycles. Bounce is currently working on R&D to convert their existing fleet of petrol bikes into electric, and had seen some positive results. When contacted, Bounce told TNM that the plan for the long term was to make the entire fleet electric. However, the focus on the short-term is to make at least half of the fleet electric. The range is said to be around 80-100 km, depending on usage. Bounce has developed technology for swappable batteries that can be exchanged for fully charged batteries at kiosks that are around the city. Unlike other electric scooters, there is currently no provision for charging the bike, as the charging time for each battery is four hours. The time to swap a discharged battery with a charged one is about one minute. The pricing for the petrol bike and electric bike, remains the same, for now: 1 rupee per km, along with usage charges of 1.50 per minute. There are no plans to reduce the pricing for electric bikes, since prices are already considered low, the company says.  The push towards electric vehicles has increased in recent years, in both private and public transportation. Electric buses were recently rolled-out in multiple cities across Tamil Nadu and the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has previously announced that the state will have 300 electric buses on the road in the near future.     

Body 2: 

from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2D7Gont
via IFTTT