Man arrested in Bengaluru for allegedly sexually assaulting ex-girlfriend in hotel room

Crime

The 29-year-old woman filed a complaint against Kiran Bishwakarma with the Madiwala Police.

TNM Staff

The Bengaluru police on Wednesday arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly sexually assaulting and stalking a woman for months. On December 2, a 29-year-old woman filed a complaint with the Madiwala Police stating that her former boyfriend, Kiran Bishwakarma, allegedly sexually assaulted her after locking her up in a hotel room. The woman also said that Kiran had been stalking her ever since she broke off the relationship. In her complaint, the woman states that she was in a relationship with Kiran for three years and over six months ago, she had broken off the relationship alleging that he had physically and mentally abused her during the course of their relationship. Kiran allegedly kept stalking her and standing outside a building in Koramangala, where she lived in a paying guest accommodation. On November 26, Kiran allegedly showed up outside the PG and created a ruckus. Police say that the woman went down to send Kiran away but the dispute turned violent when he allegedly beat her on the road. The woman then ran inside the building. “Kiran kept calling her and the woman did not answer. He kept calling her well into the night and she answered his call. He allegedly asked her to meet him one last time and promised to leave her alone if she did so. He asked her to come to iNest Suites in Madivala,” the Madivala Police said. Police say that after she went inside to meet Kiran, he allegedly locked her up in the room, forcibly disrobed her and beat her up. “He tore her clothes and when she started screaming, he clamped his hand on her mouth. She then told that she would do whatever he says as she wanted to escape. He fought with her and when he fell asleep, she escaped,” the police said. Fearing another attack, the woman left town and went to stay with her sister in Hyderabad. She then decided to file a police complaint after she returned to Bengaluru on December 2. The Madivala Police registered an FIR under sections 354(A) (sexual harassment), 354(D) (stalking), 506 (criminal intimidation), 354(B) (assault with intent to disrobe a woman), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage modesty) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the IPC. The police arrested Kiran on Wednesday and he is currently in judicial custody. 

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Bengaluru man orders pizza through an app, ends up losing Rs 95,000 in online scam

Crime

The man was a victim of a phishing expedition and the fraudsters were able to access his bank account details.

TNM Staff

Image for representation

Ordering a pizza proved to be costly for this Bengaluru techie, who ended up losing Rs 95,000 in an online scam. At around 1.30 pm on December 1, NV Sheik, a resident of Bengaluru’s Koramangala, used food delivery app Zomato on his phone to order himself a pizza. According to the police, even after an hour of waiting, his order had not been delivered following which he looked up the number for the app’s customer care service. Upon calling the number, he was allegedly informed that the restaurant was not accepting orders and was assured that a refund would be initiated. The fraudster posing as a customer care executive allegedly informed Sheik that he would receive a message on his phone after the call and upon clicking on a link in the message, his refund request would be processed. The Madiwala Police, who are investigating the case, say that once Sheikh clicked on the link, he became a victim of a phishing expedition and the fraudsters were able to access his bank account details. Within minutes, Rs 45,000 had been deducted from one of his bank account and before he could transfer the remaining amount to a different account, another Rs 50,000 had been deducted. Sheik approached the Madiwala police station in the city and a complaint with them, following which further investigations are currently underway. He had reportedly been saving the money to pay for the expenses of his mother’s cancer treatment. Zomato does not have a customer care number. Speaking to TNM, a Zomato spokesperson said that the company does not have a calling service for customer care. "We constantly remind our users via different channels of communication that we do not have a customer care number. Chat and email are our primary channels of care. While we take every effort to ensure customer safety and security, we also urge our esteemed customers to be vigilant and not share their personal or bank account details with anyone." Though it is true that when an order is delayed or faces issues on Zomato, one has to go to help section and chat with customer care, a random Google search does throw up a lot of fraudulent numbers. Of late, a number of cases of cyber crime have been reported. Earlier in November, a man from Bengaluru had alleged that he had lost around Rs 85,000 from his bank account via a UPI pay scam operation. Police have also warned that skimming machines have been kept in certain ATM kiosks through which culprits take money out of the account of unsuspecting individuals. Police officials have requested individuals not to share their personal details and to be cautious when using digital forms of payment. Also read: Why conviction rate for cyber crime cases in Karnataka is abysmally low

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Karnataka bye-polls live updates: Crucial test for ruling BJP as polling begins

Politics

As many as 165 candidates, including 126 Independents and 9 women are in the fray in the 15 Assembly seats.

TNM Staff

Bye-polls to 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka are underway since 7 am on Thursday. The polls are crucial to the survival of the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government in the state. The BJP needs to win at least six seats to remain in power in the state. Polling began at 7:00 am in all the 15 Assembly constituencies amid tight security to elect the new legislators. Voting will go on till 6:00 pm. In Bengaluru alone, where four seats are witnessing bye-elections, close to 3,000 police personnel including central forces have been deployed to ensure smooth and peaceful electoral process.  Bye-elections are being held in Athani, Kagwad, Gokak, Yellapura, Hirekerur, Ranibennur, Vijaynagara, Chickballapura, KR Pura, Yeshwanthpura, Mahalakshmi Layout, Shivajinagar, Hosakote, KR Pete and Hunsur Assembly seats. The 15 constituencies have nearly 38 lakh eligible voters, including 19.25-lakh men and 18.52-lakh women. As many as 165 candidates, including 126 Independents and 9 women are in the fray in the 15 Assembly seats. The BJP and the opposition Congress are contesting in all 15 Assembly seats, while the JD(S) is standing in 12 constituencies. The 3,185 polling stations have a total of 8,326 ballot units and 8,186 controlling units and 7,876 VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) for casting the ballots. These bye-polls are necessitated due to disqualification of rebel MLAs belonging to the Congress and JD(S) ruling coalition. While a total of 17 MLAs left the coalition, elections in two assembly segments -- Muski (Raichur district) and R.R. Nagar (Bengaluru) have been withheld due to litigation in the Karnataka High Court over their results in the May 2018 stare assembly elections.  Follow live updates here: Note: Please disable your ad blocker if the blog is not loading      

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Bengaluru Airport to open its second runway on Thursday: Five things to know

Aviation

The second runway is part of Kempegowda International Airport’s Rs 13,000 crore expansion plan.

Soumya Chatterjee

Starting Thursday, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru will commence the operations for its second runway, along with its existing runway. The second runway, which is termed the ‘new south parallel runway’, is located south of the existing runway and will see simultaneous operations.  However, the new south parallel runway will begin functioning only at a limited capacity as not all the taxiways are operationally ready yet.  The Bangalore International Airport Limited’s (BIAL), which operates the airport, has neither revealed further details nor issued a statement regarding the development. Earlier, at a press meet, the Managing Director and CEO of BIAL had suggested that the second runway will be operational from as early as October. This second runway is part of the airport’s Rs 13,000 crore expansion plan, which involves a new terminal, widening of access roads as well as a new multi-modal transport hub. This also includes setting up of two metro stations inside the 4,000-acre airport campus and also a suburban railway station. The validation (test) flight operations — the procedure wherein a flight lands and takes off as a test, to check if the runway is capable — were successfully carried out in late August. Here are five things to know about the new runway This new runway makes the Kempegowda International Airport the only Indian facility to have two parallel independent runways Once fully functional, the new runway will facilitate flight operations at close to zero visibility (50m) conditions owing to its Cat-III-B ILS (Category 3 Instrument Landing Systems). This will also eliminate the possibility of fog-induced delays and diversion in the airport, which is a common feature during the winter months The new runway will also be able to allow the landing of Airbus A380 or any other advanced aircraft being 4,000 metres long and 45 metres wide Once the new runway is fully functional, the existing runway will be closed down for repairs for close to a year, as it has been operational for over a decade. When the existing runway is also ready for operation, the airport authority will use both the runways as per requirement.   All these integrated advancements will allow the airport, which is now considered the second fastest growing airport in the world, to carry out 90 take-offs and touch-down in one hour.

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Voting begins in Karnataka's 15 Assembly segments

Elections

As many as 165 candidates, including 126 Independents and 9 women are in the fray in the 15 Assembly seats.

IANS

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Voting began in 15 Assembly segments in Karnataka where by-elections are being held to fill the vacancies caused by the resignation and disqualification of the 14 Congress and 3 JD-S rebels in July, an official said. "Polling began at 7:00 a.m. in all the 15 Assembly constituencies amid tight security to elect the new legislators. Voting will be allowed till 6:00 p.m.," an Election Commission official told IANS here. By-elections are being held inAAthani, Kagwad, Gokak, Yellapura, Hirekerur, Ranibennur, Vijaynagara, Chickballapura, K.R. Pura, Yeshwanthpura, Mahalakshmi Layout, Shivajinagara, Hosakote, K.R. Pete and Hunsur Assembly seats. The 15 constituencies have nearly 38-lakh eligible voters, including 19.25-lakh men and 18.52-lakh women. "The Election Commission has declared paid leave for the voters working in public or private offices to exercise franchise in their polling stations," asserted the official. As many as 165 candidates, including 126 Independents and 9 women are in the fray in the 15 Assembly seats. The BJP and the opposition Congress are contesting in all the 15 assembly seats, while the JD-S only in 12 seats. The 3,185 polling stations have a total of 8,326 ballot units and 8,186 controlling units and 7,876 VVPATs (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) for casting the ballots. The vote count is on December 9.

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Imagine Dragons lead singer praises Bengaluru school choir's rendition of 'Believer'

A video of the choir singing has been viewed over 960,000 times on Facebook.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

The video of children at a Bengaluru school's choir, singing Believer by Imagine Dragons has gone viral on social media. So much so that the band's Twitter handle has also retweeted the video expressing appreciation. In the video, girls of St Charles Girls High School in Bengaluru can be seen rehearsing the song in perfect harmony. The choir teacher’s mother shared the video of the students practicing their song on Facebook, and the video has been over 9,60,000 times at the time of writing. In the video, you can see about 80 students standing on pews of different heights, vocalising in harmony to different parts of the song. Posts on social media show that the choir students were practicing the song Believer, as one of the songs in their repertoire for a program commemorating the 75th year anniversary of the school, which was held on December 2. Twitter user @HaramiParindey tagged the Imagine Dragons twitter account in a tweet that noted: “in India, students are singing the song Believer in school!” However, he incorrectly stated that the song was being sung at assembly. Visuals clearly show a choir during practice.   Hey @Imaginedragons - schools in India are singing Believer in morning assembly. pic.twitter.com/g0Vp0xMeWy — Pakchikpak Raja Babu (@HaramiParindey) December 2, 2019   Dan Reynolds, the lead singer, replied to the tweet, saying “so beautiful, thanks for sharing”. This tweet was liked by thousands of twitter users, and left Indian twitter in a tizzy.   so beautiful. thank you for sharing this. — Dan Reynolds (@DanReynolds) December 3, 2019   Donnah George, the choir director and alumnus of St Charles High School, said that she never expected the attention the video received. “I do this on the side, part time to keep in touch with my choir roots. There’s a misconception that a choir is supposed to stand still and sing holy songs, and I wanted to change that. That’s what this is all about! A choir can be fun.” Dennis George, the violinist for the event and the brother of the choir director Donnah George said, “Though we’re really happy about the success of the video my mum posted, I still feel that, as a musician, we should always be humble.”

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'Gauri Lankesh murder reinforced threat to women journos': Journalist Nupur Basu

Film

'Velvet Revolution' is a documentary produced by journalist and filmmaker Nupur Basu.

Dr Nimeshika Jayachandran

Velvet Revolution/IAWRT

Threats faced by women journalists are very real and this is the message that was highlighted in journalist Nupur Basu’s documentary Velvet Revolution. Speaking at the screening at Bangalore Club on Tuesday evening, Nupur said that the murder of Gauri Lankesh only reinforced the threat to women journalists in the country was real. On the night of September 5, 2017 journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead right outside her house in Bengaluru. “It wasn’t something that happened in a remote place or unknown area. It was right here in our city,” said Nupur Basu. "The statistics are alarming, yet the issue of violence faced by women was still not getting as much attention as it warranted. Until it happened in our own backyard, we did not realize the magnitude of the risks faced by women in journalism,” she said. Velvet Revolution has been a collaborative effort of 17 journalists across the world which was produced jointly by the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT). The costs incurred by the women in the documentary are numerous, but despite such threats and risks, Nupur Basu stressed the importance of getting women to come forward in the field of journalism. Among several stories in the documentary is that of Bangladeshi-American blogger Rafida Bonya Ahmed. Rafida decided to go to Dhaka in February 2015 to attend a book fair along with her husband Avijit Roy, she had no idea what the trip would cost her. Avijit, a US-based Bangladeshi blogger, who wrote extensively against religious extremism, was hacked to death near Dhaka University. Rafida too sustained severe injuries, but survived and was forced to go into hiding in the United States under the protection of the FBI. Rafida's story is one of the six shown in the documentary Velvet Revolution by senior journalist and filmmaker Nupur Basu, which was screened on Tuesday evening at Bangalore Club. Avijit’s murder was one of five attacks in 2015 in which bloggers, who were so outspoken about religious extremism, were targeted. Following the attack on Avijit, Rafida’s life was under threat from several religious extremists, including the Islamic State, as a result of which she had gone into hiding. Today she is relatively safer, but living with the risk of such threats has become almost the norm for women bloggers and journalists and this issue is addressed in the documentary. Similar to Rafida, but a lot closer to home, journalist Malini Subramaniam was forced to uproot herself from her hometown in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district and move because of the threats she faced for reporting human rights violations faced by Adivasis at the hands of the armed forces. Malini wrote extensively of the horrors the Adivasis faced. She has reported on a number of human rights violations including sexual violence against Adivasi women, jailing of minors, threats against journalists and abuse by police and armed forces that members of this community faced. She won the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and continues to be an active member of the media today. “Journalism is truth telling, to pretend to be neutral and blind to what is happening around you, I think that is unnatural,” states Phillipino journalist Inday Espina Varona in the documentary who works out of one of the most unsafe countries for women and men in the profession alike. Other prominent journalists whose stories are shared in the documentary include Cameroonian radio journalist Moussa Marandata who speaks about the conflict with the Boko Haram and the kidnapping of young girls by the rebels. Journalist Najibu Ayoubi from Afghanistan shares that most of the women she works with don’t know if they will make it to the office on a regular basis because of the constant threats they face. However, even so the women continue to report. Zaina Erhaim, a Syrian journalist was forced to move from her hometown in Aleppo in Syria to take shelter in south Turkey after she began to report about the civil war.

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