Karnataka BJP dissociates itself from actor Ragini Dwivedi held in drugs case

Politics

The actor had campaigned for the BJP in the 2019 Karnataka bye-polls.

IANS

Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday attempted to dissociate itself from Ragini Dwivedi, a Sandalwood actor arrested in the drugs scandal. "We disown Ragini Dwivedi," said BJP spokesperson Ganesh Karnik, saying that she was one of the hundreds of celebrities who campaigned for the BJP on her own volition. "Hundreds of celebrities from different walks of life campaigned for the BJP voluntarily during the 2019 bye-elections. The Kannada actress may have been one among them," he said. According to Karnik, Ragini is neither a member of the BJP nor had the party assigned her any election duty. However, in the run-up to the 2019 by-elections, she was the star campaigner for BJP MLA Narayana Gowda  "Ragini Dwivedi is not a member of the BJP. The BJP has not assigned her the responsibility of electioneering. She may have been involved in the campaign on her own," he said. The BJP is neither accountable nor answerable for her deeds in her personal capacity or professional life, he added. "We have nothing to do with it and we maintain distance from it," he said. Karnik stressed that the BJP is totally against any sort of anti-social activity, done by anyone. State BJP media joint convenor BN Raghavendra and convenor AH Anand endorsed Karnik's statement. In July, Ragini had rubbed shoulders with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa at a programme aimed at fighting coronavirus. She took part in a short rally with Yediyurappa outside the Vidhana Soudha along with several other ministers and senior officials such as former cricketer Anil Kumble, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, Revenue Minister R Ashok and others. Wearing blue sportswear, she stood right behind the Chief Minister on the stage. Ragini also shared the stage with politicians from different parties when she was part of a scheme launching packaged drinking water at Rs 9.90 per litre on July 31. She has also campaigned for plasma donation to treat COVID-19 patients.  The actress was arrested by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths on Friday for her alleged links with the drugs scandal that has presently shaken the Kannada film industry. Earlier on Friday, seven CCB sleuths, including a woman police inspector, raided her flat.  The CCB also filed a FIR against Ragini in the Cottonpet police station in the city under the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Services (NDPS) Act. Ragini debuted in the film industry in 2009 with Veera Madakari and gained fame for stellar roles in movies such as Kempe Gowda, Ragini IPS, Bangari and Shiva.  

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'Close Cubbon Park for motorised vehicles': Karnataka urban body tells state govt

Transport

The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) said that it received representations from the public to ensure a traffic-free Cubbon Park.

TNM Staff

Augustus Binu/Wikimedia/CC 3.0

The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) has recommended to the Karnataka government that Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park be closed for motorised traffic and parking of vehicles. "DULT is of the view that reopening of Cubbon Park to motorised traffic is not advisable and parking of motorised vehicles should not be allowed in Cubbon Park," said DULT Commissioner V Manjula. Manjula wrote a letter recommending this move to Rajender Kataria, Secretary to Government in the Department of Horticulture and Sericulture. In the letter, she said that even as the government is considering reopening the park for motorised traffic, the directorate has received representations from the public to ensure a traffic-free Cubbon Park. "There is some thinking on the part of the government to reopen Cubbon Park for motorised traffic. At the same time, DULT has also received representations from citizens groups to intercede on their behalf for ensuring traffic-free Cubbon Park. DULT has examined the matter in detail," she said. Manjula said a vast green space such as Cubbon Park in the heart of the city should be preserved. "In various cities across the world, spaces in the city are being reclaimed for the use of pedestrians and cyclists. Cubbon Park would be an ideal place to be reserved for pedestrians and cyclists," she observed. The senior official suggested that pedestrians and cyclists can use the park as a shortcut to reach their destinations and pointed out that the motorised traffic passing through the park will not be inconvenienced as there are alternate routes. DULT is an urban body responsible for overseeing all the urban land transport initiatives in Urban and Local Planning Areas of Karnataka. Cubbon Park is located between the High Court and Chinnaswamy Stadium and close to the Vidhana Soudha in the centre of the city. Cubbon Park was reopened to the public last month at stipulated times in the mornings and evenings in May, after it was shut during the COVID-19 lockdown in March. Currently, motorised traffic is not allowed inside the park. 

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Moral policing row: Kavitha Reddy puts out video apology to Samyuktha Hedge

Controversy

The apology comes after an FIR was registered against Kavitha based on a complaint by Samyuktha Hegde at the HSR Layout Police Station.

TNM Staff

Bengaluru-based Congress spokesperson and lake activist Kavitha Reddy on Sunday evening released a video and apologised for the incident involving Kannada film actor Samyuktha Hegde and her friends at the Agara Lake on Friday.  In a tweet, she said, “I have always opposed Moral Policing. I realize that my actions were construed as such. An argument ended up in me reacting aggressively as well, it was a mistake. As a responsible citizen n progressive woman, I own up to n sincerely apologise to @SamyukthaHegde and her Friends!” I have always opposed Moral Policing. I realize that my actions were construed as such. An argument ended up in me reacting aggressively as well, it was a mistake. As a responsible citizen n progressive woman, I own up to n sincerely apologise to @SamyukthaHegde n her Friends! pic.twitter.com/pM9UJkWESC — Kavitha Reddy (KR) Jai Bhim! (@KavithaReddy16) September 6, 2020 "I have stated my version of events and expressed regrets. And even though I did not physically hit or assault Samyukta’s friend, I still owe an unconditional apology for losing my temper irrespective of whatever the provocation was. Moral policing is something I have always opposed and it is unthinkable that I would make such regressive comments. With a lot of public around, there were a lot of heated arguments and commotion as well as out of context recordings the ugly incident should not have happened nor should be seen as political or moral policing," (sic) she said.  Initially, Kavitha had claimed that she was being wrongly blamed for “moral policing” the actor. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against her on Saturday morning at the HSR Layout Police Station based on the complaint by the actor. As widely reported, Samyuktha and two of her friends had gone to the park to exercise with hula hoops. This was when Kavitha Reddy, a known face in the area had taken objection to Samyuktha’s choice of attire. In an Instagram live by the actor on Friday, Kavitha Reddy can be heard saying that Samyuktha was 'indecently dressed' and used a term equivalent to vulgar dance and is heard telling the police personnel that she wanted to file a case accusing Samyuktha of 'public indecency". Following the incident, Kavitha had faced much backlash from the public on social media which prompted her to first issue a detailed written statement on Saturday morning. While many from the Congress party have expressed their individual opinions on the issue, the party has steered clear from the controversy with the leadership refusing to make their stand public. In that statement, while she said she regretted losing her temper, Kavitha Reddy insisted that she did not moral police.

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Bengaluru woman reinfected by coronavirus within a month of discharge, says hospital

Coronavirus

The COVID-19 patient did not have severe symptoms of COVID-19 on both occasions, said the private hospital.

TNM Staff

Representational image

In what is likely the first case of COVID-19 reinfection in Bengaluru city, a private hospital stated that a patient who was discharged in the month of July after recovering from the disease, has tested positive for the coronavirus once again. In a press statement, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road said that a 27-year-old woman is found to be the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection. In a press statement, Dr Pratik Patil, Consultant, Infectious Diseases, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road, said, “In the first week of July, the patient was symptomatic (fever, cough and sore throat) and was tested positive. She was admitted at the hospital and recovered well. A repeat test was conducted on her, which turned out to be negative, post which she was discharged on July 24. However, nearly after 1 month, in the last week of August, she developed mild symptoms again and has been tested positive again. Both the times she did not have severe disease. This is possibly the first reported case of COVID-19 reinfection in Bangalore.”  Dr Patil explained that Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody lingers in the received patient’s blood after two-three weeks of infection. However, the patient later tested negative for IgG antibodies, suggesting she did not have immunity following the infection. “Other possibility is that the IgG antibodies disappeared in nearly one month leaving her susceptible for reinfection,” he said.  “Reinfection cases mean that the antibodies may not be produced by every individual or if they do develop, they may not last long enough, and therefore, allowing the virus to enter the body and cause the disease again,” he added. Speaking to TNM, Dr Srinivas, District Health Officer, Bengaluru Urban denied knowledge about the development and said he will look into the issue. He added so far no such case of reinfection has been reported in the city. Earlier in May, a case of COVID-19 reinfection was reported from Belagavi where a 50-year-old man was thought to have gotten infected. While he tested negative successively for the second time on May 1, he had tested positive for the virus again on May 4 with his symptoms resurfacing on May 5.  In August, a 33-year-old man from Europe who returned to Hong Kong was reportedly the first case of COVID-19 reinfection in the world. A genome sequence study by a group of researchers in University of Hong Kong found that he was infected with two different strains of the virus.

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#CBIFindAjitabh: Family of missing Bengaluru techie demand answers from agency

Ajitabh missing case

Ajitabh has been missing since December 2017.

Soumya Chatterjee

Ajitabh Facebook Account

Nearly three years since the disappearance of Bengaluru-based techie Ajitabh Kumar after he took his Maruti Ciaz car to a buyer he met on the online site OLX, his friends and families organised a Twitter storm #CBIFindAjitabh on Sunday. It's been 994 days, 23856 hours, 1431360 minutes since Ajitabh Kumar went missing on 18 Dec 2017. How is this possible? What is the CBI doing? Is fast track investigation only for VIP's and celebrities?#CBIFindAjitabh #justiceforajitabh @CBIFindAjitabh @WFRising pic.twitter.com/5UKQmcRgEF — lilcheepcheep (@lilcheepcheep) September 6, 2020 #CBIFindAjitabh Don't make any case become a mystery by not investigating on timely basis. @narendramodi @NitishKumar @AmitShah @ndtv @ZeeNews @NEWS9TWEETS pic.twitter.com/PUHeQwf1cl — Mimic Zadoo (@MimicZadoo) September 6, 2020 Find Ajitabh #CBIFindAjitabh @republic @Republic_Bharat @ANI @Swamy39 https://t.co/qscAobBGXf — Himanshu (@chhimanshu23) September 6, 2020 #CBIFindAjitabh - How come all investigation agencies of India are clueless, Karnataka Police, CID Karnataka and CBI too? Or they are trying to protect someone by deliberately ignoring the case. @narendramodi @NitishKumar @AmitShah pic.twitter.com/u9GvRA3u0l — Lal Anish (@lal_anish16) September 6, 2020 #CBIFindAjitabh No breakthrough...No update...No justice... Non-celebrity suffering... !!!@republic @ZeeNews @ZeeBiharNews @ndtv @PMOIndia @AmitShah @AmitShahOffice @NitishKumar @aajtak @BSYBJP @rajeev_mp https://t.co/FqfJQwn31U — gauravanki (@gauravanki) September 6, 2020 Ajitabh had gone missing on December 19, 2017 after leaving his Whitefield residence to meet the prospective buyer. Close to a year after he went missing, the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2018. His family was disappointed with the city police and Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which made no headway into the case. The case was transferred to the CBI after the family had approached the Karnataka High Court. Rohit Srivastava from the CBI handling the case currently (third officer to probe the case) refused to share any development if any regarding the investigations. Speaking with TNM, Ajitabh’s sister Pragya said the family is now thoroughly disappointed with the progress in the CBI probe too. She pointed to the frequent transfers of officers, adding that the failure to make any headway in the case had only added to the family’s ordeals.  “Within the first six months of the CBI investigation, the officers were changed and everytime the new officer comes in they have to go through the case details from scratch. Not only does the officer have to go through the probe by the CBI but also go through the files of the city police and the CID. So they will say ‘we need time to understand and make progress in the case,” Pragya told TNM. She added, “We had sought a CBI probe as we were told that unlike other agencies, the CBI has a better record of filing chargesheets within six months. So we were really pinning our hopes on CBI, but we remain disappointed as time started passing by and there seems to be no progress. Now again there was a transfer and that officer also met with the family and we had to brief him all over again.” Pragya added that the family is of the opinion that there is a criminal hand involved in the disappearance. She questioned the probe agencies’ inaction over the initial clues and proactiveness. “Even though the CBI said they will probe all angles, there is absolutely zero progress,” she said. 

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Bengaluru man accused of stealing 20 bikes worth Rs 10 lakh arrested

Crime

The Bengaluru police said victims of vehicle theft will get endorsement for insurance claims within 60 days from the date of complaint.

TNM Staff

Police in Bengaluru arrested a man accused of stealing 20 bikes and two-wheelers worth Rs 10 lakh on Saturday. Following his arrest, police have also recovered the stolen bikes. The accused has been identified as one 29-year-old Jagadish alias John who is a resident of Nandini Layout.  Police were trying to trace him in the recent days and finally he was picked up by police. He was arrested from Annapoorneshwari Nagar police station limits in west Bengaluru near the Bangalore University campus. City Police Commissioner Kamal Pant took note of the arrest by retweeting Dr Sanjeev M Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West). This is the third such arrest recently. On Saturday, policemen from Kalasipalya Police Station arrested another man who allegedly stole vehicles after posing as a buyer on online platforms. Automobiles worth Rs 22 lakh worth were recovered from the accused, which included one SUV ( sport utility vehicle) car, three motorcycles. Earlier in May, police in the city had arrested one suspect Shashi Kumar alias Gunda (30), of Gauribidanur from neighbouring Chikkaballapura district, who stole only one particular bike model-Hero Splendor. Eighteen bikes of the same make were recovered from him. He would sell these bikes for as low as Rs 3,000 to people in rural areas surrounding Bengaluru. Incidentally, police had earlier this week announced that it will make the process of endorsing stolen vehicles incidents for the purpose of insurance claim easier. Police Commissioner Kamal Pant said the police from now will endorse a stolen vehicle complaint if the vehicle is not traced within 60 days of registering complaint. Victims can approach the jurisdictional DCPs and senior officers if such an acknowledgement is not given by police within 75 days from the date of complaint registration regarding the stolen vehicle. 

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FIR against Kavitha Reddy for assaulting actor Samyuktha Hegde and her friends

Crime

The FIR was registered at the HSR Layout Police Station.

Theja Ram

Kirik Party actor Samyuktha Hegde was verbally abused and heckled at a park in Bengaluru on Friday by a group of people including All India Congress Committee member and civic activist Kavitha Reddy. Following the incident, Samyuktha Hegde and two of her friends went to the HSR Layout Police Station to file a complaint against Kavitha Reddy and the men who heckled them at the park adjacent to Agara Lake.  Speaking to TNM, HSR Layout Police Inspector Muni Reddy said that Samyuktha Hegde submitted a written complaint on Saturday morning, after which an FIR was registered against Kavitha Reddy and others.  “We have registered a case of assault and intimidation against Kavitha Reddy and other accused. Samyuktha submitted videos. She has accused Kavitha Reddy of assaulting her, which can be seen in the video,” Inspector Muni Reddy said.  On Friday morning, Samyuktha and two of her friends had gone to the park to exercise with hula hoops. She was wearing joggers and a sports bra while working out. Allegedly taking objection to the workout clothes that Samyuktha was wearing, Kavita Reddy and others asked them to leave the park. Kavitha charged at one of the women and later brought in the police.          View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Samyuktha Hegde (@samyuktha_hegde) on Sep 4, 2020 at 5:38am PDT In an Instagram live, Kavitha Reddy can be heard saying that Samyuktha was “dancing naked” and is heard telling the police personnel that she wanted to file a case accusing Samyuktha of “public indecency”.  It must be noted here that Samyuktha did not remove her pullover in the beginning of the video, she only does it when Kavita Reddy tells the police that the actor should be booked for indecent behaviour in public. It is then that an emotional Samyuktha removes her pullover and shows her workout clothes to the camera and the police asking what is wrong with her attire, TNM had earlier reported. While Samyuktha questions the crowd that had gathered at the park and points out that she did not do anything wrong, a man wearing a red shirt threatens to “tell the media” that Samyuktha is “consuming drugs”.  “If you wear such clothes, we will have to hit you,” Kavitha Reddy can be heard saying in the video. Although Kavitha Reddy has issued a statement saying that she only objected to Samyuktha playing loud music in the park, which is against the rules, the videos, however, suggest otherwise.  “It's ridiculous to say that I was doing some moral policing when the fact remains that I go for a walk wearing shorts and many who come to Agara Lake wear what they want, without any dress code or restrictions,” Kavitha Reddy said in a statement she released after the incident.  However, she allegedly called Samyuktha and her friends “cabaret dancers” who were “stripping in public,” which was caught on camera.   

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