Hindu-Muslim wedding; families agree but Hindutva extremists stage protest

Bengaluru, Apr 14: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to extend COVID-19 lockdown till May 3.

"Our government will strictly implement the Government of India guidelines, which will be issued tomorrow. Lockdown will be followed more stringently till April 20 as Prime Minister said and the situation will be closely monitored. I appeal to the people of Karnataka to voluntarily cooperate with us to contain this disease," Yediyurappa said.

The chief minister urged the people to respect seven major points that Prime Minister Modi raised in his televised address to the nation on Tuesday, while announcing the extension of coronavirus-induced lockdown.

"I appeal to people to follow the seven measures Prime Minister advised to follow, such as taking care of elders in the house especially those suffering from chronicle illness; strictly maintaining social distancing; enhancing immunity by following guidelines of Ayush Department; download Arogyasetu app; help the poor and needy; to be considerate about your colleagues and employees and not to sack them; and respect the police, healthcare professionals," Yediyurappa added.

The chief minister also assured that there is no scarcity of medicines, essential services and goods.

"We will make all efforts to carry out agriculture activities without any hurdle. I make a special appeal to migrant labours to stay wherever they are and be safe... Stay home and be safe," he said.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, there are 247 COVID-19 positive cases in Karnataka including 59 cured, discharged, migrated and six deaths.

Mangaluru, Apr 24: The last rites of the elderly woman who died of covid-19 yesterday was finally held in the wee hours of Friday amidst tight security at Kaikunje Hindu Rudra Bhoomi near BC Road bus stand in spite of severe opposition from the members of the own community.

The funeral was held as per the protocol for COVID-19 deaths, police said.

Prior to this hundreds of Hindus had staged a protest  last night in front of Pachanady Hindu Rudra Bhoomi near Vamanjoor following reports that the the 77-year-old coronavirus positive woman's mortal remains will be cremated there.

Mangaluru North MLA Bharat Shetty rushed to the spot and convinced the protesters that he will not allow the authorities to cremate the body at Pachanady. Hence, the authorities shifted the cremation venue, it is learnt. 

Meanwhile, many local residents staged protest at Pachanady against the cremation of the dead body of a coronavirus positive woman. Hence, additional police force was sent from Mangaluru to disperse the crowd and facilitate the last rite.

According to sources, initially the authorities had  planned to cremate body at Baddakatte Hindu Rudra Bhoomi near here native place in Bantwal. However, the locals and the community elders had forced the authorities to change the plan.

Such protests due to misconception about the spread of coronavirus had been witnessed in some other parts of the country, including in Chennai, and the governments have warned of action against those opposing cremation or burial of COVID-19 patients.

So far as many as 17 covid-19 postive cases have been reported in Dakshina Kannada including two deaths from same family from Bantwal's Kasba village.

Udupi, Jun 24: Nearly four years after he was arrested in the murder case of NRI entrepreneur Bhaskar Shetty, the District Sessions court has granted conditional interim bail to Niranjan Bhat, one of the three prime accused in the case.

The development comes two days after the death of Niranjan’s father Srinivas Bhat(65). Though Srinivas and his driver Raghavendra were also arrested in the case on the accusation of destruction of evidence, they were released within a month.

Through his lawyer Niranjan had appealed to the court seeking bail to perform his father’s post-death rituals. 

After hearing the arguments, the court granted conditional interim bail till July 7 on furnishing a bond of Rs 5 lakh. The judge directed the accused to report to the court on or before July 7 to be taken into judicial custody.

Bhaskar Shetty, who owned a chain of supermarkets in Saudi Arabia, went missing from his house in Udupi on 28 July 2016. His mother Gulabi Shetty lodged a missing person complaint on July 29. The police arrested his wife Rajeshwari, her son Navaneeth and astrologer Niranjan Bhat on the charge of murdering Bhaskar Shetty and destroying the evidence, in Udupi on August 7, 2016. Rajeshwari is already out on bail. Navneet is still in prison.

Shetty was murdered at his house in Indrali and later his body was taken to Belman. It is alleged Niranjan Bhat had put the body of deceased Bhaskar Shetty in the pit used for Homa rituals and burnt it.