Election betting in Karnataka and why conviction rates are drastically low

Lok Sabha 2019

Betting money on elections has now become passé and properties are allegedly being wagered on election outcomes in Bengaluru and Mandya.

Theja Ram

PTI Representational image

The counting of votes is set to take place on May 23 and bookies are currently offering odds of 1 to 6 for Bengaluru Central PC Mohan. This means that for every Re 1, the stake offered is Rs 6. This translates to a take away of Rs 6. But for serious gamblers, “the take away is not in lakhs but in crores,” an industry source said. The betting market for elections in Bengaluru is estimated to be worth around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 crore, especially since prime real estate is being wagered. “There are people who have bet acres of land and apartments they own. In return they are expecting to win more properties across the city. People have wagered properties in Bellandur, Mahadevapura, Avalahalli and Hosakerehalli. Most people are currently betting against Congress candidate Rizwan Arshad in Bengaluru. However, there are barely any people betting for the candidates in Bengaluru North and Bengaluru South in comparison,” the source said. In Mandya, however, the betting has become a battle between fans of actors Yash and Darshan and the followers of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. Darshan and Yash have been campaigning for independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh, who is up against Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the Chief Minister's son.  The odds in Mandya are currently 10 to 11 for Nikhil Kumaraswamy, which means that for every Rs 10, Rs 11 is at stake. If Nikhil Kumaraswamy wins, then the take away would be Rs 21. The betting market in Mandya is estimated to be worth around Rs 200 crore with the odds favouring Nikhil. “If Sumalatha wins, then the take away is more for those who bet against Nikhil. These are mostly fans of actors Yash and Darshan. People are not only betting on elections here but also betting on whether Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is a prominent member of Sandalwood, would put an end to the acting careers of Yash and Darshan,” an industry source in Mandya told TNM. Sources say that betting on elections is a way for cadre cutting across party lines to earn the money spent on electioneering. “They expect to receive at least 30% of the election costs. However, people in Mandya are betting their farms and cattle in addition to placing monetary bets this time around. The stakes are high mostly due to the stardom surrounding the election campaign,” the source added. The high stakes and the nature of the bets, however, bring one question to the fore – do the police manage to bust election betting rackets? And if they do, what happens to the accused? The raids Speaking to TNM, a senior police official with the Central Crime Branch says that election betting is rampant across Karnataka and no matter how many raids are conducted, new ring masters and bookies crop up, keeping the market alive. “Election betting is definitely an organised crime. But there are numerous ringmasters and the number of bookies is twice as much. By the time one raid is conducted, two other rackets would have cropped up and it is very hard to crack down on them,” the police official says. According to DCP South Annamalai, betting is so rampant in Bengaluru simply because there have rarely been any convictions in betting cases. Even if there are convictions, the punishment is so lenient that getting caught by the police is of little consequence to those running the rackets. “Even if a conviction happens, which is very rare, the accused is fined with anywhere between Rs 500 or Rs 1,000 and let go. The punishment is not strict,” he added. Why conviction rates are negligible in betting cases Public Prosecutor Balan, who has practiced in Karnataka for 30 years, told TNM that the way in which police conduct raids is so flawed that their findings do not stand a chance in a court of law. This, he maintains is because the police do not have proper knowledge about the provisions in the Karnataka Police Act 1963, pertaining to betting. “Gambling is a non-cognisable offense. In Karnataka, the raids on gambling dens are conducted by the Central Crime Branch, which firstly has no jurisdictional authority to do so. The jurisdictional police must obtain permission from the court before conducting these raids and this never happens. The police have no idea about what the law says and they are not trained properly, which is why the betting cases almost always end in acquittal,” Balan says. He also says that the police do not investigate the cases properly after conducting the raids, which leads to the cases getting quashed in the court. “Their intention may be right but without proper knowledge of the law and adequate training, the cases fall flat in court just because of minor legalities. The inspector dictates the witness statements to the station writer and in most cases, the station writers end up writing elaborate stories without any facts to back the stories. These procedures must be corrected,” he added.  

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Relief for Bengaluru residents fighting elevated corridor project: HC stays work

Law

Work on the controversial project is halted until the next hearing in the case on June 3.

Prajwal Bhat

The Karnataka High Court has put the controversial elevated corridor project on hold by passing an interim stay order on starting work on the project until the next hearing in the case.  The High Court asked the state government to halt work on the project while  hearing a petition filed two years ago by Citizens'Action Forum on the functioning of the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC). The court observed that the state government had decided to start work on the project without clearing it with the MPC, which is mandated for any development project in Bengaluru.   The Citizens' Action Forum had told the court that Karnataka Road Development Corporation (KRDCL) had invited bids for the elevated corridor project without getting clearance from the MPC.  The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 3. The High Court had previously asked the state government to halt work on the project while hearing the same case in March.  Read: K'taka HC asks govt to halt controversial elevated corridor project in Bengaluru The High Court's decision brings relief to protesting residents who have been fighting against the project proposed by the state government, which plans to build a network of elevated corridors in Bengaluru spanning 102 km in the city.  Before the Lok Sabha elections, KRDCL had invited bids for starting working on a part of the project. Moreover, more than 3700 trees are set to be cut across the city for the project, including 120 trees in the iconic Cubbon Park area.  Residents and activists agitated against the state government seeking public consultation on the project. A Change.org petition on the issue was signed by more than 2.5 lakh people while a protest was held on March 16 at Maurya Circle in the city. Following the protest, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy announced that he would be holding public consultation before starting work on the project.  Read: Elevated corridor beda: Bengaluru residents fight new govt plan The High Court also directed that an expert committee be set up to examine if there are ways to save trees proposed to be cut down for the elevated corridor project. The expert committee will be constituted with members from the fields of environment, science and technology. "After exhausting all methods, if it is found that it is impossible to save any tree, only then it shall be permissible to cut trees. The expert committee will give its opinion on saving trees," noted Justice PS Dinesh Kumar, while hearing the case related to the controversial project. 

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Hundreds line up in Bengaluru for a chance to act in 'KGF 2' with Yash

Film

Aspiring actors and longtime fans began lining up as early as 6 am in Malleswaram, Bengaluru.

Rohit R.

Friday morning in Malleswaram saw hundreds of people waiting on tree-lined streets for a chance to audition for the Yash-starrer 'KGF: Chapter 2.' Though auditions for the much-anticipated sequel to the 2018 blockbuster began at 8 am, actors and die-hard fans queued up as early as 6 am outside the GM Rejoys Hotel in Bengaluru on Friday. Men with long hair, chiselled bodies and intricate tattoos stood in a long line that extended for at least 500 metres, and police officials had trouble containing the crowd. Some of these aspiring actors had even bunked special classes at their schools for their chance to audition. The auditions were organised to cast minor roles in the movie. A one-minute-long audition, the person had to prepare their own dialogue and if selected would join the shooting of the film, which has already begun. Karthik, an executive producer in the film, said, "We are looking for actors in side-roles who will be followers of the protagonist Yash and the main antagonist. There is no number we are currently looking at. It depends on how auditions go." The auditions were called for boys between the age group 8 to 16 years and men above the age of 25. Mohan, who had travelled from Bagalkot, is a huge fan of Yash. He hoped the audition would allow him to eventually share the screen with the "rocking star" at least for a second. People from other states also joined the queue to try their luck. Arun, an actor from Kerala, said, “KGF received a lot of exposure and is a landmark film now. Getting a chance to act in the sequel would be a great opportunity.” KGF: Chapter 1 was released in five languages and became one of the highest grossing movies in 2018. The movie was the first Kannada film to enter the 200-crore club. The makers plan on roping in Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt to play the role of antagonist and are planning on releasing the movie during the summer of 2020. "We are in talks with a number of people including Sanjay Dutt. The villain will be announced soon," Karthik added.

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With falling incomes, here’s why Bengaluru’s BBMP needs a new revenue model

Civic

With revenue receipts falling year after year, the civic body is unable to meet the needs of the growing population in Bengaluru.

By Renuka Viswanathan The latest BBMP budget is a sorry saga of unrealized aspirations and overblown expectations.  The figures reflect as well as conceal the dismal condition of the fastest growing metropolis of the country and the failure of its civic body to meet even the basic needs of a clamorous population.  Year after year, receipts fall far below projections.  Resources raised are wasted on inflated, poor quality works. And no investment is made in health and educational facilities for common people. Like other civic bodies, the BBMP too depends, to an equal extent, on its own resources and those that flow from the state and Central governments. Unconditional Finance Commission grants are one dependable source of fixed income. While the state government channels funds to the BBMP for special purposes and the Central government focuses on problem areas like urban health. The real test of fiscal performance is, however, growth in revenue, which has been the BBMP’s greatest failure. No new revenue source has been identified in Bengaluru, which is growing by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, existing tax handles and revenue channels have all dried up in recent years, forcing the hapless residents, who pay property tax, to take on the growing costs of civic administration.  BBMP’s total dependence on property tax can no longer be concealed. Receipts shot up by 45% in 2016-17 only because property tax rates were increased. Since then, receipt growth has slumped to 10% last year and fallen to 0.8% this year.  Almost every other revenue source, tax and nontax, has become dormant.  All local bodies raise respectable revenues from advertisement taxes. Till very recently, Bengaluru was awash with garish flexes, sporting the faces of known and potential political figures and agents. However, the Palike recovered little money from this source.  Bylaws were openly flouted and demand was never raised to collect legitimate revenue. The unwillingness of BBMP and its political masters to discipline themselves has forced the High Court to enforce a total ban on advertisements till the Palike formulates appropriate bylaws. Inordinate administrative delay means that one elastic revenue source continues to languish and ad agencies lose money and jobs.  Another remunerative revenue handle for an expanding city is license fee from commercial concerns.  Resources raised under this head should ideally mirror the spurt of economic activity, but here again, BBMP has come to a standstill. Businesses have mushroomed in residential areas in total violation of existing guidelines. So much so that it is impossible now to bring order into the chaos.  Communities band together and negotiate their own compromises with potential vendors.  And BBMP is neither able to modify its guidelines, nor can it license and regulate businesses, which have been around for years.  A lucrative field for corrupt middlemen but no source for honest revenue. The BBMP has not succeeded in raising rents from property and market stalls hired out in its many facilities all over the city, even when they are located in prime areas.  No wonder they remain filthy and ill-maintained, not a source of revenue but a drain on resources. Pervasive bungling of revenue-raising policies has resulted in dependence on a single tax handle – property tax.  Poor management has transformed this elastic resource base to a stagnant (perhaps declining) pool of revenue. Property tax expected to be collected in the current year is below the levels budgeted in 2015-16. Procedures for fixation and collection are mired in corrupt administrative practices despite online self-assessment mechanisms. Much more could certainly be realized (without raising rates) to meet the exploding demands of Bengaluru. When revenues are not realized, expenditure necessarily suffers.  The squeeze is felt in infrastructure spending, but the brunt is borne by social sectors like education, health and social welfare.  Once a paradise for pedestrians, Bengaluru has today become a byword for potholes, encroached footpaths, unlit lanes, overflowing and clogged drains. It has become the city of nightmares.  Infrastructure management is fragmented among various departments and agencies of the state and civic administrations. All of which, seem to be in damage-control mode, forever reporting to an exasperated judiciary.  In the BBMP budget, there are at least four accounting heads for public works, (zonal works, Central projects, road infrastructure and storm water drains). The most visible of these is “zonal” public works.  Zonal fund allocation is unconnected to planning need-based works; the public procurement law is ignored during project execution.  Sub-budget heads list bundles of ward works without transparency or logic and spending stays between 58% and 65% of budgeted levels. Rampant underfunding of social sectors (education, health and social welfare), the linchpins of our welfare state, is ignored by the state government, political leaders at all levels and citizen activists.  Educationists promote municipal schools to ensure accountability and service delivery. Yet, BBMP constructs no new schools and allots 0.5% of its budget to the sector. Does the government department regulating education inspect the crumbling walls, filthy toilets, overgrown grounds, broken desks and leaky roofs of BBMP schools?  Rs 10 crore has been set aside for maintaining schools but only Rs 2 crore is spent.  A decade after 110 new villages were added to the metropolitan area, which have been generating resources for the Palike, have no new municipal schools catering to migrants from impoverished districts of Karnataka. There is more bad news from the health sector. The BBMP is ideally supposed to spend Rs 31 crore on medical health institutions, which is lower than the Rs 37 crore spent 4 years ago.  Bengaluru, like other urban areas, is served by the Centrally funded National Urban Health Mission.  A primary health centre in the city is meant for 50000 residents, but even the PHCs of Central Bengaluru, (which alone fall under BBMP control), bear a much heavier burden.  BBMP has not increased their number, nor have they opened new ones in the areas added to the Palike more than ten years back (areas which have given a boost to BBMP revenues, also areas which have been swamped by migrating families). The city is sitting on a dynamite from the health point of view, as it has failed to serve the city’s “vulnerable population” under the Health Mission by not appointing sufficient community health workers (ASHAs). The direct impact of inefficiency in revenue generation is on the downtrodden citizens of society, pourakarmikas, women, SCs, STs and OBCs. 23% of the budget, earmarked for welfare schemes, suffers the first cut, when own revenues fall.  It is no surprise that spending on this area is less than 50% of the planned figure. Our city regularly faces the wrath of the public, the High Court and even the National Green Tribunal, but has not yet found a workable solution to its garbage problem.  The one critical budget head under solid waste management relating to collection and removal of garbage shows expenditure higher than budget provisions, even as garbage collectors remain unpaid for months at a time. Rs 375 crore provided for this activity is far lower than the amount spent in previous years (when there were large payment arrears).  What these presages is not clear, since garbage collection practices are under constant overhaul. Does it mean that the poorest civic workers must wait for payment for work done next year too? There are many easy, implementable solutions to the city’s mounting civic woes. Why do policy makers, people’s representatives and officials refuse to take them? For 2019-20, the data is drawn from the Revised Budget Estimates of Bbmp for 2018-19 and Budget Estimates for 2019-20 as approved by the Taxation and Finance Committee on 13/2/2019 and presented to the Council on 18/2/2019.  For earlier years, data is drawn from Bbmp budgets available on the website bbmp.gov.in   Renuka Viswanathan is a former Secretary, Government of India and Cabinet Secretariat and Organising Secretary of the Aam Aadmi party Karnataka. Views expressed are author’s own

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I know where you live: Bengaluru woman recalls terrifying Ola ride, driver arrested

Crime

An argument broke out between a 22-year-old Bengaluru engineer and the Ola cab driver over the mode of payment.

Prajwal Bhat

A driver attached to cab-aggregator Ola was arrested after a 22-year-old Bengaluru engineer accused him of harassing her during a ride.  Arijitha Bannerjee was traveling from her friend's house in Ejipura to her PG accommodation in Nagawara in an Ola cab driven by Mohammed Azhardeen at 8:30 am on Monday. The cab was booked by her father and the woman claims that the payment for the ride was made through a cashless transaction.  However, an argument broke out between Arjitha and the driver after the latter asked for a cash payment instead of an online payment.  "The driver did not listen in spite of being told that the money had been paid via online payment. He abused, pushed and threatened me and also forced me to pay Rs 500 in cash," she states in her complaint. Arijitha told TNM that the cab driver spoke to her father and threatened to drop her off in a different location.  "He snatched my phone when I was talking to my father and he said ‘I will sell off your daughter, throw her off in someplace’ and he was saying 'kaat dalunga', 'chod ke aaunga' in Hindi," she alleged.  She further added that the two got into an argument at the end of the ride and the driver once again threatened her by saying that he knows where she lives. "At the end of the ride, I told him I will make sure he won't drive again and he responded by saying he will come back for me and that he knows where I stay now," she added. Police officials at KG Halli police station registered a case against Mohammed under sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the IPC. An Ola spokesperson confirmed that the company had taken action against the accused driver based on an internal complaint made by the woman. "We regret the unfortunate incident and immediately suspended the driver from the platform upon receiving the complaint. We confirm that Ola's safety response team has been in contact with the customer and continues to offer all the required support. We are in touch with the relevant authorities and have shared the necessary information to aid them in their ongoing investigation," a spokesperson said. In 2018, several incidents were reported by users of Ola which included incidents of sexual harassment faced by woman riders. The series of incidents prompted Ola to take measures to sensitise its drivers and announce. 

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Fire onboard INS Vikramaditya, one naval officer killed in firefighting ops

Death

According to a Navy press release, Lieutenant Commander DS Chauhan died after inhaling fumes during the fire fighting operation.

TNM Staff

A naval officer on board INS Vikramaditya died on Friday morning after a fire broke out on the ship. The aircraft carrier was entering the harbour in Karnataka’s Karwar when the incident occurred. According to a press release issued by the Navy, Lieutenant Commander DS Chauhan died after inhaling the fumes during the fire fighting operation. The fire had broken out in one of the compartments of the aircraft carrier. Firefighting operations prevented any serious damage to the ship, the press note stated. “Lt Cdr DS Chauhan bravely led the firefighting efforts in the affected compartment. Whilst the fire was brought under control, the officer suffered loss of consciousness owing to the smoke and fumes during the firefighting efforts,” the press release stated. Lieutenant Commander Chauhan was rushed to INHS Patanjali, the Naval Hospital in Karwar for treatment. “However, the officer could not be revived,” the release added. A board of inquiry to investigate the cause of the fire has been ordered by the Navy. This is a developing story    

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Protestors demand justice for Raichur victim at Town Hall in Bengaluru

Protest

Protestors hoped that the Raichur case would gather the required attention from the state government.

Rohit R.

A crowd of protestors dressed in black took to the steps of Town Hall in Bengaluru on Thursday to protest the handling of an investigation into the death of a 23-year-old engineering student in Raichur. People of all age groups gathered to protest and demand justice for the victim who was found dead under mysterious circumstances last week. Protestors raised placards carrying strong messages against sexual harassment and on the importance of consent, while voicing their demands for justice. Twenty organisations across the state had gathered to protest the inaction of the police, who have maintained that it was a case of suicide after the victim was found hanging from a tree. However, after massive protests in Raichur, the police were forced to register a case of rape and murder. The program began at 5 pm and saw the crowds slowly swell as people assembled at the Town Hall. Protestors hoped that the Raichur case would gather the required attention from the state government. Dr Brinda Adige, a women and child rights activist who was present at the protest, condemned the lack of action taken by the authorities and wanted the government to be held accountable. She also demanded that the college administration be held responsible as well. “People in positions of power are usurping the procedure of justice and that should not have happened,” said Brinda. Signatures were collected from those present, and the organisations plan to present this along with a memorandum to the Chief Minister and Home Minister. They intend to convey their message of seeking a free and independent trial and immediate justice for the victim. The protestors, while expressing solidarity, hoped that there would be no political interference in the investigation. A protestor said, “Let this demonstration be our message that we are there for the people and silence will not be accepted as the answer.” The accused in the case, Sudarshan Yadav, is currently being questioned by the CBI for his alleged role in the crime. Anjaneya, a police officer and Sudarshan’s uncle, was allegedly in possession of the victim’s phone a day before her body was found. Read: Raichur student death: Policeman had victim’s phone before body was found

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