Bengaluru mass molestation: Home Minister blames 'western ways'

January 2, 2017

Bengaluru, Jan 2: New Year revelry turned into a nightmare for several women who were allegedly molested despite huge police presence at a large gathering in city's downtown region, drawing widespread outrage even as the state Home minister stoked a controversy by blaming the youngsters' "western ways" for the incidents.

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National Commission for Women chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam came down heavily on the police and slammed home minister G Parameshwara's remarks, demanding that he should resign. The NCW as well as the Karnataka State Commission for Women also sought separate reports from administration and police over the incidents.

Police today said they were looking for the culprits involved in the alleged incidents on Saturday night in and around the junction of Brigade Road and M G Road, where thousands had gathered to herald the New Year.

Eyewitness accounts suggest that women were molested and groped and lewd remarks were also passed by miscreants late night on December 31 in the posh area even as it was claimed that 1,500 police personnel had been deployed to control the crowds.

While women without any male companions had to seek protection from women police personnel, who were very few in number on the spot, men who had come with female friends had a tough time protecting them, according to eyewitnesses.

Speaking to reporters, Home Minister G Parameshwara said "It is not good. Definitely we will look into it and see that it is not repeated."

"There was need to look into how such events can be organised and regulated... We cannot have 10,000 police men," he said.

Speaking to a TV news channel, he said: "Unfortunately, what is happening is as I said days like new year Brigade Road, Commercial Street, M G Road, large number of youngsters gather. Youngsters who are almost like westerners, they try to copy the westerners not only in the mindset, but even the dressing."

The minister's remarks drew an angry response from the NCW chairperson who demanded the Home Minister should resign and apologise to the women of the country for making such remarks.

"Such remarks from the Home Minister are unacceptable and regrettable. I want to ask this Minister that are Indian men so pathetic and weak that when they see a woman in western clothes on a day of revelry, they get out of control?

"When will they Indian men learn to respect women. The Minister should apologise to the women of the country and resign," Kumaramangalam said.

Police claimed that thay had made elaborate security arrangements for the New Year eve with 1,500 policemen on duty and several CCTV cameras installed, besides Karnataka State Reserve Police, City Armed Reserve and watch towers erected to keep a close watch.

Police at the spot were apparently outnumbered to control the miscreants.

"We will try to identify the culprits and take action against them," Karnataka DGP Om Prakash said.

Police said they had not received any complaints of molestation from anyone.

NCW chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam said, "We are absolutely appalled (with the incident)... We have taken suo motu cognisance on it and have sent off the same to the home minister, the head of the police, chief secretary."

"We want a reply immediately and if the reply is unsatisfactory, we will send a team to find out why the police has not suo motu taken cognisance of the incident," she said.

"I am told that they haven't even looked at the footage they may have from cameras etc and the possibility that they are using the fact that nobody has made an official complaint as an excuse, cannot be ruled out," she said.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Commission for Women Chairperson Nagalakshmi Bai told PTI, "I have taken cognisance of the reported incident. I have sought a report from police. After getting the report, I will take further action."

Police had extended the deadline allowing restaurants, bars and pubs to remain open till 2 AM on New Year's eve.

They had issued strict warnings to mischief-mongers besides asserting that adequate security arrangements had been made ahead of New Year's eve.

Also Read: Bengaluru witnesses mass molestation of women during New Year celebration

Comments

Deanne
 - 
Tuesday, 17 Jan 2017

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Rashid
 - 
Tuesday, 3 Jan 2017

Home minister is right, copying western culture, roam in the streets with half naked dresses... at least women can dress like man... why they show their body parts to others.... chair person of NCW may lecture or question patients of men...but she should understand the reality .

Althaf
 - 
Tuesday, 3 Jan 2017

New year celebration for what!!! When people of India celebrated new year celebration in Dec 31st 2015 in a hope that 2016 will be happy for them. But unfortunately MODI Ruined life of common people of india. No more joy for poor people. 2016 brought happy only to BJP and industrialists. Wake up o people. Acche Din aane wale hai in 2017.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 16: Amping up the online payment experience for consumers, Razorpay, the leading full-stack financial services company, today launched a new product, Instant Refunds for businesses.

This new feature activates refunds and credits the customer's source account across payment methods such as credit card, net banking, and UPI within a minute of initiation.

India is one of the fastest-growing online retail markets today. About 71 per cent of internet users in the country purchase products online. Today, the refund process has two major pain points for both the end customer and the business.

First, a delay of five-seven business days for the customer in receiving the money because of multiple intermediaries like the acquiring bank, issuing bank and the networks (VISA/MasterCard/Rupay).

Second, the lack of transparency during the entire refund process for both the customer and the business. This long cycle of processing refunds is a significant problem with every popular payment method in the industry.

By issuing refunds instantly, Razorpay will help businesses retain their customers, build trust through an improved hassle-free payment experience and provide complete transparency on refunds to both the business and the end-user.

This new feature will also reduce the dependence on manpower as every refund issue on an average leads to ten service emails or calls from customer support teams.

"Instant Refunds are the new normal and central to great customer experience. A lot of consumers fail to use online payment methods as they feel getting refunds through an online platform is a very time-consuming task; hence they prefer CoD as the best alternative. Given the technological advancements being made in the fin-tech ecosystem, its fair for customers to expect refunds as fast as possible. A solution like Instant Refunds will not only help build consumer confidence in digital payments but also reduce losses for e-commerce companies where CoD has become an expensive option with more than 50 per cent online transactions made through cash", said Shashank Kumar, CTO & Co-founder of Razorpay.

"Our Instant Refunds feature ensures that the refund is processed at a 3600x faster pace than the normal expected time of five-seven business days. The team is focused on creating new technologies designed to make the entire payment lifecycle hassle-free. We believe this new feature will make customers experience a notch higher, help brands create a competitive advantage, and even make them more profitable", he added.

Razorpay's growth has been uphill, particularly in the last two years. With a 500 per cent growth in 2019, the company has been witnessing a healthy growth rate of 35 per cent month-on-month.

The company also recently launched its corporate credit cards for its partner businesses, RazorpayX current accounts, support for freelancers and homepreneurs, and acquired Opfin, a payroll and HR management software company.

Currently powering payments for over 800,000 businesses including the likes of Indigo, BSE, Thomas Cook, Reliance, SpiceJet, Aditya Birla, Sony, and Oyo, the team plans to increase this count to 1,400,000 by this year. The full-stack financial solutions company expects a 4x growth in its revenue by the end of the next fiscal year.

This story is provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

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News Network
April 6,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 6: Karnataka State Board for Auqaf on Monday suspended mass prayers and visit to the Qabrasthans (graveyards) and dargahs on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat on April 9 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"It is hereby directed to all not to hold congregational prayer in the Masjid and the management of the Qabrasthans/Dargahs throughout the State should suspend the visit of public on the occasion of Shab-e-Barat on Thursday, April 9," according to a statement here on Monday.

It said, no public shall be allowed to perform religious rituals in the Qabrasthans/Dargahs and all the gates shall be kept closed.

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News Network
February 16,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 16: Radhakrishnan V Nair embarked on a journey of exploring complex subjects and opening up the cocoon of existence that puts people in a zone of comfort. One sole mission of the book is to encourage the readers to break out of that comfort zone.

The architect by profession has a novel to his credit, 'The Cave of Freedom' that had earned him critical acclaim from Jnanpith Awardee UR Ananthamurthy. On February 13, a discussion and the reading of his book had the audience riveted to their seats.

The launch of the book on February 13 at Bangalore International Centre was presided over by Bhaskar Rao, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru, along with Vasudev Murthy, Technology Management Consultant, leadership trainer and author and Ramessh RK, an industrial designer and choir singer who read out passages from the book.

'Radhakrishnan is trying to inspire you to discover the pleasure of breaking the glass barrier along with the protagonist Dr Prateek. The story 'burst out'", said Radhakrishnan when it could not be contained any longer.

The glass ceiling saw a lot of interest from the audience present. The book includes Dr Prateek who is obsessed with saving lives in the Emergency Room (ER) as the world slept. Then on an eerie rainy night, he is kidnapped.

He struggles to come to terms with the improbability of waking up somewhere in Europe and making his serendipitous escape and being back at work the next morning - all physically impossible from the point of view of time and locality.

The glass ceiling challenges you to see tragedies and their impact on a person's mental well-being from a different perspective.

Radhakrishnan V Nair is an architect by profession and runs his Bengaluru-based firm - Archaid, the tagline of which is 'Architecture in Collaboration with Nature'.

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