3 youths held for kidnapping, trafficking 2-month-old baby

Bengaluru, Jun 20: Nine candidates filed their nominations for the June 29 elections to seven seats of the Karnataka legislative council on Thursday.

While the BJP has fielded four candidates, the Congress has given tickets to two and the JD(S) to one candidate respectively for the biennial elections to seven seats of the legislative council to be elected by the MLAs.

One independent and one person claiming to be affiliated to BJP have also filed their nomination papers at the office of Legislative Assembly Secretary MK Vishalakshi, who is also the returning officer for the polls.

"The nominations of two candidates without any proposers is likely to be rejected during scrutiny of the papers on Friday. So seven candidates will be in the fray for as many berths. Hence the election is likely to be unopposed if no one withdraws nominations," official sources said.

While scrutiny will take place, Friday, June 22 is the last date for withdrawal of candidature.

The election is necessitated as the term of seven MLCs — Naseer Ahmed, Jayamma, M C Venugopal, N S Bose Raju, H M Revanna (all Congress), T A Sharavana (JD(S)) and independent D U Mallikarjuna — will end June 30.

Based on their strength in the Assembly, while BJP is in a position to win four out of seven seats, Congress can win two and JD(S) one.

Twenty-eight valid votes of MLAs are required for each candidate to win.

Four BJP candidates MTB Nagaraj, R Shankar, Sunil Vallyapure and Pratap Simha Nayak filed their nominations today, after the party high command announced their names late on Wednesday.

Nagaraj and Shankar had played a key role in the formation of the BJP government after the coup that led to the collapse of Congress-JD(S) coalition.They had subsequently defected to the saffron party.

While Nagaraj lost the bye-elections held later, Shankar did not contest in exchange for a Council berth promise.

Among the other BJP candidates, Vallyapure is a former MLA from Chincholi and had given up his seat abiding by the party decision to field Avinash Jadhav, while Nayak is a senior party worker and had served as Dakshina Kannada district president.

A BJP insider said Shankar and Vallyapure have been given MLC tickets as they had given up their Assembly seats, while Nagraj was considered as he had faced a defeat during the bypolls because party MP B N Bachhe Gowda's son Sharath contested as a rebel.

Nayak's candidature is being seen as BJP high command's choice by party insiders, ignoring the state units recommendation of AH Vishwanath, a former JD(S) MLA who had defected to BJP.

Two Congress candidates, senior party leader BK Hariprasad and incumbent Naseer Ahmed also filed their nominations today.

Hariprasad's name was announced by the party on Wednesday, even as his tenure in Rajya Sabha is to end on June 25.

Naseer Ahmed, who is retiring as MLC on June 30 is seeking another term.

The choice of candidates by the Congress high command is being seen as a mixed bag for CLP leader Siddaramaiah as Naseer Ahmed is said to be close to him, while Hariprasad is considered among his adversaries.

In a surprise move, JD(S) has fielded Govinda Raju from Kolar as the party candidate for the MLC polls.

Incumbent MLC T A Sharavana and outgoing Rajya Sabha member Kupendra Reddy were seen as the prime aspirants for the ticket.

JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said Govinda Raju was chosen as it would help organise and strengthen the party in Kolar and Chikkaballapura region.

The independent candidate who has filed his papers today is P C Krishnegowda, and the one who filed his nomination claiming to be associated with BJP is Mandikkal Nagaraja.

Bengaluru, July 17: A 60-year-old woman who tested positive for Covid-19 allegedly ended her life in the Covid ward at KC General Hospital in the early hours of Friday.

The woman, the fourth Covid positive patient to end her life since April, was a resident of Mariyappanapalya near Jnanabharathi in West Bengaluru. She was found hanging from a window grille in the passage of the Covid ward around 5 am. She had used her sari to hang herself.

The police said that the woman was admitted to the hospital on July 1. She was responding well to the treatment and was almost cured. Her son was infected first and admitted to the same hospital. As she later tested positive and got admitted, her son was discharged on July 11. The police suspect that the woman may have resorted to the extreme step due to depression.

An investigating officer quoted doctors telling the police that they were about to inform the woman about her discharge date on Friday. Doctors were waiting for the report on her latest test before discharging her.

The woman’s body will be subjected to an autopsy as per the Covid standard procedure. The Malleswaram police have taken up a case of unnatural death. Investigations are on. 

On July 11, a 70-year-old man ended his life in the toilet of the Covid ward in Victoria Hospital, while a suicide was reported in the same ward on June 26. A 60-year-old woman also hanged herself in the toilet. Her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson were also admitted to hospital for Covid-19.

Kalaburagi, Jun 16: Stones were pelted by villagers at an ambulance and a vehicle of health department at Tanda village here, which was fetching 15 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 to a hospital for treatment.

"A medical team along with some police personnel had gone to the Tanda village to bring 15 people who had tested positive for COVID-19 to a hospital for treatment on Monday," Lada Martin Marbaniang, Superintendent of Police (SP) Kalaburagi said.

"The medical team had an argument with villagers, which turned violent and those people started pelting stones at the ambulance and a vehicle of the health department," the SP said.

"On getting information, we rushed more security forces to the village. I visited the spot and spoke to a few leaders. Subsequently, we were able to convince them and all of them were brought to the hospital. A case has been registered against violent offenders," he added.