Karnataka HM: Gauri Lankesh killers will be caught in a few weeks

Kasaragod, Jan 3: A serving officer of the Central Intelligence Bureau (CIB) was found dead inside his car in Bekal town near here early on Friday.

Police sources said the officer, Rijo Francis (35) has been under treatment after he had an heart attack last year.

Police suspect that the death could be due to heart failure.

Mangaluru, Feb 18: Notorious serial killer 'Cyanide' Mohan has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court here for the murder of a 23-year old woman from Kasaragod district of Kerala in 2006.

That was the 19th of the 20 murder cases slapped against him.

Sixth additional district and sessions court judge Sayeedunnisa  said the life sentence will commence after he serves the sentence of imprisonment in the other cases.

Cyanide Mohan had 20 murder cases registered against him. He is accused of killed several women using cyanide after befriending and raping them.

He has been awarded the death sentence in five cases and life imprisonment in three. Two of the death penalties were later commuted to life imprisonment.

According to the charge sheet in the latest case, Mohan met the woman while she was going to work at a unit of CAMPCO here. After befriending and offering to marry her, on January 3 in 2006, he took her to Mysuru and stayed in a lodge near the bus stand.

Like in all other cases, the next morning, Mohan asked the woman to remove her ornaments. The two went to the KSRTC bus stand where he asked her to consume a pill convincing her that it was a contraceptive. However, it was laced with cyanide.

The woman, who consumed the pill in the washroom, collapsed and was declared brought dead at a hospital.

As in previous cases, Mohan went back to the lodge and left the place along with her ornaments.

He was arrested later from Bantwal in 2009, after which he admitted to killing 20 women.

The judge directed the District Legal Service Authority to take steps to award compensation to the woman's mother under the Karnataka victim compensation scheme.

Bengaluru, Mar 5: Karnataka is facing unprecedented economic difficulties following a Rs 8,887 crore reduction in the state's share in central taxes, cut in allocation under 15th finance commission and a Rs 3,000 crore hit in GST compensation, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa indicated on Thursday.

Presenting the state budget for 2020-21 in the Assembly, he said Karnataka's share in central taxes has come down by Rs 8,887 crore in 2019-20 as per the revised budget estimates of the central government. Therefore the state's revenue resources have been reduced. Apart from this, Rs 3,000 crore GST compensation will also be reduced as collection from the GST compensation cess is not as expected, the Chief Minister said. "With all this it has become difficult to reach to reach the 2019-20 budget targets and to manage this situation within the bounds of the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, an inevitable situation has arisen this year to cut down the expenditure of many departments," he added.

As per the interim report submitted by the 15th finance commission, there is a reduction in the state's share of central taxes to 3.64 per cent compared to 4.71 per cent fixed by the 14th finance commission. In view of this, there will be a reduction of Rs 11,215 crore in the state's share of central taxes in 2020-21 budget, when compared to the previous one.

He, however, noted that the allocation recommendation of the 15th finance commission is limited to one year only and the complete report for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 will be submitted in October 2020.

"Our government will soon submit a revised memorandum to the commission to set right the loss caused to the state with regard allocation for the year 2020-21 and give more allocation for the remaining period," the Chief Minister said. He also said, when compared to the previous year, there is an increase of approximately Rs 10,000 crore for 2020-21 with regards to government employees salary, pension and interest on government loans, but there is no proportionate increase in resources as compared to committed expenditure. "Due to this reduction of the state's share of central taxes as per the 15th finance commission report and other developments, serious difficulties are being faced in resource mobilisation efforts of the state," Yediyurappa said. "This magnitude of economic difficulties was never faced in the previous years by our state," he added.

However, the state's own tax revenue collection is excellent during this year, he said. As compared to the previous year, there is a growth of 14 per cent in State GST collection. "Based on this, in the new budget, efforts are being made to manage the reduction in the share of central taxes by stabilising the state's own resources more", the Chief Minister said.

Karnataka recorded a gross state domestic product growth rate of 7.8 per cent in 2018-19 and Yediyurappa said for the current financial year it is estimated to be 6.8 per cent.