13-yr-old Jain girl dies after fasting for 68 days during 'Chaumasa'

New Delhi, Apr 29: Karnataka is likely to withdraw the case filed against a CRPF commando who was arrested by state police officials for alleged assault on them during COVID-19 lockdown duty in Belgaum, a charge contested by the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force.

In a bid to diffuse the ongoing tussle between CRPF and Karnataka police, the official communication sent to CRPF headquarters on Tuesday, with the details of bail granted to CRPF jawan Sunil Sachin Sawant, stated that the issue was discussed with the DGP Karnataka and other senior state authorities with a request to withdraw the case.

According to official communication, Karnataka Director General of Police has assured top CRPF officers that the "case registered against CRPF CoBRA commando is likely to be withdrawn by the state authorities".

The communication also states that "they assured that the criminal case registered against constable of 207 CoBRA BN is likely to be withdrawn by the state authority."

A CRPF CoBRA commando was thrashed and dragged to police station barefoot by police on April 23 for allegedly violating lockdown norms and assaulting/deterring public servant from discharging his duty in Belgavi district of Karnataka. A case was also registered against him.

This is not the first time when the state is showing efforts to solve the matter amicably.

Karnataka culture and tourism minister CT Ravi had also tweeted on April 27 claiming that he had a word with two ministers including state deputy chief minister who 'confirmed that the issue will be resolved amicably'

"Unfortunate that this incident happened with a CRPF Commando and the police. I have spoken with Industries Minister @JagadishShettar and Transport Minister @LaxmanSavadi. Both have confirmed that the issue will be resolved amicably," CT Ravi had tweeted.

CRPF Additional Director General (ADG) Sanjay Arora had also written to DG showing his displeasure over the ill-treatment done by Karnataka police with CRPF jawan and had said that "Keeping in view the gravity of the incident and its impact on the relationship between the two police forces, I am desired by the Director-General CRPF to request you to kindly get the matter inquired and provide justice. We would be thankful if you could inform us of the outcome."

Arora, in his letter, had also said that Karnataka police should have informed the force before registering a case.

The CRPF CbBRA commando was on extended leave and cleaning his motorcycle in front of his house in Examba city when he was allegedly manhandled and ill-treated in front of his family members and paraded to the police station barefoot, where he was kept in chains and handcuff.

The commando was granted bail by a court on Tuesday in the matter.

Sunil Sachin Sawant has been involved in various anti-Naxals operations and is a part of the CRPF elite CoBRA force, which is famous for doing anti-Naxals operations and has eliminated hundreds of Naxals in the past few years.

 Bengaluru, Jan 12: Two pilgrims from Bengaluru, who were siblings, drowned in sea off Auro Beach in Puducherry today.

The deceased have been identified as V Gauthman, 22, and his brother Vivek, 20.

Gauthman and Vivek were among a group of around 150 devotees from Bengaluru to the Adhiparasakhi temple at Melmaruvathur in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. They started their journey from Bengaluru in three buses on Friday.

After offering special puja at Adhiparasakthi temple and worshipping at a few other temples, they reached Auro Beach on Sunday afternoon. 

While they were having lunch on the beach, Gauthman entered the sea. He was caught in a huge wave.

Vivek, who tried to rescue his brother, too was caught in the wave.

Other pilgrims and fishermen began to search for them in fishing boats.

After an hour, their bodies were washed ashore, around two km from the spot.

The Auroville police retrieved the bodies and sent them for postmortem.

Bengaluru, Feb 28: Historian S. Shettar, 85, breathed his last early on February 28 in Bengaluru. He was suffering from respiratory problems and was hospitalised for over a week.

Shettar was known for his multi-disciplinary work, encompassing linguistics, epigraphy, anthropology, the study of religions and art history. He had extensively worked on the Jain practice of ritual death in Karnataka and Asoka edicts. He had studied and compiled early edicts in Kannada and worked extensively on the growth of Kannada language down the ages.

Born in 1935 at Hampasagara, Ballari district, he went on to study at Cambridge University and started his career as a Professor of History at Karnatak University, Dharwad, his alma mater. He later headed the National Museum Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology in 1978 and Indian Council for Historical Research in 1996. He was also a visiting professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.

He was a bilingual historian who wrote in English for most of his career, but started writing in Kannada in later years. In the last two decades, he developed a keen interest in linguistics and wrote multiple books on classical Kannada and Prakrit. His 2007 book “Shangam Tamilagam” is considered a seminal work in the study of the early period of Dravidian languages. It won him Bhasha Samman from Central Sahitya Akademi. He later wrote two works on Halegannada, classical Kannada. His most recent work was “Prakrita Jagadvalaya” in 2018.