Cleric crushed to death under sand lorry; Cops reach spot after 2 hours

Mysuru, Feb 14: Two weeks after her engagement with another boy, a 20-year-old girl who was in love with a boy, committed suicide at her residence in Nanjangud on Wednesday.

Meghana's parents have accused her lover Manikanta of Hemmargala of abetting her suicide. The girl's father in his complaint has claimed that Manikanta threatened to send their photos to her fiance following which she took the extreme step. He has also claimed his daughter was molested by Manikanta two years ago.

Manikanta who is on the run has been booked for rape and abetting suicide following the complaint.

Since the girl was from the SC community, cops have also slapped cases under Atrocities (Prevention) Act against Manikanta. Nanjangud sub-division DSP Prabhkar Rao Shinde will investigate the case as charges have been made under provisions of the act.

Mangaluru, May 24: A youth committed suicide by jumping into River Netravati from the old bridge at Panemangaluru on the outskirts of the city. 

The deceased has been identified as Nishant, son of Chandrahasa Moolya, a resident of Kolakeeru, near Kalladka in Bantwal taluk. 

When Nishant jumped to river, a few Muslim youths - identified as Shameer Goodinabali, Mohammad, Tauseef, Mukhtar, Zahid and Arif - also jumped to river in an apparent bid to rescue him. 

Though they managed to take an unconscious Nishant out of the water, he breathed his last without responding to any treatment. Jurisdictional Bantwal town police visited the spot later.

Meanwhile, a few locals captured the video of Muslim youths' attempt to rescue a Hindu youth on Eid al-Fitr amidst covid-19 lockdown. The video went viral within hours. 

Social media platforms including WhatsApp and Facebook flooded with messages appreciating the courage of Muslim men, who endangered their lives to save a Hindu youth on Eid day.

Mangaluru, May 8: After continuous pressure on Union government from Karnataka NRI Forum- UAE, the first special flight carrying 180 Kannadigas who stranded at UAE due to Covid-19 pandemic will fly from Dubai to Mangaluru on May 14.

The special flight will take off from Dubai at 4.10 p.m. UAE time to reach Mangaluru at 9.10 pm IST on May 14. Earlier it was reported that the flight will operate on May 12. However, sources of Mangaluru International Airport and Air India today confirmed that first flight will be on May 14.

The state government has directed Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts authority to quarantine all passengers once they reach.  

All Kannadigas will be given permission to travel back home only after they test negative in Covid test at Dubai airport.

In fact, Karnataka was missing in the list of states to receive special flights when Ministry of External Affairs arranged them to bring stranded Indians at UAE. Special flights were arranged only to Kerala and Tamil Nadu people stranded at UAE in the first stage.

Thanks to Karnataka NRI Forum of UAE which opened helpline (https://uaekannadahelpline.club) to seek assistance to Kannadigas, nearly 2000 Kannadigas have registered for assistance in which 127 pregnant women, 27 senior citizens, 700 people who have lost jobs aftermath of coronavirus sought assistance from NRI forum.

After providing food and shelter to Kannadigas who lost jobs at UAE since March 2020, NRI forum put pressure on both state and Centre to arrange special flights to send them to home. 

The NRI Forum has approached Indian Consulate at UAE and chief minister BS Yediyurappa to evacuate Kannadigas, but got no response. Following this, Karnataka NRI Forum President Praveen Shetty approached Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda for help. Gowda immediately responded the call and he spoke to MEE to arrange special flight for Kannadigas as well.

Indian government has promised to arrange special flight to Mangaluru or Bengaluru by next week to bring Kannadigas.

Comparing to other Indian States, Karnataka has the highest number of its people working in UAE. Around 1.25 lakhs Kannadigas are working in UAE in which majority are working classes. Due to Covid-19 pandemic thousands of workers have lost jobs, Mr. Shetty explained.

"Indian government had arranged special flights from US, UK, Singapur and other countries to bring back Indians, but excluded UAE in the list. Actually, lakhs of Indians are working in UAE as labourers and in odd jobs, the government should have given first priority to bring labourers rather rich one", he opined.

"BJP has 27 MPs from Karnataka. We continuously requested all BJP MPs and state government but none of them came to our help. Thanks to Mr Gowda for his timely intervention to bring stranded Kannadigas", Mr Shetty said.