Black-magic continues to haunt Karnataka polls; Rs 32 lakh owl sacrifice averted

Mohan and Harsha Raj Gatty
May 11, 2018

Pegged at Rs 32 lakh, an innocent owl was on the verge of being a sacrificial object on-behest of a political aspirant, if not for the timely intervention by the Kollegal Regional Forest officer (RFO). In the last two-months, around Chamarajanagara district, the forest officials have booked seven cases of poaching and arrested at-least four-people in this connection. In their statement, the arrested admitted to the officials that they were procuring the animals on behest of unknown middlemen for ‘Vamachara’ or black magic practitioners to ensure candidates victory.

While Vamachara or the invoking of supernatural forces among political aspirants in Karnataka is not an unknown phenomenon in Karnataka election, but for officials at Kollegal, Doddaballapur and Chickballapur district are flooded with series of hits and misses of suspected transport of animals for sacrificial purposes. Moreover, it is the scale and the modus operandi that has baffled the officials. "At the instant case this week, poacher Rangawamy and Madesha both were paid-off at Rs. 3 lakh by a middleman to procure the owl, it was just that we had received a timely tip-off that we able to arrest the duo at Odeyarpalya-Kannur bus stand at Chamarajanagar. But frankly, we don't know how many other animals we lost to such mindless practice" a forest official said.

The bird whose legs were tied and held casually in a confined manner within a grocery bag weighed nearly 2.5 Kilogram. Handed over to the Kollegal police, the duo confessed that they were specifically told by the middleman to get a heavy and healthy bird as it was meant for sacrificial purpose. "We just received about 10 percent of the total amount, the tantrik bills the politician not less than Rs. 30 lakh," he told police officials in a statement.

According to the official there is a nexus of political-middlemen-poachers-tantriks. "Usually, the procurer of the animal does know who is the final receiver, the animal passes at least five to six middlemen, subsequently every broker adds their price. Most of the operation is carried our via mobile phone or Whatsapp, the moment a person in the chain is caught. The others simply discard him and switch to new sim and the case goes blind," a Kollegal police official said.

Explaining the Vamachara method, 47-year old former practitioner Shanmukhappa from Chamrajnagara district says that traditionally it was a 48 days old step-by-step process to ensure path to victory. "The bird is taken to the candidates home, initial rituals are performed and the bird is buried alive for 48 days, the candidate is supposed to sit over the burial spot, perform ritual and eat prasada meals while seated over it. After the 48th day, the skeleton is retrieved and black-magic is performed. This would ensure 100 percent victory," he says.

Earlier, they used to catch fox and detain it in their home. "Seeing a fox on daily basis was considered to bring good luck. However, the flip-side of domestication of a fox was at night they used to howl and their neighbours used to confront the home-owner for performing black-magic. Therefore the believers have given-up on fox and taken owl as a supplement," the forest official adds.

Officials said, the tantriks use poorly literate, unemployed members of the local tribal community for poaching of animals and abetting superstitious practice. “In couple of instances, members of Devanga and Budbudke community have been repeatedly arrested for performing black magic. However the case was not watertight and merely based on allegation, so they were let-off," the official adds.

Not to be mistaken that only the locals at Chamarajanagara were involved in superstitious practices, bordering to Tamil Nadu, there are several interstate personalities who lay claim of performing miracles and they find easy prey in the form of businessmen and politicians, on whom the stakes of money and power are always high. "It is just that black magic materials and tantriks are easily available here that they visit this place. We have reports of several clandestine visits by politicians, film personalities and businessmen at remote places and wee hours spending close to Rs 50 lakhs on superstitious practices," the official added.

In fact, the Karnataka politics is often synonym for its association with black-magic, in fact on Wednesday, a BJP candidate Niranjan Kumar's photo was found at an intersection road at Gundlupet. Recently, Narendra Nayak the President of Federation of Indian Rationalist (FIRA) stamped over a voodoo doll at a cremation ground in Mangaluru - the small chit inside the doll had the name written of sitting MLA and Congress candidate from Mangaluru City South J R Lobo.

Meanwhile, similar to the owl which has been released into the wildlife, Rangawamy and Madesha have also been granted bail and are tentatively free. "Locally, they say it’s just the bird what’s the big deal. But given the fact that owl is protected under 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, we expected some stringent action against the suspects, because we are sure in about a day or two they will get back to their old ways," the forest official says.

Comments

jj
 - 
Saturday, 12 May 2018

IDIOTIC.... FOOLISH ..PRACTICE

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
Media Release
March 8,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 8: The Saraswat Co-operative Bank Ltd., celebrated International Women’s Day with a special seminar on Financial Planning for the banks’ women customers. The programme was held on Friday, March 6, 2020 from 4.00 to 6.00 p.m. at Hotel Ocean Pearl Inn, Bejai, Mangalore. Dr. Sukanya Rao, academician and financial planner, was the chief guest and resource person for the seminar. Mr. Srinivas C., Karnataka State Head, Future Generali India Insurance Company Ltd., was the guest of honour.  Mrs. Vimala Anchan, Senior Manager and Branch Head of M. G. Road Branch of Saraswat Bank presided over the function.

In her chief guest’s address, Dr. Sukanya Rao defined empowerment of women as the ability of take one’s own decisions and utilize resources. Quoting global rankings, she said India enjoys a high ranking of being 9th in the world in political empowerment of women, whereas in other sectors we stand abysmally low. In social empowerment of women, India ranks at 120th, in economic empowerment at 124th and health and survival at 135th.

She suggested that the best tool for enhancing these empowerment rankings is education, which will lead to earning potential and result in enhancing social status. “Every year spent in school boosts girl’s wages by 10-20%,” she said “When a girl receives 7+ years of education, marriage gets postponed by four years and she has 2.2 less children.” She advised women to learn to take one’s own decisions. “Learn to take decisions, especially financial decisions, on your own instead of depending on significant others to do the decision making,” she said.

She followed up her talk with an interactive session on personal financial planning. She enlightened the audience on factors influencing our financial decision making and gave different perspectives on prioritizing savings, spending and investment. 

Srinivas C., Karnataka State Head, Future Generali India Insurance Company Ltd., along with Deepak enlightened the women regarding financial safeguards available under Married Women's Property Act (1874).

Established in 1918, Saraswat Bank was the first co-operative bank to provide merchant banking services after it was recognized as a scheduled bank by RBI in 1988. The bank enjoys high proportion of women employees (nearly 75%) and it is a recipient of Best Cooperative Bank Award in 2016.

Fun games were conducted and prizes were distributed to the winners. Bhavanthi Street Branch Head Karthik Shetty welcomed the gathering. Prithvi Pai and Aishwarya rendered the invocation. Naina Shenoy expressed the bank’s Women’s Day greetings. Chilimbi Branch Head Kishore Shetty gave a vote of thanks. Mahesh Nayak compered the programme. Past Branch Head Mamtha Rao was present.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
coastaldigest.com news network
July 8,2020

Udupi, Jul 8: A 15-year-old boy belonging to Saligrama in Udupi district, who was under home quarantine with his mother, allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself yesterday.

His throat swabs were sent for testing. The report received today and it showed that he did not have coronavirus.
 
The boy, a class ten student studying in Kota, was quarantined along with his mother at home after a person in a family, where she was working as a maid tested positive for Covid-19.

The boy is suspected to have taken the extreme step out of depression as he was not allowed to go out. The last rites were held today.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
January 20,2020

Mysuru, Jan 20: Fears over CAA and proposed NRC have affected the ongoing 7th economic census. Following complaints of violence against enumerators and registration of FIR with people declining to give information, the state government has asked deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to hold awareness programmes about it.

The planning, programme monitoring & statistics department has requested the home department to provide cooperation at the police station level while additional chief secretary P Ravi Kumar, in his letter to all DCs, has asked them to create awareness. According to sources, enumerators in T Narasipura town of Mysuru district faced resistance as some residents misunderstood the reason for this census.

A senior officer of the directorate of economics and statistics said that additional chief secretary (ACS- Planning, Programme Monitoring & Statistics Department) Shalini Rajneesh has written to the home department and superintendents of police of all districts seeking their help to create awareness about the economic census.

According to sources in the directorate, in many places, people are refusing to share information under the misconception that it is related to CAA/ NRC. “Many are mistaken about the economic census. As a precaution, police help has been sought,” an officer said.

Authorities in Mysuru said the 7th economic census began on December 20 and will conclude on March 30.

“In Mysuru city alone, we need to cover a population of 11 lakh. In T Narasipura, we faced problems due to misconceptions about Census and CAA. We reported the incident which happened in an area where minorities reside in large numbers,” he explained. Mysuru SP CB Rishyanth said his office has not received any direction in this matter.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.