Mangaluru: Soorya-Chandra Jodukare Kambala sets adrenalin pumping

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.

Bengaluru, Jun 18: The Karnataka police has arrested a German national wanted for kidnapping and causing bodily harm to a person in his home country, an official said on Wednesday. The person was also found to be overstaying on an expired visa, which police said that it appeared that the visa had been tampered with to look more current.

"On receipt of credible information by the CID Interpol Division officers, the Red Corner Notice subject, the German national Alexander Bruno Wehnelt, was traced at Hulimangala village," a police official told media persons.

Hulimangala is on the outskirts of Bengaluru city.

Alexander, 55, escaped from Germany and took shelter in Bengaluru.

The Interpol Division of CBI NCB (Central Bureau of Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau) in New Delhi had communicated to the Interpol liaison officer in Karnataka's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) about Alexander, directing extensive search measures to trace the criminal at large.

The Narcotics Control Bureau of Wiesbaden in Germany was on the hunt for Wehnelt for the crimes he committed in 2015, and have finally found him five years later.

"A special team of officers was constituted by the CID - Interpol division under the supervision of ADGP (Additional Director General of Police) B. Dayananda and the Interpol liaison officer and efforts were made to trace the subject," said the official.

On Monday, the police received credible information leading to his arrest.

"It was learnt that his visa had expired in 2016 and he tried to show a visa which was issued in December 2019 which had expired on Saturday, June 13," said the official.

Prima facie, it appeared that Alexander had tampered with his visa and the police are probing on that front as well.

He was handed over to Hebbagodi Police Station in Bengaluru Urban, for his overstay and a criminal case has been registered against him, under the Foreigners Act.

Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), May 19: Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa asking Muslims to offer their Eid prayers this time at home, instead of congregating at mosques.

The directive comes amid a nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of coronavirus.

Despite the relaxations announced in the lockdown, religious and other large gatherings are still banned.

The fatwa was issued in response to a query put to the seminary, its spokesman Ashraf Usmani said.

The fatwa said the Eid namaz can be offered in the same manner that the Friday prayers are now being read at home.

It said not holding the namaz in the usual manner is pardonable in circumstances such as these.