Centre should enact law to check cow slaughter: Sadhvi Saraswati

Mangaluru, Feb 16: An elderly woman from Tamil Nadu was on Saturday reunited with her daughter and son after 14 years at the Mangaluru's White Doves destitute home.

"Mary only knew her name when she came here 10 years ago. Recently, she told us about her home town," Corrine Rusquinha, founder of White Doves told media.
Mary had gone missing 14 years ago from her hometown Kortampet in Tamil Nadu.

"Ten years ago, she was spotted by Mangaluru police who brought her to White Doves home late one evening. Initially, she could only speak Tamil, so it was presumed she was from Tamil Nadu. She was on psychiatric treatment," Rusquinha said.

A few days back, a visiting priest at the White Doves home spoke to Mary in Tamil and asked about her hometown.

"Surprisingly, she could recall the name of her hometown, following which the visiting priest contacted the pastor at Kortampet. Mary's family, including her daughter Gnana Anthony, who is a paramedic student in Coimbatore, was informed about Mary," she said.

Soon after, Gnana and her elder brother came to Mangaluru to take their mother back to their home.

Mary's husband Jhonson, who worked as a cook, had died within a year of losing his wife.

Bengaluru, Feb 6: A 33 -year-old techie who was on the run after allegedly bludgeoning her mother to death and attempting to murder her brother at their house near KR Puram early on Sunday was arrested along with her friend from a hotel in Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, on Wednesday morning.

C Amruta and Sridhar Rao were produced before a court in Port Blair to get a transit warrant, deputy commissioner of police (Whitefield) MN Anuchet said. Police initially thought she had committed the crime as she was unable to repay a loan of Rs 15 lakh and feared being humiliated by the lenders.

"But now we strongly suspect that Amruta and Rao were in a relationship, which was opposed by her mother and brother. We don't see any other reason for her to attack her family members. We can get more details only after questioning the duo," another police officer said, adding, "The most important question is: Did Rao know Amruta was going to kill her mother? Or he got to know about it only later? He'd booked their air tickets to Port Blair on January 31 itself."

Rao and Amruta worked together in a software company in Whitefield till 2017. "Then they joined different firms and were in constant touch," police said.

Preliminary probe revealed the duo flew to Port Blair by catching a flight from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at 6.30am on Sunday. CCTV footage had shown Rao - wearing a full-face helmet and carrying a backpack - waiting near Amruta's house on a gearless scooter on Sunday morning. After she arrived, they chatted for a while before riding away. They arrived at KIA on the same bike, police said.

"We checked the passengers' list at KIA for that day and found Amruta's name. With the help of Port Blair police, we traced the duo to a hotel," an investigating officer said.

On Sunday morning, Amruta hit her 54-year-old mother C Nirmala on the head with a digging bar. She later stabbed her younger brother C Harish in the neck. Harish collapsed and thinking that he was dead, she left the house.

In his statement to police, Harish stated, "Around 4.30am, Amruta entered my room and stabbed me. I asked her what was wrong. She said she had a debt of Rs 15 lakh and didn't want the debtors to harass me and our mother."

Bengaluru, Feb 27: The Centre has adopted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mantra of "Make in India', for India and the world" to build strong defence and security infrastructure in the country, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh after inaugurating the new Light Combat Helicopter Production Hangar at Helicopter Division in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Complex here on Thursday.

According to an official statement, the Defence Minister said in the last five years, India has made significant progress towards manufacturing military equipment indigenously under the 'Make in India' initiative.

Stressing that the defence industry plays a major role in the economic development of the country, Singh lauded the significant contribution of organisations like HAL.

Highlighting the Rs 35,000 crore exports target set for the coming years, he expressed confidence that HAL, through its various platforms, will contribute significantly to achieve this milestone.

According to the statement, Rajnath Singh commended HAL for being the backbone of the Indian Air Force and meeting the requirements of the Armed Forces.

"The HAL has excelled both in operations and finance in the last five years. It has achieved operational clearance on seven platforms, including Light Combat Aircraft and Light Combat Helicopter, and overhauled platforms like Hawk and SU 30 MKI," he said.

He also appreciated that HAL had a turnover of Rs 19,705 crore till March 2019 and it gave shareholders a healthy dividend of 198 per cent.

HAL also apprised the Defence Minister on the progress of the new design and development programme of indigenous Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH), the statement informed.

The full-scale mock-up was showcased to Rajnath Singh. The IMRH is proposed as a replacement to the existing medium-lift helicopters such as Mi17's, Kamovs and Seakings which will phase out in the next eight to ten years.

LCH is a 5.5-tonne class combat helicopter designed and developed by HAL. It is powered by two Shakti engines and inherits many technical features of the Advanced Light Helicopter. LCH has the distinction of being the first attack helicopter to land in Forward Bases at Siachen, 4,700 mts above sea level with 500kg load.