Over fears of unpaid debt, Bengaluru techie allegedly kills her mother

Crime

The accused, who also attacked her brother, is currently absconding.

TNM Staff

Representative Image

Bengaluru police are on the lookout for a 33-year-old software engineer who allegedly murdered her mother and attacked her brother, before fleeing. Amruta C, a resident of Bengaluru’s KR Puram (near Ramamurthy Nagar) reportedly bludgeoned her mother to death with a crowbar and attempted to attack and kill her brother before fleeing from the scene on Sunday. As per reports in TNIE, Amruta had told her mother and brother that she had received a job in Hyderabad and that the family should visit the city on a trip before moving there. At around 4 am on Sunday, Harish heard some noise as his sister was going through an almirah. When asked what she was doing, she claimed to be packing. Moments later, she came and allegedly stabbed him in the neck. At around 5am on Sunday, Amruta entered her mother C Nirmala’s room and killed her using the metal bar. She then reportedly went into her brother’s room and stabbed him in the neck using a kitchen knife. “I was sleeping when she barged in. When I asked her why she was doing this, Amruta said she owed Rs 15 lakh and debtors would defame the family. She said it was better to die than live like this,” 31-year-old Harish reportedly stated to the police. Amruta also said that the individuals she borrowed money from, were threatening to come to her house in order to collect the money. He had tried to grab his sister, but she ran away. Following this, Harish made a call to his aunt who lived in the vicinity, who came and rushed him to the hospital. Amruta works at a company in Mahadevapura while Harish works with a private company. The family was staying in a rented accommodation in Ramamurthy Nagar’s Akshaya Nagar 2nd block.

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‘I want her to come back’: Bidar student on her mother's arrest over an anti-CAA play

Controversy

Questioned thrice by police, 11-year-old Ayesha* has been living with their neighbour as her mother, a widow, is in prison over an anti-CAA school play.

Prajwal Bhat

Ayesha’s (name changed) hands quiver as she emerges from the make-shift ‘interrogation’ room at the Shaheen Primary and High School in Bidar district of Karnataka. A small area at the entrance to the school has been occupied by police officials for the past week to question students and teachers in the school about their role in a play staged two weeks ago. “I answered all their (police) questions but my mother was still arrested. I don’t know when she will be back,” says the 11-year-old student, breaking into tears. Her mother, Nazbunnisa, and a head-teacher in the school, Fareeda Begum, were arrested by police officials on January 30 on charges of sedition for staging a play which voiced dissent towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the new controversial citizenship law. Ayesha* has since been living with their neighbour as her mother is a widow and her close family members do not stay in Bidar.  “I have been staying with my neighbour since my mother was jailed. I have everything I need but I just want my mother to come back,” Ayesha chokes up while saying this and looks away from this reporter.  Students in the school were asked to read up on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and two other countrywide exercises, the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), and stage a play before an audience on January 21. A group of students from classes 4, 5, and 6 performed a play which they say was put together by them. But after an activist from the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) filed a complaint against the school management for allegedly ‘insulting’ Prime Minister Modi, police in Bidar charged the school management with sedition in an FIR registered at the Bidar New Town Police Station on January 26. Police officials led by Basaveshwara Hira, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bidar, have since turned up at the Shaheen school four times to question students involved in the play.  “We were asked about how we practised, and I replied that we didn’t need to practise much since we just had to remember points,” says Ayesha.  “Then the police asked us whether hitting the Prime Minister with a chappal is right or wrong? We replied that it was wrong. Finally, I was asked if I would repeat what I said in the play, and I said no. But even though I truthfully answered their questions, my mother was arrested.” In the remand report filed over the two arrests, police accused the school and the two women of “trying to spread false information about CAA and NRC” and also “making minor children state that Prime Minister Narendra Modi must be hit with a chappal”. It was one particular dialogue in the play delivered by Ayesha which landed the school in trouble. In the dialogue, the girl says, “Hit them with a chappal if anyone asks for documents,” referencing Prime Minister Modi.  According to the remand application, a copy of which is with TNM, the girl told the police that her mother Nazbunnisa told her to make the statement about Prime Minister Modi. “The girl told the police during questioning that her mother Nazbunnisa told her to make the statement against Prime Minister Narendra Modi while she was practising the lines for the play at home,” the remand application claims. The child however says clearly that's not the case. This reporter visited the duo lodged in the Bidar District Prisons and Corrections Service. However, they refused to speak about their ordeal. They only said that over the last few days, hundreds of visitors had turned up at the prison, including AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi, but they were still confined to jail. Their bail hearing is yet to be heard in court since the judge is on leave.   Recalling the sequence of events which unfolded over the last two weeks, students and staff members in the school are at a loss to explain why police officials are continuously turning up at the school to question students. “Nazbunnisa already apologised to a television channel for that particular line in the play. But the police are continuously turning up at the school and are keeping students out of the classroom for hours. This is beyond the imagination of any reasonable person,” says Tauseef Madikeri, the school’s CEO.  Tauseef says that the police are repeatedly asking the same questions to the staff and students at the school — “Who scripted the play? Who told you to say these dialogues? Did a teacher teach this?”  “This is mental harassment of the students who are 9 or 10 years old and also of the parents. Some students who took part in the play have not turned up at school because of this. Is this because we are a minority institution?” asks Tauseef.   He further adds that the institution was established 31 years ago and is well-known in Karnataka. It has 40 centres across 8 states with over 16,000 students studying in them. As many as 327 students from the institute cleared the NEET exam for admission to MBBS courses last year. The institution was also conferred the Rajyotsava award in 2013 for its contribution in the field of education.  When Bidar Deputy Superintendent of Police Basaveshwara Hira was asked why it had become necessary to come back to the school for the fourth time, he said, "We are carrying out the investigation as per procedure and we cannot comment on it now. We are collecting information about the play and what the role of the staff and students were."  When asked whether sedition was even applicable in a case like this, the DSP said, “I cannot comment on it at the moment. The investigation is ongoing." The charge of sedition, which is based on a British-era law, has been used against those protesting against the CAA in a bid to declare their actions as anti-national. Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code defines sedition as any attempt to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection towards the lawful government. Yet, under explanations in the same law, it is pointed out that comments expressing “disapprobation of the measures of the Government with a view to obtain their alteration by lawful means” are not offences.  “The police are instilling fear in us by making arrests and repeatedly questioning students but we will fight the sedition charge filed against the school,” says Tauseef.   *Name changed Read: Cops turn up at Bidar school for fourth time, question kids over anti-CAA play

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BJP serves show cause notice to Hegde as Cong demands sedition case against him

Politics

This comes after the MP had made controversial remarks about Gandhi at an event on Saturday.

PTI

The Congress on Monday demanded a sedition case against BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde for his swipe at Mahatma Gandhi, while a red-faced BJP initiated disciplinary proceedings by serving him a show cause notice seeking an explanation. A senior BJP leader said its top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is "upset" with the sixth-term Lok Sabha MP, who was a minister in the first Modi government, and the Karnataka leader has been asked to take remedial measures, including tendering an apology. The party will take its next course of action after receiving his reply, he added. Hegde had questioned the freedom movement led by Gandhi, saying it was an "adjustment" with the British, remarks which triggered a huge political row. Freedom fighters who did not sacrifice anything made the country believe that it attained independence through 'Upavas Satyagrah', Gandhi's preferred mode of agitation, and became 'mahapurush' (great person), Hegde had said at an event in Bengaluru on Saturday. Hitting out at the BJP, the Congress demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. At a party briefing, Congress senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said it was time for Modi to show whether his loyalty was with Gandhi or with his assassin Nathuram Godse. "They are disparaging the national movement. If the prime minister and the BJP government are sincere about the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi, we demand that the PM come to Parliament and clarify his position," Sharma said. "They are desperate for elections and only to get some votes, they are inflicting deep wounds on the soul of India," he said. Demanding Hegde's expulsion from the BJP, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said Modi should apologise for Hegde's remarks and a sedition case should be lodged against the former Union minister. Karnataka BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel told PTI that the party's central leadership has served a show cause notice to Hegde as part of its disciplinary measure against him. A Union Minister from the BJP said that the top party brass, including Modi, is "unhappy and upset" with Hegde for his swipe at Gandhi, whose birth and death anniversaries have often been occasions for the saffron party under Modi to launch public campaigns over a variety of issues. With the BJP parliamentary party meeting slated for Tuesday, there is speculation in the party that Modi may touch on the issue in his address as he has often in the past expressed his displeasure over show of indiscipline by its members. Incidentally, this is not the first time a show cause notice has been issued to Hegde. He and Pragya Thakur were served show cause notices by the BJP leadership for their praise of Godse during the 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign. While the then BJP national president Amit Shah had condemned their remarks and announced action against them, the party never made any official comment about the outcome of the disciplinary proceedings. However, the party had barred Thakur from attending its weekly parliamentary meeting during Parliament's last session after she praised Godse yet again. Both Hegde and Thakur were elected to Lok Sabha. Maharashtra's water resources minister and senior NCP leader Jayant Patil said Hegde had insulted the freedom movement with his remarks. Hegde is a sixth-term Lok Sabha MP and is known for his hardline Hindutva views and controversial comments. A minister in the first Modi government, he was forced to apologise after saying that the BJP dispensation was here to change the Constitution.

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Democratic candidates vow to cover islanders who lost Medicaid

Tens of thousands of victims of U.S. nuclear testing lost eligibility for health benefits in 1996 welfare reform.

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‘Can you identify Bangladeshi by looking at face’: Karnataka HC slams state

Court

The BBMP demolished many huts in a settlement in Bengaluru over suspicions that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants stayed there.

Haripriya Suresh

"By looking at the face of a person, can one be identified as being a Bangladeshi national?” questioned Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka, slamming the state over the demolition of settlements in Bengaluru over suspicions that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants stayed there.  The High Court bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar told that state that it will have to rehabilitate those affected by the demolitions.  The court was hearing the plea filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties which challenged the demolition of migrant settlements in Bellandur and Whitefield in the city on January 18 and 19.  In a previous hearing, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) distanced itself from the demolitions. On Monday, the state, which was represented by Advocate-General Prabhuling K Navadgi also maintained that it did not have anything to do with the demolition. Further, he questioned the misuse of power at multiple levels during the process through which the demolition was carried out — the police officer who wrote to the landowners, as well as the BBMP carrying out the demolition. “On the suspicion that they are Bangladeshi, will the police take law into its own hands and write to the owner, and the BBMP act?” he asked.It had turned out that many residents in the migrant settlement were from states like Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and even Karnataka. CJ Oka also questioned why the police officer is still in service. “The fact that the state has protected the officer shows that all is not well,” he quipped.  He stated that since the problem began with the state, it must take measures to rehabilitate them — either monetarily or otherwise.  He also tore into the authorities, questioning them as to on what basis the people were declared to be Bangladeshi. He stated that nothing seemed to indicate that the police officer visited the site to identify Bangladeshi immigrants. “Door-to-door survey by a competent authority must be done. Proper verification needs to be carried out,” he said. “No date was set by the BBMP for demolition. The stand of the state government is that they have not done it. Prima facie, it is impossible to accept that the occupants vacated on their own,” the CJ said.  Lawyers representing the owners of the land where the shanties were razed maintained that those who were squatting on the property left after they “politely requested” them. “Who will believe that people left because they were politely requested to?” the CJ quipped. The court will pass its final order in the case on February 7. Read: Who demolished migrant huts claiming Bangladeshi infiltration? BBMP says it didn't After video claims 'Bangladeshi immigrant' settlement in Bengaluru, BBMP razes 100 huts

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Bengaluru police to implement ‘honk more, wait more’ on signals: Will it work?

Traffic

Experts are divided on whether the move will be beneficial in the city of Bengaluru.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

The Bengaluru traffic police are always looking for novel measures to deal with the problem of traffic on Bengaluru’s roads. News emerged on Saturday of a new measure by the Mumbai Police to curb the honking menace in their city, and the Bengaluru police did not want to be left behind. The Mumbai police shared a video on Saturday evening that showed people who were honking at the red signal, even when the ticker in the signal was close to 10 seconds. However, the decibel monitor installed close to the signal also began increasing due to the noise. When the decibel level reached 85 dB, the ticker on the signal automatically reset to 90 seconds, much to everyone’s frustration, when another monitor displayed the message: “Honk more wait more.” Now, Bengaluru is planning to implement something similar. Speaking on plans for Bengaluru, city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao said: “Though honking is not as serious a problem in Bengaluru as in Mumbai, we are planning to implement the system at major traffic junctions to inculcate road discipline.” Rao has spoken to Mumbai joint commissioner (traffic) Madhukar Pandey on this. “I have taken details regarding the systems and vendors. I will ask the joint commissioner of traffic police in Bengaluru to identify major junctions where honking is most reported,” he added.   Horn not okay, please! Find out how the @MumbaiPolice hit the mute button on #Mumbai’s reckless honkers. #HonkResponsibly pic.twitter.com/BAGL4iXiPH — Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) January 31, 2020   The move has been widely applauded on social media, however, Ashwathy Dilip, who works with ITDP (Institute for Transportation and Development Policy), was not too thrilled of the move. Speaking to TNM, she said, “Does Bengaluru even have that much honking? This video being shared on social media is good for spreading the message, but it is not a long term solution to the problem. We definitely need to create awareness regarding honking less, but I don’t think this would be feasible to carry out across the city.” She added, “This is a very great tool for creating a buzz on social media, to create a constant communication with people about stopping this bad habit, similar to the Anti-Tobacco campaigns.” She also warned of the consequences of holding people hostage to a traffic signal. “If they carry out this plan, people will get frustrated and skip the signal after a point. We already have cases of people getting tired of waiting at the signal and just leaving. The same would become an even bigger problem. This is not a tested intervention, and I suspect it has been made just to create a buzz.” However, Pawan Mulukutla, an independent traffic expert said, “It’s a good measure, as honking is a big problem, and causes stress to people around them in crowded places. Thus it should be addressed effectively. This could work, provided it is designed effectively according to the principles of traffic engineering. We have cases of major junctions in the city like Silk Board having 300 seconds on the timer. This should be reduced to make it more feasible.”

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Land meant for Dalit community hall usurped by pvt builders in Bengaluru?

Dalit rights groups allege that the land was promised to the Dalit community for building a community hall in 2011 but private developers are constructing an apartment building instead.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

A large number of protesters, supported by 20 civil rights groups, showed up at the Tilaknagar police station in Bengaluru on Friday. Their demand? To get back the land that was earmarked for civic amenities, during the time of making the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) Layout in Jayanagar. In this case, the land was meant for a community hall. However, the activists alleged that private vested interests have taken over the land and have already begun constructing an apartment complex in the area. The protest was organized by Bahujan Maha Sabha. According to a High Court order in 2014, space allocated for civic amenities cannot be transferred to any private entities, but can only be utilised for the public, whether it be for a park, or a meeting hall. The local people, who cannot afford the steep prices for private halls in the locality, say they asked to have a government community hall in the empty space, “We don’t have any space for weddings, small private meetings or events for people from poorer communities, so the citizens in the surrounding areas began to ask for a community hall in the civic amenities land,” says R Shekar, the State President of Bahujana Maha Sabha. The activists approached the then Mayor in 2011 with the community’s request for a marriage hall, which he approved. “Subsequently, however, his term came to an end, and the government proposed a library in its place. Construction activities began in 2016, and we found that the area looked nothing like a library. Upon filing an RTI, we were shocked to discover that private builders had taken over the land and was constructing an illegal apartment building,” he adds. According to the documents that were received through a RTI request, a private builder was carrying out the construction in a joint development with Geeta, a private individual. Shekar alleges that Geeta approached the courts seeking a site as compensation for her property, which was lost due to the construction of a road on top her property. “The standard procedure is to give some financial compensation for any land that is handed over to the government. However, Geeta was not satisfied with the Rs 3.5 lakhs which she was given, and appealed to the court seeking a site.” It is unclear how BBMP allotted this piece of land to Geeta, but the BMS alleges that local Corporator N Nagaraj was aware of the land transfer. The corporator did not respond to our repeated attempts to get in touch with him. “We have observed a trend towards the making of land allocated for civic amenities towards private use. A similar case of civic amenities land being taken over by private milk federations has been observed in Nandini Layout, and the residents there too, are protesting this,” says Arun Prasad, a social activist. “We demand that the land be taken back immediately, and the government builds a community hall in the same place. We will not accept any other compromise,” Shekar says.

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